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commentaryvorg · 4 years ago

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 25 - Smash Kurata’s Ambitions! Fly, Yatagaramon!

In this episode, with Mercurimon grievously wounded, the DATS team furiously fights back against Kurata’s artificial Digimon weapon. Ikuto, now knowing who’s really behind all of his suffering, finally reaches a resolution in his feelings about humans.

Narrator: “However, what they learned from him was the shocking truth.”

Are you sure, anonymous recap narrator? Are you sure it was even remotely shocking that Kurata turned out to be super duper evil? I don’t think it was, somehow.

Maybe what they mean by “shocking” was the sheer cruelty of the Digimon massacre, which they just learned about in full. Yeah, let’s go with that.

As we finish the recap, Mercurimon collapses in agony, clutching the wound in his side where he was shot, which has turned into glowing yellow visual noise, some of which is slowly floating out of him. It’s a neat effect; Digimon don’t bleed, of course, but this sure looks like some kind of digital equivalent of him having been severely, horrifically wounded.

Ikuto and Falcomon rush to his side in a panic to try and do something to help, but Kurata tells them it’s pointless.

Kurata: “That wound makes him past the point of saving.”

It sure does. We saw what that same Gizmon: AT laser did to SaberLeomon – it suddenly made it not just possible but easy for him to be taken out by a less-evolved Digimon. And when he died, the egg disintegrated. All of Kurata’s weapons contain some kind of specific property he must’ve created that causes the eggs to disintegrate and the Digimon to die for real. Of course Kurata doesn’t want those “vicious monsters” ever coming back.

Masaru: “You bastard! How dare you attack from behind like a coward!”

Hah, I love that Masaru is furious at how underhanded and cowardly this move of Kurata’s was. There’ll be more on this from Masaru later in this episode.

Kurata spouts some more of his usual spiel about how Digimon are a danger to humans and must be eliminated, which, again, he has utterly convinced himself is the truth of the matter.

Kurata: “Let me put it very simply. My goal is… Digimon genocide!”

Turns out, this is a series about preventing attempted genocide. Now it’s starting to make sense why it’s called Digimon Savers.

…And, okay, Kurata probably shouldn’t actually be calling it genocide here. People who commit genocide do not admit that they’re committing genocide; that’d be like acknowledging that the people they’re mass-murdering are people. But that word was a subbers’ decision that maybe wasn’t the right one. The word he used in Japanese wasn’t specifically “genocide” and literally translates to something more like “complete erasure”. That’s not admitting that Digimon are people or that he’s committing a terrible atrocity at all.

Tohma: “You manipulated us for that purpose?”

Tohma isn’t surprised here at being manipulated, because he and Satsuma could very much tell that Kurata was Up To Something. He just had no idea that Kurata’s real purpose was something this deeply horrific.

Kurata: “From my experiences in the Digital World Exploration Squad ten years ago… I learned first-hand the true savage nature of Digimon. I realised that Digimon will only bring destruction to humanity and that they must be destroyed!”

Yes, Kurata, sure. “Realised”. “Learned”. Like these notions are totally just the objective truth about Digimon that nobody else is intelligent enough to see, and not the paranoid exaggerations of a selfish coward who’s incapable of seeing things from anyone’s perspective but his own.

Kurata is absolutely a thoroughly irredeemable piece of human trash (and, boy, he’s only going to get worse from here), but I really appreciate him as a villain, because you can actually understand what makes him that way. He’s realistically evil, because he’s human. I don’t mean that in the narrow-minded sense that Humans Are Inherently Bad and always being violent and destroying nature or whatever; I mean it in the sense (that could equally apply to a Digimon character) that humans are flawed and irrational and people. Kurata’s evil comes from him being a flawed irrational human person whose human psychology happened to cause him to deal with a traumatic experience in the absolute worst possible way, culminating in him trying to commit genocide.

If you’ll permit me to criticise other Digimon seasons here just briefly, this is remarkably rare for Digimon. Most Digimon villains try to take over the world and kill or oppress Digimon or humans simply Because They’re Evil, and those are just the kinds of things evil people do, right? The evil comes first, out of nowhere, with no explanation; it Just Is, because Evil Just Exists.

But that’s not how real evil actually works. Rather than doing terrible things Because He’s Evil, Kurata is evil because he does terrible things, and he does these terrible things for realistic reasons tied to his experiences and psychology that we can actually understand, even as we’re horrified by it all.

Kurata: “Even my greatest obstacle, Mercurimon, is now knocking on death’s door.”

It’s interesting how Kurata sees Mercurimon as his single greatest obstacle to his goal. Does he think Mercurimon is the only Ultimate-level Digimon left out there since he killed SaberLeomon? I doubt it. This is probably more about how he’s still centring everything around himself – Mercurimon is the biggest threat because he once attacked Kurata personally while Kurata was busy attempting this genocide the first time. Kurata must have been terrified at just how close he came to dying to Mercurimon’s fists that time, though he’d never consciously admit it. Obviously that makes Mercurimon far more important than any other Ultimate-level Digimon out there who would also almost certainly object to the genocide and try to fight Kurata once they heard about it.

Masaru: “Just like me and Agumon… If we’d talked through fists, we could have come to an understanding with Mercurimon!”

Oh, Masaru – he’s still thinking about how his interrupted fight with Mercurimon would have been an attempt to communicate with him and reach an understanding! And he’s explicitly presenting it as the same thing that he did with Agumon when they first met! This talking-through-fists philosophy of his is really starting to come together.

Kurata: “Why are you so angry? I’m just getting rid of one Digimon!”

Look at this slimebag trying to present his actions as not even that bad by arguing that he’s only killing (not even killing, they’re not people, it’s not murder) one measly Digimon – while having literally just stated his intention to kill absolutely all of them. He’ll twist things however he can to present himself as being in the right, with no heed at all to basic logic.

Masaru: “You bastard! Looks like you won’t get it until I punch you out!”

Masaru has had enough of Kurata’s bullshit and runs in to punch him. I don’t blame him, Kurata is the most eminently punchable person we’ve ever met. Yet, I also like the way he presents this as trying to make Kurata get it. He’s still, in a sense, thinking of his punching as communicating, like he’s hoping on some level that beating the crap out of Kurata might snap some sense into him and force him to admit how obviously wrong he is.

Kurata orders his Gizmon: AT to get in the way and then retreats to a greater distance. He doesn’t outright show it here, but I think Kurata is scared of the thought of Masaru getting into a direct fight with him. His cowardice is mostly centred around Digimon, but it can extend to other humans, too – anyone who’s trying to hurt him, really.

Kurata: “This makes for good entertainment! Let me show you Gizmon’s strength!”

Yes, Gizmon versus a human teenager is totally a fair fight and definitely not Kurata letting himself feel powerful and in control by showing off his brilliant creation.

Masaru is initially frustrated that the Gizmon is in the way of his real target, but then he rolls with it, leaping into the air with the power of anime physics to punch it right in the robotic eye.

One evolution later, RiseGreymon’s attack doesn’t leave a scratch on the Gizmon, and it retaliates by morphing its wing/propeller-things into something like foldable polygonal tentacles that reach out and slam RiseGreymon into a wall. Gizmon: AT is an Adult-level, but like we saw before, Kurata’s creations do not care about evolution level power differences.

Tohma: “You should have tested how strong it was before you jumped in!”

Masaru: “Shut up!”

Come on, Tohma. How do you test how strong something is other than try to fight it? And even if he did know how strong it was, what was he gonna do? Not fight it because of that? Hell no, not Masaru.

MachGaogamon and Lilamon get in on the action too (sadly no offscreen evolutions for us today). MachGaogamon’s attempt is equally fruitless – and I note that Tohma also just rushed in without testing anything first. Then Lilamon attempts her Un Deux Pollen, which is apparently an attack that paralyses the foe on a mental level by captivating its “heart”, rather than a more physical effect. This fails, too.

Kurata: “Bewitching attacks won’t work! After all, Gizmon has no heart!”

This has kind of been apparent already from just looking at the Gizmon; though they’re technically Digimon, they’ve behaved every bit like soulless machines, mechanically following orders and showing no hint of initiative of personhood.

Kurata: “I created this new Digimon from the Digimon that I’d captured and modified.”

Masaru: “You *modified* Digimon?!”

Yoshino: “No way… How could you do that to them?”

Tohma: “He erased its emotions to turn it into a doll that’ll simply obey his orders.”

Everyone – especially the Digimon, though they don’t say anything here – stares in horror at learning even more of how despicable Kurata is. It might have seemed like the Gizmon were simply something like powerful robots he created, but I guess, in order for them to be Digimon and have the incredible power that Digimon have that far surpasses any human weapons, there needed to be some essence of actual existing Digimon in there too. So Kurata just captured a bunch of poor unsuspecting Digimon on one of his many secret trips to the Digital World, then blended them up and mashed their essences together until all of their soul and personality was completely gone. Eurgh. Those poor Digimon. That’s an even worse way to go than having your egg disintegrated.

Kurata: “What do you think? Such strength at only the Adult-level!”

Tohma: “Adult-level?!”

I like how Tohma knows his evolution levels enough to react to how unprecedented this is.

Kurata: “Gizmon will fight exactly how I tell it to. Digimon are only useful when you use them as tools.”

It may seem hypocritical that Kurata, who hates Digimon so fervently, is using Digimon himself to complete his goals. And while it’s not like Kurata isn’t a huge hypocrite in many ways, this bit actually does make consistent sense in his mind and is very telling of his approach to all this.

The physical body of a Digimon itself isn’t the problem for him; he hates and fears Digimon because they have free will and he can’t control them, and therefore at any point they could totally come and viciously murder him and all of humanity like the beasts they are. But a Digimon that has no soul, that’s engineered to only obey his orders and is completely under his control? That’s no problem. That’s just a useful weapon that shows how clever he is and gives him power over the rest of the Digimon who are such a threat to him.

Kurata: “Oh, yes. If you agree to co-operate with me in annihilating the Digimon, I’m willing to let your Digimon live.”

This also goes along with that same principle. If Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino’s Digimon partners are working for him and helping him with his genocide, then they’re under his control, and so he has no need to fear them. Thus, he can in theory leave them alive, if they agree to this. He’s willing to offer this as a potential bribe to get the DATS trio to help him instead of stand in his way.

It also goes to show how utterly short-circuited Kurata’s sense of empathy is that he has any conception that this offer might actually tempt them. Surely they also only see their Digimon as useful tools, not people, and would be quite happy to help him eliminate the rest of the totally-not-people Digimon so long as they get to keep their tools around?

Kurata: “Are you going to act against me? I’m part of the Ministry of Confidentiality. If you oppose, you’ll be convicted of treason.”

When that previous offer is clearly not about to sway them, Kurata tries a different tack to convince them not to fight him. He mentioned last episode that he was planning to have Mercurimon and DATS kill each other, and he seemed a little frustrated that that didn’t come to pass. Apparently he would really like these three to not be getting in his way one way or another, forcing him to expend the extra effort he’d need to get rid of them. Despite all his gloating about his Gizmon creation, he does not appear to be truly 100% confident that it’ll manage to kill them all without them escaping somehow.

This also says a lot about the influence Kurata knows he has over Governor Hashiba. He’s confident he can go back to Hashiba and spin a story about how he was the good guy heroically taking down that monstrous Mercurimon who refused to listen to his negotiations, and then DATS betrayed humanity and turned against him rather than help. That does just about track with how Hashiba appeared to be viewing this whole conflict.

Tohma: “I’ll *never* support you of my own free will!”

Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino are, of course, having absolutely none of it (I enjoy Tohma’s line here in particular, for Reasons), so they jump back into fighting. This shifts into the background as we move over to Ikuto and Mercurimon, the latter of whom is still slowly dying on the other side of the throne room.

Mercurimon: “Ikuto, listen to me. I’ve always been in doubt. The human world or the Digital World… I wondered which one would be most suitable for you to live in happiness. Since you didn’t know of anything beyond the Digital World, I wondered what you would think upon meeting humans. Will your human heart be reawakened? Or will you continue to hate them? I wanted to know the answer to that.”

I suppose this is what Mercurimon meant when he mumbled vaguely about wanting Ikuto to fight humans so he could “awaken as a true Digimon warrior” back in episode 18. But it seems like he was thinking of this in a very all-or-nothing way, much like Agumon’s question of “who will you side with?”. Like Ikuto’s “human heart being reawakened” means he’ll just become completely human in his mindset and stop caring about Digimon at all. Obviously he was never going to do that, Mercurimon!

Mercurimon: “But… now I realise that the doubt I felt… was wrong. What will bring you happiness isn’t choosing one from the other. It’s creating a world where both humans and Digimon can live together.”

