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flickeringart · 3 years ago

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Saturn and narcissism

Many people have a faulty perception as to what narcissism really is. It is usually described in terms of overt behavior of self-aggrandizement, vanity and excessive self-love. This would be the over-simplified and non-helpful way to describe it, because it doesn’t pinpoint the reason for, or encompass the complexity of this character trait or “personality disorder”. When it comes to narcissism, the overt self-inflation is not really what it seems because it doesn’t spring from a true sense of grandeur. It stems from a deep sense of lack and insecurity, which the person has over-compensated for. There’s a difference between a person who is genuinely self-loving and someone who needs to focus excessively on the self and one’s success in order to not feel inferior.

Saturn (and Capricorn for that matter) in the natal chart seems to me to be in line with what one could label “narcissism” because he is generally associated with struggle and deprivation. Saturn is indicative of a psychic lack, which can manifest itself in different ways depending on the sign placement, house placement and aspects made to other planets. Usually, there’s deep inadequacy that is felt, some void that is not filled and coped with through clever defenses. I’d like to think that most people have narcissistic traits; I have certainly not met a single person that hasn’t displayed some kind of cold and walled-off behavior. Of course, this doesn’t mean that everyone can be said to have the personality disorder, but, everyone has Saturn somewhere in their chart and his placement indicates where we have built the most rigid defenses, where we are painfully serious and where we are the most vulnerable. It is also the place where we feel the most undeveloped and infantile, and it’s often hidden behind a façade of competence or proclaimed superiority (or inferiority designed to instill guilt in other people for being better or more “accomplished”).

Narcissistic individuals can be very controlling, manipulative, false and uncaring. They can lead double lives and twist the truth to their liking. This is understandable since they are buffering themselves from a (seemingly) permanent inner wound and can’t live their lives from a place of authenticity – the pain of the void in annihilating and needs to be covered over. Feelings of guilt and shame are usually carefully contained within, but sometimes these surface in response to something small, and there’s an over-reaction that is obviously stemming from something more serious than the “superficial” trigger. Typically, people who are involved with this person feels like they have to walk on eggshells around them and might become hyper alert as to not say something that would provoke the narcissistic injury. The rage storms, critique, pessimism, skepticism and double messages are commonly displayed within personal relationships, rather than publicly, but there certainly are cold, competitive and authoritarian people in the work place and on the public arena as well. The negative traits are typically mixed with charming and likable qualities that cause confusion and cognitive dissonance in others.

In extreme cases of narcissism, to the point where it could appropriately be labeled a disorder, the person might be unable to be in touch with any sense of guilt or remorse for inflicting other people pain. This coldness is more often than not an adaptation to a very unforgiving and controlling early environment that caused the individual to put up high walls between the self and other people. When emotions are continuously taken advantage of and there’s no room for developing something real, the person must emotionally disconnect from life because the world is ruthless and non-conducive to well-being. The price for walling oneself off is internal isolation, emotional starvation and deep depression – but it’s sometimes better to be “voluntarily” starving than to be starved by the world. Although lack is usually seen as a bad thing, it comes with its own hidden treasure. It invites the opportunity to build something that is resilient and reliable that will stand the test of time, something that isn’t reliant on circumstances to exist. If anything, Saturn lends itself to being self-motivated because everyone in the external is a threat and would take pleasure (even if it’s not admitted to) in seeing another fail. Humans are quick to take delight, however slight, in another person’s relative disadvantage and weakness. People feed off of the pain of others, to varying degrees of severity.

In my own experience, I’ve found that people can be very nice and encouraging and openly supportive, only to make you feel at ease, and then they use that openness to that they’ve created in order to disempower you through instilling doubt and shame when it suits them. This is exactly how Saturn works. His function is to disarm the “opponent” (everyone is a potential threat) in order to protect the personal ego from facing annihilation. His attempt is essentially to strip away everything that isn’t real and pure within through playing the devil’s advocate. People play this ruthless game of the “devil” with each other all the time – especially when they feel vulnerable and need to drag someone down in the pit of self-doubt with them. People point out each other’s shortcomings, their deficiencies, their falsity and their hypocrisy. No one is as keen to point out the wrong doings of others than the Saturnian because he is striving for realness and substance. Everything that is built on shaky ground will be destroyed in his presence. The same can be said about the narcissistic individual – he will accuse others of being or doing the very things he is afraid are his own sins, primarily to deflect the shame, but also to test the other person’s realness or integrity. That which shatters under pressure is not very reliable and the Saturnian is looking for quality and substance. The sad thing is that just about anything can be dismantled and broken in this world – except that which can’t. What that is exactly is for people to find out for themselves.

It is often said that people with narcissism live in a false reality where everything is taken personally and the slightest hint at criticism and disapproval will tip them over into frenzy. The reaction isn’t false nor is it purely due to living in a false reality; it is a fact that people in general aren’t full-fledged saints. I have yet to meet a person that is so completely void of an ego that they don’t have any sore spots and won’t bite back if they feel that they’ve been attacked. I also haven’t met any person who has 100% altruistic motives. People nudge and coax each other all the time, which can be seen as quite innocent, but it still stems from a desire to get one’s own way. In a sense, one could claim that people only seem to care about another if there has been some kind of identification and projection of inner subconscious qualities on the other – and even that is not true caring because one really does it for the self, even if it doesn’t seem like it because it’s unconscious. A narcissistic individual with apparent difficulty to include other’s well-being as their own is perhaps more capable to do something purely altruistic because it would not give them any pleasure to be “selfless”. In other words, there is no secondary gain in genuinely acting in someone else’s best interest for these types – not even emotional satisfaction. Empathy that comes naturally is beautiful, but when it doesn’t and has to be acquired against all odds, there’s opportunity for great growth. This opportunity is character building and humbling – it really is the opportunity of building something of substance from the ground up.

Lack is not ultimately a bad thing if its treasures are valued instead of dismissed and ignored as meaningless. Being “without” is an opportunity if one can stretch one’s perception beyond the discomfort of the present. The psychic void of shame that is felt can only be filled from the inside. By cutting out the middle man (that is, “external supply”) the person becomes truly self-sufficient and non-complacent in dealing with life. Saturn is not a bad planet per se, even though it is traditionally labeled “malefic”. It simply requires more consciousness on the part of the individual and more deliberate effort. Narcissism can be a byproduct of the Saturnian dynamic, but its ugliness can be a blessing in disguise.

—————

Note: I’m not ”blaming astrology” for causing a mental disorder in this post, I’m simply exploring the Saturnian archetype and how it correlates with certain behaviors. I don’t believe any planet ”causes” specific behavior but I think that it can point to an underlying archetypal pattern at the core of certain behavioral dynamics. As stated, Saturn is representative of lack, defences and restriction in astrology - which are all necessary psychological functions. Like any function, they can be effective and healthy, but there’s always a downside to any function. I’m exploring the downside in this post.

#saturn #narcissism #saturn and narcissism #capricorn #lack #deprivation #inner void #astrology #saturn in astrology #planets in astrology #isolation #loneliness #hidden treasure #narcissistic injury #malefic planets

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lushthemagicdragon · 4 years ago

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On Deadpool, WandaVision and Breaking the Fourth Wall

Hey pals, let’s talk about breaking the fourth wall / extrapolation of meta information in multiverse universes--say, the Marvel cinematic vs the xmen films vs the comics. Actually, let’s talk specifically about the Marvel multiverse.

I wrote you an essay, just go under the cut it’s shiny.

As a general rule, suspension of disbelief works better on paper than it does on video. Heroes was an excellent example of this problem. This was the first time TV show was made directly based on a comic book format, trying to emulate a comic book format. The ship sank when they tried to keep comic book pace, and to play by similar rules. Long story short, this is because the way our brains consume literature and comics is different from how we consume photographic media like movies or tv. Video, like photography, convinces the brain that it's depicting reality even when we logically know that it isn’t. Therefore, unless the rules of the video/TV world are well established as being different from our own, we apply to it our own real-world understandings of what is possible. We are able to follow the fantastic more willingly when we're imagining it (because we’re reading it) instead of seeing it with our senses.

Breaking the fourth wall and/or being self-referential is extremely tricky on video media because you're forcing the audience's brain to acknowledge that this is fiction, which can cause some cognitive dissonance if the goal of your show/movie is to create second world immersion. Sitcoms are good at breaking the fourth wall because, with laugh tracks, live studio audiences, and a general lack of real-world consequences, our brains understand that it isn’t real. Generally, they’re not trying to fool us into believing that they’re real. Still, if Chandler Bing suddenly turned around and made eye contact with the camera, that would be weird. It’s not established in that particular sitcom world that they understand that they’re fictional. Fresh Prince on the other hand, did that all the time.

But we’ll get back to Sitcoms, because WandaVision. As opposed to most sitcoms, most serious dramas and adventure-thrillers are trying to create a very different vibe. In order to function, you have to be fully engaged, and have to completely believe the second world you are currently in. Otherwise, the emotional experience falls short. Tonality must be consistent, whereas sitcoms can get away with having the odd emotional moment surrounded by a laugh track.

Marvel is very weird when it comes to second worlds and believable experiences, because Marvel films, tv, and comics are all existing in the same multiverse but with wildly different tones. If you try to wrap your head around all of it as one body, it can give you a headache. Which is why I find it so interesting whenever they try to be meta.

The MCU as we understand it is presented as a realistic second world. Yes, it's fun action adventure with magic and superheroes, but presented in a way that feels real, and rationalizes its reality. It explains with technobabble and sciencebabble everything that it's doing. It wants to feel real. There are a few examples of comedy in the MCU (AntMan, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor Ragnorok), but their silliness can for the most part be explained away. With the latter two, they take place in space, with aliens, so our brains allow that as an explanation of wackiness outside our own reality. For Ant-Man, honestly I think it was a brilliant idea to make it a comedy because there was no way that film would have succeeded if they tried to make the audience take Ant-Man seriously on screen. I love Ant-Man, it’s a spectacularly made film. But I digress. Importantly, even though they’re funny and campy, they never lose their sense of realism, with emotional anchor points to keep them grounded. When these characters are in an ensemble, they lose their high camp aesthetic and become part of the realism whole.

Even when they say in the MCU, Oh look at this I am an action figure, I'm in comic books, it's presented as in-world realistic. These people are famous now, and they're real life superheroes, so obviously action figures and comic books are being produced about them. It all makes sense. Even the X-Men films, for as camp as they are, do this in their own realism bubble. I would argue the X-Men films actually do it better because you don't have to suspend as much disbelief to believe mutation as you do to believe in a super suit that shrinks people (I love you Small Rudd).

Things get weird when the fourth wall is broken, and the multiverse is acknowledged, because the marvel cinematics have done an excellent job of creating stable second worlds. The Deadpool films, the prime example of fourth wall breaking in Marvel films/tv, are excellent because they go whole hog into breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging how ridiculous it all is. But it works for two reasons.

1. Deadpool is the only person in the entire movie that acknowledges the fourth wall (I am pretty sure, it’s been a while since I’ve watched them but I am pretty sure). Because he alone is aware that he's a fictional character in a wider fictional universe, it's not weird when he references his actor being the green lantern or talks directly to the camera. It’s exactly what we expect from him. With Deadpool, we're in on the joke but no one else is. And that's funny.

2. The tone of the Deadpool films is always funny and stupid. Even when it gets serious, that becomes the joke. There is no cognitive dissonance because it's consistent. See: Sitcom Logic. If the tone is light, breaking the fourth wall doesn’t jarr quite so much.

3. Deadpool is never in the other films, and MOSTLY, the characters in Deadpool (beyond the odd brief cameo) aren't in the greater universe (I say mostly because of Colossus, but he was in one movie ages ago for like ten minutes it’s not the biggest deal). It's consistent, and it doesn't become confusing because it's contained in itself as a weird fourth wall bubble on the side of the greater universe. Anything that happens to characters in the Deadpool films will not carry over to the more serious timeline.

There is one place in which I would say that the Deadpool films miss the mark, and make a mess of things. By making that one joke where young 90s xmen from the newest film are behind a door and shut it before he turns around, a wrench is thrown in. The weirdness of the Deadpool films suddenly is an issue because the question is asked: Where do the Deadpool films sit in the timeline? The answer is that the Deadpool films don't fit anywhere in the established XMen Cinematic Timeline, and the big mistake was having a group of characters from an xmen film on screen at the same time even as a gag. In this moment, the Deadpool films are very suddenly part of the greater universe, rather than a sidecar referencing what’s going on inside. By doing this, Deadpool is not the only character breaking the fourth wall. Now the physical world is breaking the fourth wall. And our brains will try to make sense where they cannot make sense.

But anyway for the most part, Deadpool does an excellent job of it by being a weird little fourth wall meta bubble on the fringe of existence. Wandavision though, that gets weird in a different but also very fun way.

The reason why the first 3/4ths of WandaVision work in terms of being meta-referential and also occasionally breaking the fourth wall is because

1. genre and tone. It sets up from the beginning, this is a sitcom world, not gritty realism world. We get sitcom world, we know what to expect from sitcom world. We can laugh along with the laugh track when something odd or silly or referential happens, and accept it as truth, because a sitcom generally does not pretend to be reality.

2. Whenever the fourth wall breaks in a way that doesn't make sense, it's intentional. Wanda reacts accordingly. Something goes weird, she fixes it. When something goes weird for someone other than Wanda (Say, the Vision), the integrity of this sitcom world is called into question in an intentional way that tracks with what is actually going on in the gritty-realism world (acknowledging that we’re in a bubble within a bubble). This camp sitcom world breaks the fourth wall within itself, not to us. Billy talking to the screen isn't talking to us, he's talking to the imagined viewer in-world.

3. Most of the meta-references are either subtle enough to be Easter eggs (like the kick-ass reference) or exist solely as fun gaffs that have no consequences and are never acknowledged as being meta (the Halloween costumes). I say most, because there is one big meta-reference that I think was a mistake, and where it kind of starts to fall apart in my eyes.

As much as I adore Evan Peters’ Pietro, as extremely happy as I was to see him on this show, this particular meta-reference was done in a way that breaks the second world illusion, because they pointed a big red sign at a meta reference and then tried to explain it without breaking into the multiverse.

The thing about breaking the fourth wall and meta-referencing is that it has to be toungue in cheek to be sustainable. Our brains are accepting that this reference is for us, but to make it a serious part of the story requires an answer to the question: why? By explaining that actually, this fake Pietro was Ralph the whole time, a real person who exists in this gritty realism universe, the illusion of tongue in cheek is gone. Suddenly, there is a person who brings into question the entire structure of the second world. Because this second world does not have access to the multiverse (Into the Spiderverse is wholly its own thing), it doesn't make sense that this random guy who happened to be used to play Pietro looks exactly like Pietro from elsewhere in the multiverse. It stops being fun, and starts becoming confusing, and we start trying to find answers where there are none.

IMO, two ways to solve that problem. 1. never explain it. If you never explain it, it's just a weird meta reference for us that also exists in Wanda's fake-world that is in itself accessing the multiverse (see: the costumes), without touching the realism world outside the bubble.

2. What I'm now calling the Taika Waititi method. Give a nonsense explanation told with a straight face as a brush-off. Say, Wanda asks Agatha who this guy is, and she says something along the lines of, oh I don't know I just pulled some random Pietro out of the universe, I never met the guy I had to improvise.

Anyway I still give WandaVision an 8/10 and an A for effort. Pulling off multiple tones and multiple second worlds simultaneously without even explaining it away with the multiverse is fucking hard, and they did a pretty good job all things considered.

And if anyone is interested in wtf I'm talking about re: second worlds, I highly recommend Tolkien's essay On Fairy Stories which pretty much defines how fantastic fiction works.

