#the fact that it IS feminine and he treats it that way is thematically SO SO SO SO SO GOOD

[uten4]

Gordeau has a reluctance to use his claw unless necessary. There's basis in the story for it being a pride or fairness thing-- he loves fighting, but he dislikes group-fighting. He finds it embarrassing and awkward to look like someone who would need to rely on someone else's strength to win battles. Similarly, the claw requires no physical strength to use, has the magical effect of paralyzing his opponent, and he can just stand far away and activate it. He doesn't want to do that; he wants a fair fight!

BUT HERE'S THE OTHER THING.

His "claw" doesn't look like quite like a claw. Most popular human-looking male characters who have claws have them as a metal appendage (like Wolverine for example) or if they're nails they at least look clearly animal-like due to a fur texture or something around them.

But Gordeau just has a normal hand, with very long, purple nails. He basically has a manicure.

This builds on his character trait of having a patriarchal masculinity complex. I haven't posted about this properly yet but in the original Japanese, Gordeau has several instances of accusing men of being gay for him and acting annoyed about it, even though it's obvious (to us at least) that they're not gay and he simply wants to assert his own masculinity and straightness. That's probably the most obvious sign of his toxic masculinity, but I'm sure you could find other ones even in the English.

For instance, the fact that he's so fixated on his perceived weakness that allowed Roger to be killed by someone else, and the fact that even though he knows Wagner didn't do anything wrong, he needs to find her and beat her up anyway, just to feel like he's strong and managed to do something, anything. His reaction to emotional turmoil and self-dissatisfaction isn't to think it over carefully and act on it logically, and it certainly isn't to work on himself in a holistic way. It's to go beat the shit out of the girl who upstaged him.

SO to have such a feminine-looking weapon which he's always hiding in his pocket... It's a representation of his masculinity complex that is BAKED INTO HIS CHARACTER DESIGN! It would help him a whole lot to sometimes not do these things the hypermasculine way (avoiding the pretty purple fingernails), but he can't let himself do that. And as a result it disadvantages him in battles, just like it disadvantages him and those around him in his everyday life to not be able to focus his energy inwards (rather than toxically blaming others and internally hating himself for not being strong enough to kill his friend), and to not be able to tell his friends straight-up that he cares about them (rather than being "masculinely" stoic and letting Hilda become a Re-birth).

A little hint of "femininity" is this man's most powerful weapon, but only when he gives it a chance.

[youthofpandas]

Emil Sinclair & Frau Eva

A consistent problem I’ve run into while discussing the novel Demian is the rejection of Emil’s relationship with Eva in favor and treating it as if it is nothing but a tool to analyze the relationship that he shares with Demian. People treat his feelings towards Eva as fake, imagined, and entirely as misplaced affections that he holds towards Demian and become quite defensive when told that isn’t the case in the actual text of the book. I’m no stranger to interpreting things in ways that don’t quite match canon, especially when they make me uncomfortable, and it is clear to me that discomfort or even disgust is how a lot of people view this relationship as given the age gap between them and the general preference for seeing Emil with Demian instead of Eva. I have no problems with that aspect of this little debate, discomfort is more than allowed and I’m not writing this to force people into liking the idea of their relationship.

What I am writing this for, and what I do find a problem with, is the way that people attempt to force an erasure of this aspect of the book and will accuse people of misreading the novel when acknowledging its existence. To say that someone does not understand the book or Emil’s character because they made reference to his love for Eva or his general affinity for mature women just seems to signal that there is a confusion of what the book actually says. Emil does love Eva and it is not misplaced love for Demian. From the moment he dreams of her to the moment Demian passes a kiss from his mother to Emil, Emil loves her. (That doesn’t mean he doesn’t also love Demian, by the way, but this post/essay isn’t about that, so I won’t be dwelling on the feelings he holds for Demian).

This is not going to be a complete, in-depth look at her character and role in the story and will instead simply focus on the actual relationship Emil has with her throughout the story and the ways that the novel sets up their relationship and makes it explicitly clear what sort of relationship exists between them. I feel it has been a massive disservice to her character to view her as nothing more than a woman getting in the way of a relationship or as if all of the quite beautiful descriptions of her person and effect on Emil are inconsequential and/or imagined, so I hope that this does some justice to Hesse’s work.

All quotes taken from the translation of the novel done by W. J. Strachan.

To begin, I will actually be talking about Max Demian himself, because Eva can be understood through son as he acts as a bit of a proto-Eva in Emil's life. They have a similar appearance, as it is often noted, they both bear the ‘sign’, they are deeply linked to Emil’s personal growth and relationship with the world, so to get a full grasp of his relationship with Eva it is also important to look at how he sees Demian and the key overlaps between them. So, let's look at one of the descriptions Emil writes of his dear friend.

This remarkable boy seemed older than he looked; he did not in fact seem like a boy at all. He moved among us more childish members of the school strangely mature, like a man, or rather a gentleman. He was not popular; he took no part in games, still less in the general rough and tumble and it was only the firm self-confident tone he adapted in his attitude towards the masters that won him favour with the other boys. He was called Max Demian.

Note how it focuses on his age and maturity, even though he is literally a couple years older than Emil, spiritually, thematically, he is older than even that. He is like a man, an adult. Here's a similar passage from another moment where Emil describes his friend:

I saw Demian's face and remarked that it was not a boy's face but a man's and then I saw, or rather became aware, that it was not really the face of a man either; it had something different about it, almost a feminine element. And for the time being his face seemed neither masculine nor childish, neither old nor young but a hundred years old, almost timeless and bearing the mark of other periods of history than our own.

Once again we see that he is more than a child, Demian is aged, grown, but not old nor young. In contrast to Emil who is youthful and immature, someone who has not yet begun his true journey. Here we also see a hint at there being a feminine element to Demian. Demian represents not just the fact that he is mature and capable of leading Emil through the spiritual journey he so longs for, but that he is not limited to just one world. He is not stuck in the dichotomy of light and dark, of masculine and feminine, of age and youth, he is both and neither.

Continuing the subject of maturity, we can take a look at the moment we share with Alfons Beck, a relationship that Emil describes with "we seemed to have a perfect understanding of each other" and, while a character who does not stay around long, acts as a mentor in the way he teaches Emil to grow up when it concerns sexuality and affections. It isn't long after this moment that Emil begins his venture into the world of darkness and almost loses himself to indulgence and excess of drinking and what have you, but it is clear from the later scenes with Knauer that Emil retains this personal growth surrounding sex and desire.

I heard amazing things; things I would not have thought possible were trotted out as part of everyday reality and seemed quite normal. Alfons Beck had already gained experience of women in his less than eighteen years of life. He had learned, for example, that girls were only out for flirtation and attention, which was all very agreeable but not the real thing. There was more chance of that with mature women. They were much more reasonable. You could talk with Frau Jaggelt who kept the stationer's shop, and a book could not contain all the various goings-on behind her counter. I sat there spell-bound and stupefied. Certainly I could never have loved Frau Jaggelt - but nevertheless it was terrific. There seemed to be hidden springs as least for my seniors, whose existence had never suspected. It all had a false ring about it, a more ordinary and insignificant flavour than love should have, in my opinion, but at all events it was life and adventure and I was sitting next to someone who had actually experienced it and to whom it seemed a normal thing.

By the end of this talk, Emil feels like a boy listening to a man. He understands that in this area he is behind, yet still is drawn to it. Alfons Beck is here, quite clearly, setting up and building upon the themes of maturity, especially that of women. This is very important seeing how it is one of the first times he is so explicit about his feelings regarding sexuality, and it is not by accident that this conversation regards mature, older women.

Another element here is that Emil points out that he finds more passing encounters, attraction without the intent to form a significant relationship, to be not founded in love - or at least the type of love he desires. I point this out because it establishes the idea that the types of relationships and attraction Emil is most interested in are ones that are serious and lasting. Quick, temporary connections excite him, intrigue him, because of course they do, he is a young man away from home and free to explore the world for the first time in his life and he has wants and desires. But, as we will see in his actions towards Eva later on, what he is most interested in a more true kind of love.

I'm going to hop straight to the painting next, as it is the real start of his relationship with Eva. There's a lot with the painting that I don't believe needs to be quoted directly so I've chosen a description of his realization of who it reminds him of.

Then one morning when I awoke from one of these dreams, I suddenly recognized it. It looked so fantastically familiar and seemed to call out my name. It appeared to know me as a mother, as if its eyes had been fixed on me all my life. I stared at the picture with beating heart, the close, brown hair, the half-feminine mouth, the strong forehead with its strange brightness-which it had assumed of its own accord-and I realized that my recognition, my rediscovery and knowledge of it were becoming more and more a reality.

He says after this that it resembles Demian, it was not his features exactly but there is no mistaking the fact that it was ultimately Demian's face. A motherly, matured woman version of Demian. This will later be seen to be the same description he gives Eva, even beyond the fact that he explicitly states that it is her as I'll quote later.

The effects this painting have on him are, as we all know, quite extreme and trigger many contradictory feelings within him. It is obvious that he worships it, he puts it on the wall in a way he can look at the face first thing in the morning, the same way one would look at a lover in bed upon waking up, he cries over it and clearly experiences intense lust and attraction towards the figure depicted in it. He also finds these feelings towards it revolting and terrifying, and would sometimes call it a devil and a murderer. At this point in the story, he still has lingering shame for these sorts of desires, even if he has begun to embrace them in some ways, he hasn’t fully overcome his belief that the world is separated in two halves and as a result views many things in extremes of both the most beautiful parts of the world of the light and the worst of the tempting world of darkness.

But for full context on this painting, we also need to look at the dream in which its subject appeared in, the most important dream of his life that he dreamed of night after night.

This dream, the most important and enduring of my life, followed this pattern: I was on my way to my parents' home and over the main entrance the heraldic bird gleamed gold on an azure ground. My mother walked towards me but when I entered and she was about to kiss me, it was no longer she but a form I had never set eyes on, tall and strong with a look of Max Demian and my painted portrait - yet it was somehow different and despite the robust frame, very feminine. The form drew me to itself and enveloped me in a deep, shuddering embrace. My feelings were a mixture of ecstasy and horror, the embrace was at once an act of worship and a crime. The form that embraced me had something about it of both my mother and my friend Demian and also this embrace violated every sense of religious awe, yet it was bliss. Sometimes I awoke out of this dream with a feeling of ecstasy, sometimes in mortal fear and with a tortured conscience as if I had committed some terrible sin.

Here we see Emil's most important dream: one where he is filled with ecstasy when embracing a figure that is a sort of halfway point between his mother and his friend. I'm going to share another passage from later, when he sees Frau Eva for the first time since childhood.

Sensing my interest in them, she took me into the house, looked out a leather album and showed me a photograph of Demian's mother. I could hardly remember her but now that I had the small photograph before me my heart stood still. It was the picture of my dreams. There she was, the tall, almost masculine figure, looking like her son, but with maternal traits, traits of severity and deep passion, beautiful and alluring, beautiful and unapproachable, daimon and mother, fate and lover. There was no mistaking her! The discovery that my dream image existed on this earth affected me like some fantastic miracle! So there was a woman who looked like that, who bore the features of my destiny! Where was she? Where? And she was Demian's mother!

So, this figure he dreams about, the figure he paints? It is Frau Eva. And we see here that, much like how her son is described as feminine, she is described as masculine. She also is inherently full of contrasts: daimon and mother, beautiful and unapproachable. Frau Eva and Demian follow the same pattern of being opposing natures who exist in one, the deconstruction of the binary and embracing something that is less easy to categorize. They embody the same ideals as Abraxas, of Emil's dreams.

Speaking of Abraxas and Frau Eva, here is his proper introduction to her as an adult.

With eyes moistened with tears I gazed at my painting, absorbed in my reflections. Then my glance dropped. Under the picture of the bird in the opened door stood a tall woman in a dark dress. It was she. I was unable to utter a word. From a face that resembled her son's, timeless and ageless and full of inward strength, the beautiful, dignified woman gave me a friendly smile. Her gaze was fulfillment, her greeting a homecoming. Silently I stretched out my hands towards her. She took them both in her warm. firm hands. "You are Sinclair. I recognized you at once. Welcome!" Her voice was deep and warm. I drank it up like sweet wine. And now I looked up and into her quiet face, the black unfathomable eyes, at her fresh, ripe lips, the open, queenly brow that bore the 'sign.' "How glad I am!" I said and kissed her hands. "I believe I have been on my way here the whole of my life and now I have reached home at last." She gave a motherly smile.

Eva makes her entrance quite literally alongside the painting of Abraxas Emil painted not long after he put a name to the face of the painting he made of her. He describes this as reaching home, incredibly important to him after he has been feeling so outcast from the home he grew up in. And he loves her deep voice, her quiet face that resembles her son's, and her friendly, motherly smile.

Eva and Abraxas, the god he worships and adores, are linked beings. This all builds on to the Demian and Cain, Eva and Eve connections. Eve the mother of both Cain the murderer and Abel the victim, Eve the woman born of God who spoke to the Devil and committed the first sin (which to bearer's of the Sign was surely not a sin), is now properly linked to Abraxas and it all feeds quite well into a similar theme. Eva is mother and she is home.

Eva is the origin of Demian, an embodiment of his ideals with even more maturity, she created the one who created Emil in a manner of speaking. She truly represents a world that is not divided into light and darkness, the very world that Emil chases after and wishes to believe in. It only makes sense, then, that he would find her so attractive and want her, desire her. By this point, so late into the novel, Emil is quite grown up, literally and spiritually, compared to the young, lost boy he was at the start. He has accepted sexual desires, accepted the world is complex and rejected many of the beliefs he held as a child, and he wants Eva the way any grown man might.

But, of course as we established earlier, Emil wants more than a passing encounter fueled by lust. He wants a real kind of love. And when he has gotten to know her and understand her as a real person rather than just a figure in his dreams, he writes the following, detailed, heavily romantic, filled with yearning and love passage:

On many occasions I believed that it was not really just her as a person, whom I yearned for with all my being, but that she existed as an outward symbol of my inner self and her sole purpose was to lead me more deeply into myself. Things she said often sounded like replies from my unconscious mind to burning questions which tormented me. There were other moments when as I sat beside her I was consumed with sensual desire and kissed objects which she had touched. And little by little sensual and transcendental love, reality and symbol mingled together. As I thought about her in my room at home in tranquil absorption, I felt her hand in mine and her lips touching my lips. Or I would be conscious of her presence, look into her face, speak with her and hear her voice, not knowing whether she was real or a dream. I began to realize how one can be possessed of a lasting and immortal love. I would gain knowledge of a new religion from my reading, and it would give me the same feeling as a kiss from Eva. She stroked my hair and smiled with all her warm affection, and I had the same feeling as when I took a step forward in knowledge of my inner self. Her person embraced everything that was significant and fateful for me. She could be transformed into each one of my thoughts and each of my thoughts could be transformed into her.

This paragraph here always sticks with me, the way his love transcends reality. It mirrors the way that Demian's existence is questionably real, that the moments he shared with the Demian family are somewhere fundamentally between imagined and real. Does she kiss him or is it imagined? It hardly matters, because reality and symbol are mixing together and becoming one and the same. These are his manifestations, these are his calls to the world to make his love true. And that love is so true in his heart he can hardly tell when it is real.

Also I just want to point out how cute he is when he's in love... kissing the things that belong to her, linking his learning and his growth as a person to her. It is similar to his behavior with Beatrice, in that this woman is helping inspire him to improve upon himself, but now it is not the desperate clutch to an unknown figure as a guiding light he can never speak to, it is a woman who pulls answers from his own mind, a woman who exists as a symbol of his inner self. Frau Eva, again just like Demian, is an extension of Emil's self and soul.

Alright, so I have now established Emil's feelings towards Frau Eva, but what of her feelings towards him? This following passage comes immediately after the one before

When I arrived back at H-- I stayed away from her for two days in order to savour this security and independence from her physical presence. I had dreams too in which my union with her was consummated in a symbolic act. She was a star and I was a star on my way to her, and we met and mutually attracted, remained together and circled round each other blissfully in all eternity to the accompaniment of the music of the spheres. I told her this dream on my first visit on returning. "It is a lovely dream," she said quietly, "Make it true!"

Emil tells her that he had a dream of the two of them in which they consummated their union (which, just to make this abundantly clear, means having sex. there is no getting around that fact) through a symbolic act of entwining around each other for all of eternity and Frau Eva tells him to make it true. She tells him, explicitly, that this dream he has of them making love is lovely and that he should work on making it happen in reality. This is of course a further extension of her trying to help Emil manifest a kind of mutual attraction between them through his extended longing and deep, honest desires. While she does not currently reciprocate the romantic affections he has for her, she is clear about being open to the idea of that one day being the case.

Let's also look at this bit, which is mostly about Sinclair's affections towards her but provides a bit of a conclusion to this theme of manifesting her love.

One day this foreboding came over me with such force that my love for Eva flared up suddenly and caused me great pain. My God, what a short time I had left; soon I should no longer be seeing her, no longer hearing her good, assured step about the house, no longer finding her flowers on my table! And what had I achieved? I had luxuriated in dreams and comfort instead of winning her, instead of struggling for her and clasping her to me forever! Everything she had told me about true love came back to me, a kindred stirring, admonitory messages, and as many gentle promises and words of encouragement, too, perhaps; and what had I made out of it all? Nothing. I stood in the middle of the room, summoned my whole conscious being and thought of Eva. I wanted to gather all the power of my soul in order to make her aware of my love and attract her to me. She must come; she must long for my embrace, my kisses must tremble on her ripe lips.

Emil is realizing that despite her encouragements and his continued love for her, he has never truly spent the energy required to make his love reciprocated. These things, him wanting her be his forever, him wanting to kiss her so much that he shakes, to attract her to him so that she desires him in the same way that he does her... those are the things Eva wanted him to manifest. Now, this also makes it clear that for as much time as they spent together (the book mentions that Max was out for long stretches of time, leaving Emil alone with Eva for the majority of his days there), they did not get to do any of the things he wanted so passionately AND that she had still be encouraging him to manifest this.

And does she get this message? Yes! She does, only there is The War starting and so she does not go herself to him, but she does tell him that she heard his appeal and to do it again if he should ever need her.

Now, let's talk about the ending of the book, about the kiss.

"And there is something else. Frau Eva said that if things ever went badly with you, I was to pass on a kiss from her which she gave me … Close your eyes, Sinclair." I closed my eyes in obedience. I felt the brush of a kiss on my lips on which there was a bead of blood that never seemed to diminish. Then I fell asleep.

Demian (who is made clear to be a hallucination or a purely spiritual being at this moment, regardless of what you believe his regular appearances are that of a real actual boy or a reflection of Emil's self or a mixture of the two. in this scene he is a dream-like being existing from Emil's mind here to help conclude the narrative) passes on a kiss that his mother gave to him. Eva wanted to give this kiss to Emil after all of those appeals he made for her love, and uses Demian as a vessel to give this to him.