Ikuto can choose to side with both! Ikuto figured that out all by himself in the end – Sayuri prodded him into realising that he had the right to choose, but the actual decision he made to try and stop the fighting was entirely his own. And now Ikuto’s helping Mercurimon see that, too! It really is like Suguru said: sometimes your kids are the ones who end up teaching you things.

Mercurimon: “That man… Daimon Suguru was aware of that.”

Though I suppose Mercurimon also partly picked up this mindset from Suguru in the first place. He’s reawakened to it lately after Masaru’s punch and all of his reminiscing last episode caused him to remember that Suguru really was a good man who meant everything he said and didn’t actually betray him.

We see a flashback of Suguru giving Mercurimon a Digivice, explaining what it’s for and telling him that Ikuto will need one someday. This is how Ikuto had a Digivice! Mercurimon must have passed it onto Ikuto at some point after Yukidarumon’s death, to help him with the whole “warrior” deal. That actually must have been a rather conflicted moment for Mercurimon, given that he was gifting Ikuto this device that had been given to him by the man he, at the time, felt utterly betrayed by.

This flashback then ends with the fist-bump and the “Let’s do it!” exchange between Suguru and Mercurimon, the one that I mentioned last episode actually happened a lot later than the rest of the stuff we saw Mercurimon flash back to then. This here is the reason I knew that bit came later: because it happened after Suguru had given Mercurimon a Digivice for Ikuto. It’d have taken Suguru a while to do enough experiments in the Digital World to be able to create Digivices (DATS was probably beginning to be formed around this time, too). And also, flashbacks in a later episode will imply that all of these Digivice experiments of Suguru’s must have happened while he was on his journey to find Yggdrasil, so he must have popped back into Infinity Ice Ridge to check in on Mercurimon now and again.

Hearing this, Falcomon realises and points out for Ikuto that Yukidarumon must also have known he was a human all along. He reminds Ikuto of her dying words, and Ikuto finally, finally realises what she really meant to say to him: “You must never hate the humans, because you are…”

This is something Ikuto and/or Falcomon could have figured out a while ago, from the moment they realised Ikuto was human. But, they’re just kids. And they’re kids who grew up with the general Digimon population harbouring a very fierce hatred for humans, so it’d make sense in their heads that, surely, for Ikuto’s parent figures to have ever loved him, that’d have to mean they didn’t know, right?

Mercurimon: “Forgive me, Ikuto! For my hesitation… and for being unable to keep my promises with Suguru and Yukidarumon!”

It’s sweet that he apologises for having the wrong idea about Ikuto needing to pick a side. And I assume what he’s getting at regarding Suguru and Yukidarumon is that he became convinced Suguru had betrayed him and was overcome with hatred towards humans for the past several years such that he wasn’t able to work towards harmony between the two species until just now, and it’s too late for him now.

(It also feels slightly like he’s apologising for dying. Are you apologising for dying, Mercurimon? Don’t apologise for dying, that part is not your fault.)

Ikuto: “Mercurimon! Don’t die! Don’t you leave me behind, too!”

At this anguished scream of a desperate kid not wanting to lose his second parent figure to the hands of the same murderer who took the first one from him… we cut to the inappropriately upbeat opening!!!

…Not exactly the best choice of where to put it, here, though to be fair I don’t think there are many points in this episode that would be much better. Things are getting dark enough that the upbeat-ness of the first opening song doesn’t always fit so well.

There is a second opening song that we’re going to shift to. However, though we’re now in the second half of the series numbers-wise, we won’t be seeing the new opening for a few more episodes’ time, for reasons I’ll talk about then.

I’ll open up tomorrow boundlessly

with these hands!

More opening chorus lyrics! This bit about “opening up tomorrow” makes me think of Suguru’s desire to create a future where humans and Digimon can live in harmony, even if he has to choose to stay behind in the Digital World and do it all himself. And now Masaru and co. are trying to do the same thing, too! Or, they would be, if they didn’t have to deal with Kurata first.

Back in the midst of the fighting, the DATS trio’s partners are continuing to have their asses handed to them by this single Adult-level Gizmon. (MachGaogamon’s Winning Knuckle attack continues its trend of not remotely winning anything.)

RiseGreymon manages to catch the Gizmon off-guard and slam it into the ground from behind. At this, Masaru rushes in to help with a punch – I love how he still sometimes directly takes part in fights even once Agumon’s evolved and he really ought to stay back – except the Gizmon spins its blades to become a huge propeller. The gust sends Masaru flying backwards before he can connect, and the blades slam into RiseGreymon moments later.

(They are trying to keep things somewhat reasonable with Masaru’s involvement in these fights, in that it was only the gust that blew him back. If he’d been hit by the actual blades, he’d be very much a goner.)

Kurata: “Isn’t it obvious by now? Our side is stronger and faster! Why don’t you just give up?”

Kurata is still having a good gloat about all this. I suspect that the reason he’s allowed the fight to drag on for this long without just finishing them off is that he’s enjoying playing with them and relishing in how much power and control his genius invention gives him. This is very Kurata of him.

Masaru: “Yeah, right! I won’t give up until I’ve kicked your ass!”

Kurata: “Really… I’m getting quite annoyed by that persistent obstinacy of yours. You’re just like your father, Daimon Suguru.”

Hee, of course Suguru was just as determinedly stubborn about things as Masaru is. And Kurata is very deeply irritated by Masaru’s behaviour reminding him of Suguru.

Masaru: “What?!”

Kurata: “Ten years ago, after learning of the potential menace the Digimon could bring, I advised Daimon Suguru, who was my superior back then, to eliminate them before things got worse. He wouldn’t listen.”

This is accompanied by a silent flashback to the expedition group at camp, Kurata and Suguru facing each other as Kurata talks and waves a gun around in agitation, obviously advocating for using it. Suguru calmly pushes the gun down and says a few words that we don’t hear just yet.

Kurata scowls in indignation upon hearing these words. Whatever Suguru said, it really, really got to him.

Kurata: “And now look at the results.”

Just as Kurata does with everything, he’s convinced himself that he was obviously in the right back then, that Digimon really were dangerous and needed to be destroyed, and Suguru was being stubborn and idiotic to ever suggest they should just treat them like people (gasp) and leave them in peace. Poor Kurata, so unfairly victimised by these vicious Digimon and now also these stupid, stubborn humans like Suguru and his son who won’t let him do the obviously right thing and murder them all.

Kurata: “Not only have they kept their vicious ways, but even ten years later, the atrocious rampage of Digimon in our world has increased!”

This is accompanied by some flashbacks to rampaging Digimon from earlier episodes – specifically Elecmon and Aquilamon, who I guess were picked because they happened to be some of the most destructive. Clearly nobody gave Kurata the memo about the emotions thing: that Digimon who rampage in the human world are not in their right minds and are actually being influenced by humans, albeit not deliberately. Though, even if Kurata did know about that, I’m sure he’d still find a way to twist it around in his head and blame the Digimon. That still just basically makes Digimon dangerous forces of nature and definitely not people who are actually victims in all this, right.

It's also some irony that he’s complaining about the way the Digimon rampages have increased in number over the years like that’s the Digimon’s fault. To be fair, I don’t think he’s aware of whose fault it really is, but.

Kurata: “This is all because of Daimon Suguru’s thick-headed obstinacy!”

All of it? Sure, Kurata, all of it. You just go and blame literally everything on this guy that you hate for being more right and open-minded and understanding than you, forcing you to briefly confront the idea that maybe you’re actually in the wrong here.

(As Kurata says this, Masaru scowls at him having the gall to blame all of this on his dad for such a stupid reason.)

Kurata: “*I* was right! There’s no choice but to obliterate the Digimon threat!”

Yes, Kurata, you have definitely totally proven this with facts and logic and definitely aren’t just twisting the truth to avoid acknowledging that you ever made any kind of moral mistake about anything ever. It sure is convenient that Suguru isn’t around right now to continue explaining to you why you’re actually still extremely wrong, now vastly more so than you ever were to begin with.

This is all still very, very human of Kurata. It’s not easy to admit you’re in the wrong about something. Sometimes people deal with that by doubling down and insisting even more fervently that they’re definitely in the right, which can snowball and end up making them so much worse than they ever were in the first place.

Masaru: “Cut the crap! I’d rather have Dad be as stubborn as a mule than to be a coward like you!”

Kurata: [his eyes narrow] “What do you mean by that?”

Masaru: “Listen up! When you exchange fists with someone, you’re not just delivering pain! Your heart hurts much more than the pain they receive!”

Masaru’s fighting philosophy is so good! This is why I’ve sometimes stressed that Masaru would never beat up random bystanders just to feel strong and only ever fights people who want to fight him. He fully acknowledges that inflicting physical pain on another sapient being takes a psychological toll on you yourself, never mind the physical pain you’ll also be receiving if you’re fairly evenly matched. A true, honourable fight can only happen between people who are mutually accepting of this pain they’re in for and willing to go for it anyway for whatever reason that might be important to them, be it to defend something, to prove a point, or even just for sport.

Masaru: “The way you’re punching them one-sidedly just shows that you’re a coward who’s afraid of pain!”

And Kurata’s nothing like that. Not only is he constantly hiding behind more powerful subordinates of his to avoid putting himself at physical risk on the front line, he is also constantly running and hiding from any of the psychological pain that’d come from acknowledging that he’s hurting and killing sapient people and doing something bad. That’s why he’s twisted his mindset and worldview so fervently to insist to himself that Digimon are just vicious monsters and he’s in the right: because he’s a coward.

I highly doubt Masaru has been following every single nuance of Kurata’s psychology, but I love that he thoroughly gets this one core part of it, thanks to his own fighting principles and this being the exact opposite of them. Masaru is such a good and fascinating character.

Suguru: “You are a coward.”

These are the words that Suguru said to Kurata when he was pushing the gun down in that flashback we just saw. And now here’s his son telling Kurata the exact same thing, not even in a deliberate attempt to mimic his father (because he couldn’t have known), but just because he also feels it’s true.

Kurata’s scowl deepens.

Kurata: “You’re exactly like him. I wanted to play around with you a little more, but now I’ve changed my mind!”

Kurata doesn’t even try to deny or argue against the notion that he’s a coward. He can’t, because he must know deep down that it’s true. So instead, confronted with this core undeniable reason why he really is in the wrong about everything, he continues to utterly refuse to acknowledge it and basically throws a tantrum.

Kurata: “I’ll have you disappear along with the Digimon in a freak “accident” in this foreign world!”

Which is to say, he quits the gloaty showing-off he was doing with his Gizmon: AT and shifts to using every bit of the power he has to just try and shut Masaru up by killing him. He doesn’t have to think about whether Masaru (or his father) might have a point about him if they’re dead.

(This is also very likely why he was so eager to suggest that Suguru was probably lying dead somewhere in the Digital World last episode. He just wants the man who might actually be able to prove him to be in the wrong gone and out of his way.)

Kurata: “Gizmon: AT, evolve!”

Kurata pulls out a modified Digivice, the same kind as we saw in the flashbacks, to evolve his Gizmon. Note the utter lack of him doing any kind of Digisoul Charge. Digisoul spills out of the device itself at his command, but absolutely none of it came from Kurata.

There’s this neat trippy visual effect as the Gizmon smoothly morphs into its evolved form. This is such a departure from the usual fancy evolution animation or even the shorter versions we get for less important Digimon. It feels like the evolution we’re seeing here is deeply wrong and unnatural in some way.

Kurata: “What do you think? It used artificial Digisoul to undergo a pseudo-evolution!”

Kurata does not appear to have a Digisoul, and even if he did, there’s no way he has the emotional connection with his soulless Gizmon necessary to use it to evolve them. So, in lieu of that, he figured out a way to cheat the evolution process artificially, somehow. Even Kurata is admitting that this isn’t at all a proper evolution by usual Digimon standards, given how he calls it “pseudo-evolution”.

(Honestly, knowing what Digisoul is, it’s rather interesting that Kurata managed to create an artificial version of it. Kind of a shame that’s never expanded upon beyond this mention of it.)

This is Gizmon’s Perfect-level, Gizmon: XT. It advances on the group and shoots out a wide beam that leaves a huge curved gouge in the stone floor, while RiseGreymon only just manages to carry the humans out of the way in time. (Kurata was very much aiming for the humans there.)

Masaru refuses to be discouraged and calls for the all-three-attack-as-one thing again. I’m not entirely sure why they didn’t try this earlier while they were fighting the AT form, but hey, rules of shounen drama escalation mean we’re getting it now. The animators this time apparently didn’t bother to animate their attacks actually combining like they did last time they tried this – they all just kind of hit the Gizmon’s defensive barrier at separate points – but I suppose, narratively, we’re supposed to think that this really was the strongest thing they could have pulled off.

