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honorhearted · 1 year ago

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darkoneprincess:

Inappropriate to call her by name? She’d understand if he meant due to her status, but was it truly so scandalous in this country to simply address someone with the very same word their parents had given them to be addressed with? From the look on his face - oh, so adorable - and the mention of reputations, she may as well have asked him to sleep next to her. She had to resist the urge to say so out loud, given how scandalized he already seemed by something so natural and innocent. Whether he realized it or not, it had to be his title, his position in the army, that gave him the courage to be so stubborn with her, because titles gave power, and his men for one reason or another had not exactly minded her ‘molly coddling’ one bit, and in fact came back in the friendliest of ways besides fumbling when having to decide how to call her. Yet he didn’t seem to notice the power her title gave her - not him, of course, but power to be ridiculous and not be seen as so by most if not all.

She was considering being fully honest with him when he made her actually stop walking for a moment because of his next words, absolutely appalled. She opened her arms and dropped them again, mouth opening in search for words. "How… how old do you think I am?” she nearly whispered, “Goodness, I know I haven’t exactly gone through my beauty process lately, I’m not exactly at my best, but you don’t actually think I’ll be exhausted over this little walk, do you? Am I so worn-off looking? I must get my hands on powder-But no, no, thank you, I’m actually tracking the woman following the signs on the ground, so I’ll stay on foot.“ She touched her hair self-consciously but that was ridiculous, her hair was perfect. Perhaps they should share a bit more about what they did before meeting each other, was it possible that he hadn’t chatted with any of his men? They already heard some of her stories, they knew she wasn’t exactly sitting at the castle all day - but then, they were men, they didn’t usually share tea and gossiped with their superiors. "Sorry, sweetie,” she told the horse, coming closer enough to pet it, “I’ll be with you on our way back, don’t take it personally. You are a good horse.”

Ah, he was worried she’d embarrass him in front of his superiors. That was very understandable, but right now there were none, even his men weren’t there, so that wasn’t all of it. “I wouldn’t call you anything but Major Tallmadge around anyone who would judge you poorly for it, and that includes but isn’t limited to your direct superiors. Back home everyone calls me Emma by my request, but if a king is witnessing the conversation I’ll be addressed as 'Your Highness’ even by my closest friends, and that includes people who will happily call me an idiot when we are alone. I don’t like that they must use titles, but appearances must be kept to appease those who believe respect comes from distance. I don’t, but that’s not important now. Just know that I’ll act the way a princess is meant to act in formal situations.” By then, she had moved to walk beside him, so it could be a proper conversation and not a match. He was so tall, the mere fact that she hadn’t really noticed it before said how unfairly physically distant she had been.

“I’m about to say something that you will hate, and you’ll want to interrupt me, but please be a gentleman and let me finish. Then you can disagree or… consider the truth in what I’ve said. You’ve missed two important things here when it comes to my behavior. I believe that is because you are not… malignant, nor particularly inclined to gossip yourself, although that’s just a guess,” she paused, deciding which one to start with, “One: I’m to be queen. Some day I’m actually going to sit on a throne and I live in an actual castle. That… as awful as it is, to the majority of people, even when they don’t have their own monarch, means that whatever I’m doing surely has to be fashionable, or at worse I’m an eccentric, which really just means insane of course, but if you are either very rich or powerful, or in my case both, it’s an acceptable sort of insanity that has to be expected from my kind. They are not going to actually take my antics seriously unless the situation truly requires it, just accept what we do as appropriate for us. Obviously I’m just like everybody else except more lucky, but I promise you, most people will believe what we do makes sense because it must make sense for people 'like us’, as if we are a different species, and that can absolutely span from petnames or wearing outrageous clothing to… outlawing the color red or refusing to speak louder than a whisper so that your valet must repeat every word you say for the room,” she wrinkled her nose at that memory, “The second thing you’ve not realized yet is that I’ve already been calling 'sweetie’ and 'dear’ and 'darling’ and 'honey’ everyone at camp whenever it felt right, sometimes while sharing tea with them. I do it with everyone I like, so it says nothing about the person that it’s directed to except that I enjoy their presence. I like them so it slips out without me even noticing. And I like you as well, very much, and everyone can see that too. So if I call everyone names and you are just… Major even at camp, well… chances are everyone is going to think I’m keeping distance because we are hiding something scandalous. It is the most suspicious way to deal with rumors, to be formal with you while clearly enjoying your company, and so close to everybody else. If I call you Benjamin, which is a lovely name by the way, or Ben, or even dear, I doubt they’ll pay attention. If I call you Major, and then we fight like husband and wife, they’ll fully believe I ruined your reputation… among other things. It sounds wrong at this point.”

“Old?” Ben echoed, regarding her incredulously. “Madam, I am merely saying that we have a long journey ahead of us, and you could do with as much rest as physically possible! You will be of no use to any ‘fair maidens’ and ‘subjects in distress’ if you are poorly rested, now will you?”

Sometimes, he found, it was best to use her altruism against her, and by God, Emma was so damnably kind that he was amazed they hadn’t stopped to inspect every tree, clambering insect, and damnable blade of grass along the way.

Artillery nickered as Emma pet her nose, and with a sigh, Ben rolled his eyes toward the heavens. No, the princess was not old, but she could certainly do with a bit of elderly wisdom!

After finally falling into step alongside him, she gave her reassurances -- reassurances he desperately wanted to believe -- and he offered a nod of his head. “Right,” he muttered. “Well, no offense to your stance on distance and respect, but I would advise you to not call the men by name. It makes it all the more painful once they end up dead and you have to live with their memory...a memory that wouldn’t be nearly so gaping, were you to have kept your distance.” Looking away, his expression hardened. “I am speaking from experience. Take my advice or leave it.”

“I’m about to say something that you will hate...”

Ben snorted. “Yes. Because every other quibble has been so pleasant thus far. But very well...you are technically capable of beheading me, so I’ll listen.” In spite of himself, a small smile lifted the corner of his mouth. Or at least, it had been present until Emma started giving her rambling speech.

As much as he hated anything about monarchial rule -- or at the very least, England’s -- he could feel a certain level of pity for her being entrapped by circumstance. As a freedom fighter, he supposed he had to; that it was unavoidable to not feel empathy for those in their varying prisons, no matter how different.

Slowly but surely, her long speech started to make sense, and unbidden, a healthy pink spread from Ben’s face to well below his cravat and he swallowed, mortified by the implications. She was right -- God, why did she have to be right? -- and with a grimace, he bobbed his head in agreement. “Fair point,” he grumbled. “Still, seeing how it goes against my entire upbringing, I would prefer that you stick to ‘dear’ like with everyone else, rather than my Christian name. Only familiars are supposed to speak as such, and I have only been in your company for the past few days. That is not nearly enough time to develop such an intimate acquaintance.”

Arguably, it was. War forged friendships in commiseration and blood, and with a heaviness in his heart, Ben realized that he was finally feeling a touch of guilt. He was being cruel to Emma on purpose -- he realized that now. He did not find her loathsome nor unpleasant (not beyond her inability to listen, anyway), and with each friend he lost, he wasn’t so sure he could bear to tack on yet another. Comradery led to loss...loss he could no longer stand.

Exhaling through his nose, long and deep, he asked, “And according to the woman’s tracks, how much farther do we have?”

#darkoneprincess #a royal pain #//PROGRESS?? MAYBE?? lol #like he at least feels bad for being 'huffy and puffy' now xD #and LOL love it #ofc emma would be right there while they just trash talk her (affectionate)#especially since ben's like SHE DOESN'T TAKE ME SERIOUSLY >:(

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dereksmcgrath · 3 years ago

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I had said before that the number 108 can be unlucky. It wasn’t unlucky at all for My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. But 108 is kind of unlucky for this episode: not only are we focusing on the Villains, but we just aren’t giving their story the structure and emotional weight it deserves.

(I either opened with those remarks or just made a bunch of corny jokes about how “Meta Liberation Army” can be abbreviated as MLA--and I’m saving those jokes for a future review.)

“My Villain Academia,” My Hero Academia Episode 108 (Season 5, Episode 20)

An adaptation of Chapters 220, 221, 222, 223, and 224 of the manga, by Kohei Horikoshi, translated by Caleb Cook with lettering by John Hunt and available from Viz.

My Hero Academia is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Spoilers up to My Hero Academia Chapter 325.

When I teach literature, I refer to the plot as a problem: it is something that the protagonist is trying to solve. This problem can take various forms, but it is often as an antagonist that the protagonist confronts. When this episode has the Doctor refer to a “villain” as someone “who turns nonsense into action,” that’s kind of the point: the villain is here to get the plot rolling. Without them, you don’t have a hero, you don’t have a story.

It has been long accepted by a lot of fans and scholars that superheroes tend to uphold the status quo. I think the first time I gained awareness of this popular argument--although likely not the first time I encountered it--was Dr. Horrible’s mangled remark that “the status is not quo.” More recently, however, I have been reading academic books on superheroes, and not only does that argument persist--that superheroes represent law, order, and upholding traditional norms even in the face of new evidence or out of sheer obliviousness to the need for systemic change--but the argument has become that, if a superhero story does not have the heroes doing something to effect systemic change, then it’s not a good story. I may be misunderstanding that argument, but if I don’t, then it’s not an argument I can stand behind.

The argument is that superhero stories tend to reduce complex issues to having avatars for each side of the issue--the good guy and the bad guy--get into a fight, where we are focused on the spectacle rather than on seeing actual people engaging in the actual work needed to address problems not on the individual level--again, one good guy physically fighting one bad guy--but on a larger scope.

I am oversimplifying this argument, as even those same scholars will point out that, initially, of course there were superhero stories that had the protagonist taking the fight against the system. Superman is one of the ones named most frequently, whether in his initial comic book premiere doing what police and media would not to face down a corrupt senator (a sign of things to come in his later fights with Luthor and in Justice League Unlimited) or fighting the Klan (in the meta sense, fighting their analogue on the radio show and, more recently, literally in the comics). It kind of makes Superman look like one influence on the Peerless Thief in My Hero Academia, but we’ll get to him far later in these episodic reviews.

Even with that exception of Superman, it’s not hard for me to agree with the argument that heroes prop up the status quo. That has been the plot point for My Hero Academia and why this war against the villains has been incoming: a system that depended on just All Might, now depending on a wife-beating abusive father like Endeavor with his crimes not popularly known, has a level of corruption that cannot stand up with just one man’s shining example of honest goodness and integrity to be the Symbol of Peace. It was why I appreciated the manga eventually showing that, yes, there was an entire network of assassins within the Hero Public Safety Commission to keep All Might’s hands clean--and, in retrospect, while Lady Nagant was our first named example, given what Hawks ends up doing to Twice, deadly force may be frowned upon by law in MHA but has to have been something Hawks was told he had legal authority to do. (Also, as I will never stop pointing out, Endeavor unintentionally and unknowingly killed another Pro Hero in Vigilantes, and we’re just supposed to pretend that was fine.)

But going back to this academic argument, about how superhero stories tend to stick to one-on-one battles and don’t let the heroes effect systematic change, I’m ambivalent. There have been a range of superhero or superhero-adjacent stories that have the protagonist making on-page, on-screen, obvious work to not just get into fisticuffs with the bad guy. I already pointed out Superman’s first appearance and his fight against the Klan. I can also identify other examples, some hamfisted like Captain Planet, others more nuanced like Korra reaching out to Kuvira in The Legend of Korra. While the scholarship I read bristles at the idea of reducing these fights to just avatars for good and evil, I shrug and say that kind of comes with the territory of a superhero story. I hate justifying tropes: it’s like saying “this fanservice is acceptable because that’s part of the genre”--which leads to its own set of problems, especially when I hear fools defending sexualized fanservice that is just not needed for the story and is abusive by gender and representation. Heck, The Brave and the Bold animated series had Equinox and Batman battle as giants representing the avatars of chaos and order--which is confusing enough, with Equinox having a vaguely yin-yang motif that debunks any clean separation between chaos and order. And yet, here I am, arguing that this kind of fanservice of a hero and a villain beating each other up is to be expected: you have a debate about ideals of what a hero should do when you see Iron Man and Captain America each representing a side in a fight, whether the poorly handled comic book Civil War or the better film version, and even then, that film also lets the individual personalities get in the way of saying anything meaningful about government oversight and individual agency, ideas better handled in that other Captain America film, The Winter Soldier, and even then that film also gets stuck in just being about Steve and Bucky’s relationship.

