#too easy and simple to jive with most of what I know about how complex humans and history are

[marzipanandminutiae]

Actually, the wise women/Cunning Folk system was Norse in origin and the rest of Europe had wise women replace their own ritualized medical systems (think sleeping at Asclepius's temple) because Europe was conquered by Danish tribes during the end of the Roman period.

No seriously, Scandinavians have (or had, it's dying out because of how good their healthcare system is) a long history of kloke folk that dates back to the pagan seidrmadrs.

Considering what the medical system was like back then, most of the wise women were in many ways a good deal less quackish than the men with MDs, considering they understood the wonders of antiseptics and MDs looked at the concept as some rustic superstition.

No, actually, I want wise women back because their services were free. I mean, yeah, they'd obviously charge a fee NOW, but Granny Weatherwax's comment that, "They didn't pay in cash, but rather in respect, which was cold hard currency" was actually a reality for these women, considering their communities protected them from the witchhunters.

Granted, the witch trials were a little more complicated, considering the word for witchcraft in Nordic countries was troldfolk (who were believed to send curses via illness), who were fought by the kloke folk. ("Sickness is curses sent by the Jotuns" is metaphorically true...) Wise women didn't get properly killed off until the Progressive Era, due to modern medicine finally being both effective, available, and doctors passing laws against "quacks".

Okay, so, by free admission, early modern Nordic history is VERY NOT my main area of expertise. This could all be entirely true for Scandianvian vernacular magic/folk healing practice. But I definitely now it wasn’t true for all practitioners termed “wise women” across Europe.

Just looking into the system of Scandinavian wise women superficially, though, it seems that they- like their British counterparts the cunning-folk, who I’m more familiar with -didn’t need community protection from witch hunters because they were seldom targeted by them. Based on the better sourced parts of the “cunning folk” Wiki page, a charge of “superstition” seems to have been brought against Scandinavian wise women more often, and they did get arrested and sentenced fairly frequently. But the sentence wasn’t usually capital, and for some of them it seems to have acted as good advertising.

(Also in Britain and British colonies, cunning-folk often acted as witch-hunters. So, sorry, granddaughters of the witches they couldn’t burn: you’re actually the granddaughters of the witches who threw innocent people under the bus to deflect suspicion. Or because they genuinely believed those people were evil. Or for the payout. Take your pick.)

I’m also not sure about the assertion that their services were free. In Britain, at least, cunning-folk definitely did not work for free as a rule- why would they, when this was their livelihood? They often received payment in trade rather than currency, but...they very much did expect payment of SOME sort, as I understand it. You have to eat somehow, after all, and I’m not sure one could run a totally self-sufficient farm and a folk medicine/magic practice at the same time.

And even if you could, still better to have Old Tom down the lane mend your fence in exchange for physicking his cow than do it yourself, right? Save yourself the work.

The assumption of total altruism is one of my big issues with this ask series, and the other is the idea that wise women knew Good Medicine and doctors did not. Obviously, yes, early medical doctors were often convinced that folk medicine practitioners had nothing to offer the field, and I’m sure some practices by some wise women/cunning-folk worked.

But.

Some of the latter were also, to put it bluntly, full of shit.

There WERE people, unfortunately, who used the title of “Wise Woman” or “Cunning-Man” or whatever to fleece their community out of resources in exchange for dodgy cures and ineffective charms. Because that’s just how humanity goes: some people are good, some people are evil, and some people are just out to make a buck (so to speak) however they can. I find it very hard to believe that all laws against Quackery(TM) were totally motivated by early modern doctors’ fragile egos, simply because bona fide quacks have been around forever. From my past research, it seems that that British cunning-folk at least seemed given to pronouncing illness that doctors could not diagnose, the result of curses or hexes. While many did practice herbalism, and some herbalism has medical value given that many medicinal chemicals now usually synthesized are found in plants...there was another side of it, too, that could frequently involve attributing medical problems to magical causes.

And I would be very surprised if that were a phenomenon exclusive to Britain and its colonies.

I understand the longing for a time of free, quality medical treatment from your local badass village wisewoman, protected by her reverential community from evil doctors and omnipresent witch-hunters. I really do. But it seems to me that, for a variety of reasons, that time never actually existed.

(Also I would definitely like a citation on the antiseptics thing. Just because they thought garlic could ward off evil or something doesn’t mean they understood that it had antiseptic properties, or advocated for using it in effective ways. And I can’t really blame doctors for questioning ideas like that- phrased that way, it does sound like rural superstition. If nobody knows the background logic behind why something works, and it only works some of the time, and the people saying it works are making that claim for reasons that fly in the face of then-current science...you might understandably think it doesn’t work at all.)

(It’s not like the cunning-folk were saying “use autoclaves for your surgical tools to avoid infection!” and the doctors shot back with “INFECTION IS A MYTH INVENTED BY SATAN!!!!” At least, not that I know of.)

[fencesandfrogs]

sea shanties, work songs, tiktok

so apparently tiktok and sea shanties (technically they’re usually sea folk songs, based on the ones i’ve heard, which is not many) are having a moment and as someone who’s always been a fan of work songs, esp. sea shanties, i just wanted to take a moment to talk/think about them.

[this is abt 1.4k words with a lot of music, incl. 4 embeded videos. i included this break because scrolling past long posts is annoying but like. there’s some good music to listen to in here even if u don’t want to read the whole thing.]

call & response is a pretty common musical idea. i’m not sure at all, but i’d wager a good deal that it’s probably some of the oldest stuff we have. but, like, if you’ve ever sung anything in a group, it’s there. the classic call and response is shorter, but i just want to also say a lot of music can be thought of as call and response, like verses/choruses, etc.

i think it just speaks to a human desire to participate in music. many people know what i’m talking about here (maybe most? i come from a musical family so i don’t have a good breadth of experience but i’ve met very few people who don’t jive to music), and so we make this little welcoming come sing with me environment.

anyway, so work songs are a type of music meant to coordinate labor. a lot of work songs are formed by slaves, because for a work song to be helpful, you need to be doing work that requires coordination.

sea shanties are a specific type of work song that use the general structure of the american slave work song combine with irish, scottish, and english folk music.

folk music as a whole is a wider genre that overlaps a lot with work songs, especially as you start to turn to industrial work songs and cowboy work songs and the like which have a less specific rhythm than sea shanties specifically.

musical edification complete, i’m going to focus on sea shanties and industrial work songs b/c that’s what i listen to the most.

so call and response. sea shanties usually have a soloist part that’s a bit more musically complex, and the response is “simpler”. i’m not here to talk abt music theory or why they developed like that, but you know when you’re bad at singing, having a simple part to join in with is positive. hits the warm gooey spot of participating in group music. here’s a recording of blow the man down which i think demonstrates this quality really well:

(it’s a pretty popular shanty which is why i picked it. the “truth”of my argument is not at all universal, and it’s not just about speed, but also the rhythm, melody, etc.)

anyway there’s a lot of shanties and what typically comes to mind is drunken sailor which i know “all” the words to (as much as anyone can) but you’ll see theré’s no call and response

what do you do with a drunken sailor

what do you do with a drunken sailor

what do you do with a drunken sailor

early in the morning

right? that’s not a call and response, it’s just repetition. lyrically, its a call and response:

put him in bed with the captain’s daughter

(that’s my favorite line bc as kids we didn’t understand it so it made us laugh)

but musically you’re not having a back and forth. and so they’re things everyone just gets to sing together.

and that brings me to more industrial work songs. my favorite is sixteen tons, because i’m a basic bitch, and the line “saint peter don’t you call me cause i can’t go” is eternally stuck in my head. here’s a full version:

so as you can see, there’s no call and response, but the melody is relatively simple. it’s repetitive, the range is decent, and it’s got a really flexible tempo (the video i chose is pretty moderate, but here’s a fast one (and this is pure performance), and i swear i have a slower version on my computer but i can’t find it for the life of me).

(aside: one thing to notice in the johnny cash version is the backing. his is far more complex than ernie ford, and that’s because it’s dropped all pretense of being a work song. work songs don’t have much behind them because they’re almost always a capello. this isn’t super relevant to the discussion i just wanted to point it out.)

so mining work songs are generally like this (see black waters, another favorite of mine), and it’s not hard to see where folk music as a genre develops:

i just really like this song it’s probably not the best example.

on the other hand, other folk music maintains the structure. lets look at oh susanna (i hate this version, but the vocals are very clear so uhhh here’s a random cool fancy one listen to this it’s super cool).

the whole thing is fairly repetitive, it doesn’t have a strictly definite end, etc. the melody is still pretty simple, although i will say, having sung this in a choir, it can get more complicated in arrangement pretty easily.

anyway, this becomes bluegrass which is basically the folk version of country, here’s callin baton rogue which is absolutely one of the best songs to ever be written. this version is done by garth brooks, country singer, but listen to that fiddle and tell me it’s country.

