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nsfwhiphop · 3 months ago

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Explanation of Part 2 - The Heavy Burden of Unseen Sacrifice: Why I’m Ready to Reclaim My Time

Subject: "The Cost of Unintended Responsibility: Why I’m Stepping Back"

A Reflection on My Journey: The Exhausting Reality of Unintended Responsibility

When I first started my two blogs, nsfwhiphop.tumblr.com and mindmapoffice.tumblr.com, my intentions were simple. All I wanted to do was share filmmaking videos I found online, videos that inspired me and could potentially inspire others. I never signed up to be a teacher, a mentor, or a guide. Yet, somehow, over time, that’s exactly what I became. My blogs have evolved into something far beyond my original vision—they’ve become lifelines for many of you, my readers. You’ve come to rely on me, on my knowledge, my insights, and my guidance to navigate your battles against forces you deem oppressive. And while I appreciate the trust and respect you’ve placed in me, the truth is, this unintended role has become mentally exhausting, draining, and utterly overwhelming.

Much like Bartleby Gaines in the 2006 film "Accepted," who inadvertently creates a fake college and suddenly finds himself responsible for hundreds of students, I find myself in a position I never intended to occupy. Bartleby didn’t ask to be a dean, and I didn’t ask to be your teacher. But here I am, spending 17 hours a day, from sunup to sundown, managing these blogs, answering your questions, and feeding you the knowledge you crave. And just like in the movie, this situation has spiraled out of control.

The Psychological Toll of Relentless Commitment

Let me be brutally honest: this role I’ve fallen into is not just tiring—it’s soul-crushing. Writing and managing content for 17 hours a day, for nine long months, has taken a severe toll on my mental health. I’ve reached a point of burnout, where the joy I once found in sharing knowledge has been overshadowed by sheer exhaustion. My brain feels like it’s running on empty, creativity is harder to come by, and the pressure to constantly produce high-quality content is immense.

I never wanted to be your lifeline. Yet, many of you have made me that, relying on my words to guide you through your struggles. It’s flattering, yes, but it’s also suffocating. The weight of this responsibility is something I never wanted and never asked for, but I’ve shouldered it nonetheless, perhaps longer than I should have. The anxiety and stress that come with this constant demand are overwhelming, and it’s left me feeling trapped in a cycle I can’t easily escape.

Intellectual Property Theft: The Unseen Battle

On top of this, there’s the issue of intellectual property theft—a bitter pill that only adds to the burden. When someone steals my work, my ideas, and passes them off as their own, it’s not just a legal or financial issue; it’s a deeply personal violation. It feels like a piece of me is being taken away, unrecognized and unappreciated. Over these past months, dealing with such theft has drained me even further. It’s one thing to give freely, as I’ve been doing, but it’s another to have what you’ve given taken without credit, without respect, without acknowledgment. This theft is more than just about lost recognition or money—it’s about the erosion of trust, both in others and in the industry that should protect creators like me.

A Harsh Reality: I Don’t Need This, But You Do

Here’s the reality: I don’t need these blogs. My life, my career, my success doesn’t hinge on them. I’ve reached a level of achievement where I can walk away, focus on my novels, my screenplays, my duties as a leader, and be perfectly fine. But can you? This is the question that gnaws at me. What happens to you, my readers, if I decide to stop? Many of you have become so dependent on my words, my guidance, that the thought of me leaving fills you with dread. But you need to understand that this dependence is not healthy—for you or for me.

If I decide to move on, which I might very well do, you’ll have to fend for yourselves. You’ll need to solve your problems with whatever knowledge you’ve gleaned from my past posts. It might break your hearts, but I can’t continue to sacrifice my mental well-being just because you’ve grown reliant on me. You must realize that while I’ve given you my time and knowledge for free, it’s not something I’m obligated to do. Every moment I spend here is a moment I could be spending on other projects, other passions, other parts of my life.

The Hard Truth: I’m Exhausted

I want to be clear: I’m tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally exhausted. The 17-hour days, the constant pressure to produce, the intellectual property theft—it’s all too much. And I need you to understand that when I say I don’t need this blog, I mean it. I’ve given more than enough, and the time has come for me to consider stepping back, reclaiming my time, and focusing on the things that bring me joy and fulfillment.

But here’s the kicker: I know that when I do this, some of you will label me a jerk, a douche, for prioritizing myself. But that’s a risk I’m willing to take because my time, my peace of mind, is invaluable. I didn’t sign up to be your teacher, and yet, I’ve been doing it for free, out of a desire to help. But now, it’s time for me to help myself.

A Final Thought: Recognize What You’ve Been Given

As I prepare to potentially step back, I ask you to reflect on what you’ve received from me over the years. My time, my knowledge, my expertise—all of it, I’ve given freely, without asking for anything in return. I’m not chasing clout, money, or validation. I’m not here to gain friends or seduce anyone. I’m here because I wanted to share something meaningful, and I’ve done that. But now, it’s time for me to move on, to prioritize my own life, and I need you to respect that decision.

Remember, everything I’ve shared with you has been a gift. My time, my knowledge—it’s all been given freely, and it’s something I could easily take back. So, as you continue to read my blogs, keep this in mind: I’ve done more than my fair share, and if I choose to leave, it’s because I deserve to reclaim my time and my peace.

Angelo The Crown Prince and Future Sultan Somali Royal Family

P.S.:

Synopsis of the letter:

In this letter, Angelo reflects on the unexpected and exhausting responsibility of becoming a teacher and guide to his blog readers, a role he never intended to take on. Originally, his blogs were meant to share filmmaking videos, but over time, they evolved into vital sources of knowledge for many. Angelo expresses feelings of mental exhaustion and burnout from spending 17 hours a day maintaining the blogs, while also dealing with the frustration of intellectual property theft.

Angelo emphasizes that he never signed up for this demanding role, and while his readers have become dependent on his guidance, he does not need the blogs to succeed in life. He asserts that his time and knowledge have been given freely, but now it's time for him to step back and focus on personal projects like writing novels and screenplays. The letter serves as a clear message to his readers that Angelo is ready to reclaim his time and move on, even if it means some readers may struggle without his guidance.

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quoteablebooks · 2 years ago

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Genre: Classic, Fiction,

Rating: 4 out of 5

Trigger Warning: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Death, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury

Summary: (Via Wikipedia)

Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters. It was originally published in three volumes in the 19th century, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 27, and 28 to 38.

The second edition was dedicated to William Makepeace Thackeray.

The novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character. Its setting is somewhere in the north of England, late in the reign of George III (1760–1820). It has five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her mysterious employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester; her time in the Moor House, during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, St John Rivers, proposes to her; and ultimately her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. Throughout these sections, it provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo.

*Opinions*

Writing a review for Jane Eyre seems a little ridiculous as I feel as if even if you haven’t read the novel, you have a good idea about what it is due to either public education or just how often it is talked about in popular culture. No review is objective, but this one is going to be even more subjective as I don’t feel like I need to talk about the plot and characters of the stories as if the person reading the review wouldn’t have any information about those elements. What I will say is that the first time I read Jane Eyre in the 9th grade, I thought it was the more boring thing I had ever read. That would soon be replaced by my all-consuming rage which was having to read The Grapes of Wrath. Now, I am sure I would have a better opinion of The Grapes of Wrath if I went back to read it as an adult, but I kind of reduce to subject myself to that again so we may never know. However, I was forced to read Jane Eyre again in college and found that instead of a slow-paced and boring slog with an annoying main character, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of a penniless orphan who navigated a world that held very little light and kindness without ever losing her sense of self. I understood why we needed to see the cruelty and hardship of Lowood School to inform how Jane was able to manage the trails at both Thornfield Hall and Moor House before the happy conclusion of the novel. As an adult, I like Jane as a character a good deal and while some of her actions are infuriating to a modern reader, for her time she was a rather rebellious female character to be put into the public eye.

The part of the story that struck me the most during this readthrough of the novel is the way that all the men are portrayed by Bronte. John Reed is a villain of the highest degree, if not a psychopath, and ends up dead young by his own hand. Mr. Brocklehurst is a hypocrite on the borderline of being a sadist who, while not losing his position or money, is removed from the running of Lowood when the extreme conditions he had kept the girls until it was discovered. Mr. Rochester is brash, manipulative, and possessive to the point that is not as romantic as when I read the novel as a younger woman. It isn’t until Mr. Rochester is humbled that he is shown to be a good match and equal to Jane. Mr. Mason is seen as weak and sniveling, though attempting to do the right thing. St. John Rivers is self-righteous and brutal, though Bronte multiple times states that he was a Good Christian if not a good man. The only men who are spared this pointed criticism of the sex are the kindly doctor Mr. Lloyd who suggests that Jane be sent to school, and Mr. Reed, her dead uncle, though a young Jane believes his spirit tormented her when locked in the red room, and the various servants who are not given much time or attention aside to move the plot along. Now, it is not uncommon in literature now for men to be shown to be less than upstanding individuals, but for Bronte to show these men as very flawed individuals, especially clergymen, was not as common at the time. It was part of the reason that the novel got a couple scathing reviews after it was published. Now, Mr. Rochester is not a great person, which he readily admits, but I do enjoy the verbal sparring that he and Jane do. I personally like couples that can meet each other on an intellectual level and don’t mind teasing one another. While it is mostly Mr. Rochester teasing Jane due to the power dynamic, because we are in her point of view we know that Jane is his mental equal. While the narrative has to humble Mr. Rochester and help him find his way back to the righteous path for him and Jane to be together, she even states in the epilogue that their minds are like one and talk all day without ever getting bored of one another. That is a much more interesting couple for me to read about than one whose relationship is based on looks or chemistry, but this also isn’t that type of story. Jane Eyre is a classic and has all the benefits and issues that the label entails. It is not a quick read and if you are looking for a fasted paced story, you should really look elsewhere. However, I find a charm in this story about a woman seeming to get everything that she could want, twice, and forging a path that she can be both happy and morally comfortable following. This is a character study about Jane Eyre and I find her a character more than interesting enough to read about again and again at different parts of my life because I am always finding something new.

#Jane Eyre #4 out of 5 Stars #book review #charlotte bronte #booklr

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lorbanery · 11 months ago

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Not me subtweeting another youtube video

Listen

One of the things that I really really appreciated about Hbomberguy's plagiarism video was his pointing out that sometimes people lie because of the attention it gets them. Which is something that a lot of people seem to, like, willfully ignore.

Like, back in the mid-00's there was a common phrase people threw around on the internet: "Why would anyone lie about being [oppressed identity]?" Usually followed up by a sarcastic list of the "benefits" of being said identity, which was just a list of the bigotry people with said identity face.

This argument always rubbed me the wrong way, for two reasons. 1) Pretending to be something you're not on the internet is (and was especially back then) really easy, as easy as saying "I'm [identity]". Any bigotry they might face online is, under normal circumstances, much easier to disengage from. And, crucially, just because they're presenting themselves in one way online doesn't even come close to meaning that they're doing the same thing IRL. 2) In the right circles? It actually does come with benefits! Folks with marginalized identities are often given a bit more grace, they're given sympathy, they're treated as experts in subjects surrounding that identity, and, in some cases and again in the right circles, they might be treated as just a little bit special or unique. And like yeah, that's kind of rooted in bigotry, the idea that being something other than cis, het, white, able-bodied makes you ~*Special*~, but that's beside the point.

This attitude that, unless money was involved somehow, there's no possible thing that anyone could get out of lying is so prevalent to this day that hearing HBG push back against it even gently even briefly was a huge breath of fresh air.

Because of course it's not about money! Or at least not entirely. If all Somerton had wanted to do was become rich off of low-effort content, he could've just started a shitty reaction channel where he just watches Tiktoks and makes the :O face the entire time. But no, the other thing he wanted was community and more than that, to be a respected figure in said community. He fashioned himself an intellectual with a lot of community-specific knowledge and Correct Opinions. He specifically courted an audience who would look up to him for that and brutally attacked anyone who threatened it. It was the status and respect as much as anything else that he sought out.

Now why am I rehashing all this.

Because I was watching this video about a guy who was considered one of the greatest players in the world of a particular video game until people caught him cheating.

I don't really want to go into too many specifics because it's not important. But the narrator of the video wrapped it up by wondering why the cheater did what he did, why he spent 4 years and so much time and energy faking his play footage. Because he only made a couple thousand dollars and it isn't a very popular gaming community.

And while I was listening to this, I was just sitting there and wondering if the narrator had actually listened to his own script, because it seems so obvious to me.

The cheater was a teenager when he posted his first legit video and it garnered a lot of attention from some very high-level players in the community. He spent the next few years legitimately collabing in person with some of those people, and uploading faked game footage. It barely took any time at all for him to be declared the greatest player in the world.

You see where I'm going with this, right?

Like, being a teenager is fucking lonely for a lot of people. It's isolating on a profound level, even for those of us who actually had a relatively good experience in high school. I don't find it odd at all that a teenager who was suddenly inundated with excited comments from a small but passionate community telling him how great he was and inviting him into their spaces would then start fudging some shit to keep their attention and praise until it gets way out of hand.

