#he does follow the rules but not kind of rules pp think

[ryoryeonggu]

unpopular hc (and i stole this one from a rp blog its not mine) but kol is a virgo but its kinda like ["i know nothing ever could please my standard (including myself) so i shut off my prickly brain to fit in with this disappointing world"] or ["i know i can't be the best so i would be the worst person everyone ever meet"]

[7ban-sama]

(Sorry if this has already been answered) Do you think Hanako is turning out to become the final antagonist? He's already been one in the pp arc, and doesn't seem like he has any wish to repent his choices. How yandere do you think he will turn out to be?

*waves hand* no need to apologize! I don't believe I've answered a question directly about this.

I kinda see what you're getting at, and, I've even joked about Hanako being 'the antagonist', since we repeatedly need to contest him at the climax of things. In this way, he does function as our antagonist for contained arcs, outright opposing our mains. More fancifully, Hanako is purposefully drawn like a brooding evil vampire, with his big cape and lidded, disdainful expressions, as he stands on rooftops. Menacing aura to him and all that. It's fun it's flirty it's self-aware. (AidaIro-sensei know what they're doing with the framing.)

Though... to clarify, I wouldn't necessarily think about him as 'the final antagonist'... even if we're going to continue to struggle against him. Even as he acts unapologetically, and in some ways, 'gets worse'... It's just ah, not so cut and dry.

In truth, I don't believe that any one character is the antagonist of the entire manga. I feel like the greatest 'evil' is society at large, and compounding with that, we must untangle individual character's resulting complexes stemming from society. It's society that says, kaii and humans cannot co-exist, all kaii are dangerous monsters. This is upheld by the Minamoto clan, and systems in place at the school. There are harsh rules enforced that keep everyone in line. As the rules are upheld, it becomes ingrained as 'fact' in everyone's minds (human and kaii alike) regardless of evidence to the contrary. There's a defeatism from both sides, that they are opposing forces that can never understand one another.

For example, it's the members of the Minamoto clan that look at Hakubo and see nothing but an emotionless monster. Oni are regarded as evil and mindless, because of their harming and consuming humans. Yet, we then also see the human village act savagely, ordering people be slaughtered and keeping young girls as prisoner. Humans harm humans and perpetuate the harm of humans. We even get, from the perspective of Hakubo, the fact that living with them was the same as living with the oni.

(⬆ This is a really important line... I always feel like this is Iro-sensei speaking to us through a megaphone.)

But regardless of how living with oni and humans is the same, the narrative perpetuated is that humans are the ones that are empathetic and capable of kindness, while oni are not. There's no means for Hakubo to reflect on his own experiences as they are happening... Tragically, he cannot contest these claims that oni are monstrous, because the Minamoto make him act monstrously.

Even if he ultimately cared about Sumire, and their relationship was a mutual one, he can't perceive this, because he was taught that it wasn't possible. It's why his own regret mystifies him. Normally, someone could understand that they're filled with regrets, due to having been in love with someone, but he cannot. He cannot recognize his own humanity...

The tale of Hakubo and Sumire really puts a pin in how they could have been happy together, were it not for society around them. This relationship would be seen as abhorrent, and beyond that, they were designated into roles they were never supposed to break free of, regardless of how they felt. Sumire could have sobbed and kicked and screamed about being a kannagi, Hakubo could've resisted being a slave. They both would have been hunted down and punished, equally, for rebellion. It is an unforgiving world. Your greatest opposing force here is society, and then following that, are the issues stemming from it, since these wind up ingrained in Hakubo.

*waves hands around wildly as i try and thread everything* You see, Hakubo and Sumire are a contained narrative that lays out our core conflicts and themes of this manga. This is like, a blueprint for what's going on with Hanako. The world says to Hanako: you're dead, you're a murderer, you can't ever live a normal life. It's impossible. You can't escape. You'll always be a monster. You are, objectively, bad for Nene to be around. If you tried to resist, you'd be put in place.

And Hanako's been in this system for decades by now, so I think it's just gotten to him. So the part 2 of this all is, Hanako himself fully believes he cannot simply love Nene. To Hanako, the identity of 'Yugi Amane' is dead, and what's left behind is warped and inhuman. And much like Hakubo, it's hard to contest this idea, because there's evidence that Hanako is dangerous. He really DID kill Tsukasa. He doesn't think or feel things a normal 13 yo would. All the lying and underhandedness stacks onto this. Doesn't he continue proving this to be true? Endless cycle.

So I suppose, I would specifically say that our final antagonist is... Hanako's self-hatred and inability to express or accept himself... This is what's keeping him from having a happy ending with Nene (and Tsukasa! 💜) and this is what would be the most satisfying to overcome.

With that in mind, as for 'how yandere' I think he will be... Well, imo we all should be hoping that Hanako can go 'all the way' with this side of himself. Through all this tragedy, and even as Hanako acts out... we actually must wish for him to act out MORE. He's not acting out ENOUGH! He should fully lean into his yandere heart!!! He's Not Quite There Yet... but I hope he can get there, someday.

Y'know, it's funny, I do think at his core he doesn't feel sorry for the bad things he's done... Having relished(?) in the shinjuu , and not REALLY feeling sorry for PP/Severance... Perhaps, unreasonably justified about all these actions. Yet also, I wouldn't say he's totally unencumbered by guilt or regrets either? It's complicated. What's going on inside of him, is conflicting, and that's why you see him so troubled, acting in mysterious ways. Confusing ways? I don't entirely doubt the authenticity of Hanako's severity when he is being self-hating and feeling as though he is dangerous. H-hmmm, how to say, it's like there's a Mr. Hyde in there, like 👅 Yeahhhhh I don't give a FUCK... I would DO IT AGAIN... I WANNA PUT YOU IN A BOTTLE... LICK THE OUTSIDE... HRhgiuhrghhhf!!! . and. ... Hanako is, observing his own thoughts/feelings like, 😭 GOD, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME... [TO HIS LOVED ONES] GET AWAY... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE......!!!

But what's actually making it worse is that he won't, just, lean into his nature, and be a crazed romantic... He bottles this all up and then it comes out all desperate and unchecked. Hanako is bargaining with his own desires of, nobility and selfishness, and that's what makes things like PP and Severance such a mess. Ultimately it's, neither so noble since he didn't manage to wordlessly, emotionlessly bow out of Nene's life, nor is it as indulgent as making her his forever. But it's like he can't meaningfully conceive of how to do either of these things...

Hanako doesn't want Nene to live in Shijima-san's boundary, he doesn't want her to forget about him, he doesn't want her to grow up and get married without him. He doesn't even want to kill Aoi-!! It's all just a means to an end. It's a half-measure. It perhaps, feels a little better than keeping everything inside, but it doesn't feel as good as rambling like a lunatic and grabbing Nene possessively. Y'know-??? But the glimmers of his true nature we can see through these actions are alluring, it begs for more questions, for further investigation... It makes you want to peel him apart and get the truth to finally leap out. Stop! Holding! Back-!!! (everyone yelling at him)

I think the circumstances that Tsukasa engineers, are DESIGNED to fully unleash Amane... to chip away at him, to force him to inhabit his nature. Hopefully, there'll be a point where it's not even a choice for Amane, he will simply have to act on how he feels. That's the dream.

In summary. I think-? Our GOAL is wanting Hanako to be a yandere, even more of a yandere than ever. He's been too tepid. He's held back too much, still. He hasn't even told Nene he loves her-!! That's crummy for a yandere... We need to get past the obstacles that are impeding his heart. Which are... society, and personal repression. It is those obstacles are 'our enemy'.

[neil-gaiman]

How Did you come up with the first eve in the story about adams wives? I haven’t been able to find anything about her after I read it and I want to know if she’s an actual biblical character or just someone you made

She's from the Midrash. I learned about her as a 12 year old, from my barmitzvah teacher. There was a point in there, long after I'd put her into Sandman, where I was starting to think I'd imagined her, when I ran across her in Robert Graves's Hebrew Myths....

Excerpt from: The Hebrew Myths by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (New York:  Doubleday, 1964), pp 65-69

Chapter 10: Adam's Helpmeets

(a) Having decided to give Adam a helpmeet lest he should be alone of his kind, God put him into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, formed it into a woman, and closed up the wound, Adam awoke and said: 'This being shall be named "Woman", because she has been taken out of man. A man and a woman shall be one flesh.' The title he gave her was Eve, 'the Mother of All Living''. [1]

(b) Some say that God created man and woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world; [2]  but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam-being already like a twenty-year-old man-felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: 'Every creature but I has a proper mate', and prayed God would remedy this injustice. [3]

(c) God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that He used filth and sediment instead of pure dust. From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem'. [4]

(d) Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when he wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture he demanded. 'Why must I lie beneath you?' she asked. 'I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal.' Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.

Adam complained to God: 'I have been deserted by my helpmeet' God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore lilim at the rate of more than one hundred a day. 'Return to Adam without delay,' the angels said, `or we will drown you!' Lilith asked: `How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?? 'It will be death to refuse!' they answered. `How can I die,' Lilith asked again, `when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it.' To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; [5] and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. [6]

(e) Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed job's sons. [7] Yet she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before the Fall. Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants but also seduce dreaming men, any one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim. [8]

(f) Undismayed by His failure to give Adam a suitable helpmeet, God tried again, and let him watch while he built up a woman's anatomy: using bones, tissues, muscles, blood and glandular secretions, then covering the whole with skin and adding tufts of hair in places. The sight caused Adam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood there in her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance. God knew that He had failed once more, and took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobody knows for certain. [9]

(g) God tried a third time, and acted more circumspectly. Having taken a rib from Adam's side in his sleep, He formed it into a woman; then plaited her hair and adorned her, like a bride, with twenty-four pieces of jewellery, before waking him. Adam was entranced. [10]

(h) Some say that God created Eve not from Adam's rib, but from a tail ending in a sting which had been part of his body. God cut this off, and the stump-now a useless coccyx-is still carried by Adam's descendants. [11]

(i) Others say that God's original thought had been to create two human beings, male and female; but instead He designed a single one with a male face looking forward, and a female face looking back. Again He changed His mind, removed Adam's backward-looking face, and built a woman's body for it. [12]

(j) Still others hold that Adam was originally created as an androgyne of male and female bodies joined back to back. Since this posture made locomotion difficult, and conversation awkward, God divided the androgyne and gave each half a new rear. These separate beings He placed in Eden, forbidding them to couple. [13]

Notes on sources:

1. Genesis II. 18-25; III. 20.

2. Genesis I. 26-28.

3. Gen. Rab. 17.4; B. Yebamot 632.

4. Yalqut Reubeni ad. Gen. II. 21; IV. 8.

5. Alpha Beta diBen Sira, 47; Gaster, MGWJ, 29 (1880), 553 ff.

6. Num. Rab. 16.25.

7. Targum ad job 1. 15.

8. B. Shabbat 151b; Ginzberg, LJ, V. 147-48.

9. Gen. Rab. 158, 163-64; Mid. Abkir 133, 135; Abot diR. Nathan 24; B. Sanhedrin 39a.

10. Gen. II. 21-22; Gen. Rab. 161.

11. Gen. Rab. 134; B. Erubin 18a.

12. B. Erubin 18a.

13. Gen. Rab. 55; Lev. Rab. 14.1: Abot diR. Nathan 1.8; B. Berakhot 61a; B. Erubin 18a; Tanhuma Tazri'a 1; Yalchut Gen. 20; Tanh. Buber iii.33; Mid. Tehillim 139, 529.

Authors’ Comments on the Myth:

1. The tradition that man's first sexual intercourse was with animals, not women, may be due to the widely spread practice of bestiality among herdsmen of the Middle East, which is still condoned by custom, although figuring three times in the Pentateuch as a capital crime. In the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is said to have lived with gazelles and jostled other wild beasts at the watering place, until civilized by Aruru's priestess. Having enjoyed her embraces for six days and seven nights, he wished to rejoin the wild beasts but, to his surprise, they fled from him. Enkidu then knew that he had gained understanding, and the priestess said: 'Thou art wise, Enkidu, like unto a godl'

2. Primeval man was held by the Babylonians to have been androgynous. Thus the Gilgamesh Epic gives Enkidu androgynous features: `the hair of his head like a woman's, with locks that sprout like those of Nisaba, the Grain-goddess.' The Hebrew tradition evidently derives from Greek sources, because both terms used in a Tannaitic midrash to describe the bisexual Adam are Greek: androgynos, 'man-woman', and diprosopon, 'twofaced'. Philo of Alexandria, the Hellenistic philosopher and commentator on the Bible, contemporary with Jesus, held that man was at first bisexual; so did the Gnostics. This belief is clearly borrowed from Plato. Yet the myth of two bodies placed back to back may well have been founded on observation of Siamese twins, which are sometimes joined in this awkward manner. The two-faced Adam appears to be a fancy derived from coins or statues of Janus, the Roman New Year god.

3. Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis r and n, which allow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result from a careless weaving together of an early Judaean and a late priestly tradition. The older version contains the rib incident. Lilith typifies the Anath-worshipping Canaanite women, who were permitted pre-nuptial promiscuity. Time after time the prophets denounced Israelite women for following Canaanite practices; at first, apparently, with the priests' approval-since their habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned is expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxIII. I8. Lilith's flight to the Red Sea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons. 'Tortured and rebellious demons' also found safe harbourage in Egypt. Thus Asmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six husbands, fled 'to the uttermost parts of Egypt' (Tobit viii. 3), when Tobias burned the heart and liver of a fish on their wedding night.

4. Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart in an apotropaic rite once performed in many Jewish communities. To protect the newborn child against Lilith-and especially a male, until he could be permanently safeguarded by circumcision-a ring was drawn with natron, or charcoal, on the wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written the words: 'Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!' Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If Lilith nevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and fondling him, he would laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it was held wise to strike the sleeping child's lips with one finger-whereupon Lilith would vanish.

5. 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word lilitu, ,a female demon, or wind-spirit'-one of a triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 B.G. Sumerian tablet from Ur containing the tale of Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree. There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow-tree tended by the Goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from layil, 'night'; and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba of being Lilith, because she had hairy legs. His judgement on the two harlots is recorded in I Kings III. 16 ff. According to Isaiah xxxiv. I4-I5, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs (se'ir), reems, pelicans, owls, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites keep her company.

6. Lilith's children are called lilim. In the Targum Yerushalmi, the priestly blessing of Numbers vi. 26 becomes: 'The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!' The fourth-century A.D. commentator Hieronymus identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyan queen deserted by Zeus, whom his wife Hera robbed of her children. She took revenge by robbing other women of theirs.

7. The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood and ate their flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were also known as Empusae, 'forcers-in'; or Mormolyceia, 'frightening wolves'; and described as 'Children of Hecate'. A Hellenistic relief shows a naked Lamia straddling a traveller asleep on his back. It is characteristic of civilizations where women are treated as chattels that they must adopt the recumbent posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused. That Greek witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture, we know from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian representations of the sexual act, though not in the Hittite. Malinowski writes that Melanesian girls ridicule what they call `the missionary position', which demands that they should lie passive and recumbent.

8. Naamah, 'pleasant', is explained as meaning that 'the demoness sang pleasant songs to idols'. Zmargad suggest smaragdos, the semi-precious aquamarine; and may therefore be her submarine dwelling. A demon named Smaragos occurs in the Homeric Epigrams.

9. Eve's creation by God from Adam's rib-a myth establishing male supremacy and disguising Eve's divinity-lacks parallels in Mediterranean or early Middle-Eastern myth. The story perhaps derives iconotropically from an ancient relief, or painting, which showed the naked Goddess Anath poised in the air, watching her lover Mot murder his twin Aliyan; Mot (mistaken by the mythographer for Yahweh) was driving a curved dagger under Aliyan's fifth rib, not removing a sixth one. The familiar story is helped by a hidden pun on tsela, the Hebrew for 'rib': Eve, though designed to be Adam's helpmeet, proved to be a tsela, a 'stumbling', or 'misfortune'. Eve's formation from Adam's tail is an even more damaging myth; perhaps suggested by the birth of a child with a vestigial tail instead of a coccyx-a not infrequent occurrence.

