#laser genesis before and after

[beautifychimedspa]

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[rottenpumpkin13]

Sephiroth doesn’t actually chase after laser pointers because of cat instincts. He just really is tired of this bullcrap and hopes there is a sniper on the other end to end his misery. Not like it would, if it ever actually was a sniper. His gosh darn reflexes and instincts would kick in before it ever met his mark. It’s happened before.

*Angeal and Genesis see Sephiroth slowly following a laser*

Angeal: How precious!

Genesis: Adorable!

*meanwhile*

Sephiroth: The sweet release of death continues to drift further from my reach.

[boredtechnologist]

Trauma Center: New Blood - “The Miracle of the Scalpel: When Flesh is the Last Lie”

“There are only two worlds: one before the incision, and one after.” - Markus Vaughn, unknowingly

Theology of the Artery: Where Prayer Fails, the Scalpel Reigns

In New Blood, God is not dead - He’s been sterilized.

Valerie and Markus do not walk into the operating room as saviors. They walk in as priests of decay, forced to perform sacrament without belief. Their “Healing Touch” isn’t divine. It’s desperate. Time halts, the blood flows backward - but only long enough to make the dying wait a little longer.

There is no resurrection here - only prolongation. Surgery is not salvation. It is ritual. A forced liturgy in the cathedral of the body, where instead of Eucharist, you offer local anesthesia and laser cauterization. What you save doesn’t stay saved. It just forgets it's dying - for now.

Stigma: The Gospel of Self-Inflicted Plague

Stigma - the viral antagonist - is not just disease. It is retribution. It is consequence. Markus helped create it. And like every Atlus anti-hero, his redemption arc is a weapon turned against himself.

Stigma is not evil. It’s answer. Not punishment from God, but the autoimmune response of reality to human arrogance. GUILT in Under the Knife was terrorism. Stigma is theology. Flesh becomes the scripture, and each mutation is a verse in the Book of the Failed God.

It doesn’t spread. It teaches.

It teaches that the divine cannot be bypassed with scalpels. That evolution itself is a curse disguised as innovation. That healing is nothing but domesticated heresy.

Caduceus: The False Church of Clinical Grace

Atlus always plays with institutions. In Persona, it’s the school. In Catherine, the bar. In New Blood, it’s the hospital - but one wired into global surveillance, military research, and biotech theocracy. Caduceus is a church that wears latex gloves and names its saints after pathogens.

The doctors are not believers. They are sinners begging for one more moment of false control. The OR is a confessional. The beeping monitor, a metronome of guilt.

You are not curing the sick. You are delaying judgment.

The Incision as Sin: Where Persona Lies, New Blood Cuts

In Persona 3–5, trauma is resolved through confrontation. Shadows defeated. Palaces collapsed. The inner world becomes negotiable.

In New Blood, there is no inner world - only inner organs.

When you open a chest cavity, there are no dreams. No metaphor. Just rot. New Blood refuses to lie to you. The Persona protagonists want to believe the soul can be healed. Markus and Valerie know the soul isn’t even in the body anymore. It left years ago, quietly, while they were suturing someone else's regrets.

Echoes of Other Atlus Worlds

Baroque taught us that guilt becomes architecture. In New Blood, guilt becomes diagnosis.

Shin Megami Tensei III dissolved morality in a vat of magatama and asked: What replaces the soul when it’s burned away? In New Blood, that replacement is sterile, coded, and inscribed with liability waivers.

13 Sentinels gave us simulations of flesh. New Blood gives us the consequence of touching it.

Catherine feared consequence. New Blood delivers it - in real time, with medical-grade accuracy.

The Healing Touch is a Lie

It’s not a miracle. It’s denial in bullet time.

Your divine gift lets you pause time, not transcend it. You can suture veins and extract tumors. But you cannot fix why they exist. You cannot heal what humans become when they stare too long into the microscope and decide they can rewrite the Book of Genesis with stem cells and scalpels.

Final Cut: The Gospel of Flesh Ends Here

In New Blood, Atlus says: You wanted to fix the world? Here’s a ribcage. Open it.

There’s no Persona to fuse. No heart to win. No god to summon. Just meat. Failing. Always. And you.

A doctor with trembling hands and a god complex. An apostle of antiseptic failure.

The lights dim. The monitors wail.

This is your Mass.

And you perform it with a scalpel.

[ceasarslegion]

From what i know about WW2 history as well as film history i do wonder if the "giant monsters, big mechs, advanced tech, existential threats to the whole of mankind, and the children will save the world" trope that is so ubiquitous in anime has anything to do with shifting social polarities in post-war Japan. I never really noticed it until a Kingdom Hearts boss guide pointed it out to me, but you don't really see that trope much in western media, unless it's media clearly inspired by anime like how Pacific Rim is basically a third culture kid director's live action take on Neon Genesis Evangelion. Meanwhile, that kind of larger-than-life existential sci-fi is in absolutely everything in Japanese pop culture.

Anime culture really came about in post-war Japan. You can see a lot of proto-anime in their cinema before and during the war, but anime really became ANIME afterwards, with all the unique forms of storytelling and artistry that is specific to anime. It's not like other forms of animation, it's really it's own beast, right down to the art style that isn't used anywhere else.

And I mean, it makes a weird sort of sense, if you think about it. You don't come out of what Japan went through without some serious nation-wide intergenerational... something. Isolationism, imperialist fascism, 2 atomic bombs, realizing they need to change with the world or it will leave them behind, thrusting themselves into the tech sector to try to get away from that sordid past, but the foundations that created that sordid past are still there in their grind culture that is somewhat reflective of the old samurai. There is undoubtedly a weird pull there, where one side is pulling them towards the future, while the other towards tradition, meanwhile if you live in modern Japan your grandparents probably remember being A-bombed.

Technology is rarely if ever portrayed as anything less than positive progress in anime. It's always a tool to destroy this organic monstrous enemy homegrown in Japan. Even if there's some really bad caveat to its use (like in, again... Neon Genesis Evangelion. I wish I could turn my shitty coworkers into LCL), it's the ONLY way to defeat it. It's a necessary evil, and therefore a public good. Technology usually represents the future in sci fi, and the fact it's usually teenage and young adult heroes who wield it I don't think is a coincidence.

And then you grow this media presence that becomes known for its use of giant monsters and fighting robots and kid heroes who spit in the face of tradition to rip them apart with laser beams. The jokes about Dragon Ball Z super saiyan fire balls are funny, but I wonder how much those things come from this desire among the younger post-war generations to break from this isolated traditionalism that led to their role in the axis atrocities of WW2, and how much they've been uncritically looking to the future to do so, by any means necessary?

Godzilla is the personification of both the Nazism and the bombings it led to, after all. Like he wasn't just a big scary lizard, he was the monster they had to defeat to preserve themselves from destruction.

[pluckyredhead]

I am still reading my way through the Fourth World! Last time I talked about all the stuff published in the 70s; now let's talk about the 80s.

Kirby:

New Gods #12: In 1984, DC reprinted Kirby's original New Gods run and threw in an extra issue (not to be confused with Gerry Conway's New Gods #12) so that Kirby could finish the story. This was partially DC being nice and trying to give an aging Kirby money, and partially not because they refused to let him produce the ending he wanted, which was Orion and Darkseid both dying. After a couple scrapped versions, we got this, in which Orion goes down in a hail of laser fire. It's a real bummer, but at least he's extremely homoerotic with his best buddy Lightray first? (Oh, they're getting a whole separate post, just you wait.)

The Hunger Dogs: This "graphic novel" (it's only 64 pages but back then that counted) came out a year later and was the "conclusion" to the Fourth World saga. Once again DC and Kirby butted heads because Kirby really wanted to kill everyone and DC was like "But our IP!!!" In the final version, only supporting characters Himon and Esak die, which is sad but not going to do any damage to DC's bottom line.

