#the return of the force feminization i do to characters

[rebloggerandy]

the “she” incident.

[odyssiaca]

odysseus is generally seen as 'morally ambiguous' due to his not always being seen as the best of people- but this is a very modern and feminist take, and whilst nothing is inherently wrong with the idea of feminist takes and retellings, it skews what we have and already know of the myths, and this can be seen most predominantly in the character of odysseus. odysseus is two things:

- not meant to a hero

- not meant to be good

he is written as a man faced with impossible odds, and who loses some- if not all- of his morality in doing so. BUT where does the idea of him being 'bad' come from? the penelopiad by margaret atwood, a woman known for being quite vitriolic towards men of any kind. in recent years, people have picked up on three major things from the odyssey:

- the hanging of the maids

- odysseus cheating on his wife

- odysseus going mad at the end

NOW, to break it into points:

the hanging of the maids is so often seen in a feminist light due to margaret atwood, where odysseus is painted as some cruel, vile, disgusting predator who loathes women. this isn't true to the odyssey AT ALL. in the odyssey it is explicitly stated by the nurse that raised telemachus: 'i shall single out those who betrayed you, my lord' and by one of the maids herself- melantho: 'if we sleep with the suitors, when they become king we will be in favour with him.' and THIS is why he killed the maids. not because he was insane, not because he was bad, but because they had betrayed not just him- but his wife. not all the maids were killed, only those who slept with the suitors. the argument most often used for this is that the women couldn't say no, but this goes against what the maids themselves say in the odyssey when they believe no one to be watching.

odysseus cheating on his wife HE DIDN'T. but he is a man, and as a man, he cannot be raped. he is a terrible man for sleeping with circe and calypso when he could have- as epic decides to say- say no. which is untrue!! these are goddesses. titanesses. circe is the daughter of helios, and calypso is daughter of atlas. they could overpower him simply by looking at him. circe turned his men to pigs, even with the moly she could have easily done the same- or worse- to him. the idea of him choosing to and being unfaithful stems from madeline miller's, Circe which whilst not inherently bad, goes out of its way to put all men in a terrible light, because the heroes deserves no rights in feminist retellings. odysseus wanted to say no, but could not as hermes explicitly told him he couldn't. on the flip side, calypso threatens, ensnares him and only releases him when told to by hermes and the council of the gods. in the odyssey it is literally stated: 'and odysseus stayed on the shores weeping for home before joining the nymph in her bed.' he did not WANT to sleep with calypso, but was left with no other choice but to do so. this is a recurring theme for calypso.

but he is blamed due to his gender, and the idea of 'feminism' and 'patriarchy'.

and now, the real reason for odysseus being seen badly:

the telegony the telegony is a myth written after the odyssey with telegonus- son of circe and odysseus- as the main character. in this he travels to find his father and meet him, but accidentally kills him on the shore. (peneleope marries telegonus, and circe marries telemachus) but this is where the idea of odysseus' insanity comes from. in the telegony, it is stated he went mad after the war, and couldn't survive without bloodshed, and so he went out seeking war, and women, and battle, and went mad in this.

the statement: 'generous to odysseus' is wholly unfair, because he is a man forced to lose everything, assaulted, violated, tortured and imprisoned with no hope of survival. he goes to war knowing he won't return for 20 years, won't see his wife, and won't watch his son grow. he is a man not a god, or a demigod. he's just some dude doing his best.

[thenightshadowqueen]

The best character from each longform

(in my biased opinion)

This is (obviously) a long one, so if you do want to read it, more below.

(Also I left out the Patreon plays. I might do a separate post for them later; we’ll see.)

Jimmy (Tom, Toby’s Secret Pocket)

Look, Jimmy is the best. He’s adorable. He’s the representation we as the autistic community needed. He has happy flappy stimmy hands. He can’t walk through doors. We love him. (STOPINTHENAMEOFTHELAW!!!!!)

André Beetroot (AJ, Burglary and Bobsledding)

André Beetroot (André Beetroot) was iconic the first time around, but his return as the first recurring SFTH character obviously had to be memorialised.

The boy witch (Sam, Moist and Magical)

I was tempted by the witchfinder general, but the boy witch won out with “Henry Cavill with a wasting disease” and his thick accent. Also the cheeky little look he gives his grandma (Luke) when he flips her off wins him a lot of points.

Hugh’s mum (Tom, Marigolds Bluebells and Hugh)

She’s, like, a fair bit unhinged, but she has good intentions. She’s got amazing quotes, too; “why couldn’t you have just stayed in my womb forever” and “if you love something, lock it up” are both deeply concerning, but I love them.

The wife (Tom, Murders in Space)

This one is kind of an obvious choice. I mean, her quotes are glorious, and honestly “have you ever heard of feminism, James?” gets her top spot automatically.

Mario the sheep (Sam, the Lighthouse)

Was this even a question? I love Mario intending to be a one-scene character and then being forced to star in the whole play. I love the human bits. I love “🐑fuck you🐑”. I love the sheep (aka Sam) having a fucking breakdown at the end. 10/10 all around.

Titch (Luke, the Unrelenting Aubergine)

Listen, I was very tempted by Old Lady Margery (and by Derek), but in the end, canon queer guy with commitment issues and insane amounts of blindness around his own feelings won out. What can I say, I have a type in fictional characters.

Troll Son (Luke, Wine Under the Bridge)

Everything about this character is perfect. Screaming as hello? Colourful troll as a metaphor for being queer? Correcting a geography fact? It’s got it all. It’s perfect. I love Troll Son and his wine bar in Ipswich.

Juliet (AJ, Caesar and Juliet)

Is anyone surprised? She’s a murderous girlboss. “[My mother] said you have to be careful about men; they can be corrupted with power. But what she didn’t know is that so can woman.” They can, and I’m here for it. She’s bathing in blood and her skin is glowing. I love insane women.

Watson (Sam, the Mystery of the Midnight Circus)

Watson, driven mad with grief over his divorce and his one-sided love for Sherlock, becomes a murderous clown. Am I supposed to not love this? Is there even another choice in this play? And his breakdown at the end was gorgeous.

Priscilla (AJ, Pricilla’s Final Petal)

I was very tempted by both of her mums, and also a bit by the groundsman, but ultimately, Priscilla won out. She’s the title character. She’s confused, but she’s got the spirit, and she’s working through her trauma with a buttercup and a piano lesson. Good for her.

Marty (Sam, the Evil Make-a-Wish Kid)

I considered the seven-year-old detective, but in the end, Marty won. He’s evil. He’s a make-a-wish kid. What more can I say? He’s got an iconic smirk. He burns down all the petting zoos on the entire planet (and his mum). He dies at the end. He’s brilliant.

Derek (Tom, Susan’s Holiday)

There were a lot of great options in this one, but “I like looking at the back of another man’s head” was too good to pass up. Also, I adore the whole monologue he has while he’s waiting to be buzzed in.

The gasoline salesman (Luke, Beetroots and Murder)

Okay, I know he’s only in, like, a quarter of a scene. I know that. And I can’t tell you why I love him so much but I do. He’s just. I just love him. I can’t explain it. There are so many great characters in this play, but the way he says “could be, could be” has captivated me. If you understand the way my brain works, please contact me, because I don’t.

Peter Steven (Tom, the Milkman)

I love so many characters in this play. I love Gareth, and I love the Texan bartender, and I love David the milkman. But Peter Steven is the sweetest, most traumatised little boy and I want to protect him. I will adopt him and I will never make him walk on his knees again. I will throw away the PS5 and I will let him dig up the back garden as many times as he wants.

Johnny and Janae (Luke and Tom, the Neighbour’s Under the Bed)

I know they’re two separate characters, okay, but they’re a set. I want to keep them together. And I just can’t choose, okay? They’re two autistic children whose neurodivergence presents in opposite ways, and their parents don’t know what to do with them, and oh look, I’m back to wanting to adopt traumatised children.

Captain Egbert (Luke, the Leftenmost Window)

Shoutout to the mum, but Egbert won this one. He’s, like, kind of an idiot. I’m here for it, though. He’s got the iconic “diluileayilybilyeilysilym” speech. He wants to go to the ~astral plane~ but he’s waiting for his birthday. He lets his wife dip him into a kiss even though it’s 1940. I love him.

The king (Sam, the Prime Minister’s First Day)

Listen, I love several characters from this one, but I’m going with this one. He’s unapologetically a dick. He wears impenetrable armour made from diamonds stolen from Indian subculture. He’s impossible to beat. He’s brilliant. (Also did anyone else kind of find Sam hot as the king or is that just me?)

Franz Haberburg (Sam, the Excited Chinchilla)

Obviously fuck Nazis (god I hope that’s obvious). That being said, some of SFTH’s best characters are Nazis, and this is one of them. He’s glorious. I have never seen such a brilliant rendition of a Nazi chinchilla.

The Italian detective (Tom, the Ingredients)

He can’t pronounce paella. Do I need another reason?

Chip (Sam/AJ, the Cardboard Stegosaurus)

Oh look, another traumatised child! I want it. (No, but seriously, I love Chip and his English/French seizures.) Also he’s one of the few characters who switches actors mid-play, and I love that.

Persephone (Tom, Wild Wet and Worrisome)

She’s amazing. “HEY!” is a gorgeous siren call and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. She deserved a happy ending and I’m still sad we didn’t get one. I like to think she swam to the shore and found Geoff again, and they lived happily ever after on a boat at sea, singing and not having to kill anyone.

