#we guess the upside is we are very careful with how we handle depictions of violations of autonomy

[pluralsword]

"superheroes can't be fascistic because major early superhero comics were by Jews" is such a weird ass take. Many of our eldest headmate's earliest memories of trauma, agony, sadness, fear, and anger from patriarchic socialization was depictions of "damsels in distress" in 20th century superhero cartoons from the era of our parents' childhoods, based on the Golden Age of comics. I'm sorry you don't get a free pass for this because of being Jewish and also not fascist. What the fuck.

Our eldest headmate spent much of her life clawing after stories and history that handled women's agency whether free or compromised with respect, with the nuance of showing that our feelings, thoughts, and autonomy matters, and how painful it is that so much of the world expects us to roll over, get objectified, harassed, pedestaled assaulted, blamed for everything, killed, stuck with child rearing, doing all the emotional labor, only appeasing and never criticizing, and that trans women have to suffer this too even within the trans community, and that women of color have to struggle with how white supremacy is a vector of oppression alongside misogyny. FUCK THAT! !! FUCK OFF!! DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BILLIONS OF WOMEN WHO HAVE TAKEN UP ARMS THROUGHOUT HISTORY? WHO HAVE LED, WHO HAVE BROKERED PEACE, WHO INSPIRED WHO HAVE DELVED DEEP INTO THE SCIENCES AND ARTS, WHO IN A MULTITUDE OF SOCIETIES WERE ACCEPTED AS EQUALS OR OF EQUAL STANDING?!?!?!?? AND IF NOT, HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE FOUGHT, LIVED, AND DIED FOR A BETTER WORLD.

And- and the women who have freely raised families, who have reclaimed sexuality or survived as sex workers, the women who have taken the expectations of the patriarchy and subverted them into tools of liberation, and from both categories those with the understanding that none of us are free until all of us are.

Fuck the legacy of misogyny of superhero comics that we do not know how to say how drastically things have improved in the last twenty four years. yeah its not perfect but if you had told us ten years ago there would be a Wonder Woman #10 comic book cover of Themiscyrans flying (Progress) Pride flags with trans colors we would have said 'no way that DC would even softly reconcile Themiscyra with transness (they have yet to provide a story about that afaik and we definitely have ideas on how to that we may or may not use for a fanfic if nothing else because who the fuck else is going to go all the way with deconstructing the Greek myth of the Amazons based on the often gender-equal Scythians while pairing it with the Gods vs Darkseid lore inspired by that one old comic where WW and Superman fight to stop Darkseid from taking over Olympus).' Instead read about some of the Jewish women who shot up Nazis, there's also a really good book out there about the Jewish gal who ran a library during the Holocaust, The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

I don't want to minimize what an amazing accomplishment the comic book industry is and how inspiring that is, and that it has a flourishing indie scene that so many good trans stories have come out of. I am glad for that. I just also have some deep, painful qualms with historical issues the industry has had, which we have not covered in full in this post. Racism and the censorship of comics in favor of racial iberation is a whole other thing to get into and we're out of spoons at the moment

[akiharashizuka]

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS episode 5 thoughts

[Wednesdays are tough after all...Not only for me]

The Three Count Rings

The episode just started and Yūsaku is already preparing the counterattack...except that there was a better way to use that Trap card. Hmm...

So, according to the AI, Playmaker will remain with 100 LP after the attack, which surely isn’t much. However, in Yu-Gi-Oh , whenever the protagonist has 100 LP, he always makes some complex play and wins. Clearly Yūsaku has something up his sleeve. Something that not even Ignis can think of.

Of course, when the tables turn, the crowd follows along, including the children. Cause this is the kind of world we live in. The guys who were badmouthing Gō last episode are completely speechless now xD That felt satisfying.

That was probably my favorite moment in this episode. Kusanagi finally created an escape route, which I gotta say, must have been tough. Not to mention that it was created by SOL Technology, so by professionals. Kusanagi deserves some credit.

However, Yūsaku just avoids it xD To sum up his 3 reasons for doing so, he gained some respect for Gō and wants to properly finish it, using his own dueling style. Also, I think he’s actually enjoying it, even though he doesn’t look like it.

By the way, confused Ignis is kinda funny xD

And here is the reason why he let his Life Points drop to 100. I was excited to see what kind of card he obtained this time, but it is not mentioned for the rest of the episode...I don’t even think he used it this time...

