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mermaidsirennikita · 3 years ago

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Wait talk to me about the 365 movies lol. Always wanted to try them 👀 how is it in terms of the love story/sex scenes?

So here's the thing.

I love these movies. I love them with all my heart. The first movie is a literal comfort watch for me.

They are not for everyone, and I think you should know outright--these are adaptations of a dark, mildly taboo erotic romance series and they play the genre completely straight. There is no... acquiescence to good taste or morality. Like, deadass. The things I think everyone should know about before watching the movies that could possibly turn you off are:

--romanticization of the mafia, hardcore. I am not Italian (unless you count the Italian background on my mom's side according to 23andme, which I don't take seriously because I'm not an asshole); I've lived in Italy, I've taken courses on mafia history, I know people who've been negatively affected by the mafia. The various branches of the Italian mafia (Cosa Nostra is probably what the movie refers to, because it's largely set in Sicily and focused on Sicilians, but I honestly can't be sure because the author of the original books was Polish and frankly I don't think she did a lot of research or intended to represent the mafia accurately) are basically domestic terrorist organizations, full stop, which affect the nation to this day. I'm not going to argue with people who say that mafia romance novels or movies like this or even movies like The Godfather (which portrays the mafia negatively but also romanticizes it to an extent) shouldn't exist. I will say that there is no component of the mafia in these movies that is... accurate, or at all attempting to say "this is what the mafia is like". If you watch 365 DNI and say "they are convincing the masses that the mafia is like this", I don't know what to tell you. 365 DNI doesn't even attempt to portray Americans accurately.

--(Light, imo) BDSM and rough sex. People who tell you that this film is a rip off of 50 shades... No. It's a different thing. I would say that 365 plays into BDSM a lot more, not just in terms of the way that Massimo and Laura have sex (which is super explicit, but is not like. THAAAAT crazy) but the way she teases him and toys with him and the way he responds aggressively--which is what she wants. If you don't like the idea of throat grabbing, the heroine having her face presses into the pillow while she's getting fucked, and fairly rough sex in general? Don't watch this movie.

--Dubcon, which I hold separately because it is separate. Though there's basically nothing dubious about the second movie, I will say; she's fully in on the game by then. The entire setup of the first movie is that Massimo has Laura drugged and kidnapped (he also has her shitty boyfriend drugged so that he can have incriminating photos taken of him, but frankly Martin sucks so I'm neither here nor there about it). He then tells her that he will not touch her unless she basically gives in and wants it; he says this while playing with her nipples, lol. 365 very much plays the dark romance dubcon game of "I don't want to want it, but I do". The actress is playing responsively to the actor. Laura says she doesn't want to be there, but as soon as she is given a chance to get away (which is quite early) she just... doesn't do anything. Like, she has her phone and laptop, she talks to her mom, and is like "I'm good". BECAUSE SHE IS HAVING FUN LMAO. It's nothing close to reality, it's all fantasy. She's going on a shopping spree using her kidnapper's black card, and he walks in on her trying lingerie and is like I CAN SEE THIS WHENEVER I WANT and she's like "sure lmao". It's a heightened brat/dom thing.

So in terms of the love story, I personally really enjoy it because though I will never say it is deeply written (there are things they write into these movies that never get referenced again lmao, like Laura's weak heart which somehow doesn't stop her from having acrobatic sex every day) the connection between the actors is great. Michele Morrone and Anna Maria Sieklucka may or may not be an item in real life at this moment, but I'm fairly certain they've fucked around off camera at minimum and it shows. Their chemistry is insane, and it goes a long way. It's like a beauty and the beast type of setup where she's held "against her will" but he wants to learn how to be gentle for her. And their contrasting personalities are honestly very fun to watch, because he's truly insane, yet also kind of the emotional bitch in the relationship? I think that's the key to the movies. Massimo is all bark and no bite. He threatens, but he really doesn't... go there with her. He's aggressive, but he's not a whiny loser like Christian Grey. And she, in turn, has! Her! Own! Life! Laura is a grown woman who's been in a long term relationship, is sexually dissatisfied, has a killer job--she doesn't neeeeed him the way Anna in 50 Shades always seemed like she neeeeeded Christian.

As for the sex... To piggyback off of the other 50 Shades comparisons, lol. There's no comparison. I've seen a lot of graphic sex scenes in TV and film. These may be... the most... graphic I've ever seen outside of sex that I know isn't simulated. They claim it's all simulated in these movies, and I believe some of it is. Some scenes... I'm not so sure. I feel pretty certain that I saw some real penetration in the first movie, lol. They're GREAT sex scenes. The connection between the actors is fantastic, they both just fully go for it (he looks in her eyes before spitting lovingly into her pussy in the first movie; she fully coats a sex toy in her own saliva in the second, lmao) and it's super fun. I've watched the first movie with my mom and my sister, lol, I don't care--but it's probably the most graphic shit I've seen in a movie that is not specifically saying "these are unsimulated sex scenes". And it's VERY female gaze driven. Like, yes, you see everything with everyone (though tbh, I don't think either of them do full on full frontal nudity, just glimpses here and there) but it's very focused on what women want and what Laura specifically wants.

Anyway, I think these movies are really the only things standing between me and total insanity in today's world. I would recommend them, but I would recommend going into them knowing that like... This is being made to satisfy a specific desire, lol. Michele and Anna (and everyone else) are acting in a movie that largely has English dialogue (though also plenty of Polish and Italian, subtitled) and they are both ESL. There are weird fucking lines, odd translations that show that truly, nobody was that concerned with accuracy as long as the gist was right... And I love it. I really, really love it. I just enjoy watching two incredibly hot people fall in love with a surreal, insane backdrop, and fuck like rabbits all over Europe.

#365 days: this day

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tigerkirby215 · 3 years ago

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5e Kayle, the Righteous build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Jessica “OwleyCat” Oyhenart and Victor “3rdColossus” Maury. Made for Riot Games.)

You know I find it funny that I haven’t made a build for Kayle yet, given that I made Morgana awhile ago sort of as a spur of the moment thing. Despite the fact that I main support I really don’t play Morgana (can’t hit skill shots omegalul), but meanwhile I really like Kayle. She was one of the first champions I played along with Sona since I was told she was very similar to Terrorblade who was one of my favorite carries in DOTA 2. I dropped her for a bit after her rework but I picked her up again and she’s still super fun! I mean, shame she’s kinda trash in the meta.

Anyways it’s about time I make a build for her since Morgana was alone for so long, especially since she’s coming back along with Pentakill! Kayle’s probably the perfect character to play if you want to go Lawful Stupid, but out of respect for everyone else please don’t play her Lawful Stupid.

GOALS

On wings of fire, hope ascends - It’s the quest of all champions to eventually transcend mortals. Hopefully we’ll at least be able to fly after this.

Fire reveals truth - Kayle is also well-known for her Zealous attack speed, so we’ll need to be able to get out as much DPS as possible.

The worthy survive! - A little bit of Divine Judgement goes a long way. An explosion of flaming swords helps too.

RACE

This may come as a surprise to you but Kayle is an Aasimar. More specifically a Protector Aasimar, which is rather fitting seeing as she’s seen as The Protector in Demacia. As an Aasimar your Charisma increases by 2, but I’m going to increase your Constitution instead of the typical Wisdom increase from Protector Aasimar, for a bit more lane sustain.

You have Celestial Resistance to both your own Radiant damage and your sister’s Necrotic damage, have the Light Bearer feature for the Light cantrip, and can give yourself or an ally a Celestial Blessing thanks to Healing Hands. It only heals up to your level but it certainly helps!

You also get Darkvision and the Celestial language, and Radiant Soul at level 3 thanks to your Protector subrace, We’ll discuss that when we get to level 3.

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - League of Legends body types, am I right? Sure you have a bit of an “evil must be purged” personality, but D&D Paladins like that a lot.

14; DEXTERITY - Something something medium armor. I would call what you wear Half Plate, which means that for once the choice of Medium Armor is accurate!

13; STRENGTH - This feels strangely familiar...

12; CONSTITUTION - Kayle is very squishy in League but I like not dying so...

10; INTELLIGENCE - You may have lived through history but most of that time was spent up in the stars. Basically we need everything else more.

8; WISDOM - Yeah I didn’t increase Wisdom with your racial increase because I was planning to dump it. Kayle’s fatal flaw is that she’s blinded by her sense of justice, which is a sign of poor Wisdom and critical decision making.

BACKGROUND

There isn’t a great background for “Half of the Aspect of Justice” but Celebrity Adventurer’s Scion works fairly well. You get proficiency with Perception as well as Performance (you were in Pentakill, after all!), a Disguise Kit (but I’d maybe replace that with something else or ditch it entirely), and two languages of your choice. (Pick your poison.)

Your background feature Name Dropping lets you tell people that your mom was actually a god. You might be able to find people who knew your mom (or more realistically worshiped her before... you know... you became half of her?) and folk might recognize that you’re... half a god, and give you free stuff.

(Artwork by Alvin Lee and Kan Liu. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - SORCERER 1

Starting off as a Sorcerer because Kayle is about as useless as a level 1 Sorcerer at level 1. (Also because CON saves are nice.) But you can also grab proficiency with Religion (you are a god, after all) and Intimidation. (Because you aren’t exactly nice.)

Sorcerers get to choose their Sorcerous Origin at level 1 and Divine Soul is like being a Cleric but you get to dump your Wisdom because you’re blind to morality. You get one free spell from your Divine Magic and I guess Bless makes sense since its attached to Law? Honestly there are other spells I’d recommend (Protection from Evil and Good would be helpful, and you can’t go wrong with either Healing Word or Guiding Bolt) but it’s honestly easier to just take Bless and call it there.

But of course since you get Divine Magic that means you get Spellcasting! You learn 4 cantrips from the Sorcerer list at level 1 such as Firebolt to smite the wicked, Sacred Flame for enemies with a lot of armor (but hopefully bad Dexterity), Thaumaturgy to make sure your words are heard, and Guidance because it’s good to provide aid to those who need it.

You also learn two spells from the Sorcerer list: we’ll be taking Mage Armor for the same reason you buy Doran’s Shield as a top laner (because laning phase sucks and you’re weak as hell at level 1), and we’ll also grab Healing Word for your Celestial Blessing. As a treat.

You are also Favored by the Gods, so if you miss an attack roll or fail a saving throw you can add 2d4 to the roll to potentially turn it into a success. Given that you’ll likely be making a lot of attack rolls later in this build it’s very useful to be able to give yourself some insurance.

LEVEL 2 - SORCERER 2

Second level Sorcerers get a Font of Magic for Sorcery Points equal to your Sorcerer level. For now all you can really do with them is get one of your spell slots back, but they’ll be more useful later on.

For something that’s useful right now take Ice Knife for the AoE burst of your Starfire Spellblade. Yes it does Cold damage, but you also shouldn’t have an AoE E by level 2. Hell you technically shouldn’t even be a ranged champion yet. We have to make compromises here.

If you want a single target Starfire Spellblade Guiding Bolt is a decent choice I suppose.

LEVEL 3 - SORCERER 3

Third level Sorcerers gain the power of the Aspects thanks to Metamagic. You learn two Metamagic options to change your spells in various ways: Quickened Spell will let you increase your attack speed to slay the unjust with Zealous fervor, and while it’s perhaps not the most practical choice Transmuted Spell will let you wield holy fire, instead of holy ice or whatever other damage type you pick up.

If you don’t care about doing specifically fire damage than Empowered Spell is a good choice to more effectively maximize damage.

As a Protector Aasimar your Radiant Soul lets you sprout wings as an action. For 1 minute you have a 30 foot flying speed and can add your Charisma modifier as Radiant damage to one target whenever you deal damage. It might not be much at level 3 but the extra damage from Starfire Spellblade adds up when you get more AP! Oh and to top it off you can also learn another spell like Misty Step, for Flash.

LEVEL 4 - SORCERER 4

4th level Sorcerers get the first of many Ability Score Improvements. Increase your uneven Charisma score as well as your Constitution score for nice, even, Lawful stats.

You can also learn another cantrip like Message to keep in team chat, as well as a leveled spell like Spiritual Weapon. Kayle summons hundreds of swords for her ultimate so I think it’s fine if you summon one sword for some more DPS.

LEVEL 5 - SORCERER 5

Normally I wouldn’t go out of my way to get 5th level spells but we kinda need Fly more than once per Long Rest. Sprout those wings or grant the gift of angelic ascension to an ally!

The bad witch Tasha also gave Sorcerers Magical Guidance, letting you spend a Sorcerery Point to reroll a failed ability check.

(Artwork by Zeen Chin. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - PALADIN 1

I swear it wasn’t my intention to make two casters with Paladin levels one after another, but we’re doing it anyways because it’s not like Kayle wouldn’t be a Paladin. First level Paladins get Divine Sense to know of any villains who need justice, and Lay on Hands to save the righteous.

LEVEL 7 - PALADIN 2

Second level Paladins get to choose their Fighting Style. Normally I’d take Blessed Warrior for a character who’s more-or-less a pure caster but you kinda get too many Cleric cantrips as is, so we’ll settle for good ol’ Defense because you can’t go wrong with +1 AC.

Protection and Interception are also fine to help your friends if you’re willing to hold onto a shield (no reason not to), and if you want to do a funny joke you can take Blind Fighting because Justice is Blind.

But of course what we’re mostly here for is Spellcasting: sure you got the entire Cleric list at your disposal but Sorcerer spells known is very limited, so take the following from the Paladin list:

Command to force evildoers to grovel at your feet.

Detect Evil and Good to... detect evil and good.

Protection from Evil and Good to... yeah this is fairly obvious too.

Heroism to empower heroes.

Shield of Faith to protect the righteous.

You also get Divine Smite, which sure would be nice if you used your sword as a melee weapon. I mean if you want to hit someone in melee you can turn a spell slot into damage but I kinda have to wonder why would you.

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 3

Third level Paladins get to choose their Sacred Oath. Honestly just about any Paladin Oath would work for Kayle, but an Oath of Redemption would probably be best after you failed to upkeep justice the first time. Along with adding Sanctuary and Sleep to your spell list you also get two Channel Divinity options: if you go for Emissary of Peace you can add a flat +5 to all your Persuasion checks for 10 minutes. But Rebuke the Violent works great as a recreation of Divine Judgment’s damaging effect! When a creature within 30 feet of you damages someone other than you they must make a Wisdom saving throw after you use this reaction. If they fail they will take the same amount of damage they dealt as Radiant damage, and if they succeed they will take half. This has no maximum limit so you can use it when an enemy nukes your allies to have them experience retribution! "Drown in holy fire!"

The vial witch Tasha also lets you Harness Divine Power with your Channel Divinity to regain a spell slot equal to half your proficiency bonus once per Long Rest. And finally you get Divine Health, because justice doesn’t take sick days.

