#people for the most part fundamentally misunderstand wild things and the wild things suffer for it

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

it's good to find someone else with the same opinion on black star like man. it was such a good idea and I loved everything except the characterisation....

YEAH . and like honestly I even liked Akira for the most part! which is really hard to do bc most people get Akira off from how I headcanon him. But his feelings about Akechi are ALL wrong and then Akechi himself is just a huge fucking mess and the biggest reason I finally dropped the fic. I loved the concept of Akira falling unconscious and the Thieves thinking he had a mental shutdown and leaving them leaderless and anguished, it's sooo good. I ended up stealing the idea for a Nanako & Akechi AU I developed (idk what I'm gonna do with it atm it's still in the developing stage and i have too many wips to make it a full fledged fic rn) bc I didn't want it to go completely wasted on black star :P

I think the thing that pissed me off about black star the most was the ending. I DNFed pretty early on but just to make sure I wasn't missing out I skipped to the end and skimmed the final chapter and it's just like. what the fuck? The author gave Akechi a redemption arc and a found family with the Thieves and then decided that's not enough and threw him into jail. Okay. Why.

And it drives me wild (derogatory) bc a lot of people said they liked the fic bc Akechi "paid the consequences for his actions" when like. Huh? Really? Three years in jail except not because he immediately joins the Shadow Ops is not "paying for his crimes." If Akechi got what he deserved he'd be fucking dead. I don't understand people's obsession with punitive justice I just don't! Akechi's suffered enough what he needs is love and an opportunity to rehabilitate and make amends.

(And really, what's the better punishment for Akechi? Jail, which is literally what he wants bc it lets him not have to think about his crimes and the guilt bc he's paying the consequences so what does it matter, or being forced to live and get better and co-exist with the people he hurt most and go through the painful experience of feeling remorse and making friends and self betterment? To me, it's definitely hands down the latter. But the author of black star so fundamentally misunderstands his character they can't get that. Ugh!)

[tysonfurybattlepass]

20 for Aster?

20. What’s their greatest fear? How does it control them?

Aster is terrified of not living up to her potential. Even worse, she isn’t exactly sure what that potential is. Her amur leopard ancestry causes her primarily human family and community to perceive her as superhuman, which not only puts immense pressure on her to perform up to expectations but also distinctly alienates her from her more ‘normal’ human peers. The truth is, she is not a human with superpowers. She is a hybrid between two different types of animals. Her feline physicality comes alongside distinctive feline behavior and needs, which many humans find off-putting and unacceptable despite being perfectly normal in the context of leopard ecology. Thus, actually interacting with Aster shatters the illusion of supernaturality people tend to perceive her through, and they are often left frustrated and disappointed with the real Aster. This is a struggle that a lot of animal species face when integrating into human societies, but specifically hybrids like Aster whose phenotype is fairly humanoid tend to be held to very human expectations which simply aren’t feasible for non-human creatures. Aster is constantly scrambling to get a good grade in socializing, something both possible to achieve and normal to want. Because of this she has severe social anxiety, which fuels her already asocial tendencies as part solitary animal. She also feels a need to hide her feline physicality from people, often refusing to run or climb and purposely pretending to be weaker than she is (and she is by no means weak. have you ever seen a leopard carry an animal bigger than itself up a tree using only its teeth?) to avoid setting expectations or making a spectacle of herself. Because of this self-imposed restriction, she is unable to express natural behaviors in a healthy way, which only adds to her overall stress and results in maladaptive daydreaming and intrusive thoughts.

that was all pretty heavy so here’s some cute concept art of Aster with short hair

[rationalisms]

list of reasons why i hated pacific rim: uprising

this is gonna be a long post so i apologize in advance. it will also have spoilers for the plot of pacific rim: uprising so tread carefully.

look sorry to be That Film Graduate but it was just so hideous... i didn't expect them to be able to replicate del toro's excellent visual work but it's still disappointing that they didn't even try to the point where the two films don't even look like they belong in the same franchise. but more than that, it wasn't even visually appealing on its own terms. the CGI was an absolute mess (you know that "shitty grey rubber tubes flaping around in the ocean" post? that's what the kaiju looked like. like, i literally couldn't even enjoy the giant lizards because they looked so dumb and plastic toy like). the colour grading was so muddy and monotone. apart from the constant misapplied slow mo shots there was zero interesting or unique editing work going on. all of it looked factory processed and boring and that's an absolute shame considering the original was so fantastic partly because it was so successful visually.