Full Set O’Hands and his love/bother (Luke and Tom, No! I Always Loved that Caravan)

I know, I know, another set of characters, but you really can’t separate these two. They’re insane. I adore them. They’re just… Honestly, these two are comedy gold. Good for them because they are fucking timeless.

Andrew (Luke, All Eyes on Nigel)

Listen, Andrew is a naive little thing, and he must be protected at all costs. He goes through so much shit in this one, and I just want to wrap him up in a blanket and send him to rehab.

Magnus O. Puss (Tom, BUS)

Okay, this was a VERY close one between them and Arthur B. D., but Magnus is a genderqueer icon and we love them for it. Also, I feel like this is some of the most unhinged Tom content we have and I live for that.

Jeremiah (Luke, Inside the Mysterious Cube)

I was so torn because I love Bubba, too, but I’m trying to avoid putting sets of characters where possible, and Jeremiah just edged past Bubba because his death scene was gorgeous. (That is a mildly concerning reason to have a favourite, I will admit.)

Lord Lafayette (Tom, the Midnight Mystery)

You may be noticing a pattern; I adore Tom’s insane characters. We just don’t get to see that often enough. I love his very sexual flirting with Lady Lafayette (Sam). I love him making fun of the detective’s (Luke’s) shirt. I love “what does any self-respecting rich man do when he has a little boy in tights” followed by “captured—and only captured” as a save. I love him.

Dangerfield (AJ/Tom/AJ again, Once Upon a Time I Killed Mum)

I love the confusion when Tom briefly takes over as Dangerfield; it’s not often we get to see AJ understanding something that Sam doesn’t (I say this with all the love in the world). Dangerfield is so fascinating to me. He’s a “cleaner” for a crime lord, but he has mixed feelings about the things he does. I want to know how he got into it in the first place. How did he come into this life? I want to know.

Barry’s wife (AJ, the Hare who Wore a Sweater)

I don’t remember her having a name, but I could be wrong about that. She’s so sweet; she just wants to knit sweaters for the hares in peace. And then Jimmy the hare gets shot, and she and her husband go on a revenge plot. I’m here for it. I love her.

The king/tank commander (AJ, the Oopsie Daisy Bulge)

He’s obsessed with tanks. He used to have gay sex with his fellow tank commanders, but only as a joke. He sailed all the way around, through the other landlocked counties, into the east of France, and they never saw it coming. He drove tanks into the ocean. He’s so stupid he’s almost smart. I love him.

The landowner/farmer (Luke, Too Big to Be a Jockey)

He farms peasants (Luke, you genius). He’s such a dick, with his classist remarks about Johnny Jones, but somehow I love him anyway. His interview process is looking at a photo of someone and then hiring them, and he’s honestly wonderful. I love him.

Larry (Tom, Long Johns—Strike!)

Literally the only thing he does on screen is die. That’s it. That’s his whole purpose. And he does it beautifully.

Wizard Asceroth (Sam, the Dark Moons of Slough)

ASCEROOOOTTTHHHH!!! (I don’t have another reason. I don’t need another reason.)

The French waiter (Luke, Lost in Your Eyes)

I don’t know. I really don’t. But something about this character has stuck with me since the first time I watched it. Gorgeous accent. He kisses Amanda (Sam) for no reason at all. He gets stabbed by a gun. I love him.

The Lady of a Thousand Don Juans (Luke, the Meringue Haberdashery)

She tricked her husband for years. She murdered her own child. She has been a curse on all the Don Juans in this town. She’s one of the only villains who win at the end of a longform, and that’s very impressive. I love her.

Xavier (Tom, Oh my God is This a Joke?)

(Please refer to my previous statement about Nazi characters.) Okay, look. He’s a horrible person. But we as a fandom choose to disregard that because Tom looks amazing in a leather jacket and scarf. I am not above this. I am, in fact, a part of this. Tom looks amazing in a leather jacket and scarf. “I will die as I have lived…. Shirtless!” has to be one of the most iconic lines of all time. There was never any competition.

[dreamtydraw]

Rewatching snow white ( the 1937 Disney movie ) with my little sister and I think it’s a great example on how people view feminity as weakness.

There is this image in media that snow white message is outdated because she gets saved by a prince and she’s naive but that so reductive of the whole movie and snow white as a character. Sure the social message of this almost 100 years old movie is vastly différent because of the war context and the goal intended for snow white as a character but aside of that ( because that important but too long to develop) even if you apply today modern standards, the film isn’t less feminist ?

Snow white is a polite pretty and kind woman. She takes care of the animals and in return they help her. She survive an assassination attempt and willingly choose to stay kind to other. When she chose to clean the house it’s because she thinks orphans lives here and she wants to help them. She’s a princess but used to be her step mother’s slave / servant ( in french she’s said to be a slave ) so that means before event of the movie she spent her time working. And about the prince she loves him, sure it’s very superficial but nevertheless she show mutliple time that she has interest in him through the movie ( two songs about it ) yet it’s only when he saves her that she end up with him, her goal is not to end up with him from the start, it’s after that she find safety that she wish for more like her love being reciprocated.

She rules the house, she pray for the well being of the dwarfs and dosen’t let negative comments going against her principles ( she force the dwarfs to clean themselves even if they insist to not do so and she still try to befriend grumpy politely when he say he dosen’t like her. )

And about the apple, she let the woman enter the house because she thinks the old woman is sick and need water, again showing signs of her good heart. The old woman tell her she’s gifting her an apple that grant wishes as a thank you for helping her, she dosen’t eat it because she’s dumb, she eats it because she thinks it’s a gift with good intentions for her good acts. + the old woman INSIST that she eats it.

She’s not dumb or incapable but a lot of people think she is for some reason and I’m pretty sure that reason is her femininity. Snow white is a symbol of feminity she’s humble, a good housewife a pretty girl and is in love. Sadly a lot of people think that the only way to be a strong female character is by being a bad bitch, in the eyes of a lot of people women can only be strong if they actively shout that they are by showing off or exercising roles previously offered by men.

Similar thing happened with the Mario movie where they toned down Peach hyper feminine character to make her more badass and people were like « oh finaly they gave her a character »

Hyper feminine characters aren’t less strong because of their hyperfeminity…..

Anyway that my little rambling and I take this occasion to remind people TO NOT watch the live action remake because of Gal Gadot’s presence importantly. Gal gadot is a proud zionist, idf soldier and was introduced in hollywood with intention of propaganda. + they used cgi instead of hiring real actors for the dwarfs and Disney suck ass. Watch Mirror mirror instead:

[leportraitducadavre]

Alright, since I’ve received multiple asks about who I ship Sasuke with (or if I have a problem with specific ships), I’ll reiterate my posture regarding shipping culture:

I think it’s very poor, borderline shortsighted, to focus so incredibly much on the possibility of a character –that never specified being sexually interested in anyone, having a romantic partner. Besides the fact that Sasuke is a very traumatized man, a survivor of state-sanctioned genocide which affects his libido to the point of it being non-existent, the entirety of his characterization revolves around him seeking justice for his family. No. It’s not about his bond with Naruto, it’s not about his apparent sexual tension with Karin, nor is it about his crush (the fuck?) on Sakura. 

It’s Naruto the one whose characterization revolves around his bond with Sasuke, it’s Karin the one whose characterization revolves around her sexual desire for Sasuke, and it’s Sakura the one whose characterization revolves around her crush on Sasuke –Sasuke’s entire arc differs completely from theirs, as his entire goal, through the entire series, is about seeking justice for his family. 

What happens once Sasuke realizes he won’t be able to kill Itachi if he stays in Konoha? He leaves because he chooses his goal as an Avenger before his connection with Team 7 (yes, Itachi’s presence also reminded him of the imminent threat of having bonds that Itachi could easily destroy, but he doesn’t leave to protect T7, but to seek power to kill his brother). What happens once Sasuke kills Itachi? He learns about the truth behind the UCM, and decides to barge into the Kage Summit to kill Danzo and not return to Konoha. What happens once he kills Danzö? He still decides not to return and plans to bring the entire system down. I mean, where is his “bond with Naruto” in all this? Where is his “sexual tension” with Karin in all of this? Where is Sakura’s relevance in all of this? At no single moment does he focus on these bonds, often questioning the reason why these people are so adamant about pursuing him. Am I saying that they don’t matter at all to him? No, and you know that’s not the point of the post unless you’re looking for a reason to get upset in which case, I cannot help you. What I’m saying is that they’re not relevant to his main goal or characterization, as that power rests upon Itachi’s shoulders. Each character here mentioned has either more or less importance throughout his journey, but none of them are detrimental to his objective and none of them are important enough for him throughout the manga to deviate from his ambition (he even tried to kill each one of them when he deemed them a liability or they threatened the continuation of his mission).

Who do I ship Sasuke with? Nobody, I don’t enjoy a single pairing that is attributed to him, and I wish the fandom would realize that the entire plot revolves around the actions and consequences of a fascist regime, and not about who wanted to secretly or not so secretly fuck who, or who deserve his dick and who doesn’t. Yes, I’m being blunt, and some of you will think I’m exaggerating, but if you don’t see me talking about ships as often as you see me speaking about feminism or politics inside the Naruto manga, well, what a shocker, there’s a reason for it.

And to prevent people from putting words in my mouth, let me say this: I’m not saying you can’t enjoy a ship –go crazy if that’s what you want, do art, fanfics, and whatever rocks your boat, I won’t go after you trust me, but oh my god how come some of you would give a “potential romantic couple” so much more relevance than the actual plot?! Sasuke plainly and continuously reminds the characters and the readers what his true goal is and what he wants, and still, some of you will force a deep reading of a bubble of speech detached from his overall characterization to prove that he was smitten with x,y,z all along!