All this results in is yet another instance of that shounen trope: We got ‘im! – *smoke clears* – No, we really didn’t. I guess, in defence of the team’s efforts, the Gizmon looks a little bit scuffed now? Just a little.

As Masaru and the trio of Perfect-levels rush back into the fray, the focus moves back over to Mercurimon. Mercurimon recognises that Masaru and co. stand no hope of winning as things currently are, so he forces himself to his feet amidst groans of agony. He wishes Ikuto and Falcomon farewell, knowing that this is the last thing he’ll do.

Ikuto: “No! Mercurimon! The thing Yukidarumon told me, I… I finally understand! But I still don’t like this! I really do hate humans after all! They do something so horrible to you, Mercurimon… I’ll never forgive them for this!”

Oh, Ikuto. He’s so nearly there, but he’s still just a little stuck on conflating the actions of certain humans with all of humanity, just like he’s been doing his whole life. It’s hard to shake free of that, now of all times, as he’s watching his father figure die in horrible pain from a human’s actions.

Mercurimon: “Look upon him, Ikuto. He’s a simple-minded fellow who speaks crudely, and his actions are preposterous.”

Bahaha. Guess who he’s talking about. As he says this, we watch Masaru leap at the Gizmon: XT, get painfully smacked to the ground, and then stubbornly force himself back to his feet and stagger forwards again. He’s so determined, no matter the odds.

Mercurimon: “But is he a bad guy? Do you hate him so much that you wish he didn’t exist?”

At this, Ikuto remembers the conversation he and Masaru had back at Masaru’s place. “Is it really okay for me to… be here?” “Of course it is.” Of course Ikuto couldn’t hate someone who finally let him feel like he might belong somewhere.

Ikuto: “Masaru let me meet my real parents.”

Technically that wasn’t really about Masaru, because that was a DATS order and it’d have happened anyway even if Masaru hadn’t been there. But it seems like Ikuto picked up, despite how furiously he was dragging his heels about the whole human-parents thing at the time, that Masaru was the one who was the most personally invested in helping him meet them. It turns out he’s really touched by that! Aww.

Ikuto: “Not just him. Tohma, Yoshino, Chika, and Masaru’s mother… Everyone treated me nicely.”

Mercurimon: “Do you hate them?”

Ikuto winces and shakes his head fervently. He already knew this; Mercurimon’s just helping him realise it and put the pieces together.

An explosion from the battle catches his attention; he looks up in a panic to see all three humans and all three Digimon lying on the ground in pain and exhaustion as the Gizmon advances on them. Ikuto doesn’t want to see any of them getting hurt, let alone killed.

Through the smoke, Ikuto sees Kurata, the one responsible for his friends’ pain, still smirking cruelly about this whole thing.

Mercurimon: “By now, you should know who you are really supposed to hate.”

I like how Mercurimon still isn’t outright telling Ikuto the answer here. He’s just giving Ikuto the right prompting to let him figure it out for himself, because all the pieces are already there.

Mercurimon: “Ikuto… Live… as a human with a Digimon’s heart.”

With these words, Mercurimon musters the last of his strength and charges forwards to punch the Gizmon in its equivalent of a face. The Gizmon starts to fire another huge beam from its “eye”, but it barely begins the attack before Mercurimon’s fist barrels right through it, knocking the giant machine to the ground.

As Mercurimon stands over his foe, his entire right arm flares up with the same glowing yellow digital-wound effect as the one on his torso. Punching right into the attack the Gizmon fired is probably what did that. Not that Mercurimon cares; he’s dying anyway. It must be further agony on top of everything else, but he doesn’t even flinch.

Masaru: “Mercurimon! Why did you help us?!”

It seems Masaru hadn’t properly picked up on the fact that Mercurimon had re-warmed up to most (non-Kurata) humans by now? I guess any signs of Mercurimon having felt that way during all of the flashbacking in the previous episode probably got drowned out by his sheer hatred of Kurata in particular, such that especially someone like Masaru probably couldn’t be expected to have noticed. Masaru did lament at the beginning of this episode that he didn’t get the chance to come to an understanding (through fists) with Mercurimon. Perhaps, having not done that, he’s still assuming Mercurimon was basically on the warpath with all of humanity, like DATS has believed for many episodes now.

Mercurimon: “I wanted to try believing once more… in what your father, Daimon Suguru, said… That a time will come when Digimon and humans can live together in harmony.”

But at least Masaru can understand it now. Mercurimon’s going to die not as an erstwhile enemy who could have become an ally given more time, but as an actual genuine ally who wants the same thing that Masaru’s father did.

Kurata scowls upon hearing this notion, and as if in response, the Gizmon manages to stir enough to fire its striped laser right through Mercurimon’s body again.

Kurata: “Harmony between humans and Digimon? That day will never come!”

Kurata laughs uproariously as Mercurimon gasps in agony (what an absolute asshole), decrying the ridiculousness of the idea… which is kind of a contrast to his scowl about it just moments before. It’s like he has to show off his power and remind himself how good he is at murdering Digimon in order to be able to reassure himself that, yes, anyone who thinks harmony is a possibility is obviously just stupid and wrong and has no power to get their way anyway; he’s totally in the right, as always.

Mercurimon: “I-Ikuto…! Be strong…!”

These are the last words Mercurimon manages to gasp out to his surrogate son as his entire body fades into that glowing yellow noise. He knows this is going to be agony for Ikuto yet again, and that’s all he can think about as he feels himself about to die. What a good dad. He wasn’t always perfect at it, but he cares so much.

As Ikuto screams Mercurimon’s name and rushes forwards with tears in his eyes, Mercurimon’s form disintegrates into an egg, and the egg shatters. He’s gone. Ikuto’s run stumbles to a halt, and he falls to his knees in grief.

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Gizmon: XT is looking rather worse for wear, sparking and collapsing – not completely destroyed, but seriously damaged. Mercurimon didn’t die for nothing. He did everything he could with his last stand.

Kurata: “How dare he make a mess of my masterpiece! Really, he just refused to die, and he was a hindrance to me to the very end. Digimon like him are known as fools the second they even *think* about defying humans!”

Kurata is busy justifying and writing off Mercurimon’s heroic final effort to defend his species as some insignificant pest being annoying and foolish and getting ideas above its station. Yes, definitely not a respected ruler, and father, and living, thinking person that you just cruelly murdered or anything, Kurata. Not at all.

Kurata: “A time of co-existence between humans and Digimon? He threw away his life for an empty fantasy like that? I’m speechless by the sheer absurdity of it!”

It couldn’t possibly be that such a thing is actually quite reasonable and would be perfectly achievable if not for Kurata single-handedly getting in the way of it, no, it’s definitely an empty fantasy that’s completely absurd, has Kurata stressed enough yet that he is very definitely totally in the right here

Ikuto listens to the bullshit Kurata is spouting, his fists clenching in anger and hatred at this one specific human, his tears halting for now. He gets to his feet, as a familiar BGM intro we haven’t heard in quite a few episodes now begins to start up.

Ikuto: “Kurata! This is revenge for Mercurimon!”

As he and Falcomon rush forward, Ikuto pulls out his Digivice and does a Digisoul Full Charge for the first time. He’s finally figured everything out, and so he’s more than earned that next evolution.

(Note how he actually calls out “Digisoul Full Charge!” despite having never used any actual words for his regular Digisoul Charge. He’s spent enough time around his DATS friends by now that he knows what it’s called and what words to say.)

That BGM? Yeah, that’s Believer, again, for the first time in ages! The last time we heard it was literally when Yoshino got her Perfect-level back in episode 17. They like to save Believer for the triumphant moments where it’s really appropriate, and there haven’t really been any of those in a while until now, at least not during fights. Again, I really like that Savers does this with its evolution song. Instead of just “oh, here we go again” with the thing that happens literally every episode, it makes the times Believer is used really feel like they matter.

Yatagaramon is a huge crow who incidentally has three legs, because the mythological Yatagarasu he’s based on was a three-legged crow. It’s a neat little detail that I like.

Ikuto: “Mercurimon. I get it now! It’s not Masaru and the others I should hate! It’s humans with evil hearts!”

Ikuto says this as if he’s trying to reassure Mercurimon that he’s figured it all out now, even though Mercurimon’s gone. And though this conclusion seems obvious from our perspective, it’s really such a big deal that Ikuto’s managed to reach it, given how much of a prejudiced black-and-white worldview he was clinging to in the beginning that he’s slowly had to unlearn, piece by piece. I’m sure Mercurimon would be proud of him. And Yukidarumon, too.

Yatagaramon flies at the Gizmon and grabs its laser-eye with one of his feet just before the laser fires, causing it to explode from the recoil. He throws it into the wall, and with one big attack, it’s over. Rather quick considering that the other three Perfect-levels were going at it for the whole episode without getting anywhere, but we can thank Mercurimon for weakening it. …And maybe Yatagaramon’s also powered a bit by a New Evolution Buff, which is very much not an actual concrete concept but is my term for the way Digimon’s evolved forms tend to appear the most amazing and powerful in the first episode they show up in, for the sake of drama.

(Though, such a thing being an actual phenomenon in-universe wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, considering Yatagaramon’s being powered by the Digisoul of an Ikuto who’s riding the high of having just figured this out, and the grief of having just lost Mercurimon. That won’t be quite as powerful later on once he’s kinda got used to it all.)

It makes sense that things work this way, but it still feels really unfair that Kurata gets to keep his Gizmon’s egg.

Kurata doesn’t even comment on having lost this fight. He just tuts, has one of his men throw a space-time bomb to open up a Digital Gate, and leaves. It doesn’t seem like he brought any other Gizmon with him, and he probably doesn’t want to stick around to find out what Ikuto and the rest of them would do to him while he’s effectively defenceless. Definitely not him being a coward, or anything, right, just a, uh… tactical retreat.

Ikuto: “Mercurimon… I… will live as a human. A human with a Digimon’s heart.”

There’s only a very short little scene at the end here to fully underline Ikuto’s resolution to follow Mercurimon’s near-final words to him, which seems appropriate.

Masaru nods to Ikuto with an unspoken understanding that the kid is now 100% fully on their side. Their new goal, official DATS mission or not, is to stop Kurata however they can.

…Not entirely sure how they’re planning on achieving that right now, considering that Kurata just fled back to the human world while they’re currently stuck in the Digital World with no way back, but we’ll see how that goes next episode.

There’s a brief stinger with Kurata at the end, showing him in some kind of eerily-lit secret lab of his.

Kurata: “One of my masterpieces was defeated, but I still have much more in store. Much, much more.”

He’s not referring to the fact that he has plenty more Gizmon where that one came from (although he really does; we’ll be seeing a lot more Gizmon in episodes to come). Rather, he’s looking at something else entirely floating in a huge tank of green liquid.

And while this line of his is of course for the sake of stinger-exposition for the audience, it does make some kind of in-character sense for Kurata to gloat to himself about this. He needs to reassure himself that, so what if DATS and their buddies exceeded his expectations and defeated his one Gizmon: XT, he definitely still has all the power and is completely in control here.

Huh, I never actually talked about the first ending song, did I? Well, you didn’t miss much; all it has is literally just Masaru and Agumon running across a beach, and the song’s lyrics aren’t particularly interesting. Anyway, this episode debuts the second ending song for the series, now that we’re in the second half.

It’s almost as uninteresting as the first one, but we do see all three of the DATS trio with their partners (featuring their new outfits that we’ll be seeing them in for the rest of the series starting next episode), running across a field to meet Ikuto and Falcomon. It’ll become routine soon, but seeing it here for the first time does help solidify that, yep, Ikuto and Falcomon are very much part of the main group now.

Overall thoughts

This one’s also a pretty big episode, in terms of its impact on the plot and direction of the story going forward. It feels fitting how this big momentous 24-25 “two-parter”, so to speak, comes right slap bang in the exact middle of the series, numbers-wise. Functionally the episode itself is mostly a big fight scene, admittedly, but there’s still lots of fun character stuff going on in it too.

I still really enjoy Kurata as an interesting realistic villain, with all his ridiculous layers of justifications to shield himself from any notion that he’s in the wrong. All the gloating and showing off he does a lot in this episode will be very relevant in future. That line about Digimon only being useful as tools is very telling: he hates Digimon because he can’t control them.

Masaru continues to be good; I love his philosophy about how real fights involve you acknowledging the risk of physical and emotional pain for yourself. And it’s delightful how that happens to put him in the perfect position to call out Kurata’s cowardice, which really is the core of why he’s doing all this.