10. The story of Lilith's escape to the East and of Adam's subsequent marriage to Eve may, however, record an early historical incident: nomad herdsmen, admitted into Lilith's Canaanite queendom as guests (see 16. 1), suddenly seize power and, when the royal household thereupon flees, occupy a second queendom which owes allegiance to the Hittite Goddess Heba.

The meaning of 'Eve' is disputed. Hawwah is explained in Genesis III. 20 as 'mother of all living'; but this may well be a Hebraicized form of the divine name Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Khiba. This goddess, wife of the Hittite Storm-god, is shown riding a lion in a rock-sculpture at Hattusaswhich equates her with Anath-and appears as a form of Ishtar in Hurrian texts. She was worshipped at Jerusalem (see 27. 6). Her Greek name was Hebe, Heracles's goddess-wife.

[strangerthings4theories]

Billy Is Going To Find The Byers

IMPORTANT: If you haven’t read my post “The Demogorgon Is Billy’s Dark Reflection,” please check it out, as it goes hand in hand with this one. Thanks :D

A few months ago, we all got our first look at some of the new characters for S4. I checked them out with great interest. 

“Lt. Colonel Sullivan... military dude in Hawkins... cool, makes sense. Victor Creel... ooooooh, played by Robert Englund, betcha he’s gonna be one of El’s predecessors. Eddie Munson... damn, he’s super sus. Argyle... Jonathan’s new bff, who delivers pizza for--”

I stopped.

And freaked. OUT.

Argyle delivers pizza for Surfer Boy Pizza.

Surfer Boy Pizza.

SURFER BOY PIZZA.

A whole constellation of dots connected, and I knew IMMEDIATELY where this is heading. Let’s walk through it step by step... starting with the inception of Stranger Things itself.

The Duffers love the movie Jaws, to the point that they give it pride of place in their list of inspirations. Hell, Stranger Things probably wouldn’t have existed without it. Initially, as a homage to the movie, the show was set in a Long Island beach town called Montauk. The setting didn’t change until the Duffers began pre-production:

They began by scouting locations on the northern tip of Long Island, but the community - so integral to the script - didn’t look as they had imagined, and its distance from New York City made the idea of anchoring the production there unfeasible. A new approach was required. (Worlds Turned Upside Down, p 25)

After that, they rewrote the script to take place in Indiana, and “Hawkins was born.” 

Still, you can tell their love for Jaws lingered. Hopper’s truck looks like Martin Brody’s:

Meanwhile, the Demogorgon was inspired by the shark, and the show isn’t shy about that fact. In S1, when Nancy explains her theory for what the Demogorgon is, she likens its bloodlust to that of a shark:

In the final episode, when Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve are hiding from the Demogorgon in Will’s room, the Jaws poster hangs prominently in the left side of the frame:

Furthermore, the Demogorgon’s behavior emulates that of the shark. Like Nancy points out, it hunts alone, emerging from the Upside Down (*COUGHTHEOCEANCOUGH*) to pick people off one by one. And though we don’t see its full form until the end, its presence haunts us throughout, infusing the story with dread.

Okay! So the Duffers originally set Stranger Things in a beach town, and the Demogorgon was inspired by the Jaws shark. Cool. What does this mean for us?

Everything.

Think about it. The Byers have moved to a new town. We aren’t sure where they went, but in S2 Bob suggested Maine. Maine is on the East Coast, not far from Long Island.

And as you can see, it has hundreds of miles of beaches.

If the Duffers have any sense, they wouldn’t drop the Byers in another town like Hawkins. That would be redundant and hella boring. Instead, they would seize the opportunity to explore a new setting with a different feel. Not an inland town surrounded by woods and farmland, but... oh, idk... a beach town.

On top of that, the Byers’ move gives the Duffers the perfect opportunity to return to the show’s roots. Finally, they can bring Montauk to life.

If that’s what they’ve done, and the Byers have moved to a beach town, we’re headed for prime Billy territory.

Billy OWNS the beach. In the context of the show, we get our first glimpse of a beach in his mind, for God’s sake. And he’s deeply connected to water as an element. He’s a surfer, lifeguard, swim instructor... need I say more?

He’s also likened to the Demogorgon - the monster inspired by the shark in Jaws.

I’ve already discussed the similarities between Billy and the Demogorgon. Those were fresh on my mind when I read Runaway Max for the first time. So, when I read this paragraph where Max describes the Camaro, I freaked out (I do that a lot):

Once, for two weeks back in April, I thought that Camaro was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It had a long, hungry body like a shark, all sleek painted panels and sharp angles. It was the kind of car you could rob a bank in. (pp 12-13)

It’s a motherf***ing equation, y’all. Billy (by way of his Camaro) = the Demogorgon = the shark in Jaws.

And the Byers have just moved to a town where the local pizza place is called Surfer Boy Pizza.

A name like that doesn’t make sense unless they really are in a beach town.

Hence why I completely lost my shit when I read about Argyle. When you take all the evidence together, it looks like the Duffers have set up a situation where, figuratively, our heroes will think they see a shark in the water (aka the Demogorgon). 

But they’ll find out it’s not a shark. It’s a surfer boy coming back to shore.

Hints and leaks have confirmed this idea so far. The Stranger Things social media accounts teased the following exchange last year:

“What if it’s the Demogorgon?” “It’s not the Demogorgon.”

Just a couple weeks ago, we got our first photo of the Surfer Boy Pizza delivery truck (credit: strangerinsidebr on IG). And the writing on the side is telling.

The writing in the center doesn’t say, “Surfer Boy Pizza delivered hot to your door.” It says, “Surfer Boy delivered hot to your door.” The ‘pizza’ is way off to the side.

They’re making a joke, guys. A fuckin joke.

“Surfer boy delivered HOT to your door ;)”

Jokes aside, the potential for Billy’s intro scene is so CLEAR and VIVID that I took a stab at sketching out how it could happen. Obviously I don’t think it has to happen this way; the writers have plenty of wiggle room. But it illustrates the kind of scene I have in mind:

Episode 3: “The Survivor”

All this time, hints have been building that Billy is still alive. Creepy things keep happening that remind us of Will trying to communicate from the Upside Down in S1 (flickering lights, people feeling "haunted" by his "ghost," etc). At the end of the episode, a thunderstorm rolls into the Byers' beach town. Will and El are together at home, probably alone. As it's raining and thundering, strange things begin to happen that frighten them. They get a creepy phone call; the power goes out, but only at their house; etc. Remembering that horrific night three years ago, Will races to the window to look out. El follows him. Through the rain, they see a form swaying toward the house. Terrified, Will wants to leave, but El stops him. "But El, what if it's the Demogorgon?" "It's not the Demogorgon." They back away from the door and wait. To their shock, the chain unlocks by itself. The door opens, and their visitor walks in, looking like a drowned cat with a nosebleed. Billy.

God, I’m freaking out again just writing all this out lololol. I need to go lie down. 

BILLY’S COMING BACK, BITCHES. 

Peace.  ✌️

»»————-　✼　————-««

The “Billy Is Alive” Meta Series (So Far)

Billy Is Not a ‘B’ Character In Stranger Things

The First Rule of Analyzing Stranger Things: The Upside Down Is Symbolized By Water

The Lifeguard And The Rip Current: Our First Big Hint That Billy Is Alive

Why Haven’t We Seen Dacre On Set?

The Demogorgon Is Billy’s Dark Reflection

Frequently Asked Questions

For updates, follow the hashtag #billy is alive meta

[thecottageinthedark]

Locked Tomb sortings: Ortus Nigenad

Real talk here; Ortus is probably my favourite character in the books so far. And his Sorting is actually pretty easy; he’s a Double Bird.

Ortus studies poetry and history, not because he feels it’s his duty (like Badger Secondary Harrow with her necromancy, labouring under the weight of her position) but because he loves it. It’s his special interest. He knows stuff about obscure prose forms. He figures out that Matthias Nonius fought and won a favour from a Lyctor; Harrow herself didn’t know that, but Nonius’s ghost confirms it. He comes up with the plan to beat the Sleeper and force her out of the river bubble-and he does that by using the Noniad, together with the spirit magic of Abigail Pent. Bird secondaries use their tools.

And it’s a very Double Bird plan; he imposes a framework of rules on Wake. A truth system. By the rules of the Noniad, Wake cannot use firearms, must spout exposition as she fights, and is fated to put up a good fight but ultimately lose. That is how antagonists behave in the system of the Noniad. (It’s also quite Bird to deconstruct the tropes of his own writing like that, to be aware of them.)

Abigail comments that the revenant link to Nonius was formed via ‘pure passion’. Ortus is never passionate about people he knows, people he interacts with. But he’s passionate about his interests. On a visceral, emotional level he cares more about Matthias Nonius than he cares about people who are right in front of him. That’s Bird secondary passion, the ferocious geekiness of it.

He describes the ‘cool S’ in detail rather than just saying ‘it’s the letter S’ or ‘it’s an S in odd calligraphy’. Another piece of paper in the false Canaan House says “If you come to my room, I will make you the potato dish you liked" and he immediately delivers the immortal line ‘how must we understand potato’-he’s looking for double meanings, analysing. Harrow snarks at him meanly and he praises her for her cleverness. And earlier in that same scene, he tells Harrow that he will obey her, as it is his duty, but she has no right to his mind.

“My lady, I follow your every order … I will accept your chidings gratefully. I will watch you slay whomsoever you feel the need to slay, and I will sponge the blood from your brow … but when I lay me down to sleep, I am a fully grown man who is allowed to feel precisely what I want, about anything I want. There has never been a rule against doing so, and that has always been my deep and unyielding relief with regard to you—to my lady mother—to Captain Aiglamene. Your final will be done, my lady.”

Muir, Tamsyn. Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Trilogy) (p. 133). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

It’s a bit Liony-but see that appeal to order, ‘there has never been a rule against doing so’. That to me looks like a Bird Primary with a fair whack of Lion in his system standing up to Harrow’s Authoritarian exploded Badger. It’s Ortus saying that she can force his outward compliance-he cannot stop her-but that he will not count her as having authority over his thoughts or feelings.

(And then he follows it up with a jab insulting her knowledge base. “I’m certain your studies have kept you from the full breadth of the classics”!)

And when Ortus makes his apology to Harrow for not being there for her when she was a kid?

I am sorry for everything … I am sorry for what they did … I am sorry that I was no kind of cavalier to you. I was so much older, and too selfish to take responsibility, and too affrighted by the idea of doing anything difficult or painful. I was weak because weakness is easy, and because rebuff is hard. I should have known there was really nobody left … I should have seen the cruelty in what Crux and Aiglamene encouraged you to bear. I knew what had happened to my father, and I suspected for so long what had happened to the Reverend Father and Mother. I knew I had been spared, somehow, from the crèche flu, and that my mother had been driven demented by the truth. I should have offered help.

Muir, Tamsyn. Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Trilogy) (pp. 400-401). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition

Ortus knows he failed morally, and he talks about that failure as his failure to pay attention to the facts, to think about what he knew and act on what he thought. That’s a Bird Primary morality. And even though his mother was ‘driven demented by the truth’, he takes that as a sign that he should have tried harder to connect the dots, to figure it out.

[alister312]

Hi it’s PP anon!! (non sp fan anon says hi btw) I would literally love to hear your tsot Gregstophe headcannons tell me all of them

granting y’all the titles of besties I think it’s appropriate by now. so anyway bestie—

I have that one post w basic initial thoughts that I’m too lazy to link bc I’m on mobile. That’s sort of a base of everything.

The story I’m working on based on my thoughts of them in TSOT universe I think is going to revolve around them getting swept up in people’s plots. There’s at least 4 distinct plots going on.

At the start of it, Gregory is kind of working outside the plots, just for himself bc La Resistance failed. His intentions were to topple the Kupa ruling powers (Cartman and Kenny) and restructure the government. Cartman is an oppressive ruler for sure and Kenny is mostly there to look pretty, or at lead that’s what she makes people think (she is Girl in this AU). However, Gregory still cares for Kupa as a whole, its people and culture. The Dark Kingdom thinks it’d be better to start all over so they initially joined La Resistance bc they heard “topple Kupa government” and figured that also meant “destroy Kupa generally”. But Gregory doesn’t want that so he unfortunately finds himself against his former allies. And that sucks in particular bc I think Gregory doesn’t have any friends? Like maybe Wendy (considering her being the only non dark kingdom La Resistance member). But his career means that having friends is hard and doubly so as a revolutionary. So he feels like an outsider.

Christophe kind of literally is an outsider, given the fact that he’s a half elf. I think he’s lucky in that Kyle really likes him. Not in the way that Christophe wants him too… I like thinking that Christophe as a gardener grew Kyle’s branch crown for him? He just thinks Kyle is the only noble who has integrity and morals. Unfortunately Kyle is deeply in love w Stan and will never return his feelings so Christophe is like… bitter but not resentful. Christophe was treated really badly growing up being half elf and then going into mercenary work at a young age to escape… he’s really grateful that Kyle kind of took him in and let him heal so he’s willing to do anything for him. In love or not. So one of the major 4 plots I mentioned earlier is Kyle’s plot and it involves spying on Gregory. I think that’s how they come to get to know one another.

They don’t click automatically of course— Christophe hates nobles. Gregory hates being made fun of (which Christophe definitely does). But Gregory ALSO really appreciates Christophe’s gardening skills and wit and Christophe is shocked to find that actually there are other good nobles. Even Kupa nobles. So he slowly shifts his devotions. And Gregory wants nothing more than someone who understands and is willing to follow him anyways.

[leighlim]

Yes, I’m going to admit. The show surprised me.

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(Hopefully by this point you’ve finished Season 1 of ‘Dollface’, the kind of person who isn’t bothered by spoilers, or are just deciding if you still want to keep watching.) 

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I had not read anything about the show and just went through the motions (ready to rate it at the most a 4/10) and was surprised how good the jokes were.

Not only that, I was surprised by the actual content. Looks like I’ve found another MA show that I can add to my list!

PS; I’m undecided on what sub-genre to use. It’s basically 70% real...and 30% fantasy. But could the fantasy be happening only in Jules’ mind?

(But in episode 10...Izzy could see Cat Lady!)

PPS: So...are the friends...Older Millenials? Vulture puts them as 30-somethings.

(I was also confused that Goran Visnjic was playing a 45-year-old...in his 50′s...but....then after I checked his IMDB profile...he actually was 47 when Season 1 was released! What!? He was in his 30′s when he finished up ER!?

Yes! It’s actually Maura Tierney who is older! By 7-years!)

PPPS: Now I think I kind of like the reasoning of ‘Girls going to the toilet in groups’ --- there’s a serious safety concern if they don’t.

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HIGHLIGHT:

INT. MKUNDU LAUNCH PARTY - NIGHT

STELLA and JULES are sipping their drinks. MADISON is standing in between them. STELLA puts hers down.

STELLA I'm gonna run to the bathroom.

MADISON Of course.

MADISON starts to follow STELLA, but stops after she notices JULES isn't heading to the same direction.

MADISON What are you doing? We have to go with Stella.

JULES Oh, I don't have to pee.

MADISON What does needing to pee have to do with going to the bathroom?

JULES Is this a riddle?

MADISON Girls are supposed to go to the bathroom together.

She pauses and stares at her friend. Capiche?

JULES Well, yeah, but isn't that rule kind of stupid?

MADISON You're right, Jules. No, it's stupid. And cliques are stupid and loyalty is stupid...and bein there for your friends is stupid. Thank God you're too good for all that.

JULES Madison, I mean, come on, this---What do you think this whole night was about? This is for you.

MADISON scruitinises her friend.

MADISON Just forget it.

JULES stands there as her friend walks off and heads to the toilet.

JULES Madison, wait.

INT. CLUB (HALLWAY TO TOILETS) - NIGHT

JULES arrives just in time to see MADISON rushing out from the women's toilet.

JULES Hey.

MADISON She's not in the bathroom.

The reverse shot reveals that IZZY is now standing next to JULES.

JULES Really?

IZZY Hey.

MADISON AND JULES Whoa!

IZZY If you guys are looking for your friend Stella, I think I saw her get into a van with a weird older guy.

MADISON Wait, a weird guy with a van?

MADISON throws a look at JULES. Extremely concerned. We know what 'guy in white van' means....right?

IZZY Yes, but she seemed totally fine. I mean, she wasn't wearing shoes, but...