All of this is me saying that, when you add a superhero to the fight, you’re going to feel disappointed that almost nothing systematically changes in its setting, not only because, as I’m hinting, these are stories about individuals fighting each other and not stories about the individual against society or nature, but also because a superhero can only change so much of their world for the better before that world no longer looks like our own or a new societal problem has to emerge to create the problem that is the plot itself for wherever the story goes next. Once a hero makes the setting into a utopia, either a new problem emerges to show the fiction of that story and that a dystopia is always married to a utopia, or the utopia is revealed to be hollow (Shigaraki’s word of the day) and fake. My Hero Academia already showed the utopia of a world where people get to live with their Quirks is fake, not only by (largely necessary) regulation of those Quirks but also, as we’ll see more with Spinner, Compress, Toga, Gigantomachia, and others, looking different, or being socially aware, or having disabilities, or being the “wrong” size, excluded you from that society.

What I’m trying to say is that, once you add superheroes into a story to fix the problem, you can’t show what systematic change looks like. How do you write a story where it makes sense that no hero came to save Tenko Shimura from becoming Tomura Shigaraki? What’s a story like My Hero Academia supposed to do to show the problems with a society, if you have superheroes who can fix those problems by beating up the bad guys?

Solution: You have the bad guys beat each other up.

In this corner, the League of Villains, people who were made outcasts because they did not fit in--which reveals the flaws of a society that is not accepting people who may not be able to change their past or their bodily conditions.

And in this corner, the Meta Liberation Army--which reveals how society breeds people in business, media, and politics who abuse laws and societal norms to elevate themselves and create a social Darwinist nightmare.

Granted, these are some foolish schmucks for starting up this fight in public, but I’ll address how the MLA just doesn’t work in a later episode review.

But for now, let the fight begin. No matter who wins, at least we see how society at large allowed these Villains to emerge--and we can either see All For One’s dictatorial forces get wrecked, or see Re-Destro’s fascistic oafs get wrecked.

Unfortunately, no matter who wins, the Pro Heroes are going to lose, too.

I am overly impressed with myself for realizing all of this. And I say “overly” not only because this is arrogant of me but also because I’m pretty sure just about every other person following this series already came to this conclusion: if you want to show actual systematic change, you have to show what the villains are up to, because they are the ones showing the holes in our society that need to be fixed. Either a villain exploits those holes to cause damage to people, or the villain is themselves representative of unfairness in the system and, by breaking the law to save themselves and others, are unfairly maligned as villains.

That being said, I’m not a big fan of the “[Insert villain’s name here] was right” arguments. Yes, Magneto is justified in his goals and ethics, and the debate is the means he takes to them, so his existence is to show why the X-Men are screwing up and need to be more radical. Yes, Killmonger is right that Wakanda’s isolationism is reckless and allows for travesties to persist, but his choices are largely out of individual desire for vengeance, so he’s an example that T’Challa can follow. Taken too far, though, and you get people who preach anti-establishment notions without having an alternative or are just trying to sound edgy rather than actually pointing to the actual problem: it’s someone who celebrates the Joker without recognizing that, no, you don’t want to be that asshole, or who celebrate villain-turned-hero Vegeta just because he looks cool and without appreciating what steps he took to change and what fall he experienced before he got to the point of being a villain.

In all these cases, if done poorly, you have the same tired trend of a villain existing only so long so that the hero changes for the better. It’s as tiresome as I unfortunately sometimes feel reading post after post celebrating how complex and sympathetic the League of Villains’ members can be when, still, a lot of them are just assholes using empty excuses to defend atrocious behavior (primarily, just All for One) or, for the most part, are people put into desperate situations (Shigaraki, Toga, Spinner, Dabi, Twice) who are doing the best they can (Twice, Spinner) even if their actions are not defensible (Toga) or also out of line (Shigaraki) due to their own refusal to seek the legitimate help they need to work through their issues (Dabi).

It’s hard to read posts online calling the League members sympathetic when we have not had a chance in the anime to know their full story. And as with the slow revelation that this setting is not really as welcoming of people of all shapes and sizes as initially hinted, so too do the villains’ backstories show that they were justified in some actions they took, except for those that led to deaths. Too bad none of that really pops up in a meaningful way in this episode that would rather tease out Shigaraki’s back story, keep dangling the obvious answer to who Dabi really is, and short-sells what should be a meaningful friendship between Twice and Giran but is just dropped as fast as Shigaraki takes off Twice’s mask. Jeez, Shigaraki, that is a dick move to Twice…

But I’m already on Page 4 of this rant, so let’s get to the episode already.

Pulling back the curtain yet again, these reviews tend to follow a pattern. Since I first wrote about the MHA anime, my process would be to first re-read the chapters, then watch the episode in Japanese, then watch the episode in English, so as to retrace my steps in how I first encountered most of these stories, as well as to see any patterns in the production process moving from manga to anime to localization. But with this episode, that practice was made nearly impossible given how prevalent the hostility towards this episode, this arc, and this season have been, especially when a friend shared numerous reactions from other viewers about this episode. Seriously, for all the whining I just did the previous four pages, you could read this person or this person who are much better at explaining why the introduction of Re-Destro to the anime sucks, for more than one reason.

So, I had a different approach: I already had the flaws to this episode shared with me by other viewers, then I listened to the English dub, then I re-read the chapters, then I watched the Japanese dub with English subtitles.

And, boy, am I grateful I took that approach, because this episode is a ton of talking--too much talking. For an anime adaptation that cut so much of Spinner’s Leonardo from Ninja Turtles narration, I’m shocked that they kept the boring parts of his narration and cut the only good parts, including the very opening that had a lot more action and gave us a reason to sympathize with these Villains.

I know I’m a snob regarding animation; I have expressed before how, despite my love for animated works, I tend to appreciate them more for what they do with storytelling rather than the spectacle of the visuals. I really dislike works where the value of the work is in the animation alone: I am here to see a story unfold, and if there is no narrative, no plot, no beginning-middle-and-end, then what I’m encountering is a museum piece, not a work of cinema. (Feel free to bash me for that hot take: I’m still railing against Patty Jenkins’s ridiculous argument from this week.)

And as with most forms of karmic punishment I experience, I pay the price: if I rail long enough about works that are only all about the animation and not the story, then my punishment is an episode where all we get is a lot of story and not much in the way of animation. Yet I can’t even say we got a story here, so much as back story, exposition, needless narration--it’s Blade Runner only bad. As much as I have loved how this anime’s storyboards stick so close to the manga panels, the pan over the League listening to Shigaraki’s vague back story felt like the least interesting way to handle this scene, especially when it excises so much of Spinner coming around from questioning Shigaraki to sympathizing with him. Who would have imagined cutting so much of Spinner’s initial narration and the opening from Chapter 220 would screw up how to adapt Shigaraki’s back story from Chapter 222.

The anime cuts how this arc begins in the manga: Chapter 220 starts with Spinner facing off against an extremist group that hates him for his reptilian appearance--a moment that would have garnered more sympathy from the audience for these Villains than this episode is exhorting. We needed a scene to get behind these villains and agree with them, before we are shocked to hear Shigaraki say what we have long expected, that he just wants to destroy everything and make everyone as miserable as he has felt, to wake us up that, no, you may sympathize with these outcasts (to use Twice’s one-word self-description), but you shouldn’t agree with Shigaraki’s goals. (I know Shigaraki relents somewhat when asked by Toga, but it’s hard to backtrack from “destroy it all” to “destroy it all but not the stuff my friends like.” How on Earth is Shigaraki going to destroy Izuku when Spinner somewhat admires the guy and Toga...well, yeah, best left unsaid.)

While watching this episode, I also was reviewing other topics about anime and manga I’m going to go into more detail about later this month, and one topic of discussion is the assumption that anime and manga, by their visual style and story tropes, especially shojo and shonen, tend to be about big expressions--emotional outpours in words, movements, facial expressions, and actions to more easily communicate what is happening, regardless of context.

I hate to keep repeating “ambivalent” in my reviews (another academic word I need to expunge from my lexicon for a bit), but I’m ambivalent about that argument, that anime and manga, especially shojo and shonen, are better at communicating. If your character is unreadable, that likely has an intentional reason: we don’t get much of a read on the Doctor in this episode, not helped by his mustache and glasses, but we also don’t get a read on what Shigaraki is up to.

This episode only heightens my regard, not just about anime, manga, shojo, or shonen, but in animation and comics at large, that not everything is readable in what a character is planning.

On the one hand, I do agree that visual works tend to make ideas easier to comprehend for some people who can engage with such visual works. As someone who teaches English literature and writing in a United States setting, I use comics in my teaching to cross language and cultural barriers, especially for students for whom English is not their primary language or who are the first in their family raised in the United States. And this teaching approach also helps in reverse: I include manga and anime in my teaching to show how not all details cross language and cultural barriers in a one-to-one correspondence, hence the challenges of translation and localization, and how all of us struggle to make ourselves understood within our own primary language to someone else who is fluent in that language, let alone trying to translate into another language or to present ourselves in a different set of cultural norms.

On the other hand, anime and manga are not a fixed genre. Yes, I agree that the images tend to emphasize big eyes, big expressions, and big motions--but that’s like saying all animation is Looney Tunes, or all animation is Disney, or is Dragon Ball, and so on. Likewise, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, shonen is more than just one type of storytelling, and the same goes for shojo. This arc of My Hero Academia is placing focus, after admittedly far too long, on the Villains as the protagonists--and their behavior pokes holes in the idea that things are obvious, when the Villains are themselves such liars, so crafty, have their own hidden agendas, are keeping secrets from each other. It’s as if their behavior is a commentary on this plot and how BONES is adapting it: the Villains are keeping secrets, so this plot is going to keep its secrets for just who Re-Destro and the Meta Liberation Army are, what their personalities are like, and what Shigaraki and the Doctor have in mind for getting what he wants. We’re even kept in the dark as to Shigaraki’s full back story; we’re in the same position he is, knowing just little bits and able to make assumptions from a handful of visual cues and memories, without fully knowing who the hell Tenko is. Add to that Spinner’s struggles to narrate all of this and to get into Toga’s mind and Shigaraki’s mind, as well as Dabi’s own secrets and agenda with Hawks, and we have a story that blows up the notion that anime and manga are easier for reading a character’s mindset: no, they are not always easier, not when the creators deliberately mislead the audience or keep them in the dark for a surprise.

By keeping so much of the audience in the dark, so that we become aware of how deceitful villains can be, and we are put into Shigaraki’s place of not knowing where he came from. This should be a set of brilliant choices by BONES to adapt this arc in this manner. But the problem is, no, almost none of this gets anywhere close to brilliant. It’s not brilliant--it’s frustrating, because we already know what is going to happen. You can just pull up the manga at low cost with a Viz account and read all of this in the order it was originally presented and get the answers ahead of time. And if you’ve been reading the manga all along, you already know how this arc ends, and you know stuff from the next set of arcs so that you do know already what Shigaraki’s back story is, what Dabi was really up to, who survives, who dies. You even learn more about Compress’s back story--stuff that really should have been hinted at much earlier in the manga, and could have been hinted in this adaptation but as of this episode has not.

Maybe that is why the anime removes Re-Destro murdering his assistant: it’s such an odd moment that it is challenging for me to get a read on Re-Destro, as he alternates in the manga between being very friendly and devoted to his comrades but also violent and heartless.

