#race plays a far less significant part in the events of the book than it does to the princess so i feel i should distinguish between

[emcads]

okay i know i joke about esmeralda being this icon of femininity that teaches the other characters how to do their makeup or how to achieve the current fashions but something that just. hits different. about esmeralda and her connection with beauty/femininity is that it’s completely manufactured and generated: makeup is painted and removed, clothes are woven and sewn into garments,  it isn’t a natural beauty or a beauty of purity but one that is created out of her own action  (although she shares a lot of these generative, traditionally feminine symbols with Amenirdis like clothing, contrast this with Amenirdis’ natural state being the one of beauty and her illusory state being one of ugliness) in fact Esmeralda is specifically referenced as unnatural and unholy during her fight with Bainbridge: 

“Impossible! No woman could captain a vessel. That would be unnatural, a violation of the laws of God and man. The…the Almighty would never permit it.”

granted he’s fairly drunk but there’s a line he crosses when he learns the captain is a female: it’s no longer an earthly issue of legal property rights or the physical altercation or even sailor superstition, instead his attacks are moral/spiritual and invoking God.  he’s right in that Esmeralda is not a natural woman, existing in a “pure” state of womanhood or trying to portray that state falsely: she crossdresses, she wears makeup, she is indulgent and violent and lascivious. she is beautiful but she is the furthest thing from the eighteenth century ideal of the white, docile, English beauty;  Jack thinks of her only as a lady but we know whatever class Esmeralda has is not due to her by birthright from Spain, with an indigenous mother she does not have the “pure” bloodlines of European class and the benefits that go with that. ( if she had them, it was at Don Rafael’s efforts, and her parents’ murders/the burning of his estate demonstrate colonial society’s resistance to that deviation )  her nobility as perceived by Jack is thus something contrived and manufactured outside of right of blood, law, or society.  ( but more than an equal to theirs, thus exposing their own standards as contrived, but I digress ). she’s placed into a convent but instead of devoting life to god / abstinence / purity, she chooses masculinity: crossdressing, having sex with men, wielding a sword (read: the phallic symbol) and taking life rather than creating it. and yet she maintains sex appeal for men and unquestionable femininity: 

“Jack began kissing her hands, short-nailed and strong from work, but they were well-tended and feminine. He could never have mistaken them for a man’s hands.”

in her hands –– which are the agents of creation and generation –– there’s masculine behavior (wielding a sword, tending ropes at sea) matched with feminine shape and behavior (managing her appearance, softness in care to self ). without going too much into it I think what I’m starting to get at is the Eve/Lilith dichotomy, and while Esmeralda absolutely does top Jack and see herself as more than equal to men I’m more interested in Lilith’s pursuit: 

“The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’“

the sea is something feminine that gives life, to sailors it gives death. to Jack the sea means freedom and rebirth;  to Esmeralda the sea has only ever meant blood, conquest, revenge, and death. 

[true-blue-megamind]

FAN THEORY THURSDAY: Megamind’s Connections Beyond the Film

Before we get started, it’s time for the obligatory SPOILER WARNING!  

In case this hasn’t been made sufficiently obvious by the fact that this is a post about Megamind written in a fan theory series about Megamind and published on a blog dedicated solely to Megamind, please let me just assure that this article is, in fact, about Megamind.  

If you haven’t seen the film yet yet, I have to question why you’re reading this in the first place.  As well as your taste in animated movies.  I’m definitely questioning that.

Over the years I’ve heard several fan theories concerning connections between the film Megamind and various other forms of media.  Today, let’s delve into just a few.

The first one is so obvious it’s almost painful, but it has to be mentioned.  Megamind is a Superman spoof.  Metro Man is clearly based on the Man of Steel himself, with a hefty dose of Elvis Presley and a larger range of character flaws thrown in for good measure.  (He also seems to contain quite a lot of the Popular Jock archetype.)  The character of Megamind is more complex still, combining elements of Alice Cooper and a nineties Goth theater kid with several comic book supervillains. The best known of the last include alien genius Brainiac and mad inventor Lexx Luthor, but they aren’t the only ones.  Some of Megamind’s engineering and technological inventions call to mind Spiderman villain Doctor Octopus even more than Lexx Luthor, and he also shares some parallels with the mad inventor Dr. Sivana in the SHAZAM comics.

Megamind’s most notable of the latter is the similarity of attitudes toward society.  Both Megamind and Dr. Sivana started off trying to use their inventions for good—the first in the classroom and the second for the betterment of mankind—but both became bitter when people mocked and shunned them.  For Dr. Sivana, this led to a desire to conquer all of Earth while for Megamind, in a sort of microcosm, it led to a similar drive to take over Metro City.  Both Lexx Luthor and Dr. Sivana have, perhaps, the strongest connections to Megamind as share, deep down, a desire to help or protect mankind, and as Lexx Luthor, like Megamind, harbors a secret love for the reporter damsel in their respective stories.  (This desire to do good, especially in the face of corrupt officials, ties into another Megamind fan theory that I will likely discuss in more detail in a later post.)

The connection between Megamind and Alice Cooper, by the way, was extremely intentional.  The creators stated in an interview that, like Alice Cooper, Megamind’s dark, evil self is, in fact, a stage persona.  (Even their clothing, consisting largely of black leather and spikes, is similar.)  That fact is illustrated in the film as we can see that Megamind’s behaviors on- and off-camera tend to be vastly different.  Even as a villain, he is merely playing a role, although in the case of Megamind that role has begun to merge with his self-identity.

There are, however, hints within the world of DreamWorks that Megamind has other connections as well.  The first is fairly recent and intensely interesting. In the Rise of the Guardians, Jamie Bennett, a young boy who still steadfastly believes in the seemingly impossible, mentions “aliens in Michigan,” only to be scoffed at by his friends.  Because Metro City is located in Michigan, (as can be seen briefly when the Death Ray is fired from space,) many fans theorize that the “aliens in Michigan” are none other than Megamind, Minion, and, perhaps, Metro Man. 

This would indicate that the two stories take place in the same world, and that Megamind’s adventures, while well-known in Metro City itself, have been covered up and kept secret from the rest of the world.  (Imagine moving to a moderately-sized city only to discover that—surprise!—there’s an extraterrestrial supervillain in residence and, oh, by the way, if you live downtown homeowners’ insurance is ridiculous!)

The second inter-film connection is less clear, but has spawned some interesting fan theories as well.  The idea is that, like Rise of the Guardians, Monsters VS. Aliens also takes place in the same reality as Megamind.  It’s not too far fetched—after all, both films involve extraterrestrials and amazing inventions—but there is one specific theory that really ties the two together.  Consider this for a moment: Megamind is a blue alien with incredible intelligence who hails from a destroyed planet.  Does that sound like any other DreamWorks character you know?  If you’ve seen Monster VS. Aliens, the antagonist, Gallaxhar, probably springs to mind.

According to Fandom.com, Gallaxhar’s official backstory is that he “destroyed his home planet” for the implied reason that “he experienced bad childhood and unhappy marriage.”  The fan theory is that that Gallaxhar’s planet was, in fact, Megamind’s home world, and that the former created or harnessed the black hole which destroyed it.  This would explain why Megamind’s people—as well as Metro Man’s—didn’t have time to escape despite being space-faring.  You see, black holes take millions of years to develop, and even a rogue black hole would take about a million to shift and swallow an entire solar system, so if the event had occurred naturally, there should have been plenty of time to build an entire fleet of spacecraft and leave for Earth or another safe planet.  (The fact that Megamind’s parents set his escape pod’s navigation system for Earth indicates that they knew of its existence.)

Of course, despite their large heads and blue skin tones, there are quite a few physical differences between Megamind and Gallaxhar.  The first is humanoid while the second has four eyes and tentacles instead of legs.  Fan theories have explanations for that, too, however.  

There appear to be two schools of thought on the subject.  The first is that Gallaxhar was another breed of alien living on the planet, possibly a servile race different from Minions, and the second is that part of Gallaxhar’s “bad childhood” involved being experimented upon, thus giving him his bizarre appearance and his seeming obsession with experimenting on others.  (There is some disagreement in the Megamind fandom about exactly why Gallaxhar was subjected to such treatment, ranging from falling into the hands of an unscrupulous scientist to being part of an experimental medical program.  The latter fan theory suggests that Gallaxhar was both blind and paraplegic, and that his additional eyes and tentacle “legs” were meant to rectify that, but that those physical differences made him an outsider, thus leading to his unhappy life and ultimate hatred for his own planet.)

If that were true, many may wonder what, exactly, Megamind might do if he ever found out about Gallaxhar.  Well, good news!  Just like there’s an app for everything, there’s a fan theory for that, too!  I will warn you, however, that this one is, frankly, build upon pretty thin evidence.  However, it’s interesting enough to be worth relating.

There is a character in Monsters VS. Aliens named General Warren R. Monger who, on the surface, is exactly what he appears to be: a high-ranking military man.  However, there are a few things that fans point to as possible evidence that Monger isn’t what he seems.  

The first is so simple that, alone, it would be inconsequential.  Monger rose through the ranks uncommonly fast, so much so that it caused some comment among others.  The second is significantly odder; Monger claims to be ninety years old despite looking like he is in his late forties.  Now, of course, this may have simply been the character exaggerating or messing with the “monsters” under his care, but some fans say it’s more than that, and claim that Monger chose that age because he was unfamiliar with human lifespans.  Next there is the fact that Monger is so intelligent that, despite one of the beings in his containment facility. Doctor Cockroach, being a super-genius, Monger outwits every escape attempt the monsters can make.  Then, of course, there is the fact that, despite his brusque manner, Monger seems to actually sympathize with the inhuman people he is charged with containing, and even pushes for them to be given a chance to prove themselves.  There is the oddity that, although he is assigned to the secret military base at “Area Fifty-Something,” Monger seems to disappear a lot, often for days at a time.  Finally, there are a few key physical and technological attributes: Monger has some odd and incredibly energetic facial expression—including a nearly maniacal smile and a dark scowl—as well as a jet pack that he appears to have constructed himself and green eyes.

I’m still not certain I see the resemblance, but maybe there are some similarities?  What do you think?

If you’re familiar with Metro City’s resident blue alien, you can probably see where this is going.  Although it’s not a popular theory, I’ve heard it suggested in the Megamind fandom that Monger is, in fact, Megamind disguised using his holowatch.  (This is why the green eyes are significant; Megamind’s eye color is the only aspect of his appearance that the holowatch doesn’t change.  However, I feel compelled to note that the shade of green appears to be different.) Fans insist that it would have been easy for someone as incredibly brilliant as Megamind to hack government systems and forge documents such as birth certificates thoroughly enough to dupe even U.S. Military Intelligence. The two jet packs, some have contested, look different either because of the disguise or because the one featured in Monster VS. Aliens is an older model. I’ve even seen the fact that both Megamind and Monger begin with M being pointed to as possible evidence that the latter is no more than an invention of the former.

The argument is as follows: as Monsters VS. Aliens takes place in 2009, one year before events in Megamind, it’s possible that Megamind, still being a villain, created an alter-ego which he could use to help him search for and deal with other alien life.  (He is shown to be painfully lonely, and the Megamind comics reveal his desperate desire to find other survivors from his home planet.)  Upon figuring out who Gallaxhar was, and more importantly what he had done, Megamind wanted to be part of taking him down.  But he couldn’t be too open about it; he was, after all, still a “Bad Guy.”  This theory explains Monger’s frequent long absences—during those time Megamind was back in Metro City taking care of his regular business— as well as why Monger had a secret soft spot for the “monsters.”  Megamind, having always been treated like a monster himself, would naturally want to give them a chance, but wouldn’t dare behave in too overtly friendly a manner as it would have aroused suspicion.

As I said, support for that particular theory is, perhaps, a little thin, especially given the fact the Monsters VS. Aliens preceded Megamind, so character designs from the former are unlikely to have been influenced by the latter.  Nonetheless, I admit to appreciating the complexity and creativity of it.  It’s an undeniably fun theory. If they haven’t already, maybe someone will write a fan fiction about it one day.

Those are only a few of the theories out there connecting Megamind with other fandoms.  One could go on and on about the subject, but I won’t torture readers by doing that.  Nonetheless, it illustrates once again the immense love and original thought that Megamind fans put into developing their theories!  I dare say that few other animated movies have earned a following so dedicated and inventive…  But, then, any of us who love the film Megamind will tell you that it has more than earned the consideration!

[iamthenightcolormeblack]

Pride and Prejudice 1940: "When Pretty Girls T-E-A-S-E-D Men Into Marriage"

Made during the Great Depression, this classic black and white film is loosely based on Austen's novel and is set in what is likely the 1830s rather than the Regency Era (late 18th century to early 19th century). It is an escapist piece which capitalizes on nostalgia for a simpler time by transporting its viewers to a chocolate-box vision of the past, while paying homage to Austen's social satire by delivering plenty of laughs along the way.

Overall Thoughts on the Film:

The first time I watched this movie, I was confused because the plot as well as the setting was revised significantly (the events after Darcy's first proposal are changed to hasten the happy ending; Darcy's letter and Elizabeth's visit to Pemberley are not included in this movie). This changing of plot points makes the 2005 movie a much more faithful adaptation in comparison with this version, in spite of the creative liberties both take with the novel.

Production Design:

The movie is a typical example of Golden Age Hollywood productions, with beautiful actresses and melodramatic flourishes added to increase the drama. Some of the lines are delivered very quickly, in keeping with the comedic style of the time.

The music: definitely not historically accurate. A lot of sentimental, "ye olde timey" string arrangements that emphasize emotions or fast-paced waltz music for balls/parties.

The 1830s costumes are beautiful; it seems as if no expense (or quantity of fabric) was spared in making them. The bonnets are way taller and have more decorations than typical 1830s bonnets. Some of the patterns/fabric choices are very 1930s, and the costumes are exaggerated in such as way as to make the wearers look like fancy turkeys.

Hair and Makeup: very 1930s, with finger/sausage curls, plucked eyebrows, lipstick/lip makeup, and long lashes.

The sets: the dollhouse-like interiors are lavishly gilded and made to look as opulent as possible. Outdoors scenes are lush, with lots of flowers and bushes; the garden in which the second proposal takes place is gorgeous. The set design transports the viewer into an idyllic vision of the bucolic English countryside.

The Lead Actors:

With the exception of Laurence Olivier, the majority of the actors are American, since this is a Hollywood production. Many of the characters in the film's imaginary vision of pastoral Britain speak American or make clumsy attempts to imitate British English.

Greer Garson: while she is definitely too old for the part, she perfectly conveys Elizabeth's intelligence, outspokenness, and sarcasm. Her facial expressions are killer as well; with the arch of an eyebrow along with a snarky side eye, she captivates us all. All in all, Garson effectively shows off Elizabeth's impertinence through her nonverbal acting (this reminds me strongly of Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennet).

Laurence Olivier: he effectively conveys Darcy's pride while hinting at his deeper feelings beneath the surface (I can see why Colin Firth spoke so highly of Olivier's portrayal of Darcy). Most importantly, the film emphasizes Darcy's intelligence; he is certainly Elizabeth's intellectual equal. While this portrayal of Darcy is very accurate to the book, Darcy's pride does go away pretty quickly (he and Elizabeth form a tentative friendship early on) and his social awkwardness isn't immediately obvious thanks to his charm. Also the unflattering hairstyle with the greasy hair and painted on sideburns makes me sad.

Key Scenes:

Opening scene: The title card appeals directly to the audience's nostalgia for a sentimental, romanticized past: “It happened in OLD ENGLAND (this was actually capitalized), in the village of Meryton…” The Bennet women are at a fabric shop, where they gossip with aunt Phillips about the rich people moving into Netherfield Park.

The carriage race: this scene, which isn’t in the original novel, represents the rivalry between the Bennets and Lucases. The mothers both want their daughters to be the first to snag the rich bachelors.

The first ball: There is a historical anachronism as the music is a waltz by Strauss, who became popular in late 19th century, specifically the Gilded Age; far too early for the Regency Era or 1830s England. Other changes from the original novel include Elizabeth meeting Wickham before Darcy; other events from Aunt Phillips’ ball (which isn’t included in this movie) and Wickham and Darcy’s confrontation are included in this scene.

Elizabeth’s impression of Darcy at the ball: she puts on airs and mocks his casual dismissal of her as tolerable (definitely a parallel with the 1995 version, where Jennifer Ehle does the same, but privately with Jane).

Great comedic change: Darcy introduces himself to Elizabeth after calling her tolerable and asks if she will dance with him (this originally takes place at Mr. Lucas' ball). Right after rejecting Darcy, she instantly agrees to dance with Wickham; in a humorous moment, Darcy evacuates to a corner of the room to sulk while seeing Wickham dance with Elizabeth.

The “Accomplished woman” scene: the dialogue lifted directly from the book for the most part. Darcy, in a departure from his trademark seriousness, shows off his playful side when reacting to Caroline Bingley's "turn about the room." I particularly like this added repartee from Elizabeth Bennet to Darcy, which is clever but also foreshadows her prejudice: “If my departure is any punishment, you are quite right. My character reading is not too brilliant.”

Elizabeth can't stand Mr. Collins: After twirling about his monocle, he pronounces that: “It might interest you to know my taste was formed by lady Catherine de Bourgh.” The best part of this scene is when Elizabeth plucks a wrong note on her harp when Collins gets really annoying.

The Netherfield ball (which is now a garden party):

Elizabeth running away from Mr. Collins: She looks rather ridiculous, almost like an overdressed turkey, in a white dress with puffy sleeves as she runs away from an overeager Collins. Then she hides in the bushes while Darcy helps her to hide, telling Collins he doesn't know where she is. It's fun but most likely not something a proper lady and gentleman would do (two people of the opposite gender out alone, shock!).

The archery scene: Darcy attempts to teach Elizabeth how to shoot a bow and arrow, even though he doesn’t hit the bullseye. She goes on to impress him by perfectly hitting the bullseye every time; Darcy learns his lesson: "Next time I talk to a young lady about archery I won't be so patronizing." Caroline Bingley, very passive aggressive as usual, shows up for her archery lesson right after and it's absolutely perfect.

Mr. Collins attempts to introduce himself to Mr. Darcy: Laurence Olivier captures Darcy so perfectly in this scene (really set the precedent for Colin Firth). When Mr. Collins starts talking (inviting Elizabeth to dance with him) Darcy tries to keep himself well-composed but has a pained expression on his face as if he’s about to pass out. Olivier masters the way Darcy can look so miserable but also disgusted and proud at the same time.

