#there's a certain point where it's no longer confirmation bias‚ it's just how things work

[squid--inc]

.....

[idiotonapulpit]

*gestures vaguely* But the implications! Part 4

NOTE: Yep, that's part four of something that was going to be one post in an alternate timeline where I had any idea how to keep things short and to-the-point. I tried, okay? Read the others, dammit. Don't get me started on the impact short-form content has had on attention spans. That'll just make me feel older than I already do. Beware, Part 4:

Realistically, he's a single, clear example of a larger, longer problem: those with power feel entitled to it, and will construct a worldview, deliberately or unconsciously, that makes the fact that they have the power and the control 'ordained' somehow. Maybe they're more clever, more cunning, more powerful, more intelligent, more righteous, more in-line-with-the-truth. We all do it, honestly. We all think we're the good guys and that the bad guys are the people who aren't like us, and in my opinion, that's where we get things like racism and sexism and eugenics and all the other reprehensible insular mentalities we've been fighting for all of human history.

Racism doesn't believe that other races are lesser because they hate other races, they believe other races are lesser because the racist themselves sees themselves as "part of the in-group", and because they're in the in-group, they see that as being reflective of greater suitability for the power, control, and dare I say privilege that they've found themselves with. It certainly makes one feel better than 'I have power because Daddy was rich' (see Il Cheeto), or more broadly 'I have power because of total coincidence'.

Legal implications. We're supposed to be on about legal implications. Can I get away with hand-waving like they do and saying that I've been implying all the legal implications because tangentially these factors all play into the legal arguments and inspirations people use to write new policy?

Probably not.

But let's try and bring this home. We had laws outlawing homosexuality (as did other countries), interracial marriage, and a lot of other morally-based worldviews, and those didn't get there by centuries of legal precedent -- like, this isn't Hammurabi's fault. The reason those laws were (and in the case of certain other laws, still are) on the books is because someone who thought their coincidental privilege was an ordained obligation PUT them on the books. This honestly bears a lot of similarities to the divine right kings used to use to justify their rule. "I'm in charge because God put me in charge." These days, we tend to think of that as just one of the many instances of political sleight-of-hand that let monarchs convince an illiterate, repressed populace into tolerating their absolute power, but I'm starting to think that at least some of the kings genuinely believed it. Louis XIV certainly did, or else "Sun King" was some kind of weird sexual thing. A sun-sona, if you will. Kingsona?

I digressed again. The legal implications I'm talking about, truly, are that we're learning slowly and arduously that legislating from a moral basis leads to a lot of really angry, in-group-supporting laws that generally only serve the legal purpose of keeping out-groups repressed and restricting the ways they might make their voices heard.

In other words, the legal implication here is that this is why shit's so fucked, yo. This is how systemic discrimination happens -- not because we've literally codified racism, not because we've literally codified sexism, and not even really because we've codified anything. A lot of it gets codified by proxy, but the deeper problem is the fixation on "traditional values" themselves. The problem, by and large, is the psychological confirmation bias we have when we find ourselves in positions of power.

We tend to think we're in the places we are because we earned them, because we worked hard, because we did what was necessary and because we have "what it takes". Maybe we do, maybe we don't. I'm not trying to interrogate people's motivations for feeling good about themselves.

[julianottheastrologer]

Hello! When reading tarot for yourself, how do you deal with bias or subconsciously seeing what you want to see? I considered buying tarot cards but I’m worried that my personal readings won’t be accurate. Thanks.

Hello dear anon,

I will say the things in my way, but if you need the words of another person or an extra help, you can see this here.

How to Read Cards for Yourself

��� Take your time

When you read to someone, it usually has a pre-set time. Sometimes it's a one-hour appointment, other times, like in my packages, I try not to spend more than four hours if I don't get too exhausting (because I already had my Moon Pack where I spent 5 hours just reading, then translating and editing. .. )But for reading for yourself you can and should enjoy your moment. Tarot is to taste like strawberry with champagne, or like caviar, it's not to be quick. Enjoy this when you are alone with yourself and spend an extra 1 min if you are short on time. Tarot must be tasted and sometimes the points take a little longer to connect.

❀ Stay with the first thought

The first thing we see in the tarot does not give us time to see what we want to see, it shows the truth without our rationalization. Don't try to keep seeing other meanings you like if the first was that the Five of Coins is showing you that you should save money.

