#s2 propaganda: 12

[anonymous-character-tournament]

God's Employee

Characteristics:

A twelve-years-old who’s lived for millennia

Street urchin

Unknowingly works for God

Disrespects and disobeys God but would do the same if they knew who it was

[lcmdevents]

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT ~ 12 Days of Lucemond!!

About 12 Days of Lucemond is a prompt-fill event inspired by the Christmas carol "12 Days of Christmas," with lyrics edited to reflect Lucemond and House of the Dragon themes! There are 12 prompts in total, one for each day. The interpretations don’t need to be literal! For example, the prompt "three dancing dragons" doesn't have to feature three dragons, or dragons fighting (which inspired the prompt). However, the focus should be on "dragon" and "Lucemond", interpreted however you choose. We will include inspirations/ideas for each prompt below! As the event date draws near, the Mod team will confirm certain details and share links to socials. If you have any questions, please respond to this post or send a DM. Participation

⚠️ This is an 18+ event so NSFW/DD content is welcome

🗓️ Date: 1st (Sunday) December - 12th December (Thursday).

🎨 Creations: fanfiction, fanart, moodboards, video edits etc are all welcome!

🤝Sharing: Creators can upload to bluesky, twitter, tumblr, AO3. Hashtag #12dayslcmd, and/or submit to Ao3: Twelve Days of Lucemond | Archive of Our Own

♥️ Many thanks and gratitude to our wonderful event artist.

⚜️ If you want to join the Lucemond Discord, please DM for an invite! (You do not need to join to participate!)

🐧 Prompt interpretation ideas below the line :D

Prompt ideas 1st of Dec: One Valyrian Wedding // wedding, betrothal, bedding ceremony/wedding night, united through marriage. 2nd of Dec: Two bloodied blades // HotD S1 E7 Driftmark, dueling, 'I want you to cut out your eye', revenge, 'sworn in blood' 3rd of Dec: Three dragons dancing // HotD S2, mating hunt, dragon!fic, dragonriding, Vhagar and Arrax. 4th of Dec: Four treasures glittering // Aemond's sapphire eye, Pearl of Driftmark, gift giving, pirates/sailors

5th of Dec: Five falling tears // Hotd S2 'crying Aemond', mourning, tears of happiness, character death, angst.

6th of Dec: Six kin a-battling // Aemond vs Jacaerys, Blacks vs Greens, HotD S1 E8 ‘dinner scene’, dragon-fighting 7th of Dec: Seven lords a-plotting // captive prince trope, small council, ransom, arranged marriage, war plots.

8th of Dec: Eight oaths a-breaking // sworn shield trope, cheating, betrayal, the North, Valyrian blood magic 9th of Dec: Nine nights of longing // unrequited love, long-distance romance, pining, captive AU, Romeo and Juliette AU.

10th Dec: Ten secrets whispered // lies, promises, rumours, POV bias, war propaganda

11th of Dec: Eleven letters written // Luke sends an apology letter, long-distance communication, ransom, bargaining, love letters.

12th of Dec: Twelve ghostly hauntings // Harrenhal, ghosts, curses, guilt, witchcraft, horror themes, Ghostcerys

[sualne]

12 years later!!!!!!

(manga propaganda because i have to, for ppl who knows nothing about black butler and want to try:)

if anyone sees this and has never watched black butler before i am begging you on my knees im fucking serious under no circumference should you start with the anime PLEASE start with the manga, reach this page, then you can go back and watch: Book of Circus → Book of Murder → Campania Movie → then this arc that's just started being animated. Season 1 has about 5eps or so that are canon to the manga and is mainly anime original (and so bad), s2 is ENTIRELY anime original (and so much worse).

please read the manga first i cant keep on seeing ppl referencing the anime as the true source. that said the OPs and EDs from s1 are bangers, you should watch & listen them.

[pennysperfectpolls]

so what are the submitted Penny stats like so far? If you want to share anything before the polls, of course.

I’d be happy to share!

We have 55 submissions and 26 unique Pennies.

Only three submissions I had to invalidate, two for being real people including myself, one for being the victor of the first tournament.

The character with the highest number of submissions is Penny Lamb/Jane doe from Ride the cyclone and legoland with 10 submissions. I’m not surprised since she had the 2nd highest submissions the first time around and was the only one submitted to the adoption poll.

She’s followed closely by Penny Nichols from Ace Attorney with 8. This one is a surprise since she only got 2 the first time and didn’t make it as far in the tournament.

Penny from Pokemon has 6 submissions but only one short sentence of propaganda.

Strangest submissions: someone sent in their club penguin character which i aloud in as an oc bc funny. Persephone was submitted along with an explanation of Pennyness and it was weird enough that i allowed it. (I submitted Leonie Pinelli last year so I can’t judge, I will happen again)

There are 35 Pennies submitted to last poll that have not been resubmitted and 10 brand new Pennies so far.

Number of submissions will be used to determine tournament seeding so feel free to submit repeat characters.

Full list of submissions under the cut

Number on the left is the order of submission. NP stands for no propaganda. S[#] is the number of submissions.

1: Penny Polendina (RWBY) s5

2: Penelope Garcia (Criminal Minds) np

3: Penny Lamb/Jane doe (Ride the cyclone/legoland) s10

4: Penny (Pokémon) s6

5: Penny Carter (Project Blue Earth SOS) np

6: Pen Pen (Neon genesis evangelion)

7: Penny (Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog) s2

8: Penny Nichols (Ace Attorney) s8

9: Penelope Akk/Bad Penny (Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain) np

10: Penelope Eckhart (Villains are destined to die)

11: Penny Pointer (Tangle Tower)

12: Lieutenant Penumbra (Ducktales) np

13: Penny Pringleton (Hairspray) s2

14: Alfred Pennyworth (Batman) np

15: Penelope (The Odyssey) s2

16: Penny (stardew valley) s2

17: Penny Gadget (Inspector Gadget) s2

18: Penny (The Rescuers) np

19: Penelope "Penny" Bunce (The Simon Snow Series)

20: Penny (SpongeBob SquarePants)

21: Penny Luckstone (Dimension 20)

22: Penny Rescher (Hello From The Hallowoods)

23: Penny Fitzgerald (The Amazing World of Gumball) np

24: Pennyuin1 (Club Penguin OC)

25: Penn Zero (Penn Zero: Part Time Hero) np

26: Persephone (Greek Myth)

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Who has been screwed over by the fandom more?

Propaganda below the cut

Amy Rose:

All she did was be a girl with a one-sided crush on the hero and she immediately got branded as a creepy obsessive stalker. Never mind how she has an actual character and personality and interests beyond Sonic himself. All of that gets ignored and her entire being gets boiled down to "yandere for Sonic"

Tails Nine:

it might just be me, but i still keep seeing posts where nine is just summarized as "tails but emo" and it. kinda ticks me off because. nine is very obviously a version of tails that didn't have a sonic – or anyone – to save him, so he grew to rely on himself and *only* himself, and it shows.

there's just... it could've been so easy for the tails we know to have become just like nine if it weren't for sonic. nine never had a sonic to protect him, so he made himself seven metallic tails to utilize instead. nine never had a sonic who made him be proud of his tails, so he makes it look like he only has one. nine never had a sonic who made him feel loved, so he stuck to the ground, because reaching for the sky is something only idiots can hope for.

until he met sonic.

and god, just watching the episodes where these two interact can make your heart feel *so* warm, because nine is finally getting the love he deserves. you watch him reach for the instinctive snark before being shocked by sonic's genuine kindness. you watch him praise sonic even if they had only just met because finally, finally someone cares about him. you watch him *fly*, in front of sonic, and only in front of sonic.

of course, good things can't last forever.