It turns out Orion is not dead despite being riddled with holes (there's an intriguing suggestion that he has some kind of healing ability because he possesses the Life Equation, which like everything else in this book is presented with zero context or explanation), which is great because it gives him an opportunity to be homoerotic with Lightray again, although he has also been given an Obligatory Heterosexual Love Interest, Himon's daughter Bekka.

Anyway this book is baffling. Highfather blows up New Genesis (everyone survives) to taunt Darkseid, who is overthrown by the downtrodden masses of Apokalips. There's some shouting about the dangers of technology and maybe some anti-Cold War rhetoric about stockpiling weapons, but it's all so hysterically overblown - Kirby at his most grandiose - that it's nearly impossible to parse beyond "war bad." I do appreciate that Orion is able to break free of his rage and death wish and just...leave Darkseid behind, but the fact that he's emotionally mature enough to do that now comes pretty much out of nowhere. The art is extremely powerful, at least.

My final thought is that Kirby clearly gleefully ignored everything Englehart, Conway, et al. did and I love that for him.

Super Powers: Darkseid fights the Justice League. This was a comic created to sell a toy line and you can really, really tell.

Post-Kirby:

Legends: I've read this before, but it's great. If you like pre-Flashpoint DC, you should definitely read this, which introduces Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad, sets up the JLI, and brings Wonder Woman into the post-Crisis DCU. Neither Orion nor Scott are present but this (along with the Happyland issue of the original Forever People) really makes the case for why Glorious Godfrey is one of Kirby's best and scariest Fourth World creations. And I will never complain about John Byrne art.

Forever People (1988): Blecch. It's definitely arrogant to read something and think "I know for certain that Jack Kirby, a man I never met who died when I was a child, would have hated this" but like. I'm right. And it's obvious from the very first page.

Basically, at the end of Kirby's series, the FP were marooned on a random, idyllic planet somewhere with no hope of getting home, so they embraced it as their new, hopeful future. This catches up with them years later, with Serifan (the sweet young kid) drooling and raving alone in the woods, Vykin (the only Black character) dead (he gets better), and the rest of them...living in yuppie paradise? Apparently the planet they ended up on was populated (missing the point) with "primitive" people (racist) so they decided to use Mother Box to forcibly "evolve" the people (SO RACIST) and were able to create...modern-day America? Literally why would they even do that, they're from New Genesis. Mark is mayor and married with kids, and Big Bear and Beautiful Dreamer are married to each other with a baby on the way.

Anyway a nebulous villain/evil force called "the Dark" undoes everything which brings Vykin back to life but takes away Mark's wife and kids (she's alive but still "primitive" and the kids were never born) and Bear and Dreamer's unborn child, which means the only female protagonist spends the whole rest of the miniseries clutching her stomach and going "my baby!" I absolutely don't mean to make light of pregnancy loss but this doesn't feel like a story about a three-dimensional woman experiencing pregnancy loss. It feels like a story that reduces a woman to a) whether or not she's having a baby, which is the only thing she cares about and b) the central point on a vague love triangle with Mark and Bear. SIGH.

Meanwhile they all go to Earth for...some reason...and then Mark gets possessed by the Dark and is evil for a while but then they manage to summon Infinity Man and Mark isn't evil anymore. And it's bafflingly revealed that they're all from Earth in the first place from random different historical time periods and Highfather kidnapped them as babies. Okay???

The Forever People are perhaps Kirby's purest and most optimistic characters, and this cynical take on them actively angered me even though I don't actually care about them at all. I've also basically never cared for J. M. DeMatteis's writing outside of JLI, and I don't like Paris Cullins's art, so this book just had absolutely nothing going for it for me.

Cosmic Odyssey: I do not trust Jim Starlin with the New Gods since I know he's going to kill them all off in 2007. This is...fine, I guess? Starlin really does not like Orion, who he has slaughter a bunch of innocent, brainwashed Thanagarians, and also be deeply bigoted against Forager. Everything else is...fine? It's basically all action. The only character who has an emotional arc is John Stewart because this is the story where he fails to save Xanshi because he's being an overconfident moron, but the moral at the end of the comic is like "Get over it already" so...that happens. It's fine.

But man, that Mike Mignola artwork is worth the price of admission alone. That guy's great at drawing.

Mister Miracle Special: The plot of this is that Barda doesn't want Scott to be an escape artist anymore because it's too dangerous, even though a) she's a warrior of Apokalips and b) he's an active Justice League member and she seems fine with that. So okay.

Mister Miracle (1989): Okay, so the basic premise here - Scott and Barda try to adjust to normal life in the suburbs - is good. And it's a spiritual spinoff of JLI, which is of course one of my favorite books of all time. But this book is like...imagine someone screaming "Iiiiiiit's WACKY!" over your shoulder constantly while you're reading. That's what reading Mister Miracle (1989) is like. Highfather wears a tuxedo! Funky Flashman shows up a lot! Scott fights a giant alien noodle! Some of it is actually funny, but most of it is trying so hard to be funny that it's just exhausting.

There are some interesting character moments in there. Scott, Barda, and Orion all get to call Highfather out. Orion mentions wishing he was closer to Scott. There are hints at Scott's depression and suicidal tendencies, which I find really fascinating. But all of it is always immediately overshadowed by ZANINESS.

Anyway, I think we as DC fans deserve a do-over with a new Scott and Barda book about their lovingly domestic (kinky) life together on Earth that is funny but not desperately mugging for laughs in every panel. And I think it should be set in Vegas where Scott has a residency. Call me, DC!

New Gods (1989): This book was mostly written by Mark Evanier (a couple issues were by Starlin), who was one of Kirby's assistants back when he was originally creating the Fourth World, so you might think it would feel the closest to a continuation of Kirby's vision. Instead, I am making it Exhibit A in my argument for why a character should never be assigned to a writer who obviously fucking hates their guts.

I mean, I don't know that Evanier hates Orion. But boy does he write him like he does. Starlin's Orion (who again, we get a couple issues of here) is a monster, but Evanier's Orion is just an incompetent idiot, forever slamming himself against the brick wall of his inevitably becoming his father. Almost every single issue has at least one character, often multiple characters, bemoaning Orion's absolutely unproductive violence and inability to learn or comprehend basic concepts that should not be at all new to him after living most of his life on New Genesis (i.e. justice, mercy, compassion). Even fucking Kalibak is like "Wow, you're a useless idiot." Kalibak! The king of useless idiots!

The comic is so into hating on Orion that it hates on him when he's not actually doing anything bad; at one point he walks into a nuclear reaction that's melting down in a desperate attempt to stop it before it kills everyone, and Big Bear is like "Wow, he's just like his father." REALLY, BIG BEAR? Show me the comic where Darkseid risks his life to save thousands of strangers. I'll wait.

This series also features:

a hawkish, bloodthirsty New Genesis military leader who keeps trying to overthrow Highfather, which both seems to undercut the whole point of New Genesis as well as Orion's uniqueness as The Angry Guy;

an Earth woman with the worst gaydar in the universe repeatedly failing to fuck an increasingly uncomfortable Lightray;

but then Lightray falls in love with a dead woman he never met?;

also Orion gets a crush on a bug lady and learns to stop being racist against bugs (she's not impressed and good for her)

and Lightray and Orion parade around Earth in the WORST fashions of the late 80s/early 90s, which is about all this book has going for it.

Anyway it was bad and I'm glad I'm done with it. Next up: the 90s!

[jabmanjoshua]

Was Doug TenNapel's Gear inspired by Evangelion?

DISCLAIMER: This will probably contain spoilers for both of the above-mentioned series.

A while back, I read Doug TenNapel's Graphic Novel "Gear," his first big comic story that started his career as a "comic-er" as he once put it.

Gear tells the story of four cats in a world at war with cats, dogs, and insects. All of which have access to giant robots called "Guardians" and the fabled "forbidden mechanism" that has the power to turn the tables for whoever uses it.