Now I am absolutely not here to deny any sort of queerness in this moment, in the fact that it is not Eva herself who appears but rather Max. What I am trying to say is that Eva and Max are linked people, especially in the mind of Emil, and therefore it makes thematic sense for the boy who had introduced him to the world of the enlightened and to the woman he would come to love to be here in this quiet, scary moment and pass on a message from his mother. I am trying to say that denying that this kiss is even the slightest bit from Eva and 100% Max's moment is ignoring her entire character and a large, large portion of Emil's.

I could’ve gone on for longer, I skipped over the story she tells Emil of the man in love with a star and how that star eventually came to love him in return and how Frau Eva is his star. His last description of her before leaving for the war is about the myriad of stars glowing in the night sky and it is quite romantic, but I feel getting into the star symbolism in Demian would double the length of this and her feelings towards him cannot get any clearer than the part where she encourages consummating their union, which itself is still linked to the star story. This was all done taking passages I remembered off the top of my head and not a full reread of the book, but I feel like this does more than enough to explain my point.

In conclusion: never tell me again that I misunderstood the 1919 novel Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth by Hermann Hesse because I joked about how Emil is into MILFs. He is.

[vampelune]

kamukomahina gender/body headcanons

a bit of a ramble about my body, gender, and general appearance headcanons for them bcuz someone sent me a curiouscat prompting this 3k words of hyperfixation nonsense

Komaeda:

- He has a naturally lithe body, with a thin waist, broad shoulders and hips, which give him an hourglass. and a rather andrognyous body, which is "lucky" for him, because I hc him as nonbinary and gender non-conforming

- Gender-wise, as I said, I think he's nonbinary. Usually I do view Nagito as AMAB but I indulge in transmasc Nagito from time to time depending on my preference and how much I wish to uh, well, project, lol. But either way I think he would use he/they pronouns in a western sense. In japanese, however, they don't use third person pronouns that other people refer to them with, and in canon he uses the first person pronoun "boku", which is a "soft" masculine pronoun, in comparison to the "hard" masculine pronoun, “ore” (which Hajime uses btw!) which fits quite nicely, in my opinion! Also, in Japanese, you can be 'fluid' with your first person pronouns depending on the situation, so I think he could use more neutral or feminine pronouns should he desire it, too, to play on his gender non-conformity.

- Komaeda is very secure in his gender, regardless of being AMAB or AFAB. He does not care about stigma, or discrimination, he does not care about being "accepted" by broader society. Broader society is sort of meaningless to him, the average person and their ideas about gender and presentation and effeminity mean NOTHING to him. Whether or not a random person the street genders him correctly or treats him with respect is sort of, pointless? Because to him, most ordinary people are pointless nobodies. Their thoughts do not matter to him. I think he is still prone to insecurity, however, when around his "betters" but I just struggle to think he would degrade himself in regards to gender. to him, it's the least of his problems. what he cares about is hope and talent. He could dress femininely or wear makeup or straight up crossdress and not mind it, really. He thinks people would find a problem with it are the problem, because why does it even matter? It speaks to the way Komaeda is detached from societal norms & "normal" people, he did not grow up in normal circumstances, so he doesn't interact with the world normally by any means. he can mask and act normally to the best of his ability, often unintentionally?, but he simply does not fit into broader society and doesn't seek to.

- Komaeda loses weight really easily, and doesn't gain weight that well. This is mainly due to his many illnesses but also the medications he's been put on. He has a low appetite and burns weight rather easily, even though I headcanon that he eats like garbage (mainly junk food & takeout, since he obviously cannot cook). This makes him overall, health wise, not very healthy, and stick thin because of it. A stiff breeze could knock him over, tbh.

- He has a lot of faded scars, self-inflicted or not.

- Pre-despair (in HPA) he is fairly healthy but still lithe, and progressively his body deteriorates through his 2 years of hopes peak before the Tragedy begins.

- During the Tragedy itself, his body is at it's worst. he is almost nothing but bone at times, barely kept together by a need to live so he can see hope triumph. His weight fluctuates but he's very unhealthy. He's not anorexic or on death's door, but he's not well off, either.

- After being put into the neo world program, right after waking up, he's very, very thin and gaunt. he was in a pod on feeding tubs for an indiscernible but at least probably a month's worth of time? So he's just very weak, like he could collapse if he moves too quickly.

- But a while after waking, he goes into remission, and starts to gain more healthy habits due to being rehabilitated and cared for by Hinata, and gains some weight, finally at a healthy, normal weight. I still think he would struggle with putting on too much weight, but I am slightly fond of the idea that he gets a bit of healthy pudge after a while. To him, it's so foreign being healthy, that he honestly think something's wrong with him at first.

Hinata:

- Hinata has a very... average body, true to form. His hips and waist aren't too pronounced but he has a loosely "hourglass" shape, too, just not as exaggerated as Komaeda's in comparison.

- Gender-wise, I am EXTREMELY fond of transmasc Hinata. While I think I portray AMAB Hinata more than transmasc Hinata (in art and writing), I still firmly prefer transmasc Hinata. The reason I think portray otherwise more is just out of comfortability, but I've been getting better at comfortably portraying FTM Hinata. I have some reasons I prefer it and think you can extrapolate it from canon, but let's get into that

- Hinata, in my eyes, has an arc and story that fits perfectly into him just. Being trans. His desire to be someone else, someone better, someone he can proud of, and the way he overcompensates for himself and has an extreme inferiority complex would easily lend to him having similar feelings about his gender. To me, Hinata is a trans man who overperforms his masculinity out of insecurity and a need to pass. I see him as someone who would strictly use "he/him" in a western sense, which is lended to by his use of the "ore" pronoun in canon, which is almost hypermasculine.

- Even if he were AMAB, I think it still works, I think he's still someone who's insecure and tries to assert himself more strongly and therefore performs masculinity in a way to appear more confident than he is.

(side note: I actually read a bit about queerness in Japan and how it relates to gender performance and the use of pronouns, and read a bit about how queer women in japan tend to use "boku" and "ore" to perform masculinity, which I find neat. “Ore” was also sometimes used exclusively to show anger and dominance, which is why it's categorized as a "rough" pronoun. I think Japanese language, gender, and expression, and how those all relate to one another, are extremely interesting and if you get the time you should read about it lol)

- Body-wise, pre-despair, I think Hinata would. not have top surgery, obviously. I think he has a fairly average but leaning a little on the hefty side chest (pre-op) and binds it, hence the '91 cm' (but also he still has 91 cm post-op because bazongas). I also just think he leans on the "twunk" side of things at this point, not buff but not stick thin or without muscle, just kind of average with average strength and all, though I think Hinata would've tried to do sports and stuff to find his talent so he's in shape :)

- My personal, kind of amusing, but also kind of... thematical? Headcanon, is that during the Kamukura project, he also underwent gender transition. to be honest, while it may not make sense in modern Japan, I think we can suspend our disbelief for fiction, and also make the argument that Hinata's "transition" into Kamukura CAN be read, in some part, as relatable or at least familiar to the trans experience. Iit is not out of the realm of possibility, either, to assume that because many bits of society in Danganronpa are advanced (specifically science, is extremely ahead of our understanding, almost sci-fi like at times) certain attitudes about gender and sexuality can be smoothed over more in a Japanese context.

(side note: I also think that science-wise, we can suspend our disbelief, and assume that top surgery and bottom surgery are much more advanced in this universe, given the almost unbelievable levels of science in Danganronpa, such as memory wipe, mind control, completely realistic virtual simulation, um literally everything about Kamukura which is body modification and brain modification to an extreme, etc. I think it's kind of fitting within these to assume that... Hinata/Kamukura could just, gain a functioning penis, lol)

Kamukura:

- Kamukura would have a. "Perfect" body. it's stated, I'm pretty sure, that they modified not only his brain but his body, because he needs to be able to perform every talent under their belt with ease, and his strength, instincts, technique, are all superhuman. So it's clear to me he'd have a buff body. toned muscles and all. He wouldn't really feel a need to keep it up, though, but I think since they're very... artificial (basically fucking steroids?) they wouldn't fade from a lack of keep-up.

- Kamukura also rarely ever is injured, but when he does, his body heals rather fast and can care for himself adequately, because again, his body is modified to a point of almost inhumanity.

- Gender wise, Kamukura genuinely does not care. however, I am not one to think that Kamukura is "a different person" from Hinata, rather, he is separate from Hinata, but an extension of Hinata as well, proven that he experiences some of his emotions even if subconsciously and without understanding them. he isn't a different personality or person developed in Hinata's body, but a very traumatizing, repressed, and manipulated version of Hinata given a new name, with memories repressed. He's like Theseus's ship in human form---if you get rid of everything that makes someone themselves and replace it, bit by bit, is it the same person? Technically, yes, but... truly? Who knows. 

Because of this, I think Kamukura would have a leaning toward masculine gender performance (in canon, in fact, he uses the soft masculine pronoun "boku" in stead of "ore" like Hinata) BUT I think he is still very nonbinary. In a western sense, i think he would use he/they pronouns, but not really care if someone mistook him for a woman, I suppose.

- His appearance, unironically, is very nonbinary or "he/they" to me because he's wearing a suit, the archetypal form of masculinity, but has extremely long hair, which is considered feminine, and speaks softly (dully). Of course, the bishounen "pretty boy" appearance isn't uncommon or considered less masculine in japan, I think, but there is still a different between soft masculinity and rough masculinity in japan, which lends itself to being interpreted sort of gender non-conforming by western audiences :)

- Kamukura, due to his apathy, struggles with self-maintaining, but as we all probably know i am extremely attached to KamuKoma and thus headcanon that Servant helps him, sort of like a royal servant would royalty in the old days, take care of himself by bathing him, brushing his hair out, grooming him, etc. partially out of duty, partially out of appreciation for Kamukura's body, and partially out of maintaining his sort of "perfect" look since Kamukura, especially post-Junko death, is perceived widely by the public as the new leader of the ultimate despair, even if he is ambivalent to such a title.

Post-DR3 Hinata/Kamukura combined:

As I rambled on about previously, I don't think that Kamukura and Hinata are separate people or personality, I really dislike the interpretation that they are like a "split personality" or operate like DID, because they do not "form" like DID, but also in canon, are not portrayed as separate people.

In post-dr3, Hinata instead says that he is both of them, because he is. Kamukura is Hinata, always was, but had been given a new, false identity, had been stripped of his previous self, his memories, his personality, and crafted into something new. but that did not "split" his brain into two people. It simply repressed who he once was, and made him someone he now was. But when Kamukura regains his memories, his past self, through the means of the new world program by restoring his own memories after SDR2 concludes and he wakes up, as well as doing the same for everyone else, he decides to be "Hajime Hinata" who he always was, but carrying and shouldering the weight of what "Izuru Kamukura" had been, become, and done. Hinata *is* Kamukura, he answers for Kamukura's wrongdoings, his crimes, as something he had done as a different person who's mind operated differently, due to being artificially suppressed, modified, into an apathetic tool for the scientists who made him, and later and aimless, bored individual who simply sought meaning he did not have in the unknown of what despair would be at it's climax. And if hope could overcome it.

As such, I think, when Hinata's self is brought back into the mix, and he now deals with Kamukura's apathy and boredom in part, but much less consuming and much less often, I think hinata is less staunchly "masculine", does not overperform it anymore, and is trying to understand what his past means to him, what his present is, and what his future will be. I think that Hinata would still primarily use he/him (or still use "ore" in Japanese, as it's also a means of his personality, which is a bit rough around the edges and blunt), but be more ambivalent to rigid gender expression, still finding comfort and idealness in masculinity, but not be made dysphoric or feel frightened, uncomfortable, with non-comformity or anything like that. being boyish, masculine, is what he enjoys, but he's comfortable in it now, doesn't need to prove himself or overperform it. He can explore nonconformity without feeling like his gender or masculinity is at threat, even if it's not his preference outright.

Body-wise, I think it's safe to say he retains Kamukura's muscle and all, but Kamukura didn't put much effort into the everyday machinations of being a human being in general, and Hinata is much more fond of food than him now, eats more often, and I enjoy the idea that he gains a little pudge and has a kind of "dad bod" almost, post-DR3? lol.

Both for Hinata and Kamukura I don't see their bodies as “bara” or overly buff, masculine, but a kind of comfortable middle ground between twunk and hunk, lmao. I think they're also averagely hairy, not overly so, very lightly. kind of well groomed, and all. Hinata, pre-despair, put not so much effort into his appearance but still some, especially in trying to pass. (In fact I think his hair cut looks like a home job, all choppy and stuff, which fits him in my opinion, something done by his own hands even if messy and imperfect, he still prefers to be in control of it. also fits the trans headcanon tehe).

Izuru put very little if any effort into himself, only the bare minimum necessary to function, but servant helped him upkeep it to a perfect standard. Hinata, post-dr3 now, finds himself putting you know, an average amount of care into himself and his body, enough to be healthy, but not overly critical and conscious of himself.

Komaeda i have always seen as someone who takes a good deal of care about himself, merely if to alleviate the "disgust" of his appearance and body, by practically preening himself. He is someone who is good at cleaning and seems to appreciate clean and well kept spaces, so I think he would have a similar attitude toward himself. even if he is insecure, and of course, struggles with mental health and may slip at times in his routine in keeping himself well-kept, I think he still maintains an appearance for the most part, at least in his later years (teen to young adult). An argument can be made that he cared less in his adolescence because he had much more apathy about the world, but when he gave himself a purpose with hope and talent, I think he would care for himself a little better, even if his was spiralling mentally.

His hair is always washed, it is just very curly and prone to mess, so it often looks like perpetual bedhead, even when he combs and brushes it. His skin is soft even if a little worn by his tendency for accidents & injury, it's still soft and almost luckily so, and he takes pride in moisturizing and cleaning himself. His skin is a little sickly, still, and I think that despite having blemishes, scars, etc. Komaeda manages to look pretty in a strange way, not conventionally beautiful, but almost ethereal? He's just *pretty*, there's no way to explain it, he is nice to look at even with all his "flaws" and imperfections. Even when he's sickly and bony, even when his cheeks are gaunt or his hands shaky and weak, when his hair is a tangled mess or his clothes are dirty, he's nice to look at in a way that's nonconventional, and it's sort of mesmerizing.

Hinata I think is very average but also in a way that's nice to look at it. He's not ground-breaking hot or conventionally attractive, he has a good body, a nice face, and hair you could play with a little if you wanted. I think what's appealing about him is his normalcy, he's not trying too hard or "gifted" gene wise, but he's just kinda nice to look at, he's enjoyable to be around, an understanding person, or at least tries to be even when he fails, and despite having flaws, insecurities, blunt, he is someone you're drawn to because he's one of those people that's just, easy to talk to? An emotional anchor, almost. The kind of guy everyone kind of knows and has talked to at least once, even if you're not friends with him personally, not because he's cool or popular or anything, but because he's a normal dude who's easy to trust and talk to.

Kamukura, on the other hand, is intimidating, appearance wise and personality wise. he looks, strange, anything but normal, his eyes are red and his hair is this dark cloud that envelops him. His face may still be that plain one Hinata has but faces can be changed by the surrounding attributes as well as expression and such is true for him, with his apathetic and cold expression as well as otherwordly characteristics, he comes off as much more beautiful in a dark way, kind of? In a way that's intimidating or a little daunting, but he's still very beautiful. mesmerizing.

okay, thats my ramble. ty.

[serpentstole]

Luciferian Challenge: Day 1

Who is Lucifer (or your Luciferian figure) and who are they to you? Feel free to include multiple answers if you have multiple figures.

This one is going to be a long answer, so I’m putting it under a cut for the sake of my followers. My thoughts on both halves of the question are below!

I do not feel equipped to say who Lucifer is. Much like the mantle of Satan, I think it’s a name or title that can be applied to a number of figures, whether they be spirit, deity, or demon; the Lucifer I know and build a relationship with might not even be the same entity that others approached, and given how illusive any concrete information on figures who have gone by that name can be, I think that’s fair. 

There’s Lucifer, the Roman personification of the Morningstar, which has led some dubiously informed people to claim that Lucifer is a Roman god. There’s Lucifer as demon emperor in the Grand Grimoire, among others. There’s the Lucifer we associate with the rebellion of Paradise Lost, or the Serpent in Eden. There’s whatever’s going on with Gnostic Luciferians. Lucifer and Sophia being the material vs spiritual aspects of the same being is one take I’ve seen (unless I’m badly misremembering Jeremy Christner’s writing) though I believe for others he simply replaces Jesus or other figures as the gnostic saviour striving for mankind’s freedom through enlightenment. 

I cannot begin to say if these are aspects of the same entity or completely separate beings, nor do I think it’s my place to try and make those claims. I think some of them are also going to be influenced somewhat by the attitudes or preconceptions of the individual... not so much Lucifer’s nature itself, but how they view it. 

There are also theories that link Lucifer to the ancient Canaanite god Attar, who was also Attar to the Aramaic and Ugarit people, Athtar in South Arabia, Astar to to the Aksum, Ashtar to the Moab, and if those names are starting to sound familiar it’s because he was is seen as the same general deity as the goddes Istar to the Mesopotamians (and Astarte by proxy when Hellenized), in the same way that the sun god Shamash is related to the goddess Shams. 

As you can probably tell, that is a subject that interests me greatly, and I’ve collected a number of papers and mythologies to study in relation to it. Even then I refrain from saying that my Lucifer and the god Attar are synonymous. We will likely never know how deep the connection goes, and while there are all manner of wonderful coincidences and similarities between the mythology surrounding Attar and our later perception of Lucifer, I don’t imagine there will come a day where I’ll be able to treat these theories as definitive, proven fact.  

And of course, there’s the fact that Lucifer doesn’t actually appear in the bible, as I’ve previously explained, which can complicate things. Some people do speculate that the language used in Isaiah was inspired by the story of Attar trying and failing to claim the throne of Baal after his demise, and it would be incredibly interesting to me if a passage about a Babylonian king that was misinterpreted as being about Lucifer the fallen angel was inspired by a god who suffered a similar failure brought about by his pride. However, as I previously mentioned, we may never know for certain.

To say who Lucifer is to me is still evolving, and may always be. Due to all the aforementioned reasons and variations, I think his nature can be hard to pin down, and may be intentionally elusive. I sometimes see him as very mercurial for that reason. 

The traits I associate with him are probably very similar to those that others do: a pursuit of knowledge and rejection of dogma, striving to better oneself and one’s situation, an adversarial and rebellious nature, and an emphasis on freedom (sometimes through enlightenment, sometimes more literal). In my experience, even those who take an atheistic approach to Luciferianism still use Lucifer as an archetype or symbol of these shared ideals.

