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splathousefiction · 2 years ago

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Joyful Stick: Scarlet Maiden And The Power Of Homage

Good day my lovely Deviants. Welcome back to Joyful Stick, our video game review/editorial series. Miss the last entry? You can catch it here. Today, we’re going to be talking about Scarlet Maiden by Otterside Games-and how celebrating pedigree isn’t a bad thing.

Metroid, Castlevania And Their Long Legacies

The original Metroid and Castlevania premiered on the Famicom in 1986 and 1987 respectively. Close to forty years have passed since then and both IPs have secured their foundation at the base of the industry. You can see traits of them in countless imitators over the last four decades. This has been so prevalent that it’s created an entire sub-genre: Metroidvanias.

But all of you know that already. Regardless of how terminally online you are, you’ve likely played a title that borrowed heavily from both of these titles at some point. Perhaps you were even lucky enough to have gotten the opportunity to play that metroid fan game that came out before Nintendo stomped it (hey, go fuck yourself for that one, Kotaku). What’s really wild in the current era is seeing imitators of the imitations-is it still a metroidvania if it’s an incredibly similar take on an already existing metroidvania title? Can we even call it a metroidvania at that point? Or has the genre itself advanced enough from the past for us to shake such terminology?

The idea hadn’t occurred to me until I’d picked up Scarlet Maiden, a raunchy pixel platform combat game. If you’re wondering if you should buy it, I’d say that question is limited only to “do you enjoy this genre”. I most certainly do, and at a $20 price tag I’d say the game is well worth it. Pick your 8Bitdo controller of choice and have at it. As I’m innately biased, this review isn’t going to focus on that. Rather, I want to talk about a feeling I couldn’t shake as I slung spells and struck enemies down.

It plays a lot like Dead Cells.

Like, it’s almost literally Dead Cells with tiddies.

I’d know, as I spent nearly 80 hours in DC beating the title over and over, going through the challenge modes and unlocking everything. I still love the game and there’s a non-zero chance I’ll boot it up when I’m done writing this.

As DC itself proudly wears its pedigree out in the open, that makes me question what Scarlet Maiden itself actually is. Is it a homage? If so, to what? If it’s only a metroidvania, then why does it borrow so liberally from an older title? I want to make it clear, I don’t think this is a bad thing by a country mile. SM is quite good, and I had a wonderful time with the tens of hours I spent playing it.

But when does an imitation cease to be an imitation, and become its own thing?

Diverging Paths On The Same Road

Both Dead Cells and Scarlet Maiden feature extremely similar combat, with randomized rooms filled with enemies. They both also feature progressive gear/ability unlocks via resource purchasing. Both (in game) feel kinetically similar-move fast or die. Time your jumps. Bash your head against the boss until your stats are high enough or you get the right gear to do so. Where the titles differ is through minute design choices that lead to drastically different play styles.

Your experience in each run of Dead Cells is highly dependent upon the choices you make with gear, how you level up your three respective ability classes in play and your own IRL reflexes. The game is fast, and while not especially punishing, a few poorly timed choices can kill you quick. You can ease your progression based on which mutations you choose to focus on or unlock first. However, any health bonuses, gear or more is reset through each run. Progression is made by being forced to spend every single cell you have as you make your way through levels. This way, you’re constantly making progress regardless of how well your run goes. Each run feels unique from the last, though it can lead to frustrations at absolute dog water runs.

Scarlet Maiden has a concurrent leveling system, meaning that you don’t lose any “sins” (this title's version of DC’s cells) regardless of how bad your playthrough is. You can choose to spend your sins in a variety of ways: an ongoing leveling tree, the blacksmith shop that gives you gear and more. You also get sins for slaying every enemy, with stat boosts that profoundly expand your sin gathering ability. If you’re paying attention and have some luck, it’s very easy to power level your Maiden in an afternoon and make the game significantly easier.

While both games play almost identically (and are priced identically), this one design choice leads to radically different vibes during play. Dead cells feels manic and quick, with a determined amount of stakes in each run. Scarlet Maiden is much more fluffy and bouncy, with less “unfair” moments. If you die, you just bounce back.

Aesthetically both titles are also very obviously different. Dead Cells has a high-speed violence focus, with 16 bit blood and gore frequently splashed by the bucketload on screen. Scarlet Maiden has no gore whatsoever, and instead enemies simply disappear in a puff of smoke.

Oh, and the adult content. Dead Cells features our mutant experiment protag kicking open chests, arguing with NPCs and reading graffiti carved into rock to reveal the story of their imprisonment. Scarlet Maiden instead features our protagonist drinking from giant breasts, sucking dick, getting fucked and fisting stat-bonus granting NPCs throughout. It’s all done in a very fluffy, fun and less grotesque way than you’d find in many adult titles. I’d say it’s akin to Lucy’s Got Problems in terms of cheek.

As Dead Cells came out in 2017 and was applauded as an indy success, that brings the question of where Scarlet Maiden got its inspiration from. Was it DC, or those original progenitors of the sub-genre?

Does it ultimately matter either way?

Yes and no, I think.

A Homage, A Copycat

A homage by definition is “a special honor or respect shown publicly”. In media, more often than not this materializes as a dialogue line, a scene shot similarly or some such. In horror films, it’s not uncommon to see cinematography compositions that harken back to 1970s Italian cinema. In the hiphop and rap tracks I myself enjoy, I’ve now been around long enough to see new artists sample songs that were “new” when I was a youth-which themselves were sampling motown and older songs. All done with respect that borders on open admiration. Hell, sometimes the creators getting a homage are even mentioned in the credits.

Scarlet Maiden does no such thing with Dead Cells, and I don’t think it has a responsibility to do so. Frankly, I don’t think any title is under any responsibility to do so. Which is another key difference between the two-as Dead Cells is packed full of homages to other titles.

In DC, you can get Gordon’s crowbar from Half Life and his suit. You can get the needle used in Hollow Night. There’s a pistol and katana that look awfully like the equipment used in Katana Zero. There’s countless others, some overt and some far more subtle. Dead Cells loudly proclaims it’s love for its progenitors, whereas Scarlet Maiden abstains with such from DC.

Is that problematic? I think if we’re to say that, then instantly so much media would be problematic as well. And that’s fucking stupid. Countless creators, artists, singers, writers and more curtailing at the altar of ideas would inevitably lead to everything feeling like the book of Genesis: And Samus Begat Simon, who begat…

Splathouse itself, especially my storyline audios, would owe the creators of John Constantine, Mike Mignola and Kentaro Miura huge cheques. Love you boys, thank you for everything.

Homages can be as overt and loving as we want them to be, and are a great way to share the joy certain media brought us. As stated above and elsewhere, “Jack The Magician” wouldn’t exist without Alan Moore’s run in Swamp Thing and the Hellblazer comics. I’m sure to tell folks I stole John’s whole shtick too because I want people to pick these comics up and love them as I did. The design choice Scarlet Maiden very obviously made with its homage wasn’t that, and I feel it’s a stronger (if softer) title for it. It took the principles of play DC laid down and decided to focus on fun rather than stakes. Both titles are a joy, but if I’ve had a rough afternoon-I’m way more likely to boot up SM over DC.

So. Does that make it a homage, a copycat?

Frankly, I think it’s neither, even if it’s directly copying DC’s style. In the modern creative era, people tend to think there’s either no new ideas/stories/concepts worth telling or that everything is a remix. Personally speaking, I find this line of thinking to be a trap. It enables negative attitudes towards our creative processes and experiences as consumers of art. We’re way less likely to make something at all if we convince ourselves all the good or worthy ideas have already been taken.

And I can’t suck giant mommy milkers in Dead Cells.

Be it that it’s a homage or a copy cat, I think Scarlet Maiden is a nice mutation on the formula Dead Cells loudly proclaims to be a part of. It’s a rewarding title full of fun, and I personally believe it is well worth the purchase. Dead Cells itself is also an excellent game, and I think both can be enjoyed for their own (however borrowed) unique play experiences.

-j

#splathouse #splathousefic #splathousefiction #joyful stick #review #game review #scarlet maiden #dead cells

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sanesquaregg · 2 years ago

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IT Staff Augmentation-Why is it a Good Choice in 2023?

The term "IT Staff Augmentation" refers to situations in which companies use some kind of outsourcing to meet their technical needs while simultaneously expanding their staff structure. When important IT projects require outside assistance, two main delivery models are frequently taken into consideration: Staff augmentation and outsourcing projects. A form of outsourcing known as "staff augmentation" employs temporary workers to fill temporary positions within your business until that particular project completes.

The most significant distinction between the two is that staff augmentation involves investing in engineering resources while maintaining team control. The temporary use of outside workers to increase your organization's capacity is known as "staff augmentation". Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) frequently outsource their IT requirements. This is due to the fact that they frequently lack the resources necessary to hire every employee they require. Businesses can add new members to their team for a short or long time using outsourcing. The businesses can keep these employees until project finishes and no further commitments.

Advantages of IT Staff Augmentation:

Guaranteed Talent

The power of your workforce is increased because IT staff augmentation ensures that your new employees are prepared to seamlessly integrate into any setting in which they are most needed. Consequently, they will stabilize the processes that are experiencing bottlenecks as a result of a lack of staff or resources.

Paying Only for Your Requirement

In addition, IT staff augmentation enables businesses to save money over time. You only pay for what you use, as long as you use the service. You can hire temporary workers with this one-of-a-kind model, saving you the expense of hiring full-time employees.

Increased Efficiency

Typically, an outsourcing company provides trained and vetted IT professionals upon request for IT staff augmentation. No matter who the client is, their entire job entails achieving the goals they set for them. With IT staff augmentation, in addition to the fact that you save time, you even save a lot of money.

Improved Focus on Existing Staff

The ability to maintain control over your existing staff is yet another significant advantage of selecting IT staff augmentation. When you assign your project to a third party, you essentially hand over control of your work to unknown individuals. Who leads the project and what should be prioritized are under your control. You can also avoid certain geographical issues by selecting IT staff augmentation over project outsourcing. When you outsource, you might have to give control to a person in a different part of the country. When you are working in different time zones, this can be frustrating. Because your team is based on-site, you don't have to worry about geography with staff augmentation.

Cost Effective

IT companies can save money in a variety of ways, thanks to staff augmentation. You can make the payment to the augmentation workers only for the period of time they work on the particular project. As the augmentation workers are chosen for their expertise in a particular field and require very little acclimatization training, it also helps reduce the cost of training new professionals. You won't have to spend money on employee benefits, recruiting, taxes, and other things.

Select the Skills You Require the Most

By focusing on the skills you need, whether you need help with a single project or your entire business, you can quickly and affordably hire the best developers. You won't have to hire just one person and hope they have the right skills for the job; you will be able to select the ideal candidate with the necessary skill set.

Enhanced Flexibility and Adaptability

Staff augmentation services greatly enhance your organization's scalability. You can take on projects of any size and never turn down requests from your customers. Additionally, it enables you to broaden the scope of your offerings and provide high-quality solutions with the assistance of temporary staff. Staff augmentation allows you to adjust your workforce to meet changing needs.

There are numerous advantages to choosing staff augmentation services over traditional hiring methods for your business, including:

Choose an expert, not a generalist, focusing on the skills required for a specific project.

Access to professionals with experience who are eager to get started.

Cost-effective alternative to hiring a regular employee and conducting interviews.

Flexibility when it's most needed.

New perspectives and objectivity from an expert who isn't involved in office politics.

Why Choose Sanesquare?

At Sanesquare Technologies, we have a team of expert software developers proficient in various technologies. The team here, work in close connection with the clients and provide the services as required by the client. Customer satisfaction is the key ingredient when providing a service. We, here at Sanesquare Technologies, give utmost importance to the client's satisfaction. We also provide the services at a competitive pricing. We assure you that our team will meet the requirements as advised within the specified time limit. We have a huge client base from different parts of world like Canada, Dubai, USA, & India.

We, here at Sanesquare Technologies have an expert team of professionals updated in almost every latest technologies, which are of great use in your business. As more and more companies get into the market, we always keep a specialized style in planning and carrying out the work assigned to us, with utmost care meeting the deadlines and above everything, the client satisfaction.

Staff expansion in IT organizations has moved past its commencement stage. In an effective and cost-effective manner, they make use of the capabilities of professionals with extensive skill sets. They prefer undertaking projects that require their area of expertise to traditional employment. As a result, businesses needing workers for a specific amount of time can use staff augmentation as an effective bridge to ensure an effective talent pipeline.