❀ Know its unique meanings

When you are the reader and reading to yourself, the cards feel free to show a different meaning. What? If I get The High Priestess I know it's a slap in the face saying "That you already know, next question please" as my Queen of Swords of a certain tarot means myself, so it directly says something about me. At these times, don't be judging yourself if the meaning is very different from what it should be, it is what it is.

❀ Be true to yourself

We know when we're lying to ourselves, especially in cards. You can't even doubt it, you'll stop and say you're being incorrect with your reading. You do a reading about yourself, take The Emperor negative and know that you are super bossy and controlling, don't try to kid yourself by saying it's because you're angry when you started reading. See the truth no matter what.

❀ Know your Spread

Pre-define a spread and follow it until the end of the reading gives another 50% more chance of it working, for me I even put more, but I can't prove it then... Reading is not just intuition, it has methodology. If you get a positive Seven of Cups showing that you'll have a lot of options but you'll be able to choose the best one for you, don't try to put it in the negative, it's positive, period.

❀ Read the others cards

After a while you will almost never read a single card, usually just for quick and short reads for others, but for yourself it is almost always at least three. The cards connect, every card can connect with another, tarot is detail. If you see the dove in the Ace of Cups, then the bird in The Star and both are signifying freedom to you, then that message is stronger.

❀ An Extra

Sometimes we already have something in our head, especially when our "intuition "is already working almost 24 hours a day and we just take out the tarot to check it. It will tell you what you already know, don't try to change the message, you feel like the person is messing around and you pick The Magician negative , this person is lying and manipulating everyone, it's just a confirmation, don't try to change it.

Kisses,

Madam Saturn 💋

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Happiness Is

This is possibly my favorite episode of season two. Yet, it is also the point the where the series starts to fall off a cliff. Only that’s not something that you would realize upon a first watch; just in hindsight and only with some basic knowledge of the behind the scenes drama that led to this and the fall out with the fandom that followed afterwards. 

Summary:  Rapunzel begins to feel homesick for Corona when she finds an old letter written by her father in one of the many lanterns sent from her previous birthdays. In attempts to uplift her spirits, Rapunzel explores the island and comes across a magical idol that brings instant happiness to whomever possesses it. Rapunzel begins to hallucinate her family and friends back in Corona and soon shares the idol with the rest of the group. However, everyone starts to become obsessive over the idol, desperately wanting it for themselves. Rapunzel tricks everyone into giving her the idol, but when the Lorbs try to help Rapunzel, they fall under the idol's control and soon begin to terrorize the village.

Let’s Start with the First Elephant in the Room; Frederic 

So throughout the episode Rapunzel is struggling with being homesick. Which is fair enough, that’s an understable reaction to being on the road for months by now. However, to showcase this Rapunzel keeps seeing hallucinations of her father. There are some other characters too, but her dad is the first person she sees and the only one in Corona with speaking lines. He’s the one to tempt her with the idol. 

Did we just forget that Frederic is her abuser? 

Look, even if you accept his apology in Secret of the Sundrop and believe he has learned his lesson, that doesn’t just erase the pain he caused her. Her thoughts about her father should be more realistically complex then this. Now add in how she makes a such a clean break from her other abuser, Gothel, but still holds him on a pedestal shows a disturbing bias on the part of the writers. 

Also where’s this love for Arianna? You know the only real mother on the show? The show that’s aimed at little girls? The one parent who hasn’t flat out abused the main character yet? 

Seriously, Chris, what the fuck? 

This is a Missed Opportunity 

So part of the reason why I like this episode is that we get insights into each of the characters and their desires. As such this is one of the few episodes where the group actual feels like a group friends. However, Cass’s vision is wasted here. 

So at first glance this seems to aline with what we know of the character thus far. She loves her dad and wishes to impress him. That’s only if you take season one into account, though. Later episodes will contradict this goal. If you wanted to set up praise and validation in general as Cassandra’s motives, then here is where that should have happened. 

Show her getting a medal, have cheering crowds surround her, have her be a hero, or something. You can’t claim her relationship with her parents as the driving force of behind her later actions if you don’t actually involve one of those parents as part of the resolution to her arc. 

