#iTS SO HARD OUT HERE when your bias is in the military ;_____; | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tumblingxelian · 15 days ago

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I wasn't aware I was notable, so I appreciate the excitement for the response on that front, as to the rest:

Well, you are right in something. I'm sorry, I always take bias as "saying things that aren't truth". But, even in @faunusrights post she denies some of the claims of the RWBY wiki.

You'd need to cite some claims they argued were not true and yet still canon, as it stands this is an accusation without evidence I feel.

He didn't have Ozpin dismissed from his position. At least, the council said "We are going to talk about your position" but that didn't end up happening. And Ironwood just gave a report of the situation to the council. It wasn't his intention to have Ozpin kicked of the council.

He had Ozpin ousted as head of security for the Vytal Festival, a job Ironwood was uniquely unqualified for given his myriad of poor decisions like not even understanding the premise if "Scouts". But also, Ironwood had been reporting tot he council behind Ozpin's back for weeks, even as he claimed to trust Ozpin and be loyal he was explicitly undercutting Ozpin to his superiors to steal his job based on the egotistical conviction he could do it better.

About allying with the SDC. I mean, it's not like Ironwood is doing something evil with that. Ironwood gave robots to the SDC, (in a world where the Grimm and the terrorist are a risk). Let's remember that Ironwood wants to retire the men from the dangers of the battlefield, so having robots would protect SDC workers and guards. Later both worked on the Paladins and the airships. What's wrong with that? He later didn't have problems annoying Jacques with the embargo, close of borders and putting a military operation over the abandoned Dust mine.

He very explicitly is doing something evil by allying wth the SDC, a canonically corrupt organization, that abuses, exploits and even causes the deaths of its workers, most of whom are also a discriminated against minority and underclass.

Being their ally is intensely immoral on Ironwood's part, and he only turned against Jac, because the man refused to be intimidated into obedience like most other people. Jac outright even highlighted that Ironwood was acting as a dictator and Ironwood didn't disagree, merely threatened him with the prospect that if he is a dictator then Jac should want to stay on his good side.

Pulling out his troops out of Vale... Well, he was put in charge of the security during the Vytal Festival. The Vytal festival ended, he needed his troops at home, protecting Atlas. The same goes about pulling his troops out of Mistral.

Vale was their ally and a place still being over run with Grimm, Atlas still had the rest of its army, specialists and Hunters and as far as we known was not in any particular danger.

He bailed on Vale the moment it suited him because, as Mistral further demonstrated, Ironwood is a Fairweather friend who won't stick with people when the going gets hard.

Also seriously, the army he "needed" at home literally did jack and shit beyond floating there. He didn't need them except for his own personal sense of security.

About neglecting Mantle, I agree. But oppression and exploitation... Well, not so much. At least, not during the first episode as you say: He is not responsible for the exploitation of Mantle, it is Jacques. He is not a businessman, he is a general and headmaster. And about oppression? You say for the police state? I mean, it is needed to give protection to the people of Mantle and prevent Salem from infiltrate in the kingdom. And about the close of borders and embargo. Were security measures ensured to prevent Salem from infiltrate the kingdom.

Ironwood has basic control over the Council of Atlas & Mantle, so yes he actually is responsible for policies and circumstances that impoverish and exploit Mantle, especially as he is an ally of the SDC and other wealthy elites. Provided they do what he wants when he wants and what he wanted never involved helping the underprivileged. Jac and his ilk could only operate with the impunity they did because Ironwood enabled them.

The people of Mantle were arrested for defending themselves from Grimm, that has no impact on Salem's agents. The walls was not repaired, that enabled Salem's schemes. Mantle's defences were hot garbage and their resources were constantly stolen for Ironwood's pet projects, which also enabled Salem. I would also add, that Ironwood's closed boarder policy did nothing to stop Watts, Tyrian, Cinder & Neo from slipping passed it.

So it was entirely unnecessary, and only served to make everything worse in Mantle, which was a recurring plot point across Volume 7.

I don't know. I mean, Ironwood was authoritarian but that doesn't make him a dictator. He have two seats in the council, but that was never presented as unconstitutional. And 3 seats of the council are democratically elected. I mean, there is even political dissidence, things that aren't allowed in a dictatorship.

Well, thanks for help understand her point. I didn't get that back then. But well, I don't know. Just because women, queer or trans (Isn't trans included inside queer?) think good of Robyn. That doesn't make her right. My point was that not all the queer were necessarily agreeing that Robyn was great. And hey, Hatedom is such a derogatory term. And I think you are oversimplifying things about the rewrites. I mean, you wouldn't like that I simplify things criticizing RWBY.

Glad I could be of help there.

(Some people prefer trans specifically others queer, its a personal preference thing.)

That part of the post was not about whether Robyn was right (Which she was) but about the fact that its unsurprising if unfair that she gets so maligned by the relative minority of deeply conservative people who are neither numerous nor fans, but have lodged themselves into positions where their voices get to be louder than everyone else's.

We have a problem like this on the RWBY Tv Tropes page too, where the people who edit it, hate queer representation and the show and try to maligned, edit out or remove any reference to such things as best they can.

I could copy paste the part of Clover, Robyn and Qrow. But I think that the whole context is important. The thing is: If it happens peacefully, how does the arrest count as violence? Is a deprivation of liberty, but, why violence? And well, Qrow was willing to go. So, why not? Of course, the orders given to Clover were immoral. But, they still had the chance to talk. About Robyn. Hey, even Qrow suggested go to Ironwood and talk to him. Ironwood is different than the normal dictators. Robyn Hill just discovered that he was being framed for the massacre and that he had nothing to do with the murders on Mantle. She just discovered that he had reasons as to why he declared the embargo and close of borders. I mean, Ironwood have just been convinced of helping Mantle that very night. Not even give him the benefit of the doubt? The thing is, that fighting in the Manta could have mean Robyn dying stupidly.

OK, so I want you to take your argument about how "Does it qualify as violence if one side doesn't resist" and apply to say, a firing squad and ask yourself a second time, whether something counts as violence or not, just because the victim is passive.

Why would she give him the benefit of the doubt when his polices impoverished Mantle, his allies had exploited Mantle, his Ace-Ops tried to black bag her, his authoritarian rule had gotten people killed, and he had just decided then and there to leave her city to die and arrest anyone who disagreed with him?

I mean, everyone in the world can do that, that doesn't make it less arrogant. If she have waited till after the elections, then it would makes sense. But being so sure about it, shows that she is so sure of her victory.

I want you to consider why you think its arrogant for a woman to do this, when its standard operating produce around the world. Also keep in mind, if the election hadn't literally been stolen she'd have been right. So it wasn't arrogant regardless, just an accurate assessment of reality.

I mean, why Ironwood would arrest Robyn? Qrow is part of Ruby's group. But, she is not part of it. When I'm saying that he didn't underestimate her, I'm saying for the fact that he didn't underestimate her threat. I always interpreted as Robyn saying "He underestimate the threat I represent to his plans".

That's your interpretation, that is not how I took it.

Eh, he is not robbing Mantle. He is buying those resources:

Robyn: Clover, I’m so glad you’re here. Maybe you can help me understand why this truck that's supposed to be taking construction materials to fix Mantle’s outer wall, is on its way to the middle of nowhere? Are you lost?

Using government funds to purchase something for one purpose then using it for another secretly is called embezzling, otherwise known as theft.

You creating headcanons to justify it is just another example of exactly what faunusrights is talking about when it comes to anti Robyn, pro Ironwood bias.

Ironwood put Atlesian knights, soldiers, Penny, Ren, Nora (With the usual help of other Huntsmen doing their bounty mission), a fleet of Mantas flying over Mantle. I think that is far better than having to simply repair the wall. And the Grimm aren't busting through the hole all hours of the day. If that was the case the alerts would be sounding every hour. And owning guns isn't even illegal. What is illegal is owning weapons without authorization. I come from a country where owning weapons also requires an authorization despite the fact of we being surrounded by crime. And Huntsmen are also allowed to carry weapons. Think about the Happy Huntresses.

Clover put them there, & Marrow suggested similar missions, while the rest of the cast volunteered for them. Ironwood never assigned anyone to missions to help Mantle until the evacuation, something he had to be pressed into and went back on the moment he had a fright.

The fleet did not act in Mantle's defence when Grimm were breaking through the walls until the massiv estampede in which they also proved completely ineffective, the same is true for the Atlesian Knights and minor guards both of which served as a police force to keep people in line more than as a deterrent against Grimm. We literally see the Atlesian Knights trying to break up people huddling for warmth as the kingdom freezes and Nora outright mocks the idea that Ironwood's meager security detail would be of any use upon their arrival in Mantle.

Think about RWBY, JNR and Qrow being arrested for defending themselves & others?

As I said, the guns are allowed, what is not allowed is having one without authorization. What is stomping over all democratic norms? An election was just being held. Stealing private property of who? Jacques? His mine was abandoned. The public goods, I already talked about Mantle construction materials. There is heating for the citizens. And it seems to be a public service considering how Jacques had access to the Atlas network due to being hired to provide the heating.

As I said, you're wrong.

Ironwood was making unilateral decisions without consulting his democratically elected peers consistently throughout volumes 7.

Mantle's resources and yes, the mine, just because it wasn't used doesn't mean Ironwood can just take it cos he feels like it.

The fact you think its fine for Ironwood to oppress, betray and rob people, but think its immoral and arrogant for Robyn Hill to resist such things is very much the embodiment of the kind of bias faunusirghts was talking about.

Yes, they really thought that the ship was stolen. Ironwood didn't have a reason to lie to them in that moment.

They had zero evidence RWBY & co were on it, or else they would have arrest Maria.

About why they didn't arrest Maria... Who knows. Maybe because she was accompanying Pietro in that moment thought that she had nothing to do with the stolen ship.

You making up a headcanon does not change that they had no evidence and were originally arresting them for having weapons.

I mean, she didn't know what the results were really going to been. She can't see the future and Jacques have just used the whole city hostage. Maybe and he wins because of that power play. Of course, Jacques stole the election. And you keep ignoring that even Weiss and Ren commented on how weird it is to hold a party before even winning.

As said, she was going to win, and this is normal, the fact you think its arrogant for a woman to do this entirely normal thing, even when she's right speaks for itself.

I don't ignore that, I didn't mention it because it doesn't matter, what Robyn did was entirely normal and she was right,. That Ren (Who was down in the dumps) & Weiss (paranoid about her father) thought it was odd made them the exceptions, not the norm.

They only have been biased against Robyn. I mean, faunusrights never mentioned other example of the wiki being biased against women. So yeah, say that the ones behind the wiki are against female characters or female authority figures is just gratuitous. You can't simply judge someone without knowing all the work behind them. How is Ironwood conservative? I mean, maybe capitalist and anyway he messed up Jacques SDC operations. And liking a character and disliking another doesn't mean anything. I met persons who dislike Robyn and like Ironwood and they aren't against female characters or female-authority-figure characters in general.

Past experience with the wiki stanning Adam says otherwise :/ Also Faunusrights was specifically talking about Robyn Hill because that is where its most egregious. In large part because Robyn was new & its easy to contrast her against Ironwood as they were direct foils to one another.

I actually can, I am very good at judging things XD

Ironwood is all about centralizing control of the government, funneling money into the military industrial complex relies on authority, rank and coercion and is allied primarily with hyper capitalists who exploit discriminated against minorities.

There's a reason a lot of his fans are Trump voters.

Just to give a conclusion. I'm sure you doesn't care but I prefer to clarify something before the people start jumping to conclusions. I tried to give everything I could to the fandom. I made a post saying about why the martial law wasn't the right call during Worst case scenario. I have been there criticizing Ironwood inside RWBYcritics. I have dedicated my time to defend Robyn Hill and other matters of the series. So the fact that now comes @faunusrights to believe that I'm against Robyn and I'm a pro Ironwood stan is just... frustrating. I'm the one who decided to go and discuss with the RWDE in their very subreddit going against them. Fuck, I even responded to Dextixer in some posts. There is a reason why I put RWDE and anti RWDE in my responses. I consider myself somewhat in the middle.

Saying "I'm sure you don't care" seems rather backhanded, I took the time to quote and response to your entire essay which is more than you did for @faunusrights with all that cherry picking and I did so again here.

I am more confused than anything by this claim on multiple fronts :/

I mean, that's nice I suppose, but no one asked you to do it and I confess I don't know you nor do I spend time there, so I can neither confirm or deny any of what you are saying,

I don't believe faunusrights said anything beyond a lack of intent to read your response given association with some rather vexing takes. Though my sympathies on having to talk to Dex, that is vexing.

(Shrugs) Ultimately, you found a several years old post highlighting a bias in how Robyn is framed VS how Ironwood is framed by the people holding the microphone so to speak and deciding to argue in favor of the people holding the microphone. I know noting else of you beyond that, so its what I responded to, and I hope this all made sense.

Take care now!

what is going on with all the bias on robyn hill’s wiki page, anyway? - an aside

As someone who uses the RWBY wiki with some degree of frequency - often because I’m looking for art references, or Semblance and weapon names - I’m used to… some amount of bias in the articles for different characters? Like, let’s be real, it’s not a perfect wiki! Community-maintained stuff isn’t easy to all keep on the same track! But, generally, it gives the facts well enough and doesn’t do too bad a job keeping all the balls in the air when it comes to new information from all four corners of this franchise.

Well, until you open the article for Robyn Hill, and realise it’s an absolute disaster. Like, really; the impartial voice just plain doesn’t exist for her, and almost all of her wiki is written in such a way that she reads as being an absolutely insufferable, hostile, hard-to-like character. Even if you aren’t a fan of Robyn personally, you have to admit that if you hadn’t seen the show yourself, you might very well come away from her article presuming she’s a major antagonist of Volumes 7 and 8.

Like, for instance, let’s take a look at the first paragraph of her Personality section:

Robyn has a direct and confident personality, having no trouble being confrontational with Atlas personnel, including the Ace Operatives. Robyn also seems to suffer from overconfidence and arrogance, shown in her encounters with Ruby and celebrating her election victory before it was verified. She is aggressive and hostile in nature, quickly jumping to conflict without thinking through consequences. However, she is also shown to be reasonable when the situation calls for it.

And, for good measure, here’s another paragraph from the same section:

In “With Friends Like These” Robyn displayed a rather impulsive side of her personality, when upon hearing that James Ironwood’s plan to abandon Mantle and arrest those against him, she started a fight between herself, Clover Ebi, and Qrow Branwen onboard a Manta with Tyrian Callows in custody. Despite the fact, there was no order or her arrest. Her brashness led to Tyrian breaking free and crashing the Manta as well as her becoming unconscious.

(Taken from Robyn’s RWBY Wiki page. Bolding is mine.)

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nightswithkookmin · 2 years ago

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They continue to move the goalpost when it comes to BTS and their achievements because they are not only intimidated by their impact, they are in denial and are afraid to admit those seven boys from South Korea are a cultural moment to reckon with.

I'm too wrapped up in my own shit right now to give any span of attention to empty skulled hooligans and their affront on humanity.

Each day I log into sns, I'm instantly agitated and gassed up now WHY IS THAT

First they make up some bs excuse to rationalize their hatred and disdain towards BTS claiming its not fair that they are on top- now I already posted a rant about this a day ago and Tumblr took it down. Can't even find the damn post anywhere.

BTS earned their stripes. It wasn't handed to them on a silver platter. They worked through blood sweet and tears to get her and on odinson they will enjoy their time on top!

For as long as it took them to suffer

No. We won't lower the bar just because your bias works hard- who doesn't?!

So many iconic performances went unnoticed. So many hit songs of BTS didn't get the recognition it deserved. They did time- your bias would have to do time and when their time comes So be it

BTS ARE THE LEGENDS OF THIS GENERATION.

GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL

THIS GENERATION IS DONE. LOCKED AND KEYED. THERE WILL BE NO OTHER POP ICON OF THIS GENERATION UNTIL THE NEXT

THIS IS THEIR REIGN

THEY FINNA STAY REIGNING

YOU CAN'T BE A MASTER IF YOU NEVER SERVED.

And isn't it ironic how BTS OWNS THE SONG TO THE PROFESSION YALL HOLD IN SUCH HIGH ESTEEM TO THE POINT YOU GRANT EXEMPTIONS TO YOUR PLAYERS FOR PARTICIPATING IN IT?

Hm?

DON'T WE FEEL DUMB KOREANS?

Imagine looking down on kpop, and on BTS and vehemently opposing their exemption only to tune I to Fifa to see them piping away and being celebrated and bringing the utmost pride to your country when your boys out there shitting themselves

MADE A WHOLE MESS BECAUSE BTS DIDN'T WIN A GRAMMY- WELL YOUR BOYS AREN'T WINNING OUT HERE EITHER SO WHAT'S GOOD!

THIS THEM?

Bitch ass tears they shedding shitting themselves

4 TIMES IN A ROLL

And they were beat by a team from a third world country with no access to resources and facilities and fields as green and boujee as the ones yall are exposed to HOW EMBARRASSING FOR YOU

THEY SHOULD SERVE AT THIS POINT. EXEMPTION IS POINTLESS FOR THEM.

Name one world tournament they won and I'll raise you several trophies in BTS'S Bag

See this is why I don't want to comment much on Jungkook performing at Qatar amidst the LGBTQ plus protests.

Bts are waging so many wars even against their own people and some of these things is how they prove their worth and their reach and their influence.

THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A BTS CONCERT HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE MILITARY ENLISTMENT.

I need someone to talk to I'm going through a lot 😔

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arcticdementor · 3 years ago

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Imagine that the US was competing in a space race with some third world country, say Zambia, for whatever reason. Americans of course would have orders of magnitude more money to throw at the problem, and the most respected aerospace engineers in the world, with degrees from the best universities and publications in the top journals. Zambia would have none of this. What should our reaction be if, after a decade, Zambia had made more progress?

Obviously, it would call into question the entire field of aerospace engineering. What good were all those Google Scholar pages filled with thousands of citations, all the knowledge gained from our labs and universities, if Western science gets outcompeted by the third world?

For all that has been said about Afghanistan, no one has noticed that this is precisely what just happened to political science. The American-led coalition had countless experts with backgrounds pertaining to every part of the mission on their side: people who had done their dissertations on topics like state building, terrorism, military-civilian relations, and gender in the military. General David Petraeus, who helped sell Obama on the troop surge that made everything in Afghanistan worse, earned a PhD from Princeton and was supposedly an expert in “counterinsurgency theory.” Ashraf Ghani, the just deposed president of the country, has a PhD in anthropology from Columbia and is the co-author of a book literally called Fixing Failed States. This was his territory. It’s as if Wernher von Braun had been given all the resources in the world to run a space program and had been beaten to the moon by an African witch doctor.

…

Phil Tetlock’s work on experts is one of those things that gets a lot of attention, but still manages to be underrated. In his 2005 Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?, he found that the forecasting abilities of subject-matter experts were no better than educated laymen when it came to predicting geopolitical events and economic outcomes. As Bryan Caplan points out, we shouldn’t exaggerate the results here and provide too much fodder for populists; the questions asked were chosen for their difficulty, and the experts were being compared to laymen who nonetheless had met some threshold of education and competence.

At the same time, we shouldn’t put too little emphasis on the results either. They show that “expertise” as we understand it is largely fake. Should you listen to epidemiologists or economists when it comes to COVID-19? Conventional wisdom says “trust the experts.” The lesson of Tetlock (and the Afghanistan War), is that while you certainly shouldn’t be getting all your information from your uncle’s Facebook Wall, there is no reason to start with a strong prior that people with medical degrees know more than any intelligent person who honestly looks at the available data.

…

I think one of the most interesting articles of the COVID era was a piece called “Beware of Facts Man” by Annie Lowrey, published in The Atlantic.

…

The reaction to this piece was something along the lines of “ha ha, look at this liberal who hates facts.” But there’s a serious argument under the snark, and it’s that you should trust credentials over Facts Man and his amateurish takes. In recent days, a 2019 paper on “Epistemic Trespassing” has been making the rounds on Twitter. The theory that specialization is important is not on its face absurd, and probably strikes most people as natural. In the hard sciences and other places where social desirability bias and partisanship have less of a role to play, it’s probably a safe assumption. In fact, academia is in many ways premised on the idea, as we have experts in “labor economics,” “state capacity,” “epidemiology,” etc. instead of just having a world where we select the smartest people and tell them to work on the most important questions.

But what Tetlock did was test this hypothesis directly in the social sciences, and he found that subject-matter experts and Facts Man basically tied.

…

Interestingly, one of the best defenses of “Facts Man” during the COVID era was written by Annie Lowrey’s husband, Ezra Klein. His April 2021 piece in The New York Times showed how economist Alex Tabarrok had consistently disagreed with the medical establishment throughout the pandemic, and was always right. You have the “Credentials vs. Facts Man” debate within one elite media couple. If this was a movie they would’ve switched the genders, but since this is real life, stereotypes are confirmed and the husband and wife take the positions you would expect.

…

In the end, I don’t think my dissertation contributed much to human knowledge, making it no different than the vast majority of dissertations that have been written throughout history. The main reason is that most of the time public opinion doesn’t really matter in foreign policy. People generally aren’t paying attention, and the vast majority of decisions are made out of public sight. How many Americans know or care that North Macedonia and Montenegro joined NATO in the last few years? Most of the time, elites do what they want, influenced by their own ideological commitments and powerful lobby groups. In times of crisis, when people do pay attention, they can be manipulated pretty easily by the media or other partisan sources.