Having trouble getting a blocked project back on track? Choosing the best Staff Augmentation services is the solution. We help companies relaunch and scale their projects by adding talented and highly trained IT professionals to their teams. No matter what size team you need or how many individuals you need, we can help! Let us help you find the right candidates for your project!

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miniaturelamp · 4 years ago

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If I see one more person call Quackity “power-hungry” I’m going to scream

This is the same character that ran a whole-ass election campaign for a country he didn’t even live in because he hated the idea of Wilbur and Tommy running a rigged election and taking power for themselves. This is the same character that had a hitlist filled with the most powerful people on the server and actively tried to take the ones that were still living on them down. This is the same character that was ready to pack up and leave the dream smp forever and never come back but was ONLY pulled back when he was reminded of the fact that Dream, who possessed far too much power, was still at large. NONE of that was for self-gain. NONE of that was so he could take any control for himself. NONE of that indicates to him being power-hungry at all.

All of Quackity’s actions have been motivated by a desire to take down the people who had the most power. Quackity has always been against the people who possess the most power and control. Why do you think he wanted Technoblade and Dream gone? Was it because he wanted all of the power for himself? No. It was because Technoblade and Dream had the resources and abilities to destroy and entire country and, as he said himself, nobody should have that much power.

Quackity has never expressed a desire for power unless it is to take down people like Technoblade or Dream so stop calling him power-hungry when everything he has done has told us that he is the exact opposite of that.

#dream smp #mcyt #quackity #technoblade #dream #tommy #wilbur

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luverofralts · 3 years ago

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Post Arkhelios

With two disobedient sons, three open murder cases going cold, and the Chuns and Durants at each other's throats, Salem returns to Pleasantview to try to help along the recruitment effort and to placate Roman's anger at him. Why should he have let the boy be dragged down by his father's stupidity when he had much higher goals to achieve? Salem has much of the city council eating out of his hand already, but with the current Chun/Durant fiasco, there were too many factors in play that were out of his control. He needed assurances.

So Salem requests an audience with Pleasantview's ruler, Queen Charlotte II, and takes Roman along to possibly smooth things over with him if he could.

Salem bows like the front desk has told him to, even though it pains him and the values that he had helped found Arkhelios with.

"Your Majesty, I come from an independent nation named Arkhelios in search of a political alliance. My young grandson has been attending your prestigious royal academy, and has come to view your great country as a second home."

The Queen seemed taken aback by the request. It certainly was bold. She may have been young and relatively inexperienced, but Charlotte knew most of the nations that bordered her own and had never even heard of somewhere called Arkhelios.

"Just what kind of alliance are you looking for?" she asked. Do you have an army?"

Salem shifted uncomfortably.

"No."

"A navy? Natural resources? A coven of sympathetic witches?

Salem's gaze never left hers, though his voice was less certain than before.

"No, none of those. We do have vast amounts of undeveloped land, and a thriving scientific community. There are many opportunities awaiting any citizen of yours willing to work hard and contribute to a quickly developing nation's bright future."

The Queen sighed.

"And what are you asking specifically for in exchange for this potential?"

"I've been made aware that you have a young brother my grandson's age. Perhaps a marriage could be arranged, one that backs my family's claim to Arkhelios' leadership, and provides your family with an intelligent, eventual graduate of your finest school. My Roman is a dedicated worker, and a born leader who can provide your family with a fresh bloodline."

Out in the outer hallway, Roman can't believe what he's hearing. An arranged marriage? When was he going to be informed about this? At his wedding? He was supposed to be dating the rich locals, maybe forming some friendships that could propel his way to the top and entice new settlers. Arkhelios was built on freedom, and now suddenly Salem was here dictating Roman's life? The Queen’s brother was Maura’s boyfriend Ben, who was not only uninterested in men, but also kind of hated Roman. There may have been an argument over a miscast spell in Intro to Magic class that Roman was really hoping to not have to disclose to his grandfather. Was Salem really that desperate to rule Arkhelios that he would trade his grandson's free will for the ability to threaten Wanda or Oriana with a connection to a powerful nation?

Luckily for Roman, the Queen had had enough of entertaining Salem and quickly dismissed him without an alliance. The ride back to the school dorm was a quiet one. Salem fumed at being dismissed so easily, while Roman stared out the car window, wondering what plans his grandfather really did have for his future. His parents had all but abandoned him, his grandfather couldn't be trusted, and no one at school found him interesting enough to even talk about Arkhelios with him, let alone want to move there. Even Ulyssa was shutting him out now. For the first time in his life, Roman felt completely lost and alone.

If only I could talk to Abe about this.

Unbeknownst to Roman and his grandfather, two pairs of dark red eyes had watched them the entire time they were on the castle grounds.

Something dark followed these so called Arkhelions, and now they were reaching for power as well. Going forward, anyone from this odd little cult would have to be monitored closely.

#ts2 #sims 2 #ts2 gameplay #sims 2 pictures #ts2 pictures #arkhelios #post arkhelios #Roman Bellamy #salem bellamy #saren diablo #adriel diablo

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lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby · 4 years ago

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I am power I am due process I will smite

We talked about Ironwood's personality, history, major theories, and his possible origins. Now we will discuss the prime and major aspect of his character that has impacted the story the most. His overall status, power, and abilities as the leader of Atlas Military, Headmaster of Atlas Academy and the major de facto Leader of the entirety of the Atlassian Government and how it has made him lose sight of what he was fighting for.

Status

As a general, Ironwood normally doesn't associate himself with the front lines of combat and usually orders his forces using his tactical know-how and military knowledge. However, when pressed, he is very adept in combat.

In "Remembrance", he has two seats on the Atlesian Council, assuming both seats symbolize as Headmaster of Atlas Academy and General of the Atlas Military, giving him a even greater amount of authority and influence over the Atlesian Council and the Kingdom of Atlas, allowing him to make unilateral decisions such as initiating a Dust Embargo, closing off the Borders of the Kingdom from the rest of the world and even initiate and enforce Martial Law should he deem it necessary.

Rank

This is probably the most difficult to point down and to make a solid argument since the writers haven’t really explored the command structure of the Atlas Military but since they’re claiming it to be the America of RWBY we will be using facts and details of the U.S. Army rank structure as a logical comparison as well as listing the potential base requirements for Ironwood’s current rank and overall status.

Takes 30 years average to achieve the rank of [a 4 star] General

Candidates for Flag officers (General ranks) must have over 22 years of service as an officer

3 years in grade as a colonel to qualify for flag promotion(Time In Service at best 25 years for earliest promotion)

Atlas equivalent of the US chairmen of the Joint chiefs of Staff (Must be a 4* Gen)

As well as the Secretary of the Department of Education

Most likely achieved the rank and status of General 1-4 years prior to his debut in V2 (Assuming his age is somewhere between 47-50)

With these facts for both his status and rank it's quite clear that potentially Ironwood hasn’t had much time or experience being a leader or General. As I stated before in the Chosen one section chances are that Ozpin or his predecessor have been manipulating Ironwood’s career in order to gain an inside man over what can be assumed to be the most unstable Kingdom on Remnant ready to wage war. Because of this It has led Ironwood to descend further down into his ego and narcissism as he would see his fast success as his own accomplishments that he achieved on his own with his power, instead of the truth that it was all handed to him by Oz. Because of that Ironwood has thought of himself better than Oz and believes in his own hype as his power increased.

The source of his power

With his rank and status aside let's now discuss the source of his power and how it solidifies Ironwood’s overall role in the plot. The source of his power being his complete and total authority over his home Kingdom of Atlas. This is the only reason why he is even the plot in the first place. He is the de facto leader of the world’s strongest and advanced Military that is allied with the main heroes. The main heroes didn’t come to him for a plan nor did they come to him because he has some special power, they came to him just to get access to his army. That is the entirety of his role. He is supposed to be the guy that is supposed to lend his assets for the heroes, specifically the assets of Atlas entirely.

Now, Atlas is a country with very strong military and technology, isolated and far away from all the other countries. Despite the strong military, it is limited in number, resources, and assets. Since Ironwood came to power he has hoarded almost all of them and gives the world the bare minimum. Not because it is limited or because he is preparing for war but because he believes that he is the only one that can win. He wants to be the hero. Ironwood’s overall power stems from the consent of the people to his authority, and their willingness to die for him and his cause.

He needs people to make his plans happen. He needs people to make his war machines. He needs them to supply his army with troops willing to die for him. But more importantly he needs people to validate him and his choices in order to fuel his ego and his “For the Greater Good '' mantra as well as to fuel his false sense of chosenness. He’s a barely competent General who genuinely wants to protect & win for the sake of others, but he is not a noble leader of his or any people who he will use to get the mission done.

Individual Powers & Abilities

His overall combat and abilities are pretty standard to $417 honestly. In comparison to other RWBY fighters I would have to say that Ironwood isn’t in the top 10 or top 100 of the World's best warriors. Decent skills maybe, but nothing new or special that would make him stand out from a regular joe combat wise.

Semblance

To start, let's discuss the key element of RWBY’s combat system that gives it its uniqueness; Semblances. Now this is actually a key factor and component to the RWBY lore and Universe as a whole.

A Semblance is the manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual, with the effects varying greatly from user to user. With the sheer number of people unlocking their Semblances, it can lead to unrelated people gaining similar abilities. The nature of one's Semblance is noted as representing an aspect of their character.

Basically it's a physical representation of one's soul

(Note due to the vague description of his semblance I had to browse through around to get a solid idea for what his semblance is in a manner that everyone can agree and understand)

Ironwood's Semblance is revealed to be Mettle, which strengthens his resolve and allows him to carry through with his decisions, helping him hyper-focus. His semblance is possibly “passive”meaning he has no control over it. It also gives him a surge in concentration and pain tolerance so that he can accomplish whatever goal he’s fixated on.

An example of its use on-screen was when he ripped his arm out of the hard-light construct Watts trapped him in during their fight in Volume 7.

It speculative if he does have any control over his semblance or if it works in the same manner as Qrow Branwen’s semblance(Always Active)

One argument saying that it is active is from the lyrics of Hero;

“Our enemies destroy, Mettle I’ll deploy, No chance that I won’t take, My oath to you I won’t forsake”

The words in bold help hint at the possibility that he has some control over his semblance but it does remain unclear whether or not if it's truly passive or not

To help summarize as to what his semblance does; Ironwood's Semblance, Mettle, allows for temporarily increased brain processing power. This can be utilized to help James hyper-focus, blocking out everything else to help him achieve his goals.

His semblance is also a manifestation of his tenacious character trait and allows for mental health to affect his semblance like everyone else. The changes here are slight, but meaningful and could probably still be worked on to make it sound better.

Also to help better understand here is the definition of Mettle;

A person's ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way.

His semblance is probably ideal on the battlefield but not much in terms of Administrative and/or Political issues

His semblance isn’t exactly ideal or overall useful in most fights since it's possible that he can’t control it

As well as it does seem to be a self indulgent power that only benefits him in regards to his psyche and nervous system

With that in mind I think Ironwood would have to find other ways to enforce his power without a semblance in a world where it seems to be a common phenomenon.

Physical

Due to his lack of unique abilities or useful semblance Ironwood would have to focus his efforts on other forms of combat to compensate for his handicap.

One of them being his physical prowess.

Due to his status as General his individual combat efficiency has diminished to an extent due to basically being a military politician.

With that in mind it's possible that Ironwood hasn’t seen active combat on a regular basis since he was a Captain(O-3) which is the most common officer rank in any military as well as the most common rank to be seen on the field of combat in comparison to ranks above that.

In other words his combat experience has probably diminished during the later half of his career as the headmaster of Atlas Academy and later when he became The most senior leader of the Army

Given this Ironwood’s personal combat style has been reduced to the basics that he learned during his Basic Military boot camp training.

This is best seen during his fight with Arthur Watts who was possibly also a member of Atlas Military given his surprising combat abilities to be on par with Ironwoods. But this is due to the both of them relying on a mixture of their combat training from boot camp, and the experience from their respective career fields. In this case it's an administrative politician vs a scientific inventor both of whom are in career fields that are non direct combat orientated relying on their shared knowledge and training of basic military combat.