#wandavision #deadpool #mcu #mcu meta #film theory #marvel cinematic #xmen cinematic #miri meta #miri writes #look ma i wrote something #wandavision spoilers #pietro maximoff #long live uncle pete #maximoff family values #wanda maximoff #wade wilson

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missfay49 · 4 years ago

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Who is Orange?

Disclaimer: Please enjoy? Accept? Beware? This… Thing that started out as character analysis and turned into a deranged fanfic, because I experienced a literal revelation mid-way through free writing. I did not clean this up much because I’m still reeling from the theory implications myself. I cursed a lot.

What does Orange Side represent?

What do we know?

Orange is a “Dark Side”, defined as being one of the Sides hidden from C!Thomas.

The other Hidden Sides were Janus, Remus, and Virgil.

All the Hidden Sides were hidden due to a key aspect of their character that C!Thomas had to first acknowledge and then accept. Virgil required C!Thomas to acknowledge that he had heightened anxiety and accept that anxiety isn’t inherently wrong, just a different form of information that can be processed. Remus required C!Thomas to acknowledge that he had intrusive thoughts and accept that those thoughts don’t make him evil; they’re just thoughts. Janus required C!Thomas to acknowledge that he was capable of lying and accept that acting “selfishly” sometimes isn’t just okay, but actually critically important to managing stress.

What are the common themes here?

Confronting the reality about ourselves instead of pretending some traits don’t exist.

Understanding ourselves to be more complex than ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

Addressing mental health.

Orange Side is still hidden, but we can expect him to be something C!Thomas doesn’t want to (or isn’t ready to) acknowledge. Something that would be difficult to accept about oneself. All Hidden Sides fall under the jurisdiction of Janus, so let’s take another look at him.

In “Can Lying Be Good?” we get a lot of information about what Janus’ purpose is:

Roman: It you really don’t want to know something, he… can keep our mouths shut.

Logan: You don’t want to believe it. That’s where his power comes from. Things that you want to believe. Things that you wish were true. And things that you wish weren’t.

Deceit: What you don’t know can’t hurt you.

This all means that Orange Side is something that would cause C!Thomas distress to learn and something he subconsciously wishes weren’t true. This is not new information to most of you: the spin-off interpretations of Apathy and Pride are widely popular fandom theories, traits that are typically viewed as negative in large doses.

But the Hidden Sides being seen as something negative isn’t their only defining characteristic. They typically involve an aspect a mental health, involve societal expectations, and... what is it...

Janus is the umbrella over all the other Hidden Sides, sheltering and obscuring them from view. He is the gatekeeper in a very literal sense. What is he gatekeeping?

What is it? What is it what is it, why? What does he do? What seems bad but isn’t? What can he do? What issue is actually useful? What’s useful what’s useful WHATS USEFUL WHATS USEFUL?! WHY DOES IT HAVE TO USEFUL?

shitshitSHITSHISTHISTSTs

I KEPT ASKING MYSELF, WHAT’S USEFUL? WHAT TRAIT COULD IT BE THAT APPEARS BAD, BUT ISN’T BAD, IS ACTUALLY USEFUL. ANIEXTY WAS OKAY BECAUSE HE WAS JUST LOOKING OUT FOR US. LYING WAS OKAY BECAUSE HE JUST WANTED TO PUT C!THOMAS FIRST. INTRUSIVE CREATIVITY WAS OKAY BECAUSE DARK IDEAS OPEN UP NEW PATHS.

But the whole GODDAMN POINT is ACCEPTANCE!

You don’t HAVE to be useful to be accepted. You – yuo just BE. YOU BE!

PEOPLE don’t have to prove their Usefulness to you before you can treat them with respect. Our WORTH does not depend on what we PRODUCE. YE GODS, THE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE I JUST BROKE-

~~~

C!Thomas comes back from his self-care stay-cation. He’s ready to start production, he is rested and refreshed. BUT JUST LIKE EVERY PREVIOUS DILEMMA, it isn’t Good enough, Original enough, Fast enough. He’s done everything right, why is it still wrong? He’s accepted his anxiety, he’s accepted that things aren’t just black and white, he’s Accepted That It’s OKAY to have Dark Thoughts, he Has ACCEPTED SELF_CARE. Why Isn’t IT ENOUGH?!

“Fuck it.”

C!Thomas spins in his chair, looking at a man that looks just like him, but not quite.

“What?”

“Fuck it. Fuck them.”

“You sound like Remus,” Thomas jokes. He’s lying, of course. He’s nervous. The Side looks like a normal guy, but something about him is unsettling. The unidentified Side just presses his lips together, unimpressed.

“Um, ef w-who, exactly?” Thomas asks, but part of him already knows.

“All of them. Every person who isn’t you. Every person who expects something from you.”

“Now, you sound like Janus.” Thomas looks back at the computer screen, but the Side’s retort has him spinning around again.

“Janus is a short-sighted pseudo-rebellious minion of a capitalistic society, just like the rest of them.”

“Uh, excuse me?!”

“Isn’t it obvious? They’re all obsessed with Success. Whether they want to play by the rules, or manipulate them, or break them, whether it’s making money or pumping out good deeds, they’re still just trying to make you be successful within the framework of a system that prioritizes production over a human life.”

Thomas just stares for a moment before he can find his voice.

“Who are you?”

“Dude, seriously?” He waves his hands, palms up and presenting himself. “I’m Achilleus. I’m your motivation.”

~~~

Take a deep breath and follow me down the research black hole, where every topic I looked up was more and more terrifyingly appropriate:

Freedom

noun

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Self-Determination

noun

the process by which a person controls their own life.

Autonomy

noun

(in Kantian moral philosophy) the capacity of an agent to act in accordance with objective morality rather than under the influence of desires.

Autonomic Nervous System (because i believe each Hidden Side is closer to the subconscious)

noun

the part of the nervous system responsible for control of the bodily functions not consciously directed, such as breathing, the heartbeat, and digestive processes.

Inherent Value

“inherent value in the case of animal ethics can be described as the value an animal possesses in its own right, as an end-in-itself” – Animal Rights – Inherent Value, by Saahil Papar

Intrinsic Value

“Intrinsic value has traditionally been thought to lie at the heart of ethics. Philosophers use a number of terms to refer to such value. The intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that that thing has “in itself,” or “for its own sake,” or “as such,” or “in its own right.”” – Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Value, by Michael J. Zimmerman and Ben Bradley

“Finally, his sense of respect for the intrinsic value of entities, including the non-sentient, is the Kantian notion of the inherent value of all Being. This is based on the notion that a universe without moral evaluators (e.g. humans) would still be morally valuable, and there is no reason not to regard Being as inherently morally good.” – Technology and the Trajectory of Myth, by David Grant, Lyria Bennett Moses

Motivation

“Another way to conceptualize motivation is through Self-Determination Theory … which is concerned with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation happens when someone does something for its inherent satisfaction.” – Second Language Acquisition Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching, by Steven Brown, Jenifer Larson-Hall

Capitalism

“The flowery language of the United States Declaration of Independence would have you believe that human life has an inherent value, one that includes inalienable rights such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But in America, a major indicator of value is actually placed on being a productive member of society, which typically means working a job that creates monetary revenue (especially if the end result is accumulated wealth and suffering was inherently involved in the process).” – The Diminished Value of Human Life in a Capitalistic Society, by Seren Sensei

Religion

“At the heart of the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism lay the insurmountable chasm between God’s sovereign election versus human self-determination.” – Sovereignty vs. Self-determination: Two Versions of Ephesians 1:3-14, by Reformed Theology

Mythology

“In Classical Greece, Achilles was widely admired as a paragon of male excellence and virtue. Later, during the height of the Roman Empire, his name became synonymous with uncontrollable rage and barbarism… He chooses kleos (glory) over life itself, and he owes his heroic identity to this kleos. He achieves the major goal of the hero: to have his identity put permanently on record through kleos…

“But is this really an accurate characterization of Achilles' pivotal decision? Is he really driven to sacrifice his life by an obsessive quest for honor and glory? One scene in the Iliad suggests the answer to both questions is no.

“When Achilles leaves the battlefield after his dispute with Agamemnon, the Trojans gain the upper hand on the Greeks. Desperate to convince their best warrior to return, Agamemnon sends an envoy of Achilles' closest friends to his tent to persuade him to reconsider his decision. During this scene, Achilles calmly informs his friends that he is no longer interested in giving up his life for the sake of heroic ideals. His exact words are below:

“The same honor waits for the coward and the brave. They both go down to Death, the fighter who shirks, the one who works to exhaustion (IX 386-388)…

“Not only does Achilles reject the envoy's offers of material reward, but he rejects the entire premise that glory is worth a man's life.” – making sense of a hero’s motivation, by Patrick Garvey

Achilles (/əˈkɪliːz/ ə-KIL-eez) or Achilleus (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς, [a.kʰilˈleu̯s])

