#nor is it like an evil barbara

[azaenya]

Barbara picked up: A 1886 Holland & Holland Paradox Shotgun!

She grips the cold metal of the barrel, and blood rushes to her head.

BARBARA NOW HOLDS THE POWER TO TERMINATE LIFE

[welcometoteyvat]

me @ a kaeya hamlet au

[thebibliosphere]

I was just playing gotham knights again and noticed some passive dialog regarding Babs having a back brace, which is at least acknowledging that there was damage done, but I'm a little sad for the loss of some really cool disability representation. What are your feelings on her (and on a similar note Batman's) miraculous recovery from paralysis in DC?

I think Gotham Knights handled her disability fairly well, considering this is a universe where magic, nanobots, and puddles of evil green goo that can heal the dead exist. All things considered, it would have been very easy for them to either erase it entirely or just handwave and say, "She worked really hard and got better," as previous iterations of the canon have done.

Because she did work hard and get better, but the hard work is ongoing because they depict her issues as chronic.

She's got a limp (it's the most obvious in her Talon suit with no cape in the way), which means she can't rely on speed or high kicks like the others can (I mean, she can kick, but it's her slowest motion, and until you max out her suit, it's the most liable to get her thrown to the ground), so she falls back on precision and her tech.

Jason punches for maximum pain, Dick moves with dizzying speed, and Tim's gonna sneak up on you and drop you like a rock, but Babs is going for the pressure points with ruthless precision. Not to mention her drones.

The conversation with Tim, realizing she might need help boosting her suit to compensate for her pain/strength issues, is a nice little way of making the player aware that she's got these ongoing problems because, honestly, a casual observer could mistake her back brace for athleisure wear if they didn't recognize the shape of it. It's also a good way of throwing in some exposition about how she's still going to physical rehab and that her PT would like her to "wean off" her back brace, but because her PT doesn't know her actual job as a vigilante, Barbara admits she can't and is essentially finding ways to manage her own care and create her own accommodations. Accommodations which they are all shown to be willing to help with.

It's a nice little touch when superhero narratives tend to revolve around self-sacrifice to the point of self-destruction. Alfred giving Dick into trouble for pushing himself too far and hiding injuries is a nice touch, too, even if it's like trying to bail water on the Titanic with a teacup.

I also like that not only do you see her wheelchair lurking around the Belfry—along with the disability adaptations they put in place, like the ramps, the wheelchair elevator, and the desks that move up and down to wheelchair height—but that she also still uses her chair from time to time.

[ID a screenshot from Gotham Knights showing the Belfry. Light streams in through a giant clockface, showcasing a bank of computer screens. In front of the screen, Barbara Gordon is using her wheelchair as Dick Grayson stands behind her, probably making a bad pun.]

Whether she's using it because she's tired or simply because it's more comfortable than the computer chair is never revealed. Nor is it brought up or commented on. It's just something that's normal for Barbara to do, and I like that. I like that it's normal. It's not a part of herself she's trying to erase. She works with it, not against it.

Is it perfect? No. Do they outright erase her disability like so many of the comics are guilty of? Also, no. I'd argue that, in fact, they kept her disability. They just changed the nature of it.

Barbara now has a dynamic disability, one which fluctuates and requires different management based on her day-to-day (or night) activity. She's in active treatment for it and will be for the rest of her life. Are some of the physical feats she achieves realistic for someone with an injury of her nature? Not really, but again, this is a world where nobody stays dead, and there are zombie assassins coming out of the walls. I'll take the attention to detail and care they put into her story any day over the "Willpower Fixed My Spine" narrative we could have gotten.

As for Bruce getting healed by magic, again, it's Batman. Comic book logic is wibbly-wobbly at the best of times, and realistically speaking, they couldn't leave Batman paralyzed. His whole deal revolves around being stealthy and punching the shit out of people. He wouldn't be Batman anymore, and frankly, I don't trust the comic writers as far as I could throw them to handle that right.

By contrast, the Gotham Knights writers handled Barbara with much more care and nuance than I ever expected. And I'm thankful for that.

---

*I also like that both Dick and Barbara are often shown wearing joint braces. Dick's are especially reminiscent of the way gymnasts and people with hypermobility tape their joints to reduce pain and prevent injuries. It's a nice little touch. They're not invincible. Their bodies hurt. They're just like me but with money and much bigger problems like giant killer robots and zombie assassins.

[but-a-humble-goon]

This is something I see weapons grade bad takes about so I feel like commenting. I think Barbara Gordon was Batgirl, in part, because it was fun. I do think that in addition to wanting to help people, the thrill and the danger of it was a huge part of the appeal of superheroing for her. She's straight up said as much herself plenty of times. Now do try and bear with me for this next bit because some of you seem to struggle; this does not make her a bad nor immature person. I cannot fathom the train of logic required to reach that conclusion. "Oh well you might have saved this bus full of orphans from being blown up by a penguin themed mob boss at great risk to yourself but you also... got a kick out of it while doing so? Oh how evil and selfish of you, I guess?" And more relevantly, it does not fucking mean she deserved what happened to her, jesus christ what is wrong with you all?

[justvora]

Cassandra Cain should be BATMAN.

Art credits: Karahuset

Honestly, I am not going to expand much on this, even though I could do an essay.

Cassandra Cain should be Batman and take his place and role. Not a "she should be in an alternate future?" No. She should be him in the current continuity, and there's nothing that annoys me more than seeing how in hundreds of elseworlds they've made Damian Batman, but Cass has been left stuck in his legacy.

Why? Simply sexism.

Helena Wayne already said it at the time: the bat is a symbol, an indistinct mantle depending on gender or whatever. Batman is a symbolic figure, not a person, but a legionary entity that exists thanks to its myths, thanks to urban legends.

"She could be Batgirl, or Batwoman", no, darling, no. Those are completely unrelated legacies no matter how much they stick to the Batman nexus. They serve a completely different book in which their own story is told, ceasing to be the pages of someone else's book. And Cass is the only one capable of taking the Bat's book to capture her story there and continue that legacy, not being an extension of it, but a central part of it.

Kate Kane (taking into account the post-crisis continuity) was a self-destructive woman who was expelled from the army for having relations with her roommate and who saw in Batman the inspiration to become a vigilante herself, so she took her military knowledge to create her own "symbol", wearing a completely different mantle that, even so, was based on and inspired by the Bat's icon.

Likewise, the Batgirl title was born in a completely different form and, in the future, she would become an assistant to the Bat-family. Barbara Gordon started in a casual, spontaneous and independent way, wanting to "annoy" her father at a party, but everything would take a turn when she would end up acting more like a heroine in a given moment to stop Killer Moth.