[naetaesarya]

i remember there was some discourse on how the reaction of the books and the ending was the reason grrm hasn’t released the books specifically suggesting that it’s daenerys ending and her “mad queen” arc but i think it’s because grrm is returning to the original outline with its major house stark points being an antithesis to the faux feminist show ending (sansa’s death, tension between jon and bran, incest between jon and arya)

Hi anon!! This will be a bit of a long long answer :) :) :) Happy Halloween!

From my foggy hazy addled memory, GRRM was having issues releasing Winds years before season 8 bombed and exploded its viscera everywhere. We'll have that goo staining the carpet for years :( GRRM seemed to believe the books would end roughly in the same place as the show... until after seeing season 8 whereupon he was like... well...

You know I had a lot of input in the beginning of Game of Thrones, partly cause I had these books out there. But at a certain point, as the show went on, I found I had less and less influence, until by the end, I really didn't even know what, what was going on. Some of these things I watched like everybody else and and, "oh...okay..." That's...

Source

Yeah.

I think it's also very important to consider what kind of messaging would a mad queen Dany send?

Dany is one of GRRM's lead female characters and she has existed as the protagonist of her own narrative since the very beginning. She defies a number of feminine conventions and is anything but a passive support sidekick character. As GRRM said, Daenerys can do anything, she can literally make up the magic as she goes. When Dany loses her husband and her child, as well as her position as Khal Drago's khaleesi, she creates and leads her own khalasar made up of misfits. Upon her brother's death, Dany is now responsible for returning the Iron Throne to her family's dynasty and what is traditionally a male's job becomes Dany's job. As such, Dany gathers forces, commands armies, plans battles, and at only 16, she is a leader and queen in her own right. This small and formerly timid 16-year old girl is now the most powerful person in this world.

When GRRM conceived this story in the late 80s-early 90s, action-oriented girls who defied convention and were the central focus of their own narratives didn't really happen. That's why shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit that special kind of nerve in the 90s, became so influential in the decades when ASOIAF was being published, and had a lasting influence on media since. Writer and producer Bryan Fuller remarks:

"Buffy showed that young women could be in situations that were both fantastic and relatable, and instead of shunting women off to the side, it puts them at the center."

Source

GRRM does just that with Dany and Arya -- Dany and Arya are active participants in the centers of relatable situations with fantastical elements. Of Arya, GRRM says:

I can’t say there’s any one specific model [for Arya], but a lot of the women I’ve known over the years have had aspects of Arya with them. Especially some of the women I knew when I was a young man back in the ’60s and ’70s, you know — the decade of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. I knew a lot of young women who weren’t buying into the, “Oh, I have to find a husband and be a housewife.”

Source

It's a reference to a certain physical type, and a certain indication of what Jon finds admirable. It's like someone who reminds you of, you know... Other people might be put off by this, you know, hair that looks like small rodents have been living in there. It doesn't put him off because he is used to that.

Source

Jon is endeared to Ygritte because she reminds him of Arya, a character who GRRM patterned after the real world women he knew coming up amidst second-wave feminism. As Arya wants options outside of typical gendered choices for highborn ladies, Dany is also kind of thrust into this sudden and pretty unconventional role. She emerges from the inferno unburned with three baby dragons and what's left of the khalasar after it has been deserted.

Arya and Dany are both thrust down unconventional paths as they navigate their environments and who they are in relation to those environments. Dany continues to explore her sexuality with Irri and later, Daario. She works hard to turn away from any dark inclinations (inclinations which all of our characters experience) and the last thing she wants to be is like her father.

What would it say if GRRM took this figure and made her "mad" or filled her with homicidal rage and hate, especially at a time when proactive action girls are not a commonality but so rare. What would that be saying? What idea of GRRM's would this be supporting?

I also struggle with Dany being mad in the books because while D&D ascribed credit for King Bran, burning Shireen, Hodor's origins to GRRM, and even shades of Jon/Dany, that definitely didn't happen with Mad Dany. While much of season 8 is divisive, what I'm gleaning is that Dany's turn was among the most controversial -- if not the most controversial -- element. Wouldn't D&D let GRRM shoulder some of that blame if it was a GRRM thing?

My own feeling is that D&D tried to recreate the Red Wedding with Mad Dany -- ambush audience with big surprise twist (whoops, Dany's been triggered by bells) and then shock, shock, shock, tragedy, and look at that artful blood.

but i think it’s because grrm is returning to the original outline with its major house stark points being an antithesis to the faux feminist show ending (sansa’s death, tension between jon and bran, incest between jon and arya)

Yeah, I think that outline is still relevant. I think there will be a succession crisis of sorts among the remaining Starks: a Littlefinger-backed and sponsored direwolfless Sansa; a Manderly-backed Rickon; a will and/or Stannis-supported Jon, and the heir whom Robb believed dead -- Bran Stark. Then there's Arya who:

is currently believed to be the Lady of Winterfell;

identity was used by the Boltons as the "key to the North"';

and is "the Ned's girl" for whom the mountains clans fight:

Even prisoners have ears, and she had heard all the talk at Deepwood Motte, when King Stannis and his captains were debating this march. Ser Justin had opposed it from the start, along with many of the knights and lords who had come with Stannis from the south. But the wolves insisted; Roose Bolton could not be suffered to hold Winterfell, and the Ned's girl must be rescued from the clutches of his bastard. So said Morgan Liddle, Brandon Norrey, Big Bucket Wull, the Flints, even the She-Bear.

(The King's Prize, ADWD)

I think Arya would choose Jon if forced to choose. There was a bitter rift between Bran and Jon in the original outline and that could manifest in the remaining story as well, perhaps over Winterfell or something at the Wall.

What did GRRM say about happy families 😭

[returnofthelightt]

Hasta & The Final Girl Trope In Horror Films: A (Mini) Analysis

Here on this post, I wanted to make a short analysis on how I think Hasta connects to the The Final Girl Trope.

☆ Please note that the Final Girl Trope actually has evolved. The trope characters are not what it used to be, I will be going back to the original origins of this trope.

☆ In addition to the Hasta Nakshatra, I found that many of the women playing have Mula, Revati and Mrigashira as well. My research today only focuses on Hasta but please note it is not limited to this Nakshatra only.

☆ Many of these references that are used are personal opinions and theories. If you do not agree or have a different opinion I would love to hear it! But please be respectful in doing so.

The Final Girl Trope

The Trope Itself

Before diving deeper into the hasta Nakshatra, let’s look at the ‘Final Girl’ trope description.

The final girl in movies is usually the last person standing or is the only woman that can make exit in the movie. They are usually described as being the virgin or sexually unavailable, refraining from sexual activities, as well as alcohol and drugs. Additionally, many of the Final girls portrayed had Brunette her instead of Blonde (blonde characters - specifically women, were perceived as highly promiscuous). If not all the time, most of the final girls are known to be more intelligent or at least carry smarter decision-making. They are the first ones to sense that something is ‘off.’ As mentioned before, Hasta’s sign of Virgo, is ruled by Mercury (Mercury exalts in Virgo). Mercury rules human intellect, as it is a combination of the sun (the soul) and the moon (mind). 

If we look at even the basics, the sign of Virgo is ‘The Virgin.’ Virgin women are often stereotypically described along the lines of being pure, innocent, chaste, and so forth.

Additionally, the women have an androgynous appearance - with their names and clothing sometimes being unisex. Claire Nakti in her Hasta Nakshatra video discussed how they manifest their traits through purity and by detaching from male influence. Claire also talks about how “Hasta women like to prove their worth without needing men, as well as female power separated from female appearance/sexuality” (this can be depicted in numerous ways such as their work, appearance and so forth). Hasta picks up all external influences, analyzes them, and discriminates based on their observations. Hasta picks out men and realizes only the divinity is deserving of her.

It’s hard to exactly state if The Final Girl trope exudes the real meaning of feminism, or at least women standing up for themselves against evil. However, I wonder if Hasta’s appearance in these films unconsciously aims to reject the typical views that some males hold of women (i.e. unintelligence), and how his perception of the Final Girl often ends up with the evil male lead having to disappear to avoid being killed or eventually is killed. Claire Nakti also mentioned how many Hasta women are involved in using books or poems to criticize male behaviour, male sexuality the struggles of women opening up, and the promotion of female independence regarding intellect. The Final Girl in the film must use her wit to decipher the situation and defeat the Killer through the use of her hands.

If we decipher Carol J Clover’s book on the Final Girl trope, she does mention how the victims in Slasher films are mostly viewed as women, whereas the evil characters are males. Often these Final Girls are initially stereotyped for the male gaze at the beginning of the film, but eventually, the viewer roots for the final girl to defeat the monster. The woman becomes ‘masculinized’ when she is forced to defeat the monster by utilizing a weapon.

Carol further emphasizes this action while discussing how the killing of the monster/killer can be related to ‘castrating’ the male, which in return eliminates the ‘threat’ to the uterine. The body part that represents Hasta’s is the palm of their hand. The Hasta Nakshatra is known for manifesting outcomes with their hands. In Komilla’s Sutton book, she describes how Hasta can be related to elephants, as they use their trunk as an extra hand to complete their task. I thought this was interesting considering the quote ‘to hold something/someone in the palm of your hand,’ pretty much means you the influence or control of something/someone. The symbolism of the hand of course can be also correlated to their Deity, Savitar - The Sun God. Savitar was known to be skillful with his hands.

