#the villain is literally a corrupt system and government Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[sscrambledmeggss]

i love that wicked is getting the love it deserves now that it’s a movie. on the downside i now have to sit through people making the same bad analysis’ that i’ve been seeing since 2018 😕

[humblefryingpan]

Hate it when you watch smth where the main villain is giving some rlly good points and the hero is like "NO!! CAPITALISM!!!"

Like why is it always the abused/working class/traumatized dude saying "this is a deeply flawed system and it shouldn't exist, you only think it's good because it benefits you" and they're always irredeemable and insane.

And then the amazing superhero comes along with their money and high societal position and beats the shit out of them while saying the corrupt system is actually a good thing because it benefits the government and the police

And they try to make us root for the hero by giving them a traumatic backstory. But it's never bad enough to make me overlook the shitty things they do

The rest of this is just a fandom rant so feel free to scroll past the rest of this

Ab 3 years ago I was rlly into my hero academia and I've just started getting back into it. So I've been rewatching from the beginning and I've literally just finished the usj part (watching as I type this lol)

Shigaraki had some really great points. He was talking about how heroes shouldn't be allowed to use violence, how criminal violence and heroic violence are practically indistinguishable.

And then all might went "I bet you're just doing this bc you can!" And he said "you've got me all figured out" like dude??? That's a good fucking motivate and he's right. "An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind" and all that shit yk.

I love superheroes in theory. But realistically (or worse, if they actually existed) I don't think there's any of them I would like. Like I love nightwing but I know if that was a real guy he'd seem just as bad as the kardashians yk?

[darkonekrisrewrite]

Can you list the problems of hero society please

Sure thing 👍

It'll be a long list:

The over reliance on heroes has lead to the civilians becoming uncaring and unwilling to do the bare minimum of effort in human decency. Not even trying to help a child clearly in need (tenko, leading to the second part of shigaraki's villain origin story) and only willing to help deku (a young hero also pretty clearly in need of help) when it benefited them.

2. Quirk (or lack of) Persecution. Toga being a big example in her quirk's function of needing/being compelled to blood, and her parents/hero society personnel treating her terribly, causing her to eventually break and reject them/become a villain in turn.

Aoyama is also an example in a different way, his parents were trying to help him from the suffering (bad treatment by peers most likely) of being quirkless but in doing so made them all AFO's pawns. Plus how deku was treated. And tying in to this example 👇

3. Heteromorph (quirk appearance) discrimination. Spinner, shoji, 'ordinary woman' mutant. Everything about them being the most prevalent examples of hero society being horrible to those who are different.

4. Government assassinations and child soldiers. Lady nagant and hawks, taken in and trained since young children to be killers and spies.

Also the system being willing to send the hero students into literal war zones, TWICE. (Not twice as in Jin, twice as in the pro heroes/government were using the hero students to fight in both wars against the villains.) (Also unless someone who is specifically against these things, calls them out and gets into a position of power, there's nothing stopping these things from happening again in the future.)

5. Heroes who don't have good intentions. Endeavor created Dabi as an unintended consequence of his obsession with surpassing All-might, and many other heroes only signed up for the fame, money and opportunities that being a hero brings, leading to many of them bailing out when things got dark.

It is true that everyone has their own individual reasons, but when your actions can decide the course of all society's future/other people's lives, core motivations should definitely be found out as soon as possible and taken into account.

6. Refusing to acknowledge the incredibly obvious threat of the quirk singularity. The pro heroes and some students were almost immediately able to realize something was up when they saw children with very powerful quirks in the remedial course, recognizing just by looking that the children's quirks were more powerful than their's were at that age. A few inspiring moments and everyone forgot all about it.

I guess nobody looked into Eri's past too? Since her quirk killing her father never came up again.

Not to mention, though uncertain canon, the whole third movie was centered around this doomsday and not a single hero cared, even deku's heroic answer to the villain was just: "You should have tried harder man!!"

Though in fairness, Deku's answer might change with his current character development...hopefully.

7. Other examples are heroes getting so many brand deals, being celebrities and the hero scoreboard stuff.

Not outright corrupt but can definitely cause problems if taken in the wrong ways.

Those are all the flaws I can think of right now, hope this answers your ask.

[bloodlessmarriage]

just rewatched graduation day and omg i love the mayor as a villain because of how human he is compared to other antagonists, he is evil but that is not ALL that he is. he still retains parts of his humanity, like his genuine care for faith, his politeness, humour, and his dislike of germs, all these traits make him a much more real villain. he is more than just a monster. the mayor is the evil that no one can see, hidden behind a guise of friendliness and charm, the evil that lives within those corrupted by power and greed, the evil that is enabled by institutions (i.e. education, law enforcement, capitalism) and unquestioned by the population, his biggest power lies within his humanness. the mayor is manipulative, hiding his true nature and intentions behind good manners, which is true for so many evil men in real life, they are not so easily distinguished as bad, unlike some other villains in the show who are uncomplex (*cough cough* the master, adam) and that fits in with a big theme of s3 which is the fight against oppressive systems hidden in plain sight,,, in the season premiere buffy literally leads an underground worker's uprising wielding a hammer and sickle like cmon, so the big bad of the season being a corrupt bureaucrat that seems pretty normal at first makes so much sense, its about the hidden evil, its about institutions restricting and harming adolescent lives. which makes the finale episode so juicy, because the youth collaborate and take up arms to overthrow an evil oppressive government, the big fight scene is about solidarity and unity of teenagers revolting against tyrants,,,,,

like YEAH maybe it IS possible to start a revolution and change our fates in this corrupt system if the youth unite to fight the evil TOGETHER,,,,,, i could talk about season 3 and the institutional antagonists for AGES, but in conclusion the mayor is one of the best villains because of his humanity, his closeness to real life, the mayor is scary because of his power and status in human world,,, and like truly theres nothing more terrifying than a politician

(dont even get me started on the mayor as a symbol for white supremacy)

[horselover107]

It’s been 24 hours and I’m still thinking about one particular bad post.

No Torchwood is not “copaganda” and no it’s not narratively punishing them for bisexuality Jesus ducking Christ.

On the first point. For Fuck’s sake watch up to season 3. There’s literally a scene where a cop takes off his vest and fights with lower/working class people against the government because at that moment he wants no association with the orders he was given anymore (they do flub his character arc by making him rejoin the force in s4 and in the audios, but also miracle day is…a beast of its own. For simplicity sake we’re looking at the first two seasons plus children of earth as those are the three seasons that had most of the same creative team). The villain of season 3 is literally the corrupt UK and world governments, it is literally textually about how the government would be willing to sacrifice children in a trolley problem scenario specifically because they’re poor. We are on the side of the families of the kids here. Jacks past “just following orders” and utilitarianism is treated as BAD. Something he needs to atone for.

Even if we change the parameters to just season one and two? Yes it’s a procedural but they never stop talking about how they’re “outside the police”. Torchwood as an institution is criticized for not stopping to think about the “little” people hurt along the way. Gwen has a specific skill set (good investigative instincts) because she’s an ex cop, yes. But the key here is the “ex” part, she’s left the police. She’s not a part of that system anymore.

I mean I guess there’s Jack’s whole “I’m really good at torture” brag and all the guns? But at the same time UNIT holding Toshiko without trial was a pretty strong critique of practices like that for something only six years off of 9/11. UNIT not giving her a trial and treating her as a terrorist without rights is again, treated as a bad thing. Children of Earth’s anti-government stance is still pretty radical by 2023 standards

As for the second point. Jesus Christ ok? This show was created by a queer man. “Historical context” (it pains me to call the 2000s historical but here we are) matters. And it was absolutely ground breaking for its queer rep at the time. Buffy, which RTD is pretty open about taking notes from, was forced to make their gay couple incredibly chaste and subtle on the onset. Not to reignite like 15 years of fandom discourse but RTD did not set out to punish these characters for being gay. He did it because he’s an edgelord that gets bored and defaults to “ok now let’s just kill the cast”. Important distinction

Point the third: ok jokes about RTD’s worst writing habits aside, yes this show is about how humanity is flawed. People make fucked up decisions. Not everyone can be saved. That’s kind of…spelled out multiple times. It’s not because these characters happen to bisexual it’s because theyre human. Jack is trying but this is fundamentally a story about what happens when the doctor isn’t there to swoop in and fix everything for us. It’s messy. People get hurt. Sometimes there’s no easy out.

And finally listen I know this show is also a camp mess the other half of the time, but for fuck’s sake if you’re going to make sweeping generalizations watch past mid season one. That’s kind of important. Watch past just the first season.

[blockgamepirate]

Technoblade’s purpose in the political narrative of the Dream SMP

I can’t sleep so I decided to finally write the post I’ve been struggling with for literal months, except way more casual because I can’t be bothered anymore and also I’m sleep deprived.