[sonic prime major spoilers territory, don't read unless you've watched all of s2]

this fox has been beaten down by the world around him, it should come as no surprise that when he found out what the full extent of what he could do with the shards is, that his first idea was to create the ideal world out of a wasteland just for him and sonic. only them. because sonic was the only one who showed him kindness. hell, he even remembered the palm trees sonic mentioned. the ideal world just for him and the hedgehog that insists that he's his friend.

and that's where their views collide.

because while nine wants what he never had, sonic wants what he lost.

and doesn't that just hurt? it's rejection. something that he's grown used to. because as much as sonic tries, he never saw nine more than just another alternate version of tails. all those words of his were for someone nine wasn't.

it's rejection, and it just confirms to nine what the world forced him to believe.

he's all on his own.

it's really no wonder he took control of the shards to create his own paradise.

(side note: i don't *fully* blame sonic for this either. while yes, it's primarily his fault, i feel like he's been dealing with the consequences plenty by now. he's just doing his best to fix things back to the way it was before. sonic may be fast, but even a few days isn't enough to process all of that for the world's fastest hedgehog.)

[mcyt-builds-contest]

Tumblr's Fandoms:

Contained : Everyone

Series : All of them

Propaganda : If you think about it, isn't the fandom the biggest prison?

Inertia:

Contained : Prince Andor

Series : Mianite S2

Propaganda : it's not only a cool as hell and wild build that still holds up after nine years (this build is from 2015!) but the inertia jailbreak is one of the most iconic parts of the series. prince andor is taken captive there after professing illegal worship of the goddess ianite, and captainsparklez and the rest of the main cast have to bust him out (via a flying rv). then, when they go back to the prison again to retreive their lost items, waglington ends up banishing everybody's least favourite npc, king helgrind, to the nether roof, as a gag, which is just incredibly funny and also a great way to get rid of a guy you don't like! it's impressive, it's a classic mcyt icon, it's an essential part of the story, and it's the site of an incredibly stupid yet wonderful goof. inertia my beloved <3

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda under the cut

Erina Pendleton

Erina is SO MUCH MORE than just a "Generic Love Interest" that was brought in the story to continue the bloodline after everything that happens (and it's made abundantly clear time and time and TIME AGAIN that she means everything to Jonathan, to a point that she was his exact reason to standing up against Dio for the first time) but without fail she's only ever allowed to be the supportive best friend. Or a wingman for Jonathan and whoever he's being shipped with. Or simply supposed to sit there and allow her husband to have a male lover (the amount of posts I've seen of ppl using the excuse that 'it was very common back in the Victorian Era for men to keep male lovers that their wives were aware of and quietly accepted so it isn't a stretch to say that Erina and Jonathan wouldn't be the same--especially given how progressive she's written". Or of course my favorite when they completely erase her from the narrative and pretends she doesn't exist Jonathan's got their son for some reason, but nope she ain't there! 

a lot of times ppl who ship her CANON HUSBAND jonathan joestar with speedwagon will put her on the back burner of HER OWN CANON RELATIONSHIP in favor of propping up jonawagon, to the point where 90% of the archive for jonawagon/jonawagon(eri) is either erina giving jonathan and speedwagon consent to be happy together while she acts like a #LoveIsLove wingman OR they'll have the audacity to write fics where erina comforts speedwagon at HER HUSBAND'S FUNERAL

Our hero’s hot wife who was the first (and arguably) only person to give him the emotional support he needed. She’s the only person who never expects him to fulfill some mythical role, she just loves him for who he is. She’s been his best friend and the love of his life since he was 12 years old. When it comes to hero/sidekick ship, she’s forced to be a wing woman for her own husband, either nobly letting him go or peacefully agreeing to an open relationship but only for him!!! She gets nothing out of it, she’s just a good Victorian wife who is “ahead of her time”. Usually, just so she can provide a womb so that the hero/sidekick can be dads and she can conveniently be offscreen. OR she’s written as a lesbian in order to completely and “justifiably” take her out of the equation but there’s a.) no other woman in her vicinity to even ship her with b.) there’s vaguely some faceless, nameless woman we’re meant to assume she’s pursuing, not even a real OC for her.

Alana Bloom

she kissed will graham in s1 and dated hannibal in s2 so you can imagine how bad the fandom is to her. fun fact she's in a canon lesbian relationship now tho <3

The show literally does the yaoi treatment of victimisation for the benefit of the male leads to her. And then the fandom mistreats her

I'm not sure if this even counts but...Literally a victim of Yaoi along with several other characters in-series, but she got it almost the worst. The entire show is just people dying because the two male leads are OBSESSED with each other and can't be normal about anything. Alana Bloom, actual PhD of psychology and consultant to the FBI, got kissed by one guy, fucked and fed people-meant by the other, and pushed out a window by the murder husbands' forced-surrogate daughter. Like. Actual victim of several crimes caused by yaoi. She's probably one of the few examples of a Yaoi Victim overcoming and evolving past her yaoi-related trauma into a stronger person/character, though: She gets an entire character overhaul and a hot, millionairess for a wife. She kills a man with an eel. She becomes head of the BSHCI, effectively putting her in complete power over her jackass cannibal ex-bf. She does quite well. Unfortunately, the rest of her screen time is spent trying not to get killed in the ongoing fallout of Hannibal and Will's fucked up courtship, but hey. Can't have everything. I don't even know if I'm saying anything valid here: the fandom loves her, but I supposed her position outside of the Hannigram relationship relegates her to a non-subject in a lot of Hannigram-focused fanwork. She's an 'obstacle' to their relationship only in the sense that Will had a crush on her once that went nowhere and Hannibal started an actual relationship with her SPECIFICALLY to piss off Will. I guess she's also a more literal obstacle as Hannibal's jailer and Will's friend who's constantly pointing out to him that Morals exist and he should try having some of those, maybe.

[theserpentsadvocate]

Adding on my extra propaganda again - VOTE FOR WEEVIL

Reasons to watch Rob Thomas’s Eli Navarro:

*Leticia is raising about five grandchildren; there is enough completely untouched potential there for reams of poignant situations and revelations of pathos and humorous incidents

*please let us see what the deal is with his parents, I just want to know

*the absolute and unmitigated angst of Chardo not just betraying him but being so fucking stupid about it; he didn’t just let Weevil take the fall for him, he got Leticia fired from her job of ten years and that would have repercussions throughout S1

*which of his grandmothers is dying and if it’s Leticia why does she look three decades older in about two years (and if it’s not, his relationship with her would continue to function as major axis of motivation and characterization potentially indefinitely), and how about we get literally any scenes or plotlines about the experience of having your primary caretaker die of a long-term illness while trying to navigate the American health care system when you’re in poverty – one would think a show that likes to make such a big deal about social inequality would really be raring to dig into that, no????

*so much potential to explore with Angel – their relationship, various illegal enterprises (also, is he in prison in S3? It seems unusual for Weevil to have a cousin and an uncle who both have scrapyards/chop shops, so it seems like something happened to him between S1 and S3 and one of his kids took over the yard)

*so much more motorcycle riding – what, I can be deep and shallow!

*on that note, more shirtless scenes, but not for thirst reasons; do you know what I would give to be able to accurately describe all his tattoos???

*flashbacks to his relationship with Lilly a la Veronica’s to her friendship with Lilly

*the mileage we could have gotten out of his relationship with Felix (and Thumper! Imagine how much more impact in S2 if we’ve known Thumper from day one!)

