#they’re all my children and I love all of them inequally

[athena-xiii]

My kids <3

[livvyofthelake]

deciding my favorite genre of book is children’s historical fiction… nothing else hits like it sorry… yeah yeah adult historical fiction is fine. not my favorite though…

[calliesmemes]

DARKNESS STILL HAUNTS YOUR NARRATIVE

ASSORTED ASKBOX PROMPTS from various sources with dark and / or unsettling themes. The ominous feeling from before is still there, and its prominence has only grown …

* TRIGGERING THEMES MAY BE PRESENT, such as death, wealth inequality, and war. Please exercise caution and curate your space accordingly.

CHANGE gendered words and in-universe phrases as needed

SPECIFY muse for multimuses

❛ When I look at a person, I see a person — not a rank, not a class, not a title. ❜

❛ What a strange girl you are. ❜

❛ History is written by the rich, and so the poor get blamed for everything. ❜

❛ I could corrupt you. It would be easy. ❜

❛ How many centuries deep is your wound? ❜

❛ You’ll be remembered more for what you destroy than what you create. ❜

❛ Bitter are the wars between brothers. ❜

❛ Power comes with a price. ❜

❛ Your power might destroy you if you don’t learn to control it. ❜

❛ I’m not going to let you anywhere near a battlefield! ❜

❛ War is sweet to those who have never fought. ❜

❛ Cowardice is everywhere in this country. ❜

❛ Which appeals to you more? Power, or love? ❜

❛ Inside my head, the war is everywhere. ❜

❛ You look like your grief and guilt and rage are eating you alive, bit by bit. ❜

❛ Good and evil are a question of perspective. ❜

❛ The only difference between martyrdom and suicide is the press coverage. ❜

❛ Your place is at home; you will fight another day. ❜

❛ How many more children do we have to sacrifice in this war? ❜

❛ When you talk to the dead, the dead will talk back. They’re always there, even if you can’t hear them. ❜

❛ I am half child, half ancient. ❜

❛ You’re like me. You’ve seen too much, too young. ❜

❛ Every word from your mouth, every turn of phrase, will be judged — and possibly used against you. ❜

❛ I prefer the most unfair peace over the most righteous war. ❜

❛ A love like ours could burn down a city. ❜

❛ In my experience, men only call women ‘mad’ when they are doing something inconvenient. ❜

❛ I will do anything to keep you safe from harm. ❜

❛ You wield an incredible amount of power with just your voice. ❜

❛ You know, everything old can be made new again. Like democracy. ❜

❛ You laugh like a little girl, and think like a martyr. ❜

❛ What is a home if not the first place you learn to run from? ❜

❛ Do you understand what it means when you have nowhere else to turn? ❜

❛ The war is never over. ❜

❛ We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. ❜

❛ I dream of the past as if it were yet to come. ❜

❛ You have endured terrible suffering, haven’t you? ❜

❛ Your beauty terrifies me. ❜

❛ This is war — you never know who’s listening. ❜

❛ This is a land of dreams and madness, where childrens’ stories come to life. ❜

❛ The Earth is littered with the ruins of empires that believed they were eternal. ❜

❛ I’ll never get used to being alive. ❜

❛ We’ve been fighting this battle for too long. ❜

❛ We swore we’d never bow to tyranny. ❜

❛ Young men fall, I see their agony. ❜

❛ We all carry things inside us that no one else can see. ❜

❛ Your suffering can’t end until you stop identifying with it. ❜

❛ You have to be a bit of a liar to tell the story the right way. ❜

❛ I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything. ❜

❛ You collect scars because you want proof that you’re paying for whatever sins you’ve committed. ❜

❛ You can escape reality, but you can’t escape the consequences of escaping reality. ❜

❛ Is that all you want to be? Liked? Wouldn’t you rather be passionately and voraciously desired? ❜

❛ Sorrow found me when I was young. ❜

❛ The very heavens conspire against me! ❜

❛ Do you like the person that you’ve become under the weight of living? ❜

❛ The evil that men do lives on long after they themselves have gone. ❜

❛ You are not safe here. ❜

❛ I don’t know any places I can hide from the voices that are tearing me apart from the inside. ❜

❛ I am not a legend; I’m a fraud. ❜

❛ Destiny is a worrying concept. I don’t want to be fated; I want to choose. ❜

❛ I am not merciful, and I am not kind. ❜

❛ Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter. ❜

❛ Vulnerability is courage in you and inadequacy in me. ❜

❛ You cannot save people. You can only love them. ❜

❛ This isn’t going to be like last time. ❜

[ingek73]

Volunteers need to build playground at UDLA

May 11, 2023

Julye Keeble

Staff writer

This graphic depicts a planned new playground, including a zip line requested by children who helped plan the space, for the Uvalde Dual Language Academy. Volunteers are being sought to help put it together on May 13

Uvalde Dual Language Academy is getting a new playground on May 13, the culmination of decades of effort by Coach Norma Sandoval, aided by a chance encounter with Meghan Markle.

A conversation the coach had with a staff member of Markle’s sparked an initiative that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of playground improvements at two local parks, and volunteers are being sought to help with another build at UDLA on May 13.

Sandoval said she was asked to show Markle and her staff, who came to Uvalde in the aftermath of the Robb school shooting, around while volunteering at the Willie De Leon Civic Center. Sandoval was headed to close her classroom at the school, but said she felt called by God to change her mind and instead go to the civic center on May 26.

Sandoval said, months after the visit, she told Jen De Melo, a representative from KABOOM! who helped coordinate the De Leon Park build how she was so desperate for playgrounds for Uvalde she asked Meghann Markle and her staff about it, and a stunned De Melo told her, “Wow, you may be the reason why we’re in Uvalde.”

“It was an act of courage because it took a courageous act for me to talk to her and ask her about playgrounds, and the fact that it didn’t go on deaf ears, that she saw my passion and she saw my plea is amazing, “ Sandoval said.

“It is a God thing, and I am a believer. When I went to the civic center that morning, I asked God to use me in a big way. I never knew it would be for this,” Sandoval said.

She said she was impressed by how much compassion Markle showed to community members after the tragedy.

“She won me over that day. Her gentleness, her empathy, everything – just seeing her make eye contact, getting on her knees, crying. It was just such a great experience for me to see being that I didn’t really know her,” Sandoval said.

While Sandoval didn’t know it at the time, her remarks to Markle’s staff led to new playgrounds at De Leon Park, Esperanza Park, and soon, at her school, the fulfillment of an over-two decade dream.

Norma

Sandoval

While giving them a tour of the facility and interacting with teachers spread out across the center, she began chatting with an assistant to Markle as they walked around. The conversation turned to children, and Sandoval remarked she had always hoped to see more play spaces for children in the community.

“I said you know what, you’ve got to shoot your shot. So I said, ‘Listen, I’ve been teaching PE for over 20 years, and in my 20 years I’ve known that we in Uvalde – in my school for sure – do not have the playground that kids need,” Sandoval said.

“That playground is probably as old as the school, and it’s an old school.”

She spoke of the general lack of park equipment across Uvalde, and how she loved to see children playing, which she thinks is not only good physical activity, but can lift a child’s spirits.