So the thing is: to me the DSMP storyline has always been primarily political, probably because I was introduced to it through Wilbur who was definitely going for political, and also because I’m just generally interested in political narratives right now. Obviously I appreciate the character work and the personal relationship stuff, that’s what makes it more interesting than just dry allegory, but when it comes down to it, this story is about politics to me. So that’s the angle I’m going to approach it from.

Also not to spoil the conclusions here, but I’m an anarchist, that’s my lens.

(Obviously all of this is about rp from here on out unless otherwise specified)

Basically the situation as Techno joins the server is this: L'Manburg exists as an autonomous nation and is de facto independent although not officially recognised by the Dream SMP. The self-appointed president Wilbur Soot decides to hold an election and rig it in order to consolidate his power over the nation he founded and he gets his VP Tommyinnit to join in on the plan. Their scheme fails and they end up voted out instead. The new president, Schlatt, immediately establishes himself as an authoritarian figure and exiles Wilbur and Tommy.

A couple of points on what the election arc demonstrates:

1: the appearance of democracy can be used for distinctly undemocratic purposes.

2: even if the elections aren’t rigged, the electoral system could be massively flawed and end up favouring a party that in fact didn’t have the popular vote

3: even if the winning government (the coalition in this case) has the majority vote, that doesn’t guarantee that they’ll actually act according to the popular will.

4: the supporters of the losing parties basically just have to let the majority overrule their wishes, espcially since apparently L’Manburg doesn’t have an established role for an opposition, yikes. That’s actually a MAJOR oversight in the system but I’m not gonna go into that too much.

5: frankly as an anarchist I am just deeply cynical towards representative democracy, and just because you have a token appearance of choice and consent doesn’t mean that it isn’t a hierarchical and authoritarian system. And to be fair, from my point of view this applies even to so-called liberal democracies and progressive parties. Full disclosure: even if L'Manburg was the ideal example of a representative democracy (which it very much isn’t) I would still be opposed to it because I fundamentally do not believe in top down systems, even electoral ones.

6: despite all these flaws, all the characters seem to implicitly accept the electoral system as legitimate. There’s criticism against the actions of individual characters acting within the system, such as Quackity calling out Wilbur for trying to rig the election, but nobody is questioning the system itself.

So at this point I’m sitting there, watching all this go down, and thinking “man, this would be so much more bearable if there was an anarchist point of view being represented in the story.”

And hey, look who IMMEDIATELY SHOWS UP.

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, early installation Technoblade is not the best representation of anarchism. I was mostly rooting for him out of sheer contrarianism initially. I didn’t really even care if it would be another Killmonger/Magneto/Zaheer situation because I’m used to reading against the authorial intent when it comes to these things. Sometimes any representation is better than no representation, even with political ideologies. That’s not to say that him just straight up spouting this hobbesian notion of a “dog-eat-dog world” didn’t grate on me, obviously it did.

That kind of worldview of humanity needing authority in order to prevent chaos and conflict is literally antithetical to anarchism and is the favourite talking point of authoritarians, the least anarchist people there are. It’s literally what people use to argue AGAINST anarchism. I think it’s mostly because cc!Techno obviously wasn’t particularly educated on anarchist thought and was just basically having fun roleplaying with his friends at this point. Which is frustrating but fair enough I guess.

Cynical ideas about human nature are pretty deeply rooted in the mainstream, unfortunately, most people just consider it common sense. And like I said, it’s a huge talking point in the propaganda against anarchism.

(… even though in fact these arguments were originally used against proponents of representative democracy. Hobbes himself was very much a monarchist, the idea of letting normal people vote for their representatives would have been terrifying to him. Like surely the world would descent into a free-for-all war, all against all. Imagine letting commoners have OPINIONS, the horror.)

So yeah, that stuff was pretty ehhhhh. It was basically what I’d expected though: cc!Techno isn’t an anarchist and we just don’t get accurate representation from non-anarchists, ever. What I dared to hope was that Techno’s character would at least stay consistent about his opposition to ALL governments. I was pretty sure that he would, even though it seemed like the majority of the fandom at the time was convinced that he would switch over to Schlatt’s side or something. It would have been a really shitty twist, I would have ragequit immediately. I mean what would have been the entire point of his character then? He might as well have been a random mercenary. Why even have his character be an anarchist if you were just going to make him work for a government?

(ftr this is kinda my biggest problem with the Hypixel Skyblock revolution event lol, honestly I think that was a worse depiction of anarchism than early DSMP Technoblade. I mean the speech was good, but… still became a government official, tho. booooooooo, cringe)

And yes, I was rooting against L'Manburg, obviously, and I would have even if it had meant having to deal with another badly written anarchist villain character. I never understood why people saw L'Manburg as the good guys, they were nationalist and exclusionary and their whole existence was based on trying to scam people for money.

I mean they were definitely funny, they were great entertainers. I have no problems with people rooting for them because they’re fun to watch; I did that for a bit too. But people were starting to get really into the story and talk about Wilbur and Tommy, the corrupt politicians, and the country that literally excluded people based on nationality as the heroes, unironically, which was wild to me. And when Wilbur started his “villain arc” well: people called it a villain arc, as if he hadn’t been pretty much a bad guy from the beginning, constantly just out for money and power and taking advantage of the people around him and then pretending to be the victim when challenged. I mean yes he got worse, but I wouldn’t call it a villain arc, more like just a mental breakdown arc.

More importantly, to me L'Manburg represented so many things I hate about the status quo in real life, and seeing the fandom mostly unquestioningly accept it as good just pissed me off. Still pisses me off tbh. I mean, to be diplomatic I could say that I understand the emotional attachment and the way L'Manburg was built up mirrors a lot of how real nations are built and how they create a sense of patriotism out of symbols and a sense of honour and loyalty, and it’s actually really fascinating how it even works in a Minecraft roleplay. Says something about the human mind I guess. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though.

Anyway, I just wanted to see literally any kind of opposition to power, even if it had to come from a character that was unquestionably a villain, which I fully assumed Techno would be. Because political narratives so often just leave us out, or at best barely mention us. And even from a narrative point of view, adding an anarchist perspective to a political story just objectively broadens its scope and actually challenges people who are used to only arguing along the lines of conservative or liberal, welfare state or privatization, nationalism or multiculturalism, etc. Even if the original work dealt with it poorly, at least it would give me the excuse to rant about it on Tumblr, which is kinda why I revived my old Minecraft sideblog for this. (That and pig!Techno fanart.)

Also how can you have a story so fundamentally about power without its counterpoint: the rejection of power?

(Yes, Dream SMP as a whole is definitely a narrative about power, it’s a huge theme for Wilbur, Quackity, Dream, Eret and the Badlanders at least, as well as obviously the anarchist characters from the opposite direction.)

So yeah, the build up to November 16th for me was mainly about the anticipation for what Techno would do, how would Techno’s character respond to the seemingly inevitable formation of a new government. THAT was the point of interest for me, that was what I was the most invested in. Would we get an actual anarchist opposition as a new side to the conflict or would they just awkwardly drop that whole angle? Or even have him team up with Schlatt like a complete sellout? There was so much potential but I worried they might just waste it.

And I was right to worry since apparently in the original script Techno wasn’t supposed to do anything, he was just there to help fight Schlatt and witness the explosion along with everyone else.

And WOW that would have been so incredibly boring

Not even just from the political perspective, just talking about the narrative in general terms here: imagine November 16th without Techno’s plot points. Not only would it have been boring for Techno’s character but it would have been equally boring for basically everybody but Wilbur and Philza. An anticlimactic fight followed by a big explosion that pretty much everybody had seen coming already. Yes, the button room scene is dramatic and heartbreaking… for Wilbur and Phil. But nobody else was there to see it. For everybody else, it was just a big explosion. It would have been such a huge disservice to anyone watching the other POVs.

Techno’s intervention gave everyone an ACTUAL climactic fight, it allowed characters other than Wil and Phil to witness some actual drama happening and to participate in it, rather than just waiting around for the explosion, while also foreshadowing the explosion. Even better, it provoked SO MUCH discussion in the fandom AND gave a perfect hook for future conflicts to arise. Wilbur’s end was tragic but it was, at the time, final. L'Manburg would have still suffered a catastrophe but it would have been left with just the same exact antagonist as before: Dream.

And at this point Dream’s core goals had barely changed, just his approach was now different. Yes, that makes a difference for the plot, but it doesn’t really change much in terms of ideological conflict. Especially since there really isn’t that big of an ideological difference between Dream and Tommy, because arguably neither of them are particularly big on ideology in the first place, they just have conflicting goals and use different tactics to achieve those goals (well, the tactics aren’t always even that different *cough Spirit cough*).

Techno’s conflict with Tubbo and especially Quackity (and honestly most of the other characters in general) brings in so much more depth to the story, just by introducing another angle, not to even mention how much it brings to focus questions about power and violence. These are themes that exist in other characters’s storylines too but nowhere in the same way or as central as with Techno.

