#oops expansion

[commandertartarsmoocher]

Oh hey,

I bet the professor didn't even consider that his sentient AI invention would be capable of complex feelings such as grief.

[Posting both versions because I'm indecisive]

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

An analysis of Alhaitham's egoism in relation to Kaveh

(Update: The essay this is taken from is now uploaded! It can be accessed here and here as as a pdf <3)

Max Stirner's anarchist egoism is speculated to be the basis of Alhaitham's personal egoism, therefore I will be drawing upon Stirner's 'The Unique and Its Property' for this analysis.

Property and power are key principles within this philosophy. The egoist recognises himself as an individual, separate from the general collective of “humanity”, in which concepts such as freedom and property are governed to and over the people, for then the individual is not considered as such, rather they are a part of “humanity”, rather than a whole individual (Stirner, 170). This thinking is demonstrated within Alhaitham’s Story Quest, where he dismantles Siraj’s Hivemind by targeting individuals that compromised the Hive and reminding them of their own beliefs and preferences – the individual in themselves is a whole, and is not a “part” of a system (Stirner, 170).

In this, the egoist governs himself by what he owns and what he wants to own: “ownness is my whole essence and existence, it is myself. I am free from what I am rid of, owner of what I have in my power, what I control. I am at all times and under every circumstance my own”(Stirner, 106). This relates to the concept of freedom, which, for an egoist exists according to having the power to be free of something, for example, being freed of hunger, thirst, or societal expectations (Stirner, 105). This is reflected within Alhaitham’s description: “He lives free – free from the searching eyes of ordinary people,” but also extends to the power to own.

As power is considered something which the egoist owns, property then becomes something which the egoist exerts power over, and in this, can property be made use of by the egoist – all the while, the property remains an independent vessel (Stirner, 162). This is seen within Alhaitham’s view on his vision, in that it is “no more than a useful tool”, as it can be used to serve his own needs, and that since it in his possession, he has obtained it with his own power, it makes no difference to check on it as he continues to retain that power.

In this sense then, Alhaitham has constructed his life around this form of egoism, in that anything he wants, he has, such as his job as the Scribe, his house, the interests he pursues, the people he enjoys. In order to maintain this way of life, he will deal with, or be rid of, anything he deems as "harmful".

With this, the egoist seeks satisfaction in themselves through the satisfaction of another. Ownership, in relation to another person, can become love, which like all things the egoist has power over, is ultimately theirs – as in their love for a person (Stirner, 187), which is given willingly by the egoist, for loving a person is done for the satisfaction that love brings: “But I love them with the awareness of egoism; I love them because love makes me happy, I love because love is natural to me, it pleases me,” (186).

In loving another comes sacrifice, which the egoist can give into without compromising himself, as he himself sets the “purchase price of [his love]” (187) according to the happiness attributed to the loved one, as in return, the egoist shall also receive happiness (186). To enjoy someone, in an egoist fashion, is to be able to sacrifice all possessions and ownerships without foregoing the sense of an individual, of “ownness”, as the egoist would then lose his objectivity:

“I can deny myself countless things to heighten his pleasure, and I can risk for him what would be dearest to me without him, my life, my welfare, my freedom. Indeed, it forms my pleasure and happiness to feast on his pleasure and happiness. But me, myself I do not sacrifice to him, but rather remain an egoist and—enjoy him. If I sacrifice to him everything I would keep without my love for him, that is very easy… But if I sacrifice others to one passion, I still do not…  sacrifice my particular worth, my ownness. Where this nasty incident occurs, love looks no better than any other passion that I blindly obey.” – The Unique and Its Property, 185

It is relevant to note that just as the egoist receives happiness from a loved one’s pleasure, so does an egoist suffer from a loved one’s despair. Just as the egoist would sacrifice something of their own to provide happiness for a loved one in order to exact their own happiness, so too would an egoist sacrifice something, or act, to eradicate the root problem of a loved one’s misery, as this, in turn, would then resolve their own misery:

“If I see the beloved suffering, I suffer with him, and I find no rest until I’ve tried everything to comfort and cheer him…. It doesn’t follow from this that the same thing causes suffering… his tooth gives him pain, but his pain gives me pain. But because I cannot bear the sorrowful crease on the beloved forehead, therefore, then for my sake, I kiss it away. If I didn’t love this person, he could go right on creasing his forehead, that wouldn’t trouble me; I’m only driving away my troubles. – The Unique and Its Property, 186

The phrasing of “driving away… troubles” is particular to note here, due to similar usages of language used within Alhaitham’s Character Stories, in relation to him acting in accordance with his self-governed rules and serving his own self-interest by: “[acting] on his own will and deals with anything that appears harmful in his eyes”.