Mr. Collin's proposal to Elizabeth: I like the added touch of Mrs. Bennet pulling Elizabeth back by her skirt when she tries to run out of the room. The dialogue is taken directly from the book, and the scene is made even funnier when Collins holds on to Elizabeth's hand desperately and doesn’t let her get away. My only quibble is that Elizabeth isn’t indignant enough when Mr. Collins doesn't take no for an answer.

Elizabeth and Darcy at Rosings: I like that Olivier subtly indicates that Darcy is clearly affected upon seeing Elizabeth at Rosing, hinting at deeper feelings beneath the surface. I also like how the scriptwriter emphasizes that Darcy indirectly praises Elizabeth and enjoys their conversations, while she remains convinced that he hates her. Sadly, the original dialogue of the piano scene is not included, which is unfortunate as it allows Darcy to reveal his introvert tendencies, calling into question Elizabeth's assertion that he is unpardonably proud.

First proposal: The famous opening lines are mutilated with awkward punctuation: “It’s no use. I’ve struggled in vain. I must tell you how much I admire and love you." While the rest of the dialogue matches up closely with what happens in Austen's novel, both of the actors aren’t emotional enough; instead Elizabeth cries very daintily, and Darcy remains serene, which conflicts with the book's description of both of them being very angry and defensive at each other.

THE SCRIPT:

The first half of the film up to Darcy's first proposal follows the events of the original book closely, though certain blocks of dialogue are moved elsewhere and other events such as Mrs. Phillips' party are skipped over. The most significant changes, besides updating the setting to the 1830s, are made to the second half of the book to squeeze the key events of the story into the movie before delivering the inevitable happy ending.

Brilliant Quotes:

Mr. Bennet's reaction to Mrs. Bennet's despair over the situation of their 5 unmarried daughters: “Perhaps we should have drowned some of them at birth.”

Darcy insists Elizabeth cannot tempt him: “Ugh. Provincial young lady with a lively wit. And there’s that mother of hers.”

Darcy is an arrogant snob: “I’m in no humor tonight to give consequence to the middle classes at play.” (Technically the Bennets are part of the gentry; they just are less wealthy than Darcy).

Elizabeth's reaction to Darcy pronouncing her to be tolerable at best: “What a charming man!”

Elizabeth rebuffs Darcy's offer to dance after overhearing his insult: “I am afraid that the honor of standing up with you is more than I can bear, Mr Darcy.”

Elizabeth favors Wickham after witnessing the bad blood between him and Darcy: “Without knowing anything about it I am on your side.”

Mrs. Bennet's comment after she sends Jane to Netherfield under stormy skies: “There isn’t anything like wet weather for engagements. Your dear father and I became engaged in a thunderstorm.”

Mr. Bennet's reaction to Jane's fever: “Jane must have all the credit for having caught the cold…we’re hoping Elizabeth will catch a cold and stay long enough to get engaged to Mr. Darcy. And if a good snowstorm could be arranged we’d send Kitty over!”

The sisters' description of Mr. Collins: “Oh heavens! what a pudding face.”

Caroline Bingley at the Netherfield garden party: “Entertaining the rustics is not as difficult as I feared. Any simple childish game seems to amuse them excessively.”

Darcy reassuring Elizabeth after helping her escape Mr. Collins: “If the dragon returns St. George will know how to deal with it.”

Darcy learns his lesson after Elizabeth beats him at archery: “The next time I talk to a young lady about archery I won’t be so patronizing.”

Elizabeth comments about a curtain: “Oh that’s pretty. It’s a pity you didn’t make it bigger. You could have put it around Mr. Collins when he becomes a bore.”

Elizabeth on Kitty and Lydia: “2 daughters out of 5, that represents 40% of the noise.”

Elizabeth sees Lady Catherine for the first time: “So that’s the great lady Catherine. Now I see where he learned his manners.”

Lady Catherine's attitude towards philanthropy: “You must learn to draw a firm line between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor.”

Darcy takes Elizabeth's advice: “I’ve thought a great deal about what you said at Netherfield, about laughing more...but it only makes me feel worse."

Elizabeth and Darcy have a conversation with Colonel Fitzwilliam: “He likes the landscape well enough, but the natives, the natives, what boors, what savages … Isn’t that what you think, Mr. Darcy?” With a smile: “It evidently amuses you to think so, Miss Bennet."

CHANGES FROM THE BOOK:

The first half of the film up to Darcy's first proposal follow the events of the original book closely, though certain blocks of dialogue are moved elsewhere and other events such as Mrs. Phillips' party are skipped over. The most significant changes, besides updating the setting to the 1830s, are made to the second half of the book to squeeze the key events of the story into the movie before delivering the inevitable happy ending.

With the exception of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the portrayals of the characters are (generally) true to the book.

As I said earlier, the film neglects any sort of historical accuracy when setting the story in romanticized "Old England," where genteel people pass simple lives that revolve around dresses, tea parties, social gossip, and marriages. A lot of Austen adaptations present an idealized vision of Regency life, where people are dressed immaculately, flawlessly adhere to "chivalry," and find love in the ballroom. This contributes to the misconception that Austen's novels are shallow chick-lit books with flat characters who live for lavish parties and hot men, instead of stories of unique, complicated women who happen to be well-off but aspire towards love, respect, or independence instead of being content to make economically advantageous marriages. Austen's novels are character novels and she doesn't waste time writing about dresses or tea parties; balls, while exciting, are just another part of daily life for her characters rather than some Extremely Big Special Once In a Blue Moon Event.

Austen's multifaceted view on marriage turns into a game of matchmaking. She recognizes it as necessary for women to survive in the patriarchy, since they cannot provide for themselves unless they marry well, but at the same time, presents marriage as a means for freedom if it is a loving partnership between two people that respect each other. In contrast, marriage is a game of manipulating the partners into wanting to marry (ex. Lady Catherine and Darcy's trickery). Also, it seems to be a given that Elizabeth will marry for love, unlike in the book where it is uncertain whether she will achieve this.

Kitty and Lydia's antics are viewed much more sympathetically as those of young people having fun; in the book, their behavior harms the family's social reputation, reducing the chances the Bennet daughters have of making good marriages.

Louisa Hurst, Georgiana Darcy, and Aunt and Uncle Gardiner are not in the movie.

Wickham is introduced much earlier than in the book; he is friends with Lydia from the very beginning. Interestingly, he doesn't begin to trash-talk Darcy until Bingley leaves; in the book he does so much earlier, before the Netherfield ball.

Darcy is more considerate towards Elizabeth at the Netherfield party (ex. rescuing her from Collins), until he overhears Mrs. Bennet scheming to get the daughters married. Elizabeth forms a tentative friendship with him until finding out that he separated Jane from Bingley.

Jane is more obviously heartbroken over Bingley's departure than in the book, where she keeps her pain to herself. In the movie, she runs away to cry, which is uncharacteristic of her.

Collins is a librarian instead of a clergyman. I dislike this change because some Austen scholars/fans think that Collins being a clergyman is a deliberate choice as part of Austen's social criticism. Collins is representative of how hypocritical the Church is, since he worships Lady Catherine's wealth instead of God, and preaches moral lessons instead of actually using religion to help people. My theory is that the change was made because of the Hays Code, which led to the censorship of movies for "unwholesome" or "indecent" things; the religious criticism could have been offensive.

Elizabeth reacts rather too kindly to Charlotte marrying Collins by showing concern for the loveless marriage. While she does worry about the lack of love in the marriage, initially she is extremely surprised, outright shocked, and confused.

The scene where Darcy tries and fails to talk to Elizabeth (the "charming house" scene in the 2005 movie) just before the proposal is removed.

Darcy's letter is skipped over and Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice of Darcy very quickly, as shown when she tells Jane she regrets rejecting his proposal. This is contrary to the book, where overcoming her prejudice is an emotionally exhausting and slow process that continues all the way up until the second proposal.

The Pemberley visit is removed; instead, Elizabeth returns home to the news that Lydia has eloped. Visiting Pemberley is very important as part of Elizabeth's re-evaluation of Darcy's character and provides an opportunity for Darcy to show Elizabeth that he has changed for her. The visit is key in increasing Elizabeth's love for Darcy, and removing it means that the characters have less personal growth (also wouldn't it have been great for the audience to be treated to another gorgeous estate of "Old England?"). Instead, Darcy visits Longbourn on his own and offers his help in finding Lydia. When the news comes that Wickham accepts very little money in exchange for marrying Lydia, it isn't as shocking as it is in the book because Darcy had already expressed his intentions of helping Elizabeth earlier.

Here's the change that bugs me the most: Lady Catherine becomes good; though she is a busybody, her main priority is Darcy's happiness. Her confrontation of Elizabeth is a scheme hatched between her and Darcy as a test to be certain of Elizabeth's love. This does not make sense on so many levels: first, Darcy insists that "disguise of every sort is my abhorrence," so why would he resort to trickery, however well-intentioned, to find out if Elizabeth still loves him? Second, Lady Catherine is a social snob and objects to Elizabeth's low connections; also she has an arranged marriage planned for Darcy. Third, in the book, because Elizabeth likes Pemberley and gets along really well with his sister Georgiana, Darcy would have had some evidence that Elizabeth, in the very least, cared for him. And the added claim that Lady Catherine approves of Elizabeth because she likes rudeness and thinks Darcy needs a humorous wife irritates me further because the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy is revolutionary since it was made in defiance of societal rules!!! Why, why, why in the name of comedy did they have to do this?!

Darcy kisses Elizabeth (in a stagey and melodramatic way) after she accepts his second proposal. Seems a bit uncharacteristic of him.

All the sisters get married at the end. Happily ever after.

CONCLUSION

This movie certainly was not aiming for faithfulness to Austen's novel; it ignores her detailed portrait of Regency era society and its attitudes and focuses on the "light, bright, and sparkling" aspect of Pride and Prejudice that gives the story its timeless appeal.

All in all, this comedy of manners is definitely a classic thanks to the clever dialogue and jokes within the script, along with some great acting.

@appleinducedsleep @dahlia-coccinea @princesssarisa @colonelfitzwilliams @austengivesmeserotonin

[matildaofoz]

The Harvest Pt.1 (Warlock!Michael x Reader)

A/N: Happy Halloween, Witches and Warlocks! Here it is, part 1 of The Harvest, the one night of the year were predator and prey come to revel under the Blue Moon. 

Word Count: 3.7k

Warnings: Cursing and the promise of more to come in Pt. 2

Tag List: @prophecy-is-inevitable​ @jimmlangdon​ @drasangel​ @leatherduncan​ @sexwon131​ @rocketgirl2410​ @9layerdevilfoodcake​ @vulgarprayer​ @michaellangdonstanaccount​ @michaellandgons-sunshine​ @iwillboilyourteeth​ @michael-langdon-owns-my-soul​ 

I hope I tagged all of you who showed interest, if not - I’M SORRY! Forgive me (and shoot me amessage so I can add you for Pt.2)

Fair Maiden,

you are hereby cordially invited to attend the annual celebration and Warlock tradition that is The Harvest.  

Upon the last night of October, you will partake in the ancient tradition as a guest of honor, taking place at the Langdon Estate.

All further necessary arrangements will be divulged to your person at an appropriate time.

We look forward to welcoming you and remain until such time

Sincerely,

Ambrose Holt,

High Warlock

The hand holding the parchment sank into your lap after you finished reading its contents out loud to your mother and stepfather. Confusion and a hint of fear flitted over your features and you began to worry your lip as your eyes skimmed over the contents again in an effort to make sense of them.

“That damned Son of a Whore, Ambrose Holt!” your stepfather cursed, beginning to pace the length of the drawing room.

“John Henry Moore, hold your tongue!” your mother hissed, taken aback by his foul language. Her eyes followed him around the room as she scooted closer to you on the chaise longue to take a look at the letter herself.

“It's all my fault! I never should have taken the two of you back here with me. I was foolish to think that something like this wouldn't happen,” he seethed, running his hands through his dark hair. He stemmed himself off the fireplace mantel, his mind racing at the significance of the letter.

“We'll tell them she won't attend, it's simple,” your mother retorted, placing one hand atop your own still clutching the piece of paper. The look on her face told you that she wanted to believe her own words more than anything.

“Darling, that won't be an option. Once you are invited you have to attend, you do not decline a High Warlock's Summon. This is a direct attack on me in the most barbaric way and I’ve dragged you both into my mess.” A humourless chuckle rumbled from his chest at the admission. Your mother’s hand squeezed yours tightly, lips drawn thin as she watched her husband. This was beyond a nightmare. He needed to come up with a plan, a way to halt the events that had been set in motion but begun a long time before he met you and your mother.

“I need to pay a visit to an old friend,” he muttered under his breath suddenly as he pushed himself off the mantelpiece and rushed for the door.

“Where are you going?” your mother threw after him but he was already out in the hallway.

“I’m going to see Behold Chablis. Don’t wait up for me!” he shouted before the front door slammed shut and the two of you were left in silence.

“It will be alright, Angel. Don’t you worry,” your mother said. She forced a smile and you weren’t sure if her words were meant solely for your own reassurance.

You remained silent, looking down at the letter, an uneasiness settling in the pit of your stomach. If your stepfather sought the council of another warlock when he had sworn of his brotherhood for over a decade, it was a bad omen of things to come. Your eyes traced the elegant penmanship on the page. The Harvest. Whatever it was, it made the skin on the back of your neck prickle.

The letter had arrived that afternoon while you were busy tending to the garden with your mother. John Henry had taken custody of the letter, delivered by a private courier and paled as he saw the High Warlock Council's sigil etched on the envelope beneath your name.

Before your mother's marriage to the Warlock, you had believed the supernatural to be but flights of fancy, parables adorning the pages of children's fairy tales as a way to keep them from misbehaving, whispered his hushed voices over a candle under the guise of a full moon to scare each other. All that changed with John Henry's entry into your life at the age of 12. While he was himself a Warlock, a fact he kept hidden from everyone around him except for you and your mother, he had come to condemn his kind several years before. He felt his brethren had strayed from the righteous path of magick, meant to guide, heal and better the lives of those through who's veins it flowed in favour of a darker, more sinister purpose. At the centre of it, he believed the Langdon's were to blame. They had corrupted those around them, slithering their way even into the High Council itself and changing the fabric of the ancient brotherhood.

He told you what he thought you would need to know when you were old enough to at least partially understand, for your own protection should such a time arise. You were not of his blood but you were his daughter and he had sworn that he would protect both your mother and you. The arrival of the letter had made it clear that the time had come and he wasn't sure he would be able to make good on his promise to you after all.

He did not come back that night and after you mother had retreated to their bedroom, you too went up to your room to ready yourself for bed. However much you willed it, sleep did not come easy. In the darkness of your room, dimly illuminated by the moonlight pouring in from the windows, your eyes were drawn to your writing desk were you had placed the letter. The words kept running throughout your head and the more you thought about them, the less you felt you understood them. With a huff you turned onto your side, squeezing your eyes shut tightly in an effort to stop the thoughts running a mile a minute. It must be past midnight by now and you were no closer to falling asleep. The last day of October was just over a week away and even though you couldn't possibly know what the night held in store for you, you'd be damned if you showed up unprepared. You may not be magically-inclined but you were well-versed in the art of reading. John Henry's library was just down the hall, the myriad of manuscripts and tomes softly calling your name in the dead of night.

“Oh, curse all this!” you muttered under your breath, throwing the blankets off your body and tiptoeing across the room to the door, evading the creaking floorboards that would alert your mother. She was a terribly light sleeper. The air around you was frigid, your nightgown doing nothing to keep out the chill that crept up your legs and over your bare arms. You edged along the wall to your desk, placing the knitted shawl hung over the chair around your shoulders.

Quietly, you inched across the hallway, stopping for a moment to look at your parents closed bedroom door. Silence. Taking it as your cue, you flitted to the door on the far end of the corridor, hoping to God that he hadn't locked it. Gingerly, you pushed down on the handle so it wouldn't squeak. The door swung ajar. Unlocked. With a small satisfied grin, you pushed through the opening and closed it behind you silently. A relived sigh escaped your lips as your eyes struggled to adjust to the dark room, any moonlight blocked out by thick curtains. You had only been in John Henry's study a couple of times, to stand at the threshold as you told him that dinner was ready or to venture in to bring him a cup of tea while he poured over manuscripts behind the large mahogany desk. While he did believe wholeheartedly that a lady should be educated beyond learning to play the piano and housekeeping, he had made it clear that the books in his study were off limits.

“There is nothing in my study that a young lady such as yourself need concern yourself with. The less you know, the better,” his words rang in your ears. You wagered he would be eating his own words right about now, considering the events of the afternoon. You scoffed, as you inched your way across the plush carpet under your bare feet, to where you believed his desk was. Your eyes were beginning to make out the silhouettes of the furniture and soon enough your hip bumped into hard wood. You winched at the the small pain and your hands began to feel out for the box of matches you knew he kept on the desk somewhere. He could easily light the candles or the fireplace in his room with a snap of his fingers because he had shown you. However, he preferred not to, saying it made him feel more like any other man who was not gifted with his supernatural inclination.

“Ha!” you exclaimed as your right hand came upon the match box, your left coming up over your mouth to stifle the sound. Several seconds went by with you as still as a statue as you waited to hear your parents bedroom door creak open. When no sound bar the pounding of your heart reached your ears, you let out a breath, cursing yourself. You couldn't risk being found out when you hadn't even begun to gather any information. Without wasting any more precious time, you swiftly took out a match and light it on the rough side of the box. The flame came to life before your eyes and all you could see was the bright light for several blinding seconds. Your eyes roamed over the desk now bathed in the small flame and you found the candle holder. You took off the glass cover and held the match to the wick, lighting the candle and placed the cover back over the now burning candle to keep it from being blown out. Hooking your finger into the holder, you ventured over to the wall of books, suddenly discouraged from your task at the sheer volume of knowledge stacked into the ceiling-heigh bookcases tat adorned the wall. This was going to be much more tedious than you had anticipated. Your eyes began skimming over the spines, half of what was on them not making any sense to you.

The Seven Wonders, The Musings of one Augustus Bromhold, Lupercalia throughout the Ages, The Warlock's Pocket Guide to Necromancy. You continued along the shelves, some of the books so old that in the dim light you couldn't make out the writing and some didn't seem to have any on the spines at all.