The fact that the second he was caught without a shadow of a doubt, he deleted his videos save for the explanation video he made, deleted his social media, refunded the money he did "earn", and just left the community. Because what's the point when he's clearly lost all of their respect. Because if there had been any other reason for him doing it, he might have tried a little harder to come up with reasons why the oddities that were noticed were actually just video glitches or his software acting up or whatever.

But no, the community and the support were what was important, so when he lost that, of course he just disappeared.

And you know what? I might be completely wrong, at the end of the day neither I nor the youtuber knows what was going through this guy's head.

But it also leaves a bad taste in my mouth for the subject of this video — a guy who was a teenager for the majority of his transgressions — to be treated the same as a grown ass man in achiever of their videos who appears to lie like it's his favorite hobby that he can't put down and has been lying about his video game accomplishments for like forty years and has garnered things like professionally produced documentaries about him because of those alleged accomplishments.

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sweetsmellosuccess · 2 years ago

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TIFF 2022: Day 3

Films: 4 Best Film Of The Day: Glass Onion

Butcher’s Crossing: So the question becomes, in Gabe Polsky‘s grim survivalist western, just how many bodies — carcasses — do you need to make your point, even if it’s a good one? The film is actually an anti-buffalo slaughter screed, but in the course of making its, admittedly estimable point, it devotes what seems like an interminable amount of screen time to the shooting, and subsequent skinning, of the animals, which once roamed the plains 30 million strong, but after two decades of brutal mass killing had dwindled down to less than 300 (now, after years of targeted conservation, it’s risen up to 30k, an achievement of no small measure). Leading the charge is, of course, Nicholas Cage, whose half-mad hunter, Miller, sports a Kurtzian shaved head, and a full length fur coat. He’s enlisted by the callow Will (Fred Hechinger), a young man just having left from Harvard, who’s come to see “more of the country,” and, one supposes, experience something real outside of a scholarly tome. In short order, Cage has taken the young man’s money and put together the crew for his dream hunt, off in the Rockies, where years before, he had spied a massive herd, waiting for the right cruel, money-grubbing bastard to come along and wipe them out. Naturally, the trip doesn’t go as planned and the party, including the combatitove Fred (Jeremy Bob), are forced to camp out there through the long, torturous winter, before they can head back with their bloody bounty. The camera tends to stay close on the mugs of the characters, watching every twitch and lurch on their faces, as the mad hunter gets into his frenzy. This is only so effective, as the production is fairly threadbare, and the often shoddy make up doesn’t do anyone any favors. Production value aside, the film’s noble message gets a little chuffed up from its methodology, such that most of the viewers sympathetic to the cause will almost surely get turned off by the sheer amount of shooting and body parts the film sees fit to subject them to.

Women Talking: The title isn’t misleading. In Sarah Polley’s feminist drama, about a Menonite collective, whose women have been abused and raped repeatedly for years by the men, a group of women are elected to determine what to do, after one of the men is caught and identified by some of their younger members. Along with some other perpetrators, the men are hauled off to jail, but are set on getting bailed out by the colony’s male members. The women, including friercely angry Salome (Claire Foy), sweetly firm Ona (Rooney Mara), aggrieved Mariche (Jessie Buckley), and resolute Janz (Frances McDormand), have only a few hours to talk things over up in a hayloft — with meeting notes dutifully recorded by August (Ben Whishaw), the schoolteacher, and the only man any of them can trust — and determine whether the women should forgive the men and stay on, or leave en masse and seek out a new possible future together. There is, shall we say, a lot of discourse on the nature of oppression, exoneration, and their reduced role in the male patriarchy. At times, it plays a bit like a version of 12 Angry Men, but with very different stakes, and involving a group of women in a hayloft. Breaking up the polemic, Polley, working from her own screenplay based on the novel by Miriam Toews, sends her cameras out into the fields, where the children are playing, or into brief flashbacks of the women’s experience. There is also an unrequited love story, between the sweet-minded August, and the independently minded Ona, pregnant with one of the attacker’s children, that helps stave off the static nature of the narrative. There are some unfortunate dramatic tics — a character who suddenly bursts into gales of laughter at inopportune moments, say, or sudden tears — and Polley’s decision to drain her film of all the most desaturated of colors, are distracting, but the central conceit is strong, and the love story (powered largely by Winshaw’s humble recalcitrance) is pretty moving.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: How are you supposed to follow-up on one of the more deliriously fun films of the last few years? For Rian Johnson, whose initial foray into the whodunit genre was the delicious Knives Out, the problem isn’t merely to come up with a sequel that matches the original’s playful intrigue and high-energy, but to do it in a way that conjures up a new murder mystery that will keep everyone guessing, exactly when everyone is waiting on it. What he’s come up with is another intricate puzzle within a puzzle — fans of the original remember the way in which the first film seemed to solve itself not quite halfway through, before reinventing itself by the end — in which our understanding of the set of circumstances whiplashes considerably with a single devilish plot twist. The megarich tech tycoon Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has summoned his group of old friends, known amongst themselves as the “disruptors,” to his Greek isle mansion, for their annual gathering of revelry and debauchery, to stage a murder mystery over the weekend. Included on the guest list is Birdie (Kate Hudson), a ditzy formal model now turned entrepreneur, along with her assistant Peg (Jessica Henwick); Duke (Dave Bautista), a “men’s rights advocate with a robust youtube channel, along with his girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline); Claire (Kathryn Hahn), running for governor in Connecticut on an environmentalist platform; Lionel (Leslie Odum Jr.), one of Bron’s lead scientists for his ubiquitous company, Alpha; and, most shockingly, Cassandra (Janelle Monae), Bron’s former business partner at Alpha, who was recently ousted from the company she co-founded, largely on the strength of everyone else’s betrayal. For reasons somewhat unclear, even to Bron, the “world’s greatest detective” Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), has also been summoned for the weekend, a turn that proves fortuitous when bodies start to pile up and Blanc is suddenly thrust into a real investigation, one in which nothing is quite what it seems. Johnson, whose fiendishly clever plotting powers these films with rapturous joy, has created another exultant riddle-ride, in which the cast seems to be having exactly as much fun as the rest of us. While it might not have quite the richly satisfying subtext of the original, that sense of nearly perfect coherency, there is still a tremendous amount of fun to be had, as long as you’re open to Johnson’s blend of precision misdirections, pop-culture jibes, and screwball plot-twistings .

R.M.N.: I have long adored the works of Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (Graduation, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days), so any new release of his is cause for celebration. That said, this film, a slow-burning drama set up in the mountains of Transyvania, where jingoism and xenophobia begins to build in a small community when the local bakery starts bringing in workers from Sri Lanka to help with their Christmas rush. Into this seething cauldron returns Matthias (Marin Grigore) a hulking sort of man, who left town some while back to work in Germany. After a violent episode there, he flees the job and comes home, but his fed-up young wife (Macrina Barladeanu) wants nothing to do with him, his 4-year-old son refuses to speak after being scared by something in the woods, and his lover, Csilla (Judith State), upper management at the bakery, is dealing with her own bevy of considerable problems with regards to the growing outrage and death threats made against her new (extremely affable) workers. The film moves in heavily dense scenework — one of the director’s long-held trademarks is filling his frame with different layers of action you have to take in simultaneously — as the characters bounce off one another in ways that become more and more enigmatic. What to make of Matthias, for example, a rigid, violence-prone man who seems utterly uninterested in politics, and far too dense for a intelligent, well-educated woman like Csilla to take an interest, but whose exhortations with his son to snap out of his semi-fugue state are, at times, sensitive and deeply felt? The film trades in these sorts of shades, for the most part, at least until a long, uninterrupted single shot of contentious village gathering at the community center in which the different factions all come together and argue uproariously against the continued presence of the new workers (in a town whose ethnic ties between Roma, Hungarian, and German all chaotically mix together, this distrust of POC is stark). The ending, which will doubtless be the subject for continued debate in film circles, takes a turn for the seeming surreal, further clouding the film’s intentions in the mist. Mungiu has made an impressively oblique film that nevertheless speaks eloquently about this particular political moment in time.

TIFF: One Last Time, wherein the author contemplates this year’s offerings and the past decade of covering this fabulous film festival, as he’s poised to embark on a new career path that will more than likely involve him standing up in front of a group of sullen teens, espousing the glories of the Russian masters, rather than taking in a beatific week of international cinema in the early days of September.

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mikaylaology · 3 years ago

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Idolized and Demonized: The Black Body

Field Work Assignment #5

(Just a pre note some of the images might not seem to align with the subject matter but with the amount of black trauma drowning the internet I’m not going to show black bodies or people in pain)

Since Tik Tok’s popularity spike back in 2018 many topics of discussion involving race, gender, sexuality and a numerous amount of subject matters have appeared on the app and have never left the mainstream. To it’s benefit millions of individuals have become more aware of how they impact others negatively hopefully trying to become more enlightened. How ever many have just used this app as a tool to harass, harm and insult others mainly those who they believe are inferior to themselves.

A historically envied body, the black body, feels as if the prejudice targeted towards it hasn’t left the roots of good old fashioned anti black rhetoric spanning decades. Since the brutality of American Colonial Slavery Black bodies have been featured on posters, books, movies, lyrics and any other conceivable media there is. In images flashing on the screen most don’t allow the humanity of blackness to be explored. Most outside and inside the race of “Black” seeing black people as the objects they appear on. To be gawked at and replicated onto anything but a black body.

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Racism

As previously mentioned in the above paragraph and in the video, through the lens of White Europeans black people were not seen as people. Many discuss the aspect of hatred towards black people by Europeans as purely violent and disgusted and while that is undisputedly true I would also argue for the almost blatant envy of black people, civilizations and culture.

The many times in which I've studied black history a clear mantra always repeats through my mind when talking about the raping and pillaging of the continent of Africa, it’s that “You don’t break into as house you think has no money”. This means that on some level European colonizers knew that of the many countries stretched across Africa, most if not all had resources, intellectual power or just plain money.

In America history black homes, businesses and communities were raided. Extorting the communities for its most valuable asset, white homes seem to flourish in areas while black ones burned. A prime example of this being the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 in which enraged white men and women armed with not only weapons but the intent to conquer destroyed this predominantly black Oklahoma town in just 48 hours.

Neighbor hoods affected by illnesses like the 90s crack epidemic and ever increasing rates of incarceration derived from the fears of white society no longer being superior in the western world. News media constantly covers stories of tragedy mocking or pitying the black community exposing images of maimed black bodies as if to satiate some deeper sinister afformation.

Intersectionality

Black men have been targeted because of the sexist ideology of men being the “head of the house” leading to the literal and figurative hunting of young black boys in order to disrupt black house holds leaving many fatherless, childless and permanently scared. And while personally I as a black women understand the need to protect and help my male counter parts, the history of misogynoir, colorism, homophobia and xenophobia can’t be tolerated.

Unfortunately in most aspects the black and white communities seem to mimic themselves in regards to prejudice with in their own circles the difference being the oppression of black people. An example of this being homophobia.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community have been harassed and ostracized in the black community since its assimilation to white American society. People have lost homes and lives just being themselves being told their “wrong” or going through a faze. Gay men are called sissy or fruity while Lesbian women are further hyper masculinized becoming victims to sexual abuse by family members or community members believing they can “fix” them through rape, sex work or molestation. Many of these instances happen when people or children. Movies like Moon Light highlight how devastating the toll of exclusion plays on young black minds.

Genotype and Phenotype

Pseudo science has numerous times in the past tried to biologically prove that the established “Black Race” was inferior to the “White Race”. There is no such thing proving that any body that isn’t white is genetically inferior or superior.

Black women have often been dissected time and time again. Hyper Sexualized and Masculinized stereotypes of black women have been used to justify the violence put upon them. As well as the replication of them. It should be commonly known that not all black women look them same.

The main attributes contributed to black people typically are full lips, darker skin, coily hair, a curvier figure and so on. The rise in body modification surgeries and cosmetic surgeries have many people, most being women, throwing bill after bill into body goals once thought to be previously unattainable. Popular surgeries like Brazilian Butt Lifts and Lip injections emulate parts of black bodies originally seen as barbaric or purely undesirable. These same traits many pay thousands to get were used to as racist fodder.

The classic movie or show trope of white women’s fear of growing a large butt or bigger hips was a staple in almost any genre from teen coming of age stories to dramatic romances. When white women are shown to have body types similar to this people glorify and praise them. But when shown on black women naturally especially darker skinned black women their labeled as ghetto, to sexual or grotesque.

In an Article written by Sydneysky G. titled Kim Parker, and all the other “Sassy, Fat Black Friends” who came before her, are there to make us laugh, but not for us to take seriously as characters or human beings, they write, “ In fact, it feels like the character itself was created out of an anti-Black exaggeration of how fat Black women are perceived. And in doing this they make the thinner and/or lighter character look “better” by comparison. Kim was never meant to be the character audiences wanted to be but rather an example of the “ghetto” fat Black girls that society looks down on. Showing fatness as a moral failure, fat characters are made out to be cautionary tales of “unrespectable” Black girls. Using fat characters to prop up thin ones as morally better people ,”.

While Sydneysky’s argument centers around fatness in media the message is still the same. The bodies desirable by society have been heavily seen on black women and black femme presenting bodies but aren’t called the standard.