“When a kid is in a playground, they’re not worried about if mom and dad fought last night or they’re going to fight tonight. Maybe they don’t know whether they’re going to get a warm meal at home … But all the things a child worries about, they don’t worry about while they are in a playground.”

Though she desperately wanted a new playground for her school, Sandoval said that decades of attempting to raise money, selling field day T-shirts and hosting various other fundraisers failed to raise enough to make it happen. She said playgrounds are expensive, and classes would want to go on field trips or have other needs the money wound up going towards.

Though Markle’s staff told her to reach out to KABOOM!, a non-profit that works to end inequality in playspaces, she said life got in the way.

She coached hundreds of children in physical education once the school year started, and though she was short one staff member, she made it work.

Sandoval continued to try to find a way to make a playground happen, speaking with an official from the San Antonio Food Bank while volunteering in a local food drive, which led her to apply for a grant from the San Antonio Spurs Give Foundation. Though she made it to the second round, she did not obtain the $100,000 grant.

But Markle and her staff didn’t forget Sandoval’s words about Uvalde children needing playgrounds, and they reached out to KABOOM! and, together with the Archewell Foundation, their non-profit named for Meghan and Prince Harry’s son, and various other volunteers working with the city of Uvalde, they built a new playground last year at De Leon Park near Robb school.

Sandoval saw the news on social media, and was overjoyed. She said Sherri Rutledge and Lucy Capt reached out to her, knowing she was passionate about playgrounds, and put her in contact with KABOOM! staff, and now her dream of a new playground at her school is coming true in a few days.

Sandoval said they are still seeking volunteers to help build the playground. Anyone interested in helping may register at: UDLABuild.eventbrite.com.

Park builds

The city of Uvalde, the Archewell Foundation and KABOOM! worked together Ocober 13-15, 2022, to transform De Leon Park, the first in a series of projects. Next on the roster was Esperanza Park, redone April 18-20, and the upcoming UDLA build next weekend. The CarMax Foundation funded the playground at Esperanza Park. The Community Foundation Uvalde Forever Fund, Bank of America, San Antonio Spurs, and the San Antonio Area Foundation contributed funding for the UDLA build set Saturday.

And there are more to come, according to KABOOM! Organizers.

“Throughout the history of our organization, our work has been rooted in the healing power of play. When we first came to Uvalde, we wanted to support in any way that the community needed and build amazing playspaces where new memories could be created. Since our first playground build at DeLeon Park, we’ve been able to foster a relationship with the City of Uvalde, grounded in support and love, and identify the need for additional playspaces throughout the city that will help accelerate our work through our 25 in 5 Initiative to End Playspace Inequity,” said Lysa Ratliff, CEO of KABOOM!

“Our mission is about making sure that every kid has a wonderful place to play and our work in Uvalde is just getting started. We want to build playgrounds throughout the entire city, so that every kid in Uvalde has a beautiful place like DeLeon Park, Esperanza Park, and the newest playspace at Uvalde Dual Language Academy to play, learn, and just be happy and healthy kids.”

[daenerysoftarth]

We joke about ‘I have a black friend’ isn’t enough to determine dedication to anti racism

Which is obviously true. But also having diverse friends as a child is so ridiculously important to your kids. I cannot overstate the importance. Different ethnicities, different religions, different family make ups.. it’s so fucking important to expose your children to these when they’re young. And I majorly majorly judge people who keep their kids in these super small isolated bubbles

Bc like. I grew up in the post 9/11 generation where islamophobia was (is) rampant. It would’ve been really really easy for me to fall down that path, but I was fortunate enough to become best friends with a girl named Shelby when I was in third grade, who turned out to be Muslim. And who knows?? If I didn’t have that personal experience and that childhood love and admiration for someone who was Muslim, maybe I would’ve been susceptible to believing that islamophobic bullshit

Same with antisemitism. And anti black racism. And homophobia. And everything. When the love already exists before you ever encounter the bigotry, it makes it a lot harder for the prejudice to stick. And I still carry so much love for my childhood friends, and I still keep them in my thoughts when meditating on issues of inequality and injustice. Would Megan be hurt if I said this? Would Jasmine feel uncomfortable with this? Does this accurately reflect how much I loved Bert?? Like. I do this for strangers, but first and foremost I always did it for them

Idk. It’s just really important. I can’t overstate the love I have for those girls, even still. All these years later. And I guess that’s why so many of these issues have felt personal to me from the start, even if objectively they didn’t have anything to do with me. Because you’re not talking about a faceless nameless people, you’re talking about my friends

[semper-legens]

34. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune

Owned: No, library Page count: 398 My summary: Linus Baker is a case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, assigned to orphanages to see that magical children are being properly cared for. Proper and by-the-book, he is assigned to a ‘problem’ orphanage on a remote island - an orphanage that hosts a female gnome, a wyvern, a forest sprite, a blob boy, a werewolf, and the literal antichrist. Linus is expecting the worst. But with every day that passes, Linus finds himself caring more and more for the odd family on the island, headed by mild-mannered Arthur Parnassus and Zoe the island sprite. And as time goes by, Linus begins to wonder if he has a life outside of paperwork... My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This book comes very well-recommended. And it's entirely up my street. I mean, please, a book about a home full of magical children seen as strange by the world and facing a lot of prejudice, and the case worker who falls in love with them and their lives? That's got me written all over it. And it was a fun book! Very charming, very endearing. The kids were all delightful, the main character was interesting, and I loved the world this was set in. More under the cut!

Our protagonist is Linus Baker, a by-the-book case worker for the government's branch dealing with magical youth. He goes into orphanages, ensures everything's running as it should, then leaves. He doesn't have dreams or ambitions, he's just a drone. But on going to the island, he finds his humanity, and allows himself to desire. In general I like protagonists in this kind of fiction that aren't Hot Young Singles, so seeing this relatively mediocre middle-aged man was actually really interesting! And his romance with Arthur, the head of the orphanage, was sweet. They play very well off each other, you really get a sense for how deeply compatible these two men are. The kids are also a delight. Fundamentally they're all just weird kids with magic powers who don't much trust outsiders - my favourite was Chauncey, a blob-boy who really wants to be a bellhop. Why? Saw it in a movie once and became obsessed with the notion. Which is exactly how little kid special interests work.

Not only is the worldbuilding here interesting, it's also revealed in small doses or at natural times, such as Linus going over the Rules and Regulations or reading case files. Magical beings are a Thing in this world, and are an oppressed minority, with children being forced into orphanages or schools and often abused by their caretakers. The signalling is pretty clear - the See Something, Say Something posters mentioned to be all over the place are so reminiscent of the posters with the exact same slogan that are all over train stations targeting immigrants. But magical beings aren't exactly one metaphor. Arthur and Linus' status as gay men are also the metaphor, it's allegorically representing a broad spectrum of marginalised communities.

The biggest gripe I had with this book was that the stakes didn't feel all that high. The kids are shown to be capable, threats are dealt with reasonably quickly, and people warm up to the kids rapidly on meeting them. A few decide to hate them for what they are, but they're portrayed more as one-note bigots than anything else. I get the wider point the book was trying to make about prejudice and systemic inequality, and it's admittedly effective in showing how individuals are often powerless in the face of systemic prejudice, and how even systems that seem to be working well from an outside perspective can be rotten to the core. It's just simplistic in its worldview, which isn't by necessity that bad a thing, but I was hoping for a little more nuance.