(this is future matthew with an edit just to say, like, i’m not trying to establish a *strictly* factual chain of music genres here. bluegrass is, i believe, related closely to jazz & blues, while country was formed directly as an opposition to jazz & music history is really complicated.)

you get a lot of ballads here, eg ballad of john henry. i’m not going to say that’s good. but uh there’s a lot to filter through and i’m supposed to be working on my computer science assignment not doing an exploratory discussion of work songs and associated genres.

so this brings us to scottish/irish/english ballads. the clancy brothers are a popular band here, my mom had them on in the car a lot. here’s the work of the weavers for a slower song, but a good one, and here’s moonshiner, which is both a good song and takes me to my next point: sea songs, folk song, and tiktok (see its almost the same as the title it’s a joke).

i’m happy to see folk music making a resurgence. it was really a shame that we spent such a long time listening to not singing friendly music. that’s not a diss on any particular genre (except for edm fuck edm, everyone who makes dance remixes should have their music liscences revoked), because in isolation every genre is fine, but then you take it all together, and there’s a lack of the group singing, safe for bad singers, simple to play, music as a wider genre.

when did we stop singing lullabies? i mean i assume we still sing them to children, but how many do you know? how long has it been since a song like you are my sunshine has been popular? *caveat that i don’t listen to the radio, but if you have a counter example, make sure you think about how long it is and how large the range is and how complicated the rhythm is, etc., because that all is part of it.

at the camp i used to go to, we would sing bohemian rhapsody walking down the hill to the waterfront. someone would start it, and those interested get to join in sometime around “easy come easy go", but then you get to a guitar solo, and the thing kind of fizzles without a backing track.

and that’s what i mean, i mean people keep singing together, and wouldn’t it be better if more people made music that was meant to be sung? i mean sure you can gather your friends and sing anything, but will it resonate in the same way “what do you do with a drunken sailor?” would? will everyone be able to sing it, will it sound okay if you sing it badly? why did we stop making music that sounded best when we sing it the way we always have? why did we stop listening to it?

anyway i don’t have a deep take on this except like folk music is really good, and traditional songs exist for a reason. since i’ve focused really heavily on america and gaelic tradition, because that’s what i listend to growing up, and therefore can speak about in a qualitative sense, i would like to just leave this south african lullaby here, because my mom used to sing it to me, so it’s got a real soft spot in my heart. i didn’t really talk about lullabies because again comp sci assignment but they’re related, so anyway, this has an english translation in there which may or may not be the standard? but you can know what it means too:

[megatentious]

My lengthy defense of the most hated Persona game

Here’s my grand defense for the most hated game in the series: Persona 1, AKA Revelations: Persona. I know it’s too late to try and rehabilitate the game’s reputation on the internet, but I’m hoping that by rambling in modestly structured form for a bit, at least some folks might be able to look at Persona with a fresh perspective. It would be cool if everyone could try to understand what the game did so well and why it resonated so strongly with me and 2 or so other people. If you are the kind of person that thinks games age and become archaic, then I probably don’t have any hope of reaching you, but still, try to put yourself in the right mindset and approach the game on its own terms, and maybe you’ll discover something quite special.

So, Persona. Persona does very interesting things with choice. As the first Megaten rpg released in America, the negotiation system was a revelation (har har), providing the choice to talk your way out of battles and into rewards is a natural D&D element that never got a foothold in countless videogame conversions of the game, and in the first Persona these elements are at their peak. With every demon having four moods, four series of animation and four sets of voiced sound effects, the expanded options really let you get into the headspace of the demons you’re conversing with, unlike traditional SMT’s more spare binary system. Getting into the thick of things with complex sets of reactions (Joy + Interest, that’s what’s up) makes for a fun simulation.

The theme of choice is also really built into the game’s fabric, it’s the reason why in old usenet postings, Persona was recommended to folks who were fans of Gold Box games, during a time when RPG labels were more porous and that sneaky “J” hadn’t yet latched itself omnipresently to the term. Choice here also extends to the fifth character in your party, a friendly way to promote replay value without new game plus, and certain choices locking you out of giant chunks of the game, an unfriendly way of getting you through the game again. In a world though where developers are desperate to ensure that gamers experience all content (so many buzzwords!), the chutzpah of Persona being willing to lock you out of huge swathes of the game is something I actually admire.

It’s easy to underestimate the impact of the modern day setting in a post Persona 3/TWEWY/Alpha Protocol world, but dungeons that were hospitals and police stations and high school students snarling “EAT THIS” with MIGs in pitched street battles felt revelatory. Exploring the comically low-rent polygonal city (is this another reference to the abstracted icons of SMT1 and 2 world maps?) was actually fun, as ridiculous as waiting for traffic to pass might seem. There are also many complaints about the first person perspective dungeons, even though the rest of the game is third person, but the setting variety is nice and many of the wall patterns are quite evocative (Deva Yuga looks like Persepolis!)

The game also does PSX-era philosophizing in a tasteful and generally thoughtful way, while contemporaries were drawing from Evangelion, Persona looked to Zhuangzi and Jung. Not very high-falutin, true, but at least middle brow enough such that my 14 year old Sophie’s World reading self was entranced. The game has something neat to say about loneliness and identity and the way we construct the world around ourselves (all hinted at in the moody intro. The story is very nice and very Kaneko, even if he’s overestimating the literary quality in this interview, I’m very fond of it and it is my franchise favorite.

Here’s where I alienate the remaining people who might have been on board with me so far: if you ignore the loss of the Snow Queen Quest, a 20 hour alternate version of the story that takes place in a series of SMT:If... like towers, Revelations: Persona is actually the superior game. “Lunarvale,” a hodgepodge of America and Japan cobbled together by localizers attempting to mask the game’s origins, is actually more weird and interesting than the Mikage-cho that appears in Persona PSP. This bizarre mashup, combined with a nonsense translation attempt, somehow manages to better fit the lurid dreamscape vibe the original developers were going for. I can’t undersell how one-of-a-kind and wonderfully unsettling the game’s atmosphere is in the PSX version, and this is helped along of course by the sound.

Here are excerpts from some things I wrote on the music in this game:

Revelations: Persona has the best soundtrack in the franchise, possibly the best soundtrack ever made. In raw quantitative terms it's ridiculous, 113 songs and 3 hours of music without being looped, and all without doing Persona 2's trick of repeated (but still awesome!) remixes. Two majorly sweet leitmotifs for the two major quests, employed creatively and thoughtfully, four fantastic composers on four discs, cohesive and thematically coherent when by all rights it should feel disjointed as fuck, this is a generous OST!

Hidehito Aoki (R.I.P.) composed the dungeon music, which is exquisite. Lengthy songs that are moody, elegant, just plain beautiful and get you PUMPED! The iconic Deva Yuga Monochrome: School Revisited Dream-like, synthy, catchy, beautiful, quintessential Persona sound. Pandora's Den (Deepmost Area): The climax at 1:12! Ice Castle/Black Snow The twists and turns in this one, so effing good. Sebek Music, Karma Palace 90's music is the best!!! Misaki Okibe's range is ridiculous, she composed some of the most memorable, interesting tracks in the whole game. Reverse Dream World: You think you have this song figured out in the first few seconds, but stick around to see where it suddenly veers off to around :30, hilarious and awesome. Theme of Nemurin's Love: The intro! The power of a simple lovely melody, a little Uematsu-esque. Augustia's Wood: The save music, so memorable, I love the grumbling. City 2 Accident: Do you remember wandering the streets in the town, disoriented, listening to this gorgeousness, thinking about how Lunarvale suddenly seemed so scary, like an unsettling dream? Bar Attacked by Harem Queen: A bit of jazzy beauty. And most important of all of course, Misaki Okibe is the composer of the Pharmacy Music, featuring vocals by one Hidehito Aoki of all people. Satomi Tadashi Drugstore Song In our heads forever, teaching us about item use since 1996. 

More alienating for readers who have gotten this far: the “whitewashing” character designs were all improvements, Kazuma Kaneko redrew everything himself and it’s easy to tell that a lot of thought was put into the redesigns. Finally, Mark is also >>>> Masao, everyone’s always yelling about the jive-talking but to me he came across as quite smart and savvy. I dunno, maybe this is just a Flavor of Love/Outsourced minorities just wanna see themselves effect operating here, leave me alone you guys! So yes, the franchise’s current fanbase might not be fond of them, but the cast is comprised of characters that are meant to be iconic and not friends you wish you had in real life, a cast that, FFVI-like, is meant to evoke broader themes and not follow the typical arcs of many RPGs these days. Check out the classiness of Yuki’s design, and allow me to quote some more stuff on how Tsuchiya, master of the character theme, nails it for each party member.

The sign of a good character theme is when you can extrapolate from instrument choice and melody to personality. Here Tsuchiya is the man, no one does it better this side of Uematsu. I hear these songs and I've got a perfect picture in my mind of each cast member. It's what I think of when I think of "videogame music" ha, here are my personal favorites, I could listen to these endlessly. Mary/Maki: Cheerful, just a hint of melancholy in the notes, love that slap bass. Yuki: Starts a bit slow, but soon we learn that Yuki's cool but determined. Alana: The song tells me she's brassy, energetic, fun. Chris/Reiji: Dangerous, exciting, a bad-ass delinquent. Ellen/Elly: Classy, elegant, confident.

Some also rag on the dungeon design, but it seems unfair to expect centerpiece labyrinths along the lines of Strange Journey or Etrian Odyssey in a game going for something completely different. Nevertheless, you’ve got tricky mazes with dead ends that test resource allocation skills and provide a sense of accomplishment. Encounters are tough and require thought, careful consideration of when to flee and negotiate is imperative for dungeon survival. This is something that gets lost a bit in the PSP remake as the encounter rate is increased but battles are a bit easier. Exploiting elemental weaknesses isn’t as elegant as in later games, but with a ludicrously high 14 damage types breadth supersedes depth. And there’s even a positioning system to consider that the developers decided to drop from later games rather than refine. In the end, surviving the dungeon and beating the boss is an RPG staple that just plain works, although yes you will probably grit your teeth at some of the loading times.

And finally, you don’t have to take my random word for it. Parish really liked it too! How’s that for an appeal to authority?

For series buffs, it’s fun to trace this game’s historical lineage, as one of the earlier spinoffs of Shin Megami Tensei, it's easy to spot the mainline series influence: the occultism of the opening ritual, the hospital as first dungeon, the first person perspective for dungeon travel, BLUE POINTER MAN, and the omnipresent danger of demons in town and dungeon alike. Revelations: Persona is drawing from a rich and storied history, but manages to recast SMT traditions in interesting new directions. Again, the atmosphere is really unbelievable and something I haven’t come across in other games. It’s more than a simple curiosity and it doesn’t deserve dumb dismissal or sneering derision for its flaws. Revelations: Persona is a real marvel, modern games ought to draw more inspiration from its lessons, and the game belongs in the RPG canon, there I said it!