In all, I do think Hasta has some correlation with the Final Girl Trope, whether it would be in films or tv shows. I do think there are many of factors (my own personal ones) and others that are discussed in Clover's book. It wasnt that long, but I hope you guys enjoyed reading it! Feedback would be greatly appreciated xx.

[evilphrog]

How to make a show I will love:

1. Take a guy who has alienated everyone he cares about with his lies, who is afraid to even try putting things right so he just shovels more lies on top of them and acts cynical to everyone. He is convinced he can never be more than a total jerk and a failure.

2. Give him a huge falling out with his violence-loving sibling, who responds by joining a six-person team that fights against him. Both he and his sibling should blame him entirely for the falling out, but it should be obvious that some of the problem is his sibling’s refusal to accept any apologies. Oh, and give the sibling lightning powers.

3. Take another guy who was kidnapped by a shadowy government organization and brainwashed for most of his life. Make him radiate toxic optimism as a shield against the obvious guilt and trauma.

4. Force them together to solve mysteries involving time travel, much to the first guy’s annoyance and the second guy’s joy.

5. Make their best friend a woman who can kick anyone’s ass, but who is still allowed to be emotional. She starts the show wanting to be the perfect soldier, but ends up making her own path.

6. The titular character needs a narrative parallel in the form of a feral woman who has been raised entirely outside society. Her only real skillset is killing people, and she has negative social skills. Do not feminize her at all. She is going to be insane, violent, and dangerous. Her biggest dream is to find a new reality where she can just be a happy nobody.

7. Give her that dream, then make her watch it all fall to pieces. Have her blame herself for it, abandon that dream world, and return to the chaos.

8. The first season needs to be about free will vs. determinism, and taking control of your own narrative. The second guy should help the first guy find a way to atone for his past mistakes. It ends on a cliffhanger where the first guy does the hard work to be honest and vulnerable for the first time, but he ends up even worse off than before. He still chooses to commit to doing the right thing in spite of it all.

9. The second season starts with the first guy frantically searching for the second guy. When he finds him, the second guy is having a complete nervous breakdown because his toxic optimism has stopped being effective against the trauma and guilt. Now, the first guy has to turn the tables and be the one to help the second guy come to terms with his own past and take control of his own narrative.

10. Add a frat boy villain who represents the shadowy government organization. He has to be the dumbest human being alive, a total asshole, and have mental breakdowns every episode. He eventually betrays his older mentor for his own self-interest, and begrudgingly helps the protagonists defeat the shadowy government. He is still an asshole.

11. Throw in a lovable, hyperactive tech genius who is more interested in solving the puzzles than in the moral implications of his actions.

And boom! Instant classic.

[wingsdippedingold]

I can understand why Morrigan didn't like Nesta.

To her, Nesta had what Morrigan never did, and she just threw it away.

Morrigan's family was cruel, whereas Nesta's was kind (Feyre), but Nesta chose to be cruel in return.

Nesta was ungrateful of the caring family she had, that Morrigan never did. Morrigan has the ic, but they were never that purely immediate familial bond of unconditional love. I can understand why she hated Nesta because Nesta threw away that bond that Morrigan wished for.

What I can't understand is how she was on board with making Nesta seduce Eris, the man Morrigan herself fought so hard to escape marriage from.

Morrigan was forced into a relationship with Eris on the basis of sex, using her appeal of virginity, and yet she is complicit in doing the exact same thing to someone else, making Nesta appeal to Eris with her own sexuality.

Now Morrigan may not have known that just like her, Nesta's parent, the person who should love her unconditionally, exploited her and her body as nothing more than a pawn in their plans. But that shouldn't matter.

Morrigan is such a cool character, who has a wonderful concept, and yet, it's once again thrown away for SJM's shitty writing. Nesta and Morrigan have been through similar situations and people pitting them against each other sucks, because they both have the capacity to be amazing people, SJM just stunts them severely.

I don't think Morrigan's some self-serving pick-me, but I do think she shows just how disjointed SJM's sense of feminism is. SJM cannot uphold one women without simultaneously pushing another woman down, and that is NOT feminism.

Both Morrigan and Nesta's characters deserve better than some backwash sense of feminism.

[tessarionbestgirl]

I have yet to see a Rhaenicent hate on Harwin Strong the way they hate on Criston, and for the life of me I can't figure out why 🤔

Oh honey, you know why!

House of the Dragon has exposed just how racist this fandom is, and Rhaenicents take the prize.

But it’s not just the fandom, this show is racist af.

Rhaenyra sleeping with Criston is shown to be a mistake, so she quickly jumps into bed with first-man Harwin because he’s soooo much better than that Dornish creep.

Which goes to my main issue with Rhaenyra’s paternity crisis. If House Velaryon was black then so should Harwin! We don’t know who his mother was, she could’ve been from the Summer Isles. The fact they kept him white was racist, because no way can their white flower be in a 10 year relationship with a black man, no way can she have biracial kids who she puts above her white sons.

They replaced her relationship with Laena and gave it to Alicent because sapphic girlhoods are for white girls only.

Daemon went from loving Laena so much she’s the only wife he never cheated on to fucking his niece at her funeral because she was just a placeholder until white Rhaenyra became available.

Criston is the only one who truly loves Alicent, how does she return his devotion? By betraying him to the Aryan Queen because brown men aren’t deserving of respect and love, white women are better because feminism.

You have good points. Interracial relationship in this show are weirdly demonized. And the poc always get the worse treatment on the relationship. And this may be the result of white feminist writing.

Still one of the creepiest things I see a writer pull off with that Rhaenyra and Criston scene. Is clearly rape. Like he spend a good time fighting the idea and she slowly pushing him into the edge. And then give in. So of course he will hate after, because that is the thing about consent, you may enjoy something, but if it comes in a time you don't want to do it or you are forced to do it. You will bitter the experience. Criston situation remember me a lot of rape in marriage or yearly days of dating.

And then Sara tries to frame as "empowerment" lmfao. And then she goes fucking Hawin. Lmao you right, her babies dad should be a black man. the show made the Valaryons black for brownie points. But the consequences this bring to the narrative are so big and ridiculous.

First you make descendents of imperialist and slave owners...black people lfmao . And consequently make Rhaenyra extra dumb, fucking around with a white man trying to pass a white kids as bi-racial. That become such way bigger open secret that even fucking Daemon miles away knew she was fucking around.

Is even worse because Laena already is biracial and her kids with Daemon are very black, Baela is even more than her. So in comparison when put side by side with Rhaenyra kids is even worse. They not even tried to cast some white passing to make Rhaenyra look less dumb. And her relationship with Laenor is also bad. She boss him around and is disrespectful to him for the few scenes we get with them. She totally disregard his wants and needs.

Then of course they completely make Daemon and Laena relationship off screen, and imply he was just settling down, no love for her, no love for his daughters. And no polly thing going on. Because they totally want to erase the fact Rhaenyra is a very hedonistic character. But doesn't change the fact she already cheated on both her marriages.

Not to count the fact they erased the only canon woc love interest of Daemon....it was a joice.

And yes Criston and Alicent relationship. Lmfao you last sentence made laugh a little to much. I have nothing to add besides Justice for Criston Cole.

[formula1fanfiction]

Daniel Ricciardo / George Russell

Title: My pretty girl

Pairing: Daniel Ricciardo / George Russell

Characters: Daniel Ricciardo, George Russell

Prompt: When Ricciardo heard the rumour about Russell he decided to try this chance // forced feminization. (Warning for Dubious consent)

Danny Ric: Sooo... are the rumours true

Russell George: What rumours?

Danny Ric: That you sleep with people for fun

Russell George: I guess it is, yes :)

Danny Ric: Wow, haHA. I didn't think they would be true.

Danny Ric: So... Can I fuck you then?

Russell George: Yeah.

*

George really wasn't pleased when Dan, pressed a small package into his hands and told him to wear this tonight. Especially when this turned out to be a white lacy bra with a matching thong, but like the good little slut he is, he put it on and headed to Daniel's hotel room with a fake smile on his face.

He had barely had the chance to step foot in the room when Daniel had rugby tackled him to the bed and stripped him down to his lingerie, giving him a shy smile and asked if he was okay with this and of course he said yes because this what he does.

"Shame about your tits, baby. Pretty small aren't they?" Daniel taunts, placing both his hands on George's pecs and squeezing them together. "I'd love to put my cock between them and fuck your tits, but there is nothing here at all." Daniel tuts, giving them a hard squeeze, pulling a surprised yelp from George. "Sorry, sorry." Daniel gives them a quick kiss. "It's fine."  

"Are you sure George, we can stop if you like?" Daniel's hand hovers over his nipples. George hates when they ask questions like that, he just can't say no, he'd rather them just get on with it. "I'll safe word if I want to stop, please stop asking me."

Daniel's hands return to his chest, squeezing and kneading at his sensitive skin. Daniel isn't rough with him but it hurts anyway but at the same time, he doesn't want Daniel to be kind and gentle with him. Daniel flicks his nipple, George involuntary arches his back in pleasure, forgetting for a moment just how fucked up his brain is.  Daniel obviously noticed he liked it and did it again. "Did you like that baby, girl?" The words make him cringe but he smiles and nods all the same.

The kiss takes him completely by surprise, Daniel leans down and presses their lips together, he kiss is hard, brutal and steals away George's breath. George hisses as Daniel bites down on his lower lip, drawing blood. He quickly laps it up in a silent apology. When pulls away, his lips are bright red with George's blood.

