#the original post is clearly bait but man its so funny | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hero-israel · 2 years ago

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Here's the thing about this narrative that Palestinian resistance no matter what form is acceptable. Jewkilling cannot exist in a bubble. It cannot be politically neutral. 1000 years of European (and Arab) antisemitism culminating in genocide have ruined that. Sorry to Palestinian activists but that's just how it works. You can't murder a Jew without it being a tragedy, without it contributing to the continued global oppression of Jewish people.

And all that said, that's just if Hamas and others only targeted soldiers and police (or at least tried as best they could). The IRA didn't go out of its way to purposefully target noncombatants. Why? Probably because there isn't thousands of years of history of English people being seen as subhuman, there isn't thousands of years of anglophobic propaganda showing English people as twisted monsters preying on children and secretly undermining Irish society. The Irish national movement was not born because English refugees returned to their historical homeland and challenged the notion of Irish Supremacy. It was a pragmatic liberation movement. Resist military occupation, undermine military infrastructure designed to oppress the people. The descendants of English and Scottish settlers would even be allowed to stay if they had won. Imagine that.

These things are all tied up in each other. I'm against police brutality, I'm against the escalation and the militarization and the mistreatment of Arabs in Israel and in Judea & Samaria and Gaza and Golan and everywhere. But killing Jews can never be righteous. Sorry to anyone who feels that way but it can't. Antizionists NEED to understand that. Jews will always feel defensive and ready themselves for retaliation because of history, because of that context. Jews keep saying "prove to us a post zionist society where we all share the land won't be antisemitic" and their concerns are completely brushed off.

There's no empathy at all. A little girl can be stabbed to death and antizionists celebrate because she was a "settler," and that brave Palestinian man was defending his indigenous homeland, by targeting the weakest of his enemies. And since Israel has mandatory military service the antizionist can surmise that no Jews are Innocent. An Israeli Jew cannot be a noncombatant. They have to, otherwise the only other explanation for why Jewkilling is acceptable to them, or even feels good to them, is that they hate Jews. And as of right now, the optics are still against that. I have a sinking feeling the optics won't be against them much longer. I inherently don't trust a "liberation" movement that's all too eager to make murdering Jewish civilians praxis. I'm sick of the internet falling for this bullshit.

One of the best asks I have ever received. Thank you for sharing it and I agree with every word.

The entire progressive intersectional social-justice frame has failed Jews (or, alternately, has succeeded in excluding them), due to being intellectually colonized by a clearly fascist ideology of incessantly hating the Jew as a poisonous alien. Try to get an online activist to critically deconstruct the social assumptions they were raised with about Jews in their Muslim, Christian, or very slightly post-Christian society... it won't go well. Funny how Jews have lived in India and China for thousands of years yet you will look in vain for examples of bitter bloodthirsty kill-your-nextdoor-neighbor antisemitism in those societies. That's because the origin, the core, of Chinese and Indian societies was not "We're the people who are better than Jews."

From a review of Richard Landes' new book "Can the Whole World Be Wrong?":

[During the Second Intifada] Israelis were described at the time as the new Nazis. But the malice that was unleashed was even worse. As Landes writes, “It was mostly about being freed from a sense of obligation to the Jews, a chance to take up again the Jew-baiting so long denied Europeans by a politically correct post-Holocaust sobriety.” Landes quotes a poisonous comment made by a member of the House of Lords and reported in the Spectator, “Well, the Jews have been asking for it, and now, thank God, we can say what we think at last.” During that time, I was told something horrifyingly similar to my [=the reviewer's] face.

Your example of Irish nationalists not going out of their way to murder British children is a good one. The oft-reached comparisons between Palestine and South Africa are frivolous for many reasons as I have explained here before, and the ANC advocating and normalizing a vision of enduring racial diversity and equality is high on the list of reasons (made possible because black African identity is not predicated on a thousand-year history of hating and oppressing whites). The case of Rhodesia is even more instructive. Robert Mugabe - ROBERT MUGABE! - pleaded with the whites to stay, to live as equals, as brothers, and work together in building a better society in Zimbabwe. Ian Smith, last white PM of Rhodesia, agreed with him and stayed in Zimbabwe. If a so-called "liberation" movement is more openly dedicated to straight-up exterminating their enemies than Robert Mugabe ever was, maybe, just maybe, it shouldn't be described as "liberation" at all.

#antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #israel #palestine #zionism #palestinians #jumblr

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ptitelidio · 4 years ago

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Finally I can post the Rivetra oneshot commission because I had a weird problem with my account.

for @himebee-5 (I know you already read it but I wanted to post it here :))

-> Petra acting jealous when girls are talking about her captain

Petra couldn’t think properly due to the noise around her, her head ached, and she needed some fresh air. The bar was full to burst at night, and her friends Nanaba and Nifa were drinking some beer, clearly not sober anymore. Their complexion was now reddish while some incomprehensible words were coming from their mouths.

Petra was the only one that didn’t drink too much, actually she barely touched her glass. Before going to the bar with her friends, Levi went to see her and made her promise to stay sober. He couldn’t be there tonight, he said he had something important to fix. She didn’t seek more, all she wanted to do was to have fun with her friends. Yet she still found it odd, it was a break day after all...

She stood and looked for an exit downstairs. Once out, Petra felt way better and could finally breathe. She sat against the brick wall and let her head falling back. She closed her eyes a moment, but rapidly something came to disturb her tranquility. She heard familiar voices from afar, women voices.