If public opinion doesn’t matter in foreign policy, why is there so much study of public opinion and foreign policy? There’s a saying in academia that “instead of measuring what we value, we value what we can measure.” It’s easy to do public opinion polls and survey experiments, as you can derive a hypothesis, get an answer, and make it look sciency in charts and graphs. To show that your results have relevance to the real world, you cite some papers that supposedly find that public opinion matters, maybe including one based on a regression showing that under very specific conditions foreign policy determined the results of an election, and maybe it’s well done and maybe not, but again, as long as you put the words together and the citations in the right format nobody has time to check any of this. The people conducting peer review on your work will be those who have already decided to study the topic, so you couldn’t find a more biased referee if you tried.

Thus, to be an IR scholar, the two main options are you can either use statistical methods that don’t work, or actually find answers to questions, but those questions are so narrow that they have no real world impact or relevance. A smaller portion of academics in the field just produce postmodern-generator style garbage, hence “feminist theories of IR.” You can also build game theoretic models that, like the statistical work in the field, are based on a thousand assumptions that are probably false and no one will ever check. The older tradition of Kennan and Mearsheimer is better and more accessible than what has come lately, but the field is moving away from that and, like a lot of things, towards scientism and identity politics.

…

At some point, I decided that if I wanted to study and understand important questions, and do so in a way that was accessible to others, I’d have a better chance outside of the academy. Sometimes people thinking about an academic career reach out to me, and ask for advice. For people who want to go into the social sciences, I always tell them not to do it. If you have something to say, take it to Substack, or CSPI, or whatever. If it’s actually important and interesting enough to get anyone’s attention, you’ll be able to find funding.

If you think your topic of interest is too esoteric to find an audience, know that my friend Razib Khan, who writes about the Mongol empire, Y-chromosomes and haplotypes and such, makes a living doing this. If you want to be an experimental physicist, this advice probably doesn’t apply, and you need lab mates, major funding sources, etc. If you just want to collect and analyze data in a way that can be done without institutional support, run away from the university system.

The main problem with academia is not just the political bias, although that’s another reason to do something else with your life. It’s the entire concept of specialization, which holds that you need some secret tools or methods to understand what we call “political science” or “sociology,” and that these fields have boundaries between them that should be respected in the first place. Quantitative methods are helpful and can be applied widely, but in learning stats there are steep diminishing returns.

…

Outside of political science, are there other fields that have their own equivalents of “African witch doctor beats von Braun to the moon” or “the Taliban beats the State Department and the Pentagon” facts to explain? Yes, and here are just a few examples.

Consider criminology. More people are studying how to keep us safe from other humans than at any other point in history. But here’s the US murder rate between 1960 and 2018, not including the large uptick since then.

So basically, after a rough couple of decades, we’re back to where we were in 1960. But we’re actually much worse, because improvements in medical technology are keeping a lot of people that would’ve died 60 years ago alive. One paper from 2002 says that the murder rate would be 5 times higher if not for medical developments since 1960. I don’t know how much to trust this, but it’s surely true that we’ve made some medical progress since that time, and doctors have been getting a lot of experience from all the shooting victims they have treated over the decades. Moreover, we’re much richer than we were in 1960, and I’m sure spending on public safety has increased. With all that, we are now about tied with where we were almost three-quarters of a century ago, a massive failure.

What about psychology? As of 2016, there were 106,000 licensed psychologists in the US. I wish I could find data to compare to previous eras, but I don’t think anyone will argue against the idea that we have more mental health professionals and research psychologists than ever before. Are we getting mentally healthier? Here’s suicides in the US from 1981 to 2016

…

What about education? I’ll just defer to Freddie deBoer’s recent post on the topic, and Scott Alexander on how absurd the whole thing is.

Maybe there have been larger cultural and economic forces that it would be unfair to blame criminology, psychology, and education for. Despite no evidence we’re getting better at fighting crime, curing mental problems, or educating children, maybe other things have happened that have outweighed our gains in knowledge. Perhaps the experts are holding up the world on their shoulders, and if we hadn’t produced so many specialists over the years, thrown so much money at them, and gotten them to produce so many peer reviews papers, we’d see Middle Ages-levels of violence all across the country and no longer even be able to teach children to read. Like an Ayn Rand novel, if you just replaced the business tycoons with those whose work has withstood peer review.

Or you can just assume that expertise in these fields is fake. Even if there are some people doing good work, either they are outnumbered by those adding nothing or even subtracting from what we know, or our newly gained understanding is not being translated into better policies. Considering the extent to which government relies on experts, if the experts with power are doing things that are not defensible given the consensus in their fields, the larger community should make this known and shun those who are getting the policy questions so wrong. As in the case of the Afghanistan War, this has not happened, and those who fail in the policy world are still well regarded in their larger intellectual community.

…

Those opposed to cancel culture have taken up the mantle of “intellectual diversity” as a heuristic, but there’s nothing valuable about the concept itself. When I look at the people I’ve come to trust, they are diverse on some measures, but extremely homogenous on others. IQ and sensitivity to cost-benefit considerations seem to me to be unambiguous goods in figuring out what is true or what should be done in a policy area. You don’t add much to your understanding of the world by finding those with low IQs who can’t do cost-benefit analysis and adding them to the conversation.

One of the clearest examples of bias in academia and how intellectual diversity can make the conversation better is the work of Lee Jussim on stereotypes. Basically, a bunch of liberal academics went around saying “Conservatives believe in differences between groups, isn’t that terrible!” Lee Jussim, as someone who is relatively moderate, came along and said “Hey, let’s check to see whether they’re true!” This story is now used to make the case for intellectual diversity in the social sciences.

Yet it seems to me that isn’t the real lesson here. Imagine if, instead of Jussim coming forward and asking whether stereotypes are accurate, Osama bin Laden had decided to become a psychologist. He’d say “The problem with your research on stereotypes is that you do not praise Allah the all merciful at the beginning of all your papers.” If you added more feminist voices, they’d say something like “This research is problematic because it’s all done by men.” Neither of these perspectives contributes all that much. You’ve made the conversation more diverse, but dumber. The problem with psychology was a very specific one, in that liberals are particularly bad at recognizing obvious facts about race and sex. So yes, in that case the field could use more conservatives, not “more intellectual diversity,” which could just as easily make the field worse as make it better. And just because political psychology could use more conservative representation when discussing stereotypes doesn’t mean those on the right always add to the discussion rather than subtract from it. As many religious Republicans oppose the idea of evolution, we don’t need the “conservative” position to come and help add a new perspective to biology.

The upshot is intellectual diversity is a red herring, usually a thinly-veiled plea for more conservatives. Nobody is arguing for more Islamists, Nazis, or flat earthers in academia, and for good reason. People should just be honest about the ways in which liberals are wrong and leave it at that.

…

The failure in Afghanistan was mind-boggling. Perhaps never in the history of warfare had there been such a resource disparity between two sides, and the US-backed government couldn’t even last through the end of the American withdrawal. One can choose to understand this failure through a broad or narrow lens. Does it only tell us something about one particular war or is it a larger indictment of American foreign policy?

The main argument of this essay is we’re not thinking big enough. The American loss should be seen as a complete discrediting of the academic understanding of “expertise,” with its reliance on narrowly focused peer reviewed publications and subject matter knowledge as the way to understand the world. Although I don’t develop the argument here, I think I could make the case that expertise isn’t just fake, it actually makes you worse off because it gives you a higher level of certainty in your own wishful thinking. The Taliban probably did better by focusing their intellectual energies on interpreting the Holy Quran and taking a pragmatic approach to how they fought the war rather than proceeding with a prepackaged theory of how to engage in nation building, which for the West conveniently involved importing its own institutions.

A discussion of the practical implications of all this, or how we move from a world of specialization to one with better elites, is also for another day. For now, I’ll just emphasize that for those thinking of choosing an academic career to make universities or the peer review system function better, my advice is don’t. The conversation is much more interesting, meaningful, and oriented towards finding truth here on the outside.

#richard hanania #substack #afghanistan #read the whole thing

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bestworstcase · 4 years ago

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farran rereads lost lagoon: chapters 3-4

- a shot-put ball, according to my cursory research, weighs in the neighborhood of 6-16 pounds. leila howland expects me to believe that princess “hoisted an adult woman 70 ft into the air on the daily with nothing but a pulley and raw upper body strength” rapunzel has a hard time picking up a shot.

anyways

- rapunzel thinks about how she used to talk to herself in her tower when she was isolated (and lonely) but stopped once she came to corona, and this girl looked like she was talking to herself, and it gave rapunzel this weird sense of familiarity! now what in the world could that mean? its so subtle i can’t quite put my finger on it.

again, romance novel.

less sardonically - i will say that tts cass has never struck me as an especially lonely person. yes, rapunzel is quite possibly her first ever close friend, but cass also appears to be on pleasant terms with her coworkers and has at least one or two friendships or mentor-type relationships among the guards (stan and pete). animals in tts are anthropomorphized enough to qualify as humans, and cassandra is unequivocally friends with owl and fidella. she is friendly if not friends with at least one coronan citizen (monty). she’s utterly unfazed by crowley’s crabbiness. she’s able to get along with the pub thugs. in vardaros she befriends vex with ease and makes herself right at home among the citizenry at large. there is zero friction between her and lance - at most she rolls her eyes when he’s being ridiculous. and out of the main cast, cassandra is the one who seems closest to varian in s1 - like, she has actual bonding moments with him.

THE POINT BEING, cassandra may not have a lot of close friends, but she is nevertheless personable and demonstrates the ability to adapt herself to suit a variety of social environments. maybe i’m projecting here - i have very few close offline friends because my preference for in-person socialization is for it to be very casual - but taken together this doesn’t scream ‘lonely person’ to me. it instead says ‘person who finds social fulfillment in a wide net of friendly acquaintanceships’ and possibly also ‘person who finds close, emotionally intimate relationships worthwhile but very demanding to maintain, and so seldom or never seeks them out.’

this, absolutely, a very subjective reading of her character - it is just as plausible for cass to be someone who is socially competent but feels inwardly unfulfilled until rapunzel comes along. but even in that reading, this implication that cassandra is as deeply lonely, as thoroughly isolated in corona as rapunzel was in her tower is baldly absurd.

- i think i will have more thoughts about how arianna is characterized and the relationship she and rapunzel have with each other later in the story. for now it feels rather mechanical, and like arianna exists in the story to facilitate cassunzel happening.

- cassandra comes across to me like she has an anxiety disorder written by someone who doesn’t quite know how to convey how that feels? she catastrophizes: what if rapunzel thinks cass attacked her? will she get in trouble? but then she stops to make snide comments about rapunzel’s security detail ‘[falling] down on the job’ and concludes with an impressive amount of certainty that rapunzel isn’t going to make a big deal of it, after all. that… isn’t how anxiety works?

then, immediately, she finds a note from her father scolding her for slacking off—making it clear that she is indeed in trouble, like she feared—and her response is to scoff and throw it away. zero concern about being in trouble. zero worry about the consequences she might face for refusing the pointed “offer” of being rapunzel’s lady-in-waiting. like… this isn’t anxiety. i’m positive it’s meant to convey anxiety, but it comes across as cassandra just being… melodramatic and rude and grumpy. like a teenager. it’s unpleasant. and it bears very little resemblance to tts cass, who expresses a clear and consistent anxiety regarding the security of her job and the looming threat of a convent.

- secondly: “Friedborg reported that you missed your afternoon duties AGAIN. Please be advised that this is unacceptable. The queen is looking for a lady-in-waiting to serve Princess Rapunzel. It would be a great opportunity for you, and you must show the queen how prepared you are to train her in the ways of the court.” i am 100% convinced that howland thought cass was rapunzel’s age or younger. if friedborg is effectively cassandra’s direct supervisor, and she is reporting absences to cassandra’s father instead of addressing this with cassandra directly, the only explanation that makes sense is that cassandra is not of legal age.

- “Ladies don’t wield weapons, lead military strategy meetings, or race on horseback. Ladies do needlework, flower arranging, and hairstyling.”

sighs.

i am not going to argue that corona, in any incarnation, isn’t culturally sexist. it is. there are no women in the guard, no women in trades, no female business owners in the vein of monty or xavier or feldspar. besides rapunzel and arianna - who as the monarch’s spouse has very little in the way of actual political power - there are no women in the upper echelons of the government. besides cassandra, the only gnc women around are criminals. cass is denied even a chance to join the guard for no evident reason, even though her father allows eugene - a man he openly despises - to take the tests and then begrudgingly hires him when he passes. no one sees an issue with this, even though cassandra is demonstrably overqualified.

however.

howland makes this cultural sexism explicit text, and she does so in such a way that it implies something pretty horrifying about the already pretty horrifying corona-saporia unification backstory.

i am talking, of course, about general shampanier. you know, the female saporian general whom herz der sonne married when the two kingdoms were unified. the female saporian general who personally dueled der sonne for hours, according to under raps. the female saporian general who, forget military strategy meetings, led an entire goddamn army. i will accept the possibility that shampanier did not ride horses, because rapunzel’s return suggests that saporians have some sort of cultural objection to that. but this book predates rapunzel’s return by a large margin, and it isn’t canon anyway, so odds are the general shampanier of this story rode a warhorse at some point or another in her illustrious career of being the general of an army!!!

this woman - general shampanier - became the queen, the wife of arguably corona’s most historically important king, at a defining moment in coronan political and cultural history. tts and lost lagoon would both have us believe that this was a romantic, peaceful union between two people and two nations, but a few hundred years later - this. ladies don’t fight. ladies don’t belong in the war tent. ladies don’t ride horses. cass takes these things for granted as facts of life. but general shampanier did all of those things, and she did them extremely well, and she became corona’s queen.

WHAT HAPPENED?! WHAT HAPPENED TO SHAMPANIER’S LEGACY?

how did corona go from a warrior-queen to this, in just a few hundred years? the most plausible answer is that the background radiation of sexism and, perhaps, anti-saporian bias was powerful enough to unravel any cultural impact she may have otherwise had, deep enough to render her an outlier, an aberration, an exception to the rule that women do not act like that.

even arguing here that ‘lady’ specifically means ‘noblewoman’ doesn’t add up - because, again, general shampanier became THE QUEEN. you don’t get more noblewoman than that!

it feels unfair to judge this book with details added in season 3—such as the fact that shampanier is evidently not buried with herz der sonne—but this total lack of a cultural impact from general shampanier, queen of corona, feels very telling even without taking those tidbits of extra-textual information into consideration.

and good god, saporia hasn’t even properly entered the narrative yet! this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg!

*deep breath*

moving. on.

- continuing the theme of cass being a child larping as a guard recruit: she has a closetful of weapons which she maintains to the exacting standards of the handbook, but skips out on her job to “train” in secret because evidently she’ll do ANYTHING to get on the guard except, you know, demonstrate a modicum of responsibility with the job she has now.

- moreover while i think cartography is a neat hobby for cassandra to have, it… doesn’t make a lot of sense if it’s part of some nebulous plan to ~prove herself worthy~ of being on the guard. like, cartography straight up isn’t a relevant skill, and while knowing the countryside could certainly be helpful for guard work in the event a criminal goes to ground in the wilderness, it’s like… it’s like if i applied for my current job, which is in software/tech support, by focusing an intensive amount of energy on teaching myself spanish. fluency in spanish is a useful skill and one that i could turn into an asset within the bounds of my current job, and it might be the deciding factor in me getting hired over someone else with equivalent experience and skill in computing and tech support (which is what the job involves) because, yes, some of our clients are ESL spanish-speakers. but it’s—there’s a disconnect. if i were in a tight competition to get this job i would be pouring my time into sharpening my programming skill and polishing up a portfolio of relevant work. i wouldn’t be devoting hours upon hours to learning spanish. right?

on the other hand—if cartography is a hobby cassandra is passionate about, and she’s 16 or 17 or 18 and she really likes the idea of being on the guard and really feels like she can do it and is bored with her dumb teenager job and desperate to get her dad to make her a guard without actually grasping what being a guard entails or the kind of work it involves or what she actually, realistically needs to do to have a shot, then… yeah, skipping work to play pretend with her weapons and convincing herself that her favorite hobby is totally going to prove to her dad that she’s ready to be a guard!!! makes perfect sense. it’s no different from tts varian tunnel visioning so hard on this fantasy of ‘i’ll surprise my whole village with hot running water and then my dad will be proud of me!!!’ that he neglects basic safety measures and accidentally blows the whole system up. it’s not realistic. it’s a fantasy. it’s play.

- the only time cassandra brings up eugene’s criminal past in tts is to mock him for being a loser. like. literally. the plot of fitzherbert pi kicks off when she calls him a “two-bit hood” and then when he fires back that flynn rider was a LEGEND!!! she fires back “key word being was. and… what is it you do now?” and that’s the only time she brings it up. granted this is 6-7 months into their relationship but… still, frankly i never got the impression that “former thief” was anywhere close to the top of cassandra’s list of reasons for hating eugene. he’s just a dick. she doesn’t like him because he’s a huge selfish jerk and she warms up to him after her starts behaving better.

- rapunzel goes to the ty lee school of flirting. just… laugh really hard at everything your crush says even if it’s not funny.

- despite my… intense and rapidly growing dislike for how cassandra is characterized in this book, her experiencing an actual physical reaction when rapunzel enters her space without permission is good. it’s about the boundaries. it has always been about the boundaries, and rapunzel crossing them, and the intractable messiness that arises from that.

- in fact: how many times does rapunzel cross boundaries in just this one little scene? oh, let me count the ways!

1 - when cassandra goes to shut the door, rapunzel ducks under her arm to enter the room. (eugene attempts to enter as well, but cass succeeds in blocking him.)

2 - missing or ignoring cassandra’s first “go away” hint about only playing individual sports.

3 - missing or ignoring cassandra’s second “go away” hint (“I let the silence get awkward.”)

4 - arranging cassandra’s invitation to the feast of elodie the great with the captain beforehand, so cass can’t use him as an excuse to decline.

5 - missing or ignoring cassandra’s obvious discomfort with this news, taking cassandra’s attendance at the feast as a done deal, and skipping straight to asking cassandra to sit next to her.

6 - in response to cassandra’s very diplomatic signal of not wanting to do that (“I sit wherever I’m assigned”), she declares that she’ll make sure cassandra is assigned to sit next to her.

7 - touching without permission, which makes cassandra flinch.

all of which results in cassandra making what she considers to be a “tactical surrender.” and then shutting and locking her door, because she feels so rattled. as i recall, lagoon is actually a lot mellower on the boundary violations front - and rapunzel actually learns better over the course of the story, which is probably the biggest reason that lost lagoon is not canon and cannot be canon to tts - but it feels worth writing this sort of thing out because, well. it is one of the dead horses i keep clobbering.

#lost lagoon reread #-cries in worldbuilding-#rta

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maggot-baggage · 3 days ago

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Anyways

This whole thing just reminded me of how a few other instances of calling out antiblackness went like way back when: Someone makes a point that didn't need to include some lowkey racist shit, Black people say "we're not denying that's true but maybe don't be racist about it", people act as if it's a classic case of people not knowing what privilege is and taking that shit n running with it. If anything I'd compare it to how this site handles transmisogyny but that's a discussion for another time.

Im gettin tired of people making these Trojan horse ass posts, using one topic as a foothold to say whatever the fuck they want, bc now we got white people taking that "(Black) Amerikkkans" thing and running with it. A bunch of other nonblack people just shaking their head like "those monkeys I mean hitlerites think theyre not part of the problem.... expected of a colonial minority😒🙄", so now we all gotta keep saying "We know we aren't the exception and that's not the argument being made" since no one wants to focus on the racist part of this. Like thats what this is all about. You keep saying "usamerikkkans" "gringos" "yanks" when this is JUST about Black people, and it's irkin me bc its white americans AND nonblacks all parroting this shit! And you can insist it isn't racist or even bias but we see it and we're not callin it nothin but what it is.

There isnt a single Black person with sense who saw that post that denied that Black people in the states contribute to imperialism. No one said we don't join the military or that we don't go on tiktok sayin ignorant shit about fried chicken in South Korea. We have these discussions amongst ourselves constantly and there is a term for niggas who think climbing the imperial ladder will make up for the privilege they lack. Believe it or not, we are capable of saying stupid and downright ignorant shit like everyone else, hard to believe but we already know that.

But holy shit we keep telling you, repeatedly, that if you're gonna single us out, you need to come correct, express *why* you single out Black americans, and you really need to watch how you talk because I refuse to entertain anymore nonblacks makin posts like that under the guise of "criticizing USAmericans" bc it is never just about that with you people.

So now I'm gonna be that guy bc we *should* mean *all* usamericans when we say it: Do you make these same posts about Asian Americans? About Chicanos? Latino Americans or white immigrants? You sure as hell wouldn't make these posts about Indigenous people here, but believe it or not they all join the military, the police force, border patrol, and they all grab for opportunities like this just like Black people do. They also have their own individual conversations about these people. Because a USAmerican is a USAmerican is a USAmerican, so that means all of us. Even if you acknowledge that some of us aren't here by choice! But do you hop out your seat when they also do and say things indicative of their privilege as Americans?

Or are you just focusing on Black people because you believe we think we are exempt, for whatever reason that is? Genuine question.

I have one last thing to say n im puttin this shit to rest bc im still seeing people say shit thats like. Really odd about the whole thing

#mag.txt #aight yall im done i promise

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snkpolls · 4 years ago

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SnK Episode 62 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 314 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

RATE THE EPISODE 303 Responses

There was an interesting contrast this week between anime only viewers’ and manga readers’ reaction to the episode. Anime only viewers overwhelmingly felt positively about the episode. But for manga manga readers, many of the cuts in the anime dampened their enjoyment of the episode, and for some ruined it entirely. Still, overall, the episode got positive reception, even if it wasn’t overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

a little rushed but still very enjoyable. it defo got the point across about Reiner's struggles

It was... Fine. I'll give it a solid 8/10 on emotional value and finally seeing these chapters animated. But accepting that the anime and manga are not the same and that there will be cuts is hard.