[redscullyrevival]

Kristie’s Kdrama Recs

Big honkin’ list of my favorite Korean Dramas for @teatime-brutality​ (a newbie) and @deadlikedisco​ (a seasoned pro) but all are invited to sneak a peak! Come, peruse my recommendations and judge them against your favorites or perhaps even find a new one!

Before we start please know that Korean TV shows, once translated, tend to have various titles. I’ll do my best to address show’s multiple names but when in doubt google can help sort it out. Also, this is super long lol

Seonam Girls High School Investigators (aka Detectives of Seonam Girls’ High School) (aka Highschool Detectives)

Sure, Seonam Girls has fantastic emotionally real female friendships...

And sure, Seonam Girls is often times surprisingly funny and wacky...

But Seonam Girls don’t play!

With a mini arc format tucked inside a long game mystery this is a series that is never boring. 

This is also a series that attempts to tackle subject matter the overwhelming majority of Korean television is afraid to touch with a 10 foot poll.

These wonderful and delightful girls don’t inhabit a black and white world and the subject matter they’re often faced with divides the group’s opinions and doesn’t give viewers necessarily easy answers or easy understandings on human behavior and relationships. 

There is never really a consensus on how the girls feel about all that they learn, but over time they grow in their respect for one another and come to respect the journey their detective work takes them on, and life.

WHAT A RIDE!

Loves it.

Reply 1997 (aka Answer Me 1997)

Yeah yeah yeah here we go go go

Its 1997 and the height of kpop’s first wave of idol boy bands is at it’s peak!

Intense fan devotion; unrequited love; family drama; friends being there for each other!

The Reply (or Answer Me) series are some of my personal favorite kdrama titles.

What blows me away about this show is the back and forth dynamic of the teenagers understanding what they value about each other and what makes them likeable within their isolated spaces versus the outside/real world values of adulthood - and then figuring out how to bridge who they are and their adolescence into who they want to be within the wider community. 

Like, the main female character Sung Shi-won is regarded for her devotion to boy band H.O.T. by fellow students (including those who support opposing boy bands) but is chided by her teachers and parents for her fanatical choices; within her space she’s passionate, cunning, and resourceful, but when she looks up and around at the larger space she occupies she is unreasonable, goofy, and occasionally creepy. 

This zooming in and out of spaces until a balance distance is found is what makes this series hard hitting (if not a little manipulative lol) drama gold.

TAMAGOTCHI PETS!

MYSTERY HUSBAND!

GOAT BLEATING!  

Age of Youth (aka Hello My Twenties) 

I love this show so muu-uu-uuuuuuch.

The young women of Belle Epoque are some of the most intensely relatable characters I’ve ever witnessed assembled - individually as well as with their group dynamics. 

It’s about five women who share a house and they grow as people. 

Pretty simple.

BUT this show is still outrageous!

High octane unique and personal emotions mixed with universal domestic shenanigans are the building blocks of Age of Youth’s total charm:

Somehow this series fantastically walks the line between being complete melodrama while also being one of the most honest depictions of female friendships I’ve ever seen.

And oh boy, it is downright magic to witness female characters so different from one another co-exist in the same narrative space with each of them being individually flawed yet fighting; scared yet willing; growing yet complete.

The cast’s performances are knock out masterclasses on ensemble work.

The show has it’s storyline pitfalls but what it excels at it does very, very well - especially nuanced character work and visual set ups.

An Example: The landlady of the Belle Epoque building is a mysterious, fascinating, and terrifically simple addition to the series’ overall feel and visual style of story execution. She isn’t a Greek chorus character but rather, I guess you could say, an oppositional force shown to combat life’s tribulations. She’s a constant reminder that independence and the self can and will win out strife and self-hate if we tend to ourselves and others properly. 

lol sorry, got all meta on ya’ll there. I can only be me.

ANYWAYS

This is a addictive, unpredictable, deeply funny and ambitious series.

Oh my god please watch this show. 

Signal

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey walkie-talkies! 

Haha, actually this is a really intense and somber show - magical radio phones aside.

Who would have thought the magical realism I’ve been searching for in TV would come from police trying to solve crimes through time? 

Its a case of simple premise with calculated execution; it’s pretty neat that the only thing that time travels is information and that our cast of characters (and their choices) is what carries the entire series along rather than deep focus on the mystery of how they’re communicating. 

This show is, I dunno, I feel like it is best described as “hypnotic”.

I don’t want to go into the show that much as it’s one of those experience best met with as little expectation as possible.

I will say though that Signal is darker (visually and thematically) than a lot of other kdramas but still manages to broadcast it’s own brand of hopeful optimism.

The acting in this show is phenomenal so that’s a tight bonus as well. 

Boys over Flowers

Mandatory suggestion; I think by law you have to suggest Boys Over Flowers because it’s such a classic.

Geum Jan Di works her butt off to attend a exclusive school that happens to be ran by the notorious F4, a group of over privileged pretty boys. After she lands on their shit list hilarity (and love) starts to bloom... 

This is one of those shows where people either jive with it’s juvenile offerings or are offended by it’s crooked seams. 

I happen to think it is a delightful product of its time; over the top, unbelievable; and completely charming!

Although, to be fair, Boys Over Flowers is considered frustrating among even it’s biggest fans as the teens tend to rapid fire misunderstand each other and are the root of all their own problems. 

Buuuuut that’s kind of shojo manga’s deal and this is an adaptation of a immensely popular shojo title.

Boys Over Flowers is entirely in it’s own goofy style of teenage camp and if you’re not too serious and ready and willing for all the ups and downs (and ups and downs) it can be a really fun ride.

Gaksital (aka Bridal Mask)

Based on the iconic manhwa by Huh Young-man, Gaksital is an amazing amalgamation of popular culture; a big budget kdrama adaptation of a popular comic book seeking to tell a difficult and painful national story through genre convention and subversion.

Lee Kang To is a local cooperator in Japan’s oppressive colonial rule and a proud member of the imperial police, to the horror of his mother. Kang To is vulgar in his desperation to rise in the ranks of Japanese society and abolish his Korean heritage but especially within his obsession for the rebellious figure of Bridal Mask; a masked individual seeking to spark the nation into resisting colonization. 

As Gaksital takes place during the Japanese occupation of Korea this series is far more politically charged and violent than all others on my list.

And as the series is being told from the Korean perspective for a Korean audience be prepared for reflections on national scars and a lot of difficult subject matter the production assumes it’s viewership will have context for. 

Which isn’t to say the production is not comic book-y (it is) or that it is aiming for the highest level of historical accuracy (it isn’t) or a non-Korean audience won’t “get it” (they will).

But, Gaksital does make the effort to be complex with it’s themes of power and choice by deeply embedding them into a historical (and emotional) backdrop and in having the context of the era be the key motivating factor in character’s choices and behavior - all of which relies heavily on the Korean concept of “han”.

Not an easy watch but most certainly an addictive one - as well as the longest clocking in at 28 episodes.  

Reply 1988 (aka Answer Me 1988)

Here it is, the best; the favorite; the Korean broadcast record holder.

This is straight up one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

All the known working parts of the Reply series are here:

Pin point cultural accuracy! 

Heartfelt stories of family and friends! 

Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa as the parents of the main female protagonist! 

Fantastic soundtrack! 

Mystery husband!

GOAT BLEATING! 

You’d think that these shows that have so many common threads would be boring by the third iteration but the exact opposite is true. 

Naturally, you don’t have to watch Reply 1997 or Reply 1994 to enjoy Reply 1988; just pick one and go. They all work amazingly well if you’re just walking into them unbeknownst that they have a shtick and Reply 1988 is the best of the three so by all means go to town, highly encouraged in fact.

But SOMEHOW 1988 is almost enhanced by it’s shtick, by it’s known parts that viewers have come to expect. With the third go the series has really nailed it’s rhythm and writer Lee Woo-jung has really fine tuned what she is doing and has subdued the franchises’ least-working parts.

As always the ensemble acting and storytelling is dead on with the addition of a great balance this time around between the youths, the adults, and their ever evolving lives. Everyone gets their screen time and their stories and you’ll be pressed to find more believable and relatable characters. 

What’s so fascinating about this show (and, again, the Reply series in general) is how it’s both a very culturally specific type of nostalgia as well as a complete acknowledgement on how truly universal so many aspects of the human experience really is.  

Tomorrow’s Cantabile  (aka Naeil's Cantabile)

Almost didn’t list this series because while it’s near and dear to me it has enough eyebrow raising action that I’m not 100% comfortable suggesting it as a “everyone” title.

This is one of those shows that has so many good things about it that the parts that are frustrating are made all the more glaring. 

Overall the series is a wonderful adaptation of Tomoko Ninomiya’s manga about music nerds suffering and growing into their potential. 

There is a lot of soul and a lot of fun in Tomorrow’s Cantabile but out of all the titles I’ve listed this one (and lets be real, Boys Over Flowers) is most like what non-watching folks generically assume when they think of “Korean Drama”.

But, then again, sometimes kdrama is kitschy melodrama and fart jokes with questionable means of displaying romance.

If it’s goofy and occasionally wince worthy ways don’t throw you off course then this show can really wiggle deep under your skin. 

It’s easy to start to care and root for these orchestra nerds and the series will absolutely knock you flat with both it’s humor and drama when the time comes.

Goblin The Lonely and Great God (aka Guardian: The Lonely and Great God) (aka The Shining Lonely Goblin) (aka Goblin)

This show feels like it’s made for me personally: A melancholy gothic-y romance fantasy series about death! Oh boy!

Kim Shin is an immortal goblin who longs to end his life but only when he finds the ‘Goblin’s Bride’ will he be able to end his immortality and return to dust...

Oh, and a grim reaper is his housemate! Talk about awkward.

Goblin is an odd but very welcome diversion from a lot of what kdrama offers year after year.