Well, Storm Access’ weakness is that the Monster you get is random. You might not get something that can be used at that moment. Either that happened and Yūsaku used a back-up plan, or he pulled either Link Bumper or Honeybot. Both played an essential role in his strategy, and were brought out for the first time after Yūsaku came out of the Data Storm.

Speaking of his winning strategy, there are a few things I’d like to explain. He Link Summoned 4 times consecutively. You can Special Summon as many times as you want (and as long as you have free Monster Zones), so no problem with that. The problem is that there is one Extra Monster Zone (the other one is occupied by Gouki The Great Ogre). I previously explained that Monsters from the Extra Deck (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, Link) can only be placed on those Extra Zones. However, there is something that I omitted then...And that’s because I skipped that part when I read the rules...But I’m going to cover that now. If the Extra Monster Zones are occupied, you may use a Link Points. That’s a zone that is pointed to by the Link markers (the red triangles on the Link Monster cards).

This post will get pretty long, but to make things clearer, i’m going to use some edited screenshots to explain exactly what Yūsaku did. If this part doesn’t really interest it, feel free to skip it.

First off, this is how the field looked like after he summoned Link Spider. The marker points to the free Monster Zone, so that can be used to Special Summon another one.  

(there is a reason why it’s upside down, so bear with me for a bit...Also, I’m not the best image editor around, so sorry if they look cringey)

The zone right under Link Spider is used to summon Bitron.

And that Bitron, alongside Link Slayer (who was in the middle spot) were used to for Link Bumper in the linked zone. Then, he Special Summoned Backup Secretary in the freed spot.

I highlighted the Link Markers for both Monsters.

For the 3rd Link Summon, he used Backup Secretary and Draconnet (who was on the field since the beginning of the episode). One of Link Bumper’s markers points to the right, so that’s where Honeybot was placed.

(I don’t know why I highlighter Honeybot’s marker as well, since it doesn’t matter for the next step, but oh well...)

And now, the 4th one, in which he summons Decode Talker in the Zone pointed to by Link Bumper. And there is a reason why he chose that one, instead of the Extra Monster Zone. 

But before that, as it was stated, when using Link Monsters as tributes for Link Summoning, the number of the markers counts. So, instead of using 3 Monsters, he used 2, one with 1 marker and the other with 2.

(this is the screenshot I edited to make the previous 3...it was originally like this, since it’s from Gō’s perspective and I thought it would be better to leave it like this in order to not get more confusing...)

Yūsaku brings back from the Graveyard Honeybot and...that zone isn’t linked to anyone. I guess the rule doesn’t apply since it was summoned from the Graveyard, not the Extra Deck...

Now, for the reason why Decode Talker was placed in the middle, it was done so both Link Bumper and Honeybot can point to it. So, their affects apply only to Decode Talker.

So, we’ve seen how that played out. I liked how they depicted the Great Ogre vs Decode Talker as wrestling matches.

It was quite a smart strategy, continuing to battle each other until Gō used up all his Monsters and couldn’t prevent his ace from being destroyed any longer. He basically killed multiple birds with a stone, getting rid of the Great Ogre, as well as the other Monsters on the field and leave it completely empty.

I guess these children are the only ones upset that Gō lost. Well, Akira as well, but that’s because part of his plan failed. Unlike the crowd, who was happy for Playmaker’s victory, they care for Gō and that’s why they are sad. Sure, they cheered for Playmaker at first, but that’s because they are just children and admired the new hero. However, their hero is Gō.

Speaking of which, looks like he can take a loss with dignity. He’s even laughing, which I think it’s admirable.

Here’s a reason to respect Yūsaku too: he doesn’t want to involve others, who have nothing to do with it, in the life-threatening confrontation with the Knight of Hanoi.Though, I think he might get involved if he wants to.

Also, Yūsaku actually admitted himself that he enjoyed dueling with Gō. Remember that in the first episode Kusanagi implied that Yūsaku doesn’t really enjoy dueling? Now he did.

That was a heartwarming moment. It proved that these children actually care for Gō. And it was a good way to end the episode nonetheless. 

Overall, I think they handled Gō’s characterization well. At first he didn’t seem very likable, but more layers were added and he now seems like an actual human being. 

I hope Aoi gets good characterization as well in the upcoming episodes.