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widereading · 3 years ago

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𝐒𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐬 by Yuval Noah Harari | Non-Fiction (443 pages)⁣ ⁣

★ ★ ★ ★ ⁣⁣⁣: recommended reading <society, humanity, science and technology> ⁣

This book was a tastebreaker for me in the non-fiction genre and I would highly recommend Harari's work (although Sapiens is the most well written imo). Sapiens canvasses the evolution of mankind from the beginning of time to c. 2019 (republished edition) through three revolutions: Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific. Along the way, the author weaves science and humanist (a philosophy focus on human values and freedoms) insights that are accessible and relatable to everyone (there is no assumed knowledge). ⁣ ⁣

The content isn't really ground-breaking, but I think what distinguishes this book is that most concepts have been written well - almost in a poetic way - and makes you view the history of civilisation from a fresh perspective. Even though I personally think the book drops off in quality and cohesiveness around the middle of the book, it picks back up towards the end and was definitely an insightful read overall.⁣ ⁣

Some of my key takeaways (quotes aren't verbatim):⁣ ⁣

1. 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨-𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: the ability to create an imagined reality from words enabled large numbers of strangers to co-operate effectively (p. 36) and for co-operation of large groups, only a sophisticated religious or ideological system could sustain such efforts (p. 101). This extends to modern trade agreements, political structures and legal institutions which result from human's cognitive capacity to create fiction. P. 207 - Harari analogises money as a trust system - that bridges discrimination and cultural gaps - and 1) allows people to co-operate effectively, 2) create trust in the future (e.g. financial credit), which is based on an assumption that future resources are more abundant than present resources (p. 344). He observes that most human co-operation networks have been geared towards exploitation and oppression over time (p. 116). ⁣ ⁣

2. 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫: modern society operates through an imagined order that exists only in our minds, but is woven in the material reality around us (p. 127). This imagined order shapes our desires (i.e. your thoughts, ambitions and desires may be '𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴' but they are certainly shaped by romantic, nationalist, capitalist and humanist myths that have been around for centuries). Harari gives the example of a common desire for individuals to travel overseas for a holiday, and notes that this isn't something that is necessarily biological, but the product of an individual who subscribes to romantic consumerism. [On a side note, I found out in a work trivia that Santa was originally green but changed to red as a result of Coca-Cola advertising...]. These imagined orders are inter-subjective, so in order to change them, we must simultaneously change the consciousness of billions of people, which is not easy (p. 135). A conscious effort has to be made to sustain laws, customs, procedures and manners, otherwise social order would quickly collapse. ⁣ ⁣

𝟑. 𝐓��𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭�� 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: ⁣ ⁣

<A. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭> The domestication of animals was founded on a series of brutal practices that only became crueller with the passing of the centuries (p. 105), and the agricultural revolution was the turning point when Sapiens cast off its intimate symbiosis with nature and sprinted towards greed and alienation (p. 110). ⁣ ⁣

<B. 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦> In the post-industrial environment (with its mega-cities, aeroplanes, telephones and computers, c/f hunter-gatherer lifestyles), we have more material resources and longer lives than previous generations, but it often makes us feel alienated, depressed and pressured (p. 45). There has also been a collapse of the nuclear family unit and the community, with the rise of individualism. With individuals wielding unprecedented powers to decide their own path in life, we find it harder to make commitments and therefore live an increasingly lonely world of unravelling communities and families (p. 428). Overall, it seems that humanity's search for an easier life released immense forces of change that transformed the world in ways nobody envisioned or wanted (p. 99) - that we have created convenience and yet live more stressed lives. ⁣ ⁣

<C. 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘤> You need to know alot about your own tiny field of expertise, but for the vast majority of life's necessities you rely blindly on the help of other experts, whose own knowledge is also limited to a tiny field of expertise (p. 55). Identical twins raised in opposing socio-economic backgrounds (poor vs wealthy), with the same abilities would not have had the same chance in developing personal wealth. The economic game was rigged by legal restrictions and unofficial glass ceilings (p. 154).

#sapiens: a brief history of humankind #yuval noah harari #non-fiction #bookreviews #bookreview #sapiensreview

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philosophicalconservatism · 4 years ago

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Response and Question About Racism And Slavery.

https://whachu.tumblr.com

What is your supposition to why White Power is evil but Black Power acceptable? Or even Brown Power? I mean, it was Black Africa that enslaved blacks to profit from their bodies. Not condoning any of it, I feel it beneath the respect for human life. I am genuinely interested in your thought.

https://philosophicalconservatism.com

As far as I'm concerned, every form of modern day "racial pride" is grounded in attitudes of inferiority. An individual whose greatest value resides within his skin color or race is a poor man indeed. But let us get directly to your question. If we are talking about Blacks living in America 60 years ago we can absolutely understand why there would be a wrestling with feelings of inferiority. They were victims of an unjust, immoral, racially oppressive environment that attempted to instill into them the belief that they were second class both as citizens and human beings. Slogans like "Black power" and "Black Pride" therefore served as a means to psychologically counteract the atmosphere that surrounded them. The cries of "White Power" during this same era had no such origin. Their function was to propagate an ideology of racial superiority (and to attempt to subject others to that ideology). That is the reason that these two phrases have traditionally been treated differently.

But here is the issue: it is not the 1960's. Yet divisive, contemporary, Leftist political ideologies have an interest in pretending that we are all still in some earlier era of American history, and that the extreme transformation of society that we all see before our own eyes is unreal. That is because these ideologies work by sowing division within every realm of life (race, sex etc.) in order to justify ever expanding state power, and state oversight of every detail of civil life. Recognizing objective social progress means no longer having an excuse for not viewing and judging human beings as individuals as opposed to members of a racial group (as articulated in the speeches of the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. who Progressives claim to admire). Viewing things through an individualist lense is not in the interests of certain groups. The end of racialized thinking is simply not their goal.

As for slavery, it was as you suggest practiced all over the world and throughout history. It is worth noting though that the institution was not the same in every situation. Historically the most common form of slavery was debt slavery. One party owed a great deal of money to a second party but they did not have the means to pay it; and so they had to pay it back through labor. They could in fact buy back their freedom like a commodity. People in this position tended to have a certain amount of rights; they were not wholly at their master's mercy. Their humanity was not entirely lost, perhaps in part because it was understood that this was a position that could be escaped, and into which (at least potentially) well off individuals could fall. Different institutions of slavery have different bases, but the more a particular institution was able to view the slave as an "other" the more brutal it tended to become.

In the beginning American slavery functioned a bit like debt slavery, at least in one limited sense. Men and women were brought over both from Europe and Africa as slaves and (early on) they had the right to buy back their freedom (the Africans had of course never incurred any debt and so had to pay whatever their own market price happened to be). Obviously it was much easier for the European slaves to buy back their freedom since they arrived speaking the language and understanding the culture. But many Blacks did earn their freedom. They became landowners, paid taxes, even voted according to certain records. And some Black landowners owned slaves themselves. Now over time the institution began to change, and instead of merely being financially based a new racist ideology began to emerge as the basis for American slavery. It conveniently corresponded to the South's growing economic dependence on slavery. Slavery was now depicted as the unique and inescapable lot of "the Black race", justified by its own inborn characteristics.

This ideology naturally made the slave into an "other" in the most extreme sense, and thus made for an even more cruel institution. Cruelty comes through dehumanization, and racism is an absolutely reliable path to dehumanization. So the particular character of American slavery is something that we have to take into consideration even while acknowledging the overall universality of slavery. It is indeed a stain on our history as a nation. But given that it was specifically this focus upon race that made the institution as bad as it was, it is ironic that Leftists fight ceaselessly to preserve racialized thinking. Or perhaps it is not ironic given that it was Leftists that championed early racialized thinking ( from the Jim Crow era backwards). And that is not an abstract claim. What we mean is that it was specifically the ideological wing of American politics that professes to defend the interests of the "working class", that is suspicious of free markets and big business, and that loves government control and intervention. The role of Leftwing labor unions in perpetuating anti-Black discrimination is pretty central.

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bergdutt · 3 years ago

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ritualpurposes · 4 years ago

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Why History is Important

This week has been a week of terrible takes on History, Politics and how the two intersect. From the appalling article in the Telegraph on how the “woke masses” are trying to sabotage Britain’s history (I won’t give this the dignity of a link, but it is easy enough to find), the continued harassment and vilification of Dr Corinne Fowler for her work on the Colonial Countryside Project, to the release of the utterly disgusting 1776 commission in the US and as always, the plethora of ‘hot takes’ on Tumblr, I am seething with rage.

This is a long one, apologies. I won’t go into Tumblrs approach to history, that has been better covered by others here, and here and honestly this rant is long enough as is.

Archaeology and history are inherently political, that is an inescapable fact. People are quick to turn up their noses at the subject of the past and say it has no bearing on the present, but that is a simplistic fantasy. The present is always built of the back of the past, our attitudes, our justifications, our worldviews are all artifacts of what has come before. And when our understanding of what came before is, shall we charitably say, flawed, that is dangerous. The links between the alt. right, white supremacy and fake, white –washed, hyper masculine ideas of the past are well documented. Many of these people justify their actions using versions of the past which to them are very real, ideas of a white ethno-state where the men were Men™. It should be noted, this isn’t a modern phenomenon, I’m pretty sure anyone who has had to sit through intro to archaeology has had to listen to at least once lecture on how Hitler used pseudo archaeology to justify his actions. And while academics can point out that Roman Britain was not white, or that the Vikings traded and intermarried with people from North Africa, these attempts are hindered, both by popular perceptions of the past, and by this idea that the left are attempting to rewrite history.

I find that last point difficult really to deal with, because it combines two opposing ideas, that historians want to make the past more ‘politically correct’ but also downplay the ‘greatness’ of whatever nation they are talking about by talking about the distinctly not political correct bits of history (colonialism and slavery). There is this overwhelming idea that adding any sort of nuance is the result of massive bias. And that any history that doesn’t make your nation look 100% the Heroic Good Guys is part of some sort of plot to undermine national pride and patriotism. The Tories are terrified we might remove statues of slavers, but in the same breath attack the National Trust for trying to talk about the Colonial legacies of their properties.

I think at this point it’s also worth discussing the difference between history and commemoration. I am 100% in support of removing statues, and of renaming streets etc. These things are not history, they are commemoration. History is found in museums, in books, in scholarship. History is knowledge, it is not objects but the context that surrounds them. The removal of a statue does not equal rewriting history, a statue, while an archaeologically interesting artifact, does not in and of itself tell us much. Its context is far more revealing. There is an idea in archaeology called object biography, that looks at how items change in meaning and use throughout their ‘lives’. Items are not static, just like ideas are not static. In the 19th century that statue meant something very different to the people who are around today. What we commemorate, and what commemorations we destroy tell us about society. If the history of Edward Coulston is so important (a man, who I had never heard of before the statue was thrown into the river, so clearly not a priority in English history), then put the statue in a museum with an information board. And if you are really worried about the destruction of history? Why don’t you spend your time and money instead ensuring archaeological work gets done ahead of development or making sure history departments are adequately funded. Interesting, the Torries, while very concerned about statues, are actively fighting those two measures. I know less about the Republican agenda, but looking at the 1776 project, I’m pretty sure that any concern they have for history is less about the past and more about preserving the status quo.

I grew up in America. I took AP US history, and I remember having to write papers about how the Civil War was absolutely not about Slavery. I guess that doesn’t seem that harmful in and of itself, but let’s trace this bit of revisionism through shall we. The Civil war was over States rights, that doesn’t sound too bad. I mean I may not agree with the South, but is it really a moral issue to say that the Federal Government shouldn’t be able to override what individual States want? After all States are very different, what is good for New York might not be so good for Georgia. Ok, so using that logic I don’t really see what’s wrong with flying a confederate flag, I mean it can’t possibly be a symbol of oppression, because the Civil War *wasn’t* about Slavery. So I don’t see why people are getting all upset, it is simply a statement that States Rights are important.

Add to this the general romanticized picture of the Confederate South in the media and you suddenly are looking at a very different picture of the past, supported by, of all things, the fucking AP US History curriculum. The Confederates are seen as tragic heroes, on the wrong side of history perhaps, but with a point, fighting for a way of life. And from there it doesn’t seem too far a leap to what happened on January 6 does it? I’m not saying all media should demonize the South, but I think removing Slavery from the Civil war is dangerous and false representation of History, and one that directly plays into the Civil Unrest we are seeing at the Moment.

So that brings me back to the 1776 commission. It was published as a direct response to the 1619 Project. The 1619 Project sought to center slavery and its effects on American history. This is hugely important, and a weirdly contentious issue. The echos of slavery are still present in the USA, in the form of institutionalized racism, voter suppression, and increased levels of police brutality among other things. It is, at best impossibly naive and at worst actively malicious, to try and consider US history without dealing with the brutal legacy of slavery. And yet, this project was deemed to be ‘UnAmerican’ and ‘revisionist’. How dare any history of America undermine the idea that America is, and has always been, A noble nation that has never done anything wrong ever. To return briefly to my own experiences with AP US History, our textbook said we didn’t lose Vietnam (My father who was a war correspondent in Vietnam had some things to say about that comment). The myth of American Exceptionalism runs deep. The 1776 commission, which I have not brought myself to read in its entirety, is a horrific example of it. It justifies slavery, it states that “as a question of practical politics, no durable union could have been formed without a compromise among the states on the issue of slavery.”, states racism ended in 1964, and that Christianity is the reason we have secular law.