“Did you really talk to him? Is he really grumpy as everybody say?” said one tall blonde woman.

”Yes he is, but oddly it is somehow attractive...” the second one blushed with her hands on her cheeks as to hide her face.

”Even though he’s not physically attractive, I should say that he’s quite popular because he is strong and has a high position in the military... some women could be interested?”

“Oh I don’t think so Sofia, what woman would marry someone as coldhearted as he? Have you seen how he treats his subordinates? Do you remember that young boy who has a titan ability?”

“Yeah that’s right... I heard what happened at the court... then, do you really wanna try something with him or?”

“Well, even if he’s grumpy and all, Captain Levi’s still a good choice for a woman. After all, he could provide her some protection, even if it’s not by a marriage, he still could have fun with a woman, couldn’t he?”

”Probably.”

Petra was listening to their conversation with great attention, when it was about her captain, she was immediately careful to everything that was being said. She was the loyal kind and she respected too much her captain to hide something from him but this time... she didn’t want him to be disappointed when she’d told him women in town were planning on flirting with him only by interest. She didn’t want to hurt him so she kept the conversation for herself.

Later on, after Nifa and Nanaba went home by cart, Petra stayed a little longer outside. Her joyful mood from the little party totally wiped out and she felt a disagreeable twinge in her chest.

“Who are these women?” she whispered loudly. Why did she felt that way? After all, Captain Levi is not the type to flirt with unknown people. Then why?

“Petra?” Someone caught her off guard. It was Captain Levi, he was sitting in a cart waiting for her. She didn’t even notice him.

“What are you waiting for? Get in.” he said.

She raised her hand so he can help her getting in. She sat calmly but a million of questions were turning round in her mind. She hesitated to ask him a question, the question, actually Captain Levi seemed preoccupied by something.

“Captain, may I speak?”

He turned his face to look at her.

”You don’t have to be so formal with me, you’re not on duty, aren’t you?”

“Right.. so, uhm, I thought you had some urgent matter outside the town? So...”

”Yes that’s right. Actually... something unpleasant happened...” he mumbled some insults.

“Really? Do you want to talk about it?”

His eyes crossed hers with a glimpse.

”Not really, don’t worry. Not a big deal.”

She knew Captain Levi is a man of few words, but she couldn’t stop worrying when he spoke so little, in general when it was the case it meant that something annoyed him a lot.

“Is it Eren again?” she asked with a little smile.

“Fortunately not this time. Eld and Oluo take care of him right now.”

“I don’t think Oluo’s gonna make it...” she whispered by clenching her fist.

”What?” he asked.

“Oh nothing.. and what about Gunther? I didn’t heard much about him these times...”

“Don’t worry he’s going to be fine, I sent him back home. His injuries are not so bad.”

”Great...”

They went quiet for a while, Petra didn’t dare asking him again what was the matter and Levi was too preoccupied by her reaction if she knew what happened. But he wanted to know.

“Petra, what would you said if some lad asked your hand?”

”Uh? What do mean?”

”You know, even if, you.. you didn’t have feelings for them, would you still marry someone?”

Petra felt herself blushing because she could never imagine talking about love with her Captain.

“To be honest, feelings are important to me... I couldn’t imagine marrying someone without feeling something... for him.”

Her eyes lifted up to Levi’s and he seemed to be chewing the thing over.

”The thing is, marriage’s not good in a world with titans, y’know.”

”I understand. So, can I- can I ask you who is the origin of these troubles?”

”Tch.. it’s embarrassing...”

He stayed silent but he finally answered.

”Look, you have to keep this for yourself. I swear if you don’t–”

”Captain, don’t worry!” she immediately said.

”Okay then. Well. When I arrived at Mitlas, two women came in front of me and they asked me some weird questions.”

”Like?” she asked but she knew who it was about. She felt a fire burning inside.

”Y’know, some marriage stuffs. If I would marry one of them... or some crap. Plus, they had annoying attitude.”

”And what did you do?”

”I left. Then they said I was rude, I don’t understand. That’s probably true..”

Petra began to laugh out loud, even her Captain was startled. She laughed because she found his reaction quite funny, how he felt uncomfortable with them. But most importantly, she thought her reaction, being jealous, was a bit childish of her since he couldn’t even notice any ounce of romanticism.

When the horseman stopped at Karanes, Levi helped Petra stepping out of the cart and accompanied her until her front door.

”Thank you Captain, it’s nice of you. You shouldn’t pick me up to Karanes every night you know... if it’s bothering you–”

”Don’t worry Petra. It’s not. Besides, I hope to cross path with someone actually... but he never seems to be home this late.”

”Who’s that?”

”Your father. Is he home?”

“Oh he’s never home at this hour, he’s probably helping some friends. He’s good at selling haha.”

”I see.”

Petra didn’t know what to add, she wanted to invite him in but she was afraid to bother him. He surely had more important things to do than wandering with her like that.

”Do you have some tea?” Levi suddenly asked, pointing her door with his finger.

”Uh... I think I do, do you want some?”

Now they were drinking some tea in the silence of the night. Levi had been admiring her house and complimenting its cleanliness.

Petra hold her teacup with her two hands to warm them up and she said

”You know... I’ve been thinking about what I would do after the 57th expedition. I know that it took a lot of preparations so we will have a lot of free time after that.”