Daniel leans forward and presses George's hands to the bed, behind his head, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. He doesn't know if he should be frightened or excited.   

Daniel releases his hands and turns his attention back to George's 'tits', unclipping his bra and revealing George's underwhelming chest. He pushes George's pecs together, it makes no difference what so ever, he's just not a girl but that doesn't seem to deter Daniel in his attempts of fucking them.

"Do you like me fucking your tiny tits baby?" Daniel's pushing them together so hard, there's sure to be bruises there in the morning, he's going to have a hard time explaining those bruises to Alex.  

The friction of Daniel's cock on his chest burns, it's too fast, it can't feel good to Daniel either. Despite this, George's head is a fucked up place to be and his cock is embarrassingly hard and straining against his embarrassing underwear begging for attention. He's not sure if Daniel's going to touch him or not, he even prepped himself before heading over but it seems Daniel's more interested in coming on his make believe tits.

"Such a good girl for me, aren't you George?" Daniel grunts, thrusting even harder, the small drops of pre cum have made it easier on George's burning skin. Now it just feels like he's a toy for Daniel's use. George can't help the small whines escaping from his throat, he's got no idea why he's getting off on this but his whines only seem to spur Daniel on even more, he thrusts harder until he groans loudly and cums all over George's face and chest.  "Fuck baby, you look so hot with my cum all over your pretty face."

"Let's see how wet you are baby." Daniel doesn't bother taking his panties off, just pushing them to one side and pushes three fingers into his ass. "So wet for my baby, I can't wait to fuck your tight little pussy." He sinks deeper and runs his fingers over George's prostate, making him arch his hips in pleasure. "You love it when I rub your clit, don't you baby?" George doesn't know how he's still hard, the whole feminisation thing makes his skin crawl.

"I didn't think i'd get hard this quick but just seen you like this George, fuck you are so hot." Daniel growls slamming into his prostate once again. "Like, I didn't actually think you would put it on." He gestures at the underwear. "I knew you were the paddock slut, but this is something else." George manages to fight back his tears, fuck that hit close to home.

"Are you ready for me to fuck your pretty pussy?" Daniel lets his fingers slip out and rolls on the condon. He spreads George's legs, wrapping them around his waist while his rock hard cock presses against George's entrance.  

George can't help the moans falling from his lips as Daniel slides the tip of his cock inside, he's much bigger than George thought he would be. "Your pussy is so tight baby." Daniel growls, pushing more of his cock inside George. "Fuck you feel so good wrapped around me." George arches his hips up off the bed as Daniel slams the whole way in with one swift move, stalling for a few moments just to catch his breath but quickly starts to thrust.

It's embarrassing how George's brain turns into a zombie like state, the pain and the hurt all forgotten for now as his body is filled with pure pleasure as he lays back into the pillows and takes what Daniel is giving to him.

"I wish you could see what you look like when i'm fucking your pretty little pussy." Daniel growls, thrusting into George with a brutal pace, so hard the bed shakes underneath them. George is abruptly brought back from his zombie like trance as Daniel squeezes his neck, using it as leverage as he thrusts into him with all his might. George manages some sort of noises close to moans as much as the restrictions on this throat allows.

"Fuck George, such a good girl for me." Daniel repeats as he continues to abuse George's abused arsehole, showing no mercy as George struggles for breath, his cock begging for its orgasm.

Daniel takes pity on him and angles his thrusts to hit George's prostate with ever slam into his body, releasing the grip on his throat, to enjoy the loud moans falling from his mouth as George reaches the height of his orgasm, screaming out incoherent words as he spills his load over his own stomach.  

George can hear the pathetic whines falling from his mouth as he comes down from his orgasm and feels Daniel still slamming into him with the same violent pace as he searches for his own orgasm. It hurts now, his whole body hurts with how rough Daniel has been and the shame of enjoying it. It comes as a relief when Daniel comes with a groan, filling up the condom.

"Fuck George, you were amazing." Daniel places a hard kiss onto his forehead. "Do you want me to stay? I could give you after care and maybe a cuddle?" George honestly can't think of anything worse.

"I'm good but thank you." He manages a weak smile, Daniel smiles back as he quickly gets dressed. "If you ever want to do this again, just hit me up." There is no chance of a repeat of tonight.

This work is part of the paddock slut series, you can read the rest here

[piglet26]

Rey...A Mary Sue?

When it comes to the Star Wars fanbase.....Disney is the maker of many of their own problems. Disney has blown things out of proportion. They've attacked their own fanbase and then hidden behind that very slander to avoid criticism. They haven't honored the very audience they seek to make a lot of money from, not to mention the franchise. They've bounced around between visions trying to please everyone and then pleased no one.

However, the Star Wars fanbase is also to blame for many of their quarrels, grips and dissatisfactions with the franchise. Oh, you don't like the corporatized Disney sequels? Well I remember you didn't like the prequels which George Lucas actually did them. Disney sequels are too comedic? The movies would've been better if there was less humor? Well the prequels were too whiny, political and serious.

It's not enough that Disney films are more diverse, have a female lead and have more females on the production side..... unless those characters are saying, doing and being portrayed exactly how the fanbase would like.......then Disney is still misogynistic and racist.

Carrie Fisher, The Princess, faced sexism, ageism and body shaming from both Disney and the Star Wars fandom prior to returning for The Force Awakens. Since he passing obviously many people would like to forget about this or flat out bury it.

Carrie Fisher tells British Good Housekeeping that she was pressured to lose more than 35 pounds to reprise Princess Leia in The Force Awakens: “They don’t want to hire all of me — only about three-quarters! Nothing changes, it’s an appearance-driven thing. I’m in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance."

She first donned that golden slave bikini when she was 27. Thirty years later, Carrie Fisher’s back as Leia in “Star Wars,” but apparently some viewers thought she’d look exactly the same. The 59-year-old actor was the unfortunate recipient of a barrage of hateful tweets from critics who felt the need to tell her she’s aged badly in the past three decades. She Tweeted, "Men don't age better than women, they're just allowed to age." Meanwhile, Harrison Ford looked old and Mark Hamill looked liked a drunk.

All of this is to say the question of whether or nor Rey is a Mary Sue isn't a simple one. While Disney LucasFilm didn't develop the character as well as they could have.... the audience largely had double standards. Rey, as a woman, had more work to do to win over an audience already suspicious of the feminization of Star Wars.

Let's address the criticism

Why does Rey seem so skilled?

Rey works for Unkar Plott scavenging. It would make sense she understands engineering and mechanics. She has to understand how things work, which parts are valuable and understand that about multiple forms of machinery. How does she fly? Just fly, not even combat fly. If in her introduction she was shown to be flying commercially maybe people would've let it go, I'm not sure. Luke and Anakin by contrast turn out to be expert pilots who fight in combat..... no one questioned a thing and one of them is a child. When she initially flies the Falcon she does an alright job and in the three sequels films we never see her fly in combat. Finn never learned how to fly!!!! He famously needed a pilot, yet, got a crash course in The Last Jedi enough to fly at the end against the First Order. She speaks droid, but all our protagonist in Star Wars do. Someone has to be able to understand them.

Rey has no flaws and she's so perfect.

No, actually she's not. Rey is extremely vulnerable, lonely and requires validation. She fears she's gonna be an old woman cleaning gear on Jakku, but she doesn't leave. The only character she really relates and connects to.... is the villain. Yes, she's likable and she's suppose to be because she's our protagonist. Who the hell finds fault with either the character or the production team for trying to make their main character likeable?! Other characters are attracted to her. It's important to note that most force users come off as charismatic, magical and attractive.

Does Rey have a personality?

Yes. Many people get held up on the fact that Rey seems to be bubbly and happy despite growing up in isolation in a tough environment. Initially, with Finn, she comes off pretty hostile and untrusting. It was only when she assumed he was resistance (something safe) and he went along with the assumption that she relaxed a bit. She responded with anger at him just grabbing her hand, but when he showed concern for her then she reciprocated. Neither Finn nor Rey have proper social development which explains why they latch onto one another. Not to mention both are outsiders thrown into pivotal roles without much concept on how to deal with those roles.

Rey is also very childlike. It's something Kylo Ren tries to push her out of. She waits around for her family for years. She licks plates and plays with the resistance helmet. She latches onto people. She latches onto Finn once she trust him. She latches onto Han perceiving him as an ideal father figure. When she forms a connection to Kylo Ren she latches onto him. She's loyal to the people and things she cares about. There were things that could have helped Rey become a fuller developed character. Rey can fight but we never learned WHY she learned how to fight. Has she been stolen from a lot? Has she been attacked? Was she trained? Rey was taken at a young age, what schooling did she receive? Did she just learn trade work? In the novels, her character is obviously developed more, but Lord! People really act like any oversight of character development was a feminist statement about perfection. In reality, it was a film trying to balance multiple characters in a 2.5 hour film.

Rey doesn't have any training and yet is so magical with the Force.

Rey is assisted by The Force. Force users can use the force with very little understanding of it or training. Anakin as a 9 year old is just winging it. So there's that. Now the first time she encounters Kylo Ren, she's terrified and running/shooting for her life. When he force freezes her she's helpless. When he puts her to sleep with the force, she has to be rescued by men.

Now this is the most important. Her bond with Kylo Ren is one of the reasons she's able to access more of and learn about the force. "A Force dyad, also known as a dyad in the Force, was when two Force-sensitive beings had a unique Force-bond—that was unbreakable—that made them one in the Force. The power of a dyad was as strong as life itself, with the individuals forming the dyad sharing a connection that spanned across time and space."