JULES Excuse us.

JULES and MADISON head to the exit.

EXT. CLUB (ENTRANCE) - NIGHT

JULES and MADISON arrive just in time to see a white van peel off.

JULES AND MADISON (shouts) Stella!

MADISON throws her hands up and turns to JULES.

MADISON You see what happens when we don't go to the bathroom together?

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My verdict of the episode: 6/10

Timestamp Commentary: None (One to be published only by request)

My Formal review about the show: None (a piece for 'Comedy To Watch’ coming soon!)

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Index:

[yggdrasil-mith0s]

I need some serious psychological help: Confessions from the blog owner.

Okay, so feel free to ignore this but I feel like I need to get some things off my chest and seriously talk about some things. This blog has been my lifeline over the past few years with my followers becoming my only friends. My best friends. People that genuinely care about me and listen to me. So I feel the need to say some things, let you all know where I am currently at in life, and possibly receive some advice if anyone reads this.

First, let me say I think I have gone through life with undiagnosed AD(H)D. Everytime I am genuinely interested in something career related or getting back into school, I start to get things together. Before I know it, I lose all interest and completely leave it behind, never to follow through. I have a bad problem with this in almost everything I do. It's also why I have 10 different save files in different games and none of which ever get beaten except maybe 1 or 2. I haven't made any significant strides or moved forward in life at all.

Another thing I have come to realize is I hate who I am. No, I don't mean my morals or how I am genuinely empathetic. I mean I have believed I was a straight cisgender male for 3/4s of my life. Being in quarantine has helped me figure out a few things. Mainly that I am Nonbinary and I am Pansexual. I am sure of that now. It's lead to quite the mental breakdown and uncovering bottled emotions and traumas. Others had me convinced I was cisgender male by hateful words, cunning deciet, and manipulating tactics and twisting my mindset into thinking I was wrong for considering anything other than cisgender male. @prideknights had a beautiful submission that basically opened my eyes to how hateful words have caused me to hate myself, for I was forcing an identity that didn't belong to me to satisfy those that wanted to give identities or take them to fit their agenda/beliefs. I fell for it. And it's no wonder I have been dealing with depression, dysphoria (though I didn't understand what it was till someone recently told me "yeah, that's gender dysphoria notbro (They say notbro instead of bro because they are nonbinary and use notbro as a NB way of saying bro lol). So I have dropped he/him pronounces and go by they/them. Still, I am unpacking a lot of trauma and beliefs that aren't my own mixed with those that are mine. I haven't gone completely public with my revelation because of fear and anxiety. I'm not ready to announce it on FB and have family I hardly talk to and other people know. I'm not ready for that in case I receive hate in any way because that's what caused me to suppress myself to begin with.

It's hard to love yourself while hiding the real you deep inside because of what others have said and done. What society does is create a world where people live in their own bubbles and anyone who enters that bubble is expected to follow their rules and beliefs. Eventually, entering enough of other people's bubbles, mostly toxic ones, will shrink yours to the point where nothing belongs to you, not even your gender or lack there of.

My sister's boyfriend recently moved in. He is great to my sister but incredibly abusive to me. I have left hints but my sister hasn't noticed. He is mentally abusive and recently he shoved me really hard. I can't outright tell my sister because she loves him and I'm kind of scared of what he might do if she breaks up with him because of me tbh. So I am trying to move out but have no money or anything to do so. I have found somewhere I can stay but I need a $250 down payment. I have $70. So I still need $180. The abuse is getting worse and worse and I think he knows I am NB now and I believe he is secretly a bigot. Again, I can't say anything and I am scared for both my sister and I. Though he does treat her really great. I think he just might have issues with me. I'm not sure why, though. Maybe he just hates LGBTQ+ people and knows. My sister knows I am Pansexual and I have brought a trans guy I had a crush on over... So yeah. I need to get out while she is dating him.

If anyone wants to help with my downpayment of $180 then you can donate to PayPal.me/yggdrasilmithos

My email for that PP is cc12991@yahoo.com.

That isn't necessary, though. I am also in search of a true therapist because I seem to have a lot of issues and things bottled up that I haven't unpacked. I want to know what's wrong with me and why I always lose interest, why I constantly find myself in traumatic experiences even though I try to avoid it. I want to find out what trauma I continue to hide while it still hurts me.

It might help my depression and anxiety to see a good therapist and truly talk to someone and open up completely without holding a single thing back.

Im trying y'all. I truly am. Please hang in there. Soon I will regain my full interest and post a bunch of content again. One thing that has held my interest is this blog, the people involved on this blog that are friends now, and the Tales of series. Though it fluctuates in how often or how much interests I'm currently holding.

Anyways, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Feel free to message me as well. I could use some friends, tbh. I don't have anyone in real life to talk to which is why I confide in this blog.

Also, if anyone donates and would like a post dedicated to you, gifs of some videos or gameplay made then just message me and let me know. I will make content for anyone that wants me to and donates, even if it is a dollar! I will make everyone gifs if their choosing or random Tales content gifs. My Paypal and email is 5 paragraphs up lol.

But it's 100% okay if not. I posted this just to let y'all know where I'm at in life right now.

Edit: I'm hanging on by a thread and had a good cry moments ago which is why I felt the need to post this and share with you all (my friends).

[trueislamfacts1]

Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

Islam was founded upon principles of peace and harmony to establish love, affection and collective responsibility towards the spiritual, physical, and mental wellbeing of all of society. ‘Islam’ a name given by God Almighty to this religion (Qur’an 5:4), is an Arabic word which literally means obedience and peace. ISLAM is derived from the Arabic root “SALEMA” meaning peace, purity, submission and obedience. So ‘Islam’ means the path of those who are obedient to Allah and who establish peace with Him and His creatures. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) defined a Muslim as one whose word or deed cause no harm to others. ‘Peace’ is the greeting of Muslims and ‘Peace’ shall also be the greeting of the dwellers of Paradise.

Hence, any person that does not adhere to these principles of peace, harmony and collective good, is outside the boundary of this definition.

Deeper Dive – Who speaks for Islam?

So, what about all of the negative media rhetoric against this peaceful image of Islam? Well, first and foremost we have to ask who has an authority to speak about what “Islam” is and what it stands for? Is it Media? Is it ISIS? Is it the president of a ‘Muslim’ country? Or the Muslim down the street from you?

None of these. The truth is that when we desire to know what any organization, company, country etc. stand for, we must look at its constitutional document. What any other person says or thinks is irrelevant, and if any person associates their actions towards this constitution, then cross-examination can easily manifest the truth from falsehood.

So, what is this constitution and basis of Islam? It is the following:

The Holy Qur’an (the perfect revealed word of God) Sunnah (practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa)) Passed down through practice, from the time of the Holy Prophet (sa) to present. After a few early decades, some practices were recorded in books. Ahadith (sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa)) Traditions and narrations passed from the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) to his companions, and eventually future generations. These have varying levels of authenticity, for which early Muslim scholars developed an entire science of examination. The most important rule to remember is that a narration should not contradict the Holy Qur’an.

DOES THE QUR’AN TEACH PEACE?

The Holy Qur’an is categorical on its teachings about peace, after all, it is the key text of the religion that literally stands for peace. Let’s examine what it says about any and all sort of violence against an innocent person:

Whosoever killed a person – unless it be for killing a person or for creating disorder in the land – it shall be as if he had killed all mankind. (Al Maidah, Ch.5: v. 33)

Explaining this verse, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community states

‘A person who kills a person unfairly or who kills someone who had neither rebelled, nor became a source of violating peace amongst the people nor created disorder in the land, it is as if he has killed the whole of mankind. In other words, to kill a person without any cause is, according to God Almighty, like the murder of the entire human race. It is obvious from this verse, how big a sin it is to take the life of another person without reason.’ (Lecture Chashma-e-Ma’rifat pp 23-24: Commentary by the Promised Messiah Vol.2: p.405)

In fact, he goes even further to state emphatically the need for peace and kindness:

He who abandons kindness abandons religion. The Holy Qur’an teaches that whosoever kills a person without justifiable cause will be as if he has killed the whole world. In the same way, I say that if someone is not kind unto his brother, it is like he has been unkind to the whole world.’ (Al Hakam Vol. 9 No.15 dated 30 April 1905 p.2: Commentary by the Promised Messiah, Vol.2: p.405)

Freedom of Conscious and Religions

Let us look at another core and fundamental pillar established by the Holy Qur’an regarding religious freedom over 14 centuries ago:

لَاۤ اِکۡرَاہَ فِی الدِّیۡنِ There should be no compulsion in religion (2:257)

The Qur’an has given a clear-cut message of religious tolerance and freedom in this verse. Any person that suggests or acts otherwise steps completely against the command of Allah the Almighty and the practice of His Chosen Prophet (sa)

The Holy Qur’an protects freedom of conscious and religion in an extremely lucid and clear manner while stating:

‘It is the truth from your Lord; wherefore let him who will believe, and let him, who will disbelieve.’ (Ch.18:V.30)

Hence, there exists no injunction on any person to be forced or coerced into following Islam in any manner whatsoever. If force had ever been the desire of God Almighty would it have been difficult for Him to compel all of humanity to believe? Absolutely not. It is to this effect that God states in the Holy Qur’an:

‘And if thy Lord had enforced His Will, surely, all who are in the earth would have believed together. Wilt thou, then, force men to become believers?’ (Ch.10:V.100).

Highlighting this crucial verse, Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih V (aa), Supreme Head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim community, stated in an address:

“This verse clearly states that God, as the Possessor of all Powers, could easily force all people to adopt the same religion; however, He has instead given the people of the world the freedom to choose – to believe or to not believe.” (Address at Houses of Parliament in London, UK on Centenary of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in UK 11 June 2013)

This can clearly be seen in the practice and life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) and his companions. When the Banu Nadir were exiled from Madinah when they failed to fulfil their promise to maintain peace. At that time, they also had many children of the Ansar (Muslim inhabitants of Madinah). These children had begun to live amongst the Jews, because in the pre-Islamic days of ignorance, amongst the Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, those who had no male children used to pledge that if the next child were born a male, they would make him a Jew. Thus, there were many boys from the Aus and Khizraj tribes who had been handed over to Jewish families. When the Jews of Banu Nadir were exiled because of their transgression, the Muslims wanted to get back their own descendants from the Jews. The Holy Prophet of Islam (sa) refrained them from their action on the very basis that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ that once you hand over your own son to someone else and that someone else makes your descendant a follower of Judaism, you cannot take him back: he would have to go with the Banu Nadir.

Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih V (aa) describes another incident relating to a slave of Hazrat Umer (ra):

“Then there is the account of a slave of Hadrat Umar (ra) who narrates that although he was a slave of Hadrat Umar (ra), Hadrat Umar(ra) never forced him to become a Muslim. Hadrat Umar (ra) most certainly used to explain to him with love and affection to become a Muslim but the slave would refuse and Hadrat Umar(ra) would only say: There is no compulsion in faith and fell silent after that. Finally, before his death, he set this slave free. Now who can, therefore, say that there is any room for compulsion or causing a breach of peace in Islam?” (A lecture at the Universite D’Abomey-Calavi Cotonou, Benin. 8 Apr. 2004)

Therefore, there should remain no confusion regarding this aspect of Islamic teaching. Islam is against any and all type of compulsion in religion, and lays the accountability of belief at the behest of God Himself. No other entity, organization, structure, or person has any right to do or say otherwise.

LIFE OF THE HOLY PROPHET MUHAMMAD – THE PARAGON OF PEACE

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) is the primary practical exemplar for all Muslims. His practices and sayings are held sacred, after the Holy Qur’an, perhaps there has never existed any other individual who has ever been emulated to this capacity. So, let’s see what his life tells us about whether Islam is a religion of peace or not.

First and foremost, we have the testimony of the Holy Qur’an regarding the preaching efforts of the Holy Prophet (sa) and his burning agony for the guidance of people while focusing entirely on peace:

‘I swear by his repeated cry “O my Lord!” that these are a people who will not believe. Therefore, turn aside from them, and say, “Peace;” and soon shall they know.’ (Ch.43 Vs 89-90)

This verse also states that in response to the Holy Prophet’s(sa) message of peace, his opponents did not only reject his teachings; they even ridiculed and insulted him. Indeed, they went even further and opposed him with enmity and created disorder and strife. Upon all of this the Holy Prophet(sa) pleaded to God that:

‘I desire to give them peace, but they do not give me peace. Leaving that aside they even strive to inflict pain and agony upon me.’

In response, Allah the Almighty consoled him by saying:

‘Ignore whatever they do and turn away from them. Your only task is to spread and establish peace in the world. You should respond to their hatred and transgressions by simply saying “peace be with you” and tell them that you have brought peace for them.’

The Charter of Medina – the First Constitution based on principles of Peace

Prophet Muhammad (sa) actively promoted peace, tolerance and compassion for all non Muslim minorities living in Arabia. He did not simply demand religious tolerance of his followers; his Sunnah was to provide legal and constitutional protections for religious minorities. This is perhaps best illustrated by two historic documents prepared by Prophet Muhammad (sa). The first document is the Charter of Media written in 622 A.D. – a formal agreement between Prophet Muhammad (sa) and all of the significant tribes and families of Medina, including Muslims, Jews and non-Muslim Arabs. Many scholars refer to this document as the first ever written constitution of a nation-state. The Charter of Medina pre-dated the English Magna Carta by almost six centuries.

The Charter consists of 47 clauses which set forth the formation of a sovereign nation state with a common citizenship for all communities. The Charter protects fundamental human rights for all citizens, including equality, cooperation, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. Clause 25 specifically states that Jews and non-Muslim Arabs are entitled to practice their own faith without any restrictions. In short, the Charter of Medina was the first document in history to establish religious freedom as a fundamental constitutional right.

Then, secondly there is the Charter of Privileges that was granted to the Christian monks of Sinai. Western Islamic scholar, Marmaduke Pickthall, comments on this letter as follows:

“The Charter which Muhammad (sa) granted to the Christian monks of Sinai is a living document. If you read it, you will see that it breathes not only goodwill, but also actual love. He gave to the Jews of Medina, so long as they were faithful to him, precisely the same treatment as to any Muslims. He never was aggressive against any man or class of men . . . The story of his reception of Christian and Zoroastrian visitors is on record. There is not a trace of religious intolerance in any of this.”

What About All the Wars (Jihad) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa)?

So, if the prophet of Islam taught peace, then why did he engage in so many wars? This is often a very naïve question raised against the holy personage of prophet Muhammad (sa), while ignoring the facts of history completely. Let us look at the entire picture.

Makkans, the place of the Holy Prophet’s birth and early preaching, outright rejected the message of the Holy Prophet (sa) to a large extent. The few that followed the prophet of Islam, were heavily persecuted. They were dragged through the streets, starved, cursed, boycotted, and even ripped apart in front of their family members. What was their crime? Simply that they believed in one God, and followed Muhammad (sa).

When the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) had finally established a just and peaceful society in Medinah, the Makkans were furious and vowed to destroy the Muslims. They could not let them live in peace even in Medinah. Hence, God Almighty finally gave permission to the Muslims to fight back in self-defense in the following command:

اُذِنَ لِلَّذِیۡنَ یُقٰتَلُوۡنَ بِاَنَّہُمۡ ظُلِمُوۡا ؕ وَ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ عَلٰی نَصۡرِہِمۡ لَقَدِیۡرُ Permission to fight is given to those against whom war is made, because they have been wronged — and Allah indeed has power to help them

الَّذِیۡنَ اُخۡرِجُوۡا مِنۡ دِیَارِہِمۡ بِغَیۡرِ حَقٍّ اِلَّاۤ اَنۡ یَّقُوۡلُوۡا رَبُّنَا اللّٰہُ ؕ وَ لَوۡ لَا دَفۡعُ اللّٰہِ النَّاسَ بَعۡضَہُمۡ بِبَعۡضٍ لَّہُدِّمَتۡ صَوَامِعُ وَ بِیَعٌ وَّ صَلَوٰتٌ وَّ مَسٰجِدُ یُذۡکَرُ فِیۡہَا اسۡمُ اللّٰہِ کَثِیۡرًا ؕ وَ لَیَنۡصُرَنَّ اللّٰہُ مَنۡ یَّنۡصُرُہٗ ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ لَقَوِیٌّ عَزِیۡزٌ “Those who have been driven out from their homes unjustly only because they said, ‘Our Lord is Allah’ — And if Allah did not repel some men by means of others, there would surely have been pulled down cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques, wherein the name of Allah is oft commemorated. And Allah will surely help one who helps Him. Allah is indeed Powerful, Mighty” (Ch22:V40-41)

Fair-minded commentators have utterly rejected the false barbaric image of early Islamic wars. De L O’Leary, for example, writes:

“History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.” (Islam at the Crossroads, p.8)

Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih V (aa) states regarding this issue while highlighting the need of the time:

The underlying point to consider is that the use of the sword or force is only permissible when a religious war is waged against Islam. In today’s world no one, be it a country or a religion, is physically waging war and attacking Islam on the basis of religion. Thus, it is not justifiable in any way for Muslims to attack any other party, in the name of religion, because this clearly violates the teachings of the Qur’an. )”   (A lecture at the Universite D’Abomey-Calavi Cotonou, Benin. 8 Apr. 2004)

The fact is that the Islamic wars were in self-defense after the Muslims had been pushed beyond all bounds of reason.