This series surrounds itself in the creation of it’s own rich mythology for a very intense and interesting narrative drive.

Hilarious and devastating.

Challenging yet comforting. 

Unique but grounded.

OMG I love it so much.

And since you can’t not mention it, Goblin is BEAUTIFUL. The cinematography on this show is bonkers. 

But, I’ll be up front with y’all: 

If you are someone who places a LOT of importance onto the ending of a story then it doesn’t hurt to know that this is a series whose ending seriously divides its viewers.

So, invest with caution I suppose.

Solomon’s Perjury  (aka The Trial of Solomon)

BUCKLE THE FUCK UP!

When a student from an elite high school falls to his death among suspicious circumstances a frustrated student body decide to hold their own mock trial. Each student has their own role to play, from the prosecutor to the defense attorney. 

Facts assembled; secrets exposed; truth discovered; Solomon’s Perjury is an exceptional thriller filled with wonderful characters struggling to be wonderful people from within confusion, pain, and suspense.

Solomon’s Perjury isn’t an easy watch as it doesn’t shy away from difficult subject matter like broken school systems, corruption, abuse, and mental illness stigma. 

The strength and maturity of the teenagers is contrasted against the cowardice and weakness of the adults with both groups opening up to understanding as the show progresses. 

And progresses it does; this series has an exhausting pace that never lets up for long on moving it’s characters (and the audience) towards it’s fulfilling denouement.

With a tight script and a phenomenal young cast Solomon’s Perjury is perfect for binge watching and getting completely emotionally wrecked. 

Which, if you’re like me, makes for a good time! The best time!

Clear your schedule.

Coffee Prince (aka The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince)

Easily the most popular and enduring title on this entire list, Coffee Prince is a forever favorite for a lot of kdrama fans; so popular that it is probably still the #1 hook bringing folks into the kdrama world. 

A handsome and hard working girl in need of a job is mistaken for being a boy, which she capitalizes on to start working at a coffee shop as part of it’s attractive male staff.

As the shop owner starts to fall in love with our androgynous lead he begins to question his sexual orientation within a wave of hilarity, heartbreak, and intensity. 

As time wears on Coffee Prince’s production flaws actually enhance it’s character driven successes.

Sure, we can sometimes hear background street noise and there is bad lighting design and obviously this show didn’t get a budget even close to what dramas do now - but it’s still sooooo gooooood! 

You want to insert yourself into it’s world just so you can sip coffee and observe all that’s around!

The series makes a lot of choices that seek to help push acceptance within Korean society and media but the fact of the matter is that often times LGBTQIA themes and plots in Korean drama seek to be coy and subversive so as to avoid the Korea Communications Commission and as such have more than a few similarities to the kind of innuendo found in pre-Hays Code Hollywood films.

Taking on LGBTQIA themes and plots head on isn’t common by any means, not today in 2017 or in 2007 when this show aired.

And as ambitious as the show tries to be it does, of course, negate away from the “repercussions” of displaying a true gay lead couple on Korean TV.

With a quick and addictive story and characters written as whole people brilliantly performed by a talented cast, Coffee Prince excels at being the definition of enjoyable entertainment and it’s very easy to understand why it has such a lasting legacy.

It is, however, potentially equally frustrating as it is endearing due to the show’s insistence on exploring big themes in completely safe waters - it really just depends on you as a person.

But I personally can’t not suggest this show. 

WAFFLE GUY!

W (aka W Two Worlds)

This friggin’ weird ass show.

A woman goes into her father’s popular comic series “W” and starts messing with his narrative and things get seriously complicated.

There ya go, that’s the show.

W is an odd package that works surprisingly well given how wacky it is.

What helps is the show doesn’t try to over extend; it knows what it is and what it is is a playful series that likes to tease and challenge viewers just as much as it likes to give pay offs. 

What really stands out about W is that it isn’t just about the nature of writing and the idea of narrative responsibility, oh no. 

This series goes hard on themes of what it means to be a recipient of art, of storytelling. Of being an audience. 

Who has more power, the creator or the reader? Who truly defines the characters? Whose in control?

It’s a clever show that plays with meta ideas and isn’t afraid to get big and bold with pointing out common failings and tropes in serialized storytelling (both within comics and Korean dramas themselves). 

One of my favorite things about the series is how the characters explore and take advantage of the ‘rules’ within the crafted narrative space, within the world of “W”, for their own benefit.

A wild and fun ride that goes up and down and all around that certainly works best with viewers who can go with the flow, laugh along with the in-jokes, and don’t mind being messed with.

49 Days

Using this image is kind of sadistic but it’s the best I could do. 

I mean, the cast looks so happy right? What’s this drama about, huh? A family getting by? Maybe a group of friends finding love and happiness? Certainly it’s not about a dead woman inhabiting the body of a depressed woman in an effort to save herself by finding three people outside of her family who will cry sincere tears of grief for her within 49 days, right?!

No one is happy and everything hurts.

This right here is some Grade A melodrama - you know it’s good when you have to make a relationship flow chart with notes.

49 Days takes it’s premise from a Buddhist concept of death: The period between death and rebirth lasts 49 days and involves three bardos, which are the intermediate or transitional states that mark an individual’s life from birth to death and rebirth.

Twists and turns and reveals define this show and yet it doesn’t feel rushed. In fact, one of the bigger complaints I’ve read online is how it’s a little slow and long.

Which is fair criticism! I think 16 episodes would have been the sweet spot instead of the given 20.

But what’s so enjoyable about this series is how it tries to be SHOCK and AWE emotionally just as much as it is story wise, and not only in a sad fashion. 

Because while, yes, you are going to cry, 49 Days is still a uplifting and occasionally very funny title that seeks to express the complexities of human emotions and the choices we make due to those complexities. 

White Christmas

Isolated in the mountains of Gangwando there is a prestigious private school that’s harder to get into than Seoul University, a place where students compete fiercely and endure strictly enforced punishment. The only vacation days are the 8 days from Christmas Eve to the first day of the New Year. Seven students who receive anonymous letters remain at school over the winter break...

White Christmas is a series that approaches the simple query of nature vs. nurture with complex intensity with a green cast of newcomer actors left in the more than capable hands of fan favorite screen writer Park Yeon-Sun and veteran director Kim Yong-soo. 

As paranoia descends we dive deeper into the duality and struggles of each student as they deal with the immensity of their fearful situation on top of their own personal histories and identities.

And as each day wears on the teens strip down closer and closer to the bone.

True empathy and true cruelty; the lies we tell others and the lies we tell ourselves; the savagery that can be inherent in survival and the monsters we can become when others are monstrous to us. 

White Christmas is at all times understandable but imperfect, pretentious but real, clever but unsophisticated - clashes that make the series ripe for a cult following.

My favorite thing about this show is that it’s setting and style is as important as it’s plot and characters which is a common element that threads a lot of my personal favorite psychological thrillers together in the tradition of Shirley Jackson or Suspiria.

The school our fated teens find themselves trapped in is as much as a character as our flesh and blood cast. Architecturally crisp and clean during the day while jagged and sinister at night, there is lot of non verbal story telling and thematic evidence rippling through White Christmas and is also in part what cements it’s cult classic status.

Totally not an “everyone” title but idgaf, I have to let you know it exists!

Hwang Jin Yi (aka Hwang Jini)

I really enjoy sageuk (historical) dramas but a lot of them are too long for me to commit to. 

Thank god this amazing series based on the life of the famous gisaeng (performer/courtesan) Hawng Jini who rose to influence during the Joseon Dynasty is only 24 episodes long!

A historical and cultural icon known for her music, dancing, poetry and tragic love life; Hwang Jin Yi is a series that takes this enigmatic figure and elevates her to legendary status. 

Which of course makes her struggle and pain all the more devastating.

With lush costumes, amazing set designs, beautiful dancing, and brilliant performances this isn’t a series to brush aside just because it’s “old” and historical. 

Hwang Jin Yi is frustratingly relevant on what it has to say about women who dare to create art and how society views and treats them, within their lifetimes and after.

Back in the day there were a lot of great discussions on livejournal about how guarded Jin Yi was becoming as the episodes wore on and how towards the end she became more of an object in the drama instead of it’s subject - which was some of the most interesting fannish discussions I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing.

Because it’s true!

People either seem to really love or really hate this series and that divide usually comes down to how the show presents it’s famous leading lady within the last few episodes. 

Was Ji Yi boxed in by production missteps or is the character shutting herself off? Is her status in history that of a cultural object or lived subject? What about within her own life due to her social class and gender, did she feel in control or like an object? Does her art reflect her true self or only as much as the time period would allow?

Good shit.

Arang and the Magistrate

HAHA YESSSSSSS!

This show is about a ghost who harasses a government official into finding out how she died. 

‘Cause we all know if you want the government to do anything you gotta haunt their ass.

Arang and the Magistrate comes from a famous folk tale called “The Legend of Arang” which this series expands upon exponentially.

I don’t want to get into it too much because I honestly think knowing less is an advantage but one thing I wasn’t expecting going into this show was a fleshed out multilayered high fantasy world.

Honestly I was expecting a ghost here and there peppered throughout a historical drama, so it’s safe to say I was totally blown away. 

Arang and the Magistrate is seriously fun, hilariously dramatic, and action packed with believable emotions wrapped within some truly fantastic world building.

If you’re feeling flirty and adventurous please consider this series. 

DO IT.

DON’T QUESTION IT.

WATCH THE WILD GHOST SHOW.

Misaeng (aka Incomplete Life)

The biggest complaint about Misaeng is that it’s “boring and stressful”.

And, uh, that’s true.

HEAR ME OUT!

Misaeng is measured, deliberate, understated, and painstakingly realistic to the point where, yes, it’s borderline stressful to watch at times. 

Based on the popular web comic by Yoon Tae Ho, the lives of the employees at a fictional trading company isn’t high stakes entertainment. Its completely mundane.