It's an interesting story, one with some aspects that feel strangely familiar. More specifically, it made me think of a certain 90s mech anime... Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Now, before I say anything else, let me just say that I don't know if Doug TenNapel ever watched NGE or not, but there are at least a few similarities that seem almost too close to be a coincidence, which I'm going to point out here.

1. Timing.

According to Doug in the bonus material section of Gear's 20th anniversary edition release, He started writing Gear in 1997, the first issue of Gear was published by Fireman press on November 1998 and the last issue came out in April 1999.

NGE Started airring in Japan in 1995 with the last episode airring on March 27, 1996.

AD Vision A.K.A. ADV Films Dubbed the series in English in 1996 to 1998.

This means Doug TenNapel could've seen the show prior to or maybe even during writing Gear.

2. Weapons of War.

In NGE, the Eva pilots mainly have two weapons at their disposal, guns, and a plasma powered knife called the "Progressive Knife" or "Prog Knife."

In Gear, they are quite a few guns. including ones built into at least some of the guardians, and while there aren't any plasma powered knives that resemble giant carpet knives, We do see Gordon, one of the main four cats carry around a knife that becomes an important part of the story towards the end, however in the original Fireman press version of the comic, we see him use his knife to take out a few unsuspecting dog troops during the blood rage scene. also, while the guns shoot lasers in the 20th anniversary edition, in the original they fire bullets.

3. Angels of Lore.

In NGE, The world is under attack by giant powerful mysterious creatures referred to as "Angels."

Gear doesn't have such beings in its story however, the title character, a somewhat bumbling robot at one point refers to Heaven as "his home" which sounds odd until you look at the temple catacombs, which contain a hieroglyphic depicting the origins of the forbidden mechanism, revealing that it was forged from the remains of an angel that fell to earth after being defeated by a demon.

This implies that Gear isn't just a robot, but a robot with the soul of an angel.

4. Familiar Smells.

At one point in NGE, the main character, Shinji, notices that the smell of Eva Unit 01's cockpit reminds him of his mother.

In Gear, after Waffle undergoes "Geno Mutation" and turns into a guardian, Gordon notes that the guardian is not only the same color as Waffle but also smells like him.

5. Soul in the Shell.

Near the end of NGE, It's revealed (kind of) that Units 01 and 02 absorbed the souls of Shinji's mother and Asuka's mother, and their souls reside inside their Evas.

In Gear, during what seems like a miracle, Gear uses his power to the souls of Waffle and an insect named Chee into their guardian bodies to aid in the final battle.

6. The Mastermind.

In NGE, Shinji's father Gendo has an ulterior motive of bringing about the "The Human Instrumentality Project" in an attempt to reunite with his deceased wife Yui.

In Gear, Emperor Pago wants the forbidden mechanism to power up his guardian and conquer the world.

7. Blood in the Machine.

In NGE, The Evas are humanoid and are able to bleed.

In Gear, we see Waffle's bleed as he is crushed by Pago's guardian,

and we see Pago's guardian also bleed when Gear stabs himself to stop him.

8. Finding God.

NGE has many references to the Bible, Christianity, and Catholicism. From the aforementioned angles to the names of said angels (that apparently aren't mentioned in the actual show for some reason), to symbolic crosses seen throughout the series.

Gear is a bit more subtle with it's references to Christianity and the Bible, namely a panel consisting of the character Simon giving an account of Heaven, the implication of Gear having the soul of an angel as mentioned earlier, and Pago quoting Goliath during the final battle.

One thing I will point out is that technically Doug first started referencing Christianity in his work with The Neverhood, a PC point-and-click adventure game that released (ironically) in 1996.

If Doug did see Evangelion, maybe it inspired him to reference his faith in his stories. After all, if a weird Japanese mech anime could do it, why couldn't he?

That's all the similarities I noticed. Was Doug inspired by Evangelion? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.

[juiceboxwisdom]

💥 “God Isn’t Some Dude in the Sky — It’s Just Us, Fumbling Through the Void and Somehow Not Dying” aka: Welcome to My Juice Box-Fueled TED Talk

Alright, real quick — can I say something that might piss off like… 72% of the Earth? Cool. I’m running on caffeine and emotional confusion anyway, so let’s roll.

You know how people believe in God? Like, some divine being chilling up in the sky, pulling the strings and making everything happen? Yeah… I can’t wrap my brain around that. Like, genuinely can’t.

And just so we’re 100% clear — I’m not talking about any spirit, cosmic force, or magic sky-parents. I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in gods. I don’t believe in fairy tale sky-dads. (But hey, I get why people believe — life’s wild and scary, and faith can be a real comfort. This is just how I see it.)

What I do believe in is something way messier — way more human.

Because, real talk — humans come into this world dumb as hell. Like soggy-wet-tortilla-level dumb. We pop out knowing literally nothing. I only learned knives were dangerous after slicing myself, even though my mom warned me like 87 times. That’s how we learn: pain, trial and error, and a few bonus emotional meltdowns.

There were those super unethical history experiments (because kings back then were straight-up unhinged) where babies were raised in isolation to see if they’d develop language or survival skills on their own. Spoiler: they all died. No connection, no instinct, no chance. Because humans don’t magically “know” stuff. We learn it. The hard way.

So how am I supposed to believe that the first humans — Adam and Eve or whoever — just magically knew how to survive?

Did God sit them down before Earth-launch and give them a PowerPoint titled “Survival 101”? Was there a Day 0 orientation? Did he even give them “The Talk”? 💀 Did He pull out a divine laser pointer and say, “Okay, kiddos, this is a tree, this is a snake, and that feeling you’re having? That’s horniness. Go forth.” Because I’m not seeing any user manual in Genesis — just vibes and garden duty.

It sounds less like divine perfection and more like two confused naked Sims wandering around on tutorial mode.

And that’s what got me thinking: If there’s no sky-dad running the show, then where does that weird spark inside us come from?

I don’t think God is a guy in the clouds micromanaging our lives like some divine Google Calendar. I think God’s a metaphor — a name we gave to the messy, chaotic spark inside us all.

Our imagination. Our curiosity. Our creativity. That little voice pushing us to build, adapt, scream, dream, and survive — even when everything’s falling apart.

We’re the ones who touched fire and got burned. Fell off cliffs. Got bitten by snakes. And still got up and said, “Okay, that sucked. Let’s not do that again.”

We invented the wheel. Electricity. Phones. Language. That wasn’t some divine being handing out cheat codes. It was us, failing and trying again until it finally worked.

So maybe when ancient people felt that strange spark inside — that inspiration, that urge to figure things out — they didn’t have the words for it. So they called it God.

But here’s the thing: I don’t believe God’s a person or a power. I believe God is just a name for us — the raw, flawed humans who keep doing the damn work. Bleeding, learning, building, crying, and trying again.

That moment when a puzzle clicks after hours of chaos? When something you’ve been spiraling over finally makes sense? When you create something out of thin air and go, “Wait… where the hell did that come from?”

That’s not God. That’s you.

Not some floating sky-dad watching you forget your Gmail password for the sixth time. That spark that helps us survive the mess — that little voice that says, “Okay, I have no clue what I’m doing, but I’m gonna figure it out anyway.”

God as a word? Yeah, it’s messy and confusing. But if you need a name for that stubborn human spirit inside, that’s what I’m riffing on.

So yeah. I don’t believe in God — but I believe in that little spark that keeps us trying anyway. Maybe I’m just a 17-year-old running on too much caffeine and not enough therapy. But maybe that’s exactly when the truth leaks out a little.