Levi sipped a little more tea in her cup.

”What if... well... if we succeed this mission, do you think... we could move together?”

”How?”

”I mean, I heard you didn’t have a proper house for yourself... and sometimes when I stay in the headquarters late at night, I notice that you sleep in one of those rooms... it doesn’t seem comfy at all.”

”That’s right but I’m not complaining. I already knew even worse, you know.”

”I saved some money because I also work as a waitress in my dad’s friend bar when I have time, well maybe you don’t want to live with me or–”

”I could probably do that. I guess. But y’know how I don’t like to talk about these matters if I don’t know you’re safe. We don’t know what will happen in the future...”

”It’s about the expedition, isn’t it?”

”Yeah. You’re probably aware that you’ll be in the front lines with the rest of the squad, right?”

”I do. That’s my duty after all.”

”I didn’t tell the brat, he still think you have to watch him. If I tell him you’ve been assigned to protect him because he’ll be used as a bait, he’s gonna screw it all up. Tch.”

“That’s right, he’s a bit impulsive. He’s a child after all,” she smiles softly. Then Petra began to laugh again, Levi was wondering what was the matter with her today.

She just felt more confident as he accepted to move with her.

”Captain I think... I didn’t act well when I heard those women talking about you that way...”

”Those women? Have you met ‘em?”

”That was a pure coincidence but yes. I didn’t talk to them but I think... I was a bit jealous. The very idea of seeing them flirting with you... it’s not that I don’t want you to be happy with a wife, but I hope you’ll have someone nice. That truly cares.”

Levi stands and take the teacups to the sink.

”I know. Don’t worry about that, you can believe me when I say that as a child I learned to analyze people. I’m able to notice who cares about me.” His glare stays on her a moment.

”It’s late now, I have to go. Thanks for the tea.”

”Wait Captain... I- Promise me you are not going to take some risks during the expedition.. I’m afraid I’m not going to watch you back for long.”

“Stop talking shit, Petra. You are one of the best soldiers in the military, you’re going to do just fine. But, if anything happens... you’re aware I won’t be able to do anything this time?”

”I know, anyway my duty is to offer my heart to humanity and I didn’t enroll for pleasure. I have a dream too...”

”Don’t worry, even if it’s dangerous... this time more than ever, I will have an eye on you. I’ll be close.”

“Thank you. Well, have a good night, Captain.”

Before leaving, Captain Levi grabbed Petra’s hair softly and put a little and chaste kiss on her forehead. Petra felt herself blushing so much, that was so unusual of him. Maybe it was their last goodbye before the expedition she thought.

”You too.”

#shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #rivetra #petra ral #levi x petra #levipetra #aot #oneshot #commission

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synthmusic91 · 4 years ago

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thoughts? kjfhlkjdfh asking bc i rb'd the original post from u a bit ago because i agreed w/ original poster but i just saw this rb of it and wanted to know what u thought. ciaran(.)tumblr(.)com /post/652413157345820673/there-is-a-genre-of-posts-thats-obsessed-with-the

well first of all i hope this isn't a bait ask. this reply really doesn't deserve the time and effort i put into refuting it, but there was a point in time when i was emotionally confused by these..."arguments", so whoever u are, anon, i hope this is helpful. i also recommend some distance - literally, "go outside and touch grass", which is a lot more difficult than it sounds, but it needs to be done. anyway, here's my "analysis":

for context, here's what the post in question said:

and the tags:

at a high level, we can see that what ciaran is saying doesn't really respond to what OP was talking about. for this reason, i'm not going to bring in much of what OP said, because it's uncontested in this context, and look at ciaran's reply. i'll try to break this up...

EDIT: i had a long-ass response here, but then i realized it was dumb because the source material is dumb. i cut out most of it, but here are the highlights.

"there is a genre of posts that’s obsessed with the notion that fandom is something much larger, more prevalent, and more able to affect the way media is processed and consumed, than it actually is in reality."

so, as we can all see on tiktok and, indeed, on the electronic lore olympus billboard that takes up a side of a literal skyscraper, fandom is no longer the niche thing that "fandom olds" make it out to be. also, we can't ignore how many (white) fandom players go on and work in the industry (cassandra clare, whoever wrote 50 shades, man idk much of anything so there's probably many more). so this comment is sort of myopic. and since this is what characterizes the rest of the reply, well...it's not great.

also don't look up lore olympus; it's basically a dd/////lg fanfic that happens to be one of the most popular series on the line webtoon app, which is rated for teens...and for $1 to the creator's patreon, you can view not sfw p*dophilic art, so. also obviously i didnt do that; there was a video essay about this. i can't find it though

"ironically but understandably, these posts are made by people who are so terminally fandom-poisoned that they ascribe phenomenal power to it, and think of it as some great evil that must be defeated (by making posts on tumblr, which is obviously a very influential thing to do)"

"fandom-poisoned" is such a nebulous term, especially since it appears to mean "has had some really significant, (in this context) bad experiences with fandom." this is, first of all, a huge assumption to make about a stranger, and second, not the own they think it is. i'm just going to link this post, and hopefully you can see how it relates.

anyway, the "making posts on tumblr is meaningless" is um...interesting, seeing as off the top of my head i can think of two very influential tumblr blogs that talk about really important issues, Gradient Lair and Red Light Politics. I don't know as much about Red Light Politics, but Gradient Lair is frequently cited by academics (not getting into academia nonsense now but... -_-). also, they sound more pissed that the original post did gain traction, but whatever. this paragraph doesn't really make sense, but nothing here does, because i wasn't given much to work with.

