#rgu youre constantly on my mind

[vampirical-formula]

To the end

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

Given your username I kinda want ur thoughts on Ethan Hunt And Gender. Bc I'm always thinking about Ethan and Gender.

OUGH arc thank you for asking this I am literally constantly thinking about Ethan hunt and gender. Ethan’s relationship with masculinity is insane (as you’ve spoken to eloquently before, he uses it as a persona! It’s not even one of his favorite ones!) His gender is sooo personal to me because it feels crazy close to my own feelings about gender and the way I experience it.

Thoughts on the eternally developing thesis of Ethan Hunt and gender:

In my mind (I can say this to you arc cause you know RGU) Ethan hunt experiences gender in the same way that Utena does. His gender is more “prince” than “man” or “woman”—he identifies as a protector. Which is traditionally stereotyped as a masculine thing, but he approaches it in a way that doesn’t feel clearly gendered. I don’t think that gender is something he thinks about in relation to his own private self. Gender is something he uses, to play into expectations, to influence people’s opinions of him, etc. Ethan generally doesn’t think much about his identity outside of spywork (in later movies) and as a result by 4,5,6,7 he settles into a natural state that feels very ungendered to me, although he takes on gender when he has to, with varying degrees of comfort. (The John Lark performance clearly doesn’t sit well, despite Lark being—in behavior if not in backstory—fairly spot on the action hero stereotype.) Ethan seems most insecure in his gender during the movies where he’s searching for an identity that isn’t “agent of the IMF” (read: prince). He tries on “doting husband” in MI3, and “homme fatale” in MI2, and neither of them totally…feel secure. He’s trying to do something, and he’s very good at becoming different people, so he pulls it off, but it means he’s subtly Performing all the time. In MI2 and MI3 I feel like that subtle performance of gender adds to this sense of anxiety, this sense that Ethan is trying really hard in all the scenes he’s in, and it creates an extra element of stress that wears on me through the films. In Ghost Protocol, he grows his hair out, and he seems at ease in his body. Ever time I see the opening of that movie I just feel this overwhelming sense of relief. He’s not trying to be a certain kind of guy anymore. Arguably, he’s not trying to be a guy at all.

This goes well with Ethan’s whole “priest in the shadows” thing. He doesn’t have a societal role to play outside of “wandering protector”. And that’s comfortable for him! He likes that! Whenever he has to fit into the world things get weird, and he puts on masculinity like a suit to help him out with that. But on his own he’s something different.

I have endless thoughts on this but I’ll stop here for tonight cause I have to go to bed. Tomorrow I might post an addition about MI1 ethan and gender because that’s a whole other can of worms (highly influenced by his relationship with jim and Claire imo.) Thank you so much for this ask<333

[transmascutena]

what’s your favorite episode from rgu?

oh this is such a hard question to answer and it honestly changes all the time depending on my mood. but how about i give a top 5 based on how i'm feeling at this specific moment?

1 - episode 37. probably most consistently my favorite. it just has so many incredible moment. "in the end all girls are like the rose bride", badminton scene, CANTARELLA scene, rooftop scene (though the good part of that is in 38.) i really love the calm before the storm sorta vibe it has.

2 - episode 38 and 39. i'm gonna include both of these in one because they're a two parter and don't really work without each other. an absolutely amazing finale. i could go on forever about them but here i'll just say that they're the perfect ending to my favorite show of all time and they both make me cry my eyes out every time i watch them.

3 - episode 25 is great at both introducing the third arc (my personal favorite) and developing the relationships between the show's three main characters, which is why i love it so much. this is when utena and anthy really start to care about each other a lot even outside their roles, and it's when anthy starts resisting and even fighting back against akio in small but important ways. + the new ed + the utena sword pull + the car etc, etc.

4 - episode 33 is constantly on my mind and i kinda hate it. i mean i think it's a fantastic episode, there's a reason it's in my top 5, i'm really impressed with how the show handles the topic of sexual abuse, and i think this episode is a great example of it. but i do sometimes wish it didn't haunt me like it does. the feeling of dread and nausea still has not left me since the very first time i watched it.