Wasn't very good. The cut scenes really hurt the pacing and overall story.

i thought the pacing was way too fast :(

Stunning. Beautiful

Another great episode. My only criticisms are the music that was used at the beginning of the episode, which didn't really work, and the cuts but I understand why that had to happen.

Disappointing

Impeccable. The adaption was both efficient and emotionally effective. Zero misses so far - I'm officially a MAPPA ho.

Really great! Feels different from the manga and makes me excited for future episodes, because even if it's not perfect, we will always have the original material + some fun new scenes that the anime is adding, can't wait for more

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 304 Responses

The much-anticipated scene where we learn amputee-kun is actually Eren was the most favored of the episode, with 37.5% of the vote. Following behind that with more narrow margins were the introduction to Marley’s titans, Annie and Reiner’s fight and Reiner’s suicide attempt.

The first part was very rushed and I wasn't as impressed by it. But I was very impressed by the second part of the episode once the warrior kids made it to paradise. I also very much enjoyed how they animated the scene of Annie taking out her anger on Reiner after Marcel's death. There was just something about the use of colours that really appealed to me.

The Reiner and Annie fight and Reiner's suicide disturbed me a lot more this time around, partially because I haven't read the chapters in a while, but this is easily one of my favorite episodes now.

WE GOT THE FULL ED LAST WEEK. AFTER SEEING IT IN ITS ENTIRETY, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT NOW? 294 Responses

The majority of the fandom are enjoying the new ending, with 65.6% loving both the song and the animation. 11.2% are enjoying the song… but not so much the animation. 11.9% feel that it’s “just okay.” Some are enjoying the animation, but not the song, and a few more dislike both.

The song and the animation are truly beautiful and gorgeous. I couldn't imagine better. It is always so peaceful after the full of emotions episode.

Beautiful song, although the bit with the streaks of shiny animation look like 480p and are a little boring.

I didn't see it

Bold of you to assume I watch the EDs and don't just skim ahead to the preview.

i'm not interested in the ending

There was a half ED?

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, HOW MUCH DID YOU ENJOY THE SEQUENCE INTRODUCING ALL OF MARLEY’S TITANS? 303 Responses

A very tiny fraction of voters weren’t impressed with the way MAPPA executed the scene that introduces us to the Marley titans and why each warrior was picked for the titans they received. However, the majority of respondents felt very positively about the scene, with 221 even feeling they, too, will become a titan as a result of the awesomeness.

I really liked the marley titan montage but why the hell were the female titan's boobs so big? It looked so out of poportion

It was awesome and I loved the introduction to the Titans

OUT OF ALL THE TITANS THE MARLEY MILITARY HAD 9 YEARS AGO, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE? 299 Responses

Whether it’s for practicality or aesthetic reasons, we all have different titans that appeal to us more than others. This race was a close one, with the Female Titan holding on just slightly over the Jaw Titan in terms of favoritism. The Armored Titan came in at a distant third with the Beast Titan and Colossal closely behind. Only a very small fraction would like to inherit the Cart Titan from Piku-chan.

WHICH OG WARRIOR CANDIDATE WOULD YOU WANT TO ADOPT? 299 Responses

Overall, the majority (29.1%) wouldn’t want to adopt any of the OG warrior crew, whether because the responsibility is too much or because they don’t like kids at all (or perhaps, a missing third option being they don’t like any of them). But for those who would happily take on one of the OG warrior kiddos, 24.1% would most like to take Reiner home (and probably give him lots of hugs). 21.1% adore little Pieck and would shower her with parental love forever. 9.7% probably want to pinch little Bertolt’s cheeks, and 8.4% wish they’d adopted Annie instead of her father.

A LOT OF THE SHIGANSHINA BREACH HAS REUSED WIT ANIMATION FROM PAST EPISODES - THOUGHTS? 303 Responses

The majority of respondents felt positively enough about seeing WIT’s S1 style mixed in with MAPPA’s, with 42.9% feeling it flowed together well enough, and 26.4% understanding why they didn’t reanimate the event (despite preferring it if they had). 11.2% don’t care at all, and 8.6% think it was way too jarring. There are some who are reminded that they miss WIT’s style, and others who have a continued appreciation for MAPPA.

KAJI YUKI HAS LOWERED HIS VOICE A BIT TO DEPICT AN OLDER EREN. THOUGHTS? 301 Responses

Overall, nearly everyone seems to be pleased with Kaji Yuki’s more “mature” sounding Eren, with 76.4% feeling he is portraying an older and more jaded Eren perfectly. 11.6% are lost in their lust for a 2D drawing and are focused entirely on that (we understand lol). A few are simply indifferent to the lower tone, and a smaller percentage just prefer Eren’s voice prior to the timeskip.

Anime onlys can spot him more difficult, which I like

Made sense to me, he’s not a teenager anymore after all, plus works better for this “new” Eren who’s less angry and shouty all the time.

I didn't even notice lol

Eren is adult so changing his voice was a very good choice. I like his new sound.

It was stupid that he ever talked so low before now. He was fifteen and he sounded like an adult, well they all do that bc it's standard anime shit but it makes it even harder when they become real adults.

NOW HE REALLY SOUNDS LIKE KENMA 🔥

WE’VE LOST COUNT OF HOW MANY TIMES WE’VE SEEN MARCEL GET EATEN. BUT OF THE OPTIONS BELOW, WHO DID IT BEST? 296 Responses

Seeing Marcel get eaten 2000 times seems to be a running gag at this point, so naturally we had to include this question. Whether it’s recency bias or objectively true, 44.6% feel that MAPPA’s take on Marcel’s death was the best. 30.4% feel that Isayama’s more recent art style truly does Marcel the most justice. 14.2% liked the way WIT Studio portrayed the scene and 10.8% like Isayama’s older, more grungy art style.

RIP Marcel

DO YOU THINK THAT REINER WAS CORRECT, THAT MARLEY WOULD HAVE HAD ALL OF RBA EATEN IF THEY HAD FOUND YMIR AND RETURNED HOME IMMEDIATELY? 292 Responses

In the hypothetical scenario that Reiner hadn’t convinced Annie and Bertolt to stay on the island, the majority feel that Reiner was wrong in his assessment that they would be executed practically on-site. 55.1% believe that the idea would have been out in the open, but ultimately rejected. Though, 35.6% feel that Marley is too ruthless and uncaring toward Eldians to care what the situation is, and would absolutely hand over their titans to others deemed more capable. Very few felt Marley would be understanding by default. Many write-ins feel that Reiner is the only one who would have been executed for the failure.

Depends on if B/A emphasize that it was Reiner’s fault rather than their own.

If all of RBA got eaten then I think they wouldn’t use kids for their next attempt. Maybe teens around the age RBA were after training in Paradis military

Magath would have pointed out how wasteful it would have been, but probably even him couldn't have saved reiner

He was wrong. What would be the point of feeding them to other children, if they were the best candidates? Too much of work.

Reiner said that there's a possibility that they couldn't find Ymir even if they try. He has a point. But I don't think Marley would have RBA eaten even if they lose Jaw.

They wouldn't go through with it because they seem to lack other qualified warrior candidates.

I think Magath and maybe Zeke would have tried to convince the government to not go through with it and that Reiner might have been the only one sacrificed.

Obviously. They would have indisputable proof that sending a bunch of kids to carry out a massively important mission is the dumbest shit they could have ever done and immediately they'd put the titans into older soldiers.

They'd let them live a few more years just for propaganda and used them for other battles, then they'd have them killed around their midterm.

Possibly, but they put a lot of time, effort, and money into training their warriors. It would be a big decision to execute all of them and start over. Maybe they would have executed Reiner as an example.

WHAT’S THE FORECAST FOR TONIGHT? 295 Responses

In our least-serious question of the poll, we asked you guys to try and predict the weather based on Bertolt’s sleeping pose. 18.3% believe his legs-on-the-wall pose means clear skies, 13.9% are certain it means rain. 13.6% are confident in an overcast night. At 11.5% foresee storms coming and 11.2% think it’s gonna be snow. 18% are probably just annoyed with the question. A few write-ins pointed out that Bertolt was, indeed, sleeping in the Hanged Man Pose.

It’s gonna be partly guilt ridden old man with a 90% chance of suicide by hanging

Blood and guts

HOW IS THAT EVEN COMFORTABLE?

Let's just call it hail

Hanged man posture, dreamed about the old man

raining titans

No one can make me like the warriors even if I don't blame them for what they were forced to do as kids. idc what quirky habits they have.

There'll be clear skies for some time but don't be deceived, heavy rain is incoming

This was amazing because it's a reference to The Hanging Man on Tarot cards: he's willingly being hanged for his sins. Look it up, it's so cool.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAPPA CUTTING A GOOD CHUNK OF REINER’S TRAINING? 302 Responses

With only 20(ish) minutes to fit in all of Reiner’s backstory, cuts were inevitable. MAPPA made the decision to nerf most of Reiner’s struggles training as a Warrior Cadet (among a couple other more lengthy scenes during and after the wall breach). 62.9% are sad that some of these scenes didn’t make the cut, but also understand that we can’t have it all. 13.2% actually preferred seeing Reiner’s backstory in MAPPA’s condensed version, while 12.9% feel it completely ruins the characterization of the warriors.

I don't even remember what was cut 😂

Slightly ruined the warriors’ characterisations (especially Reiner’s)

I thought they could have shown a bit more about Reiner's underdog, it's something that really made me sympathise with him in the manga.

Kinda disappointed, since some scenes were essential for a little background on their lives

Honestly, even after all the cuts and the restrains it tells the story of a "warrior", Reiner.

Mappa fucked RBA backstory and I would bet it's because they are biased towards Eren and 104th...

I wouldn't say it ruined their characterisation, but it did leave it a lot more shallow. I would've loved to see those scenes animated, but I also realise that things will have to be cut to fit everything in, and I think these cuts still preserve the forward momentum of the story reasonably well.

The important scenes were animated, so it's good that way

MAPPA cannot animate every panel and the best will be, if fandom finally understands that. Every episode has limited amount of time and MAPPA is doing everything they can to make episodes good and easy to understand for anime onlies. I was fine with cutting because I know that episodes aren't long and there are more important stuff to animate than every part of training.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT NOT SEEING ANNIE PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST WALL BREACH? 298 Responses

MAPPA completely glossed over Annie’s role in the wall breach, showing her being choked by Reiner and then waking up in the refugee camp later. 40.9% state they would have preferred seeing Annie play her part in the mission, though they accept that it isn’t there. 34.6% are concerned that those who don’t read the manga will just be confused as to where Annie was during all of the chaos (Oh no! Did RB leave her passed out in the fields!?). 16.1% are simply just disappointed altogether. A small fraction felt it wasn’t necessary anyway and have no problems with the cut.

I feel kinda iffy about it because that was one of my favorite parts of the chapter, but oh well... it is what it is.

Kenny's scene should be eliminated.

I mean it's not like the female titan could destroy the walls herself. I think nobody expects it and then her absence makes sense

Yams did an oopsie in the first place retconing

It really confused me lol for a moment I completely forgot what she even did in the manga and had to reread

KNOWING NOW THAT ANNIE IS ACTUALLY ADOPTED, DOES THE JOKE ABOUT HER BEING KENNY’S LOST DAUGHTER HIT DIFFERENTLY NOW? 299 Responses

We learn after Annie comes out of the crystal that her father is actually an adoptive parent. Annie, in an attempt to cover up why she’s stalking Kenny in the underground, claims (or jokes) that she was born to a brothel worker and is Kenny’s lost daughter. We asked if this made the joke any less funny to readers, though most of them didn’t think so at all. Only 14% of respondents say the new knowledge actually makes it a little sad. Some people forgot entirely that Annie is adopted and voiced their confusion in the write-ins.

wait,,,,, she.,,,, she's adopted ??? wha- how did i completely forget about this

Kenny's gay anyway so it's impossible! Sorry, Annie :/

I don't really get this joke tbh 😅 Do people think she and Kenny look alike?

We're all Kenny's lost daughter

It just brings into question her true parentage, like how she can scream summon other Titans and if that’s a royal blood thing or not. But probably doesn’t matter since it hasn’t come up in the manga yet

I hadn't thought about it before today.

She's adopted?!?

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MAPPA’S EXECUTION OF REINER’S ATTEMPTED SUICIDE? 302 Responses

With such a weighty scene, execution is of utmost importance. So we were curious if you guys felt that MAPPA hit the mark. Overall, MAPPA’s take on this scene got positive responses from the fandom, with 42.4% feeling they felt about the same as they did when the scene came up in the manga. 26.5% actually thought that MAPPA did a better job with the scene, whereas 26.2% felt that Isayama’s original take on the scene is still superior.

I think that while the manga's intent is for the reader to feel Reiner's pain and emotions during what he thought were his last moments, the anime focuses much more on making it disturbing and depressing (both taking into account the same things, just choosing to highlight different aspects of the scene). Not a bad change but I prefer the manga's portayal, it made me feel so much more attached to Reiner

Actual scene was good, but the build up was lacking.

I really liked the flipping back and forth

Not nearly as emotional as I expected

The lighting was so good in the anime version.

Bruh we needed the flashbacks cause they depicted Reiner's journey and regrets

I think it was more impactful in the manga, but MAPPA did it amazing too

The scene looked more serious but the building of the characters didn't live up for the moment.

It impacted me differently than in the manga. I prefer the manga scene, but the anime's was still really good

I was worried about it being overly censored so I’m glad it wasn’t

The execution was about the same, but it had a bigger impact when you read it for the first time

The drool was a great touch

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING CUTS WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED DIDN’T MAKE THE EPISODE? 292 Responses

While we shouldn’t dwell on cuts too much, there will still be things that people are disappointed didn’t make it into the anime. The scenes which were most missed this week were Annie’s role in the wall breach, Reiner passing along a tired Annie over to Bertolt atop the wall, RBA discussing their infiltration plans in the field (also known as the tree-uprooting scene), seeing Bertolt, Annie and Marcel surpassing Reiner in their training, and Reiner breaking up Eren and Jean’s fight (noticing Annie is exhausted). Well, at least the manga still exists, right?

I wish they didnt cut some of the flashbacks right before Reiner tried to kill himself.

Really great episode, but Bertholdt looking up at the wall before breaking it was such an iconic panel, I'm a bit sad

Any cuts are a negative. I dont care how much it makes sense for the anime onlies, I just wish they somehow incorporate some of the small slice of life scenes that made the Marley arc special.

Truly loved it despite cuts and pacing, but just wish we could’ve seen that tree uprooting scene!

I still hold the sentiment that Mappa is cutting way too much from these episodes. The amount of small details getting cut from every chapter/episode results in losing out on smaller moments that in my opinion have a real impact. While I understand a 1 to 1 replica might not be possible, the amount of cuts is too much imo. Missing out on nearly all of RBA assaulting Shiganshina was a huge disappointment, and less Falco and Gabi scenes makes it tough for me to connect to them. Talking to my Anime-only friends though, they are very into this season, so I'm glad to hear it works for them.

I'm not necessarily sad they cut so much, I feel like as an Anime only I wouldn't have noticed! The only thing I wish that had been kept was Annie's involvement in the destruction of wall Maria.

I was sad they cut stuff but that’s inevitable. The only cut I’m sad about is the scene before Bertholdt breaks the wall.

some of the cuts made sense, some made other scenes kind of occur out of nowhere, like annie with kenny.

SO FAR, WE’VE LOST A FEW INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FALCO AND GABI AND SOME MOMENTS WHERE FALCO IS BLUSHING OVER HER. DO YOU THINK THIS WILL LESSEN THE IMPACT OF HIS EVENTUAL LOVE CONFESSION TO HER? 296 Responses

While the Falbi romance isn’t a major focal point of the series, it does play a big part in their storyline and overall character development as their involvement in the plot increases. MAPPA has had to let a few scenes go, so we were curious if manga readers felt it would lessen the impact of Falco’s inevitable confession just before the rumbling starts. 31.4% feel that the anime is doing just fine at portraying Falco’s feelings. 28.4% feel the impact will be lessened, but that it’s fine due to it being a minor plot point anyway. 14.5% are upset about the missing pieces and 11.8% think MAPPA will make up for it later. Smaller groups of voters either don’t understand why Falco likes Gabi or just don’t care.

I'm more dissapointed about Zofia and Udo getting cut than those two.

Kid romance is lame anyway

It's not gonna hit like the manga but it's still pretty important plot imo

What works on paper doesn't always work animated, they're doing ok

I hate gabi gahh

It is obvious he likes her anyway

Not really, they've established he has a big crush on her since he pretty much came out and told it to Eren

DO YOU THINK MAPPA DID A GOOD JOB OF HIDING EREN IN PLAIN SIGHT? 297 Responses

We failed to ask this question last week, but it still applied well to this week’s episode. When it came to anime only fans, we wondered whether manga readers felt MAPPA did a good job at making him as mysterious to anime watchers as Isayama did to us manga readers. 40.1% felt that MAPPA did a great job, as many anime watchers didn’t seem to catch on. 25.6% feel that they didn’t do any worse or better than Isayama did. 13.8% feel MAPPA did not do as well as Isayama, as some anime watchers easily caught on. 9.4% think they did completely awful at pretending it’s not Eren. Some write-ins felt we couldn’t objectively judge this as we already knew it was Eren anyway.

I think the voice gave it away the most. The sneaky animation was great!

Hard to answer because chapters were a month apart while episodes are weekly and I’ve already read the manga when it came out

well, I can't say much about this. since I know he is eren, I was just focusing on how Kaji Yuki will handle this important speech

They even didn't try to hide him. I'm disappointed because I wanted anime onlines to feel what we - manga readers - felt, when after few chapters we found that the hobo man was Eren.

I honestly didn't even realize he was supposed to be hidden from the readers/viewers at this point. It was so obviously him in the manga and the anime. Genuinely confused by how many people did not catch on.

Watching some reactors they were like "...wait...that *looks* like Eren...but his leg is amputated...his leg would've grown back??" but as soon as you heard his voice it was instantaneous

I, being a manga reader, had a hard time getting how you couldn't see that it was Eren, but some of my friend only got it at the last scene.

Hard to say. WIth the manga, it took me a few reads to catch on, but now that I KNOW, it's hard to say anything.

Yes, I'm watching the episodes with my anime-only friend and he still hasn't figured it out

I think they did a good job, but with anime being the medium it was easier to guess due to both hair/eye color and voice.

It was nice, I was actually surprised that some of my anime only friends didn't even realize that it was Eren talking to Falco this episode

When Eren was finally revealed in the manga, I was *shocked! I had *no clue that was him! I think the anime did a great job, but of course had to reveal him sooner. It was perfect both in manga and anime imo.

It's obviously him once you see his eyes, but I don't think that the animation team were trying to make it a big shock reveal, they want this scene to say "this is probably Eren, but can you be 100% sure" to keep anime onlys engaged and reassure them that the main cast is still relevant.

Yes, but the manga hid him better, it took me way too long to realise it was him while reading

HOW WAS KAJI YUKI’S DELIVERY ON EREN’S SPEECH TO FALCO? 299 Responses

The vast majority of respondents were very pleased with Kaji Yuji’s delivery on one of Eren’s most prominent speeches. 38.1% felt it was exactly as they had hoped it would be. 28.1% were extremely happy, and feel that any delivery by Kaji Yuki as Eren will be 100% spot-on. 24.7% are simply just content with it. Smaller fragments of respondents just wanted to voice their thirst, or felt that the delivery could have been better.

Better than I could have ever imagined

I don't really care

Eren is the best main character ever

Not my native language so I can't really tell how good it is, but Kaji's delivery seemed about right

It was a bit fast but good

Very good. You get a real sense of how clueless but trying to be tough Eren really is.

EREN TELLS FALCO HE HOPES FALCO LIVES A LONG LIFE. KNOWING WHAT WE DO NOW, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM SAYING THIS? 298 Responses

Eren already knows he will bring destruction upon the world, so it’s a wonder why he would bother telling Falco he hopes Falco will have a long life. 64.8% believe that he truly means it from the bottom of his heart, despite knowing his future actions will likely affect Falco. 10.7% believe he said this because he has already seen that Falco will survive the Rumbling. 10.1% aren’t really sure what to make of it at all. Smaller numbers of people think Eren was only trying to gain Falco’s trust and didn’t mean it at all, or believe that Falco will take part in Eren’s eventual demise and Eren is already aware of that.

He saw him in his memories so imma believe what he says

I'm sure there is part of Eren that hopes for a good long life for Falco. Just like there was part of him that couldn't help but save the refugee kid. But that doesn't mean he isn't any less dedicated to his plan to genocide a whole lot of people. He has his conflicts, but in the end he's still going ahead with the attack on the square and later with the rumbling.

I think it's the same deal as him saving the immigrant kid when he knew that he would die in the rumbling.

In an ideal world Eren would want *everyone* to live a long life--he's been portrayed as someone who cries and disassociates while he commits his genocide so we're meant to understand he doesn't enjoy it. Sadly it doesn't matter what he hopes or wants when he's decided murdering everyone is what has to be done..

THE PREVIEW SHOWED PIECK AND PORCO NEXT TO REINER AT THE DAYTIME FESTIVAL. THIS WAS NOT IN THE MANGA. WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS MEANS ABOUT POSSIBLE ANIME-ONLY ADDITIONS? 298 Responses

Many of our respondents seem to be looking forward to Pieck and Porco’s inclusion in the daytime festival. 47% are hopeful that this will mean some wholesome bonding scenes between the Warriors and the kids. 26.5% don’t know what to make of it, but are looking forward to it nonetheless. A handful of people think it will be similar to how WIT included Sasha in the Clash arc - adding minor details without changing anything in the story-line. 7% wish that MAPPA wasn’t doing this at all, and 5% are hopeful this means that MAPPA will find a way to repurpose Pieck crawling on all fours next episode.