Next up...come on, grab your friends.

[readseavpov]

[ Transmigrated to become a koi husband ] 5/5.

The whole novel overall was a great experience including the extra was fulfilling.

I’ve never felt there was any imbalance or inequality between mc and ml, they just seem so perfect together no matter circumstances they’re put in, they just love, trust and understand each other unconditionally. They’re both such a green flag for each other that they could be a whole forest eloped an ancient temple, calming and peaceful.

Even tho ml thinks mc is “dumb”, he never belittles or disrespects him once.

They have such cute children too, the pacing was almost perfect. They heal me a lot. They both respect each other so much as individuals and never once was in any big misunderstandings.

Their life feels so relaxing and healing, I feel so close and happy just reading it, I love both characters and their development including other characters that came along in the story, no one has to die indiscriminately neither do they have to be a canon fodder or involved too much with the main lead. The world building was amazing. And they don’t have competition or second love interest neither do they have to be jealous to realized what they once had. Amazing.

I love and appreciate this author so much, I wish the best for them, in a world of unnecessary drama and toxicity of the romance and bl trope, they feel like the light of a dark void.

The only novel that it can be with is

- Malicious empress

- Smash all pots and pans to go to school

- All round mid-laner

- Mistakenly saving the villain

- TGCF/MDZS

- the rescue of the tragic villain is in process

- after the disabled god of war became my concubine

- royal roads

- Epiphany of rebirth

[Long Aotian transmigrated into the wrong book]

The main characters are so strong and have unique personalities each of their owns. I’m so glad our Long Aotian mc didn’t bend down or lose his powerful personality after being with ml! I was worried about him losing his personality but in the end they are a perfect fit for each other.

I just love mc so much in this, he’s so confident and badass and an unbothered king, he’s like the embody of the art of wars book if he was a person. I also love how he’s so responsible and honest and accepting of his feelings for ml and never back down no matter what. Such a charmer. He’s so unintentionally funny and endearing.

But I wonder what happened to mc’s family, they just went silent and we never heard of them ever again. The only thing I’m bothered about is their work, they don’t go to further details but mostly focus on character development and their relationship progress. And it’s weird that the system doesn’t do anything about it and how come other hosts failed, were they in any restrictions? And ml’s first love wasn’t cleared, was he ever in love with the og soul? Everything is just fun and games.

If mc is the art of wars, ml is tao te ching, gentle and thoughtful.

[that-is-just-so-typically-me]

Just made myself mad thinking about how many pathetic husbands out there will straight up leave their devoted spouses and parents of the children because they fell out of love with them when they had to focus so much time and energy into their kids, and god forbid their bodies changed since they first fell in love. Cis men are just so incredibly good at never rising to the bare minimum of maturity, wisdom, perspective, introspection or decency and sometimes I just remember a random shitty thing they do that isn’t even touching the institutional/legal inequity and violence/assault/murder stuff and I’m just like “oh yeah and they’re also just like shitty overgrown children combined with every asshole in a group project in any interpersonal configuration, too” and it gets me so mad lmao. My roomie just asked me what was wrong and all I was doing was standing next to the stove cooking and thinking about this exact subject, arms crossed and looking angry as hell. I just said, “Oh no sorry just thinking about men.” And he was like “Oh definitely”

Now I have to go calm down before bed lmao

[ringofsilver]

I would love to weigh in with some observations I’ve made about the series! Btw it’s 4:00 am and I’m not as articulate as I usually am, but here are my thoughts:

I believe a lot of these points being made are intentional storytelling decisions made by Rumiko Takahashi - an important theme in the manga is the growing uselessness of certain archaic traditions, and familial and social hierarchies in a society that is moving away from those norms.

A big part of this is expressed as the uselessness and continuous failure of fathers and father figures - each one - Genma, Soun, Principal Kuno, Happosai, etc., are repeatedly shown to be either incompetent and/or openly hostile to the children they’re responsible for.

Their inability to set aside their own desires and goals for themselves proves them to be such ineffective and contrarian leaders, that they can’t help but leave those with whom they interact, even passingly, in a wake of pain and destruction. The Pantyhose-taro arc is a great example of this - it’s played up as a gag, and it is funny, but it’s a great example of how Happosai’s relentless pursuit of his obsession, motivated only by his need to serve himself, immediately sets up a newborn child for an adulthood of continuous failure and self-defeat. (Cologne’s relationship with Shampoo is an immediate contrast to this!)

Another important theme is the silence and invisibility of women and mothers, despite their increasing relevance and importance in, yet again, a society moving away from norms where gender inequality and the dominance of men were once widespread. This comes up again and again, in some surprisingly sobering moments in the story.

The younger male characters are shown to be affected by this cycle of patriarchal violence, but I would argue that Ranma is supposed to be the one who is meant to obfuscate this and challenge this (even at his most piggish moments), the one who is supposed to break cycles, and I do ultimately believe he, as a character, is successful in this.

Even without taking into consideration that Ranma is literally half-woman, we can look at how the male characters interested in Akane interact with her.

Ryoga, as well as all of her other suitors, are repeatedly shown to fantasize about her as their hyper-traditional, subservient wife. Ryoga actually has SEVERAL of these fantasies illustrated (lol….). Ranma is the only one who sees Akane for what she is - and yes, he “weaponizes” it, he teases her for being macho, he calls her a dweeb, and all else contained in the continuous drip feed of insults he unleashes on her.

Even though he’s unkind to her, he still sees her for who she is. He sees her strength, her skill in martial arts, and wonders how these other men can be attracted to her when what they really want is a female partner like Kasumi. (The irony in this is that is what Akane initially strove for, she wanted to be seen as being like her sister, even though she isn’t like her. The only one capable of forcing her to confront that truth is Ranma, and he does make her confront it, by continuously reminding her that she’s strong, she’s “macho.” And whether or not it’s unkindness or kindness is up to you to decide - it’s unkind of Ranma to try and hurt Akane with his insults, but it would be a terrible unkindness to let her go on attempting to live up to the stereotypical femininity expected of her when she repeatedly fails to do so, and possibly doesn’t actually want to). I do agree though that it sucks for Ranma to withhold the secret of who P-Chan is from Akane, but I am curious as to how some people have come up with thoughtful ways for the narrative to address it - I guess I need to read these fics!

I think I’m digressing, but this cycle of patriarchal violence is continuously addressed in the story (in the manga, at least), and we’re supposed to see that Ryoga is yet another man caught in this enduring cycle and that he does not have Akane’s best interests in mind, but rather his own. He’s literally a pig. A male chauvinist pig lmao.

Controversial (?) Ranma 1/2 opinion below the cut. This particular one isn't very Ryouga-positive; brief discussion of SA

This has been brewing for two weeks for me now. I was hoping that the 2024 anime would deviate from the manga plotline concerning P-chan somewhat, and... it didn't.

