#knowing that you are the reason a whole civil movement potentially didn't get what it needed to succeed

[iwonderwh0]

No, but if Hank chose the wrong Connor, he won't live long after the fact – the guilt will be too heavy to bear

[brick-van-dyke]

Nope, more just hoping for any chaos in general to be helpful. Like, this wasn't a deep analysis or a concrete "I think this will ruin the military", in fact I didn't even mention it bc I didn't think it would be affected. However, I do think it'll help right wingers lose confidence.

As for revolution, it really depends on what theory (as in what specific type of revolution) is being referred to. I personally think a greater land back movement and stronger push for fighting for civil rights is on the horizon since a lot of people are, as you're saying, banding together. Meanwhile, I personally wouldn't agree with a Trotskyist revolution because I think that IS outdated and tbh never a good idea to begin with for a number of reasons (I have my own criticisms of the base theory but I won't get into that here lol).

I think it's important as well to note that I do very much agree with you, *but* it's also important to recognise you have to have enough love to fight for what's right and protect people you care about. I know that's obvious to say and probably something you already meant here, but I think it's applicable to resistance against systematic oppression in the sense of uprisings as well. Like I literally don't think the system used right now in the US is a sustainable one and tbh I personally see it as very totalitarian so I wouldn't put my energy waiting for it to be fixed from the inside.

Uh, basically, what I'm saying is actually more simplistic and not implying much beyond what I stated at face value; I think the failures to meet the expectations of right wingers (especially far right groups who have used Trump as a reason to become more active) will make them lose morale and slow down their ability to be as reactive in the long term, and potentially (though this is more just a hope than realistically what I think will happen) said failures making it difficult for governing bodies to remain as organised as, say, during a Biden administration because they'd be so focused on the mess Trump is causing due to his incompetence. Again, that's just a wistful hope, not so much a "I think this will definitely happen". I'm more focused on how continual failures will make him appear less of a figure for right wingers to follow and potentially lead to some advantages for activists to push the opposite.

But either way, yeah no, I agree that we should be all banding together. Been saying exactly that the whole time too.

He really talked Trump into naming it DOGE huh

[pinkpruneclodwolf]

Doomscolled Into the Wrong Side of TWST—

TWST and the Audacity of Some of You Bitches.

I think the reason I've been so inactive recently stems from me doomscrolling into a post complaining about people Headcanoning Vil as Trans or the entire Pomefiore dorm as GNC af.

Their post was basically: "Vil's character is effective as a cishet man but effeminate because the point of Chap 5 is fighting against the current and staying true to yourself."

But they turn around and say shit like—"anyone who does not view Twisted Wonderland in the same lens of a 'unrealistic progressive' more commonly 'expected' in Western cartoons are shunned"

What in hell's name is that supposed to mean???

First I'm gonna start off by saying that Vil being hc'ed as transfem, transmasc, nonbinary, demiboy, or just a plain ass white boy who wears makeup in his freetime and fears potatos won't change Vil fundamentally—he's a character in a game about fantastic mental breakdowns due to systems that they cannot control and can only find peace in themselves and support from their friends..

Many genderqueer ppl find him relatable bc being gnc is apart of his character, instead of it being just a one off thing— he doesn't view masculinity and femininity as two fucking boxes the whole human population has to fall into—and he isn't made fun of for it in the story as much. (Outspoken feminine coded people face more flak in fandoms)

You whining about people making him trans does nothing, changes nothing, isn't a new take, isn't hot,, just lackluster, and old as shit. I've seen too many posts that boil down to shit like this and have others cosign it— stop that shit, real talk.

Long story short Vil being hc'ed as genderqueer isn't gonna hurt you.

We also need to talk about how yall play in my face about East Asia being the monolith of purity especially in anime spaces—"anyone who does not view Twisted Wonderland in the same lens of a 'unrealistic progressive' more commonly 'expected' in Western cartoons are shunned"

Anime has always had the potential to portray BIPOC, Michiko and Hatchin, Yoshihiro Togashi been making trans characters ?????

So, what the hell does that mean exactly???

And the fact they used Yana being overworked as a shield to diss people who rightfully call out the racism and fetishism that is rampant in the game and fandom.

Like bro FAIRY GALA started off with Crowley rounding up Leona, Kalim, Jamil, and Ruggie and Malleus even says [botched quote] "fairies of pixie hollow want to feel exotic— the elegance of another country" as if Rook isn't from the same land of Leona why wasn't he selected hmmm?????

Some of yall definitions of fantasy exclude BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ and it shows every fucking day.

"The hunted become the hunter, oppressed become the oppressors, all in the name of equity and equality"

Bitch are you serious????

This is the same white supremacist logic that gets people fucking killed—so many people get killed just by that idea omfgg????

No matter how loud black people, poc, lgbtq people are let's not forget how long it took to get to that point, Civil rights movement isn't even in it's hundreds yet, Gay marriage across all 50 states is barely a decade old (legalized in 2015) , and trans people are constantly having their laws overwritten wtaf is wrong with some of yall?????