Either she lacking attention from her dad or she’s jealous of Rapunzel. You can’t have it be both because those two things don’t intersect. Rapunzel is not and never was a threat to her relationship with her father. 

So Umm...I Don’t Think This Plot Point Has the Impact That the Writers Think It Does 

So this hilarious, and it is intended to be funny, but it’s not for the reasons that the show gives. 

The idea is that this is some shocking revelation. That Rapunzel would never do this under normal circumstances and it’s a hint that the idol is corrupting her. 

Only the rest of the series doesn’t aline with that at all. This is just the real Rapunzel behaving as the she normally would but without the usual veneer of excuses. 

It’s funny because it’s the show calling out Rapunzel hypocrisy for what it is plainly, not because it’s out of character. 

But funny only gets you so far. The show is perfectly happy to play up Rapunzel’s awfulness for laughs, but then conventily ignore it when it comes time for the characters themselves to call her out on it so that she can grow and learn.       

The show runs under the sitcom idea that comedy excuses all sins; which then backfires horribly when it tries to be serious and mature. 

You can’t joke that the king threw a random person in a stockade for little reason and then expect us to still like him when he persecutes a child. Same applies here. 

The sitcom set up only works when there is minimal at stake and all parties involved are equally awful in their own ways. 

Then Why Not Just Go Home?

Once again, there’s nothing at stake in season two. Rapunzel has no real reason to be on this trip. Nothing is stopping her from just going home if that’s what she wants. The idol only makes her happy because it shows her want she wants, but she could actually have what she wants as soon as the next ship arrives. So what’s the issue here? 

This is why you need external conflict in order to make internal conflicts work. There’s has to be something preventing the main character from achieving her goal or otherwise she just comes across as a dumbass. 

And Now Here Comes the Second Elephant; Varian 

I have several things to talk about here, and none of them actually concern the scene itself but the creator’s treatment of the character and the show’s fan base.

For you see, Chris did a very, very stupid thing.  

He wrote the character driving the plot out of the show. The character who also happens to be the most popular person in the series. Only to then use said character’s VA and this one cameo as promotion for this whole season. 

Needless to say, fans were disappointed.   

However, the Tangled fandom is exceedingly polite; more so than most. The lack of Varian was met mostly with confusion, and maybe a few off handed jokes, rather than anger. When opportunity arose people naturally had questions concerning the character.     

And that’s when Chris put his foot in mouth. 

This Tumblr post details how Chris got kicked off the Tangled The Series Discord by bullying a bunch of Varian fans while on there. 

https://starxapple.tumblr.com/post/617852117763391488/zhantiri-uuugh-fine-since-people-are-getting

I shan’t get into it fully, but for those who discovered the show after season two had aired, this caused a massive backlash from the fandom. 

A good chunk of the fandom just walked away, and rightly so. The few that stuck around despite these remarks found themselves harassed by certain sections of the fandom who saw Chris’s bullying as permission to pursue the same behavior. However, most importantly, the ratings plummeted. 

Season one hovered around the the 1 million mark, give or take a five point difference. The first part of season two dropped to half of that, and after this episode and the hiatus it sunk even lower, down to the mid-thirties. That’s over 20,000 people who just jumped ship over this. That’s not a normal decline. 

No matter what your personal feelings are of the character of Varian or how he was handled in the show, that’s still a massive PR fassico that cost the series big time. 

To add to this mountain of bullshit, there was also a massive walk out of crew members after season one had finished production. Most of them women. They even desperately threw out ‘we’re hiring’ calls to cover this. Which given that’s it’s Disney and that nepotism is usually how one gains employment in the entertainment industry, something unusual must have happened behind the scenes. Especially if most of the people who left were women. 

We’ll probably never know what really happened. People don't usually talk about behind the scenes stuff like that due to contracts and the aforementioned nepotism. However, all clues point to Varian.   

Something changed at the last minute concerning his story. Chris himself had confirmed as much when discussing the note and the Brotherhood. We also gotten other hints that content was edited out at the last minute. Plus the writing becomes more shoddy as the series goes along, showing how slapped dashed everything is together.  

Then there’s the rumors. 