Why does this scare the shit out of me? Why do I care what people believe happened 200 years ago? Because if people truly believe that America can do no wrong, that patriotism means never questioning that we really will live in Trump’s America. Because if Slavery was justified, and racism doesn’t exist anymore than clearly we don’t have to do better, and any complaints are communist plot. Because if Empire really did make England Great then why should we not continue in the same vain? History is grand! Let us live in the Good Ol’ Days!

History is messy. History is unpleasant. History doesn’t fit into simple narratives of good and bad, because people don’t fit into those categories. And while I agree it is impossible to teach history without some bias (interpretation being a key part), we need to accept our past. If we want a brighter future we need to confront where we come from. We need to fight the false narratives prevalent in our culture, be they the idea that Game of Thrones is a good picture of Medieval England or that the Civil War was over a simple ideological difference and not the lives of thousands of enslaved peoples. The best bit of advice on history I ever got was from my high school teacher “If you want to live in the past you haven’t been paying attention”, I think about that statement a lot. The past has power, let us not pretend otherwise.

#History #Archaeology #America #England #1619 project #1776 project #psudoarchaeoloy #archaology #current events #Culture wars #Personal I guess

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rainhadaenerys · 5 years ago

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I don’t even know why I keep reading anti Dany metas. I keep expecting that maybe they’ll have some reasonable argument, but they never fail to surprise me in how stupid they are, and how much they distort things. There’s this new meta that’s supposed to be some deep analysis of ADWD, and of how Dany is a bad queen. They keep harping on how Dany is bad because she thinks of “floppy ears” and because she dislikes the Meereenese. And this is such a ridiculous thing to say. This has no bearing in whether Dany is a good ruler or not. A ruler doesn’t have to like all their subjects to be a good ruler. In any government, you will always have people with different ideologies, and you are not obligated to like your political enemies. The people Dany dislikes are the Meereeense slavers. Those are the Meereenese that she hates, not the Meereenese freedmen or poor people. And again, this doesn’t make Dany “a bad ruler”. It doesn’t mean that Dany isn’t supposed to be a queen. The person also says that Dany hates Meereenese culture even when it’s not related to things that are oppressive, but this isn’t true. The culture that Dany hates is the culture of the slaver class, not of her freedmen. And again, whether Dany hates that culture or not doesn’t make her a bad ruler. She can hate the Meereenese slavers while still ruling and ruling well. Oh, and the meta also says that Dany “makes” people shave, but this isn’t true at all. The Shavepate choose to shave their heads on their own will to symbolize their alliance with the new regime, for their own personal reasons:

"My queen," growled Skahaz mo Kandaq, of the shaven head. Ghiscari hair was dense and wiry; it had long been the fashion for the men of the Slaver Cities to tease it into horns and spikes and wings. By shaving, Skahaz had put old Meereen behind him to accept the new, and his kin had done the same after his example. Others followed, though whether from fear, fashion, or ambition, Dany could not say; shavepates, they were called. Skahaz was the Shavepate … and the vilest of traitors to the Sons of the Harpy and their ilk. - Daenerys I ADWD

Daenerys doesn’t “make” people shave, or else everybody in Meereen would hve shaved, which is not the case.

Then they proceed to take many decisions of Dany that were very much reasonable, and try to distort it into something bad. Dany grants a rich woman her clothes and jewels back but not her house. And she does this because there were already freedmen living in the house. First, Dany decreed a pardon for everything that happened during the sack (which is necessary to keep peace in Meereen), so it’s not like she needed to give the woman anything. Dany was still conciliatory in giving the woman back her jewels and clothes. The woman was not homeless: she was living with her brother. But the freedwomen in her house would be homeless if Dany decided to give her house back. Dany’s decision was probably the best and most conciliatory decision she could make, but of course this anti would harp on why it’s horrible for a rich woman to lose her house. Funny how antis never worry about the freedwomen that would be homeless if Dany decided in favor of the rich woman.

Then they talk about Dany not punishing the crimes that happened during the sack, and completely ignore the fact that decreeing a pardon was necessary to keep peace in the city. If Dany had decided to punish the former slaves for rising against their masters, and to punish former slavers for their crimes against the freedmen, she would have war within Meereen, and I’m pretty sure antis would be harping about what a stupid ruler Dany is and how she is incapable of being conciliatory. But here, Dany shows herself to be conciliatory and makes a very reasonable decision that was probably the best decision she could make, and antis go talking about what a bad ruler she is.

Then Dany makes the decision that people will have to go to the temple and swear a sacred oath to get the money for their lost animals (that Drogo ate). Which is a very intelligent decision. Dany is not wrong in saying that some people will lie about Drogon burning their animais and bring burned bones to her that they burned themselves, just to get her money. In fact, Dany keeps receiving claims that Drogon burned their animals even after Drogo left the city and Dany chained her dragons:

Dany did not want to talk about the dragons. Farmers still came to her court with burned bones, complaining of missing sheep, though Drogon had not returned to the city. - Daenerys IV ADWD

So Dany is absolutely correct in saying that some people are deceiving her. Making people swear a sacred oath is smart, especially considering that the Shavepate’s suggestion was much more brutal (to whip everyone), and Dany refused his suggestion. But look at what this anti says about Dany because of this:

The pronouncement was received in sullen silence. You would think they might be happier, Dany thought. They have what they came for. Is there no way to please these people?

This quote says a lot about Daenerys. In her mind, the people should be happy because she’s willing to give them back what they lost, failing to consider how much trouble it would be for them to gather up the bones of their dead animals, bring them to Dany’s pyramid, and wait all day for just the chance to be heard by her. Dany thinks many of them lie about Drogon to try and get money or sheep, and thinks they should just be happy she’s giving them anything at all.

Like, wow. How is it such trouble to bring the bones as proof? Isn’t that what all the shepherds were already doing? And actually, this anti is incorrect, because they would not need to speak directly to Dany, they would just have to swear an oath at the temple. And the idea that Dany thinks “people should just be happy she’s giving them anything at all” is so false. This is definitely not what Dany thinks:

“No, Magnificence.” Reznak bowed. “Shall I send these rascals away, or will you want them scourged?”

Daenerys shifted on the bench. “No man should ever fear to come to me.” Some claims were false, she did not doubt, but more were genuine. Her dragons had grown too large to be content with rats and cats and dogs. The more they eat, the larger they will grow, Ser Barristan had warned her, and the larger they grow, the more they’ll eat. Drogon especially ranged far afield and could easily devour a sheep a day. “Pay them for the value of their animals,” she told Reznak, “but henceforth claimants must present themselves at the Temple of the Graces and swear a holy oath before the gods of Ghis.” – Daenerys I ADWD

I mean, what they say about Dany is a freaking lie. Dany is willing to help people, she never thinks “they should be happy I’m giving them anything at all”, what she actually thinks is “some claims were false, she did not doubt, but more were genuine”. But hey, antis lying through their teeth about Dany is nothing new. Besides, going back to the decision, how in hell is Dany unreasonable for this? This “meta” was supposed to prove that Dany is a bad ruler, but I think these decisions (the pardon, being conciliatory and not leaving freedwomen homeless, and asking people to swear an oath to avoid people cheating her) all prove that Dany is actually a very good ruler.

The anti also talks about how Dany is hypocritical for chastising a man for forgetting the name of his slave, but for also forgetting Hazzea’s name. But this is such a false equivalence. The man forgot the name of a woman who worked for him for years, showing that he never cared to even learn the name of his slaves. Dany remembered Hazzea’s name even though she only heard it once, and she never knew the girl, and only forgot Hazzea’s name when she was sick and hallucinating in the Dothraki sea. How the hell are these two things comparable? And Dany just told the man to buy a new loom for the woman, it’s not like she was whipping him through the streets, but the way antis talk, a slave being compensated for her years of service with a loom is the most heinous thing. Like, wow, Dany is so evil and such a bad ruler for this, right? *sarcasm*

Oh, they also say Dany is a bad and immature ruler because she throws fruits at Xaro. Even though Xaro is already someone she knows, and Dany doesn’t do this with anyone else. Apparently, things like this (or hanging her feet and not sitting in a queenly position) make Dany a “bad ruler”, despite the fact that this has little bearing in whether Dany is a good ruler or not (I mean, I think ending slavery and feeding her people are more important things than sitting correctly, but hey, since when Dany antis are reasonable or logical?), and in fact, Dany is usually very courteous:

In the afternoon a sculptor came, proposing to replace the head of the great bronze harpy in the Plaza of Purification with one cast in Dany’s image. She denied him with as much courtesy as she could muster. A pike of unprecedented size had been caught in the Skahazadhan, and the fisherman wished to give it to the queen. She admired the fish extravagantly, rewarded the fisherman with a purse of silver, and sent the pike to her kitchens. A coppersmith had fashioned her a suit of burnished rings to wear to war. She accepted it with fulsome thanks; it was lovely to behold, and all that burnished copper would flash prettily in the sun, though if actual battle threatened, she would sooner be clad in steel. Even a young girl who knew nothing of the ways of war knew that. – Daenerys I ADWD

They also talk about how Dany is bad for rejecting the peace, completely ignoring all the bad things that peace would bring, and how it benefited the slavers and was bad for the slaves. Oh, and apparently Dany is bad for wanting to forbid the fighting pits, saying that Dany should make regulations to stop people from being forced into the pits as if that was possible, even though the text shows us that it’s very difficult to avoid the fact that some people will indeed be forced and it’s difficult to regulate that, and that poor people would end up in this place.

They also talk about Dany’s mistake in leaving Astapor in Yunkai, ignoring the fact that this is wrong, Dany’s mistake wasn’t simply that she left, but that she left Astapor with no army, and that she left the masters in power in Yunkai. And none of these things make Dany a bad ruler in Meereen. These were mistakes that Dany did in ASOS, not in ADWD, because Dany was very inexperient and didn’t have good advisors. But Dany learns from these mistakes. Saying Dany is a bad ruler because of this makes no sense, because this happened in the past, and Dany has learned and will no longer make the same mistakes (and in fact, she doesn’t do the same mistake in ADWD, she doesn’t leave Meereen unprotected). But Dany antis expect Dany to be a good ruler from the very beginning even though she never had any experience before. They expect her to have never made any mistakes.

Finally, they talk about the wineseller’s daughter, and say that “It is one thing to torture someone you only suspect of being involved in a crime, but it is even worse to torture girls just to get at their father“, which is not what happened at all. First, we don’t know if they were girls, the text never says this. Second, the wineseller’s daughters were suspects. They were arrested with their father and were the only ones in the shop whe the poisoning happened. Dany is not “torturing people that she knows are innocent”. Like, I don’t like Dany allowing torture either, but I hate how Dany antis always distort what actually happened (usually by saying that the wineseller’s daughters were just little children that Dany knew were innocent”, which is not true), and I also hate how Dany antis use double standards and completely forget that torture is normal in this world, and even Jon Snow practices it (he does it for other reasons, but he does it). And this antis also conveniently ignores that once Dany realizes the Shavepate is forcing people to confess, she actually forbids torture (she is the only character to forbid torture).

Anyway, sorry that this post is such a mess, guys, I know it’s very badly written and disorganized. I wrote in a hurry, and mostly because this meta I just read annoyed me. But I think the post really shows how Dany antis will really do anything to distort things, and turn even the things Dany does right into bad things. The only “bad thing” here is the torture, but this is also a double standard against Dany. Anyway, is Dany a good ruler? Yes, she is.

#fandom wank #daenerys targaryen #daenerys defense squad

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things2mustdo · 4 years ago

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“White people are terrible,” “I have white privilege,” and “most of the world’s problems are caused by white people” are three general statements countless social justice warriors and their enablers agree with. Yet they are all based on the severest distortion of reality. You or I should no more apologize for being white than an African-American should for being black.

Just as many blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities are made more pliable by the media and the establishment by being told they are eternal victims, white people are made more pliable by agreeing that they need to always feel guilty. Using an SJW “anti-racism” that feels awfully like the leftist version of a Nazi book about hereditary, white people supposedly inherit the evil deeds of dead dudes who owned slaves prior to the Civil War or arrived on a foreign continent in a year like 1492 or 1788.

The establishment-enforced guilt is even greater for those directly descended from such people, but even culturally and genetically unrelated individuals like Polish- and Italian-Americans, whose ancestors pretty much all arrived after periods like the slavery era, are held accountable, too. Why? Even if we ridiculously assumed we can find descendants “guilty” of their ancestry, the white guilt thesis is like putting all of Harlem’s young black men in 2016 under house arrest because 20 of them were involved in a vicious street brawl… in 1937.

Provided you adhere to our creed, neomasculinity and the Return Of Kings community form the broadest functional church you will find. We do not care where you come from, so long as you support our goal of a return to masculine societies that emphasize community-building and do not apologize for taking pride in their own cultures. ROK readers who are black, white, Asian or something else are all equal in this regard.