There are some issues in the Ranma 1/2 canon that really bother me, and one of the biggest is the matter of Ryouga-as-P-chan. I understand that having P-chan around as Akane's pet and sleeping with her in her bed adds dramatic and comedic tension to Ranma 1/2's story-telling & character dynamics. I understand that, to a degree, it's also functional. But that doesn't mean that I like or agree with it.

I feel like this is a problem that gets skated over a lot in fandom or discussions of canon, and it really, really bothers me. The bare-bones issue is this: Ryouga acting as Akane's pet pig with Ranma being in on the secret and Akane never knowing her pet's identity is both a betrayal of her trust from both of them, and a violation of her autonomy, privacy, etc.

The whole P-chan... debacle is kept very superficially innocent—no doubt from necessity—but it by nature cannot be fully innocent. A teenage boy is using his canonically-fully-aware cursed form to sleep in the bed of a teenage girl upon whom he becomes romantically fixated (as we see as the series continues). Canonically, Ryouga doesn't have the mind of an animal when he transforms, and reacts like a hormonal teenage boy. Even if nothing ~sexual in nature~ actually occurs, this is tantamount to sexual assault.

This isn't consensual; canon also makes this clear. There are loads of instances where Ranma hints at Ryouga being P-chan to Akane—or just calls him "P-chan", threatens to expose Ryouga and/or averts exposure of the P-chan secret when Akane is watching/nearby. Ryouga goes to great lengths to conceal his identity as P-chan from Akane, sometimes aided by Ranma, so it's clear that both boys know on some level that what Ryouga is doing—and Ranma is passively enabling—is wrong. (It's not just the lying that's wrong, obviously; they're both aware on—I'd argue different—levels that Ryouga's actions are dishonourable at best, or at least that Akane would never be okay with it).

I'm not sure how much Ryouga knows about Akane's previous "boy troubles" courtesy of Kunō, but Ranma certainly knows how Akane has difficulty trusting boys because of her trauma. The violation of knowingly allowing Ryouga to sleep in Akane's bed is significant, and it's both a betrayal from Ranma regarding having Akane's best interests at heart, but also a failure to consider her honour as equal to his own*.

(Incidentally! Akane's father is in the same position! It was made explicit in the Kodachi intro ep that aired today; Ryouga came into the ofuro as P-chan and transformed in front of Sōun! With no reaction or ramifications! I was so disappointed that they kept this throwaway scene!!!)

And! we know from the manga canon that others know about Ryouga being P-chan, too! Once Shampoo and Cologne are introduced, they find out essentially the same way Genma did (which reminds me that Genma also knows about this and says/does nothing! I doubt he's so out of touch not to realise that he'd met Ryouga before in China), and presumably Mousse is told by the other Amazons, as he doesn't seem surprised when Ryouga transforms in the onsen race arc.

I understand Ryouga being Mr Lonely Hearts Club, given his abysmal sense of direction or lack thereof, but all the loneliness in the world doesn't make these choices okay or less harmful. Akane never learns this secret in canon, so I guess we'll see if the anime ever deviates, but... I'm so angry and disappointed that the recurring plot point of Ryouga-as-P-chan sleeping with Akane with some regularity when he's around hasn't been changed or addressed as being harmful and exploitative.

*This is made more explicit in the manga: Ranma silently makes a promise to Ryouga to protect the secret of his Jusenkyō curse according to what's translated as "warrior's code" in the official Viz translation (lit. 武士の情け/bushi no nasake, which roughly translates to "warrior's mercy/compassion"; the implication is that he's taking pity on a fellow warrior). What he says in the 2024 anime is simply that he'll "protect [Ryouga's] secret". It's an interesting change, to make the promise more vague and less binding wrt a link to Ranma's honour as a martial artist, but ok...

[kaibacorpintern]

apologies if you've been asked this before; I was curious what you think of kaiba in dsod & the whole setting up cameras everywhere & tracking every citizen thing he had going on there

note to the readers: if you’re not interested in “is kaiba an ethical billionaire” discourse, maybe scroll past this post

in general i don’t really ever gravitate towards pure cinnamon roll characters who never do anything wrong; i prefer characters who are strong shades of grey, and do things that alternately frustrate me, upset me, or delight me. kaiba’s technocratic city state falls under this for me - and while i’ve seen arguments that maybe we can't trust aigami when he says "you have to register your deck to be a citizen of domino," that's fine, but also kaiba sent an extrajudicial corporate police squad to arrest him. a corporation having a private and active commando squad is horrifying, regardless of who runs the corporation. aigami being the designated villain of the movie does not justify his extrajudicial arrest.

i spent four years in tech, so the ethics of technology (and data collection) and how it's all used is a subject VERY near and dear to my heart. anyway, i’ve thought about this on and off since I watched DSOD, and really the whole thing is completely unethical.

does this change my opinion of kaiba: no. he's my fucked up little man these are maximized expressions of his desire for control, enabled by his deeply entrenched control over vast amounts of wealth and resources. and because this is fiction, i can contextualize the bizarro domino corporate city-state AS part of this desire for control, AS an extreme conclusion of a character who is constantly asserting himself and his power because he feels fundamentally unsafe at all times.

of course in the real world, there is no justification for any of this bullshit. surveillance systems are ostensibly built for the well-being of the public, but they’re inherently flawed and replicate existing inequalities and biases; i don’t trust them when a government tries to implement them, and i’d trust them even less from a corporation, whose role is NOT overseeing the well-being of the public, but rather to expand by making money by any means possible. the goal of kaibacorp is not to make children happy everywhere. the goal of kaibacorp is to promote the growth of kaibacorp.

but, as i said, i like characters who are flawed and complex; i don’t need a character to share my same sense of ethics and morality in order to care about them, i LIKE when characters make awful decisions. i love mr. kendall roy succession i love pegasus i love sephiroth i love cloud strife i love darth vader/anakin skywalker i love thorfinn vinland saga especially the prologue i love that the emotional experience of DSOD is a challenging one BECAUSE kaiba is so frustrating. [taps the sign] art doesn't need to make me feel good! not even the card game anime!

tl,dr; i don't "condone his actions." but i also find morality-based interpretations of media (is this morally good? how can i support a character who is morally bad? is this telling a morally correct story?) boring and limiting

[writingquestionsanswered]

So, I have this problem I'm not sure how to fix, but I often feel like my writing comes off as shallow and/or repetitive. Idk if I'm explaining this in a way that you can understand, but the writings I admire the most are the ones where you have beautiful quotes and you can feel things and you want to highlight those quotes, and I want my writing to be like that, but I often feel like it turns out "feelingless", like it's just a bunch of random description and you can't really tell how the +

how the character feels or it's all really flat and not quote worthy, if you get what I mean? So, if you could help me maybe write something more meaningful, I guess, I would be so glad! Thanks for all the work you do, it helps a lot!

Writing More Meaningful Prose

Some writing problems can be solved by implementing a single step or short-term method. Others require implementing various things over the long-term, and this is one of them. In other words, this isn't something you can improve overnight or over a short period of time. However, if you implement some of the following advice, you can improve it over time. This is how it is for all writers. :)

1) Read. Read, Read, Read... Read

It sounds like you probably do read, and that's good. Keep doing that. Keep highlighting beautiful quotes. Keep paying attention to the things that move you when you're reading. If something strikes you as being the kind of prose you want to achieve, highlight that, too. Analyze it. See if you can figure out what strikes you so much about it compared to your own writing.