They don't play this up enough in the movies. In the novels it's clear that their minds bridge. She's able to access Kylo's mind from understanding how he accessed her mind. Their bond boost both of their strengths in the force. It's important to note that Rey's abilities actually terrify her.

Rey knows more about the Falcon than Han Solo.

She explained that Unkar Plott installed a compressor which Rey was aware of and both Han and Rey agreed put stress on the hyperdrive. After her assistance bypassing the compressor Han is firming in control of The Falcon.

She beat Kylo Ren at the end of the Force Awakens despite never holding a light saber.

Well, I agree with this one. Kylo Ren wasn't trying to kill her. He was sparring with him and testing her talents. If he wanted to kill her, there was a convenient cliff he could've pushed her over. He wants to train her and he wants her.

Daisy Ridley is a talented and charismatic actress.... she just isn't recognized for it. The fandom looks for flaws, weaknesses and reasons to complain. I don't want to take away anything from the males in Star Wars. I want them to be great. Honestly A Song of Fire and Ice is how I'd like to see more men and women written. Some are good, some are bad, some are great, some are horrific and all are flawed.

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Earl Who Isn't. By Courtney Milan. 2024.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Series: Wedgeford Trials #3

Summary: Nobody knows that Andrew Uchida is the rightful heir of an earl. Not his friends, not his neighbors, not even the yard-long beans growing in his experimental garden. If the truth of his existence became public, the blue-blooded side of his family would stop at nothing to make him (and anyone connected with him) disappear. He shared one passionate night with the woman he loved…and allowed himself that only because she was leaving for Hong Kong the next morning.

Then Lily Bei returns, armed with a printing press, her irrepressible spirit, and a sheaf of inconvenient documents that prove the very thing Andrew wants that he is actually the legitimate, first born son of the Earl of Arsell.

What’s Andrew to do, when the woman he’s always desired promises him everything he’s never wanted? Andrew’s track record of saying no to Lily is nonexistent. The only way he can avert impending disaster is by stealing the evidence… while trying desperately not to fall in love (again) with the woman he shouldn’t let into his life.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: explicit sexual content, use of abortifacients, reference to attempted murder/forced miscarriage, racism

OVERVIEW: I'm a Courtney Milan fan, so when this book was announced, I pre-ordered it and then read it within 24 hours of release. I can't help it.

That being said, I don't think this is among my favorites of Milan's works. It's not that the characters and plot are uninteresting; personally, what barred me from enjoying this book fully was that I think it tried to do too much. Between commenting on women's suffrage, being enough, feeling at home, etc, I felt like my attention was being pulled in multiple directions, so for that reason, this book gets 3.5 stars from me.

WRITING: At a sentence level, Milan's prose is fairly smooth and flows well, balancing showing and telling in a way that is appropriate for the genre.

I do think, however, that there were some aspects to this book specifically that I didn't quite vibe with. For example, I thought the main plot took a while to get going. The pace felt slow up until the 30% mark, and then the action and driving conflict kicked off, no problem.

But by far the thing that bothered me the most was the feeling that Milan was trying to cover too much. Thematically, this book was spread pretty thin; a good chunk was about feminism and freedom, another chunk was about protection, another about feeling like one was enough. While I do think a lot of these themes play off one another well, I also felt like they didn't quite come together coherently in this story. As a result, I often felt like my attention was being pulled in a few different directions and the themes themselves weren't explored as well as I've seen in Milan's other works. This isn't to say that the themes are uninteresting; it's just that it felt like too much for one story.

PLOT: The non-romance plot of this book follows Andrew Uchida, one of the residents of Wedgeford, as he attempts to avoid being named the heir to an earldom. Andrew is the legitimate son of a powerful earl, but his father's relatives did everything in their power to bury the record of his father's marriage to a Japanese mother. Now that Amdrew's half-brother, Alan, is set to inherit, the stakes are high when it turns out Alan wants nothing to do with the estate or the family.

On top of all that, Andrew's quiet life is disrupted by the sudden return of Lily Bei - his childhood best friend who has been gone for 7 years. Lily returns with the last remaining proof that Andrew's mother is the true Countess, and Andrew must do everything he can to avoid drawing the attention of his dangerous relatives.

Overall, I thought the plot of this book was fine. The secret identity storyline was fun and had sufficient stakes, and I was particularly intrigued by the tension it created between Andrew and Lily (re: trust). As I stated above, I do think there was a lot going on, so much so that I don't think the narrative came together in a thematically coherent way, but the threads were there and I could see what Milan was doing.

CHARACTERS: Lily, our heroine, was sympathetic in that she was always struggling with navigating social situations. I don't know if she was meant to be neurodivergent, but at the very least, she was very confused by social etiquette and figurative speaking, so she read as someone with a lot of insecurity. I liked that a bug part of her arc involved making real connections with people and also learning to see herself as worthy.

Andrew, our hero, is also sympathetic in that he desperately wants to protect his life in Wedgeford. I admired the way he tried to protect his mother and half brother, and I respected him for stepping up to do the right thing, even when it threatened his own happiness.

Supporting characters were fine, though some of them might hold more significance for the reader if they've read the other books in the series. I did like how supportive Amdrew's mother was and how she encouraged her son to put his happiness first. Alan, Amdrew's half brother, was ok, though he read a little younger than he was. He also tended to comedically and conveniently pop up in improbable situations, but I'm chalking that up to humor.

TL;DR: The Earl Who Isn't is a solid Milan romance with interesting characters; it just isn't one of my favorites because it seemed to have too much going on.

ROMANCE: The romance between Andrew and Lily was fine. It didn't necessarily blow me away, but it had all the hallmarks of a Milan romance that I enjoyed. I loved the way our two leads supported one another and saw each other as worthy, even if they themselves didn't think so. The biggest thing that made the romance a little lackluster for me was the tedious attitude that Andrew had of keeping Lily at arm's length out of some vague sense of duty to protect her in the event that he had to flee Wedgeford.

[floatingcatacombs]

A Year of Metal Gear: REVENGEANCE

12 Days of Aniblogging 2022, Day 10

By no means should Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance actually be good. It’s a hack-and-slash character action game that emerged without any involvement from directorial mainstay Hideo Kojima after years of development hell getting passed between studios. Taking place at the end of the Metal Gear chronology, this game discards the vast majority of series lore, retaining one major character: Raiden.

(my writeup ended up being a few thousand words so it's going behind a read-more. it's worth it, though.)

A recap is in order. Raiden is introduced in Metal Gear Solid 2 as an inferior replacement for Solid Snake, a snively bishounen who is routinely mocked and belittled within the game. Only in the last act is he able to forge an identity unique from Snake’s, displayed narratively as well as mechanically when he starts wielding a sword. Taking Snake’s advice at the very end, Raiden sets out to find his own meaning and pass down the ideas that he values the most.

Raiden returns in MGS4, and after five years of soul-searching, he’s become convinced that the only meaning in his life comes from the battlefield. Also, he got kidnapped by the government and taken to Area 51 and made into a cyborg ninja between installments, you can’t make this shit up. He spends the whole game having homoerotic duels with a vampire and suggestively bleeding out white fluid.

Clearly something went wrong during his quest for meaning! After all, Raiden was a child soldier, so choosing to return to the battlefield parses as regression, not personal growth. But wait, he’s finally figured out a self-justification! In Metal Gear Rising he fights to “protect the weak”. It is this justification that kicks this game off, which kind of exists to poke at the flaws and contradictions in Raiden’s philosophy.

What the hell does it mean to be a cyborg ninja, anyway? In my previous Metal Gear writeups I viewed this character archetype as a conduit for masochism. For Raiden, it is also getting to have his effeminate nature and general incompetence in MGS2 ripped out and replaced with uncaring metal and the decisiveness to kill. It’s a forced-masculinization fantasy, which demands both a loss and a gain in agency in ways that feminization does not (it’s still gotta be gay tho). But there’s definitely more to it, especially in Revengeance. Here, it’s more about being a mass killer and having to come up with a way to justify yourself, to yourself.

So the antagonists in this game can all be read as foils to Raiden. They’ve come up with their own rationales for personally grinding the gears of war, and demand that Raiden explain how his killing is above all of that. It’s an attack on his values alongside his body. This game is…how do I say it…blunt. Most of what I’m saying is actively textual at times. It’s just that most people don’t take the politics seriously because there’s also the most over-the-top bullshit imaginable happening at the same time.  

Despite everything, Metal Gear Rising is amazing. Its exterior is willfully stupid and it comes off looking all the smarter for it. In a series famous for predicting the future, Revengeance instead demonstrates a deep understanding of the eternal present that emerges from the supposed end of history. It’s not the best video game, but it is the video game.

The prologue level introduces our villains and stakes, but more importantly establishes everyone’s power levels. In Metal Gear Solid games, the titular Metal Gear of every game is the culmination of that time period’s weapons and anxieties. By Rising, we’ve moved past the paradigm of Metal Gears and are now in an era where battles are determined by individuals fighting one-on-one with their weapons and beliefs. This transition is exemplified by Raiden suplexing a Metal Gear RAY while an electro-metal singer screams RULES OF NATURE in the background. Once again, we’re not playing with subtlety here. It is the era of the cyborg.

At the end of the chapter, rival Jetstream Sam calls bullshit on Raiden’s protecting-the-weak ideals. “You deny your weapon its purpose! It yearns to bathe in the blood of your enemies, but you hold it back.” Raiden doesn’t have an answer to this and gets dismembered.