A Complete History of Warlock Traditions

At the title, your mind went back to the letter. The Harvest had been described as an annual tradition so surely, in a book entitled 'A Complete History of Warlock Traditions' it must be mentioned. You peeled the tome from the confines of the shelf and went to sit in the armchair stood next to the cold fireplace in the corner. You placed the candle on the small side table and and opened the book at the back, hoping to reveal the glossary. Having found what you were looking for, you flipped back to the page and began to read, teeth softly gnawing at your lower lip.

The Blood Harvest, an archaic ritual celebration held on the 31st of October was outlawed by the High Warlock Council on 4th April, 1763. Still referred to by outliers of the Warlock Brotherhood simply as The Harvest, in an effort to conceal the brutal nature of the dark rite of passage ritual, it is rarely observed to this day. The High Council has prosecuted the outlawed celebration and of those who oppose the rule of law and remain faithful to the ritual to this day. 

Celebrated annually before its outlaw, the ritual invoked the divine duality. Warlocks and human women, dressed to represent The Horned God and Triple Goddess respectively, partook in the ritual sacrifice on All Hallow's Eve to appease the supernatural beings that stalk the living on the night of the undead. Often cited to bestow great powers on the Warlocks who successfully complete the ritual rite of passage with one of the women selected, it is now widely regarded as nothing more than bloodshed, sacrificing those unfortunate and unknowing females to a slow and painful death at either the hands of the Warlocks if they so choose or the creatures invoked as formidable foes to the young men as a way to prove their supremacy over the dark forces and step into adulthood.

A cold shudder ran down your spine as your eyes read over the passage, letting the book sink into your lap. How was it possible that a High Warlock invited to you to an outlawed tradition by the High Council itself 100 years ago no less? Unless, it was no longer outlawed...John Henry's knee-jerk reaction to the letter no longer seemed so cloak-and-dagger.

A sudden creaking of floorboards on the other side of the door made your pulse thrum in your neck. Had your stepfather returned or perhaps you had been too loud and your mother had heard? You would've heard either the front door or the bedroom door open but then your mind was still swooning from your discovery. Gingerly, you placed the book on the side table next to the candle and inched to the door. Your breath caught in your lungs as you listened, on ear pressed to the cool wood. You could hear someone, something on the other side. The sounds of scratching against the wood made you shrink back, one hand coming to rest over your chest, your heart beating erratically. Your other hand reached for the door handle and you collected your wits about you before you pushed down the handle and yanked it open. You were greeted by a mass of fur and dark eyes that shot up to your face, equally as surprised as you were.

“Oh heaven's, Rosie!” you hissed, trying to calm yourself down at the sight of the family dog that must've heard you wandering around and decided to see for herself what you were up to in the dead of night. She tilted her head slightly at the mention of her name, looking past you and into the study that was off limits to her, her nose sniffing at the foreign scent of the room. If it wasn't for your incessant insistence that the St. Bernard was despite her outward appearance, nothing more than an overgrown lap dog,your parents would have kept her outside almost exclusively. With a lazy curiosity, she stepped over the threshold past your legs to inspect the new-found territory. You quickly walked past her to place the book back in its place on the shelf and took the candle holder in your hand, before turning around to see that Rosie had plopped herself down on the carpet in the middle of the room, watching you through her friendly heavy eyes.

“Rosie, you know you are not allowed in here. Well, technically neither and am I so where does that leave us? Come on, let's not leave any trace of us being here,” you berated her half-heartedly, grabbing her by he collar in the hopes that she would grace you with compliance. She looked up at you with an expression of indifference, seeing as your late-night musing must've roused her from her slumber downstairs as she came back up on all fours with a huff to trot out the room in front of you, waiting at the threshold.

“I don't know about you, but I could use some fresh air, what do you say?” you whispered in her direction, her presence calming your frazzled nerves somewhat. With one final glance around the study, you exited, making sure to shut the door as quietly as possible, leaving no trace of your trespassing. Should your mother, wake you could put the blame on Rosie for rousing you to go outside. You'd make sure to bring the candle back up with you, when you came back later. With a nod of your head, you silently bade her to follow you down the stairs and out the front door.

The midnight air was as welcome to your burning skin as it was chilling, serving to ground you and you pulled the shawl tighter around your shoulders with one hand, the candle in the other dimly illuminating the air around you. You watched the lit wick flicker slightly, growing and wavering in intensity, shielded only by the glass from the wind. Ever since this afternoon, your world had begun to tilt on its axis, threatening to plunge you into the unknown, to blow out that candle and yet there was no glass cover to keep you from being engulfed by the darkness that surrounded you. Rosie began to make her rounds around the front of the house and you became lost in your thoughts of what would happen but a week from now. John Henry had tried to shield you, believing it was safe to finally return to his birthplace with you in tow. Now it seemed, all those years of shielding you from his past would come to haunt your present.

Rosie's low growl beside you pulled you out of you reverie and your eyes snapped into the direction she faced, teeth bared and snarling. You struggled to see the source of her sudden defence through the candlelight blinding you of your surroundings and the dense mist that settled over the ground at night. Beyond the stone walls along the gravel road, you could make out a cloaked dark form and for a moment you thought it was John Henry who had come back from his visit to his old warlock friend. Yet the tall figure stopped about 100 yards away in the middle of the road, an ominous feeling creeping up your legs and spine at the sight. Your house was nestled in the countryside, the next estate and their occupants miles away. You stood, frozen to the spot as you waited for the figure to move. Around them, the fog grew thicker, spreading outward like pipe smoke blown against a glass pane, and engulfing both you and Rosie, who began to growl beside you.

Michael watched as you left the house, your nightgown billowing in the frigid night breeze, revealing glimpses of the smooth skin of your legs. When Ambrose Holt had told him of the letter sent to John Henry's stepdaughter, he knew he needed to see for himself what would ultimately be the downfall of that heretic Warlock who had come too close to undoing all of what his family, his father had set out to achieve. To restore the warlock bloodlines to their former glory and to retake what he and many others considered to be their birthright. It was foolish to think that mere humans could achieve what his kind had over millennia, he scoffed at their hubris in the face of such mundaneness. John Henry had forsaken his kind and had tried to smother their power, their supremacy.  He should've remained in his self-imposed exile, Michael mused as his eyes took you in, still unaware of his gaze on you, smiling at the way the breeze plucked small strands of your hair out the loose braid you wore to bed, the way it flushed your cheeks a rosy red. You would make the perfect Goddess to his Horned God.

He could whisk you away right now when you offered yourself so freely, unattended in the middle of the night, your pet of a dog wouldn't stand in the way one bit. Patience, he chastised himself as he walked closer along the road with calculated slow steps, his black cloak swishing around him, his hood drawn down into his face. He had waited this long to take revenge on John Henry, he could wait a week more, even though you made it hard for him when your eyes finally spotted him, raking over him at the sounds of that wretched beast beside you. Underneath the hood, he grinned, satisfied by your reaction. He could smell your fear even from here, so deliciously terrified at the site of him, frozen on the spot. He had you precisely where we wanted you. With a barely cognisant flick of his wrist at his side, the fog grew ticker around him and his invisible fingers reached through it to graze along the backs of your legs and up your spine. Oh, he was going to enjoy this years Harvest more than ever when the prize was you and all you embodied.

You felt the fog move against the base of your neck, distinctly like fingers on your skin. The candle in your hand began to flicker and blew out, leaving your in darkness, only the pale moonlight as your guide. Your eyes grew wide as you were plunged into darkness and before them, the cloaked stranger disappeared into thin air, swallowed by the mist. Rosie's growls stopped and she shook off her guard, back to her usual self. You met her gaze, you heart still pounding furiously before you hastened back to the house, nearly tripping on your way up the stone steps. Rosie trotted after you, nudging you up the stairs. Even though she didn't seem half as bothered as you, she rarely moved this quickly. You pushed open the front door, Rosie slipping inside past your feet. You threw the door closed behind you, your back pressing into the wood as you struggled to catch your breath. For a moment, you stood in darkness and silence before heading up to your room, not caring if your mother would wake at the ruckus you made. You prayed that John Henry would be back by the morning with answers. The candle holder out of his room stood forgotten on the hallway table.

[armandbacon]

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[drnikolatesla]

WHEN WOMAN IS BOSS

An interview with Nikola Tesla by John B.  Kennedy.

Colliers, January 30, 1926.

The life of the bee will be the life of our race, says Nikola Tesla, world-famed scientist.

A NEW sex order is coming--with the female as superior. You will communicate instantly by simple vest-pocket equipment. Aircraft will travel the skies, unmanned, driven and guided by radio. Enormous power will be transmitted great distances without wires. Earthquakes will become more and more frequent. Temperate zones will turn frigid or torrid. And some of these awe-inspiring developments, says Tesla, are not so very far off.

AT SIXTY-EIGHT years of age Nikola Tesla sits quietly in his study, reviewing the world that he has helped to change, foreseeing other changes that must come in the onward stride of the human race. He is a tall, thin, ascetic man who wears somber clothes and looks out at life with steady, deep-set eyes. In the midst of luxury he lives meagerly, selecting his diet with a precision almost extreme. He abstains from all beverages save water and milk and has never indulged in tobacco since early manhood.

He is an engineer, an inventor and, above these as well as basic to them, a philosopher. And, despite his obsession with the practical application of what a gifted mind may learn in books, he has never removed his gaze from the drama of life. 

This world, amazed many times during the last throbbing century, will rub its eyes and stand breathless before greater wonders than even the past few generations have seen; and fifty years from now the world will differ more from the present-day than our world now differs from the world of fifty years ago.

Nikola Tesla came to America in early manhood, and his inventive genius found quick recognition. When fortune was his through his revolutionary power-transmission machines he established plants, first in New York, then Colorado, later on Long Island, where his innumerable experiments resulted in all manner of important and minor advances in electrical science. Lord Kelvin said of him (before he was forty) that he had contributed more than any other man to the study of electricity.

"From the inception of the wireless system," he says, "I saw that this new art of applied electricity would be of greater benefit to the human race than any other scientific discovery, for it virtually eliminates distance. The majority of the ills from which humanity suffers are due to the immense extent of the terrestrial globe and the inability of individuals and nations to come into close contact.

"Wireless will achieve the closer contact through transmission of intelligence, transport of our bodies and materials and conveyance of energy. 

"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

"We shall be able to witness and hear events--the inauguration of a President, the playing of a world series game, the havoc of an earthquake or the terror of a battle--just as though we were present.

"When the wireless transmission of power is made commercial, transport and transmission will be revolutionized. Already motion pictures have been transmitted by wireless over a short distance. Later the distance will be illimitable, and by later I mean only a few years hence. Pictures are transmitted over wires--they were telegraphed successfully through the point system thirty years ago. When wireless transmission of power becomes general, these methods will be as crude as is the steam locomotive compared with the electric train.

Woman--Free and Regal

ALL railroads will be electrified, and if there are enough museums to hold them the steam locomotives will be grotesque antiques for our immediate posterity.

"Perhaps the most valuable application of wireless energy will be the propulsion of flying machines, which will carry no fuel and will be free from any limitations of the present airplanes and dirigibles. We shall ride from New York to Europe in a few hours.  International boundaries will be largely obliterated and a great step will be made toward the unification and harmonious existence of the various races inhabiting the globe. Wireless will not only make possible the supply of energy to region, however inaccessible, but it will be effective politically by harmonizing international interests; it will create understanding instead of differences.

"Modern systems of power transmission will become antiquated. Compact relay stations one half or one quarter the size of our modern power plants will be the basis of operation--in the air and under the sea, for water will effect small loss in conveying energy by wireless."

Mr. Tesla foresees great changes in our daily life. "Present wireless receiving apparatus," says he, "will be scrapped for much simpler machines; static and all forms of interference will be eliminated, so that innumerable transmitters and receivers may be operated without interference. It is more than probable that the household's daily newspaper will be printed 'wirelessly' in the home during the night. Domestic management--the problems of heat, light and household mechanics--will be freed from all labor through beneficent wireless power.

"I foresee the development of the flying machine exceeding that of the automobile, and I expect Mr. Ford to make large contributions toward this progress. The problem of parking automobiles and furnishing separate roads for commercial and pleasure traffic will be solved. Belted parking towers will arise in our large cities, and the roads will be multiplied through sheer necessity, or finally rendered unnecessary when civilization exchanges wheels for wings.

The world's internal reservoirs of heat, indicated by frequent volcanic eruptions, will be tapped for industrial purposes. In an article I wrote twenty years ago I defined a process for continuously converting to human use part of the heat received from the sun by the atmosphere. Experts have jumped to the conclusion that I am attempting to realize a perpetual-motion scheme. But my process has been carefully worked out. It is rational."

Mr. Tesla regards the emergence of woman as one of the most profound portents for the future. 

"It is clear to any trained observer," he says, "and even to the sociologically untrained, that a new attitude toward sex discrimination has come over the world through the centuries, receiving an abrupt stimulus just before and after the World War.

"This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior. The modern woman, who anticipates in merely superficial phenomena the advancement of her sex, is but a surface symptom of something deeper and more potent fermenting in the bosom of the race. 

"It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women.

"Through countless generations, from the very beginning, the social subservience of women resulted naturally in the partial atrophy or at least the hereditary suspension of mental qualities which we now know the female sex to be endowed with no less than men.

The Queen is the Center of Life

"BUT the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensue that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be stimulated to an activity that will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.

"The acquisition of new fields of endeavor by women, their gradual usurpation of leadership, will dull and finally dissipate feminine sensibilities, will choke the maternal instinct, so that marriage and motherhood may become abhorrent and human civilization draw closer and closer to the perfect civilization of the bee."

The significance of this lies in the principle dominating the economy of the bee--the most highly organized and intelligently coordinated system of any form of nonrational animal life--the all-governing supremacy of the instinct for immortality which makes divinity out of motherhood.

The center of all bee life is the queen. She dominates the hive, not through hereditary right, for any egg may be hatched into a reigning queen, but because she is the womb of this insect race.

We Can Only Sit and Wonder

THERE are the vast, desexualized armies of workers whose sole aim and happiness in life is hard work. It is the perfection of communism, of socialized, cooperative life wherein all things, including the young, are the property and concern of all.

Then there are the virgin bees, the princess bees, the females which are selected from the eggs of the queen when they are hatched and preserved in case an unfruitful queen should bring disappointment to the hive. And there are the male bees, few in number, unclean of habit, tolerated only because they are necessary to mate with the queen.

When the time is ripe for the queen to take her nuptial flight the male bees are drilled and regimented. The queen passes the drones which guard the gate of the hive, and the male bees follow her in rustling array. Strongest of all the inhabitants of the hive, more powerful than any of her subjects, the queen launches into the air, spiraling upward and upward, the male bees following. Some of the pursuers weaken and fail, drop out of the nuptial chase, but the queen wings higher and higher until a point is reached in the far ether where but one of the male bees remains. By the inflexible law of natural selection he is the strongest, and he mates with the queen. At the moment of marriage his body splits asunder and he perishes.

The queen returns to the hive, impregnated, carrying with her tens of thousands of eggs--a future city of bees, and then begins the cycle of reproduction, the concentration of the teeming life of the hive in unceasing work for the birth of a new generation. 

Imagination falters at the prospect of human analogy to this mysterious and superbly dedicated civilization of the bee; but when we consider how the human instinct for race perpetuation dominates life in its normal and exaggerated and perverse manifestations, there is ironic justice in the possibility that this instinct, with the continuing intellectual advance of women, may be finally expressed after the manner of the bee, though it will take centuries to break down the habits and customs of peoples that bar the way to such a simiply and scientifically ordered civilization.

We have seen a beginning of this in the United States. In Wisconsin the sterilization of confirmed criminals and pre-marriage examination of males is required by law, while the doctrine of eugenics is now boldly preached where a few decades ago its advocacy was a statutory offense.

Old men have dreamed dreams and young men have seen visions from the beginning of time. We of today can only sit and wonder when a scientist has his say.

[incomprehensiblelentils]

I did not get around to this yesterday but, a short selection of fictional things that meant a lot to me over the last decade! ...it is going under a cut bc it is Too Long sorry lmao.

Books

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: this book came out in September 2017 and I have read it four times already. It’s the kind of book I want to write but I’m not sure I’m clever enough to: every event and every character is so purposeful and you won’t catch everything the first time through. Every time I reread it I find something new to marvel at. I hope the Hulu series is half as good

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: this was the first piece of fiction I ever found with a family with a Chinese father and a white mother. This family is a lot less functional than my family, but I've read this three times because that means the world to me. 

Ash by Malinda Lo: I discovered this in 2011 and it was the first f/f novel I ever read, and as I would later learn, one of a handful with a happy ending at the time, particularly in YA fiction. For a long time, I reread it every time I felt hopeless. I just reread it again last month and it is still as beautiful and meaningful to me as in 2011.

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan: This is an Asian-inspired fantasy (becoming more common now, but still irritatingly rare) written by a queer Asian woman, with f/f. I think it is only the second one of these, after Ash? It is frustratingly rare, anyway. The worldbuilding is incredible also.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan: We are getting more stories about biracial Asians, but they are still pretty rare and I treasure every one. This one felt so real to me.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth: The first half of this book captures so beautifully what it’s like growing up queer in a religious environment when you don’t even have the words or self-awareness to know what you’re feeling. This was another one I read over and over again when I was feeling low.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: this is just a book for horse girls. I don’t know how else to describe this lol. I also feel like the romance is super downplayed until the very end, and honestly barely feels like a romance to me, so that’s refreshing!

Movies:

Pacific Rim (2013): I remember having this weird feeling when asked to give my top 3 movies once in high school, like maybe my favorite movie hadn’t come out yet so I couldn’t answer properly. I was right; this is the movie I was waiting for. This is my favorite movie. The feelings this movie gives me is the standard I hold all movies to.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019): but Megan, didn’t this just come out? Yes, and it’s my other favorite movie now. I love (almost) every second of this movie. This movie made me feel a way that I thought maybe I might never feel again, after a certain other franchise movie this year took a dump on my heart. I don’t care that we’re never getting a sequel, we got this and that’s enough for me.

Thor (2011): Those of you who have been around awhile know that I really love this movie. I loved it before we all jumped on the Thor train after Ragnarok and I will continue to love it probably my whole life. It just makes me happy.

Aquaman (2018): This is Thor but underwater and with a biracial hero. It made me cry in the theater and I do not want to hear any negative opinions about it, I find them personally wounding.