Those are mantles that were born detached from that of Batman himself but that, in the end, have intertwined and crossed. The point is that they do not have the same meaning, nor do they represent the same thing within the fight against crime. In the end it's digging into unnecessary technicalities, but the point is that if Cassandra should inherit a mantle it would be the core one, that of the Bat itself to become "The Bat".

Cassandra Cain is the one who has taken the symbol more seriously than anyone else. The one who most adheres to the no-kill rule. The most apt and who has the best attitude for it.

With this I do not detract from characters like Dick, Jason or Tim, as they are building their own legacy and history away from what has been the history of the Bat.

In the past it was said that she lacked other skills to take up the mantle, yet Batman himself claimed that she was best suited to take up his mantle when needed. She could very well team up with her siblings to do the job, or co-exist with another Batman to complement their skills and increase the fear of criminals given the possibility that "Batman is everywhere".

But I actually consider Cassandra to have very good detective skills. Perhaps not as refined, but her past and the fact that she has been a murderer (even if she canonically only took someone's life) gives her the knowledge of how to prevent murders, both by her hand and by the hand of others; that is, she knows what to do not to kill and still reduce those who have done evil; and, likewise, she knows how a murderer will act, which helps her when it comes to solving criminal cases.

The fact that she has stained her hands only once makes her carry a great weight on her. Among so many things, she became Batgirl to redeem herself and give meaning to an empty life, absent of identity (something that did her a lot of psychological damage, which is why Babs wanted her to develop on a social level so that Cass wouldn't be so isolated); and that's why, more than anyone else, she doesn't want a single person to die. She doesn't want to shed blood in vain, and from the beginning she always put herself before bullets by sacrificing herself (although this was something she did in a "death wish" kind of way, something I personally don't buy into because of how stale it comes across, being a trope of the time, but it still demonstrates her calling and sacrifice for heroism).

She takes the rule of killing more seriously than absolutely anyone else.

"Nobody dies tonight."

"Okay, but... She does not have the deductive reasoning. She is not a skilled tactician. She has no skill at mind games on either side of them."

#1 Bruce Wayne: Fugitive storyline. When everyone figured Bruce was a murderer, Cass was one of the few who didn't write Bruce off. She looked at the victim's body and saw the first clue to Bruce's innocence.

#2 Skilled tactician. She studied tapes of the Brotherhood of Evil in action after her prior loss to them. She studied them so much the next time they fought she owned the three members that attacked her.

No mind games you say? Tell it to Deathstroke who she played mind games with owning him twice.

All this not to mention her body language skills, something that not only makes her a superior fighter to anyone, being the first person who could beat Lady Shiva in a completely fair one-on-one, but also a human lie detector as she is able to recognize the truths and secrets that people hide deep inside. This makes her a completely empathetic girl by understanding people's emotions better than anyone else, making her a more tactful girl.

Anyway those are characteristics to fulfill the bare minimum of being Batman, and she goes above and beyond. It's not just that they meet the necessary skills, or that she has the necessary attitude, determination and self-sacrifice, but that she is the best fit. Cassandra is an equal for Bruce, a reflection of his very person in a good way, though there is one thing Cass can still do unlike Bruce at the expense of all the years he carries on his back: Cassandra can change and be a full person. It is her ability to grow, mature and understand life under a full perception, because thanks to an upbringing next to a real family she can understand the world around her to be a self-made person.

She is not driven by revenge, but by justice. She is not hate, but love and hope.

Cassandra is a woman who believes in giving people a second chance, because she believes in redemption, in change.

Likewise, and to conclude, in the current continuity it is confirmed that Cass is not only Bruce Wayne's daughter (this is indirectly implied in her dialogue with Dinah), but that she is "everyone's favorite Batman".

“ Everyone experiences tragedy. Tim. Bruce. You and me. It's not about the city. It's about how you choose to see the world. Everything else is just an excuse. ”

[rgr-pop]

My goal for the year was to watch & log 100 movies. Shorts count, didn't matter whether I had seen them before, but they can only count once for the year. I logged 117!

First & last watched: Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969)--the reason I cared about movies so much this year, just an obvious life-changer for me--and Ken Russell's The Rainbow (1989)--Westlin's suggestion for the perfect round out. Surprised to be surprised by how good it was. Great films! Totally on the program! Questions to this day unanswered! Let's go!

Shorts (everything short of Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story) watched: 16

Favorite shorts: Nuit et Brouillard (Alain Resnais, 1956) (decided this year one of my all-time favorite films); Un Chant d'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950); Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947)

Next year my shorts watching will be more programmatic

Films I watched twice in 2023: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987) (another film I realized this year obviously belongs in my top ten--more specifically I decided finally that this is my favorite non-Texas Chain Saw film); Beau is Afraid (Ari Aster, 2023); The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993)

By decade: Before 1900: 0 1900 - 1910: 1 1910 - 1919: 1 1920 - 1929: 1 bro come ON what the FUCK 1930 - 1939: 1 im literally evil 1940 - 1949: 7 1950 - 1959: 3 1960 - 1969: 24 1970 - 1979: 14 1980 - 1989: 16 1990 - 1999: 17 2000 - 2009: 13 2010 - 2019: 9 2020 - 2023: 10

By nation/language roughly: uk/english: 6 us/english: 66 canada/english: 6 france/french: 10 italy/italian: 4 italy/france/french: 1 italy/english: 1 czechoslovakia/czech: 5 palestine/arabic: 3 soviet/russian: 2 russia/russian: 1 austria/german: 1 austria/french: 1 spain/spanish: 1 japan/japanese: 1 poland/yiddish: 1 poland/polish: 1 senegal/wolof: 1 brazil/portuguese: 1 sweden/swedish: 1 eur/farsi: 1 south africa/afrikaans: 1

numbers not adding up there but w/e

By director: Not sure if this is surprising or totally unsurprising, but in spite of my auteurial talk (and all the thematic/completionist plans I like to make), I very rarely watched more than two movies by the same director. I can't decide how I feel about this, nor do I know how to proceed this year given that my goal is to discover who my top five directors might actually be. How do you go about investigating that?

Overwhelmingly the director I watched the most was Adrian Lyne, with five films. I have a few more things to work on but I'm close to done with my shakedown/theory. Neither my favorite director nor favorite guy, I would say I probably 'enjoy' and 'personally get more out of watching' his films more than most. In second place, I watched three Kenneth Anger films--all shorts of course. I watched two films each by the following directors: Ken Russell, David Cronenberg, Stanley Kubrick, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paul Schrader, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ti West, Todd Haynes, Michael Haneke, Jan Švankmajer (both shorts), and Billy Wilder (one of which being a war department documentary short).

I have mixed feelings about this approach (let me watch man movies if i I want to!) but a quick skim suggests I watched about 15 films directed by women (12%)--lower than expected and probably low for me typically. I always have a romance habit on the backburner so it's never hard for me to watch a lot of movies by women, but obviously my focus on revered directors I never previously wanted to spend time on has had an impact here, meaning I should make an effort with Great women directors in 2024 to keep that in check. I will also say that I specifically recall having a hard time getting my hands on things I wanted to watch by women in a few different cases, including by Great women directors (Barbara Hammer and Akerman), and especially also soviet women directors. There's an overlap here with difficulty accessing short films!