5 - shout out to episode 34 for probably being the most important one in the entire show. the reveals in this episode are incredible and literally recontextualize the entire premise of the show. it's not as high on my list as some others people's, just because it's not as interesting to me on a rewatch due to it being mostly exposition. a damn good exposition episode though.

some of my other faves include: 30, 31, 32, 27, 29 (can you tell i really like the akio arc?), 20, 17, 11+12

[m-rtif]

Child Predators and Coveting Phones - The Big Bad Wolf of The Web

Henry, Jan 13th 2023

A timid little girl opens up her phone. A looming fear shadows over her; youthful hands quake as she hears the timely ‘ding!’ of a notification, a message, from him. An older man. One she has never met, who her parents don’t know about. His wolfish features are fresh in her mind; his drooling chops and piercing teeth, knowing he is hidden from the prying eyes of her mother. Panting, he waits for her response. He is agonisingly famished for more, canines glistening… all the better to devour you with.

Between 2021 and 2022, there were 6,156 Sexual Communications with Child offences. According to Ofcom, 49% of eight to eleven-year-olds are now in possession of their very own smartphone. This statistic is skyrocketing continuously as time passes on, at an alarming rate. Over the past few years, parents giving their wide-eyed children unrestricted internet access and unknowingly exposing them to potential dangers and online predators who target young children is far too common. So much so that experiences of online grooming have become a sort of sick joke amongst teenage girls as they recount their stories and laugh at the absurdity. Vivid memories of my friends and I sitting together at lunchtime in our new uniforms, going around the circle and narrating our childhood exploits are far too fresh in my mind - the wolf is much too memorable for many of us young.

So, what can parents do about this? How can you help to halt this epidemic of predatory behaviour? Many parents resort to spying on their children; searching through their messages, going through their photos. This may seem like the correct stance to take, however, it has been made abundantly clear through my own conversations with friends whose parents monitor them constantly that this does not make them safer. In fact, it often only herds a mutual distrust between parents and their children as it causes them to view you more as a warden than a nurturing figure. This can often backfire and encourage your children to try even harder to hide risky behaviours.

I contacted online child safety expert Anabel Turner to shed some light on the best way to keep our beloved babies safe and sound when it comes to use of smartphones and social media. Ms Turner, a former barrister, founded CyberSafe Scotland in 2018 and is the co-chair of the Online Safety, Child Sexual Exploitation and Child Trafficking Sub Committee of the Aberdeen Child Protection Committee. This fruitful history with being concerned with the safety of our future leads me to believe that she is our best bet for a proper, assured, solution. This is what she had to say.

“Delaying is good.” She begins. “Delay is really powerful when you think about child development. Every six months, your child gains a massive amount of maturity, psychologically speaking, to be able to deal with stuff."

Note. Delaying.

It seems that biding your time, delaying, nurturing their hearts yourself for as long as possible is the answer. For an begrudging teenager who is well equipped with the skills to block and report women men is far better than a poor little boy, too young to understand, caving to the desires of a beast that won't leave him alone.

It's as simple as that.

You can watch the afterbirth of a nation, raised without fear of man, strong and confident in their abilities, just through delay.

To gain more insight on the situation, I also spoke to Dr Gemma Stevens, a psychology lecturer at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen. “The bottom line is that it comes down to the maturity of the child,” said Dr Stevens. “Are they able to reflect on screen time, put the phone down during dinner time and so on?" 

“Children of a certain age are unable to self-regulate, and need their parents’ guidance. Smartphones can pose lots of risks, particularly in relation to cognitive functioning, sleep habits, addictive behaviours and so on.” She finishes with; “Smartphone use and mental health problems seemed to rise together, so there does seem to be a correlation there.”

Note. Guidance.