It may be obvious that I didn’t like much of this episode. I think when I stopped taking this episode seriously was when I heard the voices. Like I said, I tend to start with the Japanese dub first before getting to the English dub. And I have nothing at all against English dubs: I would not be listening to them as much as I have, often first before I ever hear the Japanese, and I would not be a fan of so many English-speaking actors in dubs if I had any animosity to the craft, their work, and the benefit they provide for creating a larger audience for these stories. And nothing against Larry Brantley and Sonny Strait, but some of this casting feels off. I wasn’t able to take this episode seriously as soon as I heard the voice distortion that was used for Re-Destro’s phone call: that took me out of the story. If I had the chance for localization, I would really need Twice or someone to call out how freaking ridiculous that Mickey Mouse voice sounded. You have freaking Sonny Strait here: use the Krillin voice, use the Chibi Ragnarok voice, use the Usopp voice--use something, really go bizarre here, it’s just a voice distortion device! And as I said, nothing against Strait, but when I hear Re-Destro when I read the manga, that’s not the voice I have in mind. For right now, HIroaki Hirata in the Japanese dub is closer to that smoothness I expected for this character. But I have no doubt Strait will do excellent as Re-Destro’s empowered form: think Strait’s role in The Intruder II from Toonami. It’s just that Re-Destro in the English dub is lacking that odd refinement I was expecting.

Granted, it’s the same problem for me when I hear Brantley as Spinner: I am making unfair assumptions that don’t suit the goals of the creators when it comes to this character. It is sadly not as obvious in this episode as it is in the manga: this arc in the manga starts with Horikoshi invoking Laird and Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by having Spinner, who is already a sword-wielding reptilian martial artist, narrating just like how Leonardo narrating at the beginning of the very first issue of TMNT. I wanted a voice for the English dub that is like Leonardo’s, a little higher pitch and more youthful, like what Brian Tochi brought in the live-action Turtles film or what Cam Clarke and Michael Sinterniklaas bring in the animated versions. I think, for the Japanese dub, Ryo Iwasaki’s performance as Spinner is very close to what I expected. But that also may seem too obvious: Spinner may be young, but giving him an older-sounding voice can belie his inexperience, youthfulness, and naivete, similar to how people make assumptions about him by his reptilian appearance. The anime is putting me into my place--I think of Spinner one way other than who he really is, so I’m no better than the people around him who have discriminated against him for his physical appearance.

Just as I have a set of assumptions that unfairly influence how I would cast Spinner, I also think Re-Destro should have sounded more refined and less graveley in the English dub. But my expectations belie that, just the Joker whom he resembles, Re-Destro puts on this cultured facade to hide that he is just another violent gangster thug, someone who would kill his own assistant. I know I cited examples above about how complex Re-Destro is, but it’s hard for me to see him as sympathetic just because he’s crying over something he did out of his own volition: he coldly killed his office assistant Miyashita, his tears and kind words don’t suddenly make this a warm and cuddly death, we don’t get to think of him as our woobie. It only makes it more irritating that BONES so far has cut not only that scene of Re-Destro killing Miyashita but also Re-Destro’s TV commercial: it would clue us in that the reason he has that gravelly voice is because, no matter how much he tries to present himself on TV, he is not that kind of a man.

But since I invoked the Joker comparison to Re-Destro, yeah, I’m disappointed we didn’t get Troy Baker as Re-Destro, as unlikely as I imagine that would be to happen, regardless of Baker’s previous work with Funimation. It does lend a bit more to conspiracy theories on my part, though, given casting director Colleen Clinkenbeard telling Twitter followers to stop expecting Mark Hamill in MHA, it’s never happening--we can’t even get Troy Baker doing his Mark Hamill Joker.

(I’m not being fair to Baker: I’m not saying his Joker is at all bad--it is not, he has been excellent as Joker, especially playing him and Batman in the Ninja Turtles crossover film, but it is obvious Baker is performing the kind of Joker that came out of Hamill, so I’m trying to say he’s doing the “Hamill Joker,” rather than the “Nicholson Joker,” the “Ledger Joker,” or the “Caesar Romero Joker”).

It’s also a challenge to sympathize with these characters when we aren’t getting what this arc should give them: a re-introduction. I hate approaching this episode in a post-James Gunn The Suicide Squad world, but seeing how much MHA owes to not The Suicide Squad of the comics but that motif in so many superhero comics, there is that missed opportunity to reacquaint the audience with who are the members of the League of Villains. So, where the hell is my freeze-frame re-introduction to each League member? There was that fan theory a long time ago that Giran was really Present Mic in disguise: imagine doing Present Mic’s introduction of characters by name, Quirk, and pithy comment, only it’s Giran in the announcer seat this time.

(Don’t even get me started on how annoying it is to have Izuku handling the post-credit preview: give that to Spinner.)

Again, maybe it is brilliant for BONES not to include some re-introduction scenes, whether narrated by Giran or happening naturally in conversation between these characters. These Villains barely know each other’s back story, so there’s no artifice where they would believably share their back stories to each other in conversation in this context. And as I said, Shigaraki does not know enough about his own past, and Dabi is hiding his real identity. But when we’re stuck with Spinner as our half-hearted narrator, who seems not to know why he and Toga are still here with Stain being gone, and when Toga is this dull in her answer about what keeps her going after Stain’s arrest, and when Spinner himself seems not to know what he’s still doing here, all of that does not communicate a reason for us to keep going with this story.

I know this arc is going to get better, storywise at least, just based on how it went in the manga. I can only hope that the animation can capture the chaos that the original manga illustrations showed. But I am trying to think what a new viewer is going to do if this is their introduction to this series. I’m not invoking the Episode 7 Rule, I’m not doing a hypothetical experiment to gauge which episodes are the best to bring a newbie into this series--I am asking, honestly, if a fan was already into this series, and was watching it one Saturday morning, and a friend or roommate or relative saw them watching, they would be utterly lost about why they should care about this. Even the explanation for why Twice is indebted to Giran is presented as such an afterthought that does disservice to a potentially emotional moment, to what is supposed to be a pretty deep friendship, as deep as it can be for a weapons trader like Giran and an outcast-turned-criminal like Twice, so that, when Twice helps rescue Giran, we feel that emotional payoff.

It is honestly shocking that, for all the throwbacks, recaps, and flashbacks we get, including how Giran’s fingers match up to previous places where the League fought, that this still leaves a new viewer in the dark. And the problem lies at the feet of MHA arriving at a fifth-season slump: the series has gone on so long that things feel lazy and making far too many assumptions on what knowledge the audience is bringing. You’re not getting a bigger audience if you keep appealing to the diehard fans and the people reading the manga. After all, why would you keep doing ridiculous recaps and flashbacks if the fans already know what happened?

But speaking of the recaps and flashbacks, that should have been how this episode redeemed itself. As I said last time, if you re-worked the order of episodes to start with the Oboro Shirakumo story, that would be more shocking. But what if this episode could have been the very first episode of the season, and following the trend of previous seasons, make it a recap episode? We already had Izuku narrating a clip show, Class 1A at the pool, a photojournalist visiting the UA Dorms--it would be so much more interesting seeing “League of Villains camping in the woods while in the background Shigaraki gets squished by a giant.” Have the Villains tell campfire stories about how they got here: it would be a great excuse to re-use the animation and save on the budget. You could fit in a few gags, as Toga starts telling a really gruesome story but gets distracted by all the blood in it, while Twice’s story bounces between sugar-sweet happy and grim-and-dark chaos, while Compress and Spinner are stuck trying to keep them focused. It’d be a hell of a lot more interesting than how BONES somehow screwed up a potentially emotional volatile moment between Izuku and Amajiki that would put into question whether Izuku is going to have to kill a Villain and just how devastated Amajiki feels after Mirio lost his Quirk.

And speaking of whether Izuku is going to have to kill a Villain: obviously, this arc is setting up how much more dangerous Shigaraki is than UA gave him credit. Back in Season 2, I hated how Nezu and UA staff referred to him as a “man-child,” given the connotations that have surrounded masculinity and being a man. I wrote that before 2016; in this post-2016 atmosphere, and the increased prevalence of toxic masculinity, I am, once again, that annoying word ambivalent. I am likewise ambivalent how well this series has shown Shigaraki to be able to form the plan he does by episode’s end. We’re only told by Spinner how much faster Shigaraki is getting and how much slower Gigantomachia has become--but the animation doesn’t show that. And we’re being told how great Shigaraki’s plan is--when it sounds ridiculous.

By cutting so much of Spinner’s narration from the manga, we also don’t get a scene where Spinner confronts Shigaraki to ask him what is his plan. Up to that point, Shigaraki has said that, with Kurogiri gone over the last month and the computers at the old League hideout destroyed, they can’t reach the Doctor. Spinner is insistent: what is the plan? Shigaraki responds that he just told them--as Gigantomachia crashes through their hideout. The other characters explain for readers like me who aren’t following: Shigaraki just said Kurogiri was gone; to contact the Doctor, Kurogiri sought Gigantomachia; Gigantomachia would sniff out where Shigaraki is and bring him to the Doctor. Brilliant--that shows more attention to Shigaraki’s planning and scheming, and now, it’s not even here in the episode to make me think this guy is that smart. (This episode also had Shigaraki reveal his plan to have Gigantomachia attack the MLA, whereas it was Spinner who predicted that was going to be Shigaraki’s plan--so, again, we’re not letting Spinner stand out as smarter than we expected, either.)

I know Shigaraki is supposed to be our chessmaster, given his association with gaming, especially when he was faking his ignorance about shogi to lower Overhaul’s guard before defeating him and stealing his Quirk-cancelling bullets. But I’m having the same problem I had when following All For One throughout this anime: it just feels like these two antagonists are getting ahead out of sheer luck and because everyone else is a fool, not because either of them are that great as villains. Give me a Xanatos, give me a Luthor, give me a Norman Osborne (not Clone Saga Osborne, a different one). Show me Shigaraki is more than a pawn for All For One and the Doctor, because I don’t feel anything here, not even when we’re supposed to feel that Shigaraki has some legitimate concern for All For One that just isn’t getting communicated to me, whether by my stubbornness or because the content is not giving the animators and actors what they deserve. Eric Vale can sell the hell out of a scene, but Shigaraki’s talk about All For One is not giving that opportunity to the actor.

My remarks this time are a lot more disorganized and doesn’t really arrive at any conclusion. I have more to say about how this arc works and doesn’t work, especially when it comes to how ridiculous the MLA comes across in underestimating the League, but we’ll get to that next time.

#my hero academia #shigaraki #league of villains #meta liberation army #spinner #long post #mha spoilers

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phroyd · 4 years ago

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In Pennsylvania, President Trump and Republicans loyal to him have sought to overturn his defeat by making false claims about widespread voting fraud in Philadelphia.

In Georgia, they have sought to reverse his loss by leveling similar accusations against Atlanta.

In Michigan, Republicans have zeroed in on Detroit, whose elections system the president has falsely portrayed as so flawed that its entire vote should be thrown out.

Lost on no one in those cities is what they have in common: large populations of Black voters.

And there is little ambiguity in the way Mr. Trump and his allies are falsely depicting them as bastions of corruption.

“‘Democrat-led city’ — that’s code for Black,” said the Rev. William J. Barber II, the president of the civil rights group Repairers of the Breach. “They’re coupling ‘city’ and ‘fraud,’ and those two words have been used throughout the years. This is an old playbook being used in the modern time, and people should be aware of that.”

Mr. Trump’s fruitless and pyromaniacal campaign to somehow reverse President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the election rests on the wholesale disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters, a disproportionate number of them Black Americans living in the urban centers of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Notably absent from the effort has been any focus on predominantly white suburban areas where the president performed better, but where he lost ground compared with four years ago and arguably lost the election.

The campaign is not Mr. Trump’s alone. He has had help from supporters and allies throughout the country, as well as from the Republican National Committee and its state branches.

And, in a year in which the nation elected its first Black vice president, Senator Kamala Harris of California, the push represents a newly conspicuous phase of a decades-long effort by the Republican Party to expand power through the suppression of voters of color. Those voters have largely remained loyal to the Democrats while Republicans consistently win the white vote.

