#the government is so evil and powerful it makes kids kill each other

[the-dear-skull]

Call me crazy but I don't think having a school where over half of the students fucking die is a good idea.

[mswyrr]

Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes makes the main series of The Hunger Games hit better because it's bookended by these two young people at the birth and death of the Games. Coriolanus choosing to become part of this thing, keep it alive when it was waning in power, and make it the effective tool of media/social control it became and Katniss choosing to use her one arrow, her one shot, to end the Games and Coin rather than take personal revenge on Snow.

Both young people are, in their own ways, ordinary. Collins never leaned into the super special YA lead trope. But Katniss is a young person whose inner compass points north and her inner "no" is so strong and that (at the right moment) enables the death of the Games and the whole social order they embodied and reflected. And Coriolanus is someone who (at another key moment) chooses to harden his heart and take the easy path and walking that comfortable path over decades is the mundane seed of evil.

I think it's important that both young people are living in wartime and influence the direction of things in a postwar moment, when where things will go is up in the air. I'm sure tons of other folks had similar choices to make--perhaps people who were even more exceptional in certain ways--but they weren't standing at just the right tipping point and Katniss and Coriolanus were.

As Katniss puts it when Coin invites her and the other surviving Victors to vote for a new Games using the Capitol's children:

Was it like this then? Seventy-five years or so ago? Did a group of people sit around and cast their votes on initiating the Hunger Games? Was there dissent? Did someone make a case for mercy that was beaten down by the calls for the deaths of the districts’ children? The scent of Snow’s rose curls up into my nose, down into my throat, squeezing it tight with despair. All those people I loved, dead, and we are discussing the next Hunger Games in an attempt to avoid wasting life. Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change now. (315)

And that's why Katniss kills Coin rather than Snow at the end. His 75 year old world is gone. A new world is coming to birth (like it was when he was Katniss' age) and she knows that it must not be the world Coin wants. She doesn't know a lot, but she knows that and acts on it.

The timeline of the books isn't of Panem's government in general, but of the Games itself, and it is bookended by these two young people and their choices, to bring it alive or to shoot it dead. Which is why Collins told the story that she told in Ballad - it's not about Haymitch's games or whatever else people want, because that's not the origin story of this thing that Katniss ends, it's not the other bookend of the story, it doesn't reinforce or enhance Katniss' story the same way. Coriolanus' story does.

All of this is why a "born evil" interpretation of him or saying he and Lucy Gray didn't actually love each other compromises the themes of the series IMO. Coriolanus and Katniss have to have real choices made as people who could have chosen another path, and that means he has to have an actual conscience he chose to sear and numb and Katniss has to be someone capable of walking a crueler path, which is why the commonalities she has with Gale and that side of her needs to be clear as well.

They're both kids who are ordinary in some ways and exceptional in others, but not superpowered, they're human. And they both have ordinary human capacities for good and evil. And they both fall in star-crossed love. But then they choose very different things. And so it goes. Coriolanus helps bring a monster to life; Katniss slays it.

Ballad makes the main series ending even better:

I love the two of them looking across time, across these different deciding moments, at each other, and Katniss making her choice.

[theheirofthesharingan]

I feel like the only 'stupid' thing Itachi and Shisui did was listen to Danzo. Particularly in the novels he's so mustache-twirlingly evil they both should have assumed anything that came out of his mouth was a lie until proven otherwise. The whole problem with "but what if it snowballs into a war" -- Killing the Uchiha clan also puts the village in a very similar situation.

You've taken out one of four noble clans.

You've taken out the scariest dojutsu users in the world that nobody wants to meet on the battlefield.

You've taken out the police who keep the village stable internally.

You've shaken the people's faith in their leaders by making it clear that they're producing murderous shinobi that they cannot control.

You've shaken the people's trust in each other by choosing the nicest possible kid to do the job.

It is a miracle that this didn't spark the next conflict.

...But we're also talking about a 12 year old kid in a complete state of panic, likely perpetually stuck in a triggered state by the threat of a bigger conflict which he has devoted his entire life to stopping. A little kid who is visibly deteriorating, and whose thoughts are rapidly becoming distorted, based on what we know about his beliefs regarding Sasuke, and I have a sneaking suspicion that excessive praise of his thinking exists solely to justify what happened. We can say Itachi was a big fucking nerd and history buff all we like but there are only so many hours of the day that his mission count tells us he was not using to read books.

What I'm saying is yes, this was an awful choice that more than likely created more problems than it solved, but blaming him rather than the people who exploited his trauma is not just a dick move but morally bankrupt.

We don't know whether a war would truly have broken out or not. But going by the evidence in canon, it certainly would have.

One thing most people repeatedly keep forgetting is Obito's presence who Itachi thought was the Madara Uchiha. We know, and it's canon, that Obito attacked Konoha the night Naruto was born for absolutely no reason. He didn't have to do it other than because "he hated the Shinobi world" yet he did. He was strong enough that even Minato thought the man who fought him was Madara himself.

It wasn't hard for Itachi to assume he could be Madara as well and if he attacked Konoha under any circumstances, it would be impossible to stop the damage the war could cause. So, when Obito told Sasuke he was also plotting war, he wasn't exactly lying. It lies in synch with his previous actions too.

Itachi knew it very well. He knew Konoha, with all its army, wasn't ready to confront Madara Uchiha.

Having said that, neither Itachi nor Shisui were "stupid", because as outsiders, who have seen and known all the consequences, we can assess the circumstances more objectively than Itachi and Shisui did.

I've said it many, many times before — the possibilities of any form of conflict followed by the massacre (which could not be much because Konoha still stood strong and police weren't the only ones guarding the village and Uchiha clan was also on its decline, as Itachi stated) could be curbed because Konoha is insanely powerful.

An internal conflict, along with Obito fueling the fire, would be much worse than any of the possibilities you've stated. Why would Konoha Shinobi accept Uchiha, especially if they attacked and overthrew the government? Why would they not view Uchiha as a threat? Why would they ever accept if Uchiha ever won (by mistake) and one of them became a Hokage?

The dissenters of the Hokage would side with the Uchiha. The others would be against them. It's a perfect recipe for a disaster and Itachi knew it well enough.

Itachi was never given a choice to solve the problem. He was only given the options about which side he wanted to choose and sacrifice. It was never about whether he wanted to have things done his own way. It was always about Konoha making him a scapegoat because its leadership was too weak. Uchiha clan gets away with a lot of shit it put Itachi through, but while they were absolutely the victims, they were not innocent in how they treated Itachi. That also includes Fugaku and Mikoto.

You're absolutely right about the last part. The massacre created more problems, but the people who should be called out are Fugaku, Hiruzen, and Danzo. Itachi was only a pawn.

[queercontrarian]

obsessed with how the only way amarantha's plan could have worked is if the tamsand murders and revenge happened right before she came to prythian

imagine it happened, say 5-10ish years before amarantha started her mission. that's a short time for fae, right?

all the courts are extremely wary of each other because two ancient high lords and most of their families were just wiped out and no one except rhys and tamlin really knows what happened

there are so many rumors and everyone thinks someone is out to get them

on top of that both the spring court and the night court are not moving, which is a problem because they were kind of the driving forces in prythian. imagine it like if at the height of the cold war both the US and the soviet union imploded at the same moment and all the other countries are now like "well where the fuck does that leave us??"

rhysand isolates his court. he's grieving, he's dealing with the con and illyria, he's too busy with his own stuff to really care about the rest of prythian

half of tamlin's court is deserting, his father's men are leaving the government or they're being kicked out for their allegiance to his father and/or hybern

no one except tamlin likes seeing this because it makes everyone with power very nervous that lords and ladies with power are just getting kicked off their land like that

the other high lords don't trust tamlin because they think he is literally insane for doing what he's doing and also they don't know him because he wasn't who they thought would be high lord

they also don't trust rhysand because he's isolated himself to everyone and is also letting everyone run with the villain era assumptions

the nobles who were kicked out of the spring court seek refuge in hybern and tell the king what's going on over there hoping that he'll help them get back their land

he's like "i'll do you one better" and sends amarantha

she goes to all the high lords and is like "no totally the other courts are really untrustworthy and what happened with spring and night is crazy"

"we would totally never do this to you"

"and also if you wanted to become the new superpower in prythian now that night and spring are out we would totally back you 👀"

and because the high lords are all stupid and power hungry they believe her

and no one listens to tamlin when he voices concerns about amarantha because he only tells them what they already know (the war) and what is long in the past (how she creeped on him when he was a kid) and they already don't like him so who cares what he has to say

rhysand isn't saying anything either way, but everyone knows that he doesn't want to talk about tamlin, even less talk with him or be in the same room

while he's busy with velaris and illyria he kinda leaves the con to keir who immediately invites amarantha because he does not want to lose the night court superpower status by missing out on hybern's support

and rhys thinks he can kinda use amarantha's reputation to craft his own mask as "the evil guy" (which we know ends up backfiring spectacularly)

lucien also just came to the spring court

he's like 100something years old, he's just lost everything and tamlin just saved his life so of course he's young and stupid and very loyal to him and very loud about voicing his opinions about people he and tamlin don't like

also it makes sense that the former emissary would have deserted and instead of putting some guy in the position who might have already worked for his father tamlin just looks at lucien and is like "you know people, right? you need a job?"

and then when the masquerade ball comes around it's literally the first time tamlin and rhys are in the same room since the murders

and half of the reason why rhys doesn't bring the ic is that he doesn't trust amarantha but the other half is he thinks azriel and cassian might actually just try to kill tamlin if they got anywhere near him

so he goes alone

and is immediately distracted when he sees tamlin, and he doesn't pay enough attention to his surroundings, and he can't do this sober and oh my fucking god he underestimated how terrible this was going to be and oops

now they're all cursed

this would also explain how rhys and tamlin haven't gotten very far with changing their courts (tamlin falling back on his father's methods in acomaf and rhysand only having formally forbidden wing clipping and minimal training for females in illyria without any actual measures to back it up). change would be slow if they've only been in power for like, 60ish years (minus the 50 years utm)

[diminuel]

Ngl i didnt really love Dragodile but THEN I saw your drag-on (hehe) pic and it all clicked. dragon loves Crocodile no matter what, if he changes gender, kills people, overthrows a government, kills people, enforces a drought on a small kingdom, kills people, steals, lies, cheats, he loves him so fully that it penetrates all else. even when they can’t be together, even if Crocodile did something so evil the only safe and just thing would be to kill Crocodile — Dragon would STILL love him

And Dragon would do ANYTHING for Crocodile, would change as much as he could. If Dragon was straight when Crocodile transitioned he would do everything he could to be supportive and caring, maybe even try to fake or force it if it didn’t follow suit — but if Crocodile was still straight after he transitioned (somehow) than Dragon would crossdress as much as he could. Happily live life as Crocodile’s dotting girlfriend if that’s what it took to make him happy.