apart from that... look, i know pacific rim took money from the military too and was in some ways a pro military plot but uprising really takes the cake. when they showed jaegers being used for law enforcement against civilians (!!!) i figured they were going for a corrupt ppdc villain figure but no, instead we're apparently supposed to think that's a good thing and that the ppdc are still heroes??the jaegers are meant to be a symbol of human ingenuity and spirit and most importantly a symbol of defiance against a predicated fate. to make them into weapons of law enforcement shits on the spirit of the original in every way. and unsurprisingly both protagonists start out not wanting to be part of the military but end up loving it and realizing that it's Family and Good and the entire time we're hit over the head with how reasonable and nice the military people are and with how difficult and obstinate the protags are being for not seeing that. it's a propaganda wet dream and it was actually sickening to watch.

perhaps the most insulting thing was the way they turned mako into an extension of that. she was never just a “cog in the machine” character who passively accepted hierarchies and orders and making her a representative figure of that in uprising is a huge misunderstanding of her character. (also, speaking of mistreating old characters, why the hell is hermann a chemist now?? he's a computer scientist, (quantum) physicist and mathematician and honestly that's already enough specializations. plus, he always looked on the "life sciences" somewhat with disdain. it really just feels like they used him as the stand-in for the Weird Science Guy every sci-fi film needs to have rather than treating him as his own character and it really shows in the writing of him as well, which feels flat and littered with clichés.)

that apologism doesn't just extend to the military sector either but extends to the private sector characters too. while we're initially meant to see liwen shao as an antagonist, it's later revealed she was an innocent pawn of newt's/the precursor's machinations and she gets to have her big hero moment where she saves the protagonists and aww, isn't she a nice lovely lady. a nice lovely lady who wants to fill the world with jaeger drones who, again, act as law enforcement against civilians, as if that wasn't a dystopian nightmare, but hey, nobody cares about that! look at her smile! it's just horrifying? i realize that this sort of propaganda is par for the course in hollywood but uprising puts it on so thickly that it makes you feel like you're choking on it. it borders on parody at times and made me intensely uncomfortable watching it.

the film also suffers badly from overpopulation especially as most of the newly introduced characters are incredibly one-dimensional. there wasn't enough time to focus on all of them enough to make them feel like real people and as a result i didn't care about their fates. i literally can't remember their names for the most part. i thought there couldn't be a more bland and boring blond white guy lead in pacific rim than raleigh becket but scott eastwood's character really takes the cake. did he have a personality? who knows! special shout-out to the female character literally only added as a love interest for the protags (yes, both) who genuinely had absolutely no other role to play otherwise. not even one unrelated scene. g-d, i hate this film.

speaking of that, the film suffered from bad tonal issues not only as a result of the above but also because of incredibly baffling pacing. multiple times there's big dramatic moments where we're meant to care about some characters fate, peaking in one of the cadets dying in the final fight, but none of the people i was with couldn't muster up any energy to care because, again, we didn't even know their names or anything about them and their life. but worse than that, the film doesn't seem to care either. it gives you a few seconds with sad violins and then immediately moves on and the tragic event just never comes up again. perhaps most insultingly this happens when mako dies, for which i still cannot find a reason honestly. it certainly wasn't to change anything about jake's disposition because her death isn't even the pivotal character changing moment for him. we get one short scene of him mourning and then she's literally never mentioned again and it's right back to badly written quips and jokes in the next scene. no one ever brings her up again even though there's several characters who knew her and worked with her. it's an insult to her character and the original film and she deserved better than that.

speaking of insults to the original film, the fights really felt that way too. the mindless property destruction and complete lack of care was so antithetical to pacific rim which always valued life above all. one short line by hermann that the civilians were all in underground shelters now so run wild i guess was all the reference to it we got, even though we literally saw many civilians not make it into the shelters in time in the scene before that. but nobody cared. the original film was precise about fights which took place in cities. the number one goal was always the preservation of life, luring them back into the water, getting them away from the coast line. when destruction happened it did so for dramatic effect. in uprising it just felt fetishistic. we were treated to scenes in which the jaegers used their environment as weapons completely carelessly and the amount of smashed buildings and destroyed property bordered on the ludicrous. that really feels like it misunderstands the point and spirit of kaiju films and tbh it's something that americans have never gotten about the genre anyway.

apart from that the plot was ridiculous. the handwavey retcon of the first film that posits the kaiju's goal as "rare earth minerals" (lol) which obviously only exist on mt. fuji is hilariously bad. look, i don't need a complex plot from my monster movies, pacrim wasn't shy about being a pretense for big robots punching big lizards either. but at least when pacrim used science they actually put some effort into at least making it sound believable. the paper thin plot of uprising which is riddled with holes just seems insulting to the viewer. that's the difference between the two films, really. uprising tries to be as carefree about being a dumb sci-fi film as pacrim was, but fails to understand that pacrim still took the genre and its viewers seriously. it didn't try to be anything more than a monster movie, but it didn't treat the trappings of the genre as if they don't matter or can just be background noise. that's fundamentally why uprising fails imo. because it doesn't seem to understand that pacific rim worked, not by not taking itself seriously, but by taking itself seriously enough.

anyway, i could list more but at this point i have honestly written enough. i am happy for the people who enjoyed the film and hope they have fun with it but i am going to pretend the sequel remained cancelled. charlie out.