And no — I’m not starting a cult. I’m not trying to be Jesus from Temu™. I’m just gonna post this, sip my juice box, and wait for the Catholic aunties to screech at me in the replies.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Peace, love, and divine nonsense. ✌️🍹

[physicsgoblin]

okay i just reread Genesis 25-27 after reading your post and came back to share my thoughts, because i agree it IS very interesting that Isaac's initial blessing cannot be rescinded or outdone. i see it as a combination of a few different things: 

1) Isaac favors Esau his firstborn who spends time hunting for and feeding his dad, and Rebekah favors Jacob her secondborn who spends time at home "in the tents" which seems like it indicates that Jacob spent more time learning the ways of the household and taking care of his parents, growing his bond with his mother. Isaac himself is arguably the secondborn of Abraham, favored by God, for his laser-focus on God's promises. he doesn't take his eye off the ball. but 

2) Esau does. he gives up his birthright — which is God-given to the firstborn (i don't have a source for this besides tradition but i'm pretty sure sources exist) — when Jacob trades him a bowl of stew for it. specifically, he SWEARS it, which means it's an oath taken by them both before God. so, when 

3) later, Isaac tries to bless Esau, he's trying to bless him the equivalent of his birthright, regardless of whether Isaac knew the trade had occurred. i'd argue that this is partially Isaac's fault for waiting so late to bless his sons until his eyes were going, but tbh there's a whole host of weird stuff going on with Isaac's first blessing. he phrases it specifically to give the recipient total dominion, including over Jacob's brothers and family. a blind king has no business passing down the crown to someone he can't even see. it's pride, but it's also a yoke around the neck of whoever DOESN'T receive that blessing (assuming it carries the power that Isaac expects it to, which we must assume it will). in the context of the last point, i don't see this as a separate instance of Jacob stealing out something from under Esau; rather it's more like God making both Esau and Isaac face the consequences of Esau's carelessness with his God-given birthrights and Isaac's relentless preferential treatment (and, arguably, pride). we see, later in Genesis 28, Isaac continuing to bless Jacob, which is literally a blessing in turn unto Isaac (because whoever blesses Jacob will be blessed in turn). very interesting stuff, but i'm out of steam.

uhhh TL;DR: the bestowing of the two blessings to Jacob and Esau were a continuation and consequence of Esau relinquishing his birthright. God overruled Isaac's will because of Esau's own choice, and He inspired Rebekah to make sure that her favored son, Jacob, had a seat at the table no matter what. i think it's very cool!

Good points. It's also interesting that again, birthright and oath is a binding thing that can be bought and sold. Also you made me realize I wrote Abraham when I meant to wrote Issac throughout the whole thing

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 64 - 65: Two Multi-part Finale (part 8: The lead-up to the death of pre-boot ArchieSonic)

Welcome back to my investigation of how Archie Comics’ Sonic the Hedgehog series was actually a syndicated cartoon from the 80’s and 90’s!

Well friends, it’s finally time for me to talk about the moment that changed the ArchieSonic comics forever. Almost, at least. Before I talk about the final issues of pre-boot ArchieSonic, I think a brief summary of how they got to that point is in order.

Hahahahaha! Brief! Oh, that’s rich! Let’s be honest - there was so much that happened leading up to the activation of the second Genesis Wave that it really deserves a post all of its own to catch everyone up to speed.

After the Iron Dominion was ousted from New Mobotropolis, Sonic and his friends had a bit of a respite. Well it was a respite compared to what they had recently gone through, anyway. Sonic and Sally caught up with their friend Lupe, newly crowned chieftain of the Wolf Pack Nation, and helped her negotiate a peace with a rival tribe. Bunnie was reunited with her long lost Uncle Beauregard, only to find that he’d had to join Eggman’s forces out of desperation to survive. Antoine and Bunnie finally got to go on their honeymoon courtesy of Tails and his submarine, but the happy occasion was rudely interrupted by the Battlebird Armada. Just your everyday shenanigans for the heroes of New Mobotropolis. The real problems began when Geoffrey St. John asked Sonic to help him retrieve a Chaos Emerald from the Special Zone, at which point Geoffrey left Sonic incapacitated and took the Emerald for himself.

It was then revealed that the entire time the Freedom Fighters had known him, Geoffrey had secretly been an apprentice to the wizard Ixis Naugus, who was currently an insane, drooling shell of his former self. Geoffrey used the Chaos Emerald to restore Naugus’ mind, and together they started plotting to take the throne from King Elias.

While the former King Max had been trapped in the Zone of Silence he had sworn fealty to Naugus for his own protection, so Naugus felt he had a legitimate claim to the throne. To help in his takeover, Naugus used his magic to increase the fear and mistrust the citizens of New Mobotropolis had for Nicole, who had been mind-controlled (albeit briefly) to help the Iron Queen take control of the city during the recent invasion of the Iron Dominion. When Naugus came to the city council claiming that he could protect everyone from Nicole, some of the councillors were scared enough to think he was worth listening to, as was a large chunk of the public. 

Before the rightful King could be determined, Eggman launched his new Death Egg and the Freedom Fighters scrambled to try and stop him. Sonic and Sally managed to infiltrate the battleship, but Sally got gunned down while Sonic was distracted fighting a new Silver Sonic.

At this moment Eggman activated the Genesis Wave, rewriting the entire world to become an adaptation of Sonic 1 and 2 but with the Freedom Fighters along for the ride. Super Sonic was able to undo the Genesis Wave and restore the world to normal, even rewinding time enough to be able to save Sally from being BLAM-BLAM-BLAMed, but unfortunately this didn’t last. Eggman had a backup weapon ready to roboticise the entire planet and Sally sacrificed herself to destroy it, becoming a robot herself.

Things quickly got worse from there. Eggman escaped with his shiny new Mecha Sally, and Naugus was able to seize the throne. Bunnie was accidentally crystallised by Naugus when he was deflecting a laser attack on the city, and when Naugus tried to reverse the crystallisation he also accidentally removed her cyborg parts, restoring her to a fully flesh and blood rabbit. While Bunnie was initially ovejoyed, she she soon became concerned that without her bionic parts and special abitilies, she would no longer be able to be a Freedom Fighter. The city was devastated in an attack from the Battlebird Armada, with King Naugus forbidding Nicole from helping to rebuild. Geoffrey was put on trial for treason against the former King Elias and found guilty, but was officially pardoned by Naugus and continued to serve him. For the safety of his family Elias left New Mobotropolis, and while protecting his convoy the Freedom Fighters came under attack by Eggman.

Antoine valiantly saved Elias and his family from Metal Sonic but was blown up in the process. He survived but was left comatose, and Bunnie, wracked with guilt for not being able to protect him, also left the city, “To make things right.” Nicole was also overcome by guilt and grief at being unable to protect her friends, and with the citizens and the council both demanding her removal, she agreed to be exiled to Freedom HQ.

With the team at their lowest of lows and only himself, Tails and Amy remaining, Sonic dejectedly declared that the Freedom Fighters were finished. Tails and Amy weren’t going to stand for that though, and helped Sonic to not give in to his despair.

At the same time Rotor had resigned from the city council in protest of their treatment of Nicole, and so he worked with Sonic, Tails and Amy to figure out their next move. Rotor ended up staying in New Mobotropolis and becoming the leader of a new group of heroes with the mission of protecting the city: Team Freedom.

For this team Rotor recruited Big the Cat, Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao), and Heavy and Bomb, two robots that had formerly served on Geoffrey’s Secret Service team but had had to be destroyed after Eggman had captured them and reprogrammed them to take the Royal Family hostage. Meanwhile Sonic, Tails and Amy formed Team Fighters, and flew off in the Tornado to take the fight to Eggman. 

Unbeknownst to Team Freedom and Team Fighters, there was a third team operating from the shadows to keep the people safe. Elias’ departure from New Mobotropolis had actually been a ruse, and he soon returned to subvert his successor’s regime. Working together with former intelligence head Harvey Who, Elias found himself the leader of an extremely unlikely group of individuals. First on the roster was Silver the Hedgehog, who was back from the future to try and prevent the end of the world (again). On a quest to root out a “traitor” that had destroyed the Freedom Fighters, Silver had accused first Sonic, then Rotor, and now on this most recent trip back in time, Antoine.

