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iconoclast-infidels · 7 days ago

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Dmitry declared his love. How sweet. The realist in her believed it with a side of skepticism to protect both of them just in case all while hoping for the best.

Nico probably also at some point told him Nova didn't trust the church either. It was a complicated relationship considering she was harboring a child of Hell.

"Help how?" She didn't understand how he could help her or what he really meant as he looked like he wanted to reach out for her hands. She didn't resist. She nodded a yes.

He left a moment later and came back with a rosary and a story to match it. She hadn't expected him to bring one so quickly. She looked over the exquisite detail as he explained why it was so sentimental. She ran her fingers gently over the precious metal and beading. It was the idea that he would have given it to Nico if he could actually touch it that touched her.

"I'll take extra care. I'll be sure to hold onto it in his stead."

Then out came a second one that seemed to be sturdier that she could be less delicate with.

"Thank you, really. This will do just fine."

Nico would text back that he'd put that on the list and that it was a good idea giving Dmitry credit for good looking out about the time Nova was saying, "I don't speak Russian either."

She started to smile as he explained the reason for having the dang Vulgate in Russian of all languages. "Clever. How clever you are." She was impressed.

As for why she wanted different versions specifically, "Hmm how do I put this? Anti-Catholics? Yes, Anti-Catholics believe Catholics hide scripture and refuse to translate into any formal language. It goes back to the whole forced conversion of the England. Anyway, the Douay-Rheim's say theirs is supreme because it's based off the Vulgate basically Catholic shit. However, the King James people believe theirs is the shit because it's based on the Textus Receptus and believe theirs was written under divine inspiration. In other words, the King James went straight from Greek to English, as opposed to Greek to Latin to English. This goes a long way in the telephone game of translating.

"The rest of the history of translations beyond that is meaningless to me. What I need is to be able to cross reference because no book can be trusted when there's so much misinformation because I trust no one. What I need is to miss nothing because a translator picked and chose his words to appeal to a certain audience. Religious texts are puzzle pieces full of clues that destroy or protect us if we read carefully enough. I need all the words. I could miss something too valuable.

"For example. Just off the top of my head something so simple and common. Ecclesiastes King James is harder to remember but it's something like 'Is there anything whereof it maybe said, see this is new?' But in the Douy it says 'Nothing under the sun is new.' It's where people get There's nothing new under the sun from. It's just easier to say. I want to not miss a meaning either because of stupid wording. But I need to be able to cross reference because the fucked-up wording is what an exorcist or a witch or summoner that might try to control my son learns to chant and I need to know what's being hurled at him, recognize it, so I know what to counter with. I can't do that if I don't fully understand it. So, I study, and I study a lot."

She was relentless. That's why she looked exhausted. She never let her mind rest even in the hospital. She was always planning for the day she could help again.

As for what else he could help her obtain.

"I was going to ask for the New Revised Standard too just in case. You can never have too many. But just a few things let me think."

While she calmed her mind to think it through, he asked about Nico's name. Oh, that one made her smile. It withered as soon as it grew. It was a sad sort of smile; one filled with disappointment despite a good memory. It was a touchy memory. This was where Dmitry would hear Nova start to open up willingly without being asked. Enough bond had been made. She'd talk here more than she probably had since she'd gotten there.

"It's in combination of his middle. Niccolo Jeremiah. The Victor of the People. That's Niccolo. My people. His people. I didn't want him to forget where he came from, his humanity. Jeremiah means God will uplift."

It looked like it almost hurt her to say those last three words. She took a big breath. "I don't even know if I ever told him what it meant. I can't remember anymore. Memories get so blurry in lock up. He was just a little boy. "

She put her hand on her head trying so hard to remember, "Oh wait, maybe I did? I think I remember him getting mad the story of the Weeping Prophet Jeremiah because he was always such a negative child. His life was so full of hardship he didn't see the point. Pretty sure he's murdered in the end, I forget. Which is contradictory to the name's meaning." She laughed soft recalling her little boy pouting about it once she remembered.

"One of my favorites is from Jeremiah though. It says, well to be specific as we just mentioned, in the Douay-Rheims 'The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?' Another version says, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?' But I remember very specifically the first time I came across it I read, and I don't recall the version, 'The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?' That hit me to the core. Beyond cure is a lot to say for a prophet. What about the word unsearchable in the other? Isn't that what is in every person's word of advice when making a choice? Just search your heart. Follow your heart, right? Even the delivery of 'who can understand it' felt sassy like fuck it instead of the more archaic language tones where the question who can know it seems meant for a preacher to deliver a point there. Stop and speak. God can. Look to God. Always look to God. But I say to you, just be careful when listening to your heart. I think it means in matters of the heart it can't always be trusted. Love isn't what people think it is so we must be careful when listening to our hearts. That's what I think. Look where it got me."

She paused there. Maybe that was a little too revealing of her heart.

She shook her head. "I think I became obsessed with the different versions too in trying to teach Nico. Trying to figure out how to reword them and tell him the stories to some extent without making his ears bleed or sick to his stomach and without sending the wrong message. But know even though it doesn't matter what language it's spoken in the demons are especially sensitive to it being spoken in Latin for some reason."

Her mind had gone back to the different translations, but she wasn't finished speaking on why she chose the name. Here's where the opening up truly began. She glanced up at him in that double checking their safe space first sort of way.

"It wasn't just the meaning of Niccolo. That's why I chose it. As in me. But it wasn't just me involved. It was my favorite of which his father allowed me to choose from back in college. He was my philosophy professor. I didn't know what he was at first. I did by the time he was born, but we'd have so many theological conversations outside of class. Aside from the demonic naming he needed a name for while he was on earth and he wanted it to be named after a nod to some our best talks, places we hit an impasse in ways of thinking. Niccolò Machiavelli was one we went back to many times. So, he finds great pride in making me name my son after a man whose reputation is that of an atheist tyrannical cynic. That's why I find great pleasure in knowing the ironic meaning of the name.

"I find a lot of irony in the name actually. People don't fear Machiavellian concepts like they once did. People now use The Prince he wrote as a guide to understanding evil, so the poor have a handbook. They understand what the rich in power are doing to them if they educate themselves. Sadly, it's very stated it's only those who seek shelter in the blindness of their churches who the evil can overpower. It's all written there step by step how to be corrupt and stay in power by using religion in politics when it's meant to be separated all the way back in the 1600's and still people stay blind in their pews voting republican as the book plainly reveals. Every time I see anything good happen in the world of politics morally I think that's a vote passed for Nico. Someone paid attention."

So who was Nova? Right then she let Dmitry know. She was the person who named her son after everything immoral while hoping he was going to see not everything was what it seemed. A handbook for evil could be the guidebook for the uprising too. It was a lot to put on one little boy. Maybe too much. The heavy hopes of parents that might burden children with them. But, what could Nova do either? She was only human.

Forgive me.

If there was one thing angel ears heard, it was prayers. He said nothing, but the words and the emotion behind them reached deep in his soul, right where it mattered the most. It wasn't his place to forgive her; that wasn't what she needed from him. He could, however, keep his promise — the same vow he'd made before Samael: to save Nico. Dmitry was not consciously aware of this calling he'd accepted, but he nonetheless acted on it in everything he did.

Even in suffering. Even in his patience while Nico figured things out. He was patient with Nico and he was gentle, even when it hurt. Especially when it hurt.

Nova saw it: he loved Nico.

The way she warned him about Nico was received as approval. Oh, he knew she meant it, he knew it was serious. But it also sounded, to him, like approval. He gave her a soft grin and crossed his heart with his pinky finger in the most serious of promises. "I'll love him forever, no matter what. Forever."

Nova was right; there was conflict. But Dmitry did mean his words seriously, too. It was no idle promise, no joke. He had framed it with the lighthearted demeanor he often kept, but he meant it as seriously as he loved the stars. Whether Nico would be able to understand it in the future, even through his self-exile in Russia, he loved. The anger would come from love, from the refusal to let go; not out of rejection nor hate.

Dmitry tilted his head, listening to her request for the rosary and the Bibles. That made sense, too, though he almost hadn't been expecting it either. He remembered distantly that Nico had once mentioned how she'd tried to teach him. He reached for her hands again, to comfort her, and to get her attention. He felt the turmoil, and he still wasn't sure what sort of withdrawals to expect her to go through, either.

"Let me help you. Please?" His voice was still quiet, still soft. This was for her, but it was also for himself. He couldn't just stand and watch someone suffer if there was anything he could do to help. He was calm enough that hopefully it would help her too. He didn't himself realize, but part of the urge to reach for her hands was that, in the same way he often accidentally bled his own feelings into others through physical touch when overwhelmed, he could do with the calm.

Now, her actual request. He nodded. "I have something for you, gimme a sec."

Just like that, he wandered off to look through his things and pulled out a drawstring pouch. He pulled the top open and took her hand gently, emptying the contents into it. "This is sentimental, don't go using it for rituals or nothing. It's for you; I'd have given it to him but... So I'm giving it to you, so you know I meant what I said earlier. This one's the one I was holding one night after... doing something I needed to do. I was feeling all sorts of ways, and he just... He understood. That night, he kissed me. I'll never forget the way he kissed me. That's why this one matters."

The night on the hill. Even now he still kept the rosary he'd had in his hands then, beads colored with dried blood he'd never dared clean off. It was special. It deserved to be kept.

Then he dug through his pockets and found another rosary, this one less elaborate, more basic. Still blessed, the both of them; he always took care to have them blessed. He gave her the second rosary with a nod. "This one's fair game."

As for the Bibles, he sat on the countertop like she had done earlier and took another drink from the bottle. "Interesting choice in translations. Vulgate, yeah, classic. Gonna take me a while to find but I can get one in print for you." He quickly texted Nico to ask if he was getting Nova a phone, and 'actually just add that to the list if you didn't already'. "Now, mine's in Russian, it's... I figured it would keep Nico from actually reading it by mistake. Told him what it is, of course, but I figured if he can't read it to begin with then it might not be as bad as if it were in English? So I gotta actually get ya the other two. I have to ask, why King James and Douay-Rheims? They're similar. I guess the deuterocanon isn't in the King James, but you can technically get one with it included. I'll get you both though, I'm just curious. Those I can get today. What else do you need?"

And then an afterthought. "Why Niccolo? I mean, his name. Why Niccolo?"

#novaxdmitry

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loneranger0369 · 2 years ago

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Not sure about how much trouble this will get me....

But...

America makes no Sense...

Trump paying hush Money to some person, because he had an extramarital Affair with her. I have no idea about how much of the extra Evidence is actually Trump-created and how much of it is planted. Result - Trump Indicted.

Over 30,000 extremely confidential Emails, that were simply deleted, by Hillary Clinton, yet she is happy out there, destroying even more Lives. No Consequences.

Hunter Biden and his Laptop (with damning Evidence of horrible Crimes, Drugs, Pedophilia and much more), Joe Biden and his History of Transactions with China and other Countries; and much more. No Consequences.

Biden openly said that they are at War with Russia. And that World War has started. Yet people are ok with that.... No Consequences.

I am no fan of Trump, nor of Maga. But he seemed to have positive Relationships with Putin, Kim-Jong-Un and other people. (I am from India. War in rest of the World means War in India also)

Maybe, if Trump gets elected in 2024, then maybe he could somehow come to some Truce/Terms with Putin and stop the Russian Invasion on Ukraine; through which another World War could be prevented.....

But Biden and Co seem to be hellbent on starting another World War....

I would say that the current World Leaders have been extremely patient till now. Previous World Wars started for petty Reasons, when compared with current Events...

Maybe the Democrats expected Trump to be that way since the Beginning of his Term, which is why they might have started that Impeachment Crap right since the Start of his Presidency.

Now, Indictment....

So, Trump may not be President in 2024. So... Russian Invasion of Ukraine will most probably continue...

It doesn't seem that USA actually cares about Ukraine... Recently, Orlando Bloom visited Zelensky... For what exactly...? Movie Actors visiting Presidents casually.. To support..? Who will America send next? Johnny Depp?

"Which Actor is currently not working on any big Projects? Who does some Charity Work occasionally? Oh! Johnny Depp goes to Hospitals and meets his Fans who are suffering with serious Diseases. We could send him. Maybe we can pay him extra if he is willing to takes pictures with Zelensky in the Barracks alongside Ukrainian Soldiers."

In my Language, they call it Crocodile-Tears. Maybe in English too. Definition > Showing extreme sorrow and lots of support, but not meaning any of it sincerely, other than for your own Benefit...

WW1 & WW2 were mostly Nazi Germany and its occupied Countries against USA, UK, Russia and other allied Troops. (Indians fought alongside Germans under the leadership of Subash Chandra Bose; Indians also fought alongside British Soldiers due to the then colonial Rule [Actual Indians, not American Red-Indians])

"Cold War" though between USA and Russia/USSR has been having its negative Effects all over Europe, since the end of WW2. If there is another World War, then Europe could face another catastrophic Loss of Property and Life, as USA and Russia have no land linking each other.... USA could go westwards and fight with Russia from Russia's East. Or Russia could go eastwards and fight USA from USA's West. But, I guess that is not among the Options....