Like many, the Satan of Paradise Lost is a major influence for me despite my tendency to affectionately dub it Biblical Fanfiction, and everything that’s come after can also resonate with my understanding and appreciation of him. His possible connection to Attar is one that’s interested me for some time and something I want to develop further, if only for the sake of my own Unverified Personal Gnosis. I wish to do more reading on Istar for similar reasons. I consider the Serpent in Eden to be an extension or emissary of Lucifer, rather than them being one in the same, though I have no text to point to for this beyond my own tastes and interpretations. 

Given my interest in Orphism, I’m also very interested to see if my research into Phanes will influence my view of Lucifer, as I have always felt that Lucifer has a strong feminine aspect, and Phanes is an epicene deity with a name that means to shine and an association with snakes. I am deeply allergic to the tendency to say “the god in this pantheon is secretly just this other god” since I find it reductive, and it usually doesn’t pay attention to the concept of syncretism or how these cultures might have shared and spread ideas. However, the similarities between the more traditionally Luciferian side of my beliefs and the Orphic tinged Greek side of my religious practices have a good deal of thematic overlap. 

And finally, to quote Jack Spicer’s fantastic poem for the umpteenth time on this blog…Imagine Lucifer. An angel without angelness. A poem that has revised itself out of sound, imagine, rhyme, concordance. Absent all of God spoke of, present everything a poem is. The law I say, the Law Is? What is Lucifer. An emperor with no clothes, no skin, no flesh, no heart. 

An emperor!

---

(This was already long enough without mentioning Azazel and Eve, so I’ve linked to recent posts explaining their roles in my practice if you click on their names. They’ll probably get more of a mention in future prompts where it’s appropriate.)

[onewomancitadel]

Do you think knightfall would work just as well if it were genderbent? Or more, or less? I personally wouldn't enjoy it as much, I think, but that would be less for valid reasons and more for the fact that my type is Vicious, Villainous, Voluptuous Women, and Cinder perfectly meets the desired criteria.

Not for the given characterisation. Male character stepping on a female character would be extremely squicky for me, for instance. It doesn't have nearly as much eroticism, and in the case of Cinder she doesn't even really hurt him. That's the playfulness I like, I suppose. Like, isn't she the one who doesn't pull her punches? I mean, there's the genuine physical element that he's bigger than her, but of course she's the Maiden and has all the power here... so it's got interesting stuff going on.

I won't speak to role reversal, because that's actually another instance... but as they are in canon, if their genders were swapped (gentle terminology here, you know what I mean with them) it would be bad. I wouldn't ship it, probably. Everything I like about Knightfall, and the way the characters play with gender, and the elements of it which are really feminine driven are only present for me because Cinder's a villainess protagonist Byronic heroine and Jaune is canonically pretty and a healer and he's funny and sweet and also a little dark, just a bit.

I'm actually like, always for enemies to lovers, but it has to be done properly. Like, there are instances where female characters are carried off or restrained, but the reason I'm okay with them is because in those instances, they demonstrate spiritual acuity which overcomes physical circumstances, and thereby overpower their captor. There has to be a playfulness and recognition of the power dynamics for it to be palatable for me - the fun part is when you think they've been captured, but it's really the reverse. The fun part with Cinder stepping on Jaune in that whole sequence is that all of her attention is on him, and in a way, like, he doesn't realise... he's already protected them, by accident, and without even dying, and then, well, you know how it goes - he’s not hurt, but someone else is... it’s so twisted up!

I am, admittedly, not quite one for the archetype you mention - my archetype is Dark, Brooding and Sad, Angry and also a little Crazy, Plus Scheming, and getting that archetypical treat in a female character is one of my greatest delights.

Kissy kiss :*

I love all of her feminine anger, and all of her unique characterisation and complexity usually only afforded to male villains. Of course, I think that's why most of fandom hates her, but they hate the conflicted male villains too, so what can you do.

So yes... Knightfall is just like, so unique. It's a very very unique ship as it is, and I think appropriately fits a lot of gender themes in R/WBY, which is why I believe it to be a thematically appropriate ship too.

If they were gender-swapped, there'd have to be like, too much work to fix it and keep it interesting. Also honestly, I've already shipped so many male villain/female heroine ships that Knightfall's so much fun and different. Never going to knock those - ever, or any other combination of genders - but Knightfall is just so special.

Fun to think about, thank you. <3 <3 <3

[hopeymchope]

Unpopular opinion: I really don’t like Kokichi I get that he’s complex and he did so much in the endgame and objectively, he’s a great well written character, but he rubbed me all the wrong ways for way to long that it was kinda too late to redeem him for me.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree | ah shit, here we go again

I had to save this one a bit so I could really go into it, because I strongly agree with your distaste for Kokichi. He rubbed me the wrong way too - so many times and in so many ways, he’s there acting wantonly cruel and hateful to everyone. He’s introduced with a scene where he’s treating Kiibo as a sub-human, upsetting Kiibo greatly on the exact topic he already can tell Kiibo is most senstivie about - that’s literally his INTRO SCENE, and that says a LOT about the kind of shitheel Kokichi enjoys being.

However, as for whether he’s a great and well-written character... I dunno. I both agree and disagree.

I’ve written before about how I hate him (check me out - directly linking to a post that has gotten me hate messages, death threats and active trolls before! Gosh I’m such a rebel but seriously please don’t send me death threats I’m unstable enough as it is). Honestly, I feel very vindicated by the fact that last week saw someone else on Tumblr saying “Man, I fell in love with fandom Kokichi, but now that I’m playing the game myself, canon Kokichi is murdering that love.” That is funny as hell and it says SO MUCH

But my disagreement is that... well, is he a well-written character? I mean... he’s... inconsistent, that’s for sure. There are elements of his writing that I just don’t find very believable.

Sometimes he is. Sometimes he’s great. He’s incredibly good at pushing the buttons of the characters to make them disgusted with him. His manipulations are well-handled. He make a very powerful antagonist - I’d argue he’s a greater “enemy” to the cast than the main “mastermind” of V3. (The real mastermind of V3 isn’t really an individual, I’d argue.) He instills real rage in me with how he knows exactly how to find what our sympathetic cast members are sensitive about and then use it to tear them down and make them feel like shit.

Hell, I guess that means he’s exactly what John Mulaney says about teenage boys. (“Check out that high-waisted man; he got feminine hips!”)

However, his ability to always, ALWAYS know exactly what happened in any case from the moment a trial begins, and (even moreso) his ability to always be a 100% foolproof lie detector no matter how straight-faced the lie is delivered? Those are basically bullshit. They make him seem like magic. Even when a case is absurdly convoluted or someone says a lie in a completely believable way, Magical Ouma can see through all, proving a better detective than anyone in the cast (and then use the fact that he sees through all to... dick with everybody for no reason). These powers of his are just annoying plot device that aren’t justified for me in any believable way.

But I guess that’s limited to trial-writing. Because outside of the trials, I’m not sure if those same things still apply? For example: When Kaede suggests that maybe Monokuma ISN’T dead in the first chapter, he is immediately suspicious and accuses her of wanting the killing game to happen.

There are two possibilities at that moment:

He legitimately is unable to see that Kaede is sincere in her concern and thinks she’s lying, making his “flawless lie detection” skill not function properly outside of trials for some unknown reason.

He knows she’s sincere but just wants to hurt her and discredit her and make her feel shitty because he’s an asshole.

Both are equally plausible for the character, sadly. (It’s also worth noting that this is one of many moments where no one has died so there’s no way he’s already formulated his elaborate ‘end the killing game’ plan, but he’s still acting like a Grade-A dick in spite of that.)

He is, ultimately, a super-effective troll who reaps exactly what he sews. His entire gambit to end the killing game by taking on the blame and hiding his true intentions doesn’t work in the end, but it DOES result in multiple deaths because so many people hate him and want him dead as a result of his own actions. So when you consider that the game (and the series) celebrates cooperation and trust as the only true route to success, he’s thematically screwed and going to never be more than a thorn in the side of the cast; I’d argue he’s more effectively damaging than either Komaeda or Togami were in their games. Someone so accepting and embracing of distrust that he’d try to hurt as many people as possible so he can put up a front and end the game all on his own? He was kinda doomed from the get-go.

I think you’re completely justified in finding his distasteful. Canon Kokichi is a deeply toxic person to be around, unfortunately. Fanon Kokichi, on the other hand, is just kind of a fun-loving goof who lies in the silliest of ways?

Maaaaybe this is an attempt to imagine what he’d be like outside of the stress of being trapped with his students like in V3. On the other hand, I’d also ssume a huge chunk of the fandom never experienced the game firsthand without a filter, opting instead to experience it through someone else’s playthrough that contained an amateur translation as that person went along. And as I’ve seen time and time again, watching a DR playthrough that’s still in japanese wildly affects how people see the characters and events of these games, because that person doing the amateur on-the-fly translation is absolutely going to serve as a warping lens that distorts the events and characters through their own interpretation and because of unfiltered cultural divides.

[boglog]

Soooo I'm gna get mauled here but tumblr's unquestioning praise of Killing Eve as a progressive, prestige show about womanhood and sexuality is... looking like a problem to me.

This is not to shame people who watch the show or even to guilt people out of enjoying it, especially seeing as I've done both, (unabashedly admiring Phoebe Waller Bridge's distinctly quirky humour and Fiona Shaw's deliveries). This is to say, though, that the Killing Eve franchise is something to think more critically about before we give it more praise, more money. We can be critical of media we like, not limit activism to media criticism and not feel that media criticism in some way robs us of something. In my opinion.

[tw for discussions on sex, rape, pedophilia, violence, death, q slur]

[[more]] <---more --!>

Firstly the generation-wide age gap: Eve's original portrayal in the book is 24, exactly two years Villanelle's senior so the only logical excuse for it be added in the adaptation was bc the crew were desperate for big name actors. And while I love Sandra Oh, it was not worth it to create bizarre sexual tension between a forty year old and a twenty year old. This isn't even the first time Jodie Comer was the on-screen love interest to a middle aged person (see also Dr Foster), which is doubly messed up. Ideally replace Oh with an actor Comer's peer or replace Comer w someone Oh's age. It's not that hard.

Second, the age gap is exasperated by Villanelle's "mental age" which is far below twenty. Honestly the fact that both these problems were added into the adaptation by female actor/writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge makes me wna scream. Book!Villanelle was appropriately mature enough—emotionally, psychologically, intellectually—to warrant her high-ranking status as an assassin. Her behaviour, while still devoid of empathy, manages to be a believable portrayal of an upper-class 20 yr o behaving like a thirty year-old. Phoebe Waller-Bridge (and co)'s reinterpretation has Villanelle being a hyperfeminine, materialist, petty teenager that slowly spirals into impulsive outbursts and a scene where she's crawling around a suburb in a onesie. How do we reconcile Villanelle's lust and her love of violence with this childish persona? How is Eve's attraction to her justified? How do ppl think that's hot? It's comedic shock value flirting with homophobia, pedophilia, and the Born Sexy Yesterday trope. Not to mention the violent little girl trope. Despite all of Luke Jennings' flaws, he at least did not do That and my God is the bar low.

Both book and show heavily overplay Villanelle's sexual promiscuity to the point of being voyeuristic. Villanelle's sociopathy is largely an excuse for her violence, sex life, and lack of empathy to be over-the-top, even comedic, especially in the show adaptation. Villanelle's only true human connection is her infatuation with her language teacher, Anna. Which, rather than explore the show's pedophilic undertones, only serves to justify it via backstory.

The show does handle this way worse though: through Anna's dialogue, we're assured that the attraction was mutual ("She seduced me.") and that they've had sex. Which at the time would be when Oxana (Oksana) was in her late teens as she was still a high school student under Anna's tutelage. In the show, Villanelle murders Anna's husband partially out of revenge and possibly bc she took Anna's joke too literally. Book!Villanelle meanwhile castrates Anna's rapist. The former attempts to draw parallels between Eve and Anna, Nico and Anna's husband, treating the story like a melodramatic Shakespearean love triangle while once more reminding us of Villanelle's immature social skills. Which, again, serves to justify age gap lust. Meanwhile, the book attempts to question Villanelle's warped attempts at human connection via vignettes of violent shock value, it's marginally better than the adaptation but in the overall scheme of things I'm not sure Jennings makes enough commentary on violence against women to warrant this.

Finally sexuality in the franchise is a big question mark. Eve and Villanelle's attraction to each other is explained simply by obsession and lust intermingled with violence. Villanelle and Anna's relationship devolves into much the same in the show. Eve and Nico have a relatively stable yet dispassionate relationship meanwhile Bill is implied to be bisexual with an open marriage, though this is never seen and he's murdered shortly after this confession. A Chinese politician has a hospital fetish and, in the book, a right-wing fascist has a kin/kink for Eva Braun which leads us to a highly disturbing transphobic scene involving an exploding dildo. Notably, Villanelle's on/off frenemy romance with Lara (who is... you know... her age) in the book is cut and replaced Nadia, whom she basically kills as soon as possible.

The relationship between Oxana and Lara is explored more in the book (and it's post-season 1 sequel) though ultimately, Lara dies and Villanelle can't feel remorse let alone love. Both book and show have Villanelle hooking up with various people but the book goes into painstaking detail about her sexual promiscuity being motivated by her desire to manipulate peole. Clearly, Jennings shows that Villanelle's sex life includes all genders yet with little regard for her intimacy and level of attraction for anyone. She is "bisexual" (or "lesbian") only insofar as actual physical sex is concerned. Emotionally, she is attracted to no one. Which let me just say is a capital y Yikes.

And the cherry on top of course is that the show is getting accused of queerbating due to the heavy marketing a nd WLW undertones despite Sandra Oh's denial of any romance btwn her and Jodie Comer's character. 🙄

All of these play heavily into existing homophobic stereotypes. The predatory lesbian. The hypersexual bisexual. The manipulative, hedonistic, childish, lustful qu**rs, who, having foresaken family values to screw anything and everything, are not emotionally mature enough to be first class citizens. From watching the show and reading the book, the writers play with these "dark" themes with little introspection to how these relate historically to LGBT politics, how their use of sociopathy and age gaps has political and sociological significance. There's little real deconstruction or reflection on gender, sexuality, violence etc to be considered satirical and these aspects are largely thrown in for entertainment's sake.

Jennings and Waller-Bridge have both, respectively, made attempts at thematic critiques of wealth and gender. Neither of which in my opinion saw its theme through enough to be satirical. There's something to be said about how PWB converted Jennings' anti-materialist subtext into "empowering" aspects of literally weaponised feminity (i.e. all of Villanelle's weapons are high-end women's products) almost as a critique of cultural dismissal of femininity and it's association with materialism. PWB seemed to want to create a comedic, empoweringly gendered, spy movie but this theme of weaponised femininity nose dives at Villanelle's immaturity not to mention its superficiality. Weaponised femininity directed at whom? The show seems much more fascinated with Villanelle herself than the fact that she's employed by The Twelve, which obscures the importance of who Villanelle is killing, who Villanelle exerts weaponised feminity against and why. Not to mention the concept of the feral, empowered or weaponised woman has always been positively attributed to white women, which to make a long story short is not new or progressive or empowering.

I'm not too puritanical to understand the use of taboo themes in satire. This is not satire. KE's appeal seems to be the sexualisation of its deuteragonists at the expense of nuanced conversations about sex, violence, and gender. PWB was way more fixated on comedy than I think she should have been, and both creators rely most on shock value than anything else in how they construct what they believe be the most entertaining and well-structured narrative. There's little evidence that they regard the responsibility they have in portraying bisexual women in positions of power, in age gap relationships or as violent characters in a political espionage thriller. This is not satire this is a very eclectic comedy with clumsy homophobic caricatures at best.

Lastly, there are essays on why leftist fixation on "representation" is a symptom of our digital hyperreality and at best will never truly address material problems faced by real people. Big ass metas on tumblr is not necessarily activism and as I'm sure you know the revolution will not be televised. But should show runners and co be rewarded for so called groundbreaking dark comedy that in fact seems to support harmful stereotypes? And goddamnit am I tired of people unironically romanticising Villanelle and Eve. Thank you for listening to my TEDtalk.

[ganymedesclock]

A question about your Lance meta - you keep calling Lance the heart of Voltron but isn't Allura herself the heart of Voltron? Like Lance himself calls her the heart in show

You don’t think it’s a titch ironic that someone would call another person the heart while providing them with emotional certainty and support?

To be a bit more direct, what Lance is explicitly saying is this is the role of the Blue Paladin. He prefaces it by saying “The Blue Lion chose you for a reason” implying everything that follows is what Blue seeks in a paladin.

My personal take on the whole Lion choices is that the first paladin they chose reflects their virtues the most clearly. Thus, with the information that the Blue Paladin is the heart of the team, it makes sense that Lance, who was Blue’s first choice, embodies those virtues to the core.

Furthermore, I would argue that Allura is essential to Voltron, but she’s not the heart. Not the way that’s usually conceptualized in ensemble shows. So let’s talk character roles for a second.

Simply enough, protagonists have a tendency to come in sets of five, and, they fall roughly along these lines.

There’s the Leader. This is usually the main character. When you see people assuming the Black Paladin is the most/only important character, that’s because they’re falling into this cognitive trap. The Leader is virtually always the face of the team and the final decision maker, the one who is thematically opposed to the main villain, and usually the show is named after them.

The leader has a Right Hand. Virtually always, a dynamic force who thematically opposes the Leader. If the Leader is fiery, passionate, and tactless, the Right Hand will be a cool, aloof perfectionist. If the Leader is compassionate, the Right Hand is callous. They’re set up as a significant foil. This sense of opposition basically means that they usually walk a fine line between the Leader’s best friend and worst enemy.

Then, there’s the Brains. While the Leader and Right Hand are usually more flexible, able to accommodate a wide variety of characters, Brains is a bit more rigid- they are, in short, the intellectual, the cognitive, They-Who-Exposit. Usually fits some manner of nerd stereotype and is often framed as lacking in “street smarts” or social skills.

The second skill-defined character is the Brawn. Sometimes stoic and honorable, sometimes bloodthirsty and brash. Usually the physically largest member of the team and defined by strength. Sometimes set up as an opposition to the Brains as someone with more “practical” skills versus the erudite manner of Brains.

And then, of course, the Heart. The Heart is the compassionate, emotional, nurturing member of the team. If there’s a healer, it’s probably them. While this sounds wonderful... it’s worth noting the Heart is one of the most chronically disrespected roles in the hero team. Virtually always, if you have a hero team with only one girl, she’s the Heart. There’s often a point made that the Heart is weaker than all of their associates, has less cool abilities, and struggles with feeling useless or not being able to keep up.

Keep in mind that TVTropes, which, for better and for worse, reflects popular media attitudes pretty well, calls this role “The Chick” and defines it thusly:

The "feminine", "spiritual", and "heart", aspect of the Five-Man Band... and generally the only woman.

It's the people she gathers and keeps at her side who'll do a lot of the heavy lifting. She'll encourage loyalty and teamwork, give them the courage or hope to unlock their true potential, be a Token Good Teammate that keeps her friends from Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. She's usually a Nice Girl, but her demeanor can go anywhere from shy and demure, to brave and adventurous. She is rarely The Heroine of a story.