And the fact that it's reblogged as "this is important" bitch gtfooo leave, boooo brick brick brick im actually throwing bricks.

Yall play in my face like East Asia is a monolith of purity like they weren't out here murdering and colonizing like Britain was going out of fucking style, Manchuria, Taiwan, Korea don't ring fucking bells for you dimwits???

Ainu people are literally suffering from Linguistic Purism and colonialism as we speak.

Yall like East Asia because of how homogenous it is, and, I dare say how white it is, bc you wouldn't have to face bigotry affects BIPOC in a space where everyone looks like you and if they didn't you could get the free pass of bullying them because you "didn't know any better"

Yall excuse the bigotry of East Asia because "uwu they just don't understand"

They do.

They aren't fucking babies, yall infantilizing JP/East Asia is a form of fetishization in of itself.

They do know what the fuck they're doing and will keep doing it bc yall like to defend them vehemently so its why Korea can plagiarize black culture and get away with it, its why Korean idols can post themselves holding a racist caricature of a black person and smile knowing that their fans will defend them using that logic.

Go directly to hell with that "The hunted become the hunter, oppressed become the oppressors, all in the name of equity and equality"

Thats not how shit works at all this isn't some fucking animal kingdom where only the apex predator or the fucker who managed to overthrow the previous leader decides how the world works, touch some grass and realize you're a goddamned human, have some fucking decorum.

I swear humanity will never progress bc yall have zero imagination of what the world could be like if yall weren't assholes to a certain group of people.

[do-what-the-knight-tells-you]

Two things I'm chewing on post- Umbrella Academy Season 3.

HEAVY SPOILERS

The First one is old!five, in a separate post over here.

The second one is: Allison’s arc, and how the siblings respond to it, and what we may see going forward

-

The show doesn't have the greatest track record with following character arcs... Some of Viktor's isolation from the first season is addressed in the second season etc, and they do in general you know seem to mature and change somewhat. Klaus probably has one of the most distinct arcs of anyone, and that's actually (I expect)for the same reason that Victor does, because it's connected to their power use... But in general, arc continuity is patchy.

So, an element of second season I hope not to see repeated is that because of the length of time that the characters experience between first and second season, a lot of them felt to me like we didn't have to deal with their characters from the first season. Character problems they had or interpersonal issues etc we're dropped or smoothed over with that transition. Now, I'm hoping that is a direct result of the time weirdness at the beginning of second season, and we're not going to see that in fourth. I'm hoping that that fourth will resume pretty much immediately where third left off.

Allison's grief and anger spiral, her failure to deal with that, her lashing out and escalation of power use was a lot this season, and it was handled inconsistently and in my opinion not particularly well by the other characters.

I'm curious whether that's because the writers aren't sure how to handle it, or weren't noticing how far they've taken it... Or if it's a case of something that they're planting now to be used later.

In the following sections, I will say things like “I was frustrated”, and I want to be clear: since we do not obviously know where 4th season will go, assuming they get that last season they are hoping for, it’s possible that some of the things I mention are intentional on the part of the writers, and I/we are Meant to be frustrated! That’s cool. Not knowing if we are Intended to feel frustrated with a character, or if it’s accidental and it’s really the writers that are frustrating, is one of the pitfalls of talking about stuff before it’s done. So when I say things like “I was frustrated”, please keep that in mind, that I am discussing my own response to the behavior / portrayal of a fictional character whose arc is not yet finished. This is not intended as any kind of critique of how Real People in the Real World do or should handle their trauma.

Thanks.

Long-ish exploration of Allison’s S3 choices under the cut.

I was very frustrated. I was frustrated, feeling like she was spending a lot of time blaming anyone and everyone and lashing out, and not nearly so much time actually working through things, or owning up to pieces of her own behavior, or seeking help from her siblings, particularly siblings who may actually have a chance of understanding and having good advice. (The fact that this is a perfectly fine arc for a character to go through, if it’s paid off later, doesn’t make it not frustrating, if that’s the plan. things can be frustrating and Also good writing.)

(though, a point in the column of it being a writing mistake is potentially not-great handling wrt racial dynamics. This is not my topic to speak on, but Even I felt like it was a bit weird that she was the only one with much awareness the civil rights movement was going on in S2. Like sure, it’‘l hit her differently, obviously, and she has the potential to be more/differently caught up in it, but it does at time feel like shes on a veeeery different show than the others. with awk crossovers. So the idea the writing may be uniquely awk for her in other places isn’t a bad one.)

It’s a pretty standard Umbrella move for the siblings to not be Particularly aware of what’s going on with each other... whole plot lines are built on it, Whole siblings go missing without notice, whole wars are fought in vietnam... etc.

But for Viktor and Allison, they have apparently talked some already! So for once, that shouldn’t be the issue. and they should have the most in common. both lost partners, though obviously of different lengths and intensities, and to a certain degree they both lost children. Victor didn't birth his, but there's no way he didn't feel parental about Harlan (which, God, makes Allison's decision there all the worse and more despicable). And they both were living in a time period where their identities were restricted/marginalized/criminalized.

They should have some traumas in common, they should have some griefs in common. He could have been a good source of support and advice for her.