But Crocodile loves and respects him too much to try and tie him down. Maybe an even more selfish crocodile could work to slowly corrode and morph Dragon into his pirate desert criminal king, someone eager to protect Baroque works and propel Crocodile to the throne — but that wouldn’t be *his* Dragon.

I think what is interesting about Dragon and Crocodile as a ship is that we have nothing to go on. Zero. The only thing that binds them together is Iva knowing Crocodile and the Crocodad theory. Which means that this ship lives off the potential. It is a vessel for all the wholesome and fucked up ideas we can make up for them.

We can use what little we know of Dragon and Crocodile’s characters to give us an idea what their interactions would be like but even that is kind of uncertain *lol*

Dragon in drag is @mangyraccooon's doing, I cannot take credit for that X’D

But I do like to imagine that Dragon and Crocodile’s love for each other is unconditional because that just appeals to me. Sure, Dragon is most likely a character with a strong moral code, but it’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it? He IS branded as a criminal. He doesn’t shy away from starving people as long as those are people he doesn’t approve of. He shouldn’t judge Crocodile too harshly for his nefarious plans. (Well, he might not like the whole government dog thing, but might see the merit in having access to government resources and information.)

So far I’ve disregarded the topic of sexuality and gender and how that might impact their relationship, since I feel it would be a non-issue for Dragon? I have nothing to back this up of course. But yes, I don’t think Crocodile would want Dragon to change for him, at least not in that regard. If Dragon wants to experiment then sure, go ahead.

Regarding the Crocodile influencing (( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) if you’re a Supernatural fan you know why I make that face) Dragon idea. He could but then again I don’t really think Dragon is someone who easily lets himself be influenced. Dragon is a very stubborn kind of man, but even he can be pushed to change his approach as we’ve seen after Ohara. Since he’s now willing to use force, he might also be willing to listen to Crocodile’s more questionable avenues to getting power and money. But I think both of them know that they have diverging paths even though their goal might be the same. And they have to be alright with that.

(Though I really like the idea that Crocodile is basically doing the dirty work for the RA until they manage to have enough power to do the dirty work themselves.)

All that said… I would actually be interested in scenarios where Dragon does not as easily forgive Crocodile for what he’s done – in Alabasta, to Luffy (even though Crocodile wouldn’t have known about the kid). It would be interesting how they might navigate the clash of love and anger. Maybe they should have sex about it.

Sorry, I ended up rambling about random things.

[beardedmrbean]

I read a book of a Khmer Rouge survivor in senior yeah, he had to learn his little brother died starving wondering where he was. And he was forced to killed a injured kid to put them out of their misery.

It fucking disgusting that people still believe communism will solve everything. Not to mention these modern commies are the same ones that will slurp up articles saying I need classes on how not to rape because of my genitalia at 13 yet says I’m oppressed because of my skintone.

Why should I want communism when commies have shown time and time again that they will treat people they hate the same way Nazis treated the Jews?

Difference between the two falls into the theory vs practice, there's really no way you can paint the nazi ideology to make it look anything other than hateful so both in theory and in practice it's evil.

Socialism/communism doesn't require the extermination of anything but the individual. I've used "The Borg" from Star Trek as a example of a model socialist system. Everyone plays their part for the advancement of the collective no individuality no actions that aren't for the benefit or maintenance of the collective.

If you peacefully join and assimilate then there's no need for a war, if you don't want to join that's when the death and destruction begins.

Easy example would be the Antisemitism of karl marx that's baked into everything that has branched off of his philosophy.

'on the Jewish question' the answer is, there's a place for Jewish people in communism, but there's no place for being Jewish in it, as humans they're welcome but they have to stop being Jewish, and assimilate into the machine that is the state.

So what with the 'we don't actually need to murder millions of people to make it work' bit making it sound like a good way to get everyone taken care of and with the added punch of slogans like "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" really makes it sound utopian, which if you could manage it it might be.

But the difference between human beings and the borg, other than one being fictional, (you can decided which is which) is the cyborgs don't retain the sentience needed to do things like create art, appreciate beautiful things, fall in love, or any of the negative issues like greed, racism, intolerance of any sort, belief of a higher power outside of the collective.

So the TL:DR; here is that the only way humans could get socialism to work on a large scale would involve making them less human.

But that doesn't get brought up when people are talking up socialism, either because the thought never occurred to them or because they're the ones that are looking to be in charge of the killing.

Guy that got called a poser on a twitter thread because he said he wanted to be a farmer or do manual labor instead of designing uniforms for the new secret police or something like that should be about as much of a tell about what the folks that are pushing for this are like.

I'm all for social programs, I just don't trust the government to be in charge of them, every single one around the world has a bad record on human rights after all,

[nizar-dreams]

If Only You Believe in Miracles So Would I Summary

"The Department of Magical Education has twisted Albus Dumbledore's arm and have required the Headmaster to get a second teacher for each core subjects at Hogwarts. Severus Snape almost weeps with relief at the news. But the school year is not without other far interesting events. With young Harry Potter starting his first year at Hogwarts, new (surprisingly competent) teachers, a suspicious Albus, and a rare and powerful artifact hidden inside the school, Severus wonders if he ends up trading less homework for even more stresses in his life."

Okay listen, this story was birthed for many reasons. My continued obsession with Severus Snape, my anger at Albus fucking Dumbledore, and the incompetency of (Wizarding) Government. But the biggest one, which bamboozles me the most, is the lack of teachers for Hogwarts.

Think. About. It.

If you have gone to a school of around 400 students, you and I are aware that at this many students, you still have at least two to three teachers per core subject. Why? Because it is a foolish notion to believe that 1 (one) teacher can even handle teaching all 400 students in one week without seriously sacrificing student education and how much you actually teach them and what they have to self study. Which, as someone who's already graduated high school nearly two years ago, self study was not my strongest suits at all unless I liked the class and teacher.

As someone who observed my own teachers and how they handled various class sizes (choir was the easiest to see as Jazz was the smallest, but we'd easily have 25+ students for regular choir and that was... ridiculous for my teacher to handle somedays.) I can confidently say, that teaching two Hogwart Houses that are easily 20-30 students per house, which means a classroom of 40-60 students, is absolutely bat shit insane.

And then you have to be a Head of House as well? Or if you're McGonagall, you're also Deputy Headmistress and having to cover for Albus bloody Dumbledore because the Headmaster has a second job as a politician and the current Minister Of Magic is an idiot? I would be sobbing and burnt out by the end of the first month. I would need a Time-Turner just to have some sleep and me time.

Or if you're Snape, you're trying to save a child from getting himself killed, while playing spy, while playing evil teacher who favours his snakes, while also having to deal with children trying to blow themselves or their classmates up in his classroom. Because potions is a dangerous art, and children, especially the first and second years, are idiots. And especially whoever decided that Gryffindors and Slytherins get to spend potions in the same classroom. Together.

Whoever makes that schedule is an idiot, or horribly optimisitc.

But as you can see that is such a ridiculous amount of pressure to put on a single teacher that teaches the core subjects at Hogwarts for virtually all 7 years. So. This story was created. The Department of Magical Education finally got the memo and were like "wow are kids are kinda... fucking stupid compared to Ilvermorny, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang... that's mad embarassing" and told Albus that he had to get more teachers and that was not negotiable. Except for history. They don't exactly care about history it seems. (I also lowkey forgot about it, but I think it makes sense that they already have a 'nonpayed' teacher so why bother with an actual one? Don't worry some parent will make a fuss about it or something, and a good portion of the teachers are good with history anyway so its all finnneee)

Well. Here we are. I have thus 'hired' 6 additional teachers besides Quirrel. 6 competent adults who take their jobs pretty seriously. I actually love all of them, they have their quirks, and I tried diversifying the staff as much as I could without it being forced.

For instance, our new transfiguration teacher is an older gentleman, 61 years old, who studied at Beauxbaton, and from Denmark. Our Herbology teacher is a young Scottish woman, barely 28 with a boyish charm, and is subtley bisexual. Our charms teacher is 35, and they use neutral pronouns and have an otherworldly appearance with big eyes and bronzed skin. My main character, our additional potions teacher, is 41, Salvadoran-American, and gay. Our astronomy teacher is a striking Irish woman who learned at Ireland's school, Erehnoll. And lastly our other DADA teacher is a woman born in El Salvador, 37, and has lived a very interesting life since.