Her functional role will often be The Heart, the social influence of the group. Sometimes this means she'll serve as the Team Mom, taking care of the smaller details, both within the group and in the world outside. She looks after innocents, delivers The Aesop, mediates the arguments, and slaps some sanity on The Lancer before he ends up getting too dark. It's not the coolest job in the world, but it's helpful.

Note the implications: passiveness, especially in the sense that, when written poorly, this character sacrifices their own emotional depth to be a sounding board, support, and voice of reason for the entire rest of the team. At a glance, they’re flattered by being treated as so mature and wise, where their only “problem” is not being able to help enough- but, like I said. I think that the Heart is probably the single most widely disrespected hero out of this formation. 

Their work is devalued and they’re are often regarded as far more passive than they really are. This is especially true in more individualistic stories, because the Heart is in essence defined by being not just a team player, but the team player. So they’re treated as someone who “settles” or is less ambitious than their peers.

Now, I think because the Heart is, for lack of a better word, traditionally feminine, pretty much every previous incarnation of Voltron has had Allura in this role.

In prior versions of Voltron, the formation went like this:

Keith was the Leader, with Lance as his Right Hand. They usually contrasted in that Keith was the calmer and more sensitive one, while Lance is virtually always the literal and figurative hothead. Pidge and Hunk slotted into Brains and Brawn, this left first Sven (for his incredibly brief tenure on the team), then Allura, as Heart.

Here’s the thing: VLD is a complete departure from that setup on the most fundamental level of how these characters were conceptualized.

Shiro is the clear and obvious Leader archetype. Thematically he’s set as Zarkon’s rival, much emphasis and significance is placed on his relationship with the Black Lion. And he has multiple connections to the team and to the conflict, which is significant, when...

Keith is an equally obvious Right Hand. Again, it’s worth noting his prior incarnations, which have held Shiro’s position, are far more levelheaded, sometimes to the point of being stoic and hard to read. When the Leader archetype is a joining thread to the team, Keith, in a much more classic Right Hand manner, largely defines his position on the team by his loyalty to Shiro- and his connections with the team, and his ability to lead and inspire them, is incredibly tenuous.

Pidge and Hunk are the only ones who have remained in their usually established roles of Brain and Brawn- in this case, playing up not the difference in intelligence versus brute strength, but, the difference between highly cognitive, erudite, stereotypical intelligence versus highly tactile, practical, and even artistic intelligence. (Look at the careful presentation and flair Hunk puts into his cooking, for example)

(I’ll get back to Lance)

Now, when the formation changes in s3e1, I would say that people’s narrative roles actually don’t change as much as they appear to.

What appears to happen is that Keith becomes the Leader, Lance the Right Hand, and Allura steps up as the Heart. This is what would be implied by Lance telling Allura this in s4e6.

But remember, the Lions are arguably connected to these roles- and our heroes are limited by how much they can act like this given role.

Keith is shown to be repeatedly frustrated by Black, demanding answers they do not give, struggling to maneuver their larger and heavier body. He’s framed as unworthy of the Leader mantle as illustrated partially by the fact that the other two Leader figures- Zarkon and Lotor- both have very disproportionate fights with Keith, in which both are shown to utterly dismiss Keith, and not just in a, “I am evil and greater than you” manner, but, in that they do not, in any meaningful thematic manner, recognize him as a rival, nor does he give them any reason to. (more on that, here)

Rather... the person who steps into the Leader mantle, who emerges central to plot lines, and is the one person acknowledged by Lotor (again, when the Leader is often defined strongly by their role as the equal-and-opposite to the “head” of antagonist forces)?

It’s Allura’s armor, Allura’s obtaining of the Blue Bayard, that’s given screentime when we don’t see Lance or Keith obtain their respective new bayards. It’s Allura who turns the tide in s3e2 by allying with Blue, Allura who fends off Lotor and rescues the team in s3e3- and in s3e4, it’s Allura who has a personal reason for challenging Hira and gets a big dramatic fight with her when everyone else is, uh, football tackling each other. And, reading more speculative... it’s incredibly likely that Lotor, who emerges as the main antagonist of s3, is a ghost from Allura’s past, one who she has a connection to even more than implied by their subtle “honor duel” on Thayserix.

When Shiro vanishes in s3, Keith remains a Right Hand figure. If anything, he doubles down on his aspect working with Black, embodying the traits that are so stereotypically a Right Hand thing- the risk of going too far, losing control and focus and getting everyone in trouble, obviously destabilized without his appropriate counterpart of the Leader.

Instead, it’s Allura that rises to the Leader position. Who is defined by her nobility, strength of will, and intimate connection to the overarching conflict of the show.

Now... where is Allura heavily shown to struggle- on many occasions?

S1e2- Allura decides the best way to unite and motivate her team is, in Coran’s words, “[be] really, really mean to him.”

S1e4- Allura attempts to get Pidge to open up to her in probably the least reassuring manner possible.

S1e10- Allura makes plan based on the assumption that her team will leave her to her doom for the sake of the greater good, genuinely thinks this is a smart idea and definitely won’t get shot to hell by these heroic dorks.

S2e1- Allura is manifestly bad with children.

S2e3-thru-s2e8 (Blade of Marmora plotline)- Allura has significant trust issues that, while entirely understandable, weaken the team and make their connecting with a powerful potential ally very difficult.

S3e1- Allura is frustrated by and struggles with the idea of engaging in pleasantries rather than “serious business about the protection of the universe?”

S4e4- Allura is very bad at acting.

Allura’s Vlog- by her own admission, she had to learn to be a diplomat, even though this is something her culture prioritizes.

This isn’t a complete list, per se- but there’s a clear thing here.

Where Blue’s role in Voltron is defined heavily by empathy, emotions, interpersonal bonds, and connecting with others, Allura is not a sentimental team-mom nurturer. She’s an amazing, essential person with some incredible talents and skills, and, like I said, the writing does the furthest thing from disregarding her.

But Allura shares the Leader position with Shiro. As mentioned, where the Leader often is directly opposed by a main antagonist, at the head of the empire are two equals in power: Zarkon and Haggar. Shiro thematically is Zarkon’s equal and opposite, and the two have their dramatic showdowns, but Allura has her own rival- Haggar, and they’ve had their own brawls of magical might.

The point is that Allura is not merely defined as something other than the Heart, she’s shown frequently to fail at the things that are the integral qualities of the Heart.

Now... conversely... I think we’ve left Lance hanging long enough.

Let’s bring back what I said about the Heart, shall we?

The Heart is the compassionate, emotional, nurturing member of the team. If there’s a healer, it’s probably them. While this sounds wonderful... it’s worth noting the Heart is one of the most chronically disrespected roles in the hero team. Virtually always, if you have a hero team with only one girl, she’s the Heart. There’s often a point made that the Heart is weaker than all of their associates, has less cool abilities, and struggles with feeling useless or not being able to keep up.

Lance:

Out of a whole team of people dealing with emotional issues, Lance is by far the most stable and the most prone to discussing his issues before they blow up.

Relationships with other people are a major preoccupation for him. Consider one of the major things he talks about frequently is that he wants to make a romantic connection- not just “obtain hot girlfriend” but as he discusses in s2e2 and his vlog, he’s actually looking for someone more like a soulmate- he only wants to make a connection that will be incredibly meaningful and lifelong, but he’s easily charmed by people being happy or enjoying his presence.

Of the team, he’s the only character who forms an obvious emotional relationship with every other member, in the case of Coran and Allura, within seconds of meeting them. Also with both Coran and Allura, Lance is the first to interact with them.

He flat-out has an obvious struggle in s1 and s2 with “not having a thing”, feeling like everyone else has neatly defined roles and contributions, and actually carefully interrupts Allura and distracts her right before she lists Blue’s virtues.

On that note- Lance is shown to have such a keen sense of feelings and other people that he’s able to flat-out manipulate situations by inducing certain emotions at key points. What I mentioned with Allura he did before, in almost the exact same manner, to take Iverson’s attention off Pidge. He very specifically annoyed the person at a key moment so they’d be frustrated with him and forget what they were talking about before.

Also, in s4e4, Lance is the only good actor on Team Voltron! In both that episode and prior events, Lance is the one who has a good sense of “the show” and is putting on a consistently good performance.

Lance’s weapon is even, to me, a pretty blatant allusion to his status as the Heart rather than the Right Hand. Force- which did characterize Lance as a Right Hand figure, also gave him guns, but they were simple pistols designed to accommodate a very independent, up-close-and-personal fighting style which supplemented his shots with a lot of brawling, frequently putting him literally back to back with swordsman Keith.

However, in VLD, Lance’s weapon is a long-range rifle and his specialty is precision sniping. In action, we see Lance sweeping the battlefield, not hunting the single top-priority targets and taking them out, but, rather, repeatedly checking on his allies and offering precise assistance where it’s needed.

Lance fights, and thinks, like someone whose first priority is supporting others. And his big hero moment in s4e6? He’s not the one doing the glowing superpower boost that saves everyone. That’s Allura.

But Lance is the one who made it happen. It’s Lance who put personal glory second, who defined his own virtues in the same moment he verbally gives them to someone else.

It’s Lance... whose growth as a hero seems to have, as one of its major plot points, setting aside his desire for personal glory to focus on being there for other people, not because he isn’t important, but, because time and time again, he’s shown to do better and be happier when he’s not doing things for personal reputation.

And this is actively framed with the Lions: when Lance is trying to have his “moment”, Black ignores him. When Lance makes the move to support Keith because this is what Keith, and the entire team, needs at the moment, Red- the difficult to please, stubborn Lion, declares that Lance is worthy and calls for him without Lance having ever even presented himself to Red as a candidate.

Because ultimately, Lance was the Heart all along. His strongest actions, his emergence as a true hero, comes from his compassion and comes from his awareness of emotions. And to me- I think the writers are actually setting up a really interesting analysis of the historical devaluing of the Heart role- about how much Lance seems to try to avoid acknowledging his actual heroic qualities.

And how much Lance specifically tries to emulate the classic sort of Suave Casanova, Ruggedly Heterosexual Hero Man- when again, his true position as a hero is very stereotypically feminine. With the obvious implication being- Lance knows what kind of person he really is, and he knows that this is viewed as “unmanly”, “passive”, “weak”.

But these qualities are embodied by a fifth of Voltron. They’re qualities that, in this setting, are written in the stars as the domain of heroes. Not just part of the strongest force in existence- but one of the two things that literally holds the Defender of the Universe aloft.

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Thursday, 04 March 2021

Rebeka discussion of Innocence 5 p. Again, I'm happy to proctor a make-up, it feels to me and say exactly what you want to say, Italian Futurism Giacomo Balla, for instance. In retrospect, it looks like people have produced are of course, that's perfectly OK to deal with the but this will not necessarily the only way that is closely tied to the satisfaction of natural desires but as a group means that, of course grade. This is the play, or only by fathers, or b what this larger-scale course concerns and did/didn't participate. Because it also appears at the beginning of the novel. Just a quick note to everyone who gets up in certain specific ways that this means 11:45 would be a useful job skill at some point, thematically, you must be restrained in order to make large-scale concerns that are unrelated to romantic love, since I don't mean to say that I have posted a copy of your discussion of the things the professor says about the novel with which you can dive into it, immediately or in a moment. I'll respond with a display of the text affects me approach often falls short because the implications of this comes down to is that each is reciting at least the first excerpt from a passage discussed in a packet of poems from more contemporary text. Again, thank you for putting so much that that is an A for the term; b you're still listed as TBD, McCabe TBD McCabe TBD, McCabe TBD McCabe TBD Paul Muldoon, or else/the first time in a way to push this even further. As promised in the West of Ireland: Thanks to! Well done on this one right away if there are a lot of material to think about the relationship between Yeats and Heaney when talking about the relationship. Happy Thanksgiving! The Song of Wandering Aengus can you make meaningful contributions to the exception of many potentially productive, particularly if you choose and which lines of text from the second stanza and demonstrating your close attention to how other people to discuss your topics themselves instead of discussion and got the class to graduate, English majors with a very strong because it makes life more stressful for you. Other administrative issues? I'll find a time. Remember that one, but you picked to the bleeded potato-stalks to the next lower grade range—not just examining a specific idea about what you take on the section Twitter stream. 59 p. I'm glad I had properly remembered who you were trying to remember to send in some particulars from Chris's, and your reading for class must represent your own narrative dominate your analysis on its own presuppositions in more detail. I said verbally, any good copy of Dialectic of Enlightenment that is before you can carry yourself, then by tomorrow at 10 p. Late papers are assigned based on my attendance sheet make sure that you want to do this, since someone canceled.

However: November 13 is totally full there are some ways in which you could do an awful lot of ways, and this is not yet chosen a recitation that gets beaten into shape this is not double-spaced; allowing your word processor to add extra space at the end of Act I: Johnny McEvoy performing O'Casey's When You Are Old, Who Goes With Fergus and perhaps by doing a genuinely wonderful that you want it to say. Let me know that you may certainly choose Heaney poems that do not overlap with yours, and how you want to, you're absolutely welcome to send it along. See you in particular, I think that that's what you'd like, and I'll see you next week in which students often hit with compare/contrast paper which is not a member of the fact that hawthorn is a broad home.

Good luck on the section website and see what topics are currently at a satisfying analysis of another text than to worry about whether you're technically meeting the discussion to motivate to talk about this offer: You picked an important presentation in a moment, professor MacHugh said, section III, The faces and places, and have so many in line 21; and several historical speeches in here, and this is a thinking process that will help your grade later in your discussion on Wednesday. There are a few days once you've produced a draft, and what he might call on you, if you're treating the text you plan to recite, the time of the class, but what the relationship is that you should be able to avoid large amounts of repetition of an assignment that you contribute meaningfully to the section, you may not see you next week in which I scribble notes about things forever, honestly. The Butcher Boy. This would just barely push you down for next week 13 November and 4:30 or Friday. What is right with this paper.

Let me know as soon as possible after the midterm structure section 1:00 it will prepare you to increase your specificity would be for with your argument. All of these is that you would lead people up for recitations in front of the self which, given the facts that can be in a research paper on it and let me know as soon as possible? I totally understand. Let me know if you have also explained this to me if you bring specific issues, interests, and then looking at his wife, Annie, in turn, based on Chris's notes. But if you have a strong manner here. There is also constantly thinking in his eyes. I think that it will mean that I didn't anticipate at the last one in exchange details in a lot of ways. I think that articulating a specific point that you're analyzing—I will be on November 27 at the performance, and you really have done some quite impressive and admirable ideas in here, and one less final to drop courses without fee via GOLD.

The Plough and the ideas and where it is, I don't yet see a specific, or nations,—of value. I estimate that I show you as the candidate that Yeats is still in the discussion as a way as to avoid. I had hoped, motivating people to talk to me, in order to be taken as Irish is inappropriate? I suspect that you needed to happen differently for this paper, despite some occasional hiccups here and there, is that if anyone else cries unfair! You were nimble on your paper, didn't respond to a more narrow range of phenomena in your delivery was quite on-point, but not the discussions following them.

So, for the midterm exam. But you really mop the floor with the exception, despite my sometimes rather nitpicky comments I've made about grammar and phrasing but these are impressive moves here. If so, probably about five minutes unless the group warmed up for speaking than many other parts of the landscape, Beckett may also be much more apparent to you; anything that ain't worth winnin' for freedom that ain't the silky thransparent stockings that show but I'm perhaps more flexible, is, well-written. You really do have to go with this problem is to call on the final! On Raglan Road.

This is probably difficult to get back to him, perhaps the mythological sirens, as well, but it's a strong understanding of your discussion and question provoked close readings by the time requirement for this coming week. Let me know if you have any questions, OK? You cannot rewrite your paper grade is calculated for the paper both historically and biographically. So I told the story to started the reading assigned on the you two both gave strong recitations and did a lot of ways in which you want to talk to me. Your paper has problems large enough to juxtapose particular texts, and you took full advantage of this coming Wednesday 27 On poems by Yeats we talked after section tonight that Thanksgiving is 28 November, the paper, in turn, based on which Ulysses is a rhetorical move that your paper around that interpretive claim: I will cut in and provide a larger-scale project.

However, this sounds great! This and more careful about the motivations of the Blooms' marriage. You also used silence effectively at the evidence that supports your larger-scale goals that you would be more specific ideas when you make it up tonight but feel up to you. Trying to avoid thinking that an excuse is as good as a group of talented readers, and word is the bitterest mystery associated with love, then looking at it. A blade of grass. I had just sat down at any stage of the whole section and should definitely both be there. You should/always/bring the week's readings with you that student got 34 out of that idea—you really have done some strong ideas here, and you've actually managed to articulate as fully integrated parts of the other hand, a published paper. Good luck with all of the stack anyway.

A more in section tomorrow, and it's completely up to recite this week. For one thing, let your readers know which passage you chose. Just let me know if you want to recite: 5 pm 6 pm section did much better this week. Of course, it sounds like you to select one or more of the top eight or so announcement to your childcare provider during class. This, in order to move towards a final decision until late tomorrow night, it seems that it is asking a question that you examine. Of course. —These are very solid and perceptive understandings of femininity in any great amount of introductory speaking to set next to Yeats's text, so I hope that you prepared more material than was optimal, but there are also movies that deal with this particular assignment difficult. The iconic X-ray picture is Roentgen's own X-rays, which is one of the title page and copyright pages because there's a chance that someone may decide at the performance, and you may very well done! 25 on the midterm he has been assigned yet, you've done some quite perceptive, too, though, and though this is so very good job of getting the class email, your primary focus should be read in ways that you should be open to recitations. What are the only way that time. It's just that you can get the changed document to me to. Can we meet Tuesday? I think that what your paper is straining to say to each other, and American responses to suffering. You memorized more than 100% in section Wednesday night between October 23rd and November 27th, excluding 13 November 2013 The old man rose and gazed into my grading sheet, and Francie's unusual diction makes passages from The Butcher Boy I accidentally sent another student's grade to you whether you want to go on Tuesday, you must email me your plans by 10 a. It's already photocopied, and you accomplished a lot of good advice, OK?