Kaveh, however, interprets Alhaitham’s egoism as a detached, pragmatic view of humanity, in which the individual isolates themselves not only as a means of prioritisation, but by elevating oneself over others by refusal to intermingle and to cooperate for the benefit of others. Not only is this a harmful opposition to Kaveh’s view of individuals sharing their knowledge and talent in order to pursue a better society, but due to Kaveh’s experience of Alhaitham’s personal egoism, it is harmful to Kaveh personally. Kaveh refuses to prioritise himself over others because he has seen a negative consequence of egoism, in which he has been “cut to the quick” and it has ended one of the few stable relationships in his life.

By Kaveh seeing Alhaitham’s comment about his altruism as malicious, Alhaitham has elevated himself over Kaveh, since Alhaitham does not have the same struggles as him, and has trivialised Kaveh’s trauma. To Kaveh, Alhaitham’s prioritisation of the self actively harms others as it desensitises the self to the emotions of others. Therefore, Kaveh opposes the egoism which Alhaitham advocates for, since he interprets it through his own lived experience. Hence, by Alhaitham asserting egoism over Kaveh as a means of Kaveh prioritising himself, it only reinforces Kaveh to strive to consider the feelings of others, as well as to not prioritise his own way of thinking if it undermines someone else’s.

In actuality, Alhaitham’s frustrations with Kaveh lie in his belief that Kaveh’s talents are incongruous with his values, and that if Kaveh were to prioritise himself, he would save himself suffering and enable himself to discover his “true self”, unrestricted by others placing labels onto him.

This is a personal frustration which Alhaitham would not compromise himself to assert onto a person he was indifferent to, due to his belief of not getting involved with other’s fates. However, he has been observed to ‘subvert’ his own rules to accommodate Kaveh. Through egoism, it can be seen that rather than ‘subverting’ these rules, Alhaitham adheres to them as an egoist, since he sees Kaveh as his mirror, they offer each other a contrasting perspective he believes they need to have a complete, objective vision of the world.

This is necessary for Alhaitham to consider within his own life, and therefore has extended his house to Kaveh, in order to expand his scope of thinking, and to consider perspectives he otherwise would not entertain. Kaveh’s ideals, his beliefs, and his philosophies explicitly interest Alhaitham, in contradiction with Kaveh believing that Alhaitham is disdainful of his perspectives.

In this way, Alhaitham enjoys Kaveh. He willingly pays for some of Kaveh’s tabs; pays for crates of wine for the two of them; and goes out of his way to pursue interactions with Kaveh. Just as Alhaitham is to Kaveh, Kaveh is an old friend, as unchanged in his beliefs as he was in the past and thus is a constant: “the most unshakable part of one's past is a friend that will never change”’.

Alhaitham strives to act in accordance to his own egoism and therefore assesses what “appears harmful” to him, in relation to these rules, so as to be rid of them. This can be extended to Kaveh, as Kaveh falls under what ‘belongs’ to Alhaitham, in the sense that ownership equates to Alhaitham’s enjoyment.

Alhaitham wants to have Kaveh in his life due to the alternate perspective which Kaveh offers him, thus expanding his horizons and granting him knowledge he otherwise would not obtain. As well as this, Kaveh is seen to be considered part of Alhaitham’s way of life that he wants to protect. In line with Stirner’s egoism, it follows that as Alhaitham enjoys Kaveh, as in, ‘owns’ the contentment Kaveh elicits, he therefore is affected by Kaveh’s self-inflicted grievances. Therefore, Alhaitham sees Kaveh’s altruism at the expense of his own wellbeing as something “harmful” to be dealt with, as this not only causes Kaveh inward misery, but also detriments Kaveh finding his “true self” (Alhaitham Character Story 3), which the egoist pursues above all else.