2) Plot and Purpose Matter

If you feel like your writing is flat, nine out of ten times it's because you don't even know what you're writing about. You may have a basic story idea, but you don't have a solid plot. You don't have fleshed out characters. You don't know their motivation, goal, internal conflict, or their character arc. You don't know the obstacles they'll have to overcome, and how, or who put them there. You don't know the themes and motifs you want to explore, and you don't know what your readers want to take away from your story. Without all of those things, you can't have the kind of meaningful, vivid prose you're looking for, because that kind of prose stems from conflict, emotion, exploration of theme, etc. You need to know where your story is going before you can give your writing meaning.

3) About Theme and Motifs...

One of the things that makes those quotes you love so beautiful and meaningful is that they speak to what the story is about. They're not just random quotes about how pretty the sky looks or how much one character loves another. For example, the themes in Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone tie into the numerous real-world systems of oppression being dismantled by today's younger generations. For example, here is a quote that I found to be particularly powerful and beautiful:

“They don't hate you, my child. They hate what you were meant to become.”

― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

The quote speaks to the themes of prejudice, inequality, sense of duty that feature so heavily in the book, and that relationship to theme is what gives this quote its beauty and power.

4) Remember the Sensory Details

Something that is often missing in flat writing is sensory detail. Here's another quote:

“They wear their secrets like glittering diamonds, embroidery woven through their lavish buba tops and wrapped iro skirts. Their lies and lily-scented perfumes taint the honeyed aroma of sweet cakes I am no longer allowed to eat.” ― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

This quote hits on so many sensory details:

Something we can "see" (Sight): "glittering diamonds," "buba tops," "iro skirts."

Something we can "touch" (Texture): embroidery, woven, wrapped

Something we can "smell" (Scent): lily-scented perfumes, honeyed aroma

Something we can "taste" (Flavor): sweet cakes

Something we can "hear" (Sound): there aren't really any sounds in this quote, but I think "their lies" does lend a bit of "sound" to the quote because you can almost imagine lies being spoken.

5) Time and Practice

The hardest of all of these for most newer writers to hear is that the kind of writing you want to achieve takes time and practice. You can implement the tips above and it will help, but they won't make your writing instantly stellar. As you implement these tips, however, learn what works for you and what doesn't, and start to hone your own personal style, you'll find that your writing begins to improve over time. You start to eventually see the kind of writing you admire so much in other books.

I hope that helps! ♥

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[nerdygaymormon]

2 Nephi 26:33 – All are alike unto God : When will the Church embrace all people?

he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile

————————————————————

There’s no asterisks or qualifications to that statement, there’s no exceptions. “All” means all. 

A loving Heavenly Father would not cast someone out of His presence because of the way He created them. The Celestial Kingdom will be a place where the diversity of the Lord’s children can be on full display without judgement. 

It’s interesting to think this teaching was not added after 1978, it was in the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon. Despite how obvious these words seem, the LDS Church spent over a century treating Black members differently, denying them the opportunity to receive temple blessings, they couldn’t be sealed together, and Black men were not allowed to be part of the priesthood brotherhood, essentially they were denied exaltation.

Clearly the scriptures teach “all are alike unto God,” we’re all welcome to come to Him, and yet roadblocks are setup to keep certain groups out, to deny them blessings offered to others. When will the Church believe the words and embrace queer people? God cares more about the kind of people we are than the kind of people we’re attracted to.

————————————————————

It’s interesting the Nephi wrote this when he’s the one who earlier wrote:

Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were cut off from his presence. And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. (2 Nephi 5:20-21)

The LDS Church was founded at a time when slavery was part of America and Christians used the Bible to justify it. LDS Church leaders used these words in 2 Nephi 5 to further justify their racism. They missed the lesson that Nephi said this, but as he matures he changes so much that by chapter 26  he’s saying "all are alike unto God." They ignored verses where Nephites would discover they misunderstood the Lamanites and that they’re actually not the wicked people they had always been taught. Instead we had 100+ years of racism instituted in the LDS Church. 

Nowadays the LDS Church teaches that the curse was that the Lamanites were cut off from the Lord. And later when they embraced the gospel “the curse of God did no more follow them” (Alma 23:18). The “skin of blackness” wasn’t a curse but was a way to distinguish the Lamanites from the Nephites. As the book goes on, the mark becomes irrelevant as the Nephites go through periods of wickedness & righteousness and the populations intermingled.

The Book of Mormon claims to be for our day, and has lessons relevant to us. It teaches about racism and prejudice and how they are destructive and against God’s will. This book is the story of violently racist misogynists who thought they were better than everyone else. Their pride and wealth inequality doomed their civilization. Too many people who read the Book of Mormon view the Nephites as the heroes and the Lamanites as the enemy, but Doctrine & Covenants 38:39 warns that the Nephites are the cautionary tale, we shouldn’t be like them. And yet racism and misogyny are present in our church culture.

I can’t help to draw parallels between the homophobia & transphobia the church inherited from Christianity and hasn’t questioned. There’s no revelations by church leaders about the treatment of queer people nor their place in the gospel. Instead we’ve been taught that being queer is an abomination and the only place for us in God’s plan requires us to live like we are cisgender heterosexual people. Over the past few years, the basic understanding of church leaders about queer people has changed and continues to change. We aren’t queer because we choose to be or because of abuse or absent fathers or selfishness or whatever reasons they used to teach. This change in understanding is leading, albeit slowly, to changes in how the church talks about and treats queer people. I hope one day we finally get to the point where queer people are included in the belief that “all are alike unto God”

[jamesshawgames]

So, I had the idea that, now that the trilogy is ending, I could write a retrospective on each game, reflecting on he intent behind them and on what elements did and didn't work. I'm putting Part 1, on the first Relics game, under the cut. I'll prob do one for 2 and 3 as well, with about a week between them!

Relics Series Retrospective Part 1: Relics of the Lost Age The idea for Relics of the Lost Age came to me, like most of my best ideas, in the pub, some time in 2018. I was talking to my old friend Pete about how, when we were children, we had both really enjoyed old-fashioned colonial-era adventure stories, things like Around the World in 80 Days, King Solomon’s Mines and, above all, Indiana Jones. But also about how it became much harder to like these stories as we got older and more aware – specifically, as the colonialism that underpins these stories became more and more obvious (do those artifacts really belong in a museum, Dr. Jones?). I spend a lot of time in my real job thinking about colonialism, history and archaeology, about how they intersect and have shaped the modern world, and it’s very difficult to be committed to the idea of decolonization while also being a fan of something like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! I started to wonder, over the course of that conversation, if it might actually be possible to save that kind of story in the modern world, to keep all the things that childhood me had loved about Indiana Jones (the adventure, the thrills, the sense of wonder about travel and the world, the romance, the humour) while also getting rid of the stuff that wasn’t so desirable (the covert and not-so-covert colonialism, the racist and patronizing depictions of non-European cultures, the white savior shit). Perhaps even to go further than that – to write an archaeological adventure which actually questioned and challenged the role of both archaeology and adventure stories in advancing colonialist narratives. That’s when Relics was born.