The fight itself is nothing too special, but it’s got a fair bit of fun Masaru determination and tenacity, and things do feel like DATS is pretty screwed and outmatched until Mercurimon steps in.

Ikuto’s finally figured out who he really needs to hate! Look at how far he’s come through his arc. Very deserving time for a new evolution for him. I really enjoy how Mercurimon guides him towards the answer but doesn’t ever tell him outright, leaving Ikuto to piece it all together on his own. What a good teacher.

For that matter, I enjoy Mercurimon also finally figuring stuff out, realising he was wrong to feel betrayed by Suguru and hate all of humanity after the massacre. It’s a nice ending to his arc, too. He was introduced to us as a “villain” and was conflicted and antagonistic for a lot of the time we knew him, but he dies as the hero he always really was, and I like that. Mercurimon was Good.

---

[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #ikuto noguchi #mercurimon #akihiro kurata #suguru daimon #masaru daimon

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panharmonium · 4 years ago

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more scattered naruto thoughts now that we’ve finished season 8 -

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time and have only gotten up to the end of season 8 (after pain destroys the hidden leaf village). i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons. Thank you! <3 ]

- i like the way S8 ended. i know that in real life maybe it wouldn’t be so feasible to just talk your enemy back to the light, but honestly, i don’t care. i love that shit. i love stories when people refuse to hurt the people who hurt them first, and then their seemingly inconceivable choice to refrain from striking back creates a connection (it’s the ‘return of the jedi’ effect, folks). i understand that it doesn’t work like that in real life most of the time, and i don’t recommend it for real life people trying to defend themselves, but i do love it in fiction. i LOVED how naruto went in pursuit of nagato to talk to him, not fight him. even though naruto says straight-up “i can’t forgive you” / “I want to kill you so badly i can’t stop shaking” - he still recognizes that his enemy is someone who’s been victimized, and he has enough compassion to feel pain on their behalf even when he himself is reeling from having his entire home destroyed and both of his teachers murdered by the person he’s confronting. his choice to control his (valid) rage and extend a hand in compassion is ultimately what changes the outcome and saves everyone who would have died, reversing the damage that was done, and i love that shit.

- absolutely adore yamato abandoning his own mission and taking off at a run to try and help naruto when he senses that naruto is losing control over the nine-tails. this man thought he was just a substitute teacher for a while there, but he’s become part of the family while he wasn’t looking.

- HINATA. oh my god i couldn’t even enjoy this incredible moment because i was so stressed out (and angry, at the time, because i really thought they were going to kill her, and that would’ve crossed my line). i want to watch this again knowing that she’s fine, because my anxiety over ‘fuck fuck fuck they’re actually going to kill one of the kids’ precluded me from even appreciating it appropriately.

- there’s been a lot of talk on this show about how sakura doesn’t have as much chakra as naruto or sasuke, but she heals people non-stop the entire time Pain is attacking and doesn’t show any signs of running dry. SHOW HER SOME RESPECT.

- CHOOOOOOOOJIIIIIIII! omg. i was so afraid that his father was actually dead, and SO RELIEVED that he was okay. you can’t do that to choji!!!

- also relatedly, how much do i adore choji for caring so much about kakashi? <333 i mean this kid is there sobbing over his dead body, and then he bursts out crying when kakashi comes back to life - i really appreciate these little ties between characters who aren’t always in close quarters but who do have a relationship. kakashi has been a teacher to ALL of the kids, and team 10 especially feels indebted to him - the respect and affection they all feel for him is very real.

- first time i actually thought ‘ok he’s cool’ with regard to minato was when he talked to the nine-tails so unfazed like “he’s a loudmouth. let’s go somewhere more quiet.’ i’ve been kind of so-so on his character so far, but i liked this.

- also later in that scene - the (rare) scenes we’ve seen where naruto totally breaks down absolutely kill me. it happened once when gaara was dead, and then there’s another moment in this episode when he’s talking to minato - whoever voices him does just incredible work in those moments, and it is SO PAINFUL to me because naruto is always such a happy kid the rest of the time and eternally optimistic and positive and excited and popping back up every time he falls down, and so when he cracks it is just devastating to see. i hate seeing him cry like that.

- similarly - that shot of sasuke at the end of the itachi arc wrecked me. naruto’s breakdowns are upsetting, but at least he allows himself to have them - when he gets pushed past a breaking point, he explodes. he cries and yells and spills every single thought in his head in front of everybody who’s around him, and after it’s done, things get better. he’s with people who care about him. he’s venting and making himself understood, and he always finds his equilibrium again.

sasuke, though, has been completely locked down ever since we saw him sneak out of the hospital to wander around the scene of his community’s mass murder, and he’s still locked down now, even crying all alone at the edge of the ocean. this moment isn’t cathartic. it isn’t a release. this is barely even a sliver of what this kid has going on inside him, and it looks like it’s agonizing for him to even let that much out.

- the scene where naruto is about to give up and give in to the nine-tails’s power...that exchange!!!!!!!

i don’t know. it hurts. i hate this. i don’t know. what should i do. i don’t know anything anymore. someone...please help me. give me...an answer.

destroy everything. erase anything that causes you pain. give me your soul, your spirit, your vital essence. give it to me, and in exchange, i will rescue you from your pain.

this whole exchange is amazing. the way naruto says ‘it hurts’...this is one of those scenes that expands to cover so much more ground than just what’s onscreen at that moment. what naruto overcomes here is precisely the trap that sasuke has not been able to escape. sasuke has never had any framework for dealing with pain that isn’t about pursuing vengeance. it’s the only way he thinks he can free himself from his pain - by putting all of his energy into destroying the people who hurt him.

but it becomes an endless cycle, because he never succeeds. itachi dies and sasuke feels worse than ever, so he turns his attention to the hidden leaf in an attempt to finally kill what’s hurting him. but even if sasuke were to raze the entire village to the ground, his pain would still be with him, and he’d then have to turn his attention to yet another target, because the alternative would be to recognize that he can’t escape his pain by destroying the things that hurt him, and that’s not something he’s able to accept right now. he’s spent half his life fixated on the idea that revenge can rescue him from how terrible he feels, and abandoning that idea now would mean that nothing can save him. it would mean that he’s going to hurt like this no matter what he does.

kakashi tried to warn him about this. he tried to tell sasuke that even after getting his revenge, sasuke wouldn’t feel better, that he’d only tear himself apart trying to achieve something that would leave him feeling empty - but sasuke was too entrenched in his own warped thinking to believe it. and ever since then, sasuke has been in the company of people who are happy to let him dig himself deeper and deeper into a self-destructive hole as long as it benefits their agenda. they don’t care if he’s hurting himself. they’re happy to see him suffering. his pain is a tool they can use.

- a note re: kakashi, when it comes to this topic -

i think it’s relevant to remember that kakashi never tells sasuke not to pursue revenge because it’s “wrong” or ethically questionable. he never delivers any moralizing speeches in the vein of “if you kill someone who victimized you, you’re just as bad as they are.” kakashi doesn’t think it’s wrong if itachi dies, and if sasuke were in a better state of mind, he probably wouldn’t even mind if sasuke were the one to kill him. that’s why kakashi is comfortable helping team 10 pursue asuma’s killers, after all - because they’re not unbalanced by rage or making self-destructive decisions; they’re acting with clear heads and pursuing a course of action that needs to be taken anyway (asuma’s murderers are on their way to the leaf to capture naruto - they need to be dealt with regardless). team 10′s kids can handle that mission - they’re thinking straight. they’re comfortable accepting adult guidance. they’re grieving, but they’re okay.

sasuke is not. sasuke has been deeply traumatized since he was a very young child, and encouraging his quest for vengeance is equivalent to validating all of the fucked-up thought patterns that are hurting him so badly - that it was his responsibility (as a seven year-old child) to protect his clan, that he was weak and cowardly for running away, that he needs to take itachi down as penance for failing to save his family, that killing itachi is the only way for him to justify his childhood survival, that killing itachi will free him from his pain. for kakashi to encourage any of these false convictions would be irresponsible and, ultimately, harmful to the child he’s supposed to be looking after. if sasuke gets his revenge on itachi, he’s just going to be left with the horrifying realization that his pain hasn’t lessened even the slightest bit, except that now he also has to deal with the additional trauma of killing someone he used to love.

kakashi doesn’t discourage sasuke from revenge because Revenge Is Morally Bad and You Are Morally Bad For Pursuing It; he discourages sasuke from revenge because in this particular case, sasuke’s fixation on revenge is hurting him. it’s unhealthy for him, and it will cause him worse pain in the future if he allows it to continue driving his life. sasuke is never going to feel better if he doesn’t stop distracting himself from his pain by focusing solely on vengeance. if he’s ever going to actually be rescued from his pain, he needs to face (and FEEL!!!) his grief, which is precisely what staying fixated on revenge allows him to avoid.

- relatedly: i just. am SO sick. of all these horrible people. getting their hands on sasuke. and using him for their own ends. when he has already been manipulated and victimized all his life. it makes me wanna SCREAM!!!! and i know that’s the point; we are supposed to be frustrated by this - but - hrnghghgnh

and like - it’s not like sasuke doesn’t know it’s happening! he’s not stupid! he knows the people around him are using him, and he just tries to use them back and play them before they play him, and he accepts that this is what his life is going to look like, and because he survives, he thinks he’s in control, but he has NO IDEA how far over his head he’s in now. and besides, he never stops to think that maybe his life shouldn’t look like this. he has no conception of ‘someone should be taking care of me.’ he’s never seen himself as a child who needs protection - he’s never seen himself as a child, period. it’s why he’s such a brat to the other kids, and it’s why he never calls kakashi ‘sensei.’ he thinks of himself as an adult. he has adult problems. he can’t connect to children his own age because he can’t connect to the idea of childhood - his childhood was stolen from him, and with it went any conception of refuge or safety or the fact that relentless self-sufficiency and a constant cycle of using/being used by other people isn’t in fact what his life is supposed to look like.

i am continually infuriated by all of these people who have abdicated their responsibility as adults and chosen to exploit an already exploited kid, one who is too messed up to save himself or let anybody else help him. none of these people care about him. they all want to use him for something. they’re happy he’s in pain, because his pain is what enables them to manipulate him.

the people who DO truly want to help him are the same people he’s desperately trying to avoid. the only adult sasuke ever had a meaningful and non-manipulative relationship with is the same adult he keeps running away from. and the only two people his own age who ever actually knew anything about him or cared if he was okay are the two people he keeps pushing away.

there is, perhaps, a lot to be said about how sasuke continually runs away from the people who actually care about him and instead affiliates himself with people he’ll never have to worry about forming a connection with. “having too many ties in this world just holds you back” - sure, and having no ties protects you, too. nobody to love you, nobody to know you, nobody you can ever lose.

#naruto #pan watches naruto

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fuckyeahisawthat · 6 years ago

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Today in historical figures Crowley and Aziraphale definitely interacted with:

I cannot believe it took me this long to think about the fact that Karl Marx lived in Soho in the 1850s. And while I think Crowley maintains a skeptical distance from human political philosophies, he and Marx would definitely have been drinking buddies. Are you even kidding me. This is Crowley’s brother from another mother when it comes to having long rambling arguments while shitfaced.

Maybe they meet at the Red Lion pub. Marx is there after a meeting and Crowley’s just...there. It’s 1851 or so. The titanic revolutionary wave that swept through Europe in 1848 has mostly been rolled back, and Marx and his family are refugees in London, living in a terrible, crowded flat on Dean Street.

Crowley’s not down to commit to any cause (he’s pretty wary after how the whole rebellion in Heaven thing turned out) but he loves drinking and debating, two things Marx does quite a lot of, and if Hell asks it’s easy to spin this into something about fomenting discord and political upheaval. Most of the time Engels picks up the tab; occasionally Crowley does just because the evening’s been so entertaining; he hisses at Engels not to make a thing of it. Jury’s out on who Crowley tells them he is. He’s well-dressed and clearly educated; he can switch between German, French and English effortlessly as the conversation does, and he seems to know an incredible amount about certain specific parts of world history.

Crowley’s feelings on revolutions are...mixed to say the least. He’s seen enough human ones (and one celestial one) to know that the unfortunate thing about revolutions is that they mostly lose, and you wind up back in the same shit, only worse because now you need to be taught a lesson. Or possibly you wind up in a whole new pile of shit that you never even imagined when the barricades started going up.

So he can’t honestly say that he likes revolutions. But he understands them. He has a gut hatred of injustice, and he’s been in the mills and the slums, and the conditions are horrible, and humans are such damnably stubborn fighters; is it any wonder that they try to make things better? A system can only withstand so many contradictions before something breaks.