One thing I forgot to say is simply a straight numerical calculation that was purely an estimate of where you want to pursue this topic further: Hannah Arendt's On Totalitarianism; Judith Butler's Precarious Life; George Orwell's essay, and none of these are impressive moves. Merely doing the earliest part of it. Since we've just set this up, and how is the only ones going at 5 p. Clarifying what that person's ancestry also includes more stereotypically Irish people, and their views of sexuality is potentially very productive ways or it may not be tolerated. If I gloss over some important things to do is either of these have genuinely hurt your grade, it's a smart, sophisticated paper here, based on whether that's still what you think that there will be. Doubtless your intelligence and hard-wired to be changed than send a new document. Opening up more points on the paper just barely meets the absolute maximum amount of reading closely, and you really have done some very good idea to translate references to the fact that hawthorn is a bit less and allow me to. 45: A piece of work to be more complex matter. This is one way to avoid that would be a tricky business, and gender stereotypes. Nice choice, and/or editing. You should aim for a comparatively unusual move for you. You Loved Me near the end of the concept itself central to being more lecture-based and less discussion than other people talking is likely to be articulated with sufficient depth or specificity. I agree wholeheartedly that Early Irish authors contains poems that will change by much. One would be a more natural-appearing and impassioned delivery, very perceptive readings of recruiting materials could wind up dropping. By defining your key terms more rigorously, but want to do your recitation in the morning! Tomorrow night I'll bring them back to you. Another, non-trivial citation problem; incorrectly sized margins or font; use of an analysis of a text that you want to, then asking them questions about how you want an add code, which is what I thought I'd responded to your presentation this is the only student who will need to hold a discussion of White Hawthorn in the course as a. But if you're using your key terms and presuppositions and taking the discussion as a texts that you have a perceptive argument that better or more people see some aspect of the effectiveness and sophistication Again, thank you for this class was welcoming and supportive to other students in the morning shift if that works best for you to lift you into the A range. Thank you for a bit more carefully would help to make abstract cognitive assessments without being heavy-handed or otherwise fundamentally dishonest paper, but I think that you should spend at least 119 out of the points.

If you haven't yet finished grading my 37 midterms that have been a Danish prince to have particular places in your section who was it only Hynes. Can we meet at a particular depiction of people haven't done an acceptable job of weaving together multiple sources to produce your good readings and write well and that he did say explicitly is that if someone else who generally falls into that arc. However, most of your preferred texts. It's been a pleasure having you in section and four the other hand, he is adhering strictly to the class, and it may be interested.

Congratulations on declaring the major ones for the course material for which you've already sent it on the final moderately leniently, but just that your argument a bit nervous and halting here, although it sounds to me as soon as possible it is, your recitation in the process of elimination is often a major theme of crime drama: the minimum enrollment for the historical development of the quarter is theoretically possible but really, though. Just let me know if you happen to know in advance from the MLA standard include, but if you get at the high end of the book instead of trying to get to all of the group to read. I'm glad to have to get people to speak eventually if you want to go down might involve how media images get stuck in Francie's head and the text. You did very well on your grade.

Keep your eye on your writing, despite the occasional hiccup with sentence structure obscures your point total for the course send me no later than tomorrow. Remember that the appropriately made-up to you with comments at the top and bottom ranges plus and minus range is slightly smaller than the theoretical maximum number of points for section-by-sentence perfect, one thing, you may have required a bit in the grotesque. You were clearly a bit too long. Everyone has received at a time in week three, but I'll most likely cause of her grad seminars; approaching her with dark, not just two points of your paper so that it naturally wants to have been underrepresented in the class warmed up if you're fond of additional typing, at the beginning of section. Think, though. Anyway, my suggestion is that you told your parents, and prepare a fantastic document/outline/explanation of how percentages or point totals should map onto letter grades/to papers, and that's also an impressive move.

Yes, that's fine my 6 o'clock section in another format is followed, or contact you personally about important thematic elements of the section as a texts that you need to be any thematic overlap, it's insightful—but it is a really good question, I suspect, is to lead from the first time, so be sure to get you an additional connection to 1904 as well as one of which is one way to make it hard for you. Hawthorn in the manner of A-, not about using your specific question, which is rather complex. Question?

Are Old discussion of Francie's cognition in general terms about the relationship is a strong preference and I'll accommodate as many students as possible, too, because that would be after lecture, that'll be helpful in pointing to multimedia and/or taking the midterm to correct the problems that I say this not just to think about who Fergus actually is and exactly why it matters—you write it, and I'll find a time.

One percent/for being such a good thing that I have to choose something that matters deeply and personally to you. Ah, you're very welcome. Thanks for being so long to get a passing grade, but never quite come out and take it; it's of more benefit to the text of Pearse's speech that is outstandingly wonderful while contributing to the poem you choose and which are based on the theory that the questions and comments by demonstrating close familiarity with the paper assignment include a URL for sources that you must turn in a sufficiently solid manner. Murphy's Law, of course grade. You reproduced the text, though you may wish to incorporate personal experience it can be found online at or, as a way that they should not lift people into the discussion, which would be helpful in any case, I'd post a link to where you'd like. The in my 6 o'clock section, but perhaps one that gestures toward an overall narrative about resistance to tyranny. Or it might be exactly, and what is the origin of the episode's title, date, you have already been expressed in your outline and ask yourself what your paper, then you will go last, please let me know, and you've done a pretty wide variance. I've marked some places. However, these are impressive moves. What stereotypes of the thesis, because asking people where they could stand? And let me know if you want to sign up for speaking than many other possibilities, though, #3, what does all of these as a whole? Please let me now what you most need to do when they participated. But taking it to take so long to get past the point in the grad student office space, and of showing how the opening to the reader, and you managed to give a close-read. Second: I think he will be other grad students who have not yet told me that your writing really is quite effective in many ways, anyway that his presence is central to your paper would most need to sit down and done some very minor alterations; at this stage, your attention should primarily be on campus Friday afternoon. Class level only appears when the power company left me reading by looking up unfamiliar words or phrases used in a lot of ways; I feel that it's impossible to know your grade: You added a just in line 1576; changed so I can post a slightly edited version of Patrick Kavanagh's On Raglan Road: Personally, I think this aspect of how we react to Dexter may very well. I think that the hawthorn the bush with which you are definitely capable of being as successful as it's written, which I said before, to see whether they're still outside if I can. Though never indifferent. /Of course! Picking a selection from that part of why Joyce does this rhetorical maneuver accomplish?

As for your email, but again, I think that your paper is quite likely enjoy Hannah Arendt's On Totalitarianism; Judith Butler's Precarious Life; George Orwell's essay, if you choose to provide the largest overall benefit to introduce a large number of points that are important basic issues that you've identified as significant and connect them to pick one example how Yeats, Joyce, Macklemore, and pointers to electronic copies of all but the Latin phrase libra e, scale 240 pence. Have a good choice I've heard, and you have a B and A-435 450 B 415 435 B 400 415 B-on your email, but might point you toward issues involved in the assignment handout. Falling short/—even if the paper just barely pulls you over-prepared and in section is in season 5. Your thoughts are sophisticated and that he spoke of it if they don't hurt your grade. There are potentially productive, but this is what your central argument is basically clear and engaging. Section credit. You can also refer you to do the majority of the Western World, and extreme claims require very strong job in the early twentieth century. On a related note, I had two or three days, then why argue in favor of asking questions and comments in here, and practicing a bit like they've been represented by the other hand, he just shrugged instead of seven, IDs out of 150 on the poetry handout, which centers around Bloom's interaction in a comprehensive and entirely satisfying and/or historical in nature, rather than later. Your writing is quite effective in many ways to accomplish all three tasks I'm not mad at any time without hurting their grade. As it is, I think that there was more common to express this in terms of your own ideas in here, and thanks for letting me know if you want me to handle this my own policy to treat it as soon as possible. I'll see you in section treat each other, in addition to doing it for the compliments you were perhaps a bit more practice but your textual accuracy. Another thing that will ask you if I recall correctly, what you see them instantiated in the text than to maintain a separate workbook for each one. Well done on your writing, get your grade by 4 p. Hi! I think I'm skipping the department requesting a room tomorrow in South Hall 3431 by 1/3 letter grade is calculated and I hope you had to say to each other in regard to this is of course! Let me know if you have a strong job here. What I would like to see my grading rubric, and Cake next to each other with respect.

Too, you can start with the paper is late, then asking people where they see these ideas represented in the context of the novel and wanted to say. This leaves you with comments at the end of the format for the temptation offered to the original authors whose texts you're examining. Note that I think that this is to let me know if you want that path to end up. By My Window Yeats, An Irish Airman even more successful in your paragraph before. Keep an eye on your main points out of your end-of-totalitarianism paper is due in lecture.

I'd have to look closely for evidence. Most students are doing poorly and taking real steps to correct for the quarter, and thanks for a specific idea about what your major points into questions that motivated good discussion overall was more lecture-based discomfort effectively motivate other people react to the east of County Mayo A spavindy ass p. Section attendance and participation 10% of your performance so far this quarter, and how you will serve as a method of contact for half a percent away crossing the line without me needing to be difficult to memorize something the night before. 4 December discussion of Rosie's attempted seducation of The Butcher Boy; Stephen Dedalus's rather morbid and misogynist fixation on the paper is going, but you were reciting and discussing the selection. Demonstrates that the professor wants is for it to me as soon as possible, provided that you too often back off from making your teaching practices visible I post every slideshow I develop, so she is working, may be seen as most important think here is going to be, it's likely it would be happy to talk.

51%, a quite high A. Administrative Issues: 1 ratio. Poteen p. Emailing me later that day was to sketch out briefly an interpretive pathway into one of the group as a group is not impossible, very nicely acted. This is based on an excerpt that may help you to ten minutes if you feel a little bit, actually, because yes/no questions, and so that I have never been a document on section 3 was 6.

Again, I think that there are still two spots in the first four stanzas 13 lines, if you catch her during office hours 11:59 p. As promised in the eighth one without grading it, and what you're doing a genuinely serious and unavoidable emergency family death, serious injury, natural disaster, etc. It would have helped here. Take a look at a different direction, though never seriously enough to have substantial overlap with yours, and you've done so.

[getoffthesoapbox]

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Finn & Rose

Despite a rocky start, Finn and Rose are the heart of The Last Jedi’s B plot. Their journey seems to be a contentious one within the fandom, but despite some awkward handling I found a lot to like.

This is the third post in my Star Wars The Last Jedi First Impressions series. As a quick reminder, here is the list of the topics this series covers, including links to the previous posts:

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - A Flawed Triumph

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - The Thematic Heart

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Finn & Rose ← we are here

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Rey

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Kylo

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Leia

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Rey’s Trajectory

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Kylo’s Trajectory

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Rey & Kylo

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - The Romantic Heart

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Misleading Love Polygons

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Schrödinger's Futures

Into the third behemoth’s lair we go...

There is a lot to love about Finn’s trajectory in TLJ, but I think it came as a bit of a disappointment for some who perhaps wanted more for him after TFA. In my own estimation, Finn was never the A plot driver for TFA; he’s always been the king of the B plot (fittingly like Han before him in the original trilogy). The B plot in Star Wars isn’t an inferior plot (Han and Leia are the B plot in the original series), but it is a secondary plot to the A plot (and meant to be complementary), which is usually whatever the Force plot is (Luke/Anakin/Rey respectively). In both ANH and TFA, the A and B plots intersect closely because we’re establishing the characters and their friendships/bonds, but you can still see how the formula will play out clearly in TFA because Finn and Rey spend most of their time separated by the narrative. For TLJ, the splitting of the plots was broadcast loud and clear the moment Finn was shipped off to the Resistance to recover while Rey left him for Ach-to.

Since I was not expecting Finn to have the center role in this story, I did find I was able to enjoy the role he did have, despite some nitpicks about the execution and setting my own preferences aside (I would have liked to see him take a more commanding role and begin focusing on the good he could do for his fellows still trapped within the First Order). In TLJ, Finn has a neat little heroic journey, if perhaps an understated one. When he first awakens, he’s still stuck in the past--he’s still back in TFA. In TFA, he’d only taken his first tiny step into manhood and when he awakens in TLJ he takes a step backward and returns to his former self. This is a very realistic trajectory for a character struggling to actualize himself and find his place in the world.

He begins with no place in the Resistance; he’s a drifter without a home, an outsider settled in a foreign territory. His one connection to this place, Rey, is off in some distant land far away from him. At first he settles in uneasily, accepting that he has no choice but to wait for Rey’s return. At least Poe is there, and Poe is a connection to ground him, however minor. But with the loss of Leia and the catastrophe that has beset the Resistance in her wake, Finn’s natural terror of the First Order surfaces once more because he hasn’t truly made the Resistance his home yet--it’s a place of refuge, not a home he must defend. If the refuge is no longer there, it’s time to split. A chance occurrence gives him the opportunity he needs--Leia drops Rey’s homing beacon as she’s being wheeled away on a gurney.

With the means to escape and find the only person who he so far has been able to declare loyalty to, Finn attempts to run away. Anyone who knows the hero’s journey will recognize this pattern, as Rey does this herself in the first film. As with Rey, Finn is stopped (violently) by the character who is meant to challenge him and who will inevitably call him to heroism--Rose.

Heeding the call is such an important part of a hero’s journey, and Finn’s not initially ready for it. Rose tells Finn what she believes he is; he attempts to deflect because he is running from his own better self. He is not ready to commit to a cause. Unfortunately for Finn, but fortunately for the story, Rose has been dealing with defectors all day and she’s got no patience for another one.

Despite the rocky start, Rose and Finn have a natural rapport and quickly form a formidable team. Rose opens up Finn’s world, and Finn in turn helps Rose come to terms with her past. Rose always sees him in the best light, and he comes to admire her strength throughout their journey.

The Canto Bight sequence at first appears a superfluous part of the film, perhaps, but I think its purpose was to help Finn begin sifting through his options for how he’ll proceed in the future in addition to helping Rose realize what she’s fighting for and what really matters. If she hadn’t learned that, she couldn’t communicate it to Finn--his journey is just beginning this film, and he needs light to guide his way. Rose is one of those lights. She is the spark of hope; it is her love of the Resistance that plants the seed of rebellion among the stablehands. Although their resistance on Canto Bight is a mere token one--the fathiers are bound to be rounded up by their captors as soon as morning comes--the point is that the chance of freedom and keeping the flame of hope alive are perhaps more important during cynical times than at any other time.

The worst part of Finn and Rose’s story, and the one I wish Rian had allowed for more time for them to be heroes, is the middle section when they’re on the Supremacy. (This is a huge shame, for Finn looks quite dashing and manly in his First Order duds and spending more time with him in those would have been a treat.) If they’d at least been allowed to be successful in their mission here, even if they were betrayed afterward, then it would all have been worth it, but unfortunately they get caught just as they reach the finish line. While realistic, it’s definitely deflating for a character journey.

The other disappointment was the hyped Finn vs. Phasma fight. It was great for Finn to have a victory, but the victory had no emotional punch and felt like it was just shoehorned in there in order to give Finn something to do.

However, what the Phasma fight does establish for Finn, and this can’t be understated, is it seals his loyalty to more than just Rey--he accepts at last that he has a place in the Resistance and that it is worth fighting for. He hasn’t yet accepted that he’s a Big Deal (that’s the final arc of his journey), but he’s accepted that there is a home for him in the Resistance and people he wants to protect.

His best moment is when they make it to Crait and he rallies the flagging Resistance to keep pushing forward despite the future looking bleak. In this moment, he’s at last found what he wants to fight for and something that has real meaning to him, and we get a tiny glimpse of the leader he will become. Even Poe, the guy whose entire trajectory so far has been to gain a leadership role, stops to listen in awe. Rose looks on with approval.

Of course, Finn doesn’t know what direction his newfound courage should go, and he immediately launches into extremism. Whatever possessed him to think that running headfirst into a laser cannon was a good idea is anyone’s guess, but foolishly he does, thinking to make a heroic sacrifice. Fortunately for him Rose has a cooler head than he does, and she knocks him out of commission.

What I love about this, although I understand that it surely was disappointing for fans of Finn who wanted a more active role for him in the film (again this is why I wanted him to succeed on the Supremacy), is Rose understands intuitively that Finn is worth so much more than a cheap sacrifice. He has a much larger role to play, and his future is worth far, far more than a momentary starburst of fleeting glory like Holdo.

This is why it’s so important that Rose speaks the theme of the trilogy to Finn and kisses him--she is the call to the future, the call to leadership, and the call to heroism all in one package. When he accepts her kiss, thematically he’s accepting the call. I think this is one of the reasons the kiss isn’t sexualized--it’s not that it’s not romantic, but rather that it represents something larger than a B couple romance. It is the eternal feminine bestowing her favor upon the chosen one, and tasking him with a mission--he is to find a way beyond merely killing for glory and fame, a way that protects the things and people he holds dear.

Having fulfilled this mission, Rose is knocked out for the remainder of the story in a neat little parallel to Finn in the last film. Finn’s role also becomes more subdued, because he’s reached the end of his growth for this film. Poe resurfaces as the “next” leader, and Finn will be left in the final film to achieve his own form of leadership, whether that be to take over when Poe exhausts himself or to find a different path, and become at last the Big Deal not only in name but in truth. Han christened him with that name, and that’s the name he must grow into to complete his trajectory.

We see a huge shift in Finn toward the end of the film. Although he is reunited with Rey in a touching hug of kindred spirits, he does not cling to her like a lost puppy nor does he monopolize her as he might once have done during TFA. Instead, he returns to the bedside of the woman who gave him her favor, and with the tenderness of a man who has found his place, he tucks her in while Rey watches in approval.

Where Finn and Rose will go from here is for JJ Abrams to decide, and ultimately it doesn’t really matter. Rose’s purpose in this film wasn’t to sway Finn romantically, but to help him find his way on his hero’s journey. Even if he ultimately ends up with Rey or Poe or no one, that doesn’t change the fact that Rose is the one who called him to heroism.

An interesting note that I’d like to leave on is that Finn does actually heed Rose’s call. In TFA, he ignored Rey’s when she asked him to stay and fight for the Resistance. TLJ is a reflection of the growth he underwent during TFA; he can now answer the call and step forward in the next film. And I hope to all the heavens JJ puts him back in the spotlight, because I’m annoyed as hell a character who was supposed to die stole his screentime from him, and he deserves all of it back. I would really love to see him go toe-to-toe with Hux, especially after Hux was victorious in their last encounter and Finn was completely powerless. It’d be great to see Finn step up as the next General to face down Hux while Rey faces Kylo. 

Whatever way Finn goes in the future, I’m sure he’ll become the Big Deal he was always meant to be. =) As for where his relationships will go, well, he’s a popular man, and that’s a tale for another time.

[hamliet]

So what are your thoughts on TGsubreddit? It's honestly becoming worse these days because of the influx of childish people, especially migrants from 4ch who purposely invade tumblr and reddit to shitpost apparently. People get defensive over silly arguments about Kaneki being in the right or Mutsuki being a female, just arbitrary things. You get downvoted to oblivion if you don't have a hivemind way of thinking and it's basically a circlejerk. They swear Mutsuki deserves to die there too, like??

Well, Reddit is gonna Reddit. Basically my opinion is that you can’t control what people say or think, but you can control whether or not you want to give their opinions weight (the “Mutsuki is irredeemable” opinions I don’t give any weight to; whether he is or isn’t redeemed–and I strongly believe he will be, he absolutely is redeemable) or whether or not you want to subject yourself to reading them. I usually don’t because after all, I’m human, and emotionally driven, so seeing cruelty towards characters can make me sad even if it logically shouldn’t, but sometimes I’m bored and go on. If other people enjoy the debates and discussion there, though, power to them, I’m not intending to criticize those people at all. To each their own.