We're branching out, alright. Like yeah I could branch further, but already some of the canon characters who could be considered as simply 'British White' will probs not be just that. And this is just the first year with new teachers. Maybe another year if results are good, I could introduce more. (It's so many characters to jugle but I think I am doing admirably. But I think for now, the current cast is already better then years prior. If I do add more teachers, it'll be for history for sure.)

For now, this is why I made this story. That it was absurd to leave the 6 out of 7 of the core subjects to a singular teacher. I would be in tears, really. I do go more in details on the ridiculousness of this all in the story, but here I am giving you a sneak preview at a lot of my thoughts on the subject that get dramatic and also distorted through character POVs. I think it'll be fun to read it from one of the characters, it makes me smile. They seem the type to be sarcastic and dramatic in their thoughts while exasperated to the 10th power.

I can't wait for Janurary 1st. I'm so excited for you all to see the chaos.

[nightcoremoon]

on a whim I randomly watched a video that combined news footage and audio of the howard stern show on the morning of september 11th and honestly it did nothing but further confirm my thoughts that osama bin laden had nothing to do with it, that it was 100% orchestrated by the United States government, and that the average American citizen held plenty of anti-islamic sentiment even before 9/11 and every single person in that room and several of the callers were calling for the United States to “bomb the shit out of Them, even the innocent civilians because they’re sitting there supporting the terrorists”. 9/11 was not al quaeda trying to destroy the united states because if it was, then that’s the shittiest attempt at a functional terror attack I’ve ever seen. that was poking the hornets nest and by god the United States rained extra hellfire upon the Middle East for two entire decades. if al quaeda truly wanted to disable the United States infrastructure, they would have hit the fucking pentagon and White House and the capitol building and the mint HQ and the stock market and the Statue of Liberty and countless other strategic targets WAY BEFORE THEY HIT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. and instead what happened? the towers were hit first, the plane that was gonna hit the white house mysteriously went down in Pennsylvania and the plane that hit the pentagon fucking disappeared on impact leaving behind absolutely zero debris, gee isn’t it sure convenient that the only Americans who died in the collision were the citizens working the financial jobs and the fire and rescue workers who died trying to save what lives they could. gee isn’t it sure convenient that giuliani gained a lot of power and the states gained enough sympathy from the UN that the iraq invasion was totally accepted and allowed and the US had a Good Reason to engage the Middle East in a war and every red blooded American patriot was so fueled by anger and hate and the propaganda of constantly seeing the towers on every tv channel for weeks that there was a surge of people joining the military and an excuse to expand the military budget even more? isn’t it weird that there were a lot of cameras at the cinematographically perfect angles to catch the moments of impact and that they looked almost professionally done by people who knew their way around an american made airplane and were able to hijack it despite being only four people (allegedly) each? isn’t it weird that it makes more logical sense that a dozen “conspiracy theories” align in a perfect spiderweb pattern of painting out the CIA and the FBI and the cheney and rumsfeld to be the biggest pieces of shit profit-motivated warmongers in american history, than it is that “All Muslims Are Evil Actually”? rumsfeld wasn’t even secretary of defense for nine months before he got the blank check. bush didn’t do 9/11, bush was just a scapegoat mouthpiece of the right wing propaganda machine; he was reading a fucking book to kids when they told him about the planes, and he admitted to speaking to cheney and HW and all these other people before daring to make the most watered down weaksauce pathetic mockery of a presidential speech anyone’s heard in almost 25 years.

this goes beyond that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams. the motivation of the group we were told by news outlets who were told by the government are the ones who did it make no sense, especially given that THE CIA TRAINED OSAMA. you trust the government to have told you the truth about who attacked us? there was no “attack”. two planes hit the towers is the only factual statement we can glean from the footage. 9/11 was the perfect reason to start a war in the Middle East to take their oil and kill Muslims; the two things america loves most in the world are taking oil and killing muslims and they lapped it all up. it is the most well crafted fabrication of cause and effect of the 21st century, well, that is, until Israel officially launched their genocide of Palestine on a scale never seen prior and said “it was hamas”. there’s no way you can look me in the eye and genuinely say with every fiber of your being that every single thing that the US has said happened around 9/11 actually happened exactly the way they said it did.

if the two options are being a crazy conspiracy theorist and being a bootlicking shiteating “yes daddy” islamophobic authoritarian’s wet dream cog in the murder machine, then sure why not, I’m a crazy conspiracy theorist. I’m already that anyway for pointing out the the US has destabilized many other perfectly functional societies in the past, and committed mass genocide against the native populations of america, and performed experiments on humans so vile that even Mengele would be disturbed. the us military is the most powerful force on the planet, and anyone that they want to die is going to die no matter how much we try to fight it. you won’t stop it by voting third party. you won’t stop it by abstaining from voting. this is the real world. if the citizens of islamic countries don’t deserve to die by the hands of the US bombing the holy hell out of them because the citizens of a country shouldn’t be punished by the evil actions of their governments and splinter terror cells hiding among the population, then the citizens of THIS country who can and will suffer significantly more so under the hands of a right wing fascist regime may as well be saved. if you have the privilege to survive under trump and you don’t use it to help the ones who don’t, you’re just as much a piece of shit as every single piece of propaganda feeding into the machine that is gonna kill muslim civilians no matters what you ever do. it is more important to consider the options of Make Life Easier For >150,000,000 People or Don’t Do That than it is to contemplate this imaginary fairytale utopia of unicorns and pixie dust that right-of-center moderates and pastel commies have deluded themselves into thinking. you can’t claim that the Left isn’t far Left enough while also saying that in your eyes they’re exactly the same as the Right. you are either Hard Right or a Neoliberal. you don’t get to sit on the moral high ground and claim superiority when the battle is trench warfare. you don’t wanna vote, fine, but you better be giving every single fucking dollar and cent you have to your homeless neighbors, insulin gofundmes, palestinian refugees, lawyers for members of the queer community, islamic victims of reactionary abuse, and anyone else who will suffer due to your inaction. if you even buy so much as a fucking biggby coffee I’m kicking your ass

[the-firebird69]

We had a few more things there are great importance

-Hera has ships approaching her from different fleets but they are mostly John Weaver large therapy annihilated and it's Trump he's going to be killed fast and his clothes hit gather the captured he brought in for questioning and they are finding stuff on moons and planetoids all over the place it was important. She feels better and he's saying things and she feels even better and it's good he helps her when he can we do it all the time and he appreciates it and it's tough times for everybody and there's a lot going on but we do see that these ships are hitting destroyed in their weeding themselves out there's a lot of them but really it has not that many have the fleet a lot of them are in the ground and they're going there now and people will finish off the rest of them and find out where they're going this is a war there's not tons of these guys but they are about 2% of the populace and they're all over the place and they're getting creamed

-there's more happening too they are a disgusting people and they don't have really that much intelligence some of them are hanging on with small operations later on and there slowly quietly snuffed out but today most of them are going either to their ships or to combat aren't you trying to approach Venus and ships we mean in the ground and to robots and pistachios and Cassius and they are getting the slaughtered by all sorts of people and they're massively rude they are made by George Herbert Walker Bush and Trump doesn't know it and he probably never will and he is going to be crucified for what they've been doing and they are following his orders and he is going to regret what he's been doing and he's going to go to court and get screwed he has court cases here this morning and the short session is resuming today and his attendance is required by the way he can't get out of it and his prime clones were found out people aren't famous on the other trumpsters either and they're getting hit and they represent about 3% of the population and another two on the island and the others are too on the islands and they're fighting and they're probably knock each other out and that is kind of what happens but people are going after Trump's kids and other clothes too just not as hard and severe they are seeking them very quickly and find out was there up to is a huge huge battle huge and greatly important and this guy John reavillard is going to be out of here soon and he's having a war with you pseudo empire and they want him out of the apartment and they want dan out too. They're trying to get here by force and they're blasting them in those two states the more like I'm sending reinforcements and to do so they creep up their backside so they have a war on both fronts and the wars in South Carolina and the macs are not going there. Bugs are being drawn there and in great numbers to Georgia and the similar places around the world and they are attacking both sides and wiping them out and they're going up the water tunnel now all the way to New England and Northern New England and there's going to be a war there because the bugs will overrun the door lock and we'll start attacking the bunkers and very soon within a few hours the war with is the Zerg will begin and it will be huge this time is the aquifer here really needed them out and they're going to be gone in the next 3 days completely and people are clear them out and make sure they're dead because Trump is not going to be having any power

-there's a couple other things and they are pretty big the two people here in the apartment adjacent to our son are very evil to him and mean the local governments has noticed and even the governor and they cannot stand it anymore they hear our son a little bit saying things to them and the idiots don't respond so they tried saying what a son said yesterday and they did not respond so they went ahead and started to fight them and they found out who they are this whole thing came out because of him shorting our son 10 dollars and Trump is aware of it and said that did not help us and his clones are mad and it kind of turned on the phones and did it on purpose and it doesn't matter cuz in this life he gets help from people in the robots can't do anything that is learning the lesson that Dave did. He's getting beat up and he's going to be out and forever. And after a long last John reavillard is just bowing out happily almost he doesn't like to struggle for things he's not an achiever instead of protecting himself too it's not normal. We have a few more announcements but we need to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[gaoau]

i talked to God today

theory of the two demons warnings — none word count — 3.1k note — i usually call my stuff a character analysis disguised as a self insert fic, but tbh im not sure how confident i am in claiming this to be me psychoanalyzing dazai and co, but take it as you will. also, although im taking most of my character analysis from the light novels, if you havent read them, dont worry. the fic will be spoiler free, except for a couple names thrown around that you dont have to worry about. for those who have read the light novels, this will take place from a bit before storm bringer up to some time before dark era

next.

"what are you reading there?"

"it's a theory about times of war."

"what does it say?"

