#so much happens all the time that it’s impossible to summarize efficiently (in my opinion)

[vulpinesaint]

sorry i will actually never apologize for liking nbc hannibal in a basic cannibalism girlblogger way. truly the show contains multitudes. anytime someone goes “oh of course you like hannibal 🙄” i just like. idk. sorry you don’t appreciate the beautiful cinnamontography and sound design. also i just Know you haven’t seen that they tied mads mikkelsen up naked like a pig for that show. lots of talk about the gay people and the therapy and stuff but nobody talking about that one. nobody ever seems to bring That up in conversation

[examsumo-blog]

TIPS FOR REVISION OF IIT JEE MAINS AND ADVANCED

Every students goes to School and almost every student attends a coaching institute. They visit the same classes and make notes. They solve many problems in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Then they appear in a lot of Tests for JEE Mains and Advanced. But not all of them get desirable marks and ranks. And as a result of this rank, your parents think that you are not preparing well or working hard. They will not stop there. They will judge each of your habits as a bad habit. Whether it is your guitar playing, weekly cricket match or your friends. Which in my opinion is not true.

This phenomenon occurs very often among JEE Main aspirants. Students with the same potential get different rank in the same test. Worse a student with high intelligence quotient can get inferior rank in any test. So the question arises why this happens? If you have attended the same coaching class and attempted the same questions, but when it comes to the result there is a massive difference between the rank of yours and the topper. Why? The answer is REVISION. You must be thinking why such a trivial thing is essential for the results. Because in IIT JEE in takes two years to complete the syllabus. In IIT JEE syllabus you study almost 64 chapters. Each chapter has a dozen concepts. In every chapter you solve over 200 problems. So you can see you do a lot of hard work in JEE preparation because the syllabus is enormous. In such pressure, your mind will forget a lot of these concepts. As we move on to a new chapter, our find will partially forget the previous chapter. Thus you will learn new chapters and unlearn the previous chapter together. NTA expect us to remember each chapter as if we have learned it today. Your brainpower should be as sharp as a steel sword. You may have such brain power if you revise the concepts, , and examples very smartly. Revision is by far the most important thing for a competitive exam aspirant.

Take small steps every day

The most important way of revision is whenever you learn a new topic or concept revise it immediately. Suppose your teacher taught you acidic strength order in chemical Bonding today. Then its recommended that you revise it as soon as you reach home. Even it will be better if you revise it on your way home. It will save you a lot of time. Per day you should revise for half an hour per subject. The focus of this daily revision should be topic or concept you learned today in the class.

Revise main points and questions not only theory

Do you remember when you revised last time? What exactly did you revise? Only theory or questions also? It is a widespread mistake that students focus only on theory while revising. It is wrong because IIT JEE Main and Advanced Exam is application based exam, not a theoretical one. You will make at least 25 notebooks in your JEE Preparation. And if you will keep revising only theory from these class notes, then they are useless. Thus your revision is nothing if you do not revise a solved example with every concept. Your application part will be substantial if you revise a difficult solved question with every concept.

Revise of A particular Topic for JEE Mains

If you have a class test of a particular chapter tomorrow or day after that, then instead of revising only theory you should practice the question also. Let me give you an example if you have a test of Simple Harmonic Motion. Revise the basic concepts and a few critical questions related to every concept. Then select a few easy questions from your question bank and solve them in a time frame. If you answer them pat yourself in the back and then pick some not-so-easy question and solve them. Repeat the same process at least four times. Increase the level of question from easy to difficult. But this process is not as smooth as it seems. You will get stuck in some questions. In such case refer to the related concept in your class notes or book. Then try to relate your unsolved question from the solved example and try it again. This analysis will increase your marks and rank unexpectedly.

Make a cheat sheet for formulas for IIT JEE

A cheat sheet is a collection of all formulas, tips, tricks, and shortcuts related to a chapter. I will suggest you make one. I will recommend adding an essential question in the cheat sheet in the concise form To create such a list, you have to wait until the end of the chapter. After finishing the section gather all the material, you referred. The write all necessary information in a very very concise manner. Make it very concise you can even use sign language which can understand. This cheat sheet will save you precious time during JEE Main exam. Read The Brief Analysis Of JEE Main 2019 January

Revise At least two Subjects Per Day

Psychologists say studying more than one subject is better than only one subject per day. Suppose you are revising Physics and Maths on Monday for JEE Advanced. Then on Tuesday review Maths and Chemistry. Why? Because if you keep revising the same subject, chapter and concept for a whole day your mind will get bored. You can get confused with different concepts. Thus when you make your timetable, next time include at least two subjects per day. Download Mock Test PAper for JEE Mains Here.