Here are just three of many reasons why I will not hate or feel guilty about my skin tone.

1. I’m the descendant of victims myself because many of my ancestors were from oppressed ethnic and religious groups

Look at those privileged starving Irish!

Are you heavily Irish-blooded, like me? Italian? Polish? Ukrainian? Were your ancestors Catholics living in heavily Protestant areas, or perhaps Huguenots who had to flee persecutory France?

It’s funny how SJWs prance on about white privilege when over half of all whites who emigrated to America, Canada or Australia, from the Puritans to Yugoslavian Civil War refugees, came because the civilian government or monarchy representing another ethnicity or religion essentially chased them out, had killed their family members, or wanted them dead, too. Many of the white groups who did take the journey, particularly the Italians or Irish, were then subjected to quotas and mistreatment in places like New York for years.

A great deal of my ancestors were Catholics in Prussia and other Protestant parts of northern Germany. This section of my family tree is replete with persecutions, including one great-great-great-great grandfather who lost sight in one eye and movement in his arm after being brutally assaulted by a Prussian policeman. His crime? Being an ethnic German leaving a Catholic church on Sunday in the 1800s. Catholic churches were only for “subhuman” Poles. Catholic Prussians were seen as traitors who belonged in Bavaria, prison, or dead. He ended up eking out an existence as a tailor with one good arm, after both he and his brother were repeatedly refused admission to the civil service for their faith.

In addition, I had Irish immigrant forebears whose fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters died as a result of the Potato Famine. One of these ancestors, the eldest child in his family, was working in Dublin to make money for the family when, in the space of three months, he received news that his parents, all his sisters, and all but one of his brothers had died from starvation, malnutrition, or diseases related to them.

When my aunt did the genealogy over three years, she counted 37 family members in one corner of an Irish county who died from starvation or starvation-related illness in 13 months. The famine was predicted and even aggravated by the British. Considering the squalor into which the occupiers had driven the Irish Catholics, the whole ordeal was fundamentally caused by them, too. With only an extra mouth to feed, this great-great-great grandfather of mine took his barely school-aged brother with him to Australia two months later. What role did these two have in oppressing others, white or non-white, that I should feel shame about today?

Look further back into my family tree and you find German, Dutch and Swiss Jews, many of whom were shunted around various locations within Europe, depending on what limited patience local authorities had for yarmulke-wearers at the time.

With this lineage, what exactly do I have to apologize for, aside from my supposedly very, very privileged, at best lower middle-class English forebears from drab West London and grim Yorkshire? Most of them never saw a dark person, let alone mistreated one. To boot, the vast majority lived poor, thankless lives without clean sanitation, abundant food, or anything close to job security. And these are the stations in life, through no fault of their own, that 95% of your ancestors reached as well.

2. Minorities and other non-whites frequently treated and still treat each other far worse than white people did

Rwandan genocide, anyone?

From the pre-Columbian Central and South American peoples to the Rwandan genocide, non-whites have very often treated one another even more abysmally than whites have treated them. European technology may have amplified the number of indigenous and other deaths in places like the Americas, but raw hatred, aggression, and the continuity of violence can be found in even greater quantities in non-white historical squabbles.

Europeans have also been incorrectly blamed for things like infectious diseases, despite the scientific work of antiseptic procedure pioneer Ignaz Semmelweiss being years, sometimes even centuries away. Meanwhile, non-whites have been allowed to kill non-whites without serious condemnation from SJWs.

For example, critics of the Iraq War and the attempted rebuilding of post-Saddam Iraq have said that the whole country is based on a fiction that dates back to the European post-World War I mandate systems. In other words, if Kurds, Shia Arabs, and Sunni Arabs inhabit the same country, they kill each other! Whilst it is appetizing for SJWs to blame the big, bad British and French for this, it is far from the truth. Kurds and Arabs have been butchering each other for countless centuries. The greatest Muslim figure of all the Crusades, Saladin, was consistently mistrusted because of his Kurdish origins. Similarly, intra-Arab or Arab-Iranian Sunni-Shia violence is age-old and has little if anything to do with Europeans.

Last year, Rock Thompson wrote a superb piece about the hypocrisy of attacking Columbus Day in the Americas. His work exposed the double standards of many Native American and also Central and South American tribes, who pretend their ancestors were routinely peaceful when, in fact, they regularly engaged in deplorable acts of gratuitous violence, including human sacrifices and the sadistic mutilation of enemies who were not so ethnically different. The conquistadors and Puritans are falsely seen as the harbingers of cultural and racial genocide in the Americas. Local indigenous tribes, however, were already hunting each other down for sport well before the tall ships arrived.

3. White-majority countries make the humanitarian world go round

A tent city the Saudis refused to make available for fellow Arab Syrian refugees.

Whenever you find an aid program for starving Africans, war-torn Arabs, or other suffering people, chances are that a number of white Westerners are behind it. Even if they’re not all white, they invariably come from white-majority and/or white-founded Western countries, or are funded by them. All to assuage the guilt of white people living in 2016 who feel the need to apologize for a European colonial regime that replaced almost always far more brutal indigenous ones.

Western countries also welcome non-whites in droves, both as immigrants and as “refugees.” The recent Syrian crisis is a testament to this (over-)generosity. While Saudi Arabia refused to accommodate fellow Arab Syrians in their already-constructed tent city, used normally for the Haj Priligrimage, Germany and other European states bore the brunt of those fleeing, including through the open door policies of leaders like Angela Merkel.

In general terms, white people care more about the developmental outcomes of non-whites. Wealthy non-white countries like Japan and Korea have perfected a system of meticulously keeping their populations pure and rejecting the asylum claims of over 99% of claimed refugees. This asymmetrical state of affairs is ironic when Japan’s own history of colonisation, notably the Rape of Nanking, is taken into consideration.

White guilt is also very profitable for certain establishment figures and zealous entertainers. It’s why twats like Bono and Bob Geldof get up every morning, after all. And, far from sucking the world dry, white folks have repeatedly tried to make it better. Very often this generosity is taken to an extreme, but the point of white-majority countries acting and non-white countries stalling or ignoring remains valid.

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ssuppiger21ahsgov · 4 years ago

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Political Party Action

Party Standpoints: Gentrification and Police Brutality

Republican:

- Police should always be respected. They work hard and are given difficult work to deal with. The divide the country is making by disrespecting and distrusting the police is unneeded and harmful.

- Didn’t touch on the topic of gentrification

My guess as to why it wasn’t included is because to solve gentrification and displacement, federal funding and a plan to regulate companies has to be involved. A lot of the republican party (that has power to influence the laws and legislation) doesn’t like when more federal funds go towards helping the lower class.

I don’t agree with their stances on how we should just appreciate the police’s work because the police system is corrupt. I think instead of just appreciating that a lot of people are protected by the police, we should look at why so many people are not protected by the police and make reforms to the criminal justice system to stop the police brutality. Part of the reason why gentrification is a big issue too is because once people become displaced because rent is too expensive and the homeless people have to either go somewhere else or stay in the streets. The homeless are not treated well by the police and neither are people in low-income neighborhoods because it gets over-policed and more poor people go to prison. Once they get released, they go back to being homeless or in a low-income neighborhood, get over-policed again, and then end up in prison again. This creates an endless cycle.

Democrat:

- Police Brutality is a real and prevalent issue in the US and it disproportionately affects Black and Latino communities. “Evidence based investments in education, jobs, health care, and housing are proven to keep communities safe and prevent crime from occurring in the first place” and the US system has “criminalized poverty, overpolices and underserved Black and Latino communities and cut public services”.

- Police are expected to do way too much for their jobs and deal with crises they are not trained for. Reform needs to be made.

I agree completely. It is true a lot of reform needs to happen to the police system and that starts with funding social services that help low-income communities and re-training the police so that they can deal with situations differently. The funding will help the police because people won’t be doing as much crime if they are getting the basic essentials to live like healthcare, a place to live, an education, and a job.

Libertarian:

- Favor repealing all laws creating “crimes without victims” such as gambling, the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, and consensual transactions involving sexual services.

- The constitutional rights of the criminally accused, including due process, a speedy trial, legal counsel, trial by jury, and the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty, must be preserved.

- They reject the idea that a natural right can ever impose an obligation upon others to fulfill that “right.” They condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Government should neither deny nor abridge any individual’s human right based upon sex, wealth, ethnicity, creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference, or sexual orientation.

I agree with them on the front that racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. should not be tolerated. I agree that “crimes without victims” should be repealed. I wish they covered more about gentrification because I don't know what their opinion on it is. I would think they would be against it because they don’t agree with racial discrimination and gentrification disproportionately affects oppressed racial groups in this country.

Green:

- Negative effects of imprisonment are far-reaching and unjust

- They recognize how our criminal justice reform is racist and founded from ideas from Jim Crow

- Increased affordable housing can help alleviate the problem of homelessness but the homeless also have additional needs that go far beyond housing that need to be addressed

They basically have the same standpoint as the Democrats and the Independents. Police brutality is real, criminal justice reform needs to be made, and to help with homelessness, we need to fund more social services. I agree with all of this.

Peace and Freedom:

- Big fans of socialism

- Want to end all forms of racial discrimination

- Want to prosecute and punish police and prison officials who brutalize and murder.

- Minority families are disproportionately victimized by cutbacks in health care, education, child care, welfare, food stamps and jobs

I agree with these as well. Again, I feel like all of the parties agree that reform needs to be made to our criminal justice system and funds need to be spent on the poor people in this country. I also like this party because it pushes the idea of socialism which I think is a good thing and would solve a lot more of our issues.

Reflection:

I most identify with all of the parties except the republicans. All of the other parties held the same idea for my topics. I am surprised that pretty much everyone else agreed because I thought more people would not want to spend federal money on homelessness but I guess a lot more people are in agreeance than are represented in the White house.

I would still vote for the Democratic nominee for president because voting for a third party in this election won’t do anything except take votes away from the democratic party and essentially give a vote to Trump, the Republican nominee. Trump is very strongly against police reform and fixing homelessness in this country by doing anything besides more over-policing.

Presidential Debate Assessment:

Police brutality was brought up during the debate, however, it was tough to understand a lot of what was being said because Trump wouldn’t let his opponent get his opinion out before interrupting him. Joe Biden stated he didn’t want to abolish the police and Trump kept interrupting him saying that Joe has contradicted himself in the past few weeks on this subject. Joe also brought up how Trump only created civil unrest by trying to put down the Black Lives Matter protests in major cities by sending federal militia to violently put down the protests which only created more unrest. Besides that, Trump also did not condemn white supremacists in that same debate which shows how he wants to appeal to his racist voters and supporters. I do not want a president in power who won’t condemn racists.

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ninaahelvar · 5 years ago

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Wandering Starlight (1/?)

Summary: A life in Musutafu was always ordinary - even with the threat of war, battling witches and wizards to guard their nations - at least it was for Uraraka. Then, the reclusive Wizard Bakugou comes into her life, and her life is finally filled with adventure and magic. (Howl’s Moving Castle AU)

AO3

A/N: Had this idea for a year, and we finally get to do it lads. huge thank you to @doesitsaysassonmyuniform who i woke up to beta and edit this. she's the fuel to the fire for this.

Uraraka swept the sweat from her forehead, taking the bandana from around her mouth and letting it hang across her neck. Flicking her visor up, she looked closer at the welding of the two metals. She smiled at her achievement, glancing around to see her father settling an agreement with the building’s owner - their steam room had been on the fritz for some time, and with all the new orders, it was the first time all month that they could fit someone in last minute. When Uraraka finished the job, she whistled to grab her father’s attention. He looked up and gave her a brief smile and a nod, before turning back to the owner.

When Uraraka was young, she always saw herself working alongside her dad - not out of desire, but to make things easier. Her parents had raised her on little money, always using their expenses on her when they were barely surviving. Working with her dad was the least she could do. It didn’t hurt that she was also one of the best construction workers in the city.

From the window, Uraraka watched as the hefty and ominous mechanical castle moved over the moors, the crowds gathering around to watch it fade from the fog only to disappear within a moment. Uraraka often wondered what it was like to life as Bakugou did - hidden away, but magical adventures to be had.

Maybe it was lonely - to be constantly moving, hiding - to have the entire nation against you. Bakugou was seen as a powerful and dangerous wizard, but it won him no love amongst the people. Not when he’d deserted the king and country when it needed him and his like the most.

When the townspeople gathered to watch his castle walk across the horizon, they called him a coward.

All Uraraka saw was a man trying to find some peace. Why else would his home be on the move?

Jumping down from the boiler, she rolled her shoulders, feeling the drenching of her sweat through all her clothes. When she was working, she could ignore it, only becoming uncomfortable when reality set back in. Grimacing to herself, she started to pack up her gear when she heard the sharp whistle from the stairs. Flicking her attention back up, her father was beckoning her back over. Gathering herself quickly, Uraraka moved towards her father.

“Ochako! Head back to the store,” he said just before she stopped in front of him.