Because whether his experience was shorter in that era, or he learned a lot more about how to deal with his emotions and trauma after the disastrous end of the first season/revelations of second (possibly partly because he knows now at high cost that he can't afford to lash out, that too many people get hurt if he lashes out, if his self-control fails)... Viktor seems able to take his similar losses and griefs and experiences and grow from them now, and move on, where Allison is very much still stuck in her grief and trauma, and also is fundamentally unable/unwilling to see that there is any element of her own behavior in it.

I'm obviously not trying to like blame her for her own trauma and loss top-to-bottom... I'm just remembering the way in which her original loss of her daughter was because of her own mistake / misuse of her power. She would not have been available/willing to go hang out with them at Reginald's funeral in the first place, and thereby get caught up in all the other family drama and dragged back to the '60s and all of that, had she not been estranged from her new family because of her own mistake.

When you add to that the fact that a logical assumption about changing the past will be that it changes the future, it definitely should have been a risk people were acknowledging that when they got to the future something like her kid not having been born was a possibility.

I think it's a possibility that other characters had acknowledged, incl non-viktor characters, and that's why there were a few comments sort of urging her to wait or be cautious when she went to look for her daughter... And I would have rather seen her anger directed more broadly on that subject, than again straight at Viktor and then Harlan, who we know was innocent. Like he did it, but it was an accident and sort of an understandable one.

I personally just couldn't stop thinking about that anytime she got mad and attributed this whole mess solely to Viktor. Like friend, you had some agency in that. Specifically, you had some agency in your original estrangement from your family, and you had some agency in what happened to Viktor and the ways in which he was pushed into the explosion in that first season. And you're not owning up to any of that. It would obviously be very painful to own up to it, but you're not owning up to any of it and that's helping you get self-righteous about it and completely externalize your anger and hurt. It’s obviously devastating to have gone through all of this, and to have made the hard choice to leave your partner for your daughter, and suuuuuper devastating to make that exchange and lose them both... but yeah. Diving into anger instead, while not unexpected, is obvs not good.

And we see on the show that it's escalating, from her willingness to assault Luther, to outright murder of a vulnerable and (mostly)innocent man. This is not like five making his way through the time agency. She could have handed Harlan over alive. With her power? Absolutely. Instead, she chose to kill him, she wanted to kill him, and he was very vulnerable at that point. And again, more or less innocent.

She chose to kill someone who she knew couldn't fight back and was likely viewed by Viktor as a sort of adoptive kid.

So we have that, that feels like it was not addressed as deeply as I would have liked, and we have her attempting to SA Luther (Which, in universe I can maybe see why someone with his backstory mightn't have given that more weight, could have been more likely to just sort of default back to the fact that these kinds of things happen to him, his bodily agency is violated multiple times over the course of his life, I can see why he might not have given that quite as much weight, not as much as it deserves, might not have held her to account as strongly as I feel she should have been)...

And we have Five and the others spending a lot more time critiquing Viktor (Viktor who did lie to them again, and we can see why they would be concerned about his lying, but was lying to them in order to protect someone he views a little bit as his kid and definitely as his fault/ responsibility... This is Viktor's fatal flaw, and a good one since you understand why he continues to end up in these positions... I appreciate the uncertainty in Harlan's portrayal where there were a few moments where you thought perhaps he was evil and Viktor had fallen for the exact same damn ploy once more), and the sibs not really censuring Allison until she crosses that line and makes the basement comment to Viktor. Which is a big red line that they finally recognize as a line since that's what originally pushed Viktor over the edge, to everyone's detriment, in first season.

So. Do the rest of the siblings not speak out on her behavior more/sooner because

1. Messy writing, writers not realizing how far they've pushed this

2. The siblings themselves not noticing how bad Allison is getting, partly as a feature of the normal umbrella academy trope where they do not talk to each other enough, despite all the talking they do

3. Are they seeing it but they don't know what to do about it? They know how to talk to Viktor, now, they know how to correct Viktor. Do they not know how to correct Allison? Are they concerned that if they correct her too much, she will use her power on them? Do they feel so uncomfortable with or ignorant of the trauma she's been through that they don't know how to navigate well enough to correct her? Additionally, there’s a potential arrogance/assumption that she’s more right/more knowledgeable about interpersonal dynamics etc element that's part of her character particularly in the first season that could be brought in here/contribute to this.

I personally am hoping that a lot more of number three is going on, and that we will see some of this addressed in the last season. That we will see her have to face more seriously the nature of her power and face the fact that when the going gets tough and she gets frustrated or upset, then she drops her moral reservations against using her power in certain ways. That we will see other people impose and maintain boundaries with her for these reasons... And that we see her figure out how to, if she can, deal with and live with the traumas and griefs she has experienced. Whether that's by actually asking for support from her family, especially from family members who would get it, or whether that is a more individualistic method of dealing with it.

.

Anyway. I found it fascinating. An enjoyable season for me, much in the line of previous seasons. It had its problems, but again, they were a lot like previous problems I've seen, and did not bother me for the most part.

Here's hoping for a fourth and final season!