#i also hate authority but i hate the us government more so willingly i would join perhaps

[bibleofficial]

i wonder what happened to fafsa bc it was literally free money in 2017/2018 & was enough to cover my community college tuition like is it STILL enough to do that ? i doubt it but i like to hope so

[adhdnojutsu]

Your opinion? https://www.tumblr.com/dranosh-haran-of-paleoworld/766237407554273280/why-do-you-hate-itachi-so-much?source=share

Had to use a different browser because this pleasant person has me blocked lol anyway.

TL;DR: Itachi had no right to do the things he did, but he also had no choice. Even if adult onlookers could come up with choices, he was a child trapped in a mindset his authority figures hammered into him in his formative years, and then he was put under additional duress. Come the fuck on.

"This guy willingly betrayed his own people and family, selling them out to the government who wanted to destroy them all."

"Willingly" when talking about a 11-12-year-old brainwashed, groomed, traumatized child under duress is kinda wild. Yes, Naruto is all about normalizing child soldiers, but there's a line and that's Itachi having his horrible "milestones" at an age where others are still in school.

And it's not treason to report a conspiracy to commit, well, treason.

More after the break. Enjoy this screencap of a literal child and one of the many adults who chose to fail him.

Itachi was 11 when he joined the ANBU, 12 when he killed the clan. His incompetent piece of shit father dragged him into a "kill or be killed" situation at 4, and he already had the muscle memory of slitting throats ON REFLEX?? What the everloving fuck did Fugaku do to his toddler? He was encouraged to leave school and enter the field for more death and horror at 8. All for the alleged greater good that was peddled to children and adults more aggressively than America's magical sky cloth. Fugaku and Danzo played a grooming tug-o-war with a literal prepub child and actively, deliberately, had him believe the weight of the world rested on his 3 inch shoulders. The fuck did anyone think was gonna happen when Itachi joined the ANBU everyone encouraged him to join, and did the work he was taught to admire - BY Fugaku, by the way. Fugaku wanted a peacemaker, then tried to start a war. Hm.

Also, Itachi didn't "sell out" his clan. If I know a family member is about to start something with predictably catastrophic ramifications, like, you know, a glorified terrorist invasion ("coup"), I have a moral obligation to report that. "Family" does not matter. Blood, water, starting a war is something you deserve to have sabotaged. And if you're willing to kill, you better be ready to be killed. Everyone who cheered for the coup willingly risked death and willingly doomed their families. "Bloodless revolution" my ass, that is delusional. As if Konoha is just gonna accept Fugaku after a COUP!? Fucking TREASON!? Oppressed or not, you sow violence, you reap violence, and public perception matters. The public's perception of the Uchiha coup would probably be *checks notes* treason :)

"His own people"? They all treated him like a trophy and an attack dog when they didn't outright abuse him for speaking his mind, when he was clearly old enough to let them exploit him. All they had for him was demands to make them proud and bring them glory, at the cost of his well-being. Chapter by chapter in Itachi Shinden, you can watch him wither and crumble. When Itachi's comrade was killed when he was 8, Fugaku literally said "He'll get over it" while his boy was falling apart in the next room. Those are not "his own people", they're one big, bubbling cunt stew with very few exceptions, judging by the novel.

Whether the government wanted to destroy the Uchiha clan or whether it was racist or oppressive ultimately doesn't matter when the active threat to world peace and countless lives is coming from the other side. Two things can be true at the same time, so yeah Konoha sucked, but also yeah, the Uchiha posed a threat. The clan's lives weren't in danger when they decided to endanger everyone over discrimination that isn't even as egregious as what fat people on airplanes have to deal with. Defunding the police (LMAO), not letting a latent traitor run for president, surveillance, and a dedicated, OPEN compound none of the other clans who got one bitched about. Wow, what a compelling reason to set the world on fire!

Yes, Konoha failed the clan, yes, Konoha is scum for that. But two wrongs don't make a right. I'm tired of this whole nonsense of "they're oppressed so they're allowed to act like total barbarians and be the next oppressor". I'm tired on a personal level which you can probably guess.

This is not a responsible adult:

"He knew about Obito and that he was behind the 9-Tails attack but said nothing to anyone. He discriminated against his own people and slaughtered them all to the last child."

He should definitely have reported Obito. But calling his actions against the clan discrimination is like saying the German police discriminates against that Berlin-based crime family because it happens to be a BIPOC minority. THEY ALSO HAPPEN TO BE THE FUCKING MOB. Of course, most Uchihas probably weren't active combatants and didn't deserve to die, but as horrible as it is, strategically, Danzo had a point when he said there could be no potential avengers.

Plus, outsiders like to focus on numbers as if more dead people means more suffering, but this isn't true. Just because 99 people suffer and die with me, doesn't mean each of us suffers and dies 100-fold. Sasuke was based when he said Itachi should have killed him, too. Outsiders don't want to accept this because it IS horrible, but sparing a young child after killing his whole family, is not kind. What would've awaited any children Itachi spared? The village that ordered their parents' slaughter? A world that clearly doesn't want them and will come after them at the first chance? Yeah sounds ever so fucking merciful. Just because unaffected gawkers think preserving a unique cultural or genetic group is the most important thing, doesn't mean the people actually affected have such priorities when literally staring death or a life of pain in the face.

"He cast Tsukuyomi on his own parents and brutally murdered them, tortured his own little brother beyond imagine with one torture session putting Sasuke in a fucking coma, one he would've never gotten out of if it wasn't for that bitch Tsunade and that's the only good Tsunade did in the series."

When did he cast Tsukuyomi on his parents? And "brutally", well, they surrendered and he cut them down rather quickly. All murders are brutal. Should he have raided the local vet and injected them with anaesthetics first? He was a 12-year-old child, crying, shaking, probably exhausted and barely coherent after having killed all the others, and looking at his final victims, his parents, comforting him. Striking them down quickly was the best for everyone involved at that point, anything more elaborate, "more gentle", would have prolonged this horror. Also what did Tsunade do wrong, and if Itachi hadn't knocked Sasuke out for a while, he would have gotten himself killed. The Tsukuyomi was overkill, 100%.

"Itachi thought he was wiser and more noble than his own people, which was pure and utter arrogance. When brought back as an edo, he said that a 7-year-old Sasuke could've changed the clan. He called himself Itachi Uchiha of Konoha and that he specifically had no regrets he was a massive piece of shit in life and death."

This is called interpretation. Yes, he was an arrogant child, he admitted this, Shisui told him, adults told him. But being an ass at the dawn of puberty doesn't invalidate the fact that he WAS smarter than most and the Uchiha uprising WAS a problem, and the clan was infinitely more arrogant than him for thinking they could just take power and that's the end of it. They were delusional. Being 11 when pointing this out doesn't mean he's wrong.

Vilifying him for calling himself "Itachi Uchiha of Konoha" is silly. Many nations will do horrible things behind the scenes to keep the peace, and just because Sasuke and Itachi were the tragic and ever so pretty victims of this, doesn't make Konoha worse than others. It is a place people actually live in. A place people call home and have a right to call home and feel safe and thrive in. Itachi did what he was forced to do by both sides, to protect people's home and peace, not to get headpats from Danzo and Hiruzen.

He also never said he didn't regret the massacre. The fact that he said he wished he would have confided in Sasuke, the fact of him telling Naruto, Sasuke, and Kabuto that he was wrong to try and solve everything on his own, all suggest he wishes it had been different. His words when he dissolves are "Mou miren ha nai", which can be interpreted as regretting nothing, but this is usually meant in a sense of unfinished business. Itachi could not un-kill the clan. Danzo was dead. What more could he do that he could still have "miren" about? Personally, I think he shouldn't have undone the whole Edo Tensei because he kinda owed Sasuke to stick around and fight the other Edo Tenseis manually, but that's not the point.

Actual footage of Itachi alone with his thoughts, probably:

"None of his plans make any kind of fucking sense. He wanted to save Konoha from war even though the other villages wouldn't have attacked for their own reasons."

Kindly look at Syria, Sudan, or Yemen, because the civil war the Uchiha were sure to start, would have been bad enough, you absolute pinecone. But I agree, Itachi's plans were mostly shit, but who taught him any kind of life skills or coping mechanisms? He wasn't parented, he wasn't guided, he was a trained attack dog. He never grew up mentally because when you're not allowed to feel like a child, know what being a child is, how are you gonna know when you're supposed to be all grown up and smart? He treated his suicide by Sasuke like a playdate. He toyed with him. He was a typical old soul, trauma and paralysis masquerading as maturity and composure. It's very apparent in the novels how helpless and small he felt. When the FUCK did he get a chance to unlearn his helplessness on one hand, and the world resting on his shoulders on the other? Itachi was deranged, but not by his own doing. A 4 to 12-year-old child is not responsible for their poor life "choices".

"So Itachi saved Konoha from zero potential wars, especially when none of the other villages attacked after Obito's, Orochimaru's, and Pain's assaults in the series."

I wasn't aware Itachi's Sharingan could accurately predict the future. He stopped the civil war that was certain to happen and that he could stop. Not a single ninja has ever been expected to fix the whole world and the few who expected it of themselves were even more deranged than Itachi. Why hold a 12-year-old to a higher standard just because he's foolish enough to do so himself? Right until Shisui died, Itachi clung to his naive dream of becoming the greatest ninja to stop all wars. And then, both Fugaku and Danzo demanded he be that, when Shisui's death just had him realize how helpless he is. And then, there was a war looming on the horizon that he COULD prevent.

"He practically sent Sasuke gift wrapped to Orochimaru or Danzo. He knew about Obito and Pain's plans and yet did nothing about them, which just screwed over Konoha immensely."

Yeah he fucked up with Orochimaru, and this was one of the things he could have predicted after Orochimaru tried it with him. Not killing Orochimaru when he had both cause and opportunity, was bafflingly stupid and I'll chalk it up to plot armour since Itachi will kill his own mother to protect Sasuke.

He was also a useless spy in Akatsuki, yes. He aided and abetted in several Kage and Jinchuuriki assassinations, all to keep a cover of questionable use.

We do have to grant him that he needed to stay alive to give Sasuke deserved closure. He didn't even know Obito wasn't Madara, so I don't expect him to have known much about Pain's abilities. Given he allegedly ties with Jiraiya and we all know what Pain did to him, Sasuke would not have gotten his revenge. As for Danzo, can we not underestimate him please? He had to be worn down into self-destruction by Sasuke, and when Itachi attacked him in the novel after getting the MS, he was immediately stopped.

"He was never a prodigy or anything, unlike Sasuke. His fights are just him using genjutsu on his opponents and overpowering them with it, which just childish and stupid. He pulled Susanoo, Mirror Yata, and the Tsoka Blade out of his ass."

I agree Susano'o and its rigs were asspull done to compete with DBZ ratings, but how was he not a prodigy when he was recommended for graduation at 8? Poor writing or not, the canon fact is that Itachi was way ahead of his peers and many adults. We can't blame a character's personality in one moment, then bad writing the next. All writing boils down to creating the character's reality and all facts written by the author are equally valid.

Calling genjutsu childish and stupid is silly as you can apply this to all jutsu. Naruto's army of clones is arguably more ridiculous than mastering an otherwise underdiscussed technique at a level that has people like Kakashi scared. Personally, I think the big noisy techniques like Kisame's water jutsus and Hashirama's Slaparama are a lot more childish and geared towards hollering little boys. Itachi's fighting style is elegant and super duper gay.

"This fucker is all over the place and doesn't make sense. Dushman-e-jaan has posts that go into greater detail about how this guy doesn't make sense, and I recommend you read them as she does an infinitely better job at explaining my dislike for Itachi than I have."

Dushman explicitly supports this:

But thinks Konoha is worse for allegedly being this:

In other words, Doucheman is fine with making 0 sense whatsoever as long as they can virtue-signal for fascists if they know how to sell the underdog act.

[a-world-in-grey]

Galahd-Lucis Fealty and the Situation Post-Burning

@secret-engima more Lucis worldbuilding!

.

Alright, if you haven't read this post regarding oaths of fealty and the ones Galahd swears to Lucis, I recommend it, since I'll be jumping directly off those headcanons.

First however, establishing the situation of the Galahdians in current day Lucis.

Short version: Not great.

Long version: Little Galahd is very clearly not the wealthiest part of Insomnia. One could even call it the slums (though I'm sure in-verse it's merely referred to as 'the bad part of town,' no need to acknowledge why it's that way).

We also see significant anti-Galahdian sentiment in Insomnia, even in just the little bit in the Kingsglaive movie, which means there's probably a whole lot more off screen that we don't see.

So the Galahdians are likely living from paycheck to paycheck in substandard housing (barely up to safety code if at all), with difficulty getting jobs that pay enough, all the while enduring racism from the native Lucians.

We don't know how ugly that treatment gets - if the Galahdians have to deal with corrupt police, hate crimes, discrimination from vendors, educators, medical professionals, etc. That is entirely dependent on the author.

In the various SoHL-verses, two members of Lucis' ruling council actively discriminate against the Galahdians - the Lord of Housing/Urban Development and the Lord of Finance. You can probably imagine how that affects the Galahdians.

So where does Galahd's oaths of fealty come in?

Their treaty with Lucis when they submitted to the Lucian Empire and how it relates to the Great War and the Burning.

Specifically, it relates to the clause where the Galahdians promise to stay in Galahd. And Lucis promises to stay out of Galahd.

I don't doubt there was a very detailed clause that specified how much of the population had to remain in the Isles for it to count as Galahd staying in Galahd, and may have included a number of clauses defining exactly who counted as Galahdian, rather than Lucis assuming 'people from Galahd,' and Galahdians assuming 'One of the Clans.' (Then again, maybe the treaty didn't specify, which could lead to some spectacular misunderstandings. And by spectacular, I mean messy.)

I also expect there were specific clauses defining what it meant for Lucis to stay out of Galahd, or rather defining who was allowed in Galahd for certain purposes and just where they were permitted to go without explicit permission from the Clans. Which can basically be boiled down to 'merchants are allowed at these specific ports for the purpose of trade,' with more clauses in the event of a shipwreck.

Now, the important question is if the treaty included a clause detailing what would happen if one of Lucis' enemies invaded Galahd, or what would happen if Galahd became uninhabitable.

The former is very likely, especially given the clause that Galahd will only fight wars on Lucis' behalf, which makes them a military target even before one considers their strategic location.

The latter, on the other hand, I find far less likely to be included. If only because I doubt anyone would have thought Galahd would be razed to the ground or made otherwise uninhabitable. The Galahdians are no strangers to disaster, hurricane season is probably a nightmare for Clans, but there was probably the assumption that they'd be able to fall back on aid from other Clans, like they've always been able to do.

I doubt anyone thought something could happen to displace everyone.

So, Galahd promises to keep at least the majority of their population in the Isles. Lucis promises to stay out of Galahd, but also to aid Galahd if they are invaded by the enemy. For centuries, this works out (mostly) fine.

Then the Great War happens.

And Mors pulls the Wall.

Suddenly, Niflheim is occupying Galahd.

Now, there are a couple different paths to take with the occupation. It could be a full military occupation with the intent to bring Galahd into the Empire. Or, it could be Niflheim corporate interests moving in to exploit Galahd's natural resources, bringing along private mercenaries that are technically civilian.

(I suppose it depends how you want to define 'invade.' And if you would have Lucis count 'armed civilians' as an invasion.)

At this point, depending on the clauses in the treaty, Lucis breaks their fealty to Galahd if they fail to sufficiently aid them against enemy invasion.

(And even then, one could still argue that Mors broke fealty when he pulled the Wall, because he failed to defend Galahd after they swore loyalty even though he was capable of doing so. Because I fully hc the Mors did not have to pull the Wall all the way back to Insomnia.)

Which means Galahd is no longer required to hold to their oath of fealty to Lucis.

Then the Burning happens, and everyone in Galahd is displaced to Lucis. At which point Galahd breaks the treaty, and Lucis is no longer obligated to hold to their agreements.

Now, at this point in history, it has been centuries since Lucis and Galahd signed that treaty. How long has it been since anyone truly read the thing? Who has read it, both in Lucis and Galahd?

How many Galahdians who know the details survive the Burning?

How many of the Galahdian copies of the treaty survive?

Few, if any, surviving Galahdians know the specifics of the treaty their oaths of fealty are based on. The surviving Chiefs and Keepers will manage to keep their oaths yes, but those oaths are more along the lines of 'I the Chief swear fealty on behalf of me and my Clan to the King of Lucis, by the terms agreed to by our forefathers' than anything truly specific.

And in Lucis, it's likely equally few actually know the specifics, because it's been so long since anyone truly needed to consult the thing. Sure, the King and certain council members will have read it at some point during their schooling/training, but they won't have it memorized.

It could be that everyone's forgotten the whole 'Galahdians stay in Galahd, Lucians stay out' part anyways, because modern day trade between the two is fairly bustling, and there could be some tourism on both sides too. And I doubt they'll think to consult it when the Galahdians come to Lucis - after all, the Galahdians are technically Lucian.

Unless some skeevy corrupt politicians do look at the treaty, to see exactly what loopholes they can exploit.

So we've got two potential scenarios here.

One is that Lucis broke fealty first, and therefore no Galahdian is obligated to uphold their oath of fealty, which includes submitting to Lucian rule. (Those in the Kingsglaive would be different, because they are swearing themselves to service instead of fealty as well as swearing service after Lucis broke fealty.) This means that any further corrupt bullshit from Lucis is Lucis' fault and the Galahdians can rightfully demand reparation or legally revoke their oaths.

Which means if the Galahdians ever get access to the Lucian copies of the treaty, they could take the government and probably no few individuals to court and likely win.

The other is that Galahd is the ones who break fealty first when they violate their agreement to stay on the islands. Which, yeah, extenuating circumstances, but it still counts. Which means Lucis can legally disregard their agreements in the treaty, which could very well include the Galahdians' status as Lucian citizens.

(Because I hc that Iedolas was only able to spend so long trying to conquer Lucis because Niflheim holds a grudge from when Lucis conquered them, and likely kept them as second-class or noncitizens of the Lucian Empire. And by willingly submitting to Lucian rule, Galahd was able to avoid that.)

In this case, it means that any skeevy stuff certain corrupt politicians and other individuals get up to are completely legal, depending on what said skeevy stuff is.

At least until new laws are passed because I doubt Regis would stand for that if he knew about it, but any corrupt stuff before that wouldn't be able to be prosecuted.

Regardless of the political situation following the Burning, we eventually get to Regis' treaty with Niflheim. And despite both Regis and Niflheim knowing it to be little more than a sham, it still counts in regards to Galahd and their oaths of fealty.

Because one could argue that Regis broke fealty when he failed to defend Galahd, instead surrendering them to Niflheim. There is a little room for debate here, since you could also argue that Regis was not capable of defending Galahd when he surrendered the islands to Niflheim. But Galahd could argue that Regis did not try, and use that as justification to legally revoke their fealty to Lucis.

Which means that every Galahdian not under an oath of service to the Crown - such as the Kingsglaive or the Crownsguard - could not betray Lucis as they did not owe loyalty in the first place. This includes Libertus and any other Galahdians who left the Kingsglaive before the Fall. They were no longer part of the Kingsglaive, and as such their oaths of service no longer applied.

And unless Galahd renewed their oaths to Noctis, they would no longer have to bow to Lucian rule.

(Though the point sort of becomes moot when the Long Night happens.)

So, tl;dr, depending on the specifics of the treaty between Lucis and Galahd, either Lucis or Galahd broke fealty first. Depending on that, the treatment of the Galahdians in Insomnia could be legal to a certain point, or could justify the Galahdians revoking their loyalty to Lucis altogether. Regis' surrender of Galahd to Niflheim could possibly justify the same, leaving only the current Kingsglaives who owe loyalty to the Crown.

[awed-frog]

“The big flaw with this is that it completely misunderstands who JK Rowling is and why she wrote the books. Simply put, this novel is a Christian tale. You miss that, you miss the entire point of everything it has to say.” Elaborate? Sounds interesting and I haven’t heard that before.

Well - I love this to bits and sort of wrote my thesis about it, so here we go.

Basically, you’ve got several kinds of heroes, but ‘left-wing hero’ is almost a contradiction in terms (more on this later). There’s your average Greek hero, whose status as a hero is more of a social class than it is a job and who generally doesn’t have any morally redeeming qualities (have you met Theseus?). Then there’s the medieval Christian hero - he comes in different flavours, but what’s relevant here is the Perceval model: basically the village idiot, whose only power is his good heart and who has no desire to challenge the status quo (because kings are divinely ordained and also poets tend to work for them, so ‘That vassal guy of yours has rescued yet another damsel’ story is going to be better received than ‘Your tax system is corrupt and this knight will now implement direct democracy’). Next you have the modern superhero, who was born in a very different historical context (the vigilantism of 19th century US) and as such has very different priorities. Namely: in his world, there is no higher authority and it’s up to him to use his superior skills to be judge and executioner so he can protect the most vulnerable. This understandable but toxic narrative will later get mixed up with WW2 and then the rampant capitalism of the last 30 years, resulting in the current blockbustery mess.

Anyway - if you’re a Western writer, it’s basically impossible to escape these three shaping forces we’ve all grown up with (classical Antiquity, Christianity, and US-led imperialism/capitalism), so most books and movies of the last forever decades can be analyzed through this lens. In the case of JK Rowling, what you have is a Christian author who openly used her YA series to chart out her own relationship with God. This is not a secret, or a meta writer’s delusion, or anything: she’s discussed it in several interviews. Her main problem, which is most believers’ main problem, is how to reconcile her faith in a benevolent God with the suffering in her daily life; and something she’s mentioned more than once is how her mom died when she was 25, and how this was very much on her mind especially when she was writing Deathly Hallows.

Now, I don’t want to write a novel here, so I won’t analyze the entire series, but what it is is basically a social critique of British society, mixed up with Greek and Roman elements in a cosmetic way only, and - crucially - led by an extremely Christian hero. 

In every way that matters, Harry Potter is a direct descendant of Perceval: he’s someone who’s grown up in isolation as the village idiot (remember how he was shunned by other children because he was ‘dangerous’ and ‘different’), randomly found a more exciting world of which he previously knew nothing (he’s basically the only kid who gets to Hogwarts without knowing anything about the magical world, just like Perceval joined Arthur’s court after living in the woods for 15 years), and proceeded to make his mark not because of his innate powers or special abilities (he’s average at magic, except for Defence against the Dark Arts), but because he’s kind and good and humble. And in the end, he willingly sacrifices himself so everyone else can be saved: a Christ-like figure who even gets his very own Deposition (in the arms of Hagrid, the closest thing to a parent his actually has). 

(This, by the way, was the only reason why Hagrid was kept alive. JK Rowling had planned to kill him, but she absolutely wanted this scene - one of the most recognizable and beloved image in Christian art - in the books.)

And even if he ultimately survives his ‘death’ (like Jesus did), Harry refuses the riches and rank he was surely offered and chooses to spend his days in middle-class obscurity as a husband and father (if I remember correctly, Harry and Ginny’s house isn’t even big enough for their three kids). And no, of course he doesn’t stand for anything or challenges the status quo: that’s not his job. His job, like Jesus’, was to defeat evil by offering himself up in sacrifice; and the entire story - especially the last book - is a profound, intimate, and very moving reflection on faith.

(“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's”, remember? It’s not your job to change anything in the temporal, material world; your job is to nurture your immortal soul and prepare it for the true life that comes after death.)

Like - I don’t know how it was for younger readers, but for me, reading Deathy Hallows as an adult, it wrecked me. Even as an agnostic, I read it over and over again, and I kep finding new meaning in it. The whole thing is basically a retelling of the Book of Job, one of the most puzzling and beautiful parts of the Old Testament. That’s when Harry’s faith in God Dumbledore is tested, when his mentor, the cornerstone of his world, disappears; when Harry has to decide whether he’ll continue to believe in this absent, flawed figure despite all the bad things he keeps uncovering or give up his faith - and thus his soul - completely. The clearest, most startling moment exemplifying this religious dilemma is when Harry decides not to go after the wand. Getting it is the logical thing to do, the only way he can win, but Harry - while mourning Dobby - decides not to do it. That’s when he recovers his faith, and starts trusting his own kindness and piety (whatever happens, he will not defile a tomb) over everything else.

Another key moment is King’s Cross - here, and once more, Harry forgives his enemy, thus obeying Jesus’ commands. He sees Voldemort, the being who took everything from him - and he pities the pathetic, unloved thing he’s become. This is what sets him apart from everyone else and what makes him special: not his birth, not his magic, not some extraordinary artefact - but simply, like Dumbledore puts it, that he can love. After everything that’s bene done to him, he can still love; not only his friends, but his enemies. He forgives Voldemort, he forgives Snape, he forgives Malfoy, he forgives Dudley; and I see so many people angry about this, ranting about abuse victims and how hate is a right, but I think they’re missing the point. This is a Christian story; from a Christian perspective, your enemies need love more than your friends do. 

(“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician” and all that.)