Belle (2013): The fact that Gugu Mbatha-Raw isn’t a superstar is tragic, and this movie is gorgeous and lovely and made me feel a lot of things as a biracial person.

Mad Max Fury Road (2015): I remember seeing the trailer for this in the theater and going “yikes that looks like a thing I would never watch.” Joke’s on you, past me!!!! I find this a deeply stressful but glorious film that I can only watch like, once or twice a year.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): I do not need or want to hear about how this movie is Problematic, I know all of its issues, and yet. It brings me joy and it was one of the first movies I saw when I was just starting to break out of my religious upbringing and I laugh until I cry every time I watch it.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): I am starting to realize that I am not and never really was a Star Wars Fan, which is to say that like...I love this movie specifically, I love the characters, I love the interactions, I love the stuff that happens. I do not so much love Star Wars as a whole? I like it fine! But this movie is the only part of the franchise to really make me go “oh, I get it.”

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017): This was a weird little movie that nobody saw and nobody talked about, but I adore it because it’s so gentle and romantic. I don’t know how accurate it is to history and frankly I do not really care.

Big Hero 6 (2014): are you tired of me mentioning I’m biracial yet? This movie has biracial protagonists and a cute squishy robot and no romance and superhero stuff and I love it so much.

F8: The Fate of the Furious (2017): I went to go see this on a whim with my wife and it was one of the most joyous theater experiences of my life. I don’t know, I just love everything about it.

TV shows:

Community: This only kind of counts because it started in 2009 but I started it mid-s2 so eh. Seasons 1-3 of this show are written on my heart, I can quote a ridiculous amount of dialogue from them and these characters will stay with me forever. Warts and all, this is my show.

Dollhouse: Another technicality but like, I met my wife because we both loved Bennett Halverson so I gotta put this on here. It’s pretty significantly affected my life! Also I find that it holds up fairly well, if you’re down for the admittedly iffy premise and an ending that’s a bit of a mess narratively due to sudden cancellation.

Agents of SHIELD: I would never claim that this show is “good” but I do think that it has mostly figured out what the hell it’s doing. And it has been a pretty significant part of my fandom life for the last 6 years, so to leave it off this list would feel wrong. It gave me Daisy Johnson, first canon biracial superhero as played by a biracial actor, and for that i will always be grateful.

Warehouse 13: I could not tell you why I fell so deeply in love with this dumb, badly written show that shit the bed in the final episode more spectacularly than I could have imagined, and yet I did! I think probably it is because I love found family so much, and also I find goofy camp charming more often than not. And of course, there is Bering and Wells, the femslash ship that fandom forgot. I will never be over how no one knows what we have suffered!!!!!

Runaways: wow was this a surprise! The Runaways comic is my favorite comic besides Marjorie Liu’s X-23 run, and this show has basically nothing to do with it, and normally that would piss me off but they got my kids’ personalities down so well and all of the actors are so perfect that I really can’t complain. And also, this show has canon f/f and neither of them die at the end! Which is...better than some other shows I could mention!

Doctor Who series 1 and 5: I had a very intense Doctor Who phase in college, and after all was said and done and I quit the show for a time, I realized that although I love a lot of the characters, and Thirteen’s run is pretty good so far, what I really loved was Nine’s run and Eleven’s first season. That is the show at its best to me. Eccleston is my Doctor and Amy is my favorite companion.

Legends of Tomorrow: Look, I am as shocked as anyone that this, the scrappy underdog of the DCTV lineup, is the one that’s most emotionally competent and has the best character arcs! But here we are. Season 4 was some of my favorite TV I’ve seen, uh, ever.

Albums

Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae: I listened to this for basically a year straight after it came out. It’s just ridiculously good.

Something Fierce by Marian Call: This was my on-repeat album in college. i drew a lot of strength from it, and I think that it’s still the best album to recommend to people who ask me about her.

Standing Stones by Marian Call: I heard most of these songs live at concerts before they were quite done yet, so it was really special to get to hear them all collected together like this. I’m going to get a tattoo with a lyric from one of these songs because no one’s quite been able to put my basic philosophy into words quite like Marian.

Heartthrob by Tegan and Sara: Hot Take, I know, because a lot of people hate this album, but it was so affirming to go out and buy A Lesbian Album from A Lesbian Band in 2013.

The Rent movie soundtrack: I know, I KNOW, but in my defense, my parents got me this for my birthday my first year of college and I needed it so desperately. I can definitely still do “La Vie Boheme” from the beginning and probably most of the other songs too.

In the Heights OBCR: I can only listen to this when I want to cry, but it’s my favorite musical. I got to see the show in 2018 and it was incredible. I think it’s better than Hamilton and I can’t wait for the movie to come out.

Trouble by Natalia Kills: this album is really great and also it says fuck a lot, which I used to be very nervous about hearing or saying, and this helped immensely!

[teabooksandsweets]

The Horse and His Boy has always been one of my favourite Narnia books, and I am glad to say that this hasn't changed at all. It's also by far my favourite title. In fact, I dare say, it's my favourite book title in general, not only out of the Narnia books.

I love the way this book is written, from its style through its structure to its characterization. Having read the series only in the chronological order before, it's really interesting to see how Lewis' writing evolved over the course of the series. I can't say it got better, as it was wonderful from the very beginning on, but there is a visible sort of development, which is especially apparent in the characters and world building.

I love the way Shasta/Cor and Aravis are written – both of them are lovely people, but their behaviour is awfully much influenced from their upbringing and experiences. Shasta's distrust in other people, which lead to a sort of selfishness, and Aravis' privileged aloofness, which lead to a sort of ruthlessness – both of which they slowly but steadily grow out – are not part of their natural personalities, not part of their souls, but of what they are taught to be. Both of them have practically opposite backgrounds, but they come down to the same thing: In order to dare to be as good as they truly are, they need to learn about the good in others, and learn to believe in it. They make a wonderful pair. I also very much adore the horses – Hwin's gentle steadfastness and Bree's pompous fallacy are wonderfully written. It's especially of note that, despite them being Talking Horses, Lewis truly showed that he knew horses, and how to write them. They didn't feel like humans in horse bodies – they were truly horses. I also love the other two kids – in some ways, Corin and Lasaraleen are even more charming than the protagonists, although I don't like them more (or less) than them. They are lovable and engaging side characters and simply a joy to read about. I even think they'd get along really well – not at first, certainly not, but they both have such amazing temperaments that would at least be very entertaining to watch interacting. I also really loved the Hermit. He's a fascinating character and I would love to know more about him. I wonder, if maybe he is also a Star or some other, well, unusual person. That aside, it was lovely to see the adult Pevensies – they all were exactly what they were. Susan, the Gentle Queen who didn't fight though she could, and Lucy the Valiant in chain mail and helmet, Peter the Magnificent fighting giants, and Edmund the Just making peace and plans.

In fact – it's lovely to see a glimpse of the Golden Age, which brings me back the extended world building. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the land and time of Narnia were so full of a very particular, tight sort of magic and enchantment. We knew little of the times before, and even less of the lands beyond. At that point, the World of Narnia and the Land of Narnia could have been one and the same, or else, if there had been more lands, they could also been enchanted. And then, all the more of that world we saw was so, so much later. It's amazing to actually see a story happen just a few years after the Long Winter, in two completely different countries, that existed beside Narnia all the time. Just think of it! According to Lewis' own timeline, the events in this book happened fourteen years after the Pevensies came to Narnia, so the children had not been born at that time, but all the adults we see had. There has been normal life in these countries all that time, and for some reason that does feel quite amazing to me, although I can't really explain how and why. It's just a really different feeling for the story – not better or worse, just different. It's also interesting to read a story from the perspective of characters who were born in the World of Narnia, and even more so to read one from the perspective of characters who didn't grow up in the Land of Narnia. It's the only book with no relation to our world, and that's very intriguing.

My favourite scene? I don't know. Probably Aslan's appearances in various shapes. His role was quite unusual compared to His appearances in the other books, and written in a particularly interesting, and sensitive way. The things He said to Shasta/Cor and Aravis were so very individually relevant, and their effect on them so very significant. His encounter with Bree, I dare say, seemed to have a message that went beyond the pages of the book, but I don't want to put anything into Lewis' words that might not actually be there. It's more of a personal feeling than an actual interpretation.

As for the supposed racism in this book, that I know some people will talk about: Do yourself a favour, and educate yourself. To be honest, I suppose me saying this is of no good use, but I don't want to actually discuss this, beyond saying that a lot of the complaints show some underlying racism themselves, and even more so a severe lack of understanding of this book, as well as various Middle Eastern cultures and religions, both ancient and modern. There's so many remarks on this that are made up of dramatic misinformation, and also an uncomfortable array of people who claim to care for social justice, but at the same time seem to believe all sorts of bad and untrue things about the people they supposedly want to protect, yet obviously don't respect. (It his unfortunate, but certainly not Lewis' fault, that some Islamophobic Christians have a dreadful idea of Islam that somehow resembles the Calormene Paganism, but, so do some of the people who accuse Lewis of Islamophobia.) This is on the racism related to real people.

As for the supposed racism inside the story, I dare say, if anything, the Calormenes show more of it than anyone else, and even that is very limited. I already noticed in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, that Lewis preferred to portray the Calormenes in a fairly neutral, and even more so a very interesting way, describing them as a wise, wealthy, courteous, cruel and ancient people. He did this in a way similar to how he described Trumpkin's face, and I've mentioned before that I absolutely adore how Lewis used to set “good” and “bad” adjectives side by side, simply using them as what they are, rather than a form of judgement. He also did this for the personalities of various characters – such as Edmund and Eustace – and on plenty of other occasions and matters. It's also of note, that all criticism of Calormen was in regards to its politics and some traditions, and never were the people portrayed to be bad based on their race, which played no role at all, or their culture, which was described to be a very beautiful one.

Personally, I find the Calormenes to be highly fascinating to begin with. I mentioned the difference reading the books in the original order makes in regards to the world building, and – with The Magician's Nephew not yet written at that time – I wonder how the Calormenes got to Narnia. I mean, not only how, but from where. Of course, the Telmarines are already proof enough, that after the creation of Narnia there have been people from our world getting there, long before the Pevensies came, but also – long after Frank and Helen came. And that's the interesting thing. Because the Creation of Narnia shows that it happened when in our world, it was the late 19th century, we cannot know since when Lewis had that in mind. The Telmarines were pirates, and the Calormenes seem to come from a very ancient, at least pre-Islamic (if not older than that) Middle East. And at this point, I wonder, was Narnia meant to have been created earlier?

I think it wasn't. I actually think they seem so old, because of the very long time they've been in Narnia! (I mean the World, of course.) Narnia isn't an antique or even medieval world, even though many make it out to be. From the very first book on, Narnia was almost modern – they had the lamppost, after all, even before we learned how it got there, they has sewing machines, fairly modern books, houses that resembled actual modern houses like the house Coriakin lived in, and all sorts of other things that show that there has been a sort of modern influence in Narnia all the time. The Telmarines could have been more or less modern Pirates, who somehow had to adjust to the place, and so did – even earlier – the Calormenes. They used what they had, and somehow adjusted to a live that, even a thousand years after the Long Winter, seemed older than that. And while the Calormene religion is, in terms of inspiration, based on Babylonian religions, the actual religion of the Calormenes is based in their world, and while not religiously True, based around at least one very real deity, which proves that they actually developed the cult around Tash through Tash and on Tash, after coming to Calormen. They might have been normal, modern people from somewhere in West to South Asia, who applied knowledge of their own ancient religions to what they saw in Narnia, and while only a few decades passed in our world, their old and new views and experiences mingled over the millenniums that passed over in Calormen into the culture we finally got to see. I mean – think of the Pevensies, who went on to become quite medieval in style and manners, too. If they could come to Narnia as completely modern people, and then change like that in less than fifteen years, why shouldn't others do so over thousands and thousands of years? I think this is all quite fascinating. Some might think that the fact that Narnia is not really an “independent” world makes it somehow less interesting, less intricate, but I think the way people get there, and bring things into the world, and change and adjust them, is amazing and a completely different sort of world building.

Also!!! It has been hinted that there are even more countries than the ones we know!!! Which is so amazing!!! And makes me so excited!!! The world actually goes on beyond Calormen!!! And Calormen is huge, oh my!!!

By the way, I love the name Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah, and I suppose Hwin also is short for a horsey name. According to Wikipedia, it's probably a contraction of “Hwinhynym”. That would be nice!

I cannot really choose a serious favourite quote (there's just too many!) so I'll go with this one: “Even though Education and all sorts of horrible things are going to happen to me.” I also don't really think I have a favourite chapter.

[inktank-thinktank]

Splatocalypse Now

My friends, the final Splatfest is upon us. And you know what that means. Plot implications for Splatoon 3.

We have been looking over the material released for Splatocalypse, and have prepared some analysis and interpretation, to not only help you make what you deem is the correct choice for the Splatfest, but also to prepare you for what is to come.

I’m warning you now, if you click into the Read More, there will be major spoilers for nearly every aspect of the Final Fest: Splatocalypse event, INCLUDING datamined material. Enter at your own risk.

First, we should note the theming. 'Splatocalypse'. This theme of a Splatoon apocalypse pops up in many places in the material we are to observe, and seems an almost overbearing theme. Nintendo is being direct this time - what happens is going to deeply impact the world of Splatoon.

Indeed, the music that plays during the trailer, according to the Live in Makuhari album coming out three days after the Splatfest ends, is called 'Haikara (Inkopolis) Memorial Mixtape', by DJ Octavio.

EDIT: OatmealDome has informed me that Haikara Memorial Mixtape is likely a NEW song that we have not heard yet! The song in the trailer is most likely ‘SPLATOCALYPSE （ファイナルフェス 告知映像BGM）’ (SPLATOCALYPSE - Final Splatfest Announcement Video BGM), the immediately previous track on the album.

After a brief summary of Splatfests to-date, we open to Pearl and Marina. When Pearl is on-screen, we get a sound effect of rushing flames, while Marina is accompanied by sounds reminiscent of computers and technology. This is notable, especially when viewed in combination with other material, giving us an... 'inkling', of what is to come. The first thing that I think needs considering in combination with this is the Splatfest gear.

What we see is quite telling.

In English, the gear names are ‘Jetflame Crest’ (the motorbike helmet), ‘Fierce Fishskull’ (the fish skull, obviously), ‘Eye of Justice’ (the helmet with the screen on it), and ‘Hivemind Antenna’ (the shades).

As per this Reddit post, which we will be referencing a lot going forward, the names are ‘Burning Broiler’, ‘Giga Fishbone’, ‘Justice Brain’, and ‘Cosmic Antenna’.

Team Chaos’ gear puts off an air of being very ‘Mad Max’-inspired, very befitting of both ‘chaos’ and the apocalyptic themes. It is also worth noting that the helmet containing the word ‘broiler’ in the name is a connection to the Salmonids, who we know from the Splatoon 2 Ikasu Art Book use cooking implements as weaponry because they see life and death and consumption of other living things as all part of a cycle.

Similarly, we know that sunglasses of the shape the Hivemind Antenna / Cosmic Antenna take have historically been linked to Octarian mind control technology, such as the hypnoshades worn by Callie and the Octolings you fight in Hero Mode 2.

It is not difficult then to surmise that Team Chaos ties in to the concept of a Mad Max style apocalyptic wasteland, somehow related to the Salmonids, while Team Order ties in to the concept of a false utopian society controlled by mechanisms of technological oppression.

Now, moving back to the trailer...

Over the course of the trailer, we are shown who is on each side, out of the major characters. I will summarize our beliefs as to why each character is on each side, as this will influence later covered topics.

TEAM CHAOS

Starting with Team Chaos, we have the Salmonids. This is quite obvious. The Salmonids have always been agents of chaos, chiefly known for overrunning early Inkling settlements and even going as far as consuming the Inklings within.

There is also Iso Padre, which may come as a surprise to some. However, as a former test subject of TARTAR’s, it is clear he would want as little to do with ‘order’ as possible when presented the option. He seems okay with Kamabo Co. in Octo Expansion, but in a way that seems...detached, wistful, almost like he’s given up on a life free of oppression.

Spyke is another obvious one, being a gangster and someone who, y’know, steals stuff and runs an actual pyramid scheme.

Agent 4 is also fairly obvious; official art depicting Agent 4 has always shown her to be a trickster of sorts, and less serious than her predecessor, Agent 3.

Callie is also an obvious one, being the spontaneous, excitable, freedom-and-fun-loving one out of the Squid Sisters.

Flow, being a ‘hippie’ of sorts, likely is on chaos in terms of ‘personal freedom’. And, y’know. Being able to be high all the time most likely.

For Annie, the first game implies that out of her and Moe, Moe is the one really ‘in charge’ of things, and, well... Moe is hard chaos. Play Splatoon Wii U, guys.

Li’l Judd is Team Chaos because as we know, he has an inferiority complex and resentment for Judd, being his clone, and generally is more of a tricksterish character. Also, being a kitten, Li’l Judd would likely be more playful, again ‘chaos’ as in ‘freedom’.

Pearl lays out her motivation for being Team Chaos rather starkly in the Splatfest announcement (which we will get to later).

And, I saved this one for last, because it’s somewhat surprising... Despite the Octarians being Team Order, Octavio is Team Chaos. This could be due to a thinking that he must win at any cost, and a willingness to use manipulation tactics to move his people towards supporting his war on Inkopolis. It could also be due to a mental slippage from so many repeated losses.

“But wait!” I hear you say. “If Octavio is Team Chaos, why are the shades, ostensibly tied to hypnosis, a Team Order gear piece?”

I would argue there that the hypnoshades, while used by Octavio, fit more into the Octarians’ wheelhouse of order through technology and regimentation.

TEAM NEUTRAL

Judd being Team Neutral is obvious. He judges the Splatfests, and unlike Li’l Judd, is generally more ‘neutral’ in tone.

Sheldon is probably Team Neutral because, well, he sells you weapons no matter what side you’re on in Splatfest, so...

And Mr. Grizz is Team Neutral because he’s out for his own interests, which exist apart from all other teams (note he’s apart from the rest of Team Neutral, and upside-down).

TEAM ORDER

Cap’n Cuttlefish is Team Order for having been part of the military, as well as actively fighting for the safety and security of Inklings.

Marie is Team Order being the more relaxed yet traditional one of the Squid Sisters.

Agent 8 is Team Order being an Octarian, and thus a part of their regimented society.