As you can see, that didn’t exactly go well. But afterwards Silver had met Harvey Who, who had offered to help him discover and prevent the real cause of the destruction of the Freedom Fighters. Leeta and Lyco of the former Wolf Pack Freedom Fighters travelled to New Mobotropolis to sign up, and former Substitute Freedom Fighter Larry Lynx the super jinx also joined, hoping to make a difference for his city after having been absent from the comics since the 1990’s (aside from a small cameo where Rotor had accidentally blown him up). But perhaps the most surprising member of this team was a newly rebuilt model of Metal Sonic - specifically, the one that had tried to murder Sonic and Tails immediately following the Sonic Adventure arc. This model had been powered by a… power gem (really creative name there, Ken Penders) that had enhanced his speed, given him the ability to repair himself, and also caused him to develop a personality. Sonic had fought this Metal Sonic atop an active volcano and tried to reason with him, telling him he could live his own life rather than being ruled by a thirst for power and vengeance. Metal Sonic had been unconvinced at first, but when Tails refused to abandon his friend despite the volcano starting to erupt, something clicked in the robot’s programming.

Metal Sonic sacrificed himself to hold back the lava flow long enough for Sonic and Tails to escape, and was reduced to a molten husk. Much later back in the present day, Uncle Chuck had gotten his hands on the power gem that still contained Metal Sonic’s personality and programming, and combined it with the parts of other previously destroyed Metal Sonics to create a new robot, Shard.

And so after all the lows and losses they’d recently experienced, things finally seemed to be looking up for the heroes.

Team Freedom worked well together, managing to save the city from an attacking Eggman as well as several bizarre “accidents” that could have seen many people hurt if they’d not intervened.

Team Fighters managed to intercept Eggman at a number of locations where he was causing trouble, and while they were unable to capture Mecha Sally on any of those occasions, they were at least able to save the local citizens and disrupt Eggman’s plans. With with some help from Mina Mongoose, Nicole was able to overcome her grief and guilt and start working with the Secret Freedom Fighters. These masked heroes secretly provided backup for Team Freedom from the shadows, as well as stopping King Naugus’ plot to take over the city council with a mind control spell.

Surprisingly they got some help in this mission from none other than Geoffrey. Naugus’ apprentice had been aiding the wizard because he legitimately thought he would be an improvement over the rule of the Acorns and would provide stability, but started to turn against him when he realised Naugus was still a moustache-twirling villain with plans for world domination. 

But while things were getting better for the comic characters, there was a big problem behind the scenes at Archie Comics, and that problem’s name was Ken Penders. I won’t go into detail because it’s a long and tedious whole thing, and many others have written about it better than I. But to cut a long story short, Ken Penders was trying to claim copyright ownership of the characters he’d created back when he was working on the Sonic series, and he and Archie Comics eventually wound up in court because of it. As Penders was hired under a work for hire contract, everything he’d written under that contract should have been the property of SEGA. However Archie were unable to provide that original documentation, and so the whole lawsuit debacle was eventually brought to a close with a settlement. The details of this settlement weren’t exactly public knowledge, but the fans reading the comics noticed a number of changes and were able to read between the lines that things hadn’t exactly gone well for Archie. 

While there were a number of little indicators that made the readers theorise about what was going on behind the scenes, the first massive red flag came with the Chaotix Quest arc in Sonic Universe #46 - 49. The solicits for the first two issues of this arc had said that Vector, Charmy and Espio would be linking up with the Mercian Freedom Fighters, and everyone assumed that would include Rob o’ the Hedge (especially as he was shown front and centre on the originally advertised cover for Sonic Universe #47). However when the issues came out both Rob and his wife Mari-An - two of the many characters that Ken Penders had been trying to get copyright for - had been written out of the story, and in their place were two new characters with similar appearances and roles, Bow Sparrow and Thorn the Lop. 

Things got even worse in the main Sonic series because the now-infamous arc called Endangered Species was kicking off in Sonic the Hedgehog #243. This four-issue arc originally involved Team Fighters travelling to the echidna homeland of Albion to aid the locals against an invasion by the Dark Egg Legion. Unfortunately, the majority of the comic-exclusive characters in this arc were also ones that Penders had been trying to get copyright for.

While the first issue survived mostly intact aside from some dialogue and minor art changes, the rest of the arc had to be tossed out and completely rewritten at the eleventh hour. Issue #244 picked up a few hours after the climax of the previous issue with Knuckles arriving on the scene to find every last echidna was gone, banished to another dimension by Thrash the Tasmanian Devil.

Thrash was on a quest for revenge against the species that had doomed his own to near-extinction, and was taking great pleasure in returning the favour. Now instead of fighting against the Dark Egg Legion, Knuckles and Team Fighters found themselves dealing with Thrash and his devil-dog siblings, as well as a previous enemy called the Krudzu Hybrid Hydra, who was now inhabiting the robotic shell of a wrecked Metal Knuckles. Shard, who also wasn’t originally planned to be in this arc, showed up to lend a hand too.

Jesus bloody christ, what a nightmare. Mad props to Ian Flynn, Tracey Yardley, Steven Butler, and everyone else on the Archie team who had to scramble to make all those changes with little to no warning. I can’t even imagine what must have been going through Ian’s head when he was told that on top of the numerous changes he had to make to the scripts for those Sonic Universe issues and the first issue of Endangered Species, that he would also have to throw out and entirely rewrite three entire issues at the last minute. Not to mention the frustration he must have felt to have multiple stories planned around so many characters he could no longer use. Both Geoffrey St John and Elias Acorn were central figures in the plots for the Secret Freedom Fighters and King Naugus arc, and they were now off limits. Most of the other Secret Freedom Fighters were also now banned, as was the New Mobotropolis council, the Freedom Fighters’ parents and other family members, Chaotix members Julie-Su and Saffron Bee (who were written out of the story in Endangered Species by having them among Thrash’s victims), and hundreds of other characters. Some readers theorised that Ian had let his frustration with Penders find its way into the dialogue of the comic.

At any rate, the Endangered Species arc ended with Team Fighters once again in pursuit of Eggman’s Death Egg while Knuckles mourned his losses and had to come to grips with once again being the last echidna.

But now Ian and the team at Archie had a giant mess on their hands. With such a large part of their cast and planned plots no longer usable, how were they supposed to move forward? That’s what I’ll be looking at in my next post, when I discuss the final two issues of pre-boot ArchieSonic: Sonic Universe #50 and Sonic the Hedgehog #247. Stay tuned!

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 23

"Heads up, NERV, becuase the 16th Angel is going to bring you down! That's right, you may have defeated all those other Angels, but I'm even stronger than all of them put together! I'm like a laser rope or something, and I've got creepy powers that let me burrow under people's skin or whatever. Oh, and those big guns your Evas use? Big deal! Those don't work on me! Now, take your best shot, humans, because it's the only chance you're gonna... wait."

"Kid, are you okay? Uh... don't you want to shoot at me or something?"

"Ma'am, I think the red one's having some kind of problem, maybe you could send out... Ma'am? Hello?"

"Uh... maybe I should come back tomorrow? Is that okay? Yeah, we'll pick this up some other time. Uh... sorry about... whatever just happened. Yeesh."

So Asuka is doing... well, I wouldn't call it "okay", but she's playing video games all day and spending every night at her friends' house. I mean, there's probably worse ways to cope with everything she's been through.

The SEELE group is mad at Gendo Ikari for several reasons, but most recently he lost the Lance of Longius during the most recent Angel battle, and they seem to think it's extremely important to their future plans. Gendo argues that the top priority of NERV is to destroy the Angels, and the Lance was the only way to do that. But they don't see it that way. During this little conference, another Angel is sighted over Tokyo-3, so Gendo excuses himself to deal with that. Meanwhile, SEELE openly worries that Gendo will betray them soon.

Let me try to summarize what I know about these guys. They seem to have something called the "Dead Sea Scrolls", which apparently allows them to predict certain future events. It occurred to me today that the name "Dead Sea Scrolls" may be a reference to the site of Second Impact, since Admiral Clownshoes once compared the waters of post-Impact Antarcica as a literal "dead sea".