I'm not an active or thoughtful starrer, but these are the films I watched in 2023 that I've given five stars to:

Women in Love (Ken Russell, 1969) (upgraded from four after the year of appreciating it) Mandabi (Ousmane Sembène, 1968) Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996) Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1956) Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975) (demoted Teorema [1968] to four stars to prevent Salo is A Perfect Film deflation) Un Chant d'Amour (Jean Genet, 1950)

Least favorite films watched in 2023: Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi, 2019), Barbie (Greta Gerwig, 2023), All My Good Countrymen (Vojtěch Jasný, 1968), Zahrada (Jan Švankmajer, 1968), the one streaming true crime doc I watched that I then had to log (will not repeat in 2024)

Loved/treats for me: Barry Lyndon, Crossing Delancey, Unfaithful, The Cremator, The Night Porter, Cabaret, talking to people about Funny Games and realizing I love it more than I think I do

Recommended for the romance girls as a thank you for the good romance you have recommended me: Habibi (Susan Youssef, 2011)

Most incredible movie experience of the year by miles and I can only hope 2024 has something this good to offer: House of 1000 Corpses (Rob Zombie, 2003) anniversary screening my birthweek

The otherwise defining film of 2023 for me: Hostel (Eli Roth, 2005)

Onward! Back to work! On the Terror and Violence line! The Family is out there, comfortable, in relative peace…

[findafight]

know that your Steve/barb s1 au is haunting me it's SO GOOD

it haunts me too i think they could be so good and interesting together as a couple. also. the angst potential is like x10 if barb DOESN'T make it out of the upside down.

like. Nancy in canon blames both herself and Steve for Barb's death, but in this...Nancy went home. She left Barb with Steve and then Barb went missing and died and Steve didn't and is alive. Steve was the one who should have walked Barb to her car (even though she said she was fine) or convinced her to stay the night (despite that not being a reasonable thing on a school night nor did Barb want to) and Steve's the one who invited Barb over... and even though Nancy encouraged Barb to go for it, I think some of her guilt wouldn't be there because of the different situations but a lot of her blaming Steve would be.

And Steve's here, with the only people his age that know about the evil Hawkins underneath them either being a kinda creepy weirdo (Jon) or hates his guts (Nancy), and his almost-kinda-mostly girlfriend is dead and he blames himself too. They weren't together long enough for him to love her, but he thinks he could have. Could feel himself falling hard and fast and now all that potential of could have beens is gone, dead with Barb in the Upside Down. And he has no one to talk to about it.

this bubbles and festers until Nancy accuses him of being bullshit, of not having any right to mourn Barb when he barely knew her, how it was his fault anyway. And he agrees to all of it because he thinks she's right. Barb's parents had talked about her to him, told him about little Barbara and her microscope, and her button collection, and her ballet slippers. He knows things about Barb, not he doesn't know Barb. And that hurts, because he wanted to, he wanted to know her in those weeks before, when they flirted and kissed, and he wanted to know her when all he knew was that she was missing and he was worried, and he wanted to know her when he attended her funeral. But he didn't, and now he never would.

when Robin asks if he's ever been in love on the nasty Starcourt bathroom floor, he says no. but he could have been. was halfway there, but never got the chance to actually fall. That it was his fault anyways.

And isn't that a goddamn shame?

[irandomblogfulb]

This whole "crwby" shit really is a double edged sword.

Yeah, from the perspective of a capitalist Corp who only cares about lining their pockets, there's a benefit. Fans will support Ruwuby in the name of supporting "Crwby" when crwby is just a subsection of RT. Supporting "crwby" is supporting RT.

"The animation dept brings in 60% of the revenue or more."

Crwby is part of Roosterteeth's animation dept. Rwby is their biggest title. That 60% of their total revenue is very likely coming from Rwby exclusively.

Crwby is a vague enigma. What or who "crwby" is differs from person to person (or Stan to critic). That can work to Roosterteeth's favour as mentioned above but like I said, it's a double edged sword. You can't transfer Rwby's success anywhere else. They tried with Genlock and it flopped. Hard. Roosterteeth doesn't have the star power they once had. And though they cultivated a passionate fan base that will defend them tooth and nail ( in the guise of supporting crwby) those fans only care about rwby. They have dedicated so much of themselves, so much of their money and time into rwby, some new shiny rwby-clone isn't going to garner that same response and dedication.

Crwby is no Hideo Kojima. Tetsuya Nomura can leave Square Enix and do his own shit and people will flock to check it out. When you think of Kingdom Hearts, you think of Tetsuya Nomura. You think Metal Gear Solid, you think Hideo Kojima. You think Ghibli, you think Hayao Miyazaki. Final Fantasy XIIII fans are gonna check out Final Fantasy XVI cause Yoshi-P was director of both those games. The appeal of Final Fantasy XV was that Nomura was the director. Do you see what I'm getting at?

When you of rwby, you think of Monty, but unfortunately, he's no longer here with us to helm the franchise. Realistically, it should be Kerry but the guy is so...bland (?) and uninspired. Miles is more and less distancing himself from the franchise. The next best thing is crwby, an undefined, ever-changing group of people who work on the show.

How is crwby, this enigma supposed to take rwby back from the evil, big bad Roosterteeth? Kerry and Miles, the closest to a figurehead for rwby, and were there for rwby conceptualisation, are burnt out on rwby. Miles relinquished all responsibility he had. Kerry, just, I don't think he wants to be showrunner anymore, nor enjoys the responsibility he has as writer, producer and director.

Rwby fans are not Miles Luna fans. They are not Kerry fans, Eddy fans, Barbara fans etc etc. They got into Rwby because of the initial appeal of the premise, strong art direction, and fight choreography, but they stayed because Rwby ultimately fuels fandom. There is no passion (from higher up), just pandering to the largest demographic.

Tdlr, because I forgot where I was going with this rant; Roosterteeth is fucked because they can't pivot the success of Rwby towards anything else because their fanbase is obessed with Rwby. Miles, Kerry, Barbara and anyone considered part of "crwby" is fucked because the stans only like rwby because their fanfics are treated as canon and the parasocial relationship they have with the team behind the franchise. They need Rwby, not the other way around. They might be kekeing and enjoying the clout for now but eventually the stans (again, who arent their fans and the extent they care about them doesn't go beyond their involvement with rwby. Case and point - Kdin and everyone else part of crwby or not who spoke out against RT ) are gonna get annoying real quick.