To further add to this an allegory example for the Ironwood vs Watts fight would be a Army mechanic vs Army Sniper. These are both non direct combat careers in the military and are less likely to see any form of close quarters combat that an infantryman would as one works with heavy machinery and repair while the other does stealth and ranged operations.

But if we put these two into a free roam boxing match to the death chances are these two would have to rely on their basic training as their current career paths don’t focus much on CQC or any direct combat. As such the sniper would most likely adopt a fighting style similar to an out-boxer given his light build and frame needed for the stealth part of his career while the mechanic adopts a slugger style given his greater body build needed to lift and operate heavy tools and other manual labor.

The mechanic will also have a need to be direct and end this as quickly as possible as he may be use to a finish by the time quota mentality while the sniper knows that he is physically out matched but uses the speed granted to him by his smaller build to his advantage and tries to tire out the slugger and wait for an opening while the slugger tries to end it all in one hit.

In the case of their fight Ironwood was the slugger forfeiting strategy for brawn and strong one shot finishers, while Watts was the out-boxer who knew he physically stood no chance and focused on tactics and unconventional combat via the terrain settings of Amity Colosseum to tire and weaken Ironwood enough for an opportunity to incapacitate him

Another key aspect of Ironwood’s physical prowess are his Cybernetics.

Now we don’t know when or how he got them but it's quite clear that they were made to enhance his strength evidence from the shockwave that shattered the ground when he and an alpha beowulf parried each other in V3 Chpt.10

So yeah his cybernetics probably have doubled maybe even tripled the strength of his right side.

But sadly these are probably outdated and old as again we don’t know when he got them but they seemed to have been on him for awhile which would make sense as his status would grant him cybernetics that would be advanced for their time but with the down side that he can’t replace them for newer and better models

Evidence for this is when Ironwood had a new state of the art arm made for yang when he probably could have had a new arm made for himself and equipped it onto him, but he can’t cause his cybernetics are permanent and non changeable

As such he’s stuck with prosthetics that can only enhance his strength and nothing else. With unchangeable cybernetics aside let's look at the non cyber part of him and how it may be failing him.

The downside of his human half is that it still ages and with age comes physical deterioration and later mental deterioration. After looking up some medical research human beings start to deteriorate at the median age of 50 and as such start to weaken physically, losing the abilities of their prime

If my estimation of his age is accurate his body is nearing or is already deteriorating and with the added amounts of stress and PTSD may as well caused his mind to deteriorate prematurely as well.

Also his semblance apparently allows him to tolerate pain and damage allowing him to have some form of berserker mode like wolverine(Basically an adrenaline rush)

Also remember its passive and only happens at random so yeah it's not really that useful in long drawn out fights even if it's active.

With these facts in mind Ironwood at present may now be aware of his physical limitations and as such would have to rely on a another form of combat where he would have to rely on others to do his fighting for him

Leadership

Now this is his most defining trait at present that has been explored the most in the show and the center of controversy for his character

As stated before Ironwood lacks any special powers that could give him the edge as well as that his physical body is starting to fail him due to age, greatly weakening his usefulness in a fight.

As such he is left with the only viable option that he has to enforce his will without direct contact.

His command and Authority over others, and their consent to die for him and his needs

In order for him to have this kind of power may have been a result of his leadership style.

His leadership style appears to be a mixture of 3 different types of leadership styles.

These 3 being Autocratic, Authoritative, & Pacesetting with Autocratic being the dominant of the 3

Autocratic

The phrase most illustrative of an autocratic leadership style is "Do as I say." Generally, an autocratic leader believes that he or she is the smartest person at the table and knows more than others. They make all the decisions with little input from team members.(Sound familiar)

This command-and-control approach is typical of leadership styles of the past, but it doesn't hold much water with today's talent.(Times of war maybe?/Times of peace, nope!)

That's not to say that the style may not be appropriate in certain situations. For example, you can dip into an autocratic leadership style when crucial decisions need to be made on the spot, and you have the most knowledge about the situation, or when you're dealing with inexperienced and new team members and there's no time to wait for team members to gain familiarity with their role.(He would be more suited as a mission handler instead of a strategic tactician)

Authoritative

The phrase most indicative of this style of leadership (also known as "visionary") is "Follow me." The authoritative leadership style is the mark of confident leaders who map the way and set expectations, while engaging and energizing followers along the way.( Basically him in V 2 & 3 before things went to $417)

In a climate of uncertainty, these leaders lift the fog for people. They help them see where the company is going and what's going to happen when they get there.(He may be a man of vision poor vision but had a some sense of direction just poorly showed, & executed for others)

Unlike autocratic leaders, authoritative leaders take the time to explain their thinking: They don't just issue orders. Most of all, they allow people choice and latitude on how to achieve common goals.( It’s a 40/40/20 split with this being the least)

Pacesetting

While the pacesetter style of leadership is effective in getting things done and driving for results, it's a style that can hurt team members. For one thing, even the most driven employees may become stressed working under this style of leadership in the long run.(Mantle, Vale and the Heroes are prime examples of that)

Ironwood’s Leadership is quite the mix bag of results

In some situations specifically Combat oriented ones it works and is effective to a certain degree

But for most of the time in situations like politics, commerce, and peace in general it can lead to the worst outcomes imaginable hence all of the conflicts plaguing rwby present

With this in mind it probably won’t take long to realise that Ironwood is an ineffective leader of and for the people

Remember most of the power that he holds now is through the consent of the people

Whether they be soldiers, scientists or civilians they are the only things that keeps him in power as well as make his position of power legitimate in order for him to plan and execute his plans.

Also as evidence from extended sources and media most of the progress and advancements of Atlas have been done through Ironwoods efforts ergo Ironwood has more or less become the main benefactor of the kingdom through their eyes

This however more or less makes him the de facto king of Atlas if you think about it and as most troubles that befall a king it's usually their own pride that can get the better of them especially if they surround themselves with enablers that paint them in a almost god-like light

Also with the added reveal of his semblance It does have a very heavy affect on his mind in terms of decision making but sadly it tends to happen on impulse and isn’t much suited for a political or administrative environment

Sadly he has done a poor job trying to keep the people on his side and as such has justified the revolution to bring down his ineffective & immoral leadership

Effectiveness

Depending on the situation the effectiveness of Ironwood's overall power and command is moderate to ineffective in all honesty

This mostly stems from the fact that Ironwood’s ego and overall favoritism of his kingdom tends to clash with the general idea of the common goal of peace that is shared with the heroes (Ozpin, Ruby, Oscar, etc) and the world as a whole

As such it has fueled his need to be validated to raging war, even though the results would be catastrophic in order to do so and completely unnecessary

The effectiveness of Ironwood's overall impact on the world is mostly done in self-indulgence as he believes his dreams and goals are what is best for everyone.

In a true totalitarian way unless something can further his power or goals it's good to him, while anything that threatens it is bad to him

This is first seen when he discredited Ozpin as he saw it his way of handling the situation was not ideal even though he is his ally. In doing so he became the head of the security force and further discredited Ozpin to the point that his position as headmaster was in jeopardy. Even though Oz is the leader of the group that is meant to keep the peace in secret as open conflict would result in heavy losses which is what the fall of beacon was. A preview on a small scale as to what could happen had Ironwood his way all the time and the results that it would yield.

By V7 Ironwood acknowledges his failure with the amount of power he had brought, except unlike most people he hasn’t learned anything from the ordeal and continues down a path of paranoia and warmongering. Instead he chooses to find ways that would benefit his power and goals.

Fear and rage aside Let talk about his overall planning and strategy

Most of his plans that have been shown and revealed so far have had a tendency to backfire

The first of his plans that took a turn for the worst was the P.E.N.N.Y. project during the Vytal tournament as well as his power grab at beacon which led to its fall

Okay this is speculative but I do believe Ironwood was field testing Penny for his upcoming war based on dialogue from her in V2 and used the Vytal tournament as a means to do so. Thus turning an event of peace that was meant to celebrate the end of war just to test new weapons for his upcoming war of change.

This accompanied by the army of robot soldiers that he insisted to have as security brought to question the practicality of Ironwood's methods. This is also brought into question as the people are unaware of salem' existence thus from the perspectives of the Vale citizens and the world in general, Ironwood's interference with Vale security would basically be needless foreign intervention, to them that would eventually lead to disaster. Which it did as both were used to portray him and atlas as the villainous force at the fall of beacon and has contributed to salem's plans.

The second of his plans to go off the deep end was the dust embargo and the closing of borders

Though granted with drawing from the rest of the world seemed like a good idea to ease tensions of war but overall it had lasted too long especially if you take into account that Atlas was Remnants source of Industry and main economic and technological center that the world desperately relies on to survive.

This would make it difficult to rally anyone to his side as from their perspective he and by extension his kingdom would only be seen as the ones who left them for dead and would think twice before trusting him with any plan especially one of war.

The third plan of his to go astray was his confrontation with Watts

This isn’t much of a plan but an overview of his strategy during that fight and it could have gone better honestly.

By the way that entire fight was essentially a capture mission for Watts. Which is self explanatory as to why Ironwood didn’t straight out kill watts when he can use him to his advantage so I’ll give credit for forethought of enemy interrogation but the means and execution as to obtain watts were very poor and half thought out

To start where it began to turn to s*** was how he essentially went in alone without backup. Remember he is a General during a time of peace, who at this point probably has very little combat experience to rely on for this fight. I really don't see the point of why he would fight the crazy mad scientist alone when he could have at least had winter with him or a squad of soldiers to assist .Hell even a sniper could have been beneficial. It's not like everyone, was needed to evacuate the city of mantle.

Which brings me to my second point of the fight; why did it have to be Ironwood to capture watts? From a fan perspective the answer was probably to give a character a good fight scene but in universe why did it have to be the general of the entire army to capture one cyber terrorist. Especially when there are other more qualified fights that have seen more action in a week than Ironwood has in his entire military career. That may be an over exaggeration but as I stated before Ironwoods career shifted from the battlefield to the political and administrative.

Meaning his combat experience has diminished since his 30’s? as he became more focused on running a kingdom rather than micromanaging the battlefield as he used to. So with that in mind Ironwood should have at least thought of someone more capable of capturing Watts than him. He could have sent Winter or Qrow or even the ace opts who probably are more qualified to disarm and detain watts faster and more effectively than how Ironwood’s fight went without complications.

Now we come to the fight itself where Ironwood for no reason drew out the fight longer than it should have been. For example we know that his cybernetics are possibly capable of doubling the strength of his right side. So once Ironwood had gotten within grabbing range of watts after depleting his Aura Ironwood should have at least tried to crush the bones of either of Watts arms thus disarming him and making it easier to detain. He also could have taken a page from Nora and broken his legs thus immobilizing him and limiting Watt’s options of escape.

Maybe Humans are more durable in rwby, than humans of our world but if you need to capture someone alive they don’t have to be in perfect condition. They just need their head intact to give info and the necessary vital origins needed to live. They don’t exactly need their arms or legs unless you want to risk the chance of escape from them

Here comes the standoff which is another point that's problematic given Ironwood's intentions. If Ironwood knew Watts was out of ammo why did he just taunt watts instead of making a move to subdue him. Instead of pointing out his enemy was out of ammo he could have shifted his gun a bit and put a bullet in his shoulder and making his arm useless and make the necessary preparations to capture watts alive without any further risk to himself and probably wouldn’t lead him to flay his only remaining arm to win

(Assuming he was out of ammo as well hence why he was taunting again he has cybernetics that can double his strength if need be which he could have used to break any part of watt’s limbs without further damage to himself.)

Now we come to the final issue of the fight that honestly could have been avoided or at least handled better. Ironwood didn’t necessarily have to sacrifice his remaining arm to get free. He could have tried destroying one or all of the rings that were keeping his arm trapped. I do believe he has the strength in his cybernetics needed to crush the rings no problem. If he couldn’t then he could have shimmed his arm out through the side instead of pulling it out and burning it.

Overall Ironwood had plenty of options to his plan to capture Watts but it was his narrow mindedness that led to the escalation of the fight and cost him greatly when it could have been avoided and ended quickly without much loss.

The only plan that seemed to have been ideal and would have benefited everyone was the Amity project, and restoration of global communications but it had its consequences the way he had led it.