I’m getting kind of ahead of myself here, though.

The real twist of November 16th was the fact that Techno WASN’T a straight up villain, actually. It was a twist to me anyway, because with all my cynicism I just didn’t see it coming, I didn’t expect him to actually start making reasonable criticisms. I didn’t expect him to drop the hobbesian arguments entirely and start making points that actually sounded like anarchism.

I have to assume that cc!Techno must have seen some of the criticisms of his character and been inspired to adjust because the difference is pretty notable.

(Sidenote: I’m just forever kinda sad that Techno’s “I may seem like the villain here” monologue was cut from the video and most people never heard it.)

And I felt SO validated by the way, because it works so well in the story! Everyone is mostly content with the restoration of a status quo of some sort, Schlatt is gone, this is supposed to be the good ending, and then Techno calls them all out and turns the narrative around completely: This was just a coup d'état. This was just the previous political leadership retaking power by force. Why is everyone celebrating the same exact system that lead to Schlatt’s authoritarian rule in the first place?

What he does there is force the audience to question the narrative they’ve been presented so far, that they’ve accepted without a thought. It might not convince them, but they can’t just ignore it either.

Whatever you wanna say about the discourse around Techno on that day, in the ideological narrative THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART. Not who betrayed who or when is political violence justified, that’s about personal relationships and morality and it’s mostly all more relevant to the aftermath than the event itself. In my opinion, the REAL point in the moment is that the characters and the audience were comfortable with the ending only to be presented with a completely new perspective on the events.

It also recontextualises the finale, including Wilbur’s actions! It’s a much more ambiguous end to the Pogtopia vs Manburg arc and to Wilbur’s original run as the head writer. Wilbur’s “even with Tubbo in charge I don’t think [that ‘special place’] can exist again” is vague enough to be dismissed as just part of his paranoia and internal conflict, but with Techno, there’s a concrete question: what if Tubbo, given the same powers as Schlatt, will turn out to be just a new Schlatt? And suddenly you have to wonder what Wilbur meant by his words too. And was all this foreshadowing something about L’Manburg’s future?

Okay I’ve only made it to November 16th and there’s so much more DSMP to talk about but the post is getting too long and I’m starting to lose my energy. Will I ever make a part two? No idea. But I’ll try.

Standard disclaimer: I’m not the spokesperson of anarchism, other anarchists might disagree with my reading

[ness-plays-wizards]

Alfonse Route Chapter 13 (1-8)

Last week on the Alfonse route, Liz somehow guesses Shithead’s three passwords, which are allegedly things he holds dear, so I’m forced to assume that they were “Power,” “Control,” and “Pretentiousness.” Then Hugo appears and surprise surprise he was evil all along, and now the route doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of Shithead being the real villain of this route.

But worry not, Shithead will not escape my wrath.

Shithead immediately blames Alfonse for the missing Elixir Seed, which to be fair is actually a reasonable assumption, but Shithead calls Alfonse conniving, so he has not made the even more obvious connection of “Alfonse would steal the Elixir Seed to prevent real people at the Academy from fucking dying.” Liz tries to get Shithead to back off, where she reveals she was in on the Elixir Seed heist. Shithead immediately blames Alfonse for corrupting Liz, because god forbid Liz make the active choice to oppose him and his sanctimonious bullshit. Alfonse passively takes all of Shithead’s verbal abuse until Liz reveals that Hugo stole the Elixir Seed, not them.

Liz and Alfonse convince Shithead to join them in chasing down Hugo, even though I personally think they should ditch Rich Boy Shithead and instead recruit Actual Government Fighter Wizards Vincent and Glenn, but I digress. Alfonse also promises to explain everything to Klaus in a sequence that I suspect will be intended to be heartwrenching, even though that scene should logically just be them sitting Shithead down and yelling at him about how little he actually cares about human life.

Liz, Alfonse, and Shithead go into the city but can’t find Hugo anywhere. Liz shows Shithead the map that Hugo gave them, and Shithead has this reaction:

Bitch you gave the paparazzi a step by step description of your security system. All that was missing was your passwords.

Well, Shithead, you were hoarding the power that would literally save your lives in your little rich boy laboratory. Don’t make yourself into the moral victim here. You don’t have the moral high ground. You don’t have ANY moral ground. You are suspended off the edge of the looney tunes cliff, except the writers won’t activate gravity.

Alfonse apologizes, even though he really shouldn’t. 

I literally dont give a fuck. No combination of words in the English language can describe the lack of even an iota of fucks that I give. 

Shithead tries to physically attack Alfonse but Liz throws herself in between them and asserts that she’s now involved with the conflict. Liz states that Shithead is justified in his anger (he isnt) and that they shouldn’t have tried to steal the Elixir Seed (seriously did this world not have a french revolution equivalent). There is a distinct lack of “calling Shithead out for being a power-hoarding narcissistic psychopath.” 

Shithead reveals that he was “so close” to developing Mikhail cells. Alfonse goes for the metaphorical kill shot and reveals that he already found the fucking Mikhail cells.

It makes sense because Alfonse does real work, while you’re out here wasting everyone’s time with your fucking abandonment issues. 

Alfonse explains why he needs both his Mikhail cells and Shithead's Elixir Seed to cure the disease at the Academy, AND SHITHEAD STILL SAYS THIS.

People are dying, shithead. Get the fuck over yourself.

im done. im so fucking done. shithead is utterly despicable.

A little boy comes to Alfonse and takes them all to the Forgotten City, where literally everyone is sick with the zombie disease. Alfonse asks the boy to separate the sick and healthy people so he can go make the potion, despite not being able to make the potion because of fuckin wizard jeff b*zos over here.

Wow, if only you could have gotten over yourself 3 chapters ago. Then we could have avoided this entire fucking mess and the entire academy could have been cured. Fuck you Shithead, you horrible, horrible bridge troll.

They finally get back to searching for Hugo and plan to use a tracking spell on his map to find him. Shithead casts the spell, but this won’t be counted toward his “Kl*us Does Good Things” Score because if he had just given Liz and Alfonse the fucking elixir crap NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE FUCKING HAPPENED.

The map leads them to the harbor, where they find Hugo with the Elixir Seed. And only one question remains: Why the hell did they not bring accomplished wizard fighters Vincent and Glenn. #JusticeForGlincent

(Queued for: October 26)

[opbackgrounds]

Oooh can you do a post on the tenryubito?

So I feel like this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I pity the Celestial Dragons. 

That isn’t to say that they aren’t all (mostly) abhorrently evil megalomaniacs with  an institutionally enforced god complex who treat the torture of human(oids) with the same blasé disregard as a kid pulling the wings off of a fly, but there’s a part of me that just finds them pathetic. The Celesital Dragons are a group of people who have the world as their silver platter, yet are so small-minded and infantile they literally trap themselves in a tiny bubbles because they’re too scared to breathe the same air as the so-called lesser races.

There was a time when I didn’t think much of the Celestial Dragons because I thought that Oda’s exaggerated storytelling had gone one step too far. They were too cartoonishly evil to be believable—nothing but a bunch of mustache-twirling villains too ridiculous to be taken seriously—and though I found Luffy punching one in the face very cathartic I wasn’t terribly invested in the World Nobility as a worldbuilding element. 

But if there’s something I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older, it’s that there is a depressingly-large number of cartoonishly evil people who through no merit of their own find themselves wielding enormous amounts of power, and the Celestial Dragons are more realistic than I ever thought possible. 

The Dragons are One Piece’s exploration of the idea that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Eight hundred years is a ridiculously long time to be in control of a single territory, let alone an organization as massive as the World Government. To put it in perspective a little, eight hundred years ago was when the Magna Carta was signed. Even real-world dynasties tend to have major fluctuations in power over the course of generations, but It seems that the World Government—and by extension the Celestial Dragons—have for eight centuries kept an iron hold over what they consider theirs. 

Which just happens to be everything. 

The actual origins of the CD tie into series lore and will probably play a big part in Robin learning about the True History, but I fall in the camp that believes that they originated on the moon because 1) they’re the Celestial Dragons 2) there’s gotta be some significance to Enel’s cover story, and 3) Oda clearly modeled their hairstyles and clothing off of the King and Queen of the Moon from the movie The Adventures of Baron Muchausen

Which, if true, makes them a foreign imperialistic force that used military might and a totalitarian regime that specializes in censorship and terror in order to turn the One Piece world into a giant colony while presenting itself as an egalitarian, unifying coalition where no single ruler is fit to sit on the Empty Throne. 

And to think, there are some people who don’t think One Piece is political.