Achilles realizes his own inherent self-worth, thereby freeing himself from the expectations of others; societal or otherwise. Only once we are free can we find the balance between our own needs and the needs of others in a way that breeds neither anger nor resentment in either.

~~~

But that’s... that’s just... a theory. Huh.

#sanders sides theory #orange side #orange side theory #sanders sides #character thomas #cursing tw #swearing tw #dark sides #the others #janus sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #orange sanders #caps tw #name theory #long post #missfay #my writing

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untitledtallgeesepodcast · 3 years ago

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[TRANSCRIPT] EPISODE 10: DESTABILIZING THE MECHA-WIFE DICHOTOMY

Cathy 00:00

[midi version of Just Wild Beat Communication plays, fading as Cathy speaks over it]

Cathy 00:03

Hello and welcome to another episode of Untitled Tallgeese Podcast. I am this episode's host Cathy and I am joined by my lovely co-panelists Kat, Mallory, and Caitlin. Today we will be going over Episode 19, "Attack on Barge" and Episode 20, "Infiltration of the Moonbase." We pick up where we ended with Zechs, who has been found by Howard, whom you may remember as Duo's scrap metal salvager. It turns out that Howard used to be one of the engineers who helped design Tallgeese. Howard offers Zechs a way back into outer space, which Zechs eventually accepts, but not without first posturing in classic 19 year old fashion that the man formerly known as Zechs Merquis is now dead.

Cathy 00:44

Meanwhile, Duo stages an attack on OZ, but his Gundam is beaten by the Taurus mobile dolls, and he himself is captured when his self destruct mechanism doesn't work. His arrest is broadcasted everywhere on the Colony News Network, capturing the attention of Heero, who menacingly implies that all weaknesses must be eliminated. After infiltrating the OZ base where Duo is captured, however, and faced with actually needing to pull the trigger, Heero thinks better of it and breaks them both out by tricking the mobile dolls into believing the OZ's own Leos and spacesuits are the enemies. However, Heero and Duo are sadly forced to leave the damage Deathscythe behind.

Cathy 01:20

Elsewhere, Wufei stages the episodes titular attack on the Barge. He just so happens to intersect with Lady Une, who, in her peaceful ambassador persona, has an elaborate telepathic conversation with Wufei and her second command Nichols about how Outer Space should be reserved for peace. Nichols, frustrated and confused about Une's dueling personas, orders the Barge's beam cannon to shoot at Wufei. It manages the damage Shenlong Gundam marginally, but sacrifices a number of OZ's own soldiers in the process. Wufei, disgusted, uses his triton to light a literal fire under his own ass and flies off.

Cathy 01:55

In the next episode, Heero explains that he must kill the Gundam scientists, who under the thumb of OZ have been ordered to make all new and better mobile suits, the Mercurius and Vayeate. Duo wants to go with him, but injured is forced to remain behind. Speaking of injured Gundams and their pilots, on Earth, Sally Po tries to destroy Sandrock but encounters the Maganac forces who are trying to rescue it for Quatre. After realizing they should form a support group, and that the Maganacs actually have names, Sally Po helps them escape.

Cathy 02:22

OZ has been very busy. For one thing Lady Une submits a proposal for the colonies to form their own nation with one catch: they have to help OZ produce mobile suits and military equipment. Understandably, the colony representatives are wary of this proposition. But Lady Une goes full Treize on them, talking about how fighting is part of the spirit and beauty of mankind. At the same time, OZ has been trying to recruit random amateurs to act as test pilots, only one of those amateurs turns out to be none other than Trowa. As his final test. he's ordered to destroy a damaged site while Duo helplessly watches a broadcast. Because Trowa makes it to the final rounds, he wins a meeting with Lady Une. His barbed accusations that OZ is pretending to be friends with the colonies in order to win them over causes Une to have a mental breakdown. After she recovers, Une escorts Trowa and four other lucky pilots to the Gundam scientists where they meet the new mobile suits, the Veyeate is not actually functional. It reacts seemingly to the presence of Trowa, only to reveal that it's Heero clear snuck aboard. Unfortunately for Heero, Trowa manages flip through the air and get to his own gun faster, arresting Heero on behalf of OZ. And scene.

Caitlin 03:33

Can I just say, that, remember being 19 and thinking, [dramatically] "my former self is dead!" [laughter] and then totally, totally reinventing your look and your life for college. I think that's Zechs in these episodes. [laughter]

Mallory 03:53

Zacks is going away to college

Kat 03:54

To space college!

Caitlin 03:55

You've broken the mask of your like, high school nerdiness and now you're [laughter]

Mallory 04:02

now you're free faced and hot.

Caitlin 04:04

To be you sexy self, yes.

Cathy 04:07

I didn't think of it that way but that is totally true. And Zechs, he plays a surprisingly marginal role in these first, in these two episodes, which is kind of surprising because he'd been really important in the episodes leading up until now. And I didn't really process that until now, where you point out that literally the only thing he does in these two episodes is act like an emo fool and then flies off. [laughter]

Caitlin 04:31

Well he's dead. So he's,

Mallory 04:32

Yeah.

Caitlin 04:33

He's like, in exile because he's dead right now. [laughs] He's, he's like resting.

Mallory 04:38

Yeah, he's like symbolically killed himself.

Kat 04:40

Yeah, and complaining about getting help from Howard. Like, "Ugh, this is so much trouble to just get me to space."

Caitlin 04:46

This is like Genji in the Tale of Genji when he sent off to like, it, be punished in exile for a couple of months, [laughter] whatever. And all he does is like hang out by the seaside and like make a new girlfriend. [laguhter] This is Zechs right now. How, Howard is the girlfriend? [garbled] Serious, Genji in Exile.

Kat 05:07

I'm glad you're bringing this serious analysis here.

Caitlin 05:10

Yeah, this is, this is literature.

Cathy 05:11

I love it. And I'm glad we somehow managed to shovel in Tale of Genji into this because [laughter]

Caitlin 05:16

Uh, this will not be the last time we talked about Tale of Genji, all right?

Cathy 05:20

So, you know, I have to apologize, I know that I am supposed to be host and I've admitted that I don't really have any deep thoughts about episodes 19 and 20 other than I love them, and they're really entertaining. So I guess I'm gonna throw Kat under the bus, one of the things you wanted to talk about is the OZ use of propaganda and kind of information control in these two episodes.

Kat 05:44

Yeah, so we've spent a lot of time as a podcast talking about Lady Une, and the different roles that she takes on. And it's really interesting to see her utilizing the broadcast television that they have going on in the colonies. I'm not sure if it's clear if that's getting broadcast to Earth or not, but she's definitely using it to control the flow of information to the colonists, including when they captured Duo -- deciding whether or not maybe jokingly, to execute him publicly, whether or not he's, he's pretty enough or ugly enough that the colonists would sympathize with him if he was ugly.

Caitlin 06:20

And unfortunately, he's extremely good looking.

Kat 06:23

He's too beautiful, so he must die. And I think it's kind of the culmination of all the control that she's had over their media streams leading up to this episode.

Mallory 06:34

And you also see, like you hear the spin in the broadcasters and what they're saying, which is really interesting, like, they're always like, "these young troopers are vying for a spot with OZ!" You know, like there's a, there's a celebratory kind of tone to all of the newscasts that we are seeing and hearing

Kat 06:55

And we get a lot of plot exposition in those news broadcasts of these episodes, I think a little more, like we've gotten clips and stuff, or they just want to explain something. But I think it kind of leads the plot in these episodes in a way that it doesn't quite do elsewhere.

Caitlin 07:11

One of the things that I think is really interesting about the use of propaganda here is that it comes along with the realization of the split in Lady Une's personality and I think that there is a way in which you can view her split personality as mirroring, or like metaphorically performing the split between OZ's reality and OZ's performance, right? OZ's propaganda image. To a certain extent, it's like she's become like the physical and mental manifestation of the doublethink required to be both the front-facing OZ image of a peaceful colony helper, trying to bring everybody together. And the cutthroat OZ that we know is the reality.

Mallory 07:54

Exactly. She's a hamfisted metaphor for like the cognitive dissonance at the heart of Oz. You know, like this focus and emphasis on niceties and gentility and grace and saving face versus the cutthroat merciless militaristic takeover that OZ and the Romefeller Foundation are actually carrying out. It's like sort of her mental break at this point -- is it signaling a split between these two factions? Like Treize seems like he's at odds with the Romefeller Foundation in some way.

Cathy 08:28

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, at one point in Episode 20, right, when she goes back into her room after she talks to Trowa, she says, something like, "Am I doing this for OZ? Or am I doing this for Treize?" [crosstalk]

Mallory 08:37

Yeah, "Or is my master Treize?"

Caitlin 08:39

I thought, I thought that was very interesting. It also reflects the parts of her that are... So like, her considering, "Do I work for OZ? Or do I work for Treize?" is also, "Aam I doing this work as the harsh and cutthroat colonel?" versus "Am I doing this work as the kind and gentle Lady?" Where like, one of them is the person who works for OZ, and one of them is the person who loves Treize and is just doing this out of duty and affection for him.

Kat 09:09

The episodes are so blatant, and kind of the colony-facing version of her is weaker, like she's stronger in uniform, and it's sort of like this weaker facade that they are putting on to the colonies? But also it's working, so I guess it's a testament to how intensely she's making herself believe in this persona slash, she has to put her entire belief into it for it to work.

Mallory 09:34

For her.

Kat 09:35

For her.

Mallory 09:35

Right, because it's been established that like, part of her character is that she can't, she's a bad liar. So it's almost like she has to make herself believe that what she's doing is good?

Kat 09:46

Yeah.

09:46

In order to promote this soft face OZ

Caitlin 09:50

It's what politicians do, we see it all the time.

Cathy 09:53

To me a really interesting part of this, and I don't think it's explicit. I think this is just me projecting on it, but there seems to be to me like a hollowness or an emptiness about what OZ actually stands for other than wanting power. We just have Treize, right? Like Treize is the entire idealistic "heart" of OZ. And when you remove that from the equation, it's kind of like, what are we even all doing? Like how does, how do any of the powers differ from each other? They really don't. [laughs] They just want power. And so I really find this interesting, trying to grapple with like, what power means or what, what anything stands for, what do ideals mean? and seeing Lady Une like, break down, actually, physically and mentally in a way that was really obvious, felt really like relieving to me, just to be like, that is the thing we all struggle with. And I think, surprisingly, Gundam Wing made a really potent and relevant comment about it. Like, it is just hard to understand what any of us are fighting for, when it comes to big power structures. It doesn't mean anything. We're all meaningless in it.

Mallory 10:57

Yeah especially when, like, the lines that you are being fed by those powers are like vague things about the heart of OZ. And what does that even mean? Like you can't base a belief system on like this vague concept.

Kat 11:12

It's hard to base like a whole governmental structure around the nobility of man's fighting spirit?

Caitlin 11:17

But also that is, this is fascism,

Mallory & Kat & Cathy 11:20

[crosstalk of agreement]

Caitlin 11:20

that you have. It's purely a lust for power. There's, there's a creation of a set of ideals, that -- those ideals only exist to keep people in the existing power structure, and replacing any sort of actual belief with a fixation on one central leader, as Treize has done. It's fascism. It's what we're seeing today, basically. [muttered] Sorry, not not to get political at our Gundam Wing,

Cathy 11:46

Not to get political in our, in our podcast about an anime that is about politics.

Kat 11:50

Well, I was gonna say, I think as a kid, when I watched this, I think I was a little more sympathetic, but in a more simplistic way about Lady Une? And to me, it felt very much like, she suddenly saw that peace could be achieved and realized that her true self was fighting against it and couldn't handle that dichotomy. But now that I know that every politician can just live with 1000 pounds of cognitive dissonance in their head at all times, I don't know if that's really a thing that's going on, like if that was a naive reading of it.

Caitlin 12:23

Yeah, if you, if you recall, from our argument last time, about like, is she, has she already sort of lost herself at that point? Or is she in the process of losing herself, we were sort of, we were sort of split on whether this was an active choice that she'd made, if it was like a deliberate choice to sort of split this part of herself off, or if it just sort of ruptured by mental break. And I think now we sort of see the transition. Whereas like, last, the last few episodes that are lead up to this, I was like, okay, she's deliberately creating this persona, because she knows that she's not really good at this stuff.

Kat 13:00

Right.

Caitlin 13:01

So she's created this other other person. Now she's now she's broken,

Mallory 13:06

It was sort of the ease with which she could do that was a foreshadowing of the cognitive dissonance that would then come back to haunt her, and that we're seeing her sort of pay for now.

Kat 13:18

She seems so assured of herself and like the Lady Une militaristic persona, even though she doubts herself when Treize chastises her, but that's the only time she's not like, do these fucking plans, like I'm telling you to do it, now. And for her to be so unsure of herself in the other persona is really interesting.

Caitlin 13:38

I'm actually kind of sick of her. I feel like this is kind of a hackneyed plot move

Mallory 13:42

Mhmm

Caitlin 13:42

on their part. I don't really buy like split personality as a trope.

Cathy 13:47

Let's move on, let's move on then. Caitlin is sick of her crap. Let us move on to our second point: mobile dolls. So I think there's a lot of really interesting themes in these two episodes about what it means to be a pilot and kind of human intelligence versus robot intelligence. You know, we see this both in the way Heero escapes from the base with Duo. And then also in Episode 20, when we reunite with the Gundam scientists, and their whole point is essentially like, it doesn't matter who's who in the mobile suits. It just matters who the pilot is.

Caitlin 14:21

Yeah, there's a really great moment where the mobile dolls very stupidly kill their own people because they're in the same suit that Heero was wearing. Yeah, they've had their targets switched around, which demonstrates that the mobile dolls are not a great solution to the problems [laughs] of war? I like that, though it's sad that they killed their own guys.

Mallory 14:44

Yeah, I mean, it's like a real surprise that an unmanned machine could be manipulated, you know, hacked.

Kat 14:50

Weird.

Mallory 14:51

Strange.

Cathy 14:52

Totally weird.

Mallory 14:53

Who could have predicted that?

Caitlin 14:55

AI did not solve all of our problems.

Kat 14:57

I like how pissed Nichols -- or possibly not Nichols -- is though when Trowa goes, "it doesn't matter which one is better because the better pilot will win" or whatever. And the OZ soldier flips out because I guess he's bought totally into this too. And they did take down at least one Gundam pilot with the mobile dolls. So like, how dare he even question the idea behind the mobile dolls, even though they brought him in literally to be a good pilot.

Caitlin 15:28

And then you have the whole thing where Heero's in the suit that's supposed to be non functional so it seems like it functions and then Heero -- it's actually Heero, that whole thing. I was sort of thinking of our other big contemporary mobile suit in the room, Evangelion.

Cathy 15:44

Oh god [laughs]

Caitlin 15:45

The, the machine is actually a part of them and it's not really about like pilot skill. It's about sort of a connection that is like, primal and animal. Whereas in Gundam Wing you have a connection with between the pilots and their suits? We sort of see this when Duo flips out about that's like being publicly executed.

Caitlin 15:45

Which came out the same year. The whole, the whole like, thing is that this terrible idea of children piloting a mobile suit only really works if the mobile suit is some sort of like biological and psychological projection of themselves slash their mother.

Cathy 16:04

Yes.

Caitlin 16:07

And with Quatre and the Maganacs, who are like we have to rescue Quatre's Gundam.

Mallory 16:29

Yeah.

Caitlin 16:29

Yeah. But that isn't like, the same thing as a mobile suit can function without the pilot or a mobile suit is something that needs, is an animal that needs control, like an Evangelion.

Cathy 16:39

Although it's interesting because I think in the last four episodes, we have seen examples of this. So for instance, Sandrock, of course, just kind of walks off right without Quatre.

Caitlin 16:51

And he's like, get out of me.

Kat 16:52

Yeah [laughs]

Cathy 16:53

It was kind of like a weird open question as to whether or not Deathscythe, like didn't want to blow up with Duo in it? or if there was actually a failed self destruct mechanism. And they leave that kind of open. Similarily, and I know I called this out in my background when I was summarizing this, I love the way the end of Episode 20 is set up because there is this moment where I was almost wondering if my memories of this episode were incorrect, and that Mercurius and Veyeate really just sort of light up because Trowa is there, right? Like I was just like, oh, are they responding to Trowa? But then it turns out, it's because Heero is there. So there are all these little moments where they're kind of like building in this doubt, like, what are the Gundams? What are mobile suits? How tied, like what is that symbiosis. And I think it is really interesting that it comes out at the same time where Eva kind of like definitively falls one way or another on it, that they kind of just leave that open.

Kat 17:48

Bringing in Tallgeese, this episode too, like Zechs shows up just so we can hear again about Tallgeese and I think his relationship with that mobile suit is very much about his synchronisation with it. Like, it's harder to pilot than all the other ones so they continually talk about how like, you'd have to be a human or like, it gave him a frickin heart attack, because it's so difficult to pilot kind of thing.

Caitlin 18:12

So it does sort of reflect our relationship with machines in real life. I think a lot where you're like, Yes, I am, I am the driver of this car. I don't think this car is able to make its own decisions. I think most of us can agree that AI cars are kind of stupid, the self driving cars.

Kat 18:29

Yeah, thus far.

Mallory 18:31

I mean, I really want one but

Caitlin 18:33

When you think about people's relationship to their cars,

Cathy 18:36

Mmhmm.

Caitlin 18:36

It's an extension of self. And you get people who are who are obsessed with cars, who name their cars who refer to them by female pronouns. You have these really intense relationships with technology that the show plays with a lot even while saying, verbally, It's the pilot that matters, not the machine.

Cathy 18:55

So before we leave Mercurius and Veyeate, I want to say I actually found that really interesting and much more interesting when I saw them this time as I'm older. You know, they're red and blue. So I just want to like put that plug in, you know, there's a very kind of symbiotic relationship between red and blue.