Such as any relationship, communication is crucial. No issue gets solved through mindless hollering and passive-aggressive stares. Talk to your children. She doesn't realise it, but the 'old enough' girl who's always holed up in her room is begging for you to talk to her. When the big bad wolf comes knocking on her bedroom door, and you haven't given her the guidance she needs to make informed decisions and stay safe, who is she supposed to turn to? Well, the police or animal control, hopefully. But even so, it is your responsibility as a caregiver to pass on essential values and laws, as well as giving our young the tools they'll need for when these are broken.

There's nothing that instils more of an erratic terror than being stranded in the middle of the woods at dusk without your parents, no way of knowing what's out there…

An NSPCC survey found that around 4% of young people aged 11 to 17 questioned had sent, received or been asked to send sexual content to an adult when using various websites and apps. Online grooming crimes recorded by police jumped by around 70% in the last three years, reaching an all-time high in 2021. Childhood victims of online grooming are leagues more likely to suffer chronic mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and even PTSD. It seems that we as a society can absolutely no longer ignore this beast, as it is causing serious, long-term, detrimental effects on the youth of today.

Take notes.

The timid little girl is me. She is my friends. She is your neighbour's son. She is the group of kids that hang around at the bus stop every day after school. She could have been you. And she will continue to be everyone until parents choose to listen.

[bitcofun]

This is a viewpoint editorial by Aleks Svetski, author of " The UnCommunist Manifesto," creator of The Bitcoin Times and Host of the "Wake Up Podcast with Svetski." Bitcoin is a mix of numerous developments-- technological, mathematical and clinical. It, naturally, consists of cryptography, timestamping, hashing and evidence of work, the mix of which has actually triggered brand-new types of innovation, specifically the timechain, number increase (NGU) innovation and what I think is maybe the most essential of all: obligation increase (RGU) innovation Responsibility And Freedom I concerned Bitcoin for "the cash" and I remained for " The Money." The Money being the most essential social invention/discovery/tool understood to the best social monster of all, i.e., male. I have actually constantly been a Freedom Maximalist. This posture led me on rather a journey in life with more than my reasonable share of ups and downs. I've won and lost huge, more times than I can count-- in company, financing, relationships and practically every other location of life. When I reflect on the years, something that sticks out: The experiences that felt most sound, simply and real were the ones where I was maximally totally free and maximally accountable for the outcome. Whether excellent or bad, and for much better or even worse. I do not believe I valued the latter, a minimum of purposely, when I was more youthful. The situations of my life usually placed me to be mainly accountable anyhow, however if I am truthful, I invested the majority of my time concentrating on the flexibility element and as an outcome, renounced my reasonable share of obligation along the method. The older and more fully grown I've ended up being, the more I have actually pertained to regard, desire and eventually look for duty Jordan Peterson planted a considerable seed. I keep in mind listening to brief clips of his while training at the fitness center. A duration in specific that enters your mind was2020 Some substantial occasions took place, hindering my life, so I would raise heavy and penalize myself at the health club while listening to this guy drum teachings of duty, fact and stability into my head. It was an extensive and transformative duration of my life. Putting in the time and effort to comprehend Bitcoin, Austrian economics, history and manly frame ( hat idea, Jerr), has likewise substantially deepened my position on "duty." As has enjoying the oppression and large lunacy of clown world. Here I am now in late 2022, just recently wed, and seeking to take the most accountable action of my life yet: to have kids and develop a dynasty with my lovely partner. As this brand-new chapter unfolds, I've discovered that duty has actually taken a front row seat in regards to significance. Possibly much more so than liberty. This is something I would never ever have actually believed I 'd state, however here I am. Alongside this individual improvement, I have actually concerned recognize that Bitcoin itself is much more crucial than I believed, since it embodies, exhibits and characterizes duty A New Meme For 2022 And Beyond If Bitcoin is accountable cash, then what drives it is RGU innovation. Of course, that's a meme. And we ought to treat it. In this day and age, we meme things into presence. NGU was the best example, as were laser eyes. But let us now include a brand-new one to the lexicon. NGU was fantastic, is excellent and will constantly be fantastic. Bitcoin's NGU deals with a lot of levels: relative currency exchange rate (aka, cost), block height, node count, hash rate, users and more, although we understand that the majority of people focus mostly on the cost. This is where things can break down. If currency exchange rate is the focal point, durations of non-NGU cost action make you look dumb or feel a little empty. Bitcoiners are all set to withstand looking silly. It is a rate worth paying, naturally. Not to discuss that these initiation rites are both a cleaning and creating.