And in any case, a hero is inherently not left-wing. The whole trope relies on three rock-solid facts: the hero is special, and he can do something you can’t, and that gives him the right or the duty to save others who can’t save themselves. Whether it is declined in its Christian form (the hero as self-sacrificing nobody) or in its fascist form (the hero as judge and king of the inferior masses), that is is the exact opposite of any kind of left-wing narrative, where meaningful change is brought about not by individual martyrdom or a benevolent super-human, but by collective action.

So, yeah - Harry changes nothing and is not the leader of the revolution, but it’s unfair to link this to JK Rowling’s politics. It’s just how the trope works. And, in fairness to her, many kind and compassionate authors who write books concerned with social justice tend to lean towards this kind of hero because the only workable alternative - the fascist super-hero - is way worse. Had Harry been that, for instance, he would have ended up ruling the wizarding world. Would that have been better for its democracy? A 19-year-old PM who knows nothing about the law or justice or diplomacy? A venerated war hero drunk on power? Instead, JK Rowling chooses the milder way out: Harry and his friends do change the system - little by little, and within the limits of the genre. Hermione becomes the equivalent of a human rights lawyer, while Harry and Ron join the Aurors (and I know there’s a lot of justified suspicion towards law enforcement, but frankly having good people in their ranks is still the only way to move things forward. It’s been years and I still haven’t heard a practical suggestion as to how a police-less nation would work). As for the government, it is restored to a fairer status quo - again, not the revolution many readers wanted, but also not the totalitarian monarchies or oligarchies or the super-hero’s world.

And as to how one can write a story that’s actually revolutionary - I don’t exactly know. Some writers rely on multiple narrating voices to try and escape the heroic trope; others work on bleak stories which point out the flaws in the system and stop short of solving them. I guess that, in the end, is one of the problem with left-wing politics: they’re simply less eye-catching, less cinematic. On the whole, it’s dull, boring work, the victories achieved by committees and celebrated with a piece of paper. From a literary point of view, it just doesn’t work.

[anamatics]

so i’ve been watching rwby

and as I’ve been doing so I’ve been posting reactions to my friends. After S5, S6, and S7, in particular, I had a lot of thoughts and opinions. More under the cut. I’m going to write fic aren’t i?

Season 5:

1. Where is the first/autumn relic?! Like, we've established that Ozpin hid it well, yet for some reason it doesn't feel like that's the whole story - given where the relic was hidden this time, in some sort of n dimentional desert (where, if you looked closely you could see similar ##chemtrails - could people just walk through that desert to get to all of them? 2. I find it hilarious that Weiss just got out of Atlas only to go back, I'm very curious as to what sort of ~~damage this reveals about her in the coming seasons, but I'm also very intrigued by how reintroducing her to her father with the rest of team RWBY will shift/alter the narrative of powerlessness that he seems t be pushing toward her. I'm esp. intrigued as to what his reaction will be to Blake (as he seems very anti-faunus). 3. WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR THE #YANGST. 4. The show has been pretty constantly showing us that most of Ruby and Yang's family seems like chill folks, but the ##absentmother trope is strong here. Given that it seems like only Blake has a mom, does Blake's mom adopt everyone? 5. Blake having a fairly functional nuclear family is fascinating to me, because it makes a lot of her choices seem way more political (at a very young age) as opposed to just a kid who got in over her head with a boy who was a bit older. I'd love to know more about this. 6. as a multishipper, I hurt all over.

xx

Season 6:

Item the FIRST: Weiss barely making it out of Atlas only to be dragged, albeit somewhat willingly back to the source of all of her ~ trauma & family drama ~ I am curious to see how this plays out and generally hope that Weiss somehow stabs her shitty dad and Draco Malfoy rip off brother while being reunited with her 100% Cooler Than U sister. Also that Cooler Than U sister works on the unresolved sexual tension she CLEARLY had with Qrow.

Item the SECOND: The show's thoughtful handling of Qrow's alcoholism and Ruby's gentle efforts to push toward sobriety without like being annoyingly moralistic about it. It could have been handled so differently and I really, really enjoyed that it was handled in the way it was.

Item the THIRD: Weiss' new red scarf. adsfajshfaksdjfhthatsgayweissaksdfhaksdjfh

Item the FOURTH: The various Poor Life Choices Salem made during our brief sojourn to the Department of Backstory. Also Jinn is amazing let's keep her around. She can join Jaune, Ren and Nora as a 4th member of their team and just hilariously be naked all the time. 10/10 would watch for hijinks adventures.

Item the FIFTH:  Ozpin sulking that he got all his relationship drama put on main like that

Item the SIXTH: Jaune's gay sister and sister-in-law and their baby and and and and (idk I just loved this).

Item the SEVENTH: BLAKE AND YANG HELD HANDS AND MURDERED THEIR TRAUMA TOGETHER PRAISE JESUS AND CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH? NOW KISS.

Item the EIGHTH: My multishipper ass saw that moment between Weiss and Yang when they were stuck in the basement and I'd just like to say I would be happy to see that too.

xx

Season 7:  Item the First: Weiss has a mother. Which we all logically knew she did but that scene with her in Jacques' office was just... a lot. Also raised some very interesting questions. When will Weiss and Ruby bond over alcoholic parental figures, I ask you. On this front, I am also now supremely, supremely curious about Winter's relationship with her mother. 

Item the Second: Leftist Weiss. Well we all knew that Weiss wouldn't have voted for her dad anyway, but I think the tension between Weiss's clear orientation toward helping people and government for good and her father/sister's appealing to/embodying other forms of authority (corporate/military). This also raises an interesting point of contention between Weiss and Winter, as Winter's sort of this embodiment of what I'd maybe call a conscientious soldier – where she’s clearly in possession of independent thoughts and opinions, yet also seems to want to appeal to a higher authority whenever she feels conflicted (e.g. “Ironwood is making the hard decisions so we don’t have to.”). This actually draws a very stark line between Winter and Weiss – as Weiss has always been a freer thinker, who can and does think for herself and operate from her own moral compass. The moment at the end of the season between Weiss and Winter was just so delicious as I hope (HOPE HOPE) that they’re setting up for a ~~moment of clarity~ for Winter where she has to make a decision on her own that defies orders in some way for the greater good that Weiss can see so easily. (Also, please, my good gay sisters: Hug. It. Out.)

Item the Third: Leftist Bees (well really, leftist Yang, Blake was always a revolutionary). I absolutely loved the Everyone Is Lying moments in this season, and I do hate that the Bees were the ones caught out in it first. Black and Yang telling Robyn the truth also struck me as something that the pair of them would do anyway – the only other character I could see possibly slipping and letting info get to Robyn is Weiss, but I also got the sense that Weiss understood the politics of the situation better than anyone else and because of this was playing it pretty close to the vest. The Bee’s decision really jives with their partnership. As did getting to watch them fight together so much this season, they’re evolving together, and seeing them fight in tandem is a delight.

Item the Fourth: Splitting whiterose. I like Penny. I actually love Penny. I love Penny and Roby’s dynamic. And their friendship. And how ridiculous they are. But it really struck me that how the whiterose partnership kept on getting split until the final fight against the Spice Force Five. I’m sure there’s a reason for this but I don’t like it and I won’t hear it or respond to it.

Item the Fifth: The Not Spice Girls/Spice Force Five. Love these idiots, but they’re all cops. Marrow is the most delightful of them and seems like he’s about to go on a journey similar to Winter, Harriet sucks a lot, Clover was a delightful almost rip but also mmmwhatchusay. I sort of hated the juxtaposition between team RWBY and them, with the ‘just following orders’ mentality and the lack of friendship/cohesion between these guys. I guess now Winter can join them and they so they can have their Posh Spice.

Item the Sixth: Schneewood Forest. I feel like I could write a whole elaborate backstory with these two. There’s something there – the unstoppable force meets immovable object of it, plus the idea of someone who challenges Winter’s entire belief structure just by being an okay person ~with a merry band of queers~. I feel a lot of things. I want to explore this. Stop me I am in a PhD program. 

Item the Seventh: The Tinman’s Heart. Having read all of the Wizard of Oz books, as well as the Wicked series, I actually appreciate that this series is taking nods from both sources for these characters. James’s decisions are … not great but I can see his logic – well right up until the part where he shoots poor Oscar. That was just rude. Also I do love watching him fight because he’s so very, very good.

Item the Seventh: Bisexual Bobs. How very Bi of you Blake. And how useless lesbian of Yang to be all flustered about it. Please kiss.

[ivy-kissobryos]

Charon, the Lord of Death

According to Britannica:

In Etruscan mythology [Charon] was known as Charun and appeared as a death demon, armed with a hammer. Eventually he came to be regarded as the image of death and of the world below. As such he survives in Charos, or Charontas, the angel of death in modern Greek folklore.

This is further explored in Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion: a study in survivals by John Cuthbert Lawson. According to Lawson:

There is no ancient deity whose name is so frequently on the lips of the modern peasant as that of Charon. About Charos the peasants will always, according to my experience, converse freely. Neither superstitious awe nor fear of ridicule imposes any restraint. They feel perhaps that the existence of Charos is one of the stern facts which men must face; and even the more educated classes retain sometimes, I think, an instinctive fear of making light of his name, lest he should assert his reality. For Charos is Death. He is not now, what classical literature would have him to be, merely the ferryman of the Styx. He is the god of death and of the lower world.

Lawson then goes on to describe how the importance of Charos has been elevated, for ‘Hades is no longer a person but a place, the realm over which Charos rules’. The author then goes into details surrounding Charos’ family.

On his physical depiction:

Sometimes he is depicted as an old man, tall and spare, white of hair and harsh of feature; but more often he is a lusty warrior, with locks of raven-black or gleaming gold [...] ‘his glance is as lightning and his face as fire, his shoulders are like twin mountains and his head like a tower’. His raiment is usually black as befits the lord of death, but anon it is depicted bright as his sunlit hair, for though he brings death he is a god and glorious.

On his functions, Lawson states:

His functions are clearly defined. He visits this upper world to carry off those whose allotted time has run, and guards them in the lower world as in a prison whose keys they vainly essay to steal and to escape therefrom. But the spirit in which he performs those duties varies according as he is conceived to be a free agent responsible to none or merely a minister of the supreme God. Which of these is the true conception is a question to which the common-folk as a whole have given no final answer; and the character of Charos consequently depends upon the view locally preferred.

The depiction of Charos has also been influenced by Christianity.

Those who regard him as simply the servant and messenger of God, find no difficulty in accommodating him to his Christian surroundings; for, as I have said, the peasant does not distinguish between the Christian and the pagan elements in his faith which together make his polytheism so luxuriant. We have already seen Charos' name with the prefix of ‘saint’; and though this Christian title is not often accorded him, yet his name appears commonly on tomb-stones in Christian churchyards. At Leonidi, on the east coast of the Peloponnese, I noted the couplet: 'Me too Charos pitied not but took, even me the fondly-cherished flower of my home.'

So too in popular story and song he is represented as working in concord with the Angels and Archangels, to whom sometimes falls the task of carrying children to his realm-. Indeed one of the archangels, Michael, who as we saw above has ousted Hermes, the escorter of souls, and assumed his functions, is charged with exactly the same duties as Charos in the conveyance of men's souls to the nether world, so that in popular parlance the phrases ‘he is wrestling with Charos’ and 'he is struggling with an angel' are both alike used of a man in his death-agony.

The author goes on to describe how the Christianized conception of Charon has made him appear kinder, as evidenced by many folk tales where it is shown that:

‘The duties imposed upon him by the will of God are sometimes repugnant to him, and he would willingly spare those whom he is sent to slay’

Some folk tales are then described. Also:

‘Sometimes then the doomed man will seek to tempt Charos with meat and drink, that he may grant a few hours' delay, but against offers of hospitality he is obdurate. Or again his victim refuses to yield to death 'without weakness or sickness' and challenges him to a trial of athletic skill, in wrestling or leaping, whereon each shall stake his own soul. And to this Charos sometimes gives consent, for he knows that he will.

In contrast...

The other and more pagan conception of Charos excludes all traits of kindness and mercy; and men do not stint the expression of their hatred of him. He is 'black,' 'bitter,' 'hateful’. He is the merciless potentate of the nether world, independent of the God of heaven, equally powerful in his own domain, but more terrible, more inexorable: for his work is death and his abode is Hades. Thence he issues forth at will, as a hunter to the chase. ‘Against the wounds that Charos deals herbs avail not, physicians give no cure, nor saints protection’ [...] But most commonly he is the warrior preeminent in all manner of prowess—archer, wrestler, horseman.

Charos is sometimes depicted to be collecting souls to adorn his kingdom. Examples being:

[...] he gathers children from the earth to be the flowers of it and young men to be its tall slim cypresses; more rarely he is a vintager, and tramples men in his vat that their blood may be his red wine, or again he carries a sickle and reaps a human harvest.

It became evident that ‘Charos of modern Greece would seem to have little in common with the Charon of ancient Greece’. Fauriel believes that ‘the usual tendencies of tradition have been reversed, in that it is the name that has survived, while the attributes have been changed’. However, Lawson disagrees. He states that:

I suspect that in ancient times the literary presentation of Charon was far more circumscribed than the popular, and that out of a profusion of imaginative portraitures as varied as those seen in the folk-songs of to-day one aspect of Charon became accepted among educated men as the correct and fashionable presentment. Hades was, in literature, the despot of the lower world, and for Charon no place could be found save that of ferryman. But this, I think, was only one out of the many guises in which the ancient Charon was figured by popular imagination; for at the present day the remnants of such a conception are small, in spite of the fact that there has remained a custom which should have kept it alive—the custom of putting a coin in the mouth of the dead.

In Alcestis, a play written by Euripides, Death seemed to have taken on the role of Charon, to the point where ‘the copyist of one of the extant manuscripts of the Alcestis was so impressed with the likeness of Death to Charon as he knew him, that he altered the name of the dramatis persona accordingly’. The conception of Charon as a Lord of Death occurs even further back than that though.

On the Etruscan Charun:

Hesychius states that the title [greek word] was shared by two gods, Charon and Uranus. Charon therefore, as son of Acmon and brother of Uranus, is earlier by two long generations of gods than Zeus himself, and belongs to the old Pelasgian order of deities. Was Charon then the god of death among the old Pelasgian population of Greece, before ever the name of Hades or Pluto had been invented or imported? Yes, if the corroboration from another Pelasgian source, the Etruscans, is to count for anything. On an Etruscan monument figures the god of death with the inscription 'Charun'; and the same person is frequently depicted on urns, sarcophagi, and vases [...] In appearance he is most often an old bearded man (though a more youthful type is also known) bearing an axe or mallet, and more rarely a sword as well, wherewith he pursues men and slays them. In effect the Etruscan Charun closely corresponds with the modern Greek Charos in functions as well as in name.

In classical times the primitive conception of Charon was in abeyance. Hades had assumed the reins of government in the nether world; and a literary legend, which confined Charon to the work of ferryman, had gained vogue and supplanted or rather temporarily suppressed the older conception. But this version, it appears, never gained complete mastery of the popular imagination, and to the common-folk of Greece from the Pelasgian era down to this day Charon has ever been more warrior than ferryman, and his equipment an axe or sword or bow rather than a pair of sculls. More is to be learnt of the real Charon of antiquity from modern folk-lore than from all the allusions of classical literature.

[questionsonislam]

The Quran encourages fighting for Allah (Jihad) and revenge upon the enemy. Although tolerance is ordered in an ayah which says “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion.” (Al-Baqarah/2:256), after that in many ayahs, it orders Muslims to fight for their religion:

“O Prophet, urge the believers to battle…” (Al-Anfal/ 8:65)

“Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you…” (Al-Baqarah/2:216)

“…So if they do not withdraw from you or offer you peace or restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you overtake them…” (An-Nisa/4:91)

“…And do not weaken in pursuit of the enemy.” (An-Nisa/4:104)

“And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah…” (Al-Anfal/8:39)

“And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way…” (At-Tawbah/9:5)

“Would you not fight a people who broke their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger, and they had begun [the attack upon] you the first time?...” (At-Tawbah/9:13)

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.” (At-Tawbah/9:29)

“O Prophet, strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination.” (At-Tahrim/66:9)

“O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness. And know that Allah is with the righteous.” (At-Tawbah/9:111 123)

“…"You will be called to [face] a people of great military might; you may fight them, or they will submit. So if you obey, Allah will give you a good reward…” (Al-Fath/48:16)

As a result, we can summarize this issue as follows:

According to the Bible, until Jesus Christ comes again, the people of God living in all countries will surrender to the existing governments without complaining and struggling.

According to the Qur'an, Muslims, the people of God, will not surrender to the rulers who deny Muhammad; on the contrary, they will fight against them with might and main.

The war that should happen under normal circumstances is not an invasion but telling the truth frankly and inviting people to this call and praying for them.

All the verses about the war included in the question were sent down in an environment in which the war continued between Muslims, polytheists and deniers.

All these wars were started by the infidels. The fact that the battles of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq took place on the territory of Madinah is a clear indication of this.

The other wars also began after deciphering the plans that the enemy had secretly set up to attack Muslims. The wars of Khaybar, Tabuk, Banu Qurayza, Banu Mustaliq and Mu’tah all started like that. (See: Muhammad Gazali, Fiqh as-Sirah, Damascus, 1427, 1/367)

The statement "According to the Qur'an, the Muslims, the people of God, will not surrender to the rulers who deny Muhammad; on the contrary, they will fight against them with might and main" included in the question is purely a slander. There is no such a statement in the Quran.

On the contrary, in sound hadiths, people are recommended to be patient if the heads of state are cruel because the internal wars between Muslims will do more harm than good. For this reason, it is clearly emphasized in many sound hadiths, that the Muslim people should not to rebel against the administration, even if they are indifferent and cruel according to the religion, unless they are easily dismissed from office. They are called “hadiths of unrest (mischief) / hadiths mentioning unrest (mischief)”.

The scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah agree unanimously that the heads of the state must be selected from the ones who are just, who are well-informed of administrative, political and military affairs, and who are powerful and shrewd. According to the view of all scholars, it is wajib (necessary) to obey the heads of the state who are elected by being selected in that way.

Likewise, the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah regard it necessary to obey the heads of state who have come to power by force and pressure as well, regardless of whether they are worthy of being obeyed or not because rebellion against the state authority causes great mischief and evil.

It is known that it is extremely difficult to close the door of disintegration, turmoil and anarchy caused by rebellion. Sometimes this turmoil can even cost the lives of nations and states.

Our Prophet (pbuh) gave great importance to the peace and tranquility, unity and solidarity of the believers, and he advised believers not to rebel against the oppression and persecution that may come from the heads of the state but to show patience in order not to spoil the public order.

The following hadith narrated from Hazrat Abu Hudhaifa (RA) sheds light on this issue:

“…The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: ‘There will be leaders who will not be led by my guidance and who will not adopt my ways.’

I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! What should I do if I (happen) to live in that time?’

He replied: ‘You will listen to the Amir (Ruler) and carry out his orders; even if your back is flogged and your wealth is snatched, you should listen and obey.’” (see Taj, III/44-45)

In summary, all mujtahids, mujaddids and other Islamic scholars in the community of Ahl al-Sunnah have considered not obeying and rebellion completely different issues. They did not obey anyone in situations against Allah's commands. This attitude is necessary due to the following prophetic order: “A servant is not obeyed when his commands are against Allah.”

Nevertheless, they never attempted or encouraged rebellion. On the contrary, they did not withhold their precious efforts and benevolence to prevent believers from rebellion and they served as good models for all Muslims in this respect too.

There are many statements of Badiuzzaman, Said Nursi, the mujaddid of the century, on the issue. His following statements, quoted below, testify that the last statements in the question are slander.

“Yes, for example: I did not even curse on a prosecutor upon a wrong decision against us even though I proved his eighty-one errors in the court because the main point in this era is the spiritual jihad: to hinder the spiritual destruction and to help the public order with that.”

“Yes, our method contains force but this force is only for the conservation of the public order. Based on the principle of وَ لاَ تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ اُخْرَى (And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another) (As-Saf/17:15), ‘No sibling, dynasty or family of a murderer can be held responsible because of him.’”

“This is why I have tried to maintain the order throughout my life with all my strength. This force cannot be used against public but only against foreign intervention.”

“With the principle of the ayah cited above, our duty is to help public order with all our strength. Therefore, the number of the internal combats violating the public order happened to be one in a thousand in the world of Islam. And that one originated from difference of ijtihad."

“And the biggest requirement of the spiritual jihad is not to interfere in the divine mission; our mission is to serve; the result belongs to Allah Almighty. We are obliged to fulfill our duty.” (Emirdağ Lahikası-II, p. 241)

[otterbeesfanficblog]

When neutron stars collide

(Bakugou Katsuki x Reader)

A/n: I just want to say out right that sometimes while writing I get carried away, and also I don’t really stop to look for mistakes because... I’m lazy? I also don’t have a scheduled time for writing this stuff, I just write when the feeling comes and goes so... sorry if you hate waiting ^^; And you know what I just noticed while writing this Authors note? Bakugo’s name is still wrong in the title but I’m not changing it bc I don’t care at this point. I’m stupid and I know it.

Part 5: You Would Be Angry Too...

Part 1: Steps Before The Starting Line Part 2: When A Star Chooses To Shine Part 3: Compare And Contrast Part 4: From Where We Stand

  "We're not so sure, she's still so... quiet. No one will want her like this and our numbers will go down." One of the employee's states, unknowing of the small ears listening around the corner.

The woman he was talking to sighs, nodding her head to agree with him.

"I can't find anything she's actually interested in, whenever I see her slightly liking something and I encourage her to continue, she throws it out and goes into a silent protest."

The man sighs and rolls his eyes.

"You'd think she's dead in the head at this point, no families going to take in some retarded kid willingly."

"Tsukami!" The woman says in a scolding tone. "Don't say that she's just a 5-year-old girl--"

"A 5-year-old girl who has no quirk or personality, she might as well be a doll we put on a shelf."

Having heard enough slander from her so-called 'caretakers', Y/n took it upon herself to take the little number of clothes she had in small, tattered backpack and leaves.

She couldn't find it in herself to feel sad, or angry. She felt empty and didn't know what to feel, walking down the streets and looking at the world from a new perspective.

She liked this, being able to see the world.

"I wish I had a family to do this with..." She stopped next to an alleyway, saying this out loud and looking down to the ground.

"Oh, but maybe you can."

Startled, Y/n stumbled away from the alley were the voice came from, and looking in she saw a tall man. Despite the man being so close, she couldn't at all remember his face.

Tall, suit... large mask?

She couldn't remember.

The scene quickly changed, one of which she was hiding inside a tipped over dumpster, crying while trying to be silent. She knew never to trust a stranger, and that man... he didn't hurt her or show any signs of doing so... but in her heart, she knew something was wrong with him.

"Do not be afraid, Young one. I am here to help."

She'd heard his voice many times from the TV stationed in the 'caretakers' break room, but seeing him up close made so much sense as to why so many people loved him.

"B-but... the bad men--"

Before the tall suited man could take her, an explosion happened a few buildings away from where she stood. A group of villains were thrifting and stealing as much as possible before authorities arrived.

One of them saw her, saying that he would make an example out of her despite his group telling him not to wasted time on a kid.

When he picked her up, she felt as if there was a bubble in her chest ready to burst, and when he gave her a sickening grin, the bubble burst.

She didn't really remember much of what happened, only hearing the man and a few other close villains scream in pain, and she was dropped and there were stars in the air around her.

Then she found herself running into alley where she found a small gap between the buildings and rushed in, see and hiding in a tipped over dumpster, not knowing what else to do when the all famous All Might showed up.

"They won't get you," All Might said, showing her a smile that she didn't know she would learn to hate, at that time it treasures her.

There was another explosion heard, and All Might quickly turned his head to the sound, only looking back at Y/n when she whimpered. Her hands covered her ears and she shook afraid of what was to come.

"You must stay here, Young one, it is the safest place for now." All Might knew that if he tried to take Y/n to a safe place a few things could go wrong.

She could get even more scared and lose control of her quirk again, she could be spotted by the villains and they would be relentless in getting her, the villains could get away while he tried to find a safe place for her.

His hands were tied, and as much as he hated the idea of leaving her here alone, the space between the buildings was hard to find. It was small, quiet, and you wouldn't know it was here unless you were looking for it.

"Stay... Here?" Y/n questioned softly, not liking the idea of staying where she was. It was cold and when she had the lid closed it was dark.

Looking into her eyes, All Might kneeled in front of her and place a hand over his heart.

"You must stay here, and I promise I will come back."

"You promise to come back? Promise to come back and keep me safe?"

All Might gave a solid nod.

"I promise."

-----

You're eyes flutter open and you groan at the reoccurring dream.

"What a bullshit promise..."

Pushing up the bin lid, you squint your eyes at the incoming sunlight and yawn, rubbing your eyes. You flinch as a creaky noise comes from your throat and your stomach, which in turn makes you place a hand over your stomach and crawl around the side of the bin and look to your food pile.

Or, lack thereof.

"Shit... Riji always helps me get food..."

You stand and stretch out your back, sighing when it lets out a satisfying pop.

"But, I haven't seen him for a week..."

Looking up out of the little hole through your makeshift roof, you let your mind go blank as you look at the relatively blue sky.