Caitlin 19:12

[gasp]

Cathy 19:13

Just generally

Caitlin 19:13

I ship red/blue. All of my ships are reds and blues. Oh my god!

Cathy 19:18

Like they're, you know, there's a, there's a general kind of fandom-y trope and work trope, literary trope about red and blue. Heero ends up popping out of, I think it's Veyeate, who is the blue one, and the blue one is the one with the really great beam cannon. And then the red one, Mercurius has the shield. So I mean, the one interesting thought I had, like literally the only one thought [laughs] that I in these two episodes is that there's a great Chinese idiom called zìxīang máodùn" (自相矛盾). And máodùn is the Chinese term for sort of being self-contradictory and kind of like unable to go anywhere because you're kind of tying yourself up in knots. And that word in that phrase [Baldwin] actually comes from two separate words [mall], which is a spear or a lance and [twin] which is a shield. And it comes from a really classic story [Ed.'s note: from the Han Feizi] where this merchant is saying he has, you know, the world's best lance and then the world's best shield. And then somebody asked him, "Well, what happens if your lance attacks your shield" and he's unable to answer? [laughter] And so when we say "máodùn" like "oh my god, I'm so máodùn" like, "Oh my god, I'm so you know, I'm tied up in myself in knots, and I can't figure my way out," you know, I'm really confused, I'm really troubled, what we're really saying is, we have an unbreakable shield that goes up against an unstoppable lance.

Cathy 19:37

So I thought, you know, here, there's this moment where it's like, very much implied, they don't make a big deal out of it, but you have Heero and Trowa who I've always in my head kind of put in the same axis, you know, like they are kind of like the same people but on two different ends. And they are representing, they're both undercover in different ways, Heero has actually snuck into the beast, Trowa has gone undercover [laughs] as an amateur pilot for us. They end up kind of repeating this cycle sort of over and over again, throughout the series, and then it comes out in this really obvious reference to having a spear and having a shield. So I thought that was really fun.

Caitlin 21:20

Cathy you're not gonna believe this. It's the same word in Japanese. Oh, is it really? For conflict contradiction? It's mujun (矛盾). So I had to look at the characters of máodùn. But yeah, it's it's mujun in Japanese, which just means contradiction, but it's the same spear and shield, yeah.

Cathy 21:35

There is kind of a wonderfully elemental and like contradictory sense with Veyeate and Mercurius is that I didn't catch on the first time I watched it and just wanted to share with the group.

Kat 21:48

I think that's fascinating to me, because I love the interplay between Heero and Trowa there when Heero drops his gun and he's in the beam cannon. So in that case, shield wins. [laughter] Because I mean, Trowa's on the defensive

Caitlin 22:05

Shield wins!

Caitlin 22:06

You know what else is a dichotomy? [laughing] That is operative in many of these [laughing]

Cathy 22:15

Uh oh.

Mallory 22:18

Seme and uke.

Kat 22:21

Dammit

Cathy 22:21

Dammit. Alright, where's this going? [laughter]

Caitlin 22:24

It's not going anywhere, it ends right there, that's [laughing]

Cathy 22:30

Well, I am going to selfishly move this conversation then to I think I really love which is the whole Heero/Trowa/Duo like trio dynamic that is happening. There's a lot of stuff that is going on between these three people on every leg of this triangle that is happening in Episode 19/20 and I just would love to talk about it.

Mallory 22:53

There's a lot of emotional entanglement going on.

Kat 22:56

So I liked when Trowa sees that Duo is captured and then -- on his Gundam TV -- and is like, "I bet Heero will handle that, it's cool." Like just, just assumes that he's going to take care of that guy.

Mallory 23:10

Well he knows right you know knows that Duo is like Heero's first boyfriend.

Caitlin 23:16

I liked when Duo said, "I don't want anyone else besides you to kill, kill me Heero." And then when Heero's like, "Yeah, I'm actually going to kill you," Duo's like WHAT?

Mallory 23:24

"Why would you do that?" Sad puppy eyes.

Caitlin 23:27

"WHAT? You're really, you're really gonna do it?"

Cathy 23:31

And I love how that is also then followed up by a scene where Trowa is actually forced to shoot Deathscythe and doesn't hesitate.

Caitlin 23:42

That depressed me.

Cathy 23:43

There's like this beautiful like, to me. you know this like, I don't even know what to explain about it. Where like Heero goes with the express intent to kill Duo and then does-- isn't able to do it for one reason or another which is not really, you know, even lingered upon but it is amazing, see, I love that.

Kat 24:00

It's they're, they're in love.

Mallory 24:01

Could, he just couldn't he doesn't know why

Cathy 24:03

He just couldn't and

Caitlin 24:04

He's not good at killing people, actually,

Kat 24:07

He's not good at killing hotties he likes.

Cathy 24:09

What I love specifically is both of these scenes involve a thing where the assault ,the assailant throws away his gun. But in this case, Heero throws a gun at Duo and says "your right hand is okay, right?" being like, you can use this gun.

Caitlin 24:22

Aww

Cathy 24:23

And then in Trowa's thing, he throws away his puny little gun so that he can ask for beam cannon so they can actually destroy Deathscythe. So I, again, I have no idea who wrote this. But like if you read that in a fic, you'd be like hell yeah, this person knows what they're doing.

Mallory 24:39

Oh, yeah.

Cathy 24:40

I just wanted to point that out. I loved it. I ate that up with spoon

Mallory 24:43

The shipping the one true pairing OTP./OT3 energy is real strong in these episodes.

Cathy 24:49

Oh so good

Mallory 24:49

And Kat and I have been watching the dubs and then watching the subs after for each of the two episodes and the delivery of the dub actors versus the sub actors is so different between Duo and Heero that it like really informs the pairing dynamics that you might see in fic.

Kat 25:11

Yeah, watching the dub is like, "Oh, I see." Like, this is exactly fic duo where he's like, you're gonna kill ME? Versus like, "oh, you're really gonna kill me?" Like it's it's so different.

Mallory 25:25

It's it's really different. And like, for me the difference in the delivery of the the exchanges, especially as they're escaping after Heero has rescued Duo is so different. In the dub, Duo and Heero's relationship is more one-sided, like Duo likes Heero and has affection for him, but Heero is still kind of like closed off. But in the sub, I hear more, sort of, we're already in love with each other, but we don't know it yet. Whereas in the dub, this is like, pre we even have feelings for each other. Does that makes sense?

Caitlin 26:00

It's interesting that you do so much deep reading of these inflections when I was just like, the dub acting is not very good. [laughter]

Kat 26:10

Well, I mean, it could definitely be that.

Mallory 26:12

right?

Kat 26:12

But it just, it feels so different. But I guess more in terms of how it might inform fandom reading of the characters.

Mallory 26:21

Yeah,

Kat 26:21

Like watching one or the other. Like I if I watched only one I would have a different view of how those two characters interacted.

Mallory 26:30

Right, the first time I ever watched Gundam Wing and then went and read fanfic, I was I was really confused by the presentation of Duo because in fanfic he's just kind of this like hapless... I don't know sort of like [laughing] not the not smart character [laughs]

Caitlin 26:49

He's a baka!

Kat 26:50

He's a dumb baka.

Caitlin 26:52

That's the term.

Mallory 26:52

Okay, well, I just didn't, didn't want to say it. [laughs]

Caitlin 26:55

Do we, do we need to pull out the vows of not making Duo a baka again?

Cathy 27:02

Nooo we don't

Kat 27:03

Oh my god. Yeah.

Cathy 27:04

We don't we don't need to go to the Society for the Defense of Duo's Intelligence.

Caitlin 27:08

Yes, we need to review our laws of not making Duo a baka.

Kat 27:14

He has read one book. But I mean, he's, he's just not, like he gets overwhelmed by mobile dogs. It's not like he's a moron getting captured and stuff.

Cathy 27:23

I do also want to say that, like he does, he is following this particular like, hurt/comfort trope.

Mallory & Kat 27:31

Yeah/Mmhmm

Cathy 27:32

That I don't know why was so pop-- I don't know if it's still popular now but it was incredibly popular then. And in order for that trope to work, somebody has to constantly like be beat up or like in

Caitlin 27:45

Yes

Cathy 27:45

a state of pain or in a state of peril

Caitlin 27:48

Umm

Cathy 27:48

And unfortunately,

Caitlin 27:50

I think this is definitely still a thing but it's a little bit different now. Whump has evolved I think,

Kat 27:56

Yeah.

Caitlin 27:57

it still exists though.

Kat 27:58

It's not quite the same

Cathy 27:59

And, but it definitely doesn't exist the same way as it used to, which was very explicit and very blunt. And in order to get there you kind of had to put one of the characters kind of in like stupid situations I feel like? and

Kat 28:11

Yeah,

Cathy 28:12

Yeaaaah

Caitlin 28:12

And that was Duo so I,

Cathy 28:14

These days you're not allowed to beat characters up as much. You kind of have to justify it.

Kat 28:19

Yeah, I think also you find fewer authors that are like I'm gonna write 40 fuckin fic and Duo is gonna get his ass kicked in every single one of them.

Cathy 28:28

Yeah (?)

Caitlin 28:29

I don't know though, because if you, when you dive in, in the tags, you can see some really wild things with contemporary fandoms. It's just not the fic that's, that's dominating the like, rec lists or like the circles that

Kat 28:41

Definitely the whump is a lot less dark.

Mallory 28:44

Yeah.

Kat 28:45

Well, good thing Gundam Wing canon provides. Duo gets his ass beat multiple times n canon so... by other pilots, it is great. That's why he's a fave.

Caitlin 28:53

He looks beautiful in these episodes

Kat 28:56

He really does

Caitlin 28:57

When he's like beating up in the cell. When Heero's like, "No, you can't come with me because you're useless." [laughter]

Caitlin 29:03

And he's like, be a little kinder next time.

Cathy 29:06

I love that Heero was just like, well go to school for me. I'm like, are you?

Mallory 29:10

Yeah.

Cathy 29:10

[laughter] What is wrong with you, Duo doesn't look anything like you?

Kat 29:14

Didn't Heero already go to that school? [laughter]

Caitlin 29:16

He made a whole speech

Mallory 29:17

You made a whole speech in front of everybody.

Kat 29:19

"Oh, you're gonna be real popular buddy."

Cathy 29:23

And I kept being like, is that like, I remember this. I really do remember this scene where he's just like, go to school. And like now I'm watching and I'm like, it is just as weird as I remember it. [laughs]

Caitlin 29:33

Wait, wait, wait, you know what the real point of him saying that is so now we know that Duo knows that Heero used his name,

Kat 29:41

Right, yes.

Caitlin 29:41

to enroll in school. So now Duo in our fanfics can think, "oh my god, he used my name, he's obsessed with me."

Kat 29:47

"What a fucking weirdo." [laughter]

Caitlin 29:49

"Maybe he really is in love with me. Blah, blah, blah blah." So that is like, him saying that I think is some sort of like pure fan service where it doesn't really make any sense and it's just to let us know that this character now knows this other character thinks about him.

Cathy 30:04

I completely lost my shit at this episode, I just want to tell you. I was like watching it and losing my shit.

Caitlin 30:10

These are really good episodes. I like fell asleep during them 'cause there's something wrong with me obviously. But they're really good episodes, a lot of stuff happens to the point where I think it's hard for us to think of things to like, really substantive things to say. They're just good action episodes.

Cathy 30:25

So before we move on, one last thing, you know, we had this amazing moment with Sally Po and the Maganacs when they met each other and they're kind of like, "you know, a Gundam pilot? I know Gundam pilot." It was great. I'm glad that we haven't forgotten Sally Po.

Kat 30:43

I'd like that you shouted out the Maganac names because in one of my one of my notes is like, "it's so nice that they have names now."

Caitlin 30:49

They all have names

Cathy 30:51

I love them.

Mallory 30:51

And they have personality. And I like that they're ribbing with each other like, "Oh, Abdul's plans never work the way they're supposed to, ugh."

Caitlin 31:00

Yeah, there's a token fuck up. It's great.

Kat 31:02

Yeah. [laughter]

Cathy 31:05

I really, I mean, I, those are like the little things that I think. I don't know, it just overall, there is a really rich universe in Gundam Wing that I'd forgotten about the first time I watched it. And it was nice to see that there are these moments in the show that there's no reason for anybody to shout out. But the fact that each of the Maganacs had a name. Each of them had a personality.

Kat 31:25

And some style.

Cathy 31:26

Yeah. So we kind of had like a weird hybrid cultural artifact that we wanted to talk about today. Kat you had brought up this video, which is of Super Robot Wars.

Kat 31:39

Yeah.

Cathy 31:40

Which is a part of the Gundam franchise more generally. And then I also just wanted to talk about my experience with Gundam fighting games, but you first.

Kat 31:48

So Super Robot Wars isn't just the Gundam series, but it's most, most of them are produced by Sunrise, but it's like a Bandai Namco Entertainment game. So even Evangelion mecha have shown up in it. But there's a ton of different Gundam characters and robots, like a turn based RPG with different characters mecha and storylines they pull from all different anime series, mostly Gundam.

Caitlin 32:19

Does it give you more information about the Gundam Wing world? Do you get like more details with the characters?

Kat 32:27

Not a ton, sadly. I mean, not for gonna wing. Maybe for other ones. There's like one specific Super Robot Wars, Super Robot Wars W which was for the DS that had Quatre and Duo, and Duo is disguised as Heero Yuy and you have to play a mission to sneak them to Earth. I've watched like YouTubes but Super Robot Wars always felt like one of those canons like side canons that I could never really access as a kid? And now that I could do it, it's sort of like eh. Treize is in it actually, Treize is in Super Robot Wars W also, he's the Federated Earth Nation President.

Cathy 33:08

So I okay, so there there is a running joke I have with my friends and this is kind of rude and I'm really sorry. I do think there is a certain element of like, what I usually associate with kinda Reddit anime fandom, or a certain element of like, and I'm sorry to say this but like "cis male anime fandom on Twitter?" And I call them Dragon Ball versus Naruto fans and those are people [laughter] are always talking about who is stronger, or like who would win in the battle, Naruto vs Goku? And like, to me that is like the least interesting thing about watching either series.

Caitlin 33:43

It's the dumbest shit.

Cathy 33:44

Right? Like I don't give a shit. Like

Kat 33:46

Right, who would smooch who?

Mallory 33:48

Yes,

Cathy 33:48

The reason why I bring this up is like, is I wondering if, if that is what Super Robot Wars is supposed to appeal to? Like? Is there an element where you want to see all of the Gundams from, and all of the like, mecha from the different series come together and fight. Like who? Like what is the appeal of this game?

Kat 34:10

I think it is. It's like getting to interact like with all these different things from franchises you like. But it's not like a mecha-to-mecha thing all the time. I don't know it's maybe it is, it's not a fighting game though. You're, it's an RPG.

Cathy 34:26

Okay,

Caitlin 34:27

Interesting

Kat 34:27

The White Fang from Gundam Wing in the future is like a villain. Like they ally with a rebellion from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam so like, so it's that kind of thing. But I

Mallory 34:41

I mean, I can see why people would why it would appeal to a certain segment of population that games manufacturers would assume are watching the shows. [laughter] You know, it's it's just like the novelty of seeing. I don't know, isn't that why movies like Civil War? And

Cathy 35:01

Yes, absolutely.

Mallory 35:01

all of those are so popular because it's like, I just want to see them bashing against each other like Superman versus Batman versus Iron Man, you know,

Kat 35:10

There's got to be a mecha versus mecha game though like that feels like it has to exist. This one is interesting, because I think it's interesting that Gundam Wing is sort of outside the greater shared Gundam universe. So for them to pull it in for this was always interesting to me, because I was like, I always liked Gundam Wing as a kid because it's like, "oh, I can watch this. But I don't need to watch this other stuff that's going to be like 20 bucks for a VHS tape with two episodes on it."

Caitlin 35:39

Right. But then you could you could get into Gundam Wing, and then you could be like, oh, Gundam Wing is in Super Robot Wars. So I play that and then suddenly you get into these other things,

Kat 35:48

Right. exactly.

Cathy 35:50

So I actually played Gundam Wing: Endless Duel on an emulator and Gundam Wing: Endless Duel is actually a robot versus robot fighting.

Kat 35:59

Hell yeah!

Cathy 36:00

And, um, I really don't remember how I got this. I think somebody handed me like a CD-R? of all these have like an SNES emulator.

Caitlin 36:10

C! D! R!

Cathy 36:11

And there was Gundam Wing Endless Duel and I think like a Sailor Moon flaming game, maybe?

Caitlin 36:16

There is a Sailor Moon fighting game.

Caitlin 36:17

Yeah, that definitely exists, yes.

Cathy 36:19

So I played, so I remember, you know, and my mom was never gonna listen to this, she'll never know that I did this. I used to, like sneak down into our basement, like get on the computer in our basement and like play, like, you know, from the hours of like, 2am to like 4am, play like Gundam Wing Endless Duel, which was all in Japanese at the time, I had no idea was going on. So I was just like, mashing buttons. I was not particularly good. But it is great. And there is a lot of like, you know, obviously everybody forms opinions about like, who is the best Gundam and who is the worst Gundam? Like I think Heavyarms sucks. [laughter] So it's always like, beat up on Heavyarms while you're playing? Because you're like, "Yeah, he suuuucks." And like, there is this really fun moment where you get to try on all these weird ideals that come up in Gundam Wing. And I'm sure that's true of every Gundam game, but I like there is a moment where it's like, "oh, yeah, this is what it feels like to be a cishet anime male being like Naruto vs. Goku." That was my Naruto versus Goku moment.

Kat 37:18

I feel like the suits definitely made it further then the characters and Gundam Wing

Caitlin 37:23

was very much their own characters in a lot of ways. And like a lot of fans are just really into the cha-- and into the suits. It's like, it's like, instead of your waifu who you have your mecha. Maybe or maybe you can have both.

Kat 37:36

Uhhh, my mecha could be my waifu. [laughter]

Cathy 37:40

On that note, thank you guys for joining us to discuss Episodes 19-20 and also marrying a robot.

Caitlin 37:48

Nothing wrong with that.

Cathy 37:49

Nothing wrong with that. We appreciate all robot fuckers on this podcast. [laughter] Thank you guys, see you next time.

Kat 37:59

Keep in touch! Hear about our new episodes on Twitter at TallgeesePod. Find our full transcriptions on Tumblr at UntitledTallgeesePodcast dot Tumblr dot com and follow us on Instagram at UntitledTallgeesePodcast for behind the scenes deets, fandom artifacts, and memes.

#gundam #gundam wing #mobile suit gundam #anime nostalgia #90s anime #anime podcasts #untitled tallgeese podcast #episode 10 #transcripts

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thedeadflag · 5 years ago

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so this is something I've been mulling over for a while now - do you reckon it'd be possible to make a version of a/b/o that isn't fundamentally transphobic, or would it reach the point of "this is so different that you might as well not call it a/b/o" before that? off the top of my head you'd have to take out all elements of g!p, mpreg, and biological essentialism, and it'd probably be possible to write a version of a/b/o with that framework, but I don't know if I'm missing anything.