Read key information out loud

It is also a scientific fact when you are revising something read out important concepts loud. What’s the reason for this? It is convenient. If you only mumble the words you only see them. But if you read out loud, you see them as well as listen to it. It will embed the concept in your mind .or a long time. Though this method has its limit, you can not read every word on the notebook out loud and also in numerical part reading is not enough. I will recommend this method for Chemistry ( Organic and Inorganic) and Maths & Physics formulas. Learn 7 Habits for Success in JEE Mains

Simplify, summarize, and compress the information

Not a lot of students can do it. But if you can, you will be able to get an extra edge over other students. Simplify and summarise your revision as much as possible. A concise summary is easy to remember. One of the ways to do this is to make your mnemonics. For example Lina Kare Rab Se Fariyad. Elements: Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Fr Beta Mange Cars Saari Baap Roye. Elements: Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra Nepal Pakistan Australia Sab Bikhari. (No offence!!) Elements: N, P, As, Sb, Bi Memorize Pi till 10 decimal places: 3.1415926535 May(3) I(3) have(3) a(3) large(3) container(3) of(3) coffee(3) ready(3) for(3) today(3) ?

Switch up your location

You must have a particular place in your house or hostel to study. You must get bored and stagnant by studying in the same area for long hours. It happens with almost every JEE aspirant. In such a situation you should change your location. You can go to your parent’s room or sit in the balcony, or whatever may suit you. It may sometimes work when you are revising for long hours. A change in your location can reset your mind. After that, you can study for a few more hours.

And these are all the techniques very efficient for an effctive revision. Above tricks for revision of JEE Mains and advanced are tried and tested by me and my students. It is very important to keep revising your syllabus if your preparing for exams like IIT JEE. You can not hope that you will revise the entire syllabus in last few weeks. This is impossible.

Click here for JEE advanced mock test

Read How to Study For JEE Mains When you are Sick If you can apply them in your revision you will get surprising result. Your rank will incearse in your class sufficiently. In any other case you can contact me or comment below. Best Of luck.

[counselingwithita]

How to Get the Most From Couples Therapy

This article is designed to help you get the most benefit from our work together. The first three sections deal with how to prepare for and maximize the value of our sessions. The fourth section summarizes some brief concepts about relationships and productive couples therapy.

Your job is to create your own individual objectives for being in therapy. Like a good coach, my job is to help you reach them. I have many, many tools to help you become a more effective partner – they work best when you are clear about how you aspire to be.

The goal is to help you each make better adjustments and responses to each other without violating your core values or deeply held principles.

Goals and Objectives of Couples Therapy

The major aim of therapy is increasing your knowledge about yourself, your partner and the patterns of interaction between you. Therapy becomes effective as you apply new knowledge to break ineffective patterns and develop better ones.

The key tasks of couples therapy are increasing your clarity about:

The kind of life you want to build together

The kind of partner you aspire to be in order to build the kind of life and relationship you want to create

Your individual blocks to becoming the kind of partner you aspire to be

The skills and knowledge necessary to do the above tasks

Tradeoffs and Tough Choices

To create sustained improvement in your relationship you need:

A vision of the life you want to build together and individually

The appropriate attitudes and skills to work as a team

The motivation to persist

Time to review progress

To create the relationship you really desire, there will be some difficult tradeoffs and tough choices for each person.

The first tradeoff will be time. It simply takes time to create a relationship that flourishes: time to be together, time to be with family, time to play, coordinate, nurture, relax, hang out and plan. This time will encroach on some other valuable areas – your personal or professional time.

The second compromise is comfort. That means emotional comfort, like going out on a limb to try novel ways of thinking or doing things, listening and being curious instead of butting in, speaking up instead of becoming resentfully compliant or withdrawing. At the beginning, there will be emotional risk taking action, but you will never explore different worlds if you always keep sight of the shoreline. In addition, few people are emotionally comfortable being confronted with how they don't live their values or being confronted with the consequences of their actions.

The other comfort that will be challenged is energy comfort. It simply takes effort to sustain improvement over time – staying conscious of making a difference over time – remembering to be more respectful, more giving, more appreciative etc. It takes effort to remember and act.

The other effort is even more difficult for some people – that is improving their reaction to problems. For example, if one person is hypersensitive to criticism, and his/her partner is hypersensitive to feeling ignored, it will take effort to improve their sensitivity instead of hoping the partner will stop ignoring or criticizing.

In all these areas, there is generally a conflict between short-term gratification and the long-term goal of creating a satisfying relationship. The blunt reality is that, in an interdependent relationship, effort is required on the part of each person to make a sustained improvement. It is like pairs figure skating – one person cannot do most of the work and still create an exceptional team.