*Hector gets his own bullet point, because that scene where he tells Weevil what the Fitzpatricks are doing to the younger PCHers – that relationship! If it got more screen time it would be a true gem

*Weevil’s perspective on Gus, maybe even some flashbacks, parallels and/or foil moments between Gus and Felix (and between Gus and Weevil) – you want to get really daring, parallel Gus and Thumper

*more Ofelia, she’s adorable and their relationship is adorable and maybe an episode of moral confliction around using her to help steal that money

*LOGAN EVICTED THE ENTIRE NAVARRO FAMILY AND WE JUST NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT IT EVER AGAIN, seriously, are the two boys from S1 at his graduation in S2 but Claudia the girl isn’t because she’s living with other family? Does he need the money for that car so badly because he’s homeless, or sleeping on Ofelia’s bedroom floor, or something? He literally talks in MKAT about stealing cars because otherwise he would have been sleeping in a ditch somewhere, so he was homeless or nearly homeless at some point – I want to see that and/or get the details, especially if it was pre-canon

*what happened with that card machine he told Veronica he didn’t find? That’s 3-12 episodes worth of overarching plot right there depending on what happens with it

*also there’s no indication that the students who framed him actually get kicked out of Hearst – does he have to see them around? Does he have to maintenance their dorm rooms? My kingdom for the sheer snark of that scene!

*WE! WOULD! SEE! HIM! MEETING! JADE! 100% here for the dramatic and romantic Eli & Jade show (I’m here for the sweet romance-drama, but I’d watch a soapy drama or even a comedy romance, just let me see them kiss on screen) – how did they meet? What did he tell her about Lilly, and Felix, and being in prison? Meetings with his future in-laws: fraught, or awkward, or smooth, or what? SHOW ME THAT PROPOSAL. (Apparently he talked up Veronica – what did he say? What was Jade’s response to some of the freaking nuts stories he has about her?)

*At some point he and Chardo reconcile enough for Chardo to be at his trial in MKAT – I want to see that, especially since Chardo’s not in the PCH in S4, so is he out of the life or just out of the gang?

*Patrick Fitzpatrick canonically provided a character reference at his trial in the novels – can you imagine the milage from that dynamic??

*he’s gone from the PCH for about a decade and he sure seems to be pretty close to in charge again at the end of the movie – lets see that power dynamic with the previous leader; even if he doesn’t take over immediately, he’s definitely in charge again by S4, so did whoever was in charge during the movie just very conveniently get arrested or something at exactly the right moment? Was Weevil so massively respected that the previous leader/other contenders just stepped aside for him? Or was it a nasty power struggle – I have trouble seeing him decide that would be worth it after MKAT, but it could be justified if letting the other contender take over was somehow dangerous. This is the one and only time I would find organized crime power struggles compelling

*Weevil perspective on the lawsuit! (plus more Lisa Choi, massively underrated character)

*ACTUAL INTERACTIONS WITH VALENTINA PLEASE

*If his marriage is getting busted all to hell, it at least deserves some poignant heart-breaking moments that are on screen

*WHO IS OFELIA’S MOM, it can’t be Claudia or she would have been mentioned in S4, right? Do they have an older sister? Is Claudia his older sister and she lost custody or something? Did Ofelia get into university somehow or something and move away? SHOW US THE FAMILY INTERACTIONS (and drama).

The Best New Main Character Tournament (Round 4/Quarterfinal Poll)

Note: I recommend reading this blog's pinned post that explains what this tournament is about before voting

The four most voted for characters on this poll will proceed to the semifinal round; the two least voted for will be knocked out of the competition.

PROPAGANDA:

Palamedes Sextus- You'd have Palamedes and Camilla solving the mysteries of Canaan House and tracking down the murderer, you've got his emotional turmoil at being rejected by the love of his life, you have his sheer bafflement at his good friend Protesilaus taking up a vow of silence and repeatedly attacking this other huge, silent weirdo who showed up. It would also be the best detective novel ending, in that he'd give his solution speech about who the culprit was and how they did it, then immediately explodes. Book over.

Descole- He's the antagonist of the prequel trilogy of games and often helps add to the mysteries to solve. I would love to see his perspective of all he did throughout those games.

Garrus Vakarian- None submitted

Eli 'Weevil' Navarro- Francis Capra is a fantastic and immensely underrated actor and he deserves his own show. Weevil is truly the best character and the under-utilised potential of the parts of his life that should have been relevant and weren't will haunt me until I die (worse because he was a major character/series regular). Please, I am begging you, force Rob Thomas to put his money where his mouth is in actually reckoning with the class (+race) inequality the show is always nominally condemning and then reinforcing every time they give racist millionaire characters a giant narrative spotlight and a seventeenth chance instead of paying attention to their POC regulars with so much more potential

Vee- There is just so much potential! It could be a cute cartoon about an awkward little shapeshifter trying to behave like a human. From time to time, a backstory episode about her past as a basilisk and her escape out of the Boiling Isles. Their closest friend is Masha, who slowly discovers their secret, and becomes their confident, like MoringMark Comics from 2022-10-20. (And of course, romance). With the return of Luz in the the human realm, it could be more psychological, exploring complex feeling toward her (envy, but also affection). But yeah, imagine a cute slice-of-life cartoon with the cutest character of the show! Completely in the mood found family, "weirdos staying together" and "being understood"!

Kim Kitsuragi- None submitted

[edoro]

I sent some on anon earlier, but fic writing questions: 6 (your choice of fic), 12, 41, 48

6. What’s one fact about the universe of [insert fic] that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself? - so i started writing paint the blood during the mid s2 hiatus, long before we got confirmation that Hunter was in fact a grimwalker, although ofc it was a very popular theory at the time. i initially wrote it with the idea that he was born to a family of powerless witches (who were Wittebane descendants) in a remote area and grew up there for a few years before tragedy struck and Belos took him in.

in order to reconcile the fic with canon, i decided - and did talk this out with a person in the comments, actually, but won't be able to get to it in the fic itself - that what happened is Belos made Hunter as like, a 3 or 4 year old, then paid a struggling family in a little out of the way village a handsome monthly sum to take him in and raise him and keep quiet about it.

they assumed that he was just an embarrassing relative the Emperor wanted kept out of the spotlight - after all, the most powerful witch ever born doesn't want anyone knowing one of his own family members is powerless, right?

of course this was all just an experiment on Belos's part to inculcate a hatred for wild witches in Hunter and set himself up to be a savior. Hunter wasn't treated well growing up, and neither were his adopted family members, and after a few years Belos either personally staged or took advantage of a handy disaster and snatched Hunter up, freshly traumatized and grateful to be taken in and well-primed to absorb anti-wild magic propaganda.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you? - hmmm... i don't think any come to mind! there are definitely tropes that i used to like but don't like as much, but i'm not sure if there are any i disliked that i do now.

(already did 41 and i can't think of any other fics to link)

48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it? - the fic is Golden Brown by grimwalker, and yeah, i would! it seems to be a fic about Hunter struggling enormously with his mental health and trauma in the aftermath of All The Everything, and while there's only one chapter, so far i really like how it's portraying his symptoms, and i'm excited to see where it goes in the future.

[popsiclemania]

My 2020 in K dramas (+1 J drama)

I began watching k-dramas in 2018 but I’ve never watched as many shows, Korean or otherwise, as I have in this one. 2020 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I think what helps me really enjoy this over Bollywood+Malayalam+ American pop culture I grew up with is that a smirk on the wrong character’s face doesn’t make me seethe with rage and want to burn everything down. It’s not like growing up with SRK on screen and then having SRK wannabes leave you with lifelong trauma in reality. I can just move on. It’s removed enough from my everyday life but still familiar in a generic Asian family way. Does that make sense? It’s not perfect and it’s not free of its own harmful stereotypes and narratives, but there’s enough of the good stuff to make you stick around. This year I fell in love with Nana, Kim Hye Soo, Han Yeri, Park Eun bin, Ahn Eun jin, Kim Bum, Kim Yong ji, Flower Boy’s Go Dok Mi and Search:WWW’s Bae Tami. Cancelled Ji Chang wook (bye). Desperately missed Kim Jae Wook. Had thoughts on Hwang In Yeop, which were mostly heart eyes. Discovered J dramas and fell in love with Cherry Magic’s Adachi.