We then jump ahead a week, after Raiden’s has been refitted with an even more militarized yet flamboyant cyborg body. It’s masculinity by way of carbon-fiber and camp. He even has little hand and toe claws! Anyways, his current mission is to put down a coup attempt in an undisclosed Eastern European country. This goes about as unexamined as Raiden’s job in the prologue, which is to act as security detail for the potentially iron-fisted prime minster of an undisclosed African country. The international political interventions that Raiden’s private military company is doing go largely undiscussed within the game, which means that either they’re just a plot vehicle to get Raiden in different locales, or it’s commentary on the amorality of warmongers. Anyways, after tearing through dozens of cyborgs and draining them of their fluids, Raiden faces off against Blade Wolf, a literal dog of war. Its programming is not that different from Raiden when he was a child soldier, a tool for killing with no free will of its own. It can’t be an accident that Raiden’s first major foe represents his past.

Nor is it a mistake that the end-stage boss is an analogue for Raiden’s present-day disillusionment. Mistral goes for an empathetic appeal, arguing to Raiden that the two of them are ultimately the same. They’re child soldiers, trained only to kill, incapable of thriving outside of the battlefield but lacking a sense of purpose as mercenaries.

Mistral’s aimlessness and many aspects of her backstory are directly lifted from The Stranger by Albert Camus, which the game just straight-up tells you. What sets her apart from Raiden at that she’s finally found some sort of ideology to believe in, and is taunting him with that fact, as Raiden is clearly struggling with the veracity of his “I protect the weak” shtick. She’s also sexually taunting Raiden the whole time by being the hornily-designed cyborg lady to his hornily-designed cyborg dude. It’s a whole thing.

In short, Mistral is a mirror held up to Raiden. While she fails to impart any ideology directly onto him, since she’s just choosing to follow someone else’s, she makes it clear to him that his status quo is untenable and he will need to come up with a coherent ideology, or else he’s just going to get sliced to pieces by her new boss.

(Want a cheat sheet for Metal Gear Rising? Just look up the lyric sheet for the song that plays during any given boss fight. It almost always outlines that character’s whole deal. Most of my analysis comes from the dialogue itself, but it’s all right there in the music as well. Also, what a fucking soundtrack)

After a drawn-out fight with Mistral that destroys a whole oil refinery, Raiden gets a lead that the PMC he’s been tracking down has a secret laboratory in the sewers of Guadalajara, Mexico. We learn in this chapter that Raiden is really bad with both race and talking to kids, by means of some truly secondhand-embarrassing cutscenes. But the main plot revelation is that the PMC Desperado has been picking orphans off of the street, harvesting their organs, and hooking their brains up to militaristic VR training with the eventual goal of making them into cyborg child soldiers. The thing that strikes me playing Metal Gear Rising in 2022 is that this is just QAnon. Or pizzagate, or antifa super soldiers. It’s every surveillance and human trafficking conspiracy theory rolled into one, and while this kind of drivel obviously existed in 2013 when Revengeance came out, the writers were insightful to make it a central plot point. But Raiden doesn’t take the news quite like a Q conspiracy theorist. He undergoes what I call a Leftist Meltdown.

It's that moment you start connecting the dots on all the interconnected systems that make up modern capitalism and think way too hard about how much evil and suffering has to go into every single product in your life. Or when you realize that electoral politics will never truly act in your interest and that the whole system is designed to perpetuate the status quo and disempower and disenfranchise the very people who need the most support. Or when you start seriously considering buying a gun and mulling over if revolution is a worthwhile pursuit and how that would even manifest in the present day and if it’s actually possible or if it would make everything worse and whether or not assassination is a viable form of praxis, and ultimately, how far you personally would be willing to go for the cause.

It's this kind of cascade of despair that drives Raiden to (re)vengeance. More specifically, he learns that a standing U.S. senator is bankrolling this child brain-harvesting operation. Even if he leaked this story to the media, no outlet would dare cover it, because said senator has ties to one of the largest military contractors in the world. It would be financial and political suicide. Raiden can’t let this injustice slide, and he knows that even if he shuts down this lab in New Mexico, they’ll just set up another one somewhere else. Raiden advocates for a coordinated assault on their headquarters in Denver, Colorado. He’s chastised by his codec support, who remind him that “America has these things called laws.” He snaps back that Denver privatized their police force and gave out the contract to the very PMC that’s running this operation. It’s this understanding that justice cannot and will not be served that ultimately breaks Raiden. I have seen leftist twitter disputes play out exactly like this. He opts for direct action, travelling to Colorado to slice up the World Marshall Headquarters.

After ripping the guts out of a small army of cops (thank god for video games), what awaits Raiden is a good and proper lecture. Jetstream Sam appears via hologram and further pokes at Raiden’s justifications for all this killing. Can he really call it justified? Did all these soldiers have a real choice in showing up to oppose him, or are they the result a society that coerces its most vulnerable people into being cannon fodder? Raiden turns off his combat emotional suppressors and learns that surprise! – nobody he’s facing wants to die, and that in many cases they’re the very downtrodden people he claims to want to protect.

This revelation hits Raiden like a truck and leaves him highly unstable, which means it’s the perfect time for another insane cyborg to enter the fray and try to impart ideology onto him. This time it’s the meme-addled Monsoon, whose most iconic line I’m just going to have to paste in verbatim.

Monsoon’s goal is to force Raiden to admit that he’s getting off on violence. To accomplish this, he decisively dismisses the whole “protecting the weak” thing as an illusion that Raiden invented to protect himself. Raiden, without his usual defenses, accepts the notion that killing feels good, that he was meant to kill, and that masochism is hot. In a way, he’s kind of reverting to the roots of the Metal Gear cyborg ninja archetype, as these are Gray Fox’s ideals. Raiden turns off his cringepain inhibitors and rips Monsoon to shreds, who dies contented, as he succeeded in bringing out the beast in Raiden and shifting him further away from his original beliefs.

(It's worth noting that if Raiden makes it through the fight without taking any damage, Monsoon will beg for him to stop to instead of saying "Do as you please". I guess a perfect S-Rank Raiden would be less susceptible to memes, freaking Monsoon out a lot more)

One level later, Sundowner is our next cyborg, with batshit politics to match his shit-eating grin – the dude loves war! More specifically, he thinks that cruelty and fighting are just plain human nature, as evidenced by his one-liner that kids are cruel and he’s very in touch with his inner child. He’s a Hobbesian with zero cognitive dissonance, which makes him a very serious threat in this world. He’s that kid who makes up an invincible super shield when you’re playing pretend, except he’s an adult and actually made it real. The meme he ultimately passes on to Raiden is that you don’t even need a personalized excuse for killing if you say that violence is just human nature.

Anyways Raiden rescues the brains and cuts a goddamn plane in half. Sundowner reveals in his dying words that U.S. Senator Armstrong, the one who is orchestrating all of this, is attempting to reboot the War on Terror by assassinating the president and blaming it on Pakistan. It’s interesting to see the characters openly compare this to 9/11 and discuss the disastrous effects of the Afghanistan War. Metal Gear Solid games are very much inspired by real-world events such as this and the Gulf War and nuclear close calls, but they largely shy away from referencing the actual events. In comparison, Revengeance is incredibly candid about the present-day state of affairs, with the codec support team gleefully going on about the effects of the War on Terror and how military intervention further displaces people and creates future terrorists, Western Europe’s problems with immigration, the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, the legacy of colonialism, and the iron triangle’s connection to the military-industrial complex.

I don’t see a lot of discussion of these radio calls online, which is surprising because they’re informative and funny and even more on-the-nose than the average MGS codec.  I can only imagine that most people just skipped them because this is a such an action-oriented game, but I highly recommend calling everyone up next time you replay Metal Gear Rising. Kevin has quickly become one of my favorite codec buddies in the whole series.

But I digress. Raiden gets the hell out of Dodge so he can borrow a space shuttle to get to Pakistan on time. But before that, one more obstacle stands in his way, and that’s Jetstream Sam. Sam is this game’s Vamp, the flamboyant rival who does Raiden’s whole deal better than he himself can. He’s Raiden’s parallel in ideology, unlike Mistral who is his parallel in background.

Sam similarly chased after the concept of justice through combat, but this meme gradually became warped until he just started siding with whoever he believed to be the strongest. We see this corruption in his weapon as well, a katana named Murasama. This a deliberate misspelling of the legendary Muramasa swords, to show his drift. Despite everything, Sam still holds himself to bushido principles, which is something Raiden only ever did in passing. He doesn’t truly believe in Senator Armstrong’s ideology and kind of wants to be proven wrong. To this end, he blocks Raiden’s path and demands a duel as a test of strength. He fights openly, just for the sake of fighting. Like Mistral, he also sexually taunts Raiden by calling him a pretty boy, but I’ll leave the analysis on that one to you.

Even as he’s being fought, Jetstream Sam has certain moral clarity to him that the other villains don’t. No dirty tricks, just two cyborgs battling each other sword to sword on the side of a desert road. This purity extends into his death, where we learn that he barely had any cyborg modifications at all, and was mostly just a really impressive guy (In the Japanese release of the game, all of the enemies bleed white blood, a callback to Metal Gear Solid 4. Sam is the one character who spouts red.). He also doesn’t have a visor pop over his eyes before the fight, which everyone else, including Raiden, does up until now. Obviously, these visors are meant to be blinders, and Sam is the one character who doesn’t need them. If I keep writing this paragraph any longer I will just start scream-singing his song so we’re done.