It took a while for me to realize that Choicescript might be a good vehicle for such a story, but once I did, it all started to come together quite quickly. I wanted pretty much every chapter, every major moment of the story if possible, to relate to the central theme of colonialism and its legacy, and I think I did make that happen. I also wanted it to be fun (after all, Indiana Jones is fun, and if I just let it turn into some kind of heavy political meditation on empire, there probably wouldn’t be much joy in it). In order to keep readers interested, I decided that each chapter should feel distinct, and be very different both in terms of setting and in terms of genre. The idea of making this a globe-trotting adventure helped too, both in terms of keeping the chapters varied and in terms of exploring the theme of colonialism. What I really want readers to get is a sense of is how connected colonialism is to pretty much everything, how so many of the issues of the modern world go back to that period. So I wanted chapters set in Africa (the starting-point of the colonial slave trade) and America (one of the final destination of that trade); in Europe (to think about how empire affected the colonizing nations, as well as the colonized) and Asia (to acknowledge that, though Europeans might have “perfected” colonialism in all its shittiness, they’re not the only ones to have ever practiced it). I want readers to see that everything – from the roots of Nazi ideology to the source of modern global wealth inequalities to the febrile racial politics of the modern-day US and Europe – can be traced back to that period in time.

Chapter 1 was designed to be a very classic Indiana Jones story, to set the scene and establish the book’s primary influences. It ticks all the boxes: Middle Eastern setting, Nazis as the bad guys, biblical treasure, lots of light-hearted action scenes. I also like the fact that the treasure being hunted, Urim and Thummim, connects back to a period of ancient imperialism (the Roman occupation of Judaea) – a nice reminder of just how old this shit actually is and how far back it goes.

Chapter 2 was supposed to be a “humans vs. nature” story with a bit of a Moby-Dick vibe, highly tense, as well as an exploration of Chinese imperialism.

Chapter 3, controversial though it was, is super-important to the project. One of the ways that old adventure stories sold colonialism was by establishing “home” (usually the US or Europe) as a safe, civilized space, and overseas territories (usually in Asia and Africa) as savage and dangerous and wild places. I wanted to flip this on its head by heaving a chapter set in the US, and showing how savage and unsafe it was at that time. The phrase that kept going through my head as I wrote this chapter was “American savagery”. We all want to cheer when we see Indiana Jones punching a Nazi, but it's easy to forget that large swathes of Jones’s own home country were, at the same time as he was punching Nazis, implementing laws that were flat-out fascist and that in fact inspired Hitler. Nobody who reads Chapter 3 can persist in the illusion that the United States was “safe” and “civilized” in the 1930s. Also, it was nice to have a chapter with someone other than the Nazis as the main bad guys – I’ve always been a sucker for secondary villains! Generically, it’s a Southern Gothic mystery with elements of the supernatural, which makes it very distinct from the other chapters.

Chapter 4 was meant to be closely connected to Chapter 3 (hence it featuring the same RO, and having related Relics). It shows you what was happening at the other end of the Atlantic slave trade. It contains a whole-plot reference to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and is meant to evoke older types of colonialist literature, 19th Century adventure stories of the type that influenced Indiana Jones. Both of these chapters were pretty grim and dark – I expected that readers would need a bit of levity after the end of Chapter 4. Which is lucky, because…

Chapter 5 was a chance to explore what colonialism did to the colonizing nations (as well as an excuse for me to get a few digs in at the British Museum!) It’s a nice break from the dark tone, as it’s pretty light-hearted, and it introduced the series tradition of having one “comedy” chapter per book. It also introduced Maxie Gianturco, maybe my favorite villain: he has a real Heath-Ledger-as-the-Joker vibe, which makes him quite different from any of the other bad guys. Generically, it’s a knockabout crime caper.

Chapter 6 was a mash-up of espionage fiction and Hong Kong cinema. There’s not too much else to say about it. I think it basically works.

What Worked: The Congo Siege. Everybody seems to love this part. It was a real feat of coding for me back then, but I think it all came together and is a real highlight of the book.

Chapters 2 and 5. I think these are the most successful overall in terms of what they set out to achieve. Chapter 2 is tense, Zhu’s introduction is very memorable, and even players who hate Stevo (and I did write him to be irritating) tell me that they ended up caring a lot about his survival. Chapter 5 is actually funny, is well-paced, has a great villain, good action scenes and a memorable cameo from the Amazonian too. The one part that doesn’t really work that well is the sealing of the Esme/Abdul relationship. The fact that the chapter takes place all in one night probably means that you don’t really have enough time with them to make this fully convincing. But the tight timeline adds to the chapter in other ways, so it’s probably worth it ultimately.

María. Probably the standout character, certainly the one who gets the most comments. People seemed to react very strongly toward her, either positively or negatively. As a writer, I love it when one of my characters does that to people!

What I’m Unsure About: “Too Much Politics!” It’s a fairly common complaint in the reviews. I’m unsure. To some extent, there are people out there who’ll make this complaint about literally any game / book that has anything to say, and I’d rather be a little too heavy-handed than take the coward’s way out of just saying nothing. The whole thing did start off as a politically-minded project after all. But there are some moments when I could probably have dialled it back a little. I think I do a better job in the later two games of being politically engaged without it being so intrusive on the narrative.

What Didn’t Work The ethnicity lock. I actively regret this now. I did this because I wanted the depiction of the Jim Crow South in Chapter 3 to be true to the actual conditions of the time, and the conditions of the time meant that a person’s ethnicity could determine really major things, like what job they could do. I felt like I needed the MC to be at least “white-passing” so that they could have a job at Tulane, which was, at the time, a white college. Having the grandfather ethnicities helps a little in terms of representation, but in retrospect I think that it might have been possible for me to find ways to accommodate non-white-passing MCs through, for example, varying the MC’s workplace according to player choice. (It might have been fun to be able to be a colleague of Cleo at Xavier, the Black college, for instance). At the time, when I was starting out in ChoiceScript, it felt like that would probably involve too much variation and just be unmanageable. Now, however, I’m a bit more experienced with the language and I’m pretty sure that it would have been possible, if difficult, to manage that variability. But hey, I have all kinds of ideas for future projects in ChoiceScript, and none of them require an ethnicity lock, so at least I know I’ll never need to do that shit again in the future!

The flashback structure. I wanted a framing narrative, and I thought that it would be cool to start in medias res. But those scenes of getting tortured by Paulus ended up becoming quite repetitive, and I think the unusual structure put some readers off. I’m all in favor of formal experimentation, but perhaps not with ChoiceScript: readers of Hosted Games seem to like having a beginning, a middle and an end in that order! I’ll probably lay off the experimentation in the future.

[10yrsyart]

Dude I’m so salty about god and the Bible because it’s so painfully obvious that a man or men wrote it. Like god seriously ain’t forgiving at ALL. He makes all women suffer after Eve made a mistake and got tempted by eating the apple. And now all women in the world have to suffer and have period and birth pain. I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t feel love from someone that makes us suffer that much that some have to remove an entire organ.

pain of childbirth was/is representative of how everyone born of Adam and Eve would be born into sin; into a broken world that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. however, there’s nothing in the Bible that talks about period pains, and not everyone that has periods has really painful ones. the Devil is the one that works in this world to cause pain and hurt and destruction and death. it’s not God’s desire that people lose their organs because of this, but satan sure is thrilled when you blame God for something he (satan) has caused. 