"it's called the theory of the two demons. it states that to combat a great evil, you need an even greater evil. say, for uprisings against the government, the government can infringe human rights for the sake of peace. persecution, forced disappearances, execution, among other examples. one is worse than the other, but both are bad, however, it's all for the greater good."

"that's interesting. how come the worst one wins?"

"however bad the method is, it produces good results. not everyone can be a greater demon, though. i read a book once with a similar concept, but it talked about ordinary and extraordinary people."

"really? what are we?"

"neither. ordinary people are your every day citizens. extraordinary are those like historical leaders who brought good with crime; heroes who didn't care about the bloodshed of ordinary people as long as it helped their good cause."

"two demons against each other, but one is more evil…"

"every crime comes with its punishment. sometimes the punishment is just a bigger crime."

"only a demon can kill a demon, huh?"

"yes, that's a good analogy, Dazai-san."

Dazai Osamu knows potential when he sees it. a bit of a demonstration, statistics printed on files, the look in someone's eyes—he can easily tell what will work and what won't. he dismisses the guards at Mori's door and enters the office with weightless steps. the first thing he notices is the kid sitting on a chair next to Mori; the second thing he notices is Mori's sly smirk; the third thing he notices is potential. the information pours into his brain with ease, processed as soon as it reaches him. this kid cannot be any older than him, nor can they be much younger. he knows this for a fact because he's read their basic information already.

this is [Surname] [Name]. Dazai recently fetched them from the ruins of an orphanage on Mori's order.

as he makes his way across the room and towards the desk, he tries his luck at eye contact with the new recruit. he meets their eyes, but there's nothing there. they blink, staring straight at him, and he can tell they're mistaking him for another shadow. a blank, silent, expressionless glare to contain and appease the sharp waves of ire contaminating the air. Dazai keeps his smile to himself so Mori won't pry.

[Name] sits quietly, hugging their knees to their chest, hiding the lower part of their face. they've trained themself to not take any space, pretend they aren't there at all, but their anger is spacious and selfish.

"Dazai-kun," Mori starts, tearing Dazai's attention away from the kid. his palm lands on [Name]'s head, but they don't budge an inch. Dazai wonders if it doesn't burn. "i trust you remember [Name]-kun. i'd like to ask you to train them." he removes his hand from [Name] to pick up a stack of files on his desk. as he slides them over to Dazai, who curiously starts scanning over the information, he continues, "their ability is good, but you know that's not enough here."

with a hum, Dazai marvels at the papers he's reading. it's not common for a person's ability to be as thoroughly documented as [Name]'s appears to be. its name, strength and weaknesses, utility, power, versatility—logs upon logs of valuable information on just one ability, dating all the way back to the moment [Name] was born. it's interesting, to say the least.

"i see why you wanted to recruit them," is all the input Dazai has to offer. the smile of an excited boy settles on his lips as he grins at Mori. he'll memorize all of these recorded experiments in a snap and then use them to the Port Mafia's advantage. that's what Mori is leaving them under his care for, after all. "alright, i'll handle them." his eye shifts to [Name] and their hollow stare. "i'll be waiting for you in the training rooms downstairs." he doesn't wait for a reply that won't come, instead leaving the office with a wave of his hand.

Mori smiles crookedly at the closed doors. he lets a chuckle fall off his tongue, turning on his seat to face [Name]. the black suit he provided looks big on them; they look big on themself. there's only so many of this type of child he can save.

from his desk drawer, he produces a cheap, stainless steel bracelet. the leaf charms jingle as he dangles it in front of [Name]. he notices the way their pupils come alive to try and focus on the jewelry. "do you recognize this, [Name]-kun?" he prompts, letting the bracelet fall on their knees.

for the first time since they sat down, Mori sees them take up space as they start moving. they're quick to plant their feet on the ground, hurrying to catch the steel chain before it slides to the floor. "no," [Name] replies quietly, their voice ringing with a calm and soothing lilt, unnervingly similar to a lullaby. "should i?" it's not much, but it's more than he thought them capable of.

speechless, Mori stares for a brief moment into the hollow eyes of a child. this kid feels awfully familiar, like they've been by his side for two years, like they've witnessed his crimes. he hopes this scheme of his will work out. he gives them an almost fatherly smile that doesn't fit him. "i suppose not. though you'll need it if you want to find your father."

[Name] inspects the bracelet with close attention. they'll need it if they want to find their father—which they do, it's one of the few reasons they are here in the first place. the metal is cold against their skin when they close their fist around it gently. it's a hint of what their life could have been like. it's dead. they don't consider wearing it, opting to pocket it to keep it safe.

"now, don't keep Dazai-kun waiting." there's a youthful bounce on the edge of Mori's words; a light chuckle to cover up the hell that awaits the new recruit. he lets it peek through mischievously when he closes his eyes and grins innocently. "he isn't very patient."

underground the Port Mafia headquarters, somewhere deep in the basement, there are training rooms properly designed to sustain destructive power from abilities strong enough to demolish buildings in a snap. this is where the mafia trains its ability users and turns them into the greatest pawns for the sake of the organization. relentlessly, mercilessly, children and adults alike undergo the same training once they fall into the mafia's clutches. [Name] will be no different, especially considering who will beat them into shape.

when they enter the room, Dazai is already waiting for them inside as he finishes reading the files from earlier. he glances up at [Name] with a bored eye, his right one covered by clean bandages. Mori said he isn't very patient. Mori must know what he's talking about. [Name]'s hairs stand on edge, suddenly wary of the young boy leaning against the wall like he's waiting for his parents to pick him up from school. they know they didn't take long enough for him to go through the hundreds of pages, but he quickly scans the last paragraph and then stands straight on his feet.

[Name] is worried. they take a step back on instinct.

Dazai lets the stack of papers fall from his hand and scatter on the ground. he won't need them anymore; he's got all the information he needs in his head now. "you're a force to be reckoned with, huh, kid?" his voice echoes in the room as he faces the new recruit fully. he ignores the caution in their every muscle.

there's something off here, [Name] realizes. they think it's funny for a moment, how this kid is addressing them like he's so much older and wiser. he cannot be any younger than them, nor can he be much older. he might just be a lot smarter than he's letting on; it shows in whatever that expression curling his lips up is.

with a seemingly exhausted sigh, Dazai walks closer to them, feet weightless. "attack me with all you've got."

a frown soils [Name]'s face for a brief second. they know how much power they have stocked up on from a few weeks ago. they know it's enough to kill a scrawny kid like Dazai in the blink of an eye. it wouldn't be wise to murder a coworker on their first day on the job.

"i don't think i should." they don't like the sound of their own voice echoing so loudly.

"i've read your files," Dazai hums.

"so?"

a bandaged hand reaches up to scratch the back of his head as he sighs again. he mutters some curses under his breath, exasperated. "listen," he starts, a sharp hiss stabbing alert into [Name]. "Mori-san left you under my care, so you should do what i say from now on."

[Name] gives it a second, before removing their black blazer and rolling up their sleeves. Dazai peers curiously at their arms. they think they don't like the Port Mafia. if this is how it operates and this is who it operates with, their time will drain before they can fulfill their goals. they can't guess what it is Mori will gain from this. it's a terrifying thought. it makes the blood boil in their veins.

they'll put up with it. they'll watch their own back. they'll let it simmer for a little longer. they'll burn.

for now.

an orange glow surrounds their body when their ability activates, sending surges of power from the tips of their fingers to their every nerve. it doesn't feel any different; gravity isn't any lighter, the air isn't any clearer, their vision isn't any sharper. the changes in their physique only show the moment they're attacked. with Dazai defenseless and idly standing, he won't get to see their ability in action before he's pummeled into the ground. they should hold back just for a demonstration, but he said all you've got. 

maybe he miscalculated. 

[Name] darts across the room towards their target, brows furrowed at Dazai's nonchalant stance. he raises his palm up and reaches towards their shoulder. they don't bother dodging, instead swinging their fist at his face. no matter if he touches them or not, nothing he hits them with will have an effect.

confidence suits Dazai more than miscalculations do.

the gap in the seconds is small, but it's enough; his palm lands on them before they can punch him. the glow from their ability vanishes instantly. their fist is absurdly weak as it smacks Dazai's cheek. he turns his head to the side while still keeping his eye on [Name]. their gaze is wide in confusion. blood pounds in their ears. Dazai makes a move and their heart sinks to their stomach.

they realize he isn't as scrawny as he looks. with one kick to their ribcage, [Name] flies towards the farthest wall to their right. the structure doesn't budge when they slam into it, bouncing off before dropping on the floor like a ragdoll. they taste blood. their body hurts—agonizingly so. they can't move.

Dazai's footsteps echo when he approaches them. he stares down at them like they're a scrap of paper littering the ground. "lesson number one: don't rely on your ability alone," he states, bored, and it sounds like he's underwater. with trembling limbs, [Name] tries to get up. their hands are blurry. Dazai stands in front of them. his shoes are blurry. "let's get to work. you've got a lot of training to do."

[Name] staggers to their feet instantly. Dazai isn't very patient.

frantic gasps for air echo through the room, bouncing off every corner to pierce back into [Name]'s ears. they hear the desperate panting, wondering why it sounds so muffled or when the cotton got into their ears. although their vision is blurry, they can make out the lights in the ceiling—only the one that is blinking, the other ones all look like blobs of brightness. when they gulp thickly and the gasps stop briefly, they realize they are the one struggling to breathe.

for a scrawny kid, Dazai can sure pack a punch—and then some. he didn't even break a sweat. he stands there, looking down at his new mentee lying on a puddle of their own blood, bored. their shirt used to be white, he notices. it's like they're nothing but a stain on the wall. (a wall which, albeit built to last, he managed to chip some debris off of while kicking [Name] around.)

slowly, as [Name]'s watery eyes focus and Dazai becomes more than a moving smudge, the pain starts settling in their body. their spine, their arms, their legs, their every muscle. something must be broken. with every breath they take, the bruises and open wounds Dazai so kindly gifted them ache as if they were being set on fire. the taste of blood overflowing in their mouth is nauseating.

