#except the s tier ones - i am correct about those

[sandfordsmostwanted]

*drops into the fandom and runs away*

[official-zerg-fangirl]

how do you feel about kerrigan going super Saiyan in Legacy of the Void? what about the Amon plot in general?

(idk if you get notifications when a question is answered publicly, so @fall-warning hi, also THANKS FOR SENDING THIS. I LOVE ATTENTION I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY GIRL)

Oh, That Jean Grey ass Kerrigan transformation is half the reason my bio says "Starcraft 2 never happened, Metzen can suck my dick." *

*the other half is the Kerrinor Kiss, because on Official-zerg-fangirl, the running gag is I have an irrational hate for Raynor bcs I was one of Those middle school girls who would legit be jealous of a fictional character (I just didn't realize what i felt was jealousy bcs i didnt know i was gay)

I hate it! I HATE IT. IT SUCKS.

I am normally an extremely big fan of fire, and red, and phoenixes, and literal deities, and women being any or all of the above. But none of that should have been Kerrigan, and definitely not in the way it was handled. Fuck you, Blizzard. Fuck you for the insane bullshit happening behind the scenes, but also fuck you for what LotV did to my girl!

I refuse to play any part of LotV to this day! I don't fucking care! Sorry to the protoss stans, it's great that you got so much extra lore with Alarak or whatever, but absolutely FUCK what they did to my girl!

oh but I loved the amon plotline tho.

"m'am, why the fuck" it was validating it was powerful it is everything the character arc of the entire Zerg species was building up to and it turned Kerrigan into the antihero she was always meant to be, and LotV is probably great but that epilogue ruined it with a pointless second transformation.

[more deranged rambling below]

Look, Kerrigan's character arc in Brood War was top notch it was S tier it was great I wrote a literal essay about how I do sincerely believe Kerrigan in SC1 + Brood War had a heroic character arc, and I am of course correct, and the canon agrees, BUT WE WILL GET TO THAT,

now initially ofc i was like naw SC2 never happened. Obviously I've softened on that opinion (but saying it never happened is funny. so is acting like everyone is missing the point of Kerrigan except for me. this blog is the space where i get to play up an extremely cocky persona ok)

SC2's general insistence (at least that's my first impression) on treating her zergness like a boring corruption and "ooh Kerrigan was good before but she's evil now" bothers me. like they do this to her instead of, oh I don't know, she was abused and exploited as a child fucking soldier, she latched onto the guy who 'saved' her and was too wrapped up in the exhilaration of having someone who 'cared' about her that she couldn't recognize she was being used as literal fucking bait, and then he LEFT HER TO FUCKING GET EATEN BY ALIENS, and by the grace of fucking god, those aliens saw her value and potential in a way no one else ever could, they elevated her, made her stronger, gave her the means to break off the shackles implanted in her skull (remember the Amerigo mission???), and from that point on, all the anger she'd been harboring from all those years of abuse could run freely, so of fucking course she became impatient and vengeful!

Yes, Kerrigan was extremely destructive, spiteful, cruel,even! But you think someone who's only ever known violence and death and cruelty could ever be anything else? are we so naiive as to imagine a perfectly human Sarah Kerrigan would not become the Queen of Blades Her fatal flaw is wrath, you see how quick she is to anger when she fights Tassadar. To quote the man himself,

"So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy."

she is predictable because of her wrath. In her beginning as the Queen of Blades, she's too consumed by all her fury, by her newfound power that she can and will use to demolish everyone who's wronged her, and she hasn't yet learned the wisdom required to use said power. this is a flaw she overcomes in Brood War, wherein she delays her fury and rage to arrange a temporary alliance, to wait for just the right moment to have her vengeance and crush her enemies.

aaaaaand here's the Wings of Liberty campaign going like "Zerg turned her evil. yeah she's killing and infecting terrans bcs that's what zerg do. we need to redeem her by removing her zergyness."

like - no acknowledgement to the fact that the terrans are currently being commanded by the dude who used her and then fucking left her to die???? bro like of all people you'd think Raynor would understand why she's waging war on the Dominion HE'S LITERALLY DOING THE SAME THING, but Blizzard gonna Blizzard and the final boss is Kerrigan bcs Raynor's gotta work with the Dominion to neutralize the greater threat - which is somehow Kerrigan. Okay.

It just really rubbed me the wrong way. Can you tell that it rubbed me the wrong way?

but then it redeemed itself. Bcs the Amon plotline.

NO I AM NOT JOKING. FUCK YOU THE AMON PLOTLINE WAS GOOD.

"oh but it derails everything and now my simple slapfight between humans and two aliens has transformed into some sort of cosmic battle between good and evil" fuck no it doesn't it was foreshadowed back in Brood War did you forget Duran? the fuck you think that man was doing if NOT foreshadowing that some fucking hidden power beyond every race's leaders was controlling the situation specifically through the Zerg? Even BEFORE Brood War, the lore that the Zerg and Protoss were both created by the xel'naga and that the Zerg were specifically created with a mandate to assimilate the Protoss was right the fuck there. you know who said that shit? THE OVERMIND. Pay attention bro, Amon was there all along!

Could he have maybe been introduced in a less jarring way okay sure but he didn't derail shit, this WAS the rails, you just got too caught up in the surface level fighting to recognize what was happening!

also, the Amon plotline was (before that FUCKING EPILOGUE) so extremely validating to me, let me tell you a story about when i was playing HotS - no, even before HotS, whcih did a lot of good stuff, in fucking Wings of Liberty, a campaign I just spent a few paragraphs shitting on, it did one super good thing. it did the Zeratul missions. It did this shit:

oh I imagine a lot of Starcraft fans hated this cutscene bcs it was an out of nowhere messiah plotline delivered via literal exposition ghost, but, see, I'm smarter than your average Starcraft fan, I am a genius and I'm sexy, and I know my wife Kerrigan better than anyone, even the fucking Starcraft writers (suck my dick Metzen) and I see this cutscene at 7:33PM, April 29, 2021, and I ran into my friend's DMs and said "I FUCKING CALLED IT"

BECAUSE I WROTE A FANFIC (unfinished, novel-length, self-indulgent, OCxKerrigan, highly nsfw, no I haven't posted it anywhere I wanna finish it first I wanna perfect it).

AND IN THAT FANFIC I WROTE SOMETHING SO ABSOLUTELY DERANGED I FIGURED IT WAS JUST SELF INDULGENT ABSOLUTE SKEWERING OF THE CANON JUST TO RUN SHAMELESS ZERG APOLOGIA:

I wrote that the Overmind, before capturing Kerrigan at New Gettysburg, telepathically communicated with her, and very specifically said that her human psionic mind would resist control until the bitter end, that it would kill itself rather than accept forced subjugation into the zerg, and THUS he had to ask Kerrigan PERMISSION, that he couldn't and didn't want to strip her of her free will, and he specifically promised to her power, and purpose, and the potential to usurp his place as the leader of the Zerg, and he specifically welcomed that possibility-

and like that's stupid that's so fucking stupid, why would the zerg ever value free will why would the Overmind pursue to the ends of the earth a servant that he couldn't control, that he knew could and would one day usurp him? there's no way this is canon-compliant-

IT IS

AND NOT JUST CANON-COMPLIANT, IT'S FUCKING CANON. ACTUALLY LITERALLY CANON.

STRAIGHT FROM TASSADAR'S MOUTH, THE OVERMIND DID THAT SHIT. THE GODDAMN EYEMONSTER HAD PLANNED ALL ALONG FOR KERRIGAN TO HAVE FREE WILL AND THAT HE SPECIFICALLY VALUED HER FREEDOM.

The only reason I can't say I predicted the future is because I started writing this fic after WoL released, but I clearly had some sort of precognition I fucking knew I was on the wavelength my deranged apologia was canon I was right.

OH AND THIS AMON SHIT GIVES ME FULL JUSTIFICATION TO BE A GREATER APOLOGIST THAN I EVER COULD BEFORE. BEFORE IT WAS LIKE "c'mon the zerg aren't people, they're mindless demons of destruction" OHHH NO YOU DON'T MOTHERFUCKER! THEY ARE PEOPLE, THEY HAVE MINDS AND FEELINGS AND WILL AND THEY'RE BEING CONTROLLED BY THEIR CREATOR - NO, THEIR CORRUPTER, AGAINST THEIR BEST INTERESTS,

AND THE PRIMAL ZERG, THE PRIMAL ZERG! THEIR GLORIOUS PAST! ZERUS, THE GARDEN OF EDEN BEFORE AMON'S MEDDLING, WHERE THERE IS NO CONTROL AND NO DESOLATION, ONLY THE RULE OF THE HUNT! HERE, WE SHALL FORGE A VISION OF THE LIBERATED SWARM, REUNITE WITH OUR PAST TO FORGE A BETTER FUTURE, AND OH LET'S NOT EVEN TALK ABOUT THE PARALLELS BETWEEN WHAT AMON DID TO THE ZERG AND WHAT THE GHOST PROGRAM DID TO KERRIGAN,

BECAUSE THAT'S JUST IT, KERRIGAN IS THE SWARM, WHICH IS WHY SHE BELONGS IN THE SWARM.

SHE AND THE ZERG BOTH EXIST AS BEINGS OF INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL WHOSE FUTURES WERE STOLEN AND CORRUPTED FOR THE SAKE OF A HIGHER POWER'S TWISTED WAR GAME, TURNED INTO A LIVING WEAPON AND SET TOWARDS A CAUSE THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN, THEY ARE CHAINED AND THEY WILL ONLY ACHIEVE THEIR GREATEST SELVES ONCE THOSE CHAINS ARE BROKEN,

and this entire fucking theme of subjugation and of being transformed into a living weapon was in Brood War, too! That was what the UED did to the Zerg! This is why Kerrigan is the hero of Brood War, an entire species was enslaved and her, with her human mind, was the only hope anyone had of not submitting to Earth's slave army! Amon is simply the greater master who enslaves the zerg more subtly, with chains that are harder to break because they permeate across the hive mind link itself,

And by the fucking WAY, the revelations of that xel'naga relic, Zeratul's visions, the insight given by Zurvan of the primal Zerg, all bring such a delicious context to the entire wings of liberty campaign, and they make that campaign good and make everything I complained about earlier just an extra spicy flavoring and a dash of gray to our terran heroes, THEY MADE ME ACTUALLY LIKE RAYNOR???

bcs you know what, fine, perhaps Raynor does see the Queen of Blades as nothing but pure evil, perhaps he does choose to ally with the Dominion to destroy her, that is his human perspective, as someone who loved Kerrigan but knew her so briefly, all he can truly see is the Zerg as he understands them, the mindless living weapon, the infested terrans that beg for death as they seek to tear you limb from limb. We are imperfect, we aren't omniscient, perhaps I should forgive Raynor for his short-sightedness. He cannot concieve of harmony with the zerg because of what he has seen, so of course his dear friend is corrupted, infested, controlled, and he has to free her, and maybe he can make this deal with the devil. From his eyes, this is the best route he can take. He even knows he should not kill her, he knows what she's meant to be, and he has no idea how she'll go from the monster he sees now to the savior of Zeratul's prophecy, so he does what he thinks is best.

and as we see in HotS (and i think also LotV a bit?), Raynor's choice to use the relic was a mistake, it robs the zerg of their salvation and feeds so much energy into Amon's greedy maw... but also, it wasn't a mistake.

See, Kerrigan's temporary severance from the swarm frees her of the influence of Amon on her mind (though I am adamant that her actions have been PRIMARILY motivated by rage and vengeance and spite!), and when she sheds her humanity once more and properly returns to the Swarm, it is in the sacred birthplace of all Zerg, on the planet that obeys the law of nature, where hardship and violence are tools to produce an ever-greater self, and all that she has suffered will become her strength,

AND KERRIGAN ASCENDS - NO, EVOLVES - INTO HER PRIMAL SELF IN ORDER TO FULLY REALIZE THE OVERMIND'S PLOT OF LIBERATION. I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG AND SHE WAS A HERO, THANK YOU HEART OF THE FUCKING SWARM YOU REDEEMED SC2.

which just makes the fucking fire lady 'oh shes not zerg anymore she's xel'naga heehee' feel all the more bullshit???? Like, i thought it was bullshit before I knew anything abt HotS but now its SUPER bullshit, bcs primal kerrigan WAS her perfected self. She didn't NEED to become xel'naga. SHE IS ZERG! SHE IS THE QUEEN OF BLADES!

It's just so pointless. Nothing you could do to Kerrigan in this literal final hour of the entire Starcraft franchise could possibly be as thematically powerful as the Zerus arc, and you should've just continued those themes. leave Kerrigan's character arc concluded. Stop fucking with it. You had something amazing and you fumbled the bag at the literal last second. seriously, what the fuck? THAT'S how you end the series? What happened in the writers' room- other than the creepy misogynist bullshit we already know was happening, of course?

anyways yeah I hope that satisfied your curiosity. :D i don't wanna know how many words this was, I just know it took me like 2h to write. maybe more. I don't have a good sense of time. it's the autism.

[byakuyasdarling]

Ah yes, Pokémon rivals; my favourite topic

Warning: this list is massively biased. I (kinda jokingly) rag on every ‘Awful’ tier rival, so if you don’t want to here that, feel free to skip that explanation. I am pretty harsh with Marnie, I know a lot of people like her, so if you do like her PLEASE don’t read her section because I do not want to upset anyone. 

Also, I do ramble a bit how I like SWSH but they are my personal least favourite games (which is a hot take, I know), so if that would upset you please skip. Take care of yourselves <33

I created the politically correct ranking of Pokémon rivals (/j)

Anyway, epic explanation under the cut:

*if N was on this list he would fall under “Amazing”. Breath-taking story, breath-taking development, great theme songs, awesome character, fantastic team.

Why Blue is in S rank (very long explanation compared to the rest)

You cannot tell me Blue (or Green, or Gary, whatever you want to call the main Kanto rival) isn’t THE BEST RIVAL EVER. They got it SO RIGHT. He inspires hatred, AND sympathy. Literally, his grandad, the only living relative aside from his sister we even know about, loves you (the player) more than him and it’s kind of sad. 

Blue is great, he has a crappy pronunciation of ‘Bonjour’ (see Pokémon Masters), he says ‘smell ya later!’ he has class, swag, and is by no doubt the most challenging rival character. He is the only rival I never swept on a normal run. He is always demeaning you; he is always one step ahead all the way up until the champion battle where you finally beat him. AND HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OMG.

He still is arrogant and prideful, but respects people and wants to guide people to be better at Pokémon battling and thrives when he sees others succeeding - he doesn’t mind being ‘a former champion’. HECK HE’S SO COOL AND AMAZING. 

Also he has the best champion theme and encounter theme ever. Yes, he was a previous F/O so I am super biased; but so were 3 others on this list. 

Silver and Gladion

These two were my F/Os when I was much younger (around 12). They are great rivals with great development and story arcs. Plus, they have bopper encounter themes and battle themes. Gladion was my real introduction to the oc x canon community and inspired me to take drawing on as a hobby (as well as Lillie but I did not end up drawing her as much). 

Brendan, Cheren, Hugh, and Barry

When I was 10 playing Omega Ruby, I liked Brendan a lot (so... another past F/O... he’s the final one though). I dunno, he genuinely had a good friendship with that extra spice of rivalry with our character, May. I do not like friendly rivals (if my listing wasn’t obvious), but Brendan did it right. There was a lot of touching scenes with him and May *cough*cough* Delta Chapter *cough*cough* which really made me connect with him when I was 10. Now, Brendan and May are interchangeable depending on which one of them you pick to play as, so why have I ranked Bredan far above May? Better encounter and battle theme (yes, they have different instrumentation) and he gets the childhood crush pass.

Cheren is cool, I just really like his character and his attempts to create a good strategy. He is really dedicated to what he loves and becomes a gym leader (like BLUE DID. Blue has it all, really). Plus, glasses are cute :) (he is the same age as me, I can legally say that even though that was an obvious nod to Byakuya but you never know what people will take out of context). 

Hugh is cool becomes he somewhat feels like an asshole rival, but at the same time, has a really soft side. Like, his whole motivation to be a good trainer is to save his sister’s Purrloin that was stolen by Team Plasma. He is a hero y’all. Also GREAT encounter and battle theme; huge thumbs up. 

Barry! My man! Overall, cool rival with a great team. He is the second hardest rival to me (but Blue is harder than him by a landslide still). He is really funny in both the games and the anime and despite being a bit more friendly, he still sparks a lot of rivalry with you. Plus, his dad is battle frontier brain Palmer! How awesome! He was also my first rival, so that’s something special to me too. 

Average Tier

I like Hau as a character, he feels like a genuine friend and how he develops with the main character and Lillie is really wholesome. It’s just - I dislike him as a rival, a lot. Easy fights, not the best encounter theme... just kind of there. I get why people consider Gladion as ‘the true rival’ of S and M because he really is. Hau is also a rival that chooses the starter WEAK to your starter like the gen 6 rivals (who I hate with my entire being). 

Wally had a bad-ass final battle theme song and moment. That’s literally the only reason he makes the average tier. If this was a ranking disregarding ORAS he is easily down in the ‘Awful’ tier. 

I like Pokémon Sword and Shield... except I just don’t like them as much as every other game (yes. I did play Pokémon Yellow and enjoyed it more, thank you). I know you all HATE that, but that is just my opinion - I think I have earned the right to say that after my almost 12 years of playing these games and being a VGC player for a few years. It has good characters and some cool Pokémon and yeah... gameplay? Lacklustre. I really do not know what went wrong outside of story. Somehow the competitive battle scene is not the fun it used to be. Dynamax bugs me, the lack of megas bugs me, the dex cut REALLY bugs me. I know I am not the only one who thought this game lacked the charm other Pokemon games have. Graphically though, it’s very nice for the most part.

I have gone way off-topic, but anyway, yeah. SWSH rivals make average because I like their characters (especially Hop’s development). Outside of that, not the best rivals.

May is cool for a lot of the reasons I discussed with Brendan.

Lacking Tier

I like Bianca’s whole deal with her dad and how Elesa has a nice moment to shine too - and that’s it. I know the whole theme of her team is friendship but I die inside every time I watch a Chandelure uses RETURN. It was cool she returned in BW2 I guess? I like how her battle theme matches her personality, but it isn’t anything to write home about. 

I like Calem a bit more than Serena but I do not want to pull another Brendan and May (even though I had some good reason to do that) and I’m going to put them here. Bad teams and not memorable in the slightest, Calem and Serena belong in this tier. 

Awful Tier

X and Y rivals amirite??? They just suck. They are annoying and they suck. They have 3 Pokémon in all final fights, really? At least Shauna is likeable in the anime. 

I hate Trace. But, he has one funny memory I have with my dad that makes him slightly better. We both named him ‘Blue’ since Blue is the actual Kanto rival, but then Blue showed up in LGPE... And then the two ‘Blues’ talked to each other and it was mildly amusing at the time. Anyway, he didn’t deserve Blue’s champion theme (which is even used for Blue in later games outside of his champion battle (BW2), THAT IS NOT TRACE’S THEME. Anyway, he is the gross friendly rival that attempted to fulfil the best rival’s shoes. Sorry Trace, bad luck my dude. 

I just never attached to Marnie I suppose, but I can understand that she is important to those who are invested in her. I am about to fully rag on Marnie, so please skip if that makes you upset. 

 I am going to hurt a lot of people when I said I never liked Marnie. She was always just... like why do people like her so much?? I feel like most people like her because she is ‘funny haha goth gf’ which, fair I suppose. I just think she is super lacking as a rival, she makes no real impression as an actual character, and I think if you removed her from the game it wouldn’t make a difference. Don’t want to be that guy, but I AM that guy right now. I suppose she has a cute design?? and that’s it. Again, I am really biased when it comes to SWSH and rivals, so I suppose she really got the short end of the stick with me.

[comrade-meow]

Bad data generates bad research; bad research generates bad treatments; bad treatments generate bad outcomes. The physiological differences between males and females are vast, and stamp their mark on every organ of the human body, not just the genitals and gonads. Ignoring these differences will muddle our data, blur our understanding of physiology, and hinder the discovery of new treatments for diseases. Females are much more likely than males to have autoimmune disorders. Males are more likely than females to develop Parkinson’s disease. Males and females may present with different symptoms preceding a heart attack. Males and females metabolize drugs differently. Blatantly ignoring sex as a variable hobbles the process of scientific inquiry and limits the types of questions that researchers will ask, thereby limiting the answers they get.

About this story: last November I came across some anonymous tweets from a person claiming to be a medical student at an American university where professors were teaching that sex is a social construct. I decided to try to find out if these claims were real, and I contacted the Twitter user, striking up a conversation with “C”. We agreed to meet on a Zoom call, and that C would show me C’s student ID, with their name and the name of the school covered, and that we would then do a written interview. C’s desire for strict anonymity is well founded in my eyes, due to the damage that could be inflicted on C’s career prospects if they were caught speaking to a publication about the ideological lies being peddled and the culture of fear at their institution.

On our thirty minute Zoom call, I met a highly intelligent, critical-minded, and determined young person who was expressing deep concern over the ways that gender identity ideology is distorting the teaching of medicine and the repercussions this may lead to in our next generation of doctors.

C held up their ID so I could see their picture on what was clearly a medical school ID. C told me their school can be categorized as “top tier.”

The irony of using “they/them” pronouns for a single person is not lost on me. I find it interesting that due to the tyranny of gender ideology, I must adhere to one of their tenets and accept the use of the plural pronoun for a single person whose sex I know. But the fact that I have to do this is because any information about C could potentially be enough to raise suspicion (just read their words to understand the climate of intimidation they witness in class everyday), and the knowledge of an individual’s sex is still a crucial identifying feature, no matter what the gender ideologues want us to believe.

C and I agreed that I would offer people on Twitter an opportunity to pose their questions directly and that C would respond in written form. Out of the many responses, the medical student chose what they considered some of the most representative and important of the questions. These are their answers below, beginning with a short message they wanted me to share.