“Are you sure you don’t need me here?” she said, her grip on her toolbox waning. She hauled it up again, pulling it up at her side as her other hand wiped over her mouth, feeling the sweat that had pooled on her face.

“I have everything else, and today looks quiet, just needed a good eye on that,” he waved it off. Uraraka wanted to protest, hating that she was subjected to that awful, lonely shop all on her own yet again. But the smile that her father gave back to her made her feel sorry - she needed to do more.

“Ok, well, if you need anything, I’ll be at the store,” she tried.

“Got a busy few weeks, so we might not see each other for a while,” he smiled, hand running over the back of his head.

“Oh, ok,” she sighed, weakly smiling back, “love you,” she said her goodbye.

“Love you too, sweetie,” he kissed her forehead,

Uraraka always did as she was told - being the shop girl because no one else would anymore. When her mother was still around, she found that she could be the perfect construction worker, mastering the craft better than men twice her age, and when she was twenty one, the entire town had heard of the young Uraraka girl that worked wonders with metal. No one really knew her by face, but her name was understood as being exceptional, so that was what counted.

Exiting the shop, she found herself staring back at her own reflection. She was covered in grease and soot, dragged over her forehead and cheeks. It was how Uraraka always looked - a mess like so many men in her field. It seemed like she could never escape the fact that she was never going to be like every other woman out there. She scowled at her appearance, trying to get some semblance of a functioning human being before she wandered into the world where anyone could see her, only to find that her attempts made her look worse. The soot smeared over her cheeks, and the grease made it all stick to her skin like an adhesive.

Her pout wobbled, a disheartened moment in which she could not escape her fate of being a woman out of balance with the world around her, and unremarkable other than being a disaster. She sniffed, holding her breath as she accepted herself, moving past the shop window and going back into the world, knowing that no one ever paid much attention to her anyhow.

Planes flew overhead with the roar of the engines, the gears like a melody she knew all too well - something about that hum made her wary and look to the sky before the rest of the crowd did. The war still raged, and when the plane came in, smoking and dipping towards the water, there was no doubt that it was still as brutal as the day it had started.

Other than a lone plane, safely landing in the water, the rest of the thoroughfare came back with an uproar of cheers and happy faces. Everyone loved seeing the soldiers come home in one piece. Uraraka walked on after seeing the planes - the war didn’t interest her, and despite how the other girls waved their scarves and handkerchiefs whenever the men marched by, she’d never been interested in the idea of spending the night with a sailor on leave. But then, most other girls didn’t have a construction company to run, so she could understand the appeal.

Once she arrived home, she washed, letting the sweat and grease leave her body and dressed in the shops pink dress. With the shop downstairs, she didn’t have to rush to get back, but she felt bad for taking her time. Soon, Uraraka stood behind the counter, waiting for anything or anyone to take her away from the loneliness that bound her there. A short dress, pale pink colour, a petticoat to her knee with her black tights and boots, Uraraka tightened in at the waist with a belt and was out on the shop floor, flicking the sign back around to open and waited for anyone to stop in.

No one did.

The next day, Uraraka donned her shop outfit once more, and opened the store bright and early. The morning passed slowly, there were a few jobs here and there, small things, like things that needed to be welded or just simple things like recommending parts that they could fix at home. Other than a few people, Uraraka was left to her own devices, to tend to whatever she saw the shop needed.

The heat was oppressive in Musutafu this time of year - the fine days of spring left behind for a sticky humidity that clung to her skin and left her breathless just climbing a set of stairs. Unfortunately for her, Uraraka had to climb a lot of them.

In the business hub of the city was her parents' construction company, and since their divorce, she’d been left running ragged trying to keep it afloat. With her father refusing to set foot in the shop, and her mother off ‘socialising’ with as many bachelors as she could find, there really wasn’t anyone else. She’d leave it if she could, but there was something about the idea of letting it all go that bothered her. Uraraka didn’t leave things unfinished, and she certainly didn’t leave her parents behind, even if they’d left her first. Sooner or later, they’d come back to their senses, and she wanted there to be something for them to return to when they did.

Uraraka huffed, lifting yet another box of tools onto the obnoxiously high shelf. It rattled dangerously, but she dropped it with a groan of relief, collapsing into the wall for a moment. She’d been working all morning, and all the night before, and the day before that and really, she never got a break. It was a modest company, mostly contracts for new houses or storefronts in the ever expanding city, but the competition had only been rising since her parents started it twenty years prior. They only had two other workers for the business - the rest being contracted crew for the construction itself - and they’d both been out sick the previous week from some kind of flu.

Between that, and the war, she was having a hard time keeping up with all the work.

A car honked outside, and she glanced out in reflex, and paused. It was such a nice day, maybe even a breeze blowing that she couldn’t hope to feel inside, and the sun was shining so bright. Would it hurt to take a break? It wasn’t like they needed someone in store all the time right? Any telegrams would be slid under the door if she wasn’t in, and it was a Wednesday. Nothing ever happened on a Wednesday.

Nodding along to herself as she pulled off her apron and hung it on the hook, she paused to wipe down her dress and grab her hat and purse. A moment later, she was locking the door and feeling the sun against her skin.

Maybe she’d go visit her friend Mina, her family did run a bakery, and Uraraka had been working all day. She’d barely eaten.

Walking with a pep to her step at her decision, Uraraka made her way deeper into the city, before jumping on the nearest tram.

Today was going to be a good day, no matter what she’d rather be doing.

Yesterday, the soldiers had arrived in the city and the noise had been loud. Today was the official welcome, and the military parade caused a scream of people welcoming home those that had been away, battling against a nation they had no real quarrel with.

Uraraka knew the route pretty well when it was the main streets, but with the crowded roads and parades, she knew she had to take the back streets that winded and confused her. Through gut instinct, she ventured down a path, passing by a soldier that held a post. Uraraka held herself a little tighter, rounding another corner, and another just to be safe, ending up in heaven knows where. Sucking in a breath, trying to remain calm, she followed a path which sounded like it led back to the crowds, only to be faced with mounting worry.

Two men blocked her path, their bright blue military uniforms almost blinding in the sunlight. Their medals reflected the light into her eyes, and she tried not to squint. One soldier was blond and young, the other was a little older and a moustache that hung over his lips like handlebars on a bicycle. The alleyway was empty, the sounds of the busy street so close but still too far to make it if anything happened.

She’d heard so much about military men when they finally reached port. Uraraka chewed on her lip, wondering if she should go back the way she came. But she was lost enough as it was, if she turned back, she’d never be able to get to Mina’s bakery and then back to the shop before her father got home.

Ducking her head down, she waded through the back street, going to break through the two soldiers and get back to the rest of the crowds, lost amongst the faces once more. When she heard their voices whisper, she knew she wouldn’t be getting back to the street anytime soon.

“Oh, lookie what we have here,” one mentioned, getting directly in Uraraka’s path. She stopped, immediately gripping hard into the skirt of her dress. She could feel her petticoat bunch at her knees, drawing her attention to the way she trembled slightly.

“I’m just trying to get to the bakery, excuse me,” she tried, but with a weak voice, and barely any action, they wouldn’t allow her to pass by them - shoulders locking to keep her in their sights.

“We will happily escort you,” the first one replied. In moments like this, Uraraka wished she was still in her overalls, a wrench tucked into the pocket on her calf. She’d throw it at him and run the other direction.

“That won’t be necessary,” she tried to smile, move past them once more, but the one with blonde

“Why not, pretty face?”

In a moment where Uraraka thought she’d be brave, she felt so small and insignificant. He towered over her, eyes like he had so many different thoughts as he took her in, he wasn’t sure which one to start with. The other soldier that stood to his side didn’t have a much better look - one of determination; he had a plan for Uraraka, one that she was scared to face. In spite of it, she tried to raise her chin as she swallowed down her fear. It didn’t do much as one tried to step towards her once more.

“Oi, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” A rough voice said, and it was the only warning she had before a warm hand slid over her shoulder.

Uraraka turned her head, eyes widening as she took in the blond man next to her. Short spiky hair stuck out at all ends, and a heavy red coat with fur trimmings was flung over his broad shoulders. He must’ve been sweltering in this heat, but he looked cool as ice as he took in the two soldiers before them.

He shot her a sharp look, and she almost gasped to see his eyes were a dark red. That’s not natural. His grip tightened ever so slightly, and she tried to keep her face calm.

Just pretend you know him.

“Good to see you finally caught up - I was beginning to worry I’d lost you in the crowd,” she replied, and a quick side glance to the two men showed them looking more than a little confused, bordering on anger.

The stranger next to her clearly noticed too, as he stiffened, tension thrumming between them as he shifted. “We’re gonna be late,” he said to her, before finally acknowledging the men. “Are you two looking for directions or some shit?”

They bristled, reaching for the guns in their holsters and Uraraka was about to throw the stranger at them and make a run for it, when the thrumming increased, before this feeling exploded around them.

Freezing in their places, the soldiers gasped in pain. Limbs awkwardly clamping together into attention before they turned tail and marched down the alleyway, screaming the entire way. It was only as Uraraka’s eyes drifted from the angry pair that her gaze stuck on the stranger, and his outstretched hand still pointing in their direction. His fingers were barely extended, as though whatever he had done came so naturally, it was a bother to even move his hand.

A moment later, he lowered it, and the tension bled from the air, the strange hum disappearing into a simmer.

That was…

“That should take care of those bastards. Their balls are gonna hurt for weeks too. Good riddance.” The stranger spat, and Uraraka felt faint.

He’s a….

The man turned to her, grip leaving her shoulder and suddenly she felt unmoored, like she could fall in the passing breeze. He noticed, face crunching in concern. “Hey, you okay, Round Face?”

“That was magic,” she breathed.

Red eyes widened, and the man gave her a strange, guarded look. “Yeah… So?”

“Are you -”

He began muttering under his breath. “If you say that fucker Shigaraki, I’m gonna let those assholes come b-”

“Bakugou Katsuki?” she finally realised. She’d never seen him in person, but there was no doubt it was him. He shifted to lean against the wall, his arms coming out from underneath his cloak to show the fine markings that everyone talks about. “Your tattoos are quite distinguishable,” she remarked, gesturing to his arms.

“Not many people get to see them,” he remarked, looking down to the lines along his forearm that traced up his bicep.

“That’s a bold face lie,” she scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. To that, he frowned, looking her over as though she were doing something scandalise or unheard of. “I’ve heard you’ve punched nearly every military man you’ve ever met, and they’re the ones that talk.”

“Fuckers deserved it,” he smirked, as though he were proud.

“I’m sure,” Uraraka said, and with the confidence he held, she felt slightly bashful. He didn’t seem cowardly - brazen, if anything. He didn’t seem like a man that ran away from a fight.

“Ah shit,” he said, looking down at his feet, turning to her, forcing her shoulder to his, a hand clinging to her opposite shoulder. He leaned down, face closer to hers than any other man’s had ever been before. She felt a heat rush over her cheeks. She glanced over to watch his finger play with her hair, lips moving towards her ear. “Sorry, round face, dragged you into some fucking mess. Keep your eyes forward and we’ll be fine. And don’t scream. Hate the bloody screaming,” he whispered angrily. She wasn’t sure if he were mad at her for getting in the way, or himself for the danger he put her in. From the way he clung to her shoulder, maybe it was something else all together.

They wound their way through the alley in slow steps, and Uraraka didn’t feel like there was anything amiss until she heard a booming noise behind them, as though a large piece of scaffolding had fallen. She was used to the sound of heavy weight falling. But instead of looking, she followed Bakugou’s warning. Keeping eyes forward. It wasn’t until after they rounded one corner to escape the noise behind them did she see what was the matter, in their path stood humanoid things, their skin blackened almost to a void or green or deep reds, and their faces...completely distorted - they could have once been men, but now they were mindless for sure. There was barely a chance to gasp at the size of them, standing far behind the height that she or Bakugou were, when Bakugou practically charged at them, tugging Uraraka along. She’d never seen them before, but they were far more frightening than anything anyone had ever described.

Uraraka kept her pace with Bakugou, but the entire time, she felt herself holding him closer, trying to pull away. He could kill her because of this. “Hold on,” he said, moving his arm around her waist, and suddenly, her view once obstructed by the disfigured beasts now simply became sky. She gasped, the air leaving her like it never belonged there in the first place.

“Now straighten your damn legs and start walking,” he instructed, his legs already moving before hers. Uraraka followed suit, though it felt clumsy and unnatural to do it. His hands clutched to her own, keeping them elevated as walked. Uraraka felt her skirt fly up, and wondered if anyone looked up what they may get a view of.

It was as though Bakugou had read her mind, because he let go of her, hitting her skirt down with a disgruntled look. Uraraka didn’t care, as she felt like she was slipping without his support. She snatched his hand back, keeping them bound together.

“What the fuc-” she began before suddenly feeling light - as though it were how things were always meant to be. A weight gone that kept her so rigid, she had never felt true freedom until she was let go. “Ah!” she squeaked, looking back to the wizard that kept them floating “Oh my god! This is amazing,” she beamed. He merely rolled his eyes, grip tightening on her.

“Don’t fidget, I might fucking drop you, round face,” he said, but she had already stopped, merely guiding along with the same footsteps he had. He scoffed behind her, which made her look over her shoulder to him. “See, you’re a natural. Stop moving around so much,” he praised, shaking his head.