Communication is a very crucial and essential tool needed for any society to help better coordinate and resolve the issues that happen during a crisis. Overall his plan for amity was probably the least Atlas centric that would have benefited the world but his intentions for it and means to obtain it were problematic.

His intentions for the amity project were not based on altruistic or selfless motives but were based on his desire to gain and gather resources for his war with salem. Ironwood wanted to restore global communications just to convince the people of the other kingdoms to rally to him and to fight for his cause.

The means of how he obtained it also lead to problems as he had to siffen off resources from the 2nd impoverished city in the world that needed those resources to help keep it safe just to gain a way to recruit soldiers and acquire more resources needed for his war

This is also furthered by the fact that he intended to reveal a world shattering truth that would cause a lot of negative emotions of disbelief grief and fear that will fill the remainder of the world. Meaning Ironwood knowingly and was willing to cause global panic and take advantage of the chaos that would follow just to further his needs for war.

That may be speculation but based on the latter half of the plan from A New Approach it pretty much highlights the Values and lengths of Ironwoods Motives and intentions for war and what he may be willing to do to get his way;

Ironwood: Yes, panic is inevitable, and panic brings Grimm. But I believe we are ready. Once Atlas has come to grips with the fight ahead, I'll use Amity Tower to spread the message to all of Remnant.

Weiss: But everything will fall apart. Grimm will be everywhere!

Winter: You're right, but Atlas is willing and prepared to assist.

Ironwood: Trying to hide the truth from the world will eventually kill us all.

So the highlight of his plan will eventually cause more problems and the eventual fall of the other kingdoms especially given their current states

Vale; Beacon infested with Grimm and the Main city on the brink being overrun by them

Mistral has Almost no Huntmen left to help with the kingdoms defense and already struggles with the criminal underworld that plagues the kingdom

Vacuo has no official structure or system of government besides Shade academy which is currently struggles to maintain order with the flooding of students going to it in order to train very much needed huntsman

This in all honesty will just wipe the slate clean and undo almost a century's worth of progress that will only leave what remains, fair game that can be claimed by anyone or to be specific to be claimed by Ironwood and Atlas.

Now I know that's a theory and it would paint Ironwood as a villain but it's not far from the likely truth and motives considering that Everything Ironwood has done has and always been in the best interest of Atlas and since he and the kingdom are synonymous at this point, his best interest as well.

Which brings us to his final and current plan

Abandoning Mantle and Raising Atlas

Okay we all know that this is probably one of the most talked about things that has divided the fandom the most in recent times sparking the debate of the morality and choices of RWBY’s characters. The most of those debates revolved around Ironwood’s current last ditch plan of survival. As it has been debated and analyzed over the last few months everyone has already discussed the pros and cons of the of this plan but I’ll summarize and give my thoughts of this plan as well as point out how it reveals Ironwoods hypocrisy and personal agendas

Pros;

Had everyone gone with ironwood on this plan and left Mantle to die this would at least give the heroes and the military some time to prepare for the next engagement should it come

while at the same time keeping at least 2 of the four relics away from the villains.

And the Winter Maiden as well

Cons;

This however would only be a short term retreat as eventually the city will need resources to sustain themselves as well as to gather even more resources to meet Ironwoods war demands.

But when it comes to getting those supplies the other kingdoms would have heard at this point how atlas abandon its own citizens and thus deny them the supplies needed.

This would also play into salem's hands as its not unlikely that she would spread the news of Mantles demise to turn the other kingdoms against Atlas

With this in mind and Ironwoods decent into extremism and desperation this would lead to atlas having to forcibly extort the other kingdoms for resources further playing into salem's hands and starting Remnants 2nd great war and all salem has to do from here on out is watch the world burn and wait for an opportunity.

If that outcome seems unlikely then lets cover another possible outcome of this plan succeeding but with this question; What happens to Remnant in the absence of Atlas?

Assuming that Atlas is self-sustainable as Ironwood said this would eliminate the need to make contact with the surface and need of supply runs.

However this also highlights the possibility that once Atlas is far and high enough Ironwood most likely won't return to help aid the rest of the world

As invoked by Oscar, raising Atlas will mean Salem will have free reign to slaughter the millions of people left on Remnant.

The truth;

Oscar says this not only to convince Ironwood not to abandon Mantle but not to abandon the world as well. When he said this Oscar is trying to convince Ironwood that it's not a lost cause and run away as that would only lead to further lost and the world ever closer to Salem’s rule should Ironwood run now(Like Raven did)

This is also given more credibility as when Ironwood abandoned his original plan for amity which was intended to reunite the kingdoms

Taking this into account and his plan there doesn’t appear to be any hint or motivation to return to or go to the other kingdoms for help or anything once Ironwood runs away.

This is an unintended byproduct of Ironwoods Paranoia and distrust for others as well as the unveiling of his hypocrisy and self survival.

This is hinted at in the V7 finale as Oscar tries to talk Ironwood down in the Relic Vault, where the latter blames everyone, from Robyn, to the council, to the Kingdom and even to Oscar, for not seeing the bigger picture and getting in the way of doing what he thinks is right, and not once does Ironwood stop to consider that he himself may have had a role in things escalating as badly as they did.

As I stated before Ironwood is probably the main catalyst for everything that has gone wrong in the current events of rwby as he was the one who ended up giving the villains more opportunities and ammo needed to get their way.

Results;

The volume also focuses on the heroes, Robyn and Ironwood all having different ideas about how to protect Atlas and Mantle.

When they finally come together to help evacuate Mantle, the truce quickly falls apart once Ironwood realizes Cinder is in town, Salem is on her way and Team RWBY leaked intel to Robyn. He orders the arrest of the heroes, the forcible extraction of the Winter Maiden powers, and the abandonment of Mantle to save Atlas.

As a consequence of his extremism and paranoia corrupting his judgement, he loses the Relic of Knowledge, the Winter Maiden, almost all of his allies, and stands alone when Salem arrives on his doorstep.

By the end of the volume everything that Ironwood has done has been for nothing. Every decision Ironwood has made in the last few chapters winds up being for naught. Ordering the heroes to be arrested gets his best agent Clover killed and allows Tyrian to escape custody. Neo takes advantage of his arrest order for the heroes to confront Oscar and get away with the Lamp of Knowledge. Sending Winter to claim the Maiden power led Cinder right to where Fria was being held and ultimately causes the power to go to Penny, who sides with the heroes due to Ironwood's extremist methods.

Also Salem was far closer than the general realized, so even if things had worked in his favor it still would have failed.

In earnest most of Ironwoods recent and current plans and ideas have had negative results. His individual powers and abilities aren’t as impressive or out of the ordinary as others in the series. As well as not as useful as they could have been. His semblance is pretty lackluster if I'm being honest. His status has only fueled his ego and arrogance and has left him blind to his purpose as a guardian for all of remnant, not just one aspect of it.

But what exactly was going on in Ironwoods head to make him like this? To answer that we need to know the practices and beliefs of his homeland as the Kingdom of Atlas has had more influence on Ironwood than anyone or anything else in his life.

The Altasien Philosophical ideals

Now we don’t really know any of the political, religious, or philosophical ideas of Remnant, or Atlas especially but we can make a guess and see how it might have affected Ironwood. As best as I could see Atlas seems to have a philosophy equivalent to Nietzscheism. Below are the facts, concepts and ideals of Nietzsche's Philosophy.

Nietzsche’s Big Ideas

Favored perspectivism, which held that truth is not objective but is the consequence of various factors effecting individual perspective;

Articulated ethical dilemma as a tension between the master vs. slave morality; the former in which we make decisions based on the assessment of consequences, and the latter in which we make decisions based on our conception of good vs. evil

Belief in the individual’s creative capacity to resist social norms and cultural convention in order to live according to a greater set of virtues.

The Will to Power

the drive of the superman(ubermensch) in the philosophy of Nietzsche to perfect and transcend the self through the possession and exercise of creative power.

a conscious or unconscious desire to exercise authority over others.

Master Morality

Nietzsche defined master morality as the morality of the strong-willed. Nietzsche criticizes the view (which he identifies with contemporary British ideology) that good is everything that is helpful, and bad is everything that is harmful.

Slave Morality

Slave morality is the inverse of master morality. As such, it is characterized by pessimism and cynicism. Slave morality is created in opposition to what master morality values as "good". Slave morality does not aim at exerting one's will by strength, but by careful subversion.

The übermensch

the ideal superior man of the future who could rise above conventional Christian morality to create and impose his own values, originally described by Nietzsche in Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883–85).

After reading this you can probably agree that this is the default guiding philosophical mindset of the Atlasian people and Ironwood especially but in the extreme and toxic. Which suits Atlas given what we know of it. The Kingdom is filled with people who believe they are this superior race and that everyone else is below them. As well as the fact that they are willing to throw away morals to get their way and are willing to crush those that stand in their way. As for Ironwood he is sadly a part of this toxic mindset whether he likes it or not as it's the greatest flaw of his character that he is just simply an extension to enforce Atlas and their immoral ways.

Atlas as a whole, not just the military, perpetrates the whole no emotions thing. Colors, feelings, individuality are bad. Look at how Atlas is presented. It’s detached from the rest of the world, and is devoid of warm colors. It’s all the same color, that cold grayish blue. So while yes, the Atlesian military definitely does it’s best to crush all those things too, it’s not a foreign concept to Atlesians. I’m fairly certain that if you were born on Atlas, not Mantle, that you would already be conditioned to start thinking this way even before you decided to go to Atlas Academy.

The Atlesian Military is a huge part of the problem as well, but if Atlas is already crushing individuality and feelings, it makes sense that the military would just continue to do so. Considering the fact that the military is not separate from their government, it shows how Atlas just continues the cycle of crushing and indoctrinating their citizens.

Atlas is this poisonous mindset of destroying emotions and individuality. Which is why those who leave it become better people and change for the better. Weiss leaves Atlas and becomes a better person. She loses the Ice Queen persona and has fun. She makes friends because she likes them, not because their skills would be most effective in a battle.(V1 ep.4 with Pyrah) She embraces her quirks and they become her strengths. Penny learns about friendship and the joys of life outside of the mission. Robyn knows that there is more to life than to keep advancing ahead. She knows that there is good in protecting the past and that we cannot forget the old. Advancement and efficiency will only take you so far. If we leave the human part of ourselves behind, what we become is much worse than being less efficient.

It’s so heavily ingrained in Ironwood, to the point that when we first see him he is already this inhuman machine that will carry on the will of his home kingdom regardless of the truth that the world knows, and that truth is that it is evil and inhuman.

The Strain and Revelation of power and responsibility

“But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is necessary. ... But as a man obtains more power, camouflage becomes less necessary.”

If you are unsure of what that quote meant, basically this section will explain the truth of Ironwood's character through the revelation of what his power has turned him into.

Though granted there is nothing wrong with power. However it becomes a problem when one gains too much that they can no longer control it. In Ironwood's case he had amassed too much that had burdened him with too much responsibility that he wasn’t prepared for.

As people began to rely on him which is actually part of his job as a General/councilman/Headmaster of a toxic government, the stress and burden had increased.

One could argue that his job as a general, who is under a lot of pressure, especially after the fall of beacon and people not understanding the true dangers of the real enemy. Ironwood lacks the skills needed to do his job as a protector and guardian. Which has led to him being this toxic and immoral person that keeps making mistakes, and the situation worse.

The strain of his power is having him make choices that has slowly made him break away from his human soul. But if Ironwood’s power has turned him into an immoral person who’s choices escalate the situation for the worst, why has he not been removed from this role of power and given the proper time needed to adjust and contemplate the understanding of his power and responsibilities of his assigned role?

Why toxic senior leaders survive — and sometimes thrive — in the military

From what I’ve found that has been able to determine, it comes down to three major factors: individual competence of the toxic officer; lack of personal accountability up and down the chain of command; and senior leader fear of loss of confidence.

The first major factor that results in the retention, and sometimes promotion, of toxic senior officers is intellect and work ethic. Most of the senior leaders in the military are highly intelligent with tremendous drive and ambition. While some senior officers have proven themselves unfit to lead others, there is a desire by some senior leaders to retain that intellect, drive, knowledge and experience to the benefit of the service.

Atlas and Remnant in general needs to fix the way it selects and grooms officers and people for leadership roles

Atlas is not designed to produce good leaders

Being in a leadership position does not make you a leader. Unfortunately, the Atlas Military officer system sees it differently. They talk a good game, but the system is seriously lacking.