a/b/o is a reactionary trope that relies on cissexism-derived biological essentialism to function. Like, that’s the engine that powers the bdsm/power dynamics, cisheteronormative breeding/family building, “dub/non-con”, etc. elements that draw people to it, and led people to create it in the first place.

Like, my best attempt at describing a non-transphobic, non-shitty typical a/b/o adjacent fic would include:

Werewolves (let’s face it, werewolves can be really cool if written well, and there’s a lot of really good ways to write them, a lot of ways to subvert tired subtropes within the trope)

Found Family-focused family/pack building (because wolves often adopt wolves from other packs into their own, blood lineage isn’t really a thing; much like vampires being created, newly turned werewolves of any age can be considered their sire’s child; if it needs to have a pregnancy arc between two men or two women, there’s IVF/IUI, or magically/spiritually-induced pregnancies, and of course writing a fully fledged complex trans character with their own non-pregnancy arc and virtues/flaws/goals/etc. and getting relevant trans beta writers who aren't your friends to keep it on track if you’re a cis writer)

A flexible, non-binary gendered society (rather than the rigidly structured biology-is-destiny a/b/o society) that’s trans inclusive either explicitly, or implicitly if it’s a new social universe with different rules.

If mating seasons have to exist, they’re cultural more than biological, and no biological processes that could impede or trouble a person’s ability to properly consent.

No inherent, glorified or reified power dynamics, certainly none rooted in or fostered through biology.

That doesn’t seem very much at all like a/b/o to me. It’s a werewolf AU, which is the reason why a/b/o was created in the first place. It wasn’t enough. It needed something more than just a supernatural bent

I’ll continue on below for a bit on some simplified functions of a/b/o, but it’s mostly just some ramblings.

Like, to quote the originators of the genre/trope:

I'd like to see Alpha male Jared, and Bitch male Jensen. Jensen is a snotty prude (think Lady from lady and the tramp) he may be a bitch male but he's not just going to let anybody take a go at his sweet little ass...until he meets Jared...then prudey little Jensen turns cock slut for Jared. Bonus points for J2 being OTP, Jensen was a virgin before Jared, and now that they met each other, it's for life.

...

There are three types of men, alpha males, beta males, and omega males. Alpha males are like any ordinary guy with the exception of their cocks, they work just like canines (the knot, tons of cum, strong breeders, etc) The beta male, is an ordinary guy without the special cock. Omega males are capable of child bearing and often called bitch males.

Like, I want you to look at that real close and see what’s going on in there.

This was created to be a trope where there’s a world where women, as we explicitly know them, don’t exist, but where a subgroup of men take up the functional role of the woman in the heteronormative social structure of the world. It’s also not surprising that (assumedly cis) women created and initiated the spread of this trope.

Look at the language used. This is heavily, explicitly gendered for a reason. If you’ve read much of anything about how the male gaze impacts female sexuality, you’ll know a common response is for women to position themselves out of the proverbial frame entirely, so that no part of them can explicitly exist as an object, where they can take on the role of a subject. There’s no women whose experiences will directly link to her own and her own perceptions, comfort/discomfort/etc.

However, many of these women also have been heavily affected by the male gaze and heteronormativity, and that combined with not knowing what a real gay male relationship is like, what it looks like, what experiences might be unique to it...they fill in the blanks with their own conditioning.

And maybe seeing a lot of that toxic masculinity in media content was unsettling because of how women get treated in that content, and how they in turn might feel in those shoes. But if a MAN, even if it’s a heavily female-coded man, were to undergo that...well, it’d be easier to appreciate those tropes and dynamics they’ve been force-fed to believe were arousing, hot, desirable. Especially if they can have two hot men in it. They can enjoy that self-created taboo, bypass their own discomfort and insecurity, and project it onto a type of person different enough to suspend their disbelief and maintain that difference, even if they’re pumping that guy full of all the typical misogynistic tropes and experiences they’re not comfortable having directed towards them and other women.

In short, it’s a way to get off on heteronormative norms/tropes, using another as a vehicle in order to keep up their cognitive dissonance.

Of course, this eventually spilled out into the Het fandom (makes perfect sense, since many of the a/b/o originators and proponents were het women), and then worked its way into Femslash fandom by piggybacking on g!p in order to meet the necessary criteria for PiV sex.

Just, in this case, you necessarily shift some of the puzzle pieces around. Trans women take the place of the “alpha”, acting as an acceptable vehicle for a toxic masculine cis man, since lesbians aren’t into men. Even if the trans woman is generally written, in nearly every way aside from part of her body, as a toxic cis man. The original a/b/o’s “Bitch Male”/Omega Male is swapped out for the Omega Female, usually a spunkier, more in your face version outside of romantic/sexual contexts in the media content, but let’s be real here, she’s still by and large submissive when it comes down to it.

In a world where more wlw grew up feeling predatory for their attraction to other women, for feeling sinful, for being rejected from female intimacy het women enjoyed with each other after coming out, etc., it’s pretty common for a lot of lesbians to lack initiative, not be able to read or communicate romantic/sexual cues between each other...to essentially be “useless lesbians’ as the joke goes,and to feel isolated and undesirable.

So writing a F/F fic where some hot woman modeled in the image of some hot cis woman pursues you? Takes the initiative sexually/romantically? Doesn’t beat around the bush, but is blatant? Who can’t control her lust around you? Who can give you the perfect nuclear family you’ve been conditioned to want in order to feel value in our heteronormative world, but were told you weren’t worthy of or could never feasibly attain? Who gives you a sexual encounter you have some education in and some emotional stake in due to common conditioning of PiV sex > all else? Who can give you plausible deniability for a number of contexts due to a lack of ability to explicitly consent? etc. etc.

Like, yeah, that’s going to feel comfortable for a lot out there. That’s going to seem pretty hot/arousing. It’s a way to get off on the norms and expectations thrown on women in society, but in a way that lets them distance themselves ever so slightly from men by shifting it from text to subtext, explicit to implicit.

Don’t just take my word for it, though. Here’s a few snippets from one of the most popular g!p/omegaverse femslash writers (if not the most popular) that help illustrate how/why this trope has found an audience

Why Do I Write G!P?The elephant in the room. It arouses me, but it’s also a form of self-comfort. I grew up in a very fundamentalist home. Women being with women was at first unspoken, and then derided, both by my church and at home. I felt insanely guilty for my attractions, so I developed ‘cheat codes’ to deal with it.

It was okay if the woman I had sex with in my dreams had a penis, for example. It was okay if she forced me to have sex with her. It was okay if we basically simulated heterosexual sex.

Because of my childhood (which included conversion therapy), I found myself falling into heterosexual roleplay patterns, at least sexually. It was a lingering thing from my childhood.

It’s still there, and I know I’ll never be rid of it.

...

I associate penetration with power. You know, being steeped in sexism from an early age turned some problematic thoughts into kinky lemonade. And since I’m a femme sub, taking power away from the top by ‘penetrating’ them can ruin the mood for me. I mean, I can write power bottom scenes with the best of them, and I enjoy them, but… *shrug* if I’m going to write omegaverse or g!p, someone’s getting fucked, and it’s not the top.

There are rules to a/b/o. There are specific reasons it’s sought out, read, and created, and that’s why it’s hard to imagine a version of it without those harmful elements, because the trope requires them for the audience to be satisfied.

It’s why all gay male a/b/o fits a pretty specific pattern. it’s why femslash a/b/o fits a very specific pattern. There’s nearly no deviation as a rule, because there are so many parts that have to be in play and functioning in a specific way in order to get the desired result.

I could go on for hours about this, and the above is all a pretty damn simplified take of what’s going on in a/b/o for it to exist in the way it does and meet the needs of the audience, and I’ve already written a lot about this in the past, so I’ll try to cut it short here.

#a/b/o #omegaverse #trans fetishization #creative responsibility #transmisogyny #cissexism #genitals tw #genital mention tw #long post #fandom dynamics #fandom meta #heteronormativity #g!p #biological essentialism #Anonymous

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tocxmply · 5 years ago

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DEHUMANIZATION OF THE WINTER SOLDIER [sources: click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click]

dehumanization is the denial of full humanness to others, and the cruelty and suffering that accompany it. it refers to the viewing and treatment of other persons as if they lack mental capacities that we enjoy as human beings.

it may be understood as the opposite of personification, a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are endowed with human qualities; dehumanization then is the disendowment of these same qualities or a reduction to abstraction.

humanness has two features: "identity" (i.e., a perception of the person "as an individual, independent and distinguishable from others, capable of making choices") and "community" (i.e., a perception of the person as "part of an interconnected network of individuals who care for each other"). when a target's agency and community embeddedness are denied, they no longer elicit compassion or other moral responses, and may suffer violence as a result.

Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes was elected to become HYDRA’s secret and best and most effective weapon, and we all know that popular tumblr post: you are a weapon and weapons don’t weep. but how was this outcome achieved? how do you turn a human being into someone (something?) detached, heartless, merciless enough to weed through other human beings as though they’re not more than objects to be removed? through the process of dehumanizing these same others, precisely --- by making yourself, or another, believe they are below human standards; they are, indeed, just objects to be removed. whereas this much is well explained in the literature, however, there is the other side of the coin --- which is what i’ll be exploring in this meta. because the Winter Soldier didn’t only think of his (HYDRA’s, in truth) opponents as less than human --- he himself was ever treated as something less than human, as a weapon/tool to be used. he himself was dehumanized.

CLOTHING. one look at the Winter Soldier’s uniform, and anyone realizes it is a highly intricate thing. it is functional, yes, as it must be, and it provides protection as it ought to do for any regular soldier --- however, it is also highly symbolic. first of all, the almost absurd amount of straps --- you need straps to hold the gun holsters, of course, but you certainly don’t need this many. Winter’s uniform is covered in them, as to symbolize the tentacles of HYDRA --- the complete power, complete control they have over their asset. this uniform restrains him, constricts him, allows freedom of movement as much as one requires in the battlefield but, at the same time, is a visual and tactile reminder of submission --- even when the Soldier is away from HYDRA, not face to face, HYDRA accompanies him everywhere. as well, the fact that the uniform is clearly too intricate to be put on or off on his own --- he’s got some degree of freedom for adjustment, should he ever need to make modifications on his own according to the battle course, but that’s the equivalent of a weapon’s reloading --- it’s something the weapon’s wielder allows to be done, for a greater purpose --- in order to better serve the weapon’s owner’s purpose. this is made to remind the Winter Soldier, the most skilled assassin ever trained, that his power pales in comparison to the power of the ones who made him; he needs HYDRA even for something as simple as to don his battle attire.

MASK. Winter’s complete version of a mask covers his features entirely and reveals only a small patch of skin on his forehead. is this made for protection? to shield his eyes from bullets and shards during explosions, for example? no doubt it is, and no doubt it is for more than this --- because the forehead is exposed. you don’t protect a soldier’s eyes but leave the forehead exposed and open to a well-placed sniper shot. “Captain America: Civil War” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” show us a parallel: in the former, during the 1991 flashbacks, the Soldier isn’t wearing a mask even though he’s gone after a target as important as Howard Stark; HYDRA’s Russian branch cares for secrecy, to keep their tentacles still hidden and well rooted into SHIELD, but they don’t feel the need to cover the asset’s face because they know what they are doing and they take precautions to eliminate any witnesses and trails left on their wake. on the contrary, HYDRA’s American branch, with Alexander Pierce at the head, brings in the full facial mask. why, because they don’t want the Winter Soldier to be recognized? could be --- but, if so, why send him out so carefreely? why send him to get their member who just spilled the beans and revealed the truth behind the algorithm, in broad daylight, when the Soldier could very easily dispose of this man in his sleep and without making a ruckus? at this point, the mask is only partially for protection and for concealment -- most of all, it is to keep the Winter Soldier on the leash. it is to keep him muted, to keep him restrained, to keep reminding him he’s no more than a dog in a muzzle. to keep painting him as an object rather than a human being, because the mask allows for none of his human expressions to be seen by others --- therefore, cutting the others’ capacity to humanize him. when they shoot, they don’t shoot at a human --- they shoot at a conglomerate of leather and metal and reinforced glass.

EYE CAMOUFLAGE. serves the same purpose as the mask, though reducing the protection even more at the same time. it can be interpreted as camouflage purposes only, yes, but then why not use the full mask? i’m pretty sure HYDRA can afford a mask with night vision system. this camouflage covers Winter’s eyes only, rather than the entire face --- it purposefully covers the part of the human face that conveys more emotion. it covers his eyebrows, as to prevent him from expressing emotions or at least to prevent others from perceiving these emotions. if he initially was sent after Nick Fury whilst wearing the full mask, why change this after? whatever the motive, they could have simply removed the top part of the mask --- like Winter himself does at the highway chase, when the Black Widow damages it --- instead, they do this AND they add the black cover, to ensure Winter is as a much of a weapon as before even if a bit more of his face is now exposed.

INFANTILIZATION/ CONDESCENSION. even though the Winter Soldier is a perfected weapon and an extremely skilled assassin, he’s still treated as a no-threat compared to HYDRA. Pierce offers him a glass of milk like it’s nothing and like he’s talking to a perfectly regular/innocuous individual, Pierce slaps him as though he might never have a violent jerk-up, instinctive reaction and attack him back, Pierce has so much control over him he “only” relies on a slap rather than something more openly hostile like an actual punch. even back in 1991, at the Russian branch, Karpov would bring the red star notebook to plain sight (later on, Zemo uses the same technique to capitalize on this notebook’s/the activation words’ triggering value) and would go as far as to place it down within the Soldier’s reach. because HYDRA is entirely confident on their brainwashing and conditioning, because the Winter Soldier is their perfect weapon, ever ready to comply --- yes. but, just as much, as a constant reminder of how powerless the Soldier is, at the end of the day. of how he belongs to them, of how he’ll never be able to break free, of how easy it is for them to subjugate such a dangerous individual. of how he’s got no real choice, no shred of personal agency, even when it comes to something as simple as, for example, destroying a notebook associated with physical pain and suffering.

SOUND. obviously, the magnificent theme that is The Winter Soldier in the movie’s OST is a cinematic add-on --- it’s on the other side of the fourth wall. however, this theme does expand on something else: the fact that the Winter Soldier is associated with non-human sounds or vocalizations, other than screams; instead, he’s associated with the sounds of metal, of grating, of static. in turn, this has him associated with a sense of derealization, of an alternate reality --- of something that is different from the realm of human beings. when you think of him, you don’t think of the sound of his voice --- you think of the sound his artificial arm makes. on the other hand, the fact that we practically do not hear the Soldier making sounds that express pain, even during all-out battle whenever he’s hit or hurt. this can also be due to the drugs injected in his system to optimize missions (which i shall explore in a different meta), so that for the most part he indeed is numbed to most forms of pain --- yet it is, no doubt, also highly symbolic. because, if you hurt someone and they yelp in pain, this reminds you that you are hurting a sentient being, just like yourself --- however, if you hurt someone and they lack reaction to it, this encourages you to keep hurting. this does not trigger cognitive dissonance in regards to hurting someone who’s as human as you are. you are simply poking at an object and poking at objects is entirely fine. remember, weapons don’t weep and they certainly don’t whine. and i won’t even get started on the fact we barely hear him speak during CA:TWS and, even when he does speak, the sentences are short and sparse in between them. weapons also don’t chit-chat.

NAME. or lack, thereof. or multiple names. the Winter Soldier, HYDRA’s fist, the asset, soldier, a ghost/a ghost story. save for Zola calling him Sergeant Barnes (at least initially), we never hear him being called by his name up until the moment when Steve recognizes him. why? to help with the brainwashing, yes, and to help shedding the person that was James Buchanan Barnes and to become someone else entirely --- but also because having a given name is a human thing. our beloved pets don’t name themselves, we name them because we love them and we have a place in our life for who they are. because a name gives someone an identity. the Soldier, on the other hand, is never portrayed as a person --- he’s portrayed as a presence, as an essence, as a shadow, as something that, for the longest time, people aren’t even sure if it exists for real. the Soldier exists in a sort of alternate reality that isn’t human-like, that doesn’t have an identity or a concrete definition --- he’s an aura, a sense of dread, an abstraction, almost ethereal. to the point where, when Steve calls him by an actual name (Bucky), he does not react to it --- not only because he currently is unable to remember, but also because he does not have an identity. he’s not grounded on any name, on any definition. he’s only been soldier for the past 70 years.