(Artwork by John Yucedag. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get another Ability Score Improvement so cap off that Charisma modifier, because we’re building AP in this build. Maxed out Charisma also means more prepared spells, but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins get an Extra Attack which sure would matter if you were actually swinging that sword instead of shooting Fire Bolts and Sacred Flames.

But what does matter is that you get second level Paladin spells! Along with Hold Person and Calm Emotions from the Redemption spell list (you should perhaps cast Calm Emotions on yourself at some point?) you can prepare spells like Aid to boost yourself and your allies, and Warding Bond (Tasha’s work once again) to take some damage for an ally. (Which is almost like making them immune to damage?)

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 6

The only reason to multiclass into Paladin as a caster would be for Aura of Protection. Seeing as your Charisma modifier is maxed out already that means that you (and your allies within 10 feet) can add +5 to all their saving throws! I really don’t think I need to explain why that’s useful: your Constitution saves are now a +11 (meaning that if you take 22 damage or less you automatically succeed the Concentration check) and even your lowest save is still a +4!

You can also prepare one last spell but I’m actually going to take this time to remind you that Paladins are prepared spellcasters. Even though you have a relatively limited amount of Paladin spells be sure to swap them around to whatever’s the most useful for your task at hand. But if you must pick up a spell Detect Magic is never bad to have?

(Artwork by Alex “alexplank” Flores. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 12 - SORCERER 6

Now that the obligatory Paladin levels are done it’s time to go back to Sorcerer. Hope your party didn’t expect you to be the support because you’re only now getting Empowered Healing to spend a Sorcery point and reroll any healing that you or an ally within 5 feet performs. I mean by total level 12 healing numbers will actually get pretty big, so this becomes a lot more useful!

But speaking of healing we’ll be getting not that but Haste instead. While you can’t use it too well (can only use it to make a weapon Attack, Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object) you can turn your allies into an avenging angel! As long as you can keep your Concentration which I mean... you have a +11 to your CON save.

LEVEL 13 - SORCERER 7

Unfortunately there’s no spell to make someone completely immune to damage for one round (while also still letting them move as normal except the 9th level spell Invulnerability that you can only cast on yourself) so we’ll just have to settle for Death Ward keeping the target you cast this on alive after reaching 0 HP. No rain of holy swords either unfortunately.

LEVEL 14 - SORCERER 8

8th level Sorcerers get an Ability Score Improvement and I think it’s about time for us to grab Metamagic Adept for 2 more Sorcery points to use on your Metamagic options like Twinned Spell to spread your wrath amongst all, and Careful Spell to avoid hurting those allied to your cause.

Speaking of AoE damage Vitriolic Sphere may do Acid damage but it’s a great recreation of the AoE damage of a high level Starfire Spellblade.

LEVEL 15 - SORCERER 9

Behold the might of 5th level spells! Remember how I was a little disappointed that you didn’t have the ability to make flaming swords rain down from the sky? Here you go: Flame Strike! Sure it basically does the damage of Fireball (and hey feel free to grab Fireball if you’re so inclined) but it has the holy flair that’s to be expected of Kayle.

If you want something more interesting than “Radiant damage Fireball” Dawn is also a good spell choice.

LEVEL 16 - SORCERER 10

10th level Sorcerers get another Metamagic option! Seeing as weve already got plenty thanks to Metamagic Adept one of the few options left is Heightened Spell to make sure your foes tremble beneath your might! You can also grab another cantrip like Prestidigitation for more generalized divine power.

And finally there’s also plenty of great spells you can take but Dispel Evil and Good probably fits Kayle the best. Now is a great time to remind everyone that you’re more than welcome to make your own Kayle, and while what I take may be “accurate” it’s not even necessarily what I’d build if I was making the character.

(Artwork by West Studio. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 17 - SORCERER 11

11th level Sorcerers can finally ascend! I hope you kept your Paladin weapons because it’s time for Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise! Calling upon the power of the Upper Planes (or lower planes too I guess if you’re awful) you get:

Resistance to Radiant and Necrotic damage (which you already have. Oops.) (I mean Lower Planes would make you immune to Fire and Poison damage...)

Immunity to the Charmed condition.

A 40 foot flying speed.

+2 AC

The ability to use your Charisma to attack, meaning that you can finally swing a sword well!

And the ability to attack twice, which you already have.

And the cool part is that unlike Tenser’s Transformation you can cast spells and don’t Exhaust yourself after using this spell! If you want to finally use your Paladin levels to bright the fight to your opponents you finally have the power to do so!

LEVEL 18 - SORCERER 12

12th level Sorcerers get another Ability Score or Feat and I’m simply going to suggest the Tough feat. Even if Kayle doesn’t usually build health in League you can, and d6 hit die suck when it comes to actually surviving.

What? Did you expect another spell known? Nah fuck you lmao WoTC says no to Sorcerers having spells.

LEVEL 19 - SORCERER 13

13th level Sorcerers can learn 7th level spells and while this may seem like a copout I have none that I really want for Kayle. Pick whatever you think would be the coolest since you can make your own choices by level 19. (My personal vote for Kayle would be Fire Storm but you are kinda loading up on AoE spells.)

LEVEL 20 - SORCERER 14

Our final level is the 14th level of Divine Soul Sorcerer to finally ascend. You have Otherworldly Wings for a permanent 30 foot flying speed! You did it! You reached max level as Kayle! You’re now unstoppable!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Kneel before the light! - Your spells known go up to 7th level, and your spell slots go up to 9th. I really don’t think I have to explain that a full leveled caster is extremely powerful.

What is dark in me, I will illuminate - Even your non-spellcasting has great utility. Both your Channel Divinity options are extremely useful, and a little bit of Lay on Hands healing never hurt anyone. Not to mention your Aasimar transformation providing a flat +20 to damage every turn while it’s active!

I am your salvation! - Even if you aren’t running up in melee range Paladin levels do help a ton for staying alive. +5 to all saves is no joke, especially when it means that your Concentration save sits at a whopping +13! (You have to take more than 26 damage to even have a chance at failing your Concentration check!)

CONS

Why have we wings, sister, if not to fly? - You’d think a high Charisma would at least make you good at socializing but... no you’re not even that. Proficiency in the “mean” Charisma skills and mediocre ability scores in everything other than Charisma means you’ll contribute very little other than divine wrath.

Wings of Immortal Flame, lift me from mortal temptation! - How much flight is too much flight? Between your Radiant Soul, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise, and you know... the Fly spell you have quite a lot of ways to take to the skies which all become near-completely redundant by level 20.

Celestial justice, guide my blade - Ironically enough one of the biggest issues with this build is how long it takes to get online. The Paladin dip may keep you safe but it’s not making you stronger, and I doubt you’ll be sitting beside your friends like a support. If you don’t mind praying to darker powers Genie Warlock is actually a great choice to get considerably more damage (and “attack speed!”) with Eldritch Blast and easily accessible flight by level 6 in Warlock. (Celestial Warlock also exists if you want more healing utility and want to stay in flavor.)

Of course weakness is something to shed as you come closer to divinity, but remember that even if mortality makes you weak mortals are not. Your allies will fight by your side and its your duty to protect them, as they shall no doubt protect you. Treat them with respect and vanquish evil together! Because no one likes a lawful stupid top laner.

(Artwork by Atey Ghailan. Made for Riot Games.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Kayle #angel #avenging #avenging angel #light #wrath #dnd sorcerer #dnd paladin #Pentakill

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karnsteinreview · 5 years ago

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Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Carmilla on Goodreads

Release Year: 1872

Format I Read: audio dramatization (previously read the ebook)

Length: 2h 22m

Genres: Horror, Gothic, Vampires

This review is going to be a little different.

Since we’re in the midst of spooky season and Halloween is less than a week away as I’m writing this, I decided now would be a good time to reread and discuss this book. The fact that audible is giving away a dramatization of this book for subscribers also helped, and though I’ve read Carmilla before, the dramatization is the version I went with for the reread. The dramatization is really good, all the actors are wonderful and Rose Leslie in particular really said gay rights with her performance.

Carmilla is a book that I’m always surprised by the people who do know what it is and the people who don’t. I feel like it has gotten a lot more recognition over the past few years with the web series of the same name being pretty popular among internet gays, but even some people who watched that web series didn’t realize that it was based on a novella from the 1800s (though it said as much in the credits).

In case you don’t know, Carmilla is a novella that revolves around a young woman named Laura who lives in Styria with her father, and under weird circumstances they take in a house guest: Carmilla, a girl who appears to be of a similar age as Laura. Assumptions can be made when I say that this is a vampire story, and its ones that predates Dracula by several decades. It’s also very gay and the namesake of this very blog you’re reading now.

I don’t think spoilers really ruin the book, and I think a lot of the “spoilers” that I’m going to discuss are rather obvious, but here is your one and only spoiler warning. Normally I’d be more careful, but as I said, this is a different sort of review.

Given that I named my blog Karnstein Review, after the Duchess Karnstein herself, it should be fairly obvious that I adore this book. It’s a book I knew at least hinted at some sort of sapphic relationship between Laura and Carmilla, but when I’d first read it, I assumed it would just be hints. And subtle hints at that. It was written in the 1870s, after all. Well, it’s very very very gay. I’m not sure how else to describe it other than that. The gayness is not only overt, they blatantly discuss love and romance and kiss each other. It’s a lot more than I expected from a 19th book.

But, I also have to acknowledge that it is a 19th century book about a lesbian, and it’s one written by a man nonetheless. Things don’t end well for Carmilla and Laura’s relationship, and there’s pretty intense judgement on any kind of sexual feelings, much less sexual feelings between two women. The message that Carmilla’s seduction of Laura is wrong and immoral is as blatant as her seduction of Laura is. So why do I like this book so much?

Well, for one thing, I’ve always been a sucker for vampire stories (my god I only realized that pun after I wrote it). I think that a lot of queer people who grew up with religious backgrounds are drawn to vampires and vampire stories, and there’s a reason for that. Particularly with these older stories like Carmilla and Dracula, one of the major themes of vampire stories is sexual fear, desires, and moralizing about those things. Vampires represent something that we are told is dangerous. Something that can kill us and even hurt our very soul. Vampires will seduce you and take something from you that you need to live a normal happy life. They may even steal your salvation. In Carmilla when I was rereading it, I noted that her need for blood is never described as thirst or hunger. It’s called lust, specifically “lust for living blood.” Many who grew up with feelings for people of the same gender have been told similar things about those feelings. Vampires are those feelings. And these vampire stories were often written specifically to express and moralize about sexual feelings. Of course vampire stories are attractive to us.

With Carmilla the sexual moralizing plain, and it would definitely not be something I let fly in a modern book, but there’s something strangely familiar about it here. The book is told from Laura’s perspective, and she herself described her confusing and intense feelings for Carmilla. She’ll say she’s in love with Carmilla and repulsed by Carmilla in the same sentence and it doesn’t feel like a lie either time. She’ll be clearly very troubled by Carmilla’s overt flirtation and courting, but also keep doing things that put her close to Carmilla. She’ll keep flirting back and keep acknowledging the feelings that she has. It’s paradoxal, but it’s a familiar feeling. It’s someone just realizing that they have feeling for someone of their same gender and being very, very troubled by what that means. Laura’s words and thoughts feel very familiar to me, and I don’t think that J. Sheridan Le Fanu was purposely trying to accurately portray my own gay panic, yet he definitely did.

I don’t think that Carmilla is the perfect story. I keep imagining all the ways in which I’d like to rewrite it, which all involve me just giving Carmilla and Laura a happy ending, but I think it’s an important to the history of gay fantasy and horror. I also think that it’s a story that can still mean a lot and speak to queer people today, as evidenced by the very popular web series adaptation of it. It’s a book I would happily suggest, but it’s also a book I’d suggest you know what it is going in. It’s a lesbian vampire story written in the 1800s, and all the implications that come with that are true.

#carmilla #booklr #queer horror #queer fantasy #queer sff #lgbt fantasy #lgbt horror #lgbt sff #queer books #sapphic #sapphic books

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years ago

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Watchmen - Movie blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. if you haven’t seen this movie yet, you may want to before reading this review)

A movie adaptation of Watchmen had been in development in some form or another since the graphic novel was first published back in 1987. Over the course of its two decade development cycle, being passed from filmmaker to filmmaker who each had their own vision of what a Watchmen movie should be, fans objected to the idea of a movie adaptation, describing Watchmen as ‘unfilmmable.’ Alan Moore himself condemned the effort to adapt his work, saying that Watchmen does things that can only be done in a comic book. But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and in 2009, Watchmen finally came to the big screen, directed by Zack Snyder.

I confess it took me a lot longer to write this review than I intended and that’s largely because I wasn’t sure how best to approach it. Snyder clearly has a lot of love and respect for the source material and tried his best to honour it as best he could. Snyder himself even said that he considers the film to be an advert for the book, hoping to get newcomers interested in the material. So how should I be looking at this film? As an adaptation or as an artistic tribute? More to the point, which of the three versions of the film should I be reviewing? The original theatrical cut, the director’s cut or the ultimate cut? Which best reflects Snyder’s artistic vision?

After much pondering, I decided to go with the director’s cut. The theatrical release was clearly done to make studio execs happy by keeping the runtime under three hours, but it comes at the cost of major plot points and character moments being chucked away. The ultimate cut however comes in at a whopping four hours and is arguably the most accurate to the source material as it also contains the animated Tales Of The Black Freighter scenes. However these scenes break the narrative flow of the film and were clearly not intended to be part of the final product, being inserted only to appease the fans. The director’s cut feels most like Snyder’s vision, clocking in at three and half hours and following the graphic novel fairly closely whilst leaving room for artistic licence.

Now as some of you may know, while I’m not exactly what you would call a fan of Zack Snyder’s work, I do have something of a begrudging respect for him due to his willingness to take creative risks and attempt to tell more complex, thought provoking narratives that don’t necessarily adhere to the blockbuster formula. Films like Watchmen and Batman Vs Superman prove to me that the man clearly has a lot of good ideas and a drive to really make an audience think about what they’re watching and question certain things about the characters. The problem is that he never seems to know how best to convey those ideas on screen. In my review of Batman Vs Superman, I likened him to a fire hose. Extremely powerful, but unless you’ve got someone holding onto the thing with both hands and pointing it in the right direction, it’s just going to go all over the place. I admire Snyder’s dedication and thought process, but I think the fact that his most successful film, Man Of Steel, also happens to be the one he had the least creative influence on speaks volumes. When he’s got someone to work with and bounce ideas off of, he can be a creative force to be reckoned with. Left to his own devices however, and his films tend to go off the rails very quickly.