[transformingyourlives]

The Agony and Ecstasy of Sex

As a coach, I meet clients with questions about sexuality and the part it plays in their life. I always begin by reminding them that sexuality is part of what makes them human. Sexuality is part of our destiny. What we do with it decides our fate. This article is for them and others with the same sorts of questions.

Face it—sexuality’s basic function from an evolutionary perspective is to guarantee the continuation of the species. But for sure, sex and sexuality goes way beyond the, at times, overpowering instinct to make children. It’s also about the physical, sensual pleasure it brings. Excitement. Enjoyment. Even ecstasy. On top of those fabulous things, the thrill of actually touching and being touched by another person, the growing excitement anticipating the final release, enjoyment of the climactic joy of orgasm, and the effervescent, peaceful afterglow of the exhaustion following orgasm also gives both psychological and spiritual purpose to it all. In its most basic form, sex is a way of reducing our alienation, isolation, and the aloneness we all suffer. It allows for a physical connection at the most fundamental level with another person at their most primitive reality. In that moment of penetrating or being penetrated, sex validates and humanizes our existence. It produces joy, love, affection, and comfort.

In its most basic form,

sex is a way of reducing our

alienation, isolation,

and the aloneness we all suffer.

Here is what sometimes people don’t realize. Ecstasy is not just a physical, but a psychological experience as well. At its best it can, at times, be a spiritual experience. The origin of the word “ecstasy” is ex-stasis. This means the short-term transcendence of time, ego, and our common human reality of being fundamentally separate beings. Have you felt that connection, not just with the other person, but also with your own personal self and your own mortality? At some deep level, it reminds us all of our essential ability to be involuntarily taken over, lost at that moment of orgasm; to be in the hold of passion; to abandon or surrender control. Both love and lust are examples of this kind of possession. It never grows dull, does it?

That very “never growing dull” capacity is one of the most important centering parts of being human. We are, at our cores, passionate creatures, inspired and driven by primitive and irrational forces living just below the surface of the rational lives we imagine ourselves living. These feelings are a great deal stronger than our egos.

Sex (as with romantic love) is a steady reminder of our own irrationality and its power over the hard-earned rationality with which we try and run our lives. It is a constant reminder of our unavoidable physical selves. When left unmanaged, it can be humbling to our spiritual pride, and it can be dangerous.

The concept of “safe sex” is one that always makes me laugh. The term is an oxymoron. Sex, when fully and unequivocally engaged in, is always risky. Possible pregnancy, disease, injury, and even death run hand in hand with sex at the physical level. Falling in love, rejection, obsession, loss of self, fear of death, psychosis, and the wild craziness of ecstasy are all potential side effects of sex. How many of you have had that one passionate, spontaneous sexual experience…that experience that changed the very course of your life, for better or worse? Yep, I thought so—most of you.

And yes, at some really deep level, sexuality is connected with our own mortality, with birth and death. Sexuality fights against death, affirming once again, life. In the end, death defeats sex, but that instinctive sexual energy we all experience will always express itself. Sexual energy, regardless of method, creation of children, artwork, music, caring relationships, or heroic accomplishments, beats out death by surpassing it in the future. Life goes on, children enter the world, your family remembers you, and your friends and lovers keep you in their hearts, what you created in life, lives on long beyond your death.

 At some really deep level,

sexuality is connected with

our own mortality, with birth and death.

 Have you ever substituted sex for love? We all have had that kind of sex that is separated from love and caring. How many of you have felt that moment when sex becomes routine and mechanical? In some spiritual and religious traditions, sex as seen as sinful, evil, or just too carnal. It is often rejected in favor of celibacy. Spoiler Alert: taking a vow not to have sex doesn’t cause sexual instinct to just magically disappear. It just expresses itself in other ways, some positive and creative, and others, not so much. So face it, no matter who you are, your primal sexual energy is more or less always with you, beginning at birth and lingering into old age. Yes, as you might say, it comes and goes at different times in your life, but even in old age the heat of sexuality never completely disappears. It seems that only death ends it.