What’s really fascinating is that most of the rank and file Celestial Dragons don’t seem to realize their own history. Their traditional enemy has become a bedtime story used to scare children, and they’re too preoccupied in their petty games and pleasures to even notice that they’re not really the most powerful people in the world. It’s like their freedom to commit atrocities is the world’s worst example of bread and circuses, because as long as their attention is held by the shiny new slave or fixated on bringing in another tribute then they can’t use their immense power to actually do anything, and for the most part they’re too stupid to realize they’re being used. 

Granted, I’m doing a lot of guesswork here, but we don’t really know where Im and his giant pointy crown fits into all this, or how aware the average Celestial Dragon is of his existence. Is he a world noble? Are the Elder Stars? I personally don’t think the latter are, but is it possible that there’s an even more secret and exclusive group within one of the most secretive and exclusive groups on the planet? And what in the world does the straw hat locked in a freezer have to do with any of it? Was that the treasure Doflamingo used to blackmail the Celestial Dragons into submission, and if so, who did he parlay with during his negotiations? Because I can’t see idiots like Saint Charlos or Mysogard before his character development giving two shits about any of it. Was it CP0, and if so, how much do they understand about the man who sits on the Empty Throne?

What I’m trying to say here, is that there’s a whole lot we don’t know. 

What isn’t guesswork is how little the Celestial Dragons understand about the real world, and this is where I go back to feeling sorry for them. Even the best-intentioned noble we’ve seen so far (Homing) has no idea of what it is to be “human”. 

This mansion is just...comfortable. It’s a downgrade. It’s how Homing thinks normal people live, and he thinks he can just plop his family out in the real world and live a quiet, normal life without blowback from a population that has suffered terribly at the Celestial Dragons hands. His ignorance and naivety, while well-intentioned, is staggering.

Because remember, slavery is technically illegal within the World Government.  Only criminals and people from nations not affiliated can be taken to auction. What initially seems like a kindness turns out to be sending pigs to the slaughter, because what nation wouldn’t react the way this one did once they found out the truth?

Because what the WG (and by extension the CD) have done is punish nations who don’t kowtow to their power in order to fulfill the demand for slaves. Even the bit about criminals is terrifying when this is a world where for some it’s a crime to even be born, to say nothing about the Celestial Dragon’s refusal to obey their own laws if it means they can get what they want, when they want it. 

The whole Homing situation puts a different spin on Doflamingo’s speech during the Marineford War. People who have only known peace can’t understand those who have only known war, and that lack of understanding is what ultimately led to his undoing. 

That’s not to say that the Celestial Dragons are incapable of change on an individual level. One Piece is, ultimately, a very optimistic series, so while I was initially surprised that Saint Mysogard returned during the Reverie chapters as a good guy, upon later reflection it made sense with the points Oda was trying to make during the Fishman Island arc—that if different groups can try to understand one another, they can get along. 

But it took an extraordinary event in almost being killed by his own former slaves and an extraordinary diplomat in Queen Otohime to change the mind of one (1) Celestial Dragon, and it doesn’t look like Saint Mysogard has been able to bring anyone else around to his point of view in the 10 years since he realized he was, in fact, human. And when feel like you’re due everything because you’re a god, why would you want to lower yourself to the position of a lessor being?

 The Celestial Dragons are trained from birth to think of other human(oid) beings as less than animals, where sadism and torture aren’t only encouraged, but celebrated. The system has corrupted to the point where there’s no incentive to change and no oversight to prevent the abuse of power, and with the ability to call the admirals on anyone who pisses them off the average person has no hope of fighting back. It’s difficult to guess how noble the progenitors of the current Celestial Dragons were, but judging by what we know of the Void Century we can guess not very. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine them starting out as the mustache-twirling villains as we see in the current day. The only difference between the Nefertitis and the other kings was one man’s choice to stay with his people. In an alternate universe Vivi could have been a Celestial Dragon.

Now there’s an AU idea.

At the end of the day, the Celestial Dragons play an important role within the One Piece universe, but they are not, by themselves, important to Luffy. He hates their guts and enjoys punching them in the face, but he’s a pirate, not a Revolutionary. The future for One Piece is delightfully opaque, and it’s hard for me to see how the Natural Enemy of God ends up tearing the system to the ground. Will the Straw Hats end up going to space? I don’t know, but there are a lot of people who think it’s at least a possibility.

I personally find them at their most interesting when they’re playing the part of the outside influencer. The Celestial Dragons have only been the direct opponents to the Straw Hats a handful of times, but they’ve played a direct role in the lives of so many other characters—both heroic and villainous—that without them the series could not exist as it currently does. 

And that’s the power of good worldbuilding. I don’t need Luffy to face off against Im to be satisfied with the series. In fact, he was brought in so late that I’ll be a little disappointed if he ends up as the final boss fight. I’m okay with the Revolutionary Army storming Mariejois off-screen, because while those are important players and major chess pieces, that’s never been where Luffy’s focus has been. He’s the man who’s going to become the Pirate King, and until the Celestial Dragons somehow get in the way of that dream he’s not going to bother with them. This lack of focus allows the inherent darkness of the Celestial Dragons not to overshadow the more lighthearted, whimsical aspects of the series. They explore certain themes that are important to One Piece, but the story doesn’t dwell in the mire, and I think it’s all the stronger for it. . 

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Ok, so.

The very first "fight" in BNHA.

There is a Purse Snatcher. Simple as that. Some random dude snatches a purse, off screen. We are never told his name nor why he did it, he just snatches a purse and makes a run for it.

He "gets cornered," doesn't specify why or how but he does, then dude decides to activate his quirk as a last ditch attempt and becomes giant.

The heroes on the scene are Kamui Woods, Backdraft and Death Arms. 3 heroes for one purse snatcher seems a bit too much but whatever, Arms and Backdraft are seemingly on crowd control anyway.

The giant villain, because he's not just a criminal now he's classified as a villain due to having used his Quirk with criminal intent, fights Kamui Woods, or more specifically screams at him to "go away" and "leave him alone" as he gets whipped by tree branches.

Kamui Woods calls the Purse Snatcher "pure evil" for, and I quote, "Illegal Use of Abilities during rush hour, robbery and assault."

You know... Because he snatched a purse. And his attempt to escape authorities is currently causing a mild inconvenience on the civilians "downstairs."

Anyway, as this happens, Izuku is in a crowd of onlookers staring at the spectacle, caused by the road getting shit due to the fight. People express various emotions from annoyance to awe at the fight, and it symbolises that this is normal shit for them.

Izuku nerds out over the fight at the heroes, and some random guy in the crowd comments on how he's taking notes on the fight, and wishes him good luck on becoming a hero.

This random man doesn't know of Izuku's condition as Quirkless.

Anyway, before Kamui Woods can trap the purse snatcher in his branches, Mt Lady, a 4th hero, shows up and kicks the villain. She also has a gigantification quirk, and her attack cause several property damages in the area.

Mt. Lady is awarded the glory of the arrest, while Kamui Woods is seen in the background sulking over having his victory stolen, as Izuku comments during the narration on how famous heroes have a guaranteed high government pay and the adoration of the public.

The scene ends with a close up of Mt. Lady wide, manic eyes as she basks in the adoration of her fans, as the Purse Snatcher, now normal sized, is covered in chains and muzzled for some fucking reason.

This scene could STRAIGHT UP be used in any deconstruction of the superhero genre as a allegory for how corrupt the system is, and is yet played completely straight, SOMEHOW.

Like... The dehumanisation of the criminal by the heroes, the excessive use of force, the fact all they care is seemingly fame and money, the crowds finding none of this weird as they cheer on in what is basically an active warzone, the fucking... Random dude supporting Izuku while not knowing his condition as a "Genetically Inferior Individual" while everyone else in his life but his mom belittles him for him...

This is a fucking deconstruction piece. This could have been played incredibly well simply by starting from here and working on it, Izuku trying to fight the prejudice over him being Quirkless by becoming a hero only to then realize that he can't change the systen from within, because at some point he becomes the "diversity hire," because capitalism in the 24th century being no different from the one in the 21th after all.

How about we get a little bit more on the purse snatcher too? Why did he end up committing one crime? How was his life changed from it? Dude has a mutation quirk too bring in the fact Mutation Quirk people are also discriminated against, bring in Quirk Marriages and all the other eugenic bullshit that goes on in the setting while you're at it, but FUCKING question it in a timely manner and organically through your MAIN FUCKING CHARACTER rather than having some random ass villain force society to change for the worst as the literal child soldiers getting trained in the nation top military academy try to keep the status quo in FUCKING place.

Otherwise we end up with the "bad guy has valid point, but bad guy kills people, so why should we follow him?" Except worse because all villains in BNHA who want to change the world in BNHA either want MORE of a Police State like Stain or want the fucking Mafia or some other big crime syndacate to rule a virtually unchanged society, so no one among neither heroes or villains is trying to offer the right fucking solution here.

And if they do, it'll probably be after 100 more chapters of stuff happening and it will be from out of fucking nowhere.