You knew Riji had a life of his own, you weren't really sure what that entailed but now that you had school you wouldn't really know. You saw him when you got back after the first day of school from the talk with Bakugo, but you hadn't seen him at all after that.

Speaking of Bakugo, you were shocked when he came to you with an answer the next day. He completely took the reigns and told you what to do like you were a dog, and you bit back at him every so often but otherwise he was helping you. You two normally talked and studied in your free time in school, he hadn't at all talked to you about outside of school study lessons.

Well, that was until a couple of days ago.

You were almost given a heart attack when he told you that you were coming over to his house, and he said it without hesitation and no room for argument. He gave you the address and time, but you told him you weren't familiar with the streets and such so you wouldn't be able to find it.

Which was true to an extent, you didn't really understand how house addresses worked, you did however know how government-owned buildings worked.

Of course, this made him lash out and call you dumb, which you told him was fair. You asked him if he knew where the local library was, stating that you visit and get books from there all the time. He made a comment about how if you loved books so much that you often hung out at the library, why the hell did you ask him to study with you.

You explained again that it wasn't just studying that you were doing with him, it was training and talking over ways to improve both of your similar quirks.

He kept the time the same, yelling at you to not be late as he would meet you there. If you were late he said he would just leave and you can forget about going to his house, which deep down made you nervous.

You can't remember the last time you were actually inside a proper house, you've squatted in houses for sale a few times before, but all those houses were stripped of anything considered homely.

You were actually pretty excited to see his home, you wondered if his home matched his personality, if so, you had to prepare yourself not to laugh.

Today was the day you would go to his house actually, so switching into the somewhat clean clothes given to you a while back by Riji, you ventured out of your home and onto the sidewalks with a brisk pace. Looking into store windows, you searched for any visible clocks to tell you what time it actually was.

Looking in the window of a clothing store, you say a clock on the far wall. You squint to see it, not really seeing the numbers but seeing the hands well enough.

Bakugo told you to meet him at the library at 11:30 am, you saw the big hand positioned slightly to the left of the top, while the smaller was a little past the where you think the 3 on a clock would be making somewhat of an obtuse angle.

Looking down at your hands you invasion a clock up close, moving your hands to the positions where the clock hands were in the store.

It took you a moment, but once you thought you hade it, your eyes went wide and you went to the store door. You ripped it open quickly, apologizing to the store clerk as you stared with wide eyes at the clock.

"Shit!! He's gonna kill me!!"

You speed out of the store, unknowingly leaving a trail of stardust behind.

It was 11:24, you literally had 6 minutes to get to him before he would have even more reason to beat your ass than he already did.

You hadn't really thought you would sleep in like that, you were going to have to finally get rid of that piece of junk next to your dumpster you so dumbly liked to call an alarm clock. Which, in fairness, it was.

Emphasis on was, you found it in the trash for a reason.

You were breathing heavily as you weaved through people on the street, quickly apologizing to anyone you bumped on your way. You knew the way to the library well enough so you made a B line for it, using your quirk to make you go faster.

People stared as you rushed past them at such a quick speed they barely saw you, but they also stared in awe at the trail of stardust you were leaving behind.

You were there quicker than you expected, but apparently not quick enough as you saw a familiar head of ash blonde hair walking away from the library.

"Bakugo, wait!"

You called out, you didn't stop running at him to catch up. Said boy stopped walking and glanced back at you, and with no time to react at all his eyes went wide as you hit his chest full force, sending you both to the ground harshly.

He to the brunt of it, the air gets knocked out of his lungs as he groaned. You laid on his chest breathing heavily, calming down slightly at the sweet smell of his clothing. Sitting up and practically straddling him, your chest still heaving as you looked down on him with a tired smile.

"I made it!"

It took him a moment to focus himself again, but once he did you were leaning back on his lap as he held you by the front of your shirt, glaring at you with slightly pink cheeks. You thought it was because you hit him to the ground too hard that the blood rushed to his head, but actually he hated how much he liked your warm skin.

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM, YOU IDIOT?! FIRST YOU SHOW UP LATE, THEN YOU TACKLE ME TO THE GROUND LIKE SOME RABID DOG!!!"

You grab ahold of his wrists and look at him with frowned brows.

"Oh, come on! I wasn't that late! And besides, I couldn't slow myself down!"

"It didn't look like you even tried to!" He yelled in your face.

"That's not the point!" You counter.

He lets go of you, letting you fully drop to your back on the ground as he shoves the rest of your body off him, dusting himself off aggressively. Though, thinking about it, what didn't this boy do aggressively?

"Dumbass! I was already regretting this, but now I don't think I want to even do this anymore."

You get up quickly and roll your eyes at him.

"Oh, please. You're the one who set this up."

"Because you're dumbass is still weak as shit!" He then quickly turned around and started stomping his away down the sidewalk, you were quick to follow behind.

"So..." You break the silence, looking at him as you both walked side by side. "What are we doing today?"

"Training." He said in a brash tone, but you just smiled.

"Finally, I thought it was gonna be all books with you."

He glares your way, yelling as he always did.

"Shut up! You're fighting style is weak as shit and you're out of shape!"

You roll your eyes and look at him from the corner of your eye with a sly smirk, slowly bringing up a hand to cover your mouth slightly.

"Oh? Last I remember you were too busy with that childhood dick measuring contest to see anything from me."

You could practically see steam leaving his mouth as he towered over you, yelling in your face but it only made you smile. You didn't really know when it happened, but you realized teasing him was very fun.

"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU SHIT STAR GIRL!!"

"Speaking of that fight," You ignore him. "what is with you two anyway? I can see why he's kinda scared of you, but I can also see why he pisses you off." You glare off to the side just thinking about Midoriya. "He's on my shit list, but I just wanna know your side of the story."

He clicks his tongue in irritation and looks forward.

"Mind your own damn business."

"Awe, come on!" You whine childishly, grabbing at the base of his black shirt and tugging a bit. "I'll tell you something personal about me if you tell me."

"I don't give a fuck about your personal business," He growls, grabbing the wrist that was on his shirt and pushing you off. "it's called staying in my lane, you should try it sometime."

You huff in annoyance, but you had a feeling his side of the story would be hard to hear from to begin with. So, taken to what he said, you walked quietly beside him which surprised him for a while.

It didn't take more than 20-25 minutes to get to his house, but once you were there you felt all ounces of confidence leave you.

"I-It's....h-how... WHY IS YOUR HOUSE SO HUGE?!"

Bakugo flinched at you turning at yelling at him, his face flushing a bit in embarrassment though he wasn't sure why. You stared at him with shock and slight awe, you (literally) practically had stars in your eyes you looked up at him.

"Are you actually some kind of rich kid?!"

"Huh?!?!!" He glares at you and yells in your face. "I'm not rich!!"

"But, your house!!"

"It's average, idiot!"

He growls and stomps his way up to the front door, and you feel your heart sink to the floor. You would have to pretend that you lived in a house like his too, that all of this was normal.

That having a real door to a real house, that you personally owned, and having all the real things that came with this house was normal...

You watched as he unlocked the door with a key he pulled from his pocket, your brows frowning as you looked down at yourself. Baggy shirt, somewhat baggy shorts, ripped up shoes that actually look like trash... which all of what you had was...

Would he not like you if he found out? Bakugo didn't really seem the type to discriminate amongst class or really anything for that matter, he took on everything the same, something he can beat. But... he also looks and acts like the type of person who hates liars...

"Oi!"

You flinch, raising your head to see Bakugo glaring at you from halfway inside his door.

"Are you coming in or what? I'm not standing here all day while you weirdly gawk at my house."

Take a deep breath in, you give a strained and awkward smile.

"I-I'm coming."

Walking in past him, he closed the door behind you. Because you were so tense, you almost jumped out of your skin when Bakugo yelled from behind you at a volume you didn't expect.

"I'M BACK!"

You slightly glare back at him for yelling, your heart beating quickly in your now pulsing ears. All he gave you back was a glare and a shrug.

"My house." He muttered, and you rolled your eyes, but then jumped out of your skin again as someone else yelled.

"YOUR HOUSE MY ASS, KATSUKI!!"

Bakugo went stiff at the voice, you turned back to face whoever yelled.

It was a very young attractive looking woman who seemed to bare the same ash blond explosive hair as Bakugo. She also shared his pricing red eyes which glared daggers into the boy behind you but quickly turned soft and gentle as her glance turned to you.

It was all silent for a moment as she stared at you with a smile, then her face flushed red and quickly came up to you, cupping your face in her hands and squishing your cheeks together.

"Ah! You're so beautiful! Your skin is practically glowing! And your eyes shine like stars!"

Her smile disappeared as she glared at Bakugo who had moved from behind you to beside you, glaring at his... mother?

"You didn't tell me you were bringing a girl over!! You haven't even done your chores yet!"

Bakugo's face flushed as his glare hardened, all while your face was still cupped within his mother's very soft and warm hands... which you weren't complaining about at all.

"What the hell does it matter she's a girl!?! And I said I would do them after!!"

"You did not tell me that, and as your mother, I need to know everything about the people you bring to MY house!!"

You felt a chill in your spine as she said this, making your doubt of Bakugo not liking your homeless double.

"Please you two, she only just got here. She must be overwhelmed."

You leaned a little past Bakugo's mother, her hands still cupping your face as you looked behind her. There stood who you could only assume was Bakugo's dad, he had brown hair and eyes and had the same hairstyle as Bakugo and his mother.

Out of all the Bakugo's you've met now, he seemed the only one who knew how to be calm.

Bakugo's mother let go of your face and instead pulled at Bakugo's ear, which he growled at and grabbed her wrist tightly.

"Do your chores!"

"Shut up, hag, I'll do them after!! Now let go!!"

She let go but quickly smacked him over the head.

You didn't really know you had done it, but your back was now pressed up against the door and you started to sweat as they fought.

You'd heard and seen many different family dynamics, living on the streets gave you ample time to people watch. You had seen children fight back at their parents before, mostly just toddlers throwing tantrums though.

You'd also heard the old, and the quite dumb, phrase "respect your elders".

You've cussed out your fair share of authority figures before, that wasn't new. You were, however, shocked that Bakugo would even have the balls to yell at his birth giver like that. Not to say some parents don't deserve a good cuss or two, but ... if his mother was your mother?

... You wouldn't.

"You'll do them now! Now go before I ground your ass and send your girlfriend home, treating you like the brat you are!"

He growled again at her, practically quaking with anger, but he stomped past her to another room, grinding his teeth.

Once he was gone, his mother turned to you with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you, I didn't really expect Katsuki to ever get a girlfriend with his attitude."

Your face flushed out of pure nervousness of saying the wrong thing and getting kicked out.

"U-uh, me and Bakugo... we aren't dating--"

"Damn it!" She sighed out, throwing her head make which made you flinch wondering if she was gonna put you out.

Bakugo's father sighed and walked over, placing his hand on his wife's lower back while giving you an equal to yours nervous smile.

"I'm sorry, this is probably not what you were planing when you came here."

You shook your head and waved your hands.

"O-oh, no, it's okay! I'm just... I've never been to a fancy house like this before... nor have I ever been to my friends' house or met their family."

"Eh?" Bakugo's mother raised a brow at you in confusion as both parents looked at you slightly shocked. "Fancy... house?"

"W-why don't you come to sit in the living room while you wait for Katsuki to finish up?"

You nod and are about to follow him when Bakugo walls back into the hallway with what looked like a vacuum, he glares at you which makes you quickly stop walking.

"Take your damn shoes off, idiot! Are you trying to make my job harder?!"

"Huh??"

You feel the sweat on your face as you look down at the little step in front of the door, you had seen this many times at the houses you squatted in. There was always a little step in the doorway, but since the houses were always empty you always thought it was a design thing.

It wasn't until you got to U.A. that you suddenly realized all the social etiquette you never learned because, well, you didn't have a home or parents to teach you these things.

You felt your face flush with embarrassment as you realized that your shoes may look like the trash they were, but you also weren't wearing any socks.

"U-Uhm... I... I don't have any socks on..." You look up through your lashes at the Bakugo family, almost feeling ashamed of your meet assistance in front of them.

"What the hell is--" Bakugo was quickly cut off by his mother.

"Katsuki! Chores!!" Bakugo shrugged and glared at his mother, pointing at your feet.

"She--"

"Now!!" She cut him off again, pointing down the hall. He let out a long sigh and stomped his way out of the hallway and into a different room.

"It's fine, eh... oh," Bakugo's father looked at you in surprise, you looked at him curiously. "We... don't know your name."

"Oh," You give them an awkward smile after toeing off your shoes at the entrance bowing to them as a silent apology for the lack of respectfulness for social etiquette.

"My name is Uchukyuzo Y/n, but you can call me Y/n... feels more... natural...?"

Bakugo's father nodded at you with a gentle smile, Bakugo's mother was quiet but also gave you a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Y/n." His father spoke. "follow me."

"I'll get some water for ya, sweetie." Bakugo's mother said, patting your shoulder and disappearing into what you assumed was the kitchen.

You heard the vacuum Bakugo had startup as you shyly sat down on the couch with its back to a wall, Bakugo's father sat across from you and smiled at you with closed eyes and a gentle look.

"It really is nice to meet you, Y/n. Bakugo often mutters about your when he's home, always talking about what you two were to do next together."

"Yes," Bakugo's mother came in with stacked cups and a pitcher of water, setting it down on the small table in front of you and pouring you some water as she continued. "You can only imagine our surprise to know that he was tutoring someone."

You felt yourself flush a little, bowing your head, and quietly thanking her as you stiffly took the glass of water and took sips.

"It's... not really tutoring, at least... I don't think. Bakugo and I have... sort of similar quirks, so, I approached him about maybe partnering up and learning from each other."

Bakugo's mother sat down next to her husband, leaning back comfortably on the couch as she smirked at you in a mischievous way.

"Similar quirks, huh?"

You nod, placing the cup back down on the table. Luckily for you, the crash you had with Bakugo stored up a lot of energy that you could give an example.

Lifting your hands, you cupped them into a small ball shape, allowing the energy to build up in the small pocket in your hands. Then you pulled your hands flat, one high and one just below, allowing the energy to release in a bright burst of light.

Since it was a small, contained explosion, the flash of light was like the flash of a camera. What was left was the colorful and sparkling glow of the energy that was left behind, your hands were warm as the star-like sparkles fell around your hands.

"I can store energy in my body and release it like an exploding star, taking in and putting pressure on the energy, then releasing it in a bust of light that tends to leave trails of light behind."

You look back up at the parents, they started at you with impressed expressions and you shyly scratch at the back of your head.

"A-and since Bakugo can make explosions as well, I thought I could benefit from learning from him and that... he could learn something from me?"

"Oh please," His mother grins at you. "He may act like it, but he's far from perfect."

"Eh? I-I know that..." You reply looking down at your hands in your lap, clenching and unflinching them while looking at your palms. "I admire his drive, in a lot of ways, he and I are the same."

"You seem to be as good as, if not better, than Katsuki." Bakugo's mother cut in, getting you to look at her as both parents look on at you.

"Oh, I don't really want to be better than anyone..." You look around the room you were in.

Bookshelves filled with books, a few potted plants, from where you were sitting you could just barely seen a nice looking kitchen. It was no secret this house was beautiful, something you never really lived in before.

You smiled sadly around the room.

"You know... I've always wanted to live in a house."

"Eh?!" You flinch and look to Bakugo's parents, who both equally looked horrified at what you said. You panic and shake your head, waving your hands about.

"I mean! I mean live in a house like this! It's nice a-and big! Bakugo told me there's a backyard too! I, uh, I... don't have those..."

You grin sheepishly, looking down at your feet that curled an unfurled.

"I'm sorry if I'm being rude... I..." You look up at the parents.

Bakugo's father looked at you with a sad expression, but and expression it looked like he was trying to fight for your sake. Bakugo's mother held a gentleness that made your resolve start crack more and more.

The little voice in your head started to make your eyes sting and feel glossy.

Tell them, they look like people who could help? Why don't I ever ask for help? Why do I have to do this all on my own? I can tell them. I'm allowed to. I know I am. I'm allowed to feel sad about where I am. I don't always have to be strong.

"I-I..." You felt a lump forming in your throat, your brow starting to twitch and your lips turned down in a frown. Your fists were clenched on your lap.

Were you actually going to finally ask someone for help to get you off the streets and into an actual home? With food and water and clothes and somewhere to bathe, was this it?

"I-I uhm..."

"Y/n," You looked up from your lap and stared at Bakugo's mother, who was looking you dead in the eyes with her own pricing ruby eyes. "You know you can tell us anything, right?"

snap!

You felt a tear run down your face and you felt your eyes go wide, your mouth opening as if you were on auto-piolet.

"... W-what I said before... about not having a.. a home like this... I... I don't have a h-"

"I'M DONE!"

Your shoots down to your lap and you leet out a breath you didn't know you were holding. At the sound of Bakugo's voice, you dropped your head and whipped your eyes quickly, and all heads in the living room turned to where Bakugo was standing with his arms crossed.

He first glared at his mother, then glared over to you, which turned to confusion as he saw your slightly red eyes.

"What the hells up with you?"

"KATSUKI BAKUGO!!" His mother stood and shouted at him in pure anger.

As a kid with present adult figures in your life, you knew the sounds of when you were in trouble and when you were in trouble. Bakugo was surprised to hear her genuine anger, his father was also looking at him with a stern stare.

"What?!" He yelled back, but before she could answer you stand to your feet and waved your hands, putting up a fake smile.

"S-So you're done, does that me we can get started?"

He nodded at you, his parents looking at you with worry.

"Y/n," Bakugo's father spoke softly. "You can stay and talk with-"

"B-Bakugo planned this whole day for us to train, so, wouldn't want that plan to go to waste, right?" You give him a strained smile, leaning down and grabbing the water you had. Downing it in one huge gulp, which hurt your chest by the way, and you quickly walked beside Bakugo.

"S-show me the way... Bakubro!" You faked excitement.

Every part of you now was screaming at you to leave the room and situation, the conversation was not something you wanted to have today.

Why the hell would you even think of telling someone?! Do you know what would happen then? You'd be sent to a foster home, which you already know is worse than where you are now, are you serious!? You're not stupid, Y/n! You didn't go through 10 years of living on the streets alone surviving on being soft to people you just met!!

Your inner voice scolded you plus tenfold, and without really knowing it, you were hiding behind Bakugo, away from the looks of his now frightened parents.

It was silent for a bit, Bakugo not knowing what the hell was going on other than that you looked close to crying and his parents were angry at him for something. Were you snitching on him for being so 'mean' to you? That can't be it, right? You didn't really react badly at all to his attitude.

In fact, it was one of the things he liked about you. You took his shit and sent it back.

So, what had you like this.

"... Can we go now..?"

Your voice was so quiet, Bakugo had never heard you speak so softly, and looking at your slightly upset face, he didn't like it at all.

With a click of his tongue, turned down the hall and walked towards a door in the back.

"Hurry up... idiot."

You didn't say anything back and stuck to his heels like glue, leaving behind two parents who were on the verge of calling the police or child services.

What had you been through to have to keep quiet about it?

-----

What you thought was going to be a simple training section in his backyard, actually turned into a 2-hour long training lesson with him.

You both started out with stretching, luckily for you, Bakugo didn't ask what the conversation was about that you had with his parents. He corrected your form many times, asked if you were even trying or if you knew what stretching was.

Moving on you went to a small work-out session, from running in place to jumping jacks, squats, lunges, all that jazz. He allowed you small breaks every so often, tell you that if you go all out on your first time you'll vomit, and he didn't want to deal with that.

You internally took that as a sign of him caring about you.

Next, you went to hand to hand training with him, which he gave you no mercy on. He downed you so many times that you had grass stains all over your already trash clothes, but he was actually teaching you along the way.

With your size, he thought you how to use that to your advantage. He got him down a couple of times with his help, but any victory you had over him was lost quickly as he told you a fight doesn't just stop when you have him on the ground.

After those two hours, he now has you both back at some ending work out stuff.

Both you and he were on your elbows and toes at the moment, facing each other while planking. Both of you were covered in sweat which fell from your face every so often, he was actually smart in switching his clothes before. He changed when he was doing chores as he was in a black tank top and loose shorts.

You were to hold the plank for a minute, then break, then go to your side, break, then your other side, break then repeat.

You were heaving at this point but you weren't upset about it, in fact, you were quite thankful for the tired feeling falling over you. Not only would this benefit you in the long run, but also, you wouldn't have to stay awake thinking all night.

"Break."

You look up from your plank at Bakugo who was now on his knees.

"Huh?" You still held your plank, your stomach and legs shaking a small bit.

He growled and leaned over, smacking you on the head which made you fall face-first to the ground.

"I said break, idiot!"

You let out a sigh and slightly snuggle into the ground, then you hold your top half up on your elbows and look at Bakugo.

"Thanks for this Bakubro." You wink and send him finger guns, which he rolls his eyes and mutters a curse.

"Shut up."

You laugh a little and roll onto your back with a sigh, looking at the slightly less bright sky.

"Now that we have had a training montage together," You throw your head back to look at him upside down while still laying in the grass. "have I unlocked your character backstory yet?"

"The hell are you talking about?" Bakugo growled, now sitting down with one leg crossed and the other straight out, which happened to be right next to your right side as he leaned back on his hands.

You laughed and looked back at the sky.

"Come on, you know. I want to know why you have so much beef with broccoli boy, it can't really be a secret since he likes to tell his sob story all the time."

You rolled back over, placing your hand over Bakugo's leg, making it so you were leaning it like a pillow as you looked up at him.

"No kidding, I saw him crying, like, two days ago about something. I didn't because I'm still mad at him, and also people trying in public make me uncomfy." You point and place your cheek on his leg.

He shakes you off his leg, his cheeks a little pink at your closeness to him, and he rolls his eyes.

"You're fucking weird."

"Watch your fuckin' language." You playfully growl at him, pushing your self up into a normal sitting position across from him, crossing one leg over the other as you stare at him. "But seriously, why the rivalry?"

"Why the hell are you so interested, anyway?" He crossed his arms and glared at you. "Do you really have nothing better to do then encroach on other people's business?"

You pretend to think really hard on it, then innocently shake your head like a child, smiling at him expectingly.

It was silent as you both stared at each other for legit 3 minutes.

"Ugh, fine!" He growls, throwing his arms out and glaring off, making no attempts to look at you. "That damn nerd used to be a fuckin' nobody! Just some lowly nerd in the back of the class with nothing special about him, not even a quirk! Then, all of a sudden, he gets a quirk and doesn't even have the guts to use it on me!! Like, he thinks I can't take it! Like I'm weak!"

You listen to his words carefully, knowing you just got him to open up about something that looks like he would never tell anyone.

"I'm third in the class! That damn nerd is getting all the praise! Even one on one with fuckin' All Might himself!!" He starts yelling now, glaring at the ground below him. "Now he thinks he can tell me that he suddenly got his quirk from someone!? He thinks I'm royalty stupid to fall for that!"

"So that's what it's about..." You mutter softly, not meaning for him to hear but not really upset that he did when his head snapped up to you.

"Huh?!"

"Your expectations... the world's expectations, I know how it feels to want to be above it all."

He glares at you, and for once this whole day, you weren't afraid of if your words upset him and he kicked you out. You wanted him to know you're driven too.

"I asked you to train me because it's not just our quirks that are the same, you want to go above and beyond what people and yourself think you can do. I do too. I'm starting from the bottom, Bakugo," You laugh bitterly, scratching the back of your neck as you look at the ground. "literally the bottom. You're starting somewhere unfamiliar... Must be tough, huh?"

He glares harder then grabs the front of your shirt pulling you closer to his face, his breath hitting yours as he growls at you.

"Are you making fun of me?!"

"Not at all," You lean forward to making yourself a little more comfortable in his hold. "I'm acknowledging how much pressure you have put on you and how much you're putting on yourself. It's like looking in a mirror."

"I'm not weak!" He shouts, you place your hands on his thighs and push yourself up. He still held tight to your shirt, but now you were eye level with him.

"I never said you were, that's why I like you. You may be an asshole, but you're still a good guy, Bakugo... You know that, right?"

He throws you off him to the side, standing quickly and brushing himself off. You laid on your side look up at him, first with a slight sternness then with a smile.

"You talk weak," He says, his back turned to you. You stand and brush yourself off, walking to his side and looking up at him.

"Maybe I am, but do you really think that?"

He clicks his tongue and walks to the back door leading inside, you follow quickly but he shoves a towel in your face. You were confused, but then he pointed down at your feet.

"I'm not cleaning up your dirty ass footprints."

He then walks away to what you think you remember was the kitchen. You chuckle and wipe your feet, which you hadn't even noticed got really dirty. After you thoroughly scrubbed your feet, you intended to follow Bakugo to the kitchen, but stop by the living room doorway.

Inside was Bakugo's parents talking quietly to each other while the tv close to them was on and on a low volume, most likely to cover their conversation. You were going to leave them be when you saw something familiar on the tv screen.

Walking into the room, you got closer to the tv, inadvertently showing your presents to the parents.

"Oh, Y/n, are you and Bakugo finished with training today?" Bakugo's father asked, but you didn't turn to look at him, eyes glued to the tv as you saw buildings you know you've seen before.

"... Yeah," You answer slowly, not turning from the tv. "What channel is this?"