I still want Pieck butt

IN THAT SAME VEIN, IT SEEMS LIKE EPISODE 4 WILL ADAPT CHAPTERS 97 AND 98, ENDING ON THE FINAL PANEL OF 98. HOWEVER, THE VAST MAJORITY OF CHAPTER 97 WAS ALREADY ADAPTED IN LAST WEEK’S EPISODE. WHAT WILL THIS MEAN FOR EPISODE 4? 293 Responses

Who wants to place bets on the contents of next episode? While the largest chunk of people don’t know what to expect in episode 4, others are happy to speculate. 19.8% feel (or are at least hopeful) that MAPPA will fill in some screen time by repurposing already-skipped scenes. 19.1% feel that there will be minor additions, but not too much. A solid 16% feel that there will be a few anime only additions during the daytime festival. 10.9% are placing bets that episode 4 will actually bleed into chapter 100 before the end.

Mappa won't have to cut a lot of stuff like they did to ep 3

The title "From One Hand to Another" immediately made me think we would actually be getting Eren grasping Reiner's hand and transforming at the end (meaning chapters 100 and 101), but that's just so much. The title may just refer to Magath and Willy's handshake.

What about just enjoying the show?

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 298 Responses

As expected of the fandom! Reiner and Eren’s reunion is the most anticipated scene for episode 4, with 74.8% having voted for that. 17.1% are most looking forward to the daytime festival, and 6% are excited to meet Willy in anime form for the first time. One commenter is very invested in the banquet and how it’s executed.

Not this ep but if they cut the Udo and Kiyomi scene I'll RIOT!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I'm upset so much was cut from Reiner's backstory but the cinematography is freakin' excellent I can't even complain

*cheers MAPPA animators for their hard work* ... Perfect for anime onlies, I think. Made me almost wish I hadn't read the manga so I wouldn't have missed the cut scenes.

Cuts aside, the animation was much better than the previous episodes.

"The one scene I really wanted was Bertholdt looking over the wall and seeing the EMA trio. Of all the cuts, I think that was the only one that was damaging to the story. I also kind of wish that MAPPA animated the reused scenes. I kind of like comparing and contrasting the animation styles of both studios so its a bit of shame that we didn't get anything new from Episode 1.

I'm really impressed with how much MAPPA is managing to squeeze in each episode and I'm content that Reiner's flashback was covered in a single episode rather than two. It just makes sense pacing-wise. The only real criticism I have is that in the flashback scenes where everyone is supposed to be 12 years old, they don't sound 12 at all. Their voices are way too mature, especially the males, and I understand they're voiced by adults, but I feel like they could have at least tried to sound more like kids. Other than that, great episode.

Elaborating on the missing content: they really shouldn’t have cut Annie’s transformation prior to wall Maria being breached. It makes it look like Reiner choked her out and then a minute later bert was kicking the wall through.

I'm in the boat, where i think it wouldve been better if Mappa didnt cut out so much, but considering what there is to cover, we will live,but i hope they dont end up butchering everything Also the bit with reiner’s dad would be confusing to anime-onlies since it cross-cuts between that scene and him on the parade. I’ve seen some reactors think it was a daydream, or that he left during the parade.

It was quite rushed, but I understand why they did it, the flashback wouldn't have been as impactful over 2 episodes, and I do think when the Marley arc was first introduced in the manga, manga readers were quite inpatient to get back to the main cast, so they might be feeding off that feedback.

Mappa has become my favorite studio of all time. Not just in regards to anime, but studios in general. Their discography is on another level (imo) and the fact that on top of every other masterpiece they’ve made, they’re doing an outstanding job with my favorite series of all time just solidifies them as the first and probably the only anime studio that I can truly Stan.

Lots of (I think) Important stuff cut, but the meat is still in place. I like my meat to be juicy and marbled, while Mappa cut out all the fat that makes for a flavorful meal. I completely understand why and I am apathetic about it.

disliked the fact the wall breach was so quickly glossed over, and the transition between mappa and wit style was jarring to say the least

Regardless of the cuts, i think it flows together nicely. The anime has always been more speedy than the manga so i kind of expected this. I don't think it'll get as bad as s3 part 1 in terms of pacing. I trust in Mappa, so far i haven't been disappointed at all. The animation and backgrounds are absolutely stunning. That warrior titan sequence was incredibly well done. Props to the animators!

It was a bit confusing mishmash of scenes, but there were some good moments sprinkled in like the introduction of all of Marley's titans. The emotional reactions, however, just weren't the same as they were when reading the manga, to be honest.

I’m really glad they cut the part with RBA hanging onto Female/Armoured neck by a rope. That whole thing seemed stupid to me. Doesn’t match up with previous chapters and I feel like SOMEONE would have noticed two kids hanging onto the Armoured Titan’s neck.

I think MAPPA is doing a really good job so far, can't wait to see the battle in Liberio. I'm not bothered at all with the CG titans because firstly, they look really good, and secondly, I understand why they had to do it. I also hope they don't censor many things or cut out some dark scenes that are important to the season because I would love to see everything animated.

Felt like watching a recap episode... And it wasn't supposed to be one, so

I'm really dissapointed that mappa cut so many things from manga. Reiner's backstory is my favoure part of snk. Suicide scene completly lacks impact.

I really dislike the fact that MAPPA is trying to show only bad side of the marleyan officers. They removed the gate guards, they removed the scene where Magath is telling RBA to stay safe (on Paradis). One of the best parts of the manga is showing that the both races (Eldians and Marleyans) have good and bad sides. By removing positive aspects of Marleyans MAPPA is creating totally different picture. This way the anime onlines may find the whole rumbling even more justified. The episode was pretty good and the OST has made some scenes to feel more dark and serious (especially the moment where the new titans are introduced), but sometimes I feel like the characters are speaking and acting way too fast. I was waiting for the scene with Kenny and Annie, but it took only like few second and was cut. I love MAPPA's version of Kenny. He has more serious aura and looks more like his manga counterpart. In other words; wrinkled grandpa with skinny neck :)

It honestly wasn’t my favorite, but I still loved it. I feel as though they skipped around a lot and there wasn’t a lot of scenes that actually tied together and I’m worried anime only watchers might get confused. Definitely some of the stuff I wanted to see animated didn’t make the cut, but I still love the animation style, the characters and the story!

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 285 Responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again next episode.

#snk poll #snk polls #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #snk spoilers #snk s4

28 notes · View notes

legobiwan · 5 years ago

Note

What we need is an AU in which Obes giving illegal aid to Mandalore in The Lawless was uncovered and he is put on trial with Ahsoka during The Temple Bombing arc.

I was feeling prompt-y so here’s a ficlet as answer. I…uh…don’t know how I got from a trial to the ending of this, but perhaps I’m channeling my Broken Ashes energies…. :o

—–

“…and with these brazen acts of treason - to the Senate, to the Republic, and the Jedi Order - “ Mas Amedda paused, lifting his broad face to survey the packed hall, as if he were meeting the gaze of every sentient in the room.

Every unscrupulous holojournalist hanging on tenterhooks, salivating over their next big byline, Anakin raged internally, his mechanical arm groaning as he gripped the armrests of his chair. Vultures. Every last being in this room circling above the remains of what had been Ahsoka’s glowing potential, her skill and intelligence wasting away under the bright lights of the Senate’s courthouse.

Anakin grit his teeth, pulling at the chair, which whined with the strain. The small noise earned him a fleeting glance of concern from Padmé, who was situated across from Anakin, the two of them holed up in the pod reserved for the accused’s defense team. A blatant show of bias on Anakin’s part, something the Council had vociferously warned him against lest they appear to be “in conflict with the rule of the Republic.”

He didn’t give a bantha’s ass about the Council right now. Especially when Obi-wan was nowhere to be seen.

Coward, Anakin seethed.

Mas Amedda unfurled an antiquated-looking flimsi, his eyebrows rising as he scanned the document. Something a little too close to satisfaction seeped through the Force, not only from him, but hundreds of other gleaming-eyed politicians who seemed a bit too enthusiastic about the possible execution of a Jedi.

Of a child.

“ - the court finds the former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano guilty on all counts, including premeditated murder, attempted murder, sedition against the Republic, and multiple acts of terrorism against the Republic. Sentencing will be held tomorrow at 0800 hours,” the long-horned Chagrian intoned.

Ahsoka’s shoulders hunched at the verdict, her gaze dropping to the floor as she allowed herself to be escorted away by two Republic guards, a steady hand on each of her upper arms, her wrists bound in Force-suppressing cuffs.

And that was it. No last-minute heroics, no rushing into battle just when things seemed lost, lightsabers blazing. Unlike the front, this had been an invisible war, one that had Anakin swiping at phantoms for hours in the dingy Coruscant underworld, to no avail.

It was the Council’s fault, Anakin grit inwardly. It was Obi-wan’s fault, for letting -

“And now we turn to the last trial of the day,” Mas Amedda spoke again, his expression having curled in confusion as he narrowed his eyes at the datapad in his hand. Anakin only then noticed that the Council hadn’t moved from their spots in the observatory area reserved for Jedi and another visiting dignitaries. that if anything, they had gone even more rigid..

Something twinged in the Force, Anakin’s precognition hiccuping over the unexpected bump, his ire at the Council temporarily forgotten. What in the Nine Corellian Hells was going on -

Mas Amedda gestured at the stenographer droid, who pushed a button on its chest. “Trial number oh-eight-seven-four,” it buzzed in the same bored monotony of every civil servant Anakin had ever had to deal with on Coruscant. “The Galactic Republic and the Grand Army of the Republic versus Obi-wan Kenobi.”

An electric jolt surged through Anakin’s body and in half-a-second, he was on his feet, hands clasped on the balcony railing, his torso bent over the side of the pod as Obi-wan - Obi-wan, Anakin gaped, trying to wrap brain around this new reality - was marched to the same defense pedestal Ahsoka had occupied only moments before. Unlike Ahsoka, Obi-wan radiated his usual unperturbed calm, his posture perfectly erect, features settled into polite anticipation - the same look he had on any number of diplomatic encounters, the same infuriating equilibrium he exhibited whenever Anakin directed his not-so-rare anger in his direction.

Anakin’s mind whirred like an out-of-control astromech motor.

“What the kriff, Padmé?” he hissed at his wife.

Padmé turned to him in wide-eyed horror. “I…I don’t know, Ani. This wasn’t announced on the Senate schedule,” she whispered back, unable to take peel her gaze from the incongruous image of Obi-wan - Jedi Council member, High General of the Republic - on trial like a common criminal.

As with Ahsoka, Admiral Tarkin stepped forward to represent the prosecution.

“General,” the Admiral sneered, making no attempt to hide his contempt for the Jedi Master. “Or should I say, former General Kenobi. You are brought here today to answer to charges of rendering illegal aid to the planet Mandalore, a unilateral action not approved by the Jedi Council, Grand Army of the Republic, or the Senate, as dictated by military, civilian, and Jedi law. Furthermore, you stand accused of inciting war on said neutral planet as an agent of the Republic, subverting longstanding Republic law and intergovernmental treaties, an abuse of your office as both a High General and Jedi Council member, all charges that can and will be classified as treason against the Republic. Do you understand these charges?”

“Perfectly,” Obi-wan answered, his familiar tenor resonating throughout every corner of the courtroom, which buzzed with the revelation of this new information. Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin watched the press box explode into a flurry of activity. Apparently, they hadn’t known about this, either.

Mandalore. Anakin raced to connect any of the events of the past few weeks. It all seemed so long ago, with the bombing of the Temple, Ahsoka’s arrest and escape, and finally, her expulsion from the Order, the horrible chain of disasters taking precedence in his mind, an immoveable monolith of anger and fear that clouded his memory of almost anything else that had occurred in the past few months, forget the past few weeks.

And yet…Anakin squeezed his eyes shut, reaching to the Force, concentrating. Obi-wan had asked to borrow the Twilight, as a personal favor. Anakin had thought the request odd at the time - Obi-wan’s dislike of flying was only outstripped by his blatant disapproval of a vessel he had once called “a durasteel coffin with wings.” And Obi-wan himself had been…on edge, when he made the request, his Force presence a sharp blade, his thoughts uncharacteristically drifting from the conversation he was having with his former Padawan. At the time, Anakin had attributed it to stress - the war was, after all, taking a large piece out of all of them and Anakin had learned long ago that asking about it would only be met with all the aggravating, fluid evasion that had earned Obi-wan the moniker of “The Negotiator.”

Anakin hadn’t thought much else about it. After all, he had a rare multiday furlough on Coruscant, a break which somehow managed to coincide with Padmé’s increasing travel schedule, and one he intended to put to very good use. Even Obi-wan’s strange return to the Temple - in civilian clothes, bulky canvas bag hung over his shoulder, eyes shadowed with fatigue - hadn’t done much to darken Anakin’s good mood. In fact, he had almost forgotten he had lent Obi-wan the ship until he found an envelope of credits and a terse apology in Obi-wan’s slanted, neat handwriting waiting on the seat of his Jedi starcraft.

Why Obi-wan hadn’t left the envelope in Anakin’s quarters was not a question he had wanted to ponder at the time.

Could that have been it? He had heard the reports of civil unrest on Mandalore, of a military coup by dark agents of multiple criminal organizations. Had heard the whispers of the assassination of the Duchess, a topic Anakin had no intention of raising with Obi-wan unless the other man did so first.

It all seemed too strange to be real.

“And former General Kenobi,” Tarkin’s posh, nasal voice wrenched Anakin back to reality. “Do you deny that two weeks’ previous, you took the Republic-registered shuttle Twilight and traveled to Mandalore system after receiving a transmission from the Duchess Satine Kryze?”

“I do not,” Obi-wan answered evenly.

Anakin’s eyebrows shot upwards. That explained where the Twilight went.

“And do you deny,” Tarkin continued, a hard, greedy glint in his eye,”that you traveled to Mandalore with the sole purpose of rendering aid to a neutral government, without the approval of the Senate, the Jedi Council, or the Grand Army of the Republic, that your actions - or lack thereof - spurred a civil conflict leading to the death of the Duchess Kyrze under mysterious circumstances, and that you willingly undermined Republic law in order to further your own agenda and possibly the agenda of the Jedi Council?”

Obi-wan was silent for a moment, his Force presence nearly invisible to Anakin, as if it had been swallowed by a black hole. When he spoke again, his voice exhibited the slightest amount of strain.

“As to the first accusations - no, those events occurred more or less as outlined. I received a transmission from the Duchess Kryze requesting my help as the city of Sundari was under attack. Knowing the Senate would not approve such interference by the GAR, I traveled to Mandalore on my own to attempt to diffuse the situation.” Obi-wan paused, his eyebrows furrowing. “There were…circumstances I was not prepared for when I arrived. You are correct that the Duchess was killed and a civil war now rages on-planet.”

What? Anakin couldn’t help his mouth from dropping. Obi-wan? His Obi-wan? Disobeying the Council and the Republic? A quick glance at the Jedi Council didn’t tell him anything - in face, they looked even more dour now than they had during Ahsoka’s trial.

“As to the second point - “ Obi-wan continued, a bit too cheerfully. “I suppose it could be seen that way, from a certain point of view. I do not deny my guilt in this matter, if that is what you are hoping for, Admiral. In fact, I am far more guilty of treason than Ahsoka Tano, and would gladly exchange my sentence for hers.”

“We are not here to compare the building crimes of the Jedi, Master Kenobi!” Tarkin bit. “We are here to establish your guilt, which you seem to be all too happy to corroborate, so with the permission of the Chancellor, I move to proceed directly to sentencing - “

“My dear Admiral,” Obi-wan interrupted, an unfamiliar, feral grin playing on his features. Anakin’s face furrowed in confusion even as the Force flicked its tail dangerously. What are you doing, Obi-wan?

“My conviction is all but assured. While the Council has graciously agreed to only suspend my seat and Master title until the outcome of this trial, I imagine my time in the Jedi Order is now reaching its end. Unfortunately for you, I have no desire nor intention to see my supposed crimes paid for, at least not yet.”

Tarkin frowned, his fist clenching. “You act in direct opposition to the Senate, the military law, Master Kenobi. And now you threaten to undermine the very fabric of our judicial system, threaten a coup by the Jedi - “

Obi-wan leveled a glare at Tarkin, the intensity of the stare raw enough to turn Anakin’s stomach. Something was really wrong here, something with Obi-wan had changed and he didn’t know what to do.

“The Jedi have no intention of overthrowing the government, Admiral. Myself, on the other hand - “ Obi-wan shrugged. “Let’s just say I have other plans.”

That did catch the attention of the Council as several members stood, hands straying to their weapons. Even the frenzied activity of the press box came to a halt, flimsis slipping off tall stacks, fluttering to the ground as several jaws dropped in astonishment.

Tarkin chuckled, unfazed by Obi-wan’s bizarre behavior. Perhaps he had expected the Jedi Master to act this way, expected all Council members to secretly harbor these desires. Anakin could only watch in horror as the scene unfolded, Padmé having come to his side, her hand on top of his.

“What’s happening, Ani?” she whispered.

Anakin could only shake his head.

“You do realize, Master Kenobi, you are in no position to make such threats. And that any plans you have made will be ruthlessly crushed, and by now your own execution is all but guaranteed.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Obi-wan answered, stepping on the railing of the podium with one swift movement, catching Anakin’s eye for the briefest of moments - apology, promise, and something else all flashing across their bond in an instant before Obi-wan stepped of the platform and plummeted into the deep chasm of the courtroom.

The room exploded in chaos, several delegations of Senators screaming in high-pitched ululations, Tarkin and the other military leaders barking out orders, the Council racing from their podium, Mace Windu and Kit Fisto leaping themselves over the barricade to follow Obi-wan, who was assuredly not dead.

Not dead, Anakin thought, falling into his seat, shock numbing the whirlwind of emotions threatening to overwhelm him.

Not dead.

The Jedi Master and General were dead, executed by Tarkin’s words and Obi-wan’s own confession in front of a hundred holocameras. The man remained, however, most likely already beating a path to the Coruscant underworld, perhaps going as far as the next star system, if he planned it right. Which, knowing Obi-wan, he likely did, to the millimeter. Maybe he’ll even pick up Ahsoka on the way, the bright, strange idea streaked across the muddled static of Anakin’s confusion.

Jedi Master Obi-wan Kenobi was dead.

But who would rise in his place?

#Anonymous #hello there #ask legobiwan #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #wilhuff tarkin #okay so there's that #what?#weird #i don't know what i'm doing #writing #hahahahahaa

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kinetic-elaboration · 4 years ago

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June 25: 2x24 The Ultimate Computer

Belated notes on my watch of The Ultimate Computer yesterday.

Kirk’s definitely in Captain Mode today. You can tell when he’s on edge and suspicious and serious.

Yet another old Kirk friend. Does he know everyone in Starfleet?

War games lol. But it’s “not the military.”

Spock is super into this computer.

A-7 Computer Expert Certification.

The crew’s not needed? Wow, okay, this is going to end badly.

“This gadget.” How do you really feel, Kirk?

And there’s Spock literally making faces behind the Commodore’s back. He is soooo that type. He’s like “Jim, are you hearing this? Can you believe this guy?”

I’m insulted on Kirk’s behalf right now. Replacing people with machines so blithely is offensive.

Of course Bones doesn’t like it.

Oh yeah triumvirate walking scene. I love them. it takes so little for me to think ‘what badasses.’ S2 is really stepping up this dynamic in particular.

And Spock is comfortable enough around Bones to be sassy around him

Oh no, the computer is already glitching, and there is no backup and no plan B.... Bones is completely right in his assessment. This is essentially a Titanic situation: way too much hubris involved. Nothing can go wrong so nothing will go wrong so we’ve planned for nothing going wrong!

McCoy has BFF Clearance. He can go wherever he wants.

“It’s the M-5? What happened to Ms 1-4?” Channel #5.

Ahhhh little gratuitous touch to Spock’s arm. They’re In Love.

“There are certain things men must do to remain men.”

“The right computer finally came along.” Damn Bones.

Jim’s suspicions about the computer coming right after that line make it look like he’s jealous that Spock likes it so much.

He’s getting a “red alert right here.” Computers don’t have that kind of intuition.

Jim’s so thoughtful and self-aware. He really cares both about his instincts and about interrogating those instincts for bias and unreasonableness. This is giving me real S1 vibes: the quiet, intelligent, idealized hero Captain at the fore.

This whole scene is perfect, eminently quotable, and sounds exactly like something that could have been written about automation in 2021. You’re okay with it when it’s happening to someone else but then the computer comes for YOUR job....

Uh-h, M-5 is turning off all the lights...

Space merchant marines... good to know.

HOW are the Captain and CMO “non-essential personnel”? The first sign that M-5 is illogical. They should bring some doctor on the landing party mission given that uh humans are going on it and might get injured.

Anyway I can’t wait for Kirk to destroy this bitch and save the day.

Lol it turned off the lights on Bones in sickbay.

Damn, now it’s trying to take Uhura’s job too!

Chekov is so bored.

Spock wants to serve under one man and one man ONLY. Loyalty to one man... sounds like a wedding vow... and Kirk looks so soft...

So, if Spock has to describe to McCoy what that (unnecessary bitchy and catty) “Captain Dunsel” remark means, by saying that it’s a phrase that “midshipmen use at Starfleet Academy,” is this to imply Bones didn’t go to Starfleet Academy?

He’s never felt so at odds with the ship.... a lover’s quarrel...she’s cheating on him with another man...

Jim Kirk, certified Poetry Nerd. He’s such a romantic.

So glad Bones got him a drink so he can return to the bridge and a possible emergency with just a little bit of a buzz going.

Spock in the chair...

Huh, an automated ship with no crew. Interesting concept.

Oh no M-5! She’s got control of the ship and she won’t let go!

Kirk’s face when Enterprise attacks.. the betrayal... his beautiful lady used for mindless destruction.