They choose the weak, while honing the real followers. But it's in the honing that we have the chance to find a more ethical pursuit. And here is my idea: Getting abundant is cool and all, winning is excellent. We will do that anyhow. Let's likewise discover what made our civilisations fantastic in the very first location: Responsibility. I've pertained to think it is the most fully grown and developed of human qualities. With terrific liberty comes the ethical requiring terrific obligation. This is the difficulty set prior to all young boys who should end up being males. This is when you go beyond the kid and get in the grownup. In this sense, Bitcoin suggests civilizational maturity. And maybe on a more macro scale, the troubled duration we're in signifies humankind in the throes of teenage years. As a types, we are pertaining to terms with what it implies to reside in accordance with reality and natural order. We are mid-rite-of-passage, and the infantile part of us that wishes to continue playing pretend is tossing a temper tantrum, kicking, biting and shouting due to the fact that it understands its time is up. The fiat period is concerning an end, and like a kid in hysterics, it remains in a state of panic. Never ever fear, for this too will pass. Bitcoin will develop us, since it will not just make flexibility fantastic once again, however make obligation terrific once again. Responsibility Go Up Technology You will discover RGU innovation embedded in every aspect of Bitcoin. From the extreme custody and techniques of storage, through to the truth that there is no "assistance line" you can call if you've lost your secrets or sent out bitcoin to the incorrect address. The very same effective residential or commercial property rights make you totally free to do whatever you pick with your wealth, however they likewise put the onus on you to protect your wealth in such a method that it is not taken, lost or wasted. Knowing that Bitcoin is a one-way function, which there is no "rewind button" (as there remains in the dream video game of fiat), it requires you to hesitate, no, thrice, about what you are doing. This is maturity. This is what it implies to be a grownup. When you run a node, you are Bitcoin. You are the bank. You are accountable for keeping a copy of the whole journal. And it goes even more! Beyond the intrinsic duty of energy and function discovered in Bitcoin is the result it has on changing the user into a more accountable human. As the owner of your own wealth, you end up being the steward, the bearer and the guardian. This is power, and all of us understand what Uncle Ben stated to Peter Parker: What this performs in a social sense is extensive. Bitcoin makes the financial video game fair. No one can win by virtue of a cash printer or state monopoly. Such elegant techniques of unfaithful end up being impotent. This cuts at the very heart of the reckless and short-sighted fiat world we reside in. Unfaithful is careless habits. When you can play a video game and never ever lose, naturally you will shirk duty! When you're the country state or reserve bank and do so, this habits will spread out, up until all of civilization is contaminated with it. Individuals will end up being at the same time lacking private obligation while likewise being accountable for everybody and whatever. That's where we are now. One huge, meaningless mass of serfs, playing an unusual video game of obligation hot potato. RGU innovation implies that repercussion is localized. There can be little to no socializing of bad choices. The onus is on the specific to climb up and flourish, within the context of a reasonable financial video game, made so through an extreme ownership of one's wealth. This is the magic of RGU and what, in truth, makes it comparable to NGU. It is ingrained within the important things that is Bitcoin, and it likewise manifests in the external world as what it is. And the evidence remains in the pudding. Bitcoin