After 10 difficult years of fighting to establish religious freedom and peace, the Holy Prophet (sa) returned triumphant and victorious to Makkah. What did he do at this time? Kill his enemies? Destroy their houses and property? No. He proclaimed:

“There shall be no punishment upon any of you for I have forgiven you all.  I am a messenger of love and peace. I have the greatest knowledge of Allah’s attribute of being a ‘Source of Peace’ – He is the One Who gives peace. Thus, I forgive you of all of your past transgressions and I give you a guarantee of peace and security. You are free to remain in Makkah and to freely practice your religion. No one will be compelled or forced in any way.” (Bukhari)

The Holy Prophet readily granted amnesty to his persecutors, the magnanimity of which softened the hardest of hearts. Bitter enemies of the morning became warm friends by midday. Even the most die-hard enemies of Islam could not resist the healing balm so generously and so effectively applied by the Holy Prophet.

Commenting on this conquest of Makkah, the Rev. Bosworth Smith writes:

“Now would have been the moment to gratify his ambition, to satiate his lust, to glut his revenge. Read the account of the entry of Muhammad into Mecca side by side with that of Marins or Sulla into Rome. Compare all the attendant circumstances, the outrages that preceded, and the use made by each of his recovered power and we shall then be in a better position to appreciate the magnanimity and moderation of the Prophet of Arabia. There were no proscription lists, no plunder, no wanton revenge. From a helpless orphan to the ruler of a big country was a great transition, yet the Prophet retained the nobility of his character under all circumstances.” (Muhammad and Muhammadanism)

PEACE IN ALL ASPECTS

Therefore, Islam promised peace and delivered peace. The later fanatical politically fueled agendas of the extremist ‘Muslims’ that we see today have nothing to with Islam. Islam is a complete code of life, and promises to deliver peace in all aspects of life. From individual to family to social to international. No other religion delivers such a complete teaching without falling short on any matter.

[wasalwaysagreatpickle]

Friday 15 August 1828

7 1/2

11 20/60

Packing – breakfast at 9 35/60 – sat talking – Miss Duffin arrived in Brussels with her brother’s children – the following is an extract from Miss Ellen Duffin’s letter of 4 June last to Mr D- [Duffin] ‘she has placed Charles at the athénée where for £28 per annum he is boarded lodged, his clothes washed and mended, taught the classics, French, Dutch, German, mathematics, fencing and dancing, never is there even an extra charge – there are 6 weeks holidays, in summer, during which time he is to remain at school, to be perfected in the French language for the sum of 3 florins, about 15 shillings English money – she has very good furnished lodgings for about £40 per annum including the attention of the servant’ – the Johnsons at Interlacken with which Mrs J- [Johnson] is delighted – live at the cassino at 5 francs a day, bed and lodging and everything included – Miss Ellen D- [Duffin] to marry (next month) Mr John J- [Johnson], Colin’s younger brother – 

What Mrs D [Duffin] leaves them is but annuity goes to the brothers at the sisters death cannot go to their husbands even for life and not even to their children without the person who made the will has luckily put it in Mrs D [Duffin] seems to think it is not but he strikes me as much altered in point of faculty – 

Mr D- [Duffin] strikes me as much altered in point of faculty – Mrs D- [Duffin] allowed his memory was not quite so good – he appears in pretty good health – but somehow I scarce feel as if I should see him again, if I do not pass through again to Langton – Mrs D- [Duffin] evidently does everything – answers for him in all cases – he is evidently declining – 

Mentioned but not much having been at the Thackerays’, and how kind of attentive lady Elizabeth was – Mrs D- [Duffin] shewed me in 1 of the York papers ‘at Edinburgh on the 3rd instant lady Elizabeth T- [Thackeray] of a daughter’ – said I might perhaps write to congratulate her – asked where else I had been – at the Seaforths’ – invited to the Riddles’ etc. said I most regretted not being able to visit Mr Stuart McKenzie (Lord S-’s oldest daughter and heir, and married first to admiral Sir Samuel Hood with whom she was in India) – 

Tis singular but I have for some years fancied Mrs D [Duffin] somewhat jealous of my getting on, I have fancied this from the time of my getting as it were from under her governance. She has formerly said peevishly two or three times ‘you get on’ latterly nothing of this but then she never says as she might I am glad you get into such nice society etc. etc. On the contrary she has never latterly given me a helping hand where she might somehow or other she has kept back the Faifaxes this morning. I fairly put her to it about introducing me to the Simpsons at Brussels but she never said a word and of course I would not ask it plainly. I said we might go to Brussels that what I chiefly prized and wanted was a nice society she had before been, as it were, apologizing for not giving Jane Duffin a letter to the S’s [Simpsons]. They were in too high society for Jane who would be spending too much money if introduced to them. She cordially hates Jane, I said, by the way I will not say that I myself shall on her I know not whether she will smack the door in my face or not, you know why we quarrelled (it was about Miss Milne as she then was) she seemed pleased – she is surely jealous of my getting on. I do not admire Sophia and that too is heinous Mrs H.S.B [Henry Stephen Belcombe] told me she did it out of compassion, the poor girl received so much rudeness and inattention but this perhaps she would not say ill natured things which were also repeated against her. Her aunt had been very foolish about her every said was on sale and she was never likely now to marry well, scarce any but the Fairfaxes and Hutchinsons kind to her she would scarcely go out at all last winter – how different all this from Mrs D [Duffin]s puffing I am very cautious what I say to her tho I do seem to rattle away. She is a dangerous woman however good may be her intentions she owns now her brother has a fault that of over liking good living she says it is a let down to a man like him – 

Off from the D- [Duffin’s] per True Briton light coach (starts from the Tavern at 12 3/4) at 12 50/60 – had an inside place but went on the box – at Tadcaster in an hour – 5 minutes changing there at the Rose and Crown – only 22 1/2 minutes going the 1st five miles out of Tadcaster i.e. to the Inn on Bramham moor, where we stopt a minute or 2 – the moment the coachman saw the opposite coach (from the Black Swan) before him he set at gallop for about a couple of miles – I certainly wished myself safe landed but never uttered – 2 gentleman behind begged him to go slower, but he took no notice – on going slower afterwards he began to argue with the gents that there was no danger – that the mails were much the most dangerous of all coaches – the least thing would turn them over – a yard higher than our coach, and the tops always proportionately larger than those of other coaches – a gentleman in the inside remonstrated – the man said he had a lady outside on the box who had never said a word – I said this was no rule – though not alarmed thought it much better and safer to drive moderately – for those who said nothing, might make up their minds never to trouble the coach again – the man seemed to think he had overdone it, and tried all the ways to make up for it, and went afterwards even slower than necessary – 

8 minutes changing horses at the Flying horse, and did not get to the Rose and Crown, Leeds, till 3 25/60 – 1 1/2 hour to wait there to change coaches – my carpet bag had been left behind – wrote 2 or 2 1/2 pp. to Mrs D- [Duffin] by the coachman, to ask her to have forwarded by him and telling her that we had exceeded in the first five miles out of Tadcaster the quickest of the mails – the Edinburgh by York to London 400 miles in 42 hours (including stoppages) not quite 10 miles an hour – the Glasgow to Leeds 120 miles in 12 hours (including stoppages) just 10 miles an hour – we had gone 5 miles in 22 1/2 minutes about 13 miles an hour – stopped not more than a minute an hour at most – not reckoned, I think, at much more than 1/2 mile an hour – 

Off from Leeds at 5 – Kirkstal abbey looks a fine large remain – I really must go and see it, and ought to see Wakefield and the village of Heath – at Bradford at 6 20/60 – changed coaches again – now a 3 horse coach that stops alternately at the White Lion and Union Cross, Halifax – this twice changing is rather too much – never try it again if a moderate quantity of luggage – changed coaches and off from Bradford in 10 minutes at 6 35/60 – very bad leader – by dint of whipping alight at the Pineapple, Halifax, at 7 3/4 – 

Getting all my luggage safely housed here, and get to Shibden in 1/4 hour, at 8 10/60 – my father quite well again – Marian quite well cured by her journey to Market Weighton. Dinner about 8 1/2 – came to my room at 10 1/4 – 

Letter from Mrs Barlow ‘Lemm’s hotel, 19 Park Street Grosvenor Square, London’ 3pp. and ends under the seal, and 1st page crossed – dated 30 July, and the 2nd and 4th instant – better for Dr Granville’s advice – has no disease, but her nerves are weakened – England the best climate for her – not to go to Guernsey for a year to come – her nerves to be kept quiet – Mrs Carter in London – providing her husband’s will – will be independent of her friends – Lady Ouseley recommended Lemm’s hotel – capital situation and quiet – about the same price as Webb’s – very much better hotel – last year full of people of rank – Mrs and Miss B- [Barlow] were 3 days at Fulham – the bishop now a bishop of Canterbury much pleased with his little cousin (Jane), and gave her £20 to buy something in commemoration of their 1st meeting – going to Winchester, Mrs Sophia Barlow’s (Miss Louisa Barlow] (Jane’s aunt) suddenly died a very short while ago) – then to the Thistelwaites at Lyndhurst 12 miles from Southampton – 

Not to mention her father she will tell me why when we meet got in to some scrape or other – 

Will go back to Paris for the winter, the end of September, or beginning of October – Lady O- [Ouseley] wishes her to settle in London – sent her carriage every morning, and gave her her box at the opera – but she will not have time to accept her pressing invitation this year – the rank she moves in too high for Mrs B- [Barlow’s] means – very kind letter – if I cannot be in Paris next winter, would like to be there on my aunt’s account – very fine cool day –

[comicteaparty]

June 6th-June 12th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from June 6th, 2020 to June 12th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

How do you personally decide to kill-off a character, and how do you handle it?

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I never kill a char for shock or to motivate other characters (hate, hate, HATE those tropes); but if that character's decisions result in their death, so be it. But I always double check if decisions with huge results like death make sense for that character, to avoid the "ideot ball" problem.

Mind you, I only have three character's whose death would break the story, all others are fair game.

Miranda

I have yet to kill a character. But I do have a death planned...and right now the reasoning is to show how far a character has come from being a self-preservationist ass. If I maintain that route it won’t be done lightly and the person who does it will feel the weight of their decision.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Any deaths in my current work happened before the story started, and... that changed nothing. They’re still characters in the story I don’t know if I could actually KILL-kill a character without knowing that their death is an important stepping-stone to the plot’s conclusion. But even then, the character can feel more like a device than a person. Maybe for a future work, I can do it... but... for this one... I’m actually banking on things worse than death

copperine (Lady Changeling)

I have a main character death planned. It's not quite the same as most deaths but explaining further would be spoilers.

That is... not a helpful contribution, but oh well.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

It's such a battle of 'do or do not' at times with these things! You want that death to make an impact for the story, however it may lend to the narrative, and that makes planning just when and where so difficult!. When we first started writing GJS, we had SO MANY planned deaths! That was the first draft, which when we read it later as we approached those parts, made us realise that these character kill offs didnt really affect the story in a way readers would care for. (in fact, it was a chapter before that we decided to save an important one!) We later calmed down our edgy-ness, and had any such sort of death fit more cohesive with the tone of the story-- and I think that is a big part!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I've had kind of a similar character death journey with my story. There were a lot more for more shallow reasons when I was starting out. I think that probably is also a symptom of writting most of those deaths as an edgy teenager :p But over time I've cut a lot of them or rewritten them, in the case of backstory deaths, so that they're more nuanced. Even the like three I have planned to happen as plot points may end up being changed by the time I get to actually scripting it. Honestly, if I was writing a new story I'm not sure how I would approach having death involved or if I would. Death is a really defining experience. For the backstory deaths in RDD they're included because they define some aspect of the characters they effect. Sometimes it's movtivation (though not the I Must Avenge! kind) and sometimes it's just how they view the world. I think that's the way I would continue to use death as a device, though there are all kinds of other experiences that can create the same outcome. Death isn't always the most interesting device to use for creating depth or raising the stakes.

carcarchu

In PP the eliminations are kind of the equivalent of dying. Most of them don't have a lot of emotional weight but i'm really dreading having to eliminate the more important supporting characters later. i feel like the author of Princess when she wrote in her author's notes that she couldn't stop crying when she had to kill off her main character and had to draw through the tears, that's me but like 100 chapters from now

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I wholeheartedly agree, Mariah. I think as we grow, we find out ways to problem solve without being so absolute about our decisions in a sense

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I have killed off characters in my story; heck, their deaths are part of of the whole problem! I chose to kill them off because they’re not just one off characters; their deaths have a major impact on my protagonist’s character development. If they have to die, then they shouldn’t be dismissed at all. Rather, it has long lasting effects of trauma and that’s something the protagonist has to move on from.

carcarchu

Oh and also in my second story which i have not drawn yet the main character dies in the first chapter but she comes back to life after winning a bet with a demon and that whole thing is an extremely important plot point that ties the entire series together

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Like @LadyLazuli (Phantomarine), most of my character deaths happened before the story even begun. Most of them were incredibly important to one character or more. Although... Since the story of Whispers of the Past is told largely through flashback, it feels like these deaths just happened. And when I wrote the prequel stories to my comic, I battled myself over a certain death that I didn't want to happen. I realized very quickly that I don't make the rules.

eliushi [a winged tale]

My kill test is: if the character dies, what sorts of impact would it have on other characters? The narrative? Readers? Could it be misinterpreted as a message I wouldn’t want to send as an author? And what happens if the character survives? I do have planned character deaths as I don’t want my characters to have plot armour. I approach this by designing the deaths/narrative and events leading up to it important and impactful. Hopefully I’ll stick the landing.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(omg Kill Test Eli)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

That’s a really good test to use, Eli. It’s good to understand what a character’s impact is on the whole story if they die. Deaths are pretty traumatic, so it would also work to see how other characters react to it.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

The "what happens if the character survives" is the big one I always consider it's the one that has saved a lot of characters because the answer has been more interesting for me to write than the death was XD(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

That's fascinating to think about... Holy hell, if one particular character didn't die, it would be an entirely different story!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Sometimes the survival of a character has even more impact than the death. Unless they come back as a ghost, which in this case, they can still actively influence the story as opposed to being inactive

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

generally when i'm writing character arcs, i start from the end and work backwards. so if at some point in an arc i get to something like "this character needs to experience death for their growth" i'll put a character earlier in their story to get killed off. or if the character arc ended with the character's death, i'll make sure to build up to it throughout. i guess my style of writing is kinda different to some others'? in the sense that i don't go "ok here are my OCs, let's see what happens to them" - rather, i go "here's what happened to my OCs, let's see how they got there". though, that does kinda result in me tipping my hand a bit, lol. like if a character gets killed by one of the protagonists, i'll generally make the killed character a big jerk. if the character is killed by an antagonist to spur on the protagonists, i'll generally make the killed character really likeable.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I also consider when you want to kill a character during an arc. An incomplete arc is more heartbreaking than one that is complete before the end

That’s totally fair snuffysam. It’s all about the perspective

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh that is an interesting way to write Snuffy-- that would definitely produce interesting results and a cool way to tackle character development

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

It is a good way of thinking and also introduces a lot of possibilities. Because what if the character killed by the protagonists had legitimate grief/beef? Or that the story hints at their backstory a bit more and show them to be more human? It can set up some good questions about the moral grey area.