BODY LANGUAGE. the Winter Soldier is a killing machine, of this there is no doubt --- and he acts like one, moves like one. he shows no regard for his opponents’ well-being (to say the very least) and he shows very little so for his own --- the way he simply jumps off a ledge and lands atop cars like it’s nothing, for example, and makes no attempt to break that fall in a way that may be less straining for his body. all that matters is to complete the mission, and his body language reflects this --- this ruthlessness. in a way, even, this lack of self-preservation that you usually don’t see in a person; as though it doesn’t matter if he’s injured or even if he dies, as long as the mission is accomplished. it’s an incredibly high contrast, for example, with the scene in CA:CW when Bucky is buying plums --- he’s performing a sensitive and tender action, he’s being mindful of a gesture as finely-tuned as to judge that plum’s weight and ripeness --- he’s humanized, in this very moment. the Winter Soldier is never seen under such light, and proof of it is how Zemo needs to wipe this humanization in order to activate the soldier again. to make him ruthless again. also, the fact that we never see the Winter Soldier running --- he only ever walks, and this somehow makes him even more terrifying than if he was to be chasing his target at high speed run. he doesn’t need to run to successfully complete the mission, as tough he does not need to put effort into what he’s doing. again, this conveys the message that this individual is not a person like everyone else --- he’s beyond a human, he’s a monster. he’s an aberration.

AGENCY. and i left the crowning glory for last, of course. agency refers to one’s capacity to act independently and to make their own free choices, one's independent capability or ability to act on one's will. in the case, it refers to everything that HYDRA robbed James Buchanan Barnes of, and constantly denied to the Winter Soldier ever since. i’ve been discussing some examples in the previous topics, because it’s the overarching theme to this process of dehumanization --- the Winter Soldier is completely devoid of what makes a human, human: free will, self-determination. every other point, like the mask or the uniform, is an add-on to, and a confirmation of, this underlying fact. Bucky never had a choice when it came to being captured, to being experimented on, to having an artificial limb implemented, to being trained to become an assassin. all of this was imposed on him, with complete disregard for any human rights. the one semblance of agency we see, after 70 years lived like this, is when he questions Pierce who was the man on the bridge --- and, immediately, he’s given a vague explanation made only with the intent to reinforce his indoctrination that HYDRA is the good side of this war --- again, being dictated what he should believe in and what is “the truth” --- not to mention, right after, being wiped and started over again once it becomes clear his current state isn’t compliant enough. this is the essence of the brainwashing process, yes, but at the same time it’s constantly conveyed by all the other points discussed above --- constantly conveyed, overtly or not, that he has no agency. he has no right to choose. he amounts to no more than a weapon, he was created to be nothing else other than whatever HYDRA wants him to be. and when do we finally get a glimpse of the tables starting to turn? --- at the very end, as that helicarrier is crashing to the bottom of the Potomac --- when the Soldier chooses to save Steve, chooses to then leave on his own accord to, presumably, try to find his own path. again, the mindset that Zemo had to obliterate, in order to stifle Bucky and to bring back the soldier. to remind him that he exists only as HYDRA’s extension, not as any sort of individual identity or self.

#long post #「ᵐᵉᵗᵃ」ʷᶤᵖᵉ ʰᶤᵐ ᵃᶰᵈ ˢᵗᵃʳᵗ ᵒᵛᵉʳ

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tocxmply-archive · 5 years ago

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DEHUMANIZATION OF THE WINTER SOLDIER

[sources: click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click]

Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes was elected to become HYDRA’s secret and best and most effective weapon, and we all know that popular tumblr post: you are a weapon and weapons don’t weep. but how was this outcome achieved? how do you turn a human being into someone (something?) detached, heartless, merciless enough to weed through other human beings as though they’re not more than objects to be removed? though the process of dehumanizing these same others, precisely --- by making yourself, or another, believe they are below human standards; they are, indeed, just objects to be removed. whereas this much is well explained in the literature, however, there is the other side of the coin --- which is what i’ll be exploring in this meta. because the Winter Soldier didn’t only think of his (HYDRA’s, in truth) opponents as less than human --- he himself was ever treated as something less than human, as a weapon/tool to be used. he himself was dehumanized.

CLOTHING. one look at the Winter Soldier’s uniform, and anyone realizes it is a highly intricate thing. it is functional, yes, as it must be, and it provides protection as it ought to do for any regular soldier --- however, it is also highly symbolic. first of all, the almost absurd amount of straps --- you need straps to hold the gun holsters, of course, but you certainly don’t need this many. Winter’s uniform is covered in them, as to symbolize the tentacles of HYDRA --- the complete power, complete control they have over their asset. this uniform restrains him, constricts him, allows freedom of movement as much as one requires in the battlefield but, at the same time, is a visual and tactile reminder of submission --- even when Winter is away from HYDRA, not face to face, HYDRA accompanies him everywhere. as well, the fact that the uniform is clearly too intricate to be put on or off on his own --- he’s got some degree of freedom for adjustment, should he ever need to make modifications on his own according to the battle course, but that’s the equivalent of a weapon’s reloading --- it’s something the weapon’s wielder allows to be done, for a greater purpose --- in order to better serve the weapon’s owner’s purpose. this is made to remind the Winter Soldier, the most skilled assassin ever trained, that his power pales in comparison to the power of the ones who made him; he needs HYDRA even for something as simple as to don his battle attire.

MASK. Winter’s complete version of a mask covers his features entirely and reveals only a small patch of skin on his forehead. is this made for protection? to shield his eyes from shards during explosions, for example? no doubt it is, and no doubt it is for more than this --- because the forehead is exposed. you don’t protect a soldier’s eyes but leave the forehead exposed and open to a well-placed sniper shot. “Captain America: Civil War” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” show us a parallel: in the former, during the 1991 flashbacks, Winter isn’t wearing a mask even though he’s gone after a target as important as Howard Stark; HYDRA’s Russian branch cares for secrecy, to keep their tentacles still hidden and well rooted into SHIELD, but they don’t feel the need to cover the asset’s face because they know what they are doing and they take precautions to eliminate any witnesses and trails left on their wake. on the contrary, HYDRA’s American branch, with Alexander Pierce at the head, brings in the full facial mask. why, because they don’t want the Winter Soldier to be recognized? could be --- but, if so, why send him out so carefreely? why send him to get their member who just spilled the beans and revealed the truth behind the algorithm, in broad daylight, when Winter could very easily dispose of this man in his sleep and without making a ruckus? at this point, the mask is only partially for protection and for concealment -- most of all, it is to keep the Winter Soldier on the leash. it is to keep him muted, to keep him restrained, to keep reminding him he’s no more than a dog in a muzzle. to keep painting him as an object rather than a human being, because the mask allows for none of his human expressions to be seen by others --- therefore, cutting the others’ capacity to humanize him. when they shoot, they don’t shoot at a human --- they shoot at a conglomerate of leather and metal and reinforced glass.

SOUND. obviously, the magnificent theme that is The Winter Soldier in the movie’s OST is a cinematic add-on --- it’s on the other side of the fourth wall. however, this theme does expand on something else: the fact that the Winter Soldier is associated with non-human sounds or vocalizations, other than screams; instead, he’s associated with the sounds of metal, of grating, of static. in turn, this has him associated with a sense of derealization, of an alternate reality --- of something that is different from the realm of human beings. when you think of him, you don’t think of the sound of his voice --- you think of the sound his artificial arm makes. on the other hand, the fact that we practically do not hear the Winter Soldier making sounds that express pain, even during all-out battle whenever he’s hit or hurt. this can also be due to the drugs injected in his system to optimize missions (which i shall explore in a different meta), so that for the most part he indeed is numbed to most forms of pain --- yet it is, no doubt, also highly symbolic. because, if you hurt someone and they yelp in pain, this reminds you that you are hurting a sentient being, just like yourself --- however, if you hurt someone and they lack reaction to it, this encourages you to keep hurting. this does not trigger cognitive dissonance in regards to hurting someone who’s as human as you are. you are simply poking at an object and poking at objects is entirely fine. remember, weapons don’t weep and they certainly don’t whine. and i won’t even get started on the fact we barely hear him speak during CA:TWS and, even when he does speak, the sentences are short and sparse in between them. weapons also don’t chit-chat.

NAME. or lack, thereof. or multiple names. the Winter Soldier, HYDRA’s fist, the asset, soldier, a ghost/a ghost story. save for Zola calling him Sergeant Barnes initially, all the way back in 1944, we never hear him being called by his name up until the moment when Steve recognizes him. why? to help with the brainwashing, yes, and to help shedding the person that was James Buchanan Barnes and to become someone else entirely --- but also because having a given name is a human thing. our beloved pets don’t name themselves, we name them because we love them and we have a place in our life for who they are. because a name gives someone an identity. Winter, on the other hand, is never portrayed as a person --- he’s portrayed as a presence, as an essence, as a shadow, as something that, for the longest time, people aren’t even sure if it exists for real. Winter exists in a sort of alternate reality that isn’t human-like, that doesn’t have an identity or a concrete definition --- he’s an aura, a sense of dread, an abstraction, almost ethereal. to the point where, when Steve calls him by an actual name (Bucky), he does not react to it --- not only because he currently is unable to remember, but also because he does not have an identity. he’s not grounded on any name, on any definition. he’s only been soldier for the past 70 years.

AGENCY. and i left the crowning glory for last, of course. agency refers to one’s capacity to act independently and to make their own free choices, one's independent capability or ability to act on one's will. in the case, it refers to everything that HYDRA robbed James Buchanan Barnes of, and constantly denied to the Winter Soldier ever since. i’ve been discussing some examples in the previous topics, because it’s the overarching theme to this process of dehumanization --- the Winter Soldier is completely devoid of what makes a human, human: free will, self-determination. every other point, like the mask or the uniform, is an add-on to, and a confirmation of, this underlying fact. Bucky never had a choice when it came to being captured, to being experimented on, to having an artificial limb implemented, to being trained to become an assassin. all of this was imposed on him, with complete disregard for any human rights. the one semblance of agency we see, after 70 years lived like this, is when he questions Pierce who was the man on the bridge --- and, immediately, he’s given a vague explanation made only with the intent to reinforce his indoctrination that HYDRA is the good side of this war --- again, being dictated what he should believe in and what is “the truth” --- not to mention, right after, being wiped and started over again once it becomes clear his current state isn’t compliant enough. this is the essence of the brainwashing process, yes, but at the same time it’s constantly conveyed by all the other points discussed above --- constantly conveyed, overtly or not, that he has no agency. he has no right to choose. he amounts to no more than a weapon, he was created to be nothing else other than whatever HYDRA wants him to be. and when do we finally get a glimpse of the tables starting to turn? --- at the very end, as that helicarrier is crashing to the bottom of the Potomac --- when the Winter Soldier chooses to save Steve, chooses to then leave on his own accord to, presumably, try to find his own path. again, the mindset that Zemo had to obliterate, in order to stifle Bucky and to bring back the soldier. to remind him that he exists only as HYDRA’s extension, not as any sort of individual identity or self.

#long post #「ᵐᵉᵗᵃ」ʷᶤᵖᵉ ʰᶤᵐ ᵃᶰᵈ ˢᵗᵃʳᵗ ᵒᵛᵉʳ #wow this got out of hand

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twitchesandstitches · 6 years ago

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MILF Fleet Weaponry

When it comes to battle, the fleet generally prefers cool and aesthetically pleasing tools, married to their low budgets and tendency to salvage what they can, for their personal defense needs. Utilitarian firearms are not as popular as, say, swords and rocket-shields. Part of it is a somewhat post-modernist disdain for warlords and imperial expansionists, who do tend to prefer such weaponry, as guns lacking in romantic culture and brutal bone-crushing weaponry.

The highly individualistic nature of the fleet means that everyone gets their own weapons to suit their tastes or loots particularly memorable pieces from fallen foes, but a few common bits of weaponry are as follows.

Due to the use of magic, programmable matter and other weirdness, non-lethal is always an option no matter how counter-intuitive it might be, and it is always there first option. They are doing their best to be the Good Guys, and the Good Guys do not kill! Not unless they don’t have to. One might wonder how they work this out with their preference for swallowing enemies whole, and the answer is: everyone has their bits of cognitive dissonance. That, and digesting enemies doesn’t actually mean they’re dead, most of the time.

Additionally, this list mainly refers to function, not origin. For instance, for practical purposes it doesn’t matter if a beam sword is a Star Wars style lightsaber, or if it is a Cybertronian flame weapon; the overall effect, barring the technological differences, comes out to pretty much the same, but the individual weapons here can vary hugely even among the same types for that reason.

Framework blades/other kinds of melee weaponry: Complex energy manipulation devices or programmable matter that reshapes into forms so violently they cut, so that they are effectively futuristic versions of weapons like swords, axes, and other cutting instruments of all sorts. Many extend energy fields that cut or impair, with the general effect of more mundane weapons and the same shape. A wide cutting implement on a long shaft works as well as a halberd or axe, and is called the same thing. They’re called ‘framework weapons’ because the device itself is a kind of framework that produces the actual cutting edge of blade, and is usually shaped pretty much the same as the recognizable versions of weapons.

Beamswords: your classic weapon that projects a blade of concentrated light, plasma or what-have-you that cuts through solid matter really well. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized way of duels and honor. These particular ones create blades by harnessing the wielder’s magical energy, so the stronger they are, the larger the blade and the more powerful it is. A weak user will be able to deflect, but a powerful one can cut through outright impossible materials and make a REALLY big blade, too. Variants include laser blade on a pile, double beamswords, laserswordchucks (two laser swords joined by a chain and flailed around in a really pretty fashion), and the outright ridiculous great beamsword, a huge power pillar with dozens of beamswords protruding from it. When powered up, they all ignite to full length, making a massive weapon that puts the air on fire, and is most popular among giant fleetmates.

Chainweapons: Imagine a chainsaw. Now imagine… it’s a sword. Now imagine that it comes in many different varieties and possible forms, for each variety of weapon that’s used in melee, and the technology adapted to be more useful in a fight than an actual chainsaw would normally be. Commonly the edge is a liquid metal that, when excited with a magical capacitor, explodes into frenzied razor-sharp action. Most popular among the crew are chainswords, chainfists and chain-axes… mostly among salvagers, since they’re really useful for cutting up loot and doing repairs.

Power weapons: a retrofit to a basic melee weapon that applies an offensive force field to the weapon, and combined with a magic capacitor, allows it to cut through almost anything, so even old school weapons can stay relevant. Rumors suggest one that’s dropped will go right through the planet’s core, but this is probably just hearsay.

Power fists and power boots: Amped up weapons that power punches and deadly kicks, though the latter are quite popular with the sheer number of crew mates who have massive thighs and would like to make use of their sheer leg muscle power. The boots universally offer enhanced jumping skills, too.

Laser weapons: A catch-all term for firearms that, despite the name, don’t actually shoot lasers. They make use of a container of magical energy that is charged all on its own as ammo, and the weapons shoot a concentrated beam that can stun, daze or pierce as needed. Generally the weapons can fire on full automatic for that good rapid fire DAKKA DAKKA effect, though they’re not exactly precise. A variant shoots long-range, high power and precision sniper shots. Much larger ones that venture on being cannons are way more accurate, but take longer to recharge between shots. And another has multiple rapid fire barrels to shoot hundreds of shots a second! A few models can morph into different varieties, depending on the situation; these are valuable and highly prized. Also you usually put bayonets on them. There’s not much reason for it, but it looks cool. Some, carrying on this notion, are designed to also function as melee weapons, often incorporating lances into their designs. They’re usually pretty dang big, too.

Retro Firearms: Rare treasures originally manufactured by mega-corporations that are now interstellar states unto themselves such as Vladof, Torgue and Maliwan, these legendary weapons were big during the pre-Collapse era and the technology of how they work isn’t well known anymore. Consisting of pistols, rocket launchers, shotguns submachine guns, assault rifles and sniper rifles, these weapons do all kinds of bizarre projectiles from explosive rounds, to bolts of electrical energy, to acidic bursts, and all of it is converted from otherwise ordinary ammunition places into them. Doesn’t matter what kind of ammo, somehow the guns know what to turn them into. (If you are familiar with Borderlands, assume that they have access to Legendary and higher weapons… but a very, very small amount of them. These are RARE among the fleet, very valuable weapons that have a lot of prestige to them.)

Rocket Weapons: Melee weapons modified to have thrusters built into them to give them an extra kick or boost, such as hammers that smash with a mighty explosion, or tremendous swords that got have a dozen boosters built into them. Most popular among the giants like Gems, Transformers or trolls, due to their sheer size. Rocket shields are also popular, boasting thrusters to repel nearby attacks or launch the wielder at foes like a cannonball.