"The news?" Bakugo's mother said, also looking at the tv. "Why?"

"Can you turn it up, please?" You finally turned from the tv to give Bakugo's mother a small pleading look. She complied, picking up the remote and turning up the volume.

You caught a glimpse of Bakugo coming in the room with two tall glasses of water before turning back to the tv.

"Yes, and we are now reporting live in what seems to be a villain attack. There seems to be only one villain who has taken hostages and has stolen money from local stores."

The tv then shows the store you were just at this morning with broken windows, then turned to a scene in which make your eyes go wide.

The first thing you see is a large black inky figure, which was picking up and throwing cars and anything big enough to cause damage at bystanders. You then saw a group of people huddled in a grey like a bubble that you remember all too well.

"...Riji?" You mutter, you brows frowning as you watch a few heroes try to get close, then quickly retreat at the sight of the inky figure creating large thick ink walls between them.

"As you can see, we have heroes on the scene, but they can't get close. The black ink substance seems to be admitting some kind of mass-energy that has already caused two heroes to have sudden cardiac arrests."

You didn't stay standing there any longer, backing up slowly then turning and running for the front door, completely ignoring the calls of the Bakugo family.

With how fast you were running and how fast your heart was beating, you knew you had enough energy to get there quickly. And you did, you were there faster than you knew it and already bringing with energy.

Police and heroes alike were making sure no one got too close, you ran up to there blockade and they were quick to stop you.

"Sorry kid, but you need to stay back!" A hero told you, looking over his shoulder every so often at the sound of crashing. You glared at him and moved to look past him, getting only a small look at Riji holding the bubble they were in.

"My friend is in there! He created that bubble! I can help!"

"No!" The hero countered. "It's too dangerous for a child to--"

You didn't stay to listen to his protest.

Your eyes went black and your body glowed and shimmered, crouching you jumped high over the hero's head and once back on the ground charge the villain, ignoring the try of the hero. Your eyes glowed like the start night sky as you ran straight past some heroes who tried to stop you, running straight into the villain's form.

You were expecting some kind of resistance at the wall of black ink that formed the villain, but there was none. You did however feel a huge jolt of energy flowing through you now, your body glowing brighter as you felt yourself brim with energy just waiting to be released.

"Y/N!"

You quickly turn your head, only to see Riji struggling to hold his bubble with the amount of power surging around. His quirk allowed him to make indestructible bubbles the are basically shields of an unbreakable mass, however, the bigger the bubble, the hardened to hold. It takes strength and consideration to hold them, that's what he had told you when he first showed you.

"Riji! Can you hold it a little longer?" You yell to him, bouncing at your feet as you feel the power around you almost making the energy in your body pour out.

He nods.

"Not for much longer!"

"I've got this!" You scream back, running full head into the eye of the storm of this villains form.

He couldn't just be a mass of inky blackness, he had to have a body somewhere.

And luckily for you, you ran straight into it.

The man in front of you grunts as he hits the ground, the darkness not going away as he looks up and stares at you in shock.

"What the-- a kid?? How did you--?"

You were blinding to look at now, all that could be seen of you was your glowing eyes, that didn't hold any black anymore, now only glowed a bright white. You smirked down at him tackled him, pushing him to his stomach and sitting on his back. You smiled at his attempts to get away from your grasp but screamed in pain as you heard the steam of his flesh burning.

"Want to know what it feels like to be in the middle of a star when it explodes?" You say, leaning down to his ear you laugh. "Well, you're about to."

Then, you let go of the power you were holding.

-----

All Bakugo could see from his spot in the crowd after he ran after you was the large inky villain, heroes arguing over the girl the ran in and how they were meant to get her out to saver her.

He wondered for a moment if it was his fault that she ran in without a second thought.

Had he put too much pressure on her during training? She said she wanted his help and his help alone so, he thought he was doing fine. She never really complained about learning and hanging out from him, in fact, he thought she enjoyed it.

But after what he told him before she left.

"I'm acknowledging how much pressure you have put on you and how much you're putting on yourself. It's like looking in a mirror."

She didn't do this to prove something, did she?

"Idiot, you better not be dead..." Bakugo muttered out, glaring at the large mass of ink.

Suddenly, he felt the air around quickly heat up, and a bright light explodes from the mass. Everyone around gasped and covered their eyes, the heat around making everyone begin to sweat. Once the light dimmed and was fading with the heat, all that was left was gently falling specks of stardust-like light.

In the middle of this gentle fall of stardust snowflakes, was a large bubble full of the victims of the attack, and dragging out a man was the girl Bakugo had learned to respect as an equal.

She looked exhausted, her feet stumbling every step or so with her eyelids half-closed. She had what looked like glistening tears coming from her eyes like a subtle drip fountain, there were also small cuts and visible bruising on her body.

With what strength she had left she placed the villain down, and as he tried to get up she places her now glowing hand on the back of his neck which made him hiss in slight pain.

"I wouldn't even think it, sir. You're not going anywhere." She glowered down at the villain as cops and heroes alike rushed over to take the villain into custody.

Bakugo started making his way over to her when he was pushed to the side by reports.

"Oi!" He growled at them, but they surrounded Y/n to the point he could really only see her exhausted face.

"Young lady! Do you know how dangerous that was?!" The hero who tried to stop her before now stood scolding her, the cameras of reports taking it all in great detail.

Y/n herself gave him a tired glare and shrug.

"Just as dangerous as it would be for any other hero."

"Exactly! You're hurt!"

"So?"

"Do you know how stupid that was?!"

Y/n grit her teeth, now puffing you her chest in anger.

"I did your job better than you! If you want to call hero work, by all means! I saved them!"

The hero glared down at her, Bakugo watched Y/n stand her ground once more in front for an authority which seemed to be something she did frequently.

"You're a child!"

Y/n's cheeks flushed with anger.

"As if my age matters!? You seem to forget your precious hawks hero ain't exactly an old clown like the rest of the top ten are, you saying his work is pointless because he's young?!"

Everyone watching was taken back, especially the hero scolding her, before he could come back at her though, a reporter watching and recording all this cut in to talk with her.

"You're so young, yet you rushed in headfirst. Did you know what danger you were in?"

Y/n turned and glared at the woman, then glared into the camera that was turned directly to her face. She could feel herself getting overwhelmed, sure she wanted to make her voice heard but... to many eyes were watching.

"Did you know how dangerous it was when you came to record this shit?" Y/n asked the woman back harshly, the reporter flinching back a little as Y/n turned into the camera head-on and glared into it.

"And for those of you just watching at home just waiting to say some shit behind a screen about me being stupid for doing this, I want you all to know something,"

She snatched the mic from the reporter as her eyes started to shine with stars.

"Think you could do better? because I don't see all the 'help' you self proclaimed heroes are doing. So before you come for me, take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself: If you were in my shoes, you could even take two steps?"

Y/n now furious, tired, in pain, and overall done with the day, grabbed the mic held in her hands and snapped it in half like a twig. Throwing it to the ground and making her way past the crowd, who all quickly made way for her to walk.

Bakugo however didn't move, the only one to stand in her path as she came to a stop in front of him. Looking up at him in the eyes, all Y/n could do was sigh and bow her head.

"I'm sorry..." It was so quietly said, Bakugo could barely hear it. She brushed past him gently, making her way away from the crowd of people watching you. Cops and heroes silently argued if they should stop her and question her, which they should have.

But Bakugo watched Y/n warp her arms around herself, walking barefoot down the streets past people, head down and back slouched.

Bakugo's mind was set, and a path in his mind clicked and was created at that moment.

Y/n and Bakugo really were two sides of the same coin.

-----

You walked around for a while, trying to get everyone off your tail so you could go back to your dumpster and forget this day ever happened.

You were more than exhausted and just wanted to close your eyes, slightly frustrated that you wouldn't be eating for the night either.

You sigh and run a hand down your face, turning the corner into your alley.

"Ugh, and Bakugo's probably pissed at me for running off on him like that..."

You stopped walking when you saw someone standing at the other side of the alley, it was definitely not Riji since he was apparently stuck with the police the last you saw of him. You stood stock still, watching the person standing across from you.

Then there were two.

Three.

Five.

Your tired body felt a shiver up your spine, a heavy feeling behind you.

Before you could do anything though, your head was shoved into the alley wall beside you while your arms were locked behind your back. As your head spun and pounded from the impact of the wall, the petty part of you finished counting.

Six.

"Nice performance on the news today, girly," I was the sound of a woman's voice behind you, you watched it slightly blurred vision as the other people came walking down the alley to meet with you. "It was a real star-shower."

You gave out a weak and bitter laugh, your voice came out cracking and weak.

"That's called a meteor shower, dumb bitch. I may be homeless, but I guess I'm more educated than--"

You were pulled from the wall tossed to the ground, your hands freed too late as you landed head first on the ground. And when you tried to sit up, you got a hard foot to the back that shoved you back down.

"That was one of our best you jailed, you little cunt," The woman spoke again, your face turned to the side as you saw her combat boots come into view. She leaned down, catching your eyes.

She then grabbed you by the head and forced you head back in a way that made your neck crack painfully while you let out a small cry of pain.

"Just who do you think you are, little girl?"

You grunt and breath heavily, sucking in as much air as you could. Your head pounded and you could feel a small trickle of blood fall over your left eyes, your ribs aching from the pressure of the foot in your back.

"Clearly someone who's better than 'one of your best's."

She growled and shoved your head into the ground again, making you cry out again as you felt your nose start to bleed. She pulled your head up again to face her and her goons.

"You just don't quit do you?"

"Nah," you say quietly. "Quitting ain't my style."

"Well, maybe any early death is." She grinned at you, then her eye suddenly glowed a neon, radioactive green.

You saw her raise her right hand, the one not holding your head, and it leaked with the same neon color as her eyes. The neon liquid from her hand hissed angrily as it hit the pavement below you and you knew.

"Acid..." You mutter out, apparently enough for her to hear. She laughed and nodded her head at the rest of her goons, who laughed along with her.

She turned back to you with an evil grin and an insane look in her eyes.

"Smart. Ya know, kid, if you hadn't been such a problem, I would've liked taken you into my gang."

You gave a breathy laugh with hurt your throat which was at this point dry, closing your eyes and shaking your head as much as you could in her grasp.

"Thanks but... no thanks..." You opened your eyes and looked her dead on. "I don't work with losers like you freaks, and besides... If a 15-year-old beat your 'best' you can't be shit, hun."

She growled and it was like time slowed, her glowing acid hand made its way straight to your face. You closed your eyes and awaited the painful death that seemed to be coming your way.

You knew you would die one day, though, you had at least hoped that you would have made it a bit further than 15.

Maybe 19... 20s asking too much.

You felt her hand wrap around your face and you waited, but... nothing came. Slowing opening your good eye, you and saw her hand and eyes were no longer glowing, and her face was covered in confusion.

"What the--!"

She was cut off by a cloth wrapping around her face and quickly shoving her into the ground, and it wasn't long until the weight of the foot on your back was released as well. You heard quarl above you, the goons yelling about not seeing who it was or where they were.

You, too tired and in pain to move, stayed laying on the ground, staring at the knocked out woman in front of you.

Then, it stopped. No more fighting, no more grunts of pain, only the sounds of someone's footsteps. Even as they came close to you, you didn't move.

The footsteps stopped, then you saw the knocked out woman being dragged out of your sight. You let your aching chest fill with air before you pressed your hands to the ground, pushing yourself up from the ground on to your hands and knees.

This was enough to take the breath you just breathed away, and you sat back tiredly on your heels. You head faced down, you couldn't bring yourself to look up yet, the pain you felt all over was stronger than your curiosity of the stranger who saved you.

Well, that was until you heard his voice.

"Why did I know when I saw you, you would be trouble?"

You slowly lifted your head, and standing in front of you was the night-time hero and your highschool teacher, Eraserhead.

You give what you can only assume is the most pathetic smile in the world to him, your hand not even leaving your side but waving a small wave to him.

"Howdy teach."

He sighs, walking over to you before kneeling down. He seemed to look you over, looking at the damage done to you as you sigh.

"Guess this can't really count as just an after school activity, right?" You weakly joke, but he didn't change his neutral expression at all.

"We didn't have classes today, Uchukyuzo." He states in a monotoned voice, finally taking his goggles off to look you in the eyes. "You must be stupid."

"Yeah..." You let your head drift to the sit, slightly nodding to your homeroom teacher. "You're not wrong..."

"You do realize you can no longer live like this, correct?"

This got you, you frowned your brows but quickly regretted it from the pain that came from just moving your face.

"Wha... what do you mean?"

He sighed, standing up he grabbed your arms gently enough to not hurt you, but with enough force to help you stand. You hiss and slightly whimper in pain at this swift move, but allowed him to take you by the shoulders and guide you slowly threw the alley.

"You've being moved to a facility until we can find you a real home."

Though you felt pain coursing through you, you smacked his hands off you and stumped over to the alley wall in pain gasping a little but then turning and glaring up at his neutral face.

"What...?"

"Uchukyuzo," He said in a stern voice. "You can't actually expect a school like U.A. to ignore the fact that you live in an alley, sleep in a dumpster, and eat stole or savaged food while dressed in clothes from the trash."

You lean you back on the wall, face him fully now, you glare even harder than before.

"You were watching me."

"Ever since you got into the school," Aizawa confessed.

You growled weakly, like an injured animal still trying to fight as it's cornered.

"I thought the Principle said it was classified."

"It is," he confirmed. "to students and others not staffed or properly responsible for the students. You expect only Nezu to know? Homeless or not, we've never taken in a student with no record of anything except for a date of birth that took far too long to find."

You looked off to the side, sighing as the weight of the day started to come back to you.

The worry of not seeing Riji, the emotional ride you hade with Bakugo, the training with Bakugo, the villain and apparently the villains gang, and now...

"You're ripping me away from the only place I've called home for 10 years..."

Turning to face Aizawa again, who didn't cave under your look.

"Do you know that's what you're doing?"

"This isn't a home." He stated as if it were nothing.

"Maybe not to you but it is to me!!" You scream, not even caring about the pain that ripped through your dry throat. "Where else am I supposed to go, huh?! To the foster care that didn't give a rats ass about me and only wanted profit?! Only to be given to a family that want a pat on the back for 'saving' an unwanted kid, is that the kind of 'home' you want me to be in!?"

He clicked his tongue and looked off to the side, which made your blood boil even more.

"That's it!?"

"You aren't the only one with a sob story." He looked down at you, and your eyes began to glow as you glared at him with every bit of anger and energy left in you.

"You think I don't know that!? Do you think I don't hate myself day in and day out about all the things I complain about?! I may have a fucked up way of living but I get I'm not the only one! But this is my story! My life! I can't give up!"

You felt your body start to lose strength as the glow around you faded and you looked down.

"I can't let go of this... not yet..."

"Y/n," You look up at Aizawa, who was now closer to you. He placed a hand on your hand in a gentle manner, looking you in the eyes as he spoke.

"You deserve a better life than this. You've worked hard to get where you are today, and I'm not at all downplaying it. But even I have to ask for help sometimes..."

Your eyelids droop and you felt his words hit you harder than they would have if you were at your best. You were so used to covering up your feelings by forcing it away with something you deemed more important, but now... at your lowest, you couldn't find it in you to fight his words.

"Let us help you now."

Your head dropped, but since Aizawa was so close to you, your head landed on his stomach. His hand moved from atop your head to the nape of your neck as you let out a tired sigh. You felt small tires drip from your eyelashes, ones soaking into the man's clothing or landing on your bare feet.

"If you were me... you would be angry too... right?" You questioned out loud, not really knowing if you genuinely wanted an answer or not.

But it's not as if you got that answer anyway, as your vision went black and your body went numb.

-----

Aizawa carried you over to the car that was meant to take you to the U.A. own building where you would be living for a while, and as he sat in the back with you, your head on his lap, he watched your face.

Aizawa did like to sleep more than the fact that it gave him time to rest his overworked eyes or his tired body, it also gave him time to not have to feel anything.

When you sleep, it's almost as if time stops, just for you. No emotions, at least, the good sleep had no emotions.

Looking at your relaxed face, face patched up by some of the people helping to gather what little things you had to bring with them, you looked so peaceful.

You were in the sleep that had no dreams, no feelings or actions, just darkness as your body healed.

While you slept on his lap, he looked out the window and thought over what his answer to your question would have been if he were to answer at all.

"If you were me... you would be angry too... right?"

"Kid," He muttered quietly to himself, glancing down at you and placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. "I don't need to be you... I already am angry too."

[starstwinkleplanetsshine]

The Call of Resistance Chapter 2

The Plan

The conversation shifted from the war and the night passed more normally. Eventually, it was time for Lux and I to go to our rooms and sleep, until the Twins rose again and it was time for another day of farming, scavenging, sweating, and wondering when I would finally get away from the sands of this detestable planet. 

Banthas, I hate sand. 

My nerves rose as each minute passed. Tonight I had a meeting with our small Resistance, and now that I knew Lux was aware of and curious about why I was leaving in the middle of the night, I needed to be more careful about sneaking out. 

Quietly I made my way across the floor, passing his room and chancing a glance into the open doorway. There he was, laying sound asleep in his bed, completely unaware of my movements. I breathed a sigh of relief. I could even hear him snoring ever so slightly, and I knew I was safe. I moved faster after seeing that, grabbing my staff and opening the door, which creaked louder than I had remembered, and stepped into the dry, desert night. Between the three moons shining above and the millions of stars stretching across the sky, it was easy enough to find my way, and this was not my first journey through the night. 

Even so, every step was dangerous. 

The First Order didn’t pay much attention to planets in the Outer Rim, just as the Empire hadn’t, and the Republic before, and that's why Tatooine was allowed to become so wild and uncontrolled, largely run by crime rings and lacking an effective government. Every day I was reminded of how fortunate my situation of living with Lux’s family was. Most orphans on Tatooine are forced into a life of crime or slavery, but since the only source of water on the planet is through moisture farms, the owners of these farms are respected members of the community. I don’t like thinking of how different my life would be if my parents hadn’t been friends with the Mainvin family. But even the wild, untamed Tatooine couldn’t escape the overbearing hand of the First Order, as recently a small band of Storm Troopers had been sent to “keep the peace”, which really meant stop anyone who defied their views, even if that meant killing them to do so. 

Doesn’t seem very peaceful to me. 

This band of stormtroopers was actually the very reason I had called a Resistance meeting that night. 

The closer I came to the meeting spot the more my anxiety rose, as I was planning on proposing an outrageous idea. Up until now, our resistance efforts had been in the shadows, small acts of disobedience that were all but unnoticeable unless looked at closely. But I felt that the time was coming that larger action needed to be taken. We had recently gotten word that there had been battles fought, and more than the mere skirmishes of the past months. Actual battles. This war was quickly moving from cold to boiling hot, from diplomatic stand-offs to laser fire and casualties. 

The stakes were getting higher, and now was the time to act, before it became too late. 

As I finally came upon our meeting spot for tonight, a secluded dwelling set in a hill on the outskirts of a nearby village, I performed the secret knock and was given entry into the space. I ducked my head into the small room and looked around as all the talking dulled and eventually came to a stop. All eyes turned to me as the leader, and I saw that nearly everyone was there that was to be expected, about 100 in all. There were some who couldn’t come to these meetings, whether it was too far or too dangerous, but the information was always dispersed to them the next day. 

We began the meeting with formalities, and I asked everyone any information they knew about the war and any potential trouble that could be brewing here on Tatooine. Everyone shuddered to hear reports of the terror the stormtroopers were wreaking in the spaceport of Mos Eisley and they questioned the stories of the war raging outside our star system. Our older members couldn’t believe that they were going through this again, having to face another totalitarian force threatening the peace of the galaxy and risking their lives for a second time to push back the darkness. I was grateful for their resilience as well as their wisdom and experience, but the jaded look in their eye as we discussed the threat of the First Order always made my heart sink. 

They also reminded me of my parents, who I knew would be in this room with me if they were still alive, willingly putting their lives on the line again without a second thought. 

As the meeting continued, the conversation seemed to center around the fleet of Stormtroopers that had been stationed on Tatooine for a few months now. Despite the short amount of time they had occupied our planet, the destruction and death they were leaving in their wake shocked even our oldest members. Many, especially those who lived in the city, feared for their lives as any hint of their involvement in the Resistance would bring punishment, and probably death. While we were discussing possible courses of action to take to aid the Resistance in any way possible, I knew it was time to propose my ambitious plan. This wild idea struck, seemingly from nowhere, a few days ago, and it had consumed my every thought since. It was truly outrageous and more risky than anything we had attempted before, and the consequences should we fail were certain death and the destruction of our band of Resistance. I almost dismissed the thought completely, telling myself it was impossible, that no one would go along with it, and that they may even question my leadership and authority if I spoke it out loud. 

But despite all these doubts, something arose inside me, a stirring, a prompting that I couldn’t ignore, and before I knew what was happening, the unspeakable words were out of my mouth.

“What if we got rid of the Stormtroopers?” 

Silence. 

I looked around the room, and those who would meet my gaze stared wide-eyed, clearly still processing those words. Most of them were looking at the ground, uncomfortable at my brash words of violent resistance, until a single voice spoke for the rest,

“What?” 

“Just think about it--” I began to defend my idea, “if the stormtroopers were gone, then there would be no First Order threat to Tatooine. They’re the only thing suppressing us right now. The First Order doesn't care enough to pay attention to the planets on the Outer Rim, us least of all! I doubt The Troopers even report to anyone, they’ve been out of supplies for almost two months now and there hasn’t been a restock ship, there hasn’t even been anything sent! Isn’t that right, Kaligo?” I turned to our youngest member, who lived in Mos Eisley and had the important task of keeping an eye on the Storm Troopers there and observing their movements and habits. She nodded slowly, wary of speaking in this situation. “Thank you. If we got rid of all of them before they had the chance to transmit to the First Order for help, then they would never even know.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” A gruff voice from the back challenged. 

“Well, we would come up with the details together, and it would take a lot of careful planning, but we would have to…” I trailed off, afraid to say the morbid words that came next.

“Kill them.” The same man replied. I swallowed hard, the weight of what I truly suggested sinking in, and dropping a heavy weight on my chest. 

“Yes, I guess that’s what we would have to do” A cold silence filled the room, the only sound coming from those who shifted uncomfortably where they sat or stood. Finally an older woman, a veteran of the first war, broke the tension.

“We’d better discuss this, then.” 

For the rest of the meeting, which stretched out to be a couple of hours, we discussed the pros and cons of my radical plan, eventually putting it to a vote. I thought that everyone would hate it, or be too afraid to enact it, but when it came time to make the decision, the majority of the group wanted to go through with it.

 I was shocked. 

Looking around at the faces surrounding me, I was overwhelmed with the tenacity and spirit that filled the room. Our Resistance was small, and may look weak to the outsider looking in, but our nerve and hunger made up for what we lacked in numbers. I thought of how proud my parents would be if they could see me now, leading this group who were determined to change the galaxy.

 A part of me wondered if they could. 

Eventually I had to end the meeting so that everyone could make it back to their homes safely before the suns came up, but not before discussing when and where our next meeting would be held. This was done quickly, as many of us needed the cover of night to hide from the prying eyes of the First Order and our neighbors. Even though many wanted to stay and keep discussing our bold plan, everyone began to clear out, in increments that would not be suspicious, and go home. For the past couple of weeks I felt as though some were losing heart and beginning to wonder if our efforts were really worth it, but now that we had a tangible plan that would have a large impact, a spark had been ignited once again and the flames of the Resistance began to grow. 

Slowly, but surely.

 I stayed behind to make sure everyone left the way they were supposed to and to thank the hosts of the meeting, and by the time it was clear for me to leave, the sky was already beginning to glow just as it did right before the first sun peeked over the horizon. I had never been gone this long before, or travelled this late (or would it be early?), and I was uneasy the whole way home. Leaving Resistance meetings always gave me a feeling of dread, as I worried about everyone getting home without being caught by Stormtroopers, or the many other local dangers that lurked in the dark Tatooine night. I knew I had to hurry to get back before it was fully light, since if anyone saw me there would be suspicion for sure, but that was difficult as our meeting location was over 3 klicks away from the Mainvin farm. 

I made good time getting back, having to run most of the way, but I still didn’t make it before the first sun came up, instead arriving right before the second appeared. I had a bad feeling as I approached our hut that Lux would be awake, and he would not be happy with me. There was a slim chance he would still be sleeping, in which case I would quietly slip into my room and pretend that my night was uneventful as ever, but I had no idea what lie I could come up with if he caught me before I made it there. I braced myself as I walked through the door, hoping for the best, but a part of me already knew what I would find once inside. 

I barely got one foot inside the door before he started shouting. 

“Where the hell have you been?” His yell broke the silence of the early morning. 

“Lux, I-”

“And why the hell are you coming home at the crack of dawn?” I was shocked at the tone of his voice. In my almost 20 years of knowing Lux, I had never heard him yell like this. There was so much emotion in it, anger being the most obvious, but it was almost as if that anger was a mask for other emotions, stronger ones, that lingered and mixed in but were harder to discover, emotions like fear, worry, and, if I strained hard enough…

“I told you, Lux, I’ve been having trouble sleeping. So I went to walk around outside and I stayed out longer than I intended to.” I paused to catch my breath, still winded from my long journey home. His stony silence told me that that answer wasn’t enough for him, so I strained to think of something else to say that would account for my absence. “Eventually I thought I would get a jump on scavenging for today, so I started looking around. By the time I thought I should come back, the first sun was already coming up, so I rushed back as fast as I could because I didn’t want you to worry.”