-Sasha White

Thank you, Sasha, for having offered me this valuable opportunity to answer these questions. Before we start, I would like to clarify my stance on basic issues regarding sex and gender identity, so that people can keep these in mind while reading.

Biological sex is not a social construct – male and female are distinct material realities which have significant implications for medical and surgical treatment of many different conditions. These physiological differences are relevant on the levels of clinical practice, research, and policy, and absolutely must be acknowledged in order for physicians to best treat their patients. All patients should be treated with compassion, respect, and high-quality medical care, regardless of their professed gender identity. I remain agnostic as to what it truly means to have a “gender identity”, but will respect the wishes of my future patients in regards to their social presentation and pronouns. I believe that dysphoric adults should be able to pursue transition. Physicians should be aware of relevant aspects of trans healthcare, including hormone therapy and surgery, so that they can better advise trans patients on how medical treatments may impact their gender-related care, or vice versa. It is possible and desirable for us to have a healthcare system which is inclusive and respectful of transgender patients, in a way which does not pretend that biology is arbitrary or merely a social construct. Despite my liberal beliefs, the loudest voices at my institution would falsely accuse me of blowing transphobic dog-whistles, hence my anonymity. This hostile climate is corrosive to an inquiry mindset and critical thinking, and will ultimately be a disservice to the scientific community and to future patients, trans and otherwise.

IDD64 @IDD64 asks: “What happened to “nobody’s saying sex isn’t real”?”

This is actually what compelled me to speak out about this practice in the first place. Well-intentioned non-medical people often assume that medical schools are teaching something like, “Gender identity can be fluid and varied, but biological sex is real, binary, and relevant in medical contexts.” This idea is around five years out of date in the most progressive of institutions. I have been told multiple times in several classes that biological sex is a social construct – not just gender. Granted, I can speak only for my institution, but this change has been frustrating and disturbing to witness.

Robert Woolley @RandomlyBob asks: “Do any of the required textbooks also avoid using those words? If not, might you ask those professors if they think the books are either inaccurate or offensive?”

Our curriculum is constantly subject to revision. Around two-thirds of our written materials have been updated with this new language. For the one-third that has remained out-of-date, our class has received multiple apologetic, itemized emails from course instructors in which they provide corrections, beg for forgiveness and patience, and avow to “do better”. In class, we have been given multiple histories in which the patient’s sex has been deleted, even for cases involving disorders which can manifest differently between the sexes. The words “female” and “male” are being erased and replaced.

Born a space baby @ggynoid asks: “What’s the dynamic like for class participation? Do people start with pronouns? Do people tend to agree, disagree? What’s the female-male ratio in the class typically on these sort[s] of classes?”

When school first began, we were heavily encouraged to include pronouns in our Zoom names and email signatures; around 70-80% of the class did so. Most students and professors would start off verbal introductions with their name and pronouns, though that has subsided since we all have grown to know each other.

A vocal minority of students are loudly in favor of the most extreme aspects of gender ideology, while the majority seem to be vaguely supportive in a nonspecific way. I think that this comes from a mixture of naive goodwill and fear – they are trying to be good allies, and this is the only way they know how. Additionally, it is heavily implied that to ask critical questions, even in a way which is ultimately patient-centered and supportive, is perpetuating bigotry, so they just nod along. A silent minority seems to be secretly skeptical. I have met four or five students who have disclosed to me in private conversation that they disagree with one or more aspects of this dogma but they are hesitant to come forward in group settings. I am sure that more exist, but they are hard to find. None of these people have been transphobic.

The female-male ratio is approximately equal, with slightly more females than males in my class.

David Poole @MrDPoole asks: “Do you think the people telling you these things actually believe it or are they being forced to do it?”

I think that a very small minority of our professors actually believe that male and female bodies are interchangeable with the exception of genitalia and gonads. There are definitely more woke students than woke professors, and the most radical of students are far more radical than the wokest professor. Most of these professors are very fearful of saying the wrong thing, so they delicately couch their language by referring to “XX and XY people” or other such euphemisms, even though that can lead to inaccuracies.

The social consequences for misspeaking are highly magnified, especially when most classes are delivered online (due to the pandemic). Our class has been quietly accused of having a mean streak in regards to social justice. We have had petitions circulated (drafted by few, signed by many) to name, shame, and “hold accountable” various lecturers who used the “wrong” language, to the point of humiliation. One professor broke down crying after a genetics lecture which relied heavily on the use of “male” and “female” by necessity. (Though the lecture also made ample space to talk about transgender and non-binary individuals, this was not enough to appease the critics.) Another professor referred to “pregnant women” rather than “pregnant people” and spent a very uncomfortable few minutes after class abjectly apologizing for having caused offense “by implying that only women can get pregnant”. It was incredibly disturbing to see, for multiple reasons. One, this is based on bad science and zealotry that has the potential to harm patients. Two, the magnitude of the “crime” pales in comparison to the magnitude of the outcry. Three, it is a total inversion of the expected social order to see these physicians —some of whom are literally leading scholars in their field— be reduced to fearful puddles if a student so much as looks at them askance. Keep in mind that these professors are extremely liberal, compassionate, and well-meaning, yet they are turned upon with such venom and verve by the people who they are trying to please.

Chopper @RodeoChopper asks: How are cases presented? Normally the first line is “This is a such and such year old (male/female) with a past medical history significant for…”

Here are some examples of formats I have seen in our coursework:

“This is a 43-year-old woman with ovaries, presenting with …”

“A 3-year-old child, assigned male at birth, not assigned gender as of yet by parents, presenting with …”

“This patient is a 7-year-old child, gendered as a boy by his parents, who …”

“57-year-old woman with testes, here with …”

“A 16-year-old patient (gender non-binary, pronouns they/them) …”

“A 32-year-old woman (she/her/hers) …”

“A 16-year-old patient presents with complaints of …”

Of the myriad problems with this structure, the most concerning is that most of these cases do not accurately identify the sex of the patient, which is crucial in being able to weigh the likelihood of potential diagnoses and treatments. A person’s pronouns are not relevant when deciding to prescribe a particular antibiotic, and at which dose. Additionally, I find it somewhat irritating to be expected to state the obvious for things that are the default of the human experience. We do not say, “This is a 42-year-old woman with both her arms and legs”, although there are certainly women in this world who are missing one or more of their limbs.

MaryWrath @WrathMary asks: “So how are reproductively different bodies described then? How are cardiac arrest and stroke symptoms described, explained and taught as we know now they present differently across the two sexes? There are clearly two bodies in our species so how are the professors acknowledging?”

Organs are referred to by their actual names – penis, testes, vagina, ovaries, breasts. However, referring to patients as male or female is strictly taboo. If there are relevant but subtle sex-specific differences, then they will often be downplayed or ignored altogether. As an example, we were told that the higher risk of heart attacks in men was due only to the presence of testosterone, and not for any other reason, which is patently false. When the differences are utterly impossible to ignore, “male” and “female” will simply be rebranded as “people with testes/ovaries”, “AMAB/AFAB”, or “people with/without Y chromosomes”. My personal favorite is “persons with [testosterone/estrogen] as their primary sex hormone.” Oddly, “man” and “woman” are still used, often with redundant qualifiers (“56-year-old man with testes”).

thames pilgrim @thames_pilgrim asks: “What are the most dangerous medical implications for turning a blind eye to someone’s sex due to a belief that talking about “male” and “female” might offend?”

This is a very important question which should be addressed at the following interrelated levels: clinical practice, research, and public policy.

Clinical practice: Transgender patients who do not disclose their birth sex might be at risk for improper medical treatment. (I have seen a natal female person who identified as a nonbinary man, be suspected of having testicular torsion; this person did not disclose their sex to the physician, which resulted in a delay in their care). Out of fear of being branded transphobic, physicians may not accurately and completely inform trans patients about their sex-specific risk for certain medical conditions. And for all patients, if a poorly-educated doctor is unaware as to how disorders manifest differently between the sexes, then patients can be harmed through the failure to rapidly and accurately diagnose and treat their medical conditions.

Research: Bad data generates bad research; bad research generates bad treatments; bad treatments generate bad outcomes. The physiological differences between males and females are vast, and stamp their mark on every organ of the human body, not just the genitals and gonads. Ignoring these differences will muddle our data, blur our understanding of physiology, and hinder the discovery of new treatments for diseases. Females are much more likely than males to have autoimmune disorders. Males are more likely than females to develop Parkinson’s disease. Males and females may present with different symptoms preceding a heart attack. Males and females metabolize drugs differently. Blatantly ignoring sex as a variable hobbles the process of scientific inquiry and limits the types of questions that researchers will ask, thereby limiting the answers they get.

Policy: Patients who are not transgender may be misled by “inclusive” educational materials and miss out on crucial preventative care. This is especially impactful in women’s health; whether due to language barrier, subpar sex education, or cultural taboo, not every woman will even know that she has a cervix, but she will know that she is female. Additionally, recommendations made by professional medical associations are widely used in clinical practice; if these guidelines are generated based on faulty data, this could negatively impact patients on a wider scale.

However, the most pernicious of possible harms is not the denial of sex; rather, the denial of sex is just one manifestation of a greater problem, which is the corrosion of critical thinking itself. Whatever you call it – this postmodern poison, the triumph of dogma over data – it is fundamentally incompatible with critical thinking, the most powerful all-purpose tool a physician has at his or her disposal. Starting with a conclusion and working backwards, all while twisting the data to fit a narrative, strikes me as more religious than scientific.

Marjorie Hutchins @leakylike asks: “Part of being a doctor is taking on ethical & safeguarding responsibilities[.] Why aren’t medical students challenging something which [could] have health implications for patients?”

Our positions as students are precarious, especially if one is labeled as being on the wrong side of history. Consequences for speaking out can include shunning, being anonymously reported to the school for “remediation”, being informally blacklisted from research and leadership opportunities, and potentially expulsion. Until I have earned my degree and have completed residency, I need to remain anonymous. To do otherwise would be to kill my career before it has even begun, which would also limit my ability to help many more patients in the future.

Although I am very biased, I think it should be on the onus of administration and our tenured professors to stand up against this madness, rather than on lone students to publicly put themselves at risk of debt and ruin. For now, I resist in the small ways that I can; I wish to do so more publicly when I am more secure.

[lunamanar]

Off-the-Cuff First-impressions Review: Trials of Mana

I got Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana in the mail today and am surprised by just how excited I am about it. After the admittedly predictable letdowns of the Secret of Mana “remake” and the FFVIII “remaster,” not to mention the iOS revision of the former, you’d think I’d be jaded at this point. 

But! FFVII remake is Actually Good, and so far it looks like Trials of Mana is, while certainly lower budget, also Actually Good. The voice acting is kinda meh, but not bad enough to detract from the game in my opinion, and considering they are working with SNES-era scripts (the dialogue is 99% word-for-word the same as the more recent translation of the original SD3 game, so it’s going to be a bit stilted anyway) it’s really not bad at all. 

Besides, the actual meat of the game--the world, character and monster design, and the gameplay--is extremely solid and I have had very little trouble acclimating to it. It’s fun to play, it feels good to run around and explore the world and the battles are both very simplistic in a way that is familiar to an old fart like me and very satisfying in the way they function. One of the biggest weaknesses the original game had was absolutely horrendous input lag in some areas due to 1. the sheer size of the loaded map section, such as Rolante/Laurant, 2. The number of on-screen instructions the SNES had to process during battles, particularly during fights where you had massive sprites taking up the entire screen (the awful awful wall-guardian “Genova” [harhar] is probably the single hardest boss in the game purely due to input lag/drops; when you attack an enemy, even assuming your weapon swings when you tell it to, and that’s a big ‘if,’ the monster you are attacking is actually in a state which is several frames ahead of whatever state it visually appears to be in on-screen, making it extremely difficult to time your attacks properly to both defend and do optimal damage to what should have been a relatively minor “miniboss” fight). Trials of Mana, on the other hand, has none of those problems, simply thanks to more modern technology. So far every fight I’ve engaged in has been smooth and responsive as well as very visually appealing.

And wow is this game pretty. It’s not the most amazing example of the best graphical advances in gaming history, to be sure, but I genuinely don’t think that matters, as it’s still beautifully detailed and really does look like they took the original graphics and magicked them into more modern models. The re-imaginings of each area and monster are very faithful to both the aesthetic and the layout of the original design while at the same creatively expanding on them; I've had no trouble finding my way around familiar maps or identifying the bestiary, but I have found a lot of added depth to them, such as the ability to jump down on rooftops and find hidden nooks that were just static backdrops or otherwise out of sight in the original. The areas are more layered and interactive, but very importantly, nothing is missing. Not even the dogs and cats, who still bark and meow at you if you talk to them. I feel like I’m being allowed to see and explore the original maps from angles I didn’t have access to in the past. It really makes the 16-year-old in me unbelievably happy, to be able to finally, actually see and do these things I could only wish for back then. For people who have never played it, it’s probably a very pretty, if otherwise unremarkable experience, but for me it’s the granting of a wish I’ve had for a long time, but never expected to happen. 

Similarly, I think a lot of people will look at the plot for this game and go, “...what?” Because it really doesn’t seem to have been changed at all from the SNES version, aside from a few little tweaks to the dialogue here and there to ease the transition between some sections or correct for differences in game mechanics (of which there are only a few; again, this is definitely a remake--it remains the same game with the same mechanics at its core). This can lead to some pretty awkward interactions between characters, and at times it seems pretty clear that the voice actors weren’t given a lot of direction about the context of their lines. It’s not a bad story, but it’s a very simply told one, and feels more like it’s targeting 12~16 year-olds (which it probably is, to be fair) who might not care so much about nitpicking the semantics of the plot and character motivations. Which is to say, most of the characters who are not main protagonists or villains are painfully cardboard-flat. They do what they do and say what they say because it advances the plot for them to do and say those things. Elliot falls for a “trick” that I’m pretty sure most 4-year-olds would see through. The Bad Guys are 1-dimensionally evil, wanting to either destroy or take over the world, with the possible exception of Lugar and Koren who have slightly more complicated “I’m your rival” reasons. That leaves the complexity up to the protagonists to shoulder, and while I haven’t played that far into the game yet, thus far is is beat-for-beat and shot-for-shot the same as the original, so I expect that character-building will be left largely up to the player to mentally write in, especially since the game features light/dark class-changes as a feature of its progression. (I do kiiiind of hope that your choice in class changes has a more material effect on the ending’s outcome, but I think that might be asking a bit too much from a remake of this sort.) But the somewhat archaic plot and character arcs are not surprising and for me don’t take away any of the game’s charm. Nikita is still the best, the shop owners still dance inexplicably, the fact you can play a werewolf is badass, rabites are still cute, Don Perignon is still kind of a jerk. I’m very nervous/excited to get Busukaboo and Flammie and hope they’ll be as much fun now as they were then. And the whole world is so damn pretty, I’m just glad to be there. 

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the music. I’m not sure how much of a hand Hiroki Kikuta actually had in this remake, but the synth-orchestral arrangements of his originals are excellent so far. They’re both accessible/adaptable to the game’s sudden scene transitions (”Nuclear Fusion” starts and ends just as cleanly) while being a richer version of the themes, keeping close to the original sound while making better use of all the instruments that the SNES just wasn’t capable of emulating well. It blends very well with the rest of the game and I hope that continues to be true. 

I do have nitpicks; while I know it’s a popular mechanic, I don’t like the “shift-lock” sort of dash using the left analog stick as both directional and a button. I think the camera controls are solid, but I do wish there wan a toggle-option to have the camera just follow over your shoulder wherever you run until you either run into a battle or turn it off. The character models don’t seem especially affected by anything except the most intense/pervasive lighting and sometimes feel oddly out of place, like I’m watching one of those old movies where an animated character comes into the Real World. Some of the monster designs seem cute-ified more than I’d like. And I can’t help but think that if the game can be this nice as a third-tier title for SE, what could it have been if they’d but the resources behind it that they obviously did with FF7? I understand why they didn’t, but it’s hard not to wonder what it could have been if they had.  Seiken Densetsu is one of the most fraught series in the history of home video games and the fact that it’s even still around is something of a miracle, in my opinion. After the last...four?...titles following Legend of Mana, and the disappointment that was SD2′s (second!) remake, I really didn’t go into Trials of Mana with high hopes. I have been really, honestly pleasantly surprised. Even if you’re a diehard old-schooler who really doesn’t like modern JRPGs, if you have any nostalgia left for this series, you should give this one a go. I think it translated really well to 3D models, and what little it loses in the switch, it makes up for in playability. It’s not hard to pick up, it’s easy on the eyes and ears, it’s less grind-y than the original, and it doesn’t try to be more than what it is. I’ll probably always prefer the original, of course; there are too many memories attached to it for me, too many things that were groundbreaking at the time that are now old news or completely obsolete nowadays, and the new game certainly doesn’t push any modern boundaries. But it’s worth checking out, and especially if you’ve spent 20 years feeling let down by the Mana series, this might actually be the game you were hoping for, albeit maybe a decade late. 

[bladekindeyewear]

Boots reads Homestuck Epilogue(s) Part 7 - Meat Page 26

==>

Back on to Jade swimming into the singularity or something.  (And trying to stop thinking that maybe Candy ends with a giant polyamorous relationship and/or orgy, because I don’t imagine Rose would have acted so tamely if that’s what she saw.)

Yes, Time is the complement of Space, that was already confirmed in comic if it wasn’t super incredibly obvious all along anyway.

Gah, I’m getting stomach cramps again.

Yeah, too much Space makes Time invisible and vice versa? Or...

Maybe Dave broke her heart a little, and he keeps doing it too, no matter how many different timelines they try out.

D:

God damnit these CRAMPS.  Reading further.

Like a garden, where Jade used to spend so much of her time with her hands in the earth and her head in the clouds, dreaming about flowers that bloomed in six colors and grew when she played them a song. Was that real? It’s hard to tell. But it made her happy, didn’t it?

FUCK are you going to start making me doubt the reality of the liFe we saw her living early in-comic?????  Cut it out, it’s unsettling!

Alright, alt!Callie is taking the reins from Dirk on this narrative he so smugly thought he could completely consume.  That’s good/bad.

slutty adult Jade

FUCKING YIKES!! FUCK YOU DIRK!

FUCK I DIDN’T NEED HER DEATH DESCRIBED IN SUCH DETAIL EITHER.  Also alt!Callie’s really embodying Death here.

==>

Pff.  Calliope’s writing the story now, in a sense, like she always kind of wanted.

Also pff, this version of her doesn’t know how to describe human stuff colorfully.  :)

An adversarial dichotomy between your opposing goals, huh?  This might end up as a “none of us can really write the ending” ending that DOES leave it up in the air for everyone else to decide instead.

Fuck, now you’re having THIS Jade suffer by proxy by experiencing the other Jade’s memories.  This metatextual ascension’s happening to everyone isn’t it.

Yeah, she’s done it before and stuff--

when jade turns to look at roxy, her eyes are completely black.

FUCK.

my presence shall mitigate, if not altogether subdue, the corrosive effect on reality and the will of its occupants by those who would manipulate the way events are telegraphed for their own megalomaniacal objectives.

Well, fuck.  Jade’s been temporarily hijacked for the rest of the story AGAIN, like back in Condesce days, this time as a plot device to keep Dirk from overreaching with his god powers and stepping over everyone’s wills like an Ultimate Riddle style villain.  Dirk, I mean.  Being the villain.  And alt!Callie just doing what she has to to put this back on track.  Man I HATE it when Jade’s will doesn’t get to be on full display.  Her will is awesome.  (Also, alt!Callie just tacitly confirmed that the will of reality’s occupants matters, if that wasn’t obvious already, so ha.)

despite his pretensions to a greater design, the prince of heart cannot be allowed to continue to exert unchecked control over the authoritative recitation of events on this side of my horizon. it cannot be overstated the extent to which he represents a threat to the continued existence of both this world and corporeal life itself.

Yeah, it was indeed looking that way earlier.

Ooh, alt!Callie is really spot-on with her pronoun use.

Alright, Dirk’s voice is shrinking away, and my stomach still feels half-clenched.

Wow, alt!Callie’s really mad at what Dirk’s been doing with this epilogue.

==>

“EPILOGUE FIVE”?????

Did I miss the titles for one, three, and four??? Yeah there were probably there and I just missed them or something.

Pfffff, John looks/smells like shit.  :D

...too fresh??

Fuck you John for thinking Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn’t a masterpiece.  :P

terezi tips her head to one side, with what john personally regards as a cute expression, one he believes is unique to her. whether he’s correct or not, it’s his belief that there is no one else who emotes in this manner. it’s both quizzical and mocking, two descriptors that he considers to be an apt summation of her personality as well.

Niiiiice.  Nice linguistic description of her “>:?” expression.

have no desire to interject thoughts into others’ minds, or to sway intent. nor do i see value in masking the reality of the emotions that i transcribe. this is how he feels. his mind, however, has made a habit of being less clear about his thoughts than i am willing to be.

Oh thank fucking god, I don’t have to question everyone’s thoughts anymore.  Until Dirk comes back or something, I dunno.

Oh my fucking god, alt!Callie, you total voyeuristic nerd.

he fears he is in danger of seeming like the type of creepy human male who is likely to collect large pillows bearing the illustrated images of japanese earth females. to me, this idea means nothing. but it is causing him to sweat.

This is one very relatable snippet of text.

Feed Terezi Feed Terezi Feed Terezi

WHY is the gold tooth poisonous???????  ...Wait, Caliborn affixed it to his mouth intentionally.  He had every right and motive to make it poisonous for no good reason.  Ugh.

Beep beep, let’s find Vriska.

==>

WHAT

WHAT JANE

WHAT THE FLYING FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING

JESUS

Using Trickster Mode as a drug to further one’s political performance.  That’s fucking horrifying.  No wonder it was on the triggers list.

additionally, it prevents one from dwelling on any given personal problems, or the greater implications of any political statements one might make.