[365days365movies]

January 20, 2021: Taken (2008)

Well, I know one thing about this movie. He’s gonna find ‘em. And he’s gonna kill ‘em. And also, Luc Besson didn’t direct this movie! Yeah, my bad, he wrote this movie. But, then, he also wrote Leon, so I wasn’t entirely wrong. Anyway, 2008!

I remember this year well. Obama was elected the first Black president of the United States of America; the Olympics took place in Beijing, months after a massive earthquake in Sichuan; the Large Hadron Collider was totally gonna make a black hole; and, of course, the most important news event of that year: Iron Man and The Dark Knight came out.

And of course, the film Taken came out, creating what is arguably the most repeated film meme ever. Or, at the very least, it’s WAY up there. It’s a 12-year old meme at this point, but lemme tell ya: this thing was HUGE in 2008. Not the movie itself, just the meme. And I could lie and tell you that I’m watching this movie because it’s another French action thriller, and it’s fitting, but…

...it’s the meme. It’s 100% the meme, I’m not gonna lie to you guys. So, uh...yeah, Taken, let’s do this. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Recap

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is dreaming of his daughter and wife. In the modern day, he brings a birthday gift to his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), and his bitter ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen), who is married to a very wealthy man, Stuart (Xander Berkeley). Bryan, meanwhile, is a recent and comparatively poor retiree, whose friends come over for a night of drinks.

Retiree from what, you ask? Well, it’s likely the CIA, given that his friends refer to military missions and Langley. They invite him to join security detail for a pop star, Sheerah (Holly Valance), In the process, he saves her from crazed fans, including a knife-wielding assailant. Not sure why that guy wants to LITERALLY STAB HER, but somebody needs to look into that guy!

Out of gratitude, Sheerah gives Bryan some references to give to his daughter, who wants to be a singer, apparently. However, when he sees her and Lenore the next day, all she wants from him is permission to go on a trip to Paris with her friends. When he shows his doubts for her safety, she’s upset, and his wife berates him for...government and military service? I mean, that stuff breaks up marriages, of course, but GODDAMN, Lenore’s bitter about it! Whoof.

Bryan’s definitely being made to be sympathetic, while Lenore’s the opposite of that. And Bryan’s understandably worried about his daughter’s safety, as she’ll be abroad. And we get the idea that Bryan’s a bit of a helicopter parent, but...c’mon! He’s underage daughter is asking to go to Paris with her friends! It’s cause for a parent to be worried, and yet Lenore is like, “She needs to be freeeeeeeeeee!” And that’s made even WORSE by the fact that both of them lie to Bryan, a father who clearly loves his daughter, because she’s actually following U2 on a music tour around Europe!

Which...really? U2? Who the hell can stand that much Bono, for their ENTIRE EUROPEAN TOUR? Anyway, what I’m saying is, Lenore sucks, and I’m not Kim’s biggest fan either. But I get the feeling that, given the one thing I know about this movie...Bryan’s gonna be proven right. So Kim and her friend, Amanda (Katie Cassidy) go to Europe, alone, despite Bryan’s understandable misgivings. 

They IMMEDIATELY get hit on by Peter, a French boy who gives them a ride. He invites them to a party, Amanda accepts for them, and this is OBVIOUSLY A BAD IDEA. That’s even further confirmed by Peter making a mysterious call, telling the other person about the girls’ location. Kim doesn’t call Bryan, as promised, and Amanda is clearly a TERRIBLE influence. Looks like Bryan was completely right to be concerned, if his daughter’s gonna be so irresponsible. Oh, also because they’re about to get kidnapped.

Luckily, Kim had called Bryan just before, after realizing that he had called her, and he guides her through the upcoming kidnapping. With his help, although she gets kidnapped, Bryan is able to figure out that the kidnappers are Albanian, and that one of them is a six-foot tall bearded man with a moon and star tattoo on his right hand DAMN THAT’S OBSERVANT. But still...she’s been Taken.

Someone picks up the phone...and he says the speech.

Had to do it, folks. It’s the most iconic scene in the film. Time for action! Bryan calls a friend with Langley connections, then goes straight to Lenore and Stuart’s place, who find out that BRYAN WAS FUCKING RIGHT GODDAMMIT HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW 

 Having COMPLETELY FUCKED UP, Lenore asks Bryan to get her back safely. They actually figure out that the men who kidnapped her are professional sex-traffickers, who specialize in kidnapping travelling women and putting them in prostitution. But they tend to disappear...within 96 Hours. That’s how long Bryan has to find her, as well as being an alternate title for this film!

The time limit, by the way, is a common construct for the action-thriller. You know, “she has 12 hours to live,” that kind of deal. Thrillers are going to be peppered throughout this year, and there are a few coming up as well, so might as well start with this one, right?

Bryan flies to Paris, then makes his way to the apartment, tracing Kim’s steps up to her kidnapping. He also finds her destroyed phone, alongside an SD card with photos. From this, he gets a blurry look at Peter. I get the feeling that his face isn’t about to look much better. Speaking of, Peter’s playing his old tricks at the airport, and is caught by Bryan. Painfully caught. After Bryan fights off another guy, and chases Peter up a road, Peter also gets caught by karma.

80 hours left. Having exhausted options, Bryan meets an old contact, Jean-Claude (Olivier Rabourdin), who tells him where the Albanians hang out. He hires an Albanian translator, then heads for a prostitute-heavy area. He harrangues a prostitute until her manager comes out, whom he puts a small microphone on. With the translator’s help, he discovers that they’re having “merchandise problems” at a construction site. 

Following a hunch, he makes his way there, and sees several drug-addicted young women in a makeshift brothel. Also there is his daughter’s jacket. The prostitute that has it, however, is not exactly cognitively sound at the moment. So...she’s Taken. By Bryan, who fights his way out of the brothel and construction site, with gunshots, explosions, and car chases along the way.

Bryan brings the girl back to a hotel, where he somehow gets ahold of an IV and medicine, and detoxes her in the room. Which, given the time frame and other factors...seems like a very large risk to take for testimony that, let’s be honest, right not exist. Still, as this is happening, he gets a call from Jean-Claude, asking to meet.

56 hours left. After 7 people dead, a destroyed trailer, and 3 people injured (and probably stolen medicine from a hospital, let’s be honest), Bryan isn’t exactly the best friend of the French government. He escapes police custody and heads back to the hotel, where the girl is cogent enough to remember where she got the jacket: from Kim herself, at the house with the red door on the road of paradise. No, really.

Bryan gets to the house, and poses as Jean-Claude...badly. He apparently passes his bluff check, and takes advantage of a corrupt police system, and makes them give him protection money. Over the course of the conversation, he figures out that one of them is Marco. Which means that he found him. And he said that when he found him…

After that spree is done, he searches the facility and looks for Kim. He doesn’t find her...but he does find Amanda. And sadly, he’s too late for her. Turns out, though, that he didn’t kill Marko (Arben Bajraktaraj), the leader of the group. And of course not! He has some questions.

Bryan tortures Marko using electricity, and he reveals that Kim’s been sold quickly, as she is a virgin. She’s been sold to Patrice Saint-Clair (Gerard Watkins), although Marko doesn’t know where he is. And so, Bryan fulfills his promise, and electrocutes him. He then makes his way to meet Jean-Claude at his home. And, uh...that’s when he crosses a line.

...Um. Bryan shot his wife. And yeah, Jean-Claude’s clearly not on the up-and-up, but he’s not directly complicit in the kidnapping of his daughter. And yeah, he’s in Bryan’s way, but JESUS CHRIST DUDE. He officially loses the moral high-ground here for me, even if his cause is just. Jean-Claude concedes, and Bryan gets the information that he’s looking for and leaves, knocking Jean-Claude out in the process.

Bryan goes to the Saint-Clair residence, where an auction is taking place for various young women. The last of these is, of course, Kim. Having barged into a booth of one of the buyers, he forces him to buy Kim (ew). Unfortunately, he’s caught and chained to a pipe, where Saint-Clair’s henchmen are about to kill him. But, of course...

Bryan escapes and kills Saint-Clair in the process, but not before finding out that Kim’s been Taken to a boat. He obtains a car, and after a length (and seizure-inducing) car chase, gets onto the boat, which is owned by the Sheik, a man of unknown Arabic origin. And yeah, in case you were wondering, this feels very...VERY...wrong. It’s brief, yeah, but...you gave a rich Arabic guy multiple wives obtained through illegal means and made them the main villain? FUCKIN’ OOF BRUV

Anyway, as expected, Bryan kicks the asses of everybody on the boat, and finally rescues Kim, killing the Sheik in the process. The two have a tearful embrace, and Bryan NEVER LETS HER OUT OF HIS SIGHT AGAIN PROBABLY. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT BONO. THIS IS ALL YOUR GODDAMN FAULT.