I like to believe that each character thinks they are their own protagonist of the story....whether it be heroic, anti heroic, villainous or in between.

eliushi [a winged tale]

Sometimes the survival of a character has even more impact than the death. Unless they come back as a ghost, which in this case, they can still actively influence the story as opposed to being inactive

It’s also interesting to think about death as a concept. If your story deals with an after death story vs death as an absolute vs reincarnation one

Death itself can mean different things to individual characters

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Death of a friend, death of a loved one....death of a personality.

Or even growing up can be seen as one, since it’s death of your childhood.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Because what if the character killed by the protagonists had legitimate grief/beef? Or that the story hints at their backstory a bit more and show them to be more human? It can set up some good questions about the moral grey area.

Yeah, exactly. Like, I have a character who is currently stricken with guilt over a guy he killed. And, like, the killed guy in question was a huge jerk as mentioned, but, like... he had a family. So it's a lot of figuring out what one could do to make up for that sort of thing.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Exactly. Even if they were portrayed as jerks (or actually are jerks, like in the case of your story)...they're still people and have their own stories to tell, too.

Imagine the stories you lose out when you completely demonize or put someone on a pedestal.....not seeing them as human at all.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I definitely prefer round rather than flat characters and even if it’s one who’s only seen once in the story, I like to add some contrasting characteristics to hint at their “person” even though their roles are small. It’s the little things that will be most impactful especially when they die

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

especially when they die oh my god Eli your bloodthirst is showing

eliushi [a winged tale]

I there’s a place for characters who are designed to pass for the sake of the story’s theme/character impact/setting danger

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

hmmm there is. And the trope is called Stuffed in the Fridge, when that character is specifically slated to die for the sake of story progression, like you said.(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

Stuffed into the Fridge: A character is killed off in a particularly gruesome manner and left to be found just to offend or insult someone, or to cause someone serious anguish.

I think there’s a fine line between the intentions for sure

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Absolutely. Depending on how you write it, you can pull if off very, very well.

Oh! I think I meant to say the lost lenore

Usually people who have died and who end up driving the characters' motivations, my bad

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

yeah there are times that killing off a character for another character's progression can be done well like the first 15 minutes of Up are considered some of the best scenes in pixar history and that's totally lost lenore

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

It all depends if the character actually was a character with their own hopes or dreams or just a thing to be smashed to make someone sad.

Did the character who died have agency? Did they have their own hopes and dreams?

Thing is, I personally only care for character‘s death if I also cared about their lifes.

It‘s hard to explain, but so many lifes only seem to matter in stories because they matter for someone more valuable; and there‘s a definite pattern which character gets to be valuable on their own and which one is only cared about because it impacts someone deemed more worthy.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Gurren Lagann is still my benchmark for a meaningful, impactful, heart-wrenching character death - one that propels the story forward (eventually) but also brings it to a screeching halt long enough to really delve into the emotions behind it. It's a death that doesn't feel necessary at first, but you look back and see the doors it opened to deeper conflicts.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Ohhh, character death!! I'm gonna second a lot of opinions here about death having to be relevant and affecting other characters; and I sure wanna bring the point home that even in war, violence has meaning and life and death have meaning too. Deaths of characters happen mostly for plot reasons: they happen so I can show things (about them or about the others around them). I like to think in terms of what characters represent and the way a character dies says a lot about what you personally think about the things they represent. So I have characters that from moment one I could say "Oh no this guy's gotta die and he's gonna have to die a LOT". Also gonna go there and say that yeah sure I am guilty of the killing for motivating other characters, but also to put the plot in motion. Others, I hope, also tell us something about the characters involved in their deaths...(edited)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(YESS CLAIRE!!! I always say the Kamina Death when we talk about that possibility in stories XD it was such a good impact)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I know people bring it up SO MUCH (along with one in Madoka... which was equally shocking!) but there's a reason they do!

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

hhh yesssss Madoka too!

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

those deaths are brought up for very good reasons, they are huge marking points in both narratives

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Madoka and the deaths in it always felt shallow to me. I facepalmed and went „of course“ on the first one. I knew it would happen from the moment the happy music started.

eliushi [a winged tale]

Deaths are just another plot device. Just have to make them count... or not... depending on what you want to do as the author! Imagine all the control... But to make a death impactful, that’s a harder question. For your wips, I’m curious what are your go to tips? Great points about agency, multifaceted, relationships with other characters.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

.........Write them as a character first before their relationships with others. Or if you do write their relationships first...brainstorm why they interact with others the way they do. Did something in their life influence it?

And...never stop asking questions about your characters. Fire away them yourself or have a friend ask you constantly. Thinking fast sometimes helps you get an eureka! moment about your characters and reach a deep part you might not have realized it at first.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

I started the story knowing I was gonna have to kill a character in the next one or two chapters and I wanted it to matter; if I had started the story killing him right away, it would look too much like a cheap, shock-value death, and its impact on the other characters could possibly look like an overreaction. So I had to make sure that character would have a lot of interactions with others that would show at least the points of his personality that I cared for the most.(edited)

It felt like running against the clock and everytime he was on the spotlight I was just "oh no I gotta make this count, I gotta make him matter" and I hope I could make it look like he mattered to the people around him(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

I really like that shizamura! Making the scene and character portrayal count as we slowly move towards their demise

I’m also curious when people realize a death flag for a character. I try not to hint at the death until it happens but I’m sure there are some things that clue the readers in

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

I tried using red flags by making other characters sound like they'd be the ones to die to draw attention from my target, tho I don't know to which extent that work

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't think anyone actually disagrees with me, but just bringing up a counter-point: character death does not have to be surprising to be impactful!

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

agreed!

DanitheCarutor

Depends on the story, I have a couple where characters die. One is a fantasy/sci-fi/war story where death just happens, it has a mix of the overall horror of war and the desensitization to it all, but there is also a scene where it has personal significance in a good and bad way. (Super vague, I know.) I also have a cosmic horror/fantasy comic where characters die, but they don't officially go until their souls are gone, so "death" doesn't have much importance but the devourment of souls and fading away of old souls has a sobering importance, with the former having an almost taboo feeling. I will admit to really enjoying low-blow gallows humor, as a mean joke I was actually considering making a fake ending in my current comic where an important character dies, making the other have to reflect on everything alone, and it would have dropped the story into full blown Tragedy territory. Doing this solely to see how my readers would react, but that would be too mean, and I don't have the energy or time for something like that. Although in all seriousness, as desensitized as I am to death and gore, I personally try to handle death as respectfully as possible. It's a big deal, and I don't like the use of it as a cheap story device.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Death... Hm. I have very few stories in which I actually kill off Characters. For me, personally, the Characters kind of live in my head, and if I know I am going to kill them they are sort of "branded" in a sense in a way that taints them for me even while I'm working with them when they're alive. It's hard to explain, but I look at those Characters differently and it's always in the context of making the death as powerful as I can, rather than the kinds of things I enjoy working on more. So, I very rarely decide to kill Characters. I can find more uses for them when they're alive! The only time I will do it is if it's a short story, and the death is an intrinsic part of the tale, or in longer stories if it is something to establish stakes (if I want the stakes to be death, sometimes I don't!) Other than that, I really try to write around deaths, cause sometimes Character deaths feel like "and now we don't have to deal with writing them anymore!" Rather than being something very potent. I've not yet had a character die outside of story outlines and plans. So I'm not sure I can say how I approach it, yet.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Every character that dies in my stories hurts. Some more than others for sure, but they all hurt me I don't know if it makes sense but I try to save them. It's just that their personalities and choices tie my hands. If I can save them in a way that would be plausible for the story setting, I do. I like happy endings. Usually, the deaths in my stories leave gaping holes. In the style of 'things would have gone much better if so-and-so hadn't died.' And if I kill, I kill permanently. No fake outs.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

I rarely think about character deaths very often, myself. I know, weird, right, considering I have a murder mystery in my own comic? However, the victim, Count Bailey, was a death I was ready for and planned very carefully around. In the brief time we saw him alive, he was likeable and fair, to get readers wanting justice for his murder. He was also passionate in his beliefs, and this last bit allowed me to hit the ground running with possible motivations for the killer(s?). As time goes on, I also plan to reveal more about him as well. So, even though he's dead, he's still very much an active character. Retroactive? But, yeah, I suppose that's a bit of a different take from others, considering the genre. In general, I'm not a fan of killing off characters, unless it drives the story, and I would be hard-pressed to do it especially to a character my readers have bonded with. That feels cruel to me, and I wouldn't want to do that to other people.

I want to make clear that I'm definitely not judging others for doing that! It's just not the kind of writing I could do myself.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah that's exactly my thinking too. Like sometimes a character (or multiple) needs to die to move the story forward, but I can't imagine writing something Game of Thrones-like where every week you tune in to see who's gonna die. Like, I just can't imagine writing character arcs in that sort of environment, unless I was writing some experimental story about characters dealing with their own mortality in different ways. Like a more philosophical Final Destination. Not to knock anyone who does, but I just can't write like that.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

This might be splitting hairs or something, but I feel like while I am not at all against "character deaths," I don't like to "kill off characters." Probably an approach/mindset difference (and different approaches are all valid!) rather than a difference in the results.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

It's kinda the same for me. Because I don't really "kill off characters," they just... die, and I'm basically just a witness.

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I killed my protagonist in the first chapter

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Well, I mean, with a title like Hans Vogel is Dead...

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

but also there's a difference between killing a character and necessarily removing them from the narrative altogether: I used to be SUPER into killing ALL THE CHARACTERS!11! when I was younger and have since moved away from it (a lot in part because of how turned off I was from GoT) and have been trying other ways of getting rid of characters

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly, why can't more characters leave because they left on a journey or something?

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

yeah!

or like, opened a bookstore or something

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah!

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

or if they're bad there's a lot worse things (dramatic music)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

ooof

I mean

I don't know if I'd like to see anything too gruesome, even for villains

(Doesn't help that my villain is my favorite)

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

oh no, I'm a baby lmao I can't do gore and that kinda stuff :''"D

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I mean, or mental torture

nah thanks

I'd rather just let 'em die at that rate

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I'm a big fan of The Good Place theory of letting them punish themselves

there's a lot of options out there for sure

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

^^^

eliushi [a winged tale]

I’d like to think a character killed on screen give some sort of impact and meaning to other characters and the readers, that can’t be achieved in other ways (leaving for a journey, survived but different, losing memory etc).

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

that's definitely true! it depends on what you want the reader to get out of the character being taken out of the narrative

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I haven't committed to killing off any characters yet and I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it when I do. Only one character has really died so far (Joe) and that was just the premise for the whole thing so it wasn't a difficult decision. I don't know whether I'm going to kill other characters at this point

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

If I need to get rid of a character, my favourite way is to give them exactly what they want. Since I write adventure stories, that usually leads to their retirement - or with them having to deal with the consequences of the fullfillment, which means they are interesting to write and read about again.

AntiBunny

It really varies depending on what the story calls for, and the character arc. In the case of Nailbat http://nailbat.AntiBunny.net/ the main character's death was already a foregone conclusion from the very beginning. It was the premise of the entire story. Everything built up to that moment.

A character just died in http://AntiBunny.net/ as well. In this case it was more to make a statement. There wasn't a place for this villain's story to go other than prison or death, and I chose to kill him off because he lived inflicting violence on others, and his last moment is one of shock that he'd meet his end at that very same violence. It's a human moment for an otherwise monstrous character as he reaches out, perhaps asking for help, but it's too late.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

My comics don't kill a lot of characters mid-story, but now that I'm thinking about it...there's a whole pattern of "characters whose arcs include managing the fallout of pre-canon deaths."

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Leif & Thorn stars a team of knights that was twice as big before a flubbed dragonslaying mission, so I had to come up with a pack of character designs that I only ever draw when the main cast are reminiscing. https://leifandthorn.com/comic/watching-over-me-629/

eliushi [a winged tale]

Pre-canon deaths I’m also interested in yours or anyone’s approaches to deaths that happen before the story started. What made you decide that? How do you keep the readers interested and care for those who’ve already passed on?

DaeofthePast

i imagine there'd be some flashbacks? :0

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Well, in this case, the readers don't really need to care for the passed-on knights...the important part is you can tell the survivors cared about them. And the survivors are the main cast. So if they're sad about something, you care based on your attachment to them, not based on having a personal attachment to the ex-knights.

🌈ERROR404 🌈

I think that it really depends on the genre for sure. The generic death of the father in a tragic accident can turn into an action protagonist's reason to start their adventure, and never appear again and still work for the genre/ Meanwhile, for something that's noir or mystery styled, the death of the father before the story starts affect very specifically the characters more than the audience. It's important to understand the genre when working with death post mortem

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Occasionally there's a flashback that brings someone out in more detail, but it's for the sake of "let's explore a specific way that character's death is affecting one of the survivors."

boogeymadam

catching up to this for the first time and there's a lot of great advice in here "KILL TEST" ASDFG but like its so wise so i can't make too much fun of it :')

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

The reason I decided to have so many of them was that Thorn is "the only survivor of meeting the dragon face-to-face", and I want readers to appreciate how big a deal that was! A looming pile of non-survivors makes the point pretty well.

boogeymadam

something already mentioned way up there earlier: killing characters to motivate others has been treated kinda taboo lately (and i imagine a lot of pre-canon deaths fall into that category,??) but its a perfectly valid thing to do as long as the characters would be multidimensional regardless of the death. i think. it can definitely depend on the voice the story is trying to have~ Or a readers Knowing The Stakes type death like Erin just mentioned those are fun!

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Honestly, I don't think pre-canon deaths work the same way there. The worst part is when a new character gets introduced and you start to get invested in them, to care about their feelings and think about where their storyline is going, and then it turns out they were just a plot device whose only purpose was to get killed off.

If the character's already gone by the time the story starts, there's none of that bait-and-switch feeling.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think one of the big issues with "killing characters to motivate others" was sexism; like, far too often it's female characters being killed to motivate the male lead. It's extra questionable when the female character is supposedly equally (or even more so) good at surviving/ fighting as the dude.

But like any trope, it's not inherently bad; there's just been Weird trends with people using them thoughtlessly.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Oh, definitely. If part of the reason you're excited about the new character is "finally, another woman in this dude-heavy series"! (or "finally, a same-sex couple!" or "finally, a black person at all!"...) then it hits doubly hard.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeeeeeah...

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Because it's not just "the writer(s) got me invested in this female character and suddenly they offed her", it's also "the writer(s) gave the impression that they were going to include and develop more characters from this underrepresented group, and suddenly it turns out, nope, they didn't care about that at all."

And honestly, that's super easy to offset, if you just put in more variety of characters from the beginning.

DaeofthePast

^^^ I get flashbacks to basically every zombie apocalypse story I've watched.

eliushi [a winged tale]

The bait and switch feeling can be tricky to navigate for sure. I find that act 2 deaths can sometimes feel that way. Act 1 deaths tend to motivate the protagonists/be the inciting incident and act 3 deaths kind of form the finale.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Nyx+Nyssa deals with the pre-story death of Nyssa's mother, but her actions and decisions she made before she dies reverbrate through the whole story. She's more a post-mortem character than offed-and-gone. Dead ten years and STILL causing trouble.

... Another reason I don't like death-to-motivate-main-character thing is that it can so, so easily feel cheap and generic, too. "Yay. Another dead romantic interest/younger sibling" way - as if the writer couldn't think of something more interesting or more fitting to the story/setting.

It's like... So many stories use it as the character-motivation equivalent of the "As you know, Bob..." style exposition.

Can it be used well? Yup! Everything can! But it so, so, so often isn't.

AntiBunny

In the case of Pre-canon deaths I do have the mother of the 4 Rabbintlov sisters. In this case while one male character has been chasing revenge all these years, it's more been about how these 4 sisters interact and grow up, without her. The youngest never knowing her mother, the middle two being most traumatized and it becoming a source of strife, while the oldest is wracked with the responsibility of having to be both sister and mother to her younger siblings.