Pff, mhmm.

Problematic, huh?  Jane seems like the slightly-old-fashioned sort of person who thinks it’s getting kind of ridiculously silly how much people are caring about stuff being “problematic”.  And yet that stuff DOES matter, and ignoring it DOES hurt people, and she not only isn’t seeing that but is drugging herself to see it LESS with that goddamned lollipop.  Holy shit.

she turns around promptly, her body jolted by the surprise of her sudden reversal. she bends over, cradles the lollipop reverentially, and situates it carefully in a place signifying respect: atop the mantle, after clearing space for it by shoving several brittle, worthless objects to the floor.

PFFF.  Okay, so alt!Callie ISN’T above altering characters slightly from their narrative course when it comes to one of the few things she deems important.  Heh.

Having “his control of a shared vehicle fully suppressed”, huh?  Does alt!Callie only mean the narrative, or maybe Rose too with whatever weird bullshit he did to her?

Uh, “while the seer both diminishes and ascends”???  D:

--Oh, oh shit.  He was planning to NARRATIVE CONTROL Jake into going along with things.  D: D:

Yeah, Jake would want to bang all the aliens, really.

Sendificator rifle, or something like that.  Got it.

==>

How fucking long is this epilogue, anyway?????  I mean, the length is appropriate from an objective point of view, I’m just frustrated because I’m going to have to spend every waking hour liveblog-reading it until I’ve reached the end or I’m likely to fucking explode, and I didn’t want this to be my entire day/weekend/existence again AAGH HOMESTUCK YOU BLACK HOLE

anyway yaay karkat in a suit.

Alluding to assassination attempts?  What, is that red rifle going to try and fulfill that old “through the silver screen and straight into my heart” unused foreshadowing-herring from act six, or five, or whenever it was? Five, I believe.

Pff, super pacs, yeah.  Dave’s nearly as political as me now or something.  Except he actually acts on it here instead of just sitting around talking about it and thinking he’s right all the time, like me.

Wait, JANE ACTUALLY WENT THROUGH with smearing Jake??!???  Holy shit she’s lost touch.

KARKAT: SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF IS ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS SUBJECT MATTER FOR PRODUCING CAMPAIGN ADS! KARKAT: NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT, OR WHAT POINTS YOU’RE TRYING TO MAKE! DAVE: yeah its awesome

Pfffff.

...yeah, Jake isn’t thinking of ANYTHING except Dirk right now, really.

Oh huh, Dirk HAS been as controlling of Jake as he used to be, now that alt!Callie’s pointing it out.  Just with an even more insidious mechanism.

Oh cool, Karkat’s version of the policy pitch!  :D :D :D  Can’t wait can’t wait reading

(dont lie karkat you totally know shes hot)

Pff, stop making it seem obvious that Dirk wanted to assassinate Jake for political purposes.  Heck, even if that WAS his plan it’d just be a temporary death that he’d resurrect from and then they’d try to turn it into... what, some media spin on how Karkat might have been responsible? Or a troll?? That latter part would make things MUCH more xenophobic.  I’m starting to get seriously into the politics of this.

==>

Pff, now ‘rezi’s eating tobacco.

...okay, is Terezi REALLY going to go for a real conversation with just an honest ask for one?  I don’t think so--

--aaand there she goes laughing, as expected.  At least at first.

Yep, Terezi’s wearing the shoes.  Nice date gift.

--And yep, Terezi remembers all that.  She managed to do the nigh-metatextual mind merge with her other selves WITHOUT even needing God-Tier.

Yeah, Vriska always seemed fit to abandon the kismesis you deserved when it suited her, ‘rezi.  :(

JOHN: even worse, i might have tried to fix things MYSELF! TEREZI: OH D34R GOD JOHN: yeah!!!

Yeah I cackled out loud at that.

TEREZI: 34RTH C 1S P3RF3CT 1SNT 1T? TEREZI: BUT NOT FOR YOU TEREZI: YOU DONT *F33L* 1T

john swallows a thick breath. he reminds himself that he never wanted perfection, never asked for it. and yet he feels guilty every day for failing to enjoy it as much as he believes he was supposed to.

Holy shit.  John’s survivor’s guilt from all the doomed timelines he witnessed and escaped is keeping him from feeling their victory has been real, and making his “squandering” of it gut his self-esteem too.  God damnit.

Roxy and John wouldn’t have worked out????? Hey Terezi, quit it! >:[  That’s not fair, just very plausibly and authoritatively dismissing a ship we’d hoped for offscreen like--  Oh, shit, she’s alluding to something that happened in the Candy side I haven’t read isn’t she.  She would DEFINITELY have an idea of what happened on the other side of that Choice Split with her hero role.  Fuck what am I in for

....pfff, that Callie vs Dirk bit.  It’s like revenge against Doc Scratch, which it kind of IS, really.

I didn’t expect this much time to be spent dwelling on really intimate John/Terezi scenes.  It’s really refreshing!  Making this kind of meaningful no matter whether it’s black or inexplicably red they end up with or whatever, and equally meaningful if they don’t end up in any sort of relationship at all, really.

even without the aid of a juju, he is fortunate enough to be blessed with the only true form of divinity. to be released from the prison of nonsensical inhibitions which so often psychologically hobble the more primitive forms of life.

Alt!Callie, are you causing this?  I thought you wanted to be impartial.

Okay, THAT finally brought things suitably closer to the black side of romance like I would have expected.

==>

their finger hovers over dirks number for a moment, but... no. that would not be a good idea. they don’t know why they suddenly think it’s a bad idea. it just is.

Okay, THAT shred of influence is fair.  You DID say you were going to countermand his influence, so yeah.

Good excuse to get narration of her thoughts, if flimsy.  :)

Lord save me from this fake woke nightmare.

Pfffff.  Fuck you, Dirk.  ;)

ROXY: guess ill just open the damn curtains and let some light in here

FUCK you’re going to kill JADE aren’t you???? You’re giving Jade a TEMPORARY DEATH just to deny alt!Callie’s proxy?!?? That’s fucking insidious!  Fuck you, Dirk!!! That one wasn’t a loveable joke this time, that was an ACTUAL fuck you.  This epilogue is really good at making him out to be the villain now that his powers have expanded to the narrative.

Reading reading reading...

...Huh.  Is Roxy talking about coming out as non-binary and getting advice on it?  Hm!

Alright, and she’s defs a little gay for Callie from what she’s saying if it wasn’t clear before.  If “gay” even has any relevance when you’re talking about a pair of non-binary... yeah whatever.  :)

Alright, time to hear Dave talk about it all some more I guess.

--Yep, he’s only mostly gay.  Called it.  There’s a whole spectrum.

...and yeah, I mean... why NOT let it go beyond quadrants with Karkat and never slap an official label on it?  You’re just two people who love each other and want to spend time together in any capacity, be it positive or negative.  It doesn’t have to result in anything formal unless you want it to, much less boning down or something.  Dirk, stop getting creepy with how hard you’re shipping them, that’s the fanbase’s job.

Jade and Roxy are visible from this location, right?  Wasn’t it mentioned that they live in a tower in Carapaceville or whatever?  Has Dirk successfully conned alt!Callie into having her vessel shot through?  Probably.

the ongoing corruption of his cerebrally impaired daughter.

Eewwwwweweewww

Anyway yeah here comes the plot twist or whatever...

Yeah, Callie gets it wrong, and--

......ah, a tranq?  That makes more sense and is more than slightly less evil, if still ultimately evil given his eventual presumed goals or whatever.

DIRK: Like the bitch she is.

FUCK YOU

Oh, Jade’s going to be asleep for the rest of the story?  AGAIN?!????  FUCK YOU SO MUCH, DIRK.

Jesus christ.  How long is this epilogue anyway.

Taken your leave?  From this planet???  What the fuck, are you--

Oh.  Oh shit.

When Dirk ascended into absorbing the memories of all his various split selves, did he get a heaping helping of DOC SCRATCH in there too???  Was Doc Scratch’s ambition actually for POST-victory ascension in this very manner? FUCK.  Either way, him sharing some of those memories puts a pretty unique spin on his descent into goddamn evil, here.

Reading on... oh shit, did Callie write the candy half??

==>

Huh, postcoital; we actually went there.  Cool.

Ah, she gives up on Vriska?  Better find Vriska really fast, then.

Oh, you’re really going? Or, trying, anyway.

==>

Really committed to this whole ascending to literal godhood schtick, aren’t you, Dirk?

(Hm.  Makes me almost think that this situation with Rose is going to end up with someone splitting her essence entirely in two to save her; her raw Seer-ness getting forced into a convenient vessel (cueball, wonk wonk) and herself returning to consciousness a slight bit more mortal than she was before, ie not going completely insane.  Hmm.)

Oh, “Vast Fuck” sorta-maybe-confirmed..??

Stop tacitly insulting Jake as you puppet him, Dirk.  He’s a dumbass but not THAT much of a dumbass.

beta-bitch

FUCK YOU, DIRK.

She loves you, Jake, more than anything, and you toyed with her heart. 

Fuuuuuuck you.

could subsume your entire personality

Shit, he IS trying to pretty much consume them all.  Swallow their individuality and take total control of all their actions.  All Prince of Heart on the whole world.  Dirk you need to fucking DIE.

And to love Dirk is to obey him.

There isn’t a Fuck You large or loud enough to what I feel about the mental violation Dirk is inflicting on Jake right now, and everyone else around him, and I sincerely and selfishly hope this epilogue is almost over because I don’t want too many pages to stand between this one and seeing Dirk fucking PAY.

Jake opens his big, dumb mouth to make the only important contribution to the plot he ever has or ever will make in his whole sad, pointless joke of a life.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU

Let’s hope that in your hubris your looking away managed to let him say something different or some such.

==>

You try to remember if you’ve ever been revived by Jane before. You honestly can’t recall. So much shit has happened. Maybe?

Yeah, I don’t recall either really.

The poison needling through you is antithetical to narrative relevance. You’re not dying, John. You’re being erased. Cherubs don’t fuck around. We’ve both been learning that the hard way.

Okay, fuck?  How the hell?  Is this just because Dirk says it is, or???

I guess it’s tragic, though maybe not in the conventional sense. My view is, the real tragedy with you, John, is that you never mattered all that much.

Yeah, Dirk’s first fucking rant when he took over the narrative officially was about John being a you-insert nobody average guy, and the DISDAIN he shows to everything about who John is is pretty goddamn insulting.  He has NO concept of how John managed to bring everyone together or... UGH!

even though you knew both then and now that it was the only choice you possibly could have made.

Dammit, so it probably WASN’T a full timeline-bisecting Mind split.  Just a side branch that wasn’t as likely, because just like with his Denizen, John’s will was tilted toward this part of the choice.  D:

I see how some of this seems to be going, or at least think I do... Dirk thinks that John needs to die heroically “for the good of the story”, and something’s potentially going to come in and say “no”?  That the whole reason they WON was to essentially be free of that cruel logic once and for all, and that Dirk is gonna get one hell of a smackdown for trying futilely to enforce it in their new post-victory domain??

She listens to him bleed while she smells him die.

--That, and fulfilling bits of foreshadowing for shits and giggles.  >:(

Huh, “friable”, didn’t even know that was a word.  Just looked it up; you learn something new every day.

Okay what is Dirk planning with the fucking body.

==>

Jane swept the election, of course. I told you I was going to win. After Jake’s incoherent and scandalous heel-turn at Karkat’s ill-fated rally, no amount of esoteric, three-dimensional jpeg artefacts could have salvaged the Vantas campaign. 

Ah, but is that what REALLY happened, or what you’re saying happened, about to be overwritten?

Mainly that their BFF Jade has been in a coma for an entire month. They’ve been in and out of the hospital handling her affairs. Her next of kin is listed as John Egbert, and no one’s seen him in ages. It’s like he just disappeared suddenly. Like some great hand came out of the sky and crossed his name off the big list of guys we ever need to give a shit about anymore.

F U C K  Y O U

Roxy, after all, and since her big heart-to-heart about the personal politics of queer onion metaphors, and ten stages of galaxy-braining through the many vicissitudes of the phrase “no homo,” Roxy has decided to really step up her gender experimentation. I guess at this point she’s gone beyond Stage Ten. Which I imagine is somewhat like reaching Super Saiyan 2 of gender, and then going even further beyond.

Holy crap, she’s going full Dave Lalonde.  That’s pretty sweet.

...Isn’t Terezi like obviously covered in blood and stuff?

ROXY: they stay home all day with the blinds drawn paintin some weird ass shit on the walls

Oh my fucking GOD real!Callie please save the plot.  Nuke this self-indulgent Dirkshit.

ROXY: like lotsa nasty purple blood and um ROXY: nudity???? TEREZI: >:? ROXY: yeah yikes ROXY: but MOST of it is cute stuff like... various combos of all of us being happy and gettin married and shit ROXY: anyway thats kept callie kinda busy

...This is an allusion to the Candy side I haven’t read, isn’t it?  Maybe THAT’s part of what she supplants this bullshit with.  Or since it mentions “various combinations”, she’s restoring the possibility to everything that the ending was supposed to have?

This is potentially a real fucking indictment of the idea of a narrative-driven ending when what actually mattered was the characters’ escape from said narrative.  :)

ROXY: its like theyre traumatized ROXY: and they think ill drag whatever possessed jade back into our home with me

Okay fuck maybe Callie ISN’T helping.  Maybe she’s just so worried about the alternate history she could have lead that she’s retreating into every Candy-like fanfic she can think of.  :(

What’s with the phone buzz?  The intervention we’ve been hoping for, since Dirk’s making her ignore it?

Oh cool, figures Terezi’s been hearing the narrative all along and just politely not acknowledging the fact that she hears it!  Maybe SHE’LL help unfuck this mess.  (And according to her, Roxy’s gone full “him” too!)

Fuck fuck fuck Terezi don’t listen to him go against his bullshit instead

Where, canon? Is that where you’re planning to escape back to or some such, with yourself as the author? Is that orange Andrew actually you or some BS?

Dammit.

==>

FUCK, “new body”????

The new body I’ve made for her won’t have much use for her usual ensembles. That’s all I was saying.

FUCK FUCK FUCK it IS the cueball isn’t it.  Holy shit.  That’s even worse than a robot.  FZUCZK

Okay calm down.  The Rose part of Rose can be cut away and rescued from this fate somehow, if she isn’t just whole-hog rescued entirely which would also be good.  FUCK DIRK

...look purple? What?

DIRK: What’s happening here is the best thing for everybody.

Yeah, go fuck yourself.  This shit had better be undone soon.

To finally face the truth. If Rose has been spending more time with me than you, if she’s realizing she resonates more with me due to our natural similarities and finds my presence more rewarding than yours, then what does that say about YOU, Kanaya?

PFFFF. YOU’RE GONNA BREAK UP THE PAIRING JUST SO YOU CAN STEAL HER?  HAHAHAHAHAHA NO.

Okay, after THAT page’s last bit of horrid manipulation, this can’t end in any way that doesn’t involve ages of existential and literal torment for Dirk, forever.

==>

Epilogue Seven, huh.  One last thing he wants to take care of before getting out of dodge, huh.  I see Karkat and Dave’s text colors on screen.  Is he going to try to force them to finally bone down or confess?  This would be the perfect place for his plan to get fucking stopped.

Homestuck, stop making my fucking stomach clench so hard.

That’s a hell of a disaster Dirk thought up for these guys on that stage.

Part of this whole shitshow might be to tell us that this ending, this “fanfic” of dubious authenticity of an epilogue that Dirk is giving us is how DIRK believes it would end best for everyone involved, but not how everyone else would, ignoring their wills... while also discarding the idea of the epilogue that any individual reader of Homestuck would want in favor of the possibilities he meant to leave open with the ending.

Alright, here comes Dirk NOT forcing them to bone down but rather trying to persuade-brainwash them into a relationship talk.

DAVE: so what youre saying is you believe in me who believes in you

Dave. Please.

Hey, the Gurren Lagaan reference went WAY too long unsaid.  Even if Andrew literally didn’t know a thing about said anime when he made the character designs.

I look Dave right in his mind’s eye and tell him to cut it the fuck out. He wants it, you want it, so just go for it, my man. It’s now or never.

DAVE: oh DAVE: same

I feel every brain cell in my immortal body begin to perish in real time.

BAAHAHAHAAHHhahahha FUCK YOU Dirk.

I mean, I want Dave and Karkat together as much as the next guy but FUUUUUUUCK YOU DIRK!!! I want everything you ever wanted to go wrong and shit on you.  Their equivocating soft-nearly-mance is strong enough to go even against you, who thinks yourself the narrative fucking Sun.

Oh this is fantastic

I’ve literally been decapitated and that was less unbearable than this.

YES KEEP FALLING APART

You see that twinkle? That’s devotion, you unbelievably dense neutron star of a dumbshit.

Nice callback to... what was it, Dave’s first rant at Tavros to troll him back or whatever?

radially effervescing kaleidoscope of more hot boy peckers than you could ever imagine.

Yep, DEFINITELY a callback to that. I’ll never forget the sick flow of that metaphor.

DAVE: i just keep having thoughts i know id never think

SAVE US DAVE

Dammit, near miss.

The privilege of a Strider Eye Moment is about the most earth-shattering experience a young man will ever have in his life. 

Pfff

DAVE: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD AND JUST LET ME DO THIS MYSELF!!!

yaaaaaayyy

I mean we didn’t save the whole story yet but at least Dirk got fucked over and we still get Davekat intimacy.

That’s pretty classy actually, not getting into detail and just sounding blown the fuck away by it even though he’s Dirk.  That’s pretty good.

==>

Something about the height of Rose, roughly Rose-shaped, and wrapped in a cloth. I know she’s gonna love it the first time she sees it.

Oh so it IS a robot body.  Well, fuck you a little less than it potentially being the magic cueball, but STILL fuck you.

I may have already mentioned, but I’m a bit too deft at this for my own good. Doing the thing where I tug at the part of someone’s latent thought process that already knows they adore me. That if someone would just pull the stops from their sense of inhibition, they’d realize they would do anything for me.

It’s called killing their soul with your role abilities you ASSHOLE

I hope this crush you filled him with bites you in the fucking ass now that he’s here.

DIRK: I won’t be coming back, Jake.

Oh, so you’re just going to drop the truth on him like that? Let’s see how that works out for you, asshole.

DIRK: Jane needs you now more than ever.

Oh fuck you.  This is “best for everyone”, huh?????

DIRK: You’ll just be, you know. DIRK: Her candy boy? JAKE: CANDY BOY??? DIRK: Yeah. Being on call. DIRK: Serving a multimillion-year term of giving her the right kind of “presidential action” she needs to keep going. To keep her morale up and such. DIRK: To provide her with many heirs. DIRK: Doesn’t that sound cool? JAKE: HEIRS??

Um.  What the fuck?  Is this even Dirk anymore?  It’s not Condesce intervention, I’m not going to try and suspect that just from the callback or anythiiiii-----

Fuck, we DID just get an alive Meenah dropped into a universe somewhere.

Maybe this IS Condesce intervention. Just a different Condesce.  o_O

Two ticks longer than he ever deserved.

Gah???

DIRK: But I’ll never let you break my heart again.

So this was all just revenge for dumping him??????????????

==>

Guh, back to Kanaya-- wait, why does Dirk want Terezi around, anyway?

Jade wakes up and then-- Okay. Okay my eyes flitted down to the green halfway down the page and I saw this phrase before I actually got to it.

JADE: DIRK STRIDER HAS TO BE STOPPED!!!!!!!!!!

Thank FUCK.

Anyway reading the in-between...

The scope of her awareness, she now understands, is truly staggering. Memories are suddenly accessible that are almost impossible to believe. Some of them are unspeakably marvelous to her. Others, deeply disturbing.

FUCKING COOL she got Ultimate-Selved!  Now she knows too much about what’s going on to stop her!  Get fucked, Dirk!!!!

No, more than just disturbing. She lingers in the dark recesses of her consciousness. There were things she saw, things she was told... Her mouth twists into a silent snarl. She’s been angry plenty of times before. But never so angry that she stopped being cute. She’s not cute this time.

YEAAAAAHHH JADE GET ANGRY

This had better not be Dirk intentionally riling her up since he still has control of the narrative though.

Next post.

[kinomiakai]

Are there any other ships you have ? Besides sns. Also what are your opinions on the minor canon ships( saiino , shikatema)

Oh!!! Good question!! I’ve been being drawn towards sakuino more and more. They keep sneaking into my fics in the background, haha. I really didn’t appreciate how much potential there is in canon for them. They’re so gay?? That said, I’m not like…dead set on them like I am with SNS. I think sakukarin is adorable and lovely and I love the thought of Sarada as their daughter instead. I’ve also been seeing lots of wlw ships with Hinata which have been really sweet! I usually shipped her with Kiba, because I think the idea of him as this big hunkering dudebro with a heart of gold who quietly falls head over heels with her is hilarious….and Hinata deserves a supportive relationship djfdkshf I’d love to see her get one with real development. But sakuhina has been catching my eye a bunch recently, so I’m definitely open to that. Sakura is gay & the ladies love her what can I say

Ahhhhh as far as the minor canon ships, man….sai and ino are just so….gay….I think they would be AMAZING friends who talk shit about everyone around them but like. SP needs to work way harder at convincing me Sai isn’t into Naruto & Ino isn’t into Sakura. They also needs to work way harder at convincing me Naruto and Sasuke aren’t completely and utterly devoted to each other with every fiber of their being but I digress

As far as shika//////tema goes, I think it’s maybe the most convincing het ship for shikamaru bc I think temari would be able to deal with his bullcrap, but I kind of fundamentally don’t like (read: uh really actually hideously despise) the nagging wife + lazy husband trope so that’s all the ships with shika out. It’s just not for me. Also temari has incredible wlw energy and wasted potential

Are there any other minor canon ships?? There’s maybe some implied but I think those are the main ones. Correct me if I’m wrong! I’m not really keeping up with Boruto or anything. I’ll also say that I really think gaa/////naru is adorable and lovely and gaara would be an incredible boyfriend to Naruto but I am just. Stuck. on the fact that Naruto is in love with Sasuke. And that makes the gaa////naru ship really tragic for me bc Gaara is wonderful and good and pure but in love with someone who loves someone else and I think Naruto would do everything he could to love Gaara but they would both know and it’s just too sad ;;;;;; Also the gaalee art is just SO divine that how can I not ship that??? I’m not super picky on gaara though. I’m pretty flexible on all characters except for Sasuke and Naruto. My rule when shipping is pretty much would this be a happy, healthy relationship??? Ok let’s do it.