Well, Bryan wins the I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG GODDAMIT award, Kim gets to go home and meet that singer from before, Lenore gives Bryan some consideration as a human being for once, Stuart stepfathers, and that’s Taken! Also, WHERE IN THE HELL ARE AMANDA’S PARENTS, A GIRL IS DEAD

Epilogue soon!

[victorie552onepiecespeedrun]

Reading One Piece pt 146: Robin Gets Beat Up

Chapter 382

Thoughts:

- Fpos/cs: what the heck, it’s Mr.3. What is he doing on Vacation Island? I mean metaphorically, I can see he’s trying to escape. How did he even got here. And damn, he’s really committed to his 3s, isn’t he

- More battle

- Aw, Sanji got the reins! This is great for some reason

- Meanwhile, CP9 finally made Franky stop trying to eat Spandam

- Spandam is trying to be a cool villain now. It’s too late for that bro

- Oh, he’s talking about Iceburg now?

- Ah, he’s complaining how much of a great businessman Iceburg is, he made himself untouchable, even for government (for a time at least). You go, Iceburg

- Admiral Aokiji mention!

- Ok, he’s basically retelling what we already knew before. Do we have to listen to this

- “Why would Aokiji entrust you with the power of the Buster Call?” You know what Robin, I am mystified too. I mean, giving Buster Call privileges to  shady organization like Cp9? That make sense, though I don’t approve. Giving these privileges to Spandam personally? No, just no

- …he just hit her. Spandam just hit Robin.

- Uh

- Ok then. Beyond unnecessary but villain gotta villain I guess

- “You should at least be thankful!” uhm. No

- Don’t you tell her she’s about to be tortured and stuff! Goddamn, she’s not even restrained! I don’t know about CP9 but YOU can be killed by her in literal seconds, Spandam! At least try to use your brain

- Ok, WHY is everyone telling her very existence is sinful, this is nonsense. She’s the only one who gets that treatment

- “oh yeah, by the way, your ex-boss is here” way to tell her about Luffy, man

- “He’s probably have been caught by the guards by now!” AHAHAHAHAHAHA denial still going strong, I see

- “He’ll be taken to Impel Down” lol, no

- Robin’s super shaken by this

- She says they promised to leave Straw Hats alone if she’ll go with them. Spandam says they promised to let them leave Water Seven in peace

- I mean. They kept that promise, Robin. And it’s not like they can leave Straw Hats alone while Straw Hats demolish their main base. You got lawyered, Robin

- Franky is telling Robin to save her breath, they aren’t worth arguing with

- The heck is Spandam doing. Is he kicking both of them

- Spandam is laughing maniacally now

- You can die together… You’re powerless before the great Justice.” *rolls eyes* Justice this, Justice that, I wonder if they know what that word even means

- Luffy is still hitting things

- Ok, so Spandam wants guards to take Robin to Marine HQ but Franky goes to Impel Down

- Huh? Looks like Lucci has enough of Spandam talking. Can’t blame him. And he doesn’t care for Spandam’s ideas of rewards

- “Well then, what do you want?”

- “Blood” WOW OK calm down, Terminator. Didn’t think you are the type but you clearly are

- Hah, Spandam got scared of him for a second. And he’s happy about it!

- “What promising individuals! Now I feel like I won’t lose to anyone!” Spandam really likes his power trips

- (Spandam is a really good villain. He’s a bad person obviously but as a character? Scheming corrupted official with petty ambitions dreaming of fame and power he totally shouldn’t get but totally does cause he’s a bastard in a bastard system? Beautiful. I am impressed. Good job, Oda)

- Luffy got to the Courthouse. This is where CP9 is, right

- Hm?

- Freddy! No! Get out!

- Looks like Freddy (Blueno The Door Guy) and Luffy will fight

Is it me or is Lucci like crazy?

rOP 145  rOP 147

[lilyaquarius]

I think my favorite thing about One Piece’s many plotlines is the one involving the Revolutionary Army. Like, they are portrayed as a force for good, if not unambiguously, certainly the majority. Every member we see is someone who was made a victim of a very corrupt world government. 

A government who: 

1. whitewashes history, 

2. allows the super-rich to literally do whatever they want without any legal repercussions, 

3.make very shady deals to keep their power, 

4. uses propaganda to control the masses, 

5. flat out lie, 

6. Oh yeah, allow the super-rich to own slaves. 

The Marines and World Government say they uphold justice but really they just kotow and obey the One Piece world’s 1% and the world is running rampant with pirates and other outlaws, more than half of whom are direct victims of this corruption.

Oda doesn’t sugar coat anything and I appreciate that. Of all the villains in One Piece, it is a corrupt and inefficient government that’s the greatest enemy to not just the heroes but the world as a whole. The Revolutionary Army is working to remove these people in power and create a better system of government. From the standpoint of a Western viewer that’s a very interesting concept because we never see that here. Where we see a corrupt government that must be brought down for the good of the people. I can’t recall ever seeing a revolutionary army/rebellion that was portrayed as the great force for good except maybe Star Wars but that’s got its own issues I’m not going to get into.

What I’m saying is no one here in the U.S. would ever create something like that, especially now. That’s why I appreciate Oda creating this. Because I feel like we need to read and realize that if a corrupt government is in power then it needs to be removed and replaced with a better one, which is a good thing. 

[randomthingsthatilike1]

Honestly remember season 1 and Maxwell Lord was taken into the DEO without due process and that's when James was like hey maybe the DEO actually isn't good. At all. And he was right but at the time he was only talking about humans at the time, and how they were treating humans. But what if this led his season 2 arc, with him as the head of this massive media company was James realizing that the DEO is actually alien Guantanamo.

These aliens had at minimum 24 years of being locked up, since that was how long Kara was in The Phantom Zone. We have no idea how long they were sentenced there for, or even for what. And what we know is that the DEO would then capture the alien, take them in, and decide whether or not they will be locked up forever and probably horrible confinement with no sunlight, or cell mates, or any chance of parole. Just look at that tiny cell Astra had. There is no parole, they are there forever without any kind of due process or rights, with agents possibly also conducting experiments on them, like they did with Astra and Kryptonite. They literally tortured Astra--and have you ever seen an alien prisoner with a lawyer? I haven't.

Jonn had to pretend to be Hank for over a decade--Hank, who clearly had a bunch of friends in the military as we see in that ep where Alex is interrogated by Lucy in s1. You can't all of a sudden be an alien lover and have extremely Progressive views. Maybe he can gradually and arbitrarily make changes, like letting go of the professor of astronomy that we see, who Hank probably would have kept imprisoned, or doing his best to recruit people who aren't all hardcore xenophobes. But it's not enough.

The DEO literally play judge, jury, and executioner with alien lives.

am not exaggerating when I say this is alien Guantanamo

and James realizing this, especially realizing this when he remembers that they shot Kara out of the sky with Kryptonite and locked her up before letting her go. It's almost a survival thing for Kara to work with them, because this could be her. And it's one thing when it is all the Fort Rozz aliens trying to kill her, but what about all the other aliens in national city?

And do you know who's also end up being on his side? Someone he talks to as a point to be like yes this is the alternative we need, James isn’t just going to be like “this is wrong,” oh no, he’s going to have a solution and ideas of how to make the system better, an alternate especially since right now it seems like for any crime aliens get life sentences. Who this would bring him into contact with? Detective Maggie Sawyer from National City Police Department's science branch. And oh look. Now we also have a cohesive storyline for Maggie that exists outside of Alex.

And that's definitely one way to cause conflict between James and Kara, temporarily breaking them up. Because yes Alex definitely took the job in case they ever came after Kara--she straight out says multiple times she did this to protect Kara, because as she was before she couldn't take on the DEO, and this would give her hours, maybe days of warning that she might need to grab Kara and run-- but it was also a Lifeline when she was struggling. and there's also a fact that most of the aliens Alex encounters wouldn't hesitate to try and kill Aluras daughter if they knew about her, and she says in season one that J'onn told her that they were going to save the world. She then makes a point that she can't distinguish between aliens and humans anymore, but we don't really see that in DEO policies, other than they'll now take in humans with powers as well as aliens. To do what she does, Alex needs to believe that she's in the right-- and tbh it kind of reminds me about border patrol dynamics w their family members(when I went to El Paso,TX--and this is from both undocumented immigrants and the border patrol themselves--they mentioned that several border patrol agents would have family members who were there illegally and it's just the dynamic they live with it's definitely an interesting but complicated topic).

This entire media war would definitely place James at odds with Alex. And even if Kara understands (even if it's a truth Kara doesn't want to acknowledge because so much of her life is hard and complicated and she doesn't want to think about how tenuous her freedom really is, and what she's maybe done for the past year), both Kara and Alex choose each other first, always. It's not a man (or racism) who breaks up Kara and James. And James understands, he does, and he hopes that one day maybe Kara will stop being scared of what could happen (and if she is, its because hes helped shape a world where she wont be)--but it's not going to stop him.