Over the past several years, that Republicans’ effort has consisted mostly of new state and local election laws that, in the name of combating fraud, have restricted voting in ways that often place a disproportionate burden on Black and Latino voters. Civil rights leaders and Democrats have cited these laws as not-so-subtle efforts at voter suppression, and, in several court cases, judges have agreed.

Mr. Trump has frequently maligned Black leaders and cities. He applauded Black voters who chose not to vote in 2016 even as he has claimed to have done more for Black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln. And he has not flinched in pursuing what Vanita Gupta, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, called “a return to very blatant Jim Crow tactics — to just try to throw out validly cast ballots and targeting certain cities that are Black-majority.”

Ms. Gupta, who was the chief of the Justice Department’s civil rights division under President Barack Obama, added: “People will say this isn’t the intent, the intent is more partisan. But I think what we are seeing through this election cycle is that in many instances it can appear motivated by partisan politics, but in the end the victims are Black voters.”

Over the weekend, Mr. Trump shared on Twitter his hope that the courts or state lawmakers would throw out the popular vote entirely in states he lost, effectively allowing legislatures to submit their own, pro-Trump slates of electors to the Electoral College.

His lawsuits trying to scuttle the state-by-state certification process that will cement Mr. Biden’s presidency at the Electoral College have failed miserably — including in a stinging dismissal on Saturday by a federal judge in Pennsylvania — and he has put more pressure on local officials to intervene on his behalf.

His effort faces two tests on Monday. Pennsylvania counties are set to submit their certified vote totals. And Michigan’s four-member state canvassing board has its deadline to certify the state’s election results. At least one of its two Republican members has indicated he may not do so because of minor irregularities in Wayne County, which includes Detroit.

State officials and election lawyers say it is highly unlikely that even a failure by the canvassing board to certify would ultimately cost Mr. Biden the state in the Electoral College. But the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the nation’s oldest civil rights law firm, is not taking any chances with the votes from Detroit, with a population that is 79 percent Black.

In a lawsuit it filed against Mr. Trump and his campaign over the weekend, the firm said, “Defendants are openly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters,” adding, “Defendants’ tactics repeat the worst abuses in our nation’s history, as Black Americans were denied a voice in American democracy for most of the first two centuries of the republic.”

The firm said Mr. Trump’s attempt to pressure the Michigan canvassing board and the State Legislature was a violation of the provision against voter intimidation in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

That provision, initially devised to crack down on tactics meant to drive Black and Hispanic voters away from the polls, stipulates that it is illegal “to intimidate, threaten or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote.” The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is asking the Federal District Court in Washington to order the party to cease its pressure campaign.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 flatly prohibits defendants’ efforts to disenfranchise Black people,” the suit reads. “This is a moment that many of us hoped to never face. But here we are, and the law is clear.”

It was the Voting Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson against the wishes of some of his fellow Southern Democrats, that truly started the Republicans on a path to impose limits on voting in the name of fighting election fraud, for which little evidence exists.

The G.O.P. was the original party of civil rights during slavery and afterward. But during the 1960s and beyond it sought to appeal to disaffected, segregationist Democrats through a so-called Southern strategy.

As the percentage of nonwhite voters in the country grew, Democrats began to gain an edge. Republican governors and legislatures enacted a raft of new voting laws, such as requirements that voters at the polls show types of official photo identification that Black and Hispanic people were disproportionately less likely to have.

Mr. Barber said the victory by Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris was all the more remarkable given that it came in the face of those changes in voting laws, showing that “when people have an opportunity to vote, they will clearly vote their interests.”

Mr. Trump’s campaign against the results has focused on moves by state and local officials to make voting easier during the coronavirus pandemic, particularly mail voting.

But the degree to which the president is now pinpointing voters of color for disenfranchisement is striking even by modern Republican standards, especially after he performed better with Black voters this year than he did four years ago.

Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee noted in an interview that Mr. Trump was hyper-focused on his city, which is about 39 percent Black and 19 percent Latino, and not on the predominantly white and Republican-leaning suburbs outside it, which had the same regulations that the Trump campaign was challenging in Milwaukee.

“We are absolutely witnessing in real time an effort to disenfranchise people of color throughout Milwaukee County,” said Mr. Barrett, a Democrat. (The president is also pressing for a recount in Dane County, a predominantly white area of Wisconsin with a considerable college student population.)

In Pennsylvania, Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia, also a Democrat, pointed to the Republican-led General Assembly’s refusal to allow election officials to begin processing absentee ballots early as a direct attack on the vote in his city, which would struggle under the sheer volume of votes while more rural and white counties would have a much easier time processing votes.

“There were efforts right from the very beginning,” Mr. Kenney said.

Perhaps nowhere was the targeting of Black votes more explicit than in Wayne County, Mich., home to Detroit. Though Republicans pressured the Wayne County board of canvassers not to certify the vote, the number of precincts with slightly mismatched data was lower than it was in 2016, when Mr. Trump won the states by a smaller vote margin that was certified unanimously.

In initially resisting the certification of Wayne County’s votes, one of the Republican board members, Monica Palmer, said she was willing to certify every municipality in the county except Detroit, even though some cities, like the largely white Livonia, had worse irregularities. (Ms. Palmer and her fellow Republican on the board, William Hartmann, did vote to certify but have since said they were unfairly pressured into doing so.)

The Republican effort this election cycle, and its focus on disenfranchising so many Black voters, threaten to have a lasting effect on the party, current and former party members said.

“The totality of what Trump is doing and the party is supporting, combined with having the first African-American female vice president — I think it’s difficult to comprehend how much this is going to have an impact,” said Stuart Stevens, a former Republican strategist for Mr. Bush and Mitt Romney who is now an adviser to the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project.

Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said, “How do any of the reported candidates for 2024 come back and say, ‘Oh well, we were silent while the president was trying to throw out the votes in Detroit and Milwaukee and Philadelphia, but overlook that, and support the party and support us now’?”

“It makes no sense,” he added, “for getting support in the Black community going forward.”

Phroyd

#gop #election2020 #disenfranchisement #racism

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delilah-mcmuffin · 4 years ago

Text

The Year I Thought I Wasted

Part 1: Jukebox Fics

It seems like everyone is doing one kind of list or another to sum up 2020. Truthfully, for me, 2020 was mostly a fever dream I’d like to forget. Job loss, pandemic, serious health issues in the family, depression, anxiety...but in the midst of it all I found a way to escape, in the form of writing. Which eventually led to podficcing.

It may seem like a small thing, or a silly thing. There are still a lot of people out there who unfairly malign fan fiction. But for me, it gave me something to look forward to, a way for me to feel productive during the times when I felt hopelessly useless. And it brought me a community and friends that I absolutely cherish, even though I’ve never met them in person.

So, because I love lists, and I think it would be very helpful for me to see my accomplishment in a year when I constantly felt like I had nothing to contribute.

I’m going to do this in parts. Part 1 is a listing of all of my Jukebox Prompt Fills.

Here we go!!

Flutter - Patrick thinks about the way David always flutters his hands over Patrick.

Published: 2020-01-10 Words: 130 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

Fiscal...Whatever - David is the one who comes up with a really reasonable budget for the wedding.

Published: 2020-01-18 Completed: 2020-01-27 Words: 1,704 Chapters: 2/2 Rated: E

Surprisingly Soft - Prompt fill for the_hodag: something with Ronnie & Patrick at the reception.

Published: 2020-04-11 Words: 490 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

Three Spoons - Prompt fill for goodmorninglovelies: David, Patrick and Stevie cuddle together.

Published: 2020-04-11 Words: 311 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

This is Nice - David has climbed into Patrick's lap countless times. It’s his safe space, completely enveloped in the arms of his person. Sure, sometimes David feels a little ridiculous, like Gulliver curling up in the lap of a Lilliputian. But Patrick doesn’t seem to mind, so neither does David.

Published: 2020-05-30 Words: 627 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

More fics below the cut!!

Grass Stains - David mows the lawn. And Patrick loses his fucking mind. That’s it. That’s the entire story.

Published: 2020-05-23 Completed: 2020-06-04 Words: 4,125 Chapters: 2/2 Rated: E

Can’t Argue With That - Patrick and Ronnie agree to say one nice thing to one another.

Published: 2020-06-05 Words: 602 Chapters:1/1 Rated: G

It’s Okay. It’s Just His Business Partner - Patrick startles. He hadn’t been that obvious had he? Is it weird to gaze longingly at your business partner over a small, intimate table in a small, intimate restaurant, with mood lighting and soft music playing in the background, in an atmosphere that David himself had called “cozy”?

Published: 2020-06-03 Completed: 2020-06-09 Words: 3,413 Chapters: 3/3 Rated: T

What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’? - “In here!” David’s voice called out from the direction of the kitchen. Patrick frowned and braced himself. The thought of David alone in the kitchen all day was both terrifying and adorable. He frequently spent his days off cooking things for Patrick, deep diving on Pinterest for recipes he thought would make Patrick’s mouth water. And Patrick appreciated the thought, he really did. It was just that sometimes, after a day spent in the kitchen, all that David had to show for his efforts was the thought. And some kind of lumpy, burnt thing that was supposedly a pot roast or maybe banana bread.

Published: 2020-06-14 Words: 1,435 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: E

Nowhere To Go But Up - “I just...I miss you,” David said, ducking his head to stare at the coffee cup in his hand. “I’m right here, David,” Patrick said, unable to hold back a slight note of annoyance from his voice.“Are you, though?”

Published: 2020-07-01 Words: 2,679 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

Knock, Knock! - When something is so exciting, so important, that he just has to share, those are the times that boundaries get just the tiniest bit...overlooked. Or: The first time Ray walks in on David & Patrick in bed.

Published: 2020-07-06 Words: 584 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

More Than Fine - Patrick sees David before 3.08 and is so overwhelmed he tries to get Ray to take the appointment for him.

Published: 2020-07-24 Words: 270 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

No Substitutions - From the_hodag’s prompt: Patrick has a ukulele. David is horrified.

Published: 2020-08-06 Words: 400 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

Every Good Thing - Another jukebox prompt: the first time david turns down buying something, maybe a nice sweater on ebay, because he deems it too expensive.

Published: 2020-08-07 Words: 750 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

A Little Bit (Too Much) Alexis - David comes home to a little more than he expected.

Published: 2020-08-10 Words: 280 Chapters:1/1 Rated: G

Not On My Watch - A discordant honk breaks the tranquility, and David sees his nigh unflappable husband turn suddenly...well, flappable.

Published: 2020-08-17 Words: 774 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

Underneath Your Clothes - David asks if he can draw Patrick nude. Patrick agrees and has a lot of feelings about it.

Published: 2020-08-20 Words: 953 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

Comparing Notes - Stevie snorts and sputters, covering her mouth with her hand. “Asshole! You made beer come out my nose.” Patrick may be drunk (he’s not, but whatever), but he still has manners. He grabs a handful of tissues from the box on the table and hands them to Stevie. She glares at him from over the fistful of tissues.

Published: 2020-08-20 Words: 900 Chapters:1/1 Rated: T

Hair: A Love Story - When David was 19, Belinda had said she liked a man with a little hair on his chest. Until she’d seen David’s. Then she’d said it was “a bit much” and it just “didn’t do anything” for her. That was the first time David subjected himself to a full body wax. It turned out, she hadn’t liked him hairless either.

Published: 2020-08-26 Words: 675 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

The First Cut is the Deepest - From DelphinaBoswell’s prompt: What if Patrick doesn't go to the Barbecue, but Rachel does? And she and David discover their connection to Patrick.

Published: 2020-09-03 Words: 5,000 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

Talk Dirty(ish) To Me - Prompt from Januarium: Patrick practices dirty talk out loud to get comfortable saying things in front of David.

Published: 2020-09-03 Words: 946 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: M

Pavlova - From spiffymittens’ amazing prompt: David affirms the fuck out of a litte boy trick or treater dressed as a princess or other female character and makes his whole night.