Maybe that is USA's Plan... Wipe Europe off of the World Map, then Dollar would be the most valuable Currency. International Trade is already happening in USD.

Then Establishment of Common/Centralized International Banks. Governed by USA... USD ruling World Economy, USA governing the World Banks; simply put, USA ruling the World...

Benefits of War, for USA

- Exponential Increase in Sale of Weapons (which they love to have and create. #SecondAmmendment)

- Enforcing USD as only Currency of the World

- Ruling the World...?

Is that their Goal..?

How exactly is this different from Hitler's Plan for the world...?

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aggressive-positivity-network · 3 years ago

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Tf2 headcanons? Aw yeah! So let's say a new merc joins the team. They're a total asshole: Cocky, sarcastic, overconfident, refuse help. But both Spy and Scout see right through that, it's a defense mechanism. How do they go about making this person comfortable enough to not be an asshole?

*chanting* HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMFORT HURT COMF

Okay, jokes aside, this is one of my favorite tropes. Maybe I’m too naïve to believe that some people are just mean to be mean, or maybe it’s a sort of comfort to know that even the worst people can be understood, but either way, WOOOOOOOOO!

*****************

An Ass For An Ass

Headcanons

Scout:

To be honest, Scout’s threshold for asshole-ery is pretty high. Growing up with eight brothers will do that to you.

But when the new recruit came around, something immediately rubbed him the wrong way.

Recruit always stole his thunder with the crass jokes and over-the-top displays. Every battle turned into a competition, which messed with Scout’s system of fighting. He never had to focus much on his own team before, and now he had to worry about keeping his own reputation upheld while trying not to get stabbed, shot, or blown up.

Recruit also kept hitting on Miss Pauling - even after reminding them again and again that she was lesbian, and was not and never will be into dudes.

“Come on…you just haven’t been with a real man yet…”

“No, no, I’ve been with a lot of men. Real men. I just wasn’t into any of them. After a while, it was kind of obvious.”

But what really pissed a lot of people off was Recruit’s fighting style.

They were an absolute monster on the field - that’s why they were chosen - but every interaction was treated as some sort of survival scenario.

One would think that would be a good thing, but Recruit was ridiculous.

No matter what the situation was, he was fine, he was okay, he could take it, he could fix it.

He could be killed only inches away from a Medic because he would never yell for one. Sometimes Recruit would even show visible anger at being healed. It got to the point where Medic didn’t heal him at all, and just allowed him to die as to not waste time he could give too more grateful patients.

Missions were even worse.

He followed orders to a T, but Pauling had to beg him to leave a failed mission, or to leave without completely destroying the site.

Everyone just took it as Recruit showing off, or having something to prove as a rookie.

It was annoying, but ultimately harmless in most circumstances.

However, it all came to a head when Recruit tried disengage a sentry by himself and was severely injured.

Both Engineer and Medic, who had had to fix most of Recruit’s past and current recklessness, ripped him a new one, one chewing out after the other.

“What we’re you thinkin’, son?! One crossed wire and you woulda blown the whole base!”

“Zhe only reason you are allowed in my lab at all is because it’s in my contract. Personally, I vould have rather left nature to it…”

Since then, Recruit did exactly as he was told, and nothing else. And most of the team liked it that way.

But Scout recognized some warning signs immediately. Fatigue, near silence except for missions, self-isolation, snapping when people got too close…it all paved the way for a pretty nasty (and, for Scout, very familiar) result.

One night, Recruit was sitting on the balcony, and Scout came out with two bottles - a beer for Recruit and a root beer for himself.

(Scout can only drink on the weekends because one, unlike most, he can’t go to work hung over because his job requires a lot of movement, and two, he has no restraint and can’t stop once he starts.)

“What do you want?”

Scout shrugged. “Depends.”

“On what?!”

“What are ya willin’ to tell me?”

Recruit just looked at the beer and sneered.

“Can’t we just skip this?” Scout said. “Maybe get to the part where you tell me what kinda Sally Sob Story we’re dealin’ with here?”

Recruit looked away.

“Aw, c’mon, don’t tell me you don’t got one. ‘Cause you do. I can see it a mile away. So what happened? Pop leave? Somebody died? Lotta brothers and sisters? Ma had a few too many and smacked ya around?”

Recruit didn’t turn around, but Scout could tell he was crying. He had hit a sore spot. Hard.

“Hey, pal, listen…”

Scout trailed off, then slowly began again.

“…the only reason I know is ‘cause I’ve been through it, ‘kay? Outta everybody I knew, I only trusted me. And that was great when I did a good job, ‘cause I knew I put me there.”

Scout opened his bottle of root beer and took a long swig.

“But when I screwed somethin’ up, it’s like everybody I ever knew just let me down. The one thing I could count on was gone.”

Recruit looked at Scout with tears in his eyes.

“But ya can’t do everything by yourself,” Scout continued. “Believe me. I learned that the hard way.”

Scout laughed, but it was mostly to clear the air. He didn’t get serious very often.

Recruit hadn’t touched his beer, but was leaned over the balcony with his head in his hands.

Scout sighed and looked up at the stars.

“But here’s somethin’ that nobody told me - it gets easier, y’know that? You just gotta relax and cut yourself some slack.”

Recruit shifted uncomfortably. “But the Administrator said…”

“Yeah yeah yeah, I know what she said. Gave ya that whole speech about how bein’ part of the team means discipline and focus and whatever. It’s all bull crap. She don’t know the first thing about bein’ on the field. If she did, why’d she hire us?”

“Sh-she said my perseverance was an asset to the team.”

“Perseverance, my ass. You know what would be an asset to the team? Stayin’ alive for more than fifteen minutes!”

Recruit looked at his feet. He had blinked away his tears, but he still looked on the verge of falling apart.

Scout put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it a little.

“You’re a great fighter, Recruit. You’re one of the best…that’s why you’re here. You got nothin’ to prove to nobody. Not to me, not to the team, not to the Administrator…not even to yourself. You’ve made it, kid. You’ve made it.”

Scout slid his hand off Recruit and started to walk away.

“Hey.”

Scout turned to see Recruit in the process of opening his beer.

“Thanks.”

Scout smiled. “No problem, pal. Plenty more under Demo’s mattress.”

“No, I mean…for that. I needed that tonight.”

“Oh…yeah! Sure. Don’t worry about it.”

Scout went back inside and to his room - but not before checking the cameras on the balcony a few times. Just in case.

Over the next few months, Scout kept helping Recruit break some old bad habits.

Recruit learned to take criticism without getting angry, to leave tanked missions, and to take care of himself.

He still occasionally flirted with Miss Pauling, but it was now more of an inside joke than anything.

Recruit still isn’t perfect - he still cringes a little when he’s healed, and falls back into survival mode when times are stressful - but he is now a much happier, much healthier person.

Spy:

Spy’s asshole wasn’t a merc, per se.

They were more of an informant, usually giving out important facts about locations, missions, and a target’s history.

Sometimes they would even use the Administrator’s PA system to announce new rules and reminders.

This would be perfectly fine - after all, you get kind of tired of hearing the Administrator all the time - except for the fact that Informant was the most sarcastic, most nasally, most apathetic, most matter-of-fact person on earth.

Even outside of a work setting, which was rare because they stayed in their office most of the time, Informant would go out of their way to be as condescending as possible.

Especially to whoever they considered to be in the “less intelligent” category: Heavy, Pyro, Scout, Demo, and Soldier.

To all the “others,” he turned every briefing into a contest to see who knew more at any given time…which, of course, usually meant he won.

“Now, does anyone know where his address is? Come on, any takers? Yeah, I thought so.”

Unlike Recruit, which would only warrant a few grumbles here and there from the team, Informant was the subject of a lot of hissed complaints and terrible rants from even the calmest of members.

Informant was the only one who could get under Heavy’s skin - a personal pet peeve of his was being considered less intelligent or less of a human being because English wasn’t his first language, which Informant chose to remind him of constantly.

It began with a few simple jabs at his grammar or word structure, but once Informant figured out that Heavy wouldn’t hurt a fly outside of battle, the taunts grew more and more daring.

Heavy would usually ignore Informant, which would only exacerbate their need to be noticed. This led to some pretty nasty interactions - from spouting the statistics of Russia’s average intelligence to even saying Heavy was a disgrace to his country by being a literature major.

“How’s that Russian literature major treating you? You know - in America.”

Sniper and Medic had tried to set Informant straight, but Heavy refused to accept any help. This was something that was his to bear, and his alone. He knew that they both took their own helping of harassment.

But one day, Informant went a little to far.

He did the one thing you should never do: insult Heavy’s family.

“You mother and sisters can’t do anything more than wait for you. No wonder you’re the only source of income.”

Before he knew it, Informant was against a wall, struggling to breathe, blood running into his eyes.

Heavy walked away after the incident, and told Medic about it, but he refused to heal him. Informant had called Medic a Nazi on more than one occasion.

This, finally, is where Spy comes in.

Spy was walking by Informant’s office, when he heard a strange sound - barely suppressed hiccups and sobs.

Despite his aversion to displays of emotion, the promise of seeing one of his greatest enemies as their lowest was too amusing to resist.

He knocked lightly on the door, then slowly opened it - always the master of drama.

Informant was under their desk, bloodied and bruised, sobbing into their knees.

Spy entered noiselessly, sitting in Informant’s office chair and lighting a cigarette.

It was only when Spy made a dramatic exhale of the smoke that Informant looked up, tears streaking their face.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Spy finally spoke.

“Oh, how the mighty fall. Flown too close to the sun, have we?”

Informant couldn’t do much more than snivel and retreat farther below the desk.

“Who did it?” Spy asked. “I want to give them my regards…and maybe a bottle of wine.”

“H-Heavy…”

“Oh? Well, if anyone can bring him to blows, it’s you.”

Spy put his feet on the desk and continued to blow smoke out of his nose, thinking.

“It’s strange,” he said. “Most offices have at least a few pictures of family. A trip to the beach, perhaps the zoo…?”

He took a quick glance around.

“No children. No army mates. No graduation photos or a large catch at a local lake. The only personal item you have is this…”

Spy picked up a Rubik’s Cube. The plastic still around it crinkled.

“Unused.”

Informant looked at the floor.

“I like to keep my personal and professional life separate.”

Spy pursed his lips and squinted.

“How noble of you. But I don’t think that’s the case. You know what I think, Informant?”

Spy took his feet of the desk and bent down, looking Informant in the eyes.

“I don’t think you have a life.”

Informant’s eyes went wide for a moment, then his face immediately crumpled. Bullseye.

Spy smirked and got up from the chair, starting to leave.

Informant’s sniffling turned into sobbing, and before Spy could put his hand on the doorknob, muffled wailing filled the office.

Spy closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. He was trying not to remember something. But the imagery was too strong.

He remembered hiding under a table, like Informant was. People screaming and cursing at each other in French. His knees all scarred and his nose runny from a cold that should have resolved weeks ago. Waltz music coming from next door, trying to drown out the fighting. Glass breaking. Biting his knuckles so he wouldn’t whimper or cry.

Spy’s hand closed into fist. He took a deep breath, and turned to face Informant again.

“But to be fair…”

He walked towards the desk, putting his hand in his suit pocket. He got on his knees and pulled out a pink handkerchief.

“…I don’t have one either.”

He offered the handkerchief to Informant, who put it to his face, still staring at Spy through red eyes.

The pair were silent for a moment, with Spy putting out his cigarette and lighting a new one while Informant cleaned themselves up.

“But the difference between you and I,” Spy said, his voice wavering a bit, “is that I am a Spy. If my information got into the wrong hands, it could be the end of me and my team.”

He tapped his cigarette on a nearby trash can, letting the ashes fall into it.

“But what are you hiding from?��

Informant took a shaky inhale, the handkerchief still covering his nose and mouth.

“W-what?”

“Why do you feel the need to be, as Scout puts it, a tier five jerkazoid?”

Informant sniffled. “I…I didn’t think I took it that far.”

“Took what that far?”

“I just…snrk…I thought that’s what I had to do to get them to take me seriously.”

Informant laughed, but their heart wasn’t in it.

“I’m five foot four with red hair and freckles. I look more like someone’s Andy doll than a contract killer. I thought maybe if I knew everything…I’d be worth it.”

They shrugged.

“At best, they’d be impressed. At worst, they would never get close enough to me to know the truth: the only reason why I’m here is because I can rattle off a few names and that I had good grades in school because I had nothing better to do.”

Spy’s chest ached. He didn’t know why, but it was a strange feeling to him.

“Mon ami…”

He cleared his throat.

“If half of the team is any indication, you don’t need to be Nikola Tesla to be hired. Hell, the fact you can read is an anomaly in itself. But there is something you must understand…”

Spy cleared his throat again. His voice had gotten quite unstable all of a sudden.