How to Maximize the Value from your Couples Therapy Sessions

A common yet unproductive pattern in couples therapy is making the focus be whatever problem happens to be on someone's mind at the moment. This is a reactive (and mostly ineffective) approach to working things through.

The second unproductive pattern is showing up with each person saying, “I don't know what to talk about, do you?” While this blank slate approach may open some interesting doors, it is a hit or miss process.

The third common unproductive pattern is discussing whatever fight you are in at the moment or whatever fight you had since the last meeting. Discussing these fights/arguments without a larger context of what you wish to learn from the experience is often an exercise in spinning your wheels.

Over time, repeating these patterns will lead to the plaintive question, “Are we getting anywhere?”

A more powerful approach to your couples therapy sessions is for each person to do the following before each session: 1. Reflect on your objectives for being in therapy. 2. Think about your next step that supports or relates to your larger objectives for the kind of relationship you wish to create, or the partner you aspire to become.

This reflection takes some effort. Yet few people would call an important meeting and then say, “Well, I don't have anything to bring up, does anyone else have anything on their agenda?” Your preparation will pay high dividends.

Important Concepts for Couples Therapy and Relationships

The following ideas can help identify areas of focus in our work and/or stimulate discussion between you and your partner between meetings. If you periodically review this list, you will discover that your reflections and associations will change over time. So please revisit this list often, it will help you keep focus during our work.

Attitude is Key

When it comes to improving your relationship, your attitude toward change is more important that what action to take.

What to do and how to do it can often be easily identified. The real challenge is why you don't do it.

How to think differently about a problem is often more effective than just trying to figure out what action to take.

Your partner is quite limited in his/her ability to respond to you. You are quite limited in your ability to respond to your partner. Accepting that is a huge step into maturity.

The definite possibility exists that you have some flawed assumptions about your partner's motives. And that he/she has some flawed assumptions about yours. The problem is, most of the time we don't want to believe those assumptions are flawed.

Focus on Changing Yourself Rather than Your Partner

Couples therapy works best if you have more goals for yourself than for your partner. I am at my best when I help you reach objectives you set for yourself.

Problems occur when reality departs sharply from our expectations, hopes, desires and concerns. It's human nature to try and change one's partner instead of adjusting our expectations. This aspect of human nature is what keeps therapists in business.

The hardest part of couples therapy is accepting you will need to improve your response to a problem (how you think about it, feel about it, or what to do about it). Very few people want to focus on improving their response. It's more common to build a strong case for why the other should do the improving.

You can't change your partner. Your partner can't change you. You can influence each other, but that doesn't mean you can change each other. Becoming a more effective partner is the most efficient way to change a relationship.

It's easy to be considerate and loving to your partner when the vistas are magnificent, the sun is shining and breezes are gentle. But when it gets bone chilling cold, you're hungry and tired, and your partner is whining and sniveling about how you got them into this mess, that's when you get tested. Your leadership and your character get tested. You can join the finger pointing or become how you aspire to become.

Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it.

Fear lets you know you're not prepared. If you view fear in that mode, it becomes a signal to prepare the best you can.

You can learn a lot about yourself by understanding what annoys you and how you handle it.

The more you believe your partner should be different, the less initiative you will take to change the patterns between you.

Zen Aspects of Couples Therapy (Some Contradictions)

All major goals have built in contradictions, for example, speak up or keep the peace.

All significant growth comes from disagreements, dissatisfaction with the current status, or a striving to make things better. Paradoxically, accepting that conflict produces growth and learning to manage inevitable disagreements is the key to more harmonious relationships.

It's not what you say. It's what they hear.

Solutions, no matter how perfect, set the stage for new problems.

Tough Questions

Asking good questions – of yourself and your partner – helps you uncover causes beneath causes.

In a strong disagreement, do you really believe your partner is entitled to their opinion?

Under duress, do you have the courage and tenacity to seek your partner's reality and the courage to express your reality when the stakes are high?

Why is it important to let your partner know what you think, feel and are concerned about? (Because they really can't appreciate what they don't understand.) What is the price your partner will have to pay to improve their response to you? How much do you care about the price they will have to pay? (Everything has a price and we always pay it.)

Can you legitimately expect your partner to treat you better than you treat him/her?

Can you legitimately expect your partner to treat you better than you treat yourself?

If you want your partner to change, do you think about what you can do to make it easier?

When a problem shows up, it's natural to think “What should I do about it?” A much more productive question is, “How do aspire to be in this situation?”