has actually motivated query into lots of other locations of life, from one's level of ownership and efficiency (or do not have thereof) in domains such as food, frame, household, self-defense, understanding, energy, shelter, health and far more, it has actually essentially changed individuals who have actually entered contact with it. This amazing adverse effects of accountable cash is incredible. What Do I Mean By 'Responsible Money'? I indicate sincere cash, real cash, cash whose journal is precise and whose custody needs duty of the bearer. Bitcoin, like the force of nature that it is, positions the onus on you as the private to make accountable options with your time, energy and intent, from custody, through to how you trade the item of your labor, in an interconnected society and economy. You adjust to the truth of gravity by not leaping off random cliffs, and if you do, you a minimum of (when meaning to maintain yourself) use a parachute. The very same is likewise real when your objective is to end your journey. You can leap off the cliff in the very same method you can burn your secrets. There is no rewind button. There is no replay. It's done. Bitcoin marches forward like the procession of time. It does not reverse. It does not forgive, nor does it forget. Errors are spent for completely, and there are no 2nd opportunities. Bitcoin simply is. You adjust to that. The outcome is a scorecard and journal of utmost duty. You adjust to the extreme flexibility of Bitcoin, or you can adjust to the extreme slavery of reserve bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and so on. A fast note on adjustment: It might well be humankind's biggest strength and weak point. People will either adjust to liberty by handling more obligation, or they will adjust to slavery by renouncing it in exchange for (what is typically simply the impression or pledge of) security. The sluggish, constant renunciation of obligation leads inexorably to the disintegration of liberty. It's really difficult to discover early on due to the fact that convenience and security feel so great. The motion picture " Wall-E" enters your mind when I consider this, as does the 2020 stage of the clown world. This infantilization of people is a regression and de-sophistication of civilization. It is an illness. Accountable cash is the remedy. Responsible cash holds true cash. Accountable cash is fully grown cash. Accountable cash results in accountable action. Accountable action results in a more fully grown, reasonable, genuine and practical world. Bitcoin is the supreme type of accountable cash, and RGU innovation is the remedy to the dream of fiat and the pretend success of politics. Embrace it, not even if number increase. Do so due to the fact that obligation, the greatest of virtues, increases in you and the world around you. This is a visitor post by Aleks Svetski, author of " The UnCommunist Manifesto,", creator of The Bitcoin Times and Host of The Wake Up Podcast Viewpoints revealed are totally their own and do not always show those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine. Read More

[pimientosdulces]

Hi I just wanted to say that I’ve never watched rgu but the pic you did that was a redraw of a frame from the opening is on my mind constantly. Everything about it, the meticulous detail on the sword and sleeve especially, is so visually stunning. Your artwork as a whole is some of the most beautiful that I’ve seen, but that pic I’m particular keeps coming back to me. I think I’m gonna have to watch rgu now

Thank you!! rgu it’s one my favorite series of all time and I like to show it through my art ^_^

Please, if you end up watching it check the triggers/content warnings guide!

[ryuki-draws]

So I re-stumbled across your RGU supermarket au and I came to two conclusions simultaneously. One: who in their goddamn mind gave Saionji the right to look that good with his hair up?Cuz it’s not fair. And two: I also adore how you draw the lettuce boy just constantly 110% done with this shit. I don’t know why it’s the funniest thing to me, it just is. XD

Honestly, Saionji being 110% done is one of my fave things about it too. After he got over his Ohtori-phase terrible behavior he became a tired grump who is done with everything. (Mostly with Touga’s shenanigans tho.) But it’s ok, he will sort it all out eventually. :”D

When it comes to hair, I always divided his character by three distinct hairstyles:

1) hair down - an asshole

2) hair in a ponytail - more acceptable

3) hair in a bun - I would believe him he is actually trying to change for the better

[malachi-walker]

What character(s) from other fandoms that you're a part of remind you the most of Catra? Personally, I don't think I've seen too many, aside from maybe Vegeta from DBZ and maybe Jason Todd from DC comics but that's about it for me

Ok, anon, thanks for your patience. Let's go.