“Intelligence is measured in different ways. Scout could never read even the simplest of children’s books, but his physical intelligence - reflexes, spatial awareness, aim - is phenomenal. Medic would have to put my spine back together if I even attempted to do what he does on the field.”

Informant snickered at the joke, or perhaps the image it conjured.

“And me,” Spy continued. “I can speak almost any language, adjust to any social setting, charm anyone, fool anyone…kill anyone. Just like you, I can remember, and I use the information I absorb mostly to show how superior I am to all my lowly colleagues.”

Spy furrowed his brow and looked away.

“But I know less about myself than even my enemies. I have hidden it so deep within my mind that I can hardly remember…or perhaps would rather not remember…who I was before this mask of mine.”

Informant hesitated. “I…I’m sorry, Spy.”

Spy sneered and puffed a few smoke rings.

“I don’t want your sympathy. I want you to have some self-respect - and respect for my teammates. Because next time you are beaten within an inch of your life, you might catch me in a less generous mood.”

With that, Spy got up, reached into his suit pocket and presented a small MediKit, which he tossed to Informant.

“I’d suggest freshening up before going to any more briefings.”

Informant nodded, and set to work healing himself.

Spy started to leave, then stuck his head back in.

“And hang a few posters, would you? Your office looks like a prison cell.”

Finally, the Frenchman took his leave, adjusting his suit and nodding solemnly to the team members he happened to pass - or scowling at them, depending.

He glanced over the security feed, and once he was satisfied, made his way to his smoking room.

Spy closed the heavy oak door, poured himself a small glass of scotch, and sat down in his chair next to the fireplace.

He put a magazine on his knee and began to flip through the pages, but his gaze soon started to wander.

He closed the magazine, tossed it into the fire, leaned into his hand, and wept.

…So what became of Informant?

Well, after a reluctant heal from Medic and a few well-deserved apologies, Informant began to try and break the cycle of self-sabotage.

The process took a lot longer than Recruit’s did - especially since Informant’s transgressions were a lot more egregious - but, little by little, they began to heal.

A lot of the time, the other mercs would have to tell them to tone it down a bit, or to cut him off completely if necessary.

Informant still almost has a panic attack if he doesn’t have the right papers, and his office is still pretty bare, but he took Spy’s advice - a few AC/DC posters hang on the leftmost wall.

As for Spy, well…he needs to have a talk with Medic.

******************

I am so sorry…this is all so messy and weird. One is so much longer than the other, and I’m not even sure half the dialogue sounds right.

The two headcanons were just typed out at different times, the first where I had less motivation and the second when I had more motivation. This wasn’t on purpose, it just happened.

I hope you still like it, though!

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goldenkamuyhunting · 3 years ago

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Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 288 “A Pleasant Man”

So from a Watsonain perspective I’ve to praise Wilk as it turned out everything went...

yeah, just as he planned it... though Doylistically speaking let me be amazed by how Noda made this wonderful and intricate plot... but let’s start with order.

The story starts with a very useful timeline concerning the events that involved the gold.

There are little things I appreciate more than timelines so I’m extremely grateful to Noda for it.

We move back to the Russian consulate in 1902.

Irenka, one of the Ainu working with Wilk, correctly guesses the government which rules Hokkaido wouldn’t just give them the land, should they show up with the land deed.

Wilk suggests to ask Enomoto Takeaki for help at which the others correctly imply it would be a little hard for them to meet him.

As if this wasn’t difficult enough, Kimuspu informs them the Japanese government is AFTER THE LAND DEED and would steal it before they were to reach Enomoto, which is why they were forced to hide it there.

But then he suggests a Nispa might be able to help to get in touch with Enomoto.

We go back to 1869 and to a much younger Kimuspu, one that looks more like Cikapasi due to how the signs on his face are now more marked.

He explains they used to go to Goryokaku as they negotiated with Enomoto over buying the land, without even knowing the battle of Hakodate would escalate.

Early at the beginning of the story (chap 30) Hijikata lamented how their battle was hampered by the struggle to get funds...

...which seems to hint whatever agreement Enomoto managed to reach with the Ainu, was reached too late.

Anyway, while the others go take part to the negotiation Kimuspu is left behind to take care to give water to the horses and, as he does so he meets Hijikata… who basically behaves like a Sugimoto with a slightly different face...

Hijikata is curious of Kimuspu’s tattoo, he’ll help Kimuspu, is cheerful and modest, admitting all he’s good with are battles, horses and women. Okay, Sugimoto is popular with women but can’t understand them at all while Hijikata was supposedly better at this but whatever, Hijikata really feels like him to me… though I doubt they plan to have them be related.

Anyway Kimuspu doesn’t let him know why they’re there but clearly likes him and finds him a ‘Sawayakana otoko’ (爽やかな男 “pleasant/refreshing/invigorating/clear man”). Later he finds out he’s Hijikata, an Ezo republic commander.

Enomoto keeps the land deed as a secret. I wonder if, should he had won the war, he too would have tried getting it back.

Anyway the Ainu prepare the gold, though they don’t really trust Enomoto.

They’re being too slow though.

The government forces begin their all-out attack.

We’re at June 20 (lunar calendar May 11), 1869, and Hijikata, instead than being killed as history wants, is just nearly killed near the Ippongi Kanmon but manages to drag himself back despite the wounds...

...and is helped by Kimuspu, despite his comrades being against it. In order to give them a reason to care about Hijikata, Kimuspu reminds them he’s Enomoto’s comrades but it’s clear he’s not helping him just for that.

Kimuspu should have been a nice person, it fits he’s Cikapasi’s grandfather.

Anyway he brings Hijikata in one of the house left empty when its owners evacuated, so as not to let Hijikata be found by soldiers.

When Hijikata awakes, he’s reached by the news the Kaitenmaru was also destroyed by fire (always on June 20) and thinks they should protect the fortress Benten Daiba as Goryokaku will surely fall due to the bombing of the ships, but Kimuspu tells him the day before, (June 24th) while he was unconscious, the fortress surrendered. This means we’re at the 25th. Goryokaku will surrender the 27th.

At this Hijikata likely understands they’ve no more hope to fight and asks Kimuspu to bring him to mount Hakodate, apparently to a statue of Kannon. Hijikata, dressed up as an Ainu to disguise himself, doesn’t manage to explain why he wanted to go there as the bombing on Goryokaku resumes and then they’re found by soldiers, who recognize Hijikata.

Kimuspu, gets in between them and Hijikata. He explains his action saying he was desperate because he figured the Ainu would lose the land of the republic of Ezo. Although he manages to push the rifle away from Hijikata, the soldier fires anyway and kills one of the Ain that were with Kimuspu.

At this Hijikata tells him to stop or they all would be killed and let the guards take him away. Kimuspu who had been pushed on the ground, stares at the dead Ainu in shock but he’s evidently released later on as it’s only Hijikata who’s carried away, apologizing to them and promising he won’t forget the debt he owns to them.

Kimuspu explains how, out of guilt for letting the soldiers take Hijikata, he couldn’t tell Enomoto how the latter survived. However, when he tries to find information on Hijikata’s fate no one wants to say he was caught or executed and, several years later he begins hearing rumors about Hijikata having been looked in a prison, an ex-warden even confirming this. So Kimuspu is sure Hijikata is alive.

Ratci adds in he also hears rumors about Hijikata being alive and helping to build the convict road.

Anyway they work up in their mind that Hijikata could get their message to Enomoto. How since he’s a prisoner those survival they’re basically hiding? Well, Oskeporo suggests they could pretend to be wardens and break him out. It’s worth to mention by then Hijikata was already in Abashiri so making him escape isn’t as easy as they make it out… but, on the other side, I do wonder if this was all part of Wilk’s plan. I mean, he and the other Ainu were hiding near to where there were those ‘prison lodges’ in which Inudou kept laborers confined… and, when the other Ainu die Wilk rushes there and have himself being arrested, asking to give Inudou the message he killed 7 Ainu and knows the location to the Ainu hidden gold.

I mean, at a first glance it seemed he did it merely to escape from Tsurumi… but maybe his goal was reaching Abashiri and getting into contact with Hijikata in the first place so as to use the whole incident with the Ainut o carry on his plan.

We see him repeating Hijikata’s name with a thoughtful expression after all…

...and then Kimuspu claims he knows a good spot to hide the gold, the good spot being the well. As they place the gold inside the well, one of them guarding the group in the distance, Kimuspu explains the last time they met Enomoto he saw the well being covered with dirt, so the Meiji government might not have noticed it existed. As a result the Ainu hid the gold there and starts planning an uprising among the Ainu.

So yes, they wanted to fight with weapons the Japanese government, not just use the land deed to have the land pacifically.

Wilk also thinks if Hijikata hadn’t forgotten his debt, he should repay the Ainu of the future. Honestly I think he should repay only Kimuspu… as Kimuspu’s Ainu friends back then helped him solely because he was Enomoto’s friend and they were making business with him but whatever, we know how Wilk is, for him the Ainu’s cause is the only one that matter… though from how he speaks he seems to link ‘Ainu of the future’ to Asirpa, whose name means woman of the future. So he basically is saying Hijikata should help his daughter.

The flashback ends here and the visual is pretty good because it moves from Wilk looking down in the well to Asirpa looking up from the well, as if to give the illusion she and Wilk could see each other… but the one looking down in the well this time is Hijikata, who likely means to repay his debt anyway.

And so that’s the story of how Hijikata and Wilk connected the whole horse kanji with a well whose existence only the two of them knew.

I’ll be honest, on one side I’m not overly fond of all this background exposition as it’s just that, exposition with little personal drama (I mean, Kimuspu was clearly grief stricken when the soldiers try to arrest Hijikata and, in effort to stop them, he inadvertently cause one of his friends to get killed… but this isn’t really explored… at most it’s exploited by Wilk) but, on the other side, I’m amazed by how Noda came up with such an intricate plot.

I mean, the meeting between Nopperabou and Hijikata seemed casual, they were merely two prisoners in the same prison… and Wilk trusting Hijikata to take care of Asirpa and carrying on all that plan seemed a risky bet based on circumstances but now it turns out Hijikata was ALWAYS part of the plan and the code was made keeping not only Asirpa but he too into consideration because Wilk clearly assumed Asirpa wouldn’t accomplish anything with the land deed without Hijikata’s support and the hideout of the gold is basically a jab at Hijikata’s moral sense so as to remind him Ainu (well, ONE Ainu) helped him so he should help them as well.

So while a side of me is ‘well, I don’t really care about this little sidestory per se as it’s just exposition and not emotionally engaging…’ the other side is ‘oh my this man actually planned all those plot details so damn carefully I’m amazed! I love him! This is just great writing!’

Oh well, I hope everyone else is enjoying how the story is revealing itself as much as I’m doing because, really, I’m having lot of fun! I love to see such a well thought plot! This is such a masterful work!

Anyway, see you all to the next chapter!

#Golden Kamuy #Sugimoto Saichi #Asirpa #Shiraishi Yoshitake #Hijikata Toshizou #Kimuspu #Wilk #Ratci #Oskeporo #Enomoto Takeaki #Siromakur #Irenka #Mesira #Sukuta #Kikuta Toujirou #Tsurumi Tokushirou #Koito Otonoshin #Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories

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iwanttorunfree · 3 years ago

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I'm not super in the loop, but in how are alaska and hawaii depicted and why do you dislike it?

Oh boy, where do I even start?

I'll start with Alaska, the two main versions I've seen are a little girl who's a Rusame love child that loves Russia, and the other being a teenager Alaska that hates Russia due to teenage angst. Both versions are usually a Rusame lovechild which is inaccurate, to say the least, but I'll go over what's wrong with each version.

Little Girl Version, there are some changes to this version here and there but this version usually loves America and Russia a lot and is almost always a Rusame lovechild. Now shipping Rusame isn't wrong, in fact, I like the ship a lot myself but this version of Alaska is almost always so the creator has an excuse to ship the two world powers or so they can write an angst Rusame fic, and I hate this version individually because I can't believe I have to say it but... you shouldn't use a group of people's history and identity to push a ship between two fictional characters. It's a little fucked up in my opinion.

Angsty Teen Version, this one usually starts their life as a little girl version minus loving America (Kinda) but becoming jaded after Russia sells them. They usually pretend to not like America but usually do love them. This version is usually just an angsty teen going through a phase of hating both of her parents. This version is also occasionally a Rusame lovechild. They, similar to the little girl version, love Russia and America but act like she doesn't. She usually hates Russia for abandoning her. This one annoys me a little less than the most popular version cause at least Alaska somewhat hates Russia. But regardless it is still wrong.