“You didn’t want me to worry? Well, you did a fantastic job at that! I’ve been up, worried sick, hoping to the stars you weren’t lost, or hurt, or...” He couldn't even finish his thought, and by the look on his face, it’s because it was too horrible to say out loud. He didn’t say it, he didn’t have to, but I knew what he was referring to. 

Tusken Raiders. 

This feared, nomadic, local people was the monster under the bed in every children’s horror story, and rightfully so. There were many dangers living on Tatooine, especially living on a moisture farm on the outskirts of a village, but the Sand People were the highest threat and the most feared. They were extremely hostile, and known to attack without warning. The energy in the air shifted at that, almost as if it were sucked out completely, and any anger or annoyance I felt at Lux vanished as well. I knew better than most the threat and dangers of the Sand People. Suddenly I could see why my absence made him so worried, and I understood his concern. Suddenly, I was ashamed at my recklessness.  

“I’m sorry, Lux. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I know you didn’t,” his temper began to cool, and his voice returned to the normal one I knew, soothing and steady, almost musical, “it's just...it’s dangerous out there, especially when you’re alone. I-” he took a deep breath, and I thought he wasn’t going to finish his thought, but then he added, “I worry about you.” I looked up into his caring, brown eyes, so full of tenderness and concern, that I almost forgot we were fighting just minutes before. 

“I had no idea you felt that way.” I couldn't think of anything else to say but, “I’m sorry.” He took a deep breath and I saw a small smile creep onto his face before he softly replied, 

“I know. It’s okay.” His eyes met mine and seeing him smile eased any tension the past confrontation caused. Then he opened his arms and smiled wider, and I knew that our fight was over. “Come here.” 

I laughed freely as I walked to him and melted into his open arms, and as I felt them close around me it was as if I was exactly where I was supposed to be. My life was increasingly becoming more confusing, dangerous, and uncertain, but when I was with Lux, everything was clear, safe, and sure. We stayed like this for a few moments, just with each other, our silence a comfortable blanket, until the blanket was ripped off by Lux’s words,

“Just no more midnight and early morning walks alone, okay?” I lingered in the silence a few moments longer. 

Too long. 

“Okay.”

“Promise?”

More silence. 

“I promise”

But that was a promise I knew I would have to break. 

---

The next few weeks passed uneventfully. The Resistance had frequent meetings to plan our attack on the Stormtroopers, but I was more careful to ensure that Lux never caught me again. I didn’t know what I would do if he saw me sneaking out a second time, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to lie my way out of it then.

My days consisted of helping with the Mainvin moisture farm in the mornings, scrapping with Lux in the afternoons, and then Resistance meetings at night. I was running on empty, and Lux could tell. Everyday it got harder and harder to wake up in the mornings, since our meetings were becoming more frequent, and I was getting less and less sleep. He never said anything about it, but I could see it in his eyes that he was noticing something was going on, something I wasn’t telling him. 

But Lux was never one to butt into other peoples business, and he was always perfectly happy staying quiet, in his own world, not stepping on anyone's toes. 

For once in my life, I was thankful for his diffidence.

Finally, it was the night before our planned attack, and there was a tangible buzz, an excitement, in the air during our final meeting. There were those that got cold feet at the last minute and decided they needed to drop out, but other than those understandable few, everyone was all in. I went over the plan in detail, making sure everyone knew their role. I also went over every single thing that could go wrong, and what we would do in those scenarios. The more I talked about it the weight of what we were planning sunk into me, and suddenly I realized how impossible it was. 

For weeks we had been meticulously planning our attack, but now it was in front of us, looming like a treacherous mountain that you couldn’t see the top of. I didn’t show any sign of my doubts, however. I knew my people looked up to me and needed me to be firm and secure. If I began to doubt, then surely they would too. No, I took on this leadership role, and that meant that I needed to put my personal feelings aside and be what my small band of rebels needed me to be. 

“Now is the time we decide who we’re going to be in this time of resistance and change. When we decide if we’re going to keep our heads down and ignore the devastation that the First Order is causing all throughout the galaxy, or if we decide we’re going to take a stand, and fight for freedom.”

There were smiles from some, but others were stone-faced, paralyzed by fear and dread. 

“We are taking bold action. What we are going to do tomorrow is going to make a lot of waves, and I’m not going to lie to you, it is dangerous. Some of us may be hurt, or worse. But it is times like these that we must remember that we do not fight for ourselves, nor do we fight alone. There are others like us out there, small groups of people on other systems who have also decided to stand, who decided that they weren’t going to let the terror and fear of the First Order rule their lives. We fight for them, and we fight for Tatooine. But not only do we fight for our planet, we fight for all of the Outer Rim, to say that just because we are small and far does not mean we are worthless. We are going to make the First Order regret the day they underestimated us. 

“But most of all, we fight for the future. We fight so that there can be a day when we tell our children, and our children’s children, that there is peace and freedom in the galaxy because of the efforts of a small group of The Resistance on Tatooine who looked tyranny in the eye and decided there was no place for it here, or anywhere. We may be small, but I have no doubt our actions tomorrow will ripple out into eternity. I am sure of this because I look to the generation before us as an example that good will always triumph over evil, so long as the good is willing to fight for it. And we are.” 

I had no idea where those words came from, and I was hardly aware that they were flowing out of my mouth until my speech was over and I was brought back to reality by the sounds of cheering, clapping, whooping, and the sight of everyone on their feet and beaming, even those whose fear consumed them just minutes ago. Looking at them, at all the faces who I had grown to know and love over the past few months, I, for the first time, finally felt like their leader. Their confidence in me fueled me, and I got an overwhelming feeling that our efforts tomorrow would be successful, and we would take one step closer to freedom. 

After everyone settled down, I wrapped up the meeting with a few more logistical items and then, little by little, everyone began the systematic trek back to their homes. 

Almost everyone was out when I felt a light hand on my shoulder. I turned and met eyes with our oldest member, Dya, who had also been a part of the Rebellion in the Galactic Civil War. I had always looked up to her, and often asked her advice on tough situations, as I knew her experience and knowledge was invaluable. There was a kindness and a new light in her eyes that I couldn’t help but notice, and it was infectious. 

“Your parents would be so proud of you.” Dya had known my father since childhood, as they both grew up on Tatooine. She met my mother when they settled here after the war, and I knew they would often meet to share stories about their time fighting. They found solace in each other, survivors trying to make sense of why they still lived when so many didn’t. “You have your father's eloquence and charisma, and your mother's passion and intelligence, not to mention her beauty.”

I was stunned by her heart-felt words, and felt the mixture of pride and sadness, love and loss that always accompanied any mention of my parents. Even after all these years I still felt the sting of their absence. Not a day went by where I didn’t miss them. 

“Thank you.” The weight of her words were still sinking into me. “I try to honor them and make them proud with everything I do. They put their life on hold to fight the Empire, so I knew I needed to do the same to fight the First Order” 

With one last knowing smile and a reassuring pat on my arm, she too left, hobbling through the dark, perilous night back to her home. I only hoped I was as courageous and capable when I reached her age, if I ever did. 

As I walked back to my hut and silently slipped back into my room, careful to not wake Lux in the process, I knew I would be getting very little sleep that night. I was a mess of nerves and doubts, the plans of tomorrow’s events swirling relentlessly in my head. I thought of everything that could go wrong, and what would happen if it did. I thought about what would happen if everything went right, and what our next steps would be. I thought about what would happen if everything went right, but then the First Order caught wind of it and decided to punish us with even more force than there was to begin with. I tried to push the negative thoughts out of my head and just focus on the plan. 

Everything was now in motion, and I would just have to wait until tomorrow to see how it played out. Eventually I drifted into a restless sleep, dreams of yelling, explosions, and Storm Troopers following me even in my rest. 

[onderzoeken-vos]

B A S I C I N F O ; ; ;

NAME: Lillianna Esper AGE: 27 (pre-ts) DOB: December 27th SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Pansexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Panromantic HEIGHT: 5'6" (168cm) WEIGHT: 128lbs (58kg) DEVIL FRUIT: Inu Inu no Mi model: Gingitsune (Silver Fox) OCCUPATION: Information Broker // Sniper HOME ISLAND: Glacis (North Blue) HAIR COLOR: Dark orange, almost red HAIR LENGTH: Shoulderblades/midback HAIR TEXTURE: Combination of straight and wavy EYE COLOR: Amber/gold (slitted like a fox) SKIN COLOR: Pale DISTINCTING FEATURES:  — scar above left eye, usually covered by her hair  — small key tattoo on left wrist OUTFIT:  — plain white tshirt  — black skinny jeans with three decorative zippers  — knee high combat boots with extra zipped pouches attached  — black knee length cloak with lacing details on the sleeves  — katana holster attached to belt WEAPONS:  — black compound bow with sniper scope  — katana EXTRAS:  — has a large black briefcase that she uses to carry her bow and important documents for    her job

Personality and backstory under the cut

P E R S O N A L I T Y ; ; ;

▶️ STUBBORN

It takes a lot to sway Lillianna’s mind. Once she sets herself on something, she’ll see it through to the end, no questions asked. This can be both a blessing and a curse at times.

▶️ NO SENSE OF DANGER

Lillianna has quite the mouth on her, and it’s gotten her in trouble on more than one occasion. Sarcasm and sass are her middle names. Sometimes she’ll be able to rein it in, like when she knows there’s an actual threat around (she’s not stupid, though some may beg to differ). Otherwise, her filter doesn’t really exist.

▶️ RESPONSIBLE

As stated before, once Lilly puts her mind to something, she’ll see it through to the end. In the same vein, if she knows she can’t accomplish something, she’ll take it in stride and admit defeat. You won’t see her trying to put the blame on others when it was clearly her own doing.

▶️ SNEAKY

This goes without saying. Lilly is extremely sneaky, and can get herself out of just about any sticky situation if the need were to arise. Either physically, by knowing her surroundings and every possible exit, or just by talking her way out of it. She’s good with words; something she quickly learned was needed in her line of work. Getting around guards and other security measures are also another feat she’s just about perfected at this point.

▶️ CAUTIOUS

Despite having little to no sense of danger, Lillianna can be quite cautious, especially if she’s in a situation with someone that gives her bad vibes. She can read people pretty easily, and the minute she sees something off with their body language, or tone of voice, her guard goes up. This usually happens when she’s working with people in the underground, and she knows to tread lightly around them since one minute they could be nice to you and the next they’re stringing you up.

▶️ CURIOUS

Lillianna is always looking for new things to gain knowledge on, whether it be through books or real life experiences. She’s very much like a cat, and sometimes that can get her into just as much trouble as her mouth does.

▶️ SMART

Ever since she was a child she was always thirsty for expanding her mind, which has led her to where she is today. With her job she needs to be smart, both book smart and street smart, considering some of the characters that come to her looking for information. Working with the Government, the underground and everything in between also means she needs to have her wits about her at all times. One small slip up could be the end of her career, or her life.

▶️ AMBIVERT

For the most part Lillianna is an outgoing person, but she has her moments of being shy and reserved. It really just depends on the people she surrounds herself with at any given time, and how comfortable she is with them.

▶️ SLY

Lilly knows how to play her cards, and she does it really well. She knows how to pull the rug up from under someone without them noticing until it’s already far too late, or make you think one thing is happening when she’s actually doing the complete opposite.

▶️ EASY TO ANGER

It doesn’t take much to tick Lilly off. She gets easily annoyed by so many different things, from certain sounds (the enhanced hearing from her Zoan doesn’t help this any) to something stupid someone around her has said. It’s why she often finds herself in scuffles with pirates and other ruffians when she’s trying to relax in a bar. Like usual, she does have a good grasp on controlling herself when the situation deems it necessary, but sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle, depending on how annoyed she is.

B A C K S T O R Y ; ; ;

Before Lillianna was even born, her parents worked for the World Government. After she came into the world, they didn’t stop, and often left her home alone with babysitters. When she became old enough to read, the library was her favorite place to be. She could lose herself on the pages of books for hours, and forget about the fact that her parents were essentially neglecting her.

Soon it got to the point where her parents practically orphaned her, and babysitters were no longer a thing. They even stopped paying for the home, almost like they forgot about her, and Lillianna, no older than a preteen, was left on the streets to fend for herself. Because of this, she holds a deep seeded resentment toward the World Government. She blames them for taking her parents away; blames them for her being forgotten.

Living on the streets made her harder, a little angrier, and her sass and sarcasm only continued to grow the longer she struggled to survive. She grew to have some pretty bad trust issues, and because she surrounded herself with some unsavory people just to get by, her polite filter was practically nonexistent.

It wasn’t long before Lilly grew tired of it. It got to the point where she eventually broke into some poor stranger’s home, and was found by the owner while she was scavenging their kitchen for food. He was a rugged old man, and didn’t look at all pleased when he noticed her huddle in the corner scoffing down a loaf of crusty bread. But despite how he looked like he was ready to kick her back out into the streets, he decided to take her under his wing. It must have been the look in her eyes, maybe. She wasn’t sure.

What she did know though, was she would forever be grateful to this man.

He wasn’t nice by any means. Often growled at her, or gave her harsh punishments if she talked back—which she did often. But he allowed her to indulge in her thirst for knowledge at the local library while he was off working on his fishing boat, even encouraged it. And he looked after her. Made sure she was fed, and even told her stories of his own past when he’d had a little too much to drink, which she drank in every second of it.

Now, Lillianna would never admit to loving this man like a father, but the feelings were very close to that. He was more of a parent to her than her own mother and father ever would be.

As she continued to collect information, both from books and various different newspapers, Lilly became even more aware of just how corrupt the Government actually was. Many different news articles and other media were conflicting, making it quite obvious that various things were being covered up. With this, her anger grew, and she decided to go off on her own. She knew she was good at gathering information, and was extremely stealthy from her years living on the streets. Deciding being an information broker was the best route to go, she set off.

The Revolutionary Army quickly became one of her top customers, on par with the Underworld, where she would sell off any World Government info she came across as a huge fuck you to the organization. Anything she could to pull the rug up from underneath the people who essentially ruined her family, she would do it.

On more than one occasion she was propositioned by the RA to join them seeing as to them she was a good fit for their cause, but she refused every time, knowing she wouldn’t be able to live a life of taking orders. Honestly, she wasn’t a fan of any kind of authority figure.

Thinking that it would be smart to also work on her combat skills, Lilly quickly learned how to use a compound bow, something she knew would be unique and not often thought of by her enemies, and it wasn’t long before she was rather proficient with it. If anyone were to ask, she would even go to the lengths of calling herself a self-trained sniper. But, because using a bow wasn’t practical in close range combat, she also learned how to use a sword, a katana she picked up at a strange, shoddy little weapons shop in one of the towns she’d stopped on randomly.

Unlike the proficiency she had with her bow, her sword skills left much to be desired. But it got the job done when it was needed. She hadn’t died yet, anyway.

A couple years into her job as an information broker, Lillianna slipped up and sold a World Government secret to a Government spy, which lead to the Government retaliating by murdering both of her parents as a warning. She didn’t really care at the time, not having much of a relationship with them after they willingly orphaned her, but understood the threat all the same. What would stop them from killing her father figure next, or even taking her own life?

This incident is what caused her to become even more cautious and distrusting. Lilly took a lot more time investigating who exactly she’s making deals with now, and with her ability to gather info without anyone noticing, luckily it’s not that hard to do so. It’s also added to the long list of reasons why she hates the WG.

Lillianna gains her Devil Fruit a few years after The Incident while searching a Marine warship for intel. At first she was going to leave the oddly shaped fruit, but decided to snatch it at the last minute as just another rebellious act against the Government. Of course, she didn’t eat it right away, wanting to make sure she was safe since she had no idea exactly what Fruit she’d stolen was.

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/full-moon-lunar-eclipse-in-sagittarius-june-5th-2020/

FULL MOON Lunar ECLIPSE in Sagittarius June 5th 2020

FULL MOON Lunar ECLIPSE in Sagittarius June 5th 2020

By Mystic Mamma

*FULL MOON* Lunar ECLIPSE in SAGITTARIUS

June 5th 2020  12:12 pm PDT | 7:12 pm GMT 

June 6th 2020 6:12 am AEDT

★

With things in the state that they are right now, it should come as no surprise that we are headed into Eclipse season beginning with this FULL MOON Lunar ECLIPSE in Sagittarius on June 5th 2020.

Eclipses usually come sets of 2, but this year they come in sets of 3, so this is the first of these 3 consecutive Eclipses which continue to precipitate life-changing shifts.

Current Gemini energies continue to reflect and communicate the reality that we all experience life through different fractals. 

Our collective lens has focalized the experience of our black brothers, sisters and relatives that continue to be subjected to racism rooted in white supremacy and abuse that has been systematically allowed to perpetuate.

Our expanding realizations are transforming into bridges of solidarity and action calls to the ways we can each proactively participate in the active dismantling of the oppressive systems that we consciously or unconsciously maintain.

We are in a time of collective and personal awakening to what has been in the shadows, oppressive and imbalanced across our implemented systems as well as our personal myopic realities. 

The process of awakening can be painful, because new realities precipitate trajectory shifts.

In the process of things dismantling, disassembling, and crumbling, we can feel unstable and this is why change is often so dreaded.

But we are the changemakers of this time, and we are here at this time for a reason.

We each carry our own truth, but a universal truth is that we’re all here ultimately to learn to love.

All those who have had crossed over and come back through near-death experiences, and those who are mediums between worlds echo this truth: Life is a school of learning, and we are here to learn to love. 

At this time, like Rumi said,  that is our task, and not only to love but to seek to dissolve “all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

It is also a time to have courage and not be afraid to communicate, even as it makes us feel increasingly more vulnerable.

Vulnerability is the straight path of the heart, the direct access point.

Gemini continues to teach us that through communication we can heal our separateness and isolation.

As we’ve heard it said, the more difficult the subject, the more healing is to be gained from talking about it.

In what ways can we speak from our experience like elders, like our grandmothers and grandfathers, with compassion but with strength that illuminates another facet to be taken into account?

Like Einsten said “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Let’s expand our thinking and let’s get massively creative with new ways to implement change.

Let’s use that surge of Sagittarius creative power to launch new Life affirming ways to support our existence and everyone’s right to Liberty. Because we’re in this together.

We are lovers, We are love. That’s what we are here to remember, here to learn, here to BE.

Here are the MYSTIC MAMMA Astral Insights from our beloved featured astrologers:

PAM YOUNGHANS from her NorthPoint Astrology says:

“Our Milky Way galaxy is part of a great river of galaxies that flows through space, being magnetically pulled in the direction of a massive galactic anomaly called Abell 3627, more commonly known as the Great Attractor (GA)…

“Our Lunar Eclipse this Friday is… aligned with the GA… (and) will be activating its influence in our awareness.

“Since the GA continuously draws us toward itself, it represents the inexorable pull of our Higher Destiny.

“When it is activated in our collective awareness through events such as an eclipse, new insights and unexpected viewpoints become possible.

“We can experience a major shift in our perceptions and beliefs, which in turn alters our trajectory. 

“Astrologer Philip Sedgwick, who has studied the GA in great depth, explains:

  ‘The enormous gravity of the GA actually bends light around it.

“It bends the light so much, that a glimpse of what is behind it can be taken.

‘This provides clear behind-the-scenes insights, while simultaneously offering other refractive illusions.’

  “Friday’s Eclipse, being conjunct the GA, represents a profound juncture in our evolution.

“As we stand at that crossroads, we must expand our understanding of reality, while also accepting that each person may rightly have their own version of truth. 

“Another quote from Sedgwick:

  ‘A narrow view (or opinionated nature) does not fit with the Great Attractor.

‘There is not one simple answer.

‘Perhaps each point of focus is only a fragment of the hologram of understanding.’

  “Sedgwick advises that in order to find our own truth, our own ‘fragment of the hologram,’ each of us must ‘Center the source of your light within the matter of your life. What matters clearly focuses your truth.’

“The last time we had a Lunar Eclipse that aligned with the Great Attractor was on June 4, 1993.

“Events that occurred around that time, and subsequent changes in our perspective, pulled us into a new future, perhaps a different destiny than the one we had thought we were building toward.

“We may have gone willingly toward that new future, but maybe not. And yet, looking back, we can see how essential that trajectory shift was, and how it forever changed the course of our life.

“We are at a similar time now. This Lunar Eclipse conjunct the Great Attractor alters the landscape, requiring us to reroute.

“In time, we will find that our new road is more aligned with that greater destiny we came here to fulfill.”

© Copyright 2020 PAM YOUNGHANS

  SARAH VARCAS from Astro-Awakenings.co.uk her says:

“An alliance between Chiron, Uranus and Mercury at the time of this eclipse unlocks fresh perspectives.

“But to benefit from them we must reclaim the fundamental right to honor our own experience and not have it dismissed, ridiculed or silenced if it runs contrary to the received wisdom of the time.

“This takes courage in a world where people are being demonized and discredited for daring to question… and reflect more deeply on the narrative they’re being fed.

“But if ever there was a time for courage it is now!

“Courageous thought, courageous speech, courageous hearts open to a new world in which we’re not told how things are but instead discern, through digesting many perspectives and listening, perhaps most importantly, to the voice within that knows truth..

“As we stand at this juncture in human history there are weighty choices to be made and we must each make them as best we can.

“This eclipse season will both reveal the shadow side of readily accepted sources of information – hidden interests, inaccurate assumptions, covert agendas –  as well as illuminate in their wake new sources of knowledge previously eclipsed by the might of received wisdom and unquestioned ‘truths’.

“The path ahead remains scattered with obstacles and the battle for dominion over the collective mind continues unabated.

“This lunar eclipse is just the beginning and there is much to be revealed and digested before we can decide, collectively, the quality of our future.

“Saturn is now retrograding through Aquarius before returning to Capricorn in July. (You can read more about what this means for us in terms of freedom of thought and speech in full here.)

“..Saturn is a key player in the unfolding of events this year. As signifier of the establishment and authorities, its alignment with Pluto speaks to the extension of government powers and the reduction of civil liberties.

“It illuminates who gets to shape a dominant narrative, how they do it, and the use of fear to suppress and control.

“Indeed, the Saturn / Pluto conjunction of January speaks far more deeply to issues of power and control than of health and disease, signifying the imposition of authoritarian power over the masses in ways never before seen on such a vast scale.

“As Saturn completes its shift from Capricorn to its new home in Aquarius during the course of 2020, it illuminates the suppression of free-thought and open debate.

“The silencing of free speech and what happens when those silenced refuse to be so…

“Initially, Saturn in Aquarius can continue to manifest as the metaphorical boot that kicks dissenters back into line, stifles independence and acts contrary to collective well-being.

“It’s the fear of having to think for yourself in a confusing and paradoxical world.

“It wants to be told what to think and believe, who to love, who to hate, how to keep yourself safe…

“As Saturn tiptoes from the familiarity of conventional perception (Capricorn) to the uncharted terrain of independent thought (Aquarius) this year, fear arises: What if I’m wrong? They’re the experts. What would I know? How do I justify gut instinct when what it tells me goes against the grain of accepted belief? What if I’m left standing alone in my beliefs, ridiculed for daring to think differently? What if I’m roundly rejected, left in a group of one?

“But Saturn is nothing if not steadfast!

“Its presence in Aquarius empowers us to think for ourselves whatever it takes.

“To take responsibility for our own well-being. To enjoy maturity of thought and behaviour, not surrender our sovereign view to a surrogate ‘parent’ who tells us what to believe.

“Saturn in Aquarius reminds us that even the oft-uttered refrain ‘everything is happening as it should’ doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be done but let it all unfold.

“We don’t download awakening, we cultivate it, nurture it, question those aspects of self that mitigate against it.

“And in doing so we discover that wise action in this moment can change the next.

“That by being present to the full triumph and catastrophe of the human experience we can recalibrate it and shape the course of history rather than simply be shaped by it.

“And we’re currently living at a historical crossroads of monumental proportions.

“To choose well we need to harness the power of Saturn’s journey into Aquarius to engage courageous thought and nurture fresh perspectives.

“Not to stifle debate and feed the fear of dissent.

“Black Moon Lilith and Chiron were conjunct the Sun when Saturn first entered Aquarius in March 2020, highlighting the influence its Aquarian journey would have over our individual and collective sense of self.

“They affirm the healing radiance of the human spirit and the unadulterated power unleashed when we remember who we really are – divine through and through, and equally human. Of this world and all others everywhere.

“This power cannot be diminished by tyranny or lies, by manipulation or fear.

“It is unassailable. Always. And it knows the truth. We know the truth. This is the message of Saturn in Aquarius…

“It’s a long road ahead. Courage will be needed.

“As will a sense of humor and the ability to know when to speak up and when to keep one’s counsel for a more propitious time. No outcome is assured so complacency is best avoided.

“That said we need to know our own limits and take care of ourselves first and foremost.