My year-in-review below:

LOVED

Into The Ring - I am so glad I saved this for a rainy day because it’s exactly the kind of upright citizen shenanigans my unemployed ass needed at the end of the year.

Goo Se Ra thinks the govt should work for the people but that doesn’t mean her own moral compass always points north. Her purpose is to make steady money, and I love seeing her go hard to survive and cobble together what she needs. The thing that really works for me is that she wants to be good, but she isn’t always. And you get to see her be disappointed, upset, embarrassed and hurt from being publicly kicked in the gut as she navigates a job where she appears, on the surface, to be a supremely confident, self-serving, accidental politician. What you see as her naiveté is mostly just her being a regular person in an environment dictated by backhand deals and rich people politics. She gets hit again and again, and you see what it does to her sense of worth to get back up again, how she grapples with her self. And through all this the show is funny?! Se Ra is what writers of manic pixie characters think they are doing and not doing at all. Love her friends, and Jang Hye-jin is *chef’s kiss*!

Hyena - Kim Hye Soo’s Jung Geum Ja is perhaps Se Ra’s older and darker contemporary.  Geum Ja is a survivor and will get what she wants and where she wants to, however many hells she has to cross. She’s single-minded about her success, ruthless and has no qualms about bending morals to get the outcome she needs. She’ll never compromise on who she is or justify how she lives, can build people up and also tear them down, but she also knows care and kindness.

I turned to Signal for more Kim Hye Soo but was disappointed in how the first few episodes seemed to shortchange her. May try again in 2021.

(Highly recommend @saltr0se​’s  fic series which just GETS Geum Ja so well. Fic writers are the best)

Search: WWW (Finished in 2020) - It took me half a year to finish this. I started watching Search in Oct 2019 and raced through the first 6 episodes because I couldn’t take my eyes off the rollercoaster of Bae Tami’s life. And then I had to take a break because it was a little too close to the frenetic pace of my own industry. As @drivingsideways wrote, a lot of Search is premised around ‘patriarchy? who dat?’, which is why watching its politics play out is so fascinating.  It’s also deliciously turmoil-y to watch a very clear-sighted, weathered Tami put on rose-tinted glasses for her romance and then frequently peer over them to evaluate whether it could actually meld into her life.

Catch The Ghost - Kim Seonho oozes charm and perhaps Startup was a showcase of how effectively he can be a typical male lead. But Catch is exactly not that. Go Jiseok and Yoo Ryeong have moulded their lives around to meet their most desperate wishes in life and in the process also left parts of themselves untended. There is guilt, pain and need. Now guess who will tend to whose wounds? Their dynamic is electric even when the central mystery flags towards the last few episodes of the show. I really hope Moon Geun Young is doing well and gets more amazing roles soon. She is so good here.

(Highly recommend @melonatures​‘s fic for putting that sizzling on-screen chemistry into words. HOW?!) Cherry Magic - Stories about painfully awkward people are my jam and Eiji Akaso gets Adachi’s shy, nervy energy so right. Cherry Magic is straight up just 12 hours of 🥺🥺🥺. 

Stranger/Secret Forest - I’ve been devouring the entirety of Agatha Christie’s work this year after Stranger reminded me how comforting murder mysteries can be. I love Bae Doona. I also love characters who don’t get social norms, not always because they are out to flout them but because that’s just not how their mind/brain works. (have to watch S2)

Flower Boy Next Door -  Honestly, the opening scene introducing Park Shin Hye’s character Go Deok Mi sold me on this immediately. An introverted, penny pinching copy editor living alone and working from home thanks to extreme social anxiety? Love. All the side characters are a lot of fun and I’ve never loved Kim Seulgi and Go Kyung Pyo more. It’s a warm show, slowly rounding off the sharp edges of every character.

JUST FUN

The Spies Who Loved Me -  It’s been a year of disappointing rom-coms and Spies kind of quietly turned it around for me. I want to be the fly on Yoo In Na’s wall as she figures how to play her characters. I’ve only seen her in 3 roles but somehow she always manages to be in character arcs that don’t short change her. Spies could’ve been and sometimes is the regular heterosexual fare, but In Na ups the ante over and over again, coming out on top as the smartest person in the room.

ENJOYED WITH *RESERVATIONS*

I have to watch A Piece Of Your Mind again because I don’t understand how Jung Hae In and Chae Soo bin built SO MUCH warmth and crackling chemistry with barely a kiss. I was iffy about how the whole AI thing started off and the tortured musician plotline (angsty male artists will forever be an eyeroll for me).

Park Min Young is a queen who never disappoints and When The Weather Is Nice is everything you want in a winter romance. My reservation was in how they explore so much of domestic abuse and the complex ways its traumatised the women in this family. I’m ok with the characters having imperfect ways of processing and understanding the violence, I welcome it. I’m not ok with the show dancing around whether the pivotal crime was justified/ self defence (it was).

A lot of dramas did this. I loved Han Yeri and Choo Ja Hyun in My Unfamiliar Family, I didn’t like the free pass the show gave their dad’s abusive character. 

Hwang Jung Eum’s comedy style is generally not my thing but she was pretty great in Mystic Pop-UP Bar. But I’m side-eyeing the sanctity surrounding motherhood. Maybe I should read more about babies and Korean folklore.

Hospital Playlist was my comfort watch through June and July. I think its wholesomeness and non-plot writing came at a good time for me. But I noticed then that the throughline for all main characters was moral superiority and hence what I then saw as *wholesomeness*. It’s kind of what makes it a grating rewatch in parts. Plus the real life of misogyny of Yoo Yeon Seok makes me want to push his angelic catholic character off a cliff. (For context, i was raised catholic). I want to continue loving Chae Song Hwa, and for that the showrunners need to stop cornering her with overbearing romantic interests (let that woman breathe! she literally ran away to another city!) 

Hospital is good at creating moments of comfort, so much so that I went to watch Reply 1988 after it, but had to drop it coz I couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll come back to it next year.

Once Again is what I call joint family propaganda. What it does well is lay bare the mechanics of living in a society that prizes the heterosexual family structure, the loops you have to jump through to hide when you break its rules and what happens when you are found out. I love the characters, their fights, their frustrations. I just don’t love the validation of joint families. (context: i grew up in an oppressive joint family lol). In my au, Nahee and Gyujin don’t get married again or immediately have children, but take the long route to figuring out how to love the person the other is. Gahee is openly dating Hyo shin and her parents have to figure out how to process her success and her romance. Young dal and Ok boon have to learn to stop dictating their children’s lives.  Joon sun runs his company from home, so his wife Hyun kyung can work on what she wants. Choyeon, Joori and Ga-yeon go back to being flamboyant AF and the market learns to not judge. Gyujin and Jaesok have to actually work on the relationship with their mother and what sent her into depression. Just a lot of learning involved.

Just Between Lovers was a nice watch, i just don’t get how Kang doo and Ha Moon So’s relationship will survive his constantly simmering anger. 

Crash Landing on You was so much fun until the main romance turned angsty, but it gave us North Korean soldier shenanigans and the epic romance of Seo Dan and Alberto Gu that we needed more of.

Tale of The Nine Tailed is probably what Goblin wished it was. I, however, will never be over Lee Rang. (Also, when can gods stop meeting their love interests as babies? Asking for my sanity)

I literally ignored everything in Oh My Ghost except Park Bo Young and Kim Seulgi and it was amazing. 

NOPE

Goblin, Dinner Mate, Oh My Baby and My Secret Romance were a whole lot of NO, NAHI, ILLAAA. 

I loved hate-watching The King:Eternal Monarch with the rest of k drama tumblr but someone please take away Kim Eun-sook’s access to gigantic budgets and all-star casts.