Published: 2020-10-15 Words: 978 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: G

Movember Blues - Patrick grows a beard for Movember. He and David have differing opinions on the result.

Published: 2020-11-10 Words: 763 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

Dreamlover - David looks at their wedding pictures and has some feelings about the way he looks. Patrick looks at the same pictures and has very different feelings.

Published: 2020-11-23 Words: 673 Chapters: 1/1 Rated: T

Ask Me No Questions, I’ll Tell You No Lies - Marcy overhears Patrick and David having a disagreement. She doesn’t want to get involved, but sometimes her son’s communication issues are too much for her to overlook.

Published: 2020-12-20 Words: 2,128 Chapters: 1/2 Rated: E

#life of a fanfic writer #sc fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 schitts creek #year end list 2020 #I did more than I thought I did #jukebox prompts #david rose #patrick brewer #david x patrick #schitt's creek #schitts creek

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luxexhomines · 5 years ago

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If Kaede did live, I think she’d be the only that would actually try to make a friendship with Kokichi and try to understand. I think he’d develop a more natural attraction to Kaede.

NDRV3 Spoilers! Sorry that my reply took a while.

Definitely agreed, anon! There’s something about Kaede’s character that I think wouldn’t let her give up on Kokichi the way the rest of the cast seems to, allowing themselves to believe that Kokichi’s a villain, letting themselves project their anger and helplessness onto him. It’s so easy to blame everything on him. But I don’t think Kaede would do that just for the sake of her own peace of mind.

She, out of everyone in this cast, has what I would say the most resolve. Her resolve is the reason she died so quickly- she took decisive action, and she was dealt a bad hand and tricked into thinking it was her actions that caused a bad ending and killed off unfairly. I can’t be sure of Rantaro because he died so quickly, though he definitely also had his own resolve as the Ultimate Survivor with a little more information than everyone else. I know Shuichi technically resolved to always seek the truth and face it after Kaede’s death, but the extent to which he accomplished this is debatable when it comes to Kokichi. I will never forget when Shuichi said he saw Kokichi for what he truly was- unbridled malice. Now, that’s not word-for-word, but it’s rather close. We know that Kokichi was desperately putting up a front because we have the gift of hindsight, so perhaps it’s all too easy to say that Kokichi obviously wasn’t truly malicious but simply trying to survive in his own way.

But I think there are three ways you can approach this from:

1. Kokichi is too excellent of a liar. He’s basically the Ultimate Liar, and he’s a special existence that can’t be compared to the rest of the NDRV3 cast. While I definitely think that he’s a great liar, I like to think that Shuichi is most often able to see through his lies, even though in the free time events, Shuichi is constantly deceived by Kokichi. Whatever. I kind of forget about and often disregard the free time events because it feels like they diverged from my understanding of the characters. But Shuichi being able to see past Kokichi’s lies is part of what makes saiouma such an attractive ship for me because it means that Kokichi’s true self is still revealed and that they still understand each other and acknowledge each other’s true selves.

2. Shuichi was just not enough. Not clever enough to approach the truth of Kokichi’s acting/pretense. I don’t really think this is completely true because we play as him and continue to see the truth of case after case. We see the truth of people’s personalities and thoughts outside of the investigations and trials often, too. Or not- I mean, it’s been a while since I saw the playthrough.

3. Shuichi is being willfully blind to the truth. This is the one I dread and yet also kind of believe. It makes the most sense to me- perhaps because I don’t want to doubt Shuichi’s intellect, or cast Kokichi as such a scheming person that his facade was virtually perfect. Kokichi is human, just as much as everyone else, as much as many would like to believe otherwise. I find it hard to believe that he could lie so perfectly. And I don’t think he does lie that perfectly, if I’m being honest. We see in Chapter 4 that he asks about punishment for if people collude in the murder of someone- this foreshadows the revealing of his involvement of Miu’s death, and it implies that he was willing to be executed alongside Gonta or perhaps instead of Gonta. He cries after the Chapter 4 trial. I think those were his true emotions, something that he couldn’t contain- his mask broke in that moment and he allowed himself to display his true feelings, even if it was for a short time. For Shuichi to not put weight on this behavior or see the significance of this behavior and seriously consider it is a huge oversight on his part. I feel that Shuichi’s a logical and thoughtful person, so him not critically thinking about this behavior of Kokichi’s makes me feel conflicted and somewhat betrayed.

Anyway, this turned into more of a Shuichi and Kokichi analysis than actual Kaede and Kokichi shenanigans, oops.

Either way, Kaede is also a very earnest and sincere person who is deeply empathetic. In-game, she’s an optimistic person who wants to genuinely believe in the goodness of others, which is also part of why I don’t think she would give up on Kokichi’s true nature so quickly, as the others did. Perhaps I’m being a bit too cruel, but it feels like everyone simply allowed themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security in knowing who their enemy was and being able to direct their grievances toward Kokichi because the most terrifying thing of all isn’t even being forced to participate in a death game- it’s the uncertainty involved in the situation, not knowing why, how, or where. There’s an abundant lack of information, and it’s scary. But if you at least know who you’re fighting against or can aim your feelings somewhere, you might feel a little less lost and powerless.

That being said, I still deeply love all the characters of NDRV3. I say this because these thoughts and feelings are coming from somewhere, from a deep sense of wrongness after Kokichi is continually misunderstood and maligned by everyone in the game. I will never excuse Kokichi’s actions and what he’s done, but forgive me if I’m a little disappointed that just about all of the characters, especially the surviving ones, seem a little too willing to believe the worst of the one character I love the most.

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tremendouspeachduck · 5 years ago

Text

Psychopaths walk among us. Here's how to resist their evilness.

How do the Dems try to manipulate?

The psychopath patient believes military is nothing more than a strong-arm to subjugate other countries or peoples. They don’t get that we defend what we’re proud of.

Our country cheered yet another stellar jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And unlike the sluggish expansion of the Obama years, the lion’s share of this labor market strength benefits middle-income and previously ignored workers. For example, non-managerial wages accelerated at a 12-month rate of 2.7 percent, the highest in a decade. The jobless rate for non-college graduates fell to the lowest level since 2001. Even for those who did not complete high school, good news abounds, as the jobless rate for that working-class, underdog population has now been below 6 percent for the each of the past five months… .

They use ways to convince. "Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic that can be described in different variations of three words: 'That didn't happen,' 'You imagined it,' and 'Are you crazy?'" Therapist explains. "Gaslighting is perhaps one of the most insidious manipulative tactics out there because it works to distort and erode your sense of reality; it eats away at your ability to trust yourself and inevitably disables you from feeling justified in calling out abuse and mistreatment."

How can you fight back? "Ground yourself in your own reality--sometimes writing things down as they happened, telling a friend, or reiterating your experience to a support network can help to counteract the gaslighting effect,"

The psychopath patient believes military costs too much money. How can they put a price on reforms?

With Pres. Trump all the minorities are gaining. These reforms represent a particularly powerful tailwind for Hispanics, statistically by far the most entrepreneurial demographic in America. Speaking of Hispanics, the labor market news for them has been stellar. In U.S. history, there are only eight months where Hispanics report a jobless rate below 5 percent, and an incredible seven of those eight months have been in the last year alone under Trump’s growth agenda. The news is similarly strong for blacks, where the gap between black and white unemployment shrank to the smallest disparity on record. If President Trump is a racist, as his media critics constantly (and unfairly) allege, then he is remarkably bad at it!

They use ways to convince. You know when toxic people claim all the nastiness that surrounds them is not their fault, but yours? That's called projection. We all do it a little, but the narcissist and psychopath do it a lot. "Projection is a defense mechanism used to displace responsibility of one's negative behavior and traits by attributing them to someone else," notes the therapist.

The solution? "Don't 'project' your own sense of compassion or empathy onto a toxic person and don't own any of the toxic person's projections either," The therapist recommends. "Projecting our own conscience and value system onto others has the potential consequence of being met with further exploitation."

The psychopath patient has conspiracy beliefs. Example. It can be said that a co-worker sometimes fails to consider the long-term ramifications of certain financial decisions. The office psychopath claims you called him "a loose cannon." You noted the deal could possibly go south if X, Y, and Z conditions occur. Your narcissistic colleague tells the boss you said the deal is "a disaster."

What's going on? It's not just that your nemesis didn't understand what you said. It's that he or she had no interest in understanding.

"The malignant narcissist isn’t always an intellectual mastermind--many of them are intellectually lazy. Rather than taking the time to carefully consider a different perspective, they generalize anything and everything you say, making blanket statements that don't acknowledge the nuances in your argument or take into account the multiple perspectives you've paid homage to," The therapist says, summing up this behavior.

To counter it, "hold onto your truth and resist generalizing statements by realizing that they are in fact forms of black and white illogical thinking."

The psychopath and Dems want to take it all away with tax hikes. But Pres. Trump keeps delivering in spite of not one media good report.

The psychopath patient doesn't like the military since it acts as an arm of the U.S. government in other countries where the immediate benefit to the U.S. is not always evident. They believe the military needs to stay at home and let the other countries deal with their own problems.

"The abusive narcissist and sociopath employ a logical fallacy known as 'moving the goalposts' in order to ensure that they have every reason to be perpetually dissatisfied with you. This is when, even after you've provided all the evidence in the world to validate your argument or taken an action to meet their request, they set up another expectation of you or demand more proof," says the therapist.

Don't play that game. "Validate and approve of yourself. Know that you are enough and you don't have to be made to feel constantly deficient or unworthy in some way," The therapist advises.

The DEMS want all nations to stand down - to let the UN run the world - this can never happen, right?

Healing Horses

The psychopath patient sees the armed forces as destroying the environment with pollution, chemicals and products of the nuclear age.

Switching conversational topics sounds innocent enough, but in the hands of a master manipulator, a change of subject becomes a means to avoid accountability. "The narcissist doesn't want you to be on the topic of holding them accountable for anything, so they will reroute discussions to benefit them," the therapist notes.

This sort of thing can go on forever if you let it, making it impossible to actually engage on the relevant issue. Try "the "broken record method" to fight back: "Continue stating the facts without giving in to their distractions. Redirect their redirection by saying, 'That's not what I am talking about. Let's stay focused on the real issue.' If they're not interested, disengage and spend your energy on something more constructive."

The psychopath patient sees the armed forces as those types that have joined the military, but have become disenchanted for some reason or another. They may not have gotten the position or training they wanted, didn't like the structured environment or got into trouble. These are the men and women who lived it for awhile, but couldn't adapt, so they become fanatically anti military.

There are other ways a psychopath can manipulate:

Smear - "When toxic types can't control the way you see yourself, they start to control how others see you; they play the martyr while you're labeled the toxic one. A smear campaign is a preemptive strike to sabotage your reputation and slander your name," the therapist explains.

Sometimes true evil geniuses will even divide and conquer, pitting two people or groups against each other. Don't let them succeed. "Document any form of harassment," the therapist advises, and make sure not to rise to the bait and let the person's horribleness provoke you into behaving in just the sort of negative ways they've falsely attributed to you.

Devalue - Beware when a colleague seems to love you while aggressively denigrating the last person who held your position. "Narcissistic abusers do this all the time--they devalue their exes to their new partners, and eventually the new partner starts to receive the same sort of mistreatment as the narcissist's ex-partner," the therapist says. But this dynamic can happen in the professional realm as well as the personal one.

Simple awareness of the phenomenon is the first step to countering it. "Be wary of the fact that how a person treats or speaks about someone else could potentially translate into the way they will treat you in the future," the therapist cautions.

mean jokes- The problem isn't your sense of humor, it's the hidden intention of that cutting joke. "The covert narcissist enjoys making malicious remarks at your expense. These are usually dressed up as 'just jokes' so that they can get away with saying appalling things while still maintaining an innocent, cool demeanor. Yet any time you are outraged at an insensitive, harsh remark, you are accused of having no sense of humor," the therapist says.