“Okay! Okay!” she said, a little too excited, “This is incredible!”

“Watch this,” he said, suddenly baring down his weight and sending them faster towards a rooftop.

Uraraka squealed, clutching harder into Bakugou’s hands, her fingers lacing with his as she held herself tightly to him, trying not to fall from his hold. He chuckled behind her, guiding them to a post on the top of a building. They both landed a foot, and as she looked to him for confirmation, he gave a satisfied smirk back. With a hard push, they were bounding off again, the bakery in sight as she gestured to it.

Underneath them, a hundred people or more scattered the streets, cheering and dancing as they celebrated the return of those from the war. No one even glanced to the sky to see the pair skipping to the bakery.

They reached the second floor - Mina’s home with her parents - and Bakugou stood on the balcony’s edge, lowering Uraraka down delicately as he crouched to keep eye contact with her. She found herself unable to take her eyes from him, to even let go of his hands. Their fingertips lingered for a moment too long, and when he pulled away, Uraraka wanted to reach out, clutch back to him, because the feeling she had become so drawn to - the weightlessness - was gone without warning. She wanted to chase it, but now all she could do was stare into crimson eyes that looked at her with a sense of curiosity, if she could even call it that.

From his perched position, crouching to her eye level on the balcony railing, she took him in. Red coat with fur trimmings, leather pants and heavy fur trimmed boots that went up his shins as though they were for protection rather than aesthetic. His shirt was a loose thing, white that cut down to sternum and jewelry that looked like red rubies. He was so interesting, yet no answers to his person would ever fully be explained or given - willingly, Uraraka guessed.

“I’ll draw the fuckers off, but don’t come out unless you want to fucking die or whatever,” he warned, looking her over once more.

“Thank you,” she breathed, smiling once more at him. There could never be a deeper way of saying it, not how she meant it.

“Tch,” he grimaced before he stepped back, sailing off the side and down into the street. Uraraka raced to the balcony’s edge and looked into the crowd, finding it littered with people, the mysterious wizard gone in a breath.

Uraraka hadn’t realised how much time had past. All she felt like she could do was stand on the balcony, wait for something to remind her that her life was her own - but the roar of celebration bringing in the afternoon did nothing to break her mind away from what had happened. It just reminded her the more of the way it felt to be in that world - to be around magic, even if it were only for a few minutes, it felt like everything.

With her hands on her Uraraka’s face, Mina practically screamed as she turned Uraraka around. “Someone just told me you floated down onto our balcony!”

Uraraka blinked a few times, thinking aloud. “So that really happened?”

To that, Mina sighed, taking Uraraka’s hand and took her down the stairs to the staff room, letting Uraraka have a tea and a small cake to bring her back. In exchange, Uraraka had to tell Mina everything that happened. It was hard, because it all felt like a dream, but she described it as best as she could, albeit, she omitted the name of the wizard who brought her. If Mina knew...

“He must have been a wizard,” Mina exclaimed, taking a little piece of cake for herself, as though the small gossip was truly exciting. Uraraka supposed it was, but she was still in a daze to even recognise it herself.

Uraraka knew who he was, but if Mina knew, she’d go on endlessly about what he was like, and ask so many demanding questions that Uraraka wasn’t sure where to start and end with.

“He rescued me,” Uraraka said, a wistful sigh leaving her against her better judgement.

“If he was Bakugou, you’d not be alive,” Mina exclaimed, rubbing Uraraka’s shoulders. But it was Bakugou. He didn’t kill her. He didn’t even try to hurt her. Uraraka was right - he saved her. “You need to be more careful, it’s dangerous out there,” she reminded.

Uraraka felt like she was a million miles away, floating in what felt like a dream. When she was floating, with his hands on hers, she felt like everything had fallen into place, that she could finally be herself. She didn’t know how, but when he gave her that smug smirk of his, she couldn’t help but feel like she was made for it - that smile, and to be out amongst the magic.

“Uraraka, are you listening?” Mina tried.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” Uraraka said, looking back at Mina. To that, her friend sighed, shaking her head.

“Maybe you should get home, you’ve had quite a day,” she said, hand stroking over Uraraka’s hair, a worried look over her face.

“Maybe you’re right,” Uraraka resigned, hands binding in her skirt for a moment before she made her way out with Mina. The pair stood at the door, embracing before Uraraka made her way home. The crowds had dispersed, moving their celebrations to the pubs and allowing Uraraka to travel home on the tram, and a short walk in the dark to get back to her shop. Inside, she locked the door, cleaning up the shop, though there was little to do. She cleared the till and counted everything, locking everything up for safe keeping.

The bell on the door rang, and Uraraka turned sharply, looking towards the door to see a skinny man, long coat almost meeting the floor, and a suit that didn’t seem to fit his frame very well - almost as though he were getting ready to relax for the evening.

“I’m sorry we’re closed,” she remarked, moving her hands behind her back to give her kindest appearance. There was something off about it all, but something bothered her the most. “I swear I locked that door,” she whispered under her breath. The man walked around the store, picking up parts before tossing them into boxes that they didn’t belong. He was messing up her store with everything he was doing. It was becoming frustrating, and in spite of the mounting fear that brimmed in her stomach, she didn’t care.

“What a tacky little thing you are. I can see why they’ve been hiding you for so long. But he just…lead me straight to you,” he sneered, and Uraraka frowned.

“I don’t know what you’re getting at, but you have the wrong person,” she said, moving past him, opening up the door to the shop. “Please leave, we’re closed,” she demanded.

“Quite brave of you, I must say, to stand up to the Wizard of the Waste,” he said, a smile creeping onto his lips as his eyes darkened. In a moment, it was like nothing but darkness existed, and fear was all she felt.

“Shigaraki!” she gasped. From the shop door, she heard the growls of something, turning to see two mindless beasts trying to get their way through the door. Uraraka shrieked, backing away, only to be caught by Shigaraki in a second flat. She was too much in a daze to realise what was happening, the shock of insulting a wizard - let alone the wizard of the waste - taking her from reality. The only thing that brought her back was five fingers gripping into her neck.

His hand grasped around her throat, holding it until she found that air was so scarce, all she could do was clutch to the hand that pressed to her pulse. He leaned in close, his other hand laying over the top of her two. Upon her ear, she heard words she could not understand

“Ab hac die non tangere es et tu conteres carissimos.”

As his words seeped slowly into her ear, a heat seared into her neck, pressed into her from the inside out. The pressure that surrounded her was like the alleyway with Bakugou and the soldiers; it was thick and reverberated through her entire body. She begged anything to help her, to let her live through the pain and ache that had now filled her body. A moment later, her knees met the floor and she choked for air, holding onto her throat as the wizard stepped away from her. As she scrambled to breathe, the wizard crouched down to her, eyes wide and foreboding. Uraraka jumped, falling back, trying to kick away

“Best thing about that curse,” he smiled, the lines around his mouth cracking, as though it were thoroughly foreign to him, “it’ll ruin your life long before it ever ruins mine,” he scoffed, standing and going towards the door. “Give Inko my regards,” he said, leaving with the beasts following after him.

Uraraka was left with little air, an ache over her entire body, and the unmistakable thought that finally left her lips when she could stomach it.

“What on earth was that?” she choked.

#kacchako #kacchako fic #bakugou x uraraka #uraraka x bakugou #my fics #wandering starlight

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faegrifted · 5 years ago

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Personality Traits.

Rules - Use BOLD to highlight your muse’s personality traits. Use ITALICS for traits that only apply in certain situations.

tagged by: stole it!!! tagging: bring back piracy and tag me so i can read!

NEGATIVE TRAITS

Abrasive ∥ Abrupt ∥ Agonizing ∥ Aggressive ∥ Aimless ∥ Aloof ∥ Amoral ∥ Angry ∥ Anxious ∥ Apathetic ∥ Arbitrary ∥ Argumentative ∥ Arrogant ∥ Artificial ∥ Asocial ∥ Bewildered ∥ Bizarre ∥ Bland ∥ Blunt ∥ Boisterous ∥ Bratty ∥ Brittle ∥ Brutal ∥ Calculating ∥ Callous ∥ Cantankerous ∥ Careless ∥ Charmless ∥ Childish ∥ Clumsy ∥ Coarse ∥ Cold ∥ Colorless ∥ Complacent ∥ Complaining ∥ Compulsive ∥ Conceited ∥ Condemnatory ∥ Conformist ∥ Confused ∥ Contemptible ∥ Conventional ∥ Cowardly ∥ Crass ∥ Crazy ∥ Criminal ∥ Critical ∥ Crude ∥ Cruel ∥ Cynical ∥ Decadent ∥ Deceitful ∥ Delicate ∥ Demanding ∥ Dependent ∥ Desperate ∥ Destructive ∥ Devious ∥ Difficult ∥ Disconcerting ∥ Discontented ∥ Discouraging ∥ Discourteous ∥ Dishonest ∥ Disloyal ∥ Disobedient ∥ Disorderly ∥ Disorganized ∥ Disputatious ∥ Disrespectful ∥ Disruptive ∥ Dissonant ∥ Distractible ∥ Disturbing ∥ Dogmatic ∥ Domineering ∥ Dull ∥ Easily Discouraged ∥ Egocentric ∥ Envious ∥ Erratic ∥ Escapist ∥ Extravagant ∥ Extreme ∥ Faithless ∥ False ∥ Fanatical ∥ Fanciful ∥ Fatalistic ∥ Fawning ∥ Fearful ∥ Fickle ∥ Fiery ∥ Fixed ∥ Flamboyant ∥ Foolish ∥ Forgetful ∥ Fraudulent ∥ Frightening ∥ Frivolous ∥ Gloomy ∥ Graceless ∥ Greedy ∥ Grim ∥ Gullible ∥ Hateful ∥ Haughty ∥ Hedonistic ∥ Hesitant ∥ Hidebound ∥ High-handed ∥ Hostile ∥ Ignorant ∥ Imitative ∥ Impatient ∥ Impractical ∥ Imprudent ∥ Impulsive ∥ Inconsiderate ∥ Incurious ∥ Indecisive ∥ Indulgent ∥ Inert ∥ Inhibited ∥ Insecure ∥ Insensitive ∥ Insincere ∥ Insulting ∥ Intolerant ∥ Irascible ∥ Irrational ∥ Irresponsible ∥ Irritable ∥ Lazy ∥ Malicious ∥ Mannerless ∥ Mean ∥ Mechanical ∥ Meddlesome ∥ Melancholic ∥ Messy ∥ Miserable ∥ Miserly ∥ Misguided ∥ Mistaken ∥ Money-minded ∥ Moody ∥ Morbid ∥ Muddle-headed ∥ Naive ∥ Narcissistic ∥ Narrow ∥ Narrow-minded ∥ Negative ∥ Neglectful ∥ Neurotic ∥ Nihilistic ∥ Obnoxious ∥ Obsessive ∥ Obvious ∥ Odd ∥ Offhand ∥ One-dimensional ∥ One-sided ∥ Opinionated ∥ Opportunistic ∥ Oppressed ∥ Outrageous ∥ Paranoid ∥ Passive ∥ Pedantic ∥ Perverse ∥ Petty ∥ Plodding ∥ Pompous ∥ Possessive ∥ Power-hungry ∥ Predatory ∥ Prejudiced ∥ Presumptuous ∥ Pretentious ∥ Prim ∥ Procrastinating ∥ Provocative ∥ Puritanical ∥ Quirky ∥ Reactionary ∥ Reactive ∥ Regimental ∥ Regretful ∥ Repentant ∥ Repressed ∥ Resentful ∥ Ridiculous ∥ Rigid ∥ Ritualistic ∥ Ruined ∥ Sadistic ∥ Sanctimonious ∥ Scheming ∥ Scornful ∥ Secretive ∥ Sedentary ∥ Selfish ∥ Self-indulgent ∥ Shallow ∥ Short-sighted ∥ Sloppy ∥ Slow ∥ Sly ∥ Small-thinking ∥ Softheaded ∥ Sordid ∥ Steely ∥ Stiff ∥ Stupid ∥ Submissive ∥ Superficial ∥ Superstitious ∥ Suspicious ∥ Tactless ∥ Tasteless ∥ Tense ∥ Thievish ∥ Thoughtless ∥ Timid ∥ Transparent ∥ Treacherous ∥ Trendy ∥ Troublesome ∥ Unappreciative ∥ Uncaring ∥ Uncharitable ∥ Unconvincing ∥ Uncooperative ∥ Uncreative ∥ Uncritical ∥ Unctuous ∥ Undisciplined ∥ Unfriendly ∥ Ungrateful ∥ Unhealthy ∥ Unimaginative ∥ Unimpressive ∥ Unlovable ∥ Unpolished ∥ Unprincipled ∥ Unrealistic ∥ Unreflective ∥ Unreliable ∥ Unrestrained ∥ Unstable ∥ Vacuous ∥ Vague ∥ Venomous ∥ Vindictive ∥ Vulnerable ∥ Weak ∥ Wilful