The Importance of Communication

The three most important qualities for effective communication are respect, openness and persistence.

Good communication is much more difficult than most people want to believe. Effective negotiation is even harder.

A couple's vision emerges from a process of reflection and inquiry. It requires both people to speak from the heart about what really matters to each.

We are all responsible for how we express ourselves, no matter how others treat us.

Communication is the number one presenting problem in couples counseling. Effective communication means you need to pay attention to:

Managing unruly emotions, such as anger that is too intense

How you are communicating – whining, blaming, being vague, etc.

What you want from your partner during the discussion

What the problem symbolizes to you

The outcome you want from the discussion

Your partner's major concerns

How you can help your partner become more responsive to you

The beliefs and attitudes you have about the problem.

No wonder good communication is so hard.

Some Final Thoughts.

You can't create a flourishing relationship by only fixing what's wrong. But it's a start.

Grace under pressure does not spring full-grown even with the best of intentions – practice, practice and more practice. Practice the right things and you will get there.

Love is destroyed when self-interest dominates.

If you don't know what you feel in important areas of your relationship, it is like playing high stakes poker when you see only half your cards. You will make a lot of dumb plays.

The possibility exists that we choose partners we need but don't necessarily want.

To get to the bottom of a problem often means you first accept how complex it is.

Trust is the foundational building block of a flourishing relationship. You create trust by doing what you say you will do.

It's impossible to be in a highly inter-dependent relationship without ever being judgmental or being judged.

If you strive to always feel emotionally safe in your relationship and get it, you will pay the price by becoming dull.

If neither of you ever rocks the boat, you will end up with a dull relationship

Knowledge is not power. Only knowledge that is applied is power.

Most of the ineffective things we do in relationships fall into just a few categories:

Blame or attempt to dominate

Disengage/withdraw

Resentful compliance

Whine

Denial or confusion

These are the normal emotional reactions to feeling a threat or high stress. Improving your relationship means better management of these reactions.

Everything you do works for some part of you, even if other parts of you don't like it.

Everything you do that takes a sustained effort is governed by three motivations:

Avoid pain or discomfort

The benefits involved

Be a better person

It's also true for your partner.

If you are asking your partner to change something, sometimes it's a good idea to ask if the change is consistent with how they aspire to be in that situation.

Businesses and marriages fail for the same three reasons. A failure to:

Learn from the past

Adapt to changing conditions

Predict probable future problems and take action

Effective change requires insight plus action. Action without insight is thoughtless. Insight without action is passivity.

If you want to create a win-win solution, you cannot hold a position that has caused your partner to lose in the past.

“To be a champ you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.” –Sugar Ray Robinson, middleweight boxing champion, considered by many to be the best fighter in history, pound-for-pound.

Written by: Pete & Ellyn

https://www.couplesinstitute.com/how-to-get-the-most-from-couples-therapy-tx/

[techyminute]

Artificial Intelligence in Software Testing

Artificial intelligence isn’t a new concept, in fact, it dates back to the 1940s with McCullouch and Pitts' formal design for Turing-complete "artificial neurons." Fast-forward some 76 years later, improved computing power and an abundance of data have fueled the revolution of AI to handle and solve some of the world’s most difficult problems. 

Over the last decade, we have heard how artificial intelligence will revolutionize medicine with machines accurately diagnosing diseases within seconds, self-driving cars maneuvering all sorts of obstacles to get you from point A to B safely, and AI taking on a multitude of tasks, both large and small, in virtually every industry. But, what about the field of software testing? Can we create machines that think and work like human testers? What will this mean for them and their careers? This paper focuses on artificial intelligence and its impact on the software testing industry. The topic at hand is rather complicated, so it would be impossible to cover all aspects in this paper. So, I will provide an overview. First, highlight how AI will disrupt testing in the future by discussing some of the advantages. Next, I will discuss some of the challenges we may face as we adopt the technology. I will then summarize my key findings after reviewing articles, studies, and videos on the topic and provide my opinions.

Andrew Ng, perhaps the most respected person in Applied AI, says “Pretty much anything that a normal person can do in less than a second, we can now automate with AI.” And, that could be true when you look at AI and its role in software testing. Think about how many manual testing steps or verifications could be done in about a second. Artificial Intelligence gives machines the ability to make decisions and work like humans without having to program a set of complete instructions. A training set in machine learning includes many input and output values, much like testing where we provide an input and then an expected output when writing a unit test, for example. The machine using the data to train is later able to make decisions on its own. Therefore, the more you feed it the smarter it gets. Based on the articles I have reviewed, AI is not just a dream, but is already transforming testing in the following ways and it’s pretty mind-blowing. For example, it’s being used today to auto-generate testing scripts where AI can fill out forms, click on-screen links, log in and out of apps, etc. According to the article “How AI is Transforming Testing Today,” these scripts are generating 80% of code reliability, which in my opinion, is pretty impressive. I am stunned at how these bots can automatically fill out forms, and perform many time-consuming, mundane tests human testers would complete during a manual test. These bots are not only faster, but can operate on a much larger scale. For example, these AI bots are able to create thousands of users and test them all surpassing the current number of manual tests a human can perform.