I think deaths that happen before the story tend to be less about the character who died, and how the characters in the story deal with loss, and have to go on without them.

copperine (Lady Changeling)

(I am lurking here because any comments about character death in my own comic are spoilers and I don't have any to mention in the ones I read yet)

DaeofthePast

I haven’t killed anyone off (yet) but I do plan to. This specific character was created for a purpose and once that purpose is done, then I’ll probably kill them off. Unless I think of something else they can do, otherwise there’s no point in keeping them.

Idk how much I want to say without spoiling, uh, I tend to think of character by what role/job I’m having them do in the story. Like, “I need a character can teach the protagonist this life lesson” and then if there’s no existing character that can fill that role, then I create a new character.

So this character that’s going to die has a very important role in the beginning to get the ball rolling. I could possibly keep them, but I’ll be introducing some other characters later on and I might have too many characters to juggle and keep track of by that point So that’s my decision making process for killing them off.

DanitheCarutor

Pre-canon deaths I’m also interested in yours or anyone’s approaches to deaths that happen before the story started. What made you decide that? How do you keep the readers interested and care for those who’ve already passed on?

FFFF I didn't even think about this! I actually have a pre-canon death, from a reader perspective it's supposed to be seen as a third party learning about the death of someone's relative, you see how it affects the characters and memories of them tend to be more romanticized. In all honesty I don't really care if readers are interested in or care about him? I just want them to know he existed at one point, and he that he played a large roll in the MCs lives, holding much greater importance to Julian than Apollo. A lot of brainstorming went into his removal from the main plot, if he stayed my comic wouldn't even be a thing. I considered at one point just having him disappear, but that would honestly be too cruel for the characters, (like when a loved one disappears, leaving the family wondering what happened or if they're still alive. Not having that closure can be devastating for many people.), and the main story is already bleak enough. Lol Presentation wise, I use flashbacks and character discussion, although not a whole lot. Just enough to get an idea of what he meant to them, and what his role was. I want to leave it vague for the audience to speculate. The most recurring approach is the use of photos, or a single photo specifically, since it's the only tangible proof of his existence.

Moral_Gutpunch

I cheated at first. The one who died is a ghost, but talking about him turns into talking about others who died, be they legendary, a death that has political effect or personal effect

Feather J. Fern

I always plan deaths of characters, anyone can die. The favourite, the villian, the best friend, the main character, someone's coffee, anything is free game for my writing.

[wulfrann]

AFTG Check, Please! AU

Ok so I had this idea a week ago because I’d read something about Andrew getting into baking to satisfy his sweet tooth cravings, and now I can’t think of anything else. So here we go.

(PS: If you don’t know anything about the incredible webcomic that is OMG Check, Please!, do yourself a favor and go read it.)

(PPS: No one is one character, I just took what I wanted for x character and left the rest aside.)

_

The Foxes are the same as in the books except they play hockey and live in a frat house.

(NB: Hockey is a mixed sport in this AU thank you very much)

(NB: I don’t know how many people there are in a hockey team and frankly I don’t care. I’m here to have fun, not to be accurate.)

_

The hockey team has a frat house instead of a tower, and it’s called The Haus. The few larger bedrooms are shared, the smaller ones are not.

Andrew and Aaron share the attic. They have a mini-fridge for Andrew’s ice-cream and booze, even though there’s already a huge fridge in the kitchen. Andrew likes to climb out the window to smoke on the roof.

Renee and Allison also share a room, and so do Matt & Seth. (Matt does spend a fair share of his nights in Dan’s room, though. The both of them have the most “relationship fines” out of the whole team.)

Kevin technically shares his room with Nicky even though it’s small, except Nicky actually really lives off-campus with his boyfriend Erik. (I lied. They’re the ones who have the most fines. The amount of pet names they can use in just daily conversations is disgusting.)

Neil… sleeps in the basement. Officially he has a dorm room, but he’s never even set a foot near the dorms.

Is he even enrolled? Yes. Where does he hide his bed during the day? He sleeps on a camping mattress. What about his dorm room?? John, his never-roommate, was disappointed until he realised that it meant he could have parties whenever he wanted.

_

Kevin hasn’t been that comfortable with contact during matches since he left the Ravens.

When Neil joins and he starts training him at the crack of dawn, Neil makes a deal with him: he’ll follow Kevin’s instructions without complaining if Kevin accepts to practice checking with him.

_

Andrew has a baking channel on youtube. He got into baking a long time ago and kept watching baking videos while thinking he could do better, so one day he just. started his own channel.

He always looks bored in his videos and never takes Q&As seriously. No one’s ever really sure if he’s actually joking.

(“What got you into baking?” “I wanted to be taller and thought eating yeast and egg whites would speed up my growth. So far the results are mixed.”)

He’s not big or anything, but the fans he does have love him. His videos are always well-made and well-framed and the recipe’s clear, and there’s always something in the background of his videos - be it a knife that’s obviously not made for cooking just sitting there, or a passed-out Kevin still holding onto the bottle of vodka from last night.

(There’s a fair share of his fans that are just here to pick up on those odd details and ponder theories about who he really is. The leading hypothesis thus far is that Andrew’s lying about the hockey team and is actually in some kind of cult.)

He rarely talks about hockey or his life in general, except to roast or complain about something or someone, mainly Kevin. His twitter however is full vague posts about his life, but never clear enough that anyone who doesn’t actually know him can figure out what exactly he’s talking about. If Andrew’s bored, and at any moment of the day chances are that he is, then you can be sure he’s typing away on his phone somewhere, complaining about campus coffee or how exactly stupid his teammates are.

No one on the team except Renee knows his twitter handle. This of course doesn’t prevent Andrew from vaguing about her, which she takes in stride.

(No one on the team knowns Renee has a twitter. They’re all convinced she’s, like, anti-social media apps for some reason. They’re not exactly wrong, because Renee does avoid getting involved in any of the unnecessary drama those apps stir, but she likes to watch when she feels like indulging in some form of mindless entertainment.)

_

Neil used to figure skate in the Raven’s junior club when he was a kid, and he still loves it to death. He turned to hockey after Mary’s death though because he needed some way to be on the ice to cope, and was surprised to find out that he likes it. A lot. There’s something about being part of a team that - well. Anyway, it wasn’t supposed to last. He planned to leave at the end of the year - that is, until he got recruited by Wymack and none other than Kevin day, who was in the Ravens’ hockey junior team, and, well. Off to Palmetto he went.

He doesn’t get Andrew at first (doesn’t even want to after Columbia), but one night he stumbles upon Andrew filming himself as he bakes some kind of pie in the Haus’ kitchen. They both agree not to say anything, since Neil’s not even supposed to be in the Haus at this hour, but it doesn’t take long for Neil to find Andrew’s channel on one of the Library’s computers the day after that.

It confuses him more than anything, to be honest, but it also makes Andrew appear more, well, human, and Neil’s curiosity gets the better of him.

He starts looking for Andrew whenever he disappears and usually finds him filming himself making some kind of pastry or another. It gets to the point where Andrew’s just used to having him here while he films, and decides that he might as well help while he’s here.

So Neil starts popping up in Andrew’s video. Oh, it’s nothing at first, just a hand here and there, entering the frame just long enough to pass something to Andrew. But then he starts making comments that Andrew doesn’t edit out and even responds to, sometimes.

(“Isn’t that a little too much chocolate? I thought Kevin wanted you to eat healthier.” “If Kevin wants to eat nothing but grass, that’s his problem. I like real food.” “By which you mean sweets. Are you sure you don’t have a sugar addiction?” “Are you sure you don’t have a death wish?”)

The only other people who know about Andrew’s channel are Aaron, Renee and Bee. Andrew and Bee frequently exchange tips and recipes, and she always leaves some kind of encouraging comment on his videos.

_

Neil practices figure skating on the court sometimes when no one’s around. Andrew finds out about it eventually. (He watches from the rafters, because someone’s got to keep an eye on this suicidal idiot somehow, and Neil pretends to ignore him.)

(And if one day Neil’s feeling so on edge that he asks Andrew to skate with him just to make sure that this is real, that he’s not back in Evermore with the Ravens, skating through Winter break with as many cuts and bruises as he has hairs, that he’s safe - and if Andrew says nothing but gets his skates anyway, so Neil can hear someone else’s blades cutting the ice, can hold onto Andrew’s shirt to remember that he won’t run - well. No one has to know.)

_

When Neil gets a phone, the Foxes make it their duty to create a profile for him on every social media platform imaginable. Eventually he gets a twitter account, and Renee messages him Andrew’s handle.

Neil starts scrolling through Andrew’s profile distractedly until he realises that a lot of his posts are about him, and he immediately starts responding.

Andrew, of course, cannot leave well enough alone, and the whole thing escalates to the point where Andrew’s followers start calling it a Feud, then a War, and post summaries of the day’s battles for those who couldn’t follow in real time.

(It’s flirting. They’d deny it to their graves but it’s flirting.)

_

Everyone has a nickname except Andrew, because he’s lame.

Allison’s is Allie. 

Dan’s just Wilds, because it’s already cool enough. 

Seth’s is Gorder. 

Nicky’s is Mickie. 

Renee’s is Walker, because same as Dan. 

Aaron’s is Ronnie, and he hates it (Nicky came up with it). 

Matt’s is Boydster. 

Kevin’s is Daisy. 

Neil’s is Joster, then Jester after the interview with Kathy Ferdinand. 

(I know those don’t do justice to Check Please so if you have better ideas please tell me.)

_

Bonus facts:

Matt and Nicky do Ransom & Holster’s “Hockey Shit” thing at Neil every time Neil asks a question.

Kevin has the best Hockey Butt, no questions asked.

Allison has the best Flow, no questions asked.

When they make the playoffs they stop shaving/getting haircuts, because that’s the Rule. Dan throws hers and Allison’s epilators in the trash as soon as they get the news. Matt’s beard is crowned Most Magnificent by the end. The twins get, like, five and a half hairs on their chins. Neil ties his hair back because it keeps falling in his face. Nicky grows a beard which he either loves or hates depending on the day. 

[carlkandutsch]

Deep Body Blue by Anthony Caro, 1967

As a literally existing object, the sculpture may be described as two contrasting steel elements running along the ground, two parallel uprights, each about 4 feet tall, and two contrasting components that rise from the base of each upright, one cursive and one straight, connecting the two ground-running elements. The entire configuration is painted in dark blue. It is a composite object that doesn’t resemble any familiar object we’ve encountered in the world.

After describing its configuration, Fried characterizes the work as follows:

Like several other recent sculptures by Caro, Deep Body Blue explores possibilities for sculpture in various concepts and experiences that one would think belonged today only to architecture: for example, those of being led up to something, of entering it, perhaps by going through something else, of being inside, of looking out from within … it shares with architecture a preoccupation with the fact, or with the implications of the fact, that humans have bodies and live in a physical world….For example, it is essential to our experiencing the two uprights in Deep Body Blue as a kind of door that they stand in the same plane. It doesn’t matter that they are no more than four feet high, that they lack any sort of lintel, that we are not tempted nor even able to pass between them: the fact that they stand several feet apart in the same plane is enough to make us experience them as an abstract door (and a large, or wide, one at that). By the same token, if they are moved even slightly out of alignment their “doorness” disintegrates and the sculpture as a whole begins to fall apart, to become arbitrary and therefore meaningless as art. This aspect of Caro’s achievement may be described in different ways. One can say that he discovered what constitutes an abstract door, or that he discovered the conventions – corresponding to deep needs – which make something a door. Caro did not consciously set out to discover anything of the kind. On the contrary, it is because Deep Body Blue began in a preoccupation with particular modes of being in the world that its very success as sculpture came to depend on the making of the above discovery in, or by, the piece itself. It is as though with Caro sculpture has become committed to a new kind of cognitive enterprise: not because its generating impulse has become philosophical, but because the newly explicit need to defeat theater in all its manifestations has meant that the ambition to make sculpture out of a primordial involvement with modes of being in the world can now be realized only if antiliteral – that is, radically abstract – terms for that involvement can be found.[i]

This analysis of Deep Body Blue illuminates the “pressure” under which modernist art must succeed if it succeeds. Fried observes that if the two uprights are even slightly out of alignment, the sculpture as a whole begins to fall apart, to become arbitrary and therefore meaningless. That is because the alignment of the two uprights – their standing in the same plane – is what allows them to be seen as a kind of “abstract door”. Without that alignment, the uprights – and therefore the rest of the sculpture – would become arbitrary because it would be seen not as a kind of door but as a kind of complex multi-part but literal object. Its “objecthood” would eclipse its illusiveness.

Fried’s observation shows that the kind of illusiveness sought by modernist sculpture is not the same as “illusion.” We experience Deep Body Blue as a kind of door but not as a representation of a door; that mode of illusiveness – the traditional media by which sculpture was able to represent the world – was no longer available to Caro in 1967. Those media had by that time lost their power to convey sculptural significance, and therefore compel conviction in the beholder. It follows that the “objecthood” of the sculpture – the materials from which it is made, the identity of the steel elements and the way they are welded one to another – all of that could not be hidden or covered up or masked or presented in any way that is not completely obvious to the beholder. Hence the pressure in the teeth of which modernist illusiveness must be secured.

Fried’s remark about the alignment of the uprights also indicates the kind of “door” is discovered in Deep Body Blue. The door is discovered in the placement of the elements that comprise the sculpture - in the integrity of those placements of distinct elements and not in their identity, especially the placement of the two upright columns on the same plane. It is the parallel placement of the upright columns, aligned in the same plane separated by a space wide enough to allow a human body to pass between them, but not so wide that the body does not pass through them – in short, their placement so as to create a passage as if into or out of one region to or from another – that illusively establishes a door. In approaching Deep Body Blue I come upon something that for some reason I want to call a “door” – although it looks nothing like any actual door I have ever encountered in the world. And the fact that I want to call this a door allows me to realize that I don’t really know my reasons (or if I have a reason) for calling any of those other those familiar things a “door”, any more than I know my reasons for calling this a “door” – yet I do want to call it a door.  

This is why Fried says that in Deep Body Blue we discover an “abstract door.” We discover the “conventions” that make something a door – the essence of “doorness” as it were. Immediately following the passage quoted above, Fried inserts a parenthetical:

(At the risk of seeming to overload the point, I will add that the cognitive enterprise in question is related, in different ways, both to European phenomenology [Merleau-Ponty] and to the later philosophy of Wittgenstein. It isn’t only modernist art that has found it necessary to defeat theater.)

The reference to Wittgenstein is worth exploring if only briefly. In the Philosophical Investigations Wittgenstein wrote: “Essence is expressed by grammar.”[ii] “Grammar” refers not to the definitions found in dictionaries or the rules contained grammar texts but to certain conventions of usage. Wittgenstein also uses the word “criteria”; the grammar of a word reveals the criteria for the thing to which the word refers. So, for example, when we recall how the word “door” is used in significant utterances, we will know what counts as a door and what doesn’t. A thing is not a door by virtue of participation in Platonic forms, or by being an instance of a logical “universal”, but by virtue of the fact that we engage with it as a door – opening it to enter, closing it (or not) upon existing, locking to keep others out, unlocking it to allow others in, passing through it from one room to another, and so on. These and similar ways of engagement constitute the criteria for something’s being a door, and they are grounded in what Fried calls “particular modes of being in the world” – entering, exiting, coming, leaving, arriving, being inside, looking out, passing through, and so on. If we were not the sort of beings we are – embodied beings, with bodies within a certain range of height and width, ambulant on two legs, which construct shelters often (but not always) divided into discrete rooms, and which provide security and privacy but can sometimes be invaded – we wouldn’t find it worth talking about doors. Nothing would count as a door.

Deep Body Blue can be said to discover or lay bare the conditions for something’s being a door in our world because the sculpture makes manifest those modes of being in the world within which anything counts as a (literal) door. Doors are approached, entered and gone through, and nothing is more familiar in our world than approaching, entering and going through doors, from one place to another on a daily basis throughout our lives. But when we approach, enter and go through the abstract door that is Deep Body Blue, we do not pass from one place to another – and of course, we do not approach, enter or go through anything in the literal sense of those words. We encounter modes of being in the world that are deeply and pervasively familiar to us, but in a way that allows those modes of being to be experienced as something quite extraordinary. In this sense, Deep Body Blue reveals something we might think of as the extraordinariness that inheres in the ordinary. We approach, enter and go through the abstract door to get to the place where we already are but transformed. The literalness of our lives is for a moment suspended, so that we at least for that moment are able to stop theatricalizing ourselves and others. Deep Body Blue is finally “about” the resources of art in general, its capacity to redeem our lives.