I must stress to you that this is only a rumor. As pointed out earlier, most animators aren’t in a position to talk freely about what goes on behind the scenes. Do NOT harass them over it or make things awkward by asking them to clarify this. However it’s been suggested that the female crew warned Chris that removing Varian from season two and re-writing his story, along with making Cass the villain, would be a bad idea before they left and Chris didn’t listen. Much to his folly. 

Chris is no longer a Disney employee and has yet to move on to any other projects. He says he left, but I more suspect that Disney just didn't renew his contract and no one has picked him up since. I take no joy in the idea that someone may have lost their job, but if true, then Chris has little to blame but himself. 

So What Did Change?

We don't know anything for sure. We know from discussions about the note that there was a proposed Brotherhood plot that involved Varian that was then cut. There was also talks about a Cass and Varian team up in season three. 

This was then changed to the Saporian take over, which is foreshadowed in this scene. However even that got edited down and under the flimsiest of excuses. 

One of the writers, Ricky, suggested that they thought cutting back to Corona would be too confusing for the audience; which is a load of bull. I mean how poorly do you think of your audience’s comprehension skills that they wouldn’t understand a change of scene or a flashback? Yet you fully expect them to pick up on your lazy foreshadowing involving the mirror? So much so that you sent them on a quest to find it between seasons two and three.

Then there’s this gem from Chris. 

Ok ignoring the fact that you so totally could have featured both Gothel and Varian, seeing as they serve two different functions in the story and mean different things to Rapunzel.... What guilt?!!! 

Rapunzel doesn’t ever act guilty over anything involving her treatment of Varian. 

That’s when you realize Chris isn’t talking about her feeling guilty about Varian’s predicament. He’s saying that Rapunzel feels guilty of leaving her father behind with this ‘dangerous’ criminal. Which is a big fuck you to everyone. 

That’s why Frederic is the center focus of Rapunzel’s hallucinations. Why she’s more concerned for his safety over Varian’s trauma. Chris really be out here trying to use the abused 14/15 year old orphan as a scapegoat for the grown ass dictator who ruined countless lives. Because he thinks a grown woman should feel guilty for leaving her abusive father behind and pursuing her life’s dream.

Dude, I try not to assume the worst of people just cause they write fictional characters that I dislike, but Chris really makes things hard not to when he treats his self insert this way. 

Oh but we’re not done yet. 

When Varian Fans Complain About the Lack of Varian; We’re Complaining About the Lack of a Coherent Plot. 

Certain sections of the fandom, bolstered by Chris’s BS, try to act like simply being a Varian fan is grounds for dismissal of any criticism of the show and it’s writing. As if having personal preference for something makes you automatically ‘entitled’ or some such bull. Yet doing so ignores the fundamental complaint that they are making. 

We’re not whining about our favorite character not getting enough screen time. No one would have complained about his lack of presence in season two if they had properly resolved his story in season three and had Chris not been a dick to the fans. But it becomes evidently clear as the series goes along that removing Varian left a major hole in the plot. One that makes the entire story and the rest of characters suffer as well. 

Think season two is boring? That’s cause they cut out their main villain at the last minute and failed to replace him with anything. 

Upset that Hookfoot was brought along for zero reason?  He’s the replacement character for Varian who no doubt was going to appear in season two originally. 

Wish there was more on the Brotherhood and the Dark Kingdom?  Their story impact was greatly reduced when Varian was written out.

Are you a Eugene fan and mad about how the Dark Prince plot went nowhere?  That’s cause the original Brotherhood/Dark Kingdom plot was dropped when Varian was.

Dislike how Cassandra’s character was ruined with her villain arc?  She was originally meant to be possessed but was changed last minute to be a Varian rip-off in the hopes that she would gain some of his popularity.   

Wish Zhan Tiri, Demantius, and the Disciples actually went somewhere and that ZT had coherent plan?   That plot were changed last minute to make Zhan Tiri a scapegoat for Cassandra now that her story was changed to replace Varian.

And of course let’s not ignore the character who suffers the most from lack of Varian.... Rapunzel. 

Chris’s defense for leaving Varian out of S2 is that it’s “Rapunzel’s Story” and that Varian was only ever a plot device meant to push her along on her quest.  Which means that Rapunzel no longer has anyone pushing her along on her quest!!!