"...and then because these people have basically no imagination and unfailingly pick on others for their own faults, they project their own experiences on everyone they perceive as being more ‘in fandom’ than them,"

jesus christ. i'm going not say anything about the tone of this because i put too much effort into this for some rando to call me a cyberbully.

i think what they're thinking about is how there appear to be some "fandom critical" people who try to, holistically, "ruin everyone's good time" by "stirring up drama" about popular fandom artists/writers/whoever else idk. oftentimes these people will also make jokes about fandom whatever, seemingly picking on random people's interests.

however, if you look at the long history of fandom racism, fandom's normalization of p*dophilia, and even general fandom harassment, and then you look at fandom's visceral, unwarranted reaction to criticism regarding these things, you can quickly see that disillusionment towards fandom is entirely reasonable. as for the joking, well...this an oversimplification but not everyone needs to like what you like. it sounds like they just need to get over themself.

and go “You, a 27 year old queer blogger who is into [tv show/anime/movie] an embarrassing amount, are now going to be the face of Capitalism” with no self-reflection or critical thought given to how fucking cringe it is-"

so, i'm regretting putting so much effort into this because this is so fucking long and i have to analyze this nonsense...it feels like i'm back in my feminist thought class. nightmarish. but anyway, this seems to deal with- [CUT FOR LENGTH. nothing important was missed].

EDIT 2: actually here's a summary of what I had. it deserves better than to be a response to this nonsense, but first it detailed how this took 1. the op's post and 2. a comment that we don't even know if op agreed with and misinterpreted that, and threw quite a fit about this- and i hate to say this because this term is misused so often by redditors, but- strawman.

I then went on to discuss how, for example, PoC can uphold systems of white supremacy. while obviously no person of color is going to be the "face" of white supremacy, the discussion still needs to be had, especially within that group. similarly, while fandom constituents may not be the face of capitalism, there needs to be a discussion, within fandom, on how they support and are defined by capitalist (and other) systems.

it was really too good of a point to be making for this trash reply. I could go say more, but I'm still trying to stay on topic, unlike ciaran.

"to act like random people on the internet, end users with no influence over corporate decisions, are the ones personally responsible for the fact that late-stage capitalism has destroyed popular art and culture in an increasingly sordid attempt to make money."

we've been over the "no influence" bit - because in fact fans do have influence, especially since media creators are literally fans, etc etc. i'm tired of people acting like they have no power and using that as an excuse to support and perpetuate harmful, easily avoidable behavior.

also, to act like the nebulous system of late-stage capitalism is the only cause of bad media is ludicrous. first of all, someone has to make these so-called "corporate decisions", and the people making artistic decisions are, again, overwhelmingly members of "fandom." this comment is really trying to keep marvel trash and lore olympus-esque nonsense in the same atomic, indivisible category lest someone catches a whiff of nuance.

"the above post is a great example of this phenomenon because op admits freely that they only think fandom is destroying media because they have been spending more time in fandom and thus have an over-inflated sense of its importance in greater culture. posting your own Ls indeed."

i'm so tired. this person literally has 120 works on ao3 like...who is spending more time in fandom.

and the tags:

#i assure you that fandom has no bearing on my actual real life #and if it does on yours. then that is your problem #it's also a very funny problem to

now this is just egregiously tone deaf. you do not need to do more than a cursory google search to find a bottomless well of examples of fandom harassment, threats, doxxing, and violence, much of which is racially motivated. you can see why it would be bad to make fun of this.

also the way that “fandom has no bearing on their actual real life“...120 fanfics on ao3. 120.

conclusion:

the reply clearly misinterprets of op's point, and as such, does not refute it. they responded to another issue altogether, which is that of the sanctity of their ~coping mechanism~ or whatever it is. their argument in this respect was, in my opinion, delusional and pathetic, especially given that they wrote it on someone else's unrelated post.

FINAL NOTE: i cut out lots of this because the reply went in so many different directions, so some stuff might not make sense. let me know if you have any questions.

#answered #anonymous #fandom #long post #q slur #s

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vrainsrewatch · 5 years ago

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episode 8 thoughts

i was gonna watch later, since i’ve got other things to do, but i burnt the shit out of my hands making hot chocolate like an idiot so i watched an episode first LOL.

this episode starts out with that really strong fairy tale scenery i absolutely adore, with yusaku and ai trying their hardest to get blue angel to wake up.

i seriously could talk about the imagery in this scene for days lmao. i love the sleeping beauty aesthetic, but i also really love the colors. LV goes through so many different color palettes through the series, but i love the purples and blues of this area here. i’m not sure if the intention was to make blue angel seem like she was meant to be there, while in contrast playmaker stands out due to his hair, but i seriously replayed this section twice because it looked so nice.

i have a lot to say about this episode, and it will also be my most screenshot heavy post so far lol, so once again, buckle up!

this episode starts to really build up yusaku as a character - his sense of justice, his core values, etc etc. on top of that, it takes its time to flesh out akira, and to show his worse qualities, which we’ll get into in a minute.

first, though, is one of my favorite awkward exchanges in the series lmao:

i’m surprised he even caught onto what akira was getting at, tbh with y’all. vrains started out ship teasing yusaku/aoi really hard these episodes, but drop it almost completely up until the minimal tease we get in s3, which i find really funny. i was always really invested in them becoming friends, though, so while i’m happy we had that happen in s3, i would’ve really liked to see it happen earlier. not this early, though - yusaku’s nowhere near ready for that.