Anyway, the SEELE plan apparently is their agenda to guide humanity beyond the dangers predicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The NERV Agency is charged with executing that plan, and SEELE also seems to believe that the Lance of Longius is critical to their success. They also think there should be at least eight Eva Units active.

But Gendo Ikari can barely keep three Evas in the field at the same time, and he seems to think that the only one he absolutely needs is Unit 01. So SEELE is mad about the destruction of Units 03 and 04, and the Lance being chucked into outer space, but Gendo Ikari considers this acceptable losses.

SEELE's dilemma is that they don't like or trust Gendo, but they have no alternative but to let him run the show. He's the only one who can, and yet they seem adamant that they understand the situation better than he does. Recently, they tried to turn Admiral Clownshoes against Gendo, but nothing came of it, so now they need another pawn to use against him. This turns out to be Ritsuko Akagi, so seems to be a better choice, since she actually knows more about what's going on.

So with the 16th Angel headed their way, the only one ready to fight it is Rei in Unit 00. Shinji is set up in Unit 01, but Gendo doesn't want to use him because no one is sure what might happen after that latest incident where Unit 01 went berserk and ate an Angel. As for Unit 02, Asuka suits up one more time to pilot it, but her sync rating has declined to the point where she literally can't operate the Eva anymore. Gendo orders it launched for use as a decoy, but it can't even step off the elevator when it reaches the surface. This doesn't help Asuka's morale at all.

Anyway, I think that's a really cool screenshot of Rei up there. I don't know, she just looks really sharp.

The Angel goes right for Rei, who grab it, but her gun is ineffective, and the Angel sends some sort of creepy veins into her Eva, and then into her own body.

Like Shinji from before, she experiences some sort of vision of another being, which appears in her form. Once again, I can't tell if this is the Angel or her own Eva. It offers to merge with her, and she refuses.

She snaps out of it and realizes that she was the one crying over her loneliness, and not the other she encountered in her mind. I think the Angel's effect on her is supposed to be intensely painful, but Rei's so stoic and unexpressive that she just isn't letting on.

With no other options, Gendo deploys Shinji to assist, but Rei doesn't want to put him at risk, so she activates some sort of self-destruct on her Eva. She refuses to abandon the Eva, because she needs to stay with it to maintain its AT field. I'm not sure why the self-destruct would work, since Rei already shot the Angel at point-blank range with no effect, but it does destroy the target, so I guess she knows what she's doing.

Ritsuko leads a recovery mission and they find the entry plug from Unit 00, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence of survivors.

Afterward, Misato tries to comfort Shinji but he refuses any affection from her, as it his wont. Then Misato gets a phone call...

And Rei's alive! Suspiciously, she has all the same injuries she had when she debuted in Episode 1, but I don't know if that's supposed to mean anything. Shinji thanks Rei for sacrificing Unit 00 to save him from the Angel's powers, but she has no memory of doing that.

Shinji doesn't understand, and she replies that it's "probably because I'm the third one." Hoo-boy.

At her home, Rei... well, a Rei, I suppose... she finds that broken pair of glasses from the time Gendo rescued her from the entry plug. She had kept them as a momento of that day, but now Rei... this Rei... grips them tightly, as though trying to crush them. Then she stops, and starts crying, and she doesn't know why.

Rei's apparent survival does raise some awkward questions. Admiral Clownshoes warns that this might cause problems with SEELE, and Gendo says he's bypassed this by sending them "an alternative."

That is, apparently, Ritsuko, who has been brought before SEELE to answer their questions in Rei's place. This is sort of like when SEELE questioned Misato a while back, because they wanted to talk to Shinji, and Misato refused to allow it because of his poor mental state. Well, this time Ritsuko is standing in for Rei, probably because Gendo didn't want SEELE to learn more about Rei.

And for some reason, Ritsuko appears to be nude for this interview? I mean, she could be wearing some strapless dress or something. I don't know what the point of this is. Anyway, she acts cool about it until SEELE informs her that Gendo was the one who put her here on the hot seat in Rei's place.

Meanwhile, Misato finally opens that little capsule Kaji gave her the last time they had sex, and it contains a little microchip. His voice mail to her said that he had sent her the same information at least thirty-six ways, but he knew most of them wouldn't make it. Presumably, this was the one that got through. I had wondered why Misato hadn't bothered to follow up on Kaji's investigation of NERV's secrets, and it looks like she's been too busy grieving over him to get to this point. So it looks like she's finally ready. Maybe Rei's miraculous survival was what tipped the scales.

Later, Ritsuko calls Shinji and takes him down to the bowels of NERV headquarters, but Misato shows up to meet them and pulls a gun on Ritsuko. Misato wants to see the secret for herself, and Ritsuko agrees, if Shinji can come along. Misato's fine with that, so off they go.

She takes them to a room that looks a lot like Rei's apartment, and Ritsuko explains that Rei grew up in that room. Then she shows them a chamber full of failed Eva models, including the one Shinji's mom was working on when she died. Apparently Shinji doesn't remember that he saw her die, but Ritsuko tells him he was there when it happened.

Then she takes them to the room where Rei would soak in that tube full of Tang. As I thought, this is how they made the Dummy Plug, but it's more than just recording Rei's brain patterns.

All around the room is a big tank full of Reis. I kind of saw this coming, but still, this is pretty creepy.

What's extra creepy is how they all open their eyes and smile at Shinji when he says their name. Ritsuko explain what they are and what they're for, but I don't really get it. Let me just transcribe the subtitles:

"Right, this is the production factory. These are all dummies. They are also replacement parts for Rei. Man found God, and they tried to pick him up. For that Man was punished! That was fifteen years ago, and the God they found disappeared. Then Man tried to resurrect God with his own hands, and created Adam. From Adam, Man created what resembles God, Himself. That is Eva! We put supposedly mindless human souls in Eva. All the souls were salvaged souls. Rei is the only container that can hold the souls. The souls are born only in Rei. The Room of Guaf is empty. These are empty containers. They have no souls. So, I want to destroy them because I hate them."

Ritsuko triggers some sort of destruct mechanism that causes the Rei bodies to disintegrate. As they die (?), Ritsuko explains that she was willing to endure any humiliation for Gendo Ikari, but in the end, he would always prefer "these dolls" over her.

And she knew it would be this way, because she was there when her mother tried to win Gendo's heart, and ended up destroying herself because she couldn't win over Rei. I guess Ritsuko also had the hots for Gendo? She might be speaking in a more platonic sense, I don't know. The point is that all her years of loyal service to Gendo are meaningless, and he'll sell her out to protect Rei in a heartbeat.

That's what she realized in the SEELE conference, so I'm not clear on what exactly went on there. Did they punish her for the loss of Unit 00? Was that why Gendo sent her in Rei's place? Is that why Ritsuko was nude? In any event, Ritsuko's finally decided she's had enough, so she's turning on Gendo, at least as far as destroying all the spare Reis and showing Misato and Shinji all the super secret stuff.

The thing is, does that even matter? I mean, Gendo's no dummy. He probably betrayed Ritsuko this way knowing she would turn on him like this. For all we know, this is part of his plan. Maybe that's why Ritsuko starts crying, and why she pleads for Misato to kill her.

Misato declines to shoot Ritsuko, and considers that the tragedy of this whole project lies in its people, including herself.

So... yeah. NERV has been mass-producing Rei for years, and I think it's reasonable to assume Rei is at least partially based on Yui Ikari. I'm not sure that Gendo is like, in love with the clones or something. The Akagis may have been frustrated that he likes Rei more than them, but I think it's more of a situation where Gendo is too fixated on his work to love any woman, even a woman who helps him with his work. And the work is embodied by Rei so that's why he gets along so well with Rei. I guess.