"get cleaned up," Dazai's voice cuts through their choked breathing. he says it so casually, like he isn't watching them suffering and bleeding out on the ground. it stings in their ears. "we'll continue tomorrow. i'll use a gun, so be ready."

it sounds so weightless and calm that [Name] thinks it should be soothing. it isn't, though, it's alarming, and they continue to struggle to catch their breath as Dazai stares. there's not a chance they can move and get cleaned up like this. it's familiar. they've been here before—not here, but somewhere awfully similar, somewhere they'd abandoned, somewhere that had been done and over with not too long ago. it's here again. [Name] realizes it's here again. they don't want to be here.

ah, so that's how it is.

not that it matters anymore. all they need is time.

as their breathing regulates, their consciousness starts to fade. Dazai curiously scans them up and down while waiting for them to mutter out at least a strained yes. there's so much rage in their gaze, but it amounts to nothing in the state they're in. when no reply comes and their head lolls to the side, he forces out an aggravated sigh from between his teeth.

he leans over [Name] to be in their full view, an empty smile adorning his face. "about those scars on your arms…" he starts, trailing off, giving them enough time to react. they struggle to keep their eyes open. "you might want to cover them up." it's earnest advice—or as earnest as Dazai can get—he speaks from experience. his kindness goes as far as to unwrap the bandages around his head, the cleanest ones he has on him right now.

the cloth flutters and falls on [Name]'s chest. they try to catch a glimpse of Dazai's face, but all they see is the blinding lights on the ceiling as their mentor walks away. his footsteps echo, fading until he's out the door. the bandages soak up their blood.

if they were to die here, [Name] figures it wouldn't be too bad. (if they were to die here, it has a name, [Name] figures, it's dissonant.) given, they haven't finished yet, but they've known all along just how easy it is. something that they can take and something that can be taken from them. something they don't want anymore and something they have to protect. something excruciatingly painful that makes them want to sob, purely and innocently. something excruciatingly painful that makes Dazai want to sob, too.

something they hate. someone they hate. someone they want to hate. unreasonably so.

[Name] hears the lock click shut and promptly passes out.

it comes in waves. first it's the same blinking lights on the ceiling, then it's darkness again. once more, the puddle of blood underneath them, then darkness again. the echoes of their own breaths, the darkness. it repeats, over and over. [Name] doesn't know how long it's been since Dazai left them here.

when they pry their eyes open again, there are no lights on the ceiling—at least, none they can see through hazy eyes. the ceiling is so high up and so obnoxiously white that it's almost sickening. everything in this room is too sterile, too clean, too sickening. the bed, the tiles on the floor, the uniform, the straps, the mirror, even the cameras, especially the needles.

the only dirty, unclean thing occupying space is [Name]. they squint up to try and make out where the white walls end and their freedom starts. they find their freedom is underneath them, on the growing puddle of blood pouring from their arms. somewhere among all the cotton stuffed in their ears, they can hear alarms blaring.

usually, they're loud and annoying, but right now… right now, they can barely process a single sound that isn't their own heart beating in their brain. [Name] hears the lock click open and promptly passes out; darkness again.

it's hard to tell how much time has gone by. is it midnight? maybe even morning? they don't know how many times it's been. all they see is the mocking, flickering light above them—clearly this time. they've long stopped bleeding, coagulated blood settled on their wounds. the door is still closed, just as Dazai left it. they figure no one is coming for them here.

they're not that valuable anymore.

with an agonizing ache shooting through their nerves, [Name] rolls over on their own blood. it's disgustingly tacky when they sink their palm firmly into it to push themself off the floor. the bandages Dazai had left on their chest, now soaked in darkening stains, form a filthy pile on the ground. they stumble, limbs numb, nearly crashing back down. their vision darkens and blurs briefly once they stand on their feet. with gritted teeth—is it in excruciating pain or restrained anger?—they really hope there's an infirmary of some sort in this building.

note — the title of this fic is based off a rhetorical theory regarding times of civil war and military dictatorship in argentina. i never particularly cared about this theory in the context it is actually used in, so i decided to twist it to my liking. if youre interested in the actual theory, heres a link to the wikipedia page explaining the idea. although they both stem from the same concept, my take on it doesnt quite fit the real thing, so theyre meant to be separate. honestly im unsure if this is copyright infringement in any way, but i doubt some argentine philosopher is gonna come for me on a similar note, the "ordinary and extraordinary people" talk in the cold open is paraphrasing from rodyas dialogue about his article on crime in dostoevskys "crime and punishment". i love dostoevskys works and i think its really funny to use concepts written in his novels on bsd dazai when knowing he goes up against bsd fyodor as his best match thank you for reading drink water bye

[superfuxkinghungry]

People who think that being vegan is a personal choice (How dumb could you possibly be to think that contributing to the torturing, abusing, neglecting, and depriving an animal of its ability to nurture its kids, and very unnecessarily prolonging their death by slitting their necks while they're possibly still alive "a personal choice"!???) are selfish fucks who forget that animals feel the exact same pain we do and have literal emotions just like us (sadness, pain, love, happiness, care, fear, terror, depression, etc.) and who don't realize the gravity of their decisions to contribute to the supply and demand of products coming from suffering and murder that they greedily feed on, put on/in their bodies, or test on their skin. There's a LOT of things that a lot of people will be surprised aren't vegan. A simple google search will do you well by showing you if a product isn't vegan or is and what REALLY happens in slaughterhouses that kill animals "humanely" which BTW is bullshit everywhere. Killing an animal for food, testing, clothes, medicine, or any other purpose is not humane AT ALL. Its so gross! if you cared enough about animals to determine if a product is vegan or not before buying you could make a difference! Please, don't keep ignoring the cruelty, agony, mental torture, sadness and fear these innocents have to go through on the DAILY before their eventual murder that by the way isn't "fast and painless". If you wouldn't let your family member, friend, or partner suffer in a slaughterhouse, or wouldn't eat them, why would you let a helpless animal suffer and be cooked for dinner? Just search what happens to these sweet, loving, and desparate helpless souls in reality, behind the scenes of the fake ass ads and labels. It's SO fuckin terrifying and horrible. Your burger, TV dinner, your couch, boots, bearskin rug, hot dog, cosmetic, and so much more products that are made with either carcasses, animal byproducts, animal products, or animal testing, (or a mixture of each) really isn't worth the lives and suffering of so many animals globally AT ALL!!! and you can certainly get healthy and be strong and energetic with plant nutrients! (There's also lots of benefits to not eating animal products and sticking to the power of plants!💓) By the way, drinking, promoting and buying dairy also contributes to the killings of male calves for veal and the rape of mother cows to keep them pregnant so they can keep producing the milk we like to put in our cereal, sauce, that big brands like Johnson&Johnson add to lotion [btw they use animal testing!!! Not a safe brand] or what dessert places add to ice cream. Nasty, right!! Oh, and you know what happens to the mother when shes not able to produce milk anymore after being repeatedly raped and forced to get pregnant? She gets MURDERED slowly for meat. (We drink milk that wasnt even for us, but for cow's babies! How would you feel if your mother was raped to impregnation constantly so her tits could be milked by animals, so random animals could drink her milk not caring about the suffering and rape she has to go through!!!?? and her babies arent even able to drink their mother's milk that was literally meant for THEM and THEM only to drink due to the consumer, government and workers' selfishness!?? Uncomfortable, right? Humans are so selfish fuck oh and by the way the cow gets taken from their mother after birth and yes the cows feel devastated and sad over the fact they can't even be with their family yes they have feelings you selfish carnies) Its always amazing to search if the product you want to buy is vegan and isnt made with any cruelty and evil! Veganism rules!!! FUCK THE GOVERNMEMT AND CAPITALISM LET THE ANIMALS ROAM FREELY LIKE THEY WERE MEANT TO! WE'LL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR THEM!!!!💓💓💓💓

[majoringinsarcasm]

Long rambling post by someone who doesn’t understand a lot of things please ignore thank you

I never have any big sweeping statements to make, and trust me even if not online I’ve been saying in my life how unfair the US government is and how it’s only gotten worse. But it feels so shitty that this is the reality of the average citizen. Most days we try our best. Sometimes our best means living another day on the street because it’s illegal to sleep on benches and inside abandoned buildings and we’re told it’s “that person’s fault” if they’re homeless or poor. We’re told our votes don’t matter by people who haven’t even given up they just either can’t try or they’re an asshole. We have to fight tooth and nail just to keep our heads above water. We are forced to vote for people who frankly I don’t know WHY they run for office.

My brain doesn’t grasp certain things. Politics has always confused me bc as a kid things were simple. But now I see people wanting to be in positions of power who very loudly make it clear who they do and don’t give a shit about and I wonder what the point is. Crowd funding isn’t bad at all but in a lot of cases, medical bills or housing, I feel like people shouldn’t have to beg for the kindness of others. The fucking people in charge and our very system should exist to cater to its citizens. And I mean that.

That’s not saying we shouldn’t work hard but the basics needs of food, drinking and bathing water and shelter should be met for everyone bc NOT having them doesn’t mean you’re a criminal or evil.

We organize marches for all sorts of causes and people get arrested and attacked and have tear gas thrown at them. We have to hear about other counties going through devastation on social media bc if the mainstream media covers it all they won’t give us all the facts just like social media isn’t giving us all the facts. Safety for one group shouldn’t have to mean the destruction of the other. This world is so big and we can learn so much from each other and there are people who will never get to travel away from their home state or country to see that world.