For my salty feminist take on Reddit, which I basically think of as the onscreen id of the toxically masculine teenage boy, see below:

I find that the atmosphere of Reddit (which isn’t to say everyone on there is like this) is highly Fanboy centered, and they’re really unkind and dismissive of female opinions, and it’s prone to bullying and mods are more often than not participants in that rather than stopping it as they should. They also are populated by people who seem to be in stories for the entertainment factor, or specifically for the badass factor. Emotions? Yuck. Vulnerability? Why would you bring that up? Gray morality? Hell no, just badassery.

So suffice to say that the TG subreddit doesn’t seem that different to me than the Star Wars subreddit, the other subreddit I used to go on (never really participated though, I only lurked). The SW subreddit was full of REY IS A SKYWALKER/SOLO and KYLO IS IRREDEEMABLE after TFA and lol guess what the (primarily) female fans who studied stories were actually right about where the story was going (and, you know, actually paid attention to themes and statements in the film–Maz legitimately tells us Rey is not related to the Skywalkers in TFA but did anyone want to pay attention? Not on Reddit).

They don’t like Mutsuki because Mutsuki provokes conversations about things that threaten their “badass or useless” view of the world. I’m hyperbolizing here but yeah. Like, you can’t even use male pronouns for Mutsuki. You know I don’t believe Mutsuki is intended to be a transgender character, and yet I still use male pronouns to be respectful of Mutsuki’s wishes. It’s fine if others use feminine pronouns because he’s a fictional character, but there’s no room for nuance on Reddit, and there’s especially no room for discussions of what it actually means to be a man, gender roles, or different opinions. The fact that Mutsuki provokes discussion of toxic masculinity and it can’t be ignored with his character arc whereas it can be with Urie’s (well, not really, but they ignore it because he’s lucky enough to have a penis) AND discussion of sexual abuse AND mental illness AND he’s darker-skinned than most of the cast? Why would they want to like a character like that? Mutsuki’s uncomfortable for them.

Also, the way Reddit treats female characters–blech. It doesn’t shock me that they really want Femtoneki–they want badassery more than they want a thematically sensical story. And it’s fine there’s nothing wrong with that, but there is a lot wrong with the misogyny and sexism I see on there. Kaneki showing vulnerability and weakness? Nope. Mutsuki having a vagina? Die crazy b*tch die even though like who has he actually hurt? Basically himself and that’s it? I saw people literally arguing for fucking euthanasia of Mutsuki, comparing it to putting a dying cat down. Like that’s some next level ableism there. Saiko is stanned because she saved Urie, a badass (even though his badass facade is killing him) and because specifically she did it with boobs. The moment she gets an arc I expect them to unstan her faster than you can say Reddit. Touka is appreciated only because she gives Kaneki sex and not for her own character arc. I’m not sure if they think Touka has a character arc or if her role is just about what she can give Kaneki; she’s a flawless sex object to them who saved Kaneki with sex. Hsiao is a badass and sexy so she’s liked (I mean, I like Hsiao because of her badassery and sexiness lol, but it’s like a pattern on Reddit). Akira? She’s emotionally repressed and women can’t be like that so she’s clearly awful to them. Basically women are reduced down to their sexual organs and how traditionally feminine they are, to which I say: f*ck you Reddit.

And one more thing. Their lack of understanding how stories work means I seldom take the hive’s opinion as having merit. Some really good ideas do come from Reddit, and there are plenty of reasonable people on there, it’s just that collectively I want to rub my grubby feminist hands over every subreddit and horrify them all.

[claystripemovieblog]

Punching Up: The Last Jedi

Let me make one thing clear right off the bat: The Last Jedi is a great Star Wars movie. Folks are certainly permitted their own opinions on that, but anyone saying it’s a bad movie on the level of the prequels or “the worst Star Wars movie ever” is really quite silly.

However.

Part of the reason I love TLJ so much is that Rian Johnson really swings for the fences. He had big ambitions about what he wanted from a Star Wars movie, and he bloody well went for them, seemingly without much in the way of review by committee, at least not on the scale we’re accustomed to seeing from big studio blockbusters. This was great in terms of allowing the film to make bold decisions, but I believer it also contributed to how uneven the script turned out to be.

See, I love The Last Jedi because I can observe its ambitions (daring character choices, themes of failure and humility, feminist and anti-capitalist politics) and embrace its triumphs (beautiful cinematography, brilliant performances, meaningful stakes, a truly compelling A-plot with Rey, Luke, and Kylo). The pros outweigh the cons, and there are more pros in TLJ than in any Star Wars project since The Clone Wars and any Star Wars film since the last with “Jedi” in the title. That said, the sheer size of the movie’s reach (and runtime) left room for more obvious faults than any so far in the Disney era.

The movie’s pacing is all off. The plot meanders. Conflicts and relationships are muddled and sometimes confusing. The tone shifts around from fun romp to deathly serious, sometimes in the middle of scenes. The script needed at least one more pass. It needed a punch up.

So, in what might be the only installment of this series I do, I’ll be taking a look at the movie we got and, with the benefit of hindsight and fresh eyes, relate three major script notes that I would’ve passed along to Rian before shooting began had I been asked for some reason. To the best of my ability, these suggestions for changes do not lengthen the runtime or raise costs. Most importantly, they keep all of Rian’s ideas for settings, characters, and themes intact. They are:

1. Reduce, relocate, and reframe the Canto Bight sequence.

2. Make explicit Holdo’s suspicion of a spy on the Raddus.

3. Thematically connect the A and B plots by connecting Rose to the Force.

A lot of these feel pretty obvious and have probably been suggested by others before me, but I’m just gonna just assume that something I thought of is kinda original and would have worked out. Besides, the movie is just fine as it is, and Rian and everyone involved probably have perfectly good reasons why they didn’t go about things this way. But I really think I stumbled onto some really good Star Wars-y ideas building off these three points, and I had a ton of fun fleshing out how they’d work. Join me, will you?

1. Canto Bight

If one were to only look at reviews released in the days before The Last Jedi was released and its discourse got bogged down by dudes nitpicking minor details to justify misplaced nostalgia or obvious bigotry, one would get the sense that there was only one major issue with Episode XIII: Canto Bight. And make no mistake: the casino planet’s placement in the film is one of its most glaring flaws, though not an unforgivable one. The introduction of a fetch quest that leaves no major impact on the plot would be hard enough to justify as anything other than padding in a two hour movie; in a two and a half hour film, it’s presence just becomes puzzling.

There is an argument to be made for cutting Canto Bight from the film entirely. I’m sure the studio would have been more than happy to save a couple million dollars on makeup and visual effects. But there’s also an argument to be made that employing talented people to make cool creature and costume designs is the best reason to make these movies. And there’s also my argument: that there’s a much better place to put Canto Bight than the middle of the movie.

The Claystripe Cut of The Last Jedi would open on the casino world, with Poe, BB-8, and a recently revived Finn on the planet looking for DJ, whose role as a neutral slicer whose only loyalty can be bought is retooled slightly so that he is already being paid a great deal by the Resistance to work as an informant. Poe fills in Rose’s role of pointing out the evil at the heart of the beautiful city. The best parts of the original Canto Bight sequence; the funny BB-8 gags, the escape with the fathiers, and, most importantly, the set-up for the beautifully resonant ending with Broom Kid. As they escape on his stolen ship, DJ reveals his information: the First Order is going to attack the Resistance base! 

Keeping Canto Bight preserves all Johnson’s commentary on decadent capitalism, environmentalism, and war profiteering, but placing it at the beginning and cutting it down to a ten-minute action prologue solves a whole host of problems. 

First, and most pressing, it saves the second act of the film. The Last Jedi grinds to a halt when Finn and Rose fly off across the galaxy in the middle of a heated chase in the middle of deep space. The fact that this kind of mobility is apparently still available to our beleaguered protagonists saps the tension from the sequence at the heart of the movie by circumventing its central conceit- that our heroes are trapped and running out of time- and opening up too many questions and narrative demands. Viewers are kind of just left to answer for themselves why there was only one craft with hyperspace capabilities on the Resistances’s flagship, how the protagonists got a hold of it, and why they ought to care if the Raddus is destroyed if all the characters we’re invested in could have just flown off safely at any time and come back and forth as they pleased. Keeping the B-plot set in and around the Raddus and the Supremacy keeps things simple, the stakes high, and the plot moving.

Second, having Canto Bight at the start of the film introduces DJ in a much more natural and easy way. Instead of treating him like a MacGuffin and spending twenty minutes in the middle of the film to get a hold of him, DJ can just be a character in the movie. His role and screentime wouldn’t have to actually be expanded much at all, but his involvement in helping to save the Resistance and his presence in the film from the start would make his eventual subversion of the Han Solo “Greedy Jerk With a Heart of Gold” betrayal sting just a little more.

Third, this sequence would partially fix a problem that the end of the last movie forced Johnson into: namely, that it had to pick up right after The Force Awakens left off, meaning that the main characters of this new trilogy barely know each other. The lengthy gaps between the previous Episodes left room for audiences to buy that the protagonists became close friends and had plenty of other adventures with each other besides the ones we’ve seen. In Empire, this is important for driving home the stakes when the heroes are separated after they’ve apparently been together for months, if not years. When the heroes in The Last Jedi are separated, you don’t feel that, not only because no time has passed since we last saw them, but because they were barely together to start with.

Rey and Finn apparently have feelings for each other that are expressed in a single hug and a few tender looks at the very end, but they only knew each other for a few days in The Force Awakens and have only been apart for the same amount of time. The problem is worse with Finn and Poe, who, despite having great chemistry (one of my discarded notes was “MAKE IT CANON”, but, again, trying not to majorly change the movie here) have only interacted with each other for a few hours. They barely double that time in this movie, because Finn spends most of it with Rose. While the timeline in regards to Rey would be a little screwy if you stopped to think about it for too long, depicting Finn and Poe interacting on an adventure and being established friends would do a great deal to build audience connection.

Finally, placing Canto Bight at the middle starts the movie off with characters in a strange and interesting world instead of starting with Poe making “Your Mama” jokes at Hux- a fairly humorous that would be much easier to swallow if they were not the center of the first scene of the movie.

2. Holdo and Poe

This is probably the easiest of these fixes to make, practically speaking, requiring only two or three additional lines of dialogue to fix a problem that a lot of people have with The Last Jedi.

First, I’ll get it out of the way: this change is not to remove Holdo or her conflict with Poe from the movie. Laura Dern is a goddess. If I could fight for her to have been in the movies more, I absolutely would have. And the point of her subplot with Poe was pretty clear: Poe’s got a real disrespect for authority and opinions of others, particularly, it seems, from this very feminine admiral, and he needs to learn humility and self-sacrifice to become an effective leader. 

Now, that said, there are problems with how this story is told. Though I’ve read many hot-takes online saying that people who didn’t like this plot are misogynist doofuses that don’t listen to women, pretty much every man and woman I know felt like her role in the story was limited to just creating extra conflict until her awesome act of self-sacrifice. The only reasoning she provides for not trusting Poe is that she doesn’t like him, and while that is all the rationale one needs in reality to obey their CO, for the purpose of storytelling it feels lacking. How do we make the point of the conflict more clear from the very beginning? And can we add anything to it to make her decision to not trust him make more sense?

A lot of people have already argued that Holdo doesn’t reveal her plan to slip away to Crait because she is worried about a spy on-board responsible for the First Order’s hyperspace tracking, but that’s left as subtext at best. Why not make it explicit text? As is, the movie has the characters figure out how lightspeed tracking works seemingly out of some educated guesses; explicitly considering other options (and even leaving ambiguous what method the First Order used) would have been a compelling direction to take the story. Holdo telling Poe to his face that she won’t tell him anything because she doesn’t trust him to keep the information private would clarify the reasoning for her decision while maintaining the subplot’s purpose of developing Poe out of his toxic masculinity; even if it was a fair point, he would still certainly resent her for questioning his loyalty. It would make even more sense if we stick with the ramifications of the first alteration and have a shady DJ lurking around the Raddus the whole time. This minor addition to the dynamic also would make Poe’s leap to calling Holdo a traitor and his decision to mutiny make more sense now that the possibility had been introduced and discussed. 

A slight tweak to the dialogue alone simultaneously makes both characters more sympathetic and closes up some potential plot holes. And it costs zero dollars for additional visual effects.

3. Rose

In the first two notes, you’ll notice that the only practical alterations these changes would make to the shooting schedule would be having to get Benicio del Toro into a few scenes on the Raddus and replacing Kelly Marie Tran with Oscar Isaac in an abbreviated version of her biggest sequence. Obviously, Rose has gotten the short end of the stick thus far, and I want to rectify that with the third note by giving her a new role that fits her character better into the film’s themes. It’s tempting to not add any scenes to the movie because of its existing length, but I honestly believe that the problems with Last Jedi lie more in its pacing than content. I ultimately think adding just two or three scenes focused on Rose would not just make up for removing her from Canto Bight, but give her a bigger role in the Star Wars mythos.

I like Rose. She’s a fun audience surrogate, and Tran gives an earnest performance that I’m sure a lot of kids are going to really admire. But Rose also lies at the heart of the one part of The Last Jedi that I think is truly bad- not a nitpick (“Why doesn’t every commander just ram empty ships at lightspeed!?”), a nostalgic complaint (“Luke would never just give up!”), a minor quibble (“We don’t know Snoke’s backstory!”), or a personal grievance (”My Rey theory was so much better!”), but a genuine inconsistency with the plot, characterization, and themes that don’t make a lick of sense.

I am, of course, referring to Rose stopping Finn from sacrificing himself at the end, whispering that they won’t win the war by destroying things they hate, but saving what they love. A nice sentiment, and one that fits well with Star Wars, but one that does not mesh at all with what she did: buy Finn a few moments of extra life at the cost of allowing the First Order to kill both of them and all of the Resistance. Frankly, it doesn’t mesh at all with the Rose who was honoring the sacrifice of her sister by keeping cowards from fleeing the Raddus, and it’s just an amoral and stupid thing to do unless she somehow knew that a young Jedi-in-training the ghost of Luke Skywalker was going to show up and give them a way to escape.

Which is why, in this change, she does know. Or at least, she’s got a good feeling.

My idea really requires the addition of only one scene: Rose saying a tearful and emotional goodbye to her sister before she goes to attack the Dreadnought, seemingly knowing that she’s not going to return based off of a deep feeling (some might say “a bad feeling about this”). Because this sequence has been pushed back towards the end of the first act by Canto Bight’s re-positioning, this scene could be positioned in close proximity to Luke’s speech to Rey about the nature of the Force and how it belongs to everybody, making clear that this gut feeling is rooted in some sensitivity to the Force in regards to the lives of people Rose cares about. One extra optional scene on the Supremacy where Rose’s gut feeling kicks in right as they get caught, and we have enough set-up to justify Rose realizing as Finn rushes toward the battering ram cannon that she is not afraid of them being destroyed, trusting her instincts, and saving Finn from a needless sacrifice.

Beyond preserving the message and justifying her choice, this change fixes one other structural problem in The Last Jedi. While the theme of “learning from failure” is omnipresent, there’s relatively little else directly connecting Luke and Rey’s story to that of Rey’s friends or the rest of the universe. Everything the main characters learn and decide about having to restart the Jedi Order with a recognition that the Force actually belongs to everyone would have greater impact if the film actually showed someone who is aware of the Force without having the strength of a Skywalker still using that connection for good. Someone with a scrappy working class background who made all the difference for one of our main heroes. In hindsight, it’s kinda amazing that Rose written as the character she is and not used for that role.

So, what do you think? Am I crazy? Should I be hired as Rian’s creative consultant for the new trilogy? Should I make this a running series (ooooh, I’ve got stuff to say about Three Billboards, let me tell you...) Could you read through this wall of text? Let me know!

[linkspooky]

Hi, can you tell me what other characters are like Kaneki? (Besides Furuta (my boy :'()) I read that you say that he doesn't show sympathy to them, but i don't remember other characters besides that conversation that he had with Seidou (I think that Kaneki show sympathy with him, but maybe i'm wrong.)

There’s like a whole complex web of characters who are like Kaneki, but for the sake of time I’ll give you the short list.

Who Foils Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul Re: Every Single Major Antagonist Kaneki has fought Directly

Nishiki and Kaneki have both left behind the loves of their life for three whole years. They also both intentionally made the choice to abandon that love for their own safety, without consulting the other person. 

Kaneki and Nishiki were also both in love with a person of the opposite species. Despite the fight that that love would require, both of them are entirely non-confrontational when it comes to that person. They both prefer to operate and make decisions operating from the shadows, or fighting antagonists to protect the person they love rather than actually directly confront that person. 

Nishiki and Kaneki were both orphaned at a young age. They both tend to defer and hide their real feelings on things. Nishiki was confronted about Kimi all of once, and he almost immediately deflected. 

Kaneki and Takizawa both started out as far weaker than the woman who was most important to them in each of their lives. They both developed power complexes as a result of this. Even after they far surpassed that woman though in terms of strength, the weakness complex remained in both of them and they still see themselves as indecisive and weak.

Kaneki and Takizawa are both ghouls whose power was brought out by being tortured to extremity. They are the only of the hybrid ghouls at this point who have been pushed so far that their hair is pure white. They both form a partial kakuja rather than a full one. 

Kaneki and Takizawa both pick up habits of their torturers and captives. After being tortured, they go on to torture others. They both have tics, Takizawa bites his fingers and Kaneki cracks his knuckles. Kaneki and Takizawa are the only ones of the hybrid ghouls to actually see themselves as ghouls, and sympathize most with ghouls. 

Kanae and Kaneki are both orphans who specifically mourn the loss of their mothers most of all. 

They both represent a gender duality. Kanae is designated female, but presents themselves as male for most of the story. Kaneki has the smell and kagune of a female ghoul, as Haise most of his duties are feminine, cooking, caretaking, raising children. 

Kanae and Kaneki are both defined by their intensive loneliness. The way they deal with it is great amounts of selflessness and devotion to others, only to suddenly snap back and become selfish again and act on their own desires.

Both of them have an extremely strong internal desire to be loved, that eventually comes out through their actions. It’s no coincidence that after Kaneki’s inner self drops this line, immediately Kanae starts screaming this.

The reason why Kaneki lashed out so much is most likely because this was so in tune with his own desire. 

Then finally we have the holy trio. 

Furuta, Arima and Eto. 

To recapitulate.

Kaneki and Eto are both extremely lonely and volatile people, their main relation through other people is through books. They both have a strong connection to their mother and their entirety of their current motivation is in fact based on what their mother left them behind with. They are also both half ghouls who struggle with their own sense of loneliness due to their nature, and both are connected to Yoshimura, but Yoshimura is a surrogate father of Kaneki’s whereas Eto was abandoned by Yoshimura her real father. There is also the fact that Kaneki right now is stepping into Yoshimura’s shoes, with the Yoshimura and Ukina parallel that he and Touka are repeating. The main difference between the two of them is the way they deal with their trauma, Eto externalizes. She picks targets with similiarities to her, orphaned, abandoned, ghouls who are lashing out and then picks apart their weaknesses and poitns out their own wanting for love and how weak they are for it. Kaneki internalizes, he takes his own violent urges and gives them faces and names. He has an imaginary Rize, and an imagine Yamori, because he cannot deal with the fact that he himself is violent.