It was painful to watch Do You Like Brahms squander away its potential but I’m glad to be introduced to Park Eun bin. Age of Youth is next on watchlist.

More than Friends to me is only Ahn Eun jin. Someone give her amazing lead roles asap.

Why did Record of Youth do that to Park So Dam and her clothes? Just why

WANTED TO WATCH, BUT COULDN’T BECAUSE *INTENSE* 

World Of The Married, It’s Okay Not To Be Okay, Sweet Home, Extracurricular, Penthouse, Flower of Evil, Lie After Lie

WILL WATCH NEXT YEAR

SF8, Stove League, Birth Care Centre but I’ll start the new year with School Nurse Files coz it looks very good.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Okay it's time for me to get on my pedestal and start giving Dagda propaganda.

ATK: 688

This is her ATK after Trust, Potential, and Module. It's okay. It's nothing amazing for a Fighter, but her talent IS really good. It's a 30% chance to crit for 162% damage, which further increases by an additional 6% for every enemy defeated in the adjacent 4 tiles around a Glasglow operator, up to a maximum of 240%. Now the idea behind this talent is that it ramps up to a pretty comically big number and starts out low, right?

But it...doesn't. Dagda has an ATK scale that's about as strong as Mountains, and it triggers more reliably too, and as we'll get into, this actually remains true. At base, her attacks can crit for 1,114 damage, and will full ramp (13 enemies defeated), it's 1,651.2 damage. These are good numbers, although given they're unreliable it's not a great idea to have her brawling high DEF enemies during her reasonably short cooldown time.

Her S2 gives her a 35% ATK boost, makes her attacks hit twice, and increases her talent proc rate by 60%. Not by 1.6x, but 60%. This is an additive buff, raising it all the way to 90%, which basically makes it all but guaranteed. This means, just at base without having defeated any enemies, she will do 1,504.656 damage twice to an enemy, and at maximum ramp, it will do 2,229.12 damage twice.

There are really good numbers! This really high DPH for a Fighter guard (a bit less strong than Mountain's S3, at 2,506, which is wild to think about), especially since she keeps her original attack interval. At max Ramp that is a DPS of 5,715! A total potential damage of 85 thousand for a Fighter guard!

Defeating 13 enemies is not exactly trivial, but it's not super hard either. Many stages will lead with lower threat enemies before sending their high damage, and Dagda doesn't even need to defeat them herself. But many people will point out that Indra does Arts damage so she's probably better versus high DEF enemies than Dagda is.

About that.

The general top-end of enemy DEF in Arknights is 1500. There are enemies about this range but they tend to either have gimmicks (Screenguards and Kitchenwork Colossuses) that you are intended to use to beat them with, or aren't statistically beneficial for Indra either (Sarkaz Wither Guardians, Originutants). Only Defense Crusher Leaders with 2000 DEF and 0 RES fall into the decidedly better for Indra category.

Let's take a nominally tanky enemy you might remember, the Armed Spymasters from Chapter 12 (the big lugs in armor that you can spot immediately when they're Civilians). They have 1500 DEF and 0 RES. Surely Indra does more damage? She does do 1,491 Arts damage per hit, so that seems reasonable, and at low ramp levels, Dagda can deal damage but not quite on the level of Indra.

At max ramp though, Dagda deals 729.12 damage a hit, for a total DPS of 1,458. They're very comparable actually! The Accursed Scum from the currently running event have 1,500 DEF and 20 RES, giving Dagda a higher DPS and comparable DPS numbers at lower ramp values. If you are a Guerilla Shieldbearer Leader, with 1,500 DEF and 60 RES, Dagda blows Indra out of the water.

At minimum ramp, Dagda will have the same DPS against an enemy with 760 DEF and 0 RES as Indra does. This is of course with no RES. The Shanhaizhong Phalanx enemies from Where the Vernal Winds Blow have 1000 DEF and 35 RES, and Dagda does more damage to them than Indra does.

While Indra is arguably better when just dropped, she still needs 25 seconds to access her S2, a period of time in which Dagda can be defeating weaker enemies to begin the ramp up. Indra's perks come into play with her better survivability through her dodge talent and reasonable heal attached to her S2, while Dagda has a much better skill cycle time than Indra does.

Dagda is good, imo. I think she was overlooked a bit due to being a 5-star Welfare Fighter Guard, but I come away genuinely quite impressed.

I feel like Dagda might be super underrated as an operator tbh

[ninthfeather]

Ninth, I am trying to watch M*A*S*H, but Hawkeye and Trapper are just... teeth-grinding... Can you recommend me some of your favorite episodes?

Ok! So, if Hawkeye and Trapper are teeth-grinding for you, first of all, that’s understandable–a lot of their jokes about women are not really that funny, and they often go way too far while making fun of the rest of the cast, especially Frank, but also Henry and Radar in earlier episodes. While Hawkeye remains a main character until the finale, Trapper’s actor left the show after three seasons and was replaced as Hawkeye’s partner-in-crime by BJ Hunnicutt, a practical joker who’s also a happily-married man with a young daughter. You might enjoy that dynamic a bit more. So, I’m gonna try to focus a bit more on some later episodes, and on ones that focus on side characters: 

S1 ep 12 “Dear Dad”: The first of M*A*S*H’s many “Character writes a letter home as a framing device for several unrelated incidents at the 4077th” episodes. I like this one less because it’s Hawkeye narrating and more because of the stories, most notably Klinger mailing a Jeep home piece by piece and Hawkeye performing surgery in a Santa outfit.

S1 ep 15 “Tuttle”: This is the one “Hawkeye and Trapper shenanigans” ep I’m gonna recommend. The two of them make up a doctor as part of scheme to get supplies to the local orphanage, and the lie balloons until this fictional man wins a commendation, at which point they kill him off and the camp has a funeral for him. The spiral of continuously escalating nonsense is wonderful.

S1 ep 19: “The Long-John Flap”: Hawkeye gets a pair of long-johns from home, and in the middle of winter in Korea, they’re the envy of the camp. Under duress, lends them to Trapper when he’s sick…and soon, the things have been traded around the entire main cast. One of the first really good ensemble episodes, and excellent in terms of characterization. Basically, it works on the same principle as the “Who broke the coffee machine?” bit from Brooklyn 99, using a petty squabble to bring out interesting facets of all the characters.

S1 ep 20: “The Army-Navy Game”: During a much-anticipated football match between the army and the navy, the 4077th comes under attack. First, they call for support from their own forces–and then for a different kind of help, when an unexploded US bomb lands in the middle of camp. This one is a “Let’s mock the US military” episode, and it balances humor, drama, and suspense really really well.

S2 ep 12: “The Incubator”: Hawkeye, Trapper, and Radar get into it with some supply officers after finding out that while an incubator for cell cultures is not on the Basic Equipment List for a M*A*S*H and they can’t have it, they’re welcome to request a pizza oven. A good example of the “let’s mock military bureaucracy” subgenre of M*A*S*H episodes. 

S4 ep 25 “The Interview”: The M*A*S*H personnel are interviewed for what is basically a propaganda reel. The episode was originally aired in black and white, so try to find it in that format, if you can! This episode was part script and part improv, and it really feels authentic to how these characters would react to being interviewed.

S5 eps 1-2 “Bug Out”: The camp evacuates their current position in favor of a safer location, but one patient can’t be moved. Pierce, Margaret, and Radar stay behind, while the rest of the camp attempts to retreat in an orderly fashion. An hour-long episode that really hits that comedy vs. humor balance.

S5 ep 9 “Mulcahey’s War”: Please skip this if detailed medical stuff or discussion of self-harm are triggers or squicks for you, but it’s a good episode. Father Mulcahey’s difficulty in connecting with a patient leads him to ask Col. Potter for a chance to go to the front. This is more drama than comedy, but it’s *really good.* Mulcahey is a lovely character and this episode was really good for fleshing him out.