And we watch as people are murdered by governments. We watch as people are killed and stolen from their families. Hate speech is on the rise and celebrities can say insanely wildly racist or antisemitic or Islamophobic or transphobic things. The list goes on. People are cheering for the deaths of all of any given group and these people have power and nobody is checking their ass. A political leader or candidate calling for the death of ALL of a group and calling them animals is unthinkable. People, much like they did with Covid and any Chinese person (or anyone they thought was Asian at all bc those people don’t really care or see a difference) blaming and attacking Jewish people is insane to me. I know this has happened before several times over but I didn’t understand then and I still don’t now. (Also at least in the US the religious people who want to control the government and its people and create laws that benefit them and fuck everyone else starts with a C)

Using the mass killings as an excuse to show your ass and boost your hatred now that you can hide it behind A Good Cause is not the shocking part. It’s the fact that the end result is ultimately up to people who don’t care. Or if they do care they get outvoted. If they don’t want anyone to be killed they have no control over Hamas or the IDF or the United Nations or the president or the prime ministers.

It’s upsetting that there’s not a magic stop all wars and hate and crime button. It’s upsetting that people turn to crime (not mass killings crime but more local shit) because they have nothings else. It’s upsetting that each time there’s a big international attack or war we’re told bullshit about how it’s being handled when it’s not. That we ultimately have to sit and wait and watch others endure or have to watch our neighbors extra carefully lest some asshole with a not so secret agenda tries to kill them as well just for being born who they are.

I know I’m speaking from a place of privilege. From average safety. But from the outside I want people to know (hoping no one actually reads this, this is not a social media site it’s my personal diary) that the hatred looks wrong. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not nor has it ever been justified. I could go on a long fucking rant about how funny I think it is when white non-Jewish Americans name every Palestinian a savage or a terrorist considering how many many mass shooters have been white men specifically. But this isn’t about them.

I want to learn. I want to help people. I want places to change and get better so that wars and killings over territory are no longer needed. Where people can live beside each other without one being oppressed or one fearing a counterattack at any moment. That change can happen. It’s happened before and it will happen again. If nothing else I do hold only hope with razor sharp teeth and peace is not just a word but something can be achieved. I just wish it could happen faster.

[endversewinchester]

Part 2! Wizarding politics.

More Sirius and Ron being the same person.

Pause. I'm very reluctant to say what I'm about to say considering Rowling's world views, but considering her approach in recent interviews is the exact opposite of what I'm about to say I'll say it regardless.

The wizard nazis were taking over very quietly, in the sense they weren't taking the streets openly on broad daylight and killing sharing their views. Or weren't they? Considering to this day, 14 years later people are still spewing racial purity rethoric openly, even the nice wizards? But anyway. The terrorist attacks seemed to happen at night, by cloaked figures rather than the government rounding people up and doing it themselves. People are horrified, and panic is settling in.

In comes the government, playing with the insecurities and fears of the population through an official that echoes the need for more violence to counter the nazis. After all, that is the only way. That official and his views become increasingly popular, and so he becomes more powerful and uses those powers to increase police brutality. He also removes basic human rights (no trials, use of torture for info) from who he considers to be "the enemy" with zero nuance or distinction or fact checking.

This, my friends, is some light fascism. It is ironic because now that her entire personality is being transphobic, JK tried to claim the death eaters are the ones that have this exact stance. Yet here is her ministry. Doing just what she said her bad guys were. ANYWAY.

If she was a good writer. If she knew her canon, this is very close to what THG did. The parallels between the capitol and district 13, each representing the extremes of the far right and the far left. But since I can't concede that to her, I'll not dive deep on this topic.

Just like you.

He's been out for almost a year but the way he's still dissociating... poor Sirius.

I still think this is insane. Mind you, it's the only prison in the wizarding world, regardless of you being a murderer or getting a speeding ticket. You go in there and you get tortured, see others getting tortured and sick and dying in front of you, and you go as far as seeing them be burried, all the while anxiously wondering if you're next.

Sirius deserved better and I want to hug him tightly, but I don't think anyone deserves those conditions.

Lighter topic!

Sirius is a biased narrator on Snape so I can't take his word for it on how evil he was, but it is interesting backstory.

Making a list of Snape's friends for marauders era reference:

Rosier and Wilkes (dead), the Lestranges (so Bellatrix and Rudolph), alive and in jail, and Avery (alive).

Sirius has sympathy for Moody. He doesn't seem fond of police brutality, which is interesting. "Cami he's a former prisoner" yes, but I don't think that's why. He grew up around dark wizards and his brother was a death eater, so there might be a bit of personal bias, and I can count on him being a good person too. We don't turn into what we hate, which is what he was criticizing Crouch for earlier.

More Bertha backstory. On top of her being a few years older than Sirius and James and annoying, she likes gossip. Precisely what the marauders need to avoid, to keep remus safe.

Protective dad is taking absolute no teenager bullshit.

James and Sirius were soulmates. I've said it a million times. I'll say it a million times more. But there is an unhealthy part that comes to play in the next book, where Sirius zeroes in on Harry because Harry is the piece of James he has left, and he won't fail him again. I'll discuss that then. Let me have my momentary happiness.

And last but not least....

Sirius knows what Karkaroff was showing Snape. Even if he didn't during the war, he knows after 12 years in Azkaban. I'm not sure why he didn't want the kids to know about that when he very openly told them about Azkaban and Crouch. He denies it straight away, but you can see he considers telling them before being frustrated and trusting Dumbledore's judgement.

It is interesting he didn't know Snape was a death eater, or so he's telling Harry. I'm not sure how well this holds up because as part of the order Sirius should have known. They had history, and Voldemort regarded Snape so highly. It is very unlikely either one of them was unaware of the other. Is this a plot hole or a plot omission? stay tuned to find out!

[stranger-rants]

Hey 👋

I've seen some recent anti posts where they're like "Dacre did SUCH a good job making us hate Billy" which is... just so wrong lmao.

They act like Dacre didn't put his heart, body, and mind into making Billy a sympathetic character (in contrast to the Duffers wanting another Henry Bowers).

Also... saying Billy is like Bowers is laughable tbh.

Henry targeted each and every kid in the losers club. He didn't have a sister that his father made him watch, like Billy did.

If anything, Bowers is closer to Jason Carver than any other character.

Well, Troy from s1 (and his pal, I think his name was James), too.

But I guess they were forgotten as well *sigh*

I saw someone say that Billy saying "it'll all be over soon" felt r*pish. He was possessed, and that same person also said that he'd told this to Max.

Seems to be a common theme in which some antis haven't actually watched the show.

Some die hard Steve fans who are antis, have even told me they either haven't watched s1, or they just straight up ignore s1 Steve.

As a survivor myself, I really wish antis would stop throwing around words like r*pe and abuse.

When they mention abuse, all they ever mention is Billy being the abuser. They don't talk about Neil, they don't talk about Lonnie, and they don't talk about Brenner (or Vecna).

Another thing I've noticed is that outside of our corner, the only other time this fandom mentions abuse is really just to further prove that a certain ship is canon.

Hey 👋🏻

It is funny, because Dacre has been very vocal about Billy having “flaws” but not being inherently bad or evil. He advocates so hard for imperfect victims, which is what I love about him. Billy would be nothing without Dacre, and I wish more actors had the guts to fight for better writing lol. The Duffers keep making shallow references to Stephen King’s work, and it makes me really wonder if they understood any of the major themes in his books. Granted, King was doing a lot of drugs when he wrote IT, but the story is still solidly inspired by real homophobic and racist violence in a small town as well as the general disregard for children and their safety. Stranger Things is based on conspiracy theories and government experimentation on people. Why they act like these two medias are comparable or need the same kinds of antagonists is just weird to me.

Henry Bowers was abused, too. Like, his father was a racist cop who antagonized Mike’s family for years and he was also violent towards his own son. Obviously, that had an impact on Henry who developed antisocial behavior. On the very surface, that seems similar to Billy. However, there is a big difference between them in terms of agency and the degree of harm. Billy’s violence was mostly reactive. There was a clear trigger (usually his dad). Henry sought out his victims to antagonize and he was very much addicted to the violence. IT was able to weaponize Henry because Henry wanted that power. He ended up killing his father without remorse. In order for the Mindflayer to weaponize Billy, it had to take over his mind and his body completely leaving Billy with little to no agency. Billy was consumed by guilt over what the Mindflayer made him do. His personality and reaction to trauma is nothing like Henry Bowers.

Henry is representative of the fear and hate prevalent in his small town, which is similar to Jason’s role last season in that regard. Their respective roles expose the prejudices of their communities. Billy’s role didn’t really do that. I don’t think the Duffers really thought about his purpose beyond being a “human antagonist” and a source of conflict for Max and Lucas (which…why was this necessary if they were never going to address it again?). There are obviously bigger bads whose entire shtick is Remorseless Abuser, and I’ve said before that this show *could* be about systematic abuse and fighting against it (including government/institutional abuse) but the Duffers hate survivors too much to explore that with any authenticity. So, we end up having to do that for them. This show and its fandom at large really are so shallow. All spectacle and trauma as decoration without critical thought.

[metasquire1]

How I would introduce these 4 Godzilla kaijus into the Monsterverse (Part 1):

(I already uploaded this on a YouTube video, but I wanted to share it here as well)

Almost everyone is saying that the possessed Ren Serizawa is a great way to introduce Destoroyah or Mecha King Ghidorah into the Monsterverse. But for me, this can be a great way to introduce these two kaijus from the Godzilla franchise, those two being: Monster X/Keizer Ghidorah and Kiryu.