Watchmen is very much Snyder’s passion project. You can tell a lot of care and effort went into this. The accuracy of the costumes, staging and set designs speak for themselves. However there is an underlying problem with Snyder trying to painstakingly recreate the graphic novel on film. While I don’t agree with the purists who say that Watchmen is ‘unfilmmable’, I do agree with Alan Moore’s statement that there are certain aspects of the graphic novel that can only work in a graphic novel. A key example of this is its structure. Watchmen has the luxury of telling its non-linear narrative over twelve issues in creative and unorthodox ways. A structure that’s incredibly hard to translate into any other medium. A twelve episode TV mini-series might come close, but a movie, even a three hour movie, is going to struggle due to the sheer density of the material and the unconventional structure. Whereas the structure of the graphic novel allowed Alan Moore to dedicate whole chapters to the origin stories of Doctor Manhattan and Rorschach and filling in the gaps of this alternate history, the structure of a movie doesn’t really allow for that. And yet Snyder tries really hard to follow the structure of the book even though it simply doesn’t work on film, which results in the movie coming to a screeching halt as the numerous flashbacks and origin stories disrupt the flow of the narrative, causing it to stop and start constantly at random intervals, like someone kangarooing in a rundown car.

Just as Watchmen the graphic novel played around with the common tropes and framing devices of comics, Watchmen the movie needed to play around with the common tropes and framing devices of comic book movies. To Snyder’s credit, there are moments where he does do that. The most notable being the first five minutes where we see the entire history of the world of Watchmen during the opening credits while ‘The Times They Are A-Changing’ is played in the background. This is legitimately good. It depicts the rise and fall of the superhero in a way only a movie can. I wish Snyder did more stuff like this rather than restricting himself to just recreating panels from the graphic novel.

Which is not to say I think the film is bad. On the contrary, I think it’s pretty damn good. There’s a lot of things to like about this movie. The biggest, shiniest gold star has to go to Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. While the movie itself was divisive at the time, Haley’s portrayal of Rorschach was universally praised as he did an excellent job bringing this extreme right wing bigot to life. He has become to Rorschach what Ryan Reynolds is to Deadpool or what Mark Hamill is to the Joker. He is the character (rather tragically. LOL). To the point where it’s actually scary how similar Haley looks to Walter Kovacs from the graphic novel. The resemblance is uncanny.

Another standout performance is Jeffery Dean Morgan as the Comedian. Just as depraved and unsavoury as the comic version, but Morgan is also able to inject some real charm and pathos into the character. You believe that Sally Jupiter would have consensual sex with him despite everything he did to her before. But his best scene I think was his scene with Moloch (played by Matt Frewer) where the Comedian expresses regret for all the terrible things he did. It’s a genuinely emotional and impactful scene and Morgan manages to wring some sympathy out of the audience even though the character doesn’t really deserve it. But that’s what makes Rorschach and the Comedian such great characters. Yes they’re both depraved individuals, but they’re also fully realised and three dimensional. They feel like real people, which is what makes their actions and morals all the more shocking.

Then there’s Doctor Manhattan, who in my opinion stands as a unique technical achievement in film. The number of departments that had to work together to bring him to life is staggering. Visual effects, a body double, lighting, sound, it’s a truly impressive collaborative effort, all tied together by Billy Crudup’s exceptional performance. He arguably had the hardest job out of the whole cast. How do you portray an all powerful, emotionless, quantum entity without him coming across as a robot? Crudup manages this by portraying Manhattan as being less emotionless and more emotionally numb, which makes his rare displays of emotion, such as his shock and anger during the TV interview, stand out all the more. It’s a great depiction that I don’t think is given the credit it so richly deserves.

Which leads into something else about the movie, which will no doubt be extremely controversial, but I’m going to say it anyway. I much prefer the ending in the film to the ending in the book.

Hear me out.

In my review of the final issue of Watchmen, I said I didn’t like the squid because of its utter randomness. The plot of the movie however works so much better both from a narrative and thematic perspective. Ozymandias framing Doctor Manhattan makes a hell of a lot more sense than the squid. For one thing, it doesn’t dump a massive amount of new info on us all at once. It’s merely an extension of previously known facts. We know Ozymandias framed Manhattan for giving people cancer to get him off world. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine the world could also buy that Manhattan would retaliate after being ostracised. We also see Adrian and Manhattan working together to create perpetual energy generators, which turn out to be bombs. It marries up perfectly with the history of Watchmen as well as providing an explanation for why there’s an intrinsic field generator in Adrian’s Antarctic base. It also provides a better explanation for why Manhattan leaves Earth at the end despite gaining a newfound respect for humanity. But what I love most of all is how it links to Watchmen’s central themes.

Thanks to the existence of Doctor Manhattan, America has become the most powerful nation in the world to the point where its disrupted the global balance of power. This has led to the escalation of the Cold War with Russia as well as other countries like Vietnam being at the mercy of the United States. It also allowed Nixon to stay in office long after his two terms had expired. The reason the squid from the book is so unsatisfying as a conclusion is because you don’t buy that anyone would be willing to help America after the New York attack. In fact it would be more likely that Russia and other countries might take advantage of America’s vulnerability. Manhattan’s global attack however not only gives the whole world motivation to work together, it also puts America in a position where they have no choice but to ask for help because it was they that effectively created this mess in the first place. So seeing President Nixon pleading for a global alliance feels incredibly satisfying because we’re seeing a corrupt individual hoist by his own petard and trying to save his own skin, even if it comes at the cost of his power. America is now like a wounded animal, and while world peace is ultimately achieved, the US is now a shadow of its former self. It fits in so perfectly with the overall story of Watchmen, frankly I’m amazed Alan Moore didn’t come up with this himself.

It’s not perfect however. Since the whole genetic engineering stuff no longer exists, it makes the existence of Adrian’s pet lynx Bubastis rather perplexing. Also the whole tachyons screwing with Doctor Manhattan’s omniscience thing still doesn’t make a pixel of sense. But the biggest flaw is in Adrian Veidt’s characterisation. For one thing, Matthew Goode’s performance isn’t remotely subtle. He practically screams ‘bad guy’ the moment he appears on screen. He has none of the charm or charisma that the source material’s Ozymandias had. But it’s worse than that because Snyder seems to be going out of his way to uncomplicate and de-politicise the story and characters. There’s no mention of Adrian’s liberalism or his disdain for Nixon and right wing politics. The film never explores his obsession with displaying his own power and superiority over right wing superheroes like Rorschach and the Comedian. He’s just the generic bad guy. And I do mean bad guy. Whereas the graphic novel left everything up to the reader to decide who was morally in the right, the film takes a very firm stance on who the audience should be siding with. Don’t believe me? Just look at how Rorschach’s death is presented to us.

It’s very clear while watching the film that Zack Snyder is a big Rorschach fan. He gets the most screen time and there’s a lot of effort dedicated to his portrayal and depiction. And that’s fine. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. As I’ve mentioned before in previous blogs, Rorschach is my favourite character too. However it’s important not to lose sight of who the character is and what he’s supposed to represent, otherwise you run the risk of romanticising him, which is exactly what the film ends up doing. Rorschach’s death in the graphic novel wasn’t some heroic sacrifice. It was a realisation that he has no place in the world that Ozymandias has created, as well as revealing the hypocrisy of the character. In the extra material provided in The Abyss Gazes Also, we learn that, as a child, Walter supported President Truman’s use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and yet, in his adult life, he opposes Adrian’s plan. Why? What’s the difference? Well the people who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren’t American. They were Japanese. The enemy. In Rorschach’s mind, they deserved to die, whereas the people in New York didn’t. It signifies the flawed nature of Rorschach’s black and white view of the world as well as displaying the racist double standards of the character. Without the context of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Rorschach’s death becomes skewed. This is what ends up happening in the movie. Rorschach removes his mask and makes a bold declaration to Doctor Manhattan, the music swells as he is disintegrated, defiant to the last, and his best friend Nite Owl screams in anguish and despair.

In fact the film takes it one step further by having Nite Owl punch Adrian repeatedly in the face and accuse him of deforming humanity, which completely contradicts the point of Dan Dreiberg as a character. He’s no longer the pathetic centrist who requires a superhero identity to feel any sort of power or validation. He’s now the everyman representing the views of the audience, which just feels utterly wrong.

This links in with arguably the film’s biggest problem of all. The way it portrays superheroes in general. The use of slow motion, cinematography and fight choreography frames the superheroes and vigilantes of Watchmen as being powerful, impressive individuals, when really the exact opposite should be conveyed. The costumes give the characters a feeling of power, but that power is an illusion. Nite Owl is really an impotent failure. Rorschach is an angry bigot lashing out at the world. The Comedian is a depraved old man who has let his morals fall by the way side so he can indulge in his own perverse fantasies. They’re not people to be idealised. They’re to be at pitied at best and reviled at worst. So seeing them jump through windows and beating up several thugs single handed through various forms of martial arts ultimately confuses the message, as does the use of gratuitous gore and violence. Are we supposed to be shocked by these individuals or in awe?

Costumes too have a similar problem. Nite Owl and Ozymandias’ costumes have been updated so they look more imposing, which kind of defeats the purpose of them. The point is they look silly to us, the outside observers, but they make the characters feel powerful. That juxtaposition is lost in the film. And then there’s the Silk Spectre. In the graphic novel, both Sally and Laurie represent the changing attitudes of women in comics and in society. Both Silk Spectres are sexually objectified, but whereas Sally accepts it as part of the reality of being a woman, Laurie resists it, seeing it as demeaning. The only reason she wore her revealing costume in A Brother To Dragons was because she knew that Dan found it sexually attractive and she wanted to indulge his power fantasy. None of this is touched upon in the film, other than one passing mention of the Silk Spectre porn magazine near the beginning of the film. There’s not even any mention of how impractical her costume is, like the graphic novel does. Yes the film changes her look drastically, but it’s still just as impractical and could have been used to make a point on how women are perceived in comic book films, but it never seems to hinder her in anyway. It’s never even brought up, which is ridiculous. Zack Snyder’s reinterpretation of Silk Spectre is clearly meant to inject some form of girl power into the proceedings, as she’s presented as being just as impressive and kick-ass as the others, when the whole point of her character was to expose the misogyny of the comics industry at the time and how they cater to the male gaze. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the graphic novel did it perfectly, but it did it a hell of a lot better than this.

Die hard fans have described the film over the years as shallow and ‘style over substance.’ I don’t think that’s entirely fair. It’s clear that Zack Snyder has a huge respect for the graphic novel and wanted to do it justice. Overall the film has a lot of good ideas and is generally well made. However, as much as Snyder seems to love Watchmen, it does seem like he only has a surface level understanding of it, hence why the attention and effort seems to be going into the visuals and the faithfulness to Alan Moore’s attention to detail rather than the Watchmen’s story and themes. While the film at times makes some good points about power, corruption and morality, it doesn’t go nearly as far as the source material does and seems to shy away from really getting into the meat of any particular topic. Part of that I suspect is to do with marketability, not wanting to alienate casual viewers, but I think a lot of it is to do with it simply being in the wrong medium. I personally don’t think you can really do a story as complex and intricate as Watchmen’s justice in a Hollywood film. In my opinion, this really should have been a TV mini-series or something.

So on the whole, while I appreciate Snyder’s attempt at bringing the story of Watchmen to life and can see that he has the best intentions in mind, I don’t think this film holds a candle to the original source material.

#watchmen #dc #warner bros #zack snyder #review #spoilers

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whitefangworldbuilding · 5 years ago

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The Strength of Sienna Khan

I find the subject of how to address where Sienna is on the power scaling of Remnant to be both an interesting question and rather pertinent if one ever wants to write a fic about her and so I have provided my own breakdown on the matter below.

Opening:

Now, I certainly don't mean it in a "How much Ki does she have" or "Does her Semblance make her an S Class threat" or "She can move at Mach 5". No, I more mean it in a general scaling of, who would she measure up well against in a fair fight sense.

& obviously the answer should be "Whatever doesn't break established canon too much" (Unless an AU or what have you)

However, I do feel there is a sort of bare minimum that needs to be cleared based on what we've seen, but even more, what we know.

So, time for some grounds keeping:

Now I could go into how I doubt one rises to a position like Sienna's and survives being functionally at war with something like the SDC and presumably wanted in every nation save Menagerie and likely Vacuo without being badass, but given she has allies that only means so much, Jac certainly didn't survive based on his personal strength after all, so lets move on.

Someone might argue that anything beyond what we saw in Sienna's trailer (Sorry Adam's, but I digress) to not be applicable, however we only saw her fight once and it seems anyone not at mook level didn't really struggle in that fight so it is hard to get a gauge.

We can infer a lot from the fact that despite having her presumably elite guards, and six other soldiers, plus himself and potentially Hazel on side, Adam still chose to kill Sienna by surprise before she realized he didn't intend for her to step down. This can certainly give the impression that Adam did not feel confident he could defeat her either with that back up, or at least not without severe risks, but that still only gives us so much, because we don't know what those risks were.

Still, I think as a starting point as strong, or more likely stronger/better than Adam seems like a fairly reasonable place to start from based on that and the trailer.

But we can go deeper.

One integral thing to think about when considering where Sienna might be on the overall metric and scale is this.

Cinder didn't try to recruit or intimidate her.

Now, some might argue that "Sienna didn't exist before V4" or that "Adam was High Leader before V3" or what have you. I say this.

But I don't think it matters; not just because Sienna is canon, but because as far back as V1 when Blake imagined the shadow figures who replaced the previous leader, there was not just 1. This means that even if Adam was meant to be higher up than he eventually turned out to be he still would not have been alone, eh wither would have had contemporaries or superiors right from V1 and them needing to recruit in V2 and having such a small pool of forces in V/3 really doesn't give any eight to the idea Adam had the full resources of the Fang at his command.

(Though why the boss of a massive organization would be messing about on a train blowing shit up for the lols is beyond me, hence why I don't think he was ever the leader)

This means that regardless of whether Sienna the character, her design or background, ETC, did to didn't exist specifically before V4 doesn't matter because someone always existed in the WF who wasn't submitting to Cinder as Adam was and held a great deal of power.

So what does that mean?

Well what this means is that to reach a final conclusion we need to look at Cinder Fall and her involvement with the White Fang to reach a final conclusion.

So, Cinder is someone with the training of a skilled Huntress (Seemingly), had an assassin and hallucinogenic thief and fighter on her side, and the resources provided to her by Salem, but rather than going for the High Leader of the White Fang and thus potentially netting the entire organization, she went to Adam.

And we know it was intentional because Cinder knew who Adam would be, seemingly that he had an ego given her degree of flattery and she placed great emphasis on choosing him, meaning that give her intelligence on the WF, means she determined him the best.most likely candidate to agree that would be useful. Now this info wasn't perfect because it either failed to communicate Adam's ego effectively or the political situation in the WF, IE, that they would not be willing to work for a human like this, or at least not with her plan.

But by all of this we can determine Cinder had some moderately good Intel on the White Fang, so the question becomes...

Why not Sienna Khan? (Or whoever pre her creation, but yes Sienna Khan)

This next segment will involve a slight digression down, but please bear with me.

Cinder is someone not against bribery, flattery or threats to get what she wants, we saw all of this in her recruitment of Adam, so her avoiding this route with the WF's High Leader means a few things. Firstly it means she likely knew Sienna would not agree to such a destructive plan because it served no purpose; this objection could be moralistic or pragmatic, but Cinder would likely assume the latter given her general disposition and attitude.