Don't let the office abuser gaslight you into thinking it was all innocent fun--it wasn't.

Triangulation - One of the smartest ways truly toxic people distract you from their nastiness is by focusing your attention on the supposed threat of another person. This is called triangulation. "The narcissist loves to 'report back' falsehoods about what others say about you," the therapist warns. To resist the tactic, realize that the third party in the drama is being manipulated as well--he or she is another victim, not your enemy.

You can also try "reverse triangulation," or "gaining support from a third party that is not under the narcissist's influence."

Please leave message below, then Go To top, nav to previous or next

#politics #military #manipulation #psychopath

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bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

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The brand label that stokes Trump’s fury: ‘Racist, racist, racist.’

https://wapo.st/2P6GXHl

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is yellow like a duck, it's most definitely a duck. Trump is playing a dangerous game with white supremacists that is endangering the lives of American citizens. HE MUST BE CALLED OUT AND HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HIS WORDS AND ACTIONS.

The brand label that stokes Trump’s fury: ‘Racist, racist, racist.’

By Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker |

Published August 11 at 11:18 AM ET |

Washington Post | Posted August 11, 2019 1:30 PM ET |

President Trump considers himself a branding wizard, but he is vexed by a branding crisis of his own: how to shed the label of “racist.”

As the campaign takes shape about 15 months before voters render a verdict on his presidency, Trump’s Democratic challengers are marking him a racist, and a few have gone so far as to designate the president a white supremacist.

Throughout his career as a real estate magnate, a celebrity provocateur and a politician, Trump has recoiled from being called the r-word, even though some of his actions and words have been plainly racist.

Following a month in which he leveled racist attacks on four congresswomen of color, maligned majority-black Baltimore as a “rat and rodent infested mess” and saw his anti-immigrant rhetoric parroted in an alleged mass shooter’s statement, the risk for Trump is that the pejorative that has long dogged him becomes defining.

Being called a racist has infuriated Trump, gnawing at him in recent days as he lashes out — in tweets and in public comments — over the moniker, behavior his advisers and allies excuse as the natural reaction of anyone who does not consider himself a racist but is accused of being one.

“For them to throw out the race word again — racist, racist, racist,” Trump told reporters Friday as he departed the White House for a week-long vacation at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “They call anybody a racist when they run out of cards.”

The president views the characterization largely through the lens of politics, said one close adviser, explaining that Trump feels the charges of racism are just another attempt to discredit him — not unlike, he believes, the more than a dozen women who have accused him of sexual misconduct or the Russia investigation.

Many of his supporters see it the same way. “At first, they tried to use Russia, and that didn’t work,” said Don Byrd of Newton, Iowa. “Now it’s all about race — ‘He’s a racist. He’s this. He’s that.’ ”

Democrats have engaged in semantic maneuverings about just how racist they think the president is. While former congressman Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said without hesitation that the president is a white supremacist, former vice president Joe Biden stopped short.

“Why are you so hooked on that?” Biden told reporters last week in Iowa. “You just want me to say the words so I sound like everybody else. I’m not everybody else. I’m Joe Biden. . . . He is encouraging white supremacists. You can determine what that means.”

Trump’s allies argue Democrats risk overreach in maligning the president.

“Democrats seem to forget that Trump supporters include blacks, whites, Hispanics and other minority groups who simply love this country,” said Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign adviser, in a text message. “Democrats have shown their absolute disdain for the president and now they have extended their disdain to half of America.”

Some Democrats seem cognizant of the danger. At last month’s presidential debate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said, “There are people that voted for Donald Trump before that aren’t racist; they just wanted a better shake in the economy.”

Yet, she, too, also felt the need to rebuke Trump. “I don’t think anyone can justify what this president is doing,” Klobuchar concluded.

Trump recently called himself “the least racist person anywhere in the world,” but his history is littered with racist and racially charged comments and actions.

In 1989, Trump purchased newspaper advertisements demanding the death penalty for the “Central Park Five,” black and Latino teenagers wrongly accused of raping a jogger in New York. In 2005, he pitched a culturally divisive spinoff of his popular reality television series: “The Apprentice: White People vs. Black People.”

Trump then rose to political prominence partially by championing the racist birtherism lie that former president Barack Obama was born outside of the United States. As a presidential candidate, Trump attacked a judge overseeing a Trump University case for his Mexican heritage. And once in the White House, Trump equivocated in the aftermath of a deadly white supremacist rally in 2017 in Charlottesville, saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Last month, Trump tweeted that four minority congresswomen known as the Squad should “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” even though three of the four lawmakers were born in the United States. He later did not stop his supporters from chanting “Send her back!” at a campaign rally where he evoked the name of one of the four, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The Somali-born refuge became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

Trump’s rhetoric came under fresh examination last week after the alleged gunman who killed at least 22 people in El Paso echoed in what is believed to be his missive Trump’s language about an “invasion” of Hispanic migrants.

People who know Trump have come to his defense. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said that, in her three years at his side, she has “never, ever, a single time heard this president say or do anything” racist. She described his reaction to being labeled a racist as “less frustration and more consternation that critics, especially those who would like to be president, resort to spewing invectives or hurling insults at the current president, instead of just arguing on the issues.”

Trump’s sensitivity about the racist sobriquet dates back decades. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist who has known Trump and tangled with him for many years, said the president has long understood that being called “the r-word” would damage his casino and hotel businesses and, now, his political standing.

“At one level, you’re super sensitive about the r-word, and on another level, you buy ads on the Central Park Five,” Sharpton said.

Sharpton recalled that, at the height of the birtherism debate, Trump sought to persuade him to stop calling him out for his lies about Obama’s birthplace on his MSNBC show by inviting him to a meeting at Trump Tower.

“I’m not a racist,” Sharpton recalled Trump adamantly insisting.

The two men argued and Sharpton responded, “I’m not calling you a racist, but what you are doing is racist.”

Sharpton continued to attack Trump on air.

Some people who have worked for Trump say the president is less concerned about the moral significance of being called a racist but focuses instead on the bottom-line implications.

“The guy sends out blatantly racist tweets,” former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said. “White supremacist. Racist. Those labels are bad for business. . . . It means a reduction in the colors of people who want to vote for you. He’s upset about it because it’s bad for business.”

To the extent that one’s understanding of what is and isn’t racist is forged in his youth, Trump’s upbringing may be instructive. One former adviser suggested Trump believes he is more racially tolerant than his father, Fred Trump, who was reported to have been arrested in connection with a 1927 Ku Klux Klan march in New York — an arrest the president has denied as “nonsense” and “never happened.”

[In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens]

In the 1970s, Fred and Donald Trump both were sued by the Justice Department for discriminating against black renters in their residential properties.

Conway argued the charges of racism against Trump are over-the-top and that they are likely to help him politically because his voters could think Democratic candidates are unfairly branding them as racists, too, simply for supporting the president.

“When the elite wrist-flickers are out there demeaning and ridiculing his rank-and-file supporters — those forgotten men and women who aren’t chanting at the rallies — an insult to him is an insult to them and vice versa,” Conway said.

One such Trump supporter, Laura Capps, 39, had driven last week from Boone, Iowa, to attend the first full day of the state fair. Capps said she was exasperated when Democrats blamed Trump for mass shootings — “there were shootings under Obama, under every president” — and said they obsessed over Trump’s tweets and statements because they had nothing else to attack.

“I’ve been called a racist because I’m a Trump supporter,” Capps said. “It’s ridiculous. I’ve got a first cousin that’s married to an African American gal. So their kids are biracial, and I love them just like the rest of my second cousins.”

Holly Bailey and Dave Weigel in Des Moines

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cromulentbookreview · 6 years ago

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Quoth the Raven

Hee.

Uh, and by that I mean: The Ravens Tale by Cat Winters! ‘

Can you imagine how awful it’d be if your creative muse took the form of an actual human who followed you around, that other people could see? If that were the case, two of my muses would probably take the forms of Malcolm Tucker and Kimmy Schmidt. They’d be constantly fighting one another while the third muse, Mr. Spock, stands by with a raised eyebrow, just saying “fascinating” over and over again.

The others, of course, would be a badass gospel choir singing about Hercules.

I promise my ramblings about personified muses will become relevant at some point.

I’m a bit of a Poe freak. A Poevian? Poe-head? Do Poe fans have a fan cult nickname? (I’ll have to ask the Poe museum...). Anyway, Poe was, and is, my favorite American writer. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville can eat dicks, because Poe is the best. Though I do like some of Hawthorne’s stuff. Melville was OK, too. Thoreau can go eat dicks and pay his fucking taxes.

Goddamn Frogpondians...

(The Gif above is an accurate representation of how Poe treated the transcendentalists in his criticisms. Also a reason why you should watch Altered Carbon. Season 2 better have more Poe, damn it!)

Anyway, I’d always had a love for Poe and his works ever since I was very young, the reason being the first ever Treehouse of Horror. I was just a wee little beeb when that episode premiered, but I was raised on The Simpsons and on Simpsons reruns. Their 1990 adaptation of The Raven, narrated by none other than the amazing James Earl Jones (!!!!), stuck with me throughout my childhood. In fact, I’ve got the whole of The Raven memorized probably because I’ve seen that Treehouse of Horror so many times. Also I read The Raven a bunch, too.

Also, I, too, hated the transcendentalists. Transcendentalism = the worst.

Plus, there’s just something so very relatable to me about the author who writes things that people enjoy but is unfairly maligned by the literary establishment and who has vicious, untrue rumors spread about him that people actually believed. I mean, that never happened to me or anything…

Anyway - for some reason, people still believe a lot of the bullshit spread about Poe both during his lifetime and after his death. (Word of advice, don’t let your bitter enemy be your literary executor). Poe was not an opium addict or a drug addict of any kind, or a crazy-ass drunk. Though he did drink a bit. He did marry his 13-year-old first cousin when he was 26, but no one knows the exact details of the nature of that relationship. He was kind of a dick, though, that much is definitely true. I mean, once you’ve read one, or two, or eight different Poe biographies, you start to figure that yeah, he could be a bit of an asshole. I can be a bit of an asshole, too, so I figure when I die, Poe and I can hang out and be assholes together. Also, lob insults at Thoreau.

Basically, fuck yeah Edgar Allan Poe. God, I spent so many hours of my college life picking The Masque of the Red Death apart instead of, you know, having friends. Or a life. Also, Poe invented the whole detective genre. Seriously, we wouldn’t have Sherlock Holmes and all the great detectives who came after without the stories of Auguste Dupin.

Just don’t mention the orangutan.

Anyway! The Raven’s Tale!

Since he’s such a huge figure in American literature, there’s plenty of fiction about Poe. But pretty much all fictional portrayals of Poe depict him as an adult. There’s virtually nothing about his youth - and Poe’s youth was absolutely fascinating. His parents were actors: his father ran off, then his mom died, leaving Edgar, his older brother Henry and younger sister Rosalie, orphans. The three were split up: Henry went to his grandparents, Rosalie was taken in by the Mackenzie family, while Edgar went to live with the wealthy Allan family of Richmond, Virginia. The Allans never formally adopted him, but he got their name anyway. The Allans took Edgar along with them to England, where he went to boarding school for a while before they went back to Richmond. Poe was very much a poor kid among the superrich - there was no forgetting that he wasn’t an Allan, but the child of, euch, actors. In the 19th century, you have to spit the word “actor.” Everybody loved seeing plays, but actors were massive slutwhores not worthy of being around decent people. In his youth, Poe was quite the athlete (he swam six miles in the James River without stopping once. I, meanwhile, don’t believe in swimming, because if humans were meant to swim, we would have been born with gills and an ability to breathe water). In October of 1824, Poe even got to meet the Marquis de Lafayette during Lafayette’s Grand Tour of the US. Also, he hated John Allan, who was the worst.

All of that is primo YA Fic material. So how come nobody's used it? I’ve read plenty of not-so-great novels about Poe as an adult, where’s the fun YA origin story? So, needless to say, I was so very, very, very pumped when I learned of the existence of The Raven’s Tale. A novel about young Poe? By a fellow Oregonian? Oh hell yes.