Let us start with Monster X. His origin would be different, instead of being another Ghidorah from outer space, he would be King Ghidorah with a new body. Made by Alan Jonah's terrorist group and the possessed Ren Serizawa. Here Ghidorah and Jonah decide to team up because they essentially have the same plan and hatred towards humanity, Ghidorah would be reluctant to team up with him, but he would agree so he can get a new body and finish his plan. It would also be stated that the terrorists tried to create their new titan with what they got from Kevin's head, but were unsuccessful in creating one. But with Ghidorah on their side, they would be able to create a titan that could take down the alphas. They would use Ren's body and the experimented Ghidorah DNA to create Monster X who after some time would turn into Keizer Ghidorah.

With Kiryu it would go like this. Monarch had rebuilt Mechagodzilla, now dubbed Kiryu, so that it can help the titans and protect humanity alongside their second mecha Moguera (This was the mecha that Monarch was working on in Skull Island in this story idea). After making sure that there were no connections to Ghidorah in Kiryu, they would apply the now researched Hollow Earth Energy into Kiryu and Moguera, hoping that this time does not go horribly wrong. It works and both mechas are fully operational, Monarch celebrates this accomplishment. But then they realize that Kiryu is moving on its own, so they immediately shutdown Kiryu. They check to see what happened and they realized that it was not Ghidorah this time, it was all that was left of the real Ren Serizawa. Ren now possesses Kiryu. From here on Ren would get a redemption arc, get use to his new body and new life, he would also have a pilot that is his cousin Akane Serizawa. It would also be interesting to see how he interacts with Godzilla now that he is on his level. Ren of course would not want to help Monarch, especially the titans. But after some character development and a note that his father wrote for him before he sacrificed himself to bring back Godzilla, he decides to heal his wounds by making peace with the demons who created them. So, he helps Godzilla, and the others defeat the new threat.

It sounds like these two characters meet in the same story, but they do not. Kiryu would be introduced first, then Monster X would be introduced in another story. And if you are wondering what is the threat that Ren helps Godzilla and the others defeat, well it is none other than Destoroyah!

I know a lot of people want him to be the final boss of the Monsterverse but this time I wanted to do something different with him, and do not worry, he will still be powerful. The story that he appears in will basically be a team up movie like The Avengers or The Justice League. I know it might be very cheesy to do that with the titans, but let’s be honest, a lot of us would love to see that with the famous kaijus.

And if you are wondering who I would put as the team members are, they would be: Godzilla, Kong (who at this point in time met Lady Kong and had a son), Mothra, Gamera, Zilla, Ultraman, Gomora and Kiryu.

Back with Destoroyah. In the story, he and his fellow infected crustaceans would represent man’s attempts at staying at the top of the food chain and showing how those attempts not only hurt the planet, but also themselves. First, they attack Isla De Mara and some environments filled with animals (basically showing that they are the apex predator of all living creatures) where they would be stopped by our main titans, Monarch, and the military. Then they would attack major cities and the Hollow Earth. Kong, Gamera, Zilla, Ultraman, Gomora and the military would deal with the crustaceans on the surface, while Godzilla, Mothra and Monarch would deal with Destoroyah in the Hollow Earth.

Just as they were about to defeat Destroyah, he ends up reaching his final form. He then leaves Mothra knocked out, Monarch weakened and Godzilla heavily wounded. He was about to kill Godzilla but was interrupted by Godzilla Jr. (Godzilla's adopted son), Leo and Lea (Mothra's asexually reproduced children). Destoroyah taunts them by nearly landing killing blows on them, and just as he is about to kill them in front of Godzilla and Mothra, Ren arrives and stops him from killing them. After a battle between them, Destoroyah gets the upper hand but Ren's plan was not trying to defeat him, his plan was to distract him so that Mothra and Godzilla could heal.

As they recover from their injuries and get their kids to safety, the other members of the team arrive and they all team up to take down Destoroyah. As they all battle him, Destoroyah calls his fellow crustaceans to come and help him, but since they are all dead, he realizes he is all alone and gets defeated by the team.

As team roars in victory and show that they respect each other, Destoroyah awakens and tries to attack them once again, but is immediately attacked by Godzilla's atomic breath and Kiryu's Proton scream leaving him close to death. But he gets back up once again, still trying to be at the top of the food chain. As he limps towards Godzilla, some of the humans and titans start to feel sorry for him. He tries to land a hit on Godzilla, but instead falls face first to the ground gasping for air. Eventually, he takes his last breath, and his bright yellow eyes go out. 

At the end of this story, not only would the government be convinced to stop working on the oxygen destroyer and destroy all blueprints of it, so that no one else can create another Destoroyah and destroy another species. But would also give more hope to the humans and titans that co-existence between them will be more possible. 

In an after-credit scene, we see Alan Jonah and his terrorist group monitoring the newly formed team. In the background, we see Ren's body now being turned into Monster X with some monitors right next to him that are checking on other evil titans that they have captive (which are new kaijus and old kaijus like Gigan and Megalon). Jonah is waiting for his perfect time to strike.

This first part is basically how I would do Phase 2 of the Monsterverse with these three. And in part two, I will explain my story ideas for the last 3 Monsterverse movies in phase 3 and show who the fourth Godzilla kaiju is that I plan to introduce and who will also be the Thanos/Darkseid of this universe.

I know a lot of people will not like the idea of feeling bad for Destoroyah, I understand that. But since we had other stories where they make us feel sorry for the villain, I wanted to try it out with him. And just like with the previous MV titan villains showing the arrogance of man, I wanted Destoroyah to show that as well and teach the humans that while they are no longer at the top of the food chain, they can still help the titans in protecting the planet they all call home. (On a side note, I would love for Destoroyah's death theme to sound like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGoo5-jfzsw)

[testudoaubrei-blog]

Content note for discussions of eternal damnation, and all sorts of other shit that will trigger a lot of folks with religious trauma.

Before I get started I might as well explain where I’m coming from - unlike a lot of She-Ra fans, and a lot of queer people, I don’t have much religious trauma, or any, maybe (okay there were a number of years I was convinced I was going to hell, but that happens to everyone, right?). I was raised a liberal Christian by liberal Christian parents in the Episcopal Church, where most of my memories are overwhelmingly positive. Fuck, growing up in the 90’s, Chuch was probably the only place outside my home I didn’t have homophobia spewed at me. Because it was the 90’s and it was a fucking hellscape of bigotry where 5 year olds knew enough to taunt each other with homophobic slurs and the adults didn’t know enough to realize how fucked up that was. Anyway. This is my experience, but it is an atypical one, and I know it. Quite frankly I know that my experience of Christianity has very little at all to do with what most people experienced, or what people generally mean when they talk about Christianity as a cultural force in America today. So if you were raised Christian and you don’t recognize your theology here, congrats, neither do I, but these ideas and cultural forces are huge and powerful and dominant. And it’s this dominant Christian narrative that I’m referring to in this post. As well as, you know, a children’s cartoon about lesbian rainbow princesses. So here it goes. This is going to get batshit.

"All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God." - John Calvin

“We’re all just a bunch of wooly guys” - Noelle Stevenson

This is a post triggered by a single scene, and a single line. It’s one of the most fucked-up scenes in She-Ra, toward the end of Save the Cat. Catra, turned into a puppet by Prime, struggles with her chip, desperately trying to gain control of herself, so lost and scared and vulnerable that she flings aside her own death wish and her pride and tearfully begs Adora to rescue her. Adora reaches out , about to grab her, and then Prime takes control back, pronounces ‘disappointing’ and activates the kill switch that pitches Catra off the platform and to her death (and seriously, she dies here, guys - also Adora breaks both her legs in the fall). But before he does, he dismisses Catra with one of his most chilling lines. “Some creatures are meant only for destruction.”

And that’s when everyone watching probably had their heart broken a little bit, but some of the viewers raised in or around Christianity watching the same scene probably whispered ‘holy shit’ to themselves. Because Prime’s line - which works as a chilling and callous dismissal of Catra - is also an allusion to a passage from the Bible. In fact, it’s from one of the most fucked up passages in a book with more than its share of fucked up passages. It’s from Romans 9:22, and I’m going to quote several previous verses to give the context of the passage (if not the entire Epistle, which is more about who needs to abide by Jewish dietary restrictions but was used to construct a systematic theology in the centuries afterwards because people decided it was Eternal Truth).

19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

The context of the allusion supports the context in the show. Prime is dismissing Catra - serial betrayer, liar, failed conqueror, former bloody-handed warlord - as worthless, as having always been worthless and fit only to be destroyed. He is speaking from a divine and authoritative perspective (because he really does think he’s God, more of this in my TL/DR Horde Prime thing). Prime is echoing not only his own haughty dismissal of Catra, and Shadow Weaver’s view of her, but also perhaps the viewer’s harshest assessment of her, and her own worst fears about herself. Catra was bad from the start, doomed to destroy and to be destroyed. A malformed pot, cracked in firing, destined to be shattered against a wall and have her shards classified by some future archaeologist 2,000 years later. And all that’s bad enough.

But the full historical and theological context of this passage shows the real depth of Noelle Stevenson’s passion and thought and care when writing this show. Noelle was raised in Evangelical or Fundamentalist Christianity. To my knowledge, he has never specified what sect or denomination, but in interviews and her memoir Noelle has shown a particular concern for questions that this passage raises, and a particular loathing for the strains of Protestant theology that take this passage and run with it - that is to say, Calvinism. So while I’m not sure if Noelle was raised as a conservative, Calvinist Presbyterian, his preoccupation with these questions mean that it’s time to talk about Calvinism.