[ednav]

I don’t like to talk about politics here. But I see so many posts about the war in Israel/Palestine right now, and I cannot help saying my bit. It’s going to be long (read up until the end, or just skip) and messy and very personal. It’s not meant to be an essay that analyses all aspects of the situation. It comes after one of the worst months of my life—please, be kind. I’ve been on this earth for almost half a century, and it’s been one of the worst months of my life.

[If you prefer not to read at all, just skip. No harm done.]

I have both Muslim and Jewish friends in the Europe and in the US. Some of them wear a hijab, some of them wear a kippah. Every morning I check that they didn’t get beaten up because dividing the world into “good guys” / “bad guys” and releasing your frustration on someone who looks like “the bad guys” is an easy way to feel in control when you’re scared.

And now, the unpopular bit: I have Jewish Israeli friends. Every morning I check they came out alive from the bomb shelter. Hamas is still firing rockets—a lot of rockets—on both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I wait for them tell me if another disfigured body has been identified as a friend whom they thought that had “just” been kidnapped.

One of these friends goes to the peace protests in Tel Aviv, so I have to check that he didn’t get beaten up by the police either.

(Dear US people: identifying Israel with Netanyahu is like assuming all of you are MAGA Republicans. Worse, actually, because Israel is not a two-party system—more like a twenty-party system—and it’s a mess. Decolonise your mind from assuming that every country works like the US.)

Some of my friends are Mizrahi. Their great-grandparents had to find refuge in the relative safety of Israel after being expelled by another country in that region—a place where they cannot go back to. Not-very-fun fact: they’re also dark-skinned enough to get “randomly checked” every time they get on a plane, unless there’s a woman wearing a hijab or a chador on the same flight. It’s not as simple as European or US colonialism.

(Once again: stop making it all about you. The world is more complex than your country. Especially if your country is less than 250 years old and hasn’t had a battle on its soil in more than 130 years.)

I don’t know anyone in Palestine, so I can’t say what it’s like to have friends on that side of the border. I imagine it’s even worse, given that most people there don’t have shelters, nor actual freedom to protest against their government, at least in the Gaza strip.

Anyway: I don’t wish what I’ve been through in the last month on my worse enemy. And I’m just a friend of some people who are not in the worst possible situation. I know that I cannot even begin to know what it must be like for Jewish, Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian people.

And now, let me tell you about a history book that might have saved the world. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

It’s a bit outdated, but it’s still quite good, and the writing is simply brilliant. It’s called The Guns of August, and it’s about the first month of WWI. Just the first month, and how we got there. How stubbornness, pride, rhetoric, and even “rationality”, led to a massacre that did nothing but cause another massacre less than a generation later. It was written by a woman, Barbara Tuchman, in 1962. Later that year, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy gave it to read to all the generals in the US Army. The message was simple: escalation leads to disaster. Sometimes you have to compromise, accept losses and even a certain degree of “unfair”, rather than getting into a full-blown war.

Now, I’m not a pacifist. I know that some wars are the lesser evil. I have relatives who fought in the Resistance. They were proud of having risked their lives. They were proud of living in a country with free elections—even if fascists-in-all-but-name could get elected—and at peace. But they were not proud of having killed people whose children grew up as orphans.

I see a lot of people, especially younger people, who want Pure Justice. Bad people must be eliminated, good people must triumph, no excuses.

The thing is—there are no completely good people, nor completely bad people. There are people. Often scared and more traumatised than you can possibly imagine.

There are people who must pay for their crimes. There are people who will, and some who won’t. Just ask anyone who survived a war, or a time of almost-civil-war like the Troubles in the UK/Ireland or the terrorism of the 1970s In Europe—that’s something we’ve all seen. (I say “we” because I’m old enough to remember the 1980s. They sucked, trust me.)

The problem is: the more you lose sight of the common humanity of everyone involved, the more you escalate the tension, the more there will be people who are going to pay for crimes they haven’t committed. And the more I see of this world, the more I believe that if there’s one side it’s just fighting for, it’s theirs.

As I said—it’s messy. And human beings are precious, but fragile. Please, be kind.

[conjuremanj]

Erzulie/ Family Of Loa

Erzulie (sometimes spelled Erzili or Èzili) is a family of loa, or spirits, in Voodoo. She is a great sport for any one to work with. And yes any religion can work with her.

She's the Vodou Lwa (spirit) who represent the essence of love and women. She has many forms, from fierce warrior mother to red-eyed weeping crone, and can be counted among either the Rada or Petwo lwa (spirits or gods).

During the times of slavery, and Petwo lwa were dark and powerful. (Not evil) Erzulie manifests with deep passion, and Her mood can range from the height of joy to the depths of misery.

There are a number of sister forms of Erzulie, and She is sometimes is considered by some to be a triple Goddess.(but is not) (As such She has three husbands–Damballah (is the original force of creation, believed to be the inner voice of God), Agwe (the spirit of the sea), and Ogoun (warrior spirit and iron) Like the Triple Goddess in other religions.

Erzulie Dantor: ����is a spirit the essence of love not the Voodoo Goddess of love, romance, art, jealousy, passion, & sex. Erzulie Dantor is not the patron loa of lesbian women, nor domestic violence. But is the patron loa of New Orleans. She is deeply caring and dedicated to her children and will stop at nothing to protect them. She is also a guardian and protector of orphans, sick children, and those who have been abused. Erzulie Dantor is a mulatto woman who is often portrayed as the Black Madonna, or the Roman Catholic “Saint Virgin Mary, sometimes Barbara Africana”. She loves knives and is considered the protector of newly consecrated Voodoo priests and priestesses. A common syncretic depiction of Erzulie Dantor is St. Jeanne D’Arc, who is displayed carrying or supporting a sword. Which is pretty cool.

You can see that she holds a baby the baby's name is Anais. Anais is her daughter she is the translator for Ezulie Dantor because she cannot speak only can say one syllable, the sound of her tongue clicking on the roof of her mouth, “ke-ke-ke-ke!”. Story goes during the revolution Manbo Mayinet Priestess call on her and her husband to help against the slave owners. During possession a priestess her tongue was cut out by Haitian Revolutionaries who feared she would betray them. just in case she is captured she won't speak their secrets. She is now a Lwa in the Petwo Nation. But their other stores too about her that you can read.

Rada:

Erzulie Fréda Dahomey: ☝️ the Rada aspect of Erzulie, is the spirit of love, beauty, jewelry, dancing, luxury, and flowers. She wears three wedding rings, one for each husbands. Her symbol is a heart, Her colors are pink, blue, white and gold, and Her favorite is jewelry, perfume, sweet cakes and liqueurs. She is femininity and compassionate. But has a darker side. She is seen as jealous and spoiled and within some vodoun circles is considered to be lazy. When She mounts a person (possessed) She flirts with all the men, and can treats all the women as rivals. In Christian she is the Virgin and Child, because She is the mother of Ti. Common syncretizations include Our Lady of Lourdes because She is usually depicted as light-skinned.