OH ALSO KAKAGAI IS SO GOOD man I can’t believe I’ve missed out for so long I didn’t even like….think about it. Kakairu’s been such a staple in sns (bc Naruto’s dads, of course) that I totally missed out on Kakagai. That’s something I might work into fic eventually I think???? ALSO I FORGOT ABOUT HASHIMADA I’m sorry I forgot they’re also very very gay

IN SUMMARY: sakuino is S tier and SP doesn’t know how love works. I’m p open to shipping whoever with whoever (aside from Sasuke & Naruto) as long as I can see some good solid healthy development for them. I don’t think anything’s ever passing sns though.

[pixlh3art]

How I Would Fix Mercy

Disclaimer: I am currently a mid-bronze Overwatch player, but I am a game design major and my sister is a Mercy main. I’ve followed a lot of the discourse around Mercy’s balance, listening to Jeff, salty “pros” like xqc (though only barely, that dude is a homophobic crybaby and I hope he stays banned), and top tier Mercy players like Eeveea. I am not a Mercy main, I prefer Ana, but I’ve done a lot of thinking on this topic and I hope that Mercy players and flanker mains (like me!) can agree that every hero should be fun and fit their core identity as much as possible, while remaining balanced. Click the readmore for a long-ass post!

MERCY’S BALANCE HISTORY:

For the most part, the balance team of Overwatch has made great decisions, breathing life into a meta-irrelevant hero, or surgically removing power from a dominant one without defeating that hero’s identity, but it’s undeniable that they’ve dropped the ball with the game’s most iconic support hero, Mercy. If you’re not familiar with her lengthy balance history, Mercy’s original ultimate, Resurrect, was perhaps the most iconic in the game. She would lift her hand in the air, shout “Heroes never die!” and every teammate who had recently died within a specified area around her would be brought back to life. It was beautiful, simple, and streamlined. The problem with it, though, was that at higher tiers of play, the most effective strategy for a Mercy player was to allow her team to enter a big fight without her, let the enemy team waste resources on killing her team, then swoop in and bring them back. This “hiding Mercy” strategy wasn’t very easy to counter, nor was it particularly fun to do as the Mercy player, because they’d just stare at a wall until they saw five little “dead ally” icons, press the Q button on their keyboard, and then return to a team who was probably already winning at that point.

Blizzard’s eventual response was to give Mercy an entirely new ultimate, Valkyrie. For a very lengthy duration, Mercy gains the ability to fly, a constant self-heal, and her staff, which normally could heal or damage boost one ally at a time, “chains” to multiple targets in range. Finally, her resurrect ability was moved to the E button as a basic ability, but it can only revive one hero at a time, within a miniscule range. Finally, activating Valkyrie would make Resurrect have a 10-second cooldown instead of its usual 30, which is by far the longest basic ability cooldown in Overwatch.

This made Mercy an objectively stronger hero than she had been before, and the players who had complained that she was too strong (usually players who do not play healers) even angrier, as they still saw her play pattern as not enough effort for its huge payoff.

Since this rework, Mercy has been nerfed over and over again. Resurrect now casts after 1.5 seconds instead of instantly, Valkyrie doesn’t last as long, and it also no longer gives her any additional uses of Resurrect. Blizzard tried fiddling with the interaction between Valkyrie and Resurrect a lot of ways: first it was a lowered cooldown, then an odd charge-based system, and finally, the two don’t interact at all.

NOW:

The way that she is right now, despite all of the nerfs, Mercy is still a very strong hero. Valkyrie is simply too powerful an ultimate, and while she can be killed out of it by enterprising Widowmakers, McCrees, etc., it’s no easy task, and I would consider Valkyrie the strongest self-buff in Overwatch except for maybe Zenyatta’s Transcendence. And even after its duration was reduced, Valkyrie still lasts for two and a half times as long.

However, as a Mercy player, it’s hard to feel very strong, especially without Valkyrie. Resurrect’s 1.5-second cast time feels like two years from her perspective, especially when under fire. Furthermore, from my perspective, as a player who mains “flanker” heroes like Tracer or Genji, someone whose job it is to hunt down and kill heroes like Mercy, the cast time increase really doesn’t matter that often. In most cases, it feels like she would’ve lived or died anyway, even if the ability did still work instantly. It just feels sluggish and makes Mercy less fun. It’s an inverse quality-of-life change, and the exact opposite of what a nerf should be.

Finally, Mercy-haters are still angry about Resurrect in its current state, because if you’re an enterprising Widowmaker who gets an early headshot that would normally make a fight be 6v5 in your team’s favor, Mercy can press the E key and undo all your “hard work.” I personally think that using something that isn’t an ultimate to waste an enemy’s 30-second cooldown is still extremely favorable from the Widowmaker’s perspective, but it’s a criticism I hear enough that I think it needs to be addressed. Also, my personal opinion here is that most people who have this opinion are the kind of people who aren’t skilled enough to reliably get picks on enemy heroes, and Mercy actually exposes that lack of skill, but I digress.

So, you have a hero who is very strong, but whose play pattern has dramatically changed, and has been hit over and over again with nerfs that have mostly made her feel less fun to play, and yet is still considered “too easy” by more than a few players, especially at higher tiers. Finally, her strength, while considerable, is almost exclusively centered around Valkyrie, to the point that it defines her performance as much as Dragonblade does for Genji or Graviton Surge does for Zarya. Those two are some of the most difficult heroes in the game, and Mercy is designed to be relatively easy to pick up and play.

How would I fix this? Well, high-tier Mercy player Eeveea_ has suggested more than once to give Resurrect a resource system, like Torbjorn’s Scrap mechanic. This way, it would be unavailable at the start of the game, and a Mercy would have to “earn” the ability. However, talented Mercy players would be able to earn the ability frequently enough that they would perform better than they had before, and get off more uses of Resurrect. I would suggest that the resource could be earned by damage boosting allies, because right now, Mercy’s damage boost is an almost tertiary part of her kit, so encouraging it this way would be very healthy.

She’s also suggested an “ally hook” ability instead of Resurrect, something that would allow you to target one ally and pull them towards you, potentially out of danger. It’s a good idea, but because it’s an online game where people play with strangers, it is highly likely that trolls would use it to pull allies away from getting a kill or into a pit. As a former League of Legends player, I’ve had enough experiences where such potentially useful abilities (Kalista’s ultimate, Tahm Kench’s W, Trundle’s pillar, Bard’s ultimate, etc)  have been abused by my random allies as a griefing tool that I wouldn’t prefer for something like that to be in the game if it’s avoidable.

However, I’ve also had my own ideas about this, and I think that we could take Resurrect off of Mercy’s E key entirely, while still keeping it in her kit. Mercy is too focused around Valkyrie right now, and I think that because it gives her so much power, Blizzard is forced to keep non-ulting Mercy a very weak hero. What I would suggest is removing Valkyrie’s permanent self-heal, as well as the mechanic that chains her beam across several allies. These were the scariest parts of Valkyrie other than its mobility, so removing them allows us to put power back into default Mercy. Firstly, I would increase the range of Guardian Angel, allowing her to get to faraway allies easier. Also, as Mercy travels, I would either grant her damage reduction or instantly enable the healing effect of her passive (which normally only works when she hasn’t taken damage) so that she would be able to get away from her enemies easier, especially if she was low on health. Secondly, somewhat like Genji’s Cyber-Agility passive, I’d give Mercy a “double jump,” or just a slight wingflap that would give her a bit of height, that she could use either after her own jump or a use of Guardian Angel. Guardian Angel can often bring her right to a ledge that an ally is standing on, but not quite onto it, making Mercy just sort of awkwardly bonk her torso on it and fall. Giving her this one “wingflap” would allow her to correct these sub-optimal Guardian Angels, as well as get over some higher walls by herself, giving her better escape routes or another way to recover from being knocked off of ledges. Lastly, during Valkyrie, Mercy would begin charging a second ultimate. Symmetra is the only hero thus far with two, and she can choose between them. With Mercy, though, what I’m suggesting is that upon activating Valkyrie, she’d be able to earn ult charge as normal, and if she charged it all the way during Valkyrie’s 15-second duration, she would be granted the use of her old ultimate, Resurrect. The only difference with this version, though, is that it would only work on the allies whose corpses are within Mercy’s line of sight, as in, not through walls. Once Mercy activates Resurrect, she’d lose the remaining duration of Valkyrie.

And, there we go: Valkyrie isn’t the scariest ult in the game anymore, but if Mercy is left alone during it, and her team is still dying despite her very best efforts to keep them alive, she can bring them back. However, “hiding” or even just flying as high as she can with Valkyrie and allowing her team to die wouldn’t work either, because she needs to charge Resurrect in the very limited time span that Valkyrie offers. If Valkyrie ends and she doesn’t charge Resurrect, her ult charge will return to zero.

This way, we maintain both the “high-flying teamfight coordinator” identity of new Mercy while re-incorporating the epic “Heroes never die!” identity of old Mercy, as well as preventing Resurrect from feeling “cheap” or “easy” to obtain. Finally, we give her some quality-of-life changes and a bit more survivability when she’s trying to escape a tight spot. Lastly, because her kit isn’t entirely centered around Valkyrie, she isn’t “useless” if she’s killed during it, so there’s less pressure around making it count. Resurrect won’t bring back an entire team except in the most dire conditions, so not using it optimally won’t feel as crushing as whiffing a Graviton Surge or getting killed in the first second of a Dragonblade.

[lilpootworldtour]

Saturday 11/21/2020 Roswell, NM - Las Cruces, NM

First we woke up. We were very excited because we had left over dominos. I do not know if we ate any because we ate too much the night before, but we had lava cakes. Boy oh boy, it was yummy. Okay, so then, first stop on our trip out of Roswell. Donuts. We had donuts. Roswell donuts. We got one Bear Claw, One Apple Fritter, One Chocolate, One Chocolate Glaze with sprinkles. The Bear Claw was on recommendation from the worker bee, all very good, Bear claw was clear winner, glad she recommended it. Yeast based donut: not quite as good as Krispy Kreme, but still top tier. Second stop was hotly debated, we definitely wanted coffee but did not know where from. Based purely off of yelp reviews, positive yelp reviews I might add, and niche appeal, we decided to go to Perk ’N Jerk coffee and Jerkey emporium. When we got there, oh boy did we realize we were in for an experience. There was not a soul around except for a 90’s ford station wagon in the condition you’d expect parked right in front of the front door. Naturally, you would think it was a customer, but when we walked up and didn’t see anyone inside, we realized the owner was the type of person who owns a business and parks in the closest parking spot either not expecting anyone to come so no need to leave it open or he wants to claim it first, who knows. He welcomed us in and asked us what we wanted, we responded with “A Perk and Jerk please.” His flavor board had two sides to it. We were confused and thought that only one side was jerky, so we only ordered salt and pepper jerky. We asked if he had any other jerkies, maybe something hot, and he said, “The board has two sides to it, the other side is spicy.” So we also got red pepper, which was literally just red pepper flakes on jerky. After receiving our order, he went to retrieve the jerk. He went into the back and brought large Tupperware storage containers out and placed them on the table in the middle of the room. He then grabbed a box of quart sized zip locks, a zip lock full of labels, and a sharpie. He straighten up a food scale that was on the table and zeroed it. When he opened the first Tupperware, we were able to see a sea of jerky which he grabbed a hand full of and placed on the scale. After getting the desired weight by adding and removing tears of meat, he sealed the bag, slapped a label on, and scribbled the date. He did the same with the second jerky. After getting the jerky bagged and tagged, he asked if we were interested in any coffee. Upon entering, we both felt that we did not want to buy any coffee from the joint, but when asked point blank, we panicked! Hannah got an iced coffee and I got a hot coffee. He asked us about our trip plans while preparing our coffee and we told him our next stop was White Sands. He muttered something under his breath that made us feel like he didn’t think too highly of our trip and began giving us a few suggestions of his own. One being to go to an Airplane museum that had a legitimate plane of a certain, very specific model. I asked about the plane, to get a better idea of what to visualize, and he must of thought I wasn’t worth anymore of his time because he replied with a change of subject. He handed us our coffee, we paid, and we were on our way. While we were waiting for our coffee and Jerky, we took in the ambiance he made by putting up pictures of army things and his “Will return soon” signs. You can see these arts in the photos. After leaving Perk and Jerk we got on the road heading west on the way to White Sands National Park. Starting some point around Wyoming, during our last trip, as we drove through the rolling west of open land, I couldn’t help but imagine myself riding along beside the camper in cowboy boots, wranglers, very cool cowboy style shirt, bandana/bolo, and cowboy hat - full gallop on the back of a stallion I broke all on my lonesome and consider to be my best pardner. By the time we were west of Wyoming I knew if I saw a nice pair of cowboy boots or cowboy hat I was going to buy them regardless of any practicality post trip. I never found the little genuine cowboy store I was expecting in any of the one stop sign towns we drove through via country back roads so I just kept hoping and looking and as we spent time back in Wilmington with Lil Poot in the shop those desires kept floating further and further to the back of my mind. Those thoughts and desires, though, never fully disappeared, and when we made It to Texas they rushed back into my heart like a tornado and I couldn’t drive for being blinded by a flurry of images of me riding horses, roping cattle, riding full gallop chasing bandits with a six shooter in each hand one firing straight to my chase and one firing behind me at my chaser. I must have blacked out or passed out or just plain fell asleep, for I woke up to Hannah shaking me saying “David! Wake up!” I snapped out of the most realistic reality where I was defending a train car from a robbery with TNT exploding all around me, and worse, exploded the on coming bridge. We only had 15 seconds to get all 250 passengers off the train before we were all taking the express elevator down the 700’ cliff and, I am sorry, but no stops between or getting off, this is the express elevator. Right as the engine started to drop and the wheels of the last train car left the tracks, only a dozen passengers managed to jump off the train prior, their fate unknown. I started calming the people in my car telling them we were on our way to Dairy Queen and everyone is going to get a free Sundae, knowing full well I didn’t have enough gold and silver for five sundaes. My eyes opened and I saw Hannah for the first time in what felt like years. I started to smile as Hannah pointed to her right, which led my gaze to the on coming tractor trailer who must have gotten in my lane after I fell asleep and became a sheriff. I soon realized I had drifted in to their lane so I perked up and jerked the wheel to the right making all six wheels squeal and smoke till we were over the double yellows and I was yanking the wheel to the left in hope of correction, locking the e- brake, down shifting, sliding back, gassing it, gaining traction, and we were back on track, in the right lane, going 50. After being on the road for an hour or two post Perk and Jerk Hannah spotted a store called Frank English’s Custom Boots and we both knew we had to pull in! We pulled back hard on Lil Poot’s reins, then to the right, guiding the good steed to Frank English’s hitching post. After putting Poot in park, we found our masks, wallets, sense of direction, and headed inside. During the short walk from the camper to the door, I imagined all sorts of awesome boots we were soon to see and how difficult it will be to choose just one pair to buy leading us both to walk out of the store cash poor and boot rich. After entering, as soon as our eyes adjusted to the light, we saw that we were not in the boot emporium we expected and that we allowed our desires to lead us astray once again. Frank English politely put down the boot he was working on and asked how he could help. I sheepishly explained how we were expecting an emporium of ready made boots and how I have been dreaming of being a cowboy recently with Hannah supporting me through the whole confession. Frank took it easy and told us we could go up the street to a store that sold lame boots and we were almost out the door when he asked us to halt and listen to what we should look for when buying boots. He then captivated us for an hour using a spare boot as a prop, pointing to various parts and explaining what to look for in a good boot. He then put the boot down, with a loving last look and feel, turned his attention to us, and asked about who we were and where in the world we were coming from. We obliged, telling how we left New York during the pandemic, headed down to NC to live in our parent’s abodes before buying an RV and hitting the road. He cut in a few times with his own stories of living in NYC, moving around, and suggestions for us as we head west. One of those suggestion being Silver City NM where he used to live and where there is a neat coffee shop in the arts district called Tranquil Buzz owned by Dale. With heavy hearts we said our good byes and tootalous, headed back to Lil Poot, who was shuffling his tires in the dirt and humming rock ballads, loaded up, and got back on the road. As we continued on towards White Sands, we looked at each other and decided we should have bought boots from Frank. With this decision we talked about turning around, but decided on looking him up instead, maybe we could talk about the buying process first. Hannah found an article on him and read aloud, boy, Frank is COOL. I will include the article somewhere in this post. After learning about Frank, and driving some more, we made it to White Sands National Park. We took a right off the highway, like everyone else coming from the east, headed down the one road weaving between the white dunes. We saw the road turned from asphalt to salt, the main component of these dunes, so we pulled off at the pull off just before the change. From there, we got out to stretch our legs, decided to return tomorrow and bike down the gypsum salt road but enjoy the short boardwalk here since the sun will be setting soon. We walked along the board walk reading the info signs as we went, learning about the mice and lizards that adapted to live in the dunes as well as the insane life story this once lake told scientists of how the world used to be and how it was once a youthful, fun body of water looking for a good time, not worried about all its salt flying around. After returning to Lil Poot, this time he was hunched over in the corner of the parking lot with his back to the sun, head shadowing his gameboy trying his hardest to beat Misty with out taking the proper amount of time to train his Pokemon, got inside and headed west to our BLM land campsite near Las Cruces. After finding our camp site and getting the camper ready for parked mode, we hung Christmas lights below the cabinets and around the ceiling while listening to Christmas music. After playing with the lights some, they have different modes, one of which reacts to music, we settle on leaving the colored lights, under the cabinets, on solid and let the white lights, our crown molding, dance to the music. Hannah started boiling hot water for Hot Toddies and David probably looked at his instagram feed, soon both were drinking hot toddies and crafting.

https://www.taosnews.com/opinion/columns/know-your-neighbor-frank-english/article_e50ba70e-48ce-5371-91f1-7a1c7cc19e14.html

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff - THE (FULL) TROOF ABOUT STEVEN UNIVERSE

WARNING: What you’ll see under the cut is possibly one of the grandest things I will ever do and generally one of the biggest SU Crit posts of all time. Be advised that explicit language is present and we ask that readers are open-minded and reasonable with any given retort. Note that this has been edited due to Tumblr’s limitations of presentable media so click here for the Director’s Cut.

Do like & share if you enjoyed it or if I fought your boredom. Thank you and take care out there. 

Steven Universe is a charming, popular show with a quad-polar fandom, and I’m only here to point out what I say is legitimately wrong with this cartoon. Simple enough? Fair enough.

POINT #1 - THE ACTION:

Okay, my first point really doesn’t just apply with cartoons, but fights in general. Question: what’s the one thing that people get the most out of seeing a fight? The impacts. Those moments where the opponent is given such a crushing ass blow, that you can feel the effort that went into that attack. Yeah, Steven Universe lacks this. I mean, it can look like the characters are putting effort into fighting their opponents and it can look like they’re getting hurt pretty bad (thanks to applied visuals and sound effects), but it never feels like the characters are actually hitting each other. There are instances of impact, but they’re menial and they’re scattered between the duelists smacking each other like helium filled action figures; feeling as tender as any other motion the characters do throughout. Now if you’re wondering what I mean by impacts, note these prime examples; because animes know their action.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Hajime no Ippo

Summer Wars

My Hero Academia

If present, violence can/should provide a stark raving contrast to the supposedly grounded world in any series, and the impacts of violence should be escalating with every punch or kick. Attacks should fly with fierce swiftness, the weight/force of any blow can be seen; raw power, speed, and stamina should be pushed to limits unknown. Now, I’m not saying Steven U has to imitate any incredible, well animated fight scene that anime has flawlessly provided by now, but more effort should have been made to escalate the impact of their fights, not keep it steady tuned with

*Smear work to make the boring motions look fast paced

*Spiky white marks to show a clash

*quick visual instances of impact that lets you know a character is getting hurt

*and tons of smoke to cover the possibly graphic imagery

Steven Universe has the fundamentals of action down, but they don’t go beyond that (plus ultra). Their fights can look technically similar with the characters being the only real source of variation, especially when you can figure out their attacks ahead of time. So I hate to say this, but if you’ve seen one fight, you’ve seen ‘em all.

Another reason I presented Steven U’s lacking action is because tts not just about fists flying or weapons clashing, but the balance of emotion that goes with the foes putting their heart and soul into taking each other down. But, for most of the time, I don’t see SU’s fights present any real hook of seriousness, even if it wants me to, and most of them feel present for (basic) comedy. I feel less invested in who’s fighting, or why, than I am at how they’re getting beat up. Ironic, being a show that’s all about being open with its “serious” emotions. Combined with its lackluster animation, and they don’t add much contrast towards an otherwise easy going series

This here is honestly the most funniest a fight scene of theirs can get (mostly ‘cuz Peri deserved that), but after seeing the pretty slow animation, it can lose its luster no matter how deserving it may seem. Now notice this whopping scene, from the anime One Punch Man, below.

You can know nothing about One Punch Man, who these characters really are, but you can tell from these 5 seconds alone that when a fight happens, there’s a fast, over the top sense of comedy that comes with the brutal nature of a man that can apparently KO anybody in one swing, ironic and even more comedic with said one hit wonder being the most emotionless looking character on the show.