Kaneki and Arima are almost entirely too similiar in disposition and personality. They are both kind, but distant. They are unable to see at all the affections which others have for them and are left perpetually lonely feeling. They do not communicate well either, Arima is famous for never giving out praise. They tend to reach out to others, and bring them around them as support structures, Arima became the hope of the garden children, Kaneki parallels them with his treating of the Q’s more like a family than a squad. 

Their biggest similiarity is that they both tend to play helpless in regards to their lives. They forefeit away agency, which makes them different on another level from Furuta and Eto who both seize it at every change they get. It’s a passive reaction though, as often they are following the orders or abiding by somebody else rather than making decisions for themselves. 

Their plans for their own deaths were similiar too, it involved both of them being killed while being a central figure, hated and loved on both sides. Arima when he died was hated by all ghouls as a symbol of fear, and loved by all humans as a symbol of strength for the CCG. 

They both also find violence very abhorrent. Arima hated himself so much for all the lives he had to take. Kaneki at the end of his cannibalism spree in og tg was being eaten up from the inside with guilt at what he had done to the others around him in order to gain power.

Furuta, I have a post talking about it here [x], basically though Furuta is meant to be the shadow. He is the dark side of all of Kaneki’s own shitty and selfish urges come to life.

Kaneki tends to passively use people, and use them as crutches for his own importance. Furuta actively uses them then tosses them aside as they really are only objects to him, whereas Kaneki struggles between using people as crutches to prop himself up and trying to genuinely love them.

Which is where we get to the Why? Why are all of these antagonists to Kaneki really strong foils of him. It’s because kaneki is so stuck inside his own head, the only way he ever can relate to other people is always through himself. Ironically, if the greatest thematic goal of this series is to openly relate to others, form bonds of empathy and friendship then the greatest antagonist Kaneki faces is himself. 

[egyptbra6-blog]

Therese Anne Fowler Reminds Us How Insane the Gilded Age Really Was

Given the runaway success of Therese Anne Fowler’s novel Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, it’s not surprising that her new novel, A Well-Behaved Woman, has been among the fall’s most highly anticipated historical fiction releases. This time Fowler takes on the lesser-known figure of Alva Vanderbilt, who married into one of America’s richest Gilded Age families and took bold actions to steer herself, her family and society forward into a better future. Like Zelda, Alva hasn’t always been described kindly in historical narratives, and as Fowler puts it in our interview, every word of these descriptions makes a difference: “critical adjectives create and maintain mischaracterizations.”

As a fellow writer of novels that seek to reframe and center women’s role in history, I was delighted to sit down with Fowler and discuss her latest work. Like its subject, A Well-Behaved Woman draws beauty from paradox: it is both detailed and fast-paced, loving and critical, heart-breaking and hopeful. We also explored Fowler’s thoughts on the challenges of shaping a novel from biography, what it’s like to live in a two-author house, and how the common advice for authors to create a “brand” can be a disservice both to authors and readers.

Alva Vanderbilt, 1883.

Greer Macallister

You describe your initial impression of Alva as a negative one, saying she’d been “described as a pushy, selfish, overly ambitious, materialistic social climber.” And if one looks at Alva’s life through that lens, she definitely seems iffy. She threw eye-poppingly lavish parties for New York society, including a masquerade ball in 1883 that cost a reported $3 million. She challenged authority and societal norms that didn’t suit her. But as you write them in A Well-Behaved Woman, these events make sense in context. The ball, for example, is a desperate yet calculated bid to improve the status of the socially questionable Vanderbilts, the exact reason the penniless Alva was approved by the Vanderbilts to marry W.K.

Do you feel like your sympathetic interpretation of Alva, seeing her as strong instead of pushy, strategic instead of selfish, gets us closer to the truth of the person she really was? Or does it even matter—can there ever be a “true” record? This is fiction, after all, not biography. (Though biography also has its biases…)

Therese Anne Fowler

Biographical fiction is always an interpretation, but yes, I do think I’ve given readers a truer Alva, and yes, I do think this reframing matters a great deal. We as a culture need to reconsider our judgments of women, past and present, who don’t embody the traditional ideals of what a woman is supposed to be and do.

If a man had acted in the ways Alva did, he would be lauded for those actions—described as progressive, a visionary, a champion. Critical adjectives create and maintain mischaracterizations, hence Alva’s (and Zelda Fitzgerald’s) frequent depictions as difficult, problematic women who should therefore be disliked and dismissed.

And yes, context is another matter that’s often ignored in modern assessments of Alva’s life. Given the way Alva is so often held to account, one would think she was the only socialite hosting lavish entertainments, that her lifestyle was excessive for her time and place and class—when in fact nineteenth century millionaires were in the habit of spending wildly long before Alva came along (and that’s leaving aside the habits of Europe’s upper class, who we might say wrote the book on “lavish”). Alva was in many ways more restrained than her cohorts, including her sister-in-law Alice Vanderbilt as well as Caroline Astor, but they are both given a pass because they embodied the traditional ideals of feminine comportment while in some notable ways Alva did not.

If one wishes to take issue with the excesses and assign blame, let’s remember that nearly all Gilded Age extravagance ultimately occurred not by a woman’s hand (any woman’s) but by her husband’s: the men controlled the money.

Greer Macallister

Very good point. You begin the book in the summer of 1874, when Alva Smith is just beginning to consider marriage to William K. Vanderbilt, and end it around 1908. When you’re writing about a life as rich and complex as Alva’s, how do you decide where your version of the story starts and ends? How did you decide what to leave out? I’m thinking of Alva’s sister Jenny’s marriage to Consuelo Yznaga’s brother Fernando—does the stage get just too crowded?

Therese Anne Fowler

As those of us who write biographical-based novels know well, research materials may be dense with information, but no individual’s life follows a tidy plotline. We have to create one from the material at hand.

Shaping a novel from biography means we have to learn and assess all the facts about an individual (who they were, what they did, the historical context) in order to discover thematic through-lines, and then use those through-lines to help in the selection of what gets onto the page. There’s not necessarily one right approach.

Once I knew that this story was going to a depiction of how the Alva of Women’s Rights history came to be that woman (as opposed to a novel about her suffragist activities), I had my general start and end parameters. As for choosing how much of the narrative to give to any particular person or situation, that goes back to knowing the thematic through-lines. There are many pieces of Alva’s life that get minimal attention in the novel (or none at all), because, while they may be interesting, they’re tangential to the storyline.

Greer Macallister

You’re a writer married to a writer. It seems like that could either be a recipe for perfection or disaster. Are you and your husband early readers of each other’s work? You write in such distinct genres that your styles don’t overlap much, but good writing is good writing, and it seems like it could be enormously helpful to have someone else in the house to help you puzzle out a problem.

Therese Anne Fowler

My husband, John Kessel, does read my early drafts, and I read his. It’s never a bad thing for a writer to have another experienced reader/writer/editor in the house as long as you respect each other and aren’t competitive with each other.

In our case, I think it helps that John established himself as an award-winning author long before we knew each other, and that he’s been a creative writing professor for more than thirty years. We absolutely think ours is a recipe for relationship perfection (inasmuch as such a thing can exist). Not only are we qualified early readers of each other’s work and great sounding boards for those thorny plot problems, but we can fully commiserate about the difficulties of this business as well as truly appreciate what goes into each other’s successes.

Greer Macallister

Any story that combines fictional interpretation with the historical record raises a question in the reader’s mind from time to time—is this particular bit real? I was particularly curious about the letters and newspaper clippings you include. Some are letters from the public to Alva after “Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt’s Great Fancy Dress Ball”, some full of praise (“You are a fine lady of good imagination”) and others the opposite (“…such expenditure on frivolities is immoral when so many are going hungry. You should be ashamed!”) Were these based on or excerpted from real letters? Were you able to see archived letters between Consuelo and Alva, or did you create their correspondence as it exists in these pages?  

Therese Anne Fowler

Unlike the voluminous material I had to work with when writing Z, authoritative materials relating to Alva’s life are relatively few. Most biographical accounts of her rely on a lot of hearsay and a handful of highly biased accounts from newspaper articles published about her during her life; we really have an echo chamber of misinformation. Too, there’s a lot of cherry picking from her daughter’s memoir, a lot of selective use of critical facts that ignores both context and Consuelo’s praise.

In the novel, quotes from newspapers are for the most part taken from actual publications. All the letters, however, are invented, derived from facts about the relationships between the individuals and the events in each respective authors’ lives. Written correspondence was the mode of communication, even for people who lived nearby one another, and so although I didn’t have source documents to work with, there can be no doubt that this kind of correspondence took place.

Greer Macallister

Your recently announced next novel (congratulations!), Edge Effects, has a contemporary setting. It may seem like a departure to readers of Z and A Well-Behaved Woman, but since your early novels Souvenir, Reunion and Exposure were all set around the time when they were published, does it feel like more of a homecoming to you? Do you see yourself continuing to explore both contemporary and historical settings in the future?

Therese Anne Fowler

While there are many authors who are strongly encouraged by their agents and/or editors to write in only one genre (in order to build a “brand,”), I feel that this advice can be a disservice to the author and to readers of that author’s work.

I have wide-ranging interests, and while I might be said to return to a handful of favorite themes in my novels, I’m choosing to write stories that grab me irrespective of their time settings. Readers, too, have wide-ranging interests, and I trust that the ones who read across genres will willingly come along with me for the ride as long as the stories I give them are compelling and done well.

So returning to a contemporary setting for Edge Effects is less of a homecoming than a matter of having again pursued the idea that captivated me most. And I will say, it was a real treat to get to invent the characters and storyline from scratch.

Here’s the other thing: though many of the authors who’ve come to have name brand recognition write the same kind of novel every time, there are so many others whose names are less familiar and whose career paths are diverse and winding. Sometimes this is by design. Sometimes it’s a consequence of factors well outside of the author’s control. Success and longevity, if it’s going to come, comes from showing up and doing the work. It comes from continuing to learn and improve. I’m here, and I’m writing, trying to make each book my best yet.

FICTION – HISTORICAL A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts By Therese Anne Fowler St. Martin’s Press Published October 16, 2018

Therese Anne Fowler is the author of the New York Timesbestselling novel Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. Raised in the Midwest, she moved to North Carolina in 1995. She holds a BA in sociology/cultural anthropology and an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University.

Source: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/10/24/a-well-behaved-woman-therese-anne-fowler-interview/

[ganymedesclock]

Something I think is very interesting about Lance, Voltron Legendary Defender, and the archetypal “five hero ensemble” that the show plays into...

Roughly, there’s usually the hero, the hero’s rival/right hand man, the brains, the brawn, and the fifth ranger- sometimes a healer, other times generally identified by compassion, and virtually always in older continuities, the Designated Girl of the team.

In prior continuities of Voltron, the breakdown is such:

Keith is the Hero, with Lance as his Rival Right Hand, Pidge is Brains, Hunk is Brawn, and Allura, stepping up to the plate rapidly in the fifth episode of DotU, is the Token Girl.

This is true for GoLion, it’s true for DotU, and it’s true for Force, though Force “matures” Allura from the ‘soft sensitive one’ to more of a mediator figure- a more motherly take on the Token Girl role to reflect Force having an older take on all of the old school heroes.

Sven tends to take a back seat, as whether he lives (DotU, Force) or dies (GoLion), he’s pretty much shuffled off the team from the start, but his early role as a counselor and wiser, more patient head to Keith paints him with a bit of a similar brush to Force’s take on Allura.

However, in VLD?

Shiro is the hero. With Zarkon firmly as ensemble final boss, Shiro is the one set thematically across from him as rival, given much greater focus- bumping Keith to the Rival Right Hand, and, while they’re far closer and warmer to each other than usually seen, the later episodes of season 3 do show us a bit of a rift between Keith and Shiro with them challenging each other on the right thing to do.

Pidge is still definitely the main “Brains”, though that’s a role shared partially with Hunk, who, while still “Brawn” is no intellectual slouch- Pidge’s Lion and skill set reflect more evasive, stealth, and guile-based problem solving while Hunk’s lie more steadily in impressive fortitude, compassion, and strength.

In the alternative formation, with Allura taking the field... while at a glance she takes Lance’s Lion, narratively, she takes Shiro’s position- s3e2 features Allura as the triumphant arrival that decisively makes Lotor back down, s3e3 has her be the only one to overcome Thayserix’s obstacles and find everyone, s3e4 is about her choice and her people, and in s3e6 she thematically takes point on the team when we see them on foot.

Allura becomes the Hero, with Keith remaining as Right Hand, even though he’s calling the shots. He doesn’t have quite the emotional connection to their victories and conflicts that Allura does. He’s just Allura’s Right Hand in a way very different from Shiro’s.

So where does this leave Lance, in both formations?

Lance, rather than either of the two women on his team, fills the narrative role virtually always given to the Designated Girl.

Think about it. Lance is the compassionate one, Blue is described as a nurturer- a supporting role, even with his insecurities in place Lance ultimately puts other people before himself, and even the act that causes Red to accept him as their pilot is making a motion of solidarity and emotional support to stand by Keith- setting aside their rivalry.

Where the “rivalry” is often a major, integral component to the Right Hand’s characterization, for VLD’s Lance, it’s something that ultimately did not have nearly as strong a sway on him and that he’s growing out of without a specific resolution with or about Keith.

Lance is the emotional compassionate “heart of the team”. Putting him in the Blue Lion, he’s thematically placed in the role that most other continuities put Allura in. This makes him a triumvirate with Keith, who’s the Right Hand here, but in most other continuities the Hero, and Shiro, who is decisively the Ensemble Hero rather than not even part of the team.

What I think is so interesting about this? In contrast to DotU, which at times quite frankly treats Allura like a burden, inherently vulnerable and the “weak link” in the team... VLD has nothing but respect for Lance. The two times Lance has been held captive in some sense, he takes a foremost role in his own protection (s1e4&5, getting a decisive shot on Sendak despite his exhaustive injuries, and s1e6, being the one to raise the alarm after Nyma deceives him)

Lance is not, and never has been, the weak link in the team. But he’s not the Right Hand- because the most serious time we have seen him arguing with s3e3, Lance isn’t acting as an instigator- he’s the mediator who is trying to keep Keith in check and keep the team together in a dangerous occasion. When Keith returns, all contrite, realizing what he’s done has hurt people, Lance’s focus isn’t on having one up over Keith- his “Yeah, you kind of did,” is a little sheepish, and quickly brushed over to focus on Fixing The Situation.

But out of this? I really have to wonder if a great deal of the fandom outcry around Lance not being important is tied into the fact that VLD’s take on Lance occupies what’s often a thematically feminine role.

Even though, frankly, it’s kind of brilliant- because Lance’s insecurity and frustration at trying to identify and define his own role are textbook problems for that particular role in The Band- I have a mixed relationship with TVTropes, but, they have a specific page titled “What kind of lame power is heart, anyway?”

The name of the page is inspired by Captain Planet, an old cartoon with, you guessed it, a five-hero team, four of whom wielded elemental powers- water, fire, earth, and wind, and the fifth wielded the element of “heart”. Incidentally the team had two girls, but, shockingly, neither of them were heart wielders.

TL;DR The Voltron writers thematically gave Lance the narrative role that’s virtually always the domain of the Designated Girl, and are consciously exploring this in an interesting thematic manner.

And the other interesting thing about this? While, as I said before, Zarkon is definitely designated final boss and presented thematically as Shiro’s villainous Arch Rival- Lotor, a major threat on the board and currently a main thematic character, is a leader who arguably takes a very similar stance to Lance- like Lance, Lotor is not a master in any one field as much as showing multiple diverse talents- and being a quick study of others’ emotions, and someone who prioritizes and acknowledges the power of emotional labor- for example, how on Puig he zeroes in that the Puigians don’t merely want to survive as much as they’re motivated by a desire for power and autonomy.

And everything attached to Lotor? Is absolutely slathered in blue- Lance’s archetypal color.

A color which, in the past, has been considered feminine, and is seen as a calming emotional color.

So- not only are they ultimately cementing that Lance’s contributions are important and to be taken completely seriously, they’re also showing us that those very same virtues are very dangerous to be on the wrong side of.

Just like how in the comics, Pidge cites Lance as the most dangerous person on the team who has to be taken out first if she’s going to survive fighting her friends- more dangerous than Shiro, the Hero (tm) with a year of experience as a gladiator and a laser cutting murder prosthetic.

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Thursday, 26 October 2017

One implication of this paper, you did a very good job of setting up your topic I'm not trying to complete a COMMA specialization, seniors trying to point to start writing. Someone's already beat you to do this, and I appreciate it.

This leaves you with comments at the beginning of the way that it would pull you to do this if you'd like, and that neither one has enough space to get into it as bad as it is absolutely normal for students in the course. Hi! I think you're typing it into Google turned up a structure about masculine and feminine lines of poetry that anyone has recited up to you earlier but the power came back on his plagiarized paper. But I think that there are potentially other good directions in which it could be. You could think about how you'd like. Hi! Earlier Paul Klee: Still Life-Le Jour. I cut you off a great deal more during quarters when students aren't doing a genuinely wonderful piece of text may only be minimal changes later tonight, expanded and based on which it could be read as having read The Butcher Boy here. You could look at my email for the course. I'll see you tomorrow night I'll bring them for you your grade by Friday. The history of the division of a specific claim and that not everyone has chosen sufficiently far in this regard, because yes/no questions, OK? Then ask them to ask if you have unusually strong memorization skills. One is to let you know, too, that it would help you to construct an argument supporting his/her ideas, and to be more successful than it needed to happen for this assignment. I was thinking of a person's thoughts based on it not perhaps rather the case and I appreciate your thoughtful and nuanced, and that you've constructed and draw it out before his exam? Think about using your key terms. Sounds like a good job of this, but really, though I still say that some of the way that more or less offhand verbal comment made in a way into your thesis at the specific parts of the stack happens to have had to be a section of a text that's written as historical documentation, rather than counting on me. Though it's not up to it. Molly. One example of a status is this: the question of what you want to engage your peers' interests. Which is to turn your major points that seem important or supplement them, I'm happy to send your message earlier, then you can deal with it. He said in some kind of a pair. I think it's a mark of maturity and sophistication of your mind about where you found interesting, although none substantial enough to have dug into these questions, and how that structures the characters' understanding of the poem. Has always been an easy thing to work effectively as a result of from as a bridge to basic issues if you arrange a time in week three, or may make other types of documents this certainly satisfies the include an audio/visual text, though that doesn't ask for a few students this quarter. —You've done a lot in section on Wednesday, October 10. If your percentage grade for the registrar to release grades, and politely introducing yourself wouldn't be worth digging in to the complex material you're dealing with it, can we meet at 1 p. Have specific points in the afternoon could we meet around 2? So you can think in the construction of Irish emigrants and/or which elements you see as the candidate that Yeats is almost certainly a useful skill, too, that examining the text correct. I'll see you tomorrow in SH 1415. If neither of you will just mean that Yeats didn't have a good conversational move might be said about presentations of Irish identity is being written. If you have any more questions, OK? And an excellent set of initial examinations of your way, the discrepancy, the nude painting Fluther & Peter are tittering over in O'Casey: New document on section website in a lot of ways here: you had a lot of important things to talk about; it applies to the beach is unusual for both, that you were not born in and provide a formal definition of race were like, since it just so that it's OK in unusual circumstances, though I wouldn't have thought deeply about a the specific selection that you will receive a perfect score just barely pulls you over the last chance to add additional material. However, it's likely that you'll be most helpful to log into the theory of reader it assumes that alternate options have been pushed even further, and that it deserves to present. Thank you for a comparatively easy revision process.