I took this pic of the Ezili altar form a voodoo society in New Orleans.

Erzulie Freda: is the sister of Ezili Dantor, and Her opposite in every way. Where Dantor is a hard working single mother, Freda is a glamor girl. 🙂. She is said to be the most powerful sorceress in the pantheon. Her colors are pink and pale blue, she like pink champagne and roses, frosted cakes, jewelry . Make Shure to keep Her things clean or she will not arrive in the temple.” She is a powerful spirit. To receive her as a guest during rituals, practitioners must treat her with honors due to her status as a fine lady. She loves heady perfumes, jewels, and anything related to beauty and coquetry.

Erzulie Mansur: (Erzulie the Blessed) - Represents maternal love and protects children from harm.

Granne Erzulie (Grandma Erzulie) - Represents the wisdom granted by experience and maturity and grandmotherly kindness and love. She is syncretized with St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.

Petro:

Erzulie D'en Tort: / Erzulie Dantor (Erzulie of the Wrongs) Protects women and children and deals revenge against those who wrong them.

Erzulie Balianne: (Erzulie the Gagged) - "Silences" (heals or calms) hearts. Keeps secrets or ensures that secrets will not be revealed. Helps people to forget past loves and overcome passionate emotions. Her "horses" tend to speak as if they have a gag in their mouth. She is syncretized with The Immaculate Heart.

Erzulie Mapiangue: (Erzulie the Suckler) Deals with the pain of childbirth and the protection of unborn and newborn babies. Her "horses" tend to get in a fetal position or birthing position and cry tears of pain. Common syncretization is as the Virgin and Infant of Prague, which wear matching red velvet robes and gold crowns.

Erzulie Yeux Rouge or Erzulie Ge-Rouge (Red-Eyed Erzulie) Takes revenge on unfaithful lovers. Her "horses" cry tears of bitter sadness.

Erzulie Toho Aids: the jealous or slighted in love. Her "horses" cry tears of anger.

Others:

EditErzulie La Flambeau (Erzulie of the Torch)

Erzulie Wangol (Erzulie of the Sacred Banner)

Erzulie Shango Pye Nago loa that is a feminine aspect of Shango.

So you see she is represented in different ways not just as a loa in Haitian Vodou and a Orisha but in different forms of voodoo.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

This post is an apology to Tom King.

I recently re-read Riddler: One Bad Day and it's actually a masterpiece!

There's something truly fantastical about how Riddler's intelect is portrayed almost as a mystical power! The scene where Edward mind tricks all the cops into killing each other by laying on the floor and laughing like a maniac is pure art and I'm truly sorry for previously calling it "stupidly edgy", "the moment the comic lost all chance of salvation", "the final proof male power fantasies are a diservice to the entertaiment industry" and "soo dark is actually hilarious".

I also need to compliment the ambiguousness of if Riddler became who he is because of the abuse he endure or if his dad was abusive BECAUSE Edward was always bad is fantastically creepy and necessary. If your narrative does not have victim blaming as one of the possibilities in your moral debate about the inexistence of redemption and the need for violent cops ... I mean heros who kill the villains because evil will never stop nor change what's even the point?

I'm also sorry for my mean coments over Riddler reveling that he was part of Joker's attack against Barbara Gordon. It is actually a really nice nod to the original, specially in the way it reinforces Barbara's place as an useless plot point without agency that only serves to motivate her father. After all why would anyone ever want Babs to actually matter in an event that changed her life forever? Gordon is pissed. That's what matters.

The RIDDLER hating RIDDLES and using them to protect the world from himself by constantly re-living his trauma because actually the trauma was what stopped him from murdering for a long time and does that mean the story is retconing itself to show he was born evil? Is the BEST plot twist. If all future versions of Edward don't hate his gimmick and his own identity and think dorky people who tell riddles are actually stupid and puzzles are dumb than the comic industry will have to live in shame.

Back to talking about the portral of woman! I'm soo happy that the comic took away the voice from Edward's mother presenting her only by what her job as a sex worker represented to the people around her! Such a feminist take! And the snapy Riddler was justified in being mad that his henchmen sleept with his mother because being a sex worker is dirty actually. Gorgeus.

This comic also has the best teacher characther ever. He is so real for ignoring a kid's cry for help, considering their neurodivergent coded anxiety and dificulties are a case of needing to chill and seing all the most obvious sings of abuse ever as "very unchill kid behavior". And the comic is soo right for portraying this man as sympathetic and good and how if Eddie had stoped being a neurodivergent abused kid for a second and just chilled he would have been fine and never became a muderer. It's a life lession. Abused kids should just stop being anxious over the very real possibility of more abuse and neurodivergent people should just chill and everything will be fine. Doing nothing except blaming the crying desperated child for asking help is the right move!

Also Batman should kill. That's just a fact. Jason Tood has been saying it for years now and he is right. All heros should kill actually. Every comic should be exactaly like a Punisher run writen by an alt-right. Yes even the non-superhero ones. Yes even the manga. Yes even Donald Duck ones.

I could write pages and pages about how this is the perfect comic - bar the art style - but I think this is already a suficient apology for my previous misleading critics.

My next post will be a long explanation of why Batgirl vs Riddler: Prelude to the Wedding is actualy the best feminist comic ever written and Tim Seeley is actualy the only person allowed to represent woman in media ever.

[menstits]

agreed. i play a lot of gachas, and genshin is BY FAR the most easy to save primos with. it was the first gacha with a guaranteed pity system(i think hi3 also had it at first but it wasnt as well known internationally), to the point that gachas like fgo had to add their own (wich is still way worse than genshin) of course, its still gacha, and still bad, but games like cr and arknights who get sold as "having a better system" really dont have it, nor do they have a guaranteed pity in the first place.

The other two gachas i was big into before genshin were love live school idol festival and cookie run ovenbreak back in the day, and both of them were WAY more predatory than genshin imo like purely in terms of how the game itself and the gacha worked. Love live was evil because no matter how much you pulled you weren't really guaranteed anything above SR rarity which was insane in retrospect like i legit played that game for like two years without getting a single UR card, while cookie run was like. The sort of game that becomes completely unplayable unless you have the most recently released character because that's how bad the powercreep was. The thing about genshin is that technically you ARE able to get through the entirety of the storyline and exploration using only the characters they give you (traveler, kaeya, lisa, amber, xiangling, noelle, barbara, collei... That's quite a few at this point). Does anyone actually play like that? Pretty much only masochistic gamer youtubers tend to do that but still it IS technically an option for someone who doesn't give a single shit about collecting characters or fighting and mainly cares about exploring. I absolutely would still NOT recommend the game to someone who has a history of gacha addiction or who has a tendency to develop addictions in general because ofc it's inherently a bit evil by virtue of being a gacha but tbh that goes for any gacha on god's green earth

[sparrowsabre7]

Power Rangers 30th Anniversary Special: Once and Always Review

I should state right off the bat that my nostalgia for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is incredibly strong. Mainly for Tommy and all things green ranger, but the rest of the crew still hold a special place in my heart. With that in mind I was somewhat trepidatious regarding the announcement of a Netflix special for the 30th, especially when it became clear that actually only two members of the OG 1993 team would be returning, due to: the untimely death of Thuy Trang in 2001, declination to take part from Amy Jo Johnson (though her character still gets an impactful moment at the end) and Jason David Frank (who later also had an untimely passing after filming had concluded), and legal troubles for Austin St. John.