So then why does the heart race so often when watching it?!  

Misaeng is intense to watch because it’s not about overcoming workplace and life unfairness - it’s about enduring it.

And therein lies the intense audience response.

The heart racing intensity of Misaeng seems out of place within it’s methodical pacing and “boring” subject matter but this series taps into one of the most universal of all human experiences: The pounding relatability of feeling like your life is incomplete or inadequate. 

Office politics with all the bullying, favoritism, sexism, and gossip that goes on affects all involved yet no one can really do any one thing about it. They all have company roles to play, social norms to follow, and personal situations to consider. 

As the kids say, “the struggle is real” - and in Misaeng that’s pretty literal. 

What’s optimistic is that we see everyone’s hardships. We get to know and understand all of these characters very, very, well very, very, slowly.

We also get to see them win their small victories and grow together and find a coherent peace even if it isn’t flashy, mighty, and grand. 

Even though it will be difficult on your heart I honestly can’t recommend this show enough.

Chicago Typewriter

Chicago Typewriter is about a trio who lived during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea in the 1930's who are reincarnated and find their lives intertwining yet again in 2017.

Sounds intriguing, right? It is intriguing!

A typerwriter is a character.

Yeah, I don’t even know where to begin.

This series is INTENSE, okay? Very, very INTENSE. 

There is always a lot happening; almost every scene is crammed with literary, art, and cinema references; the editing is nuts; the cinematography is glorious; the characters are over the top; and it’s overall presentation is pretentious to the point of being gut wrenching hysterical - and YET!

Why is this trash fire so goddamn fascinating?

Why do I care so much about EVERYTHING IT EVER DOES?

Even when it hits its more mellow stride???

If I have to try and explain it; Chicago Typewriter is kinda like LOST but with bigger and better ownership over it’s bullshit (which is a compliment, I swear).

This is a show for those of you who want to be run over by spectacle, like chasing the coat tails of plot theories, and thrive on visual thematic pay offs. 

Joseon X-Files (aka Joseon X-Files: Secret Book) (aka Secret Investigation Record)

YEAH BITCH. 

This is EXACTLY what you think it is.

Joseon X-Files is a historical kdrama sci-fi thriller based on the American cult classic, The X-Files.

And, yes, before you even ask - of course there are UFOs, monsters of the week, sexual tension, and a Smoking Man.

I could go into tedious details but I’ll spare you and just get down to it:

Joseon X-Files is similar to the American series but it is mostly different.

You will not spend your entire time comparing and contrasting this show with the original. It will let you know when you should be doing exactly that, but most of the time you’ll be plenty wrapped up in it’s own fantastic brand of paranormal investigation. 

You’ll invest in these new characters and new setting. You will see them as they’re presented and not just through a misty smoke screen of expectation, I promise. 

Joseon X-Files is deeply impressive as it’s own series AND as a homage show and I say that as a hardcore X-Files fan. 

And then if you’ve never really seen the original series, well, you’re in for a gigantic freaky treat!

Because this show doesn’t look or narratively flow like the bulk of kdrama it does take some getting use to. It’s shakey, harsh, plays long games, is visually dark, has long periods of no dialogue, and it isn’t overtly romantic. 

What Joseon X-Files does have in spades is a consistent output and a intrinsic desire to be different. Which in my opinion are two of the hardest things to find in dreamland.

I’m the first to admit that there is a lot for me to personally enjoy about this series, but please give it a shot; it is the most unique title on this long list and yes I understand how funny that sounds since it’s a remake-thingy but you’ll see what I mean. 

ALSO my absolute favorite thing about Joseon X-Files is how much it accomplishes on a budget of, like, five bucks. They had no money. None. But that doesn’t stop this series from being rewarding, fascinating, and creepy.   

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Death in the Fade: A “Baroness” of Purpose - Justice Outside of the Fade (Part 3 of 3)

Last part of the Death in the Fade series:

Part 1: Death in the Fade

Part 2: If a Sylvan Falls In a Forest…

Part 3: A Baroness of Purpose - Justice Outside of the Fade

Theses (I don’t often get to use the plural!): Justice is trapped in the mortal world due to his own desire to fulfill his purpose, his (mostly) mistaken belief that he will fade away and die without a host body, and his growing fascination with the waking world.  The spirits and demons that possess sylvans and corpses return to the Fade as energy, like any other spirit, unless outside forces intervene to continue their purpose.

A Baroness of Purpose: Justice Outside of the Fade

We’ve established that only spirits and demons with a strong will/sense of self and a desire to enter the waking world can push through the Veil of their own free will.  Cole and Solas say that this type of crossing can cause the spirit or demon to become more potent and powerful, even to develop a personality.  (One can only imagine how many times Imshael has gone back and forth over the ages.  He certainly has more ‘personality’ than many mortals!)  Weaker spirits can do the same where the Veil is thin or torn, but they often don’t have enough “self” to avoid being buffeted or driven mad.  Some dodn’t even want to come to the mortal world, but they were pulled in.  Such is the case with Justice. 

Justice  was almost certainly powerful enough to push across, but he had absolutely no desire to visit the mortal world.  He didn’t envy mortals.  He and other spirits pity them, thinking them trapped in a world devoid of beauty (video).  When the Baroness used the First’s life to rip open the Veil, she pulled the Warden, companions, and Justice along for the ride.  His will is strong enough to keep his mind intact during the initial shock, and his driving purpose to get justice for all the villagers of the Blackmarsh keeps him focused enough to hold it together in Kristoff’s body.  You actually can immediately offer to ‘double kill Kristoff’ (as you so perfectly put it), but he doesn’t particularly care for the idea:  

You can hear the fear and uncertainty in Justice’s voice when he refuses my kind offer to just kill him.  He knows almost nothing about crossing the Veil (video).  Is this lack of knowledge what keeps him pinned in Kristoff’s body and from being able to return to the Fade?  He does seem to be rather clueless about the Veil and the mortal world.  Comparing Justice’s circumstances with the few other spirits who experience something similar might provide some answers.

Command seems to be the most direct analogue to Justice’s situation.  Although it is never explicitly stated, Command doesn’t seem to have come to the waking world of her own free will.  It is likely that the Veil tear in Crestwood pulled Command across.  Once she is in the mortal world, she was confused and upset, but not immediately malevolent, another similarity between her situation and Justice’s.  She also seems trapped, partially because of her devotion to her purpose.  

Unlike Justice, however, Command does seem to know how to go back to Fade.  She just refuses to do so until something in the waking world obeys her command. Once her purpose is fulfilled, she goes back to the Fade with ease (video).  Is that all it takes?  Finish whatever goal or purpose brought the spirit to the waking world, and then slip back through?  Surprisingly, there are several pieces of lore that indicate it may be that simple.  It’s so easy, a wisp can do it (and Command and Cole).

“Gathering his magic, [Rhys] reached his mind across the Veil and summoned a spirit through.  It was tiny, a wisp of a creature with barely any consciousness to call its own.  The shimmering orb hovered over the palm of his hand, its magical hum tickling the hairs on the back of his neck.

“I need you to be quiet,” he whispered.  “You can do that, can’t you?”

The wisp bobbed excitedly and dimmed.  He barely even saw it now.  Tossing it up into the air, he sensed its excitement as it floated out into the commons.  Even such a small spirit took great joy in coming into the real world.  They found the oddest things of endless fascination: a wooden chair, a piece of steak, a feather.  Left to its own devices, a wisp would bob around random objects for hours making strange trilling noises as it explored its environment.  

The templars frowned on the use of even such benign spirits, although it was not strictly forbidden.  The best healers, after all, summoned spirits of compassion to assist them. Such spirits did not linger and immediately returned whence they came, but the Chantry looked upon any who had the talent to contact them with suspicion -such as himself.  Still, it had its uses.

Rhys waited.  Just as he was beginning to fear the wisp had become distracted, he sensed its return.  It came to rest on his open palm emitting an odd set of excited sounds.  He closed his eyes and tried to gather what impressions he could from its memory.  The first images he saw were confused, and made it seem like the commons was filled with a dozen or more templars.  Then he realized it had been looking at the statues, and couldn’t tell the difference.  Typical.

But one of the figures had moved.  He focused on that one sighting and received enough impressions from the wisp to figure it out.  A sentry on the far side of the staircase.  The hall was being watched after all.

“I need you to do one more favor for me,” he quietly asked it.  The wisp floated off his hand, already quivering with anticipation.  “I need you to lead the man away.  It doesn’t matter where.  Just a few minutes and you’re free to return to the Fade.”

It was a fairly complex command.  The wisp twirled in place, shimmering slightly as it considered, and then floated off once again.  Within minutes, Rhys heard a muted swear from the unseen guard.  Footsteps followed, heading down the stairs at a rapid pace.  Good.  That would give Rhys the time he needed.” (Dragon Age: Asunder, pgs. 58-59)

Rhys doesn’t keep the wisp in the mortal world with force, he just asks it to do something.  Once the task is fulfilled, the wisp goes back to the fade with ease.  The same as Command.  The same as Cole, in fact (More on this in a minute).  So why not Justice?  There are several hints as to why Justice still can’t return to the Fade in the conversation that immediately follows the defeat of the Baroness:

Thing one: Justice is still confused about being in Kristoff’s body.  He can’t figure out how to release himself from it, but that is only a temporary confusion.  If you piss him off enough, he will extricate himself from Kristoff’s body right in front of you (video, not ours), and there are several possible epilogues in which Justice will do the same thing, but in less negative circumstances.  And then there is this conversation with Velanna:

Velanna: What will happen to you once Kristoff's body has fully decayed?

Justice: I do not know. Perhaps I will be drawn back to the Fade?

Velanna: Or remain here, bound to the tiny motes of dust that once were Kristoff.

Justice: Do you think that's possible?

Velanna: I know less about this than you. How securely is your spirit bound to this body? Can you leave it?

Justice: I could, if I chose to.