Lastly, both of these versions are nice characters for something that isn't a group of people. Alaska had its own cultures long before either Russia or America came around so making them a Rusame lovechild is questionable. Alaska and Russia also have a long and violent history with one another so making Alaska be a child that secretly loves Russia makes no sense. The Alaskan tribes that interacted with the Russian Empire were treated awfully. Massacres and genocides were carried out against these tribes by both America and Russia. Cultures were destroyed by these two. Children were kidnapped and raised in Servitude. The most common versions of Alaska are usually made with little care for the actual history of the land so Rusame shippers can have their lovechild mascot which is majorly fucked up.

Now Hawaii, her character in the fandom has its own set of problems but she usually shares the same problem as the first version of Alaska that I mentioned. She's most commonly depicted as a little girl who adores America and calls him dad. People also always dramatize the hell out of the angst part when Japan goes, "Oh no! I bombed a child!" This version occasionally is an AmePan lovechild and is really made for drama. They usually completely ignore history so the Hawaiian Kingdom isn't mentioned at all and we're just expected to believe that a culture that has existed for a thousand years is a child of America which also just makes no sense. Though occasionally I can accept making Hawaii a child when you make her and the Hawaiian Kingdom two distinctive personifications, that is the only time I'll somewhat excuse-making Hawaii younger than America but even this version has loving America too much thing and he's usually the father of her. If anything the relationship shouldn't be "UwU don't worry Princess I'll protect you from anything" but a more awkward and tense relationship rather than a sugary sweet nothing's wrong here. Honestly, Hawaii is a victim of imperialism by America. The culture was suppressed for multiple years till they decided to make money off it with no real respect for the history or the culture behind it. The history is ignored and suppressed and whenever a Hawaiian says, "Hey dude that was really fucked up" hundreds of boohoo you lost and it was a fair fight or it happened a long time ago comments start flooding in. Hell, the Native Hawaiians are still being badly hurt by all of this. The effects of America's actions even though they happened a hundred years ago still affect the people there. Sure the Hawaiian language isn't banned in schools anymore but the language is still endangered with 24,000 native speakers but one good thing is that the number of speakers is rising again, just to add one nugget of positivity. The Native Hawaiian population was recently growing again but in 2020 the population decreased again most likely due to Covid. The effects of what happened are still hurting the Hawaiian people. Even the Native Hawaiin's culture is at risk due to it being suppressed by the US for so long and now being profited off while Native Hawaiian get poorer and their land gets stolen.

Basically, my main problem is that Alaska and Hawaii don't exist to make America look better or for shipping purposes. These are two states with long and complex histories that shouldn't be ignored so you can write a happy family fanfic. It's just incorrect and sometimes downright disrespectful. Most of these people don't mean to cause harm but it doesn't change the fact that these interpretations are just incorrect.

#imma end it here but if you want to know and understand it better just study the history of Alaska and Hawaii.#My problems with the statetalia fandom #Alaska isn't a Rusame lovechild #aph alaska #aph hawaii #aph hetalia #aph statetalia #hetalia #statetalia #hws hetalia #hws states #hws statetalia #hws alaska #hws hawaii #ask response

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horrorslashergirl · 4 years ago

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Decebal Avram Chirilă Headcanons

Authors Note: I did some Headcanons for my Romania Original Characters and used a lot of history references to depict his character. I think it turned out to be good, but I am very certain. Also, I have no grudge against other countries and such. This is strictly for my character. I mean; just because you create a character that kills that doesn’t mean you support real life murder or you kill yourself. Good, now that we made that clear. ENJOY!

Rebel with a cause; Outlaw by heart

Decebal is someone that both stands out and can blend in, which is a paradox. He stands out mostly because of his very tall form and handsome eccentric features; basically, when he enters a room he lights it up with his attitude. The blend in part is mostly after the big entrance in a room. He is multilingual and can fake accents, which confuses people. For example, he went to Italy multiple times and the local ones there thought at first he was a foreigner, until Decebal put on the Italian accent, speaking it fluently; the locals were confused. Is he Italian? Doesn't look like it.

He doesn't like uncultured people. He is a man who loves to learn about other countries' histories and culture, to broaden his horizons in this aspect. Knowledge is the second most valuable treasure along with Freedom. He is happy to explain culture and information misunderstandings about his country. 'No, dragă. Romanian isn't a Slavic language. It's a Latin language.' He had to explain this way too many times.

History has put a great impact on Decebal; he loves and hates it at the same time. He loves it because you get valuable lessons out of it; for example, in November 1942 Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November 1942. They quickly encircled an entire German army, more than 220,000 soldiers. In February 1943, after months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, the surviving German forces—only about 91,000 soldiers—surrendered. How did this happen? Stalingrad wasn't an important target, but Hitler wanted to destroy it mostly because of its name that comes from Stalin.... In conclusion, PRIDE destroyed them.

Decebal is anxious around Russians, although he does visit the country, mostly because of Ukraine and Belarus. Decebal is anxious around Russian's because of their history. One issue is that prior to World War I, the Romanians sent their gold reserves to Russia for safekeeping but the Russians did not return the gold after the war. Take it like this; Romania was an ally with Germany and Russia. The German's when they went to brothels, they brought flowers and chocolate, while the Russian beat and raped them. The Romanian women covered themselves with charcoal to make themselves ugly and unattractive to the Russians. Now, Decebal doesn't judge because of your nationality, but if you do prove you are like that, well.... Tough luck. Russia is a nation with power or strength as its national idea and they have repeatedly shown that they do not care about ideals like “legality” or “legitimacy” but respect force and military power only. This trait does not make you popular among your neighbors. Instead, you´re seen as an aggressive jackass who abuses and bullies others.

There are also many reasons why Decebal has anxiety towards Russians, all because of history. Romanians were forced to learn Russian. Romanians who are older still, almost universally, will tell you that they know one phrase in Russian: "Дайте часы!" ("Give me a watch!") Because that's what the Soviet liberating soldiers told every Romanian as they liberated them of their wrist watches (and anything else they fancied) when WW2 ended. Among other things that the Russians liberated from Romanians? The entire Romanian national treasure. Oh, and Moldova. Decebal has Moldovian blood running through his veins. Basically, Romania trusted Russia with its national treasure, Russia being an ally.

Decebal, if he is your ally, won't ever leave you on the battlefield, he is a 'go all the way or die' type. He's tired of how cowardice has affected his country and himself, so he is willing to fight till death. If you have strong beliefs and are passionate about something he will support them. Think of him as a shield of steel.

He hates the dictator-like attitude; he had to endure a lot of that shit and he is in no mood to listen to someone that thinks they're the big bad one just because they induce fear and brutality like an uneducated mindless jackass. Seriously, don't try to impose him with that kind of attitude because at some point his rage will come undone. There's a Romanian saying 'Mi-sa umplut paharul', which basically means that he won't take your shit anymore. Decebal is as scary as he is friendly. You don't wanna see this guy get into that mood. When he gets angry, which rarely happens, there's a cold wind that hits the nape of your neck, a dead silence that makes you wonder what will happen and a shadow casts his face, his almost white eyes illuminating under that shadow. Short story.... If you're the unlucky soul that has angered him, your body will be turned into shish kebab.... very tiny pieces and he will do that oh so slowly.

Getting over these dark vibes, Decebal is a music lover, one of the many things that keep his grin on and his eyes sparkling with life. He has an mp3 player with earphones in the pocket of his jacket and loves to listen to it during the most normal and abnormal times. He will listen to music at night while sitting on the roof of a house/building or..... He will fight with the earphones on and music blasting. He sings, and he is pretty good at it.

Decebal has so many faces that it's hard to really put a label on him. Some see him as a very cultured gentleman with a charismatic personality that brightens every room he enters. Then there are the ones that describe him as a hooligan, a punk, a very vulgar and blunt person who has no shame and mercy. He is really just a way too honest misunderstood guy with a vertebral column that cannot be bend.

He is a guy that appreciates the little things life has to offer. Life during Romanian communism really imprinted on his life. Give him a little piece of bread and he will be grateful to you. The food ration during that time was harsh; no more than half a loaf of bread, not too much meat, or sugar, and so on. Food is a luxury in Decebal's eyes.

Decebal is more used to the night than day, mostly because all his life he spend it in darkness. He spent months in underground jails without seeing the light of the day, losing track of time. Plus the communist government cut off electricity from 6:00 - 8:00 pm each night across the country to preserve energy. He sees in darkness like a cat and his ears are very sensitive.

Decebal loves his home country very much because he knows how much potential this little country has. Romania is Europe’s richest country in gold resources, Romania boasts the world’s largest administrative building, The largest population of brown bears in Europe lives in Romania, The Statue of Decebalus in Orsova is Europe’s largest rock sculpture, The only gold museum in Europe is found in Romania and also Romania has one of the happiest cemeteries on Earth, a reason for why Decebal makes jokes even in the face of death. On each grave there, is written dark humor poetry. Here's an example:

Under this heavy cross

Lies my poor mother in-law

Three more days should she have lived

I would lie, and she would read (this cross).

You, who here are passing by

Not to wake her up please try

Cause’ if she comes back home

She’ll criticise me more.

But I will surely behave

So she’ll not return from grave.

Stay here, my dear mother in-law!

#Decebal Avram Chirilă #Slasher OCs #Original characters #Romanian OC #Killer OC #Headcanons

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handdrawnfantasma · 3 years ago

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thoughts abt space hobo show s12 under the readmore (eps 12x3-12x7 because i already know im going to need a separate post for my thoughts for villa of diodati thru the timeless children and then another one for my s12 thoughts as a whole LMAO)

orphan 55, nikola tesla’s night of terror, fugitive of the judoon, praxeus, can you hear me

first off i have heard that some people didn’t like orphan 55 or praxeus very much because of how anvilicious the climate change message was........ my argument is that Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped and tbh i don’t think either episode was less fun or enjoyable to watch regardless?? i would say that orphan 55 probably carried the concept of it off BETTER, Praxeus featured a LOT of science-speak for a 50-minute episode that kind of threw me out of the story a little bit at times, but there was still a lot to like about both episodes. (if i’m being honest, Praxeus was mostly saved by the one-shot characters. the storyline between Jake and his astronaut boyfriend Got Me and also?? Gabriella?? what a GOOD single-episode character. more of this please)

the writing in 13′s era sure does remain Committed to its themes and to using those themes to foreshadow and support where its overall arc is heading too, huh. like, orphan 55 WORKED because it was the episode that came immediately after spyfall pt 2, where 13 discovers that the Master razed Gallifrey and you get that shot of the destroyed citadel. you then have an episode dealing with a potential future of Earth where it’s a wasteland populated by the mutated remnants of humanity, you have that moment where 13 sees the russian sign in the tunnels and realises what planet this is and then tries to hide that painful truth from the fam (and they of course are having none of it)............ i can’t put into words how and why that Works so well but like, something something the Doctor won’t let herself deal with having lost Gallifrey again and doesn’t want her fam to have to deal with even a POTENTIAL future where they see the truth of Orphan 55 for what it is something something........ OH even the theme of family!! the Fam declaring themselves as 13′s family in spite of how she’s been keeping herself at arms’ length from them, the contrast between THIS found family (and like. the Doctor is always picking up found family, it’s kind of their thing, but if we’re just focusing on THIS particular series), and their original very bad no good quote unquote found family that we are only going to find out about in the series finale, like................... s12 is feeding me all parallels all the time and i’m a sucker for that, i eat it up

what was i talking about. OH YEAH THEMES, the themes of identity and outcasts and people contributing to the progress of society but going unrecognised and unrewarded for it present in Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror............ (the whole. part where he insists he’s an American citizen despite how much vitriol he’s getting, the anecdote Edison tells about him promising a rich reward to the person who fixed that machine and then when Tesla did it only offering him a $10 raise, the fact that the Doctor IMMEDIATELY sees Tesla as a kindred spirit like........ knowing what i know about where the series is going This Was All Very Deliberate)........ the way the identity and the “how much of what we do or don’t know about our own history affects ourselves and our identity and our own perception of that?” themes raised for Yaz in Demons of the Punjab in s11 come back in a very personal way for Thirteen in Fugitive of the Judoon.............. the lies our loved ones tell to us now becoming a very personal and sore point that’s opening up a chasm between 13 and the fam but also affecting the companions’ relationships with their own lives on Earth.......... you really can’t engage with 13′s era unless you are fully on board with the themes it’s been putting down huh. i enjoy this