Moreover, anytime code is changed, AI agents can automatically rebuild the tests ensuring a commitment to continuous quality. Imagine the time that could be saved in every sprint and how analysts could take on more productive stories such as reviewing requirements, planning, communicating, etc. Regression testing can take a lot of time to retest code affected by a recent change. And, changes happen often in the software development life cycle. So, having an AI-powered system is not only testing smarter but more efficiently as releases, which usually occur monthly, can now happen weekly.

Aside from automatically generating test scripts, AI is intelligently optimizing the tests it runs to quickly identify risks and defects in code. In the article “Why AI and Machine Learning Will Redefine Software Testing in 2019,” AI is not only said to be more efficient than a human, but less error-prone. While completing some homework assignments, specifically the ones regarding equivalence classes, and designing test cases, I found myself missing critical tests, and often times making simple mistakes. I had a hard time keeping track of variables on the excel spreadsheet and often confused the cells when performing a number of repetitive tasks such as calculating the total amount based on shipping. Automated testing, according to the article, helps by “performing the same steps accurately every time.” As learned in class, a simple error, such as a simple miscalculation can bring down a rocket, cost a company millions of dollars, or even worse bring down an aircraft killing hundreds of people. Any testing method that can improve accuracy and detect defects and risks faster is worth exploring as it can save lives, time, and money.

Other benefits of automated testing using AI include increasing overall test coverage. While we may never achieve 100% coverage and 100% defect-free code, as discussed in class, writing meaningful tests to improve coverage increases scope and depth to improve software quality. Automated testing allows testers to run “1000+ different test cases in every test run providing coverage is not possible with manual tests.” Furthermore, these tests can run at a lower level examining memory, file contents, internal program states, and data tables, which is remarkable. Therefore, automated testing improves accuracy, efficiency, and coverage while improving software quality and reducing costs and delivery time.

But, new technology brings a set of challenges. Of course, there is a learning curve. Testers may find the new technology intimidating because of unfamiliarity forcing some to feel desperate to learn new skills. It will likely highlight why ongoing education is vital in this business. Those who are unwilling to learn new skills will be left behind, others will reap the benefits of staying employed. While the bots work no different - generating a number of inputs and outputs putting them into a BlackBox (machine learning tool) and training - the technology ultimately only does what it is told to do. According to the article “Can Artificial Intelligence replace humans in Software Testing?,”  a problem “that cannot be solved manually cannot be solved by an AI tool as well.” After all, we are the ones training the machine. This is not to say these testing bots can’t think on their own because they can. In fact, from what I’ve discovered they can find new paths and are open to change since the tests aren’t hard-coded. The machine is only as good as how you train it. 

Another downfall is the cost - it isn’t cheap - therefore leaving out smaller businesses or companies that simply do not have a sufficient budget to incorporate the new testing technology. And, finally, one of the biggest downfalls, I have discovered in my research is the impact it could have on the livelihood of millions of testers around the globe. Or will it? I was shocked to learn most of the articles I read conclude testers will not be replaced, but their roles will change. AI testing tools will allow them to work more efficiently. That’s great news. The consensus, AI testing tools aren’t smart enough, just yet, to develop test plans, monitor progress, evaluate results, and take corrective actions when necessary. Humans still need to handle those tasks. While AI can definitely help with designing and building test cases and data, the communication aspect is missing. Humans still need to communicate with stakeholders. This is not to say these AI bots can’t develop these skills 20 years from now, but the experts say it won’t happen anytime soon. In the article “Does AI replace or assist?,” John Bates, the CEO of TestPlant says “AI isn’t a robot coming to take your job, but is a smart assistant.” He says these AI bots will predict and spot defects as code changes faster, but won’t outright replace all human testers, which is a sigh of relief for many.  

To summarize my findings, there are many ways AI in testing is beneficial: increases productivity and reduces deployment times, improves test accuracy, spots and predicts bugs, defects, and risks faster, surpasses and go way beyond the limits of human manual testing by exploring test cases virtually impossible for humans to test, adjusts and adapts to code changes faster than a human. While the thought of AI can be scary for some testers, they should not be fearful that the bots will take over their jobs. Instead, they should think of them as helpful friends, giving human testers more time to focus on other tasks such as planning, improving product ideas and designs, reviewing tests, meeting with clients and business stakeholders, and taking corrective action when necessary.