The next episode looks forward to the final battle against the 17th Angel, which is supposed to be the last one, but apparently they still haven't finished Episode 24, since the preview is all rough sketches and animation layouts. I guess we'll see what we see...

[toni-robyn]

A little while ago, I was sent a message on Tumblr asking how I can be a Christian and transgender at the same time.

I want to clear things up here because I believe there are other people who have and are experiencing that question in their lives.

Firstly, I am not transgender, I have gender dysphoria. I have not transitioned but I am going through each day as it comes.

I knew from a young age, 7-8 years old that something didn’t quite add up in my life but I didn’t know what, only when I reached double figures in life did things click that I felt more like a girl and that I wanted to be a girl.

Growing up in South Africa in the 70’s and 80’s had a tremendous effect on me and who I wanted to be. I was brought up Christian and gave my life to Jesus at a young age, I think I was 10.

My teen years were hell, I was a very late developer and puberty only hit me when I was 18, when I turned 21 I looked like I was 14…so people say.

Battling dysphoria and not having any idea about what I was experiencing and the culture of SA meant I had to hide who I was. If I had told anyone I would have been strung up…literally.

I prayed so often to God to take these feelings away as I was going through so much guilt and conflict, there was no such thing as the internet and what people said about transgender was that it was a perverse thing.

Not much is mentioned in the Bible except about eunuchs, and not wearing the opposite genders clothes.

I managed to suppress my dysphoria, got married and had a beautiful daughter. Fast forward 10 years after my dad died, my brother came out as transgender which rocked my world and brought back a flood of nightmares. Fast forward again, I was in hospital with viral meningitis and had a so called near death experience.

My world cracked and dysphoria hit me like a flood, after so many years, 26, of not having any issues, I got train wrecked. My wife forced it out of me. I tried to take my own life 3 times and failed, my wife has divorced me after 20 years and I have not seen my 17yr old daughter in nearly a year. My heart is utterly crushed.

I have not given up on God and the saving grace of Jesus, if anything, this has brought me closer to Him. God looks at the heart and not the outward appearance. I have a body that God made perfect and I don’t want to ruin it but why does my mind keep saying I should be female and not male.

I have been for deliverance, my faith is strong, I have been baptised in the Holy Spirit. My life belongs to Jesus and only Him.

I am not gay, I’m not LGBT or WOKE, I am me and trying to live my life for Jesus.

The more feminine things I do, the more my anxiety goes away. I am on HRT, 1 year, and I’m getting laser hair removal.

I have researched dysphoria and basically doctors have come down to 2 things that could have caused this or does cause it. One, it’s childhood trauma or a hormonal imbalance while in the womb. This makes a bit of sense because my brother, now my sister is trans. But…. I am not completely sold out on that theory.

I do believe before Adam and Eve sinned, the world was perfect, there was no crime, no bloodshed, no weeds or natural disasters. I do believe that Adam’s sin allowed evil of every sort to enter into the world, every sickness and disease came in and began to humans. We became mortal, animals began killing for meat, every animal was vegetarian until this point, read Genesis 1: 28-31.

Sin corrupted a perfect world and I believe that dysphoria is a mental issue and when the rapture comes, I will be healed, I will have a new body and be with Jesus.

Now this might bring a bit of condemnation but I will never be a woman, my DNA proves that. I do not believe that trans woman should take part in female sports….that is just wrong. There needs to be gender neutral facilities, there needs to be a stop of all this fighting between LGBT community and people who are not trans.

I personally don’t want to show off, if I could I would hide in a corner and never come out. I never asked to feel like this, to have this confusion, I don’t need it, I miss my family, I love my wife(ex)and daughter and I pray that they are ok.

I take full responsibility for all of this, the divorce and not wanting to see me, it’s my cross that I bare each day and I’m battling mentally.

What I post on tumblr are things that I like, from humour to supporting Israel, from beauty to sadness. I deplore nudity and will not tolerate or allow it or post it intentionally. Call me a prude but the body that God created for all of us is sacred, it’s meant for our spouse and to honour God, not to display for all to see, that is straight from the pit of hell.

If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.

God bless you all

[beautifychimedspa]

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[metagraphy-cal]

Writing Initiative 3

Make a list of items you’d like to discuss with the group, possibly including:

* Which deliverable (3D, 4D, Reflective Piece) you are focussed on for next week’s presentation concepts to date

I will be zoning in on my 2D motherboard next week. This is literally the motherboard of my project because it has the technical aspects and components of my chosen word, and it is the genesis of the project that paved the way for the rest of my ideas. It is very essential in a physical, practical, literal, and figurative way.

* Materials and potential media labs to visit and connect with

Foam board and print shop using wide format laser. Thankfully, I explored the wide format printing last year or else this process would have been a successful headache and I would’ve had to churn up alternative solutions.

* Failures and successes

I got extremely, heavily, excruciatingly sick! Very stupid of me. I’m never going out for dinner again. I wish I had acted sooner and gotten this component done before I got sick. My body also couldn’t be patient with me and wait until reading week to get sick. Rude. Clearly my brain and body both have different plans and did not cooperate or inform me of this lack of cohesion.

I also hate how the foam board looks from the side after it has been cut and in the usual, perfectionist, side of my craft, I would take measures to cover it but for now I do not think it is worth the hassle. This might change but I do not think it will unless it causes me to lose sleep.

Successes included working through the pain even though I was sick. Fortunately I stayed on track and did not let illness stop me.

* Given your topic, which of the four assignments you fear/anticipate the most difficult

None of them are causing me fear. I love this project so damn much that the only thing that causes me fear is when I am not working on it because I have other stupid and useless classes or when I have to sleep (in order to survive). I like this project because it requires a concentrated and generally uninterrupted process where we use tunnel vision to focus on one area THAT WE ACTUALLY LIKE and we get to make whatever masterpiece(s) we want.

[deaku]

Phantastic Memories

While working on dinner I was watching/listening to some videos on Youtube about the Phantasy Star series (specifically the classic games) and I remembered back to when I first played the games. Now I have an urge to write about those memories. Anyway… please pardon my ramblings as this will probably be very rambly. Also there will be spoilers.

Phantasy Star was one of those series I was aware of for a long time because I'd see ads and articles in various gaming magazines but never played because I didn't have access to a Sega system; I didn't own one and nearly everyone I knew were Nintendo people. From what I had seen in magazines and a few short times seeing a friend's older sibling playing PSII & PSIII I thought the Phantasy Star series looked pretty cool; although this was a bit before I got into RPGs so I wasn't rushing to play such games. The first Phantasy Star game I actually ever played was Phantasy Star IV. I didn't own a Sega of my own at this point I had a SNES then; though I had a friend with a Genesis and when there were games on the other system we wanted to play we'd swap systems for a while. And one of those time we exchanged systems was when I found PSIV at a local rental place and thought it was time I checked the series out firsthand. I thought it was an awesome game; nice graphics, great music, good battle system, and a story that pulled me in right away. It had a unique presentation with many cut-scenes being depicted with comic-like panels; giving it a more cinematic feel than many other rpgs of the time that depicted their cut-scenes with their usual in-game sprites. But something that really grabbed about the game, and the series in general, was the setting. The setting was a lot more sci-fi than many other similar games and that made it stand out to me. Sure it has the usual fantasy stuff like swords, magic and monsters, but it also has things like robots, lasers, spaceships and interplanetary travel. In PSIV specifically it's actually a bit post-apocalyptic due to events in one of the previous games, civilization is slowly recovering but it's obvious things were pretty bad because of what happened. I completed the game, but unfortunately I had no way to check out the rest of the series at the time because none of the local rental places had any of the other games nor did any of my friends. It'd actually be several years before I was able to check out and play the rest of the classic Phantasy Star series when I gained much greater access to the internet and I discovered emulation. Now I've played all four of the classic PS games; as well as reading about the history of the games, character backstories, as well as a good bit of fan fiction.

Now here's some thoughts and memories about the specific games.