That being said, they actually ended up with the two best options in many regards, Walter Jones and David Yost:

Frank had been supporting and returning to the show for years through numerous special episodes and once as a full time ranger again - indeed many fans (not this one) were slightly tired of the oversaturation of his character

St John had also returned as a ranger during Zeo, a small role in the Turbo movie, for the 10th anniversary, and most recently in Beast Morphers for a special appearance.

Johnson, while never returning as a ranger, also featured in the Turbo movie, as well as a cameo alongside Frank in the 2017 reboot movie.

Meanwhile, although Yost stuck around until Zeo, neither he nor Jones had returned to Power Rangers since their departure, meaning this would be their first return to spandex in over 25 years. In short, it's their time.

In addition all of the second generation MMP rangers appear in either fully suited (Steve Cardenas and Catherine Sutherland - who also returned for the 25th anniversary alongside Frank) or cameo form (Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch) meaning there's still a whole lot of MMPR rep on show.

As it turns out, this was perhaps the best thing for the special. It allowed the show time to sink its teeth in a little more to Zack and Billy, without over stuffing or stretching the material ( a complaint about the 25th special).

The idea to resurrect Rita Repulsa as Robo Rita is a canny move by the writers, allowing for the nostalgia trip of having the rangers fight their oldest foe, whilst also honouring the canon of later series where Rita was purged of her evil spirit. Said spirit ends up being freed by Billy by accident and inhabits a robot body to take form again. Cue Barbara Goodson's (also returning) throaty smoker's cackle.

So far, so Rangers, however, the decision to have Trini be killed in the opening moments sets a stark contrast from most other Power Rangers media, as does the open use of "kill" and "death" instead of the censor friendly "destroy". The rest of the special doesn't really stray from normal Power Ranger fare but this moment certainly will be a bit of a shock to some.

The other rangers whose actors don't appear do show up in the opening, but are benched fairly early on in classic MMPR fashion: Only depicting them suited up and using soundalikes/archive recordings for their very brief vocals. The writers made the smart decision to not have them speak much at all outside of the odd "hi ya!" and morphing call, which means that it doesn't feel like they are putting words into the mouths of actors that did not wish to be included (as well as helping avoid an uncanny valley situation).

This once again helps to centre the episode on Zack and Billy, their struggles with rangerhood and being surrogate parents to the daughter Trini leaves behind, Minh. Minh's battle with coming to terms with her mother's death and grappling with wanting revenge on Rita forms the centrepiece of the special, anchoring it around this conflict. While on a personal note the lack of green ranger is disappointing, I acknowledge Tommy's over exposure in recent years and the fact that "Once and Always" gets to focus on the original five colours feels earned. It's worth noting here that, in much the same way the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who was more of a celebration of the revived series than the whole 50 year history, so to is "Once and Always" a celebration of MMPR; there are some minor easter egg references to other subsequent series, but if you are expecting cameos from anyone who didn't appear in MMPR, you will be disappointed.

Newcomer Charlie Kersh portrays Minh with an earnest performance that matches the energy of the 90's show. Indeed much of the acting in the episode is very much of that era, over the top lines, slightly wooden delivery, and cheesy dialogue, making the nostalgic viewer feel wonderfully at home. If we'd wanted pathos we wouldn't be watching Power Rangers.

This being said, Yost and Jones, the latter especially, bring a clear sincerity to their roles and clearly have no trouble slipping back into character. Jones delivers some fairly nuanced work considering the subject matter and Yost manages to convey a clear sense of loss and guilt, both for the death of Trini, who sacrificed herself for him, and for accidentally resurrecting Rita.

Sutherland and Cardenas are given less to do, mostly acting as action props, though Sutherland does get a few moments to comment on her marriage to Tommy and being a mother to her son JJ.

The action sequences remain fun and we do get treated to one brief fight with all of the original six rangers and one battle with the use of the power weapons (sadly no use of the power blaster). The finale caps off with a Megazord battle using CGI only slightly less wonky than that which appeared in the original 1995 movie. Once again though, the jankiness only adds to the charm, and while it would have perhaps been better to use a classic suit setup, the cgi manages to perfectly recreate the zord call sequence choreography.

Once the dust has settled we get a classic wind down ending in the juice bar (sadly lacking in an all hands in jump freeze frame) and the episode proper is over, ending a very solid hour of classic Ranger television.

Here's where that Amy Jo Johnson impactful moment comes. The show fades into archive footage of the original six rangers from "Song of Guitardo" where Kimberly, accompanied by Zack, sings "Down the Road", a song written and performed by Amy Jo Johnson herself - originally used as a lament for the loss of the Green Ranger's powers, now a poignant tribute to two departed friends. The camera cuts pointedly to Tommy and Trini, before fading into a tribute card for Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank and I confess the tears started falling for these two talented individuals taken far too soon; the tribute hitting all the harder, if you know that shortly after Jason David Frank's passing, Johnson recorded a heartbreaking nearly 20 minute song session in Frank's memory because he always liked her singing.

In this way "Once and Always" manages to encapsulate everything positive about the Power Rangers franchise: doing your best, fighting for what's right, staying true to your friends and family, as well as serving as a fitting reminder of the power of media and how much a seemingly simple childhood show can mean so much to so many.

[clairelsonao3]

Top 10 Character Essence

It's tag game time again!

@tabswrites and @hollyannewrites challenged (and I do mean challenged) me to name my top ten characters "decided by their essence or meaning to you."

  A challenge to give your Top 10 favourite characters, based on their ESSENCE. They have to be favourite characters that also have a deeper literary value, where you enjoy their specific role in the story, and this means that the list also should exclude characters that would normally count as favourites if for purely nostalgic reasons. They can be from film, tv, or written media, anything.

Thank you! I hope I fulfilled the challenge the way it was meant to be fulfilled!

Although TBH, I can't believe I'm even attempting to tackle this. I have to choose only 10? I think it goes without saying this list is not exhaustive, nor does it represent all of my favorite books/movies/media. I really did try to capture the question by focusing on "essence and meaning" (including how they've influenced my own writing and not just "random characters I like." I also have to attempt not to write an essay for each because we don't want to be here all night.