“Saturn in Aquarius can be a game changer if we let it, opening up debate, revealing hidden truths and endowing each and every one of us with a deep sense of responsibility for what we believe, such that simply accepting what we’re told by anyone will be anathema to our finely tuned moral compass.

“Let the prevailing narrative place its evidence alongside that of alternative views. Let us debate and explore, question and analyze. Let us be convinced of an argument, not receive our beliefs by dictate.

“But most of all, let Saturn in Aquarius cement the sovereignty of our mind and our right to form our own opinion from external evidence and our internal knowing about it…

“For whatever’s going on in this world today, it is we the people, not the privileged elite with vested interests in our obedience to their cause, who can – and must – decide the shape our lives take from here.”

© Copyright 2020 SARAH VARCAS

  DIVINE HARMONY says:

“The North Node in Gemini is about coming back to beginner’s mind. This is about cultivating the mind of a child- full of openness, curiosity and generosity.

“This is about saying ‘show me where I am wrong’ and ‘hmm I don’t know- what is the Truth here? Show me the Truth Universe.’

“The Highest expression of Gemini is open mindedness.

“The karmic South Node in Sagittarius highlights where we do the opposite of this. This is where we have hubris, self righteousness and dogma.

“This is where we think MY beliefs are the right ones and yours are the wrong ones- you just need to listen to me, I will teach you the RIGHT way of doing things/seeing things/believing.

“In any conflict if anyone is coming from this position I can guarantee you it is a no win situation.

“But cultivating an open mind and willingness to see other perspectives and work to understand other positions WILL open doors in communication rather than close them.

“The thing to remember here is when we listen to another’s perspective it’s not about right or wrong. It’s about understanding where another comes from.

“Understanding another person’s world view and lived experience…

“Vesta is conjunct the North Node – drawing us forward to our Sacred Focus and Greatest Devotion.

“The North Node is in Gemini but Vesta is in Cancer- the sign of the Great Mother.

“One of the great necessities of this time is to honor and reinstate the Divine Feminine…

“The denial of the Mother has had horrific ramifications on our planet.

“The Feminine elements are Earth and Water- body and soul, physical reality and emotion…

“We need to heal our disassociation from our emotions and (Water) and our detachment from and abuse of the body (Earth).

“If we were fully connected to these elements we could NEVER harm another person, dump toxic poison in the water or air, abuse a child, kill, murder or go to war.

“If everyone’s heart chakra was fully open we would FEEL what we do to another and we would never be able to do the horrific things happening on the planet right now.

“Reclaiming and restoring the Divine Feminine to her rightful place is NECESSARY… (and to be clear- this is not about men vs women- as men and masculine identified beings have an inner feminine just as women and feminine identified beings have an inner masculine)

“Use this sacred Eclipse portal to question your assumptions, beliefs, attitudes and ways of perceiving the world around you.

“Use this time to anchor more deeply into your heart, compassion, empathy and love for all beings- human, animal and non-human- everywhere.

“Use this portal to open up to Higher Truths that go beyond ego-mind perspectives. See beyond the veil of delusion/illusion/manipulation so you can get to the Truth.

“Start with yourself (do your shadow work) and then extend that inner work out into the world around you.”

© Copyright 2020 DIVINE HARMONY

And ELLIAS LONSDALE interpretation of the Chandra symbol for this Full Moon Eclipse is:

SAGITTARIUS 16:A man shearing sheep.

“Practical fortitude. Resiliency to keep finding a way to do it, to keep discovering how to get through the deepest quandaries, the greatest karmic traps. Ingenious and resourceful. Paying attention to the cues, going to get it right.

“You’re involved within a path which requires discipleship or apprenticeship, learning the ropes. Building up fresh capacity in this lifetime to scale the heights. But you remain preoccupied and absorbed within honest tasks.

“A pervasive conviction grows and forms, of how it really is.

“You’re willing to take every step to reach a far goal, and attentive to what is really there. A throwback to the old ways of a rural past.

“Oddly comfortable in adopting forms and moving through phases and taking on the worlds.

“The journeyman learns the ways of the journey and gathers Earth wisdom in small bundles.

“Knowing how to be there when it counts.“

© Copyright 2020 ELLIAS LONSDALE

This has been a very tough week. For me personally, I lost one my very best friends and allies on this physical plane. This last line, “Knowing how to be there when it counts,” is what she embodied and reason we all continue to do what we must.

Sending so much love to each of our hearts during this trying passage,

With all my heart~

MM ☾☾☾

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[sunlitroom]

Thoughts on ‘The Beginning’

So - as with The Trial of Jim Gordon, I'm going to regard this episode as an extra, and do some meta as opposed to a full recap.   My rationale is pretty much the same: this is an optional easter egg, and one that can easily be regarded as outside canon if desired.  

Also - I found the deeper message, like that in The Trial of Jim Gordon, was so unpalatable it strained the show’s broader ideas and themes.  So I’ve decided it’s not part of canon, for me.

Thoughts after the cut.  Same disclaimer as with The Trial of Jim Gordon.  I love the show.  I tweeted like a maniac as episodes were airing, and got booted from Twitter.  I want another network to pick it up.

However, my idea of meta is the old fandom one, which is critical analysis.  If that’s not your thing, fine - but that’s what I’ll be doing here.

So, first things first.

I understand the rationale behind the time-jump, to an extent.  The two extra episodes were just that - extra.  One was spent on The Trial of Jim Gordon, which I have already been salty about in another post.  This one was a sort of nod to the fans - offering Batman as a sort of reward.  I’ve always been more interested in the story Gotham actually set out to tell, though, the story before Batman.  The story of the city and its inhabitants.  As such, I was always going to be less taken with an episode which was fundamentally mostly interested in giving us Batman. 

But there were a couple of other issues that confused me.  Gotham has always presented its own vision of the city, the characters.  It’s shown it can be creative with canon, as well as adding its own ideas.  Not only, for example, is their take on Oswald unique, but Fish Mooney – so pivotal in his development – only exists within Gotham’s universe.  We got the Executioner and Cyrus Gold – yes, but we also got Nathaniel Barnes and Butch Gilzean, who had character and stories and lives all of their own.

I like that it thumbed its nose at Jim’s moustache.  But go all the way with it.  Yes, we know Batman’s coming.  But if you want to continue to focus on Jim, and his wrestling with the notion of heroism – then just do that.  Have the courage of your convictions.  You can draw inspiration from the 60s series if you want, but you’re not shackled to it: Oswald doesn’t have to don a top hat and become 60s Penguin if you don’t want him to.  The city doesn’t have to morph aesthetically into something we saw in the movies.  You’ve told your own story. See it through.

That aside - the details.

The flash-forward was also a difficult ask because the story has been unnaturally cut short.  Characters who were still wrestling with huge issues didn’t really get to address them in a truncated season and - as such - it’s sort of hard to accept where we find them now.  

For example

We’ve seen Jim deal with several demons over the years.  He has major issues with authority.  His relationship with his father looms large.  He wants to be a hero, but gets on better with the villains.  He compartmentalises like crazy.  He’s emotionally dishonest with others and himself.  He enjoys playing dangerous games.  He can’t resist a pissing match. 

Am I to honestly believe that Jim has been entirely clean and pure in the interim?  Why?  Because the city was saved after near destruction?  That’s happened before – he didn’t change.  If anything, he’s more likely to have reverted to old habits once the crisis was over.  Is he reformed because he’s a father now?  Didn’t stop him killing Theo Galavan while Lee was pregnant.  

Jim’s development was still very much in progress.  As such, he feels unsatisfying here and - given what we know about him - you can’t help but feel he’s probably been up to his old tricks, but we’re just getting to see the sanitised surface of his life.

Lee likewise generally suffered quite a bit from the truncated season, and is  good example of how the flash-forward doesn’t serve characters well.

In season 4, we saw her explore a darker side to her personality that the show has strongly and consistently hinted at since way back in season one, explicitly – when she says that Jerome’s confession of matricide thrilled her, and implicitly, when we wondered why the hell she was working in Arkham.  We also saw her enjoy power in season 4.  We saw her deeply committed to improving the lot of the residents in the Narrows, even if her way of going about it was short-sighted. We saw her shoot Sofia Falcone point-blank in the head in cold blood.  We saw her, although many hated it, form an intense romantic relationship with Ed, where she seemed to find a fulfilment and recognition that she never found with Jim or Mario.

However, in season 5, the show clearly needed her to quickly step into the role of Mrs Jim and stepmother to Barbara.  This meant becoming the angel at the hearth again, so it essentially erased those experiences, all that new characterisation.  

As such, like Jim, she feels flat here – like we’re only getting to see a facade.  She’s back in her old post of intermittently saying supportive things to Jim, and apparently quietly looking forward to him quitting his job.  When she's bizarrely given the task of defusing the bomb, as Lucius the tech specialist stands by the side - it really only underlined that stripping her of all that history and characterisation meant that she doesn't really have a real role of her own in the wider workings of the city.

Now to the heart of my problem with this episode.

We’re told, without any explanation, that Oswald was sent to Blackgate shortly after reunification, and Ed to Arkham.  

Now, to be honest, I find this fairly implausible.  In all the rebuilding efforts, I doubt the authorities would have the will or energy to go back and rake over who committed what crime when the city had been abandoned by the government. And even if they did, both their actions – willingly manning the barricades (Oswald sustaining an injury when doing so), would have likely gone some way to mitigating everything else.  

You could argue that it's for some nameless crime they committed later - but the show could easily have indicated that by throwing in a line about some heist or scheme they tried to pull off that ended up with them being put away.

Mayor James - ‘Oswald Cobblepot is getting released tomorrow’

Harvey - ‘Should have got 20 years for that stunt he pulled after reunification - not 10.  So should Nygma.’

It didn't take the trouble to do that - so I'm left assuming they were sent away on the basis of crimes committed during the split.

However, this poses us with some problems both in terms of the plot, and more deeply in terms of narrative repercussions.  Because if we are going to start to get persnickety about charging people with crimes they’ve committed, and then having them face actual consequences – well, we saw Barbara shoot loads of randoms in season 5.  Going back not too far, Lee shot Sofia Falcone in the head.  Going back further still, Jim murdered Ogden Barker and Theo Galavan, and was indirectly responsible for several deaths by inviting Sofia Falcone to town.

So – then – if we’ve decided that actually charging people and sending them to prison is now the done thing, why are we so selective with who’s punished? Gotham is a show with a million shades of grey.  It gives its villains humanising back stories and motivations – but it ultimately still wants to punish a select few like it’s a black and white universe.  You can’t do that when your good guys are equally tainted. Not unless you want to give off an unfortunate stench of hypocrisy, anyway.  

Oswald flat-out asks Jim on the pier.  I could have escaped this city.  I chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and defend it.  Why was I punished?

It’s telling that Jim never actually furnishes Oswald with any good answer to his question on the pier.  Because - over the years - the show itself has never quite figured out how to answer this one.   He can’t answer.  What could he possibly say?

Why then, do some get away scot-free, while others are punished?  Why, as Ed observes, do some get to make choices - while others never get the chance?

Jim and Lee are ‘heroes’ (arguably wandering into designated hero territory, at points).  They're never going to face consequences for anything.  Jim going on a self-pitying drinking binge doesn’t count - not compared to a ten-year stint in Blackgate or Arkham.  Lee never expressed any remorse for Sofia.

As for Barbara, well Barbara is brought back into the heroic fold, too.  

First and foremost, she’s offered moral redemption by bearing Jim’s child.  Becoming a mother meant all previous sins were forgiven.  

When we meet her here, we see now that she’s wealthy and powerful – playing a serious role in the city.  It’s empowering in a way – but it’s also a means of re-affirming the established order and putting her back in her box.  Remember that Barbara is from one of Gotham's elite families - and she's finally behaving like someone from an elite and wealthy family would do.  To make her position clear - she’s explicitly placed in the same category as Bruce here in terms of her wealth and control of the city.  I’m assuming that pregnancy also made magically clean whatever money she used to buy up the city when it was on its knees.  She didn’t seem to have access to her parents’ cash before now - so she must have used her ill-gotten gains.  

(I would argue that strategically buying up parts of the city post-reunification is screamingly Oswald, but like other chunks of his characterisation and storyline, it got sent Barbara’s way in season 5 in a bid to flesh out her character)

Last up, she’s not demanding a romantic relationship with Jim anymore, but they’re now forever safely tied in that context due to their daughter - there’s no mention of Tabitha, or casual mention of a new partner.   Troublesome, restless Barbara, poor little rich girl – demanding of Jim’s time and attention, namelessly unhappy, and with a murky ‘past’ is now ‘fixed’ and neutralised.

Thinking about those brought into the fold necessarily asks you to think about those who were excluded.

Oswald might have roots in an elite family, like Barbara, but - crucially - he’s also one part poor immigrant (as well as all his many other markers of 'otherness').   He can’t escape this - we got his jangling east European music as soon as we saw him in this episode, and we were reminded of Gertrud when he said he would lay flowers on her grave as his first act after his release.  

Ed’s background is unknown, but we can safely hazard a guess that there’s no moneyed upper-class upbringing there.  He was also willing to step up when it counted, and was even used by those in power for their own ends during the break – but none of that counts for anything, apparently, and he finds himself in Arkham.  You could argue that Ed is unwell, and needs to be in a hospital – but Arkham is not shown as a hospital in any meaningful sense in the show.  It’s an oubliette, where you send those you just can’t be bothered dealing with.  It doesn’t look any better here than we’ve seen it before.  Why hasn’t anyone tried to improve it? Again, they don’t have to succeed - if you’re determined to stick to canon, but why not suggest that Jim or Lee or Lucius has at least tried to have conditions improved or an official review launched into treatment of inmates?  It would go a long way to nodding to the long and complex histories these characters have.  However things ended – Lee and Ed had a pretty intense relationship.  They cared about each other.  She can sleep at nights knowing he’s in Arkham?  

Jeremiah might have been clever enough to win himself a scholarship and a way out of the circus – but it’s not enough to enable him to escape his past – either explicitly, when he was hunted down by his resentful brother, or implicitly – when he winds up in a similar situation to the other outsiders.  Yes, Jeremiah might have been manipulating the situation – but he was still sent to Arkham and left vulnerable to casual abuse.  Whether it’s intended or not, Jeremiah’s accusation of abandonment can be read more deeply.  Bruce left town - but, just like Oswald and Ed, the city in general abandoned him.

Selina’s an example who, I would argue, reinforces that this moral order of the universe.  She's always been depicted more ambiguously - capable of villainous acts, but tied to the heroes through her bond with Bruce.  This is reflected in what we learn about her here.  Like Jeremiah, she's been punished by Bruce's abandonment, but her grey heroic status means that she doesn't lose her freedom, despite living a life of crime.

So what picture are we painted of the city?

Aubrey James is back in charge - corrupt as Oswald ever was as mayor, but less competent.  The city’s remains were picked clean by Barbara - it’s now seemingly largely owned and controlled by two scions of the city’s elite. The commissioner’s got more than one murder to his name.  His wife has one attempted murder to hers - giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that Sofia’s still in her coma.  Arkham’s still a hellhole.

What does all that say?  Like I said before, you can argue that this was the inevitable endpoint – but you’ve changed the story already, so that doesn’t wash.

What you’re left with is the outsiders comprehensively punished.  You can sacrifice your chance at escape and an easy life in favour of standing shoulder to shoulder to defend the city, you can be unwell, you can be a victim – doesn’t count.  No matter what you do – you’ll always be an outsider anyway.  You can’t win for losing.  Some are chosen, some aren’t. And if you’re not, tough luck.  

So in this universe, why the hell not don a showy suit and your best hat and commit yourself to villainy?  Go for it, I say.

(Yes - I’m aware this is more analysis than it warranted, and it really just wanted to say ‘look Oswald has a monocle and Batman’s here now!’ - but I felt the need for venting meta)

[nadziejastar]

I know u like Isa and Lea, but did you enjoy any other of the Nobodies? Their personalities?

Oh yeah. I pretty much liked all the Organization. They just never got developed that much. Heck, even Lea and Isa never got their whole backstory shown and are still underdeveloped as characters. Which is sad. I found the Organization politics so interesting, too. It’s why I became kind of obsessed with the weapons in 358/2 Days. They had such specific names, shapes and colors that I knew they HAD to have some secret deeper meaning. And since BBSV2 was cancelled, I knew that we were most likely NEVER going to learn about what those secrets were. But I wanted to figure it out to learn more about them…all of them.

For instance, Luxord is so cool, yet he’s a total mystery. I like his demeanor and how he was sad when he lost half the poker league in Days. He never truly seemed like a bad guy, either. It’s a shame that we may never get to learn more about him. I’m sure there was stuff to be revealed about him. He was one of Nomura’s favorites, after all. There’s no way I can see him joining the Seekers of Darkness willingly. I think he was always supposed to be in the New Organization, but for a different reason than KH3 gives. Well, KH3 didn’t actually give one, but whatever. I think he wasn’t there willingly, and that’s why he was so happy when Sora defeated him and freed his heart.

I would have loved to learn more about Lexaeus, too. He didn’t seem to be thatbad. He was tending to Even and Dilan after they woke up. And I think he genuinely wanted to help Lea when he was looking for Isa. He seemed like he might have felt guilty about everything that happened. And somewhat concerned when Lea said he was going to go look for them. Ienzo and Lexaeus were rather low-ranking members. Lea seemed tolerate them in a way I doubt he would have with Braig, for instance.

What on earth was happening within the hearts of my six beloved apprentices? While pursuing the mystery of the darkness of the heart, could they themselves have strayed into its depths?

Speaking of Braig…I love Xigbar. He’s such a smug and unapologetic asshole. But he’s so cool at the same time. He always seems like he’s having so much fun. I really hated how it was revealed that he was Luxu because I thought Braig was such an interesting villain. He was just an ordinary guard and apprentice. Probably not a very nice guy, but not actively harming anyone, either. Ansem the Wise cared about all of his apprentices and trusted them. Even Braig. Then Xehanort comes along and offers him power. The Keyblade. And that’s all it takes to turn him into such a monster.

Day 355: Mind

The gears of Xemnas’ plans have begun to spin wild since the loss of half our membership at Castle Oblivion. The results are there, but can this state of affairs fairly be called a success? If Kingdom Hearts can be said to possess a mind of its own, it is surely rejecting Xemnas—no, rejecting Xehanort. Roxas left the Organization today.

He knows full well that Xehanort wants to access Kingdom Hearts and pretty much end the world as we know it. And he doesn’t give a DAMN. This entry is entitled “Mind”. Xigbar talks about Kingdom Hearts having a mind of its own, and rejecting Xehanort. He is aware that what Xemnas is doing is wrong.

And this doesn’t seem to be the first time he has pondered something having a mind of its own, either. The mind of Kingdom Hearts rejects Xehanort. The whole concept is quite similar to the way they tried to get the mind to renounce its sense of self, so that the vessel couldn’t reject Xehanort’s heart. I definitely think this was a subtle reference to the mind control experiments.

Xigbar: Man, does that Xehanort scare me like nobody’s business, the way he can see into minds. And it doesn’t help that no one knows what it is that the old man wants. I wonder if even you know what’s going on inside your own head.

I believed him when he said that Xehanort scared him. He doesn’t know what Xehanort is really after by causing the Apocalypse (we never get to learn either). But he goes along with him for his own selfish reasons. I was very disappointed that Xigbar’s personality was revealed to be Luxu putting on an act the whole time. No, I simply refuse to accept that.

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

—Revelation 8:6-7

I admit, I couldn’t help but laugh when I read the KHwiki descriptions for some of the characters’ Mystery Gear weapons, which are said to draw forth the wielder’s personality. These were clearly meant to tell you something important about each of them. The wiki description for Xigbar’s Trumpet said that it may be a reference to his tendency to “toot his own horn”.

I think the trumpet had FAR more significance than that. The trumpet is a symbol. It’s the harbinger of the Apocalypse, to be exact. Xigbar and Xemnas are the only ones with Biblical references in their weapons. Even the concept of 7 Lights and 13 Darknesses is mostly Biblical in origin.

Seven is the number of completeness and perfection, both physical and spiritual. It derives much of its meaning from being tied directly to God’s creation of all things. There are 7 days in a week and God’s Sabbath is on the 7th day. The Bible, as a whole, was originally divided into 7 major divisions. The number 13 is symbolic of rebellion and lawlessness. 13 represents all the governments created by men, and inspired by Satan, in outright rebellion against the Eternal.

Ruler of the skies, protector of the stars, the Ultima Weapon will appear and destroy any threat it perceives. It has shot down countless airships, man’s means to reach the heavens. The stars align against us…

Final Weapon is another apocalyptic reference. Its design is based on the Ultima Weapon from FFVII. And we know how fond Nomura is of that game. I am quite fond of it, too. The Ultimate Weapon of Final Fantasy VII is one of the five Weapons created by the planet as a defense mechanism. It was released from its slumber in the North Crater after Sephiroth summons a giant meteor in an attempt to bring about the Apocalypse.

Then there’s Cupid’s Arrow, which is green, possibly as a reference to the Heart chakra. We all know who Cupid is. He shoots people with arrows and they fall in love. However, Cupid also has a devious side. His gold-tipped arrows are what link people in love. However, he can fire lead-tipped arrows, which cause people to feel indifference or hatred. This side of Cupid is not very well-known. As for Xigbar’s weapon, the bullets produce dark sparks on contact with enemies and gold ones on contact with anything else. Hmm.

Recollections

Am I alive? I awoke in a cell, alone until the researchers came with their tests and their prodding to uncover my identity. I had no answer to offer them. Four friends, and a key…that is the sum total of my memory. I could not even recall my name. I was simply called “X” there. My only solace was the time I spent talking with the two boys who would visit from time to time. One day, a man came to take me from the prison. I could not see him for the darkness, save that he wore an eyepatch. Even now, years on, I feel no closer to understanding who or what I am.May my heart be my guiding key.

—Unknown

I make it no secret that I think Isa was originally Subject X. And who is the last person Subject X remembers before their memory cuts off? Braig. Wouldn’t surprise me if Xigbar gave Isa the X-shaped scar. Other than Xemnas, he was the only one in the Organization who was confirmed to know about Xemnas’ desire to turn people into vessels. I think Even probably knew as well, but I just can’t see him giving Isa the scar.

Xemnas disappeared nearly before he heard his order acknowledged.

“Don’t let us down now, kiddo. Shouldn’t be too much trouble without a heart,” Xigbar told Saïx.

Then he was gone, too. Alone in the Round Room, Saïx raised his eyes to the high domed ceiling.

Braig? Definitely. I think he was the main abuser of Isa. I think he used a “lead arrow,” so to speak, and turned Isa’s love into hatred and indifference.

Saïx: Something at Castle Oblivion changed you. Does the past mean nothing to you now?

Since Saïx had Isa’s memories, he no doubt would have told Axel who his main abuser was. Not to mention Braig probably abused Lea as well.

Given the right memories, the Replica could mimic the powers of the original. Which meant that if he were implanted with somebody else’s memories, he would, hypothetically, gain other powers. Somebody’s—or maybe even a Nobody’s. He had one particular Nobody in mind. All the members of the Organization were still influenced by the memories of their human lives.

Personally, I think Axel was talking about Xigbar here in the novel. I definitely think Axel wanted revenge on Xigbar. And I like that Cupid’s Arrow is Ultimate Gear. In that same weapon class is Saïx’s Horoscope, which has the symbols for Venus and Cancer. Venus in Cancer is basically the astrological correspondence of ultimate love and affection. If it shows up in your horoscope, your love life is looking good.

Another one of Xigbar’s weapons is called Crime and Punishment. It refers to an 1866 novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is about the mental anguish of a destitute man plotting to murder an unscrupulous pawnbroker who ripped him off, and contemplating whether or not going through with the plan will be worth the risks involved.

He grows increasingly his nihilistic, and believes that killing would benefit society, therefore justifying that crime and others. After committing murders, his isolation grows because of his intense guilt and the half-delirium into which his guilt throws him. Over and over again, the man pushes away the people who are trying to help him, and then suffers the consequences. In the end, he finds the total alienation that he has brought upon himself intolerable.

Day 117: Him and Roxas

Roxas is maturing at an impressive rate. His face, the way he handles the Keyblade, it’s all exactly the same. The worlds seem so divided and alone, but there’s always that steady thread there to connect them. And we Nobodies can never escape the things we did as humans. So it goes.

Xigbar does seem to have some guilt about what he did to Roxas/Ventus deep down. He says that Nobodies can never escape what they did as humans. He knows that what he’s doing is wrong. Everything he did was so that he could gain Master Xehanort’s Keyblade.

Q: What happens to Lea hereafter now that he has become a Keyblade wielder?

A: Lea, having returned to his human form, chosen by the Keyblade. Does him getting a Keyblade have anything to do with his best friend Roxas? And is there a possibility that Lea’s become one of the protectors of Light?

Yet Lea was able to wield because of how strong his heart was, and due to his desire to save his friends, including Roxas/Ventus and Isa, two people whose lives he helped destroy. And although this idea is never followed up on, in the KH3D Ultimania, Nomura suggested that Roxas had something to do with Lea’s ability to wield the Keyblade.