This is what's right. This isn't bs contrived drama--god, the metaphor and symbolism alone, about a black man being in control of the media narrative of the xenophobic practices of shady government law enforcement that do what they want to a vulnerable minority population, shaping public opinion, acting as the moral compass of the show? Mindblowing

This is how James Olsen can end up being a guardian for others. Not with his fists, or against muggers. Because this is something he can do that Kara can't. Kara may be a reporter, can go against a thousand corrupt politicians and institutions potentially--but not the DEO. She can't do this--as an alien, she's under their purview. But James, as a civilian and a human, isn't. Kara Danvers may be somewhat of a big name for a few select journalism circles by being Cat's assistant for 3 years but that’s a selective circle (and how many nights do you think Kara stays up late, trying to avoid thinking about what scenario would make the DEO come after her, or how many times they almost did, how much information they collected on her, before she ever became Supergirl) James said it himself--he took that picture, and now everyone knows his name.

This is not about punches and fighting--this is how James can frame the narrative to shape public opinion and make change on a global scale. He's not some random reporter the DEO can disappear, or intimidate into compliance. He just became the head of an international media company, and he’s publicly known as Superman’s best friend--this has nothing to do with Superman, but he, with all his fragile humanity, has been threatened and intimidated by every single goddamn villain Superman has gone against and came out the other side breathing. Sure he’s scared, but when has that ever stopped him?

He’s James fucking Olsen, and he’ll hold his head high as he does what’s right.

[kimmytalks]

So I basically live on Netflix like any typical university student. I spend a lot of time browsing through the endless catalogue that netflix offers and I completely understand how annoying it can be to spend so much time finding something to watch.  I compiled a list of some of my spring favourites of shows I’ve recently watched!  It’s sorted by genre to make it LOADS easier to find something depending on what you’re feeling. If you find something you like, check it out and spread the word! Let me know what you think of the show! I’d love to discuss your favourite characters and gush about it!

Marvel Shows 

DAREDEVIL

“You were right... what you told me over the radio that night. Not everyone deserves a happy ending. ”

The “devil of hell’s kitchen” A.K.A Matthew Murdock steals the show as New York City’s very own blind vigilante (who also has a job as a defense attorney). It will literally leave you on the edge of your seat. There are two seasons, two villains that Daredevil goes up against while fighting a bigger underlying villain in New York City.  There is SO much action, there’s romance, it’s electric and everything you would want in a TV show. 

Plot: ✰✰✰✰

Action: ✰✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character: Elektra Natchois, Matthew Murdock

Overall: ✰✰✰✰✰

LUKE CAGE

“You know why everyone wants to be the king? Cause of the crown.”

Meet Luke Cage, a bullet-proof black man in NYC. Loyal to Harlem, Luke decides to start using his abilities to start cracking down on the unusual crimes in the area. 

This show has amazing dynamics, all of the characters work hand in hand with each other and the bonus is that you get to meet some other important characters such as Claire Temple, Misty Knight and Jessica Jones. The story line is moving, the action is incredible and i loved how unapologetically black it was. 

Plot: ✰✰✰✰ 

Action: ✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes, Luke Cage

Overall: ✰✰✰✰

THE PUNISHER

“Those who do evil to others - the killers, the rapists, psychos, sadists - you will come to know me well. Frank Castle is dead. Call me... The Punisher.”

Frank Castle is a murderous vigilante in NYC. I’m going to give you guys a bit of a warning, it is VERY brutal and gory.  To fully understand the backstory of Frank you have to watch Daredevil Season 2. He’s back from the “dead” and has new battles and villains to face, including someone very close to him. You get to fully understand the way Frank’s mind works...to an extent and how corrupt the U.S government really is.  I’m someone who doesn’t mind gore so I really enjoyed this and the story line will keep you on edge. 

Plot: ✰✰✰✰

Action: ✰✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Frank Castle

Overall: ✰✰✰✰

Drama

DYNASTY

“The Carrington impulse is to throw money at a problem and if that doesn't work, lie.”

From the FIRST episode this show leaves you gasping for air. Who doesn’t love watching rich people’s drama? The Carrington’s are one hell of a family, tons of drama and money crowd them. There’s mistresses, secrets, lies and murder (just like any good drama). 

This show honestly will make you laugh with Fallon’s wits and sarcasm as well as her raunchiness. The show also brings up some good social discussions such as immigration and racism. If you’re a fan of shows like Empire and Scandal you’ll definitely want to check out Dynasty.

Plot: ✰✰✰✰✰

Drama: ✰✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Fallon Carrington, Steven Carrington

Overall: ✰✰✰✰✰

RIVERDALE

“I don't follow the rules. I make them. And when necessary, I break them.”

Riverdale has kind of gotten confusing this season but the drama still prevails. I was a huge fan of the Archie comics as a kid so I do actually really enjoy the spin CW has taken with it.

It’s full of drama, heartbreak, conspiracies and friendship ordeals. The core 4 (Betty, Jughead, Veronica, Archie) solve murder mysteries in their small once innocent town. They stand up in social movements and protest against issues that would ruin the social well-being of the town. 

If you like murder mysteries, witty teens and  small town drama, you’ll want to check this one out if you havent already. 

Plot: ✰✰✰

Drama: ✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Betty Cooper, Toni 

Overall: ✰✰✰

STAR

“You and I have very different ideas of nothing. I've had to scratch and claw for everything I've got. So when someone hands me a credit card, that street bitch just comes out.”

I’M SO MAD THIS SHOW ISN’T GETTING MORE RECOGNITION. 

It follows three young girls who become a music trio in Atlanta. This show’s acting is incredible and the drama will continue to keep you on your seat. It EVEN deals with very real issues, even incorporating some recent social justice movements in the episodes.

The shows talks about current issues such as: racism (episodes dedicated to Black Lives Matter), the foster care system, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and addiction. I loved every minute of Season 1 and it leaves on such a huge cliffhanger!!! 

Bonus: The music is INCREDIBLE, and can be found on spotify as well.

Plot: ✰✰✰✰

Drama: ✰✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Alex Crane

Overall: ✰✰✰✰✰ 

SCI-FI

THE 100

“Who we are and who we need to be to survive are very different things ”

The 100 is honestly one of my favourite shows ever (with the exception of Season 3). It’s everything I would want in a post-apocalyptic show about delinquents in space. 

These kids are incredibly witty, smart and brave-hearted. Imagine being a kid thrown to a radioactive  Earth and having to fight for your lives against the Earth and enemies. There’s romance, there’s so much action and you get to admire the main characters of the show as if they were your own friends. In the first few seasons they’re fighting against the grounders (people who survived the radiation on Earth), then they make an alliance, it’s broken a few times and now they have to go back to space because Earth is now uninhabitable again. There is a Grounders plot which is also pretty well done but I prefer the scientific plot that the show started with. You’ve probably seen tons of GIFS on here about The 100 so what are you waiting for?

Plot: ✰✰✰✰

Drama/Action: ✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Raven Reyes, Bellamy Blake

Overall: ✰✰✰✰

COMING OF AGE / TEEN TV SHOWS

END OF THE F**KING WORLD

"It’s strange. A lot of the time you don’t register the important moments as they happen. You only see that they were important when you look back."

If you enjoyed Skins you’ll probably enjoy watching James and Alyssa accidentally become fugitives after they get bored and run away from home. 

This show is honestly a mix of everything and I absolutely loved every minute of it. If you have a dark sense of humour, you’ll enjoy the witty remarks from James and Alyssa alike. They’re an odd pair the both of them but they care for each other a lot and watching their relationship progress through ten episodes (needs to be more). 

The quotes are powerful they make you think about life, love, sex, relationships and everything in between.

Plot: ✰✰✰

Drama/Action: ✰✰✰

Favorite Character: James

Overall: ✰✰✰✰

THE GET DOWN

“This ain’t Disneyland, this s*** is the f*****g Bronx. Either you be strong, or you be gone. All I find, all I keep. Either you beat the world, or you get beat.” 

First of all, I am so sad Netflix decided not to renew this gem of a show. It follows a group of kids in the hip-hop/disco scene in New York City, specifically the Bronx. 

I really enjoyed this show, it was really different and I loved the musical numbers included in it. The fashion was everything and every single character is so lovable. 

The show also discusses the poverty in their community and the gang violence that surrounds them. This post doesn’t do it enough justice but seriously, it’s awesome and you should check it out.