All characters are plot devices. If they aren’t there to serve a story function then they need to be cut. Even Rapunzel herself serves a plot function. She’s meant to be the protagonist of a coming of age story. Which means she needs both an external conflict to face and an emotional arc where she grows as a person. Varian is the plot device that serves both of those functions but he’s now been removed and is no longer allowed to serve his original purpose. 

Chris reached into the machine while it was running and pulled out one of the main gears and acted like he always meant to do that. He legit sat there and pretended that everything was running smoothly even as smoke poured out and warring alarms blared. He then tried to shove bubble gum in its place hoping no one would notice as everything fell apart around him. 

Cause he’s the thing; no idea is without merit. It’s all about presentation. Removing Varian from season three still could have worked, but it required A.) replacing him with another foe and B.) making sure his arc still got a proper conclusion. 

I’ll talk more about Varian’s half-arsed redemption when we get to it; but for now let's focus on the more immediate problem. No one thought to give season two an actual overarching conflict in light of Varian’s absence. 

That’s a fundamental oversight that pretty much signals that season two was re-written at the last minute. You have an overarching plot in an action adventure show but no main adversary? I refuse to believe that everyone involved was too stupid to do that on purpose; but if they were rushed and lacked a crew because they walked out due to last minute story changes....yeah that’d I buy. 

Because there’s more than enough options to go around; Lady Caine, The Baron and Styalan, Hector and/or Adria, Zhan Tiri’s Disciples ect. were all options. So was keeping the rocks a threat, or have Cass start her villian arc earlier; with proper motivation this time. They could have even come up with someone entirely new. 

You had over four years to plan this shit out; why is it not more well put together?! 

How Come Rapunzel Can Easily Admit Fault to Pascal But Not Anyone Else? 

Pascal should have sat perched on Varian’s and Eugene’s shoulders giving Rapunzel ‘I’m done with this’ looks all throughout season three. It’s apparently the only thing that she responds to. 

Why is the untalkative camelanion the only one allowed to call out the main character’s BS without going villain? 

Conclusion

That’s all there really is to talk about in this story. The actual episode itself is good. It’s the behind the scenes crap that bubbles underneath its surface that needed to be discussed. That way when going forward with the marathon you’ll better see what I’m talking about when I explain how future episode suffered from the lack of planning and foresight. 

[anocana]

so. Blindsight. bleak as hell. i think the whole “everyone’s being extremely subtly manipulated by intelligences beyond their comprehension with precise results” thing is... well, it’s a compelling premise once, but i’ve already read Echopraxia. it gets kind of tiring the second time around, and i don’t really think brains work like that. but the aliens are very alien, and the whole thing with the first contact protocol was cool.

an interesting thing about siri’s relationship with chelsea is that he tries to not act like a chinese room in it - he tries to actually be himself with her - and it falls apart because himself just completely sucks ass and can’t interact with people. if he’d been a true chinese room he could have done whatever was necessary to get the best outcome, but he doesn’t. some bits were relatable but thankfully not the “explaining through evolutionary psychology why our relationship is doomed” sort of thing, jesus

the rest of this is going to be various nitpicking disagreements i had, because it is indisputably that sort of book.

vampires are obviously rather ridiculous, just too many convienient things all in one place. the crucifix glitch, obviously, but also, how do you evolve multi-generation hibernation that fast? when you must eat one singular species, and failure to hibernate means you completely wipe out your obligate prey and make your territory uninhabitable? and the longer you hibernate, the fewer generations per timespan *to* evolve in? i’d accept this sort of thing in a book that didn’t have a list of scientific citations at the end but it just doesn’t fit as well

the rationale behind Technology Implies Belligerence seems simply wrong. Sure, if you have all your needs perfectly met you don’t need to develop more technology, but the more extreme the competition, the less leeway you have to set up long-term things and the less free time to spend on idly thinking up new ideas rather than directly competing. I’m fairly certain if you tried to track it, you’d find most technological progress throughout history comes from societies with less day-to-day competition due to surpluses, etc.