i also enjoy how the Timeless Child arc has been unfolding??? it’s felt like something very natural and organic and i honestly love how little it’s relied on Arc Words in the way that past doctor who Series Arcs(tm) have. like Spyfall sets it up and then it continues to thread its way throughout s12, sometimes in ways that are more subtle (13′s mood in Orphan 55, Suki and the development of the praxeus cure in Praxeus acting as a thematic callback/call-forward to stuff that will be picked up later), sometimes in ways that are more blatant (the entirety of Fugitive of the Judoon, 13′s nightmare in Can You Hear Me?). like. sometimes you don’t HAVE to hit your audience over the head with your plot arc and wave it around while making big speeches about it, sometimes it can just be a thing that’s more subtly pervasive, and it’s okay if that’s not your bag when it comes to storytelling but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad storytelling lmao. Chibs told you literally in the SECOND EPISODE of s11 that the Timeless Child was gonna be a thing and that it is connected to the Doctor (the ribbon thingies peering into 13′s head and announcing “we see further back! the timeless child [...] we see what’s hidden even from yourself, the outcast, abandoned and unknown”) LIKE. IT’S NOT HIS FAULT IF YOU’RE NOT PICKING UP WHAT HE’S PUTTING DOWN, HE WAS PRETTY BLATANT ABOUT IT LMAOOOOO this is part of the reason why 13′s series definitely work better when viewed as a whole, Chibs is playing SUCH a long game here

i also want to talk about the character development because it’s still so good. Graham and Ryan got the bulk of their character development done already in s11 + Resolution and this means you get to see them really shining with that in s12, but also continuing it?? the difference and development in Ryan especially is so lovely, i love how he’s kind of taken on a sort of role in the adventures that Rose would often take back in 9 and 10′s day, connecting with the people the Fam run into on their adventures, being the most human element and the most in tune with their emotions and the way in which the adventures affect everyone on the TARDIS....... he’s matured so much, i love how positive his character development has been and how much growth is there. i also think it’s really telling how as of 12x7, RYAN is the one worrying the most about how his absence affects his loved ones on Earth. like you can tell he gets so much out of travelling with the Doctor but the fact that he SEES the effect it’s having on his best friend and that this worries him, enough that it shows up in his nightmares?? the fact that the Dregs from Orphan 55 also showed up in his nightmares, showcasing how his travels have affected him but also showing with that simple fact how much he cares about what happens to his own planet now??? GOD i love Ryan Sinclair sooooo much

i don’t have much to say about Graham bc i think his arc was more or less complete in s11, but like, the results of that arc are so great. i love how Graham is more out of his shell and like Ryan does, brings that human element, and is also just. so supportive?? whether it’s talking back to Thomas Edison or offering emotional support and grandad advice to Jake, he’s just. im love him. he can join Wilf in the cool old man companions club

i also LOVE how you can now see Yaz’s character arc properly taking off, like, she got some development back in s11 with seeing her family in Arachnids in the UK, the story about her bullying and depression she shared with Willa in the Witchfinders, and of course with Demons of the Punjab, but in s12 you can really start to see how travelling with the Doctor has given Yaz the sense of purpose that she was looking for when she went into the police (but never quite got), and how she’s become more confident and is taking the lead on adventures, picking up temporary companions of her own, becoming good enough at this that 13 trusts her to handle parts of their adventures alone if Yaz says she can......................... i have meta brewing in my head comparing and contrasting Clara and Yaz because while Yaz is definitely having a bit of a “companion becomes the Doctor” arc, Yaz’s arc feels very very different to Clara’s??? if i had to summarise it as it stands now in my head i would say that Clara becomes the Doctor but in the Worst way possible, because 12 and Clara were wrapped up in each other’s flaws and pushed one another to extremes, whereas because 13 keeps her fam at arm’s length, Yaz kind of has to teach herself how to be more Doctor-like and she does it in her own way....... Yaz embodying more of the ideal of what it means to Be The Doctor whereas Clara ends up being more of the messy reality??? i have no idea what im talking about but i think i have something here

speaking of the Doctor, ALSO still loving 13′s character development this series. love how she’s still trying really REALLY hard to run from her past and to Be The Doctor (she’s REALLY trying so hard) but that is becoming increasingly difficult for her as her past keeps coming back to haunt her, including the bits of it she has literally no idea about. love how you can see the strain of it affecting her relationship with the fam. i’m losing my mind a little bit over a LOT of 13 in Can You Hear Me?, like......... leaving the Fam at home and then seriously considering just taking the TARDIS straight to the time she agreed to pick them up so that she doesn’t have to be alone with herself and her thoughts??? talking to herself when she ends up being places alone??? and yet STILL keeping the fam physically and emotionally at arm’s length and refusing to let them in even though she’s Struggling and they can See she’s Struggling (like?? she’s still keeping her scanners open looking for the Master?? when she’s not with the Fam on adventures she goes back to the ruins of Gallifrey???????? DOCTOR!!!!) this stuff is so telling like....... Doctor Please Seek Help Challenge. (also love how we’re seeing more of the Doctor’s ruthlessness, the way she dealt with the antagonists in NTNOT and CYHM was........ Wow Doctor. love to see that mask continuing to peel off. i think the entire sequence with the Fugitive Doctor tricking Gat into blowing herself up with the laser rifle (while genuinely begging her not to shoot, of course) also gets lumped in here. the Doctor really doesn’t like being confronted with their own “i got clever, started tricking people into taking their own [lives]” part of their M.O huh)

SPEAKING OF GAT, SHE WAS GREAT, i hope Big Finish does stuff with her when they’re allowed to do stuff with things from 13′s era. LOVE seeing examples of Peak Gallifrey Time Lord Bullshit. i want to know EVERYTHING about her history with the Doctor and with Division. (i also laughed when she realised that 13 and ruth!doctor were the same person and she was like EW NO TWO OF THE SAME TIME LORD CAN’T BE IN THE SAME PLACE THAT’S AN ABOMINATION like........ for starters the Doctor has broken the first law of time more times than we can count, for second, how’s that broken web of time treating you)

i think the only other thing i wanted to talk about was Can You Hear Me? and specifically the ending of it because apparently the BBC had to issue an apology about 13 and Graham’s conversation at the end and now that i’ve seen it i’m like................ Annoyed?? like, yeah, 13 didn’t handle it with oodles of emotional intelligence, but when has ANY doctor been good at that. like honestly 10, 11 (ESPECIALLY 11) and 12 have brushed off/treated their companions coming to them with stuff like that much worse than 13 did????? where was the outcry about them??????? 13 was actively listening, she let him talk without interrupting, and then when she was sure he’d said everything he wanted to say she admitted that she KNEW she should be saying something reassuring but that she didn’t know what she SHOULD say, narrating her movements and what was going through her head so that Graham knew she’d been paying attention and just couldn’t handle it well, like................... honestly i liked that a lot. it made sense for the Doctor as a character and especially THIS doctor who isn’t good with anything below surface level but also cares so deeply about her companions?? (13 tries really hard with her companions. like. she keeps them at arm’s length but she REALLY wants them to be safe and to enjoy their travels with her, and not all of that stems from her desire for them to like her) and like on a personal level, i also liked it bc it’s so rare to see a depiction of a character in fiction who Cares but isn’t good at reassuring words. there’s so much pressure to Talk about things these days and like....... some people just aren’t good at Talking, some people deal with things differently, and some people offer support in a way that isn’t Words? like one of my best friends is USELESS with words but she’s still the person i sobbed down the phone to when i was having relationship issues, bc i knew she would listen and she cared and that mattered more than having someone who would Say all the Right(tm) things........................................... i dunno i am just Annoyed at people bc that conversation and that moment really hit different for me in a way that touched me

WHY DO THESE KEEP GETTING SO LONG. chris chibnall i am sueing you for damages, ie making me care about doctor who again

#fel livebagels the space hobo show #sometimes i have thoughts apparently

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years ago

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COMPARE & CONTRAST: Birth Of A Nation vs Gone With The Wind vs The General

TRIGGER WARNING: Talking about race in American culture and movies, so some readers may want to brace themselves (looking at you, wypipo).

. . .

Confining “classic films” to movies that: Demonstrate technical expertise, and Influenced other films and creators

-- we have three (and only three) movies about the American Civil War we can safely put in the classic bin.

Before we go further, let’s restate the obvious: A film’s impact in the medium of motion pictures is separate from its impact on the culture as a whole.

Case in point: Leni Riefenstahl’s The Triumph Of The Will is a perfect textbook example of how to stage massive crowd scenes for maximum visual impact, and how to promote individuals and ideas in purely cinematic terms.

It also contributed mightily to the Nazis’ rise to power, their subsequent wars of conquest, and the deaths directly and indirectly of tens of millions of human beings.

It’s important to know The Triumph Of The Will exists and why it’s important in film and cultural and political history, but you need never subject yourself to its vile hate mongering.

With that in mind, let us proceed.

. . .

Here are the three bona fide classic movies about the American Civil War:

The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

The General (1926)

They are all problematic for the same reason: They embrace the “lost cause” myth of Southern white supremacists.

The Birth Of A Nation is by far the worst offender of the trio, helping to restart the Ku Klux Klan and promulgate jim crow for decades to come.

Director D.W. Griffith was a Southern boy, Kentucky born with a father who served as a colonel in the Confederate army (Kentucky, a border slave state, tried to stay neutral at the beginning of the Civil War, then leaned heavily towards secession, but by 1862 threw its lot in with the Union).

Griffith bought into the lost cause myth heavily, and The Birth Of A Nation explicitly states African-Americans are fit only for slavery, becoming a murderous / rapacious mob once freed, and the Ku Klux Klan were gallant heroes attempting to turn this tide.

Griffith tries to have it both ways, depicting Abraham Lincoln as a thoughtful and compassionate leader who would have treated the South better had he survived (ignoring the fact Andrew Johnson did everything in his power to prevent the Union from holding the South accountable, and that Lincoln’s assassin was a Southerner who killed him in revenge after the war ended).

There can be no denying Griffith’s enormous talents as a film maker (again, separating thematic content from the technical expertise). While the Hollywood publicity machine was quick to claim The Birth Of A Nation was the first feature length film (i.e., 65 minutes or more), the truth is the Australians, the Chinese, the English, the French, the Italians, the Japanese, and the Russians all made feature films long before Griffith, and Griffith wasn’t even the first American to make a feature but was preceded by at least a half a dozen other film makers.

What Griffith was, however, was a master synthesis of all the techniques that preceded him. Griffith made movies better than anyone else of his era, and his best films are still eminently watchable to this day.

That’s what makes The Birth Of A Nation so harmful and destructive: Like the Riefenstahl film, it seduced common audiences into complacency while stirring the worst people to action.

It’s a film whose final cost is not measured in dollars but in innocent blood and tears.

Griffith wasn’t stupid, and while he might have felt personally immune to the criticism of his racist attitudes, he was savvy enough to recognize publicly embracing them would not serve his career well. He followed The Birth Of A Nation with Intolerance, an epic that jumps around in its story lines like a Tarantino film, and in later movies displayed a far gentler albeit still patronizing attitude towards African-Americans.

But the damage was done, the lost cause myth cemented into not just the Southern psyche but white America in general.

Like The Triumph Of The Will, I would never recommend The Birth Of A Nation as a “must see” film to anyone. If you’re a film historian and you want to subject yourself to this cancer, that’s your choice, but if you’re a student of film there’s nothing Griffith did technically or artistically in this movie that he didn’t do better in his later efforts, and other film makers have since emulated his innovations and built upon them.

. . .

For many decades Gone With The Wind was celebrated as the pinnacle of American film making, but once the romantic blinders were removed we see it for what it is: An over long, over blown epic that promulgates what we now recognize as white supremacy, classism, and rape culture.

And while it uses every technical trick in the book, it doesn’t use them as well as Orson Welles did a year later with Citizen Kane.

Gone With The Wind is really two movies: A well made Civil War epic and its lackluster Reconstruction sequel.

They should have ended the movie with “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!” (Seriously. The only two memorable scenes in the second half other than “I don’t give a damn” both center around Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses.)

Again, let’s emphasize that a technically well made movie does not excuse bad intentions in thematic content.

Gone With The Wind is a rip-roaring bodice-ripping historical novel, admittedly well research and well written by Margaret Mitchell.

She isn’t necessarily writing from a conscious desire to spread the message of white supremacy, but as a Southern gal who grew up in the midst of the lost cause myth, she ends up breathing that message into every line of the book.

The movie version can’t escape that, nor does it try to. There’s a brief scene early on where both Mitchell and the later film makers prefigure the lost cause myth where Rhett Butler explains to the good ol’ boys at the Tara cotillion that they’re about to be brutally decimated by the Union in a war of attrition, but both author and film makers side with the good ol’ boys and support their God given right to throw away their lives and destroy their homes in an attempt to keep enslaving millions of innocent people.

That last part in bold never gets mentioned, does it? As others have observed, Gone With The Wind isn’t antagonistic towards African-Americans, rather it treats them as if they don’t exist other that walking / talking props among the scenery.

In that regard, Gone With The Wind is on par with The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged (only with a far superior writing style). The protagonists of all three books are narcissistic sociopaths who will lie / cheat / steal / blow up buildings because the common folk -- the people who actually put in the grunt labor to make things work -- are nothing but slaves there for the elites’ entitlements, and God (or market forces, take your pick) help them if they ever raise their heads or voices -- much less their hands -- in protest.