Velanna: Do you want to leave it?

Justice: I... do not know anymore.

Justice knows pretty early on that he could leave Kristoff’s body if he wanted to, but he doesn’t.  Why?

That leads us to thing two:  The warden can immediately give Justice a new purpose to fulfill after defeating the Baroness.  The spirit will avenge Kristoff’s death and help the Warden defeat the Mother.  This new purpose effectively sabotages Justice’s ability to return to the Fade, and the longer he is in the mortal world, the more causes he finds!  Aura.  Mages.  (Maybe someday it will be the elves’ turn...)  Goals keep him focused, but grounded.  He can’t be clear enough in his thoughts to figure out how to go back to the Fade when he has a purpose that needs to be fulfilled.  

And that leads to thing three:  Justice doesn’t believe he can survive in the mortal world without a host body.  And he doesn’t know what will happen to him if he dies in the waking world (video).  This explains why he won’t drop Kristoff, and why he keeps distracting himself from his predicament with more causes.  There seem to be several reasons why Justice believes he’ll die without a body to possess.  In the first conversation with him outside the Fade, Justice says that no spirit that has crossed the Veil has ever returned, which doesn’t quite jive with the lore we have especially mages summoning wisps and spirits (which spirit healers are known to do) and then releasing back to the Fade, but does reveal an interesting tidbit about Justice’s inner mind.  While he typically will say that it is possible that he could one day return to the Fade, in practical terms, he knows of no other spirits who have accomplished the task.  That would make anyone hesitant to try.  And the warden’s other companions do nothing to alleviate this fear.  Every time someone brings up the possibility of Justice separating from Kristoff, the conversation contains elements that prompt Justice to look for another host or fear for his own existence.  Thanks for that Sigrun.  

Justice: So you believe you will die soon.

Sigrun: Won't we all?

Justice: I will not die. Not as you die.

Sigrun: Spirits such as yourself can be slain in this world. Maybe you can, too.

Justice: That... is a disturbing thought.

Sigrun: Glad to be of service!

Then there are these little chats with Nathaniel:

Nathaniel: What happens when this body of yours...expires?

Justice: How long does such a process take?

Nathaniel: I don't know. Can you still walk around once you're simply bones?

Justice: So I'm led to believe, yes.

Nathaniel: That is incredibly disturbing.

───────

Nathaniel: Will you ever need to switch bodies, Justice?

Justice: I did not even wish to possess this one. Why would I switch to another?

Nathaniel: You might need to. Unless you wish to look even more obviously like a corpse.

Justice: I...would prefer not to think of it.

───────

Justice: This... thing you spoke of. Switching bodies.

Nathaniel: Not a favorite topic of yours, I take it?

Justice: Would such a thing be permitted? Would it not be considered... abominable?

Nathaniel: If they're dead, it's not as if they need the body, Justice.

Justice: But I can still feel the man who once lived. I know his life, his... It is not just a body.

Nathaniel: That's...good, isn't it? I'd rather you felt that way.

Justice: Perhaps you are right.

───────

Nathaniel: What if you found a living body to possess?

Justice: Even if I knew how, I would not possess the living. Such is an act for demons.

Nathaniel: What if the person were willing?

Justice: Why would a mortal ever allow such a thing?

Nathaniel: For life. For love. Perhaps together, you can do what they cannot do alone. If you gave instead of taking, I would consider you no demon.

Justice: It is...something to consider. Thank you, Nathaniel.

These trains of thought are continued in conversations Justice has with Velanna, but she adds observations that note how much Justice seems to be like the mortal world:

Velanna: What will happen to you once Kristoff's body has fully decayed?

Justice: I do not know. Perhaps I will be drawn back to the Fade?

Velanna: Or remain here, bound to the tiny motes of dust that once were Kristoff.

Justice: Do you think that's possible?

Velanna: I know less about this than you. How securely is your spirit bound to this body? Can you leave it?

Justice: I could, if I chose to.

Velanna: Do you want to leave it?

Justice: I... do not know anymore.

───────

Velanna: It seems you actually like this world.

Justice: I do. I have had experiences I cannot even begin to explain.

Velanna: A pity that you'll soon fall apart.

Justice: I could find and inhabit another corpse. A female body might offer a different perspective, wouldn't you think?

Velanna: If I die in your presence, you stay away from my body, you hear me?

Justice: Your objection is noted.

Oghren even suggests that Justice is missing out on the full mortal experience because he doesn’t have a living human body.

Justice: You speak often of bodily functions.

Oghren: (Grunts) Not half as often as they happen.

Justice: But why this preoccupation? I have a mortal body, yet it provides me no such amusement.

Oghren: You have a dead mortal body. Try a living one sometime, and then we'll talk.

Justice: Possess a living host? I would never!

Oghren: Tough break. Enjoy the corpse love.

Result of all of this?

me: Guys!  You fucked up a perfectly good spirit. Look at him. He’s got anxiety!!

None of Justice’s companions belief he can exist in the waking world without possessing a body, and this belief shapes Justice’s experiences in the waking world.  A similar situation occurs with Cole in Dragon Age: Asunder.  And that belief has power to affect Justice in dramatic ways if/when he does leave Kristoff’s body.  In Asunder Cole believed he needed to kill people who were in pain in order to exist.  He didn’t, but that belief shaped his reality enough to make him feel like he was fading away when he went for extended periods of time without killing.  It is very likely that Justice experiences something similar if the Warden kills him at Drake’s Fall or if he is killed at an non-upgraded Vigil’s Keep.  He believes he can’t live for long outside of the Fade without a body and he doesn’t know how to go back, so he approaches Anders with the offer to join.  Anders, ironically, never talks with Justice about the possibility of the spirit switching bodies, but conversations in Dragon Age 2 reveal that Anders also believed that Justice would die without a host.

In the case of Cole, Rhys eventually convinces him that it is wrong to kill and that he doesn’t need to do it in order to be remembered.  This change in belief has a dramatic effect.  Cole no longer feels like he is fading.  Could the trip to Adamant, his focus on Rhys, and their trip to the Fade have affected Cole too?  Possible, but they seem to have only distracted Cole from his unconscious spirit/demon purpose rather than changing his belief about his existence.  It is only after Cole learns that he is, in fact, a spirit from Lord Seeker Lambert, that he begins to truly manifest like a spirit again.  He remembers pushing through the Veil, he remembers the real Cole, and fears what he has become.  He still wants to help people and will kill to protect innocents (Lambert), but he doesn’t want to go back to the demon-like being he was in Asunder.  He stays with the templars so that they can kill him if he “goes dark” again.  Hence the Cole we meet in Inquisition.  Spirit, but a bit more because the mortal world is ‘sticking’ to him.  He remembers Cole’s pain as if it was his own.  It’s these painful memories that prevent him from going back to the Fade.  He actually knows how to return, but he is stuck.  

Cole: Solas doesn't fear spirits, Vivienne. Why do you?

Vivienne: Your apostate friend did not benefit from formal training in a Circle.

Solas: How unfortunate for me.

Cole: The Circle makes you afraid? Are the demons stronger there?

Vivienne: The Circle taught me the tricks demons play to gain the trust of any mage foolish enough to listen.

Vivienne: Solas seems to trust you. How long before you turn on him?

Cole: Solas is my friend!

Vivienne: But you'd like to be more, wouldn't you? You could be together forever if you possessed him.

Vivienne: Is that not truly what you want? A body to claim your own, so you never have to return to the Fade?

(If Cole is made more human, or if his personal quest has not yet been completed)

Cole: I can't return to the Fade. Sometimes I wish I could.

Solas: Ignore her, Cole. She would hurt what she does not understand.

If the Inquisitor makes Cole more spirit, he immediately sheds all of that pain, forgives the templar who killed real Cole, and can go back to the Fade at any time.

Solas: Do you wish you can return to the Fade, Cole?

Cole: I can. I am light, unlittered. I can slip back across a small kind thing.

Solas: Yet, you remain.

Cole: I can help here.

Solas: Then for as long as you remain, I am glad of your company.

Spirit Cole chooses to stay because he wants to continue fulfilling his purpose.  The spirit of Command stays in the mortal world for the same reason.  She can return, but refuses to go until something in the waking world obeys her.

If Justice believed he could remain in the mortal world without a host, he would in all likelihood become like spirit Cole.  (Or the Baroness (video).  Or Imshael.) Justice is no ordinary spirit.  He is more like Inquisition Cole, the Baroness, or Imshael than he probably would like.  He wants to evolve and become more.  He is learning from his companions, remembering more and more complex ideas. And he is feeling things his life in the Fade could not have prepared him for, especially concerning Aura, Kristoff’s wife (video).

Justice’s thoughts are becoming much more complex.  He remembers more.  He comes to think that the mortal world is beautiful and worthwhile (video). He admits several times that his thoughts dwell on Aura.  He says he wants to evolve and grow.  Honestly, he was on the path to pulling a Cole.  Given enough time, and the ability to hold his form, he would likely have become fully human.  The problem is he doesn't know such a thing is possible.  He doesn’t have Solas and Varric pulling at him, showing him what is possible.  Everything Justice knows suggests he will die without a host. He also appears to be doubting his own choices.  No matter what the warden tells him in their final conversation, it is clear that Justice is concerned about whether the feelings and experiences he is having in Kristoff’s body could someday cause him to become “perverted” by those desires and become a demon.  Maybe Justice even thought that a connection to a living host, who understood mortal feelings and experiences, would help him understand those feelings and keep them in check.

All of this adds up to a spirit who believes his existence is in peril, and by the time we get to the end of Awakening, it seems like Justice really wants to stay!  Over time, Justice develops a love for the mortal world and a desire to right the many wrongs he sees in Thedas.  This chain of events is what prevents Justice from returning to the Fade and sets him on the path towards his merger with Anders in DA2.  

That’s what the evidence suggests to us, anyway.  Anyone else have some thoughts to add?