NEUTRAL TRAITS

Absentminded ∥ Ambitious ∥ Amusing ∥ Artful ∥ Ascetic ∥ Authoritarian ∥ Big-thinking ∥ Boyish ∥ Breezy ∥ Business-like ∥ Busy ∥ Casual ∥ Cerebral ∥ Chummy ∥ Circumspect ∥ Competitive ∥ Complex ∥ Confidential ∥ Conservative ∥ Contradictory ∥ Crisp ∥ Cute ∥ Deceptive ∥ Determined ∥ Dominating ∥ Dreamy ∥ Driving ∥ Droll ∥ Dry ∥ Earthy ∥ Effeminate ∥ Emotional ∥ Enigmatic ∥ Experimental ∥ Familial ∥ Folksy ∥ Formal ∥ Freewheeling ∥ Frugal ∥ Glamorous ∥ Guileless ∥ High-spirited ∥ Hurried ∥ Hypnotic ∥ Iconoclastic ∥ Idiosyncratic ∥ Impassive ∥ Impersonal ∥ Impressionable ∥ Intense ∥ Invisible ∥ Irreligious ∥ Irreverent ∥ Maternal ∥ Mellow ∥ Modern ∥ Moralistic ∥ Mystical ∥ Neutral ∥ Noncommittal ∥ Non-competitive ∥ Obedient ∥ Old-fashioned ∥ Ordinary ∥ Outspoken ∥ Paternalistic ∥ Physical ∥ Placid ∥ Political ∥ Predictable ∥ Preoccupied ∥ Private ∥ Progressive ∥ Proud ∥ Pure ∥ Questioning ∥ Quiet ∥ Religious ∥ Reserved ∥ Restrained ∥ Retiring ∥ Sarcastic ∥ Self-conscious ∥ Sensual ∥ Sceptical ∥ Smooth ∥ Soft ∥ Solemn ∥ Solitary ∥ Stern ∥ Strict ∥ Stubborn ∥ Stylish ∥ Subjective ∥ Surprising ∥ Tough ∥ Unaggressive ∥ Unambitious ∥ Unceremonious ∥ Unchanging ∥ Undemanding ∥ Unfathomable ∥ Unhurried ∥ Uninhibited ∥ Unpatriotic ∥ Unpredictable ∥ Unsentimental ∥ Whimsical

POSITIVE TRAITS

Accessible ∥ Active ∥ Adaptable ∥ Admirable ∥ Adventurous ∥ Agreeable ∥ Appreciative ∥ Articulate ∥ Aspiring ∥ Athletic ∥ Attractive ∥ Balanced ∥ Brilliant ∥ Calm ∥ Capable ∥ Captivating ∥ Caring ∥ Challenging ∥ Charismatic ∥ Charming ∥ Cheerful ∥ Clean ∥ Clear-headed ∥ Clever ∥ Colorful ∥ Companionly ∥ Compassionate ∥ Confident ∥ Conscientious ∥ Considerate ∥ Constant ∥ Contemplative ∥ Cooperative ∥ Courageous ∥ Courteous ∥ Creative ∥ Cultured ∥ Curious ∥ Daring ∥ Decent ∥ Decisive ∥ Dedicated ∥ Deep ∥ Dignified ∥ Disciplined ∥ Discreet ∥ Dramatic ∥ Dutiful ∥ Earnest ∥ Educated ∥ Elegant ∥ Eloquent ∥ Empathetic ∥ Energetic ∥ Enthusiastic ∥ Esthetic ∥ Exciting ∥ Extraordinary ∥ Fair ∥ Faithful ∥ Farsighted ∥ Flexible ∥ Focused ∥ Forgiving ∥ Forthright ∥ Free-thinking ∥ Friendly ∥ Fun-loving ∥ Gallant ∥ Generous ∥ Gentle ∥ Genuine ∥ Good-natured ∥ Gracious ∥ Hardworking ∥ Healthy ∥ Hearty ∥ Helpful ∥ Heroic ∥ High-minded ∥ Honest ∥ Honorable ∥ Humble ∥ Humorous ∥ Idealistic ∥ Imaginative ∥ Impressive ∥ Incorruptible ∥ Independent ∥ Individualistic ∥ Innovative ∥ Inoffensive ∥ Insightful ∥ Insouciant ∥ Intelligent ∥ Intuitive ∥ Invulnerable ∥ Kind ∥ Knowledgeable ∥ Leader ∥ Logical ∥ Lovable ∥ Loyal ∥ Many-sided ∥ Masculine ∥ Mature ∥ Methodical ∥ Meticulous ∥ Moderate ∥ Modest ∥ Multi-leveled ∥ Neat ∥ Objective ∥ Observant ∥ Open ∥ Optimistic ∥ Orderly ∥ Organized ∥ Original ∥ Painstaking ∥ Passionate ∥ Patient ∥ Peaceful ∥ Perceptive ∥ Perfectionist ∥ Personable ∥ Persuasive ∥ Playful ∥ Popular ∥ Practical ∥ Precise ∥ Principled ∥ Protective ∥ Providential ∥ Punctual ∥ Purposeful ∥ Rational ∥ Realistic ∥ Reflective ∥ Relaxed ∥ Reliable ∥ Resourceful ∥ Respectful ∥ Responsible ∥ Responsive ∥ Romantic ∥ Rustic ∥ Sage ∥ Sane ∥ Scholarly ∥ Scrupulous ∥ Secure ∥ Selfless ∥ Self-critical ∥ Sensitive ∥ Sentimental ∥ Serious ∥ Sexy ∥ Sharing ∥ Simple ∥ Skillful ∥ Sober ∥ Sociable ∥ Sophisticated ∥ Spontaneous ∥ Sporting ∥ Stable ∥ Steadfast ∥ Steady ∥ Stoic ∥ Strong ∥ Studious ∥ Suave ∥ Subtle ∥ Sweet ∥ Sympathetic ∥ Systematic ∥ Tasteful ∥ Teacherly ∥ Thorough ∥ Tidy ∥ Tolerant ∥ Tractable ∥ Trusting ∥ Uncomplaining ∥ Understanding ∥ Upright ∥ Urbane ∥ Venturesome ∥ Vivacious ∥ Warm ∥ Winning ∥ Wise ∥ Witty ∥ Youthful

#🌻 headcanons;; ❛ here’s the rap sheet. well the rap sheet for a few of ‘me’. ❜

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bbclesmis · 6 years ago

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NY Times: A New Version of ‘Les Misérables’ Has Less Singing, More Misery

Vilvoorde, Belgium — Lily Collins, dressed in a mud-colored linen shift, tried to hide the small piece of jewelry she had crafted, as a hatchet-faced factory supervisor approached.

The camera moved in for a close-up of her pale, anxious face. “Sorry, Lily, just one more time,” said Tom Shankland, the director of the new adaptation of “Les Misérables,” a coproduction with BBC and PBS’s Masterpiece. “Listen, my deathbed scene was on Day 2,” said Ms. Collins, who was playing the ill-fated Fantine. “It’s all uphill at this point.”

There is not much that’s looking up for any character in Victor Hugo’s epic 1862 novel “Les Misérables,” which has provided the subject matter for dozens of theater, television and film adaptations, most famously the blockbuster musical that zillions of fans affectionately call “Les Miz.”

But this six-part television adaptation, which first aired in Britain from December to February and arrives on Masterpiece on Sunday, might come as a surprise to those who only know the musical. This version hews much more closely to Hugo’s book, a five-volume, 365-chapter novel that over the course of its complex plot explores history, law, politics, religion and ideas about justice, guilt and redemption. Set in a grimly realist France, its abundant starving poor and oppressed are entirely disconnected from the wealthy classes. (The aptly dreary set here, in a dilapidated, gloomy former prison, might as well have sported a sign saying “Likely to Perish Within.”)

Unsurprisingly, the musical, which got a lavish Hollywood adaptation in 2012, focuses mainly on the central characters and plot lines. “I thought the musical a very feeble representation of the book,” said Andrew Davies (“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “War and Peace”), who wrote the screenplay for the new series. “It very much reinforced my idea that we needed a proper, old-fashioned long-form television adaptation.”

The story (skip ahead if you are one of the millions who have seen a previous incarnation) begins with Jean Valjean (played here by Dominic West), a peasant who has almost finished his sentence of 19 years hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving relatives. Brutalized by his jail time, he is transformed through an act of kindness, and becomes a wealthy and respected citizen, with a new identity. When he discovers that one of his former factory workers, Fantine, has become destitute after being fired, he adopts her daughter, Cosette, who is living with the evil Thenardiers (Olivia Colman and Adeel Akhtar in the series).

Editors’ Picks

Pursued over the years by his former jailer Javert (David Oyelowo), a police officer obsessed with bringing the former criminal to justice, Valjean raises Cosette (Ellie Bamber) who eventually falls in love with Marius (Josh O’Connor), a student taking part in the revolution against the monarchy in the June Rebellion of 1832.

Let’s just say that very few characters get a happy ending.

“I think we managed to include everything that was really important,” Davies said, adding that he had streamlined some of the narrative’s twists and turns, notably Valjean’s repeated returns to and escapes from prison, and Javert’s uncanny reappearances wherever Valjean is to be found. “I think this has made it feel less improbable and more believable in modern terms,” he said.

In a series of conversations, Davies, Shankland and a few of the principle actors talked about three important aspects of the mini-series that set it apart from the musical. Here are edited excerpts.

Valjean vs. Javert

DOMINIC WEST The first question is obviously, what is Javert’s problem? Why is he so obsessed with Valjean? You do wonder what’s going on there, and we sort of hinted at it in one glance where I am naked in front of him when [Valjean] is released from the prison hulks. It always helps to bring things down to love and sex, and I think there is a homoerotic thing going on, perhaps the love of the jailer for his prisoner. It’s a modern, reductionist view to bring it down to that, and we didn’t emphasize it. But it’s there.

That they are alter egos, in a way, was the biggest clue to why Valjean felt so guilty, so unworthy. I realized that anyone who is brutalized and treated like an animal eventually becomes that. Valjean’s belief that he doesn’t deserve anyone’s love in the real world is central to his sense of self, and that is an important political point. Javert believes criminals are born that way, and Valjean is evidence that criminals are products of their environments.

DAVID OYELOWO My first interaction with “Les Mis” was with the musical, and when I read Andrew Davies’s script, it seemed very apparent that I could bring real layering and complexity to this character, who in the musical is a much more one-dimensional villain. I suddenly understood this man, born to criminal parents in a prison and filled with loathing for that world. It became apparent to me that he had transposed a side of himself onto Jean Valjean, and needed to destroy that part of himself he saw there. You need six hours of television to explore that complex idea!

Oppression and Politics

TOM SHANKLAND I am one of the few people in the universe who wasn’t really aware of the musical and the story, beyond the posters. When I read the script and novel, I really got a sense that this was a story of revolution, of social injustice, about people who felt disenfranchised. I wanted to find a way to interpret the story in a way that felt respectful to Hugo, but also politically relevant. It has wonderfully big moral questions: What does it mean to be good in a cruel world? What is meaningful action?

Drawings from the period — etchings of that revolution and others, images of urban warfare — were important in creating visual imagery, but I also drew from my memory of the 2011 London riots, and from the gilet jaunes in Paris. I didn’t want it to be just big images of the barricades, and I didn’t want it to be stiff and costume drama-y. There is nothing romantic or picturesque about those experiences; they are frightening and chaotic.

OYELOWO Hugo shows the fragility of the class system so well. Fantine starts off just above the underclass and falls catastrophically. Javert is the reverse, rising to prison officer and policeman, forcing his way up through the social hierarchy, but always feeling precarious. This idea of the fragility of many people’s social and economic positions feels very relevant today. In our society, the gaps between the haves and the have-nots is widening and people’s lives can be stripped away, just as they are in this story.

The Dark Side

LILY COLLINS There are parts of each character’s story line in “Les Misérables” that doesn’t get into film versions or the musical, because there just isn’t time. A song lyric can try to tell the story in one line, but here we show Fantine’s early life, how she falls in love, is deceived and has a baby. That makes her fate all the harder because we have discovered that side of her life, her trusting and joyous personality.

We shot my death scene first. I did a lot of research about what France would have been like for women at that time. What were the diseases, the symptoms of the disease she might have died from, what that would look like for filming. It was pretty grim, especially the scene when her teeth are pulled out because she is selling them for money for her child. It really made me push myself and find out what I could withstand physically and emotionally.

WEST I hadn’t seen Valjean played as initially completely unredeemable in other versions of the novel. I wanted to really show that brutal, callous side that Hugo depicts, and we wanted to make his leap from that to romantic hero as big as possible. That really gets your pulse going as an actor. In a way, I went back to my childhood. I wasn’t a street urchin, but I was a fairly coarse Yorkshire kid, and I tapped into that. In the same way, the Thenardiers are usually treated in a more comic vein, but they are really evil. It’s interesting and remarkable that the novel hasn’t been treated in this kind of depth for a very long time.

DAVIES The series ends with an image of two little boys, who we have seen begging earlier, and who Gavroche, a street urchin, takes under his wing. Gavroche is killed, and the little boys are still begging at the end, as a reminder to the audience that although the story ends happily for some, the suffering and brutality goes on.

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