Cat Winters seriously did her research, and as a future librarian/someone with a MLIS, I 1000% appreciate anyone who does their research. In the world of The Raven’s Tale, an artist’s muse can take a visible form (I promised it’d be relevant, didn’t I?!), but Poe’s muse, when she appears, isn’t exactly normal: she’s dressed in mourning, looks like a victim of the 1811 Richmond Theater Fire and wears a necklace made of teeth. Not the best muse for a kid who is just trying to survive one last week under his awful foster father’s roof before he can escape to the University of Virginia. John Allan, who is seriously the worst, has demanded that Poe suppress his urge to write poetry, because art = bad, money = good. If Allan catches Edgar writing, Allan will yank him out of the University of Virginia and force him to work for the family tobacco company. As much as Poe hates John Allan, he loves his foster mother, Frances, currently super sick and frail. Frances just wants Edgar and John Allan to get along, so, as you can imagine, the teenage Poe is currently stuck between forcing himself to be civil to his shitty foster father for his foster mom’s sake, and his desire to write. So when Poe’s macabre muse - who he, of course, names Lenore - appears in his room in human form and demands that Poe let people see her, he has to choose - embrace his muse and sacrifice his future, or abandon his muse and obey John Allan.

I was so hyped by the mere thought of The Raven’s Tale that I was afraid I’d end up in one of those situations where your expectations for something were so high that, no matter how good the final product is, you’re still disappointed. Yeah, that didn’t happen here. With her eerie, surreal writing style combined with meticulous research, Winters has created a story that is both a captivating Gothic tale and a fantastic tribute to a great American author. Winters perfectly captured Poe’s teenage angst and anxiety in a way that felt both accurate and real. Anyone who has ever been a poor kid among the rich, or who has ever struggled to pay for college will find Poe’s struggles at the University of Virginia all too real. His struggles with his school fees in 1826 will make anyone in 2018 who has gone to college cringe.

To make a very, very long story short: The Raven’s Tale was everything the Poe nerd in me wanted. I cannot wait for this book to come out - hopefully it will inspire more people, especially young people, to study Poe.

Hopefully today’s young people won’t have to threaten to complain to the department head to get their American Lit professor to include Poe in the curriculum the way I did. It worked and I have no regrets.

Thank you, and bravo, Ms. Winters, fellow Oregonian and Poe Nerd (Poevian? Poe-head? The Poe museum never responded to my tweet). This book made the lit geek in me very, very happy.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who has ever enjoyed anything by Edgar Allan Poe

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Frogpondians

RATING: 5/5

TOTALLY UNBIASED POE FANGIRL RATING: 5,000,000,000,000,000/5

RAVEN RATING

SOMEONE ON THE SIMPSONS STAFF IS A POE FAN:

#the raven's tale #cat winters #edgar allan poe #the raven #lost lenore #muses #gothic #young adult historical fiction #young adult fantasy #young adult gothic #book review #best books 2019 #lenore #poe #the simpsons #treehouse of horror #masque of the red death #transcendentalism #transcendentalism is the worst

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ryvxn · 3 years ago

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⠀ ⠀

⠀ ⠀ ⠀

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⌜ 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐀𝑆𝑈𝑀𝐴𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐀 ⌟

⠀ ⠀

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ — #𝐫𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐦 ; personal inscription.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐫𝐪𝐮𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐪𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐲 — 𝟏𝟗𝟎𝟖

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠. murder, sexual implication

⠀ ⠀ ⠀

& so what—if my feathers

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ are burning. I

never asked for flight.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ only to feel

this fully, this

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ entire, the only way snow

touches bare skin—& is,

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ suddenly, snow

no longer.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀

the circus arrived without warning. no announcements preceded it. it was simply there when yesterday it was not. within the black-and-white striped canvas, tents were an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. it was called le cirque des reves, and it was only open at night. — and jang yeongrae, the obscure magician worked there. centre of rumours and curious eyes, the boy with nothing but sweet lies on his tongue. liars did make the best magicians, and he happened to be exceptional.

yeongrae never wished to be easily defined. he would rather float over other people's minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable. more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person. that was why he was a well-established magician, feeding the people with their desired wanderlust and always getting his payment in return. — a heart, an eye and sometimes the soul of life.

“ did you do it again, yeongrae? ”

by the time yeongrae lied the lifeless vessel of his sacrifice on a sunflower meadow and walked back to the circus tent, da xia was already there, well aware of his intentions. her jaw clenched and her eyes reflected the dark ocean of enviousness, as she scoped him out — searching for the fragments of sin on his flesh. and he knew very well that she did not do it out of worry or curiosity, she just happened to follow her heart. in which the seed of admiration grew ever since elders thought they would make a great pair. one line made her claim him as first love, and made him claim her as his nemesis.

“ you shouldn't waste your time with the questions that you know the answers to. ”

he took a step aside to leave, only to be stopped by her. hand holding his arm in a tight grasp, she looked at him with teary eyes — and yeongrae hated her more for that. oh, how he hated those that thought they could love him. she held him the way thirst held water. so sincerely, so obsessed. and his hatred towards her continued to grow as he bent slightly to whisper to her ear: “ should i just tear your heart out now? ”

her eyes widened upon hearing him and he looked at her with emptiness in his eyes. that was something she told him when both of them were children. that the human eye was god's loneliest creation. how so much of the world passed through the pupil and still it held nothing. the eye, alone in its socket, did not even know there was another one, just like it, an inch away, just as hungry, as empty.

“ 心肝 , are you scared to show me there is no heart in you for me to tear? ”

da xia swallowed hard and looked away, hating the weakness of her spirit. she was more than her current self, a wilting flower. she was stronger than what she showed. yet, he always found a way to hurt her. his words hurt because he was the man responsible for making her burn. for making her feel like a woman. it hurt because it had been a trick. an illusion of magic he created with the corner of his fingertips — for his audience and for his chosen sacrifice he adorned under sheets. and it hurt most of all because he did not see her, the woman she was.

“ you are a monster. ”

he smirked at her insult. what was wrong with being a monster? it just meant he was both a shelter and warning at once. — and not only in that life but many times before.

“ that, i am. ”

and the pair avoided each other for the rest of the day. until the lanterns of the circus were on and tale listeners filled the tent.

yeongrae was a talented magician. he told a tale that took up residence in someone's soul, became their blood and self and purpose. the tale of his magic moved his audience and drove them and people did anything because of his words. that was his role, his gift. and he used his gift to seduce, to drown himself in flesh and empty vessels that could replace the nightmares of his past.

“ how dare a lowly circus girl like you tear my dress. do you even know who i am? ”

at the end of his performance, yeongrae heard a maiden raise her voice over a small tear on her attire. her face flushed, she waved her arms in a discordant rhythm to scold one of the circus workers, da xia. he heard someone whisper how the woman did a mistake but unfairly blamed the other but instead of stepping up and protecting the one that promised him future, yeongrae just watched. he waited for her to stand up for herself, to say anything to not carry coals. yet, she just stood there, eyes blurred by the tears that refused to fall.

— and he once again, hated her for that.

“ aren't you going to help her? she is your lover — ” the old lady of the circus said as she appeared out of nowhere. she did not really have any responsibility on the stage, her crystal ball and divination skills brought income out of the circus tent.

“ she isn't my lover. elders fooled her to believe that because of you — ” yeongrae responded, well aware that the woman beside him was more than what met to eyes. she was a witch and was well aware of his damned soul.

“ you need an innocent soul to balance your damned one, ” the other calmly responded, only for yeongrae to laugh at her in disbelief. tone harsh and challenging, he shook his head before returning his gaze to the scene that happened in front of him.

“ do you want me to thank you for choosing a sacrifice for me, old lady? ” his dark orbs reflected the cold waves of the ocean. “ i won't do whatever you want to. i won't love a soul that grow flowers in her eyes, ” he argued before his gaze focused on the maiden that caused to scene. “ i will choose my own sacrifice. ”

“ be careful, child, ” the witched warned. “ you need redemption to save your soul but you keep colouring your hands with the sinful shade of scarlet. ”

— there she was again and her riddles.

“ i'm death's favourite for that reason, aren't i? don't worry yourself for me. you said i'll die in the hands of the child emperor, not in the bed of a young maiden. ”

that was true. he would not die under the fragile hands of the maiden that caused a scene in front of the circus. he would...

⠀ ⠀ ⠀

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ —

⠀ ⠀ ⠀

acrimonious fingertips brushed the nocturnal silk that lacked the glints of starlight. the silence of the room ushered the symphony of life's mien, like a tempered chaperon. the rush of helplessness, the sinking yielding, the surging tide of warmth. soft lips against the bite of liquor on their tongue. she knew the more they stayed in silence, the more she would miss herself in the unknown gaze of the forbidden magician. once she wed her unutterable vision to his perishable breath, her mind would never romp again like the mind of a goddess. — and that was what he was after. his kisses were talking, warning her for the last time about the approaching malignancy. yet, blinded by lust, she neither noticed the phlegmatic veil over his orbs nor the tenuous spicule he slowly injected into her cerebellum. a quiet falter, wide-open eyes that stared at him. and his plump lips that whispered against hers:

“ 心肝 , do you believe in magic? ”

⠀ ⠀ ⠀

disclaimer. consists of references from the night circus and ocean vuong books. it is the messiest self-para i had ever written but please bear with it.

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96thdayofrage · 3 years ago

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Strachan says pastors embracing wokeness is problematic because the ideology unfairly maligns innocent white people.

"Critical race theory is a practice. It's an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it," she said.

Strachan, who is also a senior fellow with the Family Research Council who once served at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sees the idea as “demonic."

And in his new book, Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel - and the Way to Stop It, he seeks to save the American church from the “slithery hiss“ that he believes to be a threat to Christians and white people.

In seven chapters, spread over 270 pages and a strong foreword from California megachurch Pastor John MacArthur, Strachan presents a studied exploration of critical race theory. He argues it produces a mindset of “wokeness” that seeks to exact reparations from white people for the sins of their forebears. He also goes as far as contending that unrepentant church leaders who embrace it should be excommunicated.

“I think the major problem with wokeness that requires excommunication is that it’s anti-Gospel when you really examine it as a system. It compromises the unity of the truth. It lies about the human person. It says that white people in America are fundamentally oppressors of people of color and that’s not a biblical truth," Strachan told The Christian Post in a recent interview about his book published by Salem Books in July.

"That’s not found in Scripture. That’s injurious and unjust toward white people, and it will violate and compromise the unity of the church."

In the book, he wrote that “[w]okeness is first and foremost a mindset and a posture."

"The term itself means that one is ‘awake’ to the true nature of the world when so many are asleep," the book reads. "In the most specific terms, this means one sees the comprehensive inequity of our social order and strives to highlight power structures in society that stem from racial privilege. In intellectual terms, wokeness occurs when one embraces … Critical Race Theory.”

Strachan says pastors embracing wokeness is problematic because the ideology unfairly maligns innocent white people.

“I know a prominent example of a pastor of a megachurch who took [to] the pulpit and told the congregation that white people should repent for their complicity in white supremacy," he told CP.

"And this was said to a wide range of people, including white people, who had adopted numerous children out of desperate circumstances that had different skin colors than them and were very much trying to love those children and had not been white supremacist toward them in any known way whether in word or deed. That is an example of the evil nature of wokeness. I am here to stand against it, call it out and say it is anti-Gospel."

He said that if he ever heard someone preach like that in front of his family at his church, he would pursue "excommunication."

“If a man stood up in a pulpit and said that before me and said that before my family, I would attempt to talk to him. And I would attempt, if he did not repent of that, to talk to the elders and encourage them to ask him to repent of that. And if he did not do that, I would pursue excommunication as much as I could as a church member. And I would do so with a 100% clean conscience,” he continued. “I pray many people who read this book [will] pursue that action because that is the action that is fitting."

In the Church, he warns that "wokeness is spreading like a cancer and it's training so-called white people who have no racial prejudice in their heart."