[i] Fried, “Two Sculptures by Anthony Caro” in Art and Objecthood, pp. 180-81.

[ii] Philosophical Investigations, § 371.

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke [Part 6]

Last time, bad things happened.

This time, the goal is fewer bad things.

With great optimism, the no-grinding Nuzlocke heads to Cycling Road.

Great. Optimism.

The plan was for Po to handle all of these, but Allenby’s falling behind a little, and I would prefer a little buffer there... On the other hand, Po can’t be poisoned. I judge it as we go, with Po doing the majority of the heavy lifting.

According to the tough guys in this game, I’m a mouse.

Cue Ball Luke has a level 29 Mankey. Hey Allenby, look, it’s those things Po shouldn’t fight! Welcome back to getting some slivers of exp! Take the Machop too while you’re at it!

He called me a rat after I beat him. Heh.

Biker Lao has more what we were expecting, with a level 29 Grimer. And Koffing.

Cue Ball Koji demands my bike. Someone didn’t read the rules of Cycling Road. Or have the gatekeeper loudly object to them trying to walk on this here road. He’s got a level 28 Machop. Go, Allenby. Feed on it and the following Mankey. And then the next Machop.

You only have one pokemon. Are you going to be a problem?

One level 33 Weezing.

Gone now.

Wait, what?

Biker Ruben, find yourself some kinder friends. You deserve them. Even with your level 28 Weezing. Koffing next. Then another Weezing, because Ruben is a chill dude who trains his pokemon.

You can tell if someone in these rows is a Biker or Cue Ball based on how mean they are in their lines. ...Cue Ball Camron wants to battle. Level 29 Mankey for Allenby. + Machop.

And that’s us beating up a biker gang. At the tender age of ten. The only age anyone in a Pokemon game does anything.

Unless you’re Alolan and you want to be eleven for some strange reason I don’t understand.

Made it to the Route 17 part of Cycling Road. Where there is grass. Let us approach.

Many spawns that were things I couldn’t catch later!

Yay, caught it. Uhhh. Lu.

Back to fighting. Cue Ball Raul. One Mankey for Allenby. Then a Primeape for a mirror match.

Cue Ball Isaiah next. To spare Allenby some pain, Po takes the level 29 Machop. Allenby gets the Machamp.

Or Allenby can use up all PP for Cross Chop and scare me into pushing Heero into the ring.

Biker Virgil. Presumably without the electric powers. But with a level 28 Weezing. Koffing. Weezing.

Good for you.

Biker Billy.

With your level 33 Muk.

The problem with Cycling Road is I’m never sure if I’ve actually hit all the trainers. And that’s normally, when it doesn’t really matter except for my happiness levels.

Biker Jaxon has a level 29 Weezing. And a level 29 Muk.

Rode all the way back to Fuchsia and have to go back up. I am a ripped ten-year-old.

Biker William has five pokemon. First up is a level 25 Koffing. Maybe I should share these with Allenby a little. You want to fight a Weezing, Allenby? Of course you do. Stay in for the Koffing, even. Let it destroy your accuracy. Let it force Po to take the Weezing alone.

Hi Corey.

I think I will let Heero fight your level 29 Primeape. Allenby can take the Machoke.

Cue Ball Zeek is up next. With a level 33 Machoke that Po should not fight, so hero time for Heero again.

Biker Nikolas uses a level 29 Voltorb. To remind us he matters I guess. Zaft can kill the next one.

Cue Ball Jamal has the staple Mankey at level 26. Allenby, go handle the next one. And try not to make me cry against the Machamp. Hey, you did a good job! Nice! Your prize is staying in for the Machop.

I think that might be everyone. Dang. That leaves me precious few options. Wait, no, there’s the Route 18 bird boys for Po to nom.

Bird Keeper Wilton with a level 29 Spearow. Followed by Fearow.

You’re only allowed to have that attitude if you have a bike. Jacob. With your level 26 Spearow. All two of them before a Fearow. Then a final Spearow.

Bird Keeper Ramiro has a single level 34 Dodrio. Like a boss.

Okay, now what.

I could beat up Rockets in Saffron. Or fight Koga. Or go to the Safari Zone. Or maybe take a small break.

Break having been taken, I have to ask, because I have no inclination to look it up: what the fuck even is the intended order for these things? I’m pretty sure Erika is the fourth Gym, and the Rocket plot in Saffron has to happen after the Rocket plot in Celadon, but past that, what is it that you are meant to do first?

I think it’s Koga and then the Saffron stuff, but it might not have to be.

Anyway, beating up Rockets.

Because Koga scares me.

And Safari Zone feels like work.

Dun dun dun.

We fine our first prey up on the second floor.

Grunt #1 has a level 25 Golbat. Zaft! Then a level 25 Zubat. Now Zaft wants to learn Rollout. Which I like except for the part where Zaft should not learn it. Anything that takes time is a no with Zaft.

Another Zubat. Followed by a Raticate. And finishing with another Zubat. All tributes to the mighty Zaft.

Po’s been in front for a while, so I think I’ll let Heero take the front for most of Silph Co.

Rude.

Second Grunt starts with a level 29 Cubone. Gee. I wonder what I miss most right now. Then Zaft can take the Zubat.

Scientist Jerry has a level 28 Magnemite. The Voltorb is Zaft’s for the taking. The Magneton... I think Heero can take it, though I have made things more difficult on her by deciding I want Zaft to have exp.

Thunder Wave. Yuck. But Heero gets the job done, and we’re already way used to walking back to the Pokemon Center at every opportunity.

So, stairs or teleport pads?

Teleport pads. Because I’m cool.

Scientist Parker says hello. Only with violence and a level 29 Grimer. Plus an Electrode for Zaft.

Aaaaaaand back to the Pokemon Center.

The bed does nothing. How dare you, bed. For all that I love the design of beds in this gen... why.

Grunt #3, aka one of the four Rocket Brothers. We don’t care. Level 28 Weezing up front, so Po is going to go ahead and come back out.

The Weezing uses Selfdestruct.

It takes out half of Po’s HP.

>:(

Koffing next. Then a Golbat for Zaft.

Rocket Bro One down.

Hi #4. He starts out with a level 26 Raticate. Arbok is next. Followed by Koffing. Lastly, we’ve got a Golbat for Zaft. The Grunts in this tower really care about Zaft’s development.

Apparently the teleporter pads aren’t going to take me anywhere with convenient speed the stairs can’t manage just as well. So I’m just gonna randomly wander the building up and down stairs until I beat everyone. Rendering the number system I sort of have completely useless.

Scientist Ed! Leading with a level 28 Voltorb! Then a Magneton. Then Koffing. Victory.

Coolio. Grunt #...5. With a level 28 Golbat up front. In the spirit of Zaft being three levels below Allenby, Zaft, you switch in and take this. Heero can go back in and handle the Drowzee. Po can have the Hypno. On we go.

To Scientist Travis! He’s got a level 29 Magnemite. Allenby, in the spirit of inclusion, you can fight his Koffing.

Grunt #6′s one and only is a level 33 Machoke. Heero saves the day.

Hey, finally reached the room with the Carbos.

And thanks to our valid behavior, it will have no effect if we give it to Zaft. Score. I guess.

Up at the top floor, we fight Grunt #7.

He has a level 25 Rattata.

Then another.

Zaaaaaaaaft.

Then a Zubat. Ekans can be Allenby’s. So can the Rattata. And adios.

They don’t even let you guys have your own lines.

Such a tragic life you lead, #8.

With a level 29 Cubone.

Ugh.

Allenby handles it and the next one.

Scientist Joshua up next. He’s got a level 29 Electrode. Muk comes out and Po responds in kind.

Why does everyone antagonistic in this game think I’m a mouse?

He opens with a level 26 Raticate. Then there’s a Zubat for Zaft. And a Golbat, how convenient. Last up is Rattata.

The last one, #10. Yay.

Level 29 Machop and Machoke.

Geez, where’s the bed that heals in this place? I need one.

Grunt #11 has a level 28 Zubat. Then another. Then a Golbat.

Why is this building so big.

Scientist Taylor has almost a full team. Starting with a level 25 Voltorb. Magneton next. Koffing. More Koffing.

I hate you I hate you I hate you

:-o

;-;

Heero, you... you take on the final Magnemite. Then we’re leaving.

What floor is this? Sixth. Okay. Great. Down to the bottom and the Pokemon Center, then I think I’ll just slowly go up the stairs until key items are earned and whatnot.

This place is too big.

Okay, all healed up and on the third floor, fighting back #12. Level 28 Raticate up first. Po in for the Hypno. Another Raticate for Allenby. Who’s earned some free exp.

Floor four! #13! Level 28 Ekans! Zubat! Cubone! Done!

#14 with a level 29 Machop. Po gets the Drowzee.

Floor five and #15. All he has is a level 33 Hypno.

#16 has a level 33 Arbok which will soon be Po food.

Scientist Beau. Level 26 Magneton. Magnemite. Koffing. Weezing.

Hey wait what’s your motive here? Juggler... Dalton?

I actually always really liked the Juggler class. They’re so cool. Oh, right. Kadabra and Mr. Mime. Now Dalton. Why did you attack your brave and valiant rescuer.

...Generic evil siding with Team Rocket. Fine.

Now I think I need to teleport around and look for the Card Key.

I know I shouldn’t complain about these things, given how valuable all the experience is, but I have never enjoyed Silph Co. Too many floors of the same design and same types of fights. I always got lost as a kid, and nowadays even though I’ve given up caring about where exactly I am, it’s still sort of a lot.

Back to the sixth floor, and I’ll just stomp on whatever pad looks good.

Teleport takes us to the second floor and an unfought Scientist. His name is Connor. He has a level 26 Grimer. Only past tense. Weezing up next. Koffing. When you side with Rockets your pokemon options deteriorate. Weezing.

And there’s nowhere else to go but back through the same teleport.

Have I mentioned that I hate this area.

Because let me tell you

the one redeeming factor it has is how many items are hidden in random trees.

Could you please just tell me who I have to mug for the damn Card Key.

Scientist Rodney. With the level 33 Electrode.

Good news, I found the Focus Punch TM.

Better news.

Time to open ALL the doors.

This part I can enjoy.

See how much better life is now.

Grunt #...17? Level 28 Drowzee. Grimer. Machop.

Okay, what floor is this? Ninth. Got it. Now to start from the bottom and just open every single door I find as I trot up the stairs. My happy place.

Oh, and beating up more people. Like Scientist Jose. With a level 29 Electrode. Weezing.

I hate this building.

Grunt #18! Has a level 29 Sandshrew! Then Sandslash!

What happens if you don’t unlock all the doors? Do the NPCs stay trapped in there even after the building’s freed? I doubt it, but for a few scant seconds the thought was funny.

I am back up to floor eight. Getting closer.

Oh heck.

He has his Pidgeot up front, right?

So Zaft should be first?

I don’t anticipate a fun time, here.

A sense of impending doom.

HA! His Pidgeot is first!

...Less ha. It’s level 37.

Zaft perseveres. But Allenby can have the Growlithe that’s out next. The level 38 Growlithe. I don’t think I like this. Allenby lives in the green, but with a bite out of it. Exeggcute is next, so comfort and Heero follow. It’s level 35. And given the state of my team, the Blastoise that’s coming up might be an issue. Do I trust Zaft and STAB enough to spend a turn or two healing?

...Yeah, let’s just be extra sure on that. And of course, now Heero is paralyzed. Sigh.

Blastoise coming out, and Zaft is going to try to at least help for a turn and not die.

Level 40 Blastoise vs level 37 Zaft.

Zaft wins!

...Bloodily!

Po, handle the Alakazam please. It’s level 35. I believe in you.

...

HOLD ON I THOUGHT I DIDN’T GET THIS IN THIS VERSION.

HOLY HECK DO I GET A LAPRAS.

DO I WANT A LAPRAS?

WHAT LEVEL IS IT?

But as for a name... Hm.

Sprinkle.

And now off to the Pokemon Center. Note to future self, to get back where I was you went through a teleport pad on the third floor.

Sprinkle is level 25. She will take Alton’s place in the party, but. Grrrr.

What do I think, is it worth splitting the exp between five to have a Water/Ice pokemon available, or do I want to try boosting the ever-loving heck out of only four? Does it really make a difference at this point? I think this Rival fight was premature, so the levels might be a bit skewed in his favor, and like, I think I can make it work to train a Lapras at minimum cost because I love Lapras...

I’ll finish off Silph Co. and think. Not having a Water option hasn’t been the greatest thing in the world. It would be especially nice against Giovanni and Blaine. But Sprinkle’s only level 25...

Actually, you know what? First I think I’m going to hang out in the Fighting Dojo and give Allenby something to do. She’s the only one I really want taking on that section, so it doesn’t affect any of my decisions. Plus, more exp before the end of Silph.

I’m rooting for this to go well.

Have it go well, Allenby.

Black Belt Hitoshi is first. He has a level 31 Machop. Maybe Po will be able to take a bite out of some stuff here after all. Then again, Po has Koga’s whole Gym. Mankey next. Primeape last for a mirror match.

Black Belt Hideki. Level 32 Machop. Machoke. Revenge packs a punch, but we’re good.

Black Belt Aaron. Mixing up the naming scheme. Has a level 36 Primeape. Er.

Heero’s coming in for this. Just in case. Primeape can do a helluva lot of damage, and Allenby has no resistance except for a few more levels on it.

Black Belt Mike. Okay, so the back two are the partnered odd ones out. Level 31 Mankey. Another Mankey. Primeape.

One fight left before I get to turn down a Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee because I have my option for this city.

Level 37 Hitmonlee first.

Yeah, hey, Heero...

Hitmonchan next, and here’s where the concerns come. Hitmonchan probably has Thunder Punch. I do not want that around Heero. I don’t want anything near Allenby, either, but I think Allenby at least doesn’t have the danger posed by super effective attacks, so Allenby...

Yeah, Thunderpunch. And it paralyzes. Of course. But Allenby gets through it, and then we’re done. Nice.

...Back to Silph.

Allenby, you can stay up front. ...Or can you.

The Sprinkle problem vexes me. I like how maximizing the level of these primary four has worked out, for the most part. I would like having more of a spread, Type wise, but. This really has worked, without any major problems. I think if I want to add something in, it has to be now. But Zaft is already underleveled. Sprinkle would be in the same boat, really only adding the extra benefit of Typing.

I can’t get the Exp. Share. Switch training is the only way.

..

I want a Lapras.

Fuck, this is why this run is just a first attempt.

Okay! Sprinkle going up in front for the remainder of Silph Co.

Grunt #19. Level 32 Cubone. This would be a good match if Sprinkle had Surf. But no one has Surf yet, so in Allenby goes. Drowzee in, and in goes Sprinkle temporarily. I already hate this. And doubt its effectiveness. Marowak.

Last Rocket down.

Sorta.

Level 37 Nidorino out first, and I think Po is the best suited for this.

Level 41 Nidoqueen. Lots of Double Kicks, lots of Snoring, lots of stress, but it works out.

Level 35 Kangaskhan. Allenby time.

Level 37 Rhyhorn. Still Allenby time.

Phew. And that’s that. Also, throughout all of that switch training, Sprinkle gained a grand total of.........

One level. She’s 26 now.

The only reason to do good deeds in this game.

Baaaack to Koga.

The pre-Kogas.

Juggler Kayden has a level 38 Hypno and I am uncomfortable. But Po paralyzes it and brings it to red with on Body Slam so we’re still in business. As well as very, very happy we did Silph Co. first. Seriously, what’s the intended order on these?

Juggler Kirk is next. Bringing us back to safety with a level 31 Drowzee. With great stubbornness, Sprinkle takes it out. Same with the next. The Kadabra can be shared with Zaft because EVs. Drowzee next, and we’re back to Sprinkle. Who made it to 27 all by herself.

Juggler Nate. His opening Drowzee is level 34. Not for Sprinkle. Kadabra. Gah. Heero, I think you’re probably the safest switch partner for this. As much as I love Zaft, Zaft is. Zaft.