Oh, but doesn’t it look gorgeous? As those beautiful rich Technicolor gowns and sets and matte paintings. All those balls and dances. All those smoldering looks. All those flames as Atlanta burns…

There’s the true hero of the story: William Tecumseh Sherman. The mofo cut the Confederacy in half, destroying lines of supply and communication, obliterating any rebels who dared to stand up to him, shortening the war by several months, and freeing tens of thousands of enslaved people in the process.

None of which would have been necessary if a few greedy bastards such as the O’Haras had lived Christian enough lives to say, “Y’know, maybe the way we’re treating these people is wrong…”

Gone With The Wind proved insanely popular, on a scale with The Birth Of A Nation a generation earlier, and once again it made it easier for mainstream middle American whites to turn a blind eye to injustices still being perpetuated on African-Americans of that day.

And it kept playing again and again, one of the very few non-Disney movies to enjoy a substantial re-release schedule, popping up about once every seven years in theaters until the arrival of first cable then VHS.

And it’s still popular, still a steady seller in DVD and BluRay.

That’s in no small part to the skill of both Mitchell and the film makers in hiding the most egregiously problematic elements of the story under a think patina of romanticism. It became a cultural touchstone that everyone knew and everyone could reference, from political cartoons to Carol Burnett skits.

But it’s still racist and white supremacist, saying African-Americans exist only to serve whites.

It’s still classist, saying not all whites are worthy of what the upper class hogs for itself.

It’s still about rape culture, saying all Scarlett needed was one good rape by Rhett Butler to set her straight.

Is it a product of its era?

Absolutely. The same way over the counter heroin at your friendly neighborhood drug store was a product of its era. The same way cocaine laced Coca-Cola was a product of its era.

Just because it wasn’t recognized as a bad idea then means we should still circulate it now.

Compared to The Birth Of A Nation, Gone With The Wind is a far less hate filled work, and one that inspires less immediate harm.

It has inspired harm over several generations by making it easy to overlook the real harm it represents in favor of a romantic antebellum fantasy.

If someone wants to see a film that represents the Hollywood studio system at the height of its creative power, I’d recommend Casablanca or The Wizard Of Oz.

I’d put Gone With The Wind way down on that list, and I’d caution it with caveats, but I would say it represents a good example of the old Hollywood system firing on all eight cylinders.

At least for the first half of the film.

. . .

In most ways, Buster Keaton’s The General is the least problematic of these three films.

In another, it’s as bad as Gone With The Wind.

The good thing about The General is that modern audiences can easily enjoy it.

Buster Keaton chasing after a stolen steam locomotive? What’s not to love?

It’s one of his best comedies and if it’s not the very best, I’d hate to live on the difference.

It certainly lacks the overt racism of The Birth Of A Nation.

In fact, it almost lacks any race at all.

And ironically, that’s what makes it a problem.

In researching this post, I re-watched The General, something I wasn’t willing to do for The Birth Of A Nation or Gone With The Wind.

I re-watched it looking for African-American faces anywhere in the film.

I think I found four.

Two porters lugging a trunk in an early scene at a train station, possibly two small children with their backs turned to the camera at the edge of a crowd about ten minutes later.

That’s it.

In a movie about one of the most crucial events in American history, an event entirely predicated on the issue of the enslavement of millions of African-Americans…that’s it.

Four faces.

Total screen time: Less than a minute.

If critics can justifiably lambast Gone With The Wind for sailing over the bloodied backs of millions of enslaved African-Americans to focus on the luxury liner S.S. Scarlett O’Hara, what can they say about a Civil War movie that almost succeeds in eradicating those enslaved humans from the story?

Paradoxically, this makes The General the safest of these movies to show an unsuspecting audience.

The Civil War is boiled down to the dark uniform army fighting the light uniform army; why they were fighting is never explored in detail.

But the lost cause myth was so prevalent at that point that Keaton and company didn’t need to discuss the causes of the war.

Audiences – even those completely ignorant of U.S. history -- automatically assume the light uniform army are the good guys simply because Buster is on their side.

Buster would never do anything bad, would he?

Of course not!

And so -- =poof!= -- millions of people erased from history.

Top that, Thanos.

To be honest, I don’t know how a modern audience should react to that, in particular an African-American audience.

Disappointment at being culturally short changed again?

Relief at being spared the most egregious stereotyping and white supremacy apologies?

Or just plain enjoy Buster chasing after a stolen locomotive?

The General’s cultural weightlessness helps it become a great film.

It’s a purely cinematic endeavor, with the intertitles used primarily to explain the spies’ and military leaders’ plans and motives, not tell us what Buster is thinking and doing.

For a guy called “the great stone face” Buster could be awfully expressive with his body language, and he needs title cards the least of all the performers in this movie

. . .

So where does that leave us, as a 21st century audience in a 21st century culture?

We can neither deny nor ignore the impact of these three films. Even The Birth Of A Nation, as vile and as hateful as it is, influenced the country and the countries attitudes for a century.

Gone With The Wind feels like something we’ve outgrown, something some audience members can look back on with fondness, but not anything we can fully embrace again.

The General can still make us laugh, and in this case the sin of omission seems far less than the others’ sins of commission.

Learn from the past.

Do better in the future.

#race relations #movies #art #cinema #morals #ethics #politics #Birth Of A Nation #Gone With The Wind #The General #DW Griffith #Buster Keaton

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mori-more · 5 years ago

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I AM MOST DEFINITELY SORRY, BUT....

omgcp twilight!au ????

Eric moves from sunny Madison to rainy Samwell bc he is tired of bullies in his hometown and meets weird Zimmermann family. There are grumpy tall boy Jack, his brothers Shitty, Alexei and Marty (and Kent?????). And their sister Lardo (who dates Shitty.....?.. because they’re not actual siblings...?...)

Eric hangs out with school guys like Chowder, Farmer, Holster and Ransom, but he can’t stop thinking about this weird Zimmermann family

Lardo sees future and Shitty gets used to “vegetarian” life, that’s why they both look high all the time

Zimmermann family moved from Canada few years ago

Jack is rude for the first few weeks, because he tries to push Eric away, bc he thinks it’s for the best

Jack says “Eric, we shouldn’t be friends” and falls for him anyway

and feels PROTECTIVE of him

and all of this because of Eric’s smell. he smells like sun, and peaches, and pies, and just so human

Jack had had hard time with his anxiety just after he was turned into a vampire, but now he controls himself

Eric destroys his control

but then he is kinda reason why Jack controls his vampire instincts so good..?

Jack is still a history nerd

Jack knows like EVERYTHING about XX century history, just as he was there

and Jack sounds like a robot for modern people because he’s from another century

and Jack picks up Eric really easily! (“it’s because you’re vampire?” “no, it’s because you’re tiny” “no i’m not!!”)

JACK SHINES

and Eric jokes about Rihanna — Diamonds

“lion fell in love with the lamb......” (“oh c’mon Jack not a lion you are just a moose”)

and we goes without “personal brand of heroine” quote OK?

“Jack, are you sure you can’t eat my pies? maybe i can make pie with blood....?..... YOUR FAMILY NEVER GONNA LIKE ME WITHOUT A PIE”

AND ZIMMERMANNS PLAY SHINNY ON THE POND DURING SNOW STORMS, BECAUSE THEIR CHECKS AND PUCK HITS ARE TOO LOUD (snow storm is not loud ok maybe but who cares hushhhh)

also Muse — Supermassive Black Hole plays

“since when vampires like hockey?” “It’s canadian pastime”

they all are fast because they’re vampires but Eric is nearly as fast as them

“Eric, i can actually hear you singing Halo from my house out of town”

“Do you really call the most dangerous predator (aka Jack) a “sweetpea”?......”

bonus headcanon for my ukrainian soul (sorry): Alexei Mashkov is actually not Russian but Ukrainian because Bad Bob turned him into a vampire back in Canada in ‘40s and a lot of Ukrainians emigrated to Canada between World Wars

yes Alexei as Emmett (big but cute) and i am thinking.... about..... Kent as Rosemary...... well... just bc he’s blond and bitchy))))) and doesn’t like Eric. initially 😏😏😏

i’m sorry for this idea and my poor English, but i can’t stop thinking about it!

i want to read smth like this soooo badly

#check please #omgcheckplease #jack zimmermann #omgcp #eric bittle #shitty knight #lardo duan #zimmermann #bad bob zimmermann #twilight #vampires au #twilight au #headcanon #alexei mashkov #twilight quote #incorrect twilight quotes

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jbk405 · 3 years ago

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So here’s my more detailed thoughts on Black Widow

It was pretty flawed.

It started strong. It really did. Opening on seemingly-happy suburban life in Ohio actually covered a lot of ground right away. It establishes that the two girls are normal girls, no matter what we see later in the film, and it also answers a lot of those minor nitpick points I saw fans crying about in the earlier movies (”Why doesn’t Natasha have a Russian accent?!?!?!” Apart from the fact that accent coaches exist, now we see she actually spent some of her formative years in the USA and picked up local habits). Some of the people I see on tumblr also got really into The Americans recently so I couldn’t help but giggle a bit as well.

The gunfight escape was a little unnecessary, especially Natasha having to pilot the plane which was just odd, but still I call it a solid opening sequence and it made me excited for the rest of the film.

Unfortunately it went downhill pretty quickly.

The action throughout the rest of the film was over-the-top in ways that don’t make sense for the “normal” or “grounded” character of Black Widow. She’s supposed to be a baseline human being who does what she does through skill, training, and gadgets. Here she takes more damage and physical punishment than Steve Rogers does, and yet is never disabled or impaired for more than a few seconds of limping. She falls out of buildings, gets hit by cars, is caught in explosions, and yet just gets up and keeps walking.

The threat is practically sci-fi. A conspiracy of assassins with mind-control technology operating from a flying fortress. Yes, we know this all exists in the MCU, but so far each character’s films has had them dealing with threats and concepts appropriate to their character. Ant-Man never fought a sorcerer in his films, his plots revolve around Pym technology. Iron Man didn’t fight the Kree in his trilogy, he dealt with geo-politics and corporate exploitation. The Guardians of the Galaxy never came to earth, they stayed in space. So why is Black Widow, ‘the spy’, so far outside of her wheelhouse?

And I am not saying “She’s not good enough to do this!” since she’s crossed over in the Avengers films and the Captain America/Iron Man movies she appeared in, I’m saying this concept shouldn’t have been used for her standalone movie.

The plot was a weird rehash of previous MCU films, and this honestly confuses me the most. Primarily Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Discovering the existence of a powerful secret conspiracy that’s been operating from the shadows, a conspiracy that you thought you had destroyed years ago, with an implacable enemy with personal history as the main enforcer of the bad guys...these story points are almost identical. The climax was beat for beat. Destroying Dreykov’s sky palace standing in for destroying the Insight Helicarriers, Natasha trying to break through the brainwashing of Dreykov’s daughter standing in for Steve trying to break through Bucky’s brainwashing, etc. I tried to be generous to call it an ‘homage’ but these points are so numerous that it just seems lazy.

These story beats, apart from just being copies, also lack any of the oomf of CATWS because we haven’t seen any of this history that they’re referencing. “Dreykov’s daughter” was mentioned once by Loki in The Avengers, literally nine years ago, and hasn’t been explained or discussed since. We had an entire film of Steve and Bucky together before Bucky became The Winter Soldier, plus callbacks afterwards. Internally, the characters don’t have this connection, either. Sure, Natasha has been haunted by 'killing’ Antonia all her life, it’s her greatest regret and the action she’s trying to atone for, but Antonia doesn’t know her. They weren’t childhood friends, they didn’t train together, to Antonia she’s just the person who blew her up. That’s if Antonia even thinks of her at all, since she’s actually under mind control the whole film. Not even “brainwashing” like Bucky was, but actual mind control, so her body is completely under foreign control. Meaning that ultimately all of Natasha’s pleas and attempts to stop the fighting do absolutely nothing because Antonia literally isn’t in there, so she just has to spray her with the anti-mind control spray. And once she does that it ends, so all the pleading was pointless after all.

Stepping back a bit, for all Dreykov’s speeches (And I don’t know if the issue was the writing or the acting, but Dreykov could not pull off these speeches) we never learn what he was doing. What is he using the Widows for? ‘Power’ and ‘Influence’, yes I understand, but how? Is he selling their services as assassins to the people in power around the world? Is he threatening these men with his army of unstoppable killing machines to bend to his will? Did he have the brainwashed young women seduce people for blackmail purposes? The movie never says.

The movie never says a lot, actually. Like why was Aleksei in jail? He says Dreykov betrayed him for no reason, but there must have been some reason. Not necessarily a good one, but something. When he was ranting about the betrayal of it all, why didn’t Natasha say “Oh, please, you were trying to sell him out to SHIELD” or “You stole his favorite car for a joyride” or anything at all. If he didn’t go rogue because his conscience got to him, or he got too greedy, or he messed up on a mission, then what did happen? Why did Dreykov sideline what was apparently a skilled and powerful asset?