But would she, would anyone object if it meant not dying? Would someone actually fight a doomed battle and die just to avoid being forced to commit a terrible act, or being subjected to slavery via threat? I doubt Cinder would believe that possible at least for someone who operates at Sienna's level in the world.

Here's the digression.

This was based off Cinder's interactions with Raven but it still feels applicable here. When Raven said that she wanted to kill her own brother, Cinder did not for a second seemingly doubt her, not even assuming something sneaky like an alliance of pragmatism to deal with her (Likely because she knows they fear Salem). No, Cinder just accepts that Raven wants her own brother dead, cheerfully in fact.

Now, say what you will about Raven but given she still has a portal to him & hasn't slit his throat while he was asleep, I think we can agree she, while willing to endanger Qrow, doesn't actively 'want' him dead or to murder him.

But Cinder was willing to accept that she did, and I feel its for much the same reason as one tumblr post mentioned. Cinder assumes everyone else is as petty and evil as she is. That might not be 100% accurate, but I think she'd definitely assume that of people like Raven, Sienna & Adam, even if she likely regards it in degrees, IE, Adam was the most likely to go along with her plan hence seeking him out.

End of digression.

This to me means that Cinder would not be acting on the assumption Sienna would object to her plans morally, or assuming that Sienna would sacrifice herself to stop them, because she likely thinks Sienna is incapable of such things.

So why wouldn't she seek her out and try to force Sienna's hand once she had half the Maiden powers? Cinder seems rather confident in the ability of power and fear to command respect and yet she didn't aim any higher than Adam despite the potential benefits.

Well given Adam was able to blits through her former guards relatively easily -though be it with a bit of shock given they didn't expect him to go that off the hook- this means to m that Sienna would be the major deciding factor here, not her guards or mooks, especially given Cinder can control Grimm and so could likely organize a Grimm attack to keep the grunts busy while she and her allies go for Sienna.

Thus, to me, this means that as far as Cinder was concerned , even with half the Maiden powers, her wonder minions and potentially Adam...

She still did not feel confident in taking down Sienna.

Or at least she was not confident in being able to force Sienna to surrender or to kill her quickly and turn her into a martyr without it being very blatantly clear that she did it, that Adam was a traitor, and generally just turning the entire WF against her or causing it to fracture apart defeating the purpose of the battle.

Given Cinder's ego likely means she has a fairly high bar before she feels threatened or like she couldn't pull off a "just as planned"; the only conclusion I can reach is that even after gaining the Maiden powers and potentially/likely/certainly Adam as an asset, Cinder still did not think she could overpower Sienna easily enough to either win, or at the very least accomplish her goals.

Conclusion

So, when we put all this together what do we get?

Well, we know that Sienna was at least a skilled fighter and one of at least comparable strength to Adam in the trailer.

We know that despite having her guards, back up and Hazel, Adam did not feel confident in either winning or at least not in a quick fight and so resorted to a sneak attack.

We can deduce that despite her powers and connections, Cinder did not feel she had adequate resources to either defeat Sienna and force her to heel, or kill her quickly and frame it on Vale to make Adam High Leader.

Thus, I reason, that Sienna Khan would likely have at the very least be stronger and more skilled than Adam, and could have put up a good fight even against partial Fall Maiden Cinder, Emerald & Mercury, enough that trying it would not be deemed worth the risks involved.

Exactly where you want to put Sienna's strength is obviously up to your own discretion, even if you follow this analyse there's still a lot of room for interpretation or extrapolation.

But I hope that this breakdown has proven insightful and well reasoned, thank you for your time.

Notes:

I almost wish I had made a video of this :D

Brainstorming Semblances could also be fun.

My main one for Sienna is that she has a 'crest' that she can store her Aura in, storing up potentially days, weeks, months or even years that when activated means she can drastically multiply her strength, sorta like Adam, Yang or Nora, but its pre-stored and has a massive gauge, This is the one I give her in the War idea (and in general) hence her being able to vaporize that cruiser, though using said Semblance can be hard, slow and painful and take a long time to recoup.

Other idea include Nine Lives, IE self Resurrection.

One idea I had in a fun little snippet I wrote ages back involved Sienna being able to forge a psychic link with animals, awakening their Aura, extra intelligence & having them fight along side her as her familiars. She had tigers :D

Another had her able to make solid, independent duplicates, or at least one that operated as an e extension of her, dividing her power in half, but letting her be in two places at once.

Another was tat she operated a bit like Cortez from X-Men, but in this case she basically cleaved off a chunk of her own Aura and infused it into others to give them extra strength and energy but could also return said power to herself if she wished to, weakening the, especially if they'd become dependent on her enhancements.

There's probably a lot of other ideas and if you folks have any I'd love to hear-em, but those are some thoughts.

#RWBY #Sienna Khan #Faunus #The White Fang #White Fang #Please bring her back RT #Sienna The Hero Queen Khan

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sonoilbastardo · 6 years ago

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FULL NAME: Easton Craven

PRONUNCIATION: /EES-tuhn CRAY-ven/ MEANING: Easton | Old English: eastern settlement or eastern town. Craven | Irish: anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Crabháin (‘descendant (or ‘son’) of Crabhán’); English: contemptibly lacking in courage; cowardly. REASONING: Stella Craven did not waste her time thinking of a name for a child that isn’t hers, unlike when her own darling baby boy was born, and she gave him the name Everett - which means brave as a wild boar. For her husband’s bastard boy, she refused to grant him a name, and so Gabriel shrugged his shoulders and simply wrote Easton on a piece of paper, feeling his heart sink as he wrote the last name Craven right after. This unfortunate boy will bear his name for as long as he lived, a reminder of his, Gabriel Craven’s, horrible mistake. NICKNAME(S): Edmund, East PREFERRED NAME(S): East BIRTH DATE: 30th March 1992 AGE: 26 ZODIAC: Aries GENDER: Male PRONOUNS: He/Him ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Heteroromantic SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Bisexual NATIONALITY: Italian ETHNICITY: Caucassian CURRENT LOCATION: Verona, Italy LIVING CONDITIONS: Comfortably living alone in a small villa with a terrace, garage, and a fireplace. Considerably smaller than the estate he grew up in, but prefers his own place than to live with his father (he already works with the man, he doesn’t want to live under the same roof as well.) TITLE(S): the shadow, il bastardo

BACKGROUND

BIRTH PLACE: Verona, Italy HOMETOWN: Verona, Italy SOCIAL CLASS: Upper-class EDUCATION LEVEL: Bachelor of Business Administration & Master of Business Administration from the University of Milan. FATHER: Gabriel Craven MOTHER: (unknown), Step-Mother: Stella Craven SIBLING(S): Everett Craven ( Half-brother ) BIRTH ORDER: 2nd for his father, unknown for his mother CHILDREN: None. PET(S): None. OTHER IMPORTANT RELATIVES: None. PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS: Two official. Both while in university. First one lasted three months, he was cheated on. Second one lasted two years. The woman is from another rich family, but in a much higher league than his, is brilliant and talented, and he felt intimidated by her command of language and intelligence. He broke up with her right before joining the mob. ARREST: Once when he was 22 years old, he crashed his car into a tiny storefront and he was arrested for drunk-driving. Was bailed out by Everett, and the store-owners dropped their lawsuit and were happy to settle. Everett didn’t really give them much of a choice anyways. PRISON TIME?: None.

OCCUPATION & INCOME

PRIMARY SOURCE OF INCOME: Working at his father’s legitimate hotel and wine businesses. He holds a key personnel position (operations manager), and while Stella disapproves of this, Gabriel could not deny that he is capable. SECONDARY SOURCE OF INCOME: The mob, as a Capulet soldier. Thanks to his Captain, Tiberius, most of the work he does are boring, to the point that he’s a “glorified personal assistant”. This jobs pays well regardless, almost at par with his job at his father’s companies. TERTIARY SOURCE(S) OF INCOME: Fighting. He earns money through underground fights that he participates in, though he has blown some of that money anyway for treatment of injuries he’s suffered from them. CONTENT WITH THEIR JOB (OR LACK THERE OF)?: No, wants to own his father’s entire company one way or the other, and wants to rank higher up in the mob. PAST JOB(S): None, was accepted into his father’s business right after college, and did not have to work for his tuition since his father paid for it all. SPENDING HABITS: Spends a lot of money on alcohol and cigarettes, likes to dress well and buys new clothes at least once a week, whenever he sees anything that he fancies. Sometimes pends money on good ingredients because he likes to cook Italian food, but often is too lazy to do this and would simply head down to one of the restaurants in hotels his father owns. Spends money on books as well, mostly poetry, and likes to collect first editions. MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION: Rare first edition of Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

PHYSICAL STRENGTH: Physically strong, but does not rely solely on it when he engages in fights. OFFENSE: Usually fights with open hands, which he believes are far more brutal than closed fists, using his body parts: elbows, knees, and others as weapons to deliver forceful strikes. Recently, as well, he has been mastering a new fighting style that allows him to make use of objects around him and allows him to fight in any given situation, a style with which one must also have a clear goal for his opponent: to kill? to maim? DEFENSE: Use of an opponent’s strength against them, which is something he learned as a child when he signed up for Judo as an extra-curricular. He has long since abandoned his formal Judo training for Muay Thai and most recently, Keysi, but this defensive technique could not be lost on him. SPEED: Quick on his feet, trusts his instincts. INTELLIGENCE: Easton has been blessed with a good head in his shoulders, but still somehow not a match for his half-brother’s. He did not graduate with any Latin honors, but did not have any difficulties in college whatsoever. That made it easy for him to deal with graduate school as well. He also enjoys reading, which sometimes surprises people, and he is somewhat a snob, preferring to read the classics and works of long dead poets. For the earlier years of his life he has been considerably sheltered, and only when he decided he did not need to impress his father anymore did he take to the streets of Verona and find Measure by Measure. ACCURACY: With the gun, fairly accurate. He likes to use his hands and fists in fights that let him channel his rage, but he’s had to learn how to shoot a gun for his job, and he can’t say he’s a champion marksman. AGILITY: Quite agile and coordinated, hyper-aware of his body parts and movements. STAMINA: High endurance. TEAMWORK: Considerably good, if he sees some use with teaming up. Most likely not good if forced to work together, and he does not see how he’d gain anything from it, and he would rather work alone in instances like these. Still completely loyal to himself only. TALENTS: Martial arts (from years of training as a child, and then later in underground fights), exceptional memory (helped him throughout college) and helps him keep up with work and the mob. SHORTCOMINGS: At times, lacks the “street-smart” attitude that someone working for a mob should have. LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: Italian, English. DRIVE?: Yes. JUMP-START A CAR?: Yes. CHANGE A FLAT TIRE?: Yes. RIDE A BICYCLE?: Yes. SWIM?: Yes. PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?: Used to. Learned piano to try and impress his father. PLAY CHESS?: Yes. BRAID HAIR?: No. TIE A TIE?: Yes. PICK A LOCK?: Yes. Just because he wanted to learn it.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE & CHARACTERISTICS

FACE CLAIM: Daniel Sharman EYE COLOR: Blue HAIR COLOR: Light brown HAIR TYPE/STYLE: A curly mop of hair GLASSES/CONTACTS?: None. DOMINANT HAND: Right. HEIGHT: 6′2 WEIGHT: 83 kg (183 lbs.) BUILD: Mesomorph EXERCISE HABITS: Jogs every morning before work, goes to the gym to train Muay Thai five to six times a week, goes down to Measure by Measure whenever he feels like it. SKIN TONE: Type II: white, fair TATTOOS: Lines of poetry on his left rib. PEIRCINGS: None. MARKS/SCARS: Birthmark on his lower back, looks like a misshapen heart. Scar on his right bicep, a small slash about two inches in length, from a knife fight with a gang member he was assigned to. NOTABLE FEATURES: That jawline? I mean? USUAL EXPRESSION: Either expressionless or scowling, eyes always intense and glaring. CLOTHING STYLE: Wears expensive suits to work. Wears leather jackets when not at work, along with jeans and boots. JEWELRY: Thin gold necklace always kept underneath clothes, simple columnar pendant. ALLERGIES: None. BODY TEMPERATURE: Normal? DIET: Lots of protein, moderate on carbs and fats, very minimal sweets. PHYSICAL AILMENTS: None.

PSYCHOLOGY

JUNG TYPE: ENTP ENNEAGRAM TYPE: Type 8; Active Controller MORAL ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral TEMPERAMENT: Choleric ELEMENT: Fire PRIMARY INTELLIGENCE TYPE: Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence APPROXIMATE IQ: 125+ MENTAL CONDITIONS/DISORDERS: None. SOCIABILITY: Fairly social when he believes it useful for him. EMOTIONAL STABILITY: Fairly stable. Is able to channel rage into “appropriate” avenues like fighting, rarely takes it out on anyone innocent. Is more likely to punch a wall than punch a person. OBSESSION(S): Getting revenge. Taking everything his father denied him. COMPULSION(S): Cursing. Sex and talking about it. PHOBIA(S): None. ADDICTION(S): Smoking. DRUG USE: Minimal. ALCOHOL USE: Occassional. PRONE TO VIOLENCE?: Yes

MANNERISMS

SPEECH STYLE: Low, throaty voice, always with a hint of arrogance. A slow drawl. He usually thinks carefully about what he says, and likes to speak in a “romantic” way that uses a variety of words showcasing his command of vocabulary. (Prime example of how he speaks is how Daniel Sharman speaks in Fear the Walking Dead. link ) ACCENT: Italian QUIRKS: Prone to reciting archaic lines of poetry both in Italian and English. HOBBIES: Aside from martial arts, reading poetry and reciting them. HABITS: Smokes to relieve stress. NERVOUS TICKS: Chewing the inside of his cheek, cracking his knuckles. DRIVES/MOTIVATIONS: The idea of being able to take everything away from his father and his brother. FEARS: That he dies before he attains his goal. POSITIVE TRAITS: Passionate, driven, independent, assertive, confident. NEGATIVE TRAITS: Self-absorbed, dishonest, materialistic, resentful, secretive, vengeful. SENSE OF HUMOR: Insensitive and crude. DO THEY CURSE OFTEN?: All the fucking time. CATCHPHRASE(S): None.