-MM

[davidcdelreal]

7 Personal Finance Lessons I Wish Everyone Learned in High School

Imagine if what you know now, you knew way back in high school. How much better off would you be? When I was in high school, I didn’t learn anything about money, budgeting, or investing.

While I’m a financial planner now, I didn’t learn most financial basics until my junior year of college.

What’s crazy is, I did take a financial basics course at one point. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even remotely helpful.

The course took place during my senior year of high school, and they called it “home economics.” While I can’t tell you a thing I learned during that class, I can tell you what I didn’t learn.

I didn’t learn about investing, credit scores, calculating interest on debt, or the magic of compounding interest.

That’s right; I sat through a year of classes, yet I didn’t learn a single money skill that could apply to my life.

While I want to believe more money skills are being taught in schools than what I experienced back in the day (er, not too long ago), what I’m hearing from parents is that not much has changed.

While some schools offer a home economics class or something similar, they’re still failing to impart a basic financial education that I believe is necessary for a successful, financial stable life outside school.

Here’s a look at some of the essentials I wish I would have learned in high school and I think should be taught today:

#1: How Credit Cards and Interest Rates Work

Since you can normally get your own credit card at around 18 years old, it seems like common sense to teach high school students about the intricacies of credit. As a financial advisor, I’ve seen far too many young people run up huge credit card balances early when they don’t have a good understanding of how credit works.

Heck, I was once one of them! By the time I was in my early twenties, I had $20,000 in credit card debt. Fortunately, I learned more about credit as I aged and worked diligently to become a financial advisor.

These days, I use credit regularly as a financial tool for things I know I can pay off quickly, without incurring debt and interest.

If we taught high school students a few basic lessons about credit cards and interest rates, we could potentially save many students from a lifetime of financial stress. Credit can be a useful tool when you’re paying it back every month. However, interest on credit can work against you when you carry a heavy balance.

The credit lessons we teach don’t need to be overly complex, either. At the very least, young people need to understand that

a) you have to pay back every dollar you charge

b) credit card interest accrues daily when you carry a balance and

c) your interest rate can play a huge role in your monthly bill if you aren’t paying your charges completely off each month.

Lastly, high school students should understand that it’s not a good idea to use credit to buy things they can’t afford. Instead, they should save for what they want, and aim to use credit only when it serves their interests. Young adults can use credit wisely to meet goals and build up a healthy credit profile, but it’s key to ensure that when you use credit that you can pay it back. Understanding responsible use of credit, from the moment a teen gets their first credit card, can go a long way to building a solid financial future.

They should also know how to reduce and consolidate debt in the event they do get behind on credit card payments and need to lower their interest rate or monthly bill. With a debt consolidation loan from a personal loan lender, for example, young people can potentially save money on interest and pay down debt faster.

While it’s smarter to avoid debt in the first place, young people should be educated on the many tools they can use to rebound if they fall behind with their bills.

#2: How to Balance a Checkbook

While the days of writing checks for most bills are clearly over, young people still should learn how to balance a checkbook. Even if they stick to debit and credit, they could really benefit from learning how to manage their cash flow and outflow to avoid overdraft fees.

I learned this the hard way when I bounced three checks when I was 19 years-old. Ouch! It was the first time I was introduced to “overdraft charges” and it wasn’t pleasant.

A lesson on online bill pay services might also help students who lean on technology to manage their money. And yes, students still need to learn check-writing basics such as how to fill checks out – at least for now. Sometimes people still need to write a check, believe it or not.

#3: Budgeting Basics

Budgeting is one of the most important skills anyone can learn, yet you’ll barely hear a peep about it while you’re in school. Unfortunately, not learning about budgeting can leave you at a disadvantage once you graduate high school and move out on your own.

Without any knowledge of how to manage bills and separate “wants” from “needs,” many people may spend their lives enduring one financial hardship after another.

At the very least, I think high school students should learn how to plan a lifestyle that actually jives with the income they earn. That may include knowing how to plan for – and pay – bills like rent, utilities, insurance, and car payments, while making sure there is money left for groceries, savings, etc.

Here’s the thing: I actually hate budgeting. I know it’s necessary, but I don’t like tracking every penny we spend.

What we do instead is what I like to call “tactical budgeting” – as in, we sit down to create a financial plan any time a major life event is coming our way. This type of budgeting doesn’t require you to watch every penny, but it can help you achieve your goals and spend less over time.

Bottom line: it’s important for young people to know how to create a financial plan for what they want.

#4: The Power of Compound Interest

While young people may not reach their income potential for years, they have one major advantage over the rest of us when it comes to investing – time. With time on their side, they can take advantage of the full potential of opening and adding to a savings account to tap into the power of compound interest.

By putting even small sums of money in a high interest savings account while they’re young, high school students, graduates and college students can start building wealth that will compound over and over again.

Here’s an awesome example:

A few weeks ago, I spoke about investing at my alma mater. To show the crowd the power of compound interest, I introduced the “magical penny concept.”

I asked the crowd one simple question:

“If you had a choice, would you rather have $2,000 cash or a penny that doubles in value every day?”

Not surprisingly, more than half of the class said they would rather have the cash. Of course!

The thing is, the magical penny would actually leave them much better off. Due to the magic of compound interest, a penny that doubles in value every day would be worth more than $10 million after only a month!

We need students to not only understand the power of compounding, but to know how to take advantage when they can.

#5: How to Build Credit

Your credit score is an important part of your overall financial health, and it can make a huge difference in how you manage your finances as an adult. With good credit on your side, it’s a lot easier to buy a house or qualify for an apartment. With bad credit (or no credit), on the other hand, most of life’s biggest milestones can be harder to reach.

Students need to know why credit is important, but also how to build credit while they’re young. Most of the time, getting a basic student credit card or student loan, for example, can provide the introduction to building credit for students need to get started.

But, that doesn't mean building credit is easy. Sometimes it's difficult for young people to get approved for a credit card or any type of loan.

My old intern Kevin found himself in this exact scenario several years ago. Kevin listened to his parents and avoided credit cards altogether. But, when Kevin decided to start his adult life on solid financial footing and buy a house and his own car, his credit wasn’t established enough to get approved for the loans he needed to purchase these things.

Fortunately, Kevin stumbled onto the idea of signing up for a secured credit card. With a secured credit card, he had to put down a cash deposit equal to his credit limit. But, once he started using his card regularly, he was able to boost his credit score an amazing 100 points within six months!

How did he do it?

While secured credit cards require a cash deposit to get started, they do report all of your credit movements to the three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Over time, Kevin’s responsible credit use let him build his credit from scratch and help to accomplish his goals of buying a house and car!

#6: Investing and Stock Market Basics

As a financial planner, I meet with so many full-fledged adults who don’t know the first thing about the stock market or investing in general. While we can’t do anything about that now, we can help young people start their own lives with a basic understanding of how investing works.

While we probably want to avoid overwhelming students with too many details, I recommend that we introduce them to investing concepts they can rely on as they get older. They need to understand what the stock market is and how investors make (and lose) money. And yes, I think they need to understand how investing could make them rich.

Here’s an awesome example:

Earlier this year, I showed a 16-year-old how to turn $500 into $520,367. While he thought I was crazy at first, he got it once I showed him how investing worked.

Basically, I used historical data to show him how even a crappy, $500-valued, front-loaded mutual fund purchased in 1970 could grow to $68,684 with average earning returns and then eventually total $520,367.

That’s pretty good, right?

The thing is, this $68,684 figure could grow even more if he added just a nominal amount of money every month. If he invested $25 extra to this fund every month (or $300 per year), then the total investment would surge to that sweet $520,367 over roughly the same timeline.

I believe the earlier we teach students about financial basics, the better off they’ll be.

It would be a shame for young people to miss out on building wealth with stocks, especially since you don’t need to invest a lot of money if you start early enough.

On the other hand, it’s important for students to know the difference between safe investing and investing scams. While investing with a reputable company like Vanguard or Fidelity can be smart, young people need to know to choose reputable firms when investing their money. It pays to research any company you plan to invest with, read reviews, and make sure you know what you’re getting into.

I’d also say that it’s important for students to know how much risk they are willing to take on with their money. Investing in a start-up company with lower stock share prices, for instance, could eventually reap big returns, but also could be more likely to fail, with the stock value dropping. This is called higher risk, higher reward.

Those students looking for a more conservative investment option should might consider investing in established companies, or a compound of companies called a mutual fund. This is a longer term investment strategy that could grow money over decades consistently.

#7: The “Right” Way to Borrow Money

While borrowing money may not always be ideal, there will be times in our lives when we absolutely need to pay off debt or finance a big ticket item. You never know when you’ll need to borrow money for a medical emergency, a surprise home repair, or for a big life event, like a wedding.

The key to borrowing money the “right way” is knowing which types of loans work best in each situation – and which types of loans to avoid. A personal loan from a reputable lender can be a smart choice for consumers because this type of unsecured loan can come with low interest rates and flexible payment terms.

A payday loan should be avoided, on the other hand.

There’s nothing wrong with borrowing money when you need it, but today’s youth would be a lot better off if they understood which loans are appropriate for what purpose. It’s helpful to know the ins and outs of personal loans and how to shop around. At the end of the day, the best personal loans (and financial products in general) are the ones that come with low rates, low or no fees, and excellent customer service you can count on.

The Bottom Line

Personal finance is such an important part of life that I can’t believe we don’t teach students more about money in school. When you really think about it, it’s no wonder household debt levels are at all-time highs.

When people don’t know better, they don’t do better.

Let’s try to make a positive difference in our students’ financial futures now by teaching our children financial basics – and to advocate for more financial education in schools.

This is a paid post written by me on behalf of Discover Personal Loans. All opinions are my own.