The second factor contributing to the retention of toxic senior leaders is a lack of accountability and transparency by those who have sponsored the toxic leaders.

Leaders we can believe in

There has to be a demand to finding smart officers, but Atlas must do more to find good leaders and sideline the bad ones

Rationally speaking, this makes sense — if the offending people can still provide good service to the nation, why not retain them? After all, the service failed to properly prepare those individuals to lead and made the additional mistake of placing people unsuited to leadership in those positions. Before we judge toxic leaders in the military too harshly, we should remember that the institution failed them as much as they failed the institution. Unfortunately, the lack of explanation from their most senior leaders leaves the rank and file with the perception that there is a complete lack of accountability at higher ranks. They are not entirely wrong.

Atlas must do a better job of screening, educating and evaluating its officers, especially for grades O-6 and above(Col to General)

The truth of the role he didn’t understand

That being said. I do believe James has the best intentions. But as he accumulated more power, the tendencies to be in control - or be in control of every facet of a situation - as much as any commander of armed forces wishes to be, has clouded his judgement.

As a military leader, his word is law. That is how his men are trained. But as a politician ruling over the common citizenry, the common citizen is not indoctrinated into that lifestyle, thus presents random uncontrollable elements in his plans.

Ironwoods lacks the experience to deal with that entirely. He is surrounded by other like minded individuals who follow his orders unquestioningly. What he really needed and could have used the most of his career was a consultant. As to help better understand how his choices will affect those around them and how they will have to live with his decisions

A descanting (preferably civilian) opinion to counter his directives and provide the means for a more balanced perspective. The problem is Ironwood doesn't have the social skill or experience to handle dissenting opinions. Which is why he and Qrow clashed so damn hard in V3.

And why he was so shocked when the rest of the Ozluminati placed the blame squarely at his feet for the unrest in Vale during the second and third volume. He was astonished to realize that his views weren't universal in the group. He didn't comprehend the civilian mindset, let alone the foreign civilian mindset in a country that isn't militarized like Atlas is.

He was just simply not suited or ready to be in a position of power that deals with the responsibility of Safeguarding peoples’ lives and maintaining world peace. His ambitions and sense of entitlement have led him astray from his assigned purpose. Because of this he has become a man of War instead of Peace like the other heroes and Oz are for.

His Power had stripped him of his soul and made him more Machine than human that even if Salem drops dead tomorrow what's next for him?

(Note; The words in bold at the bottom are links to the next section)

I am Machine I never sleep I keep my eyes wide Open

#rwby #rwby ironwood #james ironwood #general ironwood #rwby7 #rwby analysis #rwby 8 #rwby 8 spoilers #rwby theory #rwby atlas #rwby mantle #world of remnant #Ironwood analysis

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mitigatedchaos · 4 years ago

Note

“the mechanical components for a racial superweapon” oh yeah a global resurgence of right-wing racialized nationalism would never lead to mass-murder, that would just be silly. In any sensible risk assessment, the people *most* in danger of being genocided are the ones going from being a majority to being a slightly smaller majority, not racial minorities that are systematically disenfranchised by an antidemocratic constitution and actively targeted as dangerous by established leaders.

(~900 words)

Summary: CRT/SJ’s focus on racial conflict theory promotes right-wing racial conflict theory based on increased expectations of racial conflict, upping the risk for all players.

Epistemic Status: Political Theory

★ ★ ★

The “racial superweapon” refers, in part, to a kind of ideological construct which prohibits all arguments against it and which cannot correct in the case of reality turning up contradictory information. For instance, imagine perceived differences in group outcomes are 50% oppression, 30% culture, and 20% biology. CRT/SJ views it as immoral to allow these perceived outcome differences to exist, which means that, having banned 50% of the explanation as racist, after they eliminate the oppression, their only option is to keep applying more interventions that can only possibly work by accident, allowing them to become indefinitely oppressive.

The upper limit of this is mass murder or similar atrocities, but I’ve suggested things like “mass formal discrimination similar to that presently used against asians in university admissions” - in general it’s not a binary, but a set of inter-related probable events. If we sum up all the negative events times their probability, it’s obviously not desirable.

The source of these demands is present perceived differences in group outcomes - the historical basis merely lends credibility. However, we currently lack a means to effectively convert money into group outcome convergence, which means that no amount of spending will terminate the claim, and even if we did, by excluding choice as a possible source of differences in group outcomes, members of a group can free ride, lowering their group’s output such that other groups are ordered to transfer resources to their group.

Where the upper limit comes in is not that it is the most likely outcome. It’s more likely that the ideological construct will use it as negotiating leverage to dramatically raise the ceiling of its demands. “Technically you’re all on stolen land, and everything you own was produced from stolen resources, and your ancestors were genocidal maniacs who were ahead by XX million deaths. We are graciously allowing you to...” fill in the limit of what they can get away with.

Now, and this is very important,

Minority groups being at risk is not even remotely independent from the growing power of a movement that intends to enact formal discrimination against a shrinking majority and whose ceiling of demands is the entire continent, all of the assets on it, and a number of lives in the millions for good measure.

Under a liberal individual frame the maximum amount of someone’s moral liability is limited to what they personally did or ordered others to do, so they don’t need to team up with people of the same race because race is reduced as an axis of vulnerability. Racial organizing involves time and money, so within the liberal individual frame it’s possible to suppress the majority’s incentive to racially organize so thoroughly that they don’t do so. (i.e. There is no white NAACP.)

As frameworks of collective racial moral liability spread and gain power, the individual cannot escape punishment for actions of people of the same race. In order to prevent people from racially free-riding, the incentive is to create a racial command and control structure that can identify and punish same-race members deemed not in compliance.

However, it is theoretically possible to come into compliance on one-generation collective racial moral liability; most individuals do not rack up enough moral debt to exceed one lifetime. Every person in a race will be penalized some percent of their income, but it should be less than their entire income.

But because the approach is actually collective intergenerational ethnic justice (CIEJ) due the leveraging of historical claims, it becomes possible to outright destroy an ethnic group by applying 17 generations of moral debt to one generation. This is extremely dangerous. It isn’t possible for people to escape punishment for the actions of the dead, who they don’t control. By taking the last N generations, any race can be rendered morally bankrupt (though some more bankrupt than others).

Since any race could be destroyed by collecting this debt, the way to survive and be (relatively) free is to wreck anyone else’s ability to collect the debt by whatever means necessary.

In the West we socially punish ethno/racial nationalists as a suppression tactic to prevent inter-group violence. As the probability that a CIEJ movement will gain power and implement its plans rises, the balance of the likelihood of escaping punishment shifts to, for the ethnic majority, favor the ethnonationalists. The exclusion of other groups from the political system prevents collecting the CIEJ debt.

A majority on its way to becoming a minority is likely to develop racial consciousness at a point where it still has far more power than other ethnic groups within the country. The handling is therefore key.

The most dangerous path for minority groups is if imposition of a CIEJ regime is attempted while the majority still has power and this fails. This would reduce majority’s estimated likelihood of the possibility of coexistence right at a time where it still has enough power to ruthlessly crush its opposition, but it expects to lose that power if it doesn’t act immediately, making the threat all the more real.

Risk of harm to minority groups is thus tied to radicalization of the majority from risk of harm to that majority.

(Other countries don’t necessarily have the same degree of suppression of ethnic/racial identity, so the situation there may be different.)

This is part of why I and others are of the opinion that “the Left has gone crazy.”

#politics #asks #anons #racepol #longpost #verbose

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago

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The ECB should forgive the debt it owes itself

For people and businesses, money is scarce; for currency-issuing governments, it's not. The story that governments "spend our taxes" is obviously wrong: since governments are the *source* of money, it can't be right that governments have to get money from us before they spend.

Governments spend first, spending money into existence. Then they tax, which annihilates some of that money. If governments run "balanced budgets" (where they tax as much as they spend), they leave no money left over for us to use.

And if they run a surplus (taxing more than they spend), then they reduce the supply of money that's available for the private sector to spend. The government's deficit is the public's credit, and vice-versa.

Government spending is constrained...but not by money. It's constrained by *resources*. If the government creates money to buy more things than are for sale - or things that the private sector's also trying to buy - prices go up (AKA inflation).

There's a lot of important stuff for sale in any given government's currency that no one else is trying to buy, though: for example, the labor of unemployed people. Governments can safely create money to buy that labor at a socially inclusive wage with good benefits.

Sometimes, governments need to buy things the private sector also wants. During WWII, states needed raw material, processing facilities, and labor for the war.

To prevent inflation, they did two things: first, they rationed, limiting what the private sector could buy.

Second, they created "war bonds," which were basically sinkholes for money. By urging workers to sequester the money they earned in war production, governments were able to take the money out of circulation during the period when there was nothing to buy with it.

Governments that recognize this undeniable truth - money is spent into existence, taxed out of existence - are able to weather crises, for example, by spending whatever it takes to get through a pandemic, or to recover from a crash.

Governments that allow themselves to be constrained by the fiction of "spending tax money" are hobbled during crises - locked into austerity at the moment when the economy contracts, drawing down the pool of spendable money when spending is desperately needed.

And even if a government is free from the ideological straitjacket of scarce money, it can still be hampered by external factors. For example, if a government owes debts in a currency it doesn't issue, then it can't spend its way out of debt.

Venezuela and Zimbabwe could create VEBs and ZWDs all day and it wouldn't give them the dollars they needed to service their debts - and since they'd oriented their economies towards import rather than self-reliance, there wasn't much they could buy in VEBs and ZWDs either.

It's not just debt: governments can cede their monetary sovereignty by pegging their currency to some other currency (like the USD), or by allowing a third party to issue their currency (like the eurozone nations).

The eurozone is a remarkable phenomenon: a union of 10 affluent countries that have abandoned control of their money and thus their ability to fund things like a job guarantee, putting themselves at the mercy of the European Central Bank during economic crises.

During the 2008 crisis, the ECB put the screws to the eurozone, punishing austerity and a wildly uneven recovery with riches for the financial sector (who were able to charge interest on loans that replaced state spending) and destruction for the real economy and the 99%.

It's grimly ironic. The ECB - which is largely controlled by German politicians - is repeating the mistakes of the German central bank in the runup to WWII. You've probably heard the stories of Weimar hyperinflation, but that's not what triggered the German depression.

Rather, it was Brüning's 1930 policy of *deflation* - removing money from the economy through austerity - that triggered and then worsened the economic crisis in Germany, creating the conditions for societal collapse, fascism, and imperialist aggression.

Well, there's another economic crisis in the offing - the pandemic - and yet another, far worse one on the horizon - the climate emergency. And even with the constraints the ECB and eurozone nations have imposed on themselves, there is still room to get it right this time.

An all-star coalition of European academics and economists from every eurozone nation have signed onto a letter to the ECB, calling on it to forgive the debt the eurozone nations owe to it.

http://www.defenddemocracy.press/cancel-the-public-debt-held-by-the-ecb-and-take-back-control-of-our-destiny/

Like many central banks, the ECB chooses to issue debt whenever it creates new money (it doesn't have to do this, but it does). Much of that debt is bought up by investors seeking safe returns (for the same reason US pension plans buy T-bills and UK ones buy gilts).

But about 25% of that debt is held by the ECB itself - it's an accounting entry, in other words, not an actual debt. The ECB created 2.5 trillion euros, then decided that it owed 2.5 trillion euros to itself, for accounting purposes.

The ECB could simply wipe those debts off its books - or, if it wants to preserve the accounting convention, it could convert it into a perpetual debt at 0% interest.

Doing so would create the fiscal space for the entire EU-wide covid stimulus, with money left over to start on a Green European Deal.

The German interwar experience tells us what happens when we pursue austerity rather than writing off debt.

But it also tells us what happens when we get it right: in 1953, the London Conference wiped out two-thirds of Germany's public debt, paving the way for Germany reconstruction and rise.

Now, German politicians have the power to repeat the mistakes of 1930, or the good policies of 1953. And this time, the stakes aren't merely a world war - they're the world itself.