Charlotte Doyle (The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi) Rich girl in the early 1800s gets on a ship with a mutinous crew and an evil captain, joins the crew, defeats the captain using only her wits, miraculously makes it home, AND THEN DECIDES TO GO BACK TO SEA AND BECOME A SAILOR. I read this all in one sitting one night when I was about 15 (after avoiding it because I thought it looked boring) and then literally decided to reshape my entire life based on it (I'm not kidding). Yes, I actually took up sailing. Also, there's a hot sailor that she obviously has chemistry with but it's left unresolved, and no one has ever written a future fic about it to my knowledge, and that's a CRIME. So yeah, step right up.

John Bender (The Breakfast Club) He's not just the original '80s bad boy with a Dark and Troubled Past, but what most people forget about him is that he's also hilarious. It's a rare combination. Honorary mention to his love interest, Claire, and not just because of her name.

Fantine (Les Miserables by Victor Hugo) - Mostly the book version of her, though she obviously has a showstopping number in the musical as well. She was the sad, angsty character I needed during the most sad, angsty period of my life. She was a poor, lonely urchin who found fleeting love and happiness in the spring, got abandoned and pregnant in the winter -- and it only got worse from there. Also, apropos of nothing, at one point, I wrote a short story featuring a dog by the same name -- who, um, died.

The Artful Dodger/Dodger (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens/Oliver & Company) - I'm including both the human version and the dog version of this character because I love them both (though I actually prefer the Disney movie, lol). They're both thieves with devil-may-care attitudes, with soft spots for those more vulnerable than themselves. Plus, the dog version is Billy Joel, wears sunglasses, and plays piano with his tail, which -- I don't care what anyone says -- will never not be cool.

Satine (Moulin Rouge) - She was the beautiful, sparkling, singing, dancing tragic sex goddess I so badly wanted to be. So much so that as recently as five years ago when I reluctantly dressed up for a Halloween party, I chose her silver-dress-and-top-hat ensemble.

Rick Blaine (Casablanca) The most endlessly quotable character from one of the most endlessly quotable and romantic movies of all time. He sticks his neck out for no one. Except, oops, wait, he does. The OG Hollywood antihero with a Dark and Troubled -- whatever, you know the drill. Plus, he's also my dad's favorite character in his favorite movie (and I discovered it because of him), and so this pick has sentimental meaning for me.

Leah Price (The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver) - When we read this book in high school, she was the least popular character, probably due to her unwavering love and support for her dad, even though he was a singular-focused religious zealot who destroyed his entire family by dragging them into the African jungle in an ill-thought-out missionary trip. And then she married a guy with some of the same qualities (but he was better, thankfully). But for whatever weird reason, I related to her most. Anyway, for class, I wrote and tried to perform a monologue where I played her but forgot 90 percent of my lines. Oh well.

Mary Lennox (The Secret Garden by France Hodgson Burnett, I found the movie version fairly meh) There were a lot of spunky, iconic childhood book heroines to choose from, but she was Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, and so I choose her. (I got told to "smile" a lot as a kid). Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was a Mary/Dickon shipper before I even knew what shipping meant.

Neal Caffrey (White Collar) - Does anyone remember this show? I have no attention span for TV, and this is probably the last scripted show I remember watching every episode of during its original run, which is saying something. Everything I know about being a con artist (in fiction, lol) I learned from this charming, charismatic art-forger-turned-FBI-consultant. I think he also has the honor of being the subject of the first actual fanfic I ever wrote.

Iris Chase Griffin (The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood) I also had to pick one character of my favorite author, so Iris gets the crown. She starts off the story as an old lady looking back to when she was forced to marry some rich asshole instead of the science fiction writer (with a past that was -- wait for it -- Dark and Troubled) who BOTH she and her sister loved, and meanwhile, her sister became a writer and when she died it was discovered that -- oh, just read the goddamn book, I won't spoil it for you here.

Honorable mentions, in no particular order:

Violet Westing (The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin)

Jack Kelly (Newsies the movie, NOT the stage musical)

Turonga Leela (Futurama)

Vicky Austin (The Austins by Madeleine L'Engle)

Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt-Bukater (Titanic) I can't decide between them, so they're getting an HM.

Palaestrio and Milphidippa (Miles Gloriosus by Plautus) Same as above.

Michael Furey (The Dead by James Joyce) Who is, in fact, dead throughout the story -- but being alive wasn't one of the requirements.

I wish I could include a Star Wars character, but could never decide, so let's say, oh, all of them, except that one you hate.

In case the following people want to do what I did and spend several WEEKS on this fascinating but life-ruining (in a good way) tag game: @mysticstarlightduck @enne-uni @kixngiggles @obviousknife + OPEN TAG because you don't even have to be a writer for this one, so I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who wants to chime in!

[2ndbat]

/// Rant: Just a post detailing the things I didn't like in the Beyond comics that I remember or have seen since setting this blog up. I'll probably sandwich some things I did like in here too so it's not all negative. These are all just my opinions. If you like something from this list, cool. You do you, I'll do me.

Okay so starting with things that I read completely through a few years ago. Dick Grayson clones. Not sure why Amanda made these. But the only real thing I personally liked from Hush Beyond was the introduction of a new Catwoman. I also liked that she broke the trope of Catwoman/Batman, making her much more unique to herself. As much as I like Selina/Bruce (and I do), a new generation of something doesn't and shouldn't have to be a carbon copy of the original. Which I think is why I like the cartoon so much. They played with a lot of the same tropes, but they tackled them in different ways. Because Terry isn't Bruce and these villains and problems aren't the same. (except for Viktor)

Next, JLB... Well I have it in my rules and about... but, Zod/Superboy had a great initial backstory. He was the son of Jax-ur and was born in the Phantom zone. Superman and the gang rescue him and Supes adopts him. Would have been great to leave it there. However, they ruined it, the idea of what the Justice Lords actually are, and Wonder Woman all in one fell swoop. Before this arc, these comics were actually going pretty good imo. Please read them and stop as soon as you see Wonder Woman or "Lord" Superman. But then every other comic at the time suddenly was doing something with Earth 3... so I guess maybe they were pressured to as well? Either way this arc sucked. They decided to treat the Justice Lords like Earth 3 characters. Which doesn't work if you actually watched those episodes. Even if you ignore the fact that Luthor's device took their powers AWAY in their episode... The Justice Lords aren't """evil""" versions of the JL. They're versions that go to the extreme to keep people safe. There's a very big difference here in characterization. To add them into the plot and just have them be like --- generic evil superman??? doesn't work. You haven't comprehended anything if that's what you got from the Justice Lord's cartoon plotline.