But Crowley likes talking about history--he was there for it, after all. And Marx is smart, restless and curious and unsatisfied with pat answers in a way Crowley appreciates. He wants to take everything apart and understand it. He could have been a philosophy professor, living a cushy life and thinking very profound thoughts about nothing of importance whatsoever, but he wanted to be a sodding journalist; he saw how unjust the world was and couldn’t resist getting involved, and he’s mostly suffered for it. Constantly abysmally poor, kicked out of every country he’s ever lived in, effectively a stateless person who probably would have starved by now if not for lucking into having a rich bestie who keeps the family afloat. Crowley has a certain sympathy.

(He definitely brings Marx by Aziraphale’s bookshop, and not just because it’s an excuse to see Aziraphale. The angel mostly finds human politics dreadfully boring, but he loves talking about philosophy, and is more than happy to let Marx stay there for hours and read, and the shop has some rare manuscripts that even the British Library doesn’t.)

Sometimes they wind up back at the Marx family’s shitty flat; it’s crowded and the kids are always running about amidst empty wine bottles and cigar smoke and swearing and other things unsuitable for children, and Crowley secretly loves it. Marx’s wife Jenny can hold her own in any debate with a roomful of men and deliver a sick burn that makes even Crowley do a double-take. And Hell help them all if Engels’s partner Mary is also there; she can drink any of them under the table and destroy the most delicately-constructed theoretical argument with a bit of working-class common sense. (She’s a mill worker; Engels is a mill owner; they’re not married; by all rights it should be creepy but no one who’s ever met Mary Burns could think of her as the lesser partner in a relationship.)

They’re always hosting one or another political visitor or recently-fled exile, despite the flat being hardly big enough for the family as it is. Sometimes the guests are hilarious and sometimes they’re insufferable. If they’re particularly obnoxious, Crowley will make excuses to linger in the kitchen with Helene, the housekeeper, and the kids. (Yes, they have a servant, sent by Jenny’s parents; they mostly treat her like part of the family but it’s still a bit weird.) Once she’s convinced that this isn’t some ploy to hit on her; that no, this odd gentleman really does enjoy hanging out with a housekeeper and three precocious children under seven, she’s got plenty of opinions of her own and is absolutely merciless about roasting the various characters who come through the flat.

The Marx family flat in Soho is a roaring good time, except for the times when it’s not. Three of the seven children Jenny births die there. Crowley always stays away for a while after that happens; mumbles something about a trip to the Continent. He has an escape from that pain and he’s cowardly enough to take it.

He thinks about doing something for the kids, thinks about it far more than is prudent. But he can’t; they would notice; he knows they pay attention to that sort of thing. (The only time he can get away with saving individual human lives is during a mass casualty event, when there are so many souls ascending and descending all at once that no one will miss one or two.)

Sometimes he really does go to the Continent, come back a month later with a few bottles of booze and a couple tidbits of news about the latest unrest in wherever, and he’s always welcomed back.

I’m not sure if Crowley ever consciously works out that he has some feelings about Marx and Engels’s continent-spanning bromance; about the way Engels is always there for his disaster friend without a shred of resentment; there with money for the doctor or the rent when it’s not going to come from anywhere else; there with a bottle of nice wine and the bed linens Jenny took to the pawn shop last week; there with a soothing word to the editor when Marx has missed yet another deadline because he got hyperfocused on figuring out why the fuck the Panic of 1857 was happening instead of whatever he was supposed to be writing about. Or about their constantly-evolving, messy but loving extended political found family where debating and questioning, always questioning, is the lingua franca.

That’s probably too much introspection for Crowley. Let’s just stick to enjoying a good bottle of red. That hasn’t led him astray so far.

#good omens #tumblr fic #crowley #karl marx #at last i have found a historical scenario i know enough about to stick crowley and aziraphale into

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spoonyruncible · 8 years ago

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Chickens are wildly individual beings and don’t you dare be fooled for one second into thinking otherwise. When I was a pretty smallish child my parents allowed me, for some unknown reason (they were not responsible adults is probably the reason), to purchase with my own money two bantam chickens from a flea market. I had a little banty rooster named Rocky and a tiny banty hen named Ginger. It was a perfectly lovely arrangement even though I sucked at naming things. I loved those jerks with my whole heart and everyone thought that was adorable.

Now, my grandfather hired a neighborhood man to do a lot of odd jobs. This man was named Stanley and, though I can only think fondly of him, he was personally responsible for a hugely traumatic aspect of my childhood. One day, you see, Stanley arrived with a gift for me. “I hear you like chickens,” he said presenting my family with the most gorgeous animal I had ever seen. A beautiful orangey head fading into iridescent greeny-blue wings, long proud incredibly green tail feathers, red eyes that seemed to glow (soon I would learn this was from the Fires of Hell), and the proudest crown and wattle anyone had ever seen. This rooster was massive too, and not just to someone who is quite bitty, he was a lot of chicken. Now, naturally, I was elated. “Let ‘em out, let ‘em out!” I begged as soon as it seemed remotely appropriate to be a bother. My grandfather, ever indulgent, proceeded to do this. The first act of this new addition to my home, never a safe place but never so dangerous as it would soon become, was to almost murder my grandfather.

You see, what I did not know at the time was that roosters have something called ‘spurs’ which are effectively leg knives. If you are imagining that these cannot possibly be dangerous then I am going to change your imagination. My family, two young children included, gathered around. Soon my pretty new pet would be free to puk and bok about the yard I believed. My grandfather opened the transport cage and everything was, at once, a mass of feathers and blood. Unleashed the chicken lunged instantly for his face and neck. Fortunately he was able to throw up his arms in protection which resulted in a huge gash that must have been bone deep for how it bled. This being of raw malevolence rushed at the assembled crowd causing much screaming and cowardly running. If I am recalling correctly my mother actually scooped up my sister before she fled to the safety of the house. I don’t remember how, or even if, we corralled the devil. But I do know, precisely, my grandfather’s words as he calmly wrapped his bloodied arm in one of the handkerchiefs he was never without, “Mean little bastard, ain’t he?”

The coalesced mass of violence was named. He was called Bully and my entire family has war flashbacks when that profane name is mentioned. My father was Bully’s second victim, his spurs managing to slash through his jeans and cut open his leg nastily. After this event it was not decided that we had to get rid of this monster masquerading as a bird. It was decided, instead, that he was to be de-spurred. For the uninitiated this involves a terrified child holding a ball of raw evil while an adult twists that evil’s most deadly weapons off with a pair of pliers. I am told this process is painless but I regret that it did not inflict that demon with some amount of pain because as soon as I dropped him he hit me full in the chest with an untellable fury and I was crying when I made it to the safety of the house.

Thus began a series of years where outside was a PVP zone. My parents laughed when my sister and I rode bicycles because we were always perused by Bully running full tilt, intent on committing a violence against us. We had a hen house and chicken run built but nothing could fully contain this beast. For years a standard accompaniment to leaving the house was a broom handle. Why? Because there was a likelihood that you were going to be viciously assaulted by the unkindest animal as has ever walked this forsaken earth. Now, whacking a psychopathic rooster with a broom handle does not actually dissuade it from continuing its attack, but it does keep it a distance away from you that you might get to safety. Running was futile and foolish but we resorted to it often. Bully knew the exact time we got home from school. Every day without fail he was in the driveway, waiting. Broom handles became standard equipment in every vehicle. My father would amuse himself by sending his children out to fight the chicken and we would do it because my sister and I have always been desperate for approval. This is one of the rare instances where my mother didn’t even try to stop him. That unholy creature loved sneaking up on her when she was putting clothes on the line and any time a child was battling it was a happy time for her.

I must impress on you, I have no idea why we didn’t get rid of Bully because he terrorized us constantly. Everyone laughed that we were so tormented by a bird. Their laughter ceased the second they set foot on our property and met the hellion in person. Collecting eggs during those years was always met with tears as I trudged to my task and inevitable beating from a rooster. Once Bully got frostbite in his comb and my father carried him lovingly in his arms to get him treatment from the vet. This was a complicated relationship we had with our awful pet. Bully was also, for the record, a serial rapist who would pounce on hens with no warning and not a single one of them ever wanted it. I’ve had other roosters that are flawless gentlemen in this area and have cute courtship dances. Not Bully.

Anyway, one day a man showed up at our house for reasons I don’t recall. My parents were both artists and my dad is constantly into some nonsense or other so it could have been anything really. “Watch out for the-,” one of us began before being cut off by a delighted gasp. This was followed by the elated question, “Is that a fighting rooster?” We confirmed that it absolutely positively definitely was the most fighting anything on this or any other plane. “Oh wow,” the strange man continued with a dreamy smile, “I’ve always wanted one!” Anyway, we gave Bully to him with repeated warnings that this was a terrible mistake he was making. I never saw that man again and to this day I have a sneaking suspicion that Bully was somehow complicit in his undoubtedly bloody death.

#chickens #stories #my childhood was... weird and confusing #i'm probably forgetting something in here #anyway be more afraid of chickens please #they're absolute devil beasts

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friend-clarity · 5 years ago

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The Men Who Walked Away

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau strode to the podium outside his home in Ottawa and said so many soothing words to a country reeling from the tragedy that had unfolded in Nova Scotia the day before (April 20, 2020). “We stand with you and we grieve with you. And you can count on our government’s full support during this incredibly painful time,” Trudeau said to the people of Nova Scotia. It would have been fine had the PM left it at that. Instead, he used this tragedy to start talking about his gun-control plans before the RCMP had even confirmed that all the bodies from this massacre had been found.

It’s quite the contrast to his reaction when asked several times last week about the blame China’s government should face over its actions and, at times, inactions that led to the spread of the coronavirus and the deaths of nearly 1,600 Canadians and growing. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-gives-china-a-pass-then-targets-gun-owners

Let’s recall the earlier "Montreal Massacre".

M Lépine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At eighteen, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the thirteen years since. ...

To return to Gloria Steinem, when might a fish need a bicycle? The women of Montreal's École Polytechnique could have used one when Marc Lépine walked in with a gun and told all the men to leave the room. They meekly did as ordered. He then shot all the women.

Mark Steyn, December 5, 2019

Friday December 6th marks the thirtieth anniversary of the "Montreal Massacre" - a grim day in 1989 when fourteen female students at the École Polytechnique were murdered by a man known to posterity as "Marc Lépine". Much followed from that terrible slaughter, including various useless "gun control" measures - and the formal annual commemorations that, three decades on, are attended by as many eminences as Remembrance Day or Dominion Day. The men present in that classroom are now in their mid-fifties; the women are not. I was far from home that December and was not back in Quebec until Christmas. And so I accepted the official narrative of events - until, that is, a few years later, when I looked into it myself.

At which point I marveled at how the Canadian state had succeeded in so thoroughly imposing a meaning on the slaughter that is more or less the precise opposite of what actually happened. I've written about it over the years, although my comrades in the Canadian media complain every time I do so, as if any questioning of the official fairy tale cannot be permitted. Here's what I said on the thirteenth anniversary, in The National Post of Canada on December 12th 2002:

I loathe the annual commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. I especially dislike the way it's become a state occasion, with lowered flags, like Remembrance Day. But, in this case, whatever honour we do the dead, we spend as much time dishonouring the living -- or at least the roughly 50 per cent of Canadians who happen to be male: For women's groups, the Montreal Massacre is an atrocity that taints all men, and for which all men must acknowledge their guilt. Marc Lépine symbolizes the murderous misogyny that lurks within us all.

Ah, well, I would bring that up, wouldn't I? Just for the record, I'm not saying that M Lépine is representative of Algerian manhood or Muslim manhood. I'm saying he shouldn't be representative of anything -- least of all, the best efforts of women's groups and the convenient gloss of that pure laine name notwithstanding, Canadian manhood.

This spring, there was an attempted gun massacre at the Appalachian School of Law in West Virginia. But, alas for the Appalachians' M Lépine, there were two gun-totin' students present who were able to pin down the would-be mass murderer until the cops arrived. Allan Rock stepping forward to recite the relevant portions of the gun registry requirements would have been far less effective. Generally speaking, when the psycho shows up and opens fire, your best hope is that there's someone else around with a gun to hand -- a situation Canadian law has now rendered all but impossible.

Extreme cases make bad law, and just because it's a cliché doesn't mean the Liberal Party of Canada can't take it to hitherto undreamt of heights. Our disarmed Dominion will be the first jurisdiction on the planet with a one-billion dollar gun-registry. It was supposed to cost two million, but, as Dr. Evil learned in Austin Powers, these days that's just chump change, they'll laugh at you. No self-respecting government plan should cost less than ONE BILLION DOLLARS!!!!!