Cool story, kid.

Oh, sorry, Tamer Edgar.

He has a level 33 Arbok. And Sandslash. And Arbok. Po and Sprinkle tag-team the lot.

Tamer Phil. You have a level 34 Sandslash. Only Po ate it after Sprinkle confused it. Dream team. Arbok next. Bye Arbok.

Geez, I should really consider putting more effort into jazzing up the battles. The problem is that normally I wouldn’t bother recording them, but with these being the only fights I get, and operating under the theory that I’m going to fail this round, having a thorough record is helpful. And it’ll only be typed out once.

But wow. It’s boring to type, so I can only imagine what it’s like to read.

Juggler Shawn! What have you got for me? A level 34 Drowzee. Then Hypno. That has the sheer gall to confuse Po. And makes her flinch twice in a row. But as all things end, so does this fight.

All that’s left is Koga.

And my prize for all that effort?

Sprinkle is level 29.

I hate switch training with every fiber of my being.

I also have six Rare Candy.

...

No, we’re not doing that. We will behave, and obey the spirit of the nonsense that is this entire run.

Okay.

Sprinkle’s out front at the moment, but I’m guessing sooner or later Po is just going to be the only thing fighting any of his pokemon. Poison is annoying, and Po’s Immunity is a precious gift I shouldn’t squander.

The level 37 Koffing he opens with is also encouraging me to keep putting Sprinkle in harm’s way, though. No. Po, get in here.

Wow. Koga wastes a Hyper Potion on the Koffing. Yay and all, but really?

The level 39 Muk is up next. This thing is not something I should be switching Sprinkle in on, honestly, because it has a host of delay moves that are no fun to deal with whatsoever. ...I sent Sprinkle in anyway. She’s still level 29. And has Perish Song.

lol at Sprinkle’s Confuse Ray missing every single time. Minimize. Minimize is such a horror to work around. Sadly (?), Koga removes Muk before Sprinkle’s song can kill it. Bringing in another level 37 Koffing just as I switched in Po. Since Sprinkles is guaranteed to get exp from Muk if all goes well, I’m not going to bother switching her in on the other stuff.

Another Hyper Potion gone. Yay. Po also hits level 44. Double yay.

The Muk is back and so is Sprinkle. Round two. The most drama in this is finding out how many times Sprinkle’s Confuse Ray misses this time. One. Then I forgot what Mist does so I used that, and now it’s time to bring Po back out.

Just in time for the level 43 Weezing. Yeah, not something I feel a need to switch around on.

...

Yeah, so it uses Smokescreen, but Po is protected by Sprinkle’s Mist. This battle is going so absurdly well through proper utilization of a moveset I would waste zero time on in a normal playthrough.

Huh, Koga uses a Full Heal when Po paralyzes Weezing. I didn’t know he had those. Anyway, bye Weezing.

Round three, Sgt. Sprinkle.

!!!!

Confuse Ray finally hit! It’s a miracle!

Po, switch in and watch Muk die, please.

You did good, Sprinkle. You did real good.

See? Even Koga thinks so.

And now I have the TM for Toxic. Bueno.

That’s badge five, and a good time for a break before we decide which mistake of a venture we try out next.

Until next time, please never underestimate how deeply I hate Koga’s Muk.

[7r0773r]

The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov, translated by Michael Scammell & Dmitri Nabokov

If I were to return now into that past, enriched in but one respect—awareness of the present day—and retrace exactly all my interlooping steps, then I would certainly notice [Yasha’s] face, now so familiar to me through snapshots. It is a funny thing, when you imagine yourself returning into the past with the contraband of the present, how weird it would be to encounter there, in unexpected places, the prototypes of today’s acquaintances, so young and fresh, who in a kind of lucid lunacy do not recognize you; thus a woman, for instance, whom one loves since yesterday, appears as a young girl, standing practically next to one in a crowded train, while the chance passerby who fifteen years ago asked you the way in the street now works in the same office as you. Among this throng of the past only a dozen or so faces would acquire this anachronistic importance: low cards transfigured by the radiance of the trump. (p. 41)

***

“Leave Pushkin alone: he is the gold reserve of our literature. And over there is Chekhov’s hamper, which contains enough food for years to come, and a whimpering puppy, and a bottle of Crimean wine.”

“Wait, let’s go back to the forebears. Gogol? I think we can accept his ‘entire organism.’ Turgenev? Dostoevski?”

“Bedlam turned back into Bethlehem—that’s Dostoevski for you. ‘With one reservation,’ as our friend Mortus says. In the ‘Karamazovs’ there is somewhere a circular mark left by a wet wine glass on an outdoor table. That’s worth saving if one uses your approach.”

“But don’t tell me all is well with Turgenev? Remember those inept tête-à-têtes in acacia arbors? The growling and quivering of Bazarov? His highly unconvincing fussing with those frogs? And in general, I don’t know if you can stand the particular intonation and the maudlin endings of his chapters. Or should we forgive all his sins because of the gray sheen of Mme. Odintsev’s black silks and the outstretched hind legs of some of his graceful sentences, those rabbitlike postures assumed by his resting hounds?”

“My father used to find all kinds of howlers in Turgenev’s and Tolstoy’s hunting scenes and descriptions of nature, and as for the wretched Aksakov, let’s not even discuss his disgraceful blunders in that field.” (pp. 72-73)

***

Have you ever happened, reader, to feel that subtle sorrow of parting with an unloved abode? The heart does not break, as it does in parting with dear objects. The humid gaze does not wander around holding back a tear, as if it wished to carry away in it a trembling reflection of the abandoned spot; but in the best corner of our hearts we feel pity for the things which we did not bring to life with our breath, which we hardly noticed and are now leaving forever. This already dead inventory will not be resurrected later in one’s memory: the bed will not follow us, shouldering its own self; the reflection in the dresser will not rise from its coffin; only the view from the window will abide for a while, like the faded photograph, fitted into a cemetery cross, or a trim-haired, steady-eyed gentleman in a starched collar. I would like to wish you good-by, but you would not even hear my greeting. Nevertheless, good-by. I lived here exactly two years, thought here about many things, the shadows of my caravan passed over this wallpaper, lilies grew out of the cigarette ash on the carpet—but now the journey is over. The torrents of books have gone back to the ocean of the library. I do not know if I shall ever read the drafts and extracts rammed under the linen in my suitcase, but I do know that I will never look in here again. (pp. 144-45)

***

When the French thinker Delalande was asked at somebody’s funeral why he did not uncover himself (ne se découvre pas), he replied: “I am waiting for death to do it first” (qu’elle se découvre la première). There is a lack of metaphysical gallantry in this, but death deserves no more. Fear gives birth to sacred awe, sacred awe erects a sacrificial altar, its smoke ascends to the sky, there assumes the shape of wings, and bowing fear addresses a prayer to it. Religion has the same relation to man’s heavenly condition that mathematics has to his earthly one: both the one and the other are merely the rules of the game. Belief in God and belief in numbers: local truth and truth of location. I know that death in itself is in no way connected with the topography of the hereafter, for a door is merely the exit from the house and not a part of its surroundings, like a tree or a hill. One has to get out somehow, “but I refuse to see in a door more than a hole, and a carpenter’s job” (Delalande, Discours sur les ombres, p. 45). And then again: the unfortunate image of a “road” to which the human mind has become accustomed (life as a kind of journey) is a stupid illusion: we are not going anywhere, we are sitting at home. The other world surrounds us always and is not at all at the end of some pilgrimage. In our earthly house, windows are replaced by mirrors; the door, until a given time, is closed; but air comes in through the cracks. “For our stay-at-home senses the most accessible image of our future comprehension of those surroundings which are due to be revealed to us with the disintegration of the body is the liberation of the soul from the eye-sockets of the flesh and our transformation into one complete and free eye, which can simultaneously see in all directions, or to put it differently: a supersensory insight into the world accompanied by our inner participation. (Ibid. p. 64). But all this is only symbols—symbols which become a burden to the mind as soon as it takes a close look at them. . . .

Is it not possible to understand more simply, in a way more satisfying to the spirit without the aid of this elegant atheist and equally without the aid of popular faiths? for religion subsumes a suspicious facility of general access that destroys the value of its revelations. If the poor in spirit enter the heavenly kingdom I can imagine how gay it is there. I have seen enough of them on earth. Who else makes up the population of heaven? Swarms of screaming revivalists, grubby monks, lots of rosy, shortsighted souls of more or less Protestant manufacture—what deathly boredom! (pp. 309-10)

***

The real writer should ignore all readers but one, that of the future, who in his turn is merely the author reflected in time. (p. 340)

***

Suddenly [Fyodor] imagined official festivals in Russia, soldiers in long-skirted overcoats, the cult of firm jaws, a gigantic placard with a vociferous cliché clad in Lenin’s jacket and cap, and amidst the thunder of stupidities, the kettledrums of boredom, and slave-pleasing splendors—a little squeak of cheap truth. . . . Oh, let everything pass and be forgotten—and in two hundred years’ time an ambitious failure will vent his frustration on the simpletons dreaming of a good life (that is if there does not come my kingdom, where everyone keeps to himself and there is no equality and no authorities—but if you don’t want it, I don’t insist and don’t care). (p. 358)

[patrick-yates]

Forefront - The Legend of Korra

Today I shall be revisiting one of my favourite animated shows ever, The Legend of Korra. The show’s inception falls just outside of the 5 year recency bracket, first airing in 2012, but the dramatic 3rd and 4th seasons and season finale debuted in 2014, and I regard it as one of the most well realised and successful Western animated series of recent years.

fig 1. a shot from the show’s opening sequence, featuring Korra herself

This show, alongside its parent series Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005), is one of my greatest animating inspirations, and so I wish to take a look at what makes it special, and try to relate it back to how I wish to incorporate that inspiration into my own work. Many of these points are mostly relevant to the narrative and storytelling side of animated film, but as this is a big part of my practice, my love of the form and my career aspirations, I want to take a look at each of them. There are a great number of reasons why I count this show as one of my favourites, so many that I feel I may have to list them in bullet point form as a primer: 1. The well-written characters, and character-driven narratives. Variety, humanity, humour, flaws, emotion, the works. 2. The worldbuilding and lore. As fantasy series go, this presents an extremely well-rounded synthesis of real world philosophy and culture with fantastical elements, complete with political discourse, personal/emotional problems, and often obscure and interesting presentations of morality. 3. The plot itself. Spanning 4 seasons or ‘books’, each one explores a different philosophical conceit, eg. power, change, balance, often through the decisions and successes or failures of the eponymous lead Korra. In many ways it is a coming-of-age story about her personally learning to deal with responsibility, while developing relationships and self-sufficiency too - and saving the world, of course. It is a deeply relatable story, told through a ridiculous lens. This is one of my favourite narrative modes, and one at which animation excels. 4. The animation. While mostly impressive for the superbly choreographed fight scenes (which always make exciting and inventive use of the rules of the world and the characters’ abilities, drawing on real world inspirations), there is so much to love about the sense of scale and style in this show, especially in the award-winning 2 part miniseries ‘Beginnings’ from Season 2. 5. Representation. This is increasingly a strong feature of modern media, and one I am very excited to see personally, but I remember having such a wonderful experience watching this show and thinking to myself, midway through an episode, how many strong and unique female characters took the lead of much of the story, but how it felt so natural I never even noticed. Not only that, it features many characters of different skin tones, religious denominations and philosophies, and sexualities, none of whom are ever reduced or reducible to those characteristics. It’s a very human and very powerful way of writing characters, and something for which I will always appreciate this show. It would be a dream come true to have the chance to work on a show half this accomplished, as it has meant so much to me personally. But what aspects of my own practice can I relate to it, and what elements of it can I learn from? Let’s go back to these bullet points.

1. CHARACTERS. It has been taken as given, as part of my creative heritage in writing, that characters form the crucial basis of any powerful story. They must be complicated, sympathetic, dynamic entities that can exist outside of the page or screen, whose reactions to situations we as readers could anticipate as if they were our friends or family. I hold these ideas central to any narrative process I undertake, and often keep in mind the strong sense of character shown in shows like Korra. I also make it a priority for the stories I wish to tell to be character-driven - for narrative advances to be made based on how characters react to what they are given. As character often forms the strongest basis for relatable story, so it follows the importance of individual personalities in narrative decision-making is difficult to overstate. The very best stories tie this into a larger schema involving several characters, their relationships, their circumstances, the wider politics of the world and its central themes, while staying true to their respective tone. It’s a difficult thing to do, but if it wasn’t, everyone would be doing it.

2. WORLDBUILDING. This is generally only relevant to fantasy and sci-fi storytelling, but given how many animated films and series focus on these genres, I esteem it a big consideration alongside character in creating an effective undertsanding of animated storytelling. The Reality Effect is something discussed by writer Roland Barthes in his essay of the same name: it deals with the presentation of minutiae in storytelling, often needless or tangential to the plot, in order to achieve a greater sense of realism - the idea that the film world is not only comprised of an interlinked tapestry of character and plot, but of a thriving ecosystem completely independent of the narrative thread. Korra/ATLA establish world on a massive scale, incorporating nations, culture, history, food, wildlife, religious praxis, politics, technology, etc etc. All of this, whether helpful to the plot or not, builds a great impression of what this world would actually be like, and has the effect of increasing the viewer’s overall investment in it. When writing any scenario, I try to include as many tiny hints and illusions to the broader idea of that world. I am reminded of a famous quote from Ernest Hemingway, someone of whose work I am not a massive fan personally, but was undoubtedly a great creative force:

If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing. (fig. 2)

3. PLOT. Korra is a wonderful story because, as discussed, it combines many different tenets of great storytelling, but (almost) always manages to tie together its many threads and come to a satisfying conclusion. Above these superficial successes, however, I am a firm believer that the duty of a storyteller should be in telling stories that need to be told, which Korra manages to do all the time. It tells grown-up stories about trust, about change, about growth, depression, pain, belief, abuse, parenting, sexuality, fascism, and it communicates them all to a young audience without ever being consdescending or reductive. This kind of balance is something I hope to achieve in my own stories, but am still getting the hang of. Something I am always considering is, who will receive the messages I am trying to communicate? How ‘difficult’ should I make my narrative, and how do I ensure I strike that balance? What choices will impact the tone of my work, and what aspects of the story should I focus on making the most prominent? It’s a real balancing act, but I am hoping practice will make perfect.

4. ANIMATION. This one is slightly more pertinent to how I am learning at the moment: how can I make characters’ feelings and personalities shine through movement? Korra has a very strong sense of body language, partly because it ties very strong links between spirituality and physicality: the martial arts practised by each character, and the way in which they move their bodies to use them, almost always reflect in some way how that person thinks, an in some sense how they might react to a personal problem rather than a physical one. In some ways I realise this is hyperliteral and relatively specific way of approaching physicality, however I think engaging with the subtlety of body language is one of the great tools both actors and animators have at their disposal in telling a story, and something which can be largely lost in literature. Here are a few examples of how characters in Korra may be understood by their body language:

fig 3. Korra and Opal bond with ‘airbending’. Their smiles, open positions and relaxed lines show us they are content in each other’s company

fig 4. Lin, hardline chief of police, stands cross armed and wary, yet clearly demonstrates emotion in her face and movement. She is personally attached to this interaction

fig 5. Child of the streets and pro-fighter Mako is guarded yet quick and efficient. He has the air of someone deteremined yet cool under pressure

Hopefully these examples demonstrate some of the admirable ways in which character is presented in Korra (as well as the relatively quality and conciseness of movement, which I also love about this show’s style).

5. REPRESENTATION. At this juncture, I have yet to attempt any broad stories, or even any with more than 2 characters. I am also aware of the dilemma of faithfully representing characters of different backgrounds than myself. Yet I believe in a world of colour, variety and synthesis, not renditions of the same experiences over and over, and animation, as a radical form and as my chsoen art, is as good a place to enact those beliefs as any. I take Korra as a prime example for reasons already mentioned, and hope to refer to its wonderful, dynamic world as often as possible in my own work, and keep diversity and representation politics at the front of my practice both on-screen and behind the scenes.

References

1. Korra

2.  Hemingway, Ernest. Death In The Afternoon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014. pp. 316

3. http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Opal

4, 5. Tumblr