#pluralistic

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jonrak · 3 years ago

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The Greatest Threat to Mankind: A Letter to 8 Billion People

These unprecedented times have left us with unprecedented dangers. We face the potential annihilation of our way of life and possibly, the extinction of humanity. The warming of the Indian Ocean has imperiled our brothers and sisters in East Africa, Bangladesh, and India, who are facing deadly flooding as well as locusts that have grown to such numbers that would eclipse major cities, decimating their farmland and subsequently threatening their food supplies.[1]

Drought and extreme heat are fueling a record breaking number of wildfires while lack of substantial rain is threatening the water supply for millions of Americans on the west coast. As we speak, more than 25% of the U.S. is reeling from the most severe case of drought.[2] The heat trapping of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitric oxide can no longer be ignored, much less denied. Carbon dioxide emissions from our dependence on fossil fuels are increasing 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last ice age. Due to the rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, the acidity of our oceans has increased by more than 30%. Satellites have detected that the Arctic Sea ice, as well as the once-gleaming glaciers from the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, Rockies, Alaska, and Kilimanjaro are disappearing. According to NASA, in the year 1900, the planet’s temperature was -.08° C. Now the planet’s temperature is over 1° C.[3]

I would be remiss if I were to say that the picture is anything but dire. At this rate, the global temperature is expected to surpass 1.5°C around 2040 and 2°C by 2050. A 2°C warming would undoubtedly lead to a billion people displaced and the scale of destruction is currently unquantifiable but there is a high likelihood that human civilization, as we know it, would end.[4] We face the potentially grim reality of inadequate food production compounded by skyrocketing prices. We could witness the desertification of entire regions, frequent flooding for some nations and wildfires for others; chronic water shortages and mass migrations of displaced peoples, which would overwhelm already stressed infrastructures. Armed conflict over waning resources would be inevitable and even the nuclear armed nations would not be immune. Government instability and chaotic fallout is not hard to imagine. We risk the loss of thousands of years of historical advancements and achievements of mankind, as well as the loss of our future and our children’s future.

Our best-case scenario is in fact, not very good news at all. Even if we were to stop immediately the emissions that are heating up our planet, we are already on course- like the Titanic- to hit that proverbial iceberg of 1.5° Celsius. According to the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the best we can hope for is that we brace ourselves accordingly and hope it stops there. The panel predicts the devastating news that coral reefs, for example, are projected to decline by a further 70–90% at 1.5°C but there would be significantly larger losses (>99%) at 2°C. The panel also reports that of 105,000 species studied, 9.6% of insects, 8% of plants and 4% of vertebrates are projected to lose over half of their climatically determined geographic range from global warming of 1.5°C. This is compared to a staggering loss of 18% of insects, 16% of plants and 8% of vertebrates’ geographic range from global warming of 2°C. Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5°C and increase further with 2°C.[5] Either way, this Titanic is going to crash, and it’s up to us to determine our speed when it happens. The Paris Agreement’s strategies are deemed not aggressive enough on carbon dioxide emissions to prevent the global temperature rising above 1.5°C.[6] In other words, the captain of our proverbial ship, still has the speed at full throttle instead of reverse.

To survive this less-than-ideal situation (the understatement of the century) would demand “a global mobilization of resources on an emerging basis, akin to a wartime level response.”[7] We must immediately reduce emissions and stabilize the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, not as an ethnic group, not as a creed or religion, or as a country, but as human beings who are staring into the face of total extinction and refusing to go gentle into that good night. There is real hope, but it is not found in denial or in the heated discourse over semantics (e.g., climate change vs. global warming) to name our shared enemy which has already breached the gates. It is knowing that we have the ability to lower the temperature even after it reaches that dreaded 1.5° C. If we institutionalize potentially disruptive but sustainable pathways to eliminate these gases, we can possibly return to lower temperatures and regain control before we sink.

In the following section I will discuss key actions that need to be considered seriously and implemented.

It will not be sufficient to solely reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero; CO2 will also need to be actively captured from the atmosphere. Leveraging photosynthesis may hold the solution. As algae grows, it removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by converting it to oxygen via photosynthesis. On average, one kilogram of algae utilizes 1.87 kilograms of CO2 daily, which means that one acre of algae utilizes approximately 2.7 tons of CO2 per day. For comparison, one acre of a 25-year-old maple beech-birch forest only utilizes 2.18 kilograms of CO2 per day.[8] We must invest in strategies that increase the rate of photosynthesis globally, including expanding the surface area of communities with fauna and algae. The cheapest way to remove excess CO2 is tree-planting. Two-thirds of human emissions can be potentially removed by planting one trillion trees in the world’s 1.7 billion hectares of non-used land with a cost of 30 U.S. cents per tree.[9] From reading the aforementioned, it should be clear that the cessation of deforestation is nonnegotiable or otherwise, we might as well all capitulate to an abysmal and likely torturous fate that is fast approaching.

Another viable option is the theoretical geoengineering technique called “enhanced weathering.” This involves the capture of CO2 indefinitely from the environment by the crushing and spreading of certain rock material (e.g., silicate) across large areas which then absorb the CO2 and convert it into bicarbonate, a benign molecule. This alkaline product can then reverse ocean acidification as well as improve crop growth.[10]

Methane is the second most prevalent greenhouse gas yet is significantly more powerful at capturing heat than carbon dioxide. Cutting methane emissions by almost half within the next decade would prevent a 0.3°C rise in the average global temperature by the 2040’s.[11] Comparatively, this would be considered the “low hanging fruit” in terms of low-cost implementations when juxtaposed to carbon dioxide reduction. Reduction strategies include improving the detection and repair of methane leaks at gas and oil facilities and flooding abandoned coal mines that leak gas. It includes the prevention of burning of fields after harvest and adjusting feed for livestock.[12] Also, focused attention and financial incentives should be allocated to the development of technology that converts methane gas from waste into energy.

While we make concerted efforts to slow down global warming, we must simultaneously plan for the inevitable consequences from the damage that has already been done. Increased attention and stewardship for the conservation of the species (e.g., bees) that we desperately depend on must be in order. Governments need to create and implement plans for the storage of potable water and foods, especially for those populations geographically at greatest risk. Another crucial action is the increased vigilance to prevent and combat wildfires in those regions commonly affected such as the western coast of the United States and Australia. This by far is not a comprehensive list of necessary steps but it is a reasonable start.

We, humanity, as well as the panoply of fauna and wildlife, face a fast-approaching existential threat. This is not a drill.

[1] VOX. (2020). Why locusts are descending on East Africa [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo61TiAGwhk.

[2] John Keefe and Rachel Ramirez, C. (2021). The West’s historic drought in 3 maps. Retrieved 21 June 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/17/weather/west-california-drought-maps/index.html

[3] Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?. (2021). Retrieved 21 June 2021, from https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

[4] Dunlop, I., & Spratt, D. J. (2019, May). A scenario approach THE AUTHORS. Existential climate-related security risk. https://www.academia.edu/40017142/Existential_climate-related_security_risk_A_scenario_approach_THE_AUTHORS.

[5] IPCC, 2019: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.-O. Pörtner, D. C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S. Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)]. In press.

[6] Ibid, 5.

[7] Dunlop, I., & Spratt, D. J. (2019, May). A scenario approach THE AUTHORS. Existential climate-related security risk. https://www.academia.edu/40017142/Existential_climate-related_security_risk_A_scenario_approach_THE_AUTHORS.

[8] Polon, R. (2020, July 10). Not All Heroes Wear Capes: How Algae Could Help Us Fight Climate Change. The Aggie Transcript. https://aggietranscript.ucdavis.edu/not-all-heroes-wear-capes-how-algae-could-help-us-fight-climate-change/.

[9] Holloway, B. (n.d.). Top 5 ways scientists are trying to reverse climate change. Top 5 ways scientists are trying to reverse climate change | UPM Pulp. https://www.upmpulp.com/media/blogs-and-stories/stories/top-5-ways-scientists-are-trying-to-reverse-climate-change/.

[10] Beerling, D.J., Kantzas, E.P., Lomas, M.R. et al. Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands. Nature 583, 242–248 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2448-9

[11] Maizland, lindsay. (2021, May 21). How Cutting Methane Emissions Can Move the Needle on Climate Change. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-cutting-methane-emissions-can-move-needle-climate-change?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxJqHBhC4ARIsAChq4asQ4lTvhMrvK_2RCnPENhMXbFZvOkXoyaaocAgnQd65blBgo94oj7IaAqZDEALw_wcB.

[12] Ibid, 11.

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warsofasoiaf · 4 years ago

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Communist anon here - Yes to all of them?

@eyeofnewtblog said: I personally would be very interested in hearing an educated opinion on theories and practice

This is going to be a long answer so under a cut it goes. The short answer is no, I do not like either Marxism or communism, to the point where I consider myself anti-communist. The long answer goes under the cut.

First, it’s important to remember where I am coming from, what I am, and what I am not. I’m neither educated in philosophy nor history. I study both, and I have had classes in both, but that doesn’t mean that I’m an expert in either, and my experiences with Marxism have largely been academic, instructors attempting to tell me what Marxism is (fun fact: I once made a lot of these theoretical arguments to a Marxist professor on an exam - I was given an F). So if you’re looking for an educated opinion, depending on what that means, I don’t have one, after all, I got an F on it. Similarly, while I do study some philosophy, it is by no means something I’ve been trained it or seriously articulated; my observations primarily come from observing human nature and studying history and political movements. In that sense, I’m far closer to Eric Hoffer than I am to Hannah Arendt (though both as philosophical scholars far exceed me in every sense that to be compared to them would not be an honor to me but an insult to them). I’m a believer in liberalism and democracy, and a radical individualist, which to me means that people have an inherent dignity, and should be free to determine who they are, what they want to do, and what they value. It’s not a fully-fleshed out philosophy with rules, I’ve already said I’m no philosopher. I just do the best I can and handle situations as they come up.

Those values put me at odds with Marxism from the get-go. Marxism articulates the necessity of a dictatorship, the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” where the government following the revolution seizes the means of production, nationalizing all industries and property, and transition to a communist society, preserving the power of the state to suppress any reactionary or counter-revolutionary activity. I’ve heard this line before; this sounds remarkably similar to authoritarian measures enacted in tinpot dictatorial states meant to preserve order and enforce the power of the government to suppress dissent. The “transitional state” sounds a lot like perpetual “state of emergency” laws enacted to keep the populations in line, a theoretical end-state where such measures are no longer necessary is always on the horizon, but just like the horizon, is never reachable. Call me crazy, but I don’t see how putting people under control of a dictatorship with such unlimited powers is liberating them, save in a metaphorical, dogmatic sense that rationalizes their subjugation as necessary. There’s a broad appeal there, violent mass movements definitely find a lot of support from individuals who see it as a means to finally lord power over those they hate; individuals who want those they despise cowering before them, begging them not to bring the axe down. Such motivations have been an incentive for aspiring foot soldiers to put on their jackboots, so that they eagerly stomp the faces in of the people they despise, and to rationalize it away.

Marxism depends on a lot of things that are untrue, like his assertion that the rate of profit tending to fall, or the labor theory of value which has few serious practitioners and has been widely debunked to the point where Shimshon Bichler was able to criticize the lack of statistical correlation and the degree by which abstract labor must be assumed to see the labor theory of value as purely circular reasoning, hardly compelling for a central tenet of the philosophy to depend on a set of assumptions that rely on others being produced. While I’m no philosopher and reality is impossible to condense into any one singular lens, the degree by which Marxism is riddled with intellectual and logical inconsistencies make it difficult for me as a thinker to take it as seriously as others do. Other matters, while not necessarily untrue, become difficult to function when brought from theory to reality. Take the standard line: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” How are ability and need for each person assessed? What happens if someone is incapable of producing something to the level of ability that is assessed? What happens if someone needs more than is assessed? What happens if need outpaces supply? What happens if ability cannot meet need? What happens if there’s a disaster and there is a temporary shortage? These extend outwards to questions of land use, industrial capacity, training, etc., these centralized economically planned models failed in the 20th century, and again, this turns me off to the model. This is not simply a matter of corrupt Communist Party officials degrading the functioning of the government for personal enrichment, this is a serious information problem that even the most powerful computers of today cannot model and manage, and the idea of a communist state becomes much diminished in appeal to me.