Firstly, I have two ladies that do give me a similar vibe to Catra (though they aren't 100% matches as you'll see.) And I want you to take particular note of that: it's very telling that the characters you mentioned are both dudes. This is something I have been thinking about for literally decades because it is a deeply entrenched stereotype in our culture: male abuse victims are angry, frustrated loners who lash out until they find that one (girl) person that gets through their facade, female abuse victims are portrayed as either anxious messes (more common in recent years) or as just... These smiling caricatures who continue to pretend to be happy because that's what our societies expect women to be. And this is something I took note of at a very early age, because as someone growing up with an abusive birth father I looked to the MALE characters as a guide book on how to act, because getting angry and lashing out was what made sense to me at the time and I resented the hell out of that unspoken implication that I was supposed to just suck it up and plaster on a smile when I wanted to rage against the injustice of what I was dealing with. In hindsight it wasn't great behavior, but it was what I needed to keep myself sane at the time. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I have waited my whole life for a character like Catra: someone who is reflective of my experiences as an ex-abuse victim, someone who is angry and wrathful and still allowed to be sympathetic. Now on to our two ladies.

First up: Vriska Serket from Homestuck. (I know, Homestuck is a huge fandom with a lot of assholes, but I do still enjoy the original comic. I just don't interact with the fandom.) Vriska and Catra both have similar vibes in the way they project their outward personas of being the badass bitch who takes no shit and is on top of things, but we all know that's a lie. And they both come from abusive backgrounds: Vriska was forced to become a killer at a very young age because her parental guardian (a literal giant spider) would eat her if Vriska didn't feed her other kids. Doesn't excuse her jerkass tendencies or her terrible actions, but that was how she started out. And Catra's deal with SW needs no explanation.

They both have developed very similar gadfly tendencies in order to maintain a sense of control around other people (though Vriska is a lot more mean spirited about it) and both have moments when the facade cracks and they show actual sincerity and frustration at themselves and other people. The main difference between them is that Vriska's actions are driven by a sense of grandiose self-importance that she has cultivated and fed into as a way to avoid looking at her own actions (because she's the best, so everything she does is awesome, right?) whereas Catra's primary driving motivation is pain: either making sure she doesn't have to hurt anymore or hurting those who hurt her. Plus Catra grapples with her sense of guilt a lot throughout Spop and maintains those sympathetic undertones while Vriska's moments of clarity are so rare that you basically have to keep a chart to locate them. But you could totally picture them both teaming up to make fun of their respective frenemies, assuming they didn't kill each other first for reminding themselves of their deep underlying self-loathing.

Second candidate: Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena. And boy howdy, if anyone is interested in this show and wants to avoid spoilers, skip to the end now, because we're going on a deep and dark journey here.

At first glance, she and Catra don't have much in common. In fact, she seems to fit the stereotype I described above: the placid smiling doll who takes the abuse and keeps going. Key word: seems to. Anyone who actually watches the show knows exactly where I'm going here.

We're introduced to Anthy as the "Rose Bride": the prize in a series of sword fights between students at a very strange school, with the ultimate promise being that whoever owns the Rose Bride at the end of the duels will gain some nebulous ultimate power. And yeah, I said "own" for a reason: whoever possesses the Rose Bride effectively owns her and some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the show reinforce the fact that Anthy tailors her thoughts and actions to whoever currently controls her. And as you can expect, this leads to BUCKETS of abuse. Literally everyone in this show is culpable in some manner for this, no matter how well intentioned.

But remember that "seems to?" Because that's only one side of Anthy; the outward persona if you will. On the other side of the coin you have Anthy the Witch, and that's where the parallels with Catra come into play and why Anthy was my go-to abuse representation before Spop rocked my world. Because the big twist we find out at the end of the series is that Anthy and her older brother Akio (formerly Dios) are the former literal personifications of the fairytale damsel in distress princess and the noble prince on a white horse, respectively.