I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN VYRA WAS HERE. yugioh hair makes it known that she’s going to be an important character, but i had really completely forgotten she was working as one of aoi’s doctors during this part lmao. i love this so much, actually.

moving onto everyone talking shit about blue angel on forums and stuff. this kinda shit:

would be really awful to deal with. it’s very real, though - cancel culture, anyone? but seriously, this is so brutal. on top of that, does this imply that she’s never really lost before? she is the number 2 charisma duelist in LV, so i wouldn’t be terribly surprised if that meant that she hadn’t really lost since starting to make it big as an idol. once again showing off how good of a duelist aoi actually is, even if the show makes her lose a lot. tbf, her loss/win ratio isn’t that bad looking at the other main girls - 5 wins, 5 losses on screen, and considering the kind of opponents she faced (soulburner, bohman, ai), that’s seriously not bad.

next up we get the chess pieces again, and boy howdy, does this conversation make me seethe.

i understand it’s partially a cultural difference thing, but i can’t help but get angry about it LOL.

i didn’t remember how often the chess pieces were actually utilized in these first few episodes, either. i guess i can understand why people were irritated they were just dropped, but i don’t really see them as a plot point, more like... just a kind of weird way to run a company? just show your faces and have normal meetings like everyone else, y’all don’t have to be so extra.

the akira/emma meeting is nice because it shows you more of emma’s character, but it also gives you more of akira’s stupider (and ruthless) side.

you don’t see him like this very often, but honestly, when you think about all the unsavory jobs he was doing to keep him and aoi afloat way back when, it kind of makes sense. even if he was originally a gentle person, you don’t last doing... any of the jobs he’s done, being that way. even a higher up in a company like SOL tech would have to be a bit harsher to get to that point imo. i don’t see a lot of people talk about this side of akira’s character tbh which makes me kind of sad.

also, seriously, he’s an idiot. how did he arrive at this conclusion? when he saw that it was aoi who was baiting him into the duel? no matter what direction i approach this from, i can’t understand how he ended up on that conclusion lol.

also, the worst father ever award goes to....

seriously! i hate that man so much lmao. to say that directly to your own child, on top of everything else...

it’s a nice look into revolver, too, though you wouldn’t know it at first glance. his reply says everything, though. he fully accepts his role in his father’s life and has an incredibly toxic attachment to him, and wants his approval more than anything. we never see him get physically abused by kogami or anything of the sort, but you can’t deny the mental anguish he must’ve been going through in order to keep on his father’s good side.

i know a lot of people like to say that revolver is kind of not a great guy, seeing the tower of hanoi arc, and how he probably should’ve went to jail etc etc but really, he was manipulated hard core. and extremely suicidal. i could really talk a lot about this all day, but i’ll cut myself off and instead say how much i love how vrains sets up revolver as a character. this, combined with “i’ll fulfill your wishes, father” from episode 3 gives you his motivations nice and clearly, but this specific scene also gives a bit of a hint as to where his character arc goes and what he has to work through. just thinking about this makes me so excited to get to 116 again lmao.

anyways, though. another excellent exchange comes up. seriously, lmao, ai being like “waaaah that’s illegal !!!!” and kusanagi’s just very casual

makes me laugh every time i see it. they are criminals, even if what they’re doing is for the greater good. they’re not exactly innocent here lmao.

then there’s the talk about the virus infecting her, and it’s a nice way to bring up how that works before the another arc comes up in.. a couple of episodes, right? tbh it’s the arc i remember the least about, so i’m looking forward to rewatching it.

actually though, the idea of viruses in LV being able to infect someone’s body is so, so interesting. i really, really wish they had done more with the whole LV/rl merge idea, but guess i’ll just have to write more fanfic instead lol.

i mentioned at the beginning of this post we get into yusaku as a character more here, and this is one of the lines that really made him interesting to me originally:

he has such a strong sense of justice, but what sets him apart from other ygo protags is that he is not defined by it. he’s not the classic, stereotypical do-gooder who gets caught up in something and has to make it right, his justice is more so that he is not okay with seeing other people hurt because of what happened to him. his justice is driven by his trauma, almost entirely.

revolver even brings it up this episode:

where he talks about how some rando wouldn’t have done them any good because it wouldn’t have been public enough. yusaku doesn’t really care about the little people, not in the same way, say, yugi would. it’s not that he wants them to be hurt or see them get hurt or anything, it’s just that unless it effects him directly, it’s not on his radar. but once he gets involved, he feels fully responsible.

while he didn’t plant the hanoi virus into her, he probably knows it was to intentionally draw him out thanks to ai (and the fact that he beats them up all the time). he feels fully responsible for what happened to her, and he’s prepared to do what is needed to make it right again.

i really like yusaku for this. i find those kinds of characters really interesting, and yusaku is no exception.

we get the whole emma/blue angel/yusaku scene, which is pretty sick tbh looking at it again - just shoot a church straight up from the ground for dramatic effect! - and i’ll bring up more of akira’s ruthlessness here.

seriously, this is not a line from someone who is just angry about his sister. and it’s also him being fuckin DUMB. playmaker willingly lets himself get caught into your trap, and he tells akira straight up what he has to do to save his sister - no sugar coating it, no trying to make it cryptic or difficult despite being caught in that hand and in that trap. he’s incredibly honest, and akira still does this lmao.