God loves and cares for everyone equally. “There is no longer Jew or Gentile (non Jew), slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) the Bible is full of lots of accounts where women were mistreated by men. but it also highlights how God treated them differently. those that were cast aside by society, God picked up and cared for. the inequality of men and women is not in God’s plan either, it’s another scheme of the devil to oppress a side of God’s children.

i had a horrible chronic pain day yesterday, i cried multiple times. but it never got to a point over what i couldn’t process, because Jesus is taking care of me. yeah i’m incredibly tired, but i still trust His plan. people get so angry when they suffer in this life, because they look at it as the only one they have. God promises that all bad things will turn out for the good for those that love Him (Romans 8:28). i may not know why i’m still going through all this pain, but i know that it has grown my compassion for people, and God has used it to draw me closer to Him where i am safe.  this world may be flawed, but those that trust in Jesus are promised an eternity full of joy, love, peace, equality, and free of pain. do you know how long eternity is? /that/ is where my hope is. 

everyone is given the “Adam and Eve” moment in their life; whether they’re going to trust God or not. like them, we are given the option of accepting His gift and being with Him forever, free of all these horrible things on earth. so who are you going to listen to: God who tells you of His love and kindness and rescue, or the serpent that whispers that it’s all God’s fault and to blame God instead of him? 

“(Jesus said) I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus suffered on earth like we did, through many more pains and sorrows than are listed in the Bible, so we wouldn’t have to in the future. all through trusting He died to take that pain away from us. i can’t wait to go home and be with the One who loved me enough to do that for me <3

[paenling]

no ones saying you cant enjoy daniil? people like him as a character but mostly Because he’s an asshole and he’s interesting. the racism and themes of colonization in patho are so blatant

nobody said “by order of Law you are forbidden from enjoying daniil dankovsky in any capacity”, but they did say “if you like daniil dankovsky you are abnormal, problematic, and you should be ashamed of yourself”, so i’d call that an implicit discouragement at the least. not very kind.

regardless, he is a very interesting asshole and we love to make fun of him! but i do not plan to stop seeing his character in an empathetic light when appropriate to do so. we’re all terribly human.

regarding “the racism and themes of colonization in patho”, we’ve gotta have a sit-down for this one because it’s long and difficult. tl;dr here.

i’ve written myself all back and forth and in every direction trying to properly pin down the way i feel about this in a way that is both logically coherent and emotionally honest, but it’s not really working. i debated even responding at all, but i do feel like there are some things worth saying so i’m just going to write a bunch of words, pick a god, and pray it makes some modicum of sense.

the short version: pathologic 2 is a flawed masterwork which i love deeply, but its attempts to be esoteric and challenging have in some ways backfired when it comes to topical discussions such as those surrounding race, which the first game didn’t give its due diligence, and the second game attempted with incomplete success despite its best efforts.

the issue is that when you have a game that is so niche and has these “elevated themes” and draws from all this kind of academic highbrow source material -- the fandom is small, but the fandom consists of people who want to analyze, pathologize, and dissect things as much as possible. so let’s do that.

first: what exactly is racist or colonialist in pathologic? i’m legitimately asking. people at home: by what mechanism does pathologic-the-game inflict racist harm on real people? the fact that the Kin are aesthetically and linguistically inspired by the real-world Buryat people (& adjacent groups) is a potential red flag, but as far as i can tell there’s never any value judgement made about either the fictionalized Kin or the real-world Buryat. the fictional culture is esoteric to the player -- intended to be that way, in fact -- but that’s not an inherently bad thing. it’s a closed practice and they’re minding their business.

does it run the risk of being insensitive with sufficiently aggressive readings? absolutely, but i don’t think that’s racist by itself. they’re just portrayed as a society of human beings (and some magical ones, if you like) that has flaws and incongruences just as the Town does. it’s not idealizing or infantilizing these people, but by no means does it go out of its way to villainize them either. there is no malice in this depiction of the Kin. 

is it the fact that characters within both pathologic 1 & 2 are racist? that the player can choose to say racist things when inhabiting those characters? no, because pathologic-the-game doesn’t endorse those things. they’re throwaway characterization lines for assholes. acknowledging that racism exists does not make a media racist. see more here.

however, i find it’s very important to take a moment and divorce the racial discussions in a game like pathologic 2 from the very specific experiences of irl western (particularly american) racism. it’s understandable for such a large chunk of the english-speaking audience to read it that way; it makes sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s correct. although it acknowledges the relevant history to some extent, on account of being set in 1915, pathologic 2 is not intended to be a commentary about race, and especially not current events, and especially especially not current events in america. it’s therefore unfair, in my opinion, to attempt to diagnose it with any concrete ideology or apply its messages to an american racial paradigm.

it definitely still deals with race, but it always, to me, seemed to come back around the exploitation of race as an ultimately arbitrary division of human beings, and the story always strove to be about human beings far more than it was ever about race. does it approach this topic perfectly? no, but it’s clearly making an effort. should we be aware of where it fails to do right by the topic? yes, definitely, but we should also be charitable in our interpretations of what the writers were actually aiming for, rather than reactionarily deeming them unacceptable and leaving it at that. do we really think the writers for pathologic 2 sat down and said “we’re going to go out of our way to be horrible racists today”? i don’t.

IPL’s writing team is a talented lot, and dybowski as lead writer has the kinds of big ideas that elevate a game to a work of art, particularly because he’s not afraid to get personal. on that front, some discussion is inescapable as pathologic 2 deals in a lot of racial and cultural strife, because it’s clearly something near to the his heart, but as i understand it was never really meant to be a narrative “about” race, at least not exclusively so, and especially not in the same sense as the issue is understood by the average American gamer. society isn't a monolith and the contexts are gonna change massively between different cultures who have had, historically, much different relationships with these concepts.

these themes are “so blatant” in pathologic 2 because clearly, on some level, IPL wanted to start a discussion. I think it’s obvious that they wanted to make the audience uncomfortable with the choices they were faced with and the characters they had to inhabit -- invoke a little ostranenie, as it were, and force an emotional breaking point. in the end the game started a conversation and i think that’s something that was done in earnest, despite its moments of obvious clumsiness. 

regarding colonialism, this is another thing that the game is just Not About. we see the effects and consequences of colonialism demonstrated in the world of pathologic, and it’s something we’re certainly asked to think about from time to time, but the actual plot/narrative of the game is not about overcoming or confronting explicitly colonialist constructs, etc. i personally regard this as a bit of a missed opportunity, but it’s just not what IPL was going for.

instead they have a huge focus, as discussed somewhat in response to this ask, on the broader idea of powerful people trying to create a “utopia” at the mortal cost of those they disempower, which is almost always topical as far as i’m concerned, and also very Russian.

i think there was some interview where it was said that the second game was much more about “a mechanism that transforms human nature” than the costs of utopia, but it’s still a persistent enough theme to be worth talking about both as an abstraction of colonialism as well as in its more-likely intended context through the lens of wealth inequality, environmental destruction & government corruption as universal human issues faced by the marginalized classes. i think both are important and intelligent readings of the text, and both are worth discussion.