This brings us to the Octarians in general, who are Team Order being a regimented technocracy where large focus is put on people serving a specific function (see Marina’s Chat Room), as well as again the technological oppression aspects. They may also be simply following Marina, as we know that Agent 8 idolizes her, and that the Octolings who escaped to Inkopolis did so because they were inspired by her.

C.Q. Cumber is Team Order because, as Nintendo has stated, he really wasn’t concerned with what TARTAR was up to, he was just doing his job. Order at its finest.

TARTAR is Team Order for obvious reasons. It desires ‘order’ in the sense of purging the capricious, impulsive Inklings and petty, warlike Octarians, instead replacing them with a new ‘superior’ race of beings, created from its successful test subjects.

Agent 3 is Order because, well, she made the idea of ‘being the hero’ a central part of her identity, see adopting the ‘3′ cape into her outfit (something she had no reason to do).

Jelfonzo being Team Order makes sense, given that Nogami has stated that the Jellyfishes are all actually a large hivemind organism, who may have a significant hand in sponsoring Turf War, suggesting since Turf War is according to the Splatoon Ikasu Art Book largely subsidized by the government, the Jellyfish hivemind has a significant hand in Inkopolis’ government as well.

As with Pearl, we will discuss Marina’s choice more in-depth later, as it is looked at rather deeply in the Splatfest dialogue.

The only ones who we cannot seem to figure out are Murch, Bisk, and Crusty Sean, however we know that Sean has some...strangeness to him, only accepting tickets and getting defensive when you point this out, and the ‘Crustwear XXL’ shirt, a shirt advertising his food truck, being Grizzco gear. Perhaps he supports Team Order because of an involvement with corporate bureaucracy?

Similarly, my best guess with Murch is that, since he only engaged in the gear scrubbing and ordering scheme because he idolized Spyke, he realized at some point that Spyke was a criminal, and wanted to distance himself.

Now on to the leading ladies themselves. Pearl’s reasons for being Team Chaos run VERY deep, and a larger overall analysis is necessary.

Pearl’s motivation for Team Chaos seems to be primarily rooted in wanting a world that is ever-changing and not static, finding a world that stays the same boring and uneappealing. She also seems to act somewhat as an agent of chaos, declaring in the Splatfest dialogue both in English and Japanese that whichever side wins the Splatfest will be the form the world takes going forward.

In the English dialogue, she invokes ‘Splatfest law’, which is something created wholesale by Nintendo of America, however the implication either way is that whoever wins will remake the world in their own team’s image.

Additionally, in the Japanese dialogue, Pearl states “all I know is I don't want a world that's always like this!“, spoken in the same sort of way as when someone says things like ‘I wish things would be like this forever’.

Marina’s reasons for being Team Order as well are somewhat complex. She is primarily worried about stability and control over her life and her situation.

In fact, Pearl’s statements about Team Chaos, in the Japanese dialogue, are replied to in ways that show that she’s worried that Pearl would eventually even grow bored with Off the Hook, and flippantly want that to be over and ‘change’ as well.

It’s worth noting that Marina’s theming shows an erring towards technology, and technological order as we’ve seen before usually is something dangerous in the Splatoon universe. This may hint at what direction ‘her world’ would go in if she wins the final Splatfest.

Marina does, however, express trepidation in the Japanese dialogue about reshaping the world in the winner’s image, only doing so because Pearl is pushing things in that direction.

Moving forward, we will be addressing the assets and imagery the game has been preparing for the Splatocalypse event, and how that ties into the theming of a Splatoon apocalypse.

First, and the elephant in the room... ‘Dear Senpai’, or as it’s being called by Nintendo of America, ‘MC.Princess Diaries’, the new Shifty Station stage.

The stage is quite obviously based on another brush Inkopolis has had with the apocalypse, that being the NILS Statue fight from the Octo Expansion, where Pearl and Marina, with the help of Agent 8, narrowly stopped TARTAR from destroying Inkopolis. The fight, and indeed all Turf Wars in the Final Fest event, come complete with the discordant Turf War intro sound from Octo Expansion, and Dear Senpai comes with Hyperbombs and the ‘Princess Cannon’ (the Killer Wail from the first game). Information from OatmealDome states that three sets of Hyperbombs each appear throughout the match, each time consisting of two per team, while the Princess Cannon is spawned once per match for one player to use in the form of Pearl coming down from the helicopter outside the stage.

We know that Team Chaos is strongly coded to involve Salmonids, and we know Team Order is strongly coded to involve technological oppression, but again per OatmealDome we have our first look at how this would play out.

The stage chronologically takes place after the NILS Statue fight, with the wreckage of the NILS Statue seen in the background, being tended to and examined by Jellyfish, who again are part of the Inkopolis government. And, if you recall during the final fight, the NILS Statue is utterly swimming in TARTAR’s corruptive ooze, as well as the remains of TARTAR itself. Could we perhaps see the return of TARTAR via the Jellyfish hivemind? This would explain also how it would be Team Order despite being ostensibly dead.

You may wonder why I haven’t discussed the actual terrain of Dear Senpai, or the post-Splatfest dialogue. In fact, Nintendo pushed invalid dummy data in its place to prevent data mining. In the case of Dear Senpai, they pushed the Shifty Station from Frostyfest, and in the case of the post-Splatfest dialogue, barebones dialogue with nothing beyond a winning team announcement.

As most should already know, the Final Splatfest will have all 23 previous Shifty Stations on a rotation, two every two hours like the other maps, before running Dear Senpai for the final 24 hours. Interestingly, while we know that Dear Senpai is to take up the full final 24 hours , the two hours immediately preceding it also have only a single Shifty Station stage: Tentacle Warning / Sweet Valley Tentacles, the Shifty Station from the Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest. As a brief aside, all of the Shifty Station names in Japanese are puns on manga titles, and all the ones in English are puns on novels.

This is what the Inkopolis Square skybox will look like during the Final Fest. A video showing the Square with this skybox and Splatfest mode on can be found here. We don’t know what the Square‘s event decorations will be, if any, but this immediately brings something to mind: Blade Runner 2049.

Screenshot from the relevant point in the movie for reference.

Furthermore, at this screen when you press ZL+ZR, this sound plays. Sound familiar? It sounds to me like the clock tower bell in Majora’s Mask. In fact, both are the same note, a C4.

Additionally, we know that the music for the Final Fest is a combination of Off the Hook and Squid Sisters music. Per OatmealDome:

New battle music for Final Fest!

Ink Me Up by Squid Sisters (Splatoon 1)

Shark Bytes

Calamari Inkantation

Fly Octo Fly

New 1 minute left music!

Now or Never! by Off the Hook, feat Squid Sisters

Now or Never! by Squid Sisters

This suggests that the Squid Sisters are to play a major role; however they do not appear in any of the Final Fest assets, meaning this likely is hinting at them playing some role in the Final Fest’s impact on Splatoon 3. This is corroborated by their appearance in the Splatocalypse trailer, wearing Pearl and Marina’s signature crown and headphones, respectively.

In closing, I think it can be easily surmised just what is going on. Team Chaos has strong ties to Salmonids and a theme of Inkopolis being overrun or falling to ruin. Team Order has strong ties to TARTAR and themes of technological oppression and control. The Splatfest announcement dialogue implicates Pearl or Marina respectively as bringing on a possibly related, possibly simply additional, chaotic or orderly world for each bad outcome to exist in. And the strong focus on the Squid Sisters implicates that, yet again, Callie and Marie will be pitted against each other.

It is truly a matter of ‘pick your villain’. Except unlike Splatoon 1, where the loser was the one who was turned against us, and instead of being against her will... This time the winner, or at least the winning side, is the one who will turn wicked.

Who and what form will this take? Only time will tell.

[native-american-resistance]

Our History is the Future Revisited

Minus the prologue and first chapter, I read the entire book in one sitting, so sorry if this reflection is a bit all over the place and mentions events from Chapters 2-3. From the prologue and first chapter, I assumed that the rest of this book would be mostly personal stories from the author, more storytelling style and less academic. However, the rest of the book maintained the intriguing writing style, while also providing thorough academic analysis of native history and injustices leading up to Standing Rock. One of the highlights of the book in my opinion was Estes going out of his way to mention the narrative of native women throughout native rights movements over the years. Women warriors fought at the Battle of Little Bighorn, helping to take down General George Custer, and later headlined the #NoDAPL movement centuries later. The narrative of native women is crucial to understanding native issues; as they are oppressed not only on the axis of race/”nationality”, but also on the axis of gender, facing negative treatment both on and off the reservation. Prior to the introduction of settler colonialism, women held nearly equal power with men in native society. Some tribes had female council members, and traced heritage through matrilinear means. Women also owned property, and in some tribes, women owned all the items in the home. Settler colonialism forced intermarriage upon native women; many of whom were unwilling, and subsequently kidnapped, raped, and forced to bear white children. Eurocentric ideals gave these married women no power whatsoever; instead, them and their children were property to their white husbands. In particularly brutal cases, native women were shared with their white husbands’ friends. The white men additionally used their native wives’ relatives for economic profit, using their artificial kinship to sell them furs and further force Eurocentric ideals upon them. Despite all this, native women played a prominent, yet overlooked role in the 1970s Red Power movement, fighting alongside their brothers but often having their achievements overlooked and ignored in favor of male achievements. 

Interwoven throughout the narrative is the idea of settler colonialism; where an invading force not only invades a country, but also seeks to replace the native population. To do so, the invaders/settlers use means such as genocide, forced assimilation, and rewrite the narrative by stealing native artifacts and history. An interesting idea that Estes put forth is that the settlers decimating the buffalo population was an act of genocide in relation to settler colonialism. The buffalo were a staple of native diets, and often the only food source which plains Indians could rely on. Settlers hunted them not necessarily for food, but also for sport, and to use their hides for trading. Oftentimes, settlers would skin the body for the hide, and not use the meat. The plains Indians hunted buffalo with respect, always using every part of their body. I specifically remember learning in middle school that American Indians used buffalo bladders as buckets for carrying water, though I’m not sure how accurate this is. When settlers invaded native camps, they would destroy the stocks of preserved buffalo meat in order to starve out that natives that were not present when the camp was raided. Additionally, forcing the natives to rely on a system of fur trading amplified Eurocentric ideals about society, and effectively destroyed the native nomadic lifestyle.

The second to last chapter of the book draws comparisons between native American genocide, and the ongoing Palestinian conflict. If this book is missing anything, it would’ve been nice to see works by Jewish scholars referenced. The Holocaust is mentioned once in a bizzarely casual annecdote, with Estes saying that the Holocaust was a “one time” event, and it is implied that the Jews suffered far less than native people have suffered. The argument Estes is trying to make is that native people are still feeling the impacts of settler colonialism, and it impacts every single part of their daily lives, as they are forced to live in a society that literally tried to destroy them. However, it is naive to think that the impacts of the Holocaust are not felt to this day, and that Jewish people don’t suffer from it still. Antisemitic have crimes have gone up 30% since Trump’s election, and there have been multiple mass shootings at synagogues in the past year alone. The book could have benefitted from hearing actual Jewish voices, instead of speaking for, and over them. That being said, I do agree that it is a fair comparison; the Palestinians also had their homeland taken from them, by a hostile force intent on wiping out any trace of their presence. Estes also compares the Red Power and Free Palestine movement to Black Lives Matter. He makes the interesting point that the movement started under Obama’s presidency, even though police violence against African Americans didn’t increase significantly during this time period. It was more the realization that even such a significant accomplishment as electing the first black president, wouldn’t and couldn’t protect black citizens. In my opinion, while police brutality against African Americans has been occurring since this country was founded, the perceived increase in occurrences is due to the rise of social media that occurred in the early 2010s. With portable cameras and computers (aka smartphones), police brutality is quickly documented and shared online, which made (white) people realize how bad things have always been; they were just seeing it firsthand for the first time. Social media has played a role in many recent activist movements; most notably being the Arab Spring, and now being seen in the Hong Kong protests. 

Estes concludes the book by discussing international native rights’ movements; such as the movement to get native Americans a seat in the League of Nations/future United Nations. He specifically mentions that one privilege that Palestinians are afforded over Native Americans is having a seat at the international table. Native power movements have taken place all over the globe, specifically in Canada and Australia in addition to the US. Estes’ final message is one of hope, that our (Native) history is the future; they have fought and endured through centuries of abuse, and will not back down. To end things on a negative note, last week news broke that the Keystone XL has indeed leaked; spilling over three hundred thousand gallons of crude oil in North Dakota. The fight is not over; Mni Wiconi.

[ucflibrary]

The national celebration of African American History was started by Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard-trained historian and the founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and first celebrated as a weeklong event in February of 1926. After a half century of overwhelming popularity, the event was expanded to a full month in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

 Here at UCF Libraries we believe that knowledge is key to living a good life and that sharing information benefits everyone. This is why our featured bookshelf suggestions range from celebrating outstanding African Americans to having difficult conversations about racism and American History. We are proud to present our top 24 favorite books by, and/or about, African Americans.

 Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the Black History Month titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 24 books plus many, many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators. Blu-rays and DVDs for documentaries and popular films are also included in the display.

 A Rap on Race by Margaret Mead and James Baldwin A black writer's emotional response to American racism is juxtaposed with the logical analyses of a social scientist. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 Backlash: what happens when we talk honestly about racism in America by George Yancy When George Yancy penned a New York Times op-ed entitled “Dear White America” asking white Americans to confront the ways that they benefit from racism, he knew his article would be controversial. But he was unprepared for the flood of vitriol in response. The resulting blowback played out in the national media, with critics attacking Yancy in every form possible—including death threats—and supporters rallying to his side. Despite the rhetoric of a “post-race” America, Yancy quickly discovered that racism is still alive, crude, and vicious in its expression. In Backlash, Yancy expands upon the original article and chronicles the ensuing controversy as he seeks to understand what it was about the op-ed that created so much rage among so many white readers. He challenges white Americans to rise above the vitriol and to develop a new empathy for the African American experience. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Buffalo soldiers directed by Charles Haid Danny Glover stars in this historical epic of former slaves turned United States Army recruits--the Buffalo Soldiers. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, many ex-slaves head west in search of a new life far from Southern oppression. In 1866, a year after the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Army enlists black men to fight Native Americans on the Western frontier. Nicknamed "Buffalo Soldiers" by the Plains Indians, these African-American troops also string miles of telegraph wire, escort settlers, cattle and railroad crews through the hostile West and patrol the wild United States-Mexican border in this moving drama that chronicles an untold, exciting part of United States history. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Crossing Division Street: an oral history of the African-American community in Orlando by Benjamin Brotemarkle This book includes an overview of the people, institutions, and events that shaped the establishment, growth and history of the African-American community in Orlando. We examine the creation of the neighborhood's educational centers, places of worship, and businesses, and the irony of how desegregation inadvertently led to the decline of the community. Significant instances of racial unrest in Orlando that are often overlooked are detailed in this manuscript. Suggested by Rich Gause, Research & Information Services

 Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the dawn of a new America by Gilbert King In 1949, Florida's orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day's end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as "the Groveland Boys." Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Dread Nation by Justina Ireland At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland's stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet. Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

 Everything’s Trash but it’s OK by Phoebe Robinson Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson's latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society's beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture's obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she's hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She's struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day--and because she's seen roughly one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler's List. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Frederick Douglass: America's prophet by D.H. Dilbeck From his enslavement to freedom, Frederick Douglass was one of America's most extraordinary champions of liberty and equality. Throughout his long life, Douglass was also a man of profound religious conviction. In this concise and original biography, D. H. Dilbeck offers a provocative interpretation of Douglass's life through the lens of his faith. In an era when the role of religion in public life is as contentious as ever, Dilbeck provides essential new perspective on Douglass's place in American history. Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement

 Frederick Douglass: prophet of freedom by David W. Blight The definitive, dramatic biography of the most important African American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement

 Heavy: an American memoir by Kiese Laymon    In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

 Hidden in Plain View:  the secret story of quilts and the underground railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard The fascinating story of a friendship, a lost tradition, and an incredible discovery, revealing how enslaved men and women made encoded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.  In Hidden in Plain View, historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold—and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew—Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery. Suggested by Jacqueline Johnson, Cataloging

 Hokum: an anthology of African-American humor edited by Paul Beatty This book is less a comprehensive collection than it is a mix-tape narrative dubbed by a trusted friend―a sampler of underground classics, rare grooves, and timeless summer jams, poetry and prose juxtaposed with the blues, hip-hop, political speeches, and the world's funniest radio sermon. Groundbreaking, fierce, and hilarious, this is a necessary anthology for any fan or student of American writing, with a huge range and a smart, political grasp of the uses of humor. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Teaching & Engagement

 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet A. Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is an autobiography by a young mother and fugitive slave published in 1861 by L. Maria Child, who edited the book for its author, Harriet Ann Jacobs. Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. Suggested by Athena Hoeppner, Acquisitions & Collections

 March. Book One. by John Lewis This graphic novel is Congressman John Lewis' first-hand account of his lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a climax on the steps of City Hall. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington D.C., and from receiving beatings from state troopers, to receiving the Medal of Freedom awarded to him by Barack Obama, the first African-American president. (Book Two and Book Three are also available at the UCF Curriculum Materials Center in the Education complex) Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

 Middle Passage by Charles Johnson It is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly treed slave and irrepressible rogue, is desperate to escape unscrupulous bill collectors and an impending marriage to a priggish schoolteacher. He jumps aboard the first boat leaving New Orleans, the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a daring voyage of horror and self-discovery. Suggested by Brian Calhoun, Research & Information Services

 Obama: An Intimate Portrait by Pete Souza Obama: An Intimate Portrait reproduces more than 300 of Souza's most iconic photographs with fine-art print quality in an oversize collectible format. Together they document the most consequential hours of the Presidency--including the historic image of President Obama and his advisors in the Situation Room during the bin Laden mission--alongside unguarded moments with the President's family, his encounters with children, interactions with world leaders and cultural figures, and more. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

 Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus away from her friends and to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

 Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time.  Suggested by Brian Calhoun, Research & Information Services

 The Color Purple by Alice Walker Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters—one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South—who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Suggested by Jacqueline Johnson, Cataloging

 The Fire this Time: a new generation speaks about race edited by Jesmyn Ward National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this groundbreaking collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin's essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a "post-racial" society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin's "fire next time" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 The Hellfighters of Harlem: African-American soldiers who fought for the right to fight for their country by Bill Harris The author paints a lively portrait of the Hellfighters of Harlem--the Army's most celebrated all-black unit during World War I--chronicling their fierce struggle to be allowed to serve, their exploits in Europe, their influence on American culture, and their continuing contributions in World War II and in Iraq during the Gulf War. Suggested by Rich Gause, Research & Information Services

 The Sellout by Paul Beatty A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

[marginalgloss]

in the egg

Many years into the future, humanity has begun to colonise the galaxy. Our capabilities have come to include terraforming foreign planets and moons: we seed them, and turn them from barren rocks to verdant worlds teeming with life. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky opens with such an experiment. A space station full of scientists are about to drop off a colony of monkeys on a forest world, with a climate that has been adapted to more or less resemble Earth. The plan is to release them alongside a virus which will accelerate their evolution, along more or less the same basis as humanity — it will, in short, create a society, one that will come into existence much faster than would otherwise be the case. 