  The post 7 Personal Finance Lessons I Wish Everyone Learned in High School appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

from All About Insurance https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/7-personal-finance-lessons-wish-everyone-learned-high-school

[davidcdelreal]

7 Personal Finance Lessons I Wish Everyone Learned in High School

Imagine if what you know now, you knew way back in high school. How much better off would you be? When I was in high school, I didn’t learn anything about money, budgeting, or investing.

While I’m a financial planner now, I didn’t learn most financial basics until my junior year of college.

What’s crazy is, I did take a financial basics course at one point. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even remotely helpful.

The course took place during my senior year of high school, and they called it “home economics.” While I can’t tell you a thing I learned during that class, I can tell you what I didn’t learn.

I didn’t learn about investing, credit scores, calculating interest on debt, or the magic of compounding interest.

That’s right; I sat through a year of classes, yet I didn’t learn a single money skill that could apply to my life.

While I want to believe more money skills are being taught in schools than what I experienced back in the day (er, not too long ago), what I’m hearing from parents is that not much has changed.

While some schools offer a home economics class or something similar, they’re still failing to impart a basic financial education that I believe is necessary for a successful, financial stable life outside school.

Here’s a look at some of the essentials I wish I would have learned in high school and I think should be taught today:

#1: How Credit Cards and Interest Rates Work

Since you can normally get your own credit card at around 18 years old, it seems like common sense to teach high school students about the intricacies of credit. As a financial advisor, I’ve seen far too many young people run up huge credit card balances early when they don’t have a good understanding of how credit works.

Heck, I was once one of them! By the time I was in my early twenties, I had $20,000 in credit card debt. Fortunately, I learned more about credit as I aged and worked diligently to become a financial advisor.

These days, I use credit regularly as a financial tool for things I know I can pay off quickly, without incurring debt and interest.

If we taught high school students a few basic lessons about credit cards and interest rates, we could potentially save many students from a lifetime of financial stress. Credit can be a useful tool when you’re paying it back every month. However, interest on credit can work against you when you carry a heavy balance.

The credit lessons we teach don’t need to be overly complex, either. At the very least, young people need to understand that

a) you have to pay back every dollar you charge

b) credit card interest accrues daily when you carry a balance and

c) your interest rate can play a huge role in your monthly bill if you aren’t paying your charges completely off each month.

Lastly, high school students should understand that it’s not a good idea to use credit to buy things they can’t afford. Instead, they should save for what they want, and aim to use credit only when it serves their interests. Young adults can use credit wisely to meet goals and build up a healthy credit profile, but it’s key to ensure that when you use credit that you can pay it back. Understanding responsible use of credit, from the moment a teen gets their first credit card, can go a long way to building a solid financial future.

They should also know how to reduce and consolidate debt in the event they do get behind on credit card payments and need to lower their interest rate or monthly bill. With a debt consolidation loan from a personal loan lender, for example, young people can potentially save money on interest and pay down debt faster.

While it’s smarter to avoid debt in the first place, young people should be educated on the many tools they can use to rebound if they fall behind with their bills.

#2: How to Balance a Checkbook

While the days of writing checks for most bills are clearly over, young people still should learn how to balance a checkbook. Even if they stick to debit and credit, they could really benefit from learning how to manage their cash flow and outflow to avoid overdraft fees.

I learned this the hard way when I bounced three checks when I was 19 years-old. Ouch! It was the first time I was introduced to “overdraft charges” and it wasn’t pleasant.

A lesson on online bill pay services might also help students who lean on technology to manage their money. And yes, students still need to learn check-writing basics such as how to fill checks out – at least for now. Sometimes people still need to write a check, believe it or not.

#3: Budgeting Basics

Budgeting is one of the most important skills anyone can learn, yet you’ll barely hear a peep about it while you’re in school. Unfortunately, not learning about budgeting can leave you at a disadvantage once you graduate high school and move out on your own.

Without any knowledge of how to manage bills and separate “wants” from “needs,” many people may spend their lives enduring one financial hardship after another.

At the very least, I think high school students should learn how to plan a lifestyle that actually jives with the income they earn. That may include knowing how to plan for – and pay – bills like rent, utilities, insurance, and car payments, while making sure there is money left for groceries, savings, etc.

Here’s the thing: I actually hate budgeting. I know it’s necessary, but I don’t like tracking every penny we spend.

What we do instead is what I like to call “tactical budgeting” – as in, we sit down to create a financial plan any time a major life event is coming our way. This type of budgeting doesn’t require you to watch every penny, but it can help you achieve your goals and spend less over time.

Bottom line: it’s important for young people to know how to create a financial plan for what they want.

#4: The Power of Compound Interest

While young people may not reach their income potential for years, they have one major advantage over the rest of us when it comes to investing – time. With time on their side, they can take advantage of the full potential of opening and adding to a savings account to tap into the power of compound interest.

By putting even small sums of money in a high interest savings account while they’re young, high school students, graduates and college students can start building wealth that will compound over and over again.

Here’s an awesome example:

A few weeks ago, I spoke about investing at my alma mater. To show the crowd the power of compound interest, I introduced the “magical penny concept.”

I asked the crowd one simple question:

“If you had a choice, would you rather have $2,000 cash or a penny that doubles in value every day?”

Not surprisingly, more than half of the class said they would rather have the cash. Of course!

The thing is, the magical penny would actually leave them much better off. Due to the magic of compound interest, a penny that doubles in value every day would be worth more than $10 million after only a month!

We need students to not only understand the power of compounding, but to know how to take advantage when they can.

#5: How to Build Credit

Your credit score is an important part of your overall financial health, and it can make a huge difference in how you manage your finances as an adult. With good credit on your side, it’s a lot easier to buy a house or qualify for an apartment. With bad credit (or no credit), on the other hand, most of life’s biggest milestones can be harder to reach.

Students need to know why credit is important, but also how to build credit while they’re young. Most of the time, getting a basic student credit card or student loan, for example, can provide the introduction to building credit for students need to get started.

But, that doesn't mean building credit is easy. Sometimes it's difficult for young people to get approved for a credit card or any type of loan.

My old intern Kevin found himself in this exact scenario several years ago. Kevin listened to his parents and avoided credit cards altogether. But, when Kevin decided to start his adult life on solid financial footing and buy a house and his own car, his credit wasn’t established enough to get approved for the loans he needed to purchase these things.

Fortunately, Kevin stumbled onto the idea of signing up for a secured credit card. With a secured credit card, he had to put down a cash deposit equal to his credit limit. But, once he started using his card regularly, he was able to boost his credit score an amazing 100 points within six months!

How did he do it?

While secured credit cards require a cash deposit to get started, they do report all of your credit movements to the three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Over time, Kevin’s responsible credit use let him build his credit from scratch and help to accomplish his goals of buying a house and car!

#6: Investing and Stock Market Basics

As a financial planner, I meet with so many full-fledged adults who don’t know the first thing about the stock market or investing in general. While we can’t do anything about that now, we can help young people start their own lives with a basic understanding of how investing works.

While we probably want to avoid overwhelming students with too many details, I recommend that we introduce them to investing concepts they can rely on as they get older. They need to understand what the stock market is and how investors make (and lose) money. And yes, I think they need to understand how investing could make them rich.

Here’s an awesome example:

Earlier this year, I showed a 16-year-old how to turn $500 into $520,367. While he thought I was crazy at first, he got it once I showed him how investing worked.

Basically, I used historical data to show him how even a crappy, $500-valued, front-loaded mutual fund purchased in 1970 could grow to $68,684 with average earning returns and then eventually total $520,367.

That’s pretty good, right?

The thing is, this $68,684 figure could grow even more if he added just a nominal amount of money every month. If he invested $25 extra to this fund every month (or $300 per year), then the total investment would surge to that sweet $520,367 over roughly the same timeline.

I believe the earlier we teach students about financial basics, the better off they’ll be.

It would be a shame for young people to miss out on building wealth with stocks, especially since you don’t need to invest a lot of money if you start early enough.

On the other hand, it’s important for students to know the difference between safe investing and investing scams. While investing with a reputable company like Vanguard or Fidelity can be smart, young people need to know to choose reputable firms when investing their money. It pays to research any company you plan to invest with, read reviews, and make sure you know what you’re getting into.

I’d also say that it’s important for students to know how much risk they are willing to take on with their money. Investing in a start-up company with lower stock share prices, for instance, could eventually reap big returns, but also could be more likely to fail, with the stock value dropping. This is called higher risk, higher reward.

Those students looking for a more conservative investment option should might consider investing in established companies, or a compound of companies called a mutual fund. This is a longer term investment strategy that could grow money over decades consistently.

#7: The “Right” Way to Borrow Money

While borrowing money may not always be ideal, there will be times in our lives when we absolutely need to pay off debt or finance a big ticket item. You never know when you’ll need to borrow money for a medical emergency, a surprise home repair, or for a big life event, like a wedding.

The key to borrowing money the “right way” is knowing which types of loans work best in each situation – and which types of loans to avoid. A personal loan from a reputable lender can be a smart choice for consumers because this type of unsecured loan can come with low interest rates and flexible payment terms.

A payday loan should be avoided, on the other hand.

There’s nothing wrong with borrowing money when you need it, but today’s youth would be a lot better off if they understood which loans are appropriate for what purpose. It’s helpful to know the ins and outs of personal loans and how to shop around. At the end of the day, the best personal loans (and financial products in general) are the ones that come with low rates, low or no fees, and excellent customer service you can count on.

The Bottom Line

Personal finance is such an important part of life that I can’t believe we don’t teach students more about money in school. When you really think about it, it’s no wonder household debt levels are at all-time highs.

When people don’t know better, they don’t do better.

Let’s try to make a positive difference in our students’ financial futures now by teaching our children financial basics – and to advocate for more financial education in schools.

This is a paid post written by me on behalf of Discover Personal Loans. All opinions are my own.

  The post 7 Personal Finance Lessons I Wish Everyone Learned in High School appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

from All About Insurance https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/7-personal-finance-lessons-wish-everyone-learned-high-school