Seriously, that’s his face for almost the whole series

Now I know what you’re thinking, “But Monkey Network, it’s mostly a slice of life cartoon. The action scenes aren’t that prominent in the series as you might think and hope. It’s not supposed to be a violent show.” And I’d say fair point except for the fact that Friendship is Magic is also a slice of life cartoon that only has a few real action scenes under its belt, and this particular one is the best fucking thing I’ll ever see.

AGAIN, you can know nothing about the series as a whole, or this episode in general, but this fight alone perfectly captures the game Steven Universe has never really utilized since its early days. It has some seriousness with its escalating over the top attacks, the pace never feels constant, and even though they’re evenly matched, the things they do look fucking cool. The only downside is that since the show has puppet flash animation, it does looks limited, but even then they made the most of it. Steven Universe is hand drawn, so with all due respect, they have no fucking excuse. Their fight scenes amount to stay the course animation with glimpses of impact and a flashy style to avoid it from being pod racing levels of BORING. I’ve seen fan animations that would give this show a run for its money.

The Fandom provides more than the actual show

Even before Garnet’s fight with Jasper, Steven Universe’s action sequences was a sweet chunk of what made the show investing to watch, and looking at back at it, I was a bit too invested in something that wasn’t that invested in itself. Again, I know it can’t stack up to the God tier works that the anime world’s made for itself, but compared to other action present cartoons (Voltron, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Avatar, The Powerpuff Girls, MLP, OK KO, any shonen anime), I think maybe they could/should git a little gooder in providing actual fights, not sparring matches. That, and if Sugar Honey Ice Tea and her crewniverse can put such effort into the facial expressions, they can make the fights more expressive too.

POINT #2 - THE “VILLAINS”:

Now, I fucking love villains. Not just for the who, but why and how they do it. When bad guys like the Joker, Lord Dominator, DIO, or Him do their thing onscreen, I enjoy every moment of their threatening essence (except Jared Leto’s Joker, he sucked). Villains remorselessly do unethical, downright vicious, things to fulfill their goals while initiating setting up the heroes to correct these effects with their efforts and abilities. Steven Universe has villains, sure. Yet, after having so many chances, Rebecca Sugardaddy has failed to make them REAL villains, specifically the Great Diamond Authority.

Now originally, I was gonna compare the Diamonds to the likes of Fire Lord Ozai(Avatar: The Last Airbender) or DIO (JJBA); villains that work in the shadows and when they’re eventually revealed, they’re already a force to be reckoned with. But looking into how they and Homeworld is set up, there was no other villainous ensemble that could stack up with the Diamonds perfectly like the Gorosei from the anime One Piece.

Looking more badass than the US Government

Now these five gentlemen aren’t necessarily what make up the end all be all for the series, but above all, the Gorosei are the ruling leaders of the organization that controls the entire world of One Piece. They command the military, the police, and other agencies, like their investigative and espionage departments, and the only people that out rule these gentlemen are the descendants of those who created it several centuries ago. Like the Diamonds, they seek to maintain order and justice for the people of their world and doing so means taking on any sign of revolution (namely Pirates) that could damage not only their image, but their purpose. Both Authorities possess absolute rule over the many classes that are under them and their stance of power can be present with the many actions that effect the characters we focus on currently. The difference between the two ruling classes is nuance, aka a grey sense of morality, aka an actual sense of relatability. So when I see a series having an overall narrative villain, Steven Universe has shown me that sympathy should NOT be a factor in storytelling.

Now when I say this, I don’t mean you can’t sympathize with any villain you see. Most of the time, you can feel for the antagonist when their lives never were good to begin with, that’s namely how villainy starts out, therefore making their actions not so much justified, but understandable. Take the rogues gallery that are the enemies of Batman.

Every one of them has a story to tell and a method to their madness. Their histories weren’t as nice or as hopeful as they may have hoped, and you can feel their pain as their efforts to be successful at something grand falls apart due to the Dark Knight or life’s unforgiving nature. However, the sympathy stops there because none of these masterminds, with the Joker being an exception, serve as a main villain to Batman’s crusade for justice, they’re continuous rivals and one off stories that expand the DC Universe. No evil in Gotham is powerful enough because Batman’s story has no real endgame. Steven Universe and One Piece will eventually have an endgame. And while the Gorosei represent an Oligarchical commodity that separates its order seeking rule from their affiliating countries, The Diamonds have amounted to being under one system alone:

Or generally cruel Collectivism if you wanna sound smart

And it’s weird I bring this up. For I would’ve thought to have called Homeworld an authoritative caste system where the gem you’re born with defines your class and status, coinciding with the gems’ natural abilities. The specific gems are given a role and everyone plays a part to maintain societal order, like what India has, with the Diamonds being the biggest and strongest gems and therefore are the de facto Matriarch of the gem society, you feel me? That would’ve earned a little sympathy from me, because the Diamonds losing Pink would’ve meant the massive changes to accommodate their order and resources might not have worked out so well and their image as leaders are slowly diminishing and that can explain the huge resentment for Earth and Rose’s Rebellion.

But no. Instead the Diamonds are a repressive totalitarian government that basically control everyone and everything, all the gems below to strictly follow and almost never question their line of reasoning, and they’re reasons for destroying the Earth has been summarized down to the emotional baggage and grudge that came with their failure long ago.

CAN YOU NOT FEEL THEIR STRUGGLE?!

Wanna know why I didn’t compare the Diamonds to Avatar’s Fire Nation when talking about humanizing the enemy and the connection couldn’t be more obvious? Because before Ozai is ever mentioned, The Last Airbender states very clearly that the Fire Nation is the region Aang and his friends need to infiltrate to stop their manifest destiny. And when we’re early hinted that Zuko’s not full on evil, it lets the audience know that not everyone is on board with those in charge of the Fire Nation invasion, leading up to Ozai’s big debut where we see that as the endgame villain, he’s irredeemable and has such a lust for power, that he’s recognizably the main drive everyone has to stop. Avatar did this right because little by little, the main enemy was narrowed down to a single force that hasn’t made itself known until near the end when his presence bear more importance. The same can’t be said for Steven Universe because Rebecca Sugar Rush presented yet another faint mistake.

The Diamond’s personalities are given to us before they’ve shown us who they are and what they’re capable of…

So we see Yellow Diamond as a vindictive, no nonsense leader that wants shit to get done and Blue Diamond as a more tender looking, yet no nonsense leader that’s grieving over Pink Diamond’s death and does whatever she can to move on and remember the fallen fondly. So, have they done anything before we’ve met them personally? Sure.

*They corrupted thousands of their own kind (because of the rebellion)

*Allowed experimentation towards shattered gems to make artificial fusion or disembodied amalgamates (because of the rebellion)

*And let’s not forget the Cluster (because of the rebellion)

So yeah, quite a lot actually. Now you might be thinking, “But Monkey Network, what does those five old men have to do with what the Diamonds did?” Well, when you see the villainous shit the Gorosei have commanded, their actions are actually more relatable than one would expect.

*Ordering the destruction of an island of archaeologists because they were secretly researching forbidden history

*Ordered death to any pregnant woman in sight fearing that one could be pregnant with Gol D. Roger, the OG Pirate King’s, child. Said slaughter lasted for around two years (Special thanks to @des-the-girl​ for this info)

*Directing the Marines, or the front line enemies of our Pirate heroes

*And contemplating their system’s next move when updates arrive

Now I don’t know about you, but these gentlemen make up quite an authoritative class with understandable motives and relatable notions on running the world without necessarily being on the front lines. Kinda like the US over the years? Even when their level of corruption can be on par and we still know little of their true power and who they really are, they’re instantly better than the Diamond Authority because we can see why they’re in command, their thoughts and actions towards our heroes shows no sign of being sympathetic, and yet we see where their motives lie. I mean, their Government’s enemies are pirates. You know, Pirates? People who’ve robbed and killed and are the opposite of order? See where I’m going here? They namely go after our heroes who are seen to be the enemy even when the Pirates and plenty others consider them the enemy. It’s almost as if there’s a grey choice for the audience to wonder whom the real bad guys are. OooooOOh. Also, quick side note. The Gorosei look fucking cool. Like their designs aren’t exactly human, credit towards Eiichiro Oda and his expressive designs, but they’re drawn with such a level of seriousness and stature that it presents their elder wisdom and grave subtlety towards a subject in a contrasting light to the pirates bombastic, emotional appeal.

So, what’s the tl;dr aspect of this since you probably won’t take this seriously? Well, call this a domino effect. Basically, Rebecca Sugardop has given us nonthreatening villains that showed no sign of any redeemable qualities beyond their ability to mesmerize us with their acting, and the audience should have a bit of sympathy for their side (see ”Bismuth”). In doing so, she failed to make them real villains. In doing that, there really are no real villains in the show. And when there are no villains, the conflict feels dry and absent. And without conflict, she failed at putting together HALF an overall story. And when you’re a coming of age story where it has to end on some note with maturity and change, after almost five years in the making, you just FUCKED yourself over when you didn’t even invest time in HALF of what makes an overall story of good and evil investing and engaging. Oh I’m sorry, what makes an overall story of a blurred line between good and evil. Investing and engaging.

Ugh, I can’t care anymore. If they get redeemed, sure. If they end up dying like a tragedy, fine. They feel less like villains to overcome and more like stairs Steven has to step on to become a better person. Just let White Diamond be as grandiose and badass as Tumblr’s AUs of her, because again…

The fandom is doing the show a bit of justice

POINT #3 - BEACH CITY:

Okay, before I provide attention to our main gem heroes, I thought I’d give their home of Beach City a vocal point to express the diversity they offer and what makes them an essential drive for Steven and the Crystal Gems to protect the Earth by any means. I mean, they offer such valid representation for the show’s world building and can offer plenty of stories to tell to give us that slice of lifevibe the show really needed. But I believe, after seeing Beach City time and time again over the course of 4 years, that I can summate its presence in the show with a single- Nay. With two simple yet comprehensible words.

Who cares?

Whooo CARES?

Thank you, respectable actor Elaine Stritch. Rest in Peace

To continue, don’t get me wrong. Worldbuilding is more than essential for a story like Steven Universe, Berserk, Friendship is Magic, Legend of Zelda, and so on. Whether big or small, expanding a setting is important to giving characters a versatile way to look at their world in a differing light than before. But suffice to say, what world has Steven Universe built for itself?

*A populated province in the East Coast?

*A barn?

*Ancient ruins? Among other distant gem territory?

Aye, this troof is gonna be hard to explain. We just have locations, people. That’s it. They’re no special than the mini Galaxies from Super Mario Galaxy 2, only on Wii, Rated E for Everyone. A place can look cool and a population there can bring life to it, but they should have something for the characters to interact with and visibly wonder about what they might get into as they adapt and progress in some way. And by some way, I don’t mean insert plot devices that help make the characters do significant looking things, and I’ll get to that a bit later. But to sum it up, Steven Universe present locations, but those locations lack identity and coordination.

Stick around, Link, I might need your example

I got a short story to tell. True story. And this story provides my reason, above all else, for why Beach City doesn’t hold much water anymore when talking about world building, specifically after the show’s first season (or Full Disclosure).

There’s a comic book TV show called Preacher, premieres Mondays @ 9, only on AMC. Essentially it’s about a criminal turned Priest, possessed with a supernatural power, going on a cross country road trip to find the physical form of God with his his mate who’s also a vampire and his ex-girlfriend. Pretty vivid premise, but see for yourself. The first season however sets up the road trip where the priest, his ex, and vampire friend stay in a small town in Texas to not only introduce them, the power that the priest gets, and the type of humor throughout, but flesh out a few citizens they encounter pretty well in a thematically connected turnabout for ten episodes straight. All seems good.

Up until the entire town loses their minds, after losing all faith in belief, which eventually leads to a methane nuclear sized explosion that wipes out everybody except the three main characters who exited a few scenes before.

The End.

Now, let’s talk relevance. If I ran Steven Universe, and I don’t think I can, and I pulled 👆👆 that on Beach City at season 1′s end. Erase everything you’ve seen, every citizen will be forced to disappear except the major plot oriented characters, basically resetting the structure. If I did that, how much would it change? What would we really lose? The diverse Beach citizens that don’t and can’t do shit against the enemies we’ve see unless they’re forced to get involved in some way which rarely happens?

You can put as many people of color and as many personalities in your world all you want, but effort should also be put into not just making them NPC levels of value to the point where a reset button wouldn’t put much a dent to the “world building”. The worst part is that it’s not like Batman’s Gotham City or Spider-Man’s New York; places where the villains are plotting while they’re within city walls. Steven Universe’s enemies have to either be brought out somewhere (gem monsters, Lapis) or brought to (Jasper, that red Eye, Aqua and Topaz) Beach City for the place to provide any significant or value. So…

Just saying.

Now if the whole series was like season one with the non “To Be Continued”slice of life episodes, then it would’ve work. Phineas and Ferb, Foster’s Home, and Friendship is Magic has done this well with keeping their main location (The Foster House, Danville, Ponyville, etc.) as their central hubworld for casual stories with a venture outside of them from time to time. I would’ve been okay with Beach City being the spot for Steven and his limitless squad to grow together like Rebecca intended at first. Then I’m reminded that there’s an world expanding story in this, with bigger consequences and threaded arcs, and I’m stuck between investing in the many things they give me, complaining towards full episodes that add up to nothing and went nowhere special, and whining about the lack of reruns it gets on TV compared to Teen Titans GO.

Bottom line, you had/have your comic series to commit to your slice of life genre instead of trying to keep it in the show.

Now, I’m at a disadvantage here. If I want to talk about the actual “SCIENCE FANTASY WORLD BUILDING”, then I’ll have to talk about the Crystal Gems’ involvement in them and I can’t really do that. Luckily, I don’t have to, for SU has unintentionally played itself: when it comes to the Gem oriented locations outside Beach City, they tell but never really show. And turns out I don’t need Link’s example, but Samus Aran’s. Namely, her universe in the Metroid Prime series.

A key element to world building is the control and fun in exploration where you find and somewhat interact with aspects of an environment’s purpose and history while you’re on the go, giving the place more of an identity. Metroid Prime does this well where you journey through different parts of the Galaxy and with your scan visor, you can catalog and figure out the intricacies of the settings, the enemies within them, and info that seem trivial at first, but can offer much in progressing ahead in the game. Note the example before you…

And don’t stare deep into Samus’s blue eyes

Sure it’s an optional part of the game, and you can still trek on with or without having to continuously research the world’s lore, but it offers that versatility where you’re well in control in how to experience the game. Then again, this is a video game, where your skill in figuring things out is the only way to progress anything. What cartoon has this similar level of versatility? I mean, what else?

What else?

Gravity Falls may have stayed in one place, but it gives the characters and audience so much to explore and theorize on. They don’t tackle “everything” the world might have offered (bigfoot), but still give you so much to look out for without ever holding your hand or giving a cliffnotes version on a mystery of theirs. Hell, the fandom was hollering on Tumblr over predicting one of the show’s biggest mysteries being confirmed long before it aired. Hirsh didn’t just give those theory nuts what they wanted, his crew eased us in on how the narrative is taking a turn to someplace different and new without really forcing it on everybody. There was still that enjoyable sense of control that resonated in both the show’s direction and the audience’s experience.

I mean come on, this just oozes the moment of truth

Don’t get me wrong. The crewniverse offer very interesting locations and things that resonate with Gem stuff. My final problem with this is that when I think they might utilize these different places and things, they hold back to sharing but a glimpse of anything the show has plenty of utilizing potential for. Like…

Could this control room present more information about Homeworld’s plans for the gems than just the Cluster? “Probably not, it fulfilled its purpose. Let’s move on.”

What about these drills? Could we personally see how one works, like accidentally reactivate it to see how it functions? “Nah, they’re all dead. Let’s move on.”

Or what about the holes? Could we have some kind of flashback depicting how a gem leaps out the ground? “Nope.” Not even the off col- “NOPE.”

What’s that supposed to be? Is it something important to Homeworld? “We’ll get to that later. Let’s move on.”

Man, this place looks cool. Connie might consider this since she handles weapons and might want something new, like armor or throwing weapons. “Look man, this tour is scheduled. You’ve seen it, we’ll get back to it later. Moving right along.” This tour sucks. “You paid for it, my friend.”

Egoraptor said it best: I’m not witnessing an adventure, I’m a guest at their theme park. This is Kingdom Hearts levels of dragging it along, and I know… “But Monkey Network, they might come back to all that stuff soon. It’s called foreshadowing, you whiner.” To that, I say HA! There’s a huge difference between foreshadowing and giving us cameos. And that is in...

PRESENTATION!

Long story short, if it’s subtle and holds a threatening or vague presence, THAT’s foreshadowing. If it’s already out in the open and is not given a lot of screentime or detail, that’s cameo-ing and waiting for more. The last thing a show should do is hold back and have its audience wait like shoving a secret box in our face, and that’s all Steven Universe has been doing. That’s why so many rant about what’s filler or not. That’s why so many theorize on the most reaching of details. That’s why people proudly growl at what could be the crew’s simple decisions. Because when everything must come back to Beach City, post “Full Disclosure”, exploration can be limited, detail can be limited, and it’ll be up to the audience to speculate/construct the world-building for themselves, making the control and experience for the show feel one sided, therefore UNFAIR.

Like I said, the things I’ve seen offer so much to think about, but Rebecca Sugar sack could’ve done better with presenting them in a better light than a dim mode. The fate of Steven Universe’s future is a mystery to me, and I don’t know what they’re gonna cram in season 5 this fall. All I know is MJ (or Mystery Girl) is fine as fuck and we’re all gonna get something good eventually. My man Ian Jones-Quartey said good world building takes time, and they sure are taking their time.

POINT #4 - THE REPRESENTATION:

Representation in media can be easy when the right writers are at the helm to present (not push) a message of acceptance and acknowledgement towards an audience that may or may not feel the same way. It takes different strokes to rule the world, after all. However, when it comes to character in general, there are two factors in characterization that when used correctly can appeal their message of acceptance for their audience. One, visual acknowledgement of the representing characters (POC, LGBT, belief, etc.) in question and two, giving the subjects good quality participation to show that they are just as adept to the world as any other without phoning in the fact that they are this or that. Long story short, make ‘em good characters and the representation can earn the audience’s respect for itself. Steven U lacks this too, and this comes from them often showing us stuff and expecting us to just go with it, with themes that are enough just to get by fans. Hell, they show us as much as a drive by…

Not even a cool one at that, fresh

I’ll say this to start off: Lars Barriga (my neega) was a stagnant and frustrating character to deal with; nobody in Beach City moved him in any way (not even his own supporting parents), and the writers just shotgunned him growth (more than once) after he basically had to cheat death (more than once) to gain a better conscience. It’s like they wanted to call him a lost cause but had to hook him back in some way for the audience to not deem him a lost cause. So with all due respect, does it matter that he’s Filipino or a trans boy when nothing valuable or thoughtful has come from him especially? Those trivial tidbits can mostly come off as add ons or secondary nods, when they should’ve been welcomed knowledge about his character. Want an good example? Look to the comic series Lumberjanes, especially issues 14-17 and 28. SPOILERS, though…

They did this right for characters Jo and Barney (Jo’s the one in the 2nd panel, Barney’s in the first). They already established these two as well defined characters that make mistakes but are willing to get shit done for their friends by any means. The dialogue above is when Barney is thinking about joining the girl oriented scouts even when he’s considered a boy scout, wondering where does he want to belong. Jo gives him reassurance that she herself felt the same and just wants Barney to assert himself with what he wants to be like she did. And when he does later on, he’s accepted without any forced gratification and the writers gracefully accommodate this to not only make him (now “them”) a good addition to the story’s world, but a welcoming new perspective.

The representation is therefore earned, not just shown off

Now I’d talk further on other characters like Lars, but that would be singing the same beats as my previous piece on world building and would spoil notes on the final 2 parts I’m working on now. Instead, the gems are another reason why the rep-pres-sen-tation in SU is nothing but small fractured penny in the gold mine that is anything else going on, with fusion diminishing the relationship representation of Steven U; however you may see it. Now excuse me… this is the hardest part of my job.

Criticizing love

Garnet is not a good embodiment of Ruby and Sapphire’s love; Ruby and Sapphire is. I would love to see Ruby and Sapphire being together and showing me why they decided to elope, but I can’t because Garnet is a curtain that metaphorically and literally covers said love from having anything more to say than “HELL YEAH WE LOVE EACH OTHER!”. You could say ‘Keystone Motel’offered some adversity for the two, but knowing Steven U, it didn’t feel like much beyond me knowing they’re getting back together in the end because they love each other and they just go back to being Garnet because she’s the personification of their love and such.

Fusion is something I have a disdain for now because they’re exchanging two characters’ development of united growth for basically an entirely new/different character, that don’t have much screen time or development anyways (vice versa in Flourite’s case). You could say ‘Know your Fusion’ presented an evolution for Smokey Quartz, among the other known fusions, to being more than a versatile fighter, but not really no. We were already aware that Steven and Amethyst were acknowledged sad sacks before they fused, so what else does this fusion offer differently than in their ability? As for Sardonyx, she hasn’t changed from her first cameo awhile back and her vanity was the only thing that made her stand out in said episode. All in all, fusion doesn’t reflect a relationship, no matter how hard Rebecca Suge Knight is saying otherwise, it reflects an aftermath; one that’s in and out as a firework. This and up ‘til now, the real couples we see are pretty general or under the rug. To show how the most mentioned and presented couple in the series, RubyXSapphire, has continuously got the shaft, I present the one dynamic you’d least expect: A boy and his stuffed toy.

My personally favorite example so far.