Rorschach actually kind of proves this - their whole “sit around generating ATP anaerobically for thousands of years” strategy doesn’t work if you get eaten halfway through

Since Rorschach didn’t attack the humans until after they’d hit it with a probe that it actively told them not to do, it might just be wrong in-universe. Who knows?

there’s a lot of questionable evopsych, but I’m not sure how much the book itself puts stock in evopsych, vs. just Siri as a character putting too much stock in evopsych.

he does get called out for thinking he’s objective when he’s just projecting his own opinions onto other people

also one of the main conclusions he draws from evopsych is “every heterosexual relationship is doomed” (nothing to say about gay relationships, naturally) which seems obviously false enough that I’d suspect it’s a personal bias to the character

but it’s the sort of book where i’m not sure if that even counts

EDIT: i misremembered part of it, he was wrong about Bates plotting to mutiny. i remembered thinking she’d mutinied when her drone fucked up Sarastri, but forgot that she later confirmed it wasn’t her. so yeah i think the really dumb evopsych stuff can mostly be chalked up to Siri being biased

the consciousness as parasite thing is obviously an interesting sci-fi premise but i don’t actually buy it, at least not for Earthly life

chimpanzees do actually pass the mirror test, apparently

my personal experience is that, when i focus on it, i have a lot of really quick pseudo-conscious thoughts before they pass up more slowly into full consciousness, but not all of them end up getting into consciousness. i’d be surprised if consciousness didn’t serve the purpose of, at minimum, taking the good bits of unconscious thought and reinforcing them so they get stored better.

Blindsight’s perspective on consciousness does seem to have language being a product of genuine consciousness, because Rorschach can’t do it. but how the fuck else are humans supposed to communicate, besides language? Maybe you can theoretically have intelligence without consciousness, but if it’s necessary for language then I don’t think you get complex human societies without consciousness, even if they’re individually more efficient.

vampires seem to be able to do language which is a bit weird if they’re not really conscious? but also, like, they can’t do complex societies because they’re so individually territorial, so that’s an enormous disadvantage anyway. i suspect they’d have died out even without the crucifix glitch.

“you don’t need consciousness to do math/science/whatever because of a few anecdotes of people waking up having dreamed whole theorems” is completely unconvincing. like, okay, how much of the work did they do consciously beforehand? how big of a leap was the dream, how complete was it, how much did they have to do consciously to make it rigorous? how often do people wake up with incorrect ideas in their heads?

this sort of thing was more plausible with the Bicamerals in Echopraxia because they were basically magic. applying it to actual humans falls rather short.

also I think his evolutionary reasoning in his “dodo” analogy isn’t quite the right line of thought for the point he’s making. Consciousness, as he frames it, is an extra energy cost for no real benefit which persists only because we’re not facing enough selection pressure to weed it out. But the dodo lost flight because it was excessive and useless for its island, which is the exact opposite situation.

A dodo analogy would be appropriate if consciousness was useful when facing unexpected problems but useless on earth due to human dominance, so we evolved out of it

a better comparison might be the Irish Elk, which is often thought to have gone extinct due to its enormous antlers. Its antlers were way too large to be beneficial to survival, but they persisted and grew bigger over time due to sexual selection. then the argument becomes that consciousness makes you more likely to get laid but is actually bad otherwise. still questionable, but at least fits better

[eradicatetehnormal]

Thinking About Soriku

While it's no longer my OTP, SoRiku is and likely always will among my favorite KH ships. I admit that part of that is because I went in with a bias, due to a fan comic type thing that I read, prior to finishing the first KH game. After playing the games and seeing the community I shipped it more.

To be completely honest though, I didn't really see the ship outside of THE scenes in KH2 and through that symphony of sorcery scene in DDD. It was when I interacted with the community more that I realized how much there was to the ship. How they pointed out details like Riku technically sharing the paopu with Sora and that being the keychain on the combined keyblade dubbed "the gayblade" by the community. How jealous Riku acted in KH1 while suspiciously being more focused on one-upping sora than actually saving Kairi. How Riku did everything in his power to make sure Sora can come back safely in KH2 and 179 days, and of course the entirety of how their relationship is portrayed in DDD, with how Sora is disappointed with having to be separated from Riku and Riku always talking about Sora with almost nothing but positive things to say. All the other pieces of evidence that could point to hints of romantic attraction. From what I hear, people having a better understanding of the ship after interacting with the community is actually kinda common.