both endings of pathologic 2 involve sacrifice in the name of an “ideal world” where it’s impossible to ever be fully satisfied. in the Diurnal Ending, Artemy is tormented over the fate of the Kin and the euthanasia of his dying god and all her miracles, but he needs to have faith that the children he’s protected will grow up better than their parents and create a world where he and his culture will be immortalized in love. in the Nocturnal Ending, he’s horrified because in preserving the miracle-bound legacy of his people as a collective, he’s un-personed himself to the individuals he loves, but he needs to have faith that the uniqueness and magic of the resurrected Earth was precious enough to be worth that sacrifice. neither ending is fair. it’s not fair that he can’t have both, but that’s the idea. because that “utopia” everyone’s been chasing is an idol that distracts from the important work of being a human being and doing your best in a flawed world. 

because pathologic’s themes as a series are so very “Russian turn-of-the-century” and draw a ton of stylistic and topical inspiration from the theatre and literature of that era, i don’t doubt that it’s also inherited some of its inspirational literature’s missteps. however, because the game’s intertextuality is so incredibly dense it’s difficult to construct a super cohesive picture of its actual messaging. a lot of its references and themes will absolutely go over your head if you enter unprepared -- this was true for me, and it ended up taking several passes and a bunch of research to even begin appreciating the breadth of its influences.

(i’d argue this is ultimately a good thing; i would never have gone and picked up Camus or Strugatsky, or even known who Antonin Artaud was at all if i hadn’t gone in with pathologic! my understanding is still woefully incomplete and it’s probably going to take me a lot more effort to get properly fluent in the ideology of the story, but that’s the joy of it, i think. :) i’m very lucky to be able to pursue it in this way.)

anyway yes, pathologic 2 is definitely very flawed in a lot of places, particularly when it tries to tackle race, but i’m happy to see it for better and for worse. the game attempts to discuss several adjacent issues and stumbles as it does so, but insinuating it to be in some way “pro-racist” or “pro-colonialist” or whatever else feels kind of disingenuous to me. they’re clearly trying, however imperfectly, to do something intriguing and meaningful and empathetic with their story.

even all this will probably amount to a very disjointed and incomplete explanation of how pathologic & its messaging makes me feel, but what i want -- as a broader approach, not just for pathologic -- is for people to be willing to interpret things charitably. 

sometimes things are made just to be cruel, and those things should be condemned, but not everything is like that. it’s not only possible but necessary to be able to acknowledge flaws or mistakes and still be kind. persecuting something straight away removes any opportunity to examine it and learn from it, and pathologic happens to be ripe with learning experiences. 

it’s all about being okay with ugliness, working through difficult nuances with grace, and the strength of the human spirit, and it’s a story about love first and foremost, and i guess we sort of need that right now. it gave me some of its love, so i’m giving it some of my patience.

[awriterpretendingtowrite]

I'm rewatching Little Women (the 1994 version with Winona Ryder) and I just--

I love Beth and Jo. All the March sisters are my favorite, but they're my favorite favorite. And I can't stop my brainrot about Little Women in a 2021/modern setting.

So here, take my modern Little Women brainrot:

Beth: She would be anxious about the pandemic, but she would love quarantine, what with everyone at home and staying inside together. She would irritate her siblings with her piano playing 24/7, but I don't think she'd care much. She would also volunteer at the vaccine sites as soon as they opened and help people as much as she could. Aroace, but she's got the biggest heart of anyone you've ever known. Definitely has anxiety and is autistic. Chronically ill (but she doesn't die because ~modern medicine~). Probably agender, but she doesn't care enough to figure it all out. Never swears, but doesn't mind when her sisters do.

Jo: She/they, first of all. Second of all, crossdresser ("If I were a man, I'd want to look just like that"). She would also absolutely be an AO3 writer who gets published later on. Then gets diagnosed with anxiety, depression, ADHD, the whole lot. Asexual queen. Biromantic icon. (No, I'm not projecting, why do you ask?) Moves to the city, loves the city life. Rooms with Laurie, who moves out of the country to the city with them. Doesn't swear regularly, but when she does, it's quite colorful. They and Laurie both go to college in the city (likely NYC). They have the time of their lives even though they both eat ramen for every meal. They both get ~therapy~ too.

Meg: Straight, but an ally. Stays out of politics, but secretly smiles when the people her sisters vote for win elections. Marries an accountant (a real accountant, NOT the TikTok kind), but she enjoys the simple suburban life. The only devout religious one of the sisters, but she doesn't push it on her sisters. Has a classic little American family and frowns when her sisters swear. Although she does fit into the classic Republican setting, she secretly doesn't like it very much. She and her sisters (and Laurie) all grew up doing theatre, and although she would never admit it, she misses it very much.

Amy: (Y'all are gonna hate me for this one) TERF. I said what I said. However, once Jo comes out as she/they when Amy is a teenager, she rethinks her whole view of it and comes out a better ally than ever. Becomes the loudest ally of the sisters and ends up leading them in pride marches. She only ever dates men, and was insistent that she was straight before she rethought everything, but now she refuses to put labels on herself. They just don't fit, she says. Rarely swears, except for the occasional F-bomb when she's cursing out homophobes (or when her favorite TV ship doesn't get together).

Laurie (I know he's not a March sister but I like him anyway): I think he and Jo would stay best friends and never develop romantic feelings for each other. He would actually be a brother to them all, not some weird brother/romantic interest for them. He would definitely be pansexual and probably very demiromantic, if not completely aro all together. Realizes that he's definitely he/they soon after Jo comes out. He and Jo get up to all sorts of crossdressing shenanigans, especially when people get mad at Jo for "trying to be a boy." They go out to brunch on random Tuesdays wearing each other's church clothes, with Amy (before Laurie and Jo moved out to the city) having done Laurie's makeup flawlessly, glitter and all. They're a Gay Theatre Nerd, just like Jo. And Beth. And Meg and Amy (although those two aren't exactly gay).

Marmie: Ultimate Queen in Literally Every Way, Just Like in the Movie. Supports her lovely children in every way she can while still fighting "in her own way," as Beth says, against racism and homophobia/transphobia and gender inequality. I love her so much y'all don't understand. Religious, like Meg, and when her children live at home, she has them go to church with her, but she doesn't force it on them in any way other than that. She simply wants her girls to have good morals and a strong belief in doing what's right.

Sunday nights are dinner at Marmie's when they've all moved out, with Jo and Laurie facetiming in from the city. Beth stays at home with Marmie and helps her run the donation center they founded in their countryside town. Amy studies abroad for college, traveling everywhere she can, calling her dear Marmie every chance she gets and showing her the lovely sights across the world that she gets to see. Meg, like I said, lives in the suburbs with her husband and children, but she travels out to Marmie's house every Sunday. Jo and Laurie probably end up in an open QPR of some sort to make it easier to explain to Laurie's traditionalist family why their son is living with a ~woman~ instead of living in the dorms with the other college boys. Of course, the March father is fine with everything. He’s a supportive king. Marmie wouldn’t have settled for any less.