Calvin and Hobbes is a series about boy Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes that comes to life through Calvin’s imagination. Reality is like Garnet in this case, where it’s just Calvin having his stuffed animal around to get into zany hijinks like any other kid his age. Then again, the imagination or the living Hobbes is whom is given more of a focus, allowing their dynamic to bloom in a way that wouldn’t be understood if we just saw Calvin just talking to his toy the whole time. It makes their bond feel real and that’s what RubyxSapphire should be, giving them the floor in a way that adds up to Garnet’s eventual debut. “But Monkey Network, what about ‘The Answer’?” The Answer is an episode that, while sweet and good looking, literally danced over much necessary development in favor of only showing us how they eventually stuck to being Garnet forever. Not saying Garnet doesn’t have any character herself, but her integral backstory was/is one of the most beloved and talked about in terms of relationships, yet little has actually been given to us beyond face value and basic understanding and the writers have generally avoid pressing this any further. In a way, that episode diminishes the representation of real queer relationships, bogging it down to early Disney romances like Snow White’s, and practically blindfolds us about what we want to see vs what we should be seeing.

And I already got cute girls not kissing last year. It’s the current fucking year

I would talk about all the other canonning “ships” but nothing comes to mind other than the gems are getting along better than before, Mystery Girl is still fine as fuck, Steven and Connie are bound to elope since it’s been presented since the beginning, Lapis and Peridot get along as college roommates, Lapis might still have issues after Malachite happened, Jasper regrets nothing, Topaz sounds cool from the little we got of them, and everything has amounts to having a sob story and/or a recollection of thoughts just to say “Hey, we’re good together”. They implicitly share infatuation and good vibes to each other, but nothing to say their themes of LGBT, relationships, and characterization are groundbreaking. The latter I’ll get to next time. I mean anybody can put effort into writing a genuine romance novel, though it takes more effort to push the romance to challenging means without leaving skeptics at the door, something Sugar has been very casual about and is starting to openly show in the show. That and tears. Because you know what they say, open emotions are better than emotional maturity. Isn’t that right, TV?

Don’t get me wrong. Rebecca Sugarbark is out here doing her darndest as…

CARTOON. NETWORK’S. FIRST. FEMALE. ANIMATED. SERIES. CREATOR!

and when she does themes right, the show provides some good things to think about. But when she muddles them up or casually throws them in, especially when these themes come from the different aspects of what makes a person different yet real, it is unforgivable. And when people of all ages are watching this, thinking with their living ideologies about what could be used to think differently? This makes for a very risky tightrope that can lead to either people taking it appropriately or blindly, good and bad alike. I can only hope that as the show goes on, there are less assumptions and implications from both the show and the audience alike and more assertions and certainty that elements like representation of any kind are brought to a more applied approach than a glanced approach.

AND STEVEN - POINT #5:

What makes a great character? Charm? Growth? Badassery? Nah, it’s the struggle son. To cheaply quote Pixar: “You admire a character more for trying more than for their successes.” And while Steven does try, does he really fail? Let’s look back. He has three skillful and powerful guardians that care for him. He has a father who is filthy rich (’member that). He has a sweet ass pad. Everyone that knows him likes/respects him. He has powers retained from his mother. He has a lion for a pet. He redeemed/helped three of what were once his enemies. He has a best friend that joins in the action with a sword. He clearly has the capable knowledge of reaching out to anyone. He’s outdone death more than once. He’s practically invulnerable (see “Steven vs. Amethyst”). Everyone that doesn’t like him could eventually see his way with good convincing and a middle road to come to (except Kevin). While there are things he needs to do and characters that’ll he have to confront sooner or later, I’ve started to think less of how he’ll succeed and more of when he’ll succeed. I’m thinking less of who he is and more of what he is. Here’s what I mean…

I don’t see Star Butterfly as an upbeat, independent, cocky, and enduring magical princess who loves rainbows and puppies and struggles to balance fun, romance, and responsibility in one go. I see an up and coming teenage princess that’ll defeat all the evil, hook up with her friend Marco, and claim the title of Mewni’s Queen while doing it all her way.

And I don’t see the JoJo bloodline as a group of distinct protagonists that have their own goals and passions all the while seeking justice against the evil that surrounds them. I see the main characters of 8 different parts that have the ability to defeat the final enemy at the end.

It’s the “Man of Steel” effect; when you do nothing but show how Steven is becoming like or better than Rose, it takes away from letting Steven see who he really is and wants to be. Season one did Steven good (begrudging to say, I know) where he was devious, self-centered, and oblivious but basically was a goofball kid with a good heart; like Ash Williams from Evil Dead. Halfway in and they basically took that away in favor of him just being the pacifistic hippie boy scout that doesn’t want to do wrong or hurt anybody and wants to be a better version of his mama and… and…zzzzzzz. Yeah, I don’t know how to put this, but Steven is now as good of a main character as a sheet of paper. Like, on paper he had potential, but as paper he’s pretty ineffective.

Hell, even paper can show you wonders

“But Monkey Network, he’s a character that goes through many hardships and has a lot on his mind and is going through plenty like most people.” Yes he is, but he’s really done nothing to better himself. “Mindful Education” brings this up, but immediately sweeps it clean in favor of a song about trauma (ironic) and giving Connie more of the floor. And “Storm in the Room” perfectly captures how flat his guilt complex really is…

This episode could’ve given Steven a better perspective on what he wants to be, how he should see Rose, and how things in his life will change from that point on. No, it amounted to saying Rose wasn’t in the wrong for anything (clearly a lie) and Steven being basically gaslighted to believe that he’ll be around to fix what she didn’t do herself, never stating how he should go about doing so. He has guilt and unsure regrets, and yet now nothing feels like things for him are getting any better through his efforts. Knowing that he’s basically Jesus, I am stunned I don’t see him curing every ill-ridden human on the planet and is instead trying to make peace with everything that wants him dead. Also, if I wanted a show that mirrors the possible regret and turmoil I force myself to suffer with everyday, weed and a literal mirror would create a similar effect. And all this leads to–

“But Monkey Network, he’s at least a pacifist who tries. He only wants to share peace and enlightenment to everyone he meets and that includes those who are trying to defeat them.” True, but there is something called “being pushed to a limit”. Yeah I see Steven stand up for himself while choosing not to hit anybody, but there are some people that don’t deserve anything but a good blow to the face. We see Steven get angry and mean, but has he really been pushed to a limit?

Mob Psycho 100 (Ep. 3) A limit that, while possessing regretting, let’s one know they can be a force to be reckoned with?

Trigun: Badlands Rumble A limit that forces them to take immense action without breaking their code of pacifistic honor?

I mean there’s being a pacifist, and there’s being an peaceful spouting wimp I can whup easily before somebody beats me up to stop it. The point of having pacifism in a show is the counterpoint where that ideology’s being tested and momentous reactions result from it. Yeah, he showed sheer ire towards Kevin in that one episode but that was it, and that was a one off excursion with the only irredeemable character in the series. Now I know violence is not always the answer and this isn’t suppose to be a violent show, whatever, but violence is present more than enough times in this show. So I must topically ask, what was stopping Steven from five knuckle shuffling Aquamarine when he clearly had the chance to, freeing his friends and getting the chance to escape their clutches? There’s the peaceful route, and there’s showing us nothing.

Boy must have a weak ass jab

“But Monkey Network, he has development and growth with this being a coming-of-age story.” True dat, but to an extent. I’ve noticed that when it comes to Steven Universe’s development, everyone is given development with Steven tagging behind. Connie, Amethyst, Pearl, Peridot, Lapis, Lars, you see them learning and growing on the front lines, but Steven’s been kinda consistent wouldn’t you say? I mean, he does grow in seeing many different perspectives, but does he really grow with the said varied perspectives or does he just acknowledge them while doing his usual helping routine to try making things better? You know who is a better main character than Steven? Well….

You could get with this^Or you could get with thatv

Wouldn’t you agree? They’re forced to look out of their comfort zone, they make mistakes but see to getting back up, they grow to understand how this new world works and take it to heart, they’re not mopey little shits and constantly take initiative, still having a lot to learn, and I find their voices less annoying than Steven’s. Okay, that last part is a preference but still.

I’ll say Steven’s a fine protagonist, but he’s a boring protagonist to sum it up. Nothing about him makes me want to care anymore and while I look towards new episodes, all I can do now is tolerate him. They could do better with season 5 upping the ante, but at this point I’m more invested in the world of Steven Universe than Steven himself, and that is sad. You know your cartoon is crumbling where your world generally revolves around the main character and said MAIN CHARACTER is whack! Rebecca Sugar Schnapps and her crew just better git good this season; because it can look good and sound good as long as it wants, but it needs to feel good to be a real show, you feel me?

And that’s my Troof. The whole and nothing but. Thank you <3 Roy M.

[butterscotchbelmont]

Okay so finally!!! I'm getting this post out here about the evening show at the JJBA DIU Great Festival. This is gonna be hella long so yeah. I'll be referring to most of them by last name, but since we have two Ono's, I'll refer to those two by their first name. 

We got into the venue about 40 minutes before the show started (Japan line control is the best); when you first entered, there were the flower bouquets sent in by various people (the singular bouquet photo is the one Araki Hirohiko sent in). 

After that we found our seats and we mainly just sat there taking "sneaky" photos (so was everyone else lmao) and posting them and just kinda taking it all in. It wasn't really hitting that we were about to be seven rows away from Ono Daisuke, Ono Yuuki, Kaji Yuki, Sakurai Takahiro, and Takagi Wataru. 

Periodically there were be a small announcement about what was/wasn't allowed and just your general welcome. Pretty much right at 6, the lights dimmed and the massive curtain that I took a pic of became a screen. They played the intros for the characters and after each one, a spotlight would focus on a point behind the curtain and you'd see the seiyuu DOING THEIR POSE and introducing themselves. They'd quickly run off stage before it was the others turn. 

Josuke was the last to be introduced and then the rest of the seiyuu ran back up to do the full group pose and the curtain fell to fully reveal them. The MC for the night came on stage (forgive me I don't remember his name, but I'm fairly sure he wasn't another seiyuu) and introduced the event and the seiyuu all while they're all still holding their poses. After they finally got out of them, which was hilarious in and of itself, they stood on the top level of the stage (there were two levels). Quick introductions were made and then they came down to the lower level and were able to take a seat. 

You'll have to forgive me for not totally knowing exactly what was being said as my Japanese is not as fluent as I wish it was (yet), but small talk was made between the seiyuu and the MC before the first portion of the event began which included the seiyuu talking about the specific outfits they were wearing. Kaji-san went first and mentioned his BRILLIANTLY GOLD SEQUINED pocket on his chest that shone for the entire night. Then they called on Mr. Fashion Designer aka Sakurai-san who had on a seemingly leopard print flowy jacket and a black shirt with a big red X on it. Turns out the leopard print was actually a bunch of "No"s, thus showing his favorite aspect of Rohan. Takagi-san had on a shiny bolo tie of Okuyasu's $ symbol that he's so well known for. Daisuke-san had a JJBA watch on (not sure which one) and the blue Jotaro converse (WHICH WERE THE SAME ONES I WAS WEARING (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵) ). The mother and I think that he could have also been wearing a starfish shirt, but his jacket was in the way most of the time so it's hard to tell.

Yuuki-san had on the Josuke x Columbia shoes as well as a Josuke shirt on. When he was showing off his shirt, Takagi-san held up his microphone to the Josuke on the shirt and Yuuki-san began to move his stomach to make it look like he was actually talking (and would do so throughout the night) - they all had a good laugh at that. We were super proud to also see he was trying to rock a tiny pompadour too~~ 

After the small talk, the first "main attraction" of the event was where one of the seiyuu were shown five of their best scenes as their character (with an exception, but I'll get to that) and then they had to rank the last top three and try to match what the fans had ranked as their top three.  

Sakurai-san went first with the top five scenes of Rohan; he only managed to get one of the three tops scenes correct but while he was trying to decide, he kept going to "Koichi" for help as one of the top three scenes was with him. They started to call Koichi a heroine with Rohan and somewhere between all of this, Daisuke-san and Takagi-san did this little thing where they'd look at each other, take a deep breath, and say "Neeeeee~~" in a higher pitched voice. It was obviously something they've done before and I really wanna know the backstory on that (maybe something happened at Drifters recording lmao). Needless to say, mom and I kinda picked it up too. 

Anyway, when the scene between Koichi and Rohan didn't rank as high as Sakurai-san had thought, he look betrayed at the audience lmao. Of course, his "No" scene with Highway Star was the top ranked fan-picked scene, which also ended up being the one scene that he got correct~~ 

After Sakurai-san, it was Daisuke-san's turn to rank the top three Jotaro scenes provided to him, which included two scenes with Sheer Heart Attack. After getting a little bit of help from the audience (which included a bunch of "EHHH???" when he tried to move his original line-up), he managed to get all three correct!! 

As mom and I had gotten the evening show and they had done an afternoon show just a few hours before, we think they switched up who had done their scenes to make it fair, which would also possibly explain why Yuuki-san had to do the top three Kira scenes. They all looked hella betrayed by the "Kira-fans" out there when the three top Kira scenes were Rohan being blown up for the first time; Jotaro, Koichi, Okuyasu, and Josuke being blown up for the first time; and Kira having his way with that random couple on the train. Yuuki-san would look out into the audience and try to figure out the Kira fans. He didn't manage to get any of them correct lol (Rohan came in third, the group blow-up came in second, and the couple came in first - which tbh was a shock to me too).

Once this small segment was completed, they moved onto the second "main attraction" which was where they would play a scene from the anime on the big screen and then hide one of the characters so that the according seiyuu had to remember and DO THE POSE. If these seiyuu hadn't shown their charisma before, they definitely did it now. Yuuki-san was up first with the scene where Okuyasu, Koichi, and he are in front of the Owson and Josuke stands up to do his pose with his school briefcase. They blocked out Josuke right before he did it, but Yuuki-san seemed to know right away. 

However!! Before he was called up to the stage by the MC, the MC himself had made a small error which ended up being something that all the seiyuus capitalized on. As there were two Ono's on the stage, the MC would designate between the two by saying their full names; when he went to say Yuuki-san's name, he actually called him Ono Yuusuke-san - effectively mixing his and Daisuke-san's name. Kaji-san had an absolute field day calling him Yuusuke - so much so that when Yuuki-san finally did his pose on the top tier of the stage and tried to manage Josuke's super bottom pouty lip, Kaji-san was all like "ITS YUUSUKE!!" Yuuki-san himself was even all like "Ono Yuusuke desu." in a completely different voice. It was wonderful. Once he got it correct, the MC had a "prize" which was the cream bun that Josuke stole one bite of from his mom.  

After that it was Takagi-san with Okuyasu's squat pose after he found out he had the winning lottery ticket. What made this a funny encounter was that when it came time to hide Okuyasu's pose, they really just barely blanked it out and the other seiyuu were yelling how it was unfair lmao. Takagi-san took this all in great stride and started to do a small dance on stage in the Okuyasu pose; the best way to describe it is to say it was like a kabuki dance - face and all. It is important to note that this is around where I noticed that all the other seiyuu would call Takagi-san "Shachou." They all really melded well together~~ When he was done, the MC gave him two cream buns while Yuuki-san yelled how unfair that was too. 

Next up was Kaji-san~~ [Side note: this was one of the things that Kaji-san did that night that really really made me a big fan of him. I'll have a little bit more on that later.] 

The scene that Kaji-san had to remember the pose of was when Koichi was harassing the nurse in the hospital where Fungami Yuuya was by making the expensive medicines extremely heavy. As it was revealed once Kaji-san GOT IT RIGHT, Koichi was standing in the doorway just waving his arm back and forth; it was such a nonchalant action, and for him to remember such a minuscule detail was quite amazing after such a long time. Of course, he made it hilarious by introducing himself as Kaji Yuusuke. He ended up getting three cream buns~

Next up was Sakurai-san having to do a pose from when Cheap Trick was on Rohan's back and he was finally revealing him to Koichi in the alley. So while it was basically just him standing with his back to us, he even tried to do the crazed look Rohan had on his face (which he did to the best of his abilities lol). Japan being Japan, they zoomed in on his face on the big screen and everyone had a good laugh. The MC gave him four cream buns; of course, they were all passed to "Shachou" who enthusiastically put them on the table behind them. 

Next was Daisuke-san with the pose Jotaro did during the Hunting ep where Josuke got stabbed in the neck. What was beautiful about this entire thing was that the hidden part blocked the front half of Jotaro and the entirety of Star Platinum, so he was all like "Which one am I supposed to do???" As the countdown started, he did Jotaro's standing pose and then would take a step forward and do Star Plat's crossed arm pose - continuously. Like he wouldn't stop stepping forward and then stepping back; so much so that he mixed up Jotaro and Star Plat's poses before fixing them. As he got it correct as well, the MC gave him an armful of cream buns. 

The last pose that they all had to do was a scene from the Great Days opening; however, Josuke wasn't in that particular part of the opening so Yuuki-san was designated to be Yukako (who's next to Rohan) - which he complained loudly about. None of them really seemed to know their poses from the opening so after a "secret" group meeting initiated by Daisuke-san, they all decided to stand with their backs to the audience, turn their heads, and stick out their chins and bottom lips to smile. It was a riot; the MC lightly jokingly complained at then as they stayed steady with the pose even as the originals were shown. EXCEPT Takagi-san changed his really quick to show the correct one (after he saw what it was) and Kaji-san was quick to jump on him about that. Everyone was laughing really hard. 

After this segment, we went into the live concert part with the three openings for DIU being performed live - if I'm being honest, Batta was by far the best music performance of the evening. Only the lead singer out of the four members was able to attend as the rest of the band was sick, so he performed the acoustic version, which was absolutely amazing to hear performed live.

Once all of the songs were finished, there came the best part of the night: all of the seiyuu came back onto the stage to read their lines to particular scenes from the anime in real time. First up was one of my favorites - Okuyasu in Tonio's place for the first time. Lemme tell ya that they didn't hold back and there was absolutely no censorship as they showed the scenes on the screen; which was a shocking contrast to when I had first seen the episode, but it is Jojo after all so I shouldn't be surprised. The lights were only on the specific seiyuu who were onstage while the rest sat back in the darkness behind them, intently studying their scripts. 

Next up was one of the most profound moments of the entire night; it was the scene where Koichi one-ups Kira by finding his real name and talks his mouth off even though he's legit minutes from death. Now I'll be the first one to tell you that I used to be kinda okay with Kaji Yuki in the beginning to not really liking him with the more stuff that he was constantly in (frankly I was pissed he replaced Park Romi for Koichi); my opinion of him began to change when I heard him in Daiya no A (as I was late to watching that anime) for the first time and after the night of February 19th, I became the president of the Kaji Yuki Protection Squad and I absolutely adore that man. 

The previous scene was fairly humorous, but the tone quickly changed as Koichi was bleeding out. You don't really pay much attention to the seiyuu when you're watching the anime - they're just the voices that you love and you begin to pick out your favorite seiyuu without really thinking about what they go through. While Takagi-san and Yuuki-san were doing the Tonio scene, the rest of the seiyuu were sitting in the dark and you could just feel their aura change - this was their life's work and you really got to see them in a professional setting. It was heavy, particularly when the mood of DIU got darker. 

As the scene went on and Koichi became more and more emotional, Kaji-san actually began to shake. Physically shake. Think about that for a second. He was so enraptured in his role as Hirose Koichi that the hand holding the script was violently shaking; you'd of thought that it was he, the person, standing in front of a serial murderer and dying while showing airs. He's not an actor that stands on a stage; he's in a room recording voices and (with the exception of extremely rare and lucky chances) no one but his peers are going to see him doing this. He doesn't need to be that physically invested, and yet, he is. To completely feel his professionalism and how much care goes into his voice acting was astounding. That's not to say that the others were not the same, but I believe it was such a profound moment because of my previous dislike of him. My opinion of him did a full 180 and my absolute and thorough respect for these seiyuu skyrocketed through the roof. 

I'd be willing to guess that his hand (possibly his whole body) was still shaking as he went back into the darkness to sit down, feeling the after effects of the scene he'd just done as Daisuke-san stepped up to finish off the scene where Jotaro more or less comes to Koichi's rescue despite being very worse off himself. Daisuke-san's aura throughout the night was very cheerful, very much the entertainer; you could tell he's done a lot of live stages. So to see him step into the role of Kujoh Jotaro was something that made my heart skip a beat (ya know, cause Jotaro is my first/second favorite Jojo next to Jolyne). 

I have to say that that man's lung capacity will put almost anyone to shame (next to Yuuki-san's DORARARA). If any of y'all thought that he did Star Plat's ORA ORA maybe once and then it was just kinda edited to make it so long, I'd have to tell you that you're dead wrong. He did the entire ORAORA sequence with his first encounter directly with Kira in two breaths; that's a lot of fucking ora's for only two breaths in a voice that's not even his normal speaking tone. He did it like it was absolutely nothing; like he just did his daily chores while ORAing and it was totally no big deal. I legit almost cried when he told Koichi that he'd done well WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE and then fell over, possibly desiring expecting death. 

After that, all but Sakurai-san walked back up to the microphones to do the scene where Kira's hand gets away in the crowd after Aya just perished. The next scene was with Sakurai-san and Yuuki-san where Rohan is caught by Highway Star; Sakurai-san did his seemingly favorite "My favorite thing is to tell people 'No.'" scene. It was gorgeous; I was in love lol. I already loved so many roles of Sakurai-san and this was a dream come true to see him on stage with the others. There were instances where even Sakurai-san's hand was shaking much like Kaji-san's hand as he told Josuke to run away. In this scene, however, it was apparent that the one who potentially had the hardest time with the deeper voice required was Yuuki-san; I became worried about his voice giving out on him in the future as he slipped up once yelling Rohan's name and immediately had to go for water despite the entire scene not being done yet. Honestly, with how I got sick the very next day, any one of them could have had what I did too and yet they were practically perfect. He never missed any lines and I applaud him for his professionalism (I became the president of the Ono Yuuki Protection Squad that night too, but for a different reason I'll mention). 