While preparing to write this paper, I stumbled across an awesome product called AppDiff (test.ai), which touts itself as the first AI mobile testing platform. Its service is pretty revolutionary. Imagine uploading your application, the binary to the cloud, robots then wake up and begin figuring out ways to test. Spinning up thousands of copies, the bots walk through the application and its thousands of lines of code, just like a human end-user, finding bugs, UX issues, crashes, error dialogs, and generating a full test report in under an hour. The robot “a virtual brain” automatically generates tens of thousands of test cases based on training thousands of inputs and outputs. Mind you, I said, thousands, which is impossible for a human to do. The company behind the product, which was founded just a few years ago in 2015, has already raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The company’s co-founder Justin Liu says testing that would normally take five days to complete can now be done in less time than it would take for someone to grab a cup of coffee. Not bad!

I am personally excited about the future and the way we are using AI technology to solve problems and enhance lives. While some people may have a negative view of AI, I am optimistic about what lies ahead in the future. Yes, it is true, technology can be used for bad (especially if biased), but there is much good that can be achieved. Having learned about testing and its processes and concepts over the last 10-weeks, I am fascinated by the power of machine learning. I can see how these new tools could make my life easier as a tester. But, the only concern I have is accuracy. While, based on my research, the technology is said to be more accurate than humans, I still have my doubts about putting all of my trust into a machine. I guess that’s normal for us humans to feel. After all, machine learning works on data. If the data is biased or flawed, it could throw everything off. So, I don’t know if I could truly rely on such technology 100% just yet, especially when testing software that has the potential to harm people. I definitely feel there needs to be at least a human supervising the entire process and working alongside the bots, whether it's performing random testing and verifying if the bot is working correctly, etc. Overall, I found this topic fascinating to research and had a great time learning about what is here and what we could expect to see in the future.

 Sources:

https://www.softwaretestingnews.co.uk/ai-replace-assist/

https://devops.com/how-ai-is-transforming-testing-today/

https://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/why-ai-and-machine-learning-will-redefine-software-testing-in-2019-02204554

https://www.webomates.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-and-software-testing/

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

I entirely agree, and I was referring moreso on a surface-level to her being the catalyst to Fantine's doom and how we don't discuss her--I'd never even heard of her until BBC Les Mis came out, and even then only in passing.

Still, I read your conclusion and wonder: what would the best course of action for Valjean have been? We have observed that he gave far more than he kept and pressured other wealthy members (eg Fouché) into investing more money into the community. He paid for new schools to be built and paid the schoolteachers from his own pocket (imo the most valuable thing: the children are learning skills, and it's daycare for working adults; access to good education and childcare has been proven time and time again to be the key indicator in future success); he paid for a house of refuge and created a fund for pension and medical leave; he taught the people in the community better and more efficient ways to live. Providing and education and teaching skills (eg new ways to use nettle) remains long after he leaves. You mention that it made him look good--which it undoubtedly did--but he didn't do it for status or vanity, and he did create some systematic changes that benefitted the community.

Ultimately, I feel Valjean did basically the best he could have without calling for revolution--and I suppose maybe that is the point? Trickle-down economics doesn't work even with the most selfless and goodwilled in command of the fortune and with the most power possible bestowed upon him (someone dig Reagan up and tell him). Unfortunately, I have only read up to Fantine being arrested, so in this battle of wits I am woefully unarmed, but without an entire system overhaul it seems to me nearly impossible that Valjean could have done too much more than he did. I mean, even with the position of mayor, he only accepted because he had been forced to consider the increased amount if good he could do in a government position...and this still came to pass.

And the argument could be made that he could have come to Montreuil-sur-Mer and done nothing. Taken Camus's approach, minimalized his impact and interaction on and with everyone. Then, technically, he could be absolved of sin...except that, as we saw earlier, he knew he could do greater good with the freedom and new start that Myriel had purchased him.

Let's then consider the Bishop of Digne, who is (to my knowledge) hailed as the end-all be-all of good in the novel. We know his opinions on wealth ("There's Monsieur Géborand, buying a pennyworth of paradise" might be my favorite sass of his entire book) and sin ("To commit the least possible sin is the law for man . . . Everything on this earth is subject to sin. Sin is like gravity."). Something I've been wondering since all of his platitudes on living meanly (much like Valjean did) is what happened after he passed? To the best of my knowledge, it's never said, but I would wager that because he never took on an underling, someone from elsewhere who did not practice the gospel of Monseigneur Bienvenu ultimately took over and rapidly undid the years of work he did there, too.