And they set this up with Wonder Woman from the DCAU having decided to go back to the Justice Lord's universe to help fix things. She's apparently been there the WHOLE time. It's very in Wonder Woman's character to help those in need so I'm okay with her hopping over to set things straight. But she also feels responsibility to her own world, there's no way she'd stay that long EVEN with the romance sub-plot they gave her and Justice Lord's Batman. And any look around my blog should tell you WonderBat is my jam. I go for that in a plotline. Well it helps me hate that plotline more actually, because they had "Lord" Superman kill "Lord" Batman. To stop the fighting "Lord" Superman and Wonder Woman agree to have a baby. That's Zod apparently. Which was squirreled away to the Phantom Zone with Jax-Ur. None of that makes any sense at all ever. It made so little sense it actually makes me really angry. lol. Wonder Woman would never agree to something like that AND "Lord" Superman has never ever indicated that he wanted something like that. Nor do I think he would have killed "Lord" Batman. Considering, the reason they're all the way they are is because they failed to save Wally. HHHH Anyway. Later comic plots I remember hating. Terry is missing and for some reason past/current timeline Tim has the Beyond suit. NGL, if you put anyone besides Terry ( MAYBE Bruce) in the suit, you've lost the plot. You don't get it. Just leave please. I will not see it. Even worse, they made Terry the main villain of that plot line. Brainwashed, but still. :') Not a fan at all of any of this.

Oh there was also a little comic that took place in the past where Barbara revealed to Bruce that she was pregnant with his baby. And Bruce urged her to get an abortion that she didn't want. First off-- I never liked the Bruce/Babs stuff in the cartoon to start with. Second-- Bruce would never. He is so dad coded. :/

And now for things I've seen in passing.

Just getting this out of the way rn--- I assume they've killed Mary McGinnis off due to the boys living with Bruce now and the way Terry talks about her. I don't typically like when series fridge their female characters but, I feel kinda indifferent kinda "Well of course they did, why am I not surprised?" about it. We really didn't get much for Mary in the cartoon besides the fact that she's a normal, caring, single mother. There's not much there. Barely got any time on screen with Terry and most of it was just lecturing him or telling him about whatever chores he needed to do. So maybe that's why it doesn't quite bother me as much as other women's deaths in comics. I still don't particularly like the move, but there are worse things I've seen so far that make me more upset. Probably would have been fine to just have Mary living there with the boys and Bruce instead tbh.

Also weird, it FEELS like everyone and their mother knows Bruce is Batman, the way everyone talks to him. Which is also just weird to me.

Anyway, Damian... Damian.... Where do I start. This one feels like the Justice Lords problem. There's already a set up in the cartoon that would contradict what they did. They had Damian running the LOA from what I can tell. He still had Goliath. Which was nice I'll admit. But 1) Damian wouldn't WANT to run the LOA. 2) I highly doubt Damian would have been okay with what his grandpapa did to his mother. 3) They played it off like Bruce knew about Damian from what I saw. Bruce would never allow Damian to be raised by the LOA if he knew abt him. As I said earlier, Bruce is dad coded.

Then there's Matt. Well I like Robin Matt as a concept. I like the circumstances of it being an emergency as to why he took up the mantle, I like that Bruce recognized that if they didn't train Matt, Matt would try to do the hero stuff on his own. What I didn't like? JOKERS BACK AGAIN BABY, HERE TO BRAINWASH THE NEW ROBIN!!! Seriously, how are you gonna rehash a plotline that was already done LEAGUES better. Please let the clown stay dead!!!!!!!!! That's all I got in me to rant about today. On a nicer note, I still don't know how I feel abt Batwoman, but I like that her design is very Kate Kane but with Nightwing's color palette.

[theestervashti]

"Purim." From Esther 9: 23-28.

Prejudice against Jewish people is an ancient human tradition, but so are the prohibitions against it. One cannot have both. So the text says "this is on your head". An intelligent person can conclude there must not be prejudice of any kind on this planet as a result of the receipt of the Torah, the Gospels, the Quran etc. All of these documents are vehement about this. Thus the passage says "impale your sons upon these," make them fear the Lord:

23 So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them. 

24 For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur (that is, the lot) for their ruin and destruction. 

25 But when the plot came to the king’s attention,[a] he issued written orders that the evil scheme Haman had devised against the Jews should come back onto his own head, and that he and his sons should be impaled on poles. 

26 (Therefore these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Because of everything written in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, 

27 the Jews took it on themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should without fail observe these two days every year, in the way prescribed and at the time appointed. 

28 These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by every family, and in every province and in every city. And these days of Purim should never fail to be celebrated by the Jews—nor should the memory of these days die out among their descendants.

The Values in Gematria are:

v. 23: So the Jews agreed. All persons and organizations that write, speak, or act in a way that is menacing to the Jewish people must be killed at once. The Esther Torah says we do not have to ask for permission to rid the world of the scum that persist in the torment of the Jews.

The Number is 6596, ו‎הטו‎ ‎, "do not genuflect to the enemy."

v. 24: The populists plotted against them. The Number is 9300, טש, tesh, "work, make, create, fulfill, and accomplish." Jews must always keep the principal tenet of the faith called Shabbos in mind.

If we have to wait like spiders for people like Donald Trump, David and Barbara Green, the Marriotts, the Osmonds, the Waltons, and my BFF Karl Rove, the fucking Falwells, well protected monsters to slip up so we can kill them in order to fulfill Shabbos then that is what we must do.

Don't get me started on the Jo Blows.

And it's not a threat, it is an objective.

v. 25: He and his sons should be impaled on poles. The Number is 11411, יאדיא, yadia, ‎"through news, knowledge, information...cognizance."

After it was revealed the Mormons and Co. and their benefactors in the Republican Party dug terror tunnels all over the place, that should have been the beginning of the end of their presences on this planet. We have many many graves to fill.

v. 26: Therefore these days are called Pur, "the coverage." Before and after we kill all these people, we must make sure the world hates them properly, utterly reviles them to make getting rid of them much more fun.

The Number is 11258, יאבהח‎‎ ‎, yabhah, "make them cry."

v. 27: The Jews took it on themselves. The Number is 15803, י״הףג, "they reminisced."

To reminisce is to regress the mind back to the beginning and retrace one's steps to Shabbos and Shabbat. ‎Most of us can't remember a time when the Republican Party was not trying to cause the world trouble, gay and Jewish people in particular. There has never really been the possibility of peace while these persons are allowed to organize.

While politics are a flimsy reason not to try to attain to Shabbos, the purpose of this section of the Book of Esther is to ensure a Jew must neither be a prisoner of his own mind nor in the mind of any other. This is forbidden.

v. 28: These days should be remembered and observed. The Number is 15151, י״האמא‎‎, "the mother."

The mother of humanity is Eve, whose name means "all mankind."

Persons seeking to use populism to separate mankind from itself and create reasons or excuses to commit genocide need to be disposed of at once. The UN requires an effective response to a possible genocide in three days. We have never even once attempted it.