Oversize Weapons: Ludicrously oversized weapons, like swords bigger than a man is tall, hammers with heads bigger than the wielder, and any melee weapon of similar dimension. These are astonishingly popular among the crew, since they’re surprisingly easy to make and result from magical processes; magic flows easier with these kinds of shapes, and their strange geometries demand BIG weapons to inhabit. By attuning with them, wielders can use them easily despite their cumbersome size, and by adding on other trait like rockets or power fields, they can become very nasty indeed.

Some favorites in this field include: shieldswords, blades so massive they can double as shields or physically transform into shields with an ingenious system of flexing internal hinges, gigantic firearms called mega-guns that combine the nastiest aspect of rocket launchers and assault rifles at the same time; mega-rocket hammers that can speed up cars all on their own, and ever more bizarre weapons.

EXplodey Ammo: The crew doesn’t use bullets. They’re mean, make nasty holes, aren’t really possible to make non-lethal, and anyway, who uses gunpowder weapons these days? Instead, they make use of something that replaces bullets in every possible way: TINY GRENADES/RPGs. These projectiles, distilled in the armories and ranging from grain sized to bigger than your head, are perfectly safe until they are launched from firearms and impact something, at which point they burst and explode. The exact effects of this are determined by the smart systems on the firearm itself; they can literally daze people through magical distortion, damage non-living materials but not people, or be more lethal when warranted. Assume non-lethal unless monsters are involved. At any point, unless specifically stated otherwise, the crew uses this ammo as their go-to projectiles for firearms.

Pushgun: Like a puntgun, but with rather more force. These massive weapons, easily as large as the person using them, are a wonder of the crew’s inventiveness and their signature firearm, and physically resemble a combination of a personal cannon and a siege engine. A magical capacitor provides a horrifyingly powerful launching effect superior to chemical propulsion, and any ammo they slot in is fired effectively, often the explodey sort or whatever trick ammo they might want. These weapons are hugely versatile; with multi-barrel options, they can have absolutely absurd rapid fire capability, incredible range, and excellent recoil. IT’s a combination of a minigun, a rocket launcher, and a sniper rifle all at once! ...With the slight issue of the maintenance being absolutely brutal; they require a LOT of careful clean up. Still, the design is being improved everyday. (If you’re familiar with the heavy bowgun from Monster Hunter, imagine that but with more magitech.)

Empowered weapons: Weapons treated to possess powers such as those given to crewmates; guns that shoot fireballs, hammers that literally shake the earth, power fists than turn whatever they hit into malleable rubber… the possibilities are many. However the resulting weapons MUST be massive in order for the power to take hold, and usually are incredibly complicated processes. The resulting weapons tend to be rather unpredictable, as well, and have even more drastic frailties than ordinary powers do, but they are a great deal more convenient than switching to a new power set.

#/#//#///#////#/////#crossthicc AU #queued #twitchy ideas

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samingtonwilson · 8 years ago

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Loot - Jim Kirk

Loot masterlist

Summary: reader is a cadet in the academy working as a hired thief to pay for tuition. reader gets caught in a sticky situation and jim and spock come to their rescue-- maybe

Pairing: Jim Kirk x Reader (not yet, though)

Prompt: “You don’t have to trust me – just don’t leave me here to die.”

Word count: 2,153

Warnings: language, injuries (i guess)

A/N: i felt like writing something different. so far there’s no romance between any of the characters mostly because this is just the first part. it’ll obviously eventually have something-something but not right now. idk if i want to continue this, though, so give me some feedback n tell me if i should continue it! i personally quite like it so far! enjoy!

You struggled against the restraints tightly wrapped around your wrists, waist, and ankles as you were seated in a chair. You couldn’t see even three feet ahead of you and the pain on the right side of your chest worsened with each breath you took. You retained little information on how you reached such a point while trying your hardest to move as little as possible in order to minimize any exasperation of your attained injuries. You did, however, move your head to strain your hearing as the sound of voices poured into your dim location.

The voices echoed as if you were in a dark cave and the humidity causing sweat to form in beads over your skin furthered that theory. The sound of footsteps surrounded you, the clicking of multiple heavy treads growing louder and louder with each passing second. None of the words they spoke seemed to register with you, possibly a side-effect of only just regaining consciousness or possibly because they weren’t speaking one of the countless languages you knew.

Slowly, images came back to you. They were difficult to piece together but, because of your impatience and desire to jump to a conclusion, you understood that a robbery hadn’t gone as planned. It was the whole reason you were on the God forsaken, barren wasteland of a planet— to collect a set of ancient artifacts before any Federation agency was able to. It wasn’t your old-hunk-of-metal fetish that pushed you to risking your own life— you just really needed the money.

The Starfleet Academy tuition wasn’t cheap and your people skills rendered a normal retail, restaurant, or bar job implausible. There were other choices, though— you could’ve worked in some sort of office or library as both required little social interaction and you could’ve put your training to use to work as a translator for visiting diplomats. But desperate times called for desperate measures— and your skills in the areas of silence and stealthiness were too good to be wasted.

It was a calculated risk continuing to take such illegal jobs while actively pursuing placement in the exact Federation you were looting, but the payoff was worth it. You told yourself repeatedly that every job came with its fair share of risks and even if you were expelled from the Academy and unable to work as a communications officer, you had a monetarily secure backup job.

Now, however, instead of convincing yourself of your honorability as to decrease your cognitive dissonance, you allocated your energy to undo the rope digging into your bruised sides. You could feel gashes, other bruises, and wounds all over your body and hoped to every God of every faith that the markings would fade before anyone at the Academy could ask any questions once classes started up again.

When the pain in your wrist caused by the rope digging into a cut was too much for you to handle, you stopped and sat back. You took a deep breath and tried to focus on the voices and footsteps again, hoping whatever perception abilities you were lacking initially had returned to normal.

“The one day we forget to bring a damn flashlight. There’s gotta be someway to get light in here.” You weren’t sure if you were hearing the deep-voiced man correctly, but it sounded like English. “Spock, have you found anything?”

The voice received no answer and a sigh of discontent met your ears. “Commander, have you found something that’ll function as a light before I run into something and break my nose?”

“Just a moment, Captain,” a second voice replied. This voice was much more monotonous, void of the irritation that laced the first voice and it was closer. “There is someone here.”

You rolled your lips together and held your breath. You shut your eyes despite the pitch black environment, hoping it would cloak you with invisibility.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

The first man sighed heavily once more. “I can’t even see my own hand. How are you able to say— with certainty— that there’s someone in here?”

“Vulcans have heightened senses as compared to humans— one of which is hearing. I can hear someone breathing.” You heard a few more steps in your direction before he spoke again, “The breathing is labored— perhaps due to anxiety or injury.”

“Hello?” the first voice called out, his loud steps growing closer and closer. You approximated his location. “Is anyone here? My name is James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise— my First Officer and I were sent to retrieve an artifact and do not mean you any harm. Are you hurt?”

You released your bottom lip and let out the breath you were holding. You quickly began to formulate a story that would explain your presence— something that would keep you out of trouble. You cleared your throat. “Yes.”

“Where are you?”

“Not sure,” you answered honestly. “But you sound close. Maybe a few more steps ahead and to your right.”

A series of steps ensued until a kick to the leg of the chair you were seated in sent it lurching backwards and forward again. You winced at the sharp pain of your ribs and clenched your jaw as your hands balled into fists. “I think that was a bit more steps than a few.”

“What did I hit?” he asked, his voice coming from directly in front of you.

“I’m tied to a chair— my wrists, ankles, and waist are bound and I think I might have a few broken ribs in addition to bruises, cuts, and abrasions.”

He didn’t speak for a few seconds and when he did, it wasn’t to you. “How are we doing on getting some light in here, Mr. Spock?”

“I have located a control panel. I am not confident on the purpose of each button and would prefer not to cause inadvertent harm to either of you—”

James T. Kirk clicked his tongue. “Aw, that’s sweet—”

“— as it would be extremely difficult for me to assist you both.”

“Spoke too soon,” James said with a soft laugh. “Just press the biggest button.”

“Captain, I cannot see—”

“Feel around for the biggest button and press it— in my experience that’s usually the one for light or self-destruction. If it’s a light switch, fantastic.”

“If not?” you asked, looking up into the darkness.

“We’ll deal with that if we have to. Press the button, Spock.”

Immediately, almost as if a bolt of powerful lightening, your surroundings were brightly illuminated. The intensity of the light forced you to squeeze your eyes shut, setting your chin on your shoulder so your hair could cover your face. “Fuck, is there a dimmer?”

“I think we should thank our luck that there’s light at all,” James told you. “Open your eyes slowly.”

You complied to the best of your abilities and straightened your posture so you could face where his voice came from. You had to blink a few times to help your eyes adjust.

When you were able to make out the figures before you, you saw a pair of men. One taller than the other, one in a yellow shirt and one in a blue shirt— both wore Starfleet insignias and both had their eyes on you. The one in blue was visibly Vulcan with skin undertoned with green and ears pointed while the other was visibly human— you assumed Commander Spock was the Vulcan and the man in command yellow was James T. Kirk.

They watched you with the same curiosity you thought must have been watching them with, the three of you silent until you cleared your throat again. You offered them a small smile. “Could one of you untie me?”

They looked at each other, then back at you. James nodded at Spock and crossed his arms over his chest as his First Officer undid your restraints. “You’re human.”

“Yeah,” you said with a single nod as the rope around your waist hit the ground. “My name’s (Y/N).”

“Why are you on this planet, (Y/N)?”

“I’m on summer holiday from Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. I’m here as a tourist.” The lie came out naturally. You were proud.

His blue eyes narrowed as he looked over you again with enough intensity to make you want to disappear. His eyes teamed with his full lips, sharp jaw, dirty blonde hair, and thick eyebrows made you feel too small, too inadequate to be in his presence. “Not much to see on this planet.”

The rope from your ankles fell to the ground. You wet your lips. “My boyfriend’s family was relocated a while ago for diplomatic purposes— I came with him to visit. Although I guess he’s my ex-boyfriend now.”

“Did he,” James began slowly, clearing his throat before continuing, “Did he do this to you?”

“No, no— of course not,” you said quickly, shaking your head vigorously before pain radiated from your ribcage and you were forced to stop. You couldn’t let James have the wrong idea about your fictitious boyfriend. “I had some time before the Earth-bound ship left and decided to explore.” You shrugged and smiled a bit. “See the parts of this city I missed while crying alone in my hotel room.”

A single eyebrow of his rose. “How did you wind up tied to a chair, battered and bruised, in a dark warehouse?”

“I found something while in one of the old shipyards. It looked nice, so I decided to keep it and maybe run some tests when I got back to Earth,” you told him, looking around said warehouse before meeting his gaze again. “Judging by my current circumstance, I don’t think I was supposed to find it, let alone keep it.”

He nodded at Spock once the rope fell from your wrists and the Vulcan stepped to stand beside him. “What is it?”

“Don’t know— it’s made of metal, has some ancient writing covering the front and back. I’m in my final year of studying xenolinguistics and I still couldn’t make any of it out.”

Spock spoke this time. “Do you know its location?”

“They took it back, so no,” you lied as you took a breath that sent a cold shock up your spine.

James looked over at Spock who was whispering something to him. You couldn’t hear most of it aside from the word “artifact” and heard only the portion of James’ reply in which he asked, “Should we trust that?”

You cleared your throat once more to gain their attention. You looked between both and rotated your wrists to regain some blood flow, taking note of the large gash on your left forearm. “The shipyard’s owned by some mongrel with a whole mob of creatures just like him. I’m lucky they only beat me— they said they were going to do much worse when they came back.”

James frowned. “When are they coming back?”

You shrugged and your hand immediately flew up to your right side, a loud wince escaping your lips. “I don’t— I don’t know. I was unconscious for a while, so probably soon.”

They looked at one another again and whispered a few sentences back and forth. They were taking too much time. You knew at any moment the door would burst open and the team of creatures looking for their stolen property would return only to beat you further and probably find the artifact in the pocket of your boot. Meaning the longer it took, the less likely your payment would be— all that trouble would thereby be futile.

Your impatience kicked in again. “I know how all of this sounds. You don’t have to trust me— just don’t leave me here to die.” You sighed through encircled lips. “This isn’t— I don’t want to go out like this. There’s a campus ID card in the left pocket of my jacket if you want to confirm my identity and I promise to answer any question you ask. Just, please, get me out of here.”

James, not bothering to look at Spock again, pulled a communicator from his belt. He flipped it open and tuned it. “Scotty, it’s Jim. Three to beam up directly to the medbay.”

“Aye, sir,” the voice on the other end answered— a Scottish accent was laced through his words. “I’m picking up two signals that are good to go, but I cannae distinguish what the third is.”

“It’s a cadet— in a chair and injured,” James, or Jim, stated. He looked at you then. “If I help you, will you be able to stand?”

You nodded slowly, taking the hand he held out to you and letting him bear the majority of your weight. “Thank you,” you said softly when he looked down at you.

“Not a problem,” he said as he smiled slightly while gold rings surrounded the three of you and you felt weightless.

#jim kirk #jim kirk imagine #kirk imagine #jim kirk x reader #star trek #star trek imagine #ok that's enough tags for now #goodnight #spock #spock imagine #i forgot about him #luh u spock

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bobbygryffin · 4 years ago

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@PARAGONeLite

The Way: The study of psychology begins with The study of functions. The four functions are intellectual, feeling, instinctive & moving(respiratory, circulatory, digestive & progressive systems, respectively). There are two parts in man; one almost all imagined, the other almost all real. These parts are essence & personality. Essence must dominate personality. Essence IS the functions & propensities of centers, & personality is the center's contents. The four states of consciousness are sleep, waking, self-consciousness (higher emotional state) & objective consciousness (higher mental state). The beginning of the work is self-study; the observation of the states & functions in one's self & their dependence & independence upon each other. The obstacles to this work are lying(insomuch as one believes he is speaking the truth), identification, consideration(identifying with people), imagination(lying to oneself) & negative emotions. Negative emotions are of no true worth. They must be overcome if development is to progress at all. The natural man may have as many "I's" as he has moments. Nothing in him is permanent. As expounded in Tertium Organum, Ouspensky's "multiple I's" seem to be fluents of fluxions, both properties of the temporal or 4th Dimensional Body. This Form is the Linga-Sharîra. This begs the question, "Do maladies in 3rd-Dimensional Space potentially 'bear their roots' in 4th, 5th, 6th, 1st, their own or still other dimensional spaces? Is the building of Heaven's Gates & the demolition of Hell's the aim of spiritual warfare?" with the use, application & God-led mastery of these higher & other dimensional bodies? #GAMETIME, #Cannon!!! True psychology has several definitions: the study of man's possible evolution, self-study & the study of lying. Man is a machine; the "machine of God": Deus ex Machina. In the "image of God", or Imago DEI. There are 7 levels of manhood, the bottom 3 of which we most often & only interact with in ordinary life. Man #1 is physical man, one whose moving or instinctive center(s) dominate the others. Man #2 is a man who is ruled by his feeling center. Man #3's intellectual center reigns in him. Man #4 differs from those others, in that he has gained a permanent center of gravity. His centers are more balanced than other men as a result of contact with school culture. No man is born such. He has made this progress through the proper implementation of psychology. Man #5 is one who has attained unity & self-consciousness. He has evolved past the state of ordinary man. He has gained many powers & faculties & has activated his higher emotional center. Man #6 is a man who has gained objective consciousness. He has activated the higher intellectual center, & developed even more abilities beyond our comprehension. Man #7 is a man who has "attained all that a man can attain". "He has permanent 'I' & free will", can control all states consciousness, can lose nothing & is "immortal within the limits of the solar system". Each of these men has his own art, religion, philosophy, science, etc. The Fourth Way is of dispassion & is nonviolent, perhaps summed up in loving God with all one's heart, soul, mind & strength, & loving one's neighbor as oneself. I believe opa.narise is the music of Man #7. Massive Attack that of Man #5. I believe Man #4 is "fleeing from the wrath to come" & is being shown by the Father "vanity of vanities, ALL IS VANITY". Man #5 has repented in truth & been given a new heart. Man #6 is transformed by the daily renewing of his mind(Romans 12:2). Man #7 has "finished the race" & been awarded a crown of righteousness & eternal life, bearing all fruits of the Spirit. I believe I am Man #4. Psychology is also the study of a new language. Centers can do the work of other centers, but inefficiently. Dreams are the result of the moving center working as the intellectual center. The intellectual does the work of the moving center when learning new movements. The wrong work of centers causes many problems & wastes much energy. The study of the wrong work of centers is important for development, as is their right work. There are two influences which man is under: A & B. Influence A is of life & has to do with life, while influence B is the diluted teaching from "schools". Men who are drawn only to influence A will not desire to evolve, but men who take to the mixings of influence B into A may develop a center of personality that desires to evolve, or a magnetic center. This center may lead to a school. Influence C is of a school itself. So, the work is self-study. The tool is self-observation. The goal is self-remembrance. The intellectual center is 30,000 times slower than the moving & instinctive centers, & the emotional center is 30,000 times faster than they. Each of the intellectual, moving & instinctive centers have a positive & negative part as part of their make-up, but negative emotions are artificial & unfruitful. They are neither noble or noteworthy. They are the result of self-pity, entitlement & cognitive dissonance. In truth, there are only pleasant or unpleasant emotions. Truly positive emotions cannot become negative. Negative emotions are learned, & unforntunately are unavoidable in mechanical life. Negative emotions must be transmuted into finer, positive ones. This process produces definite alchemical effects in the body. Each center has 3 parts: the mechanical, intellectual & emotional. The mechanical part is "formatory" & binary, the intellectual requires will & attention to operate & the emotional merely attention. One must observe these centers of centers, the most important of which is the intellectual center of the instinctive center, for by this, one can discern the inner workings of his organism & even guide them, propelling one's evolution forward. Man has two attributes: knowledge & being. The balance between the two is understanding. Being supercedes knowledge. They must grow in tandem, or they cannot at all. Some part of the work must be set upon direct action to gain volition of the intellectual center of each center. What is the balance between essence & personality? The key to self-study is to realize one does NOT remember himself. In being conscious of this fact, one can begin to remember himself. This work may produce certain as yet unknown alchemical effects. Perhaps even leading to one becoming "Oro superior", an exulted Man, Adam Kadmon. Each function's center has three subdivisions, which correspond to the functions themselves. These are mechanical, emotional & intellectual. All processes of the mechanical center require no attention, occuring on their own. Emotional centers of centers require only attention. Intellectual centers require will & attention. The magnetic center is best seated in the intellectual part of the emotional center. Most humans think only with the mechanical part of the intellectual center. Operating in the intellectual part of centers is the best way to cultivate consciousness. Self-remembrance is key. The emotional center is most important for self-development. Negative emotions are a great hinderance. Through the emotional center, one may awaken higher moral sensibilities, which themselves may lead to consciousness. All in all, a school in the only vital tie to possible evolution. The Institute of Hermetic Philosophy is a school. I love Rina. I think.