Except something goes wrong. At the moment of inception, a rebel on board the station sabotages the experiment. The station is almost destroyed, most of the crew are dead, and the monkeys are gone. The only survivor is Dr Avrana Kern, the sole inhabitant of a tiny sentry pod intended to orbit the earth to keep watch over the experiment. Accompanied only by the AI in the ship’s computer, she believes fiercely in the purpose of her mission. She doesn’t know that the monkeys are gone. She also doesn’t know that the virus survived and will endure in the form of a colony of spiders from the space station.   

This is a fun book — hard sf in the Asimov vein. But more fun than I ever had with Asimov. It’s gripping, and thoughtful, and often quite funny. The story takes place across a scale of thousands of years, enabled in a few ways: the author follows the development of the spiders by awarding roughly equivalent individuals the same name across the generations; meanwhile, out in space there is the Gilgamesh, a wandering ark-ship carrying what could be the last remnants of humanity, who survive by popping in and out of cryogenic storage whenever they start looking a bit grey. 

The whole thing is informed by an interest in history and genetics. Meme theory and materialism are part of it, certainly: ‘The blind watchmaker has been busy’, the author quips at one point. In political terms it’s a hard one to pin down. It borrows the idea (surely quite an old one in certain circles) of an advanced civilisation playing god and takes it very far indeed. The book is interested in how this feels on a human (or arachnid) scale, but spirituality is rendered mostly irrelevant – a convenient by-product of instincts driven at a deeper biological level. At one point one of the smarter spiders believes it has discovered something significant: 

‘…a second book in a second code, short and yet full of information, and different, so different…She says it is the Messenger within us. She says the Messenger is always to be found when new Understandings are laid down. She says it dwells with us in the egg, and grows with us, our invisible guardian, each one of us, she says, she says…’ 

This turns out to be not quite the Reformation-level understanding of religion it appears. The meaning is more literal. The ‘second code’ is simply the virus that has determined their own rapid progression as a species — once they master its development, the spiders become the masters of their own destiny.

There’s little in this novel that cannot be explained in terms of astronomy, genetics, biochemistry, or sociology. In execution it resembles an elaborate retelling of Frankenstein: what happens when the creation wants to meet its maker? But unlike Shelley’s novel, this is a book which has only a moderate active interest in the inner lives of its characters. 

The spiders are convenient because their outer lives are so immediately intertwined (pun intended) with their psychology. Most of them are not interesting as unique individuals — they fascinate the reader only in the sense that each one endures as part of a bigger picture. Consider this description of one of the later incarnations of a spider who is named Bianca for our convenience: 

‘She has a rare perspective that enables her to look back on so many generations of struggle and growth and be able to give a shape and a texture to history, to appreciate the incremental contributions of all those Portias and Biancas and, yes, Fabians down through the generations. Each has contributed Understandings to the sum total of arachnid knowledge. Each has been a node in the expanding web of progress. Each has planned out the path one step beyond their ancestors. In a very real way, Bianca is their child, the product of their learning, daring, discovery and sacrifice. Her mind throngs with the living learning of dead ancestors.’

None of the humans here lives up to the honour of the description above. In their longing for this kind of permanence, the people here end up craving authority, and inflicting suffering. The closest thing the novel has to a human protagonist is Holsten, a scholar on board the Gilgamesh whose role it is to act as a translator and all-round ‘classicist’ — he seems the only one with any lingering cultural or historical knowledge of human civilisation back on earth. He’s a hapless Arthur Dent-ish figure — perpetually confused, generally at the mercy of events around him rather than any kind of hero. He is not atypical. Much like the smaller male spiders, he is incapable of surviving alone, but he is basically good-natured. 

The rest of the humans don’t come across so well. We were the monster all along. We know this. But it’s more than that, I think. Humanity as a whole is portrayed as living at the mercy of fate. We are forever victims of some critical flaw in our own nature. The spiders surpass us because they fixed that flaw. If the spiders represent the idea of progress at its most refined, the humans seem like a race of catastrophically ignorant blunderers by comparison. 

The book ends on something of an optimistic note. It is as though Frankenstein closed with the creature and its maker embracing and, in some ways, swapping genetics. But the ending fits with the tone of the rest of the book. This doesn’t strike me as the kind of novel which could tolerate much in the way of ambiguity. Following the logic of the story too closely could imply that ambiguity is part of what got us into this mess in the first place. So, in a novel which is otherwise teeming with convenient pseudo-evolutionary contrivances, it’s only fitting that the book ends with one final sweeping, peaceful gesture. 

[sartle-blog]

Rubens: The Early Years at the Legion of Honor

Okay, so maybe it’s not that kind of Rubens, but there are some similarities between this exhibition and a delicious Reuben sandwich. They both are glorious to behold, they both often contain significant amounts of fat, and spending a long time looking at either will make you really, really hungry.

  The Legion of Honor’s latest show has been a long time in the making. Before he left the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to head the Met, former director Max Hollein helped set in motion this last exhibition, which he considered a final parting gift to the city. He’s long gone now, but what better way for his legacy to go out with a bang than with a show all about Rubens? Born out of a collaboration between Sasha Suda of the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Legion of Honor’s own Kirk Nickel, not only is this the first show dedicated exclusively to the Flemish Baroque master in the United States in ten years, it’s also the first one ever to focus entirely on the early part of Rubens’ career.

    And his early development is just as fascinating as his mature work. The exhibit picks up when Rubens has already been named a master painter in Antwerp, but has put off opening his own studio until he’s traveled and learned at the feet of the Italian Renaissance masters. Ever precocious, Rubens quickly picked up work in Italy as a court painter to the Duke of Mantua, who exposed the classically educated Rubens to all sorts of Greek and Roman goodies, as well as supported his travels to see the work of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Titian, Veronese, and Caravaggio. Rubens absorbed aspects of all of these artists’ work into his own and then created something entirely new: a sensual, exuberant, and emotive style that appealed to the spiritual, intellectual, and courtly world to which he belonged as a true gentleman painter.

  Some of the work he produced in Italy is here on display, including his first known self-portrait, which shows him among a group of what is likely his Northern European compatriots in Mantua, true courtiers à la the “Book of the Courtier” by Castiglione.

  Self-Portrait in a Circle of Friends at Mantua. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Foundation, Cologne.

  And just look at all that sprezzatura. That’s Rubens there in the front, looking extra ~sensual~.

  Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1608 following his mother’s death, and he decided to stay and open a studio. Antwerp had already experienced its Golden Age by this point and had a severe economic slump during the religious wars that had been consuming that part of the world since the Reformation. His return coincided with the brokering of peace between the Hapsburg-controlled Southern Netherlands and the Dutch Republic to the North in the Twelve Years Truce, and Rubens felt now was the perfect time to help rebuild the city as a center of culture with his humanist friends. A selection of portraits on display demonstrate his range as he painted the prominent locals, from the formal portraits of city patricians with finely detailed, carefully controlled brushwork, to the loose, genial portraits of friends and family that offer revealing snapshots of their personalities.

  While there’s no denying the brilliance of his portraits, this exhibit focuses far more on his history paintings, scenes inspired by biblical and mythological events, which are often very grand. The glory and drama of Baroque art had been ushered in in part by the decisions made by the Catholic Church during the Council of Trent, which established certain expectations for how religious art should look. In their effort to restore the majesty of the Church through art, they ruled that religious scenes must be depicted with accuracy, clarity, and emotional power. As a serious Roman Catholic, Rubens took the dictum and ran with it, creating powerful imagery that is easy to read yet profoundly moving.

  Lamentation. Princely Collections, Liechtenstein.

  In the Lamentation, Rubens’ true genius is on display. Even in his most magnificent, large scale works, Rubens has a knack for zeroing in on a small moment, a tiny gesture, that was both emotionally potent and utterly relatable to the viewer. Here that moment is Mary tenderly closing her dead son’s eyes while plucking a thorn from his hair. These moments are so human, so visceral, that they allow the viewer to connect in new ways to the biblical figures of their adoration or study. Nobody had ever done this before to the same extent. Sometimes, like in The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, Saint John, and a Dove, he almost goes too far, humorously portraying baby Jesus fighting with baby John the Baptist over a dove (the embodiment of the Holy Spirit), John yanking feathers out of the poor bird’s wing.

  The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, Saint John, and a Dove. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  Looks like somebody’s losing their Holy Spirit privileges until they can learn how to play nice.

  Even in the enormous and violent Massacre of the Innocents we find the same small moments of emotional force that give the entire work that signature Rubens pull. The desperate claw marks one mother makes in the face of her child’s attacker, the mother whose face is hidden in her hair as she bends over her dead infant’s blue body…. within the turmoil, those intimate gestures emerge to form an arresting picture of cruelty and grief.

  Massacre of the Innocents. Art Gallery of Ontario.

  One of the most appreciated aspects of Rubens’ work during his time was his ability to mix beauty and horror in equal parts in a single image. The Head of Medusa, which is one of two versions and is here in the United States for the very first time, is one such work. The beautiful rendering of the snakes and salamanders, possibly done by Frans Snyders, complicates the horror of the ashen severed head around which they squirm, springing to life from drops of blood. This is just the sort of painting wealthy patrons loved to have hanging over their mantle pieces because it sparked interesting conversations about the nature of beauty and fear.  

  The Head of Medusa. Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic.

  Similarly, Rubens’ Lot and his Daughters would have provided much fodder for conversation. It depicts the Old Testament story in which Lot’s daughters, believing they are the last humans alive, seduce their father to carry on the human race. Rubens based the face of Lot on a classical statue of a satyr (a sexually predatory being) while he took Lot’s pose from Leda, of Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan, who is certainly the victim in that narrative. Thus, Rubens raises uncomfortable questions about victimhood, as well as the viewer’s complicity in that act of incest. The educated circles in which Rubens moved would have immediately picked up on all those references, and it likely would have allowed for some interesting talk at dinner parties.

After the vibrant colors and vast canvases of his history paintings, the exhibit’s final room all about print culture seems rather underwhelming at first. Rubens was a shrewd businessman and one of the most successful artists ever, so it makes sense that he turned to print culture as a way to disseminate his images even further, completing illustrations for books and also just making engravings of his best paintings. However, upon close inspection, the drawings in this room, while less flashy, are absolutely exquisite. The room is tied together nicely with a later image of the Raising of the Cross that proves just how important those early years of development in Antwerp were for Rubens. He would go on to become a tremendously prolific and successful artist, employing dozens of assistants in his workshop, collaborating with some of the top names of his day, becoming a successful diplomat, elevating the role of the artist in society, and even creating a brand new adjective for curvaceous ladies (rubenesque), but a few key prints suggest he may have had a certain sentimental attitude toward his early years of success in Antwerp. D'aww.

  Daniel in the Lions’ Den. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

  The exhibit ends where it begins, with three masterpieces of enormous size. The most dazzling is by far Daniel in the Lions’ Den. It’s the most beloved painting by school groups in the National Gallery for obvious reasons, so if you’re wondering whether or not you should go to this exhibit, the lions themselves should be a good enough answer:

  And are you really going to argue with lions?

  There is much to admire in Rubens’ work: the brushwork, at times subtle and refined, at times exuberant and free; the beautifully arranged drama of his scenes; the quantity of different facial expressions he was able to uncannily reproduce; his beautiful renderings of golden curls on the heads of children, etc. The list goes on. The exhibit is well curated, with a range of high quality examples from all over Europe. More wall text about Rubens’ truly fascinating life and personality would have been nice, but then I think I’m the only person who ever wants MORE wall text. (That’s what the catalog is for, anyway.)  But if you do get bored, and I don’t think that’s very likely, there are a few games you could play: “Count the corpses” (There are a lot of them), “Count the dogs” (those baroque artists sure loved their pupperinos), and “Count the Women Making this Face”:

  That would be the expression known as "I'm so in awe my face has become a potato."  

“Rubens: The Early Years” runs from April 6, 2019 - September 8, 2019 at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. You don't want to miss it. More information can be found here.

By: Jeannette Baisch Sturman

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

20 Reasons you should love Spider-Girl!

Happy May Day one and all. Since this day shares a name with a certain daughter of our friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler (and because this year marked her 20th anniversary) we’re going to list of 20 reasons you should love Spider-Girl!

No deep dive analysis I am afraid and these are in no particular order.

Without further adieu...

Longest running female Marvel hero with her own series

In a day and age when much discussion is devoted to female characters in leading roles Spider-Girl was something of a trail blazer, though she gets far too little credit for it.

Spider-Girl was (and still is to my understanding) the longest running female Marvel character to have her own solo-series; at least without any re-launches.

This feat is even more impressive considering Spider-Girl was an out-of-continuity series which usually do not sell as easily as titles within the mainstream 616 universe.

Her costume

When discussing Spider-Man’s costumes thought inevitably drifts to Spider-Man’s original red and blue outfit or his black and white one. However the third horse in the race is the 1996 costume created by Ben Reilly and thus lovingly nicknamed the ‘Spider-Ben’ outfit.

It is simply a brilliant and beautiful design succeeding in evoking something unique and yet distinctly ‘Spider-Man’.

Whilst anyone coming to the black costume completely cold and with no context could be forgiven for mistaking it for an entirely different character (as Ron Frenz did way back in the early 1980s), nobody could look at Mayday’s costume and not   realize it has something to do with Spider-Man.

Shifting around elements of the classic costume Mayday’s outfit succeeds in maintaining a balance of primary colours (as the best superhero costumes do) and making her distinct from any artistic angle.

The costume also (according to superstar artist Sal Buscema) in fact works more effectively on Mayday’s feminine form than on the typical male superhero body build.

Her other costumes

The beauty of Spider-Man’s black costume lies in its simplicity. However this doesn’t mean it is above being redesigned and around 20 years after its debut one of the key architects in its introduction (Ron Frenz) did just that when he created a black costume for Mayday.

Much like her red and blue outfit, her own black costume succeeds in being unique but retaining most of the strong visual elements that made her Dad’s counterpart outfit a hit. Sleek, simple and using white/silver in moderation to create a stark contrast this is probably Mayday’s most out and out badass look.

But Mr. Frenz had one more trick up his sleeve. In 2015 as part of the Secret Wars mega event Marvel was involved with Ron Frenz took to redesigning Mayday’s costume once again. Her previous appearance in Spider-Verse had controversially seen her hang up her original costume in favour of wearing one of her father’s old suits.

Quite apart from how the costume simply didn’t work as effectively on the Mayday’s female figure compared to Spider-Man’s, fans didn’t take kindly to the change. Apparently neither did Mayday’s co-creators Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and so we wound up with yet another costume that combined elements of Peter Parker and Ben Reilly’s costumes together to create something once again familiar yet ultimately unique.

Whilst most Spider-Girl fans would’ve preferred a return to her classic look the costume unto itself has been acknowledged as a beautiful design.

A true all ages book

The majority of Spider-Girl’s run played out in a day and age when the content of comic books was going down an allegedly more ‘realistic and mature’ direction.

Titles such as the Ultimate Universe line, though paying lip service to being aimed at younger readers, were far from being for all ages. This was very much true of Marvel and DC as a whole throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.

Spider-Girl was a brave exception to this trend, actively engaging in sophisticated and at times challenging stories that nevertheless presented events in a way that tweens, teens and adults could enjoy.

Survival of cancellations

Infamously Spider-Girl lived under a near perennial threat of cancellation.

But Mayday’s fans were both too smart and too in love with her stories to let her go under.

Repeatedly they exploited their knowledge of the pre-ordering system LCSs use and saved Mayday’s series from cancellation.

No comic book has ever defied expectations and escaped cancellation more times than Spider-Girl.

Tackled tough and relevant subject matters in a frank, mature and realistic way without being grim dark

As I mentioned above, Spider-Girl was an all ages book but that didn’t mean it stayed away from tough subjects. 

More than once Spider-Girl used mutants to discuss bigotry and prejudice. 

Issue #26 of Mayday’s first series was a vital turning point for the narrative and it fundamentally hinged upon addressing issues related to suicide and the vicious cycle of abuse that can exist within families. 

Multiple subplots touched upon women being physically and emotionally abused, to the point where the topic was brought up in the very issue where Mayday celebrated being the longest running female Marvel character. This is best exemplified in Spider-Girl #89 which has one of the most uncomfortably realistic pages in a comic book I have ever read. 

Perhaps most audaciously one issue dedicated an entire scene to talking fairly frankly about the topic of abortion and making the characters’ stances on the issue very clear. What is perhaps even more impressive is that this was the second  time that writer Tom DeFalco had dared touch that subject within a Spider title. 

Regardless of what your personal views are on that or on any of the topics above, the sheer guts of the creative team to ‘go there’ must be admired and respected.

Consistent art that also has amazing action sequences!

Spider-Girl has been drawn by several artists across the years but the two most dominant ones are Pat Oliffe and Ron Frenz.

Whilst both artists evolved their styles across the run of the series there was enough relative consistency that the book rarely felt alienating to long time readers.

And it helped that both artists’ styles are just beautiful.

Oliffe leans more towards illustration and makes the characters seem realistic and yet fluid at the same time.

Frenz is more of a cartoonist and yet his art is not usually overly stylized and manages to retain the iconic features of each character he draws. His rendition of Mary Jane for example could never be mistaken for any given typically attractive redhead, it looks distinctly like Mary Jane evoking Romita Senior’s design for her.

Not only are each artist great in their character work but in their raw sequential storytelling craftsmanship. Nowhere is this more evident than in their well paced, cleverly choreographed and all round dynamic action sequences. At the time the stories were published (and even today) you’d have been hard pressed to find any action sequences in Marvel or DC that could rival those of Spider-Girl’s. 