And how did Dreykov escape Natasha’s assassination attempt way-back-when? Was he rebuilt by Project T.A.H.I.T.I? Did he have an android duplicate decoy? Was he just not there and Natasha just screwed up because she was so desperate to get him that she wasn’t thinking straight? The movie never says, nor even gives any hint. Natasha comes into the movie believing she killed him, Yelena says “Really? You actually believe you killed him?” and then that’s it. He’s alive after all. There was so much lack of an explanation that for much of the film I believed he was dead and somebody else was posing as him, maybe even his daughter who was actually the one to survive. Nope, he just...didn’t die.

I wanted to like this movie, I really did, but it was poorly thought out and a mashup of concepts from other, better movies.

#Black Widow #MCU #Poor writing #Movies #Film

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hamliet · 5 years ago

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hi hamliet! i just finished dostoyevsky's demons! i was wondering if you could write a little about kirillov, stepan, and stavrogin: it seems like kirillov's thinking and stepan's final speech are the two messages the novel really wants to impart to the reader, but i felt like they were somewhat at odds with one another? kirillov was all about the will of man, while stepan was about God. which one is "right"? and what's stavrogin's final death and overall arc about? thank you so much!

Hello Anon!! Thank you for the ask about my favorite novel, and such an exciting ask too! *breaks into a happy dance*

So I would caution against the interpretation that Dostoyevsky wanted to endorse Kirillov’s message, because I think the opposite is the case. Dostoyevsky is fundamentally existentialist; however, he despised nihilism (as each of his major works take it apart that is present in each of his major works), and that is thus reflected in the framing of Kirillov’s ideas, which were born out of bitter despair. Kirillov, you see, did not want to die.

He simply wanted to matter.

However, he was not convinced he did, despite how kind and genuinely good he was. He begs before his death:

“Let it be comfort. God is necessary and so must exist… But I know He doesn’t and can’t… Surely you must understand that a man with two such ideas can’t go on living?”

For Kirillov, God is the Russian Orthodox version, the one Dostoyevsky very much believed in (in his later years anyways, including when he wrote his major works) as well. Thus, what Kirillov is saying here is that he wants to believe in some kind of sense in this world, a divine maker who is watching over them, who cares about them--but when he looks at the world and how terrible it is, when he sees little children being insulted, when he sees people killing innocents like Shatov, he does not have a way of comprising that with the existence of a loving God. It’s a well known conundrum in theology: the problem of evil.

Demons is entirely about the evil humans beings are capable of when they become possessed by ideologies--yet, Demons also implies that people need to believe in something. Look at Stavrogin and his despair and aimless actions. Look at Pyotr and how his selfishness literally destroys an entire town, including a good man (Shatov) who had forgiven his wife and loved her despite what she had done to him. As Kirillov says:

“Man has done nothing but invent God so as to go on living, and not kill himself; that’s the whole of universal history up till now. I am the first one in the whole history of mankind who would not invent God. Let them know it once for all…

“I am awfully unhappy, for I’m awfully afraid. Terror is the curse of man.… But I will assert my will, I am bound to believe that I don’t believe. I will begin and will make an end of it and open the door, and will save. That’s the only thing that will save mankind and will re-create the next generation physically; for with his present physical nature man can’t get on without his former God, I believe. For three years I’ve been seeking for the attribute of my godhead and I’ve found it; the attribute of my godhead is self-will! That’s all I can do to prove in the highest point my independence and my new terrible freedom. For it is very terrible. I am killing myself to prove my independence and my new terrible freedom.”

Kirillov is terrified to be alone and to be worthless. If there is no God, he believes he is both. However, if he can be brought to utterly control his own life, setting a precedent, that will “save” people by showing them freedom. It’s not a sane theory (Kirillov is decidedly unstable), but it reflects his desperate desire to grasp at meaning in his life, to make himself count. It’s why he even agrees to die and write a note that will help his friends when he does (without knowing Pyotr’s evil schemes).

But the thing is, Kirillov killing himself is an act of nihilism. He does not want to die, as evidenced by how terrified he is during that scene, how he literally bites down on Pyotr’s finger and nearly severs it, because he is so desperately angry that Pyotr is forcing him to do this. And his death accomplishes nothing. There is no freedom and no salvation that comes from him killing himself; not for Pyotr, not for Liza, not for Nikolai, not for anyone.

His death was empty. But his life, his very human fears and need to live, to be worth something, his stunning kindness in a novel that is fundamentally cruel--that is what matters to the reader. His death can’t be regarded as anything other than a tragedy, which is why I’d say that Dostoyevesky is showing the faults in his ideas (while exploring them with empathy) rather than endorsing them.

So, onto Stepan. Remember when I said it was Russian Orthodox Christianity? The faith element is present in all of Dostoyevsky’s works, and is integral to them. I do think Dostoyevsky is endorsing Stepan’s final speech:

“My friends,” he said, “God is necessary to me, if only because He is the only being whom one can love eternally.”...“My immortality is necessary if only because God will not be guilty of injustice and extinguish altogether the flame of love for Him once kindled in my heart. And what is more precious than love? Love is higher than existence, love is the crown of existence; and how is it possible that existence should not be under its dominance? If I have once loved Him and rejoiced in my love, is it possible that He should extinguish me and my joy and bring me to nothingness again? If there is a God, then I am immortal..”

“There is a God, Stepan Trofimovitch, I assure you there is,” Varvara Petrovna implored him. “Give it up, drop all your foolishness for once in your life!”

...

“Oh, I should dearly like to live again!” he exclaimed with an extraordinary rush of energy. “Every minute, every instant of life ought to be a blessing to man … they ought to be, they certainly ought to be! It’s the duty of man to make it so; that’s the law of his nature, which always exists even if hidden.… Oh, I wish I could see Petrusha … and all of them …"...

“The mere fact of the ever present idea that there exists something infinitely more just and more happy than I am fills me through and through with tender ecstasy—and glorifies me—oh, whoever I may be, whatever I have done! What is far more essential for man than personal happiness is to know and to believe at every instant that there is somewhere a perfect and serene happiness for all men and for everything.… The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great. If men are deprived of the infinitely great they will not go on living and will die of despair. The Infinite and the Eternal are as essential for man as the little planet on which he dwells. My friends, all, all: hail to the Great Idea! The Eternal, Infinite Idea! It is essential to every man, whoever he may be, to bow down before what is the Great Idea. Even the stupidest man needs something great. Petrusha … oh, how I want to see them all again! They don’t know, they don’t know that that same Eternal, Grand Idea lies in them all!”

Stepan’s ideas are repeated in The Brothers Karamazov and in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (a fantastic short story!). Dostoyevsky was very much not just an existentialist and a Christian, but a humanist: he believed this life on earth was incomparably valuable, but also the next life was, as well (in contrast to assuming this life is worthless in light of the next, as many theologies in Christianity will proclaim). Stepan is expressing now that the purpose of life is to live and to love--which is meaningful for Stepan’s character and the novel as a whole in two ways: firstly, because Stepan’s denial of his love for Varvara led to a lot of pain and suffering for both of them (as Varvara setting him up with Dasha is what provoked Stepan to beg his son to visit him), and secondly, Stepan’s abandonment of Pyotr as a child is a direct catalyst of the person Pyotr has become. His failure to love his son well is what led to all this tragedy. He now sees it, but it is too late for him to remedy in this life. However, not all is lost: he has a second life he anticipates, and he dies with his love, Varvara, with him, assuring him that there is a hereafter.

On the subject of failure to parent and messed-up children: Stavrogin. He is one of Dostoyevsky’s most complex and disturbing characters. On the one hand, Stavrogin knows right and wrong better than most in the cast; on the other hand, he acts contrary to it because Stavrogin wants to believe that there is no right and wrong, and hence he does more and more ‘wrong’ things in an almost subconscious way to... well, prove his philosophy, like Kirillov, but also to punish himself because much like Kirillov’s beliefs were founded on a contradiction, so are Stavrogin’s. (Shatov says that Stavrogin lives to morally torment himself, and notably he’s the first character who loses his enamorment with Stavorigin, hence I trust his viewpoint.) Also, Stavrogin tells Tikhon that his philosophy is that there is “neither good nor evil,” yet he proves this by acting on things that torment him.

The whole reason people project onto Stavrogin and are drawn to his charisma is because he is empty inside, making him ripe for projection. He is capable of much good and has done some good, but he also is capable of evil (as all characters and people are). Keep in mind that most of the evil Stavrogin is responsible for is through passive means (he foils Stepan here): what he doesn’t do is perhaps more devastating than what he does do. He allows evil to reign and to draw to its tragic conclusions. He sleeps with Liza knowing it will destroy her, but Liza pursued him heavily. He allows Matryosha to commit suicide after he assaults her. He allows Shatov’s death, his wife’s murder, Kirillov’s suicide. He could take action and prevent any of these things, could have even taken responsibility for his evil treatment of Matryosha, but he does not. Instead, he allows her to punish herself because it allows him to continue in his complacent, passively nihilistic philosophy--in fact, it reinforces his philosophy. Good and evil are thus pointless and only lead to ruin, right? These ideas about morality lead to tragedy! He can thus do whatever he wants! (For example, he cites Matryosha believing she has sinned against God--when he’s the one who hurt her--as her reason for her suicide; ie it’s her belief that is the culprit more so than he himself.)

Except, Stavrogin’s moral nihilism fails him. Because in the end, Stavrogin cannot out run his conscience, and commits suicide. Good and evil might just be ideas, or they might not be, but he cannot escape how he feels about them. His feelings are real, and through hurting others he hurts himself, and he cannot live on with such feelings. Society may shape our ideas of what’s right and wrong and it may be twisted and hurt us (for example, Dostoyevsky surely felt society treated women unfairly, especially in matters of sexuality, as we see in how society ruins Liza and Matryosha), but we also cannot heal without each other (for example, Shatov forgiving his wife, and Stepan being able to die with Varvara; in contrast, Stavrogin isolates himself and dies).

So, yeah. I hope that was helpful and not too rambly. Feel free to ask any more questions on the novel/for clarification!

#ask hamliet #demons #dostoyevsky #fyodor dostoyevsky #nikolai stavrogin #alexei kirillov #existentialism #nihilism #humanism #christianity #the possessed #the devils #Бесы #Anonymous

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evilelitest2 · 4 years ago

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Here’s a big question: what exactly is socialism and is it good or bad?

That is a...tricky question. Because there isn’t a single meaning of the word and there is a lot of history behind it. And every time I talk about socialism, socialists get mad at me, so first, a little history, cause there are three separate definitions you can use for what socialism is.

In the years after the French Revolution, you had a large group of the political world who were called “The Radicals” which basically meant that they wanted a democratic system, opposed the monarchy, disliked the Catholic Church, and wanted to modernize their respective nations upon enlightenment lines. But a problem emerged between these people, while they all hated God and the King, they didn’t actually agree on what the ultimate goal was, and it could be roughly divided into the “Political Problem” and the “Social Problem.

The Political problem is what is sometimes known as “Negative Freedom”, or “Freedom From” which is basically protection from the goverment. So it tends to focus on Democratic Representation, Rule of Law, separation between Church and State, Constitutional goverment with a bill of rights, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Right to a fair trial, checks and balances in the goverment, and objection to arbitrary arrest.

The Social Question was “Positive Freedoms” or “Freedom Too” and is about right to work, right to an education, right to housing, right to clothing, and various forms of wellfare or social needs being met.

So in the early 19th century, those who supported Political Rights without Social Rights were called “Liberals” and those who supported Social Rights without necessarily Political Rights were called “Socialists”. These categories were massive though, and kinda cease to be useful once their joint enemies (Absolute monarchs and Doctrinaire Constitutionalism) are defeated, and upon looking at them in detail, they are actually much more complicated. Liberalism is something for a different discussion, but Socialism in the 19th century was basically a grabbag of a bunch of different political ideologies which didn’t have that much in common beyond their contempt for both Absolute Monarchy and Capitalism in favor for valuing the Social Question. And they spent most of their time...endlessly fighting with each other because that is just how the left rolls. So they were all fighting for this called socialism, but each vision of socialism was different.

So that brings ups to definition One. Socialism is a giant grab bag term for about 6 separate major political ideologies, which have very little in common beyond

1) A focus on the Social Question

2) Hatred of both Monarchy and Capitalism

3) Ambivalent (though not necessarily hostile) relationship to the Political Question

I don’t like this definition because it kinda makes...socialism a bit meaningless, though for the record that is why Anarchists, which I personally consider a wholly different political ideology, often claim that they are socialists and get very angry at me when I say they are not.

Eventually Karl Marx shows up and starts making up his own meanings for words, and he argues basically that Socialism is the next “system of production” after Capitalism, but before Communism.

Once the Radicals start to gain some steam though, they start to break into different groups, which i’m massively simplifying here. The three groups all call themselves socialists which is very confusing, but they are

1) marxists/Communists. basically they believe in a strong centralized modernizer state serving as the engine of forcible redistribution of wealth. So using the State to forcibly achieve material equality

2) Anarchist/Social Revolutionaries: Basically believe the best way to achieve a socialist utopia is to have smaller decentralized local communities with little to no centralized power, and the eventual destruction of the state in favor of communal living.