(And there's an interesting parallel to be found there too--both Myriel and Madeleine are said to live in solitude, so when they do leave their posts they fall back into the ruin in which they were found; Cosette, then, could be said to be the break in that cycle? Unless she's just Valjean's Baptistine, which she very well could be. Again, Fantine's just been arrested.)

The point to all of this being, then, that it seems that there is no ethical way to live in society as it currently is (just as ethical consumption under capitalism is a myth). (And Myriel's one flaw is said to be that he's a royalist.) They call for personal revolutions, yes, but not on a grander scale, and in this way perhaps Valjean's true transformation could onky fully come about with his participation at the barricades?

To summarize my ramble:

Yes, if one person were to be blamed systemically for Fantine's fall, Valjean would be the face of it, I absolutely agree. But I also feel that, regardless of what he did, because of the pre-existing government institution, he was doomed to fail regardless of what he did, and as such Thicctor's ultimate goal for the novel is to call for an institutional revolution as well as a cultural revolution.

Edit:

So I'm still thinking about this as I read 1.5.13 (Fantine is sentenced and saved by Valjean), and I just wanted to add this quote:

[Javert] had seen, there in the street, society, represented by s property-holding voter, insulted and attacked by a creature who was an outlaw and an outcast.

And again soon after, when Fantine bursts out laughing and spits in Valjean's face:

To see a prostitute spit in the face of a mayor was so monstrous that, in [Javert's] wildest conjecture, even to imagine it would have seemed sacrilege.

(translation: it is the most literal manifestation he could imagine of outlaws/outcasts insulting society)

Javert is the protector of "society" as it currently stands; however, Huge-hoe's point in the novel is to demonstrate over and over how "society" is broken and doesn't deserve to be defended. Even when Valjean tries the role on for a couple of years, it's ultimately proven that there is no "right way" to twist society as it currently stands to make it work.

@shitpostingfromthebarricade I’ve been taking these last few days to think about madame Victurnien and while I understand why you’ve been ranting about her and her role in getting Fantine fired (and I agree that she *is* sadistic and canonically gets off on hurting Fantine) here’s why I don’t think Victurnien is a villain in Fantine’s story

- I’m posting this publicly so people can join in the discussion if they want! -

The “villain” of les mis is the society that produces poverty and misery, right? So the villain of that part of Fantine’s story is not the gossiping widow who outs her to the superintendent (specially since we know Victurnien is a) not the only gossip in town interested in Fantine so she’d get outed eventually and b) unlike the factory workers who bully Fantine to tears more than once, Victurnien doesn’t really interact with Fantine at all, for her Fantine is just another source of intrigue)

No, the villain of that chapter of Fantine’s story is not Victurnien, it’s Jean Valjean. For creating a rule of Honesty that made Fantine somehow into bad company for her co-workers because she is a single mother for a child she provides for.

Valjean instates that rule, delegates and abandons his workers to the superintendent who does nothing but her job when firing Fantine. He is the man behind an arbitrary social rule who literally profits off of the image of a “good man” he is known for in town and eventually in the rest of the country.

Valjean is not doing this from evil but from a misguided benevolence. But by being the literal source of power in Fantine’s situation, and being deaf to the actual happenings of his factory, Monsieur Madelaine becomes the face of institutionalised violence against Fantine.

He is a factory owner and righteous benefactor. He means well but in the end the rule he made up in good faith causes misery and distrust among the people below him. Victurnien isn’t to blame because if there was no rule of honesty she could’ve outed Fantine but she’d still keep a stable income and a secure job and maybe she could even bring Cosette to live with her now that her secret was discovered.

Victor Hugo, when talking about the July Monarchy, makes a point to explain that the monarch himself can be a good person, but the monarchy can’t ever be justified because it is intrinsically unjust. The same, to a lesser degree, with Madelaine’s ownership of the factory. Madelaine’s benevolence is noble but ultimately unjust because he holds power over everyone else. And when he leaves the town his benevolence proves fruitless because it changed nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Victurnien is just an incidental antagonist in a larger sistem of power relations. In fact, she gains nothing from Fantine being fired except a sense of satisfaction. You know who gets rewarded for this? Valjean’s reputation as a man of high morals.

(and you know who else gets off on getting vulnerable people back “in their place”? Javert. But we in the fandom don’t call him a villain either, so)

[sailorramoon]

What happened between Classic and X in your headcanon?

The Constellations. It went poorly.