S5 ep 23 “Souvenirs”: During the Korean War, many locals, especially children, made money by retrieving battlefield souvenirs and selling them to US soldiers. Of course, the fact that these battlefields were often full of unexploded mines and bombs made supporting these children ethically questionable at best. As you may have guessed, this episode also leans into drama rather than comedy, but once again it’s good. Also, there’s definitely *some* humor, it’s just in the form of jerks getting their due.

S6 ep 5 “War of Nerves”: This episode focuses on another side character, psychologist Sidney Freeman, and tackles some pretty tough ethical questions in the process. Specifically, how do medical professionals justify healing people and then sending them back into a war, knowing they are very likely to get reinjured? I wouldn’t call this episode uplifting, but it’s cathartic.

S6 ep 20 “What’s Up, Doc?”: Margaret, worried that she may be pregnant, approaches Pierce about a pregnancy test. What follows involves some medical history and is perhaps best not brought up here, but suffice it to say that this episode is an excellent Radar and Margaret focus piece, with a bonus bit of good Klinger content. Not bloody enough to require a medical squick warning, but I will spoil you: no animals die during the episode. I promise.

S7, ep 11 “Point of View”: Please skip this if the medical bits of M*A*S*H squick you out, but otherwise, this episode was amazing. It was an experiment with perspective, filmed from the point of view of a soldier with a throat injury being treated at the 4077th. The unusual POV creates a sense of immersion and also allows the writers to use the limited POV in order to create suspense–whereas in a normal episode, you follow the characters around, this time you’re hearing snatches of gossip during the POV character’s brief interactions with the principals. It’s neat as all heck.

S8 ep 19 “Morale Victory”: BJ and Pierce complain about the same movie running in camp all the time; Col. Potter gets fed up and appoints the two of them as morale officers, challenging them to do better. Meanwhile, Charles deals with the case of an injured soldier who feels his nerve damage has ruined his career as a concert pianist. This episode is some of the best Charles Emerson Winchester III content the series has to offer, and also some surprisingly good (if not perfect) disability theory for when it was made.

S11 ep 1 “Hey, Look Me Over”: Nurse Kellye wants Hawkeye to take her seriously as a woman. This should not take nearly as much effort as it does. You can tell Alan Alda did the writing because it’s a little heavy-handed at times but Nurse Kellye is amazing and we should all respect her.

An additional note: People are and will probably always be divided on Klinger--some people love him, some even consider him an example of early and imperfect LGBTQ+ representation, some people just don’t find him as funny, and other people consider him a harmful portrayal of crossdressing/trans people. If you find yourself wanting to avoid Klinger wearing a dress because you aren’t as comfortable with the way the writers handled him, you should watch later episodes, since he crossdressed less as the series went on and the writers ran out of quality jokes to tell involving his wardrobe.

[herabies]

We're trying to fit the system. Sistem yang mengekang kemanusiaan.

Standar sekolah tinggi. Pendidikan harus murah dan mudah dijangkau oleh semua kalangan masyarakat. Syarat kerja gaji UMR minimal S1 dengan pengalaman kerja minimal 1,5 tahun dalam bidangnya, beserta segala sertifikat penghargaan dan organisasi loncat sana-sini.

Apa yang dicari? Apa yang sebenarnya dibutuhkan? Oleh perusahaan, oleh negara, bahkan oleh manusia itu sendiri? Apa yang kita kejar hingga diharuskan berdarah-darah hingga kita tidak mengenali lagi siapa diri? Uang? Kekayaan? Kehormatan? Hidup bahagia? Apakah setelah pencapaian kita bahagia? Setidaknya bisa tersenyum ketika beranjak tidur setelah lelah seharian menguras keringat? Tersenyum saat pagi ketika baru terbuka mata? Atau justru kerutan dan keluhan lagi-lagi yang terdengar?

Terpenjara sistem. Terkekang erat, namun tak terlihat. Dibisik-bisik narasi sampai diteriaki hingga tuli.

Siapa yang membangun sistem? Apa yang berada di balik sistem? Mengapa kita harus menurutinya? Domba-domba yang tersesat, ikuti jalan yang sudah dipasak untuk mendapat pencerahan dan jalan yang "benar". "Benar" yang seperti apa? "Benar"-nya siapa?

Kenapa kita harus terjebak pada sistem yang tidak nyaman? Apakah domba itu benar kita? Apakah benar kita tersesat? Apakah benar kita membutuhkan sistem itu untuk menjadi benar? Narasi "bahagia" yang ditawarkan mengapa terasa tidak nyaman?

Sistem akan bekerja apabila kita secara sadar memilih dan menjalaninya? Bagaimana jika kita secara sadar tidak menginginkannya? Keharusan macam apa yang mengancam? Lebih parahnya lagi bagaimana jika kita tidak sadar, dipaksa, bahkan hanyut dalam sistem tak terlihat namun kekangannya sangat menusuk itu?

Negara berkompetisi melawan negara lain dengan sistem yang mereka buat. Syarat dan ketentuan tertulis apik pada hitam di atas putih. Untuk menyombong pada sistem bernomor dengan judul penghargaan dan kehormatan. Indonesia yang lugu bergabung dan berlomba memperebutkan nomor teratas. Tanpa mengenali dirinya, kemampuannya, sumber dayanya, Indonesia berambisi untuk merebut angka terkecil, angka 1 tujuannya. Tak tau apa, yang penting gelar kehormatan dan penghargaan itu didapatkan. Tahukah Indonesia, bahwa standar itu dibentuk oleh negara yang sama sekali tak sama dengannya? Standar yang bukan dirinya. Standar itu adalah wortel yang tergantung lima centimeter di depan wajahnya. Seberapun jauh berlari, wortel itu akan tetap lima centimeter di depannya. Wortel itu narasi. Wortel itu adalah sistem yang tak pernah cocok untuk dirinya. Indonesia tak akan pernah menang dalam perebutan angka terkecil dalam sistem itu. Jangankan mungkin, harapan saja lebih baik dibuang jauh-jauh.

Bukan menyadari dan mengenal dirinya sendiri, Indonesia sibuk membersihkan dirinya dari identitas dirinya sendiri. Mengosongkan lahannya dan merakit kita-kiat "standar". 70 tahun sudah Indonesia mencoba dan masih tertinggal, karena negara lain sudah melangkah 70 tahun ke depan ketika Indonesia masih sibuk merakit standar yang lama. Terus tergilas arus, Indonesia bingung. Hilang sudah identitas asli, identitas baru bahkan tak dapat digenggam. Lalu untuk apa mencoba?

Propaganda cintai negeri dan mari bangun Indonesia keras-keras diteriakan. Sampai tuli sudah warganya, sementara pejabatnya asik mengkonsumsi produk luar negeri yang katanya "ternama" dan terus membuang rupiah ke dollar. Bosan, warganya memperkaya diri dengan memonopoli pasar bagi yang cerdik, dan tergilas kemiskinan bagi yang kurang gesit. Lalu untuk apa berteriak?

Untuk apa bangun standar yang hanya dicopy-paste dari konferensi internasional? Lagi pula, apa yang mau dibangun ketika limpah ruah sumber daya diratakan gedung pencakar langit agar bisa disebut "kota", peradaban yang katanya lebih memenuhi standar internasional. Apakah setelahnya negara lain mengakui? Ah, copy-paste saja, apa yang perlu diapresiasi?

Pasak-pasak standar itu tidak cocok untuk kita. Untuk apa sarjana S1 kalau ujung-ujungnya hanya jadi pegawai kelas UMR? Sudah bergelar bidang ilmu, posisi masih bisa dilakukan lulusan SD dengan syarat lulus baca tulis hitung. Perusahaan jadi trust-issue menerima lulusan S1, dan menaikan syarat minimal S2. Entah kenapa S2 yang katanya expert bidang ilmu masih rebahan di kostan yang masih dibayar orang tuanya. Perusahaan jadi trauma. Kok "expert bergelar"-nya masih bodoh-bodoh? Disalahkan pendidikannya.