SOLVE YOUR FATHER'S SHOOTING!!!

Is this:

Tree my greatest source of oxygen? How would I have discerned such?

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networkingdefinition · 5 years ago

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Love Affirmations for Attracting Your Soul Mate

Official Website: Love Affirmations for Attracting Your Soul Mate

Love affirmations are a best way to “tune on your own in” to the objective of attracting love as well as love into your life. If so, you’ll be eased to understand that utilizing positive affirmations can actually help you to create that vibe … they may even hold the trick to attracting your soul companion. You’ll desire to develop your very own simple and also efficient love affirmations if you get delighted just imagining this concept.

– First-, -Get-Specific-.

Prior to you start composing your love affirmations for attracting your true love, you have to obtain details about 2 points:. 1) The sort of individual you want to bring in. 2) The type of individual you should end up being to attract them. Frequently, people produce positive affirmations regarding something that they desire, yet never bother making the adjustments in themselves that are needed in order to obtain and also maintain what they desire. This is especially important when it involves your close relationships. The first thing you need to do is make a listing of specific qualities that you’re trying to find in an individual, and then ask on your own this concern:. That would certainly I need to come to be in order to attract this sort of person and also build a meaningful connection with them? The solution to this question is the foundation whereupon you’re mosting likely to develop your love affirmations …

– Second-, -Build-Your-Affirmations-.

Your favorable affirmations for attracting your true love require to have 4 points alike: they need to be in the initial person; in existing tense; focused on the attributes you’re looking for; as well as most notably, concentrated on the characteristics you’re going to integrate in order to attract the love of your life. If you’re looking for somebody that is confident and also enthusiastic, your love affirmations could look like this:. ” As a positive and enthusiastic guy, I naturally attract confident and enthusiastic women into my life.”. ” My confidence and assertiveness draws in certain and also assertive females.”. ” I bring in ambitious ladies since I’m an enthusiastic man.”. Currently, notification that every one of these love affirmations has 4 points alike:. 1) They’re done in the present strained. 2) They’re all in the very first individual. 3) They all include the characteristics you’re looking for a day. 4) They all include the qualities you require to attract them. Currently, in case you’re thinking that you are lying to yourself in specifying such things, below’s something vital to keep in mind about exactly how affirmations work: love affirmations, like any other affirmations, job to condition your subconscious mind to believe things that you are consistently telling it. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort which a person feels when their beliefs and their activities are not lined up. This pain creates an individual to transform their activities in order to make them consistent with their ideas. And that’s accomplished through the last action …

– Third-, -Rehearse-Your-Positive-Affirmations-.

Vocally rehearse them in front of the mirror in the morning and in the night once you have your positive love affirmations created. This is where the magic really starts occurring … as well as it will certainly take about 21 days for points to actually grab energy. What you’ll start to observe is that your innovative creativity, your subconscious mind and also your beliefs will start aligning the pieces of your life which are needed for you to begin attracting your true love. – Good-luck-!

Love affirmations are a perfect method to “tune yourself in” to the goal of bring in love as well as love right into your life. This is due to the fact that affirmations have the power to change your regular internal discussion and to set up brain wave patterns which will certainly offer you that “good vibe” that you really feel when you’re around particular individuals. If so, you’ll be soothed to understand that making use of favorable affirmations can really aid you to establish that vibe … they might even hold the secret to attracting your heart friend. As well frequently, individuals create favorable affirmations regarding something that they desire, yet never ever trouble making the adjustments in themselves that are called for in order to maintain and get what they want. When you have your positive love affirmations composed, vocally rehearse them in front of the mirror in the early morning and also in the night.

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'y', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_y').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_y img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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equitiesstocks · 5 years ago

Text

Love Affirmations for Attracting Your Soul Mate

Official Website: Love Affirmations for Attracting Your Soul Mate

– First-, -Get-Specific-.

– Second-, -Build-Your-Affirmations-.

– Third-, -Rehearse-Your-Positive-Affirmations-.

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

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republicstandard · 6 years ago

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A Letter to my Leftist Daughter in Law...

Dear Daughter-In-Law,

I have been sitting on this for a while to make sure that what I say is what I want to say so here goes.

You say you know what cognitive dissonance is but the question is where do you apply it. That to my mind is very important. So by application maybe not.

You have stated that you do not have the time to do exhaustive research and I would agree with that, but you do get information somewhere. Do you know the efficacy of your aggregating source(s) or, more to the point, their sources, and do you take the time to eliminate their built-in bias? Yes, I have mine.

I do not feel that you need to research facts and figures as I believe that the truth lies before you and you need only uncover it. So my real question is; are you ready to get at the real truth and the fundamental question is: What is the primal drive for all living things here on earth and if in other places I suspect there also. It is also the drive behind all of the news of today.

The answer is reproduction. More to the point, reproduction of one's self. From the smallest of life forms to us, it drives all activity. Our conscious brains may seem to change that in some cases, but it drives everyone and everything. For this to happen, it takes resources and every living and maybe not living things like prions seek those resources and in sufficient abundance to make reproduction happen. This includes the successful growth and maturity of this effort so that it may continue to reproduce.

There are many schemes to this effort but again with only one result. Now here comes the problem and that is that resources are relatively scarce even when there is a seeming abundance. A petri dish full of nourishment and one amoeba will quickly prove my point. A single dish or single Earth; no difference. When you seek resources and claim them, there are less available for others. Add to this when you consume others may not have the opportunity to reproduce. So when the farmer plows the ground, a rabbit may lose habitat. The horror to the rabbit (though probably not recognized) is that genes get eliminated from the gene pool. With humans who are inherently slow reproducers (relatively few with an extended period to maturity), it is generally recognized.

Humans are driven to many types of behavior, but how much of all of this effort is towards reproduction, I would say most of it. So, now to you; what drove you to seek a fertility clinic when you knew that there is a surplus of humans on this planet and that the surplus is the cause many problems that are only to get worse. If you answer this question honestly, then you know that you have already read the answer in the preceding statements. If you solve the problem with a close approximation of my response, then continue, if no, then no production of facts will ever allow you comfort with my view of the world and you need to find something else to read.

If you are still with me, here we go. If you went through an exhaustive drill to pregnancy and you understand the primal drive that brought forth your genetic heritage how do you relate this act on your part to the rest of the world?

Humans as rational beings invest tremendous effort into bringing their offspring to maturity and reproductive status. They must protect, educate and provide a cultural belief system.

Out there, everywhere is the competition. Who is the competition? The competition is everyone (and everything) who wants to displace your efforts with theirs. So a woman who travels 1000 miles for resources is a strong competitor who may displace you as a competitor and certainly will if you voluntarily give up your resources. You may not see resources as scarce but they are limited especially if it is your hard-won resources that are going to her with no or little effort on her part.

Gauging on our past conversations, I would guess that you would say there are resources available for all. Well maybe in the short run absent an economic collapse or world war (both likely short term events based on the 80-year war cycle that is historically accurate). But consider the exponential growth of the world population. How long before there are so many people that there are not enough resources for your child or grandchildren or great-grandchildren if not then when, so the answer has to be NO. There are not enough resources for anything less than a stable population – longer term.

So, why would you strengthen your competitors' chances by diminishing your own? In this, your emotive brain is your enemy. You have been culturally conditioned to feel sorry for and companionate to those you think are in need. The real questions here who conditioned you (mom and dad were also conditioned, not to be seen as the source) and what were their motives and goals. Along with that, should you not look to your own and family needs first – the primal need.

The answer to the question is relatively simple. Those who would be superior to you, gather more resources to their efforts and otherwise displace you on the ladder of reproductive success (eliminate your genes from the pool). The previous answer requires you to think hard and identify those who originated your ideas and where they reside in relation to you.

Remember the great drivers for primal success: Reproductive superiority, Resource superiority and Power Over/Control of the competitors.

So the second answer is also before you, but you must answer it yourself, and I know you have enough information right now to answer the question. However, in considering the answer, remember that real altruism probably does not exist except in the case of people who know that they cannot reproduce. That it is also likely limited to immediate family or tribe.

So, let us look at a few competitive strategies. Abortion, in the 2012-2014 period in New York State there were approximately 280,000 abortions and 265,000 live births. Now states are making legal or contemplating making lawful what is effectively infanticide.

Competition gone.

Telling women that they can have it all. College, jobs, and family all of it successfully. However when you are working long hours and commuting there is no time for all of it. So how many women are 40+ and fertility is gone. What this does is eliminate the brightest and most capable.

Completion eliminated.

Grooming permanently eliminates competition.

FYI, according to the latest FBI statistics 68% of white women raped are by Black men. While Hispanics and Semitic (Moslems) and counted as white the estimated percentage rises to over 80%. Asians don’t show up. Rapes of black women by white men – no category, as some of the past years had none reported.

War eliminates the best male breeding prospects along with other destruction.

Social causes, convincing all to have no or one child. China, Japan, and Western Europe are under this problem, along with Whites in this country. I was convinced of this and did not realize I was being suckered by those who would eliminate me from the gene pool. So two children instead of the needed three. All of my customers in rich bitch land had three or more, so you see that they knew more than I did.

Add to all of this the encouragement of becoming a nonproducer. Gays, Lesbians, Rabid Feminists, and those suffering from the false syndrome of "there are no good/decent men out there." Men are driven by female behavior, so if a guy is rejected continuously, he walks away - forever. Men in most corporations are terrified of the women they meet and work with. They see them as both competitors, and career destroyers as any hint or complaint will see them out. Men also know that before a judge they will get no justice as the system is biased. Besides, there are enough bar hookups to keep a so-called desirable male occupied. So the desirable male sexes his brains out but never reproduces. After all who wants to be a meal ticket for a less than desirable female (reverse hypergamy). Dating sites on both sides of the coin are filled with deceivers. Believe me in the truth that no male will seek out a woman with someone else’s child. I saw a study in England where there is a 24 hour DNA test that some 20% of husbands found that the child of their marriage was not theirs and in one area the number is 30%. All of the above destroys the competition and drives all men away.

Men also know that the more partners a woman has the more likely divorce, or break up. And the worse a marriage partner.

Denigration of marriage, religion, social convention, and traditional roles. The unwed mothers of the welfare state birth and raise feral children. I watched a long video produced by a Black group that talked about how even when a man wanted to be part of raising a child and contributing to that child they are more often than not slapped with a restraining order to stay away.

Hypergamy, as currently practiced where instead of marrying up the woman breeds up and seeks a beta male as a provider for her bastard. Goodearnest men are rejected by those who consciously or unconsciously practice this. No man wants to be deceived into raising another’s child. Men sense this and walk away. So when this is encouraged women write their ticket to misery.

Good news is not easy to find.

So now we come to the potential support or your ability to follow the prime directive your family and tribe. Your family and clan whether you wish to acknowledge it or not are as follows: white, primarily western European and mostly Christian. The current location is North America. Parts of our family are here for over 100 years, not founders but long enough.

Now there is a movement long in coming to dispose you of your right to exist and follow the prime directive. It is couched in political terms like socialism, globalism companionate something or other, but in truth, it is part of a war against your existence.

Rhodesia was the first battle, whites did not fight in racial terms and lost trying to reason and negotiate. South Africa the same thing. Now Rhodesians, South Africans and lately added White Namibians are added to the coming genocide. I suspect the Paks and Indians will soon be added.

The battle for Europe is fully engaged. Russia and most of Eastern Europe have said no to the invaders. Some others like Denmark and Italy are fighting back. England is on the cusp, no Brexit and they are done. Brexit and there is a possibility that they may prevail. The rest of Europe is being destroyed by white politicians who have bought into the elitist tripe.

Which brings me to the promoters of this war against white humanity. It is the elitists who think that they will survive and rule if only they can eliminate the only group capable of competing – white people. So we have endless wars to bleed out the whites and weaken them and breed the intelligence back to sub 80 IQ.

In their case the effort to keep their genetic material pure goes as follows. Exclusive communities, private secondary schools, select colleges, social engagements you will never know about, exclusive resorts, private medicine, start halfway up the corporate ladder, mentors and all of the rest. They keep themselves away from you and you never even know that they exist. On the reproductive front matchups are carefully engineered.

So, when you feel sorry for the invaders you are enabling the genocide of our family and tribe. The invaders are not here to help you they are here to supplant you. So everything you do for them is a thing against you. Do you not have a right to exist hard won and fought for? Do you not want your family line to go on? Do you want to be driven to the level that brought about the Yellow Vests in France? The elites crushed the middle class that lived outside the metropolitan areas and brought them to misery and poverty, and they are revolting in their manner, but it is too little and too late. In truth for them, anything short of a civil war will not be enough.

So when you ask me why I say build the wall, throw the invaders out (men, women, children all 50,000,000 of them) you now know why. I am selfish for me, you and my grandchildren. I want us to go on and our tribe.

I am getting too old to defend you from what I will guarantee is coming.

from Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine http://bit.ly/2GDV1lp via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Republic Standard | Conservative Thought & Culture Magazine

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