FAVORITES

ACTIVITY: Muay Thai. BEVERAGE: Black coffee. BOOK: You Get So Alone Sometimes That It Just Makes Sense by Charles Bukowski COLOR: Black. DESIGNER: Gucci. MODE OF TRANSPORTATION: Maserati Quattroporte MOVIE: V for Vendetta MUSICAL ARTIST: Queen QUOTE/SAYING: “I wanted the whole world or nothing.” SCENERY: Fights at Measure by Measure. SCENT: on himself | Hermès, on women | Yves St. Laurent (something that screams sophistication), in general | old books TELEVISION SHOW: Game of Thrones WEATHER: Autumn VACATION DESTINATION: places Game of Thrones have done filming in, tbh

ATTITUDES

GREATEST DREAM: To take control of his father’s empire and take control over Verona. GREATEST FEAR: Dying before he achieves his goal. MOST AT EASE WHEN: Alone and cooking up plans for his rise. LEAST AT EASE WHEN: Around his family or his family’s home. WORST POSSIBLE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN: Dying not only having his goals achieved, but dying with nothing left to his name. BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT: Being recognized as one of the most capable Capulet soldiers and soon after, promoted by his own father. BIGGEST REGRET: Wasting time and energy ever believing he would be fully and lovingly accepted by his father. MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: Begging an ex-girlfriend to come back to him even after she cheated. One of the lowest points in his life, ever. BIGGEST SECRET: That he sometimes wake up to dreams of his entire family dead by his hands. TOP PRIORITIES: Himself

#diveronatask #( about. edmund )#dio mio #finally #THIS TOOK A WHILE #{ about. edmund }

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thisweekingundamwing · 7 years ago

Text

This Week in Gundam Wing: October 22nd - 28th

Happy Sunday Gundam Wing Fandom!

We have tons of super awesome things for you to check out this week! Many many thanks to those who submitted and tagged us in content - it makes our job so much easier! The fandom is growing, and being part of that is a privilege and job to watch, but it does sometimes make it hard to keep up! If you’ve created something we missed, please feel free to let us know so we can feature you too!

Remember, if you find something you love, please please make sure you let the creator know how much you enjoyed it! Every little comment/like/reblog goes a long way towards fueling their desire to do more!

Thank you for all that you do, and keep submitting your great content to us!

This update was delayed by the Great Tumblr Crash of 2017, please accept our apologies!

-Mod CB

Below the cut!

Fanfiction:

(please take note of any warnings within the fics themselves, do not rely on this list as exhaustive)

@amberlyinviolet, @yourbloodlikewine

In This Light, Chapter 3: Eli

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12386715/chapters/28402484

Duo x OC, Trowa x OC, Solo x OC. AU, child abuse mention, Sexual Assault Mention, homophobic parents, Re-Written Characters, Drug Use, Violence, off screen murder

Duo spent the last semester working in his older brother's coffee shop. He's resigned himself to a boring spring when a stranger appears, shaking up his entire life.Eli left home last fall, choosing to spend the last six months living out of his van on his travels from the Midwest to the East Coast. By the time he arrives at Ink's, the novelty of traveling alone has started to wear off. Still, the last thing he's expecting is to meet someone who's going to change all that for him

@anaranesindanarie

Never Forget to Breathe

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12462762/chapters/28362603

2+5, 3x4, 1xR.

Accident, motorcycle, Drunk Driver, Injury, Recovery, Physical Therapy, Pain, Depression, Anger, Self-Hatred

An accident leaves him with a new outlook on life. After a long recovery period, he decides to travel the world, eventually settling down in a small college town to peruse a degree or three. There he runs into an old friend who he hasn't seen in years.

@chronicwhimsy

Saudade, Chapter 12: Fővárosi Nagycirkusz

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11352189/chapters/28440536

Eventual 3x4, 2+3 bromance throughout

Everyone is fed up of Trowa being useless so they take matters into their own hands. Trowa doesn’t handle it well.

@claraxbarton

This Feeling, Chapter 1

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12520764

2x6, eventual 2x3x6, slow burn, post canon, angst

A dozen years after the wars, Trowa is still trying to find a place for himself. A glimpse into the lives of Duo Maxwell and Zechs Merquise makes him wish for things he had never before considered.

@cosmostar

Desire Told In Colors, Chapter 16: Navy (Now Complete)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11227302/chapters/28488556

Zechs x Noin. AU, from sex to love, canon het relationship, heterosexual sex, unplanned pregnancy, violence, torture

"There were kisses printed all over his shirt, some playfully smeared, some carefully stamped, some surpassing touching his collarbone, too many for not being remembered. With a swift movement, he pulled off the shirt and found a message written on the back, the lipstick so red it made him think of blood: 'Call me.'" A 2017 Summer of Zechs submission. Color prompts.

@cynfinnegan

Omnibus, Chapter 5

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7373635/chapters/28558204

3x4

Another piece of Shatter Me inspired by a writing prompt.

Note that this fic is a collection of smaller bits, so please note individual chapter pairings and warnings.

@fadedsepia

SPF

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12532780

2x3x5, beach, one shot, innuendo, nudist!Wufei

Wufei, Trowa, and Duo discuss sunburn and beachwear.

Kaiser Chris

Fall of the Lightning Count

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12692159/1/Fall-of-the-Lightning-Count

Zechs Merquise the Lightning Count, a legendary MS Ace and hero of OZ. In July of AC 195, Zechs chose to commit treason against OZ, defying the Romefeller Foundation for honor in order to duel a Gundam. What Zechs did not predict that others would find fault with his actions, and strike him down for consorting with the Gundams. A mistake that cost him his life. (AU miniseries)

@kangofu-cb

Belonging

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12473872

1x2x5. Kinktober entry. PWP. Double penetration. Threesome

Heero and Duo help Wufei relax after a rough day at work.

Reflection

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12527160

2x?, Kinktober entry, mirrors, lingerie, mild kink, pwp, rimming

Duo comes home to a much-appreciated surprise.

LittleMouse

Warcraft, Chapter 2: Waking to Us

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12429339/chapters/28489976

AU, fantasy

Alternate Fantasy World - A world where people have ‘Talents’ that allow them to control certain elements. Different Talents can ‘Join’ to become a specific entity - some can heal, some can repair damage to land and buildings, some are weapons. The Talents you ‘Join’ with are called your Others. The perfect Joining is of five separate Talents. One lonely Fire Talent far to the North has given up waiting for his Others - good thing they haven’t stopped looking for him.

Lord Raa

Heero Sandwhich

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12594063/1/Heero-Sandwich

Nobody asked for this, especially not Heero Yuy, but here we are all the same. Prepare for a "comedy" with some adult content. If the chapters feel truncated, then you might want to look for a certain Fanfiction Forum on the (dot) net for a more complete experience.

Luvsanime02

Engage, Chapter 1

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12458772/chapters/28352415

Post-Series, Politics, Friendship, Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death, Government Upheaval, Language

The time has come for all of their plans to finally start being put into motion. This is the eighth story in Navigation, a fem!Heero series.

The Fullness of One’s Life

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12442440

Sally x Une. Kinktober entry. Fluff. Bathtub sex.

Une takes a bath after a long, difficult day, and Sally joins her.

Back Against The Wall

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12483552

2x3. Explicit. Kinktober entry. Exhibitionism.

“We’re just bros being bros and doing something 100% platonic, but somehow we’re turning each other on because of not-so-buried feelings for each other, and we can’t make it stop” sex. Trowa's tired of painting all day, but at least he has a nice distraction in the form of Duo Maxwell.

Tequila Toasts

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12483604

1x2. Kinktober entry. 69. Explicit sexual content. AU.

Duo's having some bad luck lately, but he'll feel better after hanging out with his ex, Heero Yuy.

With Words and Deeds

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12498892

Une x Treize. Kinktober entry. Mild kink. Mild sexual content. Boot fetish.

Une is a young woman, and when she puts on the uniform, she's a soldier. To Treize, she is both.

MaryDBlack

Life & Death, Chapter 4

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11788950/chapters/28386924

Duo x Harry, Harry x Tom Riddle, Harry x Voldemort. Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, Soulmates, non graphic sex, Rape/Non-con Elements, Reincarnation, Harry is Solo

We see a little of who Solo/Harry is/was. Mentions of child abuse.

Maldoror_Chant

Flayed Horses

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12458172

1x5. Angst. PTSD. Trauma. Depression. Suicidal thoughts.

Wufei found Heero a few months after the war had ended and spent over a year helping him find that end of the war for himself. It was...a lot of work. There were still no go zones and things they could not do together as a couple, but a museum should be safe enough-Wufei found Heero a few months after the war had ended.The war had ended. Ended. Ended.never ends never ends never ends never ends never ends never ends

The Arrangement, Chapter 39: The Distance Between Need and Want, Part II

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12131427/chapters/28523116

1x5. Veeery long fic ahoy, Not a romance per se, sex and violence, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Angst and Humor, Preventer missions, war-time missions, mature themes, mentions of torture, background threesome, communication and emotions are for pansies as far as the main character is concerned

Wufei, struggling with his demons, agrees to a wartime fling with Heero, no affection needed or wanted. But the 'arrangement' lasts and grows as they join the preventers. It could become a source of strength for both. If they let it.

The Source of all Things, Chapter 8: Intersection, Part I

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12121344/chapters/28556848

3x4, eventual 2x5, eventual 1x2x5. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Plot Twists, fairly graphic depiction of sex, Mild description of self-harm, Mathematical Magic, weird science, crones - Freeform, Magic and Technology brawling and eventually screwing, Eventual Threesome, Kinda, Insanity of arcane origin, The universe is a pile of marbles and other dubious allegories

Center, a planet where magic and technology blend. Or more accurately, fight tooth and nail. A planet of Sources, holes in our boring dimension letting through arcane power, chaos and pseudo-deities. In this hot-house of myths and very real dangers, Trowa and Quatre find a mysterious man at the end of a shamanic voyage. Portents suggest this Heero Yuy is crucial to Center’s survival. He’s important enough to have some interesting enemies after him, at any rate: a devious killer and thief called ‘Shinigami’, and a very irate Dragon. Beyond them looms an even greater threat. Indeed, the greatest of them all.

Megumi_L1

Mission Accepted: A Gundam Wing Fanfic, Chapter 7

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7682083/chapters/28450684

1xR. Love's Calling, Dangerous Deeds, Mild Language, Non-Explicit Sex,Low Violence

One year had gone by since the last time they had seen each other face to face, since the people of Earth and of the colonies had made a true peace with each other.Things had changed. It was safe to walk on the streets again. It was all right to voice one's opinions in public again. It was perfectly okay to live.But Heero had always been suspicious of this new existence. It was too peaceful. Those suspicions had led him to a new path, a new adventure, and the young woman next to him, wanting a break from her predictable new life, had decided to join him on that path....

Murshmallow

Mountebank

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12453362/1/Mountebank

AC 205- 25 year old Heero Yuy has been living comfortably in space for the past 5 years as an engineer named Dr. Odin Lowe Jr., heading the life support effort for the Mars Terraformation Project. When he is arrested for the disappearance of Foreign Minister Relena Darlian, he must prove his innocence, while tracking down the person responsible, from behind bars.

NEW *M* RATING

Dossier

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12449464/1/Dossier

Heero Yuy had spent time soul searching. He had spent time trying to be human. When his birth certificate is handed to him on a harddrive, he may have to do it all again. [1xR]

Mythical Rose

Andromeda, Chapter 1

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12482704/chapters/28413824

1x2, 3x4, 5x6.

Five years ago Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell met, fell in love and married. Three years of happiness was thrown away when Duo thought Heero had cheated on him. Now two years later, they meet again on the Battlestar Andromeda where Duo is Commander. Sent on a mission together, will they find their love is still there or will saving Earth finally tear them apart.

nagi_schwarz

Unknown Roads Lead Away from Home

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12528300

Stargate and Supernatural crossover. Part 23 of the Good Hunting series. Dark, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction

Rodney and the team's progress toward opening the gates of Atlantis is sidetracked by a child asking for food.

Nemesis13

The Trials and Tribulations of a High Society Shinigami

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12690364/1/The-Trials-and-Tribulations-of-a-High-Society-Shinigami

Duo was a very caring woman, an open book so to speak, always there to help those that needed it with a smile on hand. The problem was she was surrounded by insane men who needed to be watched over like kids and her fellow women left her to it. Resigning herself to being the team mom Duo did her best, but she hadn't planned on Heero admitting he loved her. Things are weird now…

@noelleian

Leather and Cream, Chapter 1

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12488244/chapters/28427404

3x4, 1x2x3x4x5. Fivesome - M/M/M/M/M, Smut, BDSM, Fluff and Smut, Sex Toys, Spanking, Rough Sex, Restraints, Pet Names, Aftercare, Rimming, Crack Treated Seriously, Dom/sub Play

In a strangely Freudian fashion, the purpose of such an experience was to know your own mortality. To knock the human ego down a few pegs and remind yourself that no, you are not infallible. To feel the terror of losing control while hidden safely behind a fortress built from steel and mortar. It was like staring Death straight in the eyes and knowing that it wasn't your time. Your body, your life, your soul, placed in the hands of those who would lay down their own to protect them.It was, to put it bluntly, the best of both worlds.

Relena For President

Civil Wars

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12500874/1/Civil-Wars

A.C. 210. Four years after the end of his marriage, Heero Yuy finds himself on a familiar, destructive path. Will it lead to redemption, or pure revenge? [1xR/broken pairing]

Red Moon Rise

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12593127/1/Red-Moon-Rise

A.C. 213. Heero and Relena are reunited after months apart and, at long last, planning a future together. But, as all too often with this fated pair, complications never fail to arise... Sequel to "Red Moon Glow."

@renmaxwell, @shinigami-of-excellence

We Don’t Belong, Chapter 3

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12353439/chapters/28336371

Alliance won AU, gundam pilots lost, oz lost, white fang lost, just everyone lost except the alliance, Sexual Slavery, Pedophilia, because let's be real these pilots are still 15, Forced Prostitution, Forced Sex, yes i'll tag them when they happen, Quatre isn't a sissy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, romefeller is a huge player here, angst for YEARS, just so much angst, Dark, Execution, Alternate Universe - Dark

A look into Wufei's new life, with a terrible surprise. The one who would long to be his savior is now just like him and forced into despicable actions. When the would-be savior fails to even do that, torturous punishments follow.

This chapter contains graphic descriptions of rape

Relena’s Glam Squad

The Edge of Oblivion

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10163755/1/The-Edge-of-Oblivion

Heero Yuy returns after a 10-year absence, and much has changed. Meanwhile, the abandonment of large scale weapons didn't end all wars. All it did was lead to the rise of new weapons. Biochemical ones. When that happens, even the best kept secrets can have deadly consequences. [Rating has been changed for violence and adult themes]

Shadow-Hawk2

Imperial Guard

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12559874/1/Imperial-Guard

Duo Maxwell is trapped in another part of the galazy far from all that he knows and the woman he loves. He must learn to survive among primitive violent people and accept that he may never be able to return to Earth.

Shini02

Connect the Space Between, Chapter 2: Salvage

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12462054/chapters/28361337

AU, Crossover with Transformers

One man's trash is another's treasure.

Strawberrywaltz

The Forgotten, Chapter 13 (Now Complete)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11686344/chapters/28344810

1x4, past 3x4, implied rape/non-con, amnesia, abuse

The entire universe thinks that Quatre Winner is dead, but when Heero starts having strange black-outs he begins to realize the rumors of Quatre's death might not be true.