“Only a robot” ship--! Bones is insulted.

Kirk orders the computer turned off but we’re only halfway through the ep so...

....And the computer is sentient now.

That was the shortest Captain’s Log ever. “The computer has taken over the ship the end.”

Scotty’s like, “...Well what if we just unplug it?”

Okay so now they only have 19 crew.

Spock and Bones are on point today. “Don’t say it’s fascinating.” / “I won’t. But it is... interesting.” This bitch knows exactly what he’s doing.

The computer isn’t a child, guys!

We need powerful computers “so men don’t have to die in space”--like uh that man your computer literally just killed?

I don’t get Daystrom’s logic at all. He talks as if people, like, needed to do work in space, to survive or something. We don’t need to. We want to! We want to go out and meet cool aliens! This guy is no fun.

What is the thing “greater” than fact finding in space that the robots are going to free us to do? Like what is more impressive than SPACE? I don’t even get that.

Time to mix up fake sci fi world-building references with real references! The Nobel and Zee-Magnee Prizes. Sitar of Vulcan.

A theory emerges... the computer acts illogically...Daystrom won’t let Spock near it... I know this isn’t where this is going, but it kind of sounds like they’re implying it’s a scam, lol. He sold an idea he didn’t have so it’s like.. not a real computer.

Spock’s little protege, Chekov.

“We have been pursuing a wild goose.” Aw, bb’s trying so hard to be colloquial. (Also he 100% learned that phrase from McCoy in The Gamesters of Triskellion and now he’s trying it out on Kirk...when McCoy isn’t around.)

“Not to offend you by using the h-word, but... could it be... human?”

Kirk’s really mad at Daystrom now.

The Commodore really set up that dramatic turn to camera there.

Poor Kirk. His ship is being used for evil.

“They can’t destroy the ship, what would happen to the computer?!” Yes, the computer. And the other 19 people and himself but mostly the computer. Daystrom really has lost it.

I love the actor who plays him, though.

“You are great. I am great.” Nothing weird happening here.

Spirk attack! (Spork it out.)

Spock’s way too sure Commodore Wesley is about to die. “He was decent, it’s a shame the ship I’m on is gonna kill him.”

And now another round of Kirk versus the computer and Kirk’s logic wins.

M-5 should argue that it did not commit murder, it committed homicide in self-defense. But then Daystrom didn’t program it with a lawyer’s brain.

It’s uh just gonna leave? Not turn the lights back on?

Kirk is so smart! I know I say this all the time, but it’s true! He knew what to do to save the ship because he knew Bob Wesley. He had formed connections, he had experience and knowledge that doesn’t come from logic. He is not replaceable!

McCoy’s like “Spock, fight me. Debate me Spock. Fight me. I’ll be fun.”

Spock HAS answered the computers versus humans question--he likes humans. He wants to be surrounded by humans.

That was really good! One of the better S2 episodes. Great Kirk, great triumvirate--as a trio and all three sides of the triangle--great sci fi concept, great guest star, great social commentary--still 100% relevant today.

i definitely have to think more about the ‘human computer’ concept. I liked that they specifically went out of their way to explain why the computer was human, how that was part of its design, and then tied that into its creator, his background, his belief system, and his insecurities. I feel like most ‘sentient computer’ or ‘advanced AI’ narratives just assume a computer that’s powerful enough will eventually be alive, which is not something I believe. The scariness of advanced AI to me is the incredible power it has to act quickly, but in a complete black-box way: you can’t literally see the logic string of its thought processes, and nor can you figure them out easily or completely using the creators’ intentions or logic because the machine has ‘learned’ since its inception, and its learning processes are not human. There is a real alienness to them that I find scary. And I do think this ep captured that nuance in M-5: it has the speed and abilities of a super computer, the “human” qualities of its creator for well-explained reasons, and the unpredictability of a mechanism that is NEITHER human nor human-controlled tool. And of course the ep’s ultimate thesis--that humans cannot be completely automated or replaced, and that we should not want to automate or replace humans--is comforting and of a morality I can and want to agree with.

This was also one of those eps that made me curious about the differences in AOS and TOS Kirk--in other words, an ep that relied on his history with Starfleet and his experience, on the reality that he’s a 34 year old man with 15+years of experience in the Fleet. Time, experience, connections, these aren’t things you can replace no matter how smart you are, and I feel like it would have been interesting to see AOS!Kirk deal with some situation that is trickier for him because he’s a Captain with a startlingly small amount of institutional experience. It’s not just about being young or generally inexperienced, in other words--it’s about NOT knowing every Captain, Admiral, and Commodore in the service, it’s about NOT having friends across the galaxy because he just hasn’t had time to make them. Even in deep space, that matters. And I think it’s something that I appreciate more as an adult myself, with actual real world experience of the importance of connections and experience and time, especially in sort of insular or smaller work communities.

Anyway, next is Bread and Circuses! Another great ep for the triumvirate. I can’t believe we’re almost through S2!!

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos #2021: fandom thoughts

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stillness-in-green · 4 years ago

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MLA Week, Day 2: Judge/Shackles/Freedom

A threefer! Spinner and his brand new lieutenants. (Look, until Horikoshi starts deigning to give these guys names, they are free real estate.)

I was originally going to use this day to write about one of the more thuggy or delinquent-looking lieutenants, spin out an ex-con not being able to get his feet back under him and so sliding into the MLA’s sphere, but then I remembered this three foot tall goblin in a drugstore Halloween costume and decided to go with him instead.

Also included is Spinner’s number 1, this gal:

Content Notes: Discussions of disability, portrayal of the marginalized having become the radicalized. The Liberation Army’s really fascinating, y’all.

———– ———– ———– ———–

«I think you’ll like this one,» Nimble announces, the rainbow-colored letters of her quirk dancing in the air.

“You thought I’d like the first two, too,” Spinner replies skeptically, looking away from the floating words to focus on his brand new number one, a woman with a face like a doll whose sculptor had gotten as far as the eyes—huge and green—before giving up on the rest, little things like a nose and a mouth. She breathes by absorbing air through her skin like a frog, apparently, which is why she dresses the way she does, a distractingly low-cut tank top and a sweater jacket that he has never once seen covering her shoulders.

She shrugs, expressive eyes briefly fluttering closed, and movement in the air draws Spinner’s attention back over to where her quirk—Sky Write—has spelled out her response.

«I thought you’d like them too. Can I call him in?»

“Yeah, go ahead.” Just as long as he’s not a not surly bastard like the last two. They’d had good quirks, the last two, but damned if Spinner’s going to work with people who can’t even manage to keep resentment out of their eyes for the length of a job interview, or whatever this process of picking subordinates out of an army full of people that were trying to kill him less than two weeks ago is called.

Nimble’s letters dissolve into a shapeless blur as she looks over to the door, eyebrows briefly lowering in concentration. A few seconds later, the door to Spinner’s makeshift office opens. Spinner’s eyes drop almost half-a-person’s length in height and he tries to keep the surprise off his face.

“A kid?”

«He’s twenty-one, actually.»

“What she said.” The voice comes out a bit muffled through the black hood covering the kid’s—okay, the twenty-one-year old’s face. But if he’s the same age as Spinner, he sure as hell doesn’t look it. He can’t be over a meter tall, with the skinniest legs Spinner’s ever seen sticking out from under the hem of the black robe he wears like a kid running around the house beneath a sheet. A big feathery ruff sits around his neck like a dried-out wreath.

“Scarecrow, reporting in.” The weird little gremlin settles into a military rest in front of the desk, far enough back that it’s not too obvious that he has to tilt his head to look over it. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir.”

Spinner stares at him, trying to suppress a grimace. Scarecrow stares back through little eyeholes cut in the hood, but without being able to see more of his face, it’s impossible to tell if he’s glaring or just has really piercing eyes.

“Right.” Spinner glances over at Nimble, who nods. Her response scrawls itself in the air between them, facing first him, then angling to face the gremlin.

«Show him your meta-ability, Scarecrow. Catch!»

She pulls out a 100 yen coin and deftly balances it on her thumb before flicking it out into the air over the desk.

Spinner bites back a yelp as bug legs unfold from beneath Scarecrow’s ruff, long, segmented things that narrow down to sharp points at the tips. Two thin lines of silk jet out from the knobby second joints, catching on the spinning coin, and the legs reel it back in, bouncing it in the air, spinning it like a weight on a string, then cocooning it up with quick efficiency. It falls neatly into his hand—not a normal human hand, Spinner notices belatedly, but a prosthetic, hard plastic and super articulated, with cables visible beneath the individual parts.

“I can fully cocoon up to twelve adult men a day,” Scarecrow rattles out. “I can also pull myself up the sides of walls and move between buildings, if they’re close enough together. I was inducted into the Meta Liberation Army on my sixteenth birthday; my parents have been members for ten years. I know we’re a relatively new family, but—”

“I don’t—” Spinner stops himself from finishing that sentence with care about that stuff, amending to, “I’m not worried about your—generation or whatever.” Is that better? Neither Scarecrow or Nimble react to it with narrowed eyes or a snarl, anyway. Promising? “Why’d you join up?”

Jumping on a bandwagon is one thing, but at least that takes a running start and a leap. Not like joining a cult because it’s just the family business, Spinner thinks viciously at his memory of that greasy asshole Trumpet’s plated mask.

Scarecrow stares at him for a long second. Spinner does his best to look serious, like he’s actually got a whole prepared list of questions or whatever. Like he knows what he’s doing.

Finally, Scarecrow holds up his hands, both spread wide, both obvious prosthetics. His bug legs twitch and probe at the air.

“I was born with no arms,” he says. “Just my forelegs. It’s not the same as having opposable thumbs, obviously, but it’s better than you’d think. But my teachers used to scold me for raising a foreleg instead of a hand to answer a question or carry things. The kind of stuff a kid who didn’t have a birth defect could use their quirk to do and no one would look twice. If I go out in public and so much as open doors for myself with them, people look at me funny. Because I look funny.”

Don’t use your quirk at school outside of training lessons, Shuuichi-kun. Spinner remembers that kind of bias, yeah. All the non-heteromorphic kids could run around the schoolyard playing tag with snowballs in July, but heaven forbid he use his quirk to climb a tree so he can get away from bullies for the length of a lunchbreak.

He pushes the memory away and nods at Scarecrow to keep him talking. Not that the guy needs much pushing—he talks like someone who’s told the story before, hard-edged, voice intense despite a mid-ranged pitch. He’s got just a hint of a—a hiss or a lisp, something that muddles the edges of his hard consonants. The hood doesn’t move like he’s hiding mandibles under there, but…

“I’ve been wearing prosthetics for longer than I can remember. The government pays for most of it, since I was born this way, but there’re a lot of limitations on it. How often they’ll replace them, what my folks got charged for them. It was always tight, and the kinds of prosthetics government money buys definitely weren’t as nice as these.” He flexes his false fingers demonstratively.

“My folks and I met Re-Destro—” and there’s that note of reverence, the same tone Re-Destro himself’s using about Shigaraki these days “—when I was nine. A family friend recommended Detnerat’s products to us, and he took an interest. That’s how we found out about the Army.”

“Yeah?” Spinner crosses his arms over his chest.

“My parents joined up because of me. But I joined up for myself. Because people think that because I have prosthetics, I shouldn’t need to use my forelegs in public.” Scarecrow’s voice sharpens. “Like I don’t have the right to use the limbs I was born with. I should have that right. We all should.”

“We’re not out to reform society, you know,” Spinner cautions him. He’s had to tell Re-Destro that too many times already, and that’s just having grasped it himself there in the ruins of Deika. “That’s not what Shigaraki’s after.”

Scarecrow gives him another long, quiet look, unreadable behind his hood. Finally—slower, less practiced—he nods and answers, “Destro’s teaching was that oppression will always lead to revolution. The Grand Commander of the Liberation Army is the one who’ll throw off those chains. Whatever he makes of the world, I want to be there to help, not sitting in my shackles waiting for someone to hand me an answer.”

Spinner breathes out hard. He scratches at his hair.

“…Right,” he manages. Don’t admit he said it better than you could. “Well put.” He turns to Nimble and adds, “Well, he didn’t offend me.”

«I know you’d like him.» Her words practically shimmy in the air, flickering green and yellow and pink. «Then do we have our number 2?»

Spinner glances back over at Scarecrow, who’s staring determinedly out the window behind the desk, his back toy soldier straight. He still looks more like a kid in a costume than anything else, but…

Well, I like him better than people like the politician. And we need to keep things moving, anyway. Don’t stop running or someone might catch up.

“Yeah, I think so” he says aloud, then takes a breath and leans over the desk, offering a hand. Scarecrow takes it without a second’s pause, plastic clicking against Spinner’s scales. “Welcome to the Support Regiment.”

———– ———– ———– ———–

I’ll have some links up about things here when I post this to AO3, but in the meantime, Scarecrow--whose condition at birth was called amelia--wears a hood not because he’s embarrassed of a bug face, but rather because he’s embarrassed of the way various surgeries to repair cleft palate and cleft lip have left his face looking. He’s much more confident in showing off his meta-ability than what he thinks of as his disability.

Scarecrow is also vaguely modeled on an insect called a webspinner, a tiny little bug that lives in big communal web “galleries” and has the unusual feature of its silk production apparatus being located on its front legs rather than the base of its abdomen like spiders. The choice felt appropriate for an unusually tiny cult member with top-mounted spider legs.

#MLAweek2020 #meta liberation army #iguchi shuuichi #spinner #spinner bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha #bnha spoilers #my writing #ficcing #my hero academia #plf advisors

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jippy-kandi · 5 years ago

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Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Movie Review

I've seen the film. It was pretty good! Spoilers under the cut.

So, before I watched it, I did read a few bits and pieces of random spoilers. However, I did NOT read the novel – because I wanted to judge the film on its own merits and not be thinking about “what the novel did better”. But I knew things like most characters were sidelined, who the villain was, and how the movie ends. I still have not read the novel.

This is not a “proper” review of the movie -- because what’s the fun in that? You can google actual reviews of the movie by anime websites, if that’s what you’re after. These are just my personal thoughts, impressions and fangirl ramblings (I bias Yamato hard). Plus, a few comments from two others I went to the screening with for a different perspective.

It was like nerd city at the movie theatre, LOL. So. Many. Nerds. Some people even brought Digimon plush toys to the screening! I’ve never witnessed that before. It was great though, being surrounded by so many Digimon fans. I think the cinema was more than half full -- and this was an 800-seat cinema! 400+ Digimon fans? Whoa! I actually thought like only 20 people would show up, LOL.

I tried to put the following thoughts in “order” but some of it isn’t due to the nature of what they’re about . . . plus, I couldn’t 100% remember what order the scenes were in.

Screen time distribution (most to least): Taichi/Yamato, Koushirou, the 02 kids (roughly: Takeru, Hikari, Daisuke, Miyako, Ken, Iori), Mimi, Jou, a hamburger, a whistle, a beer, Sora. (Sora got shafted hard.)

Taichi was exactly just Taichi, which is 1000x better than tri. Taichi. He really did seem like a 22-year-old version of Adventure Taichi, beer-drinking and porn-watching and all. Thank you, Toei. Please don’t fuck him up in the reboot. (Although maybe that’s the idea?)

Yamato is the coolest motherfucker on a motorcycle. He looked SO DAMN GOOD in this movie. There were even a few gratuitous shots of his arse for no apparent reason, LOL. Or maybe that’s just me thinking, whenever he’s bending over or his back’s to us, “That’s a nice arse.” XD (HE IS THE ONLY 2D CHARACTER I THIRST FOR, I PROMISE. I’m actually engaged to Jungkook of BTS.)

Koushirou was the same old Koushirou we all know and love, doing smart stuff and generally being useful. He has no pointed interest in clothes or girls (Koumi began and died in tri., you guys). When it was shown that he was a company president, some people in the audience laughed, lol.

Takeru was pretty bland. I guess tri. Takeru will always be the definitive Takeru to me. This Takeru definitely evolved straight from 02 Takeru (who was also bland AF). But he was fine? I miss overly confident, charming Takeru. Also, where was your crush on your big bro??? lol

Hikari . . . was also fine? I don’t have much to say about her. I like tri. Hikari better (because she was cute? *shallow*). This Hikari was just serviceable. I think because everyone really is just playing second fiddle to Taichi and Yamato, they didn’t really add charms to the other characters. They just . . . serve the plot. And it seemed, at the beginning of the movie, that Takeru and Hikari were going to be in it a lot -- but they have most of their scenes in the first third-ish of the movie before disappearing until the end.

Daisuke was also exactly the same. But I’ve never been a fan of him, nor do I hate him (though he did get on my nerves in 02 sometimes . . .). I just don’t care about him, or any of the 02 kids, personally. :P

I don’t think Ken had a personality in this movie, LOL. He was fine, though. Serviceable. I’m sorry I lack opinions here, but there really wasn’t much to go on. He has no Kaiser issues or anything, he just seems like a normal, well-adjusted kid . . . with no personality, lol.

Iori didn’t have a personality either -- but everyone has always known that. Ha! XP He is just an extra reading lines. I found it odd that he seems so short though? I kept thinking he was still a 9-year-old because of the height difference between him and the others . . . I think Toei forgot that HE IS 17 AND THUS SHOULD BE VERY CLOSE TO FULL ADULT HEIGHT. Puberty is amazing, Toei! (Yeah, he can just be a really short person, I know. I wouldn’t have made that design choice, though. Especially when he’s short compared to Daisuke . . . who is short compared to Yamato . . . and Iori really is a midget.)

Miyako . . . it’s probably due to her voice actress, but she was SO LOUD. And I found her annoying because of it. In fact, she was the only annoying character in the movie to me. Loud people can be charming . . . but I didn’t find her charming. Sorry, Miyako fans. =\

Mimi has an e-commerce startup at 21, lol. OK, you go girl. She was definitely shafted, but she was in it a bit more than Jou I think, and definitely more than poor Sora. Probably a few minutes? Yeah, not a lot, especially compared to Taichi and Yamato. In one of her (four?) scenes, she loses consciousness and ends up in the hospital -- and Taichi, Koushirou and Jou are in her hospital room when Yamato bursts in and goes, “Jou!” You know, instead of acknowledging Mimi, THE COMATOSE FRIEND IN THE HOSPITAL BED. I just found it funny that’s how they chose to frame that scene. :P

Jou only had a few lines, but he was still in it more than Sora. But he is really just a doctor here. He could’ve been an extra hired for a doctor role and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, lol. Oh, Toei, please give all the characters almost-equal screen time in the reboot? Please???

Sora had like four lines and thirty seconds of screen time, TOTAL. I think the decision to hold her back from THE ENTIRE PLOT was SOLELY to have the scene where she reacts to Taichi blowing the whistle, so you know that the sound is going out of Neverland and reaching the real world (or whatever dramatic effect they were going for). I really think that’s it. That, or her voice actress did something terrible to Toei and they’re punishing her. :P

The movie basically opens up with Parrotmon attacking. Takeru was the first to be shown, then Hikari, then Taichi. Taichi is wearing those special goggles Koushirou made for him and he looked goofy AF lol. At one point, Greymon tackles Parrotmon into a building where you see some people inside running away from the rubble. My sister said (without knowing anything about tri.): “Does Tai not care that his digimon definitely just killed some people in that building?” I chuckled because . . . well. ;)

Yamato enters the scene COOL AS FUCK on his motorcycle (most of his entrance is shown in a clip that Toei released) and thank you Toei for doing that for him. He deserves a showy entrance. :) Although I do find it funny that he’s obsessed with motorcycles, given I still remember giggling as a kid at him NOT liking riding on the back of some guy’s scooter in Digimon: The Movie.

The music was nice and nostalgic and I have no complaints.

There is a quick scene of Yamato seeing a kid in a music store getting a harmonica, and watching a street performer singing. Obviously he’s thinking about his passion for music as a kid/teen (and his childhood in general?) and it was a nice touch. I think by the end of the movie you would’ve understood that Yamato was letting go of his past (childhood) and heading towards the future (adulthood).

A friend of Yamato’s makes a comment to him that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are going to recruit him into the military due to his experience as a Chosen Child. Yamato replies, “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”. BUT . . . this is Kizuna telling you EXACTLY what is going to happen, lol. I actually “predicted” Yamato’s career path years ago -- but it wasn’t hard, as there is really only two ways it could’ve gone, lol. Military test pilot or commercial air pilot -- which one, especially given the context Kizuna just gave us, is more likely? ;)

Yamato is shown wearing GLASSES in class (looking nerd-hot AF). Toei Animation must not have researched Yamato’s astronaut career as intensively as I did, and therefore did not know that astronauts need 20/20 vision lol. Oh well, he can get it corrected. :p (Or, he doesn’t actually need glasses but WEARS THEM AS A FASHION STATEMENT. Because I can believe that. XD)

I think Yamato had about three different outfits in the movie? And he looked good in all of them. Are there people out there who think he’s not fashionable? I'd find that opinion strange, given the fact that the staff behind 02 and tri. were actively designing him as the well-dressed cool guy of the group. He wears exactly the kind of clothes the well-dressed cool guys at my high school/university wore. Sure, sometimes they force green tops on him purely for nostalgic reasons and it therefore clashes -- there is only so much you can do with a green top -- but overall, he is supposed to come across as someone who cares about his appearance. If you don’t think so, you’re either not into fashion or you aren’t aware of 2005-2010 fashion as a teen/young adult. (If Yamato was a millionaire, I’m sure he’d dress identical to BTS with super expensive clothes lol. But he dresses very well for a “normal” person. :p)

Taichi was shown with two of his friends who were asking him about his aspirations or something, and the guy looked like an unattractive nerd. My sister said: “I didn’t like how they showed Tai with sloppy friends, but showed Matt with good-looking people.” LOL. Her favourite as a kid was Taichi, BTW. XD;

Menoa and Imura were . . . OK characters. Menoa seemed likeable enough at first, but when her real intentions were revealed she turned into a typical, crazy, possessed villain. Imura was really just there to service the plot, like a necessary extra on set. There was nothing more to him.