According to police, the gun registry is officially 25 per cent inaccurate. I'd figure that makes it unofficially 40 per cent inaccurate. But last week, while cynical Liberal bigwigs were openly boasting that this record-breaking government fraud would just be another one of those things you hear about for a couple of days that then mysteriously vaporizes somewhere over Shawinigan, the radio call-in shows were full of concerned, earnest, reasonable, moderate Canadians saying that, even if it did cost a billion, it still "sends the right message" on gun control. Which is just as well, as it'll still be sending the right message when it's up to two billion...The gun registry is symbolic not of Canada's predisposition to mass murder, but Canada's predisposition to mass suicide.

But the gun-registry boondoggle is just big-government business as usual. In a certain sense, the men present that day in Montreal were more profoundly disarmed. From my book After America:

Which is the more disturbing glimpse of Canadian manhood? The guy who shoots the women? Or his fellow men who abandon them to be shot? For me, the latter has always been the darkest element of the story. From my column in Maclean's, January 9th 2006:

Every December 6th, our own unmanned Dominion lowers its flags to half-mast and tries to saddle Canadian manhood in general with the blame for the Montreal massacre -- the fourteen women murdered by Marc Lépine, born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, though you wouldn't know that from the press coverage. Yet the defining image of contemporary Canadian maleness is not M Lépine/Gharbi but the professors and the men in that classroom, who, ordered to leave by the lone gunman, obediently did so, and abandoned their female classmates to their fate -- an act of abdication that would have been unthinkable in almost any other culture throughout human history. The "men" stood outside in the corridor and, even as they heard the first shots, they did nothing. And, when it was over and Gharbi walked out of the room and past them, they still did nothing. Whatever its other defects, Canadian manhood does not suffer from an excess of testosterone.

Your average Western feminist lobby group doesn't see it that way, naturally. "The feminism I think of is the one that embodies inclusivity, multiculturalism and the ability to change the world through the humanity that women do bring," says Stephanie Davis, executive director of Atlanta's Women's Foundation. "If there were women in power in representative numbers -- 52 per cent -- I think that the World Trade Center would still be standing."

That's a familiar line. If only your average Security Council meeting looked like a college graduating class, or that room at the École Polytechnique after the men had departed, there would be peace on earth.

I don't think so. Look at the current rape statistics under one of the most thoroughly feminized regimes on earth - the Government of Sweden. More from After America:

To those who succeeded in imposing the official narrative, Marc Lépine embodies the murderous misogynist rage that is inherent in all men, and which all must acknowledge.

For a smaller number of us, the story has quite the opposite meaning: whatever M Lépine embodies, it's certainly not (if you'll forgive the expression) Canadian manhood.

In 2009, the director Denis Villeneuve made a film of the story - Polytechnique. "I wanted to absolve the men," he said. "People were really tough on them. But they were 20 years old... It was as if an alien had landed."

But it's always as if an alien had landed. When another Canadian director, James Cameron, filmed Titanic, what most titillated him were the alleged betrayals of convention. It's supposed to be "women and children first", but he was obsessed with toffs cutting in line, cowardly men elbowing the womenfolk out of the way and scrambling for the lifeboats, etc. In fact, all the historical evidence is that the evacuation was very orderly. In real life, First Officer William Murdoch threw deckchairs to passengers drowning in the water to give them something to cling to, and then he went down with the ship – the dull, decent thing, all very British, with no fuss. In Cameron's movie, Murdoch takes a bribe and murders a third-class passenger. (The director subsequently apologized to the First Officer's home town in Scotland and offered £5,000 toward a memorial. Gee, thanks.) Mr Cameron notwithstanding, the male passengers gave their lives for the women, and would never have considered doing otherwise. "An alien landed" on the deck of a luxury liner – and men had barely an hour to kiss their wives goodbye, and watch them clamber into the lifeboats to sail off without them. The social norm of "women and children first" held up under pressure.

Today, in what Harvey Mansfield calls our "gender-neutral society", there are no social norms. Eight decades after the Titanic, a German-built ferry en route from Estonia to Sweden sank in the Baltic Sea. Of the 1,051 passengers, only 139 lived to tell the tale. But the distribution of the survivors was very different from that of the Titanic. Women and children first? No female under 15 or over 65 made it. Only five per cent of all women passengers lived. The bulk of the survivors were young men. Forty-three per cent of men aged 20-24 made it.

"There is no law that says women and children first," Roger Kohen of the International Maritime Organization told Time magazine. "That is something from the age of chivalry."

If, by "the age of chivalry", you mean the early 20th century.

As I said, no two maritime disasters are the same. But it's not unfair to conclude that, had the men of the Titanic been on the Estonia, the age and sex distribution of the survivors would have been very different. Nor was there a social norm at the École Polytechnique. So the men walked away, and the women died.

Whenever I've written about these issues, I get a lot of e-mails from guys scoffing, "Oh, right, Steyn. Like you'd be taking a bullet. You'd be pissing your little girlie panties," etc. Well, maybe I would. But as the Toronto blogger Kathy Shaidle put it:

When we say 'we don't know what we'd do under the same circumstances', we make cowardice the default position.

I prefer the word passivity – a terrible, corrosive passivity. Even if I'm wetting my panties, it's better to have the social norm of the Titanic and fail to live up to it than to have the social norm of the Polytechnique and sink with it.

~The above includes material from Mark's book After America. If you disagree with Steyn and you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, then feel free to have at him in the comments.

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fapangel · 8 years ago

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What do you figure the odds (Not if it should happen but if it'll actually happen or not) are that we will see more gun control after this mass shooting?

Not very likely.

We’ve had plenty of these mass shootings, and after every single one we get the same song and dance. This latest one, however, is striking - in how poorly that song and dance is being received. As usual, Hillary is the most tin-eared, artless and clumsy of them all, trying to twist this event towards immediate political gain by mentioning “silencers” to attack the Hearing Protection Act currently being considered by Congress. It’s especially retarded in this instance, because at 500 yards (the distance from the hotel to the concert venue,) the muzzle reports of an intermediate-caliber rifle are rather quiet - the sonic boom of the supersonic bullets themselves passing past or over you are considerably louder. A lot of people said the gunfire seemed to be “coming from the sky” for that exact reason. Technical details - i.e., the truth - have rarely mattered in the past, but Hillary’s so far into the rough that the Washington Fucking Post called her out on it. The Post.

As unusual as that is, its effect still pales compared to the tone. Consider this next tweet of Hillary’s:

Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.

“We must put politics aside,” she says, and then launches into a political attack after the fucking comma. She can’t even leave it till after the next sentence. That, too, isn’t new - leftists have always rushed to smear themselves in the blood of murdered victims to push their agenda, before the bodies are even cold - but this is the first time I’ve seen such a universally bitter and widespread backlash against it. Twitter is rather hot about it, and even the WaPo is commenting on how fast Democrats moved to politicize it, (albeit with a soft-peddling headline.) The WaPo openly admits that nothing political will come of this tragedy, as does the New York Times, Esquire Magazine, and Slate. In the whining and bitter recriminations is a simple despair, because they’ve lost the debate on gun control some time ago, and they know it.

Concealed carry laws have swept the nation, and even Illinois, of all places, has passed a shall-issue law - even if bitter lawmakers are defying the people's will by dragging their feet on reciprocity laws. Not that it matters, because a national reciprocity law is on the table, and a bill to lower restrictions on suppressors is in Congress now. Even though Paul Ryan demonstrated his yellow-livered cowardly self once again by trying to retreat on that, the only consequence will be lost votes in his next re-election bid, because conservatives are sick and tired of our politicians tucking their tails between their legs when their constituency never, ever changes our minds, no matter how much the left wing and the media roll around in the blood of the slain. It doesn’t help that we’ve got the moral authority, as well - consider the CBS executive fired for saying the victims deserved to die because they probably voted Republican, and compare that to Steve Scalise saying the shooting shouldn’t be politicized, a hard argument to fight considering Scalise literally just returned to work after being terribly wounded by a rampage shooter. Even Reagan was less copacetic about taking a bullet.

So yeah, no. Nothing will come of this. The best the left can hope for is to try and ban bump-fire stocks (and as I expected, they’re already savaging them on the nightly news and elsewhere.) Sadly for them, their entire argument can be undone by the most powerful and effective messaging out there: a single, dramatically illustrative picture:

The best part? The ATF was sent this picture and asked about it, and here’s their reply:

Yes. The fucking shoe-lace machine gun is already considered an NFA regulated item, and thus effectively more illegal than the much more expensive “bump-stock” gadgets. How far do you think the shoelace ban is going to get?

Yeah, me neither.

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robbyrobinson · 8 years ago

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Mermaids. Ever since The Little Mermaid, many people have come under the assumption that mermaids are benevolent creatures. In the old myths...no, they were not. They drowned people, hunted sailors, lured people to their watery graves with their voices....Just, oh god. Pirates of the Caribbean was what really sell this for me. I do like the franchise, even though most of the movies recycle plots, but the one movie that I am absolutely terrified of was On Stranger Tides. In it, Jack Sparrow is forced to help the infamous Blackbeard search for the Fountain of Youth. Now Blackbeard himself is intimidating, what with him setting one of his crewmates on fire twice, and has no qualms with endangering his daughter's life as long as he benefits. But no; what did it for me was the mermaids. The scene starts out with a crew of pirates drifting in a life boat. You see a ripple in the water, and something slowly slither around the boat. Of course, it turns out to be a mermaid, but automatically I knew something was going to go down. At some points, you see that the mermaid's tail was underneath the boat, meaning that she could upturn it at any moment. I was in my seat quietly dreading the moment that she would do so...but it never happens. And then more mermaids come up to the surface, flirting with the men....and then the lead mermaid reveals that she is a bloodthirsty predator as she tries to pull one of the pirates into the water. Even till this day, I am still scared about watching that scene wherein the mermaid reveals her fangs. Oh, and there were also those mermaids from that mockumentary Mermaids: the Body Found by Animal Planet. Uncanny valley much?

I am a fan of Stephen King. Granted, I haven't read most of his books as they are hundreds to thousands of pages long, but I do respect the man. Heck, half of what I write was inspired by his style. The first movie I watched based on one of his books was 1990's It. You know, about an interdimensional demon that feeds on children? Nowadays, I find the movie hilariously bad, but back then, I would get terrified whenever my aunt would pop the movie into the VCR. And this is from someone who isn't afraid of clowns. The scene where blood rises up the sink drain as well as the photo album was enough to send a chill down my spine.

The Brave Little Toaster. Okay, I hadn't watched the film for myself, but I do know about it. Basically, you have these appliances - a toaster, electric blanket, radio, lamp, and vacuum cleaner - and their journey to find their master. A strange idea for a story, but it was entertaining. Despite being a children's film, there were several dark moments. There's the "It's a B Movie" section in which appliances are butchered for parts, or the flower that the Toaster encounters. The flower falls in love with the toaster when it sees its reflection, but when the toaster rejected it, it basically killed itself from a broken heart. What....Oh, and there's the air conditioner angrily blowing itself out. And who could forget the "Worthless" scene? After the appliances are taken to the junk yard, there is a musical sequence consisting of various cars singing about who they used to be, what they were made for, as they are being picked up and placed on a conveyor belt leading to a crusher. And then that magnet...god. If continually trying to crush the main characters wasn't enough, he places their owner on the conveyor belt as well. What kind of movie was this?

Princess Mombi. Hey, remember that happy 1939 movie the Wizard of Oz? You know, with the singing Munchkins and the like? Well, what if I told you that an unofficial sequel was made to the film, and what if it involves Dorothy getting electroshock therapy. Family movie, yay! After returning to Oz, Dorothy finds the Emerald City destroyed, her friends turned to stone, and freaky humanoids on wheels roam the streets. Anyway, here is Princess Mombi: Mombi is a witch who takes her vanity to the next level. She cuts the heads off of pretty girls, which are still conscious mind you, and she can change into a different head much like how someone would go through their wardrobe for new duds. Dorothy escapes her imprisonment in the search for the "Powder of Life" to bring a creature known as a Gump to life. Unfortunately, the powder is found in Mombi's cabinet, meaning that Dorothy needs to be especially quiet when retrieving the magical substance. But then she accidentally wakes up the main head, which proceeds to shout "Dorothy Gale" at the top of its (nonexistent) lungs, which alerts the other heads. And then Princess Mombi wakes up - headless - and she tries to make a grab at Dorothy.