Continuity porn and fan service done right

Dan Slott’s run on Spider-Man has in the past been criticised of indulging in ‘continuity porn’. That is to say utilizing or referencing past continuity excessively to the point where it either takes you out of a story or outright undermines a story itself.

 Spider-Girl demonstrates how continuity and fan service can be done well given the right context. There are in fact probably a million times more continuity references and examples of fan service within Spider-Girl’s whole run than in Slott’s collective Spider-Man bibliography.

The difference though is that the continuity Spider-Girl first and foremost concerns itself with involves organically building upon previously established events, whether it’s from its own series, Spider-Man’s wider history or Marvel lore in general.

Case in point Spider-Girl’s debut storyline hinges upon continuity surrounding the DeMatteis/Buscema run of Spectacular Spider-Man as it shows us Harry Osborn’s son following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps by becoming the new Green Goblin. He is even arrested in a scene that is framed near identically to a scene of Harry being arrested in Spectacular Spider-Man #189, whilst singing a variation of the 1960s Spider-Man theme song no less. Furthermore the climax of the issue takes place at the site of Gwen Stacy’s death, which happened in another Goblin story and Mayday’s first words as Spider-Girl are also her mother’s famous first words from ASM #42.

We are talking layers and layers of continuity here. But it never goes to the point of alienating readers, being obnoxious or hurting the stories.

The most significant and obvious ways in which the story (and any Spider-Girl story) utilizes continuity is the way continuity is supposed to function. That is to say it provides good world building and verisimilitude for the story and characters so that they can grow and react to events (and their repercussions) in much the same real people react to events in their lives day-to-day. 

And the other references found in the story are subtle enough to not alienate new or casual fans, but still provide a fun nod for those in the know. Critically though for those in the know such references never grow obnoxious because they serve legitimate story purposes as well.

Every time in a Spider-Girl story where Mayday or Normie say, do or are simply drawn in a way that references old stories starring their family members it is touching upon the fundamental themes of family and legacy that define the series. It creates a subtext that spells out how they are the inheritors of their families’ respective legacies and have their ancestors’ traits within them.

 And this is just me looking at one   story. 

You could make a whole series dedicated to just spotting various continuity Easter Eggs scattered throughout the series.

Revived the Hobgoblin

Remember back in 2010 when Dan Slott launched the Big Time era and there was a lot of chatter about the apparent return of the Hobgoblin?

The reason for the chatter was due to Hobgoblin being a major league bad guy during the iconic Roger Stern run of Amazing Spider-Man and his return marking the first time he’d be appearing in well over a decade.

Well guess what? Spider-Girl had Slott beat.

During the build up to her 100th issue the Hobgoblin was dusted off by DeFalco and Frenz (who used the character extensively during their own iconic run on ASM in the 1980s) and reintroduced in all his glory, proving to be one of Mayday’s most formidable foes.

For many Spider-Girl fans Hobgoblin was actually an even more effective villain for Mayday than he ever was for her father, owing much to the gap in their respective experience levels.

It might have happened outside the mainstream Marvel Universe but for many people at the time (and I’d bet many people who read through Big Time) this was the true return of the Hobgoblin.

And a more magnificent comeback you couldn’t have asked for.  

The best symbiote character ever!

Symbiotes have traditionally been divisive within Spider-Man fandom, with seemingly few readers neutral on them. More often than not you either love them or you passionately despise them with the rage of a thousand burning suns.

Much of the latter point of view is owed to a perception (right or wrong as it may be) that the symbiotes are shallow and one note characters that emphasise style over substance.

To such detractors I present for you April Parker, a.k.a. Mayhem!

She is a clone of Mayday (or is she?) who also has DNA from the Venom symbiote granting her both the spider powers of Peter Parker and the symbiotes metamorphic abilities.

Putting aside the clever word play going on with her names, Mayhem has genuine substance to her character. She struggles with issues of identity desperately wanting to legitimize herself as the ‘real’ Spider-Girl as opposed to a clone and also make good as a superhero in her own right, but much like Venom (albeit far more successfully) her approach to crime fighting involves a desire to use lethal force in direct opposition to Mayday’s philosophies.

Her relationship with Mayday is beautiful in its complexity and contradictions. She views May as a usurper of the life that rightfully belongs to her and competes to outdo her in and out of their costumed lives; hence naming herself April, because it comes before May. But she nevertheless cares for May as a sister and can become violent when believing her to be threatened or harmed.

The dynamic between the two also ties into themes and relationships from the Clone Saga, as Mayhem is a combination of all three of Peter’s clones (Spidercide, Kaine and Ben Reilly) and his relationships with each of them has commonalities with Mayday’s and April’s relationship.

 And on top of all that...she just looks drop dead cool. 

Organic continuation of canon stories

Spider-Man is fundamentally about responsibility and there is no greater responsibility than family. This has been a hallmark of the series since literally Peter Parker’s first appearance.

Whilst Spider-Man’s series (when done right) emphasises family as part of the broader theme of responsibility, Spider-Girl flips the script and instead makes family and the related theme of legacy the primary point of the character and her adventures.

Thematically this makes Spider-Girl an organic continuation of Spider-Man’s story but more than this the nuts and bolts of the series and the universe built around it honestly feel totally believable as a continuation of the Marvel universe, or at least as it existed circa 1998.

All the child and teen heroes of the regular Marvel universe grew up to become the main heroes of Spider-Girl’s day and the surviving old guard adopted mentorship and commander roles within the superhero community.

As for Peter Parker and Mary Jane, if you took them circa 1998, gave them a baby and cut to 15 years later they’d be near identical to their Spider-Girl counterparts.

Various subplots within Spider-Girl also follow through on being an organic continuation of the Marvel universe of the later 1990s. One of her villains, the Black Tarantula, was last seen in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man as a young boy fleeing the influence of his father who wished to make him the new Black Tarantula. John Jameson and Ashley Kafka who were seen dating in the 1990s are shown as married in the world of Spider-Girl. Johnny Storm is the leader of the Fantastic Five which includes a grown up Franklin Richards. Normie Osborn becomes consumed by his family’s legacy of evil and becomes the Green Goblin, etc.

A robust rogue’s gallery

I admit it. Spider-Girl has neither the best nor the most original villains out there.

But I will say this...she at least has  a rogue’s gallery.

In all honestly think about just how many superheroes out there honestly couldn’t say as much. Maybe they have 5 or so villains to call their own and be reliable sources of conflict but by and large try naming 6 villains Carol Danvers has consistently had personal one-on-one encounters with across the decades...besides Moonstone or Doctor Minerva.

Try doing the same for the Black Panther when you exclude Klaw and Killmonger.

You’d not run into such a problem with Mayday though

Super villains are vitally important  to a superhero series and having some to call your own that you can definitively say are your  rogue’s gallery is something to be proud and protective of. As Geoff Johns proved on his run on the Flash, villains are what you make of them. So even if Mayday doesn’t have the best rogue’s gallery she at least had the scope to never run out of opponents to challenge her and rivalries to explore.

Additionally, what made her rogue’s gallery special was it’s healthy mix of relatively original foes, her own spins on classic Spidey enemies and a handful of Spidey’s old foes (for example Hobgoblin).This created a robust villain pool from which to draw stories from as they allowed the creative team to explore similar power sets from a different point of view, pit a Spider character against a whole new type of opponent or explore Mayday and a villain’s identity via contrasting her battles with her fathers’.

It gave the Venom symbiote a character arc

In 1984 Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz introduced the world to what would later be revealed as the Venom symbiote. Though they weren’t involved in every step of its consequent development in their own little universe they gave the symbiote a poignant death scene that totally re-contextualized its older appearances, granting it emotional layers, sympathy and a beautiful character arc. Oh and it was also the first ever example I know of where the symbiote was referred to as female.

It inspired things in the 616 universe and MCU

Much like the return of the Hobgoblin the MC2 universe both pioneered ideas later repeated in the mainstream 616 Marvel universe and also directly inspired concepts later introduced within it as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

These include: making Cassie Lang a superhero called Stinger, giving Jessica Drew a son called Gerald, giving Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne a daughter named Hope, introducing a villain team named the Savage Six, making the Venom symbiote female, granting the symbiote to a supporting cast member and making them a hero, introducing an A.I. Iron Man suit programmed with Tony Stark’s brain patterns, giving Wolverine a daughter, and other stuff I am sure I am forgetting.

It could make lemonade out of terrible lemons

Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz were nothing if not inventive problem solvers during their time on Spider-Girl. In particular they had a knack for making something worthwhile out of a bad situation.

In the 1990s a new female version of Doctor Octopus was introduced and roundly lambasted by the fan base faithful. Was this criticism unfair? Maybe...then again her plans did almost exclusively revolve around nonsense involving virtual reality.

Nevertheless the Spider-Girl creative team dusted off the character and introduced her afresh, doing away with her old schemes and playing her as a more straightforward and down to Earth villain who could easily overpower Mayday. Though she had but a few appearances it ultimately redeemed her character.

More significantly though when Dan Slott as part of Spider-Verse controversially killed off Mayday’s father and established her as now wearing his old costume DeFalco and Frenz decided to do a follow up story that believably and touchingly showcased Mayday’s grieving process and moving on.

Though most were unhappy with the situation that existed they nevertheless respected and appreciated the creative teams’ never flagging efforts to serve the character. 

Actually involved the parents instead of killing them off as would be the cliché

Many critics and readers have praised Kamala Khan and other recent superheroes for subverting the typical superhero clichés of having dead parents. 

However Spider-Girl is a precursor to many of these modern series. In fact as mentioned above her parents being recurring characters was essentially the wholesale point of the series.

And they weren’t just there as background characters either.

Through subplots such as their new baby and accepting April Parker into their family Peter and Mary Jane were given subplots of their own that were organically woven into the wider fabric of Mayday’s life.

Whilst Peter would on occasion suit up and go into action as Spider-Man, act as a mentor and dispense fatherly advice when necessary, MJ got to be a counterpoint to Peter and had two issues focussing almost exclusively upon her character.

Mayday was a brilliant fusion of her parents

 Speaking of her parents, one of the charms of Mayday’s character was how believable she was as the child of Peter and  Mary Jane.

This is evident from her very first appearance.

Like her mother Mayday is very popular and on the higher echelons of the high school social ladder. And yet she is scientifically inclined and friends with the ‘nerds’ as well as the ‘jocks’.

She has Peter’s hair and eye colour and sense of guilt, but her mother’s facial features and outgoing personality.

In a very real sense she is the embodiment of both of her parents’ best qualities.

The first ever digital Marvel series

Not much to say about this one.

Marvel Unlimited is huge now but once upon a time in the earliest days of its predecessor service Spider-Girl blazed the trail as the first and to y knowledge only digital Marvel series.

It was an all-ages female led comic book series at a time when none of those things were strong sellers 

In addition to being an all-ages female led book, Spider-Girl deserves major, major credit for existing as those things within a marketplace actively hostile to them.

These days as much as digital series or female led books might struggle it must be said the playing field is far kinder to such books than it was in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s.

Outside of some big names like Batgirl or Wonder Woman making a female led book an ongoing success was a profound uphill struggle doomed to fail as Marvel and DC were far less open to the idea that there was an untapped market of female fans, let alone a notable segment of their existing fan bases that were female. In truth there is a case for neither company having figured how to exploit those facts in the near decade since. The point is that female led books were a rarity and expected to fail more often than not. And yet Spider-Girl tried and succeeded in spite of that.

The same was very much true of an all-ages book. Though these had arguably better success in the 2000s then female led books they were still books that lived on borrowed time and yet despite being able to ‘course correct’ this fact the creative team stuck to their principles and resolutely refused to fall in line with the sensibilities of most of other comics of the day which were almost outright rejecting the idea of younger audiences.

The ultimate Spider-Man legacy character

Take your Miles Morales and your Miguel O’Hara’s and go home kids, because Mayday is without a doubt the  greatest legacy character Peter Parker could ever ask for.

What makes Mayday so brilliant in this regard is that because she is Peter’s daughter isn’t just a legacy to Spider-Man but to Peter Parker too.

This provides a totally realistic justification for why she shares so many similarities with him and yet because she’s been raised differently and has her mother’s influence in her too she can zig where Peter zagged.

When she does act like her Dad (or her Mom for that matter) it is satisfying to the readers because we see her parent(s) in her. It’s a little bit like if you have an old friend and then see them in their children and how they act. Because we love Spider-Man, we love seeing Mayday honour his heroic legacy as well as just be like  our old friend in her general personality.

And when she does act differently to how we’d expect Peter to behave, it brilliantly helps shine a light upon who Peter himself is as a character because we are so intimately familiar with who he is. At the same time it subtly clues us into what Peter is like as a parent as he had a hand in shaping Mayday to be the kind of person who’d act in those different ways he would have in similar situations.

This is beautifully demonstrated in Mayday’s debut story where she doesn’t need tragedy to drill the old great power/great responsibility lesson into her head. In fact she doesn’t need to be taught that lesson at all. She intuitively knows it because her Dad made sure  she grasped it better than he did at her age. 

Then you have her costume. It is of course Ben Reilly’s old Spider-Man suit and as such was conveniently custom built to work as evoking Spider-Man’s look whilst being its own thing. Which is exactly  what you want out of a legacy character. Something unique that nevertheless honours and reminds you of the original.

The fact that it is also Ben’s design enables Mayday to serve as a dual legacy to both her father and her Uncle Ben.

And there you have it. 20 reasons you should love Mayday. Now head over to Marvel Unlimited and check out her adventures!

[wrestlingisfake]

All In preview

This is the big independent show everyone’s been talking about.  Several big promotions have allowed their talent to do this show, but none of them are directly running this show.  Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks are promoting this out of their own pockets, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.

This all came about because some guy on Twitter asked Dave Meltzer asked if Ring of Honor could run a 10,000-seat venue and Dave was like “not anytime soon” and Cody was like “I’ll take that bet.”  Then everyone was like “what market is going to have enough hardcore fans to fill a building that big?” and Chicago was like “hold my beer” and the place sold out in 30 minutes.  So yeah, fuck Wrestlemania going to New York and Florida all the time, we’re gonna do our own Wrestlemania with indy guys and stupid storylines off of Youtube!

This will be airing live on pay-per-view, ROH’s Honor Club service, and Fite.tv, with a one-hour pre-show on WGN America.  September 1, 6pm Eastern/5pm local.

Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes - This is for the NWA world heavyweight championship, which Aldis won last year--the same title Cody’s father held in 1979, 1981, and 1986. 

Aldis is probably best known as Magnus for his run in TNA, where he held what is now the Impact world title.  (He also held the Global Force Wrestling world title for most of that group’s existence.)  Cody is, of course, a former ROH world champion and WWE intercontinental champion; he’s a top act in ROH and part-time special attraction with New Japan Pro Wrestling.  He’s also one of the promoters of this show, which may or may not give away the finish.

The great irony here is that “independent wrestling” used to mean “wrestling unaffiliated with an NWA member,” but now the NWA has no members, which means it has the most prestigious championship that is truly independent of the major players today.  The current NWA business model, under Billy Corgan, is to fly the champion around to other people’s indy shows, resembling the old-school pattern of Harley Race or Ric Flair coming to an NWA territory once or twice a year.  Since this show isn’t being promoted by a group with its own world champion, it’s a perfect fit for that model.  So it’s a good thing Aldis got booked, because if he hadn’t the NWA would’ve looked pretty bush-league.

The main story here is that Cody and Corgan arranged this title match without consulting Aldis.  Aldis then tried to hold out for added incentive to defend the title, suggesting that if Cody regained the ROH world championship they could have a double title match.  Cody came up short, but still managed to goad Aldis into accepting the challenge.  Obviously the crowd for this show is going to be solidly behind Cody simply for making this show possible, and moreover they’re going to be into the angle that Cody has a chance to recreate one of his father’s career highlights.

I don’t foresee a lengthy NWA title reign for Cody, since his obligations to ROH and New Japan probably don’t line up with Corgan’s business plans.  However, if I was Corgan, I’d want to get the belt on Cody while he’s the talk of the wrestling world.  At the very least, I’d want to set up a Cody/Aldis program to run through October’s NWA anniversary show and maybe even the ROH/NJPW Madison Square Garden show in April.  So a title change makes sense, but it’d depend on a lot of things falling into place behind the scenes, so it’s not a lock either.  In the end, though, this is a bad weekend to bet against Cody.

Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon, Jr. - Omega holds the IWGP heavyweight championship--the top title of New Japan--but the title is not at stake here.  Penta works all over the place but is probably best known from AAA and Lucha Underground.  His biggest accolade is possibly the LU championship, but he also briefly held the Impact Wrestling world title earlier this year.

This is easily the biggest dream match that this show could book.  To the average US wrestling fan, Omega is the hottest guy in Japan and Penta is the hottest guy out of Mexico.  But since Penta’s never really been to NJPW or ROH, and since Omega’s never really been to AAA or Impact, there’s never been a way to book this match on a big show...until now.

I don’t really know anything about Pentagon except that he’s fucking scary, dude, and I’m pretty stoked to finally see what this cat’s deal is.  Omega has made a name for himself delivering some of the best matches of the decade, but Penta is a brawler so this won’t be a wrestling clinic.  It should be a unique spectacle, worthy of this one-of-a-kind event.

I feel like New Japan would not authorize this appearance if their champion was going to lose, so I would be very shocked if Penta wins.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll - Okada isn’t quite the ace of NJPW, but he’s getting there, especially after a record-setting 720-day run with as IWGP champion.  Scurll is a junior heavyweight in NJPW, but in ROH he’s approaching the main event level, and if he sticks around long enough he’ll probably become their world champion.  In Japan, heavyweights and junior heavyweights almost never compete against one another one-on-one, so this match is automatically a rarity.

Scurll is sort of just there in the grand scheme of things, but within the context of a 10,000 indy wrestling fans in Bullet Club shirts, he’s practically the second coming of Christ.  Between the quality of his opponent, the historic nature of the event, the favorability of the crowd, and the timing of his peak popularity, this could be the match of Scurll’s life.  But that said, he’s bound to lose, because I can’t imagine New Japan allowing an upset to disrupt their pecking order among the weight classes.  That’s fine with me, because while everyone else will be whooping for Scurll, I’ll be there to see Okada.