Sylvieforaday

They Say it was a Concussion, Chapter 10

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12347688/chapters/28382840

2x6. AU. Surgeon Zechs. Dancer Duo.

Duo takes a spill and Zechs is just what the doctor ordered.

Moving On

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12529256/chapters/28531688

2x5. Angst, Hurt/Comfort, eventual smut, mention of past sexual abuse, past character death

Duo is trying to find his place in his own world without his crutch - Heero Yuy.

Synthesis

Soldier of OZ: Walker’s Account

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7977074/1/Soldier-of-OZ-Walker-s-Account

In AC 195, five Gundams come to Earth in Operation 'M', testing the strength, virtue and intelligence of officers and soldiers of the world's armed forces. After failing his first encounter, one ex-engineer has a chance at a better outcome, and takes it. An effort to reconcile 'Gundam Wing' with 'The Glory of Losers', from the perspective of those in OZ.

TheManwell

May Demons Rest, Chapter 29: The Contract, and Chapter 30: Cleansing

http://archiveofourown.org/works/10944786/chapters/28475736

2x3, post-canon, bad language, underage drinking, suicidal thoughts

A re-write of my 2004 fanfic "Shinigami Sleeps" - To find and free Duo from his demons, Trowa leaves his uneventful life at the circus for the mean streets of an obscure colony in L2.

Snippets

@amberlyinviolet

https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/amberlyinviolet/166746291404

@claraxbarton

http://claraxbarton.tumblr.com/post/166786678750/wip-wednesday-from-an-angsty-hopefully-smutty

@kangofu-cb

https://kangofu-cb.tumblr.com/post/166802586037/wip-wednesday

https://kangofu-cb.tumblr.com/post/166856627484/happy-hour-so-claraxbarton-suggested-cocktail

https://kangofu-cb.tumblr.com/post/166764577257/youve-been-fic-tagged-share-a-few-lines-from-a

@lifeaftermeteor :

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166894505417/an-these-next-few-take-place-over-the-course-of

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166749934674/spoilers-lam-next-gen-pt1

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166749950869/spoilers-lam-next-gen-pt2

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166749982359/spoilers-lam-next-gen-pt3

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166654396842/winner-family-compound-outskirts-of-douz-tunisia

@maevemauvaise

http://maevemauvaise.tumblr.com/post/166895175271/youve-been-fic-tagged-share-a-few-lines-from-a

@vegalume

http://vegalume.tumblr.com/post/166797758640/wip-wednesday

Fanart

@alpha2nd2006

http://alpha2nd2006.tumblr.com/post/166498596662/inktober-day-17 Inktober Pilots Mashup - Clothing Swap

@drkstars-art

https://drkstars-art.tumblr.com/post/151774942317/inktober2016-number-13-ive-been-wanting-to-draw Grown Up Cathy

@gundamwing-ellesmith

http://gundamwing-ellesmith.tumblr.com/post/166872401739/voyeurism-dx1-theres-a-story-behind-this-which-i DX1 NSFW 'Storyboard' art

@jamyuyu

http://jamyuyu.tumblr.com/post/166774279087/get-u-a-girl-who-can-do-both-inktober2016-with Inktober Relena

@landoftherisingspark

https://landoftherisingspark.tumblr.com/post/166586179885/day-322-theres-nothing-deeper-to-choosing Gundam Wing inspired military garb

@lighteningavenger

http://lighteningavenger.tumblr.com/post/166722654853 OC drawing for @gwoc-october

@looklingart

http://looklingart.tumblr.com/post/166612238149/request-im-always-here-for-anything-duo-duo-x Duo and Quatre

@noromax

https://lbro009.tumblr.com/post/166874263965/cynfinnegan-noromax-gwepisode50-noromax fanart of unnamed canon character “Hamilton”

@outofworkshinigami

http://outofworkshinigami.tumblr.com/post/166672006472/i-needed-a-full-ref-of-my-treize-so-here-you-go Treize reference

@pawedprints

http://pawedprints.tumblr.com/post/166690000118/inktober-day-22 Inktober Relena

@vegalume

http://vegalume.tumblr.com/post/166871514440/finally-got-off-of-my-procrastinating-posterior Painting of Sally on cardboard

Meta/Headcanons

Duo and dogs: https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166862137342/additional-thoughts-below-the-cutmore-ive

Pilots’ scars https://gw-ficrecfriday.tumblr.com/post/166544768116/scars

Dr. Jay Null http://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/166698167092

Heero being alone https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/166620174301

Dorothy http://simulacraryn.tumblr.com/post/166896646418/so-yesi-have-a-head-canon-ya-all-know-about

Sweepers https://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/166838833457/the-sweeper-group-and-a-brief-history-of-space

Duo’s memory https://the-indomitable-bhg.tumblr.com/post/166763174897/its-one-of-the-reasons-he-fills-silence-with

Silly Trieze headcanon http://outofworkshinigami.tumblr.com/post/166783624947/this-is-just-a-silly-thought-but-does-anyone-else

Calendar Events

Unnatural November by @gwblockparty

Begins Wednesday, November 1st, and runs the entire month!

A fanworks celebration of all things weird and supernatural.

Participation information here!

AO3 collection here!

Eve War Event by @gw-evewar

Posting December 23rd - December 24th.

A fanworks Science Fiction event.

Participation information here!

OC October by @gwoc-october

Ends Tuesday, October 31st - don’t forget to get your submissions in!

A fanworks celebration of Original Characters.

Participation information here!

#This week in Gundam Wing #thisweekingundamwing #october 20th - 28th #mod cb

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mysticsparklewings · 5 years ago

Photo

Heaven Help Us

Happy Fake Your Death Day! :D Or at least that's what I'm calling today. For those who don't know, March 22, 2013, is the day My Chemical Romance officially broke up. afterward, March 22 was a significantly sad day for the fandom. The day we remembered what once was. Deathday. But that was before October 31, 2019. My Chemical Romance officially announced their Return. The world is currently a very uncertain place, including MCR's own concert dates, but I personally take solace in knowing that the impossible already happened once. It can happen again. We, the MCR fandom, hoped and waited and prayed for six whole years. I'm sure plenty of others were like myself and were just starting to lose the hope we'd held onto for so long...and then it happened. It really did. Moral of the story: Never lose hope. Good things come to those who wait. Have faith. Naturally, I had to do something for today. I've done tributes for the 22nd before, but all pre-Return. I'd say it had to be something special, but that's not strictly true. For me, all my MCR artworks are special. I don't do them too terribly often because I want them to be done right. I want to put everything I can into them. I want them to be the absolute best they can be. But I did know I wanted to draw all four of the main guys (left to right: Frank, Ray, Mikey, Gerard), since I've only attempted that one other time, and they came out much more chibi there. (Side note: I really need to find the time and patience to color that drawing at some point). This time I was hoping to still draw them in my style, but a tad more realistic. Or less chibi, anyway. While I was scouting out potential photos of the guys to use, among a few Danger Days/Killjoy pictures I was considering, I found this one that I really took a liking to. Largely this was because they didn't look quite as sour as they did in some of the other photos I was finding. They don't really look happy per se, but there's an almost hopeful or looking-for-guidance feel to their expressions that appealed to me. And then the idea to call the finished piece "Heaven Help Us," after one of their songs and do something with angel wings in the background occurred to me, and I just had to run with all of it. Naturally, I started by sketching the boys out. I ran into a little trouble with the proportions, and I'm very sure some of that leaked into the final product, but I did my best. I also did my best to capture their expressions, but I know I missed the mark on that in a few ways. Part of it is just there's only so much I can do with my style and expressions and still keeping them looking like guys and not little girls. (To which, I will admit, they probably do still look effeminate. That's just what happens to guys when I draw them in my style. ) I had to sit on the sketch for a couple of days after that though, both to figure out what I wanted to do beyond that and because I was just seriously lacking in the motivation to make more complicated art at the time. Fortunately though, when I did come back to it, I was able to come up with a fairly solid plan. I decided I'd paint the background separately with gouache and then ink and color the boys on another piece of paper. Originally, the plan was to also then physical cut the boys out and put them on the background, but naturally, I procrastinated the entire time I was working on this project and backed myself into a bit of time-crunch corner, so I had to forgo that idea and combine the two pieces digitally instead. Although, if I'm being honest, that might've been for the better, as I keep trying to imagine cutting out and around all those tiny pieces and sections around the edges and the longer I think the more than sounds like a good way to get a sore hand and lose all of my patience while holding a sharp object. In other words, no thank you. The background is definitely flawed, but landscape paintings aren't necessarily my cup of tea, so I went into painting it knowing that it didn't have to be perfect, it just had to be "close enough." The background in the original photo is a backdrop anyway (it's pretty obvious already but the harsh shadows the guys cast onto it really give it away), so I had a little bit of a leg up there. At least I wouldn't be trying to replicate an actual detailed landscape. So I went in with some yellow ochre, a rust-ish color, some white, and bit of a brown had leftover from one of my previous gouache painting sessions, and just eyeballed the features to the best of my ability. It looks like it's half-finished without the guys in front, but even so, I was still pretty satisfied with how it turned out. This project has also since reminded me I really need to find excuses to use gouache more often. It works so well for packing on color and blending but still having a lightness to it that acrylic paint just doesn't. Anyway. While the background dried, I got to figure out what to do for my four boys. I went back and forth a bit, but ultimately I decided to do most of the coloring with alcohol markers, except for the hair. The hair would be done with colored pencils. And I'd already decided I was not going to try to draw Gerard's shirt print and I'd just bring it in digitally. At the time, I was thinking I might do the same for Mikey's, but when I got to where I was almost done with the marker portions, I decided I'd take a risk and try my luck doing it by hand. I must say, I did better with it than I was expecting, so I call that a win. It was a little tricky to figure out what colors to use for the markers and pencils since the contrast and lighting is...not strictly normal. From what I can tell, the light is coming from pretty dead-on, almost like it's right behind and above the camera, and it's very bright. So much so that is washes all of them out to the point they kinda look like they all have the same skin color, which I know isn't completely accurate. In some ways, this made shading easier and in some ways, it also made it more confusing. There are places I'd normally put shadows where there don't appear to be any in the reference, so I left them alone, but it almost felt wrong at times. Gerard and Mikey's hair, in particular, was also a little tricky. Since this was around the time of Danger Days, Gee was dying his hair red and Mikey was dying most of his blonde. I had to get just the right shade of red and shade it appropriately, and it was actually more challenging than I thought it would be to get just the right shade of yellow and ombre balance for Mikey's. After I spent an eternity on both traditional parts though (the background and the guys themselves), it was finally time to move on. I scanned both pieces in and then booted them into photoshop. I cut the guys out of their plain white background and moved them onto the one I painted, then fiddled order with a Drop Shadow in the Blending Options to get those strong cast shadows behind them. They aren't a 1:1, but part of that is my proportions are different and also there was only so much I could do without just basically re-drawing the shadows in myself, which I wasn't too keen on doing. And then I came back to the idea that had originally sold me on this picture: The angel wings. While I was working on the other parts, I had gone back and forth over whether or not I wanted to include them, given how the original image looks and all, but once I saw what the final product looked like without them, I decided the wings were necessary. I simply grabbed a pair from PixaBay, my public-domain0image-site-poison of choice, then duplicated it so each guy would have a pair, then adjusted them as necessary to make them look more realistic as in being attached to the guys. I knew this wouldn't be fully possible based on how they're standing, but I made my peace with that and decided to just go with what I could do within reason. Once the wings were placed appropriately, I then fiddled with the layer options until I landed on one (I think it was either Overlay or Soft Light, I disremember) I was happy with. You can still see the wings, but they're not too in-your-face and distracting. And really, I like this look because it makes me think a lot of the angel statues they've been using in their Return promo stuff. That's really all there was too it. It took me three times as long as it should have because I was, as I said, just motivationally blocked (in working on bigger projects. I still wanted to create, but all I really wanted to make were simple things like the mandalas I've been experimenting with. I'm not sure what kind of selective laziness or creative block you call that ) for 80% of the time I was working on it, so it feels like this description should be a lot longer, but I think I've covered really everything that needs covering. I could describe in greater detail how many colors the layering I used, but it seems unnecessary unless I'm going to document all the specific colors I used and all that, which, spoiler alert, I don't have the patience for. And so, here it is. Like I said, I know the world is a very uncertain place right now, but I'm still thrilled that today is no longer the sad occasion it once was. I'm so glad My Chemical Romance is back, even if the future regarding not only them (as there's still so much we don't know), but the rest of the world too, is foggy and seems a little scary right now. If nothing else, I can now at least listen to their music and know, this is not all there is. This is not the end. In that vein, I leave you all with one of the most famous phrases from one of their songs: We'll Carry On. We will get through this, one way or another. May Death Never Stop You. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

#mychemicalromance #mcr #mcrmy #killjoys

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chaotic-weevil · 6 years ago

Text

Judy Ahrens is NOT our friend

So, the May special election is here, and chances are you’re not too worried about it. Most candidates are unopposed, there’s just one or two measures on the ballot, and all the positions seem to be fairly harmless.

Well, this is sadly not the case. Everyone living in the Three Rivers School District area (most of Josephine County except Grants Pass, and parts of Jackson County) gets to vote in one of the most important races for our community.

Likely the only contested race on your ballot, TRSD Board position two has incumbent Danny York going up against a Judy Ahrens.

Mr. York has my vote, and I beg you to give him yours.

I’m sure you’ll want to know why.... but first, TL;DR:

this is a long post. basically, the gist is that Judy Ahrens is a terrible person and we need to make sure she cannot win this election. If you don’t want to read all my analysis, go ahead and skip to part 4. If you don’t want to read any of it, just go check out her website yourself. Make sure to read her bio page.

With that out of the way, let’s delve in:

At first glance, Danny York seems the lesser option. York has an extremely brief statement in the voters’ pamphlet, and no college education, while Ahrens boasts an Associates, and has a long, detailed statement. And of course, Ahrens is a woman, and the conventional knowledge is that women are better in leadership positions.

But some parts of Judy Ahrens’ statement rubbed me wrong, so I did some research. And what I found terrified me.

To start, let’s analyze her statement in the voters’ pamphlet. I’ll go section by section and address each of the points.

Dear Voters:

While living in Southern California, I was heavily involved with the PTA, the Eastwood Site Council, and many other activities related to children. Then nine years ago I moved to Josephine County. It’s gorgeous scenery and friendly people still awe me and my passion for providing the best education for our children continues right here.

So far, so good. We learn she has experience with education and leadership positions, and a love for this community. But wait ‘til she gets to her platform:

Why I’m running:

1. To guarantee that Parents’ Rights come first. Parents currently are fighting against a bill in Salem which forces vaccinations on all children attending Oregon public schools. I back these parents 100%.

“Parents’ Rights” is a term you see thrown around here and there. Usually, this means parents’ rights to control the curriculum or content their children are exposed to, or to have medical & bodily control over their kids. And usually it comes from the Christian Right, which I’m a little wary of (that’s the folks with the sin signs that like to go to local events and yell on megaphones about how queer people are going to hell).