Soriku is one of those ships where the implications are subtle. If you're not looking for it, it's blink and you miss it, outside of a couple of stand-out scenes. If you ARE looking for it, it's extremely obvious to the point of almost coming off as intentional, especially post KH2 if you're looking at it from Riku's pov. I bet it's the work of the event planner:

Here's like, the thing with the community though. It's been at odds with a certain other group of shippers and they go at it A LOT, and it can make the community unbearable to be in sometimes. Not to mention how oversensitive some members of the community can be and how unwilling some of them are to live up to their past. The past of Sorikus being yaoi-obsessed fangirls who wrote and drew smut is real is very real and is a legacy that still lives on, even if it's not as bad as it used to be. There were consequently, children who saw that content. I understand Sorikus not wanting to acknowledge that past because

A. a lot of them consider it something that was a part of their cringy teen years and don't want to acknowledge it

and

B. Many Soriku shippers are genuinely queer and either aren't responsible for that content or fit into the prior category

And to be fair, a lot of the times when Kaisos bring this up, they do tend to have bad intentions and try to dismiss their own homophobic behavior, but at the same time if the yaoi side goes unacknowledged, especially when it comes to the older fan content, then it does seem like we aren't owning up to the fact that some of us are fetishy and it can leave and unwanted mark on the community. Also, yeah, going back to what I said earlier. Some of us are over-sensitive and do have a habit of calling people homophobic for saying that Kairi is Sora's most important person on their own platforms, and that's an issue too.

That being said, despite the community I still like the ship and it is still an S-tier pair for me, not GOD-TIER, but S-tier. When I actually remember how good their relationship is in the series, and good some of the fan content is, I can't bring myself to hate it.

Here's the other thing though. What if it actually happened? What if the series ended with Sora and Riku in an embrace saying that they'll always love and be there for each other, and then a strongly implied off-screen kiss? Regardless of how people feel about it, or what the intentions on Square and Disney's part, Sora and Riku ACTUALLY getting together would be a huge fucking deal. Not just for the KH community but for JRPGs and gaming in general. Hell, it'd be a huge mark in Disney history, as they would be among the few confirmed MAIN LGBTQ+ characters in a Disney property. Because of that people. will. riot. There will be many calling it the product of an agenda. There will be idiots saying that this ruined their childhood (which honestly if THAT's their argument, they didn't have a childhood worth ruining) and there will be people angry at Disney and ALL OF JAPAN for "forcing" children to see homosexual content. Probably giving prejudiced conservatives who like to be controversial, leeway to the yaoi argument as means of racism and homophobia. There's also the question of narrative meaning in Kingdom Hearts. First off there's the obvious, which is the writers will have to address Sora's relationship with Kairi else it feels disingenuous, and that can get messy rather quickly, especially because a lot of Kairi's relevancy is linked to her relationship with Sora. Pairing him with Riku can risk undermining his relationship with Kairi and if she doesn't do anything with Aqua and the other characters, can reduce her down to nothing but wasted potential, nostalgia, a cute design, and a cool backstory. As sad as it is, a big part of her appeal is her romantically coded relationship with Sora.

The series has always been about friendship first and foremost before everything else, even if it does value other types of relationships. Sora and Riku are considered by the creators, to be what the series is all about. What does it say about the power of friendship if the two leading characters were in love the entire time? This is less of a narrative issue with Kairi because she was never portrayed to be Sora's friend. She was always written to be a love interest to him in some way. Whereas with Riku, he was always written to either be Sora's rival, or embarrassingly close "friend", at least on a surface level. Sora and Riku getting together romantically could work to undermine the theme of friendship being the most powerful form of magic. Both Kaisos and Soriku's would probably just say "WELL IT CAN BE ABOUT BOTH", but part of what makes it so special in the eyes of many people is that it's NOT about both. That it consistently keeps its friendship theme and never safely comes out of it by making overly big moments with the love interest (except for Kairi single-handedly being the most important person to Sora. Why wouldn't it be Kairi AND Riku). So that initial message getting underplayed can risk taking the series down a peg for a lot of people.

[btsandvmin]

Shipping vs Believing

I felt like talking about this, because in general a lot of people I come across seem to think that they are the same thing. And maybe the purpose of the word is changing, but the original use of “shipping” was actually to show you liked something, changed something into being or wanted something to be romantic or sexual between characters or people. Basically it’s about liking something that might not be romantic or sexual yet, or something that never has been or never will be romantic/sexual or in the case of making fanart or fanfiction sometimes expanding on something that is romantic/sexual with fiction because you want more than what you get.