The mood became a little bit lighter for a moment as Yuuki-san did Josuke's infamous "new underwear on New Year's Day" lines, but it was quickly dashed as all of the seiyuu came up to do the scene where Josuke and Okuyasu break Bite the Dust's repeating day. Of course, Takagi-san had to break my heart by doing the scene where Okuyasu re-tells the dream he had with his brother and Josuke is very, very near tears (who am I kidding, he's bawling) when he sees him again. The scene progressed to where Jotaro stops time to ORA ORA Kira into the middle of the street. 

The very last bloody scene they did was the Reimi goodbye. I almost cried, like legit bawling my eyes out, but I held it together for the sake of my makeup lmao. I doubt there was a completely dry eye in that audience once that scene was over.

I was so impressed with all of the seiyuu during the live reading; there were often many times where you would catch yourself just watching the scene play out in the screen above them because you'd forget that they were reading it aloud. The timing was practically perfect, the inflection in their voices were the same as the day they recorded it, and you just got lost in it. The fact that they could just call upon these characters even though it's probably been about a year or more since they recorded for the anime was awe-inspiring. 

After that, we had several CMs play on the screen for JJBA Stardust Shooters and JJBA Diamond Records. The JOJO EXHIBITION 2017 was confirmed as well as a festival going on in August (which is where I'm hoping for a part five confirmation please and thank). Finally the seiyuu and band members came out for one final hurrah. The MC let them all say their goodbyes and thank you's to the audience starting with the bands mentioning how honored they were to be a part of DIU and such. Kaji-san gave the second or third longest speech, next to Daisuke-san and Yuuki-san. All of the seiyuu were extremely humble and you could tell just how much they truly cared for their characters and how emotional it was for most of them to let them go. 

If you think about it, this is the last time for all but two of them to be in Jojo again (not counting the Rohan OVA coming out soon); Koichi shows up for a bit in Vento Aureo and of course, Jotaro in Stone Ocean, but for the rest of them, they were leaving them behind unless more games and such came out. The one most stricken by emotion was Yuuki-san; after giving his speech and such, he bowed at 90 degrees and stayed there for much longer than necessary. We found out why when his hand quickly came up to wipe under his glasses; yep, he totally broke down. Almost brought me with him and that's when I got another president position lmao. The other seiyuu's were trying to lift his spirits and Takagi-san at one point jokingly yelled out "Are you laughing or crying now??"

As you know, there were a lot of people livid about the voice changes; for a little bit, I was one of them (until Daiya saved me LMAO). I would hope that he never directly got any hate, but I think the love and reception that he got from the audience really struck a cord with him that he was accepted as our Josuke. He, and the rest of the seiyuu, did an absolutely spectacular job and I am so, so proud of them. 

I mean, if you think about it, these seiyuu events appear to be fairly new. In the past five to eight years (that might be too far back I'm not sure), the seiyuu have had to really become much more versatile with the introduction of character songs (in animes other than idol-based themes), stage events, concerts, photo shoots, and many other things that allow the fans to further enjoy their fandom. I can almost guarantee you that when Takagi-san was Onizuka from GTO that he didn't have to do three-quarters of the things that he had to do today as Okuyasu. But he's taken it in stride and was one of the best entertainers on the stage that day (and lemme say that he delinquent squats LIKE A BOSS). (๑♡◡♡๑)

This entire event was really eye-opening to just how much hard work these seiyuu put into their jobs; they don't half-ass anything and I'd legit fight anyone that bad mouths any of the five seiyuu I saw on that day. When you just begin to think about all of the other scenes that these seiyuu have done in ALL OF THE OTHER ANIMES THEY'VE BEEN IN, your heart really starts to hurt especially when you see how much emotion that they put into it. I nearly cried when I later thought about the characters Kaji-san had done where either characters close to him have died (*cough* SHINGEKI *cough*) or when his own character has died because I thought about just how hard that must've been. And it's not even just that - every single sound you hear the characters make is made by them. I know that's a fairly obvious comment, but if you really think about the things that just kinda slip by like the eating of the food, the sighs, the grunts, the screams, etc., you really realize just how much they have to do and how much timing they have to have with not just the animation, but with each other as well. I definitely would not wanted to have been in the room if, at the Stardust Crusaders event, they did Kakyoin's death. Nope, fuck that. Being in the room during the recording for Caesar’s death? That's called looking like a raccoon when it’s done.

But, all in all, I feel so honored to have been able to see all of this up close and personal. It was so much more warm and inviting than I was expecting; there were no qualms about the audience openly laughing and I had bruises on my hands from my rings due to all of the clapping I did. My respect for all seiyuu just rose immensely and I absolutely adore these five seiyuu so much more now. My love for JJBA only was reinforced and I am confident that we're going to get more in the future. They did not sound like JJBA was done in the slightest at the end of the event. 

If you made it all the way to the end here, THANK YOU FOR READING MY BEHEMOTH OF A POST. I'm hoping I didn't really miss too much, but I really recommend getting the event DVD if you can~~ I'm not sure if it'll be the afternoon or evening show for the DVD (or even both), but if it's only the afternoon, then I'm sure it would be just as enjoyable. If you have any questions at all, I'll do my best to remember specific details so feel free to ask me!!

[roachliquid]

OK, this is gonna be a hot take, so hear me out.

(Also, this is Homestuck, so if you’re not into that or don’t want spoilers, you’re gonna want to skip this one.)

I’ve noticed that bladekindeyewear’s model of classpect arrangement seems to be pretty much universally accepted (or at least, accepted enough to be given considerable credence on the Homestuck wiki), which makes a lot of sense.  It’s tight, it’s well thought-out, and it actually answers more questions than it raises, for the most part.  Which is why I’m bringing it up - I’m actually operating on the assumption that most of his conclusions, including the majority of class pairings and inversion theory, are correct.

But (and this is a pretty big but, so get comfy) it’s missing out on a key clue to the puzzle, specifically: Karkat.

Karkat is effectively the troll sessions’ counterpart to John.  He’s crabby where John is calm, cynical while John is almost brainmeltingly openminded, obsessed with romantic fulfillment whereas John is ambiguously asexual, etc.  He’s even got the counterpart aspect to John’s - Blood vs. Breath.

So that got me thinking... why would he have the aspect counterpart, but not class?

I want to clarify here that I don’t think Karkat is an inverted John.  Knight doesn’t invert to Heir no matter what system you’re using.  An inverted John, I believe, would actually be a worse person than Karkat.

(Karkat’s not a great person, but there’s a reason his nickname is Nubs McShouty, and not, IDK, Prongs McStabby.  As far as trolls go he’s practically a cinnamon roll.  Anyway.)

So, rather than having the inversion of John’s class, I’m proposing that Karkat simply has the counterpart.  That Heir and Knight are a pair.  And I’m going to explain myself.

So, the first thing to address is one of the popular justifications for pairing up Knight and Page - that they have thematically complementary names.  This isn’t the worst reason to put them together, particularly since the counterpart pairing - Thief and Rogue - have a similar rhythm going on - but I am going to go out on a limb and say that’s not enough justification.  You also have to argue that they’re “two sides of the same coin”, and when you look at them, they’re really not.

BKEW argues that Knight and Page are both “exploiters”, characterized by a lack of their class and a need to carefully utilize what they do have to produce a greater result than it ostensibly would have been capable of.  And BKEW, I have to apologize in advance, because I love your work, but:

This is stupid.

Look at the classes in Homestuck.  One thing you might notice about them is that their names TYPICALLY correlate in a pretty straightforward manner to what they’re about.  Witch is a powerful manipulator, Thief steals, etc.  Prince, Bard, and Lord are the only real exceptions here, and that’s because they operate on a separate level of internal Hussie logic that seems to really hate royalty (and understands the unmitigated chaos that invariably happens when you bring a bard into the room).  So based on how other classes work, the correct role for a Knight should be a protector, not an exploiter.  And I’d like to point out that “protect” as a core concept pairs very well with the “steal” concept behind Thief and Rogue.  Better than “exploit”, even.

Furthermore, THIS IS NOT EVEN HOW PAGE WORKS.  Page is characterized by a lack of something that they will later have in abundance, provided they can work through their personal issues.  They don’t have to scrimp and save their aspect - they just have to earn it, and then they’re golden.  Jake English, legendary Page of Hope, is the ur-example here - at his full power level, he is capable of a hopesplosion on par with what Jade demonstrated when she first rose to god tier.  And while the first demonstration of this power was artificially induced and arguably not healthy, it’s confirmed at multiple points that this is also the power level he would eventually reach by properly completing his personal journey.  (Cal’s puppet theatre is the obvious citation here, but there’s another conversation I don’t remember the details of wherein Jake and another character are talking about the event and he is told that he COULD get back to that level of functionality in a healthier way.)  Tavros is a lesser example - his personal journey ends with him getting over his reliance on Vriska for self-worth, recognizing that he is capable of exercising autonomy, and using it to recruit an entire goddamn army.  It’s not as flashy or all-encompassing as Jake’s hopesplosion, but as far as dead trolls go, it’s pretty fucking impressive.

Busting Page out of knight-pairing jail is only half the battle, of course.  With Knight’s counterpart slot open, this has the potential to throw the whole system into disarray - or half of it, anyway.  After all, we don’t REALLY know for certain that Mage and Sylph are a pair, what if one of them is actually paired up with Knight?  There are some interesting possibilities here.

But there’s also some information that will help us narrow those possibilities down.  For instance, we have information (mentioned in one of the posts I linked) that states that the two most passive classes prefer male players.  With that in mind, we know we can only pair Witch - the most active normal class, if we follow the trail of breadcrumbs Hussie left us - with Heir or Page.  And since this whole theory hinges on Heir being the counterpart to Knight, that leaves us with Page, and Maid & Sylph stay exactly where they are.

Page works well as a manipulator, IMO.  Jake’s example is pretty straightforward - he straight-up channels the element of Hope to get shit done.  Tavros, in a less literal way, employs his own freedom to great effect.  Again, it’s not flashy, but neither was Feferi’s negotiation with the Horrorterrors to produce the Dream Bubbles, but that was certainly an example of her manifesting her classpect, as it saved a bunch of dead characters from ultimate oblivion in the void.

Heir as a protector is a somewhat tougher sell, if only because the title doesn’t really indicate the kind of person who guards something - unless it’s a plucky young heir rising to power to protect his estate, IDK.  Role-wise, though, we DO see John doing just as much to safeguard his session and people as Dave does.  While Dave operates behind the scenes, setting up key events and harvesting important information from doomed timelines, John is keeping things together in the limelight - first by initiating the game, and later by performing the Scratch and the Retcon.  Hell, in some ways he feels like the active counterpart to Dave, which is making me wonder if it’s not Knight/Heir but Heir/Knight - but that’s probably a discussion for another time.

Anyway, that’s my dissection of S---bian mechanics.  I’m certainly not saying I’m objectively right - who knows what was going on in Hussie’s head when he designed any of this - but I do think there’s a good chance that Karkat was intended to be John’s counterpart in EVERY way, including his class.  I like this theory because it makes things just a little bit smoother on the character design stage, and also because pairing Knight with Page on the basis of names always felt cheap and awkward in comparison to how carefully planned out many of the other class pairings were.

[smartwebhostingblog]

Bank Of America Is An All-American Bargain

New Post has been published on http://rentts.org/bank-of-america-is-an-all-american-bargain/

Bank Of America Is An All-American Bargain

It has been about two and a half years since I have written up a research report on Bank of America (BAC), and six and half years since I wrote up my first one. After the election rally, we were able to lock-in profits on some very large positions for our firm, including Bank of America; as the valuation finally came close to approximating the intrinsic value of the business, and we were able to utilize that capital in other places. Now, in this winter market maelstrom, it feels good to be back and once again Bank of America has become an extremely compelling buying opportunity. It is my contention that market participants are fighting the last battle once again, thinking the next recession will look the same as the Great Recession. They will be wrong and Bank of America’s stock will grind materially higher over the next 3-5 years.

It is amazing to see just how far Bank of America has come. Obviously, the company completed one of the worst acquisitions in business history when it made its distressed purchase of Countrywide Financial. Far worse than the actual economic losses that the portfolio of mortgages brought on, was the tens of billions of dollars of legal costs and penalties that hammered shareholders in the years following the Crisis. BAC made a good call when it hired Brian Moynihan to run the show. Moynihan implemented one of the best handled cost-cutting exercises I’ve seen, while continuing to invest in responsible growth. Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust are blue-chip assets, capable of generating returns on invested capital far higher than traditional banking operations and growing these franchises has been a priority. BAC hasn’t tired to hit homeruns in investment banking and instead has been trying to hit for contact. Arguably they have been overly conservative there and we have now seen some management changes, but I’d argue that Bank of America has taken the right approach to prepare itself for the next crisis, whatever and whenever that may be.

As stocks fell in October and the S&P was down by roughly 10%, I attended an event with roughly 100 business owners and executives talking about the market and the economy. There was a speaker from Merrill Lynch that asked if they thought the correction meant the end of the 9-and-a-half-year bull market, and not one person raised their hand. That worried me quite a bit because I tend to feel more confident when there is far less of a consensus and it was clear that fear hadn’t set in. I am not surprised to see that markets have continued to selloff, but I do think that fear has started to become more prominent. Many of the fin twits etc., that have been advocating being 100% long ETFs and index funds for the last 2-3 years, have already started talking about their tactical strategies to handle downturns. This to me is as a good sign as there has been that a lot of really stupid money has been pouring into stocks with zero regard to valuations. If those people want to sell their high-beta names such as Bank of America to me at silly valuations I’m glad to accept the offer.

Today’s paranoia revolves around a few different areas. Firstly, you have the trade negotiations with China. I’d say that it is pretty clear that both countries are willing to make some sacrifices and resuming more friendly relations would be a clear positive. China is likely trying to wait out American politics to change its focus on fair trade with a new party taking over, while the U.S. is trying to make its inroads via brute force. Secondly, the yield curve has become very flat, leading to concerns about economic growth. This compresses margins, but net interest income is so strong, this shouldn’t be a huge deal for the big banks as long as credit stays strong. Italy was a major concern, but they are starting to talk down their budget deficit agenda and there appears to be room for negotiation. Brexit is a mess but there is the possibility that we could see another referendum or vote on it as nobody seems satisfied. Higher interest rates and SALT tax changes are most certainly impacting the housing market, causing a slowdown in sales and price reductions. Affordability is an issue, but there isn’t the silly credit underwriting or excess supply that would likely lead to a major downturn there.

Credit is phenomenal for the big banks, and while it can only really get worse from here, there is nothing that I see that in any way would jeopardize these companies being incredibly profitable, including a mild to medium recession. If you look at consumers, leverage appears to be benign. Student loans are a disaster, which taxpayers are mostly on the hook for. Mortgages aren’t much of a concern, as underwriting has been night and day different from the past. Credit cards have been a very competitive space, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see losses pick up there. Corporate leverage is high but a lot of that is due to the benefits a levered capital structure gave companies under the prior tax regime, in combination with low interest rates. I’d expect companies to aggressively reduce their leverage over the next few years.

The fact that the Federal Reserve might end up pausing rate hikes is very good for just about everyone, including the banks. While many analysts tend to focus on myopic issues such as net interest margins, the biggest risk to banks is a large credit bubble, like that which existed in the last recession. Now the big banks have double the capital and double the liquidity, so they can still thrive in just about any environment. They have gobbled up market share and have access to the lowest cost of capital in the sector. Mortgage rates are starting to come down, and I believe if that continues the housing market should stabilize.

On October 15th, Bank of America reported 3rd quarter financial results that were exceptional. Diluted earnings per share of $0.66, were up 43%. Net income of $7.2 billion was a record and was up 32% YoY. Pretax income of $9 billion was up 18% YoY. Total revenue of $22.8 billion was up 4%. Net interest income was up 6%. Noninterest income was up 2%. Despite all this revenue growth, noninterest expenses of $13.1 billion was down 2% YoY. The net charge-off ratio was up 1 paltry basis point to 0.4%.

BAC’s return on average assets of 1.23% was up 28bps, and its return on average common shareholders’ equity of 11% was up 310 bps. BAC has made dramatic improvements towards increasing its return on average tangible common shareholders’ equity to 15.5%, up 450 bps YoY. The efficiency ratio of 57% has improved by 396 bps. These were numbers that 4-5 years ago many analysts said were virtually impossible for the big banks to achieve once again.

BAC’s loans and leases grew by 3% overall, with consumer up 5% and commercial up 2%. Average deposits continued to increase by 4%. Merrill brokerage assets increased by 22% to over $200 billion. Client balances within Global Wealth & Investment Management increase to $2.8 trillion. The bank’s capital and liquidity position is stronger than it has ever been with $164 billion of Common Equity Tier 1 Capital (CET1) and a CET1 ratio of 11.4%. Bank of America has a staggering $537 billion of average Global Liquidity Sources. Year-to-date, BAC has repurchased $14.9 billion of common shares and paid $4 billion in common dividends, returning 96% of net income available to common shareholders.

In years past when I wrote about Bank of America, I found myself extremely frustrated at times. I saw what the future could be and the returns the company should be able to generate, which were being ignored by the market, which was focused on the short-term issues plaguing the firm. Now as we sit going into 2019, we have a bank generating a 15% plus return on tangible equity, without taking the excessive risks as in prior cycles. The balance sheet has never been stronger. The company has multiple business platforms such as Merrill and U.S. Trust that delineate it versus many of its competitors and warrant a higher valuation. The worst part about past selloffs in the stock though was that management couldn’t fully take advantage with a massive buyback. Instead they had to horde capital to raise their capital ratios. Finally, we have a major selloff that management can capitalize on by using most of its profits to buy back stock at a considerable discount to intrinsic value, thereby enhancing intrinsic value per share.

At a recent price of around $24.50, BAC trades right around its book value per share of $24.33. Tangible book value stands at $17.23 per share and it is important to note that these numbers would be meaningfully higher if it weren’t for the tax changes that caused the company to reduce the value of its DTA, but ultimately the company should realize the benefits of those lost DTAs via a reduced tax rate into the future. BAC’s normalized earnings power is around $2.50 per share and should grow at a faster rate than the overall economy. While management should certainly continue to devote the majority of capital returns to stock buybacks, BAC will offer a rapid growth rate on its dividend payments over the next 5-10 years.

While BAC may not be priced for bankruptcy like it has been in the past, it is priced as though it won’t be able to grow intrinsic value whatsoever and that will not be the case. The company is a well-oiled machine, with several of the most enviable business franchises in the world. For the patient investor that is willing to look past current fears and realistically assess the soundness of the enterprise, BAC offers a great opportunity to average double-digit returns in a market that is highly unlikely to do anything close to that. At T&T Capital Management, we believe BAC is worth between $32-$35. The big banks are not going to be nearly as cyclical as they were in the past, but they are still cyclical. Paying 10 times earnings for a business like this is an absolute steal and I don’t believe that the next recession, whenever it comes, will be anything like the last one. It appears that Warren Buffett feels a similar way about the big banks, as he dramatically increased his positions in them at much higher prices than what they are trading at today. Last I checked, BAC is actually a larger position than WFC in dollar size and I can see why when you look at the outlook and valuations for both firms.

Disclosure: I am/we are long BAC. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[awesomecolorfulcollectorwombat]

Bank Of America Is An All-American Bargain

New Post has been published on http://rentts.org/bank-of-america-is-an-all-american-bargain/

Bank Of America Is An All-American Bargain

It has been about two and a half years since I have written up a research report on Bank of America (BAC), and six and half years since I wrote up my first one. After the election rally, we were able to lock-in profits on some very large positions for our firm, including Bank of America; as the valuation finally came close to approximating the intrinsic value of the business, and we were able to utilize that capital in other places. Now, in this winter market maelstrom, it feels good to be back and once again Bank of America has become an extremely compelling buying opportunity. It is my contention that market participants are fighting the last battle once again, thinking the next recession will look the same as the Great Recession. They will be wrong and Bank of America’s stock will grind materially higher over the next 3-5 years.

It is amazing to see just how far Bank of America has come. Obviously, the company completed one of the worst acquisitions in business history when it made its distressed purchase of Countrywide Financial. Far worse than the actual economic losses that the portfolio of mortgages brought on, was the tens of billions of dollars of legal costs and penalties that hammered shareholders in the years following the Crisis. BAC made a good call when it hired Brian Moynihan to run the show. Moynihan implemented one of the best handled cost-cutting exercises I’ve seen, while continuing to invest in responsible growth. Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust are blue-chip assets, capable of generating returns on invested capital far higher than traditional banking operations and growing these franchises has been a priority. BAC hasn’t tired to hit homeruns in investment banking and instead has been trying to hit for contact. Arguably they have been overly conservative there and we have now seen some management changes, but I’d argue that Bank of America has taken the right approach to prepare itself for the next crisis, whatever and whenever that may be.

As stocks fell in October and the S&P was down by roughly 10%, I attended an event with roughly 100 business owners and executives talking about the market and the economy. There was a speaker from Merrill Lynch that asked if they thought the correction meant the end of the 9-and-a-half-year bull market, and not one person raised their hand. That worried me quite a bit because I tend to feel more confident when there is far less of a consensus and it was clear that fear hadn’t set in. I am not surprised to see that markets have continued to selloff, but I do think that fear has started to become more prominent. Many of the fin twits etc., that have been advocating being 100% long ETFs and index funds for the last 2-3 years, have already started talking about their tactical strategies to handle downturns. This to me is as a good sign as there has been that a lot of really stupid money has been pouring into stocks with zero regard to valuations. If those people want to sell their high-beta names such as Bank of America to me at silly valuations I’m glad to accept the offer.