then it’s probably the wildest turn of events in all of vrains:

where’s that post that’s like, “remember when playmaker gets caught in a gothic looking church while he’s getting tormented by a giant demon hand controlled by his classmate’s brother and then his rival who he hasn’t met yet shows up in a lightning bolt to save him”? bc really LMAO what the fuck. it was so hype watching it the first time, and it’s still awesome watching it back.

and why is this never really??? brought up again later???? and when he leaves in that datastorm to go prepare to fight playmaker LMAO i know it’s supposed to look cool but the animation is so dorky, i love it.

more on yusaku, though. before playmaker goes to fight revolver, who he’s been gearing towards for awhile now, we get this exchange:

to which playmaker responds with “i don’t hate you. i only hate the knights of hanoi”. which is another really good moment for his early characterization and very, very consistent with his backstory that we find out in about 12 episodes.

everyone who wasn’t involved in the LI in any way just... exists to him. they’re completely neutral. if something happens to them because of him, he feels directly responsible, because he feels like he got them tangled up in a mess that nobody should be in. i mentioned that briefly earlier, but this really drives that point home.

he doesn’t even hate akira for torturing him mere minutes ago. because he’s been through worse. because akira was doing what he thought was right by his sister, no matter how stupid he was being.

and even more so than that, he’s not seeing this as fighting for akira. he feels responsible for blue angel, but also, here’s his chance to fight revolver. it’s a two birds one stone situation here for him.

anyways, i’m gonna stop myself there lol this is really long OOPS. gotta take care of a few things, and then onto the first rev vs playmaker duel!

#vrains #episode 8

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pachathegreat · 7 years ago

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Day 20: Shin Godzilla

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IT’S A BAIT AND SWITCH!

No, no it isn’t. Today I am a day late. Damn, almost made it 20 straight days on this thing. Expect the last entry for the week later on today as well. That one may be short.

Today we’re talking about the 2016 film Shin Godzilla, released in theaters as Godzilla: Resurgence and while that isn’t a bad title, it just doesn’t carry the weight of a title like Shin Godzilla. The shin in the title can mean various things apparently. Namely “new”, “evolved”, and even “god”. And trust me, they all fit well in this new iteration of the Japanese kaiju king.

The film is a reboot of the long running franchise. Spanning a little over 60 years. The film was directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, Anno being director by GAINAX’s Neon Genesis Evangelion with Higuchi having worked on the project as well. Anno wrote the screenplay for the film as well. I think anyone whose stumbled on this post probably already knows a lot of this info. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

The film in itself stands out immediately from a majority of its predecessors. This is the first Godzilla movie to not rely heavily on the tokusatsu style of film making. Tokusatsu is pretty much things like Power Rangers (Super Sentai in Japan), Kamen Rider, and kaiju movies, which is what spawned the sub-genre with our original Godzilla.

I like to think the film has two narratives that are intertwined. The first and our main is following the Japanese governments reaction and response to the situation that Godzilla has created, and usually first hand accounts in the form of the public taking videos, the news, and military doing reconnaissance. Eventually both narratives become intertwined as our hero of the film Rando Yaguchi heads up the plan to stop Godzilla. Yaguchi is politician working in government and is the first to theorize to the Prime Minister that they’re dealing with a living creature. The film does something which I personally find funny, is that it does quick cuts to negate any doubt of what’s going on in the story. Most of PM cabinet dismiss Yaguchi’s claim, and then they cut to a giant tail emerging from the water. There’s a few more shots like that in the film and it has its moments of levity.

humor aside, the film takes a look at how normal people react to something they could never imagine. The government seems to be frozen in bureaucracy and debate on what the best course of action to take is rather than responding to the devastation happening concurrently. While it may seem a little boring, watching it unfold is another matter. Yaguchi is us, he’s as frustrated as we would be watching people stuck in indecision due to possible reaction or how it’ll affect their jobs, or just not knowing how to deal with something no one saw coming.

Yaguchi essentially makes a team composed of politicians, scientists, and whatever else he feels is necessary to cut through all the red tape and condescension to figure out how and what to do about the giant fucking monster wiggling through Tokyo. His team doesn’t ask for permission like we see a lot of the other political figures do. There’s a scene where one person asks another who asks another who asks the PM, mind you they are in the same room at the same table!

I felt maybe this was a comment on how much effort we put in to enact little change, while something like Godzilla makes so little effort, but enacts great change in doing so. Maybe a comment on man’s place in nature?

The human element in this film felt a little more compelling compared to other Godzilla films. I don’t usually care about the humans in kaiju movies. Unless they’re voiced by MST3K.

Our second narrative is how we view Godzilla, literally. And this has added so much to what we know about Godzilla. Godzilla about 4 forms within the film. The first is only seen as a tail, the rest are a creature bearing a shape similar to what we’ve known, but returning it to a more horrifying creature affected by radiation.

The first form, loving known to fans as kamata-kun, seems almost infantile. It’s eyes remind me of minnows, it’s skin seems rubbery and fleshy, and the way it’s gills move give me shivers cause it looks so weird. Clearly, this was to make Godzilla more bestial, its only intent is to survive. Godzilla had evolved into a cunning warrior who could dance and rejoice, and shoved a tree down King Kong’s throat. And while I love Godzilla in his many iterations, the terror of the creature seemed stripped away from it very early on. This film tried to bring back the horror of Godzilla.