Rey Mysterio & Fenix & Bandido vs. Kota Ibushi & Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson - Fenix is the brand-new AAA heavyweight champion.   Mysterio is a former WWE champion and the current champion of Mexico’s #3 group, The Crash.  There isn’t much info (at least, not in English) on Bandido except that he’s worked in CMLL, AAA, and various smaller promotions.  Aside from being a finalist in NJPW’s G1 Climax tournament this year, Kota Ibushi is legendary for his high-risk style and his preference to be a freelancer rather than commit to a single company.  Nick and Matt, the Young Bucks, are currently the IWGP heavyweight tag team champions, and have become synonymous with the post-ironic style that has defined the modern age of indy wrestling.

There really isn’t a story or direction to this match beyond getting all these guys in the ring at the same time to work with each other.  The Bucks do their spots with everyone in the indies, this is their big special show, and so as a special treat they’re going to do their shit with Rey and Fenix.  Ibushi seems to be here because Kenny Omega is occupied elsewhere, and to get his last chance to work with Rey before Mysterio returns to WWE.  Bandido seems to be here primarily to do the job, which kinda suggests Ibushi and the Bucks are winning.

Hangman Page vs. Joey Janella - Page is one of the lesser white guys in Bullet Club, but he had a decent run in the G1 Climax recently, and it seems like he’s starting to move up in the world.   Janella is best known for a) Joey Janella’s Spring Break, GCW’s Wrestlemania weekend event and b) a 2016 match with Zandig where they did an insane rooftop bump into a pickup bed filled with glass and barbed wire.  This is being billed as a Chicago street fight, which could mean anything really but generally means no count-outs, no disqualifications, so you can fight all over the place, but you still have to score a fall in the ring.

The, uh, storyline in this match is that Page, yeesh, either murdered Joey Ryan or believes that he did.  Joey Ryan is arguably the most popular American indy wrestler who is not booked on this show, and he’s conspicuous by his absence since a good chunk of the build for this show is about his fate.  Anyway, Page is, uh, afraid to wear his cowboy boots because they keep...well...talking to him about how he’s going to kill “another Joey,” apparently meaning Janella.  So yeah, the big idea is that it’s significant that Ryan and Janella have the same first name.  It’s like that whole “Martha” thing in Batman v. Superman, only dumber.  This is what happens when the main television for your show is Being the Elite, which is slightly less absurd than Southpaw Regional Wrestling or Z! True Long Island Story.

In any case, Page is suitably deranged enough to brutalize Janella, which means Janella has sufficient motivation to go sickhouse on Page.  These two ought to give us a good brawl and some nasty hardcore spots.  Dave Meltzer seems to think this could steal the show, and I wouldn’t go that far, but it might have everyone talking afterwards, if only for sheer wtf-ness.  I’m not sure it matters who wins, but Page is the one who’s friends with the promoters so I’d bet on him.

Jay Lethal vs. the winner of Over Budget Battle Royal - Lethal (probably best known for his Randy Savage impression in TNA ten years ago, and a sexual harassment scandal this summer) is defending the Ring of Honor world title against whoever wins the battle royal in the pre-show.  Since the battle royal includes at least one woman, there’s at least a chance this could become an intergender match.  This is the biggest match on the show that does not involve any members of Bullet Club, although I suppose the battle royal winner could, like, join Bullet Club or something.

Being the Elite has been setting up the idea that Lethal’s “Black Machismo” persona is re-emerging, so the big angle for this match is the hype that Lethal might bring that stuff back.  I don’t know how that will play off of whoever wins the battle royal, but I guess they have some crazy idea.

For historical purposes, a title change at this show would be a feather in ROH’s cap.  But I don’t expect them to see it that way, or for the battle royal winner to be anywhere close to ROH’s ideal world champion.  I’m picking Lethal to retain.

Christopher Daniels vs. Stephen Amell - Daniels has been around so long that he appeared (as a jobber) on both sides of the Monday Night Wars, won the first King of the Indies, held the IWGP junior tag title with Daniel Bryan, and became a founding father in the early history of both ROH and TNA’s “X” division.  These days he’s primarily known as the leader of ROH’s SoCal Uncensored faction.  Amell plays the superhero Green Arrow on TV, and became friends with Cody Rhodes through Cody’s appearances on that show and a celebrity tie-in match at Summerslam 2015.

During the whole “Joey Ryan was murdered” storyline, Amell was arrested but then later it came out that Daniels framed him.  I feel like that should leave Daniels in deep legal shit but I guess we’re not worrying about that.

Amell is looking to prove he can hold his own in the ring despite his limited experience, and Daniels has the challenge of making him look even better than that.  I think they’ll probably do fine.  That said, I don’t watch Arrow or Being the Elite and I barely even pay close attention to ROH weekly television, so I sure don’t give a fuck about this match.  I guess Amell wins. 

Tessa Blanchard vs. Madison Rayne vs. Chelsea Green vs. Britt Baker - Blanchard is the reigning Impact women’s champion and WSU world champion; neither title is not at stake.  This is presumably a standard four-way where the first wrestler to score a fall wins the match.  This is the only women’s match on the card--okay technically Jordynne Grace is in the battle royal but that’s not really the same thing.

Rayne is probably best known for her tenure in TNA/Impact (she held the women’s title five times), although she recently competed in both the ROH Women of Honor tournament and WWE’s Mae Young Classic.  Green wrestled as Laurel Van Ness in Impact and is of late appearing in Lucha Underground.  Baker has yet to really move up into the bigger indies, so her biggest claim to fame may be as one of the jobbers Nia Jax squashed early in her run on WWE Raw.

There really isn’t anything at stake in this match.  In theory a victory over Blanchard would set up a title match, but this isn’t Japan and I don’t know if Impact or WSU will really care who wins here.  So it kinda just comes down to whoever Cody and the Young Bucks want to go over.  I tend to think that’ll be Blancard since she’s the next big thing in women’s wrestling.  Although if somebody’s looking to make a statement about the next next big thing, that could be a case for pushing Green or Baker.

Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky - This is currently scheduled for Zero Hour, the free pre-show.  The Briscoes are the current Ring of Honor tag team champions, but as far as I know the title is not on the line.  To build for this match, SoCal Uncensored made a video where they’re training like it’s Rocky III.  The Briscoes responded with a video in which they can’t really be bothered to watch a damn 12-minute YouTube video, but then they do and they like go all dark and shit like it awoke something inside of them.  I don’t understand why every angle for this show has to be like one of those Channel Awesome crossovers where they team up and fight supervillains or whatever.

Anyway, I always kinda dug the Briscoes, it’ll be neat to see ‘em live finally, and I think they’re gonna win.

Over Budget Battle Royal - This is set for the pre-show.  Assuming it’s a standard battle royal, the match begins once everyone has entered the ring, and can only end when all but one participant has been eliminated.  The last one left is the winner, and qualifies to challenge Jay Lethal for the ROH world title later in the show.

This has been announced as a 15-person battle royal, although I doubt the exact number is a hard requirement.  Named participants so far are:

Colt Cabana (ROH)

Moose (Impact Wrestling)

Brian Cage (Impact X division champion)

Jimmy Jacobs (Impact Wrestling)

Punishment Martinez (ROH television champion)

Rocky Romero (New Japan)

Billy Gunn (WWE legend)

Austin Gunn (Billy’s son)

Jordynne Grace (WSU Spirit champion)

Ethan Page (Chandler Park from Impact Wrestling)

Marko Stunt (a very small indy guy)

Brandon Cutler (PWG)

It’s worth pointing out that CZW champion MJF was booked for All In but as of this writing hasn’t been put in a match.  So I’m kind of expecting him to end up here, although I don’t see the point of withholding that information until the last minute.  Similarly, a huge part of the All In promotion has been Flip Gordon’s failed attempts to get on the show, and it seems ridiculous to resolve that by just not using him anywhere.  Also similarly, I can’t believe the “murder” of Joey Ryan is such a big deal with this show and that the actual real live Joey Ryan won’t be wrestling on it.  The promotion of All In has been really weird, basically.

Other surprise entrants that I could see happening include Pac (formerly Adrian Neville, who has very recently been released from WWE), and Austin Aries (the Impact world champion).  Considering Jordynne Grace is already there, it wouldn’t be a big deal to add additional women.  However if there’s any group that I believe Cody and the Bucks want to see more represented in this match, it would be one-note running joke performers like Papa Buck, Cheeseburger, or Chico El Luchador.

The finish here is going to depend on which winner can have the most entertaining title match with Jay Lethal.  If we’re talking “biggest match possible,” that’d probably be Brian Cage or (if he’s available) Austin Aries for the “ROH vs. Impact” vibe.  If we’re talking “local guy hometown pop,” then Cabana is the obvious choice.  But if the plan is to follow through on an angle that’s particularly important to the target audience, then it pretty much has to be someone who hasn’t been announced for the match yet, which means literally anything is possible.

[closetofanxiety]

NXT to the Main Roster: A Haphazard Examination, Part 2 (2016)

More wrestlers went from NXT to the main roster(s) in 2016 than in any other year, so I want to examine it separately in my ongoing question to determine whether getting a coveted spot on Raw or Smackdown (or a less coveted spot on 205 Live) likely means stagnation and disappointment. Again, the grades here are for the way these wrestlers have been presented to the WWE audience, not for the wrestlers themselves. Except, I guess, for the F handed out to Big Cass.

Sami Zayn

Call-up date: January 24. The perfect underdog babyface at the top of the card in NXT (a role they’re currently trying to give Johnny Gargano), Zayn has had a respectable but mostly unspectacular run on the big shows. While they were never going to build main event storylines around him the way NXT did, after his initial feud with eternal lifemate Kevin Owens, he kind of drifted around the middle of the pack without a clear character or motivation. Hampered by injuries, his heel turn was initially masterfully handled: by saving Kevin Owens from Shane McMahon, Zayn was, in the immediate aftermath, allowed to seem conflicted, uncertain, and anxious about what he’d done. It looked like there was going to be real character development, and then, in a few months, he was challenging Bobby Lashley to obstacle course races. 

Grade: C

Eva Marie

Call-up date: March 28. WE DIDN’T DESERVE HER. She could have been a sensational, crowd-baiting heel, as she was LOATHED by the super nerds in the WWE audience, who hated that she couldn’t wrestle and was only getting pushed for her looks. I mean, the same was true of Lex Luger ZING. Anyway, it wasn’t too be, and we’re left to wonder what could have been.

Grade: F/Incomplete

Baron Corbin

Call-up date: April 3. Big Banter has grown into the role that is probably the top-dollar best he can hope for in the WWE: a sneering heel near the top of the midcard who can talk well and wrestle well. He’s a plug-and-play guy for babyfaces who are being kept on the stove while the main event picture sorts itself out, and he does great at it. I saw Baron Corbin wrestle Tommy Dreamer at an NXT show in Albany once and thought, “This guy suxxxx.” But he has proved me wrong! Good for Big Breakfast Constable Corbin.

Grade: B+

Enzo Amore

Call-up date: April 4. I’ll go on record as saying he was used well as the shitty heel champion in 205 Live. Everyone hated him, and that was his role. That was probably his ceiling: top hate figure on the ‘C’ show, but we’ll never know.

Grade: F/Incomplete

Big Cass

Call-up date: April 4. His attitude and behavior must have really been something for Vince McMahon, The Big Man Liker, to so quickly part with a big man who could talk and was at least more adept in the ring than, say, the Great Khali. After the split with Enzo, they didn’t really seem to know what they were doing with him, so I’m not entirely sure we missed out on a legendary career or anything.

Grade: F/Incomplete

Apollo Crews

Call-up date: April 4. This decision remains a head scratcher. Crews made his NXT TV debut on August 22, 2015, and in less than eight months, was debuting on Raw. Although he’s an incredibly talented wrestler, I don’t know that his NXT stint was quite the rocket to the top that would justify this. Since his debut, he’s been totally lost in the shuffle and without a discernible character. His most significant match to date was a losing bid for the Intercontinental championship against The Miz on an episode of Smackdown. The Titus Worldwide stuff has helped, but not much.

Grade: C-/D+

Aiden English

Call-up date: April 7. Rusev DAAAAYYYEH. If it weren’t for his alliance with Big Matchka, English would be staring down the barrel of a D+. Initially arrived on the main roster as a tag team with Simon Gotch, the two had an undistinguished run that included Smackdown tag title tournament losses to the Hype Bros and Breezango. Now that he’s the guy who stiffly raps before Rusev comes out, English is basking in his Mizdow Moment. When it ends, though, what will become of the Operatic Superstar?

Grade: C-

Simon Gotch

Call-up date: April 7. His gimmick had a lot of potential: the super old-timey wrestler in a postmodern, post-kayfabe world. It never really got off the ground, though, and while his team with Aiden English worked at Full Sail, Vince’s dim view of tag teams generally, plus the material they were given, meant it didn’t have much of a shot on the big stage. WWE let the trademark on his name expire, which tells you a lot.

Grade: F

Dana Brooke

Call-up date: May 9. After kind of a hot start that I’ve largely forgotten - she was heel Charlotte’s protege, remember? - she quickly settled into the rut of main roster women’s booking, which tends to consist of two women fighting over the title and then everyone else forming an amorphous backdrop, occasionally emerging for random six-person tags involving the main eventers. Dana did eliminate Kairi Sane at the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble, so that’s something, I guess. Since November, she’s been one of the few people in the company with a manager role, as an Alexandra York figure in Titus Worldwide. 

Grade: C-

Mojo Rawley

Call-up date: July 24. Did you know Zack Ryder’s been in the WWE system since 2006? He’s incredible. He’s like one of those NBA guys who you see playing five minutes in a playoff game, years after you assumed they had retired. Anyway, Mojo Rawley. He’s done as well as he’s ever likely to do, destroying Ryder after a heel turn, feuding with No Way Jose, and no longer being hyped. His main roster run hasn’t been disappointing, largely because his NXT run was about the same thing, minus the heel turn.

Grade: C

Nia Jax

Call-up date: July 25. Rock’s cousin or no, she’s managed to remain above the midcard scrum in the women’s division by having a unique look, as the only credible monster in the locker room. She has the problem that all monsters have sooner or later, which is: what do they do after getting beaten? In her case, it was a clumsy face turn in a bullying-themed angle with Alexa Bliss that didn’t do much for either woman. Still, because of her size and ability, she’s always somewhere near the top of the card, something that’s unlikely to change.

Grade: B

Finn Bálor

Call-up date: July 25. To my mind, he’s one of the few wrestlers who’s been better served on the main roster than he was in NXT. He’s the longest-reigning NXT champion so far, but his tenure there seems largely forgettable apart from his Beast in the East match against Kevin Owens and the bloodbath against Samoa Joe at Takeover: Dallas. On the main roster, he’s regularly near the top of the card, with his painted demon character receiving the holy-shit treatment, as we saw at SummerSlam. He’s become one of their most recognizable stars and the company clearly loves him.

Grade: A

Alexa Bliss

Call-up date: July 26. One of the best examples I can think of that demonstrates how a turn can elevate a wrestler, she went from boring, sparkly cheerleader to the top woman in NXT by becoming a heel. Initially the manager of the lookalike midcard tag team of Make and Blurphy, it was clear from the start she was bound for greater things. She’s been the signal success story of the WWE System in developing stars, as opposed to repackaging stars from the indies, Japan, and Mexico: Bliss is, if not quite a mainstream star, one of the most recognizable women in the company, constantly on top of the women’s roster, and winning raves for her incredible microphone work. Nerds who complain she isn’t good at wrestling probably wouldn’t have understood Abdullah the Butcher either.

Grade: A+

Carmella

Call-up date: July 26. OH THE IRONY! When she managed Enzo and Big Cass in NXT, she was despised by the Full Sail nerds, who would chant “you can’t wrestle” at her. Two years later, and here we are: Real1 is making unlistenable hip hop tracks for his Instagram stories, Big Cazz is set to make his indie debut for Big Time Wrestling in Spartanburg, S.C., and Carmella is coming off a 131-day run as Smackdown Women’s Champion, having beaten Asuka in matches on pay-per-view and free TV. She’s not at Alexa’s level as a heel - not many people are - but she’s done a great job of establishing herself in a women’s roster that suffers from way too many bland characters and storylines.

Grade: B+/A-

Jason Jordan

Call-up date: August 2. Listen, Vince hates tag teams. American Alpha was a red-hot team in NXT, where they got over thanks to their phenomenal work inside the ring. But even there, they were kind of bland as individuals. On the main roster, where tag teams rarely last, this spelled trouble. Jordan has been hampered by injuries, but even without that he’s a man adrift, the highlight of his tenure so far being the kayfabe revelation that he’s Kurt Angle’s son, which has mostly been treated as an afterthought. 

Grade: D

Chad Gable

Call-up date: August 2. Second verse, same as the first. They tried to spark some of that American Alpha magic after disbanding American Alpha by pairing Gable with Shelton Benjamin, with predictable results. I don’t think Gable’s been on television since May, and he’s not injured. He apparently feuded with Mike Kanellis on Main Event back in June, to give you some idea. He taped a thing for WWE’s social media channels with amateur wrestling god Dan Gable, which I liked, so there’s that.

Grade: D

Bayley

Call-up date: August 22. I will admit here that I did not “get” her gimmick in NXT. It just always seemed vaguely unsettling, and now we know that it led to the Cult of Izzy. That aside, she had an undeniable connection with the audience, largely thanks to her palpable enthusiasm and tremendous in-ring skill. I never really bought the commonplace line that she could become the female John Cena, mostly because I think that underestimates how much of Cena’s appeal comes from the fact that half the audience hates him. But she’s a true-blue babyface in a company that doesn’t really know what to do with true-blue babyfaces, and so her main roster stint has been something of a disappointment. It’s weirdly fitting that she’s locked into this seemingly endless frenemies storyline with Sasha Banks, another woman who was adored in NXT and who hasn’t really found her footing on the main roster.

Grade: C

Rich Swann

Call-up date: September 19. He had his moments in 205 Live, but it was clear his off-kilter personality and presentation were not what they had in mind as the Face of the Division. They were trying to mold him into what they have with Mustafa Ali or Cedric Alexander, when they would have been better off trying to make Swann the Dean Ambrose of the cruiserweights. Instead, well, we know what happened instead.

Grade: F/Incomplete

Austin Aries

Call-up date: December 18. I have a theory that Vince McMahon thought Austin Aries was Bobby Roode, and that when they hired the real Bobby Roode, Vince immediately said, “Well, then who the fuck is this guy?” 

Grade: F