Plot: ✰✰✰✰

Drama/Action: ✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Marcus “Dizzee” Kipling, Mylene Cruz

Overall: ✰✰✰✰

ON MY BLOCK

This one is basically hot off of Netlix’s production company, it came out March 16th. It’s currently on it’s first season and has a total of ten episodes! (Super-easy to binge and re-watch) Where do I even begin with this show? It made me so nostalgic of being in high school and I honestly wish I had a squad like this during those years. It follows Monse, Cesar, Olivia, Ruby and Jamal through their first year of high school freshmen and all the ordeals that come with your first year of high school. There’ the boy drama, figuring out who you are, helping your friends and all that stuff everyone remembers from high school. But throw in the fact that these kids live in an inner city, they have more issues they’re dealing with such as gang violence in their community.The show also does a pretty okay job at discussing the racial issues all of the characters face (such as Olivia’s parents deportation) cultural appropriation and Monse’s struggle with her mother leaving her. I honestly fell in love with this show and all of the characters. If you’re looking for a good pick me up show this is the one to watch. They’re a really dynamic group of kids to watch and honestly who can’t help but laugh at Ruby’s sarcastic remarks? Or even Jamal’s constant clap-backs and schemes with Ruby’s Abuelita. The season finale will leave you in tears so don’t say I didn’t warn you! (which is why I need all of you to watch it right now so we can get it renewed for season 2!)

Plot: ✰✰✰✰✰

Drama/Action: ✰✰✰✰

Favorite Character:  Honestly? All of them I can’t choose a favourite.

Overall: ✰✰✰✰✰

[stvrmwitch]

||| TEALIGHT |||

day six: major themes

As mentioned here, I’m working from this list and these are just some of the most relevant based on an incomplete first draft.

GOOD VS. BAD – Considering this world has literal heroes and villains, this is a fairly obvious one. Easy goes from a childhood that exists in stark black & white to understanding it’s infinitely more complicated than that. There’s not a lot of middle ground for the A-listers, but the further away from the celebrity and politics of it, the more human and delicate the line becomes. 

Easy eventually makes peace with the impossibility of being one or the other at all times, but she tries to be good. Nash fights for her own sense of justice, a bit lawful neutral, that one. Handler is all bad, any good he puts into the world is incidental. Not wholly true, but it’s the way he sees himself. 

Lydia is interesting because she’s tangential to the superhero system at best. That doesn’t negate her moral compass, but as far as Heroes & Villains, it’s a curiosity not a lifestyle. Easy places high value on Lydia’s opinions, so Lydia is something of an anchor when Easy is drifting through her seas of moral gray.

POWER + CORRUPTION – Think Game of Thrones but Gay™ and no inc*st. The whole institution of superheroes is a royally fkd up. Wealth and popularity dictate who sits in power. Superheroes, not just people with powers but Superheroes™, are often locked into a lifelong deal as a weapon and/or prop for their government. The villains aren’t all saints, some just like being bags of dicks for fun. But they’re all products of a corrupt system and this ties heavily into the theme of good vs. bad.

COMPANIONSHIP AS SALVATION – Not one of these characters trusts easily, and they have good reasons to be apprehensive. Still, they’re better together. The found family trope is strong in this one. Dysfunctional? Majorly. Still family. Handler is like their Peter Hale (creepy uncle for the non Teen Wolf readers). Nash is the mom but like a ‘WIll Cut You’ mom. That sort of makes Easy the kid and Lydia the daughter in law. My point is, they need each other and by the end they don’t hate needing each other. 

CHANGE VS. TRADITION – I’m being very careful to avoid making Easy some sort of Chosen One (just a personal disinterest), but there’s a strict system in play that she’s toying with by turning vigilante. Especially when she’s at dead center of the public eye. Even more especially when she’s got the public’s favor. There’s a lot of power and influence to Easy’s actions, which affects the world around her. She didn’t ask to be drawn back in, and she’s not playing by their rules. Big change is a natural consequence.

HEROISM - REAL AND PERCEIVED – Easy, Nash, and Handler each live double lives. Differently, but double nonetheless. Beyond them, agendas are so misaligned most of the time none of it should work at all. And if you’re looking closely, maybe it’s not working. Linking those thoughts: deceit and schemes are common on both the “good” and “bad” sides of superabilities. People may benefit from heroic acts, but the acts themselves are hardly born of altruism. Perception is key to everything because maybe heroes don’t exist.

1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7

[magicalgirlagency]

Hey! I just found out your blog and i love you Wondaria world! (It was a little complicated at firts because there SO MUCH characters but i dont regret it xd) and i have two ask for you. You did WBMR/HH to Aoyama? And what do you think about all that is happening with him in the manga?i'll be honets, It was because of your blog that I caught up with BNHA, because after season 3 I lost some interest and I got worried when you talked about how it drain you, so I started watching anime and manga arc summaries (not even joking I'll watch all that amount of chapters) and well... I'll just say that I've never been so worn out in my life :). The arc of the war left me bad, especially what happened to nemuri, and the whole thing with the traitor and Aoyama... it didn't leave me better :"). I know that a story has to have conflicts, and I don't expect that world of BNHA is perfect, but I feel that the author is exaggerating too much. Considering everything that the characters are going through now, it seems like a whim that they want to add aoyama's betrayal (which is honestly unnecessary, because the fact that the league of villains always know where they are going, it can be explained by the simple fact that UA makes VERY public anything they do with their students, for example the tournament, they literally show their identities on national television :/) and if that were not enough, I think it's very hypocritical that they treat Aoyama like that (okay, what he did wasn't nice but he didn't have many options to say) when they're completely fine with Endeavor (okay, maybe they just do it because they need his strength but I still don't like it) Im sorry if this is too long, it's that I needed to unburden myself. Dont fell push to answer this, i know that you probably dont want to know anything that is happening in the manga.

Oh, wow; that's one darn long ask! Let's take one step at a time, shall we? Alright...

I'm so glad you enjoy my dream universe! It's a neat coping method for me to help me deal with the constant frustrations caused by stupid narrative decisions, and I'm surprised at how much it has grown! Honestly, I still think that there are some more Heroes and civilians to be rescued and I'm still waiting for more to be requested, but I've gathered quite a good amount of refugees so far! Not to toot on my own horn here, but I think I'm doing a better job than most showrunners out there!

I agree. Like, not only BnHA has become one huge false advertisement, it has become very VERY condenscending, like a show from The CW. Horikoshi's trying to send some sociopolitical message about how the system is horribly flawed and how the villains were right all along, but he has transformed it all into Evangelion but with Superheroes, just like how OG Madoka Magica is Evangelion but with Magical Girls (and the fact that he actually marathoned Evangelion with Gege Akutami does not help). Also, it feels like the mangaka doesn't know what the message of his story should be... like, in one moment the characters talk about how the Hero Society is unfair and corrupt, but then on another moment they say that the government and the police knows what they're doing, aS IF THEY HAVEN'T PLAYED A PART IN THE DISCRIMINATION AND EUGENICS OF SOCIETY. And NO, I will absolutely not feel sorry for Shigaraki and Dabi, or any of the other villains; it's hard to root for the villain when they have zero remorse about torturing, raping and/or murdering all those innocents to "prove their point". Just because they have been hurt that doesn't give them the right to hurt others (specially if they have nothing to do with how society is broken).

Yes, I know about Aoyama. But do not worry, I've filled in a WBMR/HHP request for him way before the revelation. I personally think it's dumb, not only for the reasons you've told me, but also because Aoyama is a side-character, and he hasn't been given the same amount of exposure as the main characters. Horikoshi thinks he's being smart and that he is good at foreshadowing like the veteran Eichiiro Oda, but no, he's not. Like, there was no hint of Aoyama being the traitor (or any other UA student, for that matter) prior to the revelation; we only learn about what he has been doing behind the scenes AFTER we learn that he's the traitor! And we all know that if a certain action is done off-screen (specially if it's CRUCIAL to canon), it's not good story-telling.

Of course, I haven't forgotten Nemuri. She has been requested and done, as well. I had a hunch that some female character was going to kick the bucket anyways; you know how the Shounen genre isn't keen on developing women of agency...

As for Endeavor... you all already know that I hate his guts; but when I say this is because I wanna see the consequences of his actions coming at him HARD. Like, I don't mind Shouto forgiving him in the end (FYI: Your trauma is still valid even if you end up forgiving your abuser), but I want an ending where he leaves Rei and her children alone for good; he's already aware that he doesn't deserve to be forgiven anyways. Like, make him turn himself to the authorities and be sent to jail; or make him permadie in the final battle! When someone asked me about his "redemption arc", I've tried to write an angsty one-shot, where I came up with a final fate for him (emphasis on TRIED. Angst is not my forte).

And lastly, but not least important, I honestly cannot wait for BnHA to end for good. It had gigantic amounts of potential to be a good story, but it's now giving me Superhero Fatigue like Marvel Studios. It's imitating western superheroes and it just keeps grabbing the worst aspects of it! Fuck that shit. Wanna watch a better superhero anime? Go watch Samurai Flamenco. It's crazy, it's cool, it's rightfully gay, it's quite intense, but it's sweet and it won't leave you drained or hurt.