The original made Godzilla a walking hydrogen bomb in its pure destruction in the wake of a post-war Japan. This new adds onto that idea by first making Godzilla the epitome of a walking natural disaster. When Godzilla is in its first form, it pushes forward from the sea bringing tons of debris with it in its wake. It walks through anything in its path as an unstoppable force of nature.

This isn’t without cause. The film much like the originator is in response to the pain of a nation. Godzilla was a reaction to the atomic bombings on Japan and testing of h-bomb testing, Shin Godzilla is a reaction to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed. The following is footage from the the disaster, please be advised:

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0:00-2:15 is the footage you should check out for

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The film doesn’t openly raise the question on what should be done, because no one can prepare for the something like a natural disaster, but looks more at how our government should respond, which is immediately and effectively. There’s atmosphere within the film that hangs over after the attack on Tokyo (which I’ll get to) is when the U.S. says the only way to defeat Godzilla is with a nuclear deterrent while Godzilla is in the middle of Tokyo. The shock and horror among them as they hear that this may be the only way of defeating Godzilla. Now, obviously you don’t want your country being nuked, but this is Japan. This is embedded into their culture, though it’s no longer the wound it was in 1954, some scars echo through time. For this to be on the table is something I don’t think I can articulate correctly.

Let’s talk more about how Godzilla looks throughout the movie.

We see our first actual looks at Godzilla in his second form. Not yet able to walk upright, there’s so many things that invoke the classic look, but add something alien and a little disturbing. They’ve added gills to his look, and his eyes are more like the eyes of minnows, just vacant and barely registering life. The gills spill blood that acts as a coolant for that nuclear reactor its got ticking in their. Its arms aren’t fully formed, and appear more like nubs. Its flesh is rubber like and fleshy.

The third form stands upright and looks more along the lines of what we’re used to. As it stood up, it’s skin vibrated or looked like waves of heating were coming off, burning the skin.

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The third and final form looked like if Godzilla came straight from hell and its glorious.

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That scene is amazing and when I saw it in theaters gave me chills. Godzilla emerged in this form as a burned and seemingly horrendous creature, no plot either than to exist, and its existence does not have room for us.

Also it does have a nice call back on the original design that I love.

So when last thing before we wrap up. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?

So I’ll end it here. I’ve actually reviewed this movie twice in a year. I did it first on @filmaweekpodcast , and you can hear this review here

I’ll do a short review of the remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD later on tonight

#shin godzilla #godzilla #shin gojira #gojira #kaiju #halloween #the shinning (2017)

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immaculate-benediction-batch · 8 years ago