Pendidikan masih bersistem, toh? Sistem negara orang lain juga. Tapi bedanya, Indonesia pake budaya ramahnya kali ini. Bikin akses pendidikan mudah dan murah diraih oleh siapa saja. Yang cerdik dapat penghargaan dan hadiah, yang kurang gesit hanya memalukan "nama baik" sekolah dan guru. Hm, demi salam tempel jadilah sekolah naikin nilai yang kurang gesit. Nilai palsu asal tidak memalukan sekolah tidak menyakitkan siapa pun, toh? Jadilah pendidikan itu formalitas. SD, SMP, SMA, lewat, salam, selesai. Apa yang didapat? Yak gelar. Gelar saja tidak lebih. Ketika terjun ke dunia praktis kok gak bisa apa-apa? Trauma perusahaan jadi masuk akal. Perusahaan nyalahin pendidikan, pendidikan nyalahin negara. Negara mau nyalahin rakyatnya? Kayak berani aja. Negara ngeluh dikit, pajak auto macet.

Pelajar kita yang katanya adalah aset negara mengapa tidak bersinar layaknya berlian? Apa yang salah, adek-adek? Gak mau sekolah salah satu jawabannya. Kenapa gak mau sekolah? Gak cocok sama sistem. Sulit diikuti. Tuntutan yang terlalu besar ketika kemampuan yang dimiliki masih sekedar empot-empotan. Kalo kaya, diperlicin duit jadi lulus. Yang miskin, disepak dari sekolah dan meneruskan sejarah kemiskinan.

Memangnya apa yang penting dari sekolah? Belajar baca, menulis, menghitung. Asanya tiga hal ini cukup, tetapi kemudian pengetahuan umum beranak pinak dan semuanya harus dipelajari dan dikuasai dalam tempo waktu yang sesingkat-singkatnya. Semua harus ditelan, untuk kelak katanya, agar pelajar bisa memilih mana yang disukai.

Memilih tak perlu memaksa, toh? Sebelum sempat kepikiran mana yang disuka, keburu muak, dan jatuhnya sama sekali tidak ingin melakukan apa pun. Tidak semudah waktu kecil pilih krayon atau kotak musik, pilih matematika kalkulus atau matematika aljabar aja udah pusing duluan. Coba tengok kurikulum wajib sekolah.

- Matematika;

- IPA dan IPS dipisah karena saking luasnya;

- Agama, karena merujuk sila satu ideologi negara tercinta;

- PKN, agar tumbuh rasa nasionalisme;

- Sejarah, karena "jasmerah" kata presiden pertama;

- Bahasanya rupa-rupa, Indonesia karena native, Inggris karena go internasyonel, bahasa daerah dalam rangka melestarikan;

- Penjas, karena baik untuk olah tubuh;

- Budi pekerti biar berakhlak;

- belum lagi kalo sekolahnya go green, ada mapel khusus cinta lingkungan.

Setidaknya 12 mata pelajaran harus dikuasai oleh semua murid tanpa kecuali, tanpa kompromi.

Apakah penting semua matkul ini? Penting. Apakah semuanya harus dipaksakan dalam kurun waktu yang singkat kepada pelajar yang maunya bermain dan mengenal lingkungannya? Mengapa sangat terburu-buru? Apa yang sebenarnya sedang dikejar?

Anak-anak dipaksa menjadi robot hingga menjadi terasing akan dirinya sendiri. Siapa dirinya? Apa yang ia inginkan? Bagaimana dia melakukan dan menyelesaikan sesuatu? Apa yang membedakan dia dengan orang lain? Apa yang dia butuhkan? Adakah kesempatan ini diberikan kepada seorang anak? Tepat sebelum dia menjadi pelajar dan mengejar gelar expertnya dan berkontribusi untuk bangsa, apakah dia mengenal dirinya sendiri dan keinginannya sendiri? Tanpa narasi, tanpa sistem, siapa diri mereka?

Tak mungkin seorang anak dibentuk tanpa narasi. Benar. Tak mungkin sesuatu dilakukan tanpa sistem. Benar. Tapi kesempatan itu harus disediakan. Pencarian jati diri akan berlangsung sepanjang hidup manusia. Dia akan terus belajar sepanjang hidupnya, jadi jangan khawatir dan terburu-buru menyuapkan pembelajaran yang tak bisa ditelan. Potongannya masih terlalu besar, kasar, keras, dan menyakitkan jika terlalu dipaksa. Kita sendiri saja belum paham sepenuhnya tentang diri, apalagi untuk memahami orang lain. Hanya diri sendiri yang benar-benar tau apa yang diinginkan dan mengenali dirinya sendiri. Kesempatan untuk mengenal dirinya sendiri harus diberikan. Siapa saya? Apa yang saya inginkan? Apa yang tidak saya inginkan? Sistem apa yang cocok untuk saya? Hingga saatnya sistem yang dibangun negara menjadi bekerja lebih efektif.

Negara juga harus menawarkan rupa-rupa sistem, jika tidak bisa, bangun saja satu sistem yang sangat umum dan mencakup sepenuhnya nilai yang dibutuhkan negara. Seperti Pancasila misalnya, identitas yang sangat Indonesia sekali, katanya. Nilai ketuhanan, kemanusiaan, persatuan, kemusyawaratan, dan keadilan. Sistem apapun yang dijalankan individu harus mengikuti nilai-nilai ini.

Mengenal diri sendiri ini tidak hanya berlaku pada warganegaranya melainkan pada negara juga. Kita terus menengok sistem tetangga, bercermin pada refleksi orang lain, terus mengikuti standar orang lain yang belum tentu cocok dengan kita. Terus saja kita akan kehilangan arah dan semakin terpuruk. Terus meratap apa yang salah, apa yang kurang, frustasi bangun negeri asal-asalan, korupsi jadi menggiurkan. Kita tidak mengenal diri sendiri, dimana kekuatan kita, dimana kelemahan kita? Selama ini yang kita jalani hanya kesia-siaan atas nama formalitas.

Sebagai manusia saya lelah mengikuti sistem yang bukan untuk saya. Saya lelah berteriak tapi tuli, melukis tapi buta, meraba tapi tak merasa. Memakai topeng ekspresi atas nama empati. Saya ingin jadi manusia yang merasa, melihat, mendengar, mengecap, menghirup apa yang ingin saya ketahui dan nikmati. Bebas mungkin bukan istilahnya, karena kebebasan adalah paradoks lainnya.

Saya hanya ingin menentukan secara sadar apa yang saya lakukan sebagai saya dan seluruh pihak menghormatinya. Saya memilih untuk tinggal di hutan dari pada di kota sepenuhnya menjadi tanggung jawab saya pada diri dan negara, bukan tetangga saya, bukan dosen saya, bukan teman saya, bukan seorang yang satu angkot dengan saya, bahkan bukan keluarga saya. Begitu pula dengan pilihan saya untuk makan apa, menikah dengan siapa, membaca buku apa, mempelajari bidang studi apa. Liberal dan invidualisme mungkin istilah yang akan disangkutkan. Tapi saya tidak menjustifikasi istilah ini. Karena jika ada orang yang menginginkan hidupnya penuh diktator dan ingin mengontrol orang lain, selagi dia bisa mempertanggung jawabkan dirinya sendiri dan negara, itu urusan dia.