If what you want is personal details about the cast instead, I’m a bit hesitant to post ginormous things until the staff fixes the Read More bug it created in my theme, so to summarize:

Rock dies. With Dr. Light too devastated at the time to protest, his body is eventually given to the Robot Museum -- though Blues soon breaks in to steal the remains of his CPU and helmet, which he gives a proper tomb away from prying eyes. Its location is only given to Roll, via Tango.

Dr. Wily knows the death knell of robotkind when he sees it, and orders those of his kids still on Earth to get off-planet now and get the hell out of Dodge ASAP. In spite of Shade's best efforts, he refuses to leave with them. Shadow in turn refuses to go while his master still lives, and remains with Wily.

Forte, still following his idea of being better than Rock at being Rock, chooses to remain on Earth and, to everyone's disbelief (and terror), essentially inherits the defender of the planet role. Cut, who had taken it upon himself to do the same after the death of Rock, more or less becomes his part-time sidekick, part-time cloudcuckoolander's minder. With the doctors aging and busy tending to their respective final creations, the two end up supported by Auto, and more or less move into his lab.

All the other Wilybots leave.

Beyond the awareness of anyone but Wily and Shadow, the whole Quint debacle happens. In the aftermath of the disappearance of Rock's body from the Robot Museum, Dr. Light becomes a recluse.

As the space station-based Wilybots prepare to leave the solar system entirely, Snake attempts to convince Toad to come one last time. At Dr. Cossack's request, Toad accepts -- and so do all the other Cossackbots, as well as Kalinka, after popular vote sees Dr. Wily's place offered to her. Shade is rather bitter at taking her along instead of Wily, but accepts on the Thirds' behalf as long as she is the only human to come, and reconciles himself with the idea quickly enough.

Kalinka asks Blues to come along as well, but he refuses on grounds of the Hyper Energy Crystal his survival depends on being best kept as far as possible from the future robot master homeland. Instead, he promises to keep an eye on her father for her for as long as he remains, and elects to go back to Dr. Light's, to free Roll from thinking that she absolutely has to stay.

With the Cossacks leaving and Blues staying, Roll, after much indecision, follows Dr. Light's advice to go with Kalinka. Ice and Guts, as had been planned, go with Freeze and Stone; Elec, who to be entirely honest has quite a few issues with humanity and whose now-obsolete nuclear plant is set to close the next year, follows at the last second.

Cut, Bomb, and Fire remain on Earth -- where they eventually die during the Constellations Disaster.

Forte, after years of Cut-assisted, surprisingly efficient vigilantism and borderline heroics, double-KO's with Apollo, winning the Constellations Disaster but fatally damaging himself in the process. His remains are recovered by Blues and given to Shadow, who buries him by Copy Rock's tomb. Auto, left alone and with nothing better to do, decides to move in with Dr. Cossack.

Public opinion and the WRU see robot masters banned.

In a serious challenge for Worst Idea Ever, a rogue roboticist creates Rockman Shadow to take Rock and Forte's place. It doesn’t go well for anyone, least of all poor Rockman Shadow.

Once Dr. Light dies, Blues makes sure to leave everything in order, metaphorically kisses X goodbye, and goes to Wily's hidden base -- because for all that he did afterwards, Wily is still his father as much as Light was, and it seems fitting to Blues that they should both spend their final days attended by their son. Shadow is quite surprised to see him come, but is glad for the support, and the three spend a rather peaceful final month together.

Once Dr. Wily dies as well, Shadow, determined to go look for whatever remains of his ancestors he can find so he can lay them to rest as well, asks Blues if he wishes to come along. With nothing else to do for at least thirty years, and with already-dead worlds being the safest of all places for an HEC bearer to be, Blues accepts. The two leave in the direction indicated by Sera's murals, along with Tango, Jiraiya, and Shadow's small Reaverbot contigent.

When they eventually come back MUCH later (to keep the post from turning gigantic let's simply say that shit happened and they got delayed) to find Earth in the early aftermath of the Zero era, they facepalm beyond the impossible, push things from behind the scenes into the ZX direction, then make their way to the nearest robot master space station to inform them of current Earth events and the fact that it might be viable to reestablish contact in the near future.

Which actually happens, since with Legends being in the past ZX is endgame in headcanon. And so the Rockman world gets to not get flooded into oblivion, sees human/reploid/robot master relations eventually work out, and has an as-canon-compliant-as-possible good ending, in which the hinted-at problems with Master Thomas find themselves violently hijacked by the return of the true Albert Wily’s children, all too amused by the opportunity to crack down on a wannabe-Thomas Light’s head.