3) Social Democrats/Economists. Basically people who believe that you should fuse Liberalism and Socialism together and rely on steady reform rather than Revolutionary overthrow of the goverment.

So in this telling, Socialism is basically an communal society based on Racial/Gender/Economic egalitarianism, collective control of the resources/wealth/means of production and an active focus on solving the Social Problem, with Anarchism/Marxism/Social Democrats all being different ways of trying to achieve this dream.

Then the Russian Revolution Happened and the Marxists won. Now remmeber, because the term Socialist was super broad and everybody was using it, the early Soviet leaders are calling themselves socialists. But once the Soviet Union went...less than well, a lot of leftist thinkers wanted to claim the label for themselves. So suddenly we have a split, with people who thought the Soviet Union was a good idea being called “Communists” and those who though their ideals were good but their methods were bad called “Socialists”. So they want to redistribute the wealth, destroy capitalism/monarchy, establish communal ownership, create a wellfare state and bring about racial/gender equality, but they don’t want to do it via military dictatorship and a strict Party System.

This is the definition I tend to prefer, since I think Anarchism and Social Democrats have fully moved unto be their own ideologies at this point.

So in my own understanding, Socialism is a wide ranging political philosophy which has a ton of variants, but they tend to agree on the following points

1) Concerned with the Social Problem/Positive Freedom. They think that freedom is impossible without certain material rights, most notably food, housing, clothing, education, work, and healthcare. This one i tend to agree with

2) Not very concerned with, or actively opposed to Negative Freedoms. This isn’t universal among Socialists, but many aren’t that concerned with Negative Freedoms vs. positive Freedoms, and some actively thing Negative Freedom ought to be violated to achieve Positive Freedom. This is usually my biggest issue with Socialism

3) Belief in the fundamental goodness of humanity, and with a Utopian vision for the future, which I tend to be like “WTF” in response, cause I am kinda in opposition to Utopian politics

4) Actively anti Capitalism. Socialists view capitalism as an inherently exploitative system and think dismantling capitalism should be the primary goal.

5) Revolutionary. Socialists want to overturn the system more than they want to steadily reform it (Democratic Socialists are the exception to this)

6) Active redistribution of wealth. Socialists think that is 1% of the population owns 90% of the wealth, you should take their shit and give it to the people. Kind of a an essential part of the egalitarian process. They also tend to support the nationalization of industries rather than privatization.

7) Supporters of a strong centralized goverment which can provide welfare/redistribution/protection to its citizens, though most think the long term goal is something more decentralized.

8) They are usually anti spiritual/Highly Materialist with its focus, though you do get communal Christian Utopians occasionally.

9) Anti Nationalist/Egalitarian/International.

10) Focus on Class inequality as the first problem with social inequality, and a big focus on Unions, Workers Rights, and the Labor movement.

11) Dislike of Private property in favor of communal property

12) Finally they tend to be very anti-traditionalists, socialists tend to believe that conservative ideas are mostly nonsense that keep the workers from working together to overthrow an oppressive political system.

So that is my definition of Socialism, which is super similar to communism but subtly different due to the split of the Russian Revolution.

So is Socialism good or bad? Personally I think most of the socialists ideals are good (though I tend to be more moderate on some things and I am pretty negative towards communal property), but I don’t think socialism ever works on its own. Without also incorporating progressivism, Liberalism and Positivism, I think that Socialism kinda flounders because it is only solving part of the problem. But even beyond that, I don’t really get on board with Socialism because I find it far too...Utopian, it often falls into the trap of being like “Oh if we destroy capitalism everything is solved” and not accounting for the factors that make Socialism possible.

#ask EvilElitest #Socialism #political ideology #Liberalism #social democrate #Social Democracy #Anarchism #Social Revolutionaries #Communism #Lenin

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momo-de-avis · 5 years ago

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Do you have any recommendations of female artists (sculptors and painters)? (I went to a museum and now im salty lmao)

Off the top of my mind, I might remember someone else some time soon:

Sonia Delaunay. My girl LIVED and BREATHED art. She was the type to literally, and I mean wholly, surround herself with art to the point of living inside art. She sewed, made costumes for the theater, she made puppets, dolls, quilts, even furniture. She was an incredible, outstanding painter. She is at the centre of Orphism more so than Robert, her husband, who was more of a cubism guy. Now, from what I gather, a lot of what people say about Sonia in other countries is coupled with her husband, as if you can't talk about her without mentioning him. To a degree, that's correct because the two had a really secure partnership. They were both creators, and they pushed each other. It was incredibly inspiring tbh. But Sonia has her own merit, and in Portugal she is actually way more relevant than Robert bc of the influence she had on our modernist circle.

Lee Krasner. If only people sort of forgot she was Pollock's wife. Her method of creating is fascinating to me cause this girl just destroyed her past work completely, but instead of throwing it in the trash, she reused it to create new works. Art historians in the post modernist era weren't too kind to her, but she's being avenged. She's methodical and clearly puts so much thought into her composition her creative process is fascinating.

Julia Margaret Cameron. This woman is one of my favourite artists in the world. Cameron began taking photographs at 42 years old after she moved to the isle of Wight in England. She was gifted a camera by her daughter who just wanted her mother to be a bit less bored, and Cameron went on to create over 3000 astonishing photographs that are at the core of the pictorialist movement. She was also INCREDIBLY well acquainted of her society. I mean, literally every famous victorian person you can think of, she met them. The majority of famous photographs you can think of? She took them. She was very honest about her work too. Its really endearing because Cameron was so concerned about her own honesty in capturing beauty she didn't give a fuck about the actual mechanics, which resulted in a lot of photographers at the time labelling her "an amateur". She also refused to photograph high society folk that weren't her friends, and mostly photographed her maids. It must be said that Alfred Lord Tennyson absolutely DESPISED every single illustration made for his Idylls of the King, so much artists knew they were in for hell if they were commissioned the book's illustrations. Cameron was the only person Tennyson personally asked to illustrated, and he absolutely adored her work.

Hannah Hoch. I love Dada so it couldn't miss. Hannah Hoch was married to uhhhhh... Huesekbeck I think? I keep forgetting. Either way, she was part of the Berlin Dada group, and they gave her hell for being a woman. Yes, it's nothing short of that: they didn't want her to belong because she was a woman. Especially her husband, who she supported throughout his life and then he died and she was like "lmao maybe you should have made good art, my bitch". Hannah Hoch mostly makes collages, and it's incredible. Its a very poignant work about being a woman in post-Weimar Germany and the societal issues Germany faced after World War I.

Claude Cahun. There's a post I made about her going around so I wont prolong myself but essentially, though she used female pronouns throughout her life, she identified herself as androgynous and created an INCREDIBLE set of photographs. She was a surrealist who became the inspiration for Davie Bowie and Andre Breton lauded this woman breathless. She was also arrested for taking part in the resistance against the Nazis and lived her whole life with another woman who was her partner. Her work focuses tremendously on issues of gender and our perception of our own bodies.

Camille Claudel. Infamously, she is known as Rodin's lover. Camille's story is a very tragic one. She was a tremendously talented sculptor who accumulated patrons throughout her life, and though she had an a rough affair with Rodin (and he was a bit of a dick), he did praise her work and tried very hard to preserve her artwork. The issue was Camille's family, who scorned her and shamed her for being an artist and her life choices, and destroyed a lot of her art after sticking her in a mental institution where she died at like, 70. But Camille's work is... Well, it's beautiful. Its the kind of work you can see that conflict between being a woman in her society while desperate to liberate herself. Though she incorporates Rodin's language, she has her own mark, her own hand, and her own language.

Janet Sobel. She is actually the first person to coin, use and employ the technique of dripping. You know, the one Pollock gets all the praise for? Essentially, Janet Sobel was a grandmother by the time she picked up a paintbrush. She was also a ukranian emigrant with little to no english, and she engaged in art at her son's insistence. When her son Sol Sobel brought his mom's artwork to the major New York circles (she lived in New Jersey), she immediately caught the eye of Peggy Guggenheim, who put together a collective exhibition about female abstract expressionist painters. That exhibition was in 1946. Pollock was there, he msde a remark wbout Sobel's work, and in 1947 you have the first Pollock dripping painting. Do with that information what you will (and also, check for photos of how Sobel painted, it's so adorable and it just explains SO MUCH MORE THE CONCEPT OF ACTION PAINTING THAN POLLOCK). Eventualyl, Sobel stopped painting and disappeared, and there are several factors as to why we forgot her: Pollock was the CIA's bad boy, so yeah; she spoke little english (she befriended Marc Chagall and Mark Rothko bc they both spoke russian and they claimed that being with Sobel felt like being back home) and she developed an allergy to oil painting.

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. We're moving to the french circle here, and yes she is portuguese but she belongs to the french post modernist circle. She's an abstract painter who draws a lot from cityscapes, and I think it's worth taking a look at her work.

Niki de Saint Phalle. Now Niki is incredible. She's mostly known for her Nanas, which are immense outdoors sculptures of women with thick bodies, defying the notion of slenderness imposed by fashion magazines that prevailed in the 50s. She also engages with her own trauma of sexual abuse and explores the notion of sexuality a lot, as well as women's bodies outside the realm of sexuality. At a given point, she collaborated with Jean Tingely a lot so she made a series of kinetic sculptures too.

Martha Rosler. I know you said painting and sculpture and I've already talked about collage lmao but Martha Rosler belongs to the first wave of feminist art and those mostly concern video art, though Rosler is very well known for her collages Bringing the War Home in which she literally brings the Vietnam war home. It's worth looking at her work.

Ana Mendieta. Another tragic story. Ana Mendieta was incredibly worried about the notion of the female body as perceived outside the realm of something sexual and nature. She works a lot with perishable material, works of art that are organic, that is, that will disappear with time. One of her most well known methods is leaving an imprint of her own body on natural surfaces, like a beach, or a field of grass, and then photographing it. Ironically, that was exactly how she died: she fell off I believe it was a 10th floor and onto the hood if a car. There is still speculation about it and everything points towards there having been a fight between her and her partner at the time, Carl Andre, who neighbours believe pushed her out the window. Carl Andre never saw justice and Ana Mendieta died at like 25 years old and at the prime of her career.

Kara Walker. She's a pretty young artist who's creating artworks as we speak and she confronts the notion of blackness with US history so blatantly it becomes monumental. She also makes large scale works to defy this message. If you ask me, she's one of the best artists living today.

Hilma af Klimt. She was a Swedish abstractionist and surrealist who was really focused on the occult, and made monumental paintings that engaged with things like the human psyche.

Lizzie Siddal. Now, Lizzie is better known as the Pre-Raphaelite muse, immortalised in Millais' famous Ophelia, but she was an artist of her own. And not just any artist. John Ruskin tutored her and praised her. In fact, he considered her biggest flaw being her love affair with Rossetti lmao she is very naive and honest about her work, and I would also recommend taking a look at her poetry.

Eleonor Fortescue-Brickdale. I know very little about her, but she was a post pre-raphaelite illustrator who, and this is just me, follows the trend of Julia Margaret Cameron. Her paintings are beautiful and seriously, look at both their work and try to see the similarities hah

Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, two abstract expressionists who developed their own mode of painting and who border the Colour Field Painting (think Rothko).

Tamara de Lempicka. She's the glamour gal. She makes paintings about the glamorous life of high society and is very interesting because she depicts female nudes in a very intimate way. If I am not mistaken, Tamara de Lempicka had relationships with women, so that tells you a lot. She's very cubist in technique, more so than style.

Faith Ringgold. Oh my God, Faith Ringgold is fantastic. She is a black american woman who paints about the experience of being a black woman, but not just paint. She's best known for her Tar Beaches series, which as quilts she stitches while telling the story of a little girl who dreams about a world while spending time on her tar beach, which is the rooftops of the buildings in Harlem. Please do check her work, she is fantastic.

I'll leave well known names out because they are easy to search like Frida Kahlo, Artemisa Gentilleschi, Josefa d'Obidos, Sofonisba Anguissola (these three are located in the late renaissance period, so there's a lot of portraits, religious themes and still life), Mary Cassat, Berthe Morisot (both impressionists who focus on private female themes), Rosa Bonheur (naturalist who makes landscapes mostly), Evelyn de Morgan (post pre-raphaelite). Also check Zinaida Serebriakova, Georgia O'Keeffe, Lavinia Fontana, Louise Bourgeois, Angelika Kauffmann, Elisabetta Sirani, Romaine Brooks, Sophie Tauber-Arp, Varvara Stepanova, Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Leonora Carrington, Vigée le Brun, Yayoi Kusama, Francesca Woodman. Etc. These are like .. top of my head with a quick google search to make sure I wrote the names right haha

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