Menoa’s English is terrible. And it’s very noticeable because she inserts random English words into her Japanese sentences, lol. I laughed when Koushirou told her that her Japanese is very good (because SHE IS ACTUALLY FLUENT IN JAPANESE . . . and not so much in English). Yes, I know it’s because it’s a Japanese voice actress -- but it was still funny every time she spoke heavily accented English, followed by fluent Japanese. :P

Menoa’s partner digimon, Morphomon, was cute in design. Eosmon was the villain digimon and was Menoa’s attempt at recreating Morphomon, who disappeared on her. Does this sound kind of familiar? lol

Omegamon devolves into Koromon and Tsunomon when fighting against Eosmon. Back in Koushirou’s office, Menoa explains that you only have a limited amount of time with your digimon before they disappear and that fighting accelerates it. Taichi has a circle of lights on his digivice that lose a bar of light every time he fights with Agumon. When the lights all disappear, Agumon will disappear. Koushirou and Takeru look at their digivices to check if they’ve got it – they don’t, and they are relieved. Yamato then checks his and . . . well. He has it. His eyes start watering and he storms out of the room saying something along the lines of his bond with Gabumon will not be broken. I FUCKING LOVED THIS SCENE. Top 3 in the movie for me, personally. We all have weaknesses. Emo Yamato is mine, lol. I like it when he gets so emotional he cries in front of other people. :3

The “porn stash” scene with Agumon at Taichi’s apartment was HILARIOUS. The funniest scene of the movie. Everyone in the cinema laughed so hard. It was Taichi’s reaction that sold it -- it was BRILLIANT. The magazines actually had girls on the cover wearing bikinis, so, at least Agumon kept his innocence! lol

Gennai randomly appears in Taichi’s apartment to confirm the thing everyone should’ve always known (but that they just made up for Kizuna and which DEFINITELY led to “creative differences” with Digimon series director Hiroyuki Kakudou). This, of course, would be the whole idea that the more you “grow up”, the more your bond with your partner digimon breaks until, eventually, they disappear. Does the idea have problems? Yep. Menoa lost her partner digimon Morphomon at age 14 because she decided to accelerate her learning and go to university . . . meanwhile, Koushirou is the president of his own freaking company and still has Tentomon by his side. Yeah, OK, Kizuna. And, sure, you can argue that it’s about BECOMING AN ADULT -- but I think you’d just be drawing lines where YOU want to draw them. How mature is 14-year-old Menoa to be an “adult”? Is Koushirou really not mature enough at 21? And what about Jou, who I definitely think is an adult in all sense of the word? And so on. So arguments about this I think are valid, but at the same time . . . it’s Digimon. I think it’s a flawed idea but I also just shrug and accept it as it is, lol.

I “love” how Gennai just pops in when it’s convenient to the plot. Hello Gennai, what’s dark Gennai up to? Have you seen him around licking underaged girls anywhere? No? You’re just popping by to confirm shit to Taichi? OK, cool. See you in the tri. sequel, never. (He actually does give Taichi a reasonable answer as to why the growth/bond thing was never brought up before: that it’s like talking about how long you have to live. I bought it.)

Yamato is basically the reason the 02 kids are even in the movie, lol. He asks them to investigate Imura and Menoa for him and they do so. They contact him later on with info and they ask that he take them out for okonomiyaki (which is awful by the way, lol) as thanks and he smiles and says he can do that. This is just a nice exchange between them. :)

Yamato eventually confronts Imura (or is it the other way around, lol) and Imura HAS A GUN. Which was surprising to me because I remember that in the English dub, Puppetmon’s gun was censored, so seeing a gun in a Digimon movie was a little surprising. Anyway, Yamato doesn’t seem concerned by the fact that this dude can just shoot him dead, lol. Gabumon is with him, but still. Imura can still kill you before Gabumon kills him, you know. XD But it’s all good because Imura turns out to be an undercover FBI agent who wants to arrest Menoa, THE REAL VILLAIN. I was spoiled with this so no surprise.

There is a scene where Yamato has his hand tenderly on Takeru’s face because he lost consciousness. It was sweet, but I would’ve liked it more if Takeru had more of a personality in the film so I could actually care about him, lol. Yamato’s such a caring big brother, though. :)

Yamato was perfect in this movie. PERFECT. I had a few issues with his characterisation in tri. (I think he was, overall, about 80% Yamato), but he was ALL YAMATO, ALL THE TIME here. He is my favourite fictional character of all time, so DEAL WITH THE BIAS. I love him and, honestly, Yamato>Taichi all day, every day. I totally understand you, Sora. DON’T @ ME TAICHI STANS. XP

The ONLY minor quibble I had was that Yamato asks Taichi if they should really try to save the other kids, because fighting means it speeds up their bonds breaking. My quibble is: YAMATO IS NOT FUCKING SELFISH. He’s SO selfless. He would fight to save the other kids NO QUESTIONS, even if it meant he’s accelerating the destruction of his bond with Gabumon. But I give this scene a huge pass because it basically had to go like that, because ONE person out of Taichi/Yamato had to be reluctant so that the OTHER person pushes forward and has a “hero” moment. And who’s going to get that “hero” moment? The actual hero and MAIN CHARACTER of Digimon, Taichi, of course. SO I GET IT. I even agree and would’ve written it that way too, for Taichi to be the leader and reassure Yamato that this is what they’re doing (unlike in tri. where Yamato 1000% deserved the mantle of LEADER and Taichi could’ve whinged off the edge of a cliff and I. WOULD. NOT. CARE.). BUT I will still rant about this 30 second scene in my blog and scream to the universe that Yamato Ishida is the most selfless fictional being on the face of the planet and you better fucking know it. :)

Menoa is Maki 2.0. As soon as Menoa is revealed as being behind the evil stuff, she is instantly psychotic. So Maki 2.0 she definitely is. But . . . I don’t really care. Could Toei have been more original? Yes. But I can’t be bothered to criticise them for recycling a plot, because I’d rather criticise tri. for doing it in the first place, LOL. OK, honestly? At least Menoa’s plot had an actual resolution, instead of Maki being revealed and then . . . fucking off out of the entire series so abruptly. Like??? Kizuna followed through with it, tri. did not. That’s why I’m OK with the rehash, because Kizuna did tri.’s plot better. (Maki’s plot would’ve been good if the tri. writers didn’t get lazy AF at the end and just . . . didn’t . . . finish it.) I might also be giving Kizuna a huge pass because it made me feel things, lol.

The movie really picks up after Menoa reveals her intentions and they end up in Neverland (a place she created in the Digital World?) where she claims all the Chosen Children can stay as children with their partner digimon forever. It became a lot more interesting after that. But that’s also near the climax, lol.

In Neverland, all the kids who have lost consciousness are in their child forms (from the first season) and are basically Menoa’s puppets. This was really cool; it not only gave you nostalgic feels to see them like that, but it was also pretty creepy to see them with glowing red eyes. The Chosen Children, as kids, attack Taichi and Yamato. I laughed when Patamon attacked Yamato’s face and Tentomon tackled Taichi, lol. But I have to say though that Sora’s absence was VERY glaring here. Because . . . everyone was there, but her. :(

Other Chosen Children from the past are present in Neverland too. I FREAKING SAW MICHAEL, MIMI’S AMERICAN FRIEND, STANDING BEHIND HER. I was so surprised at his appearance that I didn’t catch anyone else. There were definitely others, but I didn’t make them out at all because I was so caught off-guard with Michael. XD; (I DON’T EVEN GIVE A SHIT ABOUT HIM, LOL.)

Someone said that Taichi called out Meiko’s name in the movie . . . well, I’m pretty sure that Yamato does, and he calls her by her last name, “Mochizuki”. This is when they’re in Neverland and Menoa shows them her “collection” of Chosen Children. Meiko pops up for one second. It was like Kizuna went, “Oh! Hey, tri. existed by the way. Now let’s move on.” lol

While being attacked by the Chosen “puppets” in Neverland, Taichi manages to reach his hand out and grab Hikari’s whistle and blow it -- effectively “waking” them all up from their puppet states. Everyone in the cinema got hit with audible FEELS, because when Taichi blew Hikari’s whistle the screen flashbacked to that scene from the first movie. I found the collective audience reaction more powerful than the scene itself, lol. But I really liked it, too. :)

So while everyone else is in Neverland . . . SORA IS IN HER APARTMENT HUGGING PIYOMON. Thanks, Sora, you’re a real friend. *cough* After Taichi’s whistle blow, she intuitively knows what’s going on and says she believes in everyone . . . THANKS AGAIN, SORA, YOU CHEERLEADER. OK, look: I do think it is pretty selfish of Sora to choose not to fight. I understand all the reasoning behind it, I even think SHE DESERVES TO BE SELFISH FOR ONCE etc., and I am fine with it -- but I still think it’s selfish. Because it is. And that’s OK, nobody is perfect, and people are selfish from time to time. If only it wasn’t glaringly obvious that her selfishness happened only because Toei just wanted her out of the way for most of the film . . . her absence, as stated before, really was noticeable in scenes where literally everyone else was included but her. (I’d also just like to point out that her voice actress was STILL CREDITED THIRD after Taichi and Yamato in the ending credits. LOLing forever -- such little contribution, such big recognition. XD)

But don’t get me wrong, I love Sora. I really fucking do. Taichi used to be my second favourite character in Digimon for a long, long time -- but Sora managed to dethrone him from second place (fucking Yamato probably helped, LOL). I think, screen time-wise, Kizuna did her a bigger disservice than Our War Game did. Yes, let that sink in. Remember how little she was in that movie? It’s worse in Kizuna. But story-wise and character-wise? Kizuna probably did better, because Sora was angry over a hairclip in Our War Game lmao. If you haven’t already, check out her memorial story short “To Sora” that Toei Animation released online. It’s six minutes of Sora . . . which is 5 and a half more minutes than in Kizuna! XD;

There’s a scene where Agumon and Gabumon tell Taichi and Yamato that they like watching them grow up. It was very touching, but also very brief. It was one of my favourite moments though. It made me have quick flashbacks in my mind of itty bitty Taichi and Yamato growing up into who they are now. The enormity of everything they had been through since the first season. THE HISTORY. THE GROWTH. It hit me right in the feels.

Taichi and Yamato’s homoerotic-ness was actually toned down a lot, especially compared to tri.. They don’t have forced disputes where they get angry at each other and the gay sexual tension shoots through the roof. They’re just . . . friends. Two dudes who drink beer together and moan about their lives. The partnership between them and their digimon were the focus of the movie, more so than the friendship between them. I actually liked this, and I usually care more about the human connections over the human-digimon ones.

“Shipping moments” – if you squint hard enough. Takari: At the start, Takeru shields Hikari from harm. Sorato: While Taichi informs Yamato about the lives of some of the other Chosen Children, Yamato lets Taichi know what Sora is up to -- that she’s seriously studying flower arranging. Kenyako: Ken asks Miyako, and only Miyako, if she’s OK (when Daisuke is right next to her). Taiora: Sora says Taichi’s name when he blows the whistle in Neverland and she hears it all the way in the real world. (My sister legit whispered to me: “SHE DIDN’T SAY MATT’S NAME.” BITCH, he ain’t the one whistling! XP) Now, Digimon Adventure tri. shipbaited hard -- but Kizuna did not do this. All of these very small moments felt very organic and passed as if they were a natural part to the story, instead of something shoehorned in with the explicit purpose of shipbaiting. I really liked this approach. The Sorato one in particular (surprise, surprise) said a lot about Yamato’s relationship to Sora without being explicit about it. He knows what she’s up to when her childhood best friend doesn’t? Yeah, those two are definitely hooking up after classes. :P (I jest. But it does tell you with one sentence that Yamato and Sora keep in touch, which I appreciated. You gotta do that if you’re having babies together within the decade, you know?)

There were next to NO evolution sequences. I might remember it happening once or twice? Max. And . . . that was a REALLY lame choice. Especially when Agumon and Gabumon evolve to their newest forms; Taichi and Yamato are just floating with them up into the air and then, poof, the new evolutions are shown. Google tells me they’re just called Agumon -Bond of Courage- and Gabumon -Bond of Friendship- respectively . . . they were not named in the movie. Here’s the thing: I don’t really care about digimon and evolutions. But it was so underwhelming; they really should’ve amped it up with an evolution sequence to be like HERE BE THESE NEW AWESOME FUCKING DIGIMON ‘bout to kick your arse. It seems like such a no-brainer that I really don’t know who would sign off on a evolution sequence not happening. Oh well. As for the designs? They are OK, but definitely could’ve been better. I think “cool AF” when I see Omegamon and all his forms. I don’t think that of these new evolutions lol. (But my sister liked them and thought they looked cool, so . . .)

Also . . . the fighting scenes in this movie were pretty bad. Very underwhelming. Our War Game and Diablomon Strikes Back did a lot better. I both like and dislike the animation style in Kizuna. I do actually like the art of it, like how it looks. But I kinda dislike how it’s actually animated, because it doesn’t really look like they’re moving fluidly enough. It’s a bit too choppy. I just expected the fighting/action scenes to be more exciting (I was hoping Our War Game-level) and of a higher standard. But they are not, unfortunately.

Everyone in the cinema audibly GASPED when Taichi and Yamato were just talking to Agumon and Gabumon after the final battle, and then they turned around and they . . . just . . . disappeared. And then Taichi and Yamato CRIED. SO. HARD. And I actually started repeating in my head, DO NOT CRY, DO NOT CRY, lol. I didn’t cry! Almost, though. :p I really loved this scene. And I really think, narratively, it would’ve worked A LOT better for the movie to end on this scene. The actual ending scene that comes after it felt a little too out of place and tacked on to me. More on that later.

There was a small smattering of applause at the end of the movie, lol. But I did not clap, because I find that weird. :p (Even though I clapped, alone in my house, when Parasite won Best Picture at the Oscars LOL.)

The ending credits showed different photos of the kids. Unfortunately, I . . . don’t really remember most of them. XD; I think I saw Sora arranging flowers? And maybe Daisuke and Ken having dinner? I definitely saw Iori doing kendo, because I thought it was cool. And the one photo I definitely remember for sure: Yamato standing in front of a space shuttle. I stan astronaut!Yamato so hard, you guys have no idea how happy it made me that he’s pursuing his dream omfg my little baby boy. XD;

This is definitely Taichi and Yamato’s movie. Everyone else is just playing supporting/cameo roles -- some more than others, as outlined way above. (Well, except Menoa I suppose . . . and Koushirou to the extent that he’s just needed to be the Digi IQ.) But if you’re NOT a fan of either Taichi or Yamato? I think, though you’ll probably love all the nostalgia bits, you’ll also be really disappointed -- especially considering this is supposed to be the final instalment of the original Adventure continuity. It’s a great ��love letter” to Taichi and Yamato specifically, but not for the other characters, sadly.

I saw the movie with my sister (a non-fan who used to like it as a kid) and a friend (a casual fan now, but she used to like it a lot years ago). I’ll refer to them as “S”(ister) and “F”(riend), respectively.

After the movie ended:

S: “Did you cry? Because two guys beside me were literally sobbing. SOBBING.” *Judging.* (LMAO.)

What was our favourite part of the movie?

Top 3 scenes for me were Yamato storming off with his eyes watering when he realises his bond with Gabumon has an expiry; the brief “speech” Agumon and Gabumon give to Taichi and Yamato about wanting to see them grow up; and Taichi and Yamato crying at Agumon and Gabumon vanishing. EMO EMO EMO.

S: “Sora doing fuck-all.” (LMAO.) F: “Yeah! What was up with that? It’s like they forgot she even existed.” S: “Sora is just a cunt.” (Note: S has a dry sense of humour and isn’t really being malicious. BUT . . . I do think most viewers watching Kizuna would have a poor opinion of Sora in this movie . . .)

F: “I liked the 02 kids. I guess it was mostly Davis. And I liked when Veemon was riding on Armadillomon’s back and Wormmon was trailing behind. It was just this random thing but it was funny. Maybe I just like making fun of Wormmon.”

About the idea that growing up affects your bond with your digimon:

S: “What I took from it was that you shouldn’t grow up too fast. Cherish your childhood, cherish your memories. But, eventually, you do need to grow up.”

F: “I don’t understand how this whole “Digimon disappear when you grow up” thing wasn’t known. Weren’t there older people with Digimon before? You’d think they could have made a more specific threat that was just affecting their digimon, not be like, “Yeah this happens to everyone, it’s just a fact of life that we’ve never addressed before.” It felt a bit like they were telling the audience to grow up and get over Digimon.”

What would we rate the film?

I probably have to watch it again to give a definitive score, but at the moment, I give it about a 7/10. It was good, but not great. The last half was pretty great though -- it definitely started out slow (there was a lot of exposition via Menoa vomiting words). Is it better than tri.? Chapter 3: Confession, no. Confession is better, I think, but I also haven’t seen it in years. But the rest of tri.? Probably. Especially the pile of shit that was Chapter 6: Our Future. *cough*

S: “4/10.″ (LOL.)

F: “It was better than tri.. I guess a 7/10 too.”

Sequel?

I think it’s definitely a possibility. I feel like the very last scene of the movie was slapped on just to be like, “Well, if we don’t do a sequel, you know that Taichi and Yamato are definitely going to reunite with their partners eventually for the 02 epilogue to happen.” The scene is of Taichi and Yamato saying something along the lines of meeting Agumon and Gabumon again one day.

And while it’s an uplifting ending, I actually think the movie would’ve ended better with the scene before that -- with the digimon disappearing and Taichi and Yamato crying. It would’ve made a bigger emotional impact and raised the movie up just a notch higher to end on such a ballsy note. But, of course, it would’ve meant a sequel definitely had to happen. So the actual final scene was added on so that a sequel doesn’t need to be made -- but that it leads to the 02 epilogue “off-camera”, in case they really don’t do a sequel.

I think there’s a 50/50 chance of a sequel. The movie actually does close the Adventure story pretty well -- it has all the ingredients to lead to the 02 epilogue without actually taking you there. But it also keeps the possibility of a sequel open, where they can show you exactly how Taichi and Yamato reunite with their digimon.

And, honestly, the only “barrier” I see to a sequel happening is that the reboot is airing next month -- and it’ll be confusing for the next generation of kids to follow one continuity, and then have a movie released with characters they recognise, but in an entirely different continuity. Unless, of course, the sequel comes out in another two years and the reboot has finished after one season (though there’s always a possibility it goes on beyond one season).

S: “Yes, I think there’ll be a sequel.”

F: “It seemed quite final. But obviously if the 02 epilogue is accurate that can’t be the end. Unless Matt finds Gabumon again on the moon I guess. “Oh hey yeah we don’t really disappear, we just go to space!” Yeah, it could go either way. Maybe they are saving Sora’s big part for the sequel!” (XD)

And that’s a wrap! I’ll probably read the novelisation of the movie eventually . . . and it’ll probably be like 95% the same, lol.

#digimon #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #digimon last evolution kizuna #digimon last evolution #digimon kizuna #review #spoilers #50% thirst #30% jokes #20% actual content #XD

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justash02 · 5 years ago

Text

Strong fate;

Zombie Apocalypse AU!

-> Soobin x reader

Plot: Your head shot up as you heard loud yelling out side of the door that the two of you just came through, you looked over to taehyun only to see that he shared the same surprised look as you did. You two soon were pulled back into reality when you heard gun shots and more yelling for help.

A/n; I kinda started imaging this while playing “TLOU 2” it’s so freaking good omg- btw I’ve resently started watching TXT videos and I think it’s save to say that Soobin is my bias😂

Find all my k-pop work here -> masterlist

-> I might cry, this too me soo freaking long, so please don’t let this flop this literally took 4 days to make-

—> Enjoy!

*^*^*

“Hey, Y/n. Check this out.” Taehyun said as you looked over to you, your eyes traveled over to the slightly older boy as you smiled, “I’ll give you a hand.” You walked over to him and pressed your hands against the rusty door.

“Ready? One, two.. three.” We both pushed against the door, pushing it open. Tae quickly slipped from beside you and got inside, he grabbed the door from you to let you in.

You sighed and brushed off some of the dirt that was on the door, “So, What did Yeonjun want us to get? Besides food of course.” I asked Tae as I pushed the cart back that was against the door. You never know what can be after you, maybe a stalker is walking behind you, luring from the corners waiting to attack you.

Or maybe a runner, or a clicker.

Tae laughed as he shook his head, “Let’s see.” He said as he pulled out a piece of paper, I looked down and turned on my flashlight as I waited for him to continue; “medicine, food, screws, batteries, water or anything that is drinkable, trading carts-“

“What! Now I know for sure that Yeonjun does have favorites, two days ago I asked him to put chocolate on the list because I was having cramps he told me who I needed to get over it and not to be a baby! And now Kai is asking something useless and he gets what he wants?!” I pout out as Tae smiled.

He reached to his bag and pulled out a kit-kat bar, “Here, I smuggled it out of Jeongguk’s bag because I know how bad your cramps can get.” He said as he handed it over to me. I stared at the bar as I smiled.

“Shit, now I owe you, Don’t I?” He shook his head as i watched him put his bag back on his back, “See this as a very bad sorry for the last run.” He didn’t look in my eyes as he said those words, he turned around and started looking for the things we were looking for.

I decided to do the same and started looking in every drawer and every closet that came across my path, it was dead silent as I watched Tae do his job.

“So..” he didn’t turn around but I could see that I got his attention from the way his body froze up a little, “Did Yeonjun give you a hard time about last time?” After a few seconds of silence he shook his head, “He was so disappointed in me, Y/n/n.”