[kaiowut99]

Kite Story Event 2 & Duel Lines Test VS Yuma | Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V TFSP Re-Translation Project (WIP) (Project announcement video/post)

Finished up finalizing my subs for GX 124-125 a few weeks back, so after some other dabbling on the side (like giving best gem boy his voice back and setting some groundwork to expand on that for everyone for a future "deluxe" version of this re-translation [for example, I've been working on expanding the voicetest for all characters getting voices down the line]), I've gotten Kite's story events in TFSP translated! Not a bad story overall for lone wolf Kite here, and it was neat translating lines for people like Tron and Dr. Faker. I also wanted to show off Kite's in-duel lines, and hopefully more use of the anime OST helps keep it from feeling like it runs a bit too long again haha.

With Kite done, I'm off to now finalize my subs for GX 126 [just the one this time, as I'll be doing 127-128 together to lead into 129-130 and Yubel's reveal]; hoping to then come back and work on both Kotori and Rio to knock out ZEXAL, but stay tuned!

[rosenfey]

🌷💀 anyway I beat gw2. safe to say I cried 💀🌷

[min-min-minnie]

...... so i've made it to the part of dawntrail msq where the writing team gleefully reaches over to click my seatbelt into place just as the ride tracks drop off into a sudden 90 degree drop

[wyn0rrific]

drew up some body shape/height comparisons for all my lil warhammy characters !

some info for each of them:

Nyx Lacrymans: chapter-master for a homebrew chapter i have (originally from the Death Guard)

Cain: Flesh Tearers space marine

*?? (I literally dont know what to name him ack): Dark angels space marine

Vitus: Emperor's Children apothecary

*Edit update: his name is Percival!

[frauleiiin]

Oh little they know..

[lonepower]

i'm actually losing it at their expressions

[commandertartarsmoocher]

Tartar, what would u do if one of your sanitized smooched you

Tartar seems to have a strong aversion towards any sort of affection...

[emile-hides]

Like a quadtrillion years ago I talked about a concept I had for a Full Squidbeak Platoon AU where we have about two agents per game, and my OCs I'd made to fill in those gaps. But back then I couldn't draw as well as I can now so I just made them in Splatoon's character creator and left it as that.

But now I CAN draw and now that Splatoon 3 has ended live updates and we've been told Splatoon 4 will be stepping away from these characters, I might as well finally draw and post them, right?

[famewolf]

we're finishing Heavensward tonighttttttt!! the last dungeon was BRUTAL and I wiped 4 times before the boys carried us through in the end. I've loved this expansion so much, it's been so sad and so fucking COOL. the lore hits hard

[sick-ada]

OH YEAH i was thinking about like. au where the inklings and octarians are switched location-wise but it's not just "oh these characters are squids instead of octopus"

so like. the great turf war isn't fought for space on the surface, it's fought for the rights to settle the old human domes, and the inklings win so they get to go to the domes. maybe instead of rising sea levels it's like solar flares or something

idk maybe it's the fucking mole in my brain that likes dark confined spaces more than anything but it kinda recontextualises a lot of shit if the promised land is a safe, cool bunker underground that you're fighting to reach. you struggle through kamabo co chasing the promise of freedom, discover the lie of it, then finally truly reach the promised land and it's just more lies. the screens still imitate the sun you've been living under your entire life, the one you fled

and maybe you don't regret it. maybe you come down here and it's safe and you make new friends and play new sports and it was all worth it. but maybe when you go back to kamabo, you get your memories back, bleached clean from whatever anguish and resentment you held, and you wonder whether your people really lost the great war. if you could have spent these past hundred years appreciating this blessing rather chasing a pale shadow

[chaotic-zora]

WIP - Working so hard on this Sidon & Zora Link piece

[transgenderdoctorwhomst]

my beastie is adorable and sleeping and unaware of the impromptu all-nighter i'm committing

[snailfen]

just finished octo expansion. yuri 👍

[commandertartarsmoocher]

Finished the request of both of our Commander Tartar's interacting with each other for @yourbestpalpercy !

Have you guys ever heard of the spinoff game

Tartar Adventure 2 ?

[it's called that because it's a sequel and there's two of em]