At last, we reach Senator Armstrong, the final boss of politics. The big meme man himself, who said “Make America Great Again” in one of his cutscenes long before Trump ever did. First things first, throw the Trump comparison out of the window, because Armstrong is a fundamentally different type of guy. The other thing I want to assert early on is that Armstrong makes two completely separate ideological arguments. The first, delivered from within his giant Metal Gear death machine, is that manufacturing a terrorist attack and dragging the United States into a new war will jumpstart the economy. He peppers this argument with more right-wing nationalist jingo than you can swing a sword at. But even he knows that he’s bullshitting, and it’s not about taxes. You have to remember that this game was developed in the wake of the Tea Party movement, in which the Republican party got taken over by its populist libertarian flank ostensibly obsessed with small government and lowering taxes, who were in practice using these as levers to oppose ever compromising with Democrats.

Raiden destroys Metal Gear EXCELSUS, and in doing so calls bullshit on Armstrong’s professed ideology, in the same way that Jetstream Sam called bullshit on Raiden at the start of the game. Armstrong is forced to fess up: he wants all of this money and social capital so he can burn down the faceless military-industrial complex and create a society where might makes right on a personal level and everyone fights and kills for what they believe in, where only the fit survive. It’s an eclectic mix of fascism, anarchism, populism, and the chaos routes of Shin Megami Tensei games. Perhaps the better comparison would be master morality in Nietzsche’s paradigm, positioning Raiden as a slave moralist.

Senator Armstrong’s world is the one of the ubermensch, the right-libertarianism to Raiden’s left-libertarianism. It’s batshit crazy, but he has the money and power and physical strength to back it up on a personal level. What memes does Raiden even have at this point, that he could use to fight back? Let’s recap:

“My sword is a tool of justice to protect the weak” was his base ideology, but he hardly even believes it himself anymore

“Killing feels good” from Monsoon

“Violence is only natural” from Sundowner

“The strong can only truly be disproven through combat” from Jetstream Sam

With these in particular bouncing around in his head, it’s no wonder why Raiden throws aside his own sword, dons Sam’s for the final fight, and uses it to impale a standing U.S. senator.

Armstrong is killed and the day is saved, but you have to remember that Raiden is a vessel for ideology. Much like Monsoon, Armstrong recognizes that putting Raiden through the wringer is all it takes to pass on his values. He seems almost gleeful as he dies, claiming that he is “leaving a worthy successor” in Raiden, as he has demonstrated his ability to oppose society and kill endlessly to fight for what he believes in, making him a prime example of Armstrong’s ideal world. Raiden crushes Armstrong’s heart and absorbs all the electrolytes, which seals this transfer of ideals. We see him one last time in a post-credits scene, where we get confirmation that Raiden is a lone wolf now, but not what he’s fighting for now. That’s up to the reader to decide, because we sure as hell aren’t getting a sequel to this game.

So that’s Metal Gear Rising. It’s a story of a gay little cyborg sovereign citizen who gives up on institutionalism after a series of grave injustices, and in doing so, opens himself up to the kind of people who will shift his politics from the left-wing fringes to the right. I’m not saying that horseshoe theory is real, but there is at least a one-way gradient for this kind of thing.

At least, this is my interpretation. You could also approach the game from a more series-focused perspective and argue that Armstrong is the latest in a line of idiots misinterpreting The Boss’s will. Sunny, Snake and Otacon’s adopted daughter, shows up in the final stretch of Revengeance, and you could point to her aerospace company as an example of how science will always be co-opted for war, and how she’ll be the fourth Emmerich to fall into this trap.

On the philosophy side, you could parse Metal Gear Rising as a series of dialectics, or actually read The Selfish Gene and go all-in on the memetic analysis. Or talk about how Raiden is literally thrown a trolley problem at the end of Chapter 2, or actually read The Stranger and go full absurdist on this game. The point is, you’ve got options.

But these are your essays to write, not mine. I’m looking forward to them, though! Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is quite the deep game for what it is. There’s a reason it’s stuck around in our collective memory for so long compared to other games of its era, and it’s not just because of the one-liners. Zandatsu literally translates to “cut and take”, and I think there’s a lot to take out of this game with every angle of dissection.  

[eclipsecrowned]

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr ? // anonymous

fellas is it transphobic for a trans author to depict a female character as having agency and control over her physical presentation? fellas is it transphobic for a trans writer to say 'a person deserves to use whatever freely chosen cosmetic, alteration, or even wardrobe that makes them comfortable in their own body and be respected for it?' fellas are glamours dishonest and transphobic bc it forces the fair folk to submit to cishetero beauty standards? fellas is it transphobic for a trans author to have an opinion that doesn't align with a non-trans persons bias?

to wit, caitlin r kiernan penned a now largely forgotten sequel to the s*ndman during the 90s-00s. it's... it's fine? it's not as good as the original but then in my purview only neil ever does the verse right. it's not as bad as its reputation online, truth be told, it's just not up to the standard of the original. it's got some great and some bad but mostly it's a whole lot of novelty.

nuala returns in the course of the story and ultimately chooses to make the dreaming her home base after a series of personal tragedies, planning to regroup and move on -- but taking part in the delights of a shiny new relationship with lucien in the interim. the sticking point with this in eyes of certain fandom members, however, is that nuala chooses to start wearing glamours again.

chooses. literally on page chooses to do it all her own. dream does not give a flying cooch and titania no more has power over her. nuala decides she just wants to break in an old habit again for her own ends. given her entire narrative in the original was about autonomy/choice especially about appearances, you'd think this was just another aspect of that -- that nuala is just as valid glamoured as she is when in her natural form. fandom cannot accept that nuance, however. cis fandom especially keeps co-opting 'that's transphobic' to say why... a woman having bodily autonomy is somehow a bad thing.

i want to repeat. kiernan identified as a transwoman at the time and has since realized they are, in fact, genderfluid. a trans person, regardless of exact identity, wrote a narrative about someone making the best decision for herself and having power over her presentation and body. i don't know how to explain how much 'my view of feminism never expanded past 90s mean girl bullshit where women who care about appearance are subhuman bimbos to me' the blogs that espouse this give without naming names so i am just gonna stop there. just remember it's grown adults bitching about this and not teenagers in their 'not like other girls' anti-solidarity phase.

[likealittleheartbeat]

[Scholar Jacqueline] Rose’s Ph.D. thesis, and the work that followed, about Peter Pan and childhood, was finding admirers. “It was groundbreaking,” the novelist Ali Smith, then a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, said. “Nobody was writing about literature like this.” Childhood purity and innocence, Rose suggested, was an adult fabulation. Children’s literature was structured by adult desires, actual childhood having been colonized by our fantasies of it. In later years, Rose seldom returned to children’s literature, as such, but the interrogation of innocence became a lifelong project.

...

Starting in the late nineteen-eighties, a decisive shift occurred for both her and [her sister] Gillian. The sisters, as well as [cousin and prominent director] Braham Murray, then an artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, found that their work was drawing them toward the Holocaust. Gillian, a scholar of German idealism, had immersed herself in the Holocaust theology of Emil Fackenheim; Braham, at his Manchester theatre, set a production of “Macbeth” in a Nazi death camp. Rose was defending Sylvia Plath’s controversial use of Holocaust metaphors. “I realize now that the three of us had been brought to this topic as a way of engaging a mostly unspoken part of our family history—on this, the lines that were running, strangely and unconsciously, between the three of us were clear,” Rose told me. “But there was something more.”

Murray, she said, was “blurring the ethical contours of history by forcing the prisoners to perform—through Macbeth’s burgeoning and finally uncontrollable violence—the reality of the evil to which they as Jews were subject.” And then, Rose says, there was Gillian’s “not unrelated plea that Auschwitz should not become sacred, its victims ideal innocents, its perpetrators unthinkable monsters. Nor should it be seen as absolute, unrepresentable—a horror which can only therefore be countered by an equivalently absolute act of redemption by the Israeli nation-state.”

Rose describes herself not as an anti-Zionist but as a critic of Zionism, a reader of Zionism, focusing on the nationalist movement’s insistence on its own innocence. She warns against letting victimhood—best understood as an event, something that befalls a person—become an identity. In the context of Zionism, as in the context of feminism, she has said, we “need to be endlessly vigilant in not allowing victimhood to become who we are.”

Such statements have brought swift, sometimes violent censure. The novelist Howard Jacobson based a character on Rose in his 2010 Man Booker-winning novel, “The Finkler Question”: Tamara Krausz, an academic and an “ashamed Jew” who “never appeared in public looking anything other than an executive of a fashion consultancy, at once businesslike and softly feminine.” Finkler, the protagonist, fantasizes about slitting her throat. Recently, Rose’s insistence that feminists have everything to learn from trans women alienated some former comrades. “I lost friends,” she said.

Rose’s suspicion of all notions of innocence ran through even her later reflections on South Africa’s struggles to make itself whole after apartheid. She adopted a Freudian perspective on the impossible ideals of truth and reconciliation, on the paired sainthood of Nelson Mandela and vilification of Winnie Mandela. “Why do we expect, in situations of political injustice, that virtue will accumulate on the side of the oppressed?” she wrote in the London Review of Books, her regular outlet. “At the very least, Winnie Mandela does us the favour of demonstrating how misguided that belief is. Why, then, do we rush to divest the downtrodden of the ethical ambiguity that must be everyone’s birthright?”

Parul Saghal, "How the Writer and Critic Jacqueline Rose Puts the World on the Couch" in the New Yorker