He said as he turned around, “I’ve never seen him like that, he didn’t even yell at me or got mad, he just sat there staring deep into my soul telling me that I won’t ever go on a run on my own again.”

“He was happy about the fact that you saw me go, though. Look, im so sorry for almost getting you killed, too. I was to naive to think that my parents would still be alive after so many years of not seeing them.”

My eyes scanned his face as he looked down at the ground, failing to look into my eyes. Of course you understood that he wanted to believe that his parents were still alive, you also were in that place once when the outbreak started to you didn’t have anything against Tae doing this.

“Tae, seriously, it’s fine-“

“No! It’s not, I almost got you killed.” I sighed and walked over to him, I slowly wrapped my arms around him and hugged him, “Don’t ever apologize for something that you couldn’t help, I would do it ten times for if you wanted me to Tae. You’re like a brother to me and so are the rest of the boys.”

He looked up at me as tears slowly ran down his cheek, he hugged me back and squeezed me before pulling away. He whipped away his tears as he smiled at me.

“Let’s just keep look-“ before I could finish I heard loud banging on the door, Your head shot up as you heard loud yelling out side of the door that the two of you just came through, you looked over to taehyun only to see that he shared the same surprised look as you did. You two soon were pulled back into reality when you heard gun shots and more yelling for help.

“Fuck! Please help me! I’ve got no bullets left! Their gonna kill me!” Before I could move Tae grabbed my arm and pulled me back into him, “Don’t, you don’t know if-“

I ripped my arm from his grip and ran over to door, I grabbed the cart but it was stuck, my head shot over to Tae who was staring at me. “Well, get fucking moving!” He quickly ran over to me and gave the cart a pull, as soon as it was away from the door I grabbed the door knob and pulled it open.

A boy around our age dropped inside, I didn’t get long to look at him as I saw a runner charging at me, Tae gave it a swing against it’s head with the bat that he found earlier coming here.

I dropped to the floor helping the boy up but as soon as he stood he dropped back down, “Fuck! Drop-“ he grabbed my arm pulling me into him as I heard a gun shot, the sound of a body falling was heard behind me making me jump.

“Y/n-“ Tae began as a few clicks were heard, out of reflection I pulled the two boys before me, grabbing the gun out of its belt and pointed it to the fucker.

I thought that for a second the blind ass couldn’t hear us but the boy lets out a grunt of pain, alerting the clicker.

It let’s out a loud screech as it charged to us, I quickly aimed and pulled the trigger making its body fall onto me, I gagged at the smell of rotting flesh as soon as it filled my nose.

The boy reacted fast as he pushed off the bloody clicker and tried to pull me up but let’s out a loud grunt, Taehyun quickly crawled over to the boy and reached over to the boys leg.

Tae’s eyes traveled over to his eyes as the boy nodded, Tae’s hands began to shake as he slowly folded up the undercut of his pants.

Tae quickly shot back at the large bite wound, Tae reaches over to his gun and pointed it to him, “I will shoot you, I’ve shot people I love dearly so you’ll be easy.”

“Wait- don’t shoot, it’s a old bite wound. You have to believe me, I was bit a long time ago and I never turned. The blood is from falling.” He quickly explained as he held his hands up to his face, “Just- p-please, Don’t kill me.”

I slowly get onto my knees and sat next to him, “Y/n-“ I took out a wipe and started softly started patting his wound and saw indeed that it was an old one. My eyes widened as I realized that when Yeonjun and I were listening in on a group of fireflies that they were looking for an immune boy, they wanted to make a cure out of them.

The Fireflies are a revolutionary militia group, They revolt against military oppression in numerous Quarantine Zones in the hopes of eventually restoring the US government.

Meaning that anyone who wasn’t with them would be seen as a threat and would be executed.

“Y-your him. You’re that boy that they were looking for to make that cure.” His face froze as he stared at me, he reached for his gun and raised it up to my forehead, pressing it hard against my skin.

Before Tae could react the boy raised one of the guns that were laying around and pointed it to him and shot him in his leg, taehyun dropped to the floor and lets out a yelp of pain.

“You’re gonna regret doing that, you fucker.” The boy only smiled and pressed the gun back onto my skin, “I’ve killed many of you, don’t think that just because you saved me that I would spare you.”

“I’m not a firefly, dumbass. I’m literally against those fuckers.”, “That’s what they all say.”, he said as he pressed it harder, it started to hurt but I didn’t show it to him, “For someone who’s really wanted you sure do wait a long time to kill somebody.”

He went to pull the trigger but it never went off, I smirked and fell back as kicked him in the face. I grabbed his gun and throw it across the room and went to sit onto him giving him no time to react.

I punched him as hard as I could, knocking him out. I felt like all my energy was being sucked from me as I let myself fall beside him.

“Tae? You ok?” I asked as I watched him trying to stop the blood from spilling, his hands were bloody and tears were clearly to see on his face. He shook his head as his lips started to shake from the pain in his leg.

“Let’s get back to base, we’ll take him too to be sure.” Tae didn’t respond as he tried to get up, I grabbed the boys arms and wrapped it around my neck, I quickly grabbed onto his waist as I tried to pull him up, Tae came over to my side and grabbed the boys other arm.

“Yeonjun is not gonna be happy about this one.” Tae whispers out softly as we walked back to our car, yeah, he probably won’t be.

*^*^*

“So you’re telling me that you took home the person that the fireflies have been looking for while we are practically in war with them?” Yeonjun said, I stood there not knowing what to say, why did I take him home? He literally tried to attack me.

When yeonjun saw I wasn’t going to respond he lets out a sigh and let’s himself fall onto the couch behind me, “Fine, let him rest up here. Let him clean himself up but after that he’s gone. You’ve got to understand that in this world you can’t trust everyone.” He said as he scanned my face.

I just nodded, I didn’t brother telling him about the whole “he tried to shoot me” part because well, the boy probably won’t even survive cleaning himself up.

I walked out of the room and walked to the cafeteria, “Y/n!” I looked over and Kai, “Heya.” Kai smiled and hugged me, “soooo, did you get the cards?” He asked enthusiastically.

I shortly shook my head before grabbing two packs of sandwiches- if that’s what you can really call them. “We got interrupted.”, “By the immune boy, right?” I nodded and smiled at him.

“He was quite handsome.” Kai said as he took a big bite out of his sandwich, “He is, too bad he tried to kill me though.” I whispered, luckily the younger one didn’t hear me.

we said our goodbyes as I walked my way over to the room he was staying in, what if he tries to kill me again- stop talking nonsense Y/n, yeonjun took all of his wapons.

I softly knocked on the door, I slowly placed my ear against the door trying to hear anything, when I didn’t hear-

“Woah, didn’t know you were that big of a perf.” I quickly spin around only to see Jimin, “Oh my go- you scared the living shit out of me!” I said as I slapped his arm, jimin laughed and softly rubbed the skin I just hit.

“Scaredy-cat. I just wanted to tell you that yoongi was looking for you, he said your gun needed a upgrade.” I smiled and nodded, “I’ll go look for him when I’m done with him.”

Jimin wiggles his eyebrows, “not have too much fun.” He said before walking away, he didn’t even give me a change to hit him again.

I sighed and turned back around to face the door once again, I took a deep breath and opened it up. I peeked through the small crack of door.

There he was, he hang with his head and his wrists were chained to the bedpost, I felt my heart ache as I saw him like that. I didn’t understand why I felt that way but I couldn’t stop thinking about how scared he looked when we saw that clicker coming for me.

I decided that it was better to push away those thoughts and walk over to him, I gently sat onto the bed. He quickly looked up to me only to relax when he saw it was me.

“I- Um, I brought you food...” I said, he looked down at my hands. Suddenly he shots his eyes back to mine making me blush, what the hell?

He smiled softly before, shyly looking down. He mumbled something under his breath so I didn’t understand any of what he said.

“Huh?”

“I said, I can’t eat it when I’m chained up...” I felt stupid for not figuring that out on myself as I looked down at the food, theres no way that Namjoon will give me the keys and if I ask Jun to get it for me he‘ll laugh his ass of telling me to ‘fuck off’.

An idea popped into my head but I quickly pushed that away, “Could you- you know.. maybe feed me?” He stuttered out, my eyes widened at his request, great minds think alike, right?

I saw as his whole face turned a deep shade of red, I, myself started to feel my face heat up. “O-or you go get the keys, but I highly doubt that they will give it to you, see that I tried to kill you and all..”

I quickly unwrapped the sandwich and slowly ripped off a piece and shoved it in his mouth, his eyes widened as he stared at me dumbfounded. I quickly looked away, avoiding eye contact at all cost.

“W-well, what are you looking at? E-eat up.” I stuttered out, I felt embarrassed that this was happening, I would’ve rather died back there than be in this awkward situation.

He slowly started to chew as he looked down, “thanks.” I looked over to him, he frowned as he continued, “If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been dead.”

“It’s nothing, I guess it’s a human thing to do.” I said as I reached the sandwich closer to his mouth letting him take a bite, “I would do it again, even though you pulled that gun to me.” He looked down embarrassed.

“Nothing to feel embarrassed about, though, if I were in your place I probably would’ve done that same.” I said, I watched him swallow as he eagerly looked over at the sandwich, I laughed only to have him shoot me a dirty look.

“Stay still.” I said, I laid the food onto the nightstand next to the bed and crawled behind him, “W-Wait, what are you doing?”, I ignored him and grabbed the small bobby-pin out of my hair and pushed it in, I wiggled it a little before opening it up.

“That’s one.”

Soon I got the other one lose too, I throw the handcuffs to the other side of the room before getting up, I looked over to see him rub his sore wrists, they looked painfully red.

I smiled softly before handing the sandwich over to him, “Just, just tell me when you need anything ok?” He looked over with a smile, he softly nodded before he started nibbling on the sandwich.

Cute.

*^*^*

*a few months later*

“Y/n, help me with this.” Jungkook said, I looked over and smiled, I quickly ran over to his side. I grabbed a brick and threw it against the window, “that is also a way.” He said laughing.

I smiled and looked over to Soobin, “What, you’re scared?” I asked, Soobin looked over at me and pouted, “Me, scared? You wish, babygirl.” Jungkook fake gagged for a second before winking my way.

“You disgust me.” I said to him before away, I walked over to where all the clothes were and started looking through them, “Get your ass in here, lover boy.” Jk said as Soobin quickly came in, he looked over my way and scanned my body.

If you would say that there wasn’t some tension between the two of us, you were probably blind or just really stupid. But we both just dare to say anything about it.

Everyone seemed to see they way that we flirted at the most weirdest moments, or how you “accidentally” touched each other’s hands. We even kissed, but the next day Soobin seemed to have forgotten it.

Maybe he wanted to forget, maybe he doesn’t like me the way that I like him. I sighed and pushed some clothing into my bag. I glanced over to him and watching him reach for a few newly found bullets.

“Y/n/n?” I jumped, and out of reflecting hit Jk, his hands quickly cupped his nose trying to stop the bleeding as he lets out a pain filled grunt. “Holy fuck, I would say that you hit like a girl but that would be a lie.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” I said as I grabbed a cloth from the table and pressed it against jungkooks nose, I softly cupped his cheeks making sure he doesn’t let his head fall back.

“I’m going to look upstairs.” Soobin said in a irritated voice, looking over jungkook frowned before smirking, “Looks like lover boys jealous.” I scoffed hitting his shoulder, “Stop it, he doesn’t like me.”

“Yeah, right. That’s why he was literally eating your face.” Jungkook said rolling his eyes, “It’s no mystery that he likes you, did you see his face when Jin hugged you for your birthday last month?” I shook my head and let out a sigh, “He doesn’t fucking like me, drop it ok?” I said, annoyed I let to go look for Soobin.

I ran up the stairs only to find all doors closed, “Soobinie?” I said, nothing. Suddenly I heard what sounded like a body dropping, I grabbed my gun and quickly ran over to the door. I slammed it open only to find soobin trying to fight off a runner.

“Get off of him, asshole!” I ran towards the bitch and grabbed it by its neck, I pressed my gun against its temple and shot it. I felt the body slip from my hands as blood dripped down from the wall.

Soobins loud breathing started to become like it usually is and he stared at me, “thanks.” He said breathlessly. I glanced at him before letting myself drop onto the couch, this is probably an old employees louche, “If I would get a penny everything I saved your ass I would be rich.” I said.

Soobin scoffed as he stood up from the ground, “If you were flirting with jungkook Hyung so much I wouldn’t have been here in the first place, so it’s your fault I almost got killed.” He spatted out, I laughed, i literally laughed in his face as I stood up.

“If that’s what you called flirting I might as well have proposed to you.” He rolled his eyes, “Oh because you like me so much right? You literally flirt with everyone from the base, literally everyone! I didn’t even feel special when you kissed me, because I knew you would do it to anyone!” At this point he started raising his hands to get his message more clearer but I knew that what he said was exactly what he was thinking.

“So you think I just kiss anyone? Like do you exactly think that?” I asked, I wanted him to answer me honestly.

“No, I don’t exactly think that. It’s just- the fact that all of them seemed to be so found of you, I don’t like that. You’re mine-“

“Since when?” I teased, “You’ve never asked me.” Soobin blushed deeply as cupped his mouth, “you know what I mean..”

“Do I?” I said, I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, he instinctively wrapped his around my waist, “Because if you asked me to be your girlfriend, I might just say yes.” It’s weird how he can make my mood switch from mad, to sad, to happy.

“Butttt, I might need you to kiss me...” I whispered, he smirked as he softly brushed his lips over mine, his tongue softly brushed over my top lip making me some type of way (wha-)

I started to feel impatient as I pulled him closer, his lips covered mine perfectly like a puzzle piece as he softly cupped my cheek.

“Eww, young love, disgustingly cute.”

#zombie au #zombie apocolypse au #txt #txt x reader #txt x you #txt au #soobin x reader #txt soobin #beomgyu x reader #txt beomgyu #taehyun x reader #txt taehyun #txt huening kai #huening kai x reader #txt yeonjun #yeonjun x reader

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didanawisgi · 4 years ago

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Not to alarm you, but... whoa

This was sent to me in an email from MVT, a tactical training group I was planning on taking courses from in the future. This is how some of these guys feel, not to alarm anyone, I just wanted to show you how serious the situation is in America right now. What you are about to read is a mainstream view, as in millions and millions and millions of Americans feel this way but are largely silent at the moment. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I thought it would be worth sharing so you could feel the same sense of alarm I felt going through my emails... - REGIII, M.D., 32, RAM ‘Modern Alchemist’

“BLUF: What you need to hear, but don’t want to.

Let’s keep things simple, shall we.

We are facing the end of the Republic. It is easily argued that it already expired, the point being that now we face a deep state coup, massive election fraud, huge corruption, an attempted Marxist takeover, and foreign control from China.

Democrats are traitors to the Republic. Republicans are not much better. The rule of law is dead: nothing that Trump has attempted to do has been done. He is surrounded by the deep state. The three letter agencies (of which so many of you are so afraid) have sold out to the dark side. They are part of the deep state.

Many of you are sold on the PSYOP that there is a plan in place. You may follow QAnon. “Trust the plan.” There is no plan. The attorneys who have attempted to fight the election fraud in court are fools. Why? Because they are working in an old system, where they had success with big lawsuits in court, and cannot get their heads around the massive corruption of the rule of law and the court system. They are working in an old system that no longer has merit. The supreme court is not doing its job. The Lawyers will not save you; you have to save yourself.

I would like to be wrong, and I would be happy to be so. But I don’t think so. Unless Trump pulls a plan out of his ass, Biden is getting sworn in on the 20th of January. The reprieve we had during the four years of the Trump Presidency will be over.

Most of America is sleeping. They expect that we will get over this. They expect a ‘return to normal.’ That is not going to happen. In 2021, it will all be over. The Republic will be finally dead. They hate you, and will be after you. That means your livelihood, your family, even your very lives. It always happens with a socialist administration. Even when you tell yourself that “it can’t happen here.” America is the prize, and it will happen here more than anywhere else.

Thus we face huge normalcy bias and denial. And this is the key, what I want to talk about here today.

I wrote a recent article called “Trust in Combat.” What I didn’t do was give you the answer to the problem. I will do so today, however much you don’t want to hear it.

The Trust in Combat article focused on the problems with forming groups, and training, and all the inherent issues about ego that will destroy a group, which is formed before the actual need for that group. Thus, we form groups now which are aimed at surviving hard times, but are operating now in easy times. Thus, ego will play and when it comes time, when you are actually in combat and the rounds are flying, it is likely to all fall down.

And that is the issue. We are either facing war, or perhaps we are not facing war at all, given the somnolence of the American population. We would tell ourselves that at some point, they must wake up. But will they? Or will they go to the camps like the citizens of the USSR? Will they tell themselves that “it will be resolved in the courts.” I really don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. I have no idea how this will play out.

I will tell you that there is no point waiting until the Marxist coup is consolidated, and strongly in place. Unless Trump is able to pull something out of the bag (a PSYOP story that will keep many of you hesitating) then what needs to happen is that We The People stand up. But we know that We The People will not do this. The ‘conservatives’ are either corrupt, or as seen with many of the ‘MAGA’ voters, are too focused on picking up litter and being polite, despite the assaults from Antifa. There comes a time to forget about the litter, and be rude as fuck. We are facing a civilizational assault on Liberty and the United States Constitution. And all we really care about is picking up litter, being polite, and trying to get by. There is absolutely no point in keeping arms, for resisting tyranny, if you have absolutely no intention of using them. All these quotes about blades of grass and the American Riflemen make me laugh; weapons will be banned and everyone will hand them in, because they were conditioned and told to do so (see how many are wearing masks?) Except, of course, for those who won’t; the problem being that they will be small groups and individuals.

So, however we get there, we will be at war. Whether the left comes for us, and however we resist, whether it be in small or large groups, we will be at war. This means that hardly anyone is trained, or physically fit enough; we will end up in combat as a total shit show. It’s going to be a total disaster and a lot of people will unnecessarily die. But that is just the way it is, because hardly anyone has the foresight to get fit, prepared and trained before such an event. We will be suddenly involved in some sort of Bosnian civil war scenario with absolutely no preparation and no forming of trusted, reliable, teams in advance.

So what is the solution? Individually we must do all we can to get fit, trained and equipped. We just know that we cannot form groups before the war, because of the way we are (‘Rugged Individuals’), and even groups that already exist are most likely flawed because they are not tested in combat (not fully trusted and tested in advance). The moment that the rounds start flying, is exactly the moment when all the unspoken issues of ego and trust start appearing, and before you know it, no one is doing what you trained to do (or not trained?) No one is moving. See my ‘Trust in Combat” article if you have not read it already.

What needs to happen is that, when people finally wake up and realize that they need to fight back, they need discipline and organization. People fight for a couple of things, and those can be summed up as 1) the group, and love of the group / not wanting to appear a coward in front of them and 2) discipline. This discipline can be found in the military with UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice. The military is a legitimate organization where in small teams, the ‘alpha’ personalities are kept in check by a mixture of UCMJ (the hard check) and a general understanding that for the team to succeed, leaders must be supported. If leaders are generally supported, then people will do less dying (assuming competent leadership), and the team will be successful. None of this takes away from the wider discussion of leaders, for example, listening to helpful planning suggestions, not being a nightmare of a leader (effective leadership) and the rest; thus assuming relative competence from leadership, it is a good idea that the leader is supported in his role. Otherwise “we break down, the machine breaks down.”

How does this happen in civilian groups, either formed now or formed after hostilities begin? The leader must be able to rely on his team. He must be able to assume discipline and adherence to orders. When he expects someone to move, they must move. There must be a system of some form of oath, and some form of UCMJ. If people fail to do as ordered in combat, or are willfully disobedient, then they will face effective discipline.

And we know that this is not an acceptable plan for all of you “you are not the boss of me” types. ‘Rugged Individualists” (LOL), who will die as such.

When we talk about some of our favorite things, like the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, and we refer to the organizations of the day, we have to realize that these were either Armies or Militias. The Colonial Militia was an actual military force with leaders and discipline. Yes, I know that the Bosnia x Rwanda situation that we are likely to face is not the same war as they fought, but the point being that you cannot expect men to rise to combat without training and discipline. Without that they are just a mob, and will likely be as effective. And for those that don’t want to hear it, this is also not he same as a ‘militia muster’ with untrained and unfit people showing up to ‘muster’ in a field and then going home. Again, just another form of a mob.

Take it or leave it, I provide this to you as a solution. Given that it is likely to be rejected, all I can tell you is that you are best at home defending your family from the socialist hell that will be unleashed in 2021. That in itself is not an effective remedy, and allows us to be taken down one by one.

As for Trump, if he is going to act, he needs to act now. This situation will not be solved in the courts, it can only be solved by supra-legal action. By which I mean the insurrection act and whole lot of members of the coup going to jail / the firing squad. This has been termed “Crossing the Rubicon” but he must do so mindful of the best interest of the Constitution. Consolidate power, fix it, and step down. This would be truly in the spirit of a Roman ‘Dictator.’ But I don’t think he has it in him, and I don’t believe that he is really playing ‘4D chess.’ Prove me wrong. I would rather be wrong, than face the hell of a civil war, which many of us will not survive, victorious or not.”

Source: Originally posted here at the MVT blog: https://maxvelocitytactical.com/where-we-are/

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fyrapartnersearch · 4 years ago

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Sci-fi shenanigans!