While the Plague Dogs isn't a kids' movie, I still watched it. The movie begins at a research center where we see a dog being drowned...only to be revived, and we never get an explanation for it. That dog escapes with another dog, but they find themselves being hunted by the militarty who fear that they might be carrying some strands of the bubonic plague. The movie has many soul-crushing scenes, but one memorable scene involves a hunter calling one of the dogs over. This guy seemed like the best choice for a new owner after everything the two dogs have been through. And so, the dog runs to him...only to step on the trigger of the gun, which shoots the poor guy in the face. Worse is when a man assigned to assassinate the two dogs perishes from a fall off a cliff. As the dogs are starving, and this body just happened to be there....

I love Coraline, though I didn't get to see it in theaters when it first premired. Everything about this movie was terrifying to me. The thought that some evil witch was luring kids into another world, and giving the kids their heart's desires just disturbed me to no end. But then when the witch gives the kids the chance to stay with her forever, they must sew the buttons over their eyes...upon which, the witch (or Beldam) gets bored of them, drains them of their life sources, throws them out like a broken toy...and then begins to search for her next meal. Be careful what you wish for indeed.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: I loved this movie. I love the songs; heck, I listen to "This is Halloween" whenever it's nearing Halloween, or I would sing the Oogie Boogie Song a few times. Now, I didn't have any nightmares about this movie. For the most part, the residents of Halloween Town were friendly, albeit in their own way. Not so with Oogie Boogie: he stands as the only truly evil character in the movie. He is a sadistic gambler who had killed people prior to the film, and is planning on eating Santa Claus. That, and the scene with Sally's leg....no thank you. What made me horrified however, was Oogie Boogie's death; his burlap sack acts as his skin, so Jack basically flayed him alive, and then you see all the bugs acting as his body before falling into the stew below. I could've sworn that he always said "My bones, my bones" when he was dying and his voice was getting more higher pitched.

The Leprechaun movies are terrible, but I liked them. One in particular was Leprechaun in Space. In it, a man gets transformed into a fleshy half-man, half-spider abomination with a demonic voice. And then when that liquid nitrogen was used on him, his voice was so squeaky, it made me nearly need a new pair of undies.

2 Stupid Dogs: The episode that freaked me out when I was younger was the one where the two dogs and Red come upon a witch's gingerbread house. The witch tricks the dogs into fattening Red up, and when the time came, she eats her. As she was steal hungry, well, she makes a meal out of the two dogs. It was scary to see these characters possibly get digested alive by this witch, but now it's morbidly fascinating to me.

Courage the Cowardly Dog: Yes, one of those messed up shows that made you wonder how it was for kids. I was never really afraid of this show, but one episode I watched was the final one named "Perfect." In it, Courage is saddened that he can' t do anything right, so he imagines a strict teacher to help him with his problem. The scene in question is when Courage was trying to sleep perfectly. You hear the music lull Courage to sleep, and then without warning, some freaky CGI-fetus looking monstrosity pops onto the screen telling Courage that he wasn't perfect. And then it's never mentioned again. It's low on the list because while creepy, I had seen the episode at around 13 or so. Had I been younger, this would've been more effective.

E. T. and The Iron Giant: A tie. It comes off as silly now, but when I was a kid, I used to be frightened by these two characters in different ways. For E. T., there was the fact that he was just ugly. He looked like a wrinkled raisin or something. Besides that, there was his raspy voice and the glowing finger. That finger freaked me out. I couldn't even watch the movie in one sitting until I was about 16 years old. As for the Iron Giant...he was a giant robot from space. What more do you need? Well, besides that, it also turns out that he was created to be a weapon of mass destruction - at least until he got amnesia. Which may or may not have been nullified when he was reassembling himself at the end.

#childhood #childhood trauma #trauma #scary #scarymoments #nightmare fuel #nightmarefuel #austindr #robbyrobinson #robby robinson

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sanguinarius-archive · 4 years ago

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ok so because i'm passionate about this i'm going to elaborate, even tho i'm pretty sure no one who follows me is interested in hearing abt space colonization and scientific bits of astronomy and etc etc. so sorry about that but not really

my issue w terraforming mars isn't simply that it's impossible. with enough resources and a steady time period, it could, hypothetically, be possible. mars is already - very very much to an extent - similar to earth in terms of land features and (sometimes) average temperatures. it also has similar day and year cycles. while you definitely couldn't stand on mars without a protective bodysuit and helmet and an oxygen tank and yaddayadda all that necessary stuff, it does have similarities that, understandably, spark intrigue in scientists.

while inhabiting mars as it is right now without terraforming it is a terrible idea, i know that's not what people actually want, seeing as terraforming is now a considered option. they want to actively transform mars into a planet that is habitable to us. they want to make mars into an earth 2.0. that is the issue i have. you cannot simply terraform an entire planet. not only would it take a long time, but it's also... completely unreasonable.

the people who want to actually terraform mars and have the potential to do so are people with extreme wealth and power. elon musk is at the forefront of this. rather than redistributing his great wealth to actually help the earth heal and help its inhabitants heal as well, he is setting out for another entire planet. while it may look like a great option despite the arduous process that will come with it, he's just being cowardly. if he has the power to terraform an entire planet, or to even make actual scientists go as far as considering it - he has the power to help the earth heal from the manmade climate crisis it is enduring. he has the power to help the earth's inhabitants heal from the pain and suffering they have faced.

but he doesn't.

he doesn't, and he is a coward for this. he should be discarded. his dreams, his "wants", his hopes, they should be discarded. he doesn't want to help humanity - he wants to spread our problems to another world. he wants to fulfill a sci-fi tony stark dream that, like most actual marvel movie plots with tony stark in them, is completely unreasonable and frankly, sucks.

and what's worse? people have to sacrifice their own physical and mental wellbeing for this. they have to spend months isolated in a spaceship in the dead void of space. they won't have any acceleration, meaning they'll be floating, and when they are back on the surface - of ANOTHER WORLD, might i add - they will need assistance to move and get around. their bodies have become limp due to the lack of acceleration in space. and while there will probably be robotic assistance provided for those astronauts, there's still even more risks. long-term weightlessness includes muscle atrophy, deterioration of the skeleton, a slowing of cardiovascular system functions, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, eyesight disorders, and changes in the immune system. additionally there is also fluid redistribution, loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, and excess flatulance. there are several more effects and symptoms, but for the sake of convenience i'll just link them here.

it really is just crazy how people think terraforming and colonizing mars is, was, or ever will be a good decision

#leaflings #long post #gonna rb this to continue bc theres a word limit apparently

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kidsviral-blog · 7 years ago

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Disgusting: Lefty celebs crawl out to politicize Newtown, Conn., tragedy

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/disgusting-lefty-celebs-crawl-out-to-politicize-newtown-conn-tragedy/

Disgusting: Lefty celebs crawl out to politicize Newtown, Conn., tragedy

http://twitter.com/#!/MiaFarrow/status/279635528477982720

As Twitchy reported, ghoulish lefties immediately jumped on the opportunity to politicize this morning’s tragic school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left nearly 30 people dead, most of whom were children. Now, right on cue, ignorant liberal celebrity vultures are swooping in to turn the tragedy into a gun control soapbox:

Past time!!! RT @sacca: 27 dead in a school shooting. 14 of them are kids. So tell me again, when are we allowed to talk about gun control?

— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 14, 2012

I don’t want to hear one idiotic word out of the NRA

— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 14, 2012

Gun control is no longer debatable- it’s not a ‘conversation’-It’s a moral mandate. ‘

— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 14, 2012

The mission of your second term just arrived covered in blood, @barackobama. If Congress gets in your way, we’ll throw them out. #enough

— Gerry Duggan (@GerryDuggan) December 14, 2012

RT @miafarrow: Gun control is no longer debatable- it’s not a ‘conversation’-It’s a moral mandate. ‘ / YES. The time is now.

— Martha Plimpton (@MarthaPlimpton) December 14, 2012

ok so….is now that time to have “the conversation”?

— Questo of The Roots (@questlove) December 14, 2012

twitter.com/PerezHilton/st…

— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) December 14, 2012

I’m trying to be more positive these days but people who say “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” – those people are fucking morons!

— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) December 14, 2012

Band-Aids-on-Band-Aids @nra people want MORE access to guns to combat all the people w access to guns.

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) December 14, 2012

Can’t wait for the NRA to come running out in defense of fire arms. Again.

— Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) December 14, 2012

What kind of nut case would shoot children at an elementary school and, a week before Christmas? A major nut case with a gun.

— Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) December 14, 2012

I pray that we do! RT @aidansdaddy619: @deepakchopra Can we ban guns now? #ConnecticutTragedy

— Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra) December 14, 2012

We can’t limit the crazy people in the world, but we can limit what they have access to.

— John Francis Daley (@JohnFDaley) December 14, 2012

Just landed 2 news of a school shtg in CT! how many times cn we hear politicians say we r all shocked and saddened 2day,then do nothing

— DL Hughley (@RealDlHughley) December 14, 2012

GUN CONTROL.A Glock and a Sig Sauer aren’t for hunting deer and they won’t protect ‘We the people’ from a drone attack.

— Caterina Scorsone (@caterinatweets) December 14, 2012

So sad to hear about babies being shot in America. The poor families. When will they outlaw firearms?

— boygeorge (@BoyGeorge) December 14, 2012

My sentiments exactly. GUN CONTROL!!! Get guns out of killers hands twitter.com/MARLONLWAYANS/…

— marlon wayans (@MARLONLWAYANS) December 14, 2012

Stop tweeting. Take action. m.house.gov

— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) December 14, 2012

The 2nd amendment doesn’t mention automatic weapons or mindless slaughter, maybe a review would be useful….?

— Right Said Fred(@TheFreds) December 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/NancyLeeGrahn/status/279639468003168257

Here seemingly normal guy, here’s a gun, hell, here’s 4. Hope u neverlose ur shit & kill a bunch of kids. Have a nice day. #Gunskill

— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) December 14, 2012

Next time, babies. Well done American gun zealots. Keep up the good work.

— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) December 14, 2012

School killings not acceptable trade-off for less restrictive gun laws. We need more controls on all firearms.Founding Fathers would agree.

— Andrew Zimmern (@andrewzimmern) December 14, 2012

The rights of those who own and use guns within legal parameters are not worth the lives wasted by those who do not.

— Ethan Suplee (@EthanSuplee) December 14, 2012

Today is NOT the day to talk about gun control, Today is the day to finally DO SOMETHING about it! bit.ly/Xne2Yu PLS RETWEET #Newtown

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) December 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/JanelleMonae/status/279718081545269248

No Gun Control!Just people slaughtered! Second amendment my ass!

— Danny DeVito (@DannyDeVito) December 14, 2012

Its gonna b hard to b funny today with a heavy heart over school shootings. No more guns! Enough tragedy!

— John Leguizamo (@JohnLeguizamo) December 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/michaelurie/status/279654061891006464

OMG!! My prayers go out to all of the families affected by the school shooting in Connecticut!!My heart aches!! WHY?? #GuncontrolASAP

— Vivica A. Fox (@MsVivicaFox) December 14, 2012

Guns don’t kill people. Clouds and balloons kill people.Oh.Wait.Nope… it’s fucking guns.

— Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) December 14, 2012

How many times do thoughts&prayers have 2go out 2victims &their families b4 something gets done about gun violence in this country? #newtown

— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) December 14, 2012

This is the stupidest sentence ever spoken “Guns don’t kill people. People do.”#BradyBill #obama #guncontrol #connecticut

— Matthew Modine (@MatthewModine) December 14, 2012

#GUNCONTROL #OBAMA twitter.com/MatthewModine/…

— Matthew Modine (@MatthewModine) December 14, 2012

it’s too easy for a monster to get a gun. solution: NO ONE GETS GUNS. sorry if this is an inconvenience for your complete need to have one.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 14, 2012

Look at that number of dead kids and their teachers and tell me with a straight fucking face our laws are currently fine the way they are.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 14, 2012

Gun control is our only road to freedom. Freedom from the fear of senselessly losing children. I’m so saddened. WE NEED LAWS NOW.

— Rashida Jones (@iamrashidajones) December 14, 2012

Gun lovers are the first to remind you this should be a “day of mourning”. How about we mourn & make it harder to get guns on the same day?

— Rashida Jones (@iamrashidajones) December 14, 2012

My heart breaks for the victims & community of Newtown. Impossible to grasp. Guns need to be banned & illegal sales need harsher punishment!

— Aubrey O’Day (@AubreyODay) December 14, 2012

So who is going to tell BOB COSTAS that he was wrong calling for gun sanity?

— Harvey Fierstein (@HarveyFierstein) December 14, 2012

Guns do nothing but encourage paranoid lunacy, arm fools and criminals, and rain grief and destruction down on the innocent.

— Harvey Fierstein (@HarveyFierstein) December 14, 2012

Heart aching over Connecticut. This doesn’t happen when people go nuts in Japan or UK because Americans are over-armed. We need to disarm!