But the balance was upset: having to constantly go around saving people was literally killing Dios, because one of the major points of RGU is that you can assist people in saving themselves but doing it yourself strips them of agency and traps them in a cycle of needing to be saved again and again. The more people the noble prince saved, the more people needed saving. When it became clear that he couldn't keep going, Anthy took a stand and prevented the people coming for Dios (angry that he wasn't saving them anymore) from getting to him, and thus incurred the wrath of everyone and got skewered alive by an angry mob in the process. This isn't hyperbole: the role of the Rose Bride is to instinctively bring out the disdain and hatred of everyone on the planet. It's a punishment for stepping out of line, for not being the placid princess who needs to be rescued anymore.

Because we're operating on fairy tale logic, no longer being a princess means that Anthy became a witch, and no longer being the prince made Dios into satanic archetype Akio. So behind the scenes of the entire show, Anthy is the witch assisting her brother in orchestrating the duels, and their ultimate goal is to find someone pure of heart enough to embody those princely virtues Dios once possessed and to steal that power so Akio can return to being who he once was. All of the psychological torments and head games are designed to weed out the potential candidates to find that special someone... Except it's an impossible goal because no human being can live up to that standard. And with each atrocity they commit it becomes even more impossible to return to being that person.

Ok, tangent done, here's where it gets interesting: Anthy is a character with two sides to her, the suffering Rose Bride fated to endure the hatred of the entire world and the Wicked Witch who manipulates and orchestrates the torment of those around her. But here's the deal: she's a victim too. She's a victim of a system that won't let her be anything other than these two binaries; she's a victim of her brother who has all the power over her and has trapped her in a codependent incestuous relationship, and I don't care how awful the things she's done are: nobody deserves to go through the shit she does. So with all of that in mind, the actions that she goes through as the witch make perfect sense. Why shouldn't she torment these people who do nothing but abuse her and deny her of agency? Even the best hearted of the duellists (aka the ones who don't hit her or abuse her sexually) nonetheless fall into the trap of projecting their own biases and expectations onto her, biases that her role dictates she carry out. Her actions as the witch aren't right, but nothing about this situation is. That's the entire point.

And that's where she ties into being like Catra. Catra does some truly fucked up things, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that she's an abuse victim that has been literally tortured for most of her life for no good reason and has received zero acknowledgement of that abuse in universe. And much like Anthy, she can't begin to heal until the situation is acknowledged, because that's literally step one of breaking the cycle: confirming that this is not okay and that no one deserves the shit she's been through. Just knowing that herself isn't enough: it's acknowledgement from others that enables that process to begin, because no one can recover from abuse in a vacuum. You need outside people to be touchstones, because so much of recovering from abuse is confronting the way it warps your perception and thought processes. You need at the minimum one normal perspective to give you that, preferably more, but one minimum.

Hurting the people who care about her is definitely not okay and I'm not excusing her actions in that category, but it doesn't change the fact that she is justified in wanting to rage and lash out, because she is still trapped in that cycle. She can't heal or let go because the process hasn't even been started. She's not off the hook for the things she's done, but neither should she be automatically condemned without taking those factors into account (which is the entire reason why the distinction between an excuse and a justification exists.)

And if I can be a little pithy... The other similarity between Catra and Anthy is I can guarantee that in twenty years people will STILL be arguing over whether or not Catra "deserved" to be freed from her abusive situation.

Good God this turned into an essay. Hope this makes up for how long it took, anon. And anyone else who makes it this far, treat yourself. You earned it.

[heterogylphs]

(I have no idea what this is, just blame it on me thinking about RGU meta too much.) 

Who are you?

I don’t know. There’s a disconnect between my mind and the rest of me: my feelings, my thoughts, they’re all somehow locked away. Trapped behind this wall that no matter how hard I try, I can’t break through. 

What do you mean?

It’s like this glass barrier that I’m constantly pounding against, trying to break free. If I can’t break free, then I can’t be whole.

Whole?

Myself, a person, whole. Whatever you call it, it’s still the same thing in the end.  I’m trapped as a shadow of my true self and I can’t escape.

What is your true self?

Anything, anyone but this. Anything but the way I am now.

And how do you plan to escape?

I need to destroy my false self. It’s the only way.