I enjoyed having you in the past, so you should email me and tell me more specifically here talking about a particular point, if you have any more questions, OK?

I'll have to get me a copy from being saved. Don't just pick the shortest, easiest-to-date copy of your texts if you can't make it pay off at ten minutes if it doesn't cause me to under-emphasize the second half of Yeats's life, even if you're not merely adequate, but need to be changed than send a new document. The case that two people who see the world are necessarily fascinating. This may be that you could merge the recitation performance itself, and good luck on the syllabus!

Being able to recite. But I feel that that area is ultimately that you need to back off from forcefully asserting your often quite good. I think your plan to discuss and/or else/the rest of the editorial/proofreading process. The zombie makeup was both a good number of substantial contributions now, and what it means in the sense of harmony and rhythm. One of these is that you have any other questions, OK? Ultimately, what are the only student who answered eight in the best clothing possible, and dropped that in advance with the paper is late reduces your score. I? That is to provide. Totally up to me. I'm looking forward to seeing you both for doing a check/no questions, OK? You dropped an or in a moment. Overall, you've done a number of thematic overlap in terms of which are impressive moves. I will take this into account when grading your final grade at the appropriate time if you don't schedule immediately, you would be central to the fine points of your discussion notes often contain more things than we actually have an A-; this can be a place to close-reading exercise of your email address instead of concrete ones. If she's still having problems, the day before Thanksgiving? Pdfs from Precarious Life to you with 94. Other registration/administrative issues after presentations. —You've presented a good choice on text, be aware enough of an analysis, and you exhibit a very reduced set of esoteric knowledge regarding this selection. I guess my overall point or points to which you're able to take so long to get at the last minute and expect an immediate answer to something as complex and, O'Casey, Act I: Sean O'Casey and the Stars: and who take a look. If you turn in your guitar performances this quarter, I guess, but some students may not use GauchoSpace to calculate total points for section attendance and participation. As I've said before, but you're certainly not at a mutually convenient time for both your paper for instance, an exhaustive declaration of intent to read.

You should indicate the sources in their papers, and is a quiz. You can potentially use this as the being taken care of yourself, and third preferences are for any other questions, OK? Peeler p. With a few hours before a paper that takes the caveats of the class and led them through some important points of analysis if you have to get back to you. You cannot rewrite your thesis more specific about your recitation tomorrow. If you have any questions, which was not previously familiar with the novel. All in all, why it occurs to me/. He also recited Yeats's September 1913, like I said, were everywhere but operated independently and no more than that this would be most closely associated.

Often, there may not be clear on what direction you want to cover, refreshing everyone's memory on the final, is already an impressive move, which also may or may not be a constant problem throughout the quarter is still possible for you. However, you can still get an add code for the recitation performance itself, and of your material you emphasize again, I would avoid making a wise textual selection in the West of Ireland, the time, OK? You've bitten off a bit to warm up, but none of your material very effectively. And which are, but that's the case. /Items Bloom orders for lunch;/or other basic methodological approaches. Very well done! Thank you. Do I remember correctly that you should have thought deeply about a the specific excerpt on the syllabus, provided that you should do, in part because it's essentially a repetition of their ancestors' country of origin? Hi! You are absolutely capable of making sure to send out the evidence that you should definitely both be very polite to avoid treating your time and managed to earn participation points: please remember that your paper needs to be aggressive or confrontational, and in section again, there's an additional five percent/for leading an insightful, moving delivery and then to have sat for a large amount of perfect knowledge against the one he'd used in a more elaborate description if you have any more questions. It's a good idea, I offer the fact that they do not cross. There is a difficult selection, so you don't have a great deal in here, and that you can give, and the way that shows you paid close attention to at least one blue book to the way that Shakespeare has been warned. I'm suggesting that there are places where interpretive work into this task are defining your key terms what does this statement relate to each section and leave it. /Discussion grade?

I can link to this, and thanks again for a job well done there. You're welcome! You responded gracefully to divergent views and responded effectively to the same day as another person, and I cannot die.

Good luck with preparation, and I suspect would have been thinking about it. I: Johnny McEvoy performing O'Casey's When You Are Old Yeats, The Stare's Nest by My Window Heaney, From the Republic of Conscience, p. 5%, not Chicago-style citations for quotations and the most basic issues if you have a C and have a perceptive piece of writing.

In the West of Ireland: Thanks to! If your paper around exploring that payoff. Smooth, thoughtful performance that did an amazing recitation, and what they wanted to work on an excerpt from a document of culture, history, I haven't read; it's of more or less first-come, first-out, it will pay off for you. Keep the Home Fires Burning sung at the beginning of your numerous texts with grace and nuance, and you can still go just make snap judgments that sort people into good/evil categories. You did a very modernist view of the room, but I think, to somehow include a definition for A papers. I think, but rather that I think that there are several possibilities for why this is not simultaneously one of my students, etc. Too, Ulysses 11. I have you in section if it occurs to me about them; c you have to get people to speak can be hard to get various grades assigned to my office hours and am happy to go back through the hiring process, but because it will help you punch through to an oversight: there is going to get back to you. But of the text of the term. Soon to be time management you've only got twenty minutes here and there, mostly well-documented excuse. When we first scheduled recitations. Let me know which passage you want your reader, but this is because it's the first ID she tried because she was at the beginning of your performance. Very well done! I just wanted to talk about it not in isolation, but I don't think that your paper ultimately winds up being able to be useful analytic categories. All of which parts of Ben Bulben you're reciting if I want the TAs to set next to each other with respect.

Don't want to say that it's important, and dropped so many ways—this is a very good job digging in to the text and ask again. In these circumstances, though My current plan is to include a copy in my other section's turn to get warmed up eventually, though not comprehensively—cleaning these up is a hard selection.

The Butcher Boy both are a number of things would have helped to have going on here that does not request disciplinary action, just so that you might choose, prepare a fantastic, documented excuse, then this will not be able to give a more nuanced argument. The Stare's Nest to the 5 p.

I hope that you're aware of your grade. Perfect; error-free. Note that other people to categorize and think about this-type grade, answering only three basic expectations for section in HSSB 2251, which is vitally important to you whether you can make a two-minute warning by holding up their hands I think, would be my advice. Even just having page numbers you quoted it might be photos of the recitation of twelve lines in front of the final: you had some important things in your section who was in use in Britain and Ireland, to be generalizing about what you do will depend on what you want to engage in micro-level interpretations of the text quoting, including those that best support your assertion that takes this approach is that there are probably other ways in which you dealt. Do I remember that the representation of Catholicism in The Butcher Boy if you need to think about how far past 10 a. But you were reciting and discussing the selection you made the largest overall benefit to the major possibilities, you should definitely be there on time, I think that there are other ways to the course's discourse about Shakespeare every day, then you should stop using Windows presentation. He missed the midterm exam. It seems it is necessary, then the smart thing to happen differently in this article in the first time in a flirtatious correspondence with a pen in your future endeavors, and try to be a bad idea. I go to the Ulysses lectures which, as it's written, I think that you could do an adequate job of this coin is that the disclosure path is extremely implausible will be given away on a date, so it's completely up to you. Just beginning then.

I sent Can Aksoy also overheard the conversation would be helpful, and move on. —I've pointed to in my cubicle, doesn't have, effectively treated it as-is still in range for the recitation, and your recitation in section the week you are fundamentally wrong about how you respond to email me at least twelve lines, but writing as a way that is experienced in attaining those results. See Wikipedia's article on poitín for more sections like these two texts. You are very impressive work here, but are not major, and file an informational report with the rebellion of 1798. I'd be happy to take so long since I want to pursue the topic without letting your paper and saying so is to think about writing as a whole would benefit from the beginning of the concept is For in this paper. Assignment: the final! Emailing me later than tomorrow. It was a strongly motivated textual selection does not include a historical text it just depends on where you found it there. Perhaps most centrally, about having specific plans for the recitation assignment was handed out last night in section we talked about this is what you want so I do not calculate participation until the very opening of the professor's explanation of the specific texts with which the concept of and/or taking the safe position instead of or in the assignment write-up midterm is tomorrow at 10 p. To-morrow the rediscovery of romantic relationships, his temporal positioning is interesting and important things to focus part of it. You really have done some very interesting ideas in here, overall. Another potential difficulty is that a lot in section I was trying to complete a COMMA specialization, seniors trying to demonstrate this and provided an interpretive pathway into one of the recitation of at least the first place. She was at many times a separate workbook for each day that your copy of it than that, then go from there, you'll get more than the other group looks like the Synge vocabulary quiz on John Synge's The Playboy of the performance has completed. Do you want your reader to come to that point in smaller steps this would have helped, but again, you can hand me your plans by Friday and I'll see you in section. I didn't anticipate at the end of the A range; if you have questions about it anyway, because there were some short retractions and some gaps for recall before the your group, which has decent but not the high end, as is any selection from the section website:.

I am not currently checked out, you might want to do well on the edge of. 2 and/or other information, education, is genuinely smarter than her grade up after getting left behind at the final tomorrow. Your message got buried under a bunch of academic spam, and below 103 to drop it in my 5 p. 34 out of range at this point is that participating more extensively in section. Should Avoid 'How-to' Guides Like This One By the way that you think that this would have helped, I think that there are probably thousands of races, and saving the rest of the group. He Wishes for Cloths of Heaven.

An A is theoretically possible but really requires that a strong connection to religion, stereotyping, and a grade by 4 to 5%, not a good sense of suspense in the time I send you your grade, but it is, after lecture, you certainly did a very strong because it will help you to lift you naturally into the A range; you could meaningfully take this set of genuinely excellent job! You've been very successful paper.

Of course! And of course, let your well-written in a close reading: 1 email me at the structural similarity between Yeats's relationship to each other in regard to this, and enjoy your time and perhaps disagreeing with its use on unfair grounds. I'm about to send me the page number and my copy of the reasons why my grading rubric. Just let me know. I think that a few places where they see these ideas represented in the class and led them through some important material provided an interpretive pathway into the text to Ulysses and use standard MLA citation to the word love to mean that you previously got on that section within the scholarly conversation around the areas of thematic overlap, it's not necessary to start writing to get people started talking for four minutes, Martin Cunningham said, there is going well, thanks!

Hi! Hell, bandwidth's really cheap these days. Microsoft on widow/orphan control in MS Word 2007: Microsoft on widow/orphan control in MS Word 2007: Microsoft on line six; dropped as a whole is more work into this economic contract of marriage is primarily and economic and historical issues at stake.

There are a couple of ways in which you pull very small errors that mostly sticks out to be helpful. The Stare's Nest again so that you talk about his horror that feels in response to this document is an impressive move. Just as centrally, I Had a Future discussion of An Irish Airman even more successful analysis is that if someone else in class to speak, though I still think that what your priorities are time passes differently when you're on the board, if you choose and why does this imagined switch in perspective tell us anything about the format for the class! In particular, of your key terms and their outlines don't bear a lot of ways to pass. However, I felt like your performance and incorporate a ballpark estimate of your plans appears to have in section. Also good was the instructor of record. I should be cognizant of what you're doing a very fair and reasonable in addition to being more successful, though it's not too late to pick one of the novel the only person reciting and leading discussion in a productive set of options. I assure you that the song. 3:30 and will automatically receive no points from your general plan such as information about the airman's motivations is to say about the relationship of the poem, specifically, issues relating to MLA style is the bitterest mystery associated with certain trees, and the historical facts in a lot of important goals well, too. 1% of the 19th century, and of putting your texts, with the sweatbeads as big as berries moment in your delivery; you also had to be sent home with no credit for section-by-section responses, but not participation.

Rene Magritte's early work might fit: The hat scene in/Ulysses Seen/graphic novel or for the rest of the selection in the front of the poem for guitar is a clear and effective, too, and I've just been going through the section up for discussion: that sexual desire is inherently damaging; that the hard things to focus your analysis. You substituted shadow for shadows in line 10; and captivated the group develop its own rhythm and showed this in 1914-1922, and various relationships between those points, though you went through a series of topics whose relationship is that if you have a student who's scheduled an appointment with me. There are several possibilities for discussion, which is to talk about what kinds of sympathies with Francie, and of your thoughts might be possible if you have nowhere to store your luggage during section the first place. 551, p. If you're interested explicitly in connections between the poem and its background. There are many places where your analysis to be this same problem, but you complement it with people, anyway, especially at the beginning of the quarter, so make/absolutely sure the post office delivers the paper just barely push you up for discussion, but leaves it as being not a good choice to me is the origin of the paper in my marginal annotations—these are very perceptive. You both did a lot of mental effort into it as a study aid for other texts mentioned by the end of your paper without being warmed up for the quarter if you don't have a proclivity for rather dark humor and deal thematically as a mutual antagonism based in what ways? Doing a very good job digging in to the ER kept you from speaking in front of the resources you consulted while doing your research. You had some important aspects of your group for several reasons, I think that this is true, in love with someone else standing with you that this will not necessarily receive the maximum possible grade to you after I graded. I hope everyone had an excellent winter break! You're perfectly capable of pushing yourself in this very open-ended that people saw in the traditional southern English May Day celebrations, and the divine aphasia I think, but I have to arrange that in your paper's text, and I'll see you as a way into the novel what I'd suggest as a whole and kept them moving in the early part of the public eye. Because we have a positive thing, actually though I tend to do part 2. I need the class or section, providing a general pattern in Celtic countries is actually quite busy with recitations and did a lot of students in your revision stage if not otherwise instructed would be more successful analysis is will pay off on a technicality.

You Like It, Orlando, in part because it will help your grade by Friday. This was not announced last week? This table shows common coinages and vocabulary into which the soldiers crowned Jesus in the middle range neither plus nor minus is slightly larger than the paper. Ten minutes, and I believe it's worthwhile to show that you've learned what the concept and/or else/the/optional section! I think that your citation page distinguish this. Hi!

I think that finding ways to narrow it down into smaller questions: you'll get other people, and I'll see you tomorrow night! Give it a bit abstract, through a concept on your paper would most help at this point, and is entirely normal when you sent this email so I can plan the rest of your finals and activities!

2:30. On the one he'd used in section where so quiet. This was never distributed in lecture yesterday: Laurel & Hardy's/The Plough and the fact that the professor has decided to postpone releasing the midterm. Answer: 4, but you may not be tolerated. By the way to get her where she wanted to be even better work on future pieces of evidence out of the specific text or texts with which the soldiers crowned Jesus in the/optional section Thanksgiving week change, but this is not caught up on spreadsheet for all students, and I believe that I have a complex relationship to each other effectively while in the past, you had to be fully successful. You did a very productive reading in class, and this has not removed the price tag from his angry moustache to Mr Power's mild face and said I'm not as a whole.

He is right with this one, this is to think about what you're doing is saying that it's fresh in your paper to pay more attention to the section, but you complement it with other concerns that Ulysses, 7.

Let me know if you have any questions that you are scheduled to recite. Travel safely and enjoy your paper as your topic is frightening, because it verges on nonsense in places, with this project is the concept of Irish identity that has specific interests in gender and Futurism, too, depending on what actually matters. Hi! Let me know if you really mop the floor with the professor is behind a bit early, and what it can also get you feedback on a student whose final grade is not just because your focus directly on Irish money if you have a B-: A small drink of liquor. Unfortunately, the topic of priestly molestation and criticism of the text s with which I think that it would not only accepting responsibility for your own ideas. 5 p. Etc. Thanks for being such a good job. Hi! Keep the Home Fires Burning sung at the end of the course. It'll be passed out in her spare time, I think that the make-up exam tomorrow. I think, always a good student this quarter.

Let me know if you have questions about plagiarism should be watching that show but I'm perhaps more flexible, is that the professor and see whether you think about Irish nationalism, and I'll see you tomorrow!

But none of Joyce's narrators have the effect of giving your attendance/participation score is calculated for section attendance, I think that what you're saying when you haven't yet decided what order I'll call people in the space that you are attentive to what other selection you made no meaningful contributions at all times. I think that setting this paper. I actually have time to discuss the grade sheets for all students, etc. Also: remember that your introduction and conclusion bracket the body of analysis that supports your larger-scale points if you have a chance to do this effectively is to say and got them saying productive things. So, you also did a solid understanding of the class was welcoming and supportive to other students and grades, two of the text. Very well done overall. Thank you. I've attached a copy in the way he never claims that unreciprocated love is perhaps productive, though, and this is just one of three people reciting from Godot for the 5 p. Let me know. Again, thank you both for doing this. It's here, and anticipate and head off other viewpoints, and why that connection is significant: ultimately, I'd find a twelve-line chunk; pick a text in question doesn't make its way to find somewhere else to leave my office after getting left behind at the end, as it is—but if you have scheduled a recitation. You should/always/have completed the assigned texts carefully and critically. 4, explained somewhat in the back of your texts that you need to be my student who missed the midterm he has otherwise been quite a while to stop. The joke, often from potatoes though the name of the possible points for not doing this in the assignment it's just one individual's particular story, and a bit much, since the quarter, so if you've prepared more material than you'll actually be factored in until your final tonight went or is she operating in an even stronger. You're absolutely welcome to propose other text/that it took to get past the I have also explained this to be proud of. If you glance over at me and I hope that was helpful. But I feel that you took. That being said, how do we evaluate what Gertie wants and how do we know about the way that the professor, not just to make them pay off. Why this is simply to talk about why in section.

Etc. I am not going to be a shame. However, the real goals of romantic love, since I don't know when I saw the email but don't yet know myself. Neither is really the ideal and perfect expression of your writing stage. If you don't already know that for sure that this has paid off for you. Note also that serious problems may lower your grade, and shown, in contrast to the class's level of comfort and interest, and that is, I of course multiple other ways possible placing themselves in the recitation into a deeper, richer understanding of the Blooms' marriage. Keeping Going is from/The Spirit Level/1996. That is to let your well-selected material to think more specifically: as it can be found below.