Phantasy Star: The original way back on the Sega Master System, back in the starting days of console rpgs. Not only was the setting even more unique back then but it also had a heroine as the main character, an even greater rarity at the time. While Alis would fit right in the usual fantasy setting with her look and being a sword user some of the first things you see are some stormtrooper-like robotcops and you're near a spaceport, establishing that it's not going to be a typical fantasy world. I thought the game had a unique hook into the story. Alis wasn't out to save the world; sure she did end up saving the whole Algol system but she started her quest for revenge, to kill the man she considered responsible for the death of her brother. Even though I first played it so long after it came out I thought PS1 was still quite a good game and that it must have been outstanding when it first came out. You get interesting characters, including an animal companion that's a full party member instead of being basically an extension of another character or simply a mode of transport. Three planets to explore, both on foot and in vehicles. I think it has a great story for a game of its time and once you beat the evil king Lassic whose rule is responsible so much of the bad in the story you find that it's not over yet; you gotta face the ancient evil behind Lassic that appears to terrorize the Algol system every thousand years.

Phantasy Star II: Firstly I must admit that this is the only game of the classic series that I've never actually finished. I've actually started multiple times, but every time I'm only part way through when something comes up that eats up my free time for awhile or I get busy with something else. By the time I get back to the game I figure it's been so long that I'd better restart. However I've read about and watched enough videos to know the rest of the story. Anyway… PSII goes even further into the sci-fi side of things with tech-y looking cities, clone labs, bio-tech, more robots and not to mention a master computer running everything. I really liked the general aesthetic of PSII, it really caught my eye even when I just knew it from the ads and articles from game magazines. The game starts out with Rolf the government agent being sent out to investigate some odd happenings and things generally go wrong from there. By the end you've permanently lost a character, end up with one of the three planets of the Algol system destroyed, had to destroy the master computer Mother Brain since all the stuff that went down was under her direction, then you find out what's really behind everything. It's quite a ride through the whole game. Though something I always found odd was the way you gain new characters for your party. Rather than when you get to a new town and you have a story bit about meeting someone new, when you get to a new town you need to pop back to Rolf's place in the first town and then you find the new character waiting for you at home.

Phantasy Star III: Ah the black sheep of the classic Phantasy Star series. Upon a quick initial look much seems to have changed. The game starts with Prince Rhys getting ready to marry the mysterious Maia who washed up on the kingdom's shores one day with no memory. Everything seems to be a pretty standard fantasy kingdom with no signs of all the tech stuff from previous games. The wedding begins and then a dragon swoops down grabs Maia and flies off, so Rhys sets out to save her. Petty standard fantasy stuff really. But once you set off on the quest things start popping up that show things maybe aren't so far removed from previous games. At one point Rhys needs to take a boat but the captain doesn't ever set sail without a cyborg aboard, which leads you to tracking down the red-headed cyber Mieu. Then when you have to travel to a different land you need to go through a cave; entrance to the cave looks normal enough but when you get inside suddenly everything is metal and tech-looking. Turns out the game takes place on a generational spaceship, one of a fleet that blasted off before the planet that was lost in the last game went boom. While a lot is different from the other games in the series I did actually enjoy PSIII, and I gotta respect the ambition of making a multi-generational story in a console rpg back then. And not in a single storyline either; in the first and second generations once you complete the main quest you choose from two potential brides and proceed as the resulting child in the next generation, while the third generation is the last that's still four potential protagonists there for that generation. And depending on what path you take through the game you experience different events and meet different characters. Well except for your cyber friends Mieu & Wren, once you pick them up in the first generation they're with you always through all the generations. It would have been nice to have had more characterization and character interactions than what was there, but I can understand the tech limitations of the time put a limit on what they could do. Anyway, for those wondering I've been through and finished the whole game twice so far and gotten Sean's and Adan's endings.

Phantasy Star IV: I suppose I kinda already went over many of my thoughts on PSIV earlier in this. Like I said it's an awesome game, definitely one of the best of the 16-bit era. And an excellent finale for the classic series. PSIV is very story heavy when compared to previous installments; not only is the main story is a lost more detailed there are lots of character moments and interactions as well. It even has lots of links and shout-outs to the previous games in the series from talking about previous events to characters having links to those from the other games; though there good amount I missed the first play-through due to me having played PSIV first. But even not knowing much about the lore of the series at the time didn't prevent me from enjoying the game.

So to sum things up I think classic Phantasy Star games are quite an enjoyable series for games of the time. While certainly not perfect if you like old school rpgs they're definitely games to check out. Some stand out things about the games (at least to me)... The Setting: The sci-fi setting rather than just being a more standard fantasy; sure you can plenty of rpgs like this now but Phantasy Star was one of the progenitors. Plus the sci-fi stuff is right there in the setting from the start of the story as a current part of the civilization; rather then being something like tech from an ancient fallen civilization, used by invaders from somewhere else, or even just random techy things with no explanation. The Music: These games have some good music and there's some memorable tunes all throughout the games, I particularly enjoy the intro tunes. They do some clever stuff in PSIII too. Like the battle music changes depending on the situation; like an uplifting tune for when you're powerful enough that'll be an easy fight or something darker when there's a good chance the enemy might get you. Or like with the overworld tune it gets additions as you gain characters that builds up the music, and if anyone is knocked out the bit that goes with their party slot vanishes until they're revived. The Characters: The series has some interesting characters, though to get all the details you need to read some backstories since not everything gets revealed in the games themselves. The designs are good too, especially if you like an anime aesthetic. Very good enemy designs as well; ranging from cute to creepy to monstrous and threatening.

Okay I think I'd better stop my rambling here and maybe think about playing around with the series again. I actually have all the classic series in various forms now as parts of different collections. I even have Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe too, but those are perhaps discussions for another time.

Also if you would like to see some art I've done of some of the characters you here's a link over to my deviantart which has all the pics in one folder over here

[emilyskincare]

Who Shouldn’t Get Laser Genesis? Here’s What You Need to Know

While Laser Genesis is a popular skin treatment praised for its gentle approach and impressive results, it's not for everyone. So, who should avoid this treatment, and why?

Who Shouldn’t Consider Laser Genesis?

Active Acne or Open WoundsIf you’re dealing with active acne or have open wounds, you should avoid Laser Genesis until your skin heals. The heat generated by the laser could irritate or worsen these conditions. It's best to consult with a dermatologist to determine when it’s safe for you.

PregnancyAlthough Laser Genesis is non-invasive, it’s generally recommended that pregnant women avoid laser treatments. There hasn’t been enough research to fully assess the risks, so it’s better to wait until after pregnancy.

Recent SunburnIf you have a recent sunburn, your skin is already in a fragile state. Using laser treatments on sensitive, damaged skin could lead to irritation or other complications. Wait until your skin fully recovers before considering Laser Genesis.

Severe Skin ConditionsIndividuals with severe skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis might not be ideal candidates. The heat from the laser can sometimes aggravate these conditions, leading to flare-ups.

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Who Is a Good Candidate?

Generally, Laser Genesis is safe for most skin types and conditions, but it's always important to consult with a qualified professional before proceeding. If you’re unsure whether this treatment is right for you, a dermatologist can guide you based on your specific skin needs and medical history.

In summary, while Laser Genesis is an excellent option for many, it’s not suitable for everyone. If you fall into any of these categories, it’s important to hold off and speak with a specialist first. Always prioritize safety when it comes to your skin treatments!

[lavishlasermedspa]

Discover the Transformative Power of Laser Genesis

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Your Step-by-Step Treatment Experience

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Patients with Uneven Texture or Tone: If you struggle with pigmentation issues or uneven skin texture, Laser Genesis can help create a smoother, more balanced complexion.

Aftercare Tips for Optimal Results

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Gentle Skincare Products: Avoid harsh products or exfoliants for a few days post-treatment. Stick to gentle cleansers and moisturizers.

Schedule Follow-Up Treatments: To maintain your results, consider scheduling follow-up sessions as advised by your practitioner.

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