Today’s paranoia revolves around a few different areas. Firstly, you have the trade negotiations with China. I’d say that it is pretty clear that both countries are willing to make some sacrifices and resuming more friendly relations would be a clear positive. China is likely trying to wait out American politics to change its focus on fair trade with a new party taking over, while the U.S. is trying to make its inroads via brute force. Secondly, the yield curve has become very flat, leading to concerns about economic growth. This compresses margins, but net interest income is so strong, this shouldn’t be a huge deal for the big banks as long as credit stays strong. Italy was a major concern, but they are starting to talk down their budget deficit agenda and there appears to be room for negotiation. Brexit is a mess but there is the possibility that we could see another referendum or vote on it as nobody seems satisfied. Higher interest rates and SALT tax changes are most certainly impacting the housing market, causing a slowdown in sales and price reductions. Affordability is an issue, but there isn’t the silly credit underwriting or excess supply that would likely lead to a major downturn there.

Credit is phenomenal for the big banks, and while it can only really get worse from here, there is nothing that I see that in any way would jeopardize these companies being incredibly profitable, including a mild to medium recession. If you look at consumers, leverage appears to be benign. Student loans are a disaster, which taxpayers are mostly on the hook for. Mortgages aren’t much of a concern, as underwriting has been night and day different from the past. Credit cards have been a very competitive space, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see losses pick up there. Corporate leverage is high but a lot of that is due to the benefits a levered capital structure gave companies under the prior tax regime, in combination with low interest rates. I’d expect companies to aggressively reduce their leverage over the next few years.

The fact that the Federal Reserve might end up pausing rate hikes is very good for just about everyone, including the banks. While many analysts tend to focus on myopic issues such as net interest margins, the biggest risk to banks is a large credit bubble, like that which existed in the last recession. Now the big banks have double the capital and double the liquidity, so they can still thrive in just about any environment. They have gobbled up market share and have access to the lowest cost of capital in the sector. Mortgage rates are starting to come down, and I believe if that continues the housing market should stabilize.

On October 15th, Bank of America reported 3rd quarter financial results that were exceptional. Diluted earnings per share of $0.66, were up 43%. Net income of $7.2 billion was a record and was up 32% YoY. Pretax income of $9 billion was up 18% YoY. Total revenue of $22.8 billion was up 4%. Net interest income was up 6%. Noninterest income was up 2%. Despite all this revenue growth, noninterest expenses of $13.1 billion was down 2% YoY. The net charge-off ratio was up 1 paltry basis point to 0.4%.

BAC’s return on average assets of 1.23% was up 28bps, and its return on average common shareholders’ equity of 11% was up 310 bps. BAC has made dramatic improvements towards increasing its return on average tangible common shareholders’ equity to 15.5%, up 450 bps YoY. The efficiency ratio of 57% has improved by 396 bps. These were numbers that 4-5 years ago many analysts said were virtually impossible for the big banks to achieve once again.

BAC’s loans and leases grew by 3% overall, with consumer up 5% and commercial up 2%. Average deposits continued to increase by 4%. Merrill brokerage assets increased by 22% to over $200 billion. Client balances within Global Wealth & Investment Management increase to $2.8 trillion. The bank’s capital and liquidity position is stronger than it has ever been with $164 billion of Common Equity Tier 1 Capital (CET1) and a CET1 ratio of 11.4%. Bank of America has a staggering $537 billion of average Global Liquidity Sources. Year-to-date, BAC has repurchased $14.9 billion of common shares and paid $4 billion in common dividends, returning 96% of net income available to common shareholders.

In years past when I wrote about Bank of America, I found myself extremely frustrated at times. I saw what the future could be and the returns the company should be able to generate, which were being ignored by the market, which was focused on the short-term issues plaguing the firm. Now as we sit going into 2019, we have a bank generating a 15% plus return on tangible equity, without taking the excessive risks as in prior cycles. The balance sheet has never been stronger. The company has multiple business platforms such as Merrill and U.S. Trust that delineate it versus many of its competitors and warrant a higher valuation. The worst part about past selloffs in the stock though was that management couldn’t fully take advantage with a massive buyback. Instead they had to horde capital to raise their capital ratios. Finally, we have a major selloff that management can capitalize on by using most of its profits to buy back stock at a considerable discount to intrinsic value, thereby enhancing intrinsic value per share.

At a recent price of around $24.50, BAC trades right around its book value per share of $24.33. Tangible book value stands at $17.23 per share and it is important to note that these numbers would be meaningfully higher if it weren’t for the tax changes that caused the company to reduce the value of its DTA, but ultimately the company should realize the benefits of those lost DTAs via a reduced tax rate into the future. BAC’s normalized earnings power is around $2.50 per share and should grow at a faster rate than the overall economy. While management should certainly continue to devote the majority of capital returns to stock buybacks, BAC will offer a rapid growth rate on its dividend payments over the next 5-10 years.

While BAC may not be priced for bankruptcy like it has been in the past, it is priced as though it won’t be able to grow intrinsic value whatsoever and that will not be the case. The company is a well-oiled machine, with several of the most enviable business franchises in the world. For the patient investor that is willing to look past current fears and realistically assess the soundness of the enterprise, BAC offers a great opportunity to average double-digit returns in a market that is highly unlikely to do anything close to that. At T&T Capital Management, we believe BAC is worth between $32-$35. The big banks are not going to be nearly as cyclical as they were in the past, but they are still cyclical. Paying 10 times earnings for a business like this is an absolute steal and I don’t believe that the next recession, whenever it comes, will be anything like the last one. It appears that Warren Buffett feels a similar way about the big banks, as he dramatically increased his positions in them at much higher prices than what they are trading at today. Last I checked, BAC is actually a larger position than WFC in dollar size and I can see why when you look at the outlook and valuations for both firms.

Disclosure: I am/we are long BAC. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[lazilysillyprince]

Bank Of America Is An All-American Bargain

New Post has been published on http://rentts.org/bank-of-america-is-an-all-american-bargain/

Bank Of America Is An All-American Bargain

It has been about two and a half years since I have written up a research report on Bank of America (BAC), and six and half years since I wrote up my first one. After the election rally, we were able to lock-in profits on some very large positions for our firm, including Bank of America; as the valuation finally came close to approximating the intrinsic value of the business, and we were able to utilize that capital in other places. Now, in this winter market maelstrom, it feels good to be back and once again Bank of America has become an extremely compelling buying opportunity. It is my contention that market participants are fighting the last battle once again, thinking the next recession will look the same as the Great Recession. They will be wrong and Bank of America’s stock will grind materially higher over the next 3-5 years.

It is amazing to see just how far Bank of America has come. Obviously, the company completed one of the worst acquisitions in business history when it made its distressed purchase of Countrywide Financial. Far worse than the actual economic losses that the portfolio of mortgages brought on, was the tens of billions of dollars of legal costs and penalties that hammered shareholders in the years following the Crisis. BAC made a good call when it hired Brian Moynihan to run the show. Moynihan implemented one of the best handled cost-cutting exercises I’ve seen, while continuing to invest in responsible growth. Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust are blue-chip assets, capable of generating returns on invested capital far higher than traditional banking operations and growing these franchises has been a priority. BAC hasn’t tired to hit homeruns in investment banking and instead has been trying to hit for contact. Arguably they have been overly conservative there and we have now seen some management changes, but I’d argue that Bank of America has taken the right approach to prepare itself for the next crisis, whatever and whenever that may be.

As stocks fell in October and the S&P was down by roughly 10%, I attended an event with roughly 100 business owners and executives talking about the market and the economy. There was a speaker from Merrill Lynch that asked if they thought the correction meant the end of the 9-and-a-half-year bull market, and not one person raised their hand. That worried me quite a bit because I tend to feel more confident when there is far less of a consensus and it was clear that fear hadn’t set in. I am not surprised to see that markets have continued to selloff, but I do think that fear has started to become more prominent. Many of the fin twits etc., that have been advocating being 100% long ETFs and index funds for the last 2-3 years, have already started talking about their tactical strategies to handle downturns. This to me is as a good sign as there has been that a lot of really stupid money has been pouring into stocks with zero regard to valuations. If those people want to sell their high-beta names such as Bank of America to me at silly valuations I’m glad to accept the offer.

Today’s paranoia revolves around a few different areas. Firstly, you have the trade negotiations with China. I’d say that it is pretty clear that both countries are willing to make some sacrifices and resuming more friendly relations would be a clear positive. China is likely trying to wait out American politics to change its focus on fair trade with a new party taking over, while the U.S. is trying to make its inroads via brute force. Secondly, the yield curve has become very flat, leading to concerns about economic growth. This compresses margins, but net interest income is so strong, this shouldn’t be a huge deal for the big banks as long as credit stays strong. Italy was a major concern, but they are starting to talk down their budget deficit agenda and there appears to be room for negotiation. Brexit is a mess but there is the possibility that we could see another referendum or vote on it as nobody seems satisfied. Higher interest rates and SALT tax changes are most certainly impacting the housing market, causing a slowdown in sales and price reductions. Affordability is an issue, but there isn’t the silly credit underwriting or excess supply that would likely lead to a major downturn there.

Credit is phenomenal for the big banks, and while it can only really get worse from here, there is nothing that I see that in any way would jeopardize these companies being incredibly profitable, including a mild to medium recession. If you look at consumers, leverage appears to be benign. Student loans are a disaster, which taxpayers are mostly on the hook for. Mortgages aren’t much of a concern, as underwriting has been night and day different from the past. Credit cards have been a very competitive space, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see losses pick up there. Corporate leverage is high but a lot of that is due to the benefits a levered capital structure gave companies under the prior tax regime, in combination with low interest rates. I’d expect companies to aggressively reduce their leverage over the next few years.

The fact that the Federal Reserve might end up pausing rate hikes is very good for just about everyone, including the banks. While many analysts tend to focus on myopic issues such as net interest margins, the biggest risk to banks is a large credit bubble, like that which existed in the last recession. Now the big banks have double the capital and double the liquidity, so they can still thrive in just about any environment. They have gobbled up market share and have access to the lowest cost of capital in the sector. Mortgage rates are starting to come down, and I believe if that continues the housing market should stabilize.

On October 15th, Bank of America reported 3rd quarter financial results that were exceptional. Diluted earnings per share of $0.66, were up 43%. Net income of $7.2 billion was a record and was up 32% YoY. Pretax income of $9 billion was up 18% YoY. Total revenue of $22.8 billion was up 4%. Net interest income was up 6%. Noninterest income was up 2%. Despite all this revenue growth, noninterest expenses of $13.1 billion was down 2% YoY. The net charge-off ratio was up 1 paltry basis point to 0.4%.

BAC’s return on average assets of 1.23% was up 28bps, and its return on average common shareholders’ equity of 11% was up 310 bps. BAC has made dramatic improvements towards increasing its return on average tangible common shareholders’ equity to 15.5%, up 450 bps YoY. The efficiency ratio of 57% has improved by 396 bps. These were numbers that 4-5 years ago many analysts said were virtually impossible for the big banks to achieve once again.

BAC’s loans and leases grew by 3% overall, with consumer up 5% and commercial up 2%. Average deposits continued to increase by 4%. Merrill brokerage assets increased by 22% to over $200 billion. Client balances within Global Wealth & Investment Management increase to $2.8 trillion. The bank’s capital and liquidity position is stronger than it has ever been with $164 billion of Common Equity Tier 1 Capital (CET1) and a CET1 ratio of 11.4%. Bank of America has a staggering $537 billion of average Global Liquidity Sources. Year-to-date, BAC has repurchased $14.9 billion of common shares and paid $4 billion in common dividends, returning 96% of net income available to common shareholders.

In years past when I wrote about Bank of America, I found myself extremely frustrated at times. I saw what the future could be and the returns the company should be able to generate, which were being ignored by the market, which was focused on the short-term issues plaguing the firm. Now as we sit going into 2019, we have a bank generating a 15% plus return on tangible equity, without taking the excessive risks as in prior cycles. The balance sheet has never been stronger. The company has multiple business platforms such as Merrill and U.S. Trust that delineate it versus many of its competitors and warrant a higher valuation. The worst part about past selloffs in the stock though was that management couldn’t fully take advantage with a massive buyback. Instead they had to horde capital to raise their capital ratios. Finally, we have a major selloff that management can capitalize on by using most of its profits to buy back stock at a considerable discount to intrinsic value, thereby enhancing intrinsic value per share.

At a recent price of around $24.50, BAC trades right around its book value per share of $24.33. Tangible book value stands at $17.23 per share and it is important to note that these numbers would be meaningfully higher if it weren’t for the tax changes that caused the company to reduce the value of its DTA, but ultimately the company should realize the benefits of those lost DTAs via a reduced tax rate into the future. BAC’s normalized earnings power is around $2.50 per share and should grow at a faster rate than the overall economy. While management should certainly continue to devote the majority of capital returns to stock buybacks, BAC will offer a rapid growth rate on its dividend payments over the next 5-10 years.

While BAC may not be priced for bankruptcy like it has been in the past, it is priced as though it won’t be able to grow intrinsic value whatsoever and that will not be the case. The company is a well-oiled machine, with several of the most enviable business franchises in the world. For the patient investor that is willing to look past current fears and realistically assess the soundness of the enterprise, BAC offers a great opportunity to average double-digit returns in a market that is highly unlikely to do anything close to that. At T&T Capital Management, we believe BAC is worth between $32-$35. The big banks are not going to be nearly as cyclical as they were in the past, but they are still cyclical. Paying 10 times earnings for a business like this is an absolute steal and I don’t believe that the next recession, whenever it comes, will be anything like the last one. It appears that Warren Buffett feels a similar way about the big banks, as he dramatically increased his positions in them at much higher prices than what they are trading at today. Last I checked, BAC is actually a larger position than WFC in dollar size and I can see why when you look at the outlook and valuations for both firms.

Disclosure: I am/we are long BAC. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[theconservativebrief]

The Florida Senate race this year has given Democrats plenty of reason to be nervous.

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is facing Republican Gov. Rick Scott, one of the best recruits for Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections and a wealthy candidate whose campaign is already outspending Nelson’s by a 4-to-1 margin. The two faced off in a debate on Tuesday night.

Nelson has built a reasonably strong brand, representing Florida in the Senate since 2001. Scott, meanwhile, has never won a race by more than a point in years friendlier to the GOP. But the GOP governor is still a serious threat in a state where elections are rarely decided by more than a point or two.

For a time, Scott had jumped out to a slim lead in the polling — and a major advantage in campaign spending, having already spent more than $27 million to Nelson’s $6 million, according to Open Secrets. Democrats have had to hope the lopsided spending explained the Republican lead in the polls and can therefore be corrected as their own spending picks up in the last weeks of the campaign.

“Having been in the fight with Scott in the past, there is a flow to the way they campaign: they use their financial advantage to get on TV early, and Scott, to his credit, is tireless on the stump,” Steve Schale, a Democratic operative in Florida, told me. “So am I worried about Nelson? Sure, but not any more or less than any Democrat running in a competitive race here. This race was always destined to be close, it is just how Florida works these days, for better or worse.”

Florida will be one of 2018’s marquee — and probably its most expensive — Senate races. Democrats are on defense in yet another state Trump won in 2016. They can’t afford to lose any additional seats if they’re to have any hope of reclaiming the majority.

“The two biggest determinants in the Senate race are, one, resources and, two, Donald Trump,” Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Republican operative in Florida, told me earlier this year. “Either one of them can win, but my sense is that if Nelson has comparable resources then the governor is the underdog.”

Scott’s candidacy was long expected. Trump and Washington Republicans had been courting him. He is term-limited at the end of this year, after his two four-year terms as governor. He doesn’t really have anything else to do.

Rick Scott is also very, very rich, and he has shown before he’s willing to spend whatever it takes to win a statewide election in Florida.

He is worth about $150 million, according to the most recent estimates, after making his money as a hospital executive. He spent $75 million of his own money to win the 2010 gubernatorial race — his first political campaign of any kind — and another $13 million in his 2014 reelection campaign.

Scott never won big: He beat Alex Sink by 1.2 percentage points in 2010 and Charlie Crist by 1 point in 2014. But he did win.

“With Scott, this is a guy who’s been told he can’t do something like this twice, and twice proven everybody wrong,” Schale told me. “A more conventional politician might look at national mood and think, ‘Wow, this could be really uphill.’ Scott’s view is: ‘You told me I couldn’t win the first time, and I won. Why would I listen to you now?’”

Scott’s candidacy is also important from a national perspective. Republicans theoretically have a lot of Senate pickup opportunities this year; Nelson is one of 10 Democrats up for reelection in a state that Trump won in 2016. But they have at times struggled to attract top-tier candidates. To give one example: Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, representing Montana, a state that Trump won by 21 points, still rated his race as lean Democratic because his GOP isn’t considered top-notch and Tester has polled well.

The Florida governor, on the other hand, is a hardened, well-qualified, and sure to be well-funded candidate. Scott will force Democrats to take Florida seriously and to invest the necessary time and money into the race to make sure Nelson beats Scott. This race will now demand resources that Democrats otherwise could have spent defending their other more vulnerable incumbents or going on offense in states like Arizona, Nevada, or Mississippi.

Republicans currently hold a slim 51-49 advantage in the Senate. Democrats are defending seven of the 10 most competitive races this fall, and need to hold on to every seat they can — including, now, Florida, which Cook rates as a toss-up — if they want a shot at a majority.

“This is a very competitive race, and if the Democrats don’t lay out on it, they’ll lose. They are going to have to step up and help Bill Nelson,” Stipanovich said. “If Scott outspends him 2 to 1, it’s quite likely that Gov. Scott will prevail.”

The current spending figures give Scott that kind of advantage: Open Secret reports that Scott has raised $31 million to Nelson’s $20 million and spent nearly $28 million to Nelson’s $6 million.

Perhaps as a result, Real Clear Politics had Scott leading Nelson by one or two points on average in the polls, until recently. Nelson now holds an equally slim 1.1-point advantage, after a couple of good surveys.

As for the candidates themselves, the Florida Senate race has been lacking in charisma. That was clear again in Tuesday night’s debate. Schale had previously said of his fellow Democrat Nelson: “Not a guy who’s lining up to give the keynote speech at the DNC. Not gonna break any records for his oratory skills.”

Regarding Scott, Stipanovich, the Republican operative, had said: “Gov. Scott doesn’t exactly light up the stage. He’s not the most dynamic and inspiring speaker.”

I profiled Scott in 2013 for Governing magazine and came away with much the same impression:

At the Florida statehouse for National Day of Prayer this May, for instance, the businessman who won Florida’s governorship in 2010 doesn’t work the room so much as he goes through the motions. He dons the same slight smile as each photo is taken. He exchanges a few friendly words with every person who approaches him in the large room on the 21st floor of the Capitol. Standing by the windows, he’s framed by an expansive view of Tallahassee and beyond, but he doesn’t own the scene. There isn’t the charisma you might associate with the governor of the fourth-largest state in the country.

Scott tried to turn that to his advantage in announcing his candidacy.

“Let’s stop sending talkers to Washington. Let’s send some doers to Washington,” he said in his maiden campaign speech. It’s a theme he hits constantly throughout his campaign.

Nelson, meanwhile, sought to portray Scott as a political opportunist.

“While it’s clear that Rick Scott will say or do anything to get elected, I’ve always believed that if you just do the right thing, the politics will take care of itself,” he said in a statement.

They do have strengths, of course. Nelson has been elected in the state three times, after all, most recently by 13 points in 2012 — unheard of in a state where statewide elections are usually decided by a point or two. Schale praised the senator (who once famously went to space) for sticking to Florida-specific issues, like offshore drilling and Medicare for the state’s more elderly population, while mostly avoiding the high-profile spats in Washington on more contentious matters.

“Nelson does a pretty good job as well of avoiding those big fights,” Schale said. “He’s a guy who leans in really hard on issues that are important to the state.”

Scott, meanwhile, rode into office on the Tea Party wave, railing against Obamacare. He seemed for all appearances an ideologue, famously rejecting money for a high-speed rail from the Obama administration, to the chagrin of even some Republicans in his state.

But over the years, he has moderated himself. He has become almost comically on message, refusing to talk about anything except for jobs and the economy and a few other pet issues he picks every legislative session, like raises for teachers. The thrust of his 2018 campaign message is sure to be the 1.6 million jobs created while he’s been governor.

“In the beginning, similar to but not the same as Trump, he had the CEO syndrome,” Stipanovich said. But “he’s gotten better at doing the job. Fewer gaffes, fewer unforced errors, more discipline.”

Most recently, after the Parkland high school shooting that killed 17 people, Scott defied the National Rifle Association and got some modest gun control measures passed in a state that had been to date one of the most gun-friendly in the country. People from both parties commended how the governor handled that crisis. “Scott was actually pretty active in that fight,” Schale said. “He was the first governor to stand up to the NRA.”

But Democrats will “make sure Nelson has everything he needs because you can’t go forward if you go backward first,” Schale said. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario where we win the Senate without winning Florida.”

Ultimately, the race is likely to be determined more by Trump.

Trump won Florida by 100,000 votes in 2016. The state remains divided on the president: Morning Consult reported in July that 50 percent of Floridians approved of Trump and 46 percent disapproved.

Once upon a time, Scott was one of Trump’s biggest fans. He chaired a pro-Trump Super PAC, endorsed the future president in a laudatory USA Today op-ed well before most GOP politicians were doing the same, and spoke at the Republican National Convention. Trump has been one of the biggest boosters of Scott’s potential candidacy, and his administration hasn’t hesitated to bestow some favors on Scott, like rolling back an unpopular plan to allow oil drilling off the state’s shores.

Lately, Scott has tried to put a little distance between himself and the president, notably condemning Trump’s racist “shithole” comments regarding African nations and criticizing the offshore drilling plan. He also opposed the Trump administration’s family separations policy during the crisis at the Mexican border; Florida has a large bloc of Hispanic voters.

“This is a conundrum faced by Republicans everywhere: Can Rick Scott get far enough away from Donald Trump to survive a competitive campaign?” Stipanovich said. “More recently, he is much less likely to embrace Trump publicly on some issue. He’ll bob and weave and obfuscate. That’s telling in itself.”

“A year ago, he could not wait to wrap himself around Donald Trump,” Stipanovich noted.

Original Source -> The very expensive, extremely close Florida Senate race, explained

via The Conservative Brief