Hello ladies, gents and fellow rpers. After having a writing blast and seeing how I’ve got room for some more partners I’ve decided to come back in search of some partners who are interested in what I’m looking for.I’ve got a good ten or so odd years of rping experience under my belt but any potential partners do not necessarily have to have the same experience, they simply need to fit under these three things: -third person only with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. - at least one small (no less than seven lines) paragraph per post as well as being willing to write more if the situation calls for it. Please do not contact me intending to give me only small paragraphs with each response as the above is simply the bare minimum I’ll accept if there’s not much going on in the rp that warrants a full paragraph. -no one liners, one worders, script talk, poorly written sentences or just laziness in general. This isn’t terribly much to ask for as picky as it sounds. An important thing I shall mention is that NSFW (i don’t fade to black nor do I care when the smut happens. Just please don’t leave me once the smut has happened like lots of people seem to unfortunately do) and dark themes are a thing that occur in all my rp’s so I require you to at least be eighteen before you reach out to me. I will not accept anyone younger than 18 since I myself am in my early twenties. Underaged characters are also a no go as well. Please know that I’m in the eastern Australian time zone but almost any time zone Is compatible for me as I am awake at very odd hours. Another important thing I shall add is that you must be able to post at least once or more a day and if I don’t get any response after two weeks then I shall simply move on (only exception is if you notify me beforehand as to why you may not be able to post for a while. I’m not that vicious). I only rp as male characters, as it’s simply my preference, but I will do either MxM or MxF pairings. I will not double and I do not play multiple characters. I don’t do sub/dom dynamics when it comes to any aspect of the relationship. My characters are also non human (they’re aliens since this is a sci-fi rp after all) but what species your character is doesn’t matter to me at all as long as it’s not some god modded Mary Sue. Please remember that alien simply means a creature not from earth. Aliens can have fur, scales, feathers, etc, depending on where they come from. An alien with fur or scalies is not a furry or a scalie and please do not refer to them as such as it’s rude to label someone’s character as something they’re not. I will not write with someone who will insist that the theory of chimpanzees and humans unable to crossbreed should apply to hybrid characters regardless of whether they’re alien/alien or human/alien. This is fiction, not reality. Please also do not control my characters or dictate their actions. My characters are also premade and only have descriptions, I don’t do face claims or pics. I also do not care if you make a character up on the spot. Please remember that this is a sci-fi rp and that I will not accept requests to do fandoms or any genre that doesn’t fit within the category of sci-fi.i will not accept a character that has no place in a sci-fi rp either like a dragon,harpy,demon, elf or some other fantasy creature. I do have a few ideas and I’ve listed them down below: Space criminals and the law: *humans and aliens have been living amongst each other side by side ever since humanity dared to venture beyond the Milky Way and made first contact with aliens. With the solar system no longer being man’s only playground other planets were quickly colonised under the new alliance between extraterrestrials and Homo sapiens. Whether you were an alien, human or a hybrid did not matter in the known galaxies. All that mattered was who you were. Not everyone took to the integration very well (there were numerous protests on both sides) but most people were willing to share in the hopes of peace. Not everyone had good intentions though……* Trouble in the alien kingdom: *the planet of (insert generic planet name here) was one of prosperity, hardship and wealth. The kingdom of (insert generic kingdom name here) was ruled by a king and a queen whose heir was betrothed to a rival planet in the hopes that a political marriage would prevent another war from happening. Only problem was that no one could see the rival planets true plans….all but one. Unfortunately no ones going to listen to a deranged commoner who probably may not even be telling the truth. What’s one to do when no one will listen?* Exile: *The wind howled as thunder crashed and shrieked all around the abandoned cargo ship. Rain pelted the metal hull, turning the ground into a cold, treacherously slippery and muddy shallow river. The ship itself had crashed into the planet countless centuries ago and was slowly being reclaimed by the environment. Plants grew from cracks in the floor as moss and vines decorated the walls. A figure sat miserably hunched in what was once the cockpit of the ship, their only shelter from the raging elements outside but not from the storm that raged inside of them. The figure leapt to their feet as the sounds of footsteps in the mud drew closer and they held their breath. Who would dare to venture out here on such a miserable night?* War of the worlds: *humans and aliens were never meant to coexist peacefully with one another. There was too much fear, Too much misinformation and too much bias on both sides for such a thing to have ever been successful. It was the humans fault that the war had started. They were the ones who’d shot down the alien ship that had been packed with specially chosen diplomats that represented each alien race known to the galaxies they dwelled in that had been on their way to earth to negotiate a truce and a plan for peace. They hadn’t even hesitated to shoot the ship full of aliens yet they’d been surprised when war had been declared on the spot. Two races. Two worlds so different yet the same fighting one another for what was either a mistake or intentional murder.* Rehab: *The UGWP alliance (unite the galaxies for the protection of all worlds and for peace alliance) portrayed themselves as calm, charismatic and kind men and women who held only the thoughts of a life together with all species living happily together. They advertised campaigns for inter species jobs, provided information to the public about human/alien interactions and encouraged diversity amongst planets. Their rehabilitation program for troublesome fellows was considered to be a god send to try and cut down on the amount of space related crimes. No one ever questioned what went on beyond the closed doors to the facility, if they did, the UGWP would have their darkest secrets revealed. Something they strove to keep under wraps. When the arrival of a particularly wild prisoner occurs, the threat of their first failure and first escaped prisoner is lurking around the corner.* (Important point of notice: in this rp idea I’d be playing said prisoner, I don’t mind if you choose to be one as well.) Academy days: *the galaxy alliance and military defence force academy was one of the most respected training academies in the known galaxies. Men, women, aliens, humans and all of those who were in between went there to study, train and, one day if they passed the mentally, emotionally and physically gruelling years of tests, fly and be put in their own squadron. There were approximately six spots to fill on any team and the cadet who suited that spot the most would be given the title of pilot, squad leader, second in command, engineer, gunner and navigator. Each team was similar but unique in what they did. Not everyone gets along though and rivalries grow high during that delicate time between graduating and being put on a team. What happens when the top student and the lonesome outcast with a temper clashes?* Captured: *Space criminals have been around ever since advanced technology allowed others to travel and live in space as if they were living anywhere else. They’re often cunning, tricky to catch and more often than not are clever at disguising themselves whenever those wanted posters come up. It takes skill to be on the wrong side of space law and true talent to get away with it. The galaxy's current most wanted man has finally been captured by an alliance captain and his crew. Will he beg for mercy? Will he be given a trial before being thrown into a cell to rot or will he be given a chance to turn himself around with some hard labour?* (Important point of notice: I’ll be playing the criminal for this one. You will be the alliance captain) Enslaved: *imagine living the life of one of the most successful people on the run that could exist. Galaxies trembled at your name. You and your crew swam in wealth and the going was good. Mutiny, sadly and sometimes not sadly, exists on its own accord. One man reflected on this as he was forced to his feet. A collar attached to a chain and electromagnetic handcuffs prevented his escape as he stood for all those who cared to glance as they walked by in the market to see. No one wants to have their only life’s purpose to be to serve another......only sometimes people don’t get that choice.* (Important point of notice: I’ll be playing the slave/servant. You’ll be the master/mistress.) Sooooo..... about those pairings. What is in Bold is what I’m going to play if we choose the scenario: 1: enemies to lovers or rivals. 2: **captured criminal** x prison guard or other prisoner. 3: two soldiers from seperate sides falling in love. 4: **academies bad boy** x top student 5: **low ranking ship crew member/second in command/captured space criminal** x captain. 6: **commoner/rogue/street rat** x prince/princess. 7: **slave/servant** x master/mistress. 8: army superior x **lower ranking soldier**. PLEASE DO NOT APPROACH ME IF: 1: YOU GHOST AT THE DROP OF A HAT. 2: YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO PUT EFFORT IN TO MEET MY REQUIREMENTS. I’m open to discussing and potentially mixing these ideas up till we get something that we both like. If you want to learn more about a certain idea tell me the name and I shall expand on it. The only platforms I rp on are discord,telegram,email and google hangouts. I will not rp on any other platform other than the ones listed. If you do not have any of those then unfortunately we cannot rp. When you reach out to me requesting for an rp please In the opening message tell me what idea you liked, why you liked it, give me a little introduction about you and you must put 123 somewhere in your message so that I know you’ve read all of my post, don’t just put “hi wanna rp”. Make it interesting. I look forwards to meeting potential partners. My contacts Discord: tiberionsunsconqourer#6187 Telegram: Tiberionwars Email and hangouts: [email protected]

#oc rp #multiple paragraph #para #long term #action #adventure #original #romance #scifi #submission

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nightswithkookmin · 4 years ago

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With the grammy bomb im more than certain that there is a strain between jikook. They do interact but in a way that is so aloof. Their habitual gravitating towards one another doesnt happen anymore. And im talking about all the recent stuff from october onwards. Jk purposefully rear towards other members and i find jimin to be only open towards namjoon. All of his other interactions on cam are to make sure that everything is fine between him and others. And jk purposefully ignores or avoids jimin and doesnt have that unrestrainable affection towards him anymore. I say all this as a longtime jikook supporter. Honestly even if they had their 'fighting' periods i have never seen jk this dismissive. At least jimin isnt as affected as before. I dont understand how no supporter is admitting the obvious distance of jk.

Why are you being mean to me though😭

Please read my blogs. I think I have talked about this topic several times now.

May be I spoke 'too soon' before the loud moments that make these things obvious to most but still, I've addressed it nonetheless.

I feel if I respond to this, I'd just be repeating myself over and over at this point and frankly it gets boring for the people that read me- I think. Lol. I mean, once I start I never shut up. Lmho. So sorry in advance.

I agree with everything you've said, as well as all the observations you've made. I'm with you on it. Except, you made no definitive conclusions I could agree on, rebut, or share an opinion on. There is a strain on their relationship..... therefore? Lol.

I don't mean this in a rude way. I just don't think it's enough to point that out without drawing conclusions- unless you are simply taking notes of those moments? Or are you concluding that the strain is a sign Jikook are fighting, having problems or that they have broken up?

Not every tension between Jikook is a bad thing if you ask me or even as a result of them having issues in their relationship. This is something I keep regurgitating in my blogs. Not to say they don't have issues, they do. Hell, I get dragged by my roots on these streets for saying they fight, or even break up sometimes like any real couple would. They are real and they have real couple's problems sometimes too like any regular joe.

I'm glad you pointed out though, that Jimin doesn't seem as affected by JK's 'dismissive' attitude as before. Shouldn't that tell you that is a sign there is nothing wrong with their relationship this time around? Jikook is not one sided. JK isn't the only party to their relationship, neither is Jimin. They have an equal and sometimes opposite reaction to each other. One person's attitude or change in attitude tends to produce a ripple effect on the other. In my opinion.

If JK were to be 'dismissive' at all, it would emotionally and physically impact Jimin and he would have a reaction to it like he did in run 106. Compared to this, he didn't seem at all affected by JK's 'attitude' just as you've pointed out.

As I said a while ago, I honestly don't think or believe they are fighting or that they are broken up either- not to me anyway. Lol. I mean you could still pretty much see the intimacy between them in that footage. Jikook don't need to engage in skinship or overt and loud interactions to show they are intimate. And most times their overt and loud skinship and interactions are devoid of intimacy. That's the thing about intimacy, you can't fake it or hide it.

Jimin turning towards JK in his fit of excitement is a sign of intimacy between them regardless of whether he actually hugged JK or not. Then later on the couch, you could see him yearning for JK.

There were three people in that room- may be more if you count staff and yet JK was the only one Jimin seemed to want an answer from.

He was the one Jimin was emotionally inclined towards. The one who's comfort and affection he sought after- bless his heart, he hit his head on some solid rock knees and everything trying to pursue his need for physical closeness and affection from JK. If they were broken up or fighting, he wouldn't go to JK for his emotional needs.

He could try and 'interact' with JK, do the fanservice bit with him but he wouldn't go to him with his emotional needs- that would be inappropriate and unfair to JK. Jimin is an emotionally intelligent guy and he has a lot of thoughts and consideration for people's feelings and he is well aware of his limits and just how much he can push or get away with.

And I cite his Log with JK, where he announced he had started developing feelings for JK and then turned to JK to ask if he was ok with him saying that much on camera.

Thus, if he is emotionally 'gravitating' towards JK then it's indication there is a level of intimacy and a mutual understanding between them that JK fulfills an emotional need and ought to fulfill that emotional need for him.

And yes, I agree. Him hesitating when he wanted to hug JK is a sign there is something stressing their dynamics which is something I pointed out when that Grammy reaction video first came out. I knew something was stressing their dynamic but I couldn't figure out what because it was a very short video with not much going on in there.

The behind the scenes however, chilee. Lol.

I mean if you consider the fact JK went from moving a distance to console Jimin when he was crying on stage during the October ON:E concert, and you look at all the moments we've had from their overt flirting in 2021 season's greetings, the sexual innuendos in the BE behind scenes video, JK sniffing Jimin's hair in the Be unboxing video to that moment on the couch when Jimin hit his head on JK's knees- that shit look like it hurt. Damn. JK what is your knees made of! Lmho.

I am uncomfortable discussing a Jikook era or phase when it's on going on. I like to simply take note of certain moments and discuss them in post by reconstructing the timeline to place content in its rightful timeframe.

I can only share with you my working theory on such moments and for the most part, like I said previously I feel Jikook- especially JK is having issues with the company. Perhaps because the company stumbled on something they weren't supposed to see.

As for Jikook's personal development, I think we all saw this development coming, didn't we? After JM's birthday fiasco? I think I hypothesized at the time that whoever was in the 'wrong' in that situation would come swinging hard on their Jikook agenda in the aftermath. And with that whole GCF Tokyo reference, signing his name to JK's name at the pop up, the stealing looks at JK during interviews, checking him out left right left, trying to make Jk 'jealous' with RM at the Be press con red carpet, it's not hard to figure out who did what in that birthday situation.

I plan on writing a blog on this very topic, because I've received quite a few Asks about my thoughts on JK outing Jimin, military service and others that I find intriguing and want to discuss but I also want to discuss Vminkook dynamics, Jikook boundaries and I don't know which one to get into first. When I'm torn between options I end up not making a choice at all. Lol.

All I can say in regards to Jikook and their on going 'situation' is that- I love it. Lol. I love their dynamics, I love where they are at in their love journey, I love where they are heading. Jikook is just beautiful in every sense of the word.

I love what JK is doing. I love where he has gotten my bias to- which is confronting himself and figuring out what he wants from their relationship. Because, honestly you can't have your cake and eat it. It just doesn't work that way.

What you are seeing is just JK asserting himself against Jimin I'm afraid. It's the push and pull thingy all over again.

I keep talking about 'the boy in love with Jungkook' being a facade and persona Jimin hides behind to love JK and most people don't understand.

JK's persona is not the boy in love with Jimin. It's the boy cold and shy who rejects Jimin- well at least that was the persona he had in their early dynamics around debut.

He has since shed that persona and the bold, fearless, assertive JK we see on the screens is him choosing to unapologetically express his love and feelings for Jimin. And jimin enjoys that.

But you take a look at Jimin, and you don't see that drastic change in his persona or the way he expresses himself with JK- I mean let's call a spade a spade.

Do I think Jimin loves JK? Absolutely. Do I think he is being authentic in the way that he expresses those feelings to JK on camera? Only to an extent.

It's obvious who Jimin is to JK or even the way he expresses himself and his love for JK is slightly different off camera than the persona we see on our screens. For one, clearly JK is not used to seeing Jimin prioritize others over him or be overly affectionate with others besides him. I mean it's been seven years. Ten, if you count the periods before. You'd think JK would get used to JM doing skinship with others or showing affection for the others especially since they've lived together over half of the time and yet here we are, frying pans away from the apocalypse whenever any member breaths near Jimin. Damn JK. Lmho.

Do I think his persona is slightly exaggerated? Yes. But I also think JM downplays his love for Jk with his 'Mr I'm available' personality, his Kumbaya attitude, and his I'm just a nice guy on the block character, which often leads to people questioning whether or not he treats JK different from the group. Don't get me wrong JK does this too.

Jimin loves JK. But at this point the question is is he expressing that love in the way that meets JK's emotional needs? Is he allowing JK to love him and express the love he feels for him in the way that makes him happy?

I think that's what the birthday fiasco is all about.

If you don't want JK openly showing and expressing his love for you in a way that he wants to and in a way that holds meaning to him and makes him feel fulfilled as well in the relationship then what is the point of him holding on to the glass closet?

Two can play that game. Lol.

It's JK's needs above the groups and I feel he is putting it right up there next to JM's needs because they are both valid.

You should have seen JK's face when Jimin decided tell the truth about his location on September 1st in that BB press interview.

I remember pointing out that when JM started that narration with the first person pronoun he was going for a well curated narrative perhaps one the group had agreed on prior to avoid confirming his location on the JK's birthday like they had tried to do during the VLive but dropped that and went with the honest truth the moment he started talking about being with Jk and using 'we' instead of 'I' in his speech.

I'm glad the interviewer from his Weverse magazine interview confirmed and pointed out this tell or habit of Jimin when he speaks,

"When he’s talking, Jimin often starts his sentence with phrases like, ��I just,” “it just,” “they just …” But then he immediately goes on to open up about his feelings, always providing a sincere response."

At least now we know for sure he wasn't lying about his location- for all those who called him a liar.

Anywho, my point is it makes JK happy when Jimin expresses his love and feelings for him. But it also makes him happy when he is able to show the world just how much JM means to him.

He didn't get those tattoos for nothing. He didn't do the GCFs for nothing. He didn't nibble on his ear in front of thousands of people for nothing- had he posted for Jimin on his birthday, given how he hadn't done that for anyone in a year, it wouldn't have been for nothing either. In my opinion.

When I tell y'all Jimin is gonna wake up one day with JK's ring on his finger and he wouldn't know what hit him. Chilee. Lmho.

Listen, JK is in love LOVE with Jimin. It's my opinion and I'm gonna treat it as fact because I believe it- if you disagree keep it to yourself. I don't wanna hear it. Lol.

That boy is in love with my bias. Ain't nobody gonna tell me nothing. Lol.

Seriously though, JK loves Jimin and he loves expressing those feelings for him. He goes overboard sometimes with it to the point it's borderline outing but we don't talk about that. Lol.

He's progressed through out the years from hiding his feelings for Jimin, whispering I love you's to JM when he thinks JM is alseep, slipping matching plasters onto his finger, all the way to Rosebowl.

If you ask me, he wants to be Jimin's equal in every sense of the word and as much as he loves to be at the recieving end of JM's affections, he enjoys being at the giving end.

And if JM has the cover of 'the boy in love with the Maknae' and it works perfectly for him not just as a persona but the perfect excuse for loving Jk then you gotta wonder what cover JK equally has for loving JM the way that he does. He has none. His every move is questioned by members, by staff, by fans- why do you film Jimin so much, why not put Tae in there for clicks, why are you constantly with Jimin and other invasive questions like that.

Jimin gets away with a lot of things than JK because of his personality and his persona. People would question the things JK does most of the time while dismissing the things Jimin does as either fanservice or as flowing from his personality. Whereas JK cannot get away with those same things.

We paint JK as Jeonlous and possessive but we forget most times he acts that way so Jimin doesn't have to. Jimin has said he doesn't share his friends and yet somehow we think he is ok with sharing his boyfriend with 5 other members or those 5 members with his boyfriend- this is code, let it sink in.

There is a lot of boundaries he instills there and it's equally an expression of possessiveness. Yet it's so subtle you might not even notice.

Jk makes Jimin look cool. He takes the fall so Jimin doesn't have to. When JK takes a step back that's when you see how whipped JM is- the neediness, the clinginess- PJMs give me a break. *rolling my eyes. It needs to be said. I love Jimin too but shit, it is what is. Lol.

I think it's gonna take a while for Jk to open back up to Jimin, to get in the space where he feels safe expressing himself with Jimin the way that he was doing before Jimin's birthday.

It doesn't mean he hates Jimin or doesn't love him or doesn't want him or doesn't care. But I think Jimin needs to step up to show he is on the same page as JK because JK is all about reciprocity. He ain't about to do the one sided unrequited nonsense. Lol.

Honestly all this is part of Jikook's dynamics. This not the first time Jk's closed himself off. The last time he did it was because they had gone through a nasty breakup- I said what I said. In my opinion nonetheless. Lol.

In the aftermath of it, he was expressing similar behavior. In Suga's Birthday Vlive this year for example, when Jimin was clinging to him and had his hands on his leg he didn't take the bait either- man was it frustrating to watch. Lol. But you could see JM wanted that physical connection with him. Did you see his smug face when Jimin was all over him?

I think he is just going through a phase where he needs reassurance of Jimin's love. Jimin is a big guy and he knows his man best and I think he knows exactly what he needs to do to get him to come around. Lol.

I mean he flew all the way from Paris to see him on his birthday didn't he?

I think we have to leave them to it. Just observe them. I hate commenting on a phase like this especially when it's on going. I'd rather talk about it after it's ended and a new phase has begun for them.

Part of supporting Jikook is knowing when to give them privacy and room to just unfold their story and be human. They are a living breathing love story after all.

Jk isn't being distant. He is just not interacting with JM the way we are used to seeing him do. But I feel that's part Bighit asking them to cool off and part him just wanting reassurance from Jimin.

At this point, I want to ask why you want people to acknowledge JK is closed off? To what end? I don't think anyone is denying that they are going through this phase- well the Kumbaya tradshippers are but why do you want me to acknowledge this fact? I already pointed out that there is something stressfing their dynamics.

They have their own personal stuff going on but I don't think it's much of an issue and at the same time they seem to be having issues with their company- You have to take all of that into consideration to see how that affects their dynamics as well.

You have to be aware of the timeline too. Because content is not released in chronological order, it may seem like a rollercoaster ride when in actual sense all of this may have happened with a specific time frame.

When it comes to Jikook always assume they are much closer than you think. Jikook is fine, I believe. Just take mental notes of these things for posterity. I wouldn't be worried about them.

As usual, this has been my opinion. Don't take it too seriously. Keep supporting Jikook. Jikook is real.

Signed,

GOLDY

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