— Sean Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) December 14, 2012

We have to unite as a country and BAN assault weapons …. NO private party needs a semi automatic …This has to stop !!

— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) December 14, 2012

If this tragedy doesn’t change something in this country regarding guns…I just want to scream and cry. Deeply saddened. Praying.

— Kourtney Kardashian (@KourtneyKardash) December 14, 2012

Sick over what happened in the world this week.We need better gun laws. My heart goes out to all those affected by the horrors.

— Jai Rodriguez (@jairodriguez) December 14, 2012

When do we get to seriously talk about gun control?

— Denis O’Hare (@denisohare) December 14, 2012

@iamjhud for sure . Pray and take action.. Another WAKE UP for guns.

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) December 14, 2012

Hey people who govern:You know how afraid you are of the NRA? That’s NOTHING compared to the fear every parent shares today!

— Danny Zuker (@DannyZuker) December 14, 2012

Where is the love [?] I can’t believe this type of evil can happen…why would anyone kill children???…#protectchildrennotguns

— will.i.am (@iamwill) December 14, 2012

Explain the whole reason we need to have guns again? Just explain once more. I’m stupid. Somebody? Anybody?

— BD WONG (@BD_WONG) December 14, 2012

Our weekly mass shootings aren’t happening in other countries. And this time, children? WHEN WILL OUR “LEADERS” PUT AN END TO THIS INSANITY?

— Rachel Dratch (@TheRealDratch) December 14, 2012

A country that does nothing about gun control while witnessing the mass killings of innocent precious life, MUST wake up!Shattered.

— Goldie Hawn (@goldiehawn) December 14, 2012

Shocked and saddened by what happened today in Connecticut.We have to stop the access to guns in our country.

— Ben Stiller (@RedHourBen) December 14, 2012

I’m appalled by today’s shooting. The only reasonable reaction is to completely overhaul gun control policy. Anything else is disgraceful.

— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) December 14, 2012

Fuck the NRA and the cowardly politicians who refuse to do a single goddamn thing about gun violence in America.

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) December 14, 2012

Yeah, I’ll wade right the fuck into this: MORE gun control, MORE mental health services. It’s no longer a debate. Never was. #newtown

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 14, 2012

I know everybody’s sending prayers out now but when will we get beyond prayers and get to real, effective action?

— John Legend (@johnlegend) December 15, 2012

I love how Americans think gun control, universal health care, etc, are SO TERRIBLE but they work so well in every other developed country.

— John Legend (@johnlegend) December 15, 2012

For crying out loud.. Why not at least try gun control for some time and see if it works? We can always go back!

— Mark Ruffalo (@Mruff221) December 15, 2012

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE 2 HEAR”GUNMAN KILLS”FK The NRA !THEY PUT MONEY ABOVE YOUR CHILDREN’S LIVES.GUNS KILL PEOPLE,LITTLE INNOCENT 1’S

— Cher (@cher) December 15, 2012

Sorry but prayers and giving your kids hugs fix nothing; only having the balls to stand up to our insane selfish gun culture will.

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) December 15, 2012

These people are absolutely shameless. While they choose to exploit this horrific tragedy, we will continue to pray for the victims and their families.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/12/14/disgusting-lefty-celebs-crawl-out-to-politicize-newtown-conn-tragedy/

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kidsviral-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Disgusting: Lefty celebs crawl out to politicize Newtown, Conn., tragedy

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/disgusting-lefty-celebs-crawl-out-to-politicize-newtown-conn-tragedy/

Disgusting: Lefty celebs crawl out to politicize Newtown, Conn., tragedy

http://twitter.com/#!/MiaFarrow/status/279635528477982720

Past time!!! RT @sacca: 27 dead in a school shooting. 14 of them are kids. So tell me again, when are we allowed to talk about gun control?

— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 14, 2012

I don’t want to hear one idiotic word out of the NRA

— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 14, 2012

Gun control is no longer debatable- it’s not a ‘conversation’-It’s a moral mandate. ‘

— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) December 14, 2012

The mission of your second term just arrived covered in blood, @barackobama. If Congress gets in your way, we’ll throw them out. #enough

— Gerry Duggan (@GerryDuggan) December 14, 2012

RT @miafarrow: Gun control is no longer debatable- it’s not a ‘conversation’-It’s a moral mandate. ‘ / YES. The time is now.

— Martha Plimpton (@MarthaPlimpton) December 14, 2012

ok so….is now that time to have “the conversation”?

— Questo of The Roots (@questlove) December 14, 2012

twitter.com/PerezHilton/st…

— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) December 14, 2012

I’m trying to be more positive these days but people who say “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” – those people are fucking morons!

— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) December 14, 2012

Band-Aids-on-Band-Aids @nra people want MORE access to guns to combat all the people w access to guns.

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) December 14, 2012

Can’t wait for the NRA to come running out in defense of fire arms. Again.

— Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) December 14, 2012

What kind of nut case would shoot children at an elementary school and, a week before Christmas? A major nut case with a gun.

— Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) December 14, 2012

I pray that we do! RT @aidansdaddy619: @deepakchopra Can we ban guns now? #ConnecticutTragedy

— Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra) December 14, 2012

We can’t limit the crazy people in the world, but we can limit what they have access to.

— John Francis Daley (@JohnFDaley) December 14, 2012

Just landed 2 news of a school shtg in CT! how many times cn we hear politicians say we r all shocked and saddened 2day,then do nothing

— DL Hughley (@RealDlHughley) December 14, 2012

GUN CONTROL.A Glock and a Sig Sauer aren’t for hunting deer and they won’t protect ‘We the people’ from a drone attack.

— Caterina Scorsone (@caterinatweets) December 14, 2012

So sad to hear about babies being shot in America. The poor families. When will they outlaw firearms?

— boygeorge (@BoyGeorge) December 14, 2012

My sentiments exactly. GUN CONTROL!!! Get guns out of killers hands twitter.com/MARLONLWAYANS/…

— marlon wayans (@MARLONLWAYANS) December 14, 2012

Stop tweeting. Take action. m.house.gov

— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) December 14, 2012

The 2nd amendment doesn’t mention automatic weapons or mindless slaughter, maybe a review would be useful….?

— Right Said Fred(@TheFreds) December 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/NancyLeeGrahn/status/279639468003168257

Here seemingly normal guy, here’s a gun, hell, here’s 4. Hope u neverlose ur shit & kill a bunch of kids. Have a nice day. #Gunskill

— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) December 14, 2012

Next time, babies. Well done American gun zealots. Keep up the good work.

— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) December 14, 2012

School killings not acceptable trade-off for less restrictive gun laws. We need more controls on all firearms.Founding Fathers would agree.

— Andrew Zimmern (@andrewzimmern) December 14, 2012

The rights of those who own and use guns within legal parameters are not worth the lives wasted by those who do not.

— Ethan Suplee (@EthanSuplee) December 14, 2012

Today is NOT the day to talk about gun control, Today is the day to finally DO SOMETHING about it! bit.ly/Xne2Yu PLS RETWEET #Newtown

— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) December 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/JanelleMonae/status/279718081545269248

No Gun Control!Just people slaughtered! Second amendment my ass!

— Danny DeVito (@DannyDeVito) December 14, 2012

Its gonna b hard to b funny today with a heavy heart over school shootings. No more guns! Enough tragedy!

— John Leguizamo (@JohnLeguizamo) December 14, 2012

https://twitter.com/michaelurie/status/279654061891006464

OMG!! My prayers go out to all of the families affected by the school shooting in Connecticut!!My heart aches!! WHY?? #GuncontrolASAP

— Vivica A. Fox (@MsVivicaFox) December 14, 2012

Guns don’t kill people. Clouds and balloons kill people.Oh.Wait.Nope… it’s fucking guns.

— Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) December 14, 2012

How many times do thoughts&prayers have 2go out 2victims &their families b4 something gets done about gun violence in this country? #newtown

— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) December 14, 2012

This is the stupidest sentence ever spoken “Guns don’t kill people. People do.”#BradyBill #obama #guncontrol #connecticut

— Matthew Modine (@MatthewModine) December 14, 2012

#GUNCONTROL #OBAMA twitter.com/MatthewModine/…

— Matthew Modine (@MatthewModine) December 14, 2012

it’s too easy for a monster to get a gun. solution: NO ONE GETS GUNS. sorry if this is an inconvenience for your complete need to have one.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 14, 2012

Look at that number of dead kids and their teachers and tell me with a straight fucking face our laws are currently fine the way they are.

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 14, 2012

Gun control is our only road to freedom. Freedom from the fear of senselessly losing children. I’m so saddened. WE NEED LAWS NOW.

— Rashida Jones (@iamrashidajones) December 14, 2012

Gun lovers are the first to remind you this should be a “day of mourning”. How about we mourn & make it harder to get guns on the same day?

— Rashida Jones (@iamrashidajones) December 14, 2012

My heart breaks for the victims & community of Newtown. Impossible to grasp. Guns need to be banned & illegal sales need harsher punishment!

— Aubrey O’Day (@AubreyODay) December 14, 2012

So who is going to tell BOB COSTAS that he was wrong calling for gun sanity?

— Harvey Fierstein (@HarveyFierstein) December 14, 2012

Guns do nothing but encourage paranoid lunacy, arm fools and criminals, and rain grief and destruction down on the innocent.

— Harvey Fierstein (@HarveyFierstein) December 14, 2012

Heart aching over Connecticut. This doesn’t happen when people go nuts in Japan or UK because Americans are over-armed. We need to disarm!

— Sean Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) December 14, 2012

We have to unite as a country and BAN assault weapons …. NO private party needs a semi automatic …This has to stop !!

— Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) December 14, 2012

If this tragedy doesn’t change something in this country regarding guns…I just want to scream and cry. Deeply saddened. Praying.

— Kourtney Kardashian (@KourtneyKardash) December 14, 2012

Sick over what happened in the world this week.We need better gun laws. My heart goes out to all those affected by the horrors.

— Jai Rodriguez (@jairodriguez) December 14, 2012

When do we get to seriously talk about gun control?

— Denis O’Hare (@denisohare) December 14, 2012

@iamjhud for sure . Pray and take action.. Another WAKE UP for guns.

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) December 14, 2012

Hey people who govern:You know how afraid you are of the NRA? That’s NOTHING compared to the fear every parent shares today!

— Danny Zuker (@DannyZuker) December 14, 2012

Where is the love [?] I can’t believe this type of evil can happen…why would anyone kill children???…#protectchildrennotguns

— will.i.am (@iamwill) December 14, 2012

Explain the whole reason we need to have guns again? Just explain once more. I’m stupid. Somebody? Anybody?

— BD WONG (@BD_WONG) December 14, 2012

Our weekly mass shootings aren’t happening in other countries. And this time, children? WHEN WILL OUR “LEADERS” PUT AN END TO THIS INSANITY?

— Rachel Dratch (@TheRealDratch) December 14, 2012

A country that does nothing about gun control while witnessing the mass killings of innocent precious life, MUST wake up!Shattered.

— Goldie Hawn (@goldiehawn) December 14, 2012

Shocked and saddened by what happened today in Connecticut.We have to stop the access to guns in our country.

— Ben Stiller (@RedHourBen) December 14, 2012

I’m appalled by today’s shooting. The only reasonable reaction is to completely overhaul gun control policy. Anything else is disgraceful.

— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) December 14, 2012

Fuck the NRA and the cowardly politicians who refuse to do a single goddamn thing about gun violence in America.

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) December 14, 2012

Yeah, I’ll wade right the fuck into this: MORE gun control, MORE mental health services. It’s no longer a debate. Never was. #newtown

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) December 14, 2012

I know everybody’s sending prayers out now but when will we get beyond prayers and get to real, effective action?

— John Legend (@johnlegend) December 15, 2012

I love how Americans think gun control, universal health care, etc, are SO TERRIBLE but they work so well in every other developed country.

— John Legend (@johnlegend) December 15, 2012

For crying out loud.. Why not at least try gun control for some time and see if it works? We can always go back!

— Mark Ruffalo (@Mruff221) December 15, 2012

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE 2 HEAR”GUNMAN KILLS”FK The NRA !THEY PUT MONEY ABOVE YOUR CHILDREN’S LIVES.GUNS KILL PEOPLE,LITTLE INNOCENT 1’S

— Cher (@cher) December 15, 2012

Sorry but prayers and giving your kids hugs fix nothing; only having the balls to stand up to our insane selfish gun culture will.

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) December 15, 2012

These people are absolutely shameless. While they choose to exploit this horrific tragedy, we will continue to pray for the victims and their families.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/12/14/disgusting-lefty-celebs-crawl-out-to-politicize-newtown-conn-tragedy/

0 notes