 Taking a vow not to have

sex doesn’t cause sexual

instinct to just magically disappear.

 Sexual energy is often what motivates us to enter into intimate relationships, sometimes despite the fact that the relationship may be impossible to maintain, and in the end, could be heartbreaking. The thing that lots of people miss is that like with any strong emotion, sexual attraction doesn’t have to be acted upon every time. Married people know this and for some, it is a continuing struggle. It’s also true for single folk that aren’t in a committed relationship. Sexual attraction is terribly complex, psychologically and biologically. Learning to appreciate, listen to, and honor our human sexual instinct leads to discerning who we really are and who we need to be moving forward.

It comes as no surprise that sexuality is very different for women and men. Most men tend to see sex as something they can’t get enough of, and at their core, attempt thoughtlessly to spread their seed as widely as possible. Most women see sex as secondary in importance to intimacy, physical closeness, and commitment. Men can usually separate sex from love, or romance, whereas women are inclined to connect the two. Men tend generally to be less discerning in pursuing sexual satisfaction, while women tend to be a lot more selective and focus generally on one particular sexual partner at a time. For most women, sex is about the relationship first, and pleasure and sexual satisfaction second. In the case of most men, their priorities are just

 Men can usually separate

sex from love, or romance,

whereas women

are inclined to connect the two.

 the opposite. There are exceptions to these tendencies, you say; yes there are, and in some cases, there are total role reversals. But, for the most part, psychologically, the consequence of sexuality is fundamentally different for women and men. This difference is one of the basic sources of friction and misunderstanding between the sexes.

For some people, sex becomes a replacement for real intimacy, used as a way to maintain a distance rather than becoming closer together. At the same time, sex can be used as a way to avoid facing ourselves and the fact that life is finite.

Most people don’t consider the primal energy that fuels sexual interest which gets its energy from the life that is in all of us. It’s always there. That is what makes it possible to use this energy in so many ways, e.g., artistic, altruistic, or spiritual. But this sort of sublimation doesn’t completely substitute or eliminate the sexual instinct itself. If you don’t give it a way to express itself, it shows up in obsessive behavior or other psychiatric problems. As with a drug, sexual activity can be used as an escape from feelings of low self- esteem, loneliness, anxiety, meaninglessness, etc., or it can be used to manipulate or exert power and control. Who doesn’t know someone who hasn’t occasionally wielded sex like a weapon, hurting those around them? When used that way it can become a tool of humiliation for real or imaginary wrongs. Those kinds of cancerous mixtures of sex and anger reach their peak in the deeds of rapists and psychopathic sexual serial killers.

 As with a drug, sexual activity

can be used as an

escape from feelings of

low self- esteem,

loneliness, anxiety, meaninglessness.

 In Western culture, sex may no longer be the biggest taboo, yet it remains a profound force to be reckoned with, particularly when it runs amuck, as in nymphomania, satyriasis, pedophilia, mania, pornography, and sex addiction, or just the garden variety marital infidelity. When the absence of sex in someone's life becomes the source of frustration, anxiety, or anger, you are forced to deal with its capacity to take possession of your personality and drive you to destructive behaviors.

Like weeds pushing through the smallest of cracks in the road, sexual energy will leak out in some form when persistently denied a healthy outlet. It takes all manner of forms, many suitable only for discussions with psychiatric personnel. In some cases though, dissociated sexuality takes the form of susceptibility to dangerous cults that use sexuality to exert power and control over their members. Creepy, huh.

Humans are, for better or worse, congenital lovers, natural sensation chasers, limitless sources of love, and essentially sexual beings. Sexuality is part of our destiny. What we do with it decides our fate. The supernatural power of sex to inspire and drive us to seek fulfillment can’t be underestimated in our modern world. Sexual power can be either creative, and procreative, or destructive to oneself as well as others. It is, by definition, irrational, irrepressible, and unrelenting.

As a key component of the spiritual forces involved, sex and love demand expression. What we do (or don't do) with this sexual energy decides for us who and what we become, what kind of relationships we create, and how we express ourselves in the world. And, of course, collectively, whether we as a species survive.

 If you have questions regarding aspects of sexuality, seek out the services of a life coach as we are trained to help with relationship issues.

 SPEAK WITH A LIFE COACH IN BATON ROUGE

Frank Hopkins is a life coach in Baton Rouge who is certified as a Professional Coach (CPC) by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Frank has helped numerous people to go through emotional change in a way that is positively transformative. You can see Frank's other website, www.frankhopkinlifecoach.com on line as well.