In this case, Ahrens is taking the medical side of the Parents’ Rights issue, cleverly appealing to anti-vaxxers on both ends of the political spectrum (the religious my-body-is-my-temple folks and the no-chemicals-for-me hippies alike). However, as we’ll see shortly, she quickly extends this into the more morally concerning social arena.

2. To protect traditional family values which are currently under attack. All sex education materials and instructions should be scrutinized for age appropriateness and content by a committee that includes parents.

Nothing makes this bisexual pro-LGBT-rights guy uncomfortable quite like the phrase “traditional family values.” It might as well be code for “homosexuality is a sin,” and is usually accompanied by extreme bigotry. Needless to say, we don’t want bigots on the school board. And phraseology like “currently under attack” means she sees gender and sexuality diversity as an organization or movement trying to attack a way of life. That’s not who we are, and that’s an extremely toxic, harmful mindset.

But wait.... there’s more! I don’t know how Ahrens crammed so many red flags into one bullet point, but her take on sex ed is also disastrous. Sex ed is crucial, especially in low-income rural communities like ours. Kids need to know about consent and sexual abuse, safe sex practices, how to get birth control, healthy and unhealthy relationships, hygiene and sexual health, safe/unsafe masturbation, gender and sexuality, and so many other things. Current curriculum isn’t perfect, but schools are getting better at this, especially in Oregon.

Parents simply do not know better than professional educators what their kids need to know about sex. Surveys have shown that parents tend to think their kids are less sexually active/aware than they are, at pretty much every age and development level, so parents likely won’t think a lesson is age appropriate until it’s too late for some kids. And many parents who view sex, or pre-marital sex, or maybe just teen sex, as a bad thing might want abstinence-only sex ed, which is highly ineffective.

But the biggest problem is that this ties directly into Ahrens’ other problematic views. Having already pegged her as a likely member of the Christian Right, I can already guess what “sex-education materials” she’ll want to get rid of: anything having to do with LGBT+ issues, abortion, masturbation, sex for pleasure, or birth control. And these are arguably some of the most important roles sex-ed plays, giving marginalized students or students who cannot ask at home access to valuable, impartial and trusted information.

At this point, I’m getting pretty uncomfortable with Judy Ahrens, but the worst is yet to come.

3. To make sure academic achievement is the No. 1 priority above all other programs in the Three Rivers School District.

Okay, so this isn’t so much a social justice or moral issue; but why? Yes academics should be a priority, but school should also focus on the arts, physical activity, extracurriculars, and (personally I think this should be #1) students’ mental health. But this isn’t too big of an issue, I can easily let it slide.

Our current statistics show:

- Third Grade English Proficiency 43% - Eighth Grade Math Proficiency 35% - 12th Grade Tracking for Graduation 68%

Yeah, that’s pretty concerning. We should probably address that. But check out her “solutions”:

My solutions for such low results:

A. Have only the best phonics-based reading instructions used in the early grades. Also have rigorous teaching programs for mastering spelling, grammar, and writing skills.

B. Re-examine Common Core, the dubious government standard for math instruction. We need to get “back to basics” and teach fundamentals if we want our students’ math scores to improve.

This is just beyond me. I don’t have a degree in it (tho I will in a few years!) but I know a fair amount about linguistics and pedagogy. I also went to elementary school in our district. “Phonics” is an extremely broad and vague category that generally means teaching letter sounds. My teachers did this. I’m pretty sure most teachers do this. But guess what; they’re trained but professionals who literally study how to teach kids to read and write. “Only the best phonics” sounds vaguely Trump-esque to me. In any case, it wouldn’t be a huge shift from the current policy, and kinda sounds like she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

Which only seems more likely when you get to the second paragraph. Common Core is far from perfect, yes. But calling it the “dubious government standard” is too reminiscent of the Parents’ Rights philosophy. I guarantee you the average parent doesn’t know a better way to teach math. Additionally, Common Core literally is an attempt to go back to the basics. And it was implemented because math scores were abysmally low. People criticize Common Core because it’s not what they’re used to, but all it’s really doing is teaching kids to connect abstract ideas with concrete scenarios. Which is what math is all about.

C. Provide programs that instill strong patriotism in our students, including having all classes begin each day with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Uh-oh. Okay, so I have no problem with patriotism. But this sounds.....fascist? America-centrist? America First-ish? Nationalistic?

I’ve never liked the pledge of Allegience. For one thing it goes directly against the establishment clause (”under god”, seriously? I’m religious but that still bothers me), but also, we should be teaching our kids to think openly, to make their own decisions, and to be their own agents. And definitely not to just repeat-after-me and sign-on-the-dotted-line. If we want our kids to be patriotic, we should show them the true face of this country, encourage them to get involved, tell the good and bad sides to our history. Make them patriotic by giving them reasons to be, not by having them memorize a pledge they don’t even understand all the words to. Which brings me to...

D. We need to provide teachers with honest and accurate instructional materials in order to give students a solid background in American History and the U.S. Constitution.

Okay, so I actually completely agree with this. However, I suspect that my and Judy Ahrens’ ideas on what is “honest and accurate” may be more than a little different. For me, I think the key here is making sure to teach the bad as well as the good, and be frank about the ways that the US has violated and still does violate the very rights and liberties we strive to protect. Only by recognizing one’s faults can one grow stronger, and the same can be said of a society or nation. Given her love of patriotism, I suspect Ahrens wants more of a whitewashed, postitive portrayal of our history. But she’s unclear (perhaps on purpose) so I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Let’s make our schools great again.

This is an *obvious* echo of MAGA. Which should scare you.

I would appreciate your support and vote on May 21, 2019.

So that’s that for her pamphlet statement. But it got me concerned enough that I decided to do a little more research. And found out just how disastrous she really is.

Part Two: Under the Surface

So I went to her campaign website. It’s not very well designed, or secure, but you can check it out if you want.

Most of the content there is pretty much verbatim what’s in the pamphlet, but there’s a few noteworthy additions:

Following the daily pledge of allegiance, she calls for “a minute of silence.” I don’t know why.

The sex-ed clause has grown: “We need to protect traditional family values which are currently under attack. All sex education materials including classroom videos, textbooks, and discussions should be scrutinized for age appropriateness and content by a committee that includes parents. AND....parents must have the final say if they want to OPT OUT of any such activity/instruction they feel inappropriate for their child.” She definitely wants to make sure children don’t have to get subjected to educational, important information about sex (because sex is evil?). Curious how discussions can be scrutinized by parents, I’m assuming ahead of time.

She mentions participation in Vacation Bible School and Right To Life March (an anti-choice organization), confirming my suspicions that she’s firmly within the Christian Right. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely cause for concern.

She has a list of “patriotic holidays” she wants to instill in students. One of them is Columbus Day, an extremely problematic and racist holiday.

Finally, there are two aspects of her website that led me to dig deeper.

Part Three: Silencing Abuse Victims

So, in her bio on her website, Ahrens brags about banning a book:

Promoting traditional family values, helped to stop a certain controversial book (with heavy sexual content) form getting into Ocean View School District school libraries.

I was curious, so I investigated. Wanna know what the book was?

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Apparently her complaint was that it had sex scenes that were inappropriate for children. If you’re unfamiliar, the novel is semi-autobiographical, and includes descriptions of the sexual abuse Angelou faced as a child. It’s heavy stuff for sure, but also extremely important. It’s widely regarded as one of the most important pieces of feminist literature, and it tilts white male dominant America on its head. I read it when I was 12. It was disturbing. But it’s a book that is meant to disturb, and I’m very glad I read it when I did.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend that book to an eight year old. But this was in a middle school environment (read: kids aged 11-14). In fact, there was already a limitation: only eighth graders could check the book out. So we’re talking 13-14-year-olds. Now that may still seem young, but by age 12 most girls are already used to sexual harassment, and one in four will have been sexually assaulted by age 16. So reading the story of a survivor could be very helpful.

My biggest issue with this, though, is the way Judy Ahrens portrays it. “A certain controversial book”, she calls it, “with heavy sexual content.” It sounds meritless, obscene, pornographic. Instead, it is a renowned work of literature. Banning this book is not just removing some uncomfortable sex or disturbing abuse from the shelves; it is silencing the voices of victims and of women of color, voices which we should be raising.

This tale is a warning: Judy Ahrens favors censorship. This is scary. We already know she doesn’t like sex ed; will she fight to have educational books removed from libraries. Will she try to ban books that have gender and sexuality diverse characters? Given the next and final story in our saga, I’d not be at all surprised.

Part Four: Homophobic and Proud of It

It stands to reason that I, being a member of the LGBT+ community, would be most bothered by this. But I think, anyone would be bothered by this. Any decent, non-bigoted person, that is.

Right in the middle of her bio page, is this lovely gem:

I was elected in 2002 to the Westminster School Board with my continued theme of "Back to Basics." While in office, I, with the help of two other board members, lead the controversial fight against the homo-sexual issue.

WE WON ! [sic]

So, hopefully y’all can see exactly waht’s wrong with this, and I don’t have to say. But it’s obvious as can be. Blatant homophobic bigotry. “The controversial fight against the homo-sexual issue” is such a hurtful way to say that, too. So anyways, she’s shown herself to be a gross homophobe.

But I was curious, so I dug deeper, and boy did I find a story. In 1999, the State of California passed a law adding gender identity and sexuality to the list of things on the basis of which students could report discrimination. By 2004, every school district in California except Westminster had incorporated this new language into their policy. Westminster refused to modify their anti-discrimination policy language protecting trans students. Press at the time (and this became a national story) described Judy Ahrens as the board member most opposed to protections for trans kids. She was quoted as saying that the state law promotes homosexuality and that she’s “really sad that the moral compass isn’t out there” and “disappointed that economics is trying to outweigh morality and protecting our kids in this district.”

This was in 2004. It’s 2019 now. Much has changed. Maybe she could have changed; I would have been maybe willing to accept that. But she’s literally proud of this. She is using it as a campaign point.

If Judy Ahrens wins this election, it will send the message to lgbt+ kids in our district and everywhere that voters don’t care about them or their safety. If Ahrens wins, it will send the message that bigotry is a viable way to run a campaign. If Ahrens wins, it will send the message that hate wins.

So please, join me in voting AGAINST Judy Ahrens.

Vote for Danny York, who is neither particularly qualified nor severely unqualified, but is infinitely better than the hateful, bigoted, religious-extremest Ahrens. Keep our district welcoming and accepting of diversity.

And don’t only vote. This matters. Tell everybody. Make noise. Write letters to the editor. Share this, on facebook. We can defeat evil, but only if we join and rise to face it. So join, and rise. Please.

Ballots must be received by May 21. Probably for the best to return it by the 19th or 20th at least.

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topmixtrends · 6 years ago

Link

This essay is riddled with spoilers for NBC’s The Good Place. If you’re not okay with that, please catch up. (It’s on Netflix.)

The NBC sitcom The Good Place tells us it’s a show about ethics. One of the main characters is a professor of moral philosophy, the show constantly cites Ethics 101 names like Kant and Hume, and there’s even an entire episode devoted to “the trolley problem.” Although The Good Place’s metanarrative stops at intro-level ethics, the show itself does not. Instead, The Good Place shows us a fairly well-developed political philosophy. And it’s one that is largely more progressive than both its metanarrative about ethics and the politics of mainstream academic philosophy (and philosophers), which tend towards “both sides” Centrist Dad liberalism. Just as Michael tells Eleanor, Chidi, Tahani, and Jason that they’re in heaven because they were good people while subjecting them to some Bad Place torture, The Good Place tells us it’s a show about being a good person while presenting a pretty radical critique of contemporary society, showing us that everything from our obsession with individual performance metrics and the way we simultaneously empower and oppress women makes this The Bad Place.

The metanarrative that this show is about ethics (and not politics) reflects the way ethics is usually practiced in mainstream academic philosophy in the US. According to Charles Mills, philosophers in all subfields of mainstream academic philosophy generally practice ideal theory. Ideal theory “claims that starting from the ideal is at least the best way of realizing it”—for example, the best way to be a good person is to theorize on the assumption that the society we live in is just. The catch is, this doesn’t work. As Mills argues, “ideal theory can only serve the interests of the privileged, who, in addition—precisely because of that privilege (as bourgeois white males)—have an experience that comes closest to that ideal.” Philosophy’s ideals are modeled on the experiences of the most privileged people in the world (who also constitute an overwhelming majority of professional philosophers), and thus cannot account for or substantively address oppression and injustice. For example, the ideal of “autonomy…most famously developed in Kant’s writings…obfuscates the reality of care giving that makes any achievement of autonomy possible in the first place.” When philosophers start from the ideal of autonomy, they actually re-create gendered and racialized inequities regarding care and reproductive labor. Kant’s maxim of treating everyone as an end in themselves reproduces the patriarchal denial of personhood to women, who in their forced shouldering of reproductive labor are constantly treated as means. Think about it: somebody did Kant’s laundry.

The trolley problem is another example of the show’s simultaneous immersion in and discomfort with ideal theory. As Chidi explains, it is a thought experiment that goes roughly like this: “you are driving a trolley when the brakes fail and on the track ahead of you are five workmen that you will run over. You can steer to another track but on that track there is only one person you would kill instead of the five. What do you do?” Later, Chidi defends the problem against his students’ complaints: because “there is no right answer,” it’s a fun puzzle to work on in your head or with colleagues. But if you take a step back and ask why this experimental world is set up so that someone has to die, the right answer becomes more clear. The trolley problem’s experimental world assumes individuals actually decide who gets the short end of the stick because everything is otherwise equal—it assumes an ideal world. But this experimental world does not accurately reflect the one in which individuals live and make ethical decisions. Our world is designed to execute the physical, civil, and social death of large groups of people. Racism, sexism, abelism, and the like mean that some people are consistently thrown under the bus, or, erm, trolley, to preserve a social order premised upon institutionalized domination or what Ruth Wilson Gilmore defines as “group differentiated vulnerability to premature death.” Framing the question of who gets thrown under the trolley as an ethical puzzle for individuals to solve, the trolley problem obscures the political reality of white supremacy, cisheterosexism, and capitalism. When Michael puts Chidi at the helm of an actual trolley, we see that the trolley problem is a fun puzzle to solve precisely because it abstracts away from the physical, emotional, and affective experience of violence and death. Such abstraction is easier for people whose real lives aren’t shaped by that disproportionate susceptibility to violence. If we begin from that non-ideal reality, we can easily see that this decision has already been made for us: in the U.S., our social institutions and values are set up in ways that make women of color, especially black trans women, most likely to die.