Other stuff in Marxism goes further into what I consider downright repugnant. The idea of “false consciousness” is particularly disgusting to me, where if someone is not motivated by that which the Marxist believes that they should be motivated, these conceptions are deluded and must be corrected. That is such a statement of such monumental arrogance I’m surprised it doesn’t have its own gravity well. It is to say to one person that whatever meaning they have discovered through their own experiences is less valid; it is to say that the Marxist may state that whatever said person values is not in their own benefit. The logical conclusion from this is that non-Marxists cannot be allowed their own judgment, that they must be shaped until they embody the Marxist conception of reality and only then are they truly full people, capable of making judgments of this fashion and assessing what is to their benefit and what is not. For a movement that espouses equality and liberation, sure as hell doesn’t seem very equal to me; only our practitioners are capable, rational beings? No.

Now, most Marxists I know don’t really believe this, but I think this is more of their own conception. Like most practitioners of religions or other philosophies, they pick and choose what tenets to follow.

Communism is practice has been a disaster. Lenin really ran with the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat with his vanguard model, making the centralizing dictatorship a core part of his leadership and in charge of everything, to the point where failure to provide the dictatorship with what they demanded was considered treason and grounds for termination, and later communist regimes really ran with this idea, as I’ve mentioned before, Marxism appeals to revolutionary dictatorships because it justifies the dictatorship beyond a naked power grab to better secure it. Similarly, Lenin rationalized ignoring his citizens by simply ignoring elections when he lost; the Leninist model was openly a sham democracy. In the Soviet Union, even Khrushchev, who gave the Secret Speech denouncing Stalin, still sent the tanks into Hungary and forcibly medicated any who disagreed with the principles of communism as mentally ill (my previous paragraph is not jumping to conclusions, this was a documented fact). Mao created the “mass line,” a means to consult the population while mandating interpreting their wishes through the ideology, thus dismissing anything that the dictator doesn’t want, a clever fig leaf. Of course, Mao’s already deeply unworthy with its massive loss of life - the Great Chinese Famine was the largest famine in history and enacted by the ideological dogmas of the Great Leap Forward and Mao’s Cultural Revolution was doubling down on his mistakes, murdering those who opposed him. The brutality though, has been the biggest failure; there’s a reason the European left jumped to the social democrat model with the rise of Keynesian economics in the aftermath of World War II, they felt it was a way to achieve their objectives without the brutality of the Soviet model. The totalitarian conception of power and identity left its mark on the movement, but I don’t see them as inventions by power-mad dictators, they were extensions of the philosophy that saw only its practitioners as fully human.

Even discounting the brutality, the standard of living and industrial capacity of communist countries has been low comparatively. In 1927, the Soviet Union produced a scant 3 million tons of steel despite massive advantages in natural resources and manpower, compared to Germany’s 16 million tons, Britain’s 9 million, and France’s 8 million. Relatively speaking, more resources were wasted in steel production in the USSR, and this was similar across the board in communist countries. Communism lambasted capitalism for its wastefulness, but the numbers show that communism was the far more wasteful, inefficient method of economic organization. Some defenders of the Soviet Union point to the growth under leaders like Khrushchev, but I counter that the exceptional rate of growth was both temporary and comparatively small compared to non-communist states. Francis Spufford may have tried to sell it with the idea of Red Plenty as a fusion of history and fiction, but history has borne out that it was entirely fiction.

The more anarchist sects of the movement, the ones who reject the transitional state, similarly were failures in practice. In Spain, those who did not wish to join were often brutalized, which seems to me to be violating the principal of anarchism in that forced compliance in an anarchist society is an extension and use of state power. This is relatively common throughout history though, particularly when it comes to ideology. The Soviet Union decried “imperialism” but was incredibly imperialist, just as the United States decried the security state apparatus of the Soviet Union as violating the rights of their own citizens while pursuing COINTELPRO when it came to folks like Fred Hampton. In a more practical sense, the anarchists poor training and suboptimal deployment were unable to stop Franco despite having plenty of clear advantages in the Spanish Civil War. While they are by no means the only reason for the Republican failure, the inability for the anarchist faction to defend their people is a failure of their system of government. A lot of anarchist models run into this problem, it should not be thought of as a failure reserved solely for the anarcho-communist model, and anyone who says it doesn’t is ignoring history.

So to sum up, I consider Marxism to be a philosophy which espouses tenets that I find disgusting, and it’s articulation of government to be illiberal, anti-democratic, and founded on the violation of human rights and dignity.

Thanks for the question, Anons who were waiting.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#communism

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southeastasianists · 4 years ago

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The way by which human beings relate to the environment is of urgent relevance today. The accelerating rate of environmental devastation in recent decades has gone hand-in-hand with the global triumph of a particular civilisational logic—consumerism. Anthropologists have long been interested in documenting ways of life practised by peoples who retain some autonomy from consumerist logic. Unlike the consumerist relationship to the environment, many cultural systems have traditionally regarded special features of the natural world as subjects possessed of powers that command respect. These ways of interacting with the world around us are not simply exotica or collections of superstitions. They contain profound lessons about the way humans can relate to the natural environment and we ignore them at our peril.

As Baudrillard wrote in his work The System of Objects, ‘… consumption is an active form of relationship (not only to objects, but also to society and to the world), a mode of systematic activity and global response which founds our entire cultural system’. The logic of consumerism is depriving the planet of subjectivity in human perception and casting it instead as an object of human domination and source of resources, which mankind enjoys the right to extract.

As delicate ecological systems and vulnerable cultural systems become subsumed by consumerist forces, their resilience and chances of recovering seem to be increasingly remote. I describe here several examples from Cambodia which show how capitalist forces have induced traditional spirits of the land to desert and be deserted by people. These have been selected to illustrate how a culture of consumerism is destroying the ability of both communities and their environments to resist and, perhaps, ever recover from the destruction wrought by unchecked consumerism.

While assaults on the environment have accompanied all modernisation initiatives in Cambodia, they gained momentum when Cambodia entered the global free market in the early 1990s. Although some 75% of Cambodians still rely on agriculture as a major part of their livelihoods, by 2012, the Cambodian state had granted around 2 million hectares of land as concessions to private corporations to create monoculture plantations, extract minerals, log hardwood and construct hydro-electric dams. To make way for this flood tide of so-called development, communities that traditionally respected the spirits of the land have been displaced from areas their forebears inhabited for generations. Communities, spirits and forests are disappearing as the new, consumerist way of relating to the land literally gains ground.

Khmer Buddhism and the neak ta

When Theravada Buddhism spread throughout Cambodia in the 13th century, it subsumed but did not eclipse pre-existing spirit worshipping practices. Despite the cultural divergence between the lowland Khmer majority and highland minority groups, they continued sharing a concern for the spirits controlling the resources on which they depended. In this cosmological system, the power of the source of all life—generally known as the maja tuk maja day (literally owner of the water and land)—manifested in specific forms, such as rivers, mountains, trees, rocks, great ancient trees, peculiarly shaped rock formations, termite stacks, wooden linga and more. The term neak ta (or lok ta) is used to refer to these spirit forms. A neak ta may appear in the form of phenomena such as tutelary spirits that protect specific communities, or as human ancestors and deceased heroes.

Often, a neak ta relates to the establishment of a specific settlement and is, in this sense, foundational. Some neak ta take anthropomorphic form and arise within a historical narrative. Stories abound of how ancient heroes protected the integrity of the Khmer realms while alive, and continued to do so as spirits after their deaths. Particularly in urban settings—for example, outside courtrooms or alongside major roads—one may find humanoid statues of historical figures such as Neak Ta Kor Krohom. This figure appears all over the country, woven into local legends of a deceased powerful figure.

These spirits articulate a variety of relationships: relations between people within the community, relations between the living and the dead, and relations between people and the environment—particularly when it comes to resource utilisation. Traditionally, when treated with respect, the neak ta responded by protecting and providing for communities and their members. However, when neglected or when the environment they ‘owned’ was transgressed, they could respond in wrath, striking people down with illness, flooding or depriving communities of rainfall and therefore food, withholding game animals during hunts, causing accidents, sterility and all manner of misfortune.

Historically, the ideal Khmer Buddhist sovereign was supposed to be possessed of virtuous power known by the Buddhist term parami. He achieved this by practising the ten kingly Buddhist virtues known as desarajadhamma. Many Cambodians in their forties and older, having grown up without television or even electricity, recall hearing their parents tell allegorical tales of the relationship between the ruler’s virtue and the welfare of both the human and non-human realms. One man in his forties told me that when criticising the current regime, he and his friends may refer to a story of an ancient ruler King Senakak Reach (the ‘Gangster King’), who took the throne illegitimately, then ruled with greed and cruelty. The King’s immoral behaviour enraged not only the people, but also the spirits. As punishment for the King’s misdeeds, the waters flooded the lands, forcing the King to flee, drowning people and causing diseases to spread.

The idea that rulers who fail to exercise virtuous power in respecting and caring for the environment ultimately unleash environmental catastrophe remains salient today. Unlike the supremely virtuous powers associated with the Buddhist sovereign, the neak ta are susceptible to corruption and co-optation. They share many characteristics with living people and their existence depends on human succour. They may favour the increasingly generous rich over the poor who, in the predatory and competitive world of consumerism, have less and less to offer them. Many claim that the spirits are deserting rural people, and that Cambodian villagers are equally forsaking the spirits of the land by adopting the new ethic and joining the rush for consumption. Others say these spirits have been bribed and corrupted by the enormous wealth accumulated by the new Cambodian elites.

Breaking the spirits of the people and their land

When I asked forest dwelling people in Mondulkiri province where the spirits of the great trees go once the trees have been felled, they told me they move to another tree. But once all the trees have gone, they will abandon the area altogether. One medium explained that the spirits of the trees only have the power to affect those who are close to them. They may visit misfortune upon the man brandishing a chainsaw, but their powers do not extend to socially distant company directors, who remain cosseted in air-conditioned offices in the city.

The construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng is a case in point. The idea of constructing a hydro-electric dam on this river was mooted in 1999 by the Asian Development Bank. It was a typical example of a programme focused on energy production for national economic growth while ignoring local communities’ interests and relationships to the water and forests of the area. Many of these communities consisted of ethnic minorities who had particularly strong cultural attachments to the environment. By 2012, the project had fallen into the hands of private companies: China’s HydroLancang International, Cambodia’s Royal Group and Vietnam Electricity.

The dam was to be constructed on the Sesan River, a significant migration route and breeding ground for fish from the Mekong. When dam construction began in 2012, one study projected an almost 10% drop in fish stocks in the Lower Mekong Basin following the dam’s completion and the extinction of as many as 50 species. It was also predicted that the flood patterns of the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake would be radically altered.

The government paid no heed to scientific or international expertise. While dam construction works continued apace, desperate members of local communities, who stood to lose everything, beseeched their local neak ta for assistance. They recalled the power of their guardian spirit, who had successfully protected the village from US bombs during the 1970s. In 2010, when the villagers first learned of the plans to construct a dam, they implored the neak ta to intervene on their behalf. They offered to sacrifice three water buffalo within five years in exchange for his protection.

Despite these efforts, intensive deforestation and dam construction continued and neared completion by 2015. The ancient forest that had for generations provided locals with food, medicines and a resting place for the dead was already gone. When discussions were held that year about whether to sacrifice the promised buffalo, the elders decided that their neak ta had failed them and so the animals’ lives should be spared. One of the dam’s turbines became operational in 2017 and the entire construction officially opened in December 2018. The spirits of the people had been defeated, both literally and figuratively.

Beban and Work have described a similar case in Pursat Province. In this case, deforestation was being carried out in preparation for the development of a plantation. In 1997, the government had granted a 315,000-hectare Economic Land Concession to Pheapimex Corporation without the knowledge of the thousands of villagers living inside the area. Pheapimex is one of Cambodia’s most powerful companies, claiming ownership of some 7% of Cambodia’s land area. Its director, Lau Meng Khin, is a renowned senator in the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). He was also involved in the company Shukaku Inc., which evicted families living around Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh and filled in the lake to create prime real estate land. He was similarly reputed to be the owner of the Alex Corporation, behind an ambitious mining project in Mondulkiri Province.

Lau Meng Khin illustrates the way Cambodia’s major companies are tightly knitted into Cambodia’s notorious political culture of personalised patron-client systems, with the prime minister at the apex of a network incorporating the military elite, police, judiciary and regional and local authorities. Given the endemic corruption in Cambodia’s institutions, the possibilities for poor communities to stand up against this kind of power network using secular institutions are extremely limited. Turning to the spirits for support may seem the only viable alternative.