I’m really not convinced that Xigbar’s suicide at the end was always supposed to just be a ruse. In the original version of the story, I think he actually did decide to end his life. And I would have preferred that outcome rather than “Well, he was never really Braig, and he was just pretending to be a power-hungry bastard the whole time, lololol!”

Axel: Try not to bungle everything while I’m gone.

Xion: Now, why would we do that?

Axel: Well, considering your track record…

Xion: Hey! Don’t make me come over there!

I also really liked Roxas and Xion when i played Days. For me, Xion was everything that Kairi should have been from the beginning. The way Kairi was written always felt unintentionally sexist to me. I think the female writer for Days, Tomoco Kanemaki, really helped in the writing of that game’s female protagonist. It was a very good idea to bring her on board. Plus she’s an excellent writer, based on the KH novels.

Axel: Well, even if things change, we’ll never be apart–

Xion: As long as we remember each other…right? Don’t worry, Axel–we got your hokey speech memorized.

Axel: Just checking.

Xion jokes and teases Roxas and Axel, but never in a mean-spirited way. She’s very pure-hearted, sweet, and feminine. Which can often come across as annoying for me, if the writers are not careful. Kairi was a Princess of Heart. She’s very pure and filled with light. But we were mainly TOLD this fact about her character, rather than being able to see it through her actions. Which came across as…kind of annoying.

But Xion’s character never felt sexist to me. Her interactions with her friends felt far more charming and personable than Kairi’s interactions with Sora and Riku ever did. She was written with such sincerity.

Roxas: Just feels strange, that’s all. Usually, I do all the worrying over you. I don’t think it’s ever been the other way around before.

Xion: Well, for your information… I worry about you all the time, Roxas.

I liked how she responded to Roxas. She worries about him all the time. Kairi also worried about Sora, but she always felt like a passive participant in the story, instead of an active one.

Kairi: Who are you? And that’s not my name. I’m Kairi.

Roxas: Kairi… I know you. You’re that girl he likes.

For the most part, Kairi existed in relation to Sora, and only Sora.

Kairi: What are you going to do with us?

Saïx: You’re the fire that feeds Sora’s anger.

Kairi didn’t get to actually DO things. Things happened TO Kairi. Xion had a lot more agency as a character. You’re invited to put yourself in her shoes, and understand how she’s feeling in a way you never are with Kairi. She’s a subject instead of an object.

Kairi: I can’t help?

Sora: You’d kind of be in my way.

Kairi: Hehe. Okay. You win.

I also liked that Xion being able to fight was just taken for granted by the story. It’s not treated like it’s a big deal, just because she’s a girl. It’s just normal, like how it was with Aqua. On the other hand, Kairi always got treated by everyone like she was made of glass.

Day 352: What I Must Do

Riku gave me this time. Axel told me to spend it thinking for myself. The Organization is determined to erase either me or Roxas. They’ll never allow us to coexist. I love Roxas and Axel. I’m sure Saïx would scoff at that. Call it a trick of my artificial memories. But the time I spent on that clock tower was real. I wish the three of us could stay together, just like this, forever. But I have to end this. I’ll never forget today’s sunset. Even if Roxas and Axel do, I won’t forget.

Xion said that she loved Roxas and Axel. I found that really touching. Kairi was introduced to the story in KH1 mainly as the girl that Sora and Riku were competing for. She was more of love interest than a protagonist.

Kairi: You know, Riku has changed.

Sora: What do you mean?

Kairi: Sora, let’s take the raft and go—just the two of us!

Sora: Huh?

Kairi: Just kidding.

She never had any chemistry with Riku as part of their trio, and her role in the story diminished as his grew. In KH1, Sora and Riku’s animosity towards each other is fueled largely by Riku’s possessiveness toward Kairi, which I didn’t like.

Riku: Deal? The winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi.

Sora: Wha… Wait a minute…

She was treated more like a prize for Sora and Riku to compete over than a valued friend. It just felt sexist to me. And I think it’s why Riku and Kairi barely interacted after KH1. I actually felt very sad when Xion disappeared. I felt an attachment to her, whereas I felt nothing but irritation (at the writers) when Kairi “died”. I connected with Xion in a way I that I was never able to with Kairi, because she was written like a real person instead of love interest.

After playing KH3, my feelings towards Roxas and Xion are…complicated. I know this is kind of an unpopular and controversial opinion in the fandom, but…I didn’t want either Roxas or Xion to come back. Even though I loved them both. Frankly, I don’t think they really “work” as stand-alone characters. Plus I was never fond of all of these identical characters running around simultaneously. Roxas and Sora look and act different enough. But Roxas and Ven? Many people seemed to like the scene where they meet and exchange an awkward glance. But for me it was just…stupid. Plus I think bringing them back ruined the poignancy of their story arcs.

Despite Xion being formed from Sora’s memories of Kairi, she felt very distinct from Kairi, due to the superior dialogue quality in 358/2 Days. This was both a good and bad thing.  

Kairi: Who’s this new Riku and where’s the old one?

Riku: New me?

Kairi: Yeah. You’re more like Sora.

Riku: Should I be flattered? I try too hard to be the role model. It’s more fun to just listen to my heart. Which is Sora-esque.

Kairi: Well, we still like you. Master, I came here because I wanted to help somehow. What can I do?

Honestly, I was just hoping that Kairi would have been written more like Xion going forward. I didn’t actually want to see Xion come back. I think that was always the plan, since Kairi certainly was in need of better characterization. And after Days, Kairi’s personality actually was more like Xion. I found her far more charming in KH2.8 and KH3 than I ever found her to be in any of the other games. They tried to give her more chemistry with Riku, who is supposed to be one of her best friends. I know the damage had been done by this point, but I appreciated scenes like this nonetheless.

Lea: Now that we’re going back, I’m worried about everything.

Kairi: Well, you don’t have to worry alone anymore, Axel.

I found her relationship with Lea so enjoyable, too. She was like his little sister. Kairi’s relationship with Lea felt just like Xion’s relationship with him. Xion promised she’d never forget Axel, after all. Unfortunately, this had the effect of making Xion’s return feel even more unnecessary and redundant to me. I feel the same way about Roxas.

A common opinion I hear is that Roxas is so much “darker” than Ventus, and therefore they cannot possibly be the same person. I agree that Roxas showed a darker side to his personalty than Ventus did. After all, Ventus had his darkness artificially extracted from him. But my response is: that’s what character development is for. What, did everyone think that Ven was going to remain the same naive kid until the very end the story? Even if he regained his memories as Roxas? Even after learning that Xemnas was Terra?

What was the whole point of Vanitas then? He’s Ven’s shadow self. These games are heavily inspired by Jungian philosophy, very much like the Persona series actually. Probably why I love both series so much. They even have the yellow eyes thing in common. The boss fight in KH3 was against Aqua’s shadow self. She was the embodiment of all the repressed, subconscious dark thoughts Aqua would be too ashamed to admit consciously.

Part of her IS angry at Mickey for abandoning her back then. She IS filled with so much despair that she wants others to feel it, too. That’s what made her shadow so interesting. I wish we had gotten to fight Shadow Terra, Shadow Riku, Shadow Isa, etc. I’m sure they’d have plenty of interesting things to say.

Quasimodo: Master Frollo–he made me live inside the bell tower, but the real walls were the ones I built around my heart. You helped me see that, Riku.

Riku: I was…speaking from…personal experience.

Phoebus: I’d say you still keep a lot locked inside.

Esmeralda: We all do that sometimes. There are just some things we need to keep separate from the world at large, at least until we have time to figure them out.

Personally, I never felt like Riku was finished dealing with his pain. His character arc was far from over. I think he needed to confront his feelings of jealousy towards Sora and his shame over getting possessed by Xehanort’s Heartless. What Dark Riku was saying in KH3 had some truth to it. Riku was always so competitive towards Sora because he felt inferior to him. Learning his darkness was part-Terra would definitely help him forgive himself. Of course that never happened.

Xehanort: Master Eraqus, you see, is so afraid of darkness, that he too, hassuccumbed–not to darkness, but to light. It shines so bright, he forgets thatlight begets darkness. And Aqua and Ventus, their lights shine too bright. It is only natural that they cast shadows on your heart.

Part of Terra does believe that Aqua and Ven are too bright for him. He pushed them away because they made him feel ashamed of himself. I’m sure his shadow self would try to push Ventus away while he tried to use the power of waking on him.

That would have been the perfect time to introduce the idea of Saïx’s jealousy. Let’s assume they stuck with the idea that Isa sacrificed himself for Lea. I tweaked his dialogue a tiny bit:

Saïx: “I sacrificed everything for you. You’re the one who went off and made other friends. Left me in the dust. I lost…all sense of purpose.”

Personally, I don’t think Saïx himself was jealous of Lea’s friendships with Roxas and Xion. Shadow Isa would be another story entirely, though. His captured heart was influencing Saïx subconsciously. I think that was why Anti-Saïx was included as a boss in 358/2 Days, along with Anti-Riku. 

Saïx:“Do you know what happens to those who lose their true purpose? Inevitably, they destroy themselves.”

I absolutely think he’d feel abandoned and forgotten by Lea. Axel left the Organization to chase after Roxas, while his heart was still left in Xehanort’s clutches. I think his shadow self would have a lot to say on that matter.

Aqua: A pure heart filled with light… It’s strange, The Master taught medarkness needs to be destroyed. But how, if not with light?

Fairy Godmother: Oh, my dear, you’re too young to know. Experience more things, and you’ll find the answer. Just trust in your dreams.

BBS was trying to send the message that darkness isn’t necessarily bad. OBVIOUSLY Ven was going to have to face his dark side and accept it as part of himself, too. That’s what Jungian psychology is all about. Of course like so many other things, that never happened. Probably because Roxas’ return made it pointless, if he’s supposed to be the “dark” one.

Part of me is surprised (and relieved) they didn’t redeem Vanitas and give HIM his very own replica, too. But yeah. These games are BIG on Jungian philosophy. Well, Xion and Roxas were envisioned as personas of other characters—not unique characters unto themselves. And that’s all they ever felt like to me. I never understood the idea that they deserved to be their “own people”. They already were.

To me, what made Roxas and Xion valuable to the story, was that they were alter egos of two of the main characters: the Guardians of Light, Kairi and Ventus. Even though they disappeared, their character arcs would have continued on. They would have given those two characters SO much additional development if they had been accepted and reintegrated as personas of Ven and Kairi. What does having BOTH Kairi and Xion around offer to the story? What does having BOTH Roxas and Ventus offer?

Naminé: One day, Sora will have to call them to the surface. They’re important memories…but very dangerous ones.

Mickey: Dangerous how?

Naminé: These memories are too painful. Handled the wrong way, they could damage Sora’s heart–even break it. I needed you to find a way to face that kind of hurt. That’s why I left the message.

Sora was supposed to confront the memories in his heart. The people’s whose memories were inside of him needed relief. The memories needed to go back to their rightful place: Kairi and Ventus. And Ansem the Wise’s experiments were all about the heart and its connection to memory. Sora was robbed of meaningful character development because of this, too. He never confronted these painful memories nor did he have the opportunity to grow from it.

I agree with Nomura. I think there ARE “too many” characters. It prevented them from getting properly developed. KH3 had little in the way of meaningful character development. And I doubt Nomura can really give Ven or Kairi much in the way of interesting development now that their alter egos are back. Their relationships with Lea already got sidelined. Ventus’ was even worse than Kairi’s, though.

Ven: Already?

Lea: I’ll see ya when I see ya. After all, we’re friends now. Get it memorized.

Ven: Okay, Lea.

Lea’s comment made Ventus very happy. Immediately afterwards, Lea tells Isa that inside people’s memories, he can live forever. This exchange felt very meaningful. I do believe that Axel took such a liking to Roxas in Days because he recognized him as Ventus. Yet what was the impact of their fateful meeting?

Lea: You remember me?

Ventus: Yeah, ‘course! We’re friends. I can’t believe you became a Keyblade wielder just like me.

Lea: Yeah…

Sora: Axel, you know Ven?

Ventus: Axel? Who’s Axel?

Lea: See, see, see? Major brain-ache.

It was rendered so…pointless thematically. Lea was obviously fine with Ven being Roxas. He was clearly hoping that Ven would remember their time together in the Organization. But ‘twas not to be. It honestly felt to me like much of Axel’s dialogue in KH3 was just Nomura parodying how ridiculous the story has become. Nomura even said in an interview that he has a hard time remembering who’s met who. It’s like he just threw his hands up and didn’t even care anymore. So he’s turning everything into a big joke.

Axel’s whole character arc in KH2 was trying to bring back Roxas, then deciding he had no right to turn Sora back into a Nobody. He sacrificed himself to atone for his actions. Of course, it wouldn’t feel right to simply have Axel form a friendship with Sora to carry on his friendship with Roxas. They were too different. Ventus’ story arc was the perfect way to bring Roxas’ heart back, allowing Lea focus on a new goal this time: bringing back Isa. As I mentioned earlier, Nomura implied that it was Roxas who gave Lea the ability to use the Keyblade.

Roxas: Hey, Axel. You haven’t forgotten? You made us a promise.

Axel: I did?

Roxas: That you’d always be there…to bring us back.

Axel: “Oh yeah…”

Roxas: “Got it memorized?”

Axel: “The promise of two best friends.”

I think that’s why he had a dream of Roxas before he woke up. Roxas’ legacy as a Nobody was to pass on the ability to wield the Keyblade to his best friend Axel. Then Axel would be reborn as Lea and reunite with Roxas, who would be reborn as Ventus. Neither knew each other’s past in Days. Roxas had amnesia and Axel kept everything secret.

Axel: You really think the truth is going to make you feel better? It won’t.

Roxas: What makes you so sure? I have a right to know who I am! How did I  get here? Why am I special? Where did I learn to use the Keyblade? I deserve those answers!

Axel: Roxas…

Roxas: Are you gonna tell me or not? Axel… Who am I?

Axel: You’ve just gotta trust me, Roxas.

Roxas: I don’t.

Axel: Hey, c'mon…

Roxas: If I can’t get answers here, I’ll get them somewhere else. Somebody knows where I came from. That’ll be the person I trust.

Axel said that learning about his past wouldn’t make Roxas feel any better. Maybe that’s true. Maybe not. But the real reason Axel didn’t want Roxas to know about his past because he was afraid that Roxas would leave him. Although his reasons were sympathetic, Axel was wrong to lie to Roxas. And he knew he was wrong. He felt guilty about lying. Roxas did have a right to know the truth. This creates a chasm between them and it is the ultimate cause of their relationship falling apart.

Roxas: I wonder what kind of guy I was before…

In KH3, it felt like the characters were being forced into stasis and not allowed to truly grow or mature. If anything, they were regressing. In Days, Roxas didn’t WANT to be his “own person”. He wanted to learn about his life and identity before becoming a Nobody. He was jealous that Axel had memories of his past before the Organization. So the idea of Roxas coming back and having no real past or life history outside of the one year he spent as an Organization member just didn’t sit right with me.  

And Roxas and Axel will never have to overcome the issues that made their relationship fail in the first place. Axel needed to accept that it was okay for Roxas to remember his past before the Organization. And Roxas needed to trust Axel. If Axel was reborn as Lea and Roxas was reborn as Ventus, they’d finally learn each other’s past and find out that they have so much in common. A loved one from their past is being used as Xehanort’s vessel. Then they’d be able to develop a much more open and healthy relationship and grow a lot closer.

Ventus: You’re here…

Terra: I heard you too, Ven. You found me, just like you promised.

Ven made a promise to Terra that he’d be there when Terra really needed him. And Axel made a promise to Roxas that he’d always be there to bring them back. It was a promise of two best friends. Immediately afterwards, Lea goes and searches for Isa. He still didn’t know at that point that Isa was Xehanort’s vessel. But his friendship with Roxas inspired him to not give up on any of his best friends. In KH3, it could be shown that Axel’s loyalty inspired Ventus to keep his promise to Terra, too. Then their meeting in BBS would have actually been meaningful.

In KH3 we just get a rehash of KH2 where Axel is looking for Roxas. Only this time he makes no progress on that goal, nor does he develop as a person along the way like he did in KH2. He just felt so utterly useless to the story. Literally everyone in real life I know who played KH3 complained about how useless and unimportant Axel was. Even Axel acknowledges how useless he is in KH3. My intention is really not to bash Roxas and Xion. I liked them. But since Lea and Isa are my favorite characters, I admit I do have quite a bit of saltiness towards the preferential treatment Roxas and Xion received from the story in KH3.  

Their return just felt so…contrived. I didn’t even find the trio’s reunion emotional due to how forced it was. Xion just randomly shows up out of nowhere and starts bawling, and Axel brings up ice cream. It felt like the writers were trying way too hard to make the scene emotional. But it had the opposite effect on me. That scene came across as cringe-worthy because it felt so pandering and fanservice-y. And now they need DLC just to properly explain why they are back.

—Was Lea insisting on being called Axel so that when Roxas came back he would recognize him?

Nomura: Yes, but also because when he saw Kairi as Xion, he remembered that there was someone he was supposed to remember, which made him feel that being called “Axel” was important.

I also have mixed feelings about Lea wanting to be called “Axel” and staying in his Organization cloak.

Mickey: But gosh, I didn’t expect you to save us…Axel.

Lea: Axel didn’t. My name is Lea.

In KH3D, he made a big deal about his name being “Lea”, not “Axel”.

Lea: Axel? Please. The name’s Lea. Got it memorized?

I don’t think it was really necessary, but I can see him maybe wanting Kairi to call him Axel if he subconsciously remembers her as Xion. But everyone else?

Riku: Why are you here, Axel?

Lea: No, I told you my name’s– Agh, whatever, Axel, fine. Now let’s get outta here!

It annoyed him when they still called him “Axel”. He only tolerated it begrudgingly. After all, it’s the name Xehanort gave him to symbolize the death of “Lea”. I don’t think he’d be too fond of going by that name at all, especially once he learned the full truth about the Recusant’s Sigil.

Originally, I think he wanted to stay in the black cloak because of Isa. That makes total sense to me. But since that idea was scrapped, it felt more like Square was afraid of having his character go by a different name or look too different from before, since people who haven’t played any of the games since KH2 might be put off by that.

Then, there was the final boss battle with Saïx. Roxas and Xion are back now. And honestly I had no idea how the game wanted me to feel about Isa at that point. It may have sounded like an afterthought, but Lea still said he wanted to bring him home, too. Am I supposed to care about him as a friend of Lea? Or am I supposed to take pleasure in seeing Roxas and Xion “clobber” him, the same way I’m supposed to when Sora defeats Xehanort?

Roxas and Xion are popular characters; I get that. I knew how much fan demand there was to bring them back. And it concerned me because I couldn’t imagine how they could return in a way that actually made any sense. And it was as I suspected. We got the stupid Replica nonsense in KH3 to make it happen. But it was way worse than I feared. They had to throw Isa’s entire character arc by the wayside to make room for Roxas and Xion.

Roxas, Axel, and Xion get a tearful reunion, but poor Isa was just left as a vessel… totally forgotten about. Lea said that he never forgot Isa, but he did. Sometime between KH3D and KH3, to be precise. Roxas and Xion even look at him with pity. I almost got the sense that the scene was meta-commentary. Like Roxas and Xion felt guilty about how badly his character had to be destroyed to allow them a place in the story. And Isa certainly did get left in the dust in order to focus on Lea’s other friends, who had more popularity in the fandom.

In canon Isa suffers from a bad reputation, because of how Saïx treated Roxas and Xion. But it was plain as day to me that Isa in BBS was NOTHING like Saïx! I always assumed that was the whole point of meeting Lea and Isa in BBS. To show how different they were as humans—especially Isa. The audience never knew that Saïx in KH2 was just a vessel for Xehanort, and neither did Axel. If the truth had been revealed, it would have been a pretty cool plot twist actually.

Despite it being both obvious and heavily implied, the story never even clearly stated that Isa was NOT Saïx. That he was possessed by Xehanort. That he was a victim. The Recusant’s Sigil on his face literally means “death”. And since that concept got thrown in the trash, so did Isa’s character arc. We are never even told how he got his scar. And his personality never goes back to the way it was in BBS, either. It’s funny to me that people thought Roxas was so different from Ventus that he deserved to be his own person. If there was any character who had nothing in common with their Nobody and deserved to be their own person, it was Isa, not Roxas. Axel and Saïx both admit how much he’s changed.

Even in that short scene, it was not hard to see what kind of person Isa was. He was introverted and had a dry, sarcastic sense of humor. But when he smiled at Lea playing with Ventus, you could tell that he was kindhearted. He was just reserved, and reluctant to express his feelings openly. He’s shy, but with Lea around, he’s able to come out of his shell and share a laugh with Ventus while they tease him. So yeah, in my opinion Isa is dead. In KH3, we get left with a watered down Saïx taking on the role of “Isa”, even though they were nothing alike.

The moment where Xemnas is going to finish off Lea, is when Saïx should have saved him, proving that Isa’s heart was still in there, and that he never forgot Lea, just like he said all those years ago. That was Isa’s crowning moment. The very moment that would earn his place eating ice cream with everyone in the epilogue.

Roxas and Xion stole the thunder from not only Isa, but Kairi too. During what should have been her crowning moment: her first major battle. She was so useless and forgotten in her own fight. Her only real contribution is getting kidnapped. Then she was killed off! Apparently to justify Namine coming back? I guess? I was so looking forward to Kairi finally becoming a more well-rounded character. Man, was that a let down. My sisters despise Kairi. They were raging during the ending. They think she’s such an insult as a female protagonist, lol. I just think it’s sad. Kairi DID have potential. But unfortunately it was mostly all wasted…

I love most of the KH characters. But I have NEVER seen a character get shafted by a story as badly as Isa. Even Kairi was treated (marginally) better by the narrative. It was the main inspiration for this blog and why a disproportionate amount of my posts are about Isa and/or his relationship to Lea. In KH3, Skuld took his backstory, Roxas took his role as the friend who Lea would need to bring back, and Xion took his crowning moment of redemption. It was so insulting how the story treated him. I’m sure even the creator of Xion, Tomoco Kanemaki, would be disappointed in how Isa got treated. I could tell by the way she writes the novels that she liked Isa, as well as Xion.

[sanjuno]

from the tone of ur mcu/got fic it seemed like u really hate or at least disiked steve, how come?

Woo boy, okay. So first things first. Let’s clarify the statement. Steve Rogers, aka Captain America is a character that has been re-imaged several times dependant on the universe he’s in. Classic and Silver Age Steve is okay. I’m kind ‘meh’ about Steve in 616 and Ultimates.

MCU Steve is everything wrong about American superheroes distilled into one storyline. And it’s not just one thing, it’s many things that build up until I want to set him on fire for the good of the world and all the poor, impressionable fanboys in it.

My issues with Steve in the First Avenger are:

MCU Steve refuses to accept any dissenting opinions and his first resort is always violence instead of debate. He’s manipulative in that he verbally antagonizes people so that they “throw the first punch” so he can feel justified in “standing up to bullies”.

MCU Steve glorifies active military service to the point of outright refusing to support the army in a way he’s actually capable of succeeding at and instead commits treason (lying on the enlistment forms) rather that applying for a support role. To say nothing of the danger Steve’s fellow servicemen would be in covering his ass if he did actually manage to lie his way to the warfront. Plus he completely ignores the fact that Bucky was drafted, which means that Bucky did not willingly enlist.

MCU Steve took steroids that had the proven, recorded side effects of increased aggression, sociopathy, and psychosis in every known survival case.

MCU Steve never finished basic training, and thus never even made it to the rank of Private. He’s never been employed by the US Army. “Captain America” is a stage name, not a real rank. If anything, Steve was a consultant employed by the SSR to deal with Hydra and only Hydra.

My issues with Steve in The Avengers are:

MCU Steve is isolating himself and refuses to take care of his own mental health and stability. He expresses obsessive behaviours and rigid thought processes that make it easy for the Hydra agents embedded in SHIELD to gaslight him about people and the operation of modern society. In short, Steve is ignorant and uneducated in a way that he could easily change but refuses to despite have unrestricted access to the resources he needs, and so any failures or bad judgement calls on his part as a result of his ignorance are on his head. Self-education is the responsibility of every thinking person who wants to interact with the wider world.

MCU Steve doesn’t know how to accept specialist opinions, as proven by his distain for Tony and Bruce’s work in the lab so they can track down the cube. Again, distain for cerebral pursuits such as engineering or computer sciences because there’s no visible effort to show for it aside from the results that are produced once the actually work is over.

More attempts to provoke people into violence when MCU Steve is losing an argument because he doesn’t have the facts to back up his statement.

Takes off on a road trip, but when the hell did MCU Steve have the time to get a motorcycle certification or driver’s license? Does he even have a source of income? Second instance of lawbreaking confirmed.

My issues with Steve in The Winter Soldier are:

MCU Steve has no proof that Sam isn’t a Hydra plant when he goes for help, just a gut feeling. Sorry, but background checks are a thing you need to do before sharing classified information for a reason. Operational security is nothing but a dream at this point.

Doesn’t call Tony to get the Helicarriers shut down. Why? Tony has made multiple public statements that Stark tech in the hands of terrorists goes boom!