In the first half of season 2, the show’s narrative premise—that someone (usually Eleanor) eventually realizes that they’re actually in The Bad Place—performs this shift from ideal to non-ideal theory. In season 1, the four main characters were led to believe they were bad people mistakenly put in The Good Place. In The Good Place, everything works perfectly. Any flaws are the result of individual error—shrimp fall from the sky not because Michael designed the place to torture people, but because Eleanor behaved badly at the welcome party. Season 1’s Good Place is the quintessential ideal world in Mills’s sense. But then at the end of that season (episode 13), Eleanor works out that all the bad things that have been happening aren’t bugs they caused but features Michael engineered into the neighborhood. Her epiphany happens as they are forced to decide which two people to send to The Bad Place—that is, which two people to throw under the trolley. Finding that demand torturous, Eleanor recognizes that only in The Bad Place would people be forced to treat others as disposable…so they must be in The Bad Place. And when she makes decisions on the assumption that she isn’t in an ideal world, this throws a wrench in Michael’s plan. He has to reboot that world because Eleanor’s behavior has become incompatible with it. Eventually (in “Team Cockroach” S2E4) Michael joins them, realizing that he needs their help if he himself is to escape the ultimately punitive and carceral regime of which he is a part. That’s what the show spends the rest of season 2 doing: season 2 is about mostly white women and people of color (and one white male accomplice who literally is a mostly(?) reformed demon…plus Janet, who I’ll get to later) collectively practicing philosophy on the assumption that the world they live in is not in fact equal but designed to harm and oppress them.

And so the political philosophy that The Good Place shows us is far more progressive than the anodyne message about ethics that the show’s writers and producers use to frame it for viewers. According to series creator Michael Shur, the show’s “unifying theme” is “that people come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and different philosophical backgrounds and different places on Earth and have different ideas of who they are and how the world works. But, given the chance, I think most people would say, “Yes, I want to be a better person.” Beginning from the assumption that everyone’s on more or less an equal playing field and thus entitled to equal weight in the conversation (and that people generally want to do the right thing, which Mills calls the assumption of “strict compliance”), this is the same “both sides” liberalism that Mills critiques as ideal theory. Despite what Schur tells us the show’s message is, season 2 shows us a very different message, one about the importance of beginning from the assumption that you—especially if you are a white woman, person of color, or non-human person—are in The Bad Place. And you’re there not because of anything you did, but because White Men engineered it that way for their benefit.

If we take this as the overall message of the show’s first two seasons, it’s easier to see more targeted political messages peppered throughout. In season 1 the characters are told that there is a huge cosmic computer that tracks their every thought and action and assigns a value to it. When they die, the computer tallies up their ethical score; that score then determines whether they go to the Good Place or the Bad Place. As we find out at the end of the season, Michael designed this system of individualized performance metrics to torture Eleanor and crew. This points system is an easy way to bring out their worst traits, like Eleanor’s tendency to dunk on people who, at least in her mind, think they are better than her, and Tahani’s compulsive competitiveness as a mask for deep insecurity. Michael’s big moral surveillance apparatus is a correction, or perhaps update, of Sartre: hell isn’t other people, it’s neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism is the practice of transforming everything, even traditionally non-economic phenomena like friendship or learning, into deregulated, financialized markets. Financialized markets are ones built on investment rather than commodity exchange; deregulated markets nominally allow for any and all behavior, but tightly control background conditions so that only a limited range of behavior is possible. Privatizing formerly public things such as infrastructure or schools or prisons is a common method of transforming things into markets. Setting up the season 1 neighborhood so that the quartet of dead people torture each other, Michael is a technocrat who effectively privatizes hell by contracting the work of abuse out to independent, uncompensated laborers. (After all, his whole approach is to disrupt eternal damnation by superficially flipping the good/bad script…It’s Uber, but for hell.)

In its quest to marketize everything, neoliberalism updates classical liberalism’s commitments to identity-based exclusion by using individualized performance metrics to mask that exclusion behind nominal inclusion. Credit scores and the Bush-era education policy No Child Left Behind are examples: when you put everyone in a society fundamentally structured by centuries of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism on an equal playing field and then rank them based on individual performance, those rankings will reflect one’s relative racial, gender/sexual, and class privilege or marginalization, but in terms that aren’t explicitly tied to race, gender/sexuality, and class. Season 1 does something similar: it uses a very diverse ensemble cast to mask a system that ultimately judges people based on life circumstances they were born into (like Eleanor’s and Tahani’s families, which were the root of their biggest personal flaws), thus rewarding or punishing people not for their behavior, but for their situation. If what counts as hellacious torture in season 1 is a pervasive feature of our everyday reality in the early 21st century US, then…this must be The Bad Place.

Though we are only 2 episodes into season 3 at the time of this writing, this season confirms that the reality beyond the Good or Bad Places, which we are supposed to take as a representation of our beyond-the-fourth-wall reality, is, in fact, a neoliberal hell. At the end of season 2 the quartet are sent back to Earth to test their character in the real world. Though they escape death, they do not escape the afterlife’s performance metrics: the hour-long episode continually cuts back to Michael and Janet, who are seated in front of ticker-tape machines following the quartet’s performance like high-frequency trading algorithms follow stock prices. Because ticker tape machines originally communicated stock prices, this prop choice makes the quintessentially neoliberal move of reimagining people as investments that perform well or poorly on the market. Such torture isn’t limited to hell, but a normal feature of life these days; this is further proof that we are the ones in The Bad Place. In this respect, season 1 and the beginning of season 3 are a political lesson about the importance of philosophizing on the assumption that the world we’re living in is far from ideal.

The running gag of Janet’s constant misidentification as a girl or a robot is another way The Good Place shows its audience that their world beyond-the-fourth-wall is The Bad Place. Originally imagined by Schur as a kiosk, Janet is The Good/Bad Place’s interface. Even though she does all the feminized care and reproductive work that Kant and most other Ethics 101 philosophers overlook and partners in a nominally hetero romance with Jason, Janet is not a girl. And even though her role in The Places is to be “a Siri-like sentient database theoretically incapable of humanoid feelings,” she’s not a robot. Notably, robots are also tasked with the care and reproductive work generally assigned to groups denied full civil and moral personhood, like white women and non-whites; the word comes from Czech slang for “slave.”

Janet looks and feels like a person: she falls in love, pleads for her life, and even appears to have a sense of humor…but she’s not a person. In fact, all the “not a girl/not a robot” jokes point out that Janet doesn’t even fit traditional Western categories for sub-persons—humans who, because of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and the like, are denied full access to moral and civil personhood. “Girl” and “robot” are terms used to denote marginal status in society—the status of those forced to shoulder care and reproductive labor, to be means rather than ends in themselves. People constantly and incorrigibly refer to Janet as a girl or a robot because these terms refer to groups from whom we expect servitude and obedience because society lets us treat them as less than full persons. Now, you might object: they call Janet a girl because of her feminine appearance and voice. This objection fails to consider that they could call her a woman, but they never do. “Girl” is a common vernacular term for a grown adult woman in a dead-end service job: there’s the old “girl Friday” idiom, the practice of whites referring to black household help as “house-girls,” and so on. Janet looks and sounds like a woman, but everyone calls her a “girl” because that’s what you call servants who look and sound feminine. This gag works on screen because our beyond-the-fourth-wall world teaches us to reflexively equate girlhood with subservience and sub-humanity.

Again, you might object: but how can Janet be subordinate if she’s omniscient and nearly omnipotent—almost God-like? This tension between women’s seeming empowerment and worsening patriarchal domination is the crux of what feminist media studies scholar Sara Banet-Weiser calls “empowerment” feminism. According to Banet-Weiser, “feminist discourses that emphasize self-confidence, body positivity, and individual achievement” are “co-constituted” by “violent misogynist phenomena such as revenge porn, toxic geek masculinity, and men’s rights movements.” Women who have enough racial, class, and other sorts of privilege to successfully meet white supremacist capitalist patriarchal definitions of personhood—such as economic success—are increasingly accepted, as are violent misogynist rhetoric and behaviors. Banet-Weiser’s point is that these kinds of feminism and misogyny are causally connected: these kinds of women’s empowerment aren’t evidence that (white supremacist capitalist) patriarchy is over; rather, they contribute to patriarchal domination by reinforcing both its values (such as autonomy over care) and its commitments to intersecting forms of domination like white supremacy. In this respect, Janet is like a Taylor Swift or an Ivanka Trump: a token white woman whose empowerment does nothing to ameliorate patriarchy. That’s why her character can be both God-like and girled.

Subservience isn’t the only evidence of Janet’s girling. The show repeatedly “murders” Janet to reboot the neighborhood, and each murder scene rehearses a key dimension of white women’s sub-personhood: as partial persons, their consent must be respected, but as only partial persons their consent need not really be respected. This is how we get rapey “no means yes” norms. Alternating between desperate pleas for her life and calm, reassuring statements that she can’t be killed because she’s not alive in the first place (“I am simply an anthropomorphized [thing] built to make your life easier”), Janet’s lines leading up to her murder illustrate this “no means yes” dynamic…and make a joke out of it. Janet’s murder becomes a structuring narrative of the beginning of Season 2, where “a frantic Michael “reboot[s]” the afterlife he had constructed over and over again, each time Eleanor and co. figured out the truth about “the Good Place”—which meant that he also had to repeatedly kill a frantic Janet.” Women’s sub-personhood is so baked into our aesthetic conventions that we (even me, at first) find the repeated killing of a girled person who begs for her life funny and aesthetically pleasing instead of deeply troubling.

Just as we, the audience, live in a world that expects us to reflexively girl the help, we also live in a world that expects us to reflexively ignore the personhood of girled people…and basically everyone but white cis men. Our beyond-the-fourth-wall world is set up so that we are entitled if not obliged to treat most of humanity like Janets. In fact, the repetition of her murder functions almost pedagogically, desensitizing us to her pleading both through repetition and the insinuation that such pleas are fake. This puts the show’s ethical narrative and political metanarrative in tension: can we, viewers, be good people when the rules—in this case the rules of a televisual aesthetic and narrative language—expect us to find pleasure in throwing people we perceive to be girls and/or robots under the trolley?

The penultimate episode of season two hints that the game is rigged. First, at the beginning of Episode 11, “The Burrito,” Judge Gen initially decides that she won’t hear Eleanor and crew’s case because they didn’t follow proper procedure in filing it: “The rules say I gotta [raspberry sound] send you back.” Rewarding rule-following—what is called “compliance” in ethics jargon—over any commitment to ethical principles, the afterlife appeals process seems both unfair and self-defeating. Eleanor protests: “Why should we have to go live in a boring void because of a messed-up system?!” The rules would send the quartet back to The Bad Place not because they were bad people, but because they were not in a position to know or follow these rules. In this case, applying the rules equally to everyone punishes good people who find themselves in less-than-ideal circumstances. Casting Maya Rudolph as the enforcer of those rules, the show appeals to a tactic that’s quite common out here in the real world, where the presence of white women and people of color in elite positions serves as evidence that sexism and racism are over, only to hide even more unfair rules behind a feminine and/or nonwhite face. (Thanks, Obama, as they say.)

Speaking of unfairness, back down in The Bad Place, Sean, boss of The Bad Place, dismisses Michael’s point that it’s unfair to keep Eleanor and crew in The Bad Place because they had in fact become better people than they were when they were alive. “Fair,” Sean retorts, “is the stupidest word humans ever invented.” Mills would agree with Sean: his critique of ideal theory is largely about the work of ethicist and political philosopher John Rawls, whose most famous book is titled Justice As Fairness. According to Mills, although fairness would be great in an ideal world, when we live in a deeply oppressive and unequal world, treating people fairly (e.g., as formally equal before the law) actually reproduces and worsens those inequalities. Voter I.D. requirements are a good example of this: they disenfranchise people from disadvantaged groups because the circumstances of their disadvantage make it more difficult for them to get a state-issued ID in the first place. Pointing out the problems with using “fairness” as a standard to judge a manifestly unfair world, “The Burrito” comes very close to articulating Mills’s critique of conventional philosophical ethics.

The final episode of season 2 and the season 3 premier back down from this comparatively progressive political claim and reiterates its original hook about ethics…but not without some complications. Gen decides to give Eleanor and friends a chance to improve their ethical scores by giving them a second chance at life. She sends the quartet back to what was originally the moment of their death, except this time they live through it. Most of the episode follows Eleanor; after nearly dying, she decides to turn her life around and try to be a good person. She quits her scammy job and works as a canvasser for a nonprofit, she confesses to her friend that she profited from that friend’s embarrassment, and she even stops eating animals. But these decisions come at a cost: those canvassing jobs are have the highest turnover rate of any job and leave you open to constant harassment (especially if you’re a woman), and her friend sues her and kicks her out of their shared apartment. All of this would be a lot easier to navigate if Eleanor had more wealth and stronger family ties…but she doesn’t, so she slides back to her old ways. So far, the episode is showing us that it’s easier to be “good” if you are privileged. Those privileges insulate you from the economic and social costs associated with following rules designed for people who already have these advantages. But then Michael stages a demonic intervention and steers Eleanor back on the path to The Good Place, as though the only way a working-class single white woman can be good is with the help of a white dude (this is Kant’s view—women are capable of merely aesthetic feeling, not ethical judgment, so they can only be ethical insofar as they follow men’s lead). Convinced to get back on the wagon, Eleanor starts googling. She stumbles upon a videotaped lecture from Chidi, which catches her attention because it repeats an idea Michael planted in her head the night before. The episode the closes with her in Chidi’s office asking to talk about his lecture on “What We Owe Each Other.” After showing us the political importance of non-ideal theory for two whole seasons, The Good Place brings its narrative back in line with its ethical metanarrative about being a good person in an otherwise ideal world. Who can drop everything and fly halfway around the world to chat about ethics? Certainly not anybody with kids, pets, or other care obligations. (Also, as a philosophy professor myself, I don’t know how Chidi has time to tutor some rando that barges into his office.)

Intertwining Eleanor’s desire to be a good person with her romantic desire for Chidi, the season 2 finale also uses the shipping of Eleanor and Chidi to sell us on ideal theory. Because Eleanor’s road to being a good person runs through Chidi, who also happens to have kissed her just before they were sent back to life, the episode maps the narrative tension about being a good person onto the will-they-won’t-they tension of Eleanor and Chidi’s romance, such that our desire for the resolution of the latter includes a desire for the resolution of the former. (The season 3 premier continues to map these two things together and heightens the tension by bringing Eleanor some competition for Chidi’s affection.) Wanting Eleanor and Chidi to get together means wanting the show’s ideal theory meta/narrative about ethics. Ideal theory guarantees that “ethics” reproduces a fundamentally unequal and unjust world—it makes the world into a bad place. Compelling us to root for that, the show makes it really hard for us to be good people. As a work of political philosophy, The Good Place claims that ideal theory is like a classical moral vice: seductive and tempting but ultimately destructive. And just as Gen tests our quartet of heroes to struggle with their worst vices, The Good Place tests us with one of ours. Do we choose our desire to be a good person or our responsibility to make the world less of a bad place for all?

The post The Other Secret Twist: On the Political Philosophy of The Good Place appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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