Apakah kedamaian yang akan dicapai? Tak ada yang bisa menjamin itu. Jika perbedaan pendapat menghasilkan perang, maka perang akan selalu mengancam. Peran negara tidak dihinilkan di sini. Tetapi yang sangat saya inginkan adalah kesempatan seorang individu untuk menjadi manusia karena dirinya sendiri. Ruang pada individu untuk memilih. Mewajibkan akal sehat untuk kritis dan radikal akan segala sesuatu. Tak ada sistem yang benar-benar cocok untuk semua orang. Cukup narasi tanggung jawab dikeraskan.

H .xx

[lydia-can-live]

Review of Outlander “The Fiery Cross” S5:EP1…

TL,DR: If you like your historical drama sanitized and the perfect back drop for your own inner dialogue, then you will likely love the Outlander S5 premier.

Preferring the more gritty realism of S1 and S2, I’m most bothered by how everything looks. We all know what it was like in the 18th century. There were fires everywhere, tons of soot, smoke and ash, yet everything in S5 is so clean. Historical accuracy is necessary to balance the fantasy/romance aspect and make the show more believable.

The immigrants of 1774 living in the mountains spent a lot of their time trying to stay alive, but here’s Jamie, walking through his giant house with mill-sawed lumbar walls that are painted cheery shades of green and daffodil yellow. The perfectly plum French doors have been expertly glazed and a wee clay flower pot sits in Claire’s magnificent surgery, holding a delicate posy.

It gets worse. Jamie is the laird to a bevy of tenants who are working on the big house, presumably in preparation for Bree’s wedding. The Frasers are supposed to be land rich and cash poor, yet Fraser’s Ridge is as opulent as Mount Vernon, but with better furniture and a cache of volunteer labor.

Every aspect of this episode is like a Hallmark movie. It’s a lovely, garland strewn, brightly colored, clean and well lighted, freshly mowed green-grass fantasy of Fraser’s Ridge. Your imagination does the real work of storytelling while your eyes take in the luscious scenery.  

BTW, the wedding was supposed to occur at the fully established plantation River Run, owned by the wealthy Aunt Jocasta, whose dozens of slaves worked endlessly to maintain the house and property and secure Jocasta a profitable business. Outlander took a spin through the sanitization machine and Jamie has his tenants doing it all, willingly, all while keeping their autonomy and a seat at the Laird’s daughter’s wedding.  That’s one way to whitewash the truth of slavery, Outlander producers.

My daughter watched a bit of “The Devil’s Mark” from S1 with me last week. “This is pretty good, I’m surprised” she said. We watched a few scenes from “The Search” and she had the same response.  She loved the authenticity of the clothes, the scenery, the acting. Next day I had her watch “The Fiery Cross” and her simple assessment was “I’m sorry this happened to your show”.  She stopped watching after Roger and Bree toasted each other with crystal high ball glasses.

About the acting: Sam does not know how to play older Jamie. He puts on his little glasses and uses stilted mannerisms with a hint of incompetence (e.g., the awkward shaving scene with Roger) that get the job done, but he plays it like a bumbling old man that’s about to stoop over, cup his ear and yell “Huh? Speak up, sonny, I can’t hear you!” Sure, he can play the stern warrior, but he doesn’t bring any weight or resonance to being a family man or a father. He’s either blasé about it, or silly. As Claire’s husband he is intensely in love and overly romantic. He looks at her with what is supposed to be serious longing but tends to look more like he wants to constantly apologize for something. It’s not romantic. It’s tedious. The Frasers are normally humorous people and Sam misses every opportunity to be, well, just normal with her.

Sophie does not embody Brianna’s character even a little and simply can’t act. Rik was most effective when he was being incredulous, which I don’t mind, but he doesn’t even try to emulate the thoughtful historian of the books. He’s got history happening all around him but never looks interested in any of it.

Caitriona plays Claire with that “oh, you guys!” kind of sheepishness that comes from not really understanding what the young folks are talking about, and that is not Claire. Claire is the smartest person in the room, usually, and if she’s not tut-tutting Jamie about something she’s looking especially concerned about something else. Her wig is still horrible, and she looks like she regrets choosing Jamie over those hot baths back in the 20th century.

So, the set was beautiful and he actors said their lines with a modicum of human emotion. As far as Hallmark movies go, I’d say it was on par. Low budget and mass produced to manipulate your emotions and allow you to imagine the story is aligned with your own hetero-normative wishes and dreams. What it is not, is good storytelling.

For more on why sanitized television keeps us in our compliant bubbles, please enjoy this Salon article:

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/25/hallmark-christmas-movies-fascist-propaganda/

[anonymous-character-tournament]

This didn't happen in Season 1, but we're doing this to break the tie: I will hold off on revealing these two's identities, of course, and I'll hold off revealing the identity of the loser who in Round 1, Part 1 got the closest to 50% of the votes. When Round 1, Part 2 is done I'll see who is the loser who got the closest to 50% of the votes in the whole round and pit them against Missed Chance and God's Employee in a tie-break poll.

Round 1, Match 3

Missed Chance:

Tried to kill their crush’s romantic partner and became friends with them instead

Casually drops dirty jokes into every conversation without considering that they might make people uncomfortable

Made a deal with the devil twice

Called out the former strongest supernatural creature in the world for being selfish and got away with it mostly unscathed

Their only regret after the ghost of a friend passed on was not kissing them when there was a chance

God's Employee:

A twelve-years-old who’s lived for millennia

Street urchin

Unknowingly works for God

Disrespects and disobeys God but would do the same if they knew who it was

Want to know more? Check out this tag for Missed Chance and this tag for God's Employee and peruse the notes of the posts.

[sostanotes]

I posted 13,828 times in 2021

85 posts created (1%)

13743 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 161.7 posts.

I added 3,414 tags in 2021

#the owl house - 1159 posts

#critical role - 364 posts

#luz noceda - 325 posts

#lumity - 258 posts

#amity blight - 256 posts

#cr spoilers - 243 posts

#toh s2 - 212 posts

#toh spoilers - 204 posts

#amphibia - 200 posts

#long post - 193 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#(and while i know i use the simple pres. for repeated actions‚ my classicist brain associates it with the imperfect‚ i.e. past continuous)

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Gravesfield, Connecticut

Last week, with the talks about lakes, I saw people wondering where in Connecticut Luz might live, I did some digging about interesting lakes in Connecticut. And one county kept catching my attention:

Litchfield

Litch is from an Old English word for body, and comes to mean specifically dead body (its where we get the fantasy term Lich). Litchfield or Litchyard is an old term for what is now called a Graveyard. And what town does Luz live in/near? Gravesfield.

See what happens when I don't make these posts the moment I think of something?

56 notes • Posted 2021-08-14 16:45:42 GMT

#4

CR2 E123 Summary

Lucien once again disrupts a long rest, this time not only for the Mighty Nein, but the audience as well.

67 notes • Posted 2021-01-29 08:29:05 GMT

#3

White Dragons

“I can guarantee they were not the same [dragon]”

MATT… you KNOW that the two SPECIFIC dragons being talked about used to DATE.

79 notes • Posted 2021-02-12 05:09:23 GMT

#2

Lilith the Historian

Gee Lilith… how could your history books say that Belos is the first ruler, and then we find a ruin on an unmapped island with never-before-seen materials and writing, showing a powerful demon that appears to be a ruler you've never heard of?

Maybe, just MAYBE… the man you worked for put out a bunch of propaganda and called it history. By the time you became part of the coven, he'd had nearly 20 years to alter the books as he saw fit.

Man… I really want to interview Bump now and see what he remebers of the pre-Belos days.

99 notes • Posted 2021-06-26 16:38:19 GMT

#1

Hisuian Growlithe

Fragile, rock-like structures on its head. That filament like hair. And act as insulation…

It's asbestos. Hisuian Growlithe has a beard made of asbestos.

If you or your loved one has owned or been in contact with a Hisuian Growlithe, you may be entitled to financial compensation.

392 notes • Posted 2021-08-18 13:55:47 GMT

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