Yes, there were Hydra agents in SHIELD but dumping the database just meant that all the good, actually SHIELD agents are the ones who got burned. How many active or retired agents and their families got killed because of that info leak? That’s like burning down your house because you saw a spider.

MCU Steve fucks off and doesn’t go to the hearing, and he never actually gets debriefed about what went down. Once again Steve disrespects governing authority and the due process of laws put in place to protect the public. (Because Bucky, and I’m so sick of that mentality.)

My issues with Steve in Age of Ultron are:

MCU Steve hasn’t told Tony that his parents death was a murder but accuses Tony of lying to them. Tony never lies, he doesn’t have enough of a self preservation instinct to bother lying. But Steve is covering up a murder and still somehow thinks he’s a moral authority.

Blames Tony for Ultron when it’s obvious that (a) Bruce was helping and (b) alien magi-tech bullshit was at fault. Plus JARVIS is dead and Steve doesn’t care despite the fact that it’s obvious Tony is grieving.

Identifies with Wanda, known Hydra volunteer who only switched sides because she was going to get killed by Ultron otherwise. Trusts Wanda’s word over Tony’s, when Wanda’s goal has always been to messily murder Tony and she set an enraged Hulk on a city full of civilians with the intent to kill everyone there. 

Throws the shield when he gets to Tony’s lab while Vision is being born, so yet again violence is the chosen option instead of debate.

My issues with Steve in Civil War are:

MCU Steve is still so ignorant of modern politics that he thinks the UN is a government. Also refuses to respect the right of sovereign nations to say “no” to having the Avengers cross their borders. If Steve wants to operate against human organizations instead of just the random alien invasion then he needs to have oversight and a proper command structure. Otherwise he’s just another extremist pushing his personal agenda on the populace. And that’s the definition of terrorism.

MCU Steve fucks up Bucky Barnes’ chances of being acquitted of Hydra’s crimes when they escape custody by blowing through the anti-terrorist task force and collapse a transit tunnel on civilians during the midday commute. Until that point everything Bucky did was could be filed under Bucky being non copus menti as a result of the Winter Soldier programming and the deliberately, maliciously cultivated PTSD triggers implanted by Hydra. But that chance is gone now because Bucky Barnes was the one “in control” when they fucked up the airport and beat up Tony.

MCU Steve lies to Clint and Scott about the reason they’re fighting. Steve says they needs to stop the other Winter Soldiers from being set loose and that the Accords will stop them from acting, but in reality it all boils down to saving Bucky. Meanwhile everyone on Team Cap gets labelled an international criminal in the end and chances are they aren’t going to be able to go home for years even if they’re very, very lucky.

Bad laws are argued in court and amendments get made if a law infringes on the civil rights of the people it impacts. But MCU Steve doesn’t obey the laws, he has never obeyed the laws, and so he has no fucking goddamned clue about how to work inside the system to get what he wants peacefully. Cue more punching his problems.

LYING OR WITHHOLDING INFORMATION ABOUT A MURDER CASE IS OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE AND IT’S A CRIME, STEVE.

Breaking people out of prison when they have, in point of fact, broken the law, IS A CRIME, STEVE.

So in summary, MCU Steve is a violent, delusional bully who likes to be the centre of attention and has never believed that the laws apply to him. It’s especially grating because the script writers keep trying to make him a sympathetic character but all I can see is some jacked up white boy on steroids whining because it’s not fair that he needs to be a decent, law-abiding human being. Due Process, Workplace Health and Safety Regulations, Harassment Policies, things like that. Also, Steve and Wanda are actually close to the same age in life experience according to the MCU storylines but he marginalizes her and denies her agency by saying she’ “just a kid”, which is the most bullshit patronizing expression of a superiority complex I’ve even seen in media. And that’s why I don’t like MCU’s version of Steve Rogers.

[statetalks]

What Is An Example Of Republicanism

The Founding Fathers And The Republic

What is a republic?

When the Founding Fathers were brainstorming the kind of government they wanted for America, they studied the histories of other nations to determine what worked and what didnt. Of particular interest to them was the Roman Republics government, which had been around a full 2,000 years before the American revolution. The Founding Fathers decided that a republican government was the best possible government for America.

The decision to create a republic was largely influenced by the ideas that the Roman Republic incorporated into its rule. The most attractive principles to which the Founding Fathers were drawn include:

Government power is held by the people.

The people elect the leaders they want representing them and, in doing so, invest their power in their representatives.

The representatives are tasked with helping every citizen in the country they serve, not a select few.

Some of the ideals that guided the Founding Fathers choice for a republic included:

Fairness The Founders believed that the elected representatives should create fair laws and, if they did not, they could be easily replaced by other representatives who would.

Common Welfare The laws that those representatives created would benefit everyone in the country, rather than one person in particular, or even a select few.

Freedom and Prosperity The Founders liked the idea of their people being afforded the freedom to live prosperous lives.

What Is Republicanism In Simple Terms

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic with an emphasis on liberty and the civic virtue practiced by citizens. More broadly, it refers to a political system that protects liberty, especially by incorporating a rule of law that cannot be arbitrarily ignored by the government.

What Is A Republican Government

The government of Rome was called a republican government. The Founders read that republican government was one in which:

The power of government is held by the people.

The people give power to leaders they elect to represent them and serve their interests.

The representatives are responsible for helping all the people in the country, not just a few people.

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Opiniondemocrats Challenged Electoral College Votes First And Set The Precedent For This Mess

There is no way to justify continuing the false designation of radical rightists as conservatives and people willing to end the republic as Republicans. The dozen-plus elected members of the Republican Party in the Senate and the more than a hundred in the House who announced that they would vote to overturn various states electoral slates Wednesday should not, despite their nominal party membership, be referred to as conservatives or Republicans.

All who fail to condemn President Donald Trumps phone call threatening and pressuring state officials in Georgia and who do not forcefully disassociate themselves from his reported musings about declaring martial law to remain in power show themselves to be opposed to conserving our republic.

Todays Republicans plainly are not deserving of the inheritance of Lincolns party or its name.

The unconscionable effort to keep Trump in office despite the stated will of the people is tantamount to throwing democracy and the American republic into the dustbin of history. Republicans do not wish to end the republic in which they serve or else they are Republicans in Name Only. Conservatives who do not wish to conserve the very foundation of the American experiment our democratic republic is no kind of conservative their intellectual predecessors would recognize.

In What Ways Does The Declaration Of Independence Reflect Principles Of Classical Republicanism

In what ways does it reflect principles of classical republicanism? The Declaration of Independence reflects John Lockes social contract by withdrawing their obligation to obey the monarchy, by grouping colonists to change leadership because they believed the monarchy failed to protect their rights.

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Classical Republicanism And Natural Rights

Classical republicanism promoted the natural rights philosophy, which is echoed in the Declaration of Independence. Natural rights are those rights that are not dependent on, nor can they be changed by, manmade laws, cultural customs, or the beliefs of any culture or government. These rights include such things as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Other natural rights include the right to protect oneself from physical harm, the right to worship as one chooses, the right to express oneself, among others.

The reason why classical republicanism is so prevalent in the Declaration of Independence is because of the colonists recognition of the fact that they wanted their government to be vastly different from that of the British parliament. They believed that they were following their civic duty by separating from Britain for the purposes of preserving the common good.

What Is Civic Virtue

When you work to help others and promote the common welfare, you are showing civic virtue. The Founders thought civic virtue was important for a republican government. People with civic virtue are interested in having the government help all the people.

The Founders thought it was necessary to teach children the importance of helping others. Young people learned about civic virtue in their homes, schools, and churches. Adults also heard about civic virtue from their religious and political leaders.

The Founders thought a republican government would work in our country. They believed most of the people had civic virtue. They thought the people would select leaders who would work for the common welfare.

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On Types Of Republicanism

The academic literature on republicanism, in my experience, largely assumes one major distinction between kinds of republicanism. As I did not do conduct a major literature review just recently on the issue, I may have missed something, but it seems safe to say that the distinction I am getting onto is well established. That is the distinction between Roman and Athenian republicanism, with the two big names in the field, Philip Pettit and Hannah Arendt lined up on either side.

There are other distinctions between Pettit and Arendt, in the ways they;approach political thouht but I will leave those aside here. In terms of general political thought, Pettit has a more individualised and reductive approach to rights, while Arendt refers to a lived experience of the political side of humanity.;Pettit’s ‘Romanism’ is indeed a claim to avoid the supposed denial of individuality and the right to be free from the political sphere, apparently inherent in ‘Athenianism’. Arendt’s ‘Athenianism’ is a claim to deal with the role that politics has in the life of humanity, which can never just be ‘social’, so lacking the competition for power in a public space. There are ways we might try to equate those with differences in political position with regard to issues other than pure political structures, but I do ;not believes that those really work out and that is again something I leave aside.

Posted by Barry Stocker on 20 October 2014 at 20:39 |Permalink

Which Republican President Inspired The Teddy Bear

What is Republicanism in the United States?, Explain Republicanism in the United States

Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican U.S. president from 1901 to 1909, inspired the teddy bear when he refused to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. The story reached toy maker Morris Michtom, who decided to make stuffed bears as a dedication to Roosevelt. The name comes from Roosevelts nickname, Teddy.

Republican Party, byname Grand Old Party , in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the countrys new territories and, ultimately, for slaverys complete abolition. During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-fairecapitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies. The party acquired the acronym GOP, widely understood as Grand Old Party, in the 1870s. The partys official logo, the elephant, is derived from a cartoon by Thomas Nast and also dates from the 1870s.

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Definition Of Republican Government

Republicanism Government;is a system of government in which the supreme power in the state rests in the people and their elected representatives. Republicanism is a form of representative government.

The concept is derived from the word republic. Republicanism is a form of government in which the head of state is an elected president and not a hereditary ruler. It therefore refers to a system of government in which sovereign power is widely vested in the people either directly or through their elected representatives.

In short a republician government may be defined as a form of government in which the Head of State is elected for a fixed term of office.

The Lessons Of Civic Republicanism

Thomas Jefferson is known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the articulator of the separation of church and state. These high profile accomplishments tend to overshadow his other important contributions. For example, Civic Republicanism is a Jeffersonian notion that deserves our contemporary attention.;

Civic Republicanism centers on two interrelated ideas, civic responsibility and community. Civic responsibility refers to the sense of responsibility that we have toward one another, and for one anothers well being. It is the practice of placing the common good above our individual self-interest. We do this willingly because, in communities, we get to know one another and, in turn, feel connected to the people around us. Our neighbors, religious leaders, teachers, and store owners are all part of this network of common bonds we call community. In other words, we learn not to be narcissists because we have learned the benefits of mutual dependence and mutual responsibility. ;

While Civic Republicanism is a good idea, its not one that seems to inform contemporary America. As populations become more segregated based on race and more stratified by economic class, traditional notions of community have disappeared.

Well, what has happened to them? What has robbed of us this tradition?;

Today, however, as inequality has raised the stakes and undermined traditional notions of community, self-interest has come to rule day.;

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Republicanism And Fundamental Rights

The foregoing discussion should not be construed as implying a necessary correlation between, on the one hand, liberalism and democracy, and, on the other, communitarianism and authoritarianism. Some versions of communitarianism approach a pure, popular democracy more closely than do some versions of liberalism, which would expressly renounce pure democracy. If a society is to be governed by a principle of collective welfare, and if notions of collective welfare are to be ascertained by consensus, then majority rule provides sufficient justification for deciding which acts should be penalized. No additional justification, with reference to the specific harm that would be caused by penalized acts, would be required. If the majority wishes to penalize gambling, alcohol consumption, flag burning, contraception, or homosexuality, then it may do so with no greater notion of harm than the sentiment that individuals and society would be better off without such things.

Ordinary right Putative harm caused by exercise of right Exercise of right may be penalized without special justification Exercise of right may not be penalized without special justification

Wilfried Nippel, in, 2015

The British Empire And The Commonwealth Of Nations

In some countries of the British Empire, later the Commonwealth of Nations, republicanism has taken a variety of forms.

In Barbados, the government gave the promise of a referendum on becoming a republic in August 2008, but it was postponed due to the change of government in the 2008 election. A plan to becoming a republic was still in place in September 2020, according to the current PM, with a target date of late 2021.

In South Africa, republicanism in the 1960s was identified with the supporters of apartheid, who resented British interference in their treatment of the country’s black population.

In Australia, the debate between republicans and monarchists is still active, and republicanism draws support from across the political spectrum. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a leading proponent of an Australian republic prior to joining the centre-right Liberal Party, and led the pro-republic campaign during the failed 1999 Australian republic referendum. After becoming Prime Minister in 2015, he confirmed he still supports a republic, but stated that the issue should wait until after the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The centre-left Labor Party officially supports the abolition of the monarchy and another referendum on the issue.

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Republican As Party Name

In 1792â93 Jefferson and Madison created a new “Democratic-Republican party” in order to promote their version of the doctrine. They wanted to suggest that Hamilton’s version was illegitimate. According to Federalist Noah Webster, a political activist bitter at the defeat of the Federalist party in the White House and Congress, the choice of the name “Democratic-Republican” was “a powerful instrument in the process of making proselytes to the party. … The influence of names on the mass of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the denomination of the Republican Party, was more than a match for the popularity of Washington’s character and services, and contributed to overthrow his administration.” The party, which historians later called the Democratic-Republican Party, split into separate factions in the 1820s, one of which became the Democratic Party. After 1832, the Democrats were opposed by another faction that named themselves “Whigs” after the Patriots of the 1770s who started the American Revolution. Both of these parties proclaimed their devotion to republicanism in the era of the Second Party System.

Republicanism In The United States

Edit

Republicanism in the United States is a set of ideas that guides the government and politics. These ideas have shaped the government, and the way people in the United States think about politics, since the American Revolution.

The American Revolution, the , the Constitution , and even the Gettysburg Address were based on ideas from American republicanism.

“Republicanism” comes from the word “republic.” However, they are not the same thing. A republic is a type of government . Republicanism is an ideology set of beliefs that people in a republic have about what is most important to them.

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What Counts As Arbitrary Power

A second major difficulty in developing the republican idea offreedom lies in giving precise meaning to the notion of arbitrariness.According to what criteria are we to consider power arbitrary? Notsimply when its exercise is random or unpredictable. This view wouldundermine the whole point of the republican conception of politicalliberty. As discussed above, with long experience a slave is betterable to predict his masters behavior, and so it appears lessrandom to him, but the slave doesnot enjoy greater freedom by that fact alone. Just because one isbetter able to cope with arbitrary power, it does not follow thatones domination is any less.

Discretionary is much closer to the relevant meaningof arbitrary, but it is not quite right either. Discretionary powermight be delegated to a public agency with a view to advancing certainpolicy goals or endsas for example Congress has delegateddiscretionary authority to the Federal Reservebut we would notwant to say that this reduces our freedom . For reasons explained inthe fourth section of this entry, contemporary civic republicans mustbe able to offer an account of non-arbitrary, yet discretionaryauthority.

Democracy’s Discontent: America In Search Of A Public Philosophy

RwandaâCAR Cooperation is an example of what Africa can achieve through unity

In this book, Sandel contrasts the tradition of civic republicanism with that of procedural liberalism in the US political history. The presentation is organized as the intertwining of philosophical and mostly historical analyses. Philosophically, based on LLJ, Sandel continuous his criticism of liberalism and argues for the idea of civic republicanism with the sense of multiply situated selves. Historically, Sandel shows, while both procedural liberalism and civic republicanism used to be present throughout American politics, American political discourse, in the recent decades, has become dominated by procedural liberalism, and has steadily crowded out the republican understandings of citizenship, which is important for self-government.

Sandel reminds us that the American Revolution was originally aspiring to generate a new community of common good. By separating from England, Americans attempt to stave off corruption and to realize republican ideals, to renew the moral spirit that suited Americans to republican government . Unfortunately, in the years following independence, leading politicians and writers started to worry the corruption of the public spirit by the rampant pursuit of luxury and self-interest. Nowadays, most of American practices and institutions have thoroughly embodied the philosophy of procedural liberalism. Despite its philosophical problem, it has offered the public philosophy by which Americans live.

T. O’Hagan, in, 2001

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Zombie Brains Are A Thing

There is life after death if you’re a pig…sorta. Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Recently at the Yale School of Medicine, researchers received 32 dead pig brains from a nearby slaughterhouse. No, it wasn’t some Mafia-style intimidation tactic. They’d placed the order in the hopes of giving the brains a physiological resurrection.

The researchers connected the brains to an artificial perfusion system called BrainEx. It pumped a solution through them that mimicked blood flow, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the inert tissues.

This system revitalized the brains and kept some of their cells “alive” for as long as 36 hours postmortem. The cells consumed and metabolized sugars. The brains’ immune systems even kicked back in. And some samples were even able to carry electrical signals.

Because the researchers weren’t aiming for Animal Farm with Zombies, they included chemicals in the solution that prevented neural activity representative of consciousness from taking place.

Their actual goal was to design a technology that will help us study the brain and its cellular functions longer and more thoroughly. With it, we may be able to develop new treatments for brain injuries and neurodegenerative conditions.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-is-an-example-of-republicanism/

[solo1y]

Five years ago, I was given a free review copy of this book for a now-defunct e-book review site. In my review, I said that it’s the worst book I have ever read, and that remains true. It’s still available if you really hate yourself. 

This is the (obviously NSFW) final published review: 

I'm 37 years old, I have read many books in my time, and I have never said this before: The Audacity of Hope and Change is the worst book I have ever read.

A brief summary, so you don't have to actually read it: A conservative U.S. president time-travels to 2084, where liberal policies have destroyed the entire planet, and the population of the world is contained in ten dome-enclosed U.S. cities, where the citizens live under an oppressive centralised government. Horrified, the president goes back to his own time, aware of the fact that he can't change the future. However, it turns out that he's the one who created the domed cities to house the "un-American" liberals, and just lied to them that the rest of the world was destroyed. Then he makes Rush Limbaugh (I'm not kidding) his Vice President so the United States can live in peace and prosperity now that the traitorous elements have been removed. That's it.

Initially I thought it was a clever satire of conservative attitudes to liberal politics. However, it's not a satire at all. In fact, it's intended as a satire of the liberal position! To give you an idea of the mental trauma I have recently suffered, the smug partisan political grandstanding is only the third most annoying thing about this book.

The most annoying thing about this book is that he assumes his readers are unread simpletons. It is a sign of terrible weakness on an author's part when he gives up trying to describe something and just refers to something else which describes it better. He does this a number of times in the book. We bounce from blatant allusions to 1984 (oxymoronic ministries, party uniforms, ad hoc government data), Brave New World (productivity-driven eugenics program), Star Trek (limitless energy) and Soylent Green (meals made from reconstituted humans). None of this would be so bad if the author didn't flag all the references. "It was positively Orwellian," says the infallible protagonist in one particularly painful passage, and not for the last time. “Sounds like something from ‘Men in Black’,” he says on another occasion. It may not be entirely unusual for a book to be completely unoriginal, but I've never seen a book so ready to advertise its poverty of thought. Even his unfunny jokes are telegraphed and labelled for ease of consumption.

The second most annoying thing about this book is that it's badly plotted and sloppily written. How can someone steal so many good ideas from so many wonderful sources and still make a complete mess? The tone is confused throughout. It seems to be a political satire, but it has lots of Douglas Adams-wannabe throwaway jokes that are so silly, they jerk you out of the otherwise completely serious satirical push, reducing it to a farce. You won't miss any of them, because, as you will remember, even the migraine-inducing jokes are flagged for you: "Brian replied, ignoring her double entendre." Characters are one-dimensional, either there to be impressed by the president, or to help him find the things he needs. No one changes, no one has any personality, no one has a family or a life away from the president or any motivation or emotion other than those which intersect with the president's motivations or emotions. Splashes of what the author probably imagines constitutes character are awkwardly placed in the way of the narrative, like the irrelevant story about a scientist's middle name. When the protagonist carries a gun, it is referred to on at least ten separate occasions as a "Heckler & Koch MK23"; I have no idea why. By the way, in direct opposition to everything we know about linguistics, in the future, people speak the same as they do now, but with unnecessarily longer and extra words. For instance, a chat is now called a "brief communication period". In the future, we are all verbose Vulcans, except we use the word "scientific" instead of "logical" (keep in mind that the author intends the word "scientific" as an insult).

Irrelevant matters are explained in boring detail, choking the pace, whereas plot points which could benefit from an explanation are glossed over awkwardly. Page after gruelling page presents itself: how time travel works; how public transport of the future works; how photo-electric cells work; and sundry other copy-and-pastes from Engineering for Dummies. A lot of it just doesn't make any sense, and the whole thing is a Swiss cheese of plot holes that are never acknowledged. However, once the president decides he understands something, no matter how nonsensical, it is assumed that the readers understand it too.

The third most annoying thing about this book, as promised above, is that it reads like a campaign manifesto. You don't see much of it at the start, which is mostly highly derivative time-travel, alien technology, conspiracy theory stuff and almost fun. As the book drags on like a grindstone bolted through your knee, it gives way to pages and pages of right-wing, conservative policies, framed as a series of speeches the president makes to his advisors, all of whom intermittently praise him for his wisdom and genius.

If you have to insert characters into your story just to agree with your protagonist, you are doing something wrong. On one occasion, his words earn him "a standing ovation". In another section, a sentence appears: "I found myself increasingly impressed by Brian’s knowledge and wisdom." But the author wrote that! The author is impressed with his own knowledge and wisdom! He thinks so little of his readers that he decides to hit them repeatedly over the head with his stupid message. At least twice, in case we didn't realise what the point of the book was, the following sentence occurs: "It sounded like he could be referring to the political debates of my time." Events are referred to as "like something from Hitler’s Germany or the Soviet Union under Stalin." Satire doesn't work if you have a big flashing neon SATIRE sign pointing at it!

The real meat of the book is the description of the future America, where liberal policies have made everything go bad. In this state, all the ridiculous right wing agit-prop straw men you have heard from Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck (name-checked in the book, and eventual cabinet ministers) are firing on all cylinders: universal health care death panels; the abolition of religion, gun ownership and private property; rampant abortions; the establishment of "science" as a god; global warming as a massive hoax perpetrated by Al Gore (referred to in the text, for some reason, as "Agore"); wanton sexual promiscuity; the subjugation of the individual to the state - it's all presented not as a possible alternative future, but specifically as a future which will occur if Barack Obama gets re-elected (never actually named in the book, although it's very obvious).

When the protagonist returns from the future, he gets some people together and decides how to reshape America so this liberal apocalypse can be averted. There follows pages and pages of tedious ruminations on tax reform, clean energy, healthcare mandates and foreign policy, all explained in mind-numbing detail. The Chicago School tax reforms, for instance, are pages of demographics and percentages and glaringly incorrect conclusions. The president claims to run on a "pro-choice" ticket, by which he means to promote the idea of consumer choice. He picked this name, he explains, specifically to confound the pro-choice women's rights movement, and thereafter confusingly refers to them interchangeably. It's a crime of the written word to use terms and phrases in a manner different to that expected by a reasonable consensus of your readers, but to confuse them yourself is unforgivable.

This president gives long, eye-tormenting speeches filled with nothing but conservative values, and emotional reactions to the perceived lack of those values, with everyone around him agreeing and applauding. It's like being stuck at a Nuremberg rally, but without the undeniable Nazi sense of style, or anything that could be referred to as "efficiency". Alles ist sehr viel nicht in Ordnung.

This book is nothing more than an adolescent right-wing masturbatory fantasy, whose target market will surely have more respect for itself than to kneel before him, encouraging every feverish stroke, willingly accepting his literary semen as it splashes on their eager Christian faces. It's a vanity project, an empty puff of vague, hackneyed, outdated political philosophies dreamt up while on marijuana but without the concomitant trashing of those ideas the following sad, sober morning. Our pseudonymous guide to the future clearly thinks he's the literary heir to Jonathan Swift, but he's more the literary heir to that guy who sat behind you in high school who kept talking about robots and dinosaurs and now still lives with his parents, hates black people for no reason, and has just discovered what the word "alveoli" means.

The Audacity of Hope and Change, the worst book I have ever read, is written by Yushud Choosewisely, possibly the most gratingly awful pseudonym I have ever seen. His real name is Steven Lloyd. It is published by the Pro-Choice Press, which as far as I can determine, is managed, staffed and run solely by Mr. Lloyd, who has chosen the name to be deliberately provocative, as he is aggressively pro-life. There is one comment on the amazon page for this book; as it is gushing with praise, I can only assume that this customer review is also managed, staffed and run solely by Mr. Lloyd. Someone needs to buy a paper copy of this book, just so we can tear the pages out of it, and gently run the edges of each page along the soles of his feet and his tongue. Then we should re-assemble the book, encase it on concrete, tie him to a post, and throw it at his head until he promises never to write anything ever again. If that sounds harsh, remember that he has mentally assigned a far worse punishment to those who commit the crime of disagreeing with him on political issues.

This guy actually answered my review with a bunch of passive-aggressive right-wing smarmy bullshit, which completely failed to counter a single one of the points I made. Which is great because it gave me a chance to rip him a new asshole twice instead of just once. He’s deleted his response, but you can probably pick up the gist from my response to his response.