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"IT'S ALL FINE" - QUEERBAITING IN BBC'S SHERLOCK... By J. Elizabeth The stage is set. The curtain rises. We are ready to begin. Series four of BBC’s Sherlock, that is. We are only a few weeks away from the promised land. After three years, not including last year’s special "The Abominable Bride," we will finally see our favorite consulting detective back in action. The fandom is certainly in need of some beekeepers because we are abuzz right now. As we celebrate this award winning, international hit show, it’s only fair we talk about its flaws. And there are flaws, let’s not kid ourselves. From how it handles female characters to its lack of people of color, it could be better, despite the best intentions from the showrunners. The flaw I’d like to talk about now is the excessive amounts of queerbaiting. What is queerbaiting? Well, it’s a term used by queer fans of media to call out TV shows/movies/comics/etc that intentionally insert queer subtext or "add homoerotic tension between two characters to attract more liberal and queer viewers with the indication of them not ever getting together for real in the show/book/movie." So how does Sherlock do this? Let’s talk about the obvious "jokes" first. In the very first episode, Sherlock Holmes mistakes John Watson’s questions about his relationship status to be a come on, or that’s how mainstream audiences are supposed to perceive it, anyway. And I laughed when I first saw it four years ago before I realized what it was I was laughing at: the absurdness of a gay relationship between iconic literary characters. John having to defend his "not gay"-ness becomes a running joke that appears in literally every one of the nine episodes. And every time, Sherlock, the man who John himself has stated has to have the last word, never corrects anyone’s assumptions about them. In that very first conversation over dinner where John questions his sexuality, Sherlock says women are not his area and that he doesn’t have a boyfriend. The whole thing is written to keep his sexuality ambiguous. If it were just jokes, that would be one really crappy thing, to poke fun at homosexual relationships in that way. But there are genuinely stark, emotional moments that cannot be a joke, and if they are, that is exceedingly cruel. For example, in the original canon, Irene Adler was Holme’s one exception to his disinterest in women. In the BBC version, Adler is a lesbian dominatrix. She has a conversation with John in which she accuses him of being jealous of Sherlock’s attention on her. John, once again, defends himself by exclaiming “I’m not actually gay.” Irene responds with “Well, I am. But look at us both.” John doesn’t respond to that. Is that a joke? I’d like to note that John repeatedly says he’s not gay. Which he’s probably not but, guess what, gay and straight aren’t the only sexualities. Later on in the series, John flips his lid when he finds a woman, Janine, in 221B after he’s moved out to be with his wife, Mary. This is a very funny moment, because John and I had the same expression at seeing Sherlock kiss a woman. This funny moment gets a little harder to laugh at later on, before John knows it’s a sham, when he sees Sherlock propose to Janine. He looks so happy for him! I can’t get into all the nuanced exchange of looks or phrasing or how they costume Sherlock’s parents the same way Sherlock and John dress (whoops, I guess that one snuck in there), but there are overt references to a perceived relationship by characters within the world. Mrs. Hudson believed them a couple for years, and she is the Queen of the Foreshadow. But I don’t have time to mention how Sherlock pasted John’s head on the body of the Vitruvian man, or how he literally brought himself back to life after being shot by Mary to save John, or how he was reading John’s blog post on how they first met when he O.D.’d on the plane ride to his inevitable death (I did it again, dang). Of course, how we perceive acting or costume choices are objective. The Kuleshov effect proves that. So it makes sense that if a bunch of queer people were watching this show, they’d see parts of themselves in it. And guess what, a lot of queer people are watching this show. Queer women, to be more precise. A show as massively popular as Sherlock attracts a very diverse audience. But if you look at the hardcore fandom, a vast majority are women and/or queer identifying people. What results in all these queer people being attracted (or baited) to this show is a space for them to exist without the social constraints of being out in normal life. What fandom has done for me, personally, has given me a space to think in terms of queerness as if was not something strange about me but the norm in that environment. It rewired my thinking and helped lessen my own heteronormative behavior in my art and life. This space is full of artists and writers who are exercising their craft where they feel safe to do so. This space is full of academics who study media and LGBTQA+ issues within it. And that is a beautiful, amazing thing. So it hurts all the more when the showrunners, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (the latter being a married gay man) dismiss the queer side of the fandom. Sometime after the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Moffat and Gatiss did an interview that directly addressed the perceived relationship between John and Sherlock. It wasn’t pretty. Moffat, clearly passionate about the topic, and frustrated at the way his words have been twisted, “It is infuriating frankly, to be talking about a serious subject and to have Twitter run around and say oh that means Sherlock is gay. Very explicitly it does not. We are taking a serious subject and trivializing it beyond endurance.” - With an Accent Trivializing it. I wish to express to Moffat that this level of representation of a bisexual character is far from trivial to me. I get a distinct feeling that the creators see the John and Sherlock pairing fans as straight, young girls who want to fetishize male queerness. I can’t help but wonder if the creators would be more accepting and less harsh to fans if we were queer men instead of queer women. Mark Gatiss goes on to say: “Don’t blame us for things that aren’t there. It is infuriating. We get pilloried for these things as if our show [...] has to have the shoulders to bear every single issue and every single campaign point. You can’t do that. It’s our show, they’re our characters, they do what we want them to do, and we don’t have to represent absolutely everything in that ninety minutes.” Gatiss is correct in saying they don’t have to represent absolutely everything. He’s right that they don’t have to bear every issue on their shoulders. I believe that’s what every other show would say as well. But because of that, everybody is saying “We shouldn’t have to be the only ones to tackle these issues,” and nobody is actually doing anything about it. Sherlock has a real opportunity here to have its own chapter in queer media history, but why should they bear that weight on their shoulders, right? Even if they go with the flow and stay safely in the status quo of straight relationships, I’d be able to handle that if they didn’t talk to fans who wish otherwise so harshly. Also, is anyone going to remind them that John Watson and Sherlock Holmes aren’t really their characters? They’re writing and producing high quality fanfiction, but they’re men, so it’s not trivializing when they do it. Moffat says the whole pairing is making a serious topic into “something extremely silly.” My sexuality is not silly. Wanting to see a major television and literary character portrayed with the same sexuality as me is not silly. Maybe they’re right. Maybe everything we see isn’t actually there. Maybe they were all just gay jokes. Maybe we’re the assholes for blowing these jokes out of proportion. Then again, maybe this is some next level form of gaslighting, telling us we’re a bunch of wackadoos for interpreting this little exchange at John’s wedding... as anything but a happy look between best friends at one’s wedding. Look at these guys, totally thrilled about all the life decisions that led them to this point. No pain or regret here. You don’t even have to make it canon, just don’t talk to us like we’re stupid, teenage girls insulting you with our enjoyment of your show. Enjoying it so much, in fact, we are dying to see a part of ourselves validated in that world. And even if this was some elaborate ruse and they really are planning on making this pairing canon, this treatment of the queer and/or female fans isn’t justified. You can't talk down to us like that for the sake of a storyline reveal. It’s much more likely this is just a textbook case of queerbaiting. I hope I’m wrong and Sherlock ends up on the right side of queer media history, but that interview made that hard to believe. Sherlock will end up in queer media history, though. That much is certain, and the fandom can take credit for that. It’s up to The Powers That Be to choose which context it will be discussed in. Regardless, series 4 is coming and no matter what happens, no matter what Moffat and Gatiss say, this is our show too. Not just theirs. Nothing can take away the art we’ve created, the stories we’ve written, or the friendships we’ve made. No matter what happens, your identity is valid. Let this be an inspiration to all you future creators out there, to bear on your shoulders the issues others are afraid to. To challenge the way stories are told. To challenge whose stories get told. Be inspired to do more. To do better. One day, you and I both will be leading the industry, will be the future rulers of media, and... http://www.thefangirlinitiative.com/2016/12/its-all-fine-queerbaiting-in-bbcs.html?m=1#comment-form

#sherlock #queerbaiting #johnlock #john watson #stephen moffat #queer

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krissysbookshelf · 8 years ago

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