"They are literally at great cost, physically, financially and otherwise adopting children out of Christian love and then [a] pastor brings man’s law, not God’s law, into the Church and condemns them as evil," he stressed. "And that is the doctrine of demons, and I’m here to call it out. I do so unequivocally and unapologetically.”

The example was a very personal one for Strachan because his family adopted his sister from South America. He said, “her skin color was not exactly like mine or like several people at our small church, but that did not matter a bit,” he wrote in his book.

“My father and mother loved her, I loved her (and always will), and she loved us. God gave our family a blessing in the form of my sister — a Christian and a woman who loves and serves her family well. And I am so thankful for my parents’ commitment to adoption,” he explained.

Along with his independent research on race, this family dynamic is one of the reasons why Strachan feels he is in a good position to openly discuss an issue that has divided denominations along racial lines.

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opedguy · 4 years ago

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Blinken Pushes Russia and China to the Brink

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), March 29, 2021.-- Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 58, continues to push U.S. and China to the brink, over China’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. Blinken and 44-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a get-to-know-you summit in Anchorage, Alaska March 18, blinding the Chinese delegation with accusations about human rights abuses of Uyghurs, pro-democracy protesters in Hong and normal ties to Taiwan. President Joe Biden, 78, in concert with the EU, U.K. and Canada, authorized Blinken to slap China with sanctions March 22, prompting China to retaliate in kind March 27, hitting the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Blinken knew the vicious cycle, sanction China for alleged “genocide” against Muslim Uyghurs, pro-democracy protesters and ties with Taiwan, all of which, China says are internal matters not subject to U.S., EU, U.K. or Canadian oversight.

Whatever Blinken did with China, he’s done much worse with Russia, hitting the Kremlin over its treatment of 44-year-old incarcerated Russian dissident Alexi Navalny. Picking fights with China and Russia can have lasting consequences on U.S. national security, playing into both countries looking for confrontation. If China invaded Taiwan or if Russia annexed more territory in Ukraine, there’s little the U.S. or its NATO allies could do to stop it. Since taking office, Biden and Blinken have been on a terror, slamming Russia and China, leaving relations with the two countries at the lowest level in recent memory. Blinken called the China’s move “baseless sanctions” on U.S., EU, U.K. and Canadian officials. Blinken said China reacted “apparently in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials connected with serious human rights abuse” on Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, province.

Whatever happens in Russia or China, Blinken should know that both countries feeling unfairly maligned by the U.S. leaving relations deteriorated When Blinker met face-to-face with senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, he slammed China for abusing the Uyghur population, even so far to call it “genocide.” Jiechi shot back at Blinken that the U.S. has no moral authority to condemn other countries when they routinely slaughter African Americans on U.S. streets. Biden admitted to the world Jan. 27 that the U.S. was a “systemically racist” country, prompting his administration to play a more active role in racial justice. When a U.S. president admits to “systemic racism,” what are other countries supposed to think? African American leaders, led by civil rights groups like Black Lives Matter, have accused U.S. law enforcement of unequal treatment and abuse of blacks.

China or Russia didn’t say they would sanction the U.S. government over what looks to the outside word, as broadcast in the press, race riots on U.S. streets, prompting the police to respond sometimes violently to street protests. Calling the Chinese counter-sanctions “baseless,” does nothing to defuse a volatile situation, where Blinken has chosen to throw gasoline on an already raging fire. “Beijing’s attempt to intimidate and silence those speaking for human rights and fundamental freedoms only contribute to the growing international scrutiny of ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Blinken said. China takes Blinker’s public remarks as baseless insults, public humiliation for something he knows nothing a bout. Chinese Community Party officials have vigorously denied that any “genocide” has ever gone on in Xinjiang, asking Blinken to cease-and-desist in the accusations.

Blinken has done the same thing, accusing 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin poisoning Navalny, not proven anywhere but rushed to judgment by Western governments and their press baclers. Putin has denied the accusations of poisoning Navalny Aug. 24 in Tomsk, Siberia, but, more recently, denied accusations of giving Navalny inadequate medical care for his bad back in the IK-2 penal colony 100 kilometers [62 miles] from Moscow. When you look at the big picture, Biden and Blinken look like they’re trying to push the U.S. into a confrontation with Russia and China. Biden and Blinken talk of multilateral diplomacy, telling EU officials that standing united gives them more leverage in dealing with Russia and China. But Biden’s so-called allies in the EU, U.K. and Canada, now the focus of Chinese sanction, want no part of any U.S. confrontation with Russia and Chiina.

Biden and Blinken have extended foreign policy to carrying the U.S. banner protecting human rights around the globe, something that’s got them in a whole world of hurt. If they both push too far, China or Russia will act to protect their interests by annexing more territory in Ukraine or, worse yet, in former Soviet satellites like the Balkans. China too won’t stop building military installation in the South or East China seas, threatening their neighbors in the Pacific Rim. Biden and Blinken’s righteous foreign policy has led pacifists like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to chime in. “We stand with Parliamentarians against these unacceptable actions, and we will continue to defend human right around the world with our international partners,” Trudeau said. Biden and Blinken’s aggressive foreign policy against Russia and China has pushed world governments to the brink.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma. Reply Reply All Forward

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ryanmeft · 7 years ago

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Every Classic Mega Man Weapon Ranked, Part 2

To gamers who were young in the ancient 80's, game characters were iconic in a way that modern kids, with a veritable plethora of types of games to choose from, simply cannot fathom. We stomped on Goombas with the Super Mario Bros. We fought Ganon with our sword and our wits. We plumbed the depths of alien planets with a hard-bitten bounty hunter. We even occasionally played things that weren't made by Nintendo, like that one really fast guy from that one company. What was his name? Was it Speedy? Oh yeah! Good 'ole Speedy the Hedgehog. Even with all these iconic characters, one stood out for letting you do something no one else did: taking your enemy's weapon, and ripping them a new asshole with it. Mario didn't do that. Link didn't do that. Speedy certainly didn't do that. Capcom seems to have forgotten about the Blue Bomber lately, but on Monday they're going to announce...some Mega Man thing. We don't know what yet. Hopefully it's cool. Anyway, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original Mega Man, here's part two of my list ranking every Mega weapon in the classic series. You can find part 1 here: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168077242247/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-1. And part 3 here: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168173192902/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-3 And the last part: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168197639092/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-4

53. Quick Boomerang (MM2) It's a boomerang. Just a boomerang. I used to like standing around firing them and watching them return to me, because I was 8, and stupid.

52. Flame Sword (MM8) It's exactly what it says it is. After years of shitting out seriously crappy melee weapons, this one...well, it wasn't especially useful, but it wasn't godawful, either. And wouldn't you know it? Just when Capcom seemed to be inching toward doing it right, they figured out it was kind of pointless to do at all. They could have tumbled to that back in 1990 and saved a lot of kids a lot of disappointment.

51. Yamato Spear (MM6) This one could be rapid fired, but it is otherwise just an arrowhead that you can shoot. "Yamato" is a word that means "Japan". Isn't it kind of really, really sad that this is the coolest thing a Japanese developer could think to give to a boss literally named Japan Man? 50. Concrete Shot (MM9) File this one under "cooler in theory than in practice". The ability to encase enemies in stone sounds cool (and slightly insane), but visually, all it really does is replace the enemy sprite with a rock.

49. Thunder Bolt (MM7) Almost every MM game has one or two weapons that are just filler---not offensively useless, but not odd enough to stand out, either. For Mega Man 7, this one filled that apparent need.

48. Bubble Lead (MM2) The original travel-along-the-floor weapon. How, exactly, does one make a bubble out of lead without breaking science? It was the only way to deal with lots of annoying ground enemies, though, so we'll forgive the bastardization of the laws of nature this once.

47. Wind Storm (MM6) Oh, sweet. We literally get to shoot a tornado and why is it tiny? Why is it just moving along the ground? Wind Storm is technically a tornado, but it's a little like the fact that a poodle is technically a dog; that still doesn't make it cool.

46. Needle Cannon (MM3) It fires big spikes. You can't get much more straight forward. Unless the enemy was weak against it, it wasn't very much fun, but it wasn't annoying, either.

45. Freeze Cracker (MM7) Seemingly unable to make an ice weapon that was actually cool, Dr. Wily settled for merely functional. This one is basically useful for shattering on walls to hit shielded enemies from behind, and you don't have to do that often enough for it to be awesome.

44. Blizzard Attack (MM6) Much like the Silver Tomahawk, this one has a rather incomprehensible flight path. It works fine if your aim is right, but it's just too easy for the odd pattern to miss.

43. Napalm Bomb (MM5) Imagine if some daycare mistook this for a bouncy toy.

42. Hornet Chaser (MM9) This one may make me think of a hive of bees nesting in Mega Man's chest, but it's still rather unfairly maligned. It isn't very powerful, but it's great for taking out small, annoying enemies, and sometimes it brings you presents. The only thing real hornets bring you is inexplicably dark endings to early 90's Macauley Culkin movies.

41. Flash Stopper (MM4) Capcom's to-date last experiment with halting the flow of time, and that's probably a good thing. This one allows Mega Man to still fire standard shots while time is stopped, but not to use any other weapons. That's an improvement, but the only way for this power to be as cool as it sounds is to allow you total freedom while it's active, and that's more power than any 'bot needs. Think of the children, or something.

40. Danger Wrap (MM7) Every now and then, Capcom comes up with something that is totally original, and so it was with this weapon, which wrapped up enemies in a bubble that then exploded. It was cool when it worked right, but it was so picky on which enemies would actually bubblesplode that it wasn't very useful.

39. Crystal Eye (MM5) Are you actually firing a robot's eye here? How does this work? Whatever. Ahem. This is basically the concept behind the Gemini Laser, but occasionally useful. It splits into four little ping pong balls, and chances are one of them will hit something.

38. Ring Boomerang (MM4) I'm not sure how a ring would return when thrown. I mean, it isn't special. It isn't the One Ring. It isn't even a diamond ring. It's just a hoop of gold. Maybe it's magnetized. Anyway, this one actually lays the smack down pretty hard when it hits. Short range, unfortunately, hampers its usefulness.

37. Shadow Blade (MM3) This was like Metal Blade, except you couldn't throw it in any direction, it had a limited range and it ate up more weapon energy. It was a Metal Blade that didn't work as well, which, you know, as pitches go, that's unique.

36. Knight Crusher (MM6) This is like the Rolling Cutter, but you can kind of aim it a little bit. Look, let's just call it what it is: Mega Man 6 really phoned it in. Most of the weapons weren't terrible, per se, but they were the textbook example of a developer who no longer cares. Sure, it's hard to blame them. The NES was basically dead by this point. It doesn't change the fact that "slightly better Rolling Cutter" is the best MM6 had to offer.

35. Leaf Shield (MM2) The original shield weapon was super useful, as long as you stood still. Somehow, though a shield made of flowers disappeared the moment someone farted in the general vicinity, one made of leaves did not. However, once you moved it flew away, and likely drifted harmlessly to the ground the moment it hit anything bigger than a politician's soul. Capcom would spend the rest of the series figuring out how to make a truly useful shield.

34. Search Snake (MM3) This one was nice for for getting those hard to reach enemies, but let's pause for a moment. Mega Man is shooting snakes out of his arm. Where are the snakes coming from? Is he generating them inside his gut? Is there a hatchery in there? To anyone about to explain to me that they are robot snakes I KNOW THAT IT IS CALLED HUMOR

33. Noise Crush (MM7) This one is powerful, but just...strange. Think on it. The technology to simply charge weapons directly is already in widespread use, and Wily decides it would be better if you had to do it via table tennis. Strange.

And that’s it for part 2 of the list, in which we went from the weapons that were just boring rather than actively useless to those that are fun to play around with but mostly too strange to hit your regular rotation. Next we’ll be dealing with the weapons that you actually go looking for in the pause screen, and in part 4 on Monday, the best weapons in Mega Man history!

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