In 2009, just as Pheapimex was beginning forest clearance in Pursat, a woman from the region suddenly became possessed by a spirit that demanded the machine operators stop clearing trees in front of the pagoda she was visiting. “This is our home, the mountain has been our home since ancient times,” the spirit said. “If you cut the trees we cannot stay.” 5,000 of the 315,000 hectares were then awarded to the temple, whose head monk had been visibly active in resistance to the plantation project. Although state actors alluded to the spirit’s importance, this was done in such a way as to authorise their grab of 310,000 hectares from local communities. Again, propagators of consumerist logic won and the locals, their forests, their spirits and the web of relations between them were defeated.

Corrupting the spirits

A third example comes from Preah Vihear Province, where Jonas Kramp conducted a study in 2017 concerning a conflict between ethnic Kui villagers and five Chinese concessionaire companies, all subsidiaries of the Hengfu Group Sugar Industry Company. The deforestation of large swathes of land and takeover of villagers’ farmland to plant sugarcane was leaving local farmers destitute. Oppression by local authorities was also making it difficult for the communities to organise themselves and act in solidarity. Activists gathered in smaller groups, setting up protest camps and, importantly, building a new spirit house to worship the neak ta of the area.

However, the villagers were disappointed to find that their neak ta did little to help. Not only were the neak ta powerless against the companies’ heavy machinery but they were also susceptible to bribes and greed. The villagers said the neak ta had changed sides. During a spirit ceremony, they asked their spirit why it had failed to help them. The response was that the Chinese companies had made more lavish offerings than the locals. One local compared this to his own nephew’s choice to sell up to the company and accept employment in it. Disloyalty to the moral order is mirrored between people and their spirits.

The only recourse left for the villagers in this case seemed to be to appeal to their spirits to curse the Chinese companies, the local authorities and people who sold out to the companies to ‘become homeless ghosts and to die for seven generations’. Recent developments suggest that perhaps this is having some material effect since in mid-2020, the Hengfu Sugar Company’s subsidiaries all had to cease operations indefinitely on account of numerous irregularities.

Desertion of the spirits

My final example comes from my own fieldwork. I have met several spirit mediums over the years whose stories have struck me as notably allegorical. The most recent was in 2020, when a man in his sixties living in Battambang Province explained that the spirits are abandoning local villagers there too. I shall call him Mr Chan.

Mr Chan explained that the neak ta which entered his body were once people who had exhibited extraordinary power in life—parami. Neak Ta Dambong Dek and Neak Ta Oung, the two spirits that had come to him, had been brave commanders. They had fought to protect the Khmer people from all forms of threat. But he added, “It’s different now. In the past Lok Ta was much stronger and people relied on his help. Nowadays, he is not as strong because people no longer respect him as much … Therefore, Lok Ta doesn’t like to stay here with the people but prefers to stay elsewhere, especially in Thailand because … [here] people always make problems with each other so the neak ta are not happy to stay with us”.

Among rural people in Cambodia, there has therefore long been an understanding that greed and unrestrained exploitation of the environment will incur reprisals. If we abandon the powers that rightfully own and protect the treasures of the water and land, they too will abandon us. This worldview dovetails now with that of climatologists and environmentalists worldwide who are regularly presenting evidence of the way that the planet is irrevocably succumbing to human plundering.

We need to pay heed to the lessons that may be gleaned from rapidly disappearing cultural schemes before it is too late. They provide invaluable insights about the way humanity relates to the environment, as well as the notions of development, progress and civilisation that are now driving the extinction of both cultural and bio-diversity. Clearly, we have a great deal to learn about our duties of reciprocity in relations with the powers of our environment.

I would like to extend warm thanks to the Swedish Research Council and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation for the sponsorship that enabled me to undertake the research underlying this article. Thanks are also due to Dr Courtney Work for much inspiration in developing these ideas. And sincere gratitude also to all the Cambodians who have helped me understand what is happening to their country and, by extension, to our shared world.

#Southeast Asia #Cambodia #Traditions #Traditional Beliefs #Culture #Development

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tracelessrp · 3 years ago

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YONA GREENSPAN is a 21 year old FEMALE WEREWOLF, who looks a lot like SARA WAISGLASS. YONA spends time at Traceless because HER PACK IS THERE AND SHE LOVES OPEN MIC NIGHTS AT THE CAFE. SHE is known for BEING AN EXCITABLE WEREWOLF AND BANGING OUT THE TUNES.

Hometown: Nyack, New York Current Residence: Traceless Special Abilities: Yona is a werewolf, and fairly standard as it comes to abilities. Even when not shifted, she is faster and stronger than she looks, and has particularly good stamina. She has relatively good control over her shifts, and only starts to wolf out when she is really excited.

It does not seem like she has any other special abilities due to being a werewolf. However, she is moderately convinced that if she keeps trying to test out various powers, she will find another one out. She has a list of options that she has eliminated.

Apart from the supernatural stuff, Yona enjoys and has an ear for music. Her aunt and uncle put her into piano lessons when she was little, and she spent a lot of time practicing. She can pick up a guitar and get some chords down, but she doesn’t really like it as much as keys and singing. It can be difficult to get her to stop singing, and she isn’t very quiet about it.

Character Background:

tw: death, death of a mother, neglect of child

Arielle Greenspan had a one night stand after a night out with a friend of an acquaintance, and promptly put it out of mind until she realized that she was pregnant two months later. Arielle decided having a baby would be a great idea, and proceeded to get fully into baby fever. Playing it by ear, Arielle had her little girl, and shifted most of her work to home. Arielle’s younger brother Joey, completely bewildered by the concept of children, asked bluntly if the dad was in the picture. The answer was no, and Joey did not get much more information out of his sister than that.

As for the child, she had a pleasant early childhood. While Yona would color within the lines, she had an odd way of doing it. Yona wasn’t stupid, but she never had the finest grasp on common sense. She was an affectionate, exuberant little girl who she loved following her mom around, leading her Uncle Joey to call her a duckling. Joey enjoyed being the fun uncle, but he had never imagined that he would need to be anything more than that. ‘Godfather’ was supposed to just be a formality- a title to say that you wanted to be there in the kid’s life, right? He never seriously considered that he would have to lose his older sister so soon.

Joey had literally just gotten married three months ago, and had been looking forward to child-free adventures with his wife Genevieve for the foreseeable future. And now he had to worry about a kid who couldn’t be trusted not to put a fork in the electrical outlet? He seriously considered what would happen if he put up his six year old niece for adoption, but after Arielle’s funeral, Yona pouted and wouldn’t let go of his hand for two hours, so he had to keep her. Surely he could still get to go on his adventures as long as he found a good babysitter.

Yona’s childhood and adolescence were a little odd. She was always left under the care of somebody when Joey and Gen got the traveling itch, but those were often eccentric friends that were clueless about what to do with a kid. Sometimes her aunt and uncle brought her along on their adventures, and she was left to roam around European cities untethered. Joey and Gen read exactly zero parenting resources, and they were proud of it. Most nine year olds don’t receive a vibrator for their birthday without explanation, for example.

As sex-positive an environment as the Greenspan home was, Yona was left to the mercy of the American sex education program for any actual guidance. Twelve year old Yona, brimming with questions, asked the teacher if it was normal for girls going through puberty to “grow hair in weird places, feel really emotional all of a sudden, and have your body start to change?” After vehement reassurance that of course this was normal along with some arcane-looking diagrams of the human body, it took Yona three months to realize that it was in fact not normal to change into an entire wolf once a month. Her uncle and aunt agreed that this was very weird, but Gen had always been really into learning about the paranormal and mythology in general. After taking Yona to several obviously fake psychics and to meet up with some guy on Craigslist that sincerely believed that he was a werewolf but definitely wasn’t, Gen had almost given up hope.

On a trip when she was thirteen, Yona started talking randomly to a lady in a pie shop (she loved chatting with strangers and her aunt and uncle rarely stopped her).. and the woman happened to be another werewolf. Since werewolves had a good sense of smell in identifying their own kind and other supernatural species, the stranger lady asked Yona some tentative questions. Latching immediately onto this random woman she had just met (she said her name was HJ), she had a very informational and oddly calming conversation. Only after sharing more information than you should probably share with an adult stranger and promises from HJ for help finding a pack in New York agreed to join her very first pack did she grab her Aunt Gen. Unfortunately, HJ didn’t live in New York, so Yona had to join a pack with a whole bunch of strangers instead of her chill new adult friend. And the new pack was pretty nice. Yona thought that being part of a pack was way better than having to deal with the painful shifts on her own in the backyard.

Getting to join her own secret grown-up pack prompted Yona to start acting out more. She stayed out late, threw parties at the house when her aunt and uncle weren’t home, and pulled some truly epic pranks. The weirdest part was that Joey and Gen didn’t seem to notice or care. She would skip school sometimes and nobody at home would even mention it. All she wanted was to be noticed. She played up how much alcohol and drugs she was doing (basically nothing), and her aunt and uncle completely ignored it. She tried sleeping with some okay boy at her school when she was sixteen, but felt gross afterward and decided for once maybe she didn’t want every speck of attention she could get. She had been planning on telling her aunt matter-of-factly about that, but decided to keep at least that much to herself. It took Yona a full year to figure out that oh, she was interested in girls instead. Something about telling a pretty girl that she painfully turned into a big gray wolf every month made her feel insecure. It didn’t help that Yona found herself absolutely infatuated with just about every woman she met. Some crushes were deeper than others, but her feelings always felt real, exciting, and devastatingly painful. From her perspective, love was both brutal and amazing, and she wanted nothing more than to find it- even if it hurt. Still, it took Yona another year to admit out loud that she was gay (so gay), and desperate. What really pissed her off was when she came out to her uncle and aunt, only for Joey to reply with a casual, “Yeah, we’ve known since you were twelve.” Well it would have helped if someone had given her a hint!

Yona moved out of her aunt and uncle’s as soon as she had her high school diploma under her belt, and tried to figure out what she wanted to do with herself. Apparently, her mom had been on track to be some sort of superstar consultant. Most of the estate was funneled into a trust set up for Yona. Uncle Joey had told her he couldn’t figure out how any of that money stuff worked, and had done what the financial advisor guy who was in charge of the trust told him to do with the money. Yona didn’t feel like a trust fund baby or anything, but it was nice to know that even if she messed up, her mom had wanted to make sure she was okay. A lot of the time, Yona wondered if her mom would have been proud of her.

After moving out, Yona left her New York pack on good terms, and bought a motorcycle. Her aunt had shown her how to ride (it had only led to two near-wrecks), and this seemed more cinematic than buying a junker car that stood a chance of breaking down to drive across the country. She had been accepted at a couple of colleges (she’d kept her grades up well enough in spite of everything), but did not feel strongly about going to school when she felt weirdly stuck. Her aunt and uncle had never felt like parents, and she fantasized about discovering herself out west. Riding across the country (and getting hella lost in South Dakota… how was she supposed to keep the two Dakotas straight?) was a formative experience. It was a good thing that she had werewolf strength and instincts because Yona did not get any less naïve through this experience.

Eventually, she wound up in Seattle, which Yona thought was a bit like New York through a puddle. She didn’t really know if she even liked Seattle (mostly she just didn’t get it), but she did learn that there was a super cool-seeming café that catered to people like her. Or, well, werewolves plus a whole bunch of other species that Yona had not given a thought further than “they exist” to. For some reason, the café people wouldn’t let her bring her motorcycle into the shop so that she could have it on the other side of… well, wherever she wanted to take it. Anyway, Yona decided that she liked Traceless pretty well, and also really liked the idea of getting in on those open mic nights. Traceless was a lot better than trying to get lost somewhere even more frustrating than the Dakotas, so she stuck around. She enrolled in college, and half by-accident joined a new pack. It was great! She got to see HJ again and actually be in a pack with her. A lot of the Bonfire Pack lived in a cluster of houses in Traceless, and Yona enthusiastically moved in one with HJ. To anyone that asked, HJ was her aunt, but they were also not related in any way. Her new pack was a lot more dysfunctional and much less organized than her first pack, but Yona liked it better that way. After about four years in Traceless, she was one term away from graduating in the fall term, and not sure what she planned to do with herself apart from pitching in around the pack’s camp.

(ooc: lisa, 29, she/her, pacific)

#species: werewolf #death tw #death of mother tw #child abuse tw

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