It would be unfair, perhaps, to say that Calvinism is a systematic theology built entirely upon the Epistles of Romans and Galatians, but only -just- (and here my Catholic readers in particular will chuckle to themselves and lovingly stroke their favorite passage of the Epistle of James). The core of Calvinist Doctrine is often expressed by the very Dutch acronym TULIP:

Total Depravity - people are wholly evil, and incapable of good action or even willing good thoughts or deeds

Unconditional Election - God chooses some people to save because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, not because they did anything to deserve, trigger or accept it

Limited Atonement - Jesus died only to save the people God chose to save, not the rest of us bastards

Irresistible Grace - God chooses some people to be saved - if you didn’t want to be saved, too bad, God said so.

Perseverance of the Saints - People often forget this one and assume it’s ‘predestination’ but it’s actually this - basically, once saved by God, always saved, and if it looks like someone falls out of grace, they were never saved to begin with. Well that’s all sealed up tight I guess.

Reading through these, predestination isn’t a single doctrine in Calvinism but the entire theological underpinnings of it together with humanity’s utter powerlessness before sin. Basically God has all agency, humanity has none. Calvinism (and a lot of early modern Protestantism) is obsessed with questions of how God saves people (grace alone, AKA Sola Fides) and who God saves (the people god elects and only the people God elects, and fuck everyone else).

It’s apparent that Noelle was really taken by these questions, and repelled by the answers he heard. He’s alluded to having a tattoo refuting the Gospel passage about Sheep and Goats being sorted at the end times, affirming instead that ‘we’re all just a bunch of wooly guys’ (you can see this goat tattoo in some of his self-portraits in comics, etc). He’s also mentioned that rejecting and subverting destiny is a huge part of everything he writes as a particular rejection of the idea that some individual people are 'chosen' by God or that God has a plan for any of us. You can see that -so clearly- in Adora’s arc, where Adora embraces and then rejects destiny time and again and finally learns to live life for herself.

But for Catra, we’re much more concerned about the most negative aspect of this - the idea that some people are vessels meant for destruction. And that’s something else that Noelle is preoccupied with. In her memoir in the section about leaving the church and becoming a humanistic atheist, there is a drawing of a pot and the question ‘Am I a vessel prepared for destruction?’ Obviously this was on Noelle’s mind (And this is before he came out to himself as queer!).

To look at how this question plays out in Catra’s entire arc, let’s first talk about how ideas of damnation and salvation actually play out in society. And for that I’m going to plug one of my favorite books, Gin Lun’s Damned Nation: Hell in America from the Revolution to Reconstruction (if you can tell by now, I am a fucking blast at parties). Lun tells the long and very interesting story about, how ideas of hell and who went there changed during the Early American Republic. One of the interesting developments that she talks about is how while at first people who were repelled by Calvinism started moving toward a doctrine of universal salvation (no on goes to hell, at least not forever*), eventually they decided that hell was fine as long as only the right kind of people went there. Mostly The Other - non-Christian foreigners, Catholics, Atheists, people who were sinners in ways that were not just bad but weird and violated Victorian ideas of respectability. Really, Hell became a way of othering people, and arguably that’s how it survives today, especially as a way to other queer people (but expanding this is slated for my Montero rant). Now while a lot of people were consciously rejecting Calvinist predestination, they were still drawing the distinction between the Elect (good, saved, worthwhile) and the everyone else (bad, damned, worthless). I would argue that secularized ideas of this survive to this day even among non-Christian spaces in our society - we like to draw lines between those who Elect, and those who aren’t.

And that’s what brings us back to Catra. Because Catra’s entire arc is a refutation of the idea that some people are worthless and irredeemable, either by nature, nurture or their own actions. Catra’s actions strain the conventions of who is sympathetic in a Kid’s cartoon - I’ve half joked that she’s Walter White as a cat girl, and it’s only half a joke. She’s cruel, self-deluded, she spends 4 seasons refusing to take responsibility for anything she does and until Season 5 she just about always chooses the thing that does the most damage to herself and others. As I mentioned in my Catra rant, the show goes out of its way to demonstrate that Catra is morally culpable in every step of her descent into evil (except maybe her break with reality just before she pulls the lever). The way that Catra personally betrays everyone around her, the way she strips herself of all of her better qualities and most of what makes her human, hell even her costume changes would signal in any other show that she’s irredeemable.

It’s tempting to see this as Noelle’s version of being edgy - pushing the boundaries of what a sympathetic character is, throwing out antiheroics in favor of just making the villain a protagonist. Noelle isn’t quite Alex ‘I am in the business of traumatizing children’ Hirsch, who seems to have viewed his job as pushing the bounds of what you could show on the Disney Channel (I saw Gravity Falls as an adult and a bunch of that shit lives rent free in my nightmares forever), but Noelle has his own dark side, mostly thematically. The show’s willingness to deal with abuse, and messed up religious themes, and volatile, passionate, not particularly healthy relationships feels pretty daring. I’m not joking when I gleefully recommend this show to friends as ‘a couple from a Mountain Goats Song fights for four seasons in a cartoon intended for 9 year olds’. Noelle is in his own way pushing the boundaries of what a kids show can do. If you read Noelle’s other works like Nimona, you see an argument for Noelle being at least a bit edgy. Nimona is also angry, gleefully destructive, violent and spiteful - not unlike Catra. Given that it was a 2010s webcomic and not a kids show, Nimona is a good deal worse than Catra in some ways - Catra doesn’t kill people on screen, while Nimona laughs about it (that was just like, a webcomic thing - one of the fan favorite characters in my personal favorite, Narbonic, was a fucking sociopath, and the heroes were all amoral mad scientists, except for the superintelligent gerbil**). But unlike Nimona, whose fate is left open ended, Catra is redeemed.

And that is weird. We’ve had redemption arcs, but generally not of characters with -so- much vile stuff in their history. Going back to the comparison between her and Azula, many other shows, like Avatar, would have made Catra a semi-sympathetic villain who has a sob-story in their origin but who is beyond redemption, and in so doing would articulate a kind of psychologized Calvinism where some people are too traumatized to ever be fully and truly human. I’d argue this is the problem with Azula as a character - she’s a fun villain, but she doesn’t have moral agency, and the ultimate message of her arc - that she’s a broken person destined only to hurt people - is actually pretty fucked up. And that’s the origin story of so many serial killers and psycopaths that populate so many TV shows and movies. Beyond ‘hurt people hurt people’ they have nothing to teach us except perhaps that trauma makes you a monster and that the only possible response to people doing bad things is to cut them out of your life and out of our society (and that’s why we have prisons, right?)

And so Catra’s redemption and the depths from which she claws herself back goes back to Noelle’s desire to prove that no person is a vessel ‘fitted for destruction.’ Catra goes about as far down the path of evil as we’ve ever seen a protagonist in a kids show go, and she still has the capacity for good. Importantly, she is not subject to total depravity - she is capable of a good act, if only one at first. Catra is the one who begins her own redemption (unlike in Calvinism, where grace is unearned and even unwelcomed) - because she wants something better than what she has, even if its too late, because she realizes that she never wanted any of this anyway, because she wants to do one good thing once in her life even if it kills her.

The very extremity of Catra’s descent into villainy serves to underline the point that Noelle is trying to make - that no one can be written off completely, that everyone is capable of change, and that no human being is garbage, no matter how twisted they’ve become. Meanwhile her ability to set her own redemption in motion is a powerful statement of human agency, and healing, and a refutation of Calvinism’s idea that we are powerless before sin or pop cultural tropes about us being powerful before the traumas of our upbringing. Catra’s arc, then, is a kind of anti-Calvinist theological statement - about the nature of people and the nature of goodness.

Now, there is a darker side to this that Noelle has only hinted at, but which is suggested by other characters on the show. Because while Catra’s redemption shows that people are capable of change, even when they’ve done horrible things, been fucked up and fucked themselves up, it also illustrates the things people do to themselves that make change hard. As I mentioned in my Catra rant, two of the most sinister parts of her descent into villainy are her self-dehumanization (crushing her own compassion and desire to do good) and her rewriting of her own history in her speech and memory to make her own actions seem justified (which we see with her insistence that Adora left her, eliding Adora’s offers to have Catra join her, or her even more clearly false insistence that Entrapta had betrayed them). In Catra, these processes keep her going down the path of evil, and allow her to nearly destroy herself and everyone else. But we can see the same processes at work in two much darker figures - Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime. These are both rants for another day, but the completeness of Shadow Weaver’s narcissistic self-justification and cultivated callousness and the even more complete narcissism of Prime’s god complex cut both characters off from everyone around them. Perhaps, in a theoretical sense, they are still redeemable, but for narrative purposes they might as well be damned.

This willingness to show a case where someone -isn’t- redeemed actually serves to make Catra’s redemption more believable, especially since Noelle and the writers draw the distinction between how Catra and SW/Prime can relate to reality and other people, not how broken they are by their trauma (unlike Zuko and Azula, who are differentiated by How Fucked Uolp They Are). Redemption is there, it’s an option, we can always do what is right, but someone people will choose not to, in part because doing the right thing involves opening ourselves to the world and others, and thus being vulnerable. Noelle mentions this offhandedly in an interview after Season 1 with the She-Ra Progressive of Power podcast - “I sometimes think that shades of grey, sympathetic villains are part of the escapist fantasy of shows like this.” Because in the real world, some people are just bastards, a point that was particularly clear in 2017. Prime and Shadow Weaver admit this reality, while Catra makes a philosophical point that even the bastards can change their ways (at least in theory).

*An idea first proposed in the second century by Origen, who’s a trip and a fucking half by himself, and an idea that becomes the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, which protestants vehemently denied!

**Speaking of favorite Noelle tropes