95z is love. We know this. But, what kind of love is up for interpretation.

Shipping was originally mostly about fiction, but as it has become a more widespread expression it now also applies to relationships between real people.

And again, maybe times and overuse of the word “ship” has started to change the meaning of it, but to me shipping will not be liking a bond platonically and it will not be believing something is real. When someone says “I ship Vmin platonically” they are basically missing the whole point of the word if you ask me, as it’s used to differentiate between liking a friendship or platonic bond and wanting or liking a possible romantic or sexual connection.

However, what bothers me the most is when people don’t realize that shipping isn’t real. Shipping is liking to interpret interactions or other things in a non platonic way. It can even be hoping or speculating about characters or people being together. Basically “wishing for my ship to become canon” aka. turn real.

But if you already believe a ship is real, that is no longer shipping. At least not to me, because that was never the meaning of that word.

I have been a shipper for a long time, before ao3 and tumblr when I read and wrote fanfictions on livejournal or discussed pairings in random threads or blogs. And since the beginning you used shipping to show you liked a certain dynamic in a non platonic way. Same with ship names, which has also become so mainstream to use now that it’s lost it’s original purpose. Ship names like Vmin or RoMione (Ron x Hermione) etc. were to show it was liking two or more people together in a romantic or sexual way. If it’s in fiction it can also be to explore or expand on a canon pairing because you want more material.

In fact ship names and the word shipping had the point of separating reality from fantasy so you knew if someone said Vmin in stead of Jimin and Taehyung you meant it as a romantic or sexual thing and not just them together. Now people use ship names because its easier, and sadly that makes it a bit confusing with what people mean when they say “I love Vmin”.

I have shipped a lot of ships, both fictional and real people. And I know that most shippers behave and act the same when they reach a certain popularity and get support from each other. They help each other get convinced that their ship is real or will become canon.  They also start to downgrade or downplay interactions between rival ships and sometimes goes as far as trying to dehumanize or delegitimize shippers of other ships. For example saying “most of their shippers are young/don’t know how it’s like to be in a relationship/don’t understand their personalities” etc. and essentially simply try to show why their camp knows best and why others just don’t see the truth. “I never used to ship but XXX just felt different” is another common one to justify why it’s not just shipping, the vibe is simply different. But, that is still just your own feeling and interpretation, and many others feel the same about other ships. 

Lumping all shippers together as the same and generalizing also creates a us vs. them kind of mindset. Then with time and size of the community and more “evidence” the echo chamber effect makes everyone harden their belief in combination with confirmation bias until you have a whole community convinced they have the only real truth and everyone else simply doesn’t understand.

It’s honestly the same psychology you can find in religion and even in people who believe in conspiracy theories like that the earth is flat. Same type of behavior even though the subjects and situations can vary. I have studied warfare and war psychology at university and it’s a bit scary how ship wars are so similar to actual wars when it comes to the reasoning and psychology behind it. Because in the end it’s the same type of mindset and how the brain works to convince us something is the way we want it to be, for various reasons, while making the other side the enemy in a way.

I have seen shipwars in basically every fandom I have been in that has gotten big enough and that has “rivals”, like with One Direction or One Piece or The Hunger Games for example. Or even in ones I wasn’t in like the “team Jacob vs team Edward” in Twilight. There is a good reason for why I am very careful to say or try to convince someone a ship is real, when we don’t know. The only way to avoid ship wars is to stay open minded and not get defensive or aggressive, which will only further a generalization of your whole shipping community. “Vmin shippers are crazy/delulu/toxic/aggressive” etc. are situations I want to avoid, but that I know is likely to happen simply as the Vmin fandom grows in size.

We have similar moments that we got years ago that no one reacted to much, but with the growth of the community has become “proof”. People get more and more convinced as they get more and more things that confirm what they already want to believe. At the same time they also more and more ignore things that goes against their own beliefs and become less prone to accept alternative realities to the one they have created.

People believe in very different ships, and people are equally convinced they are the ones who are right. Which speaks for itself as it’s not possible for everyone to be right. But it is also possible for everyone to be wrong. When this involves real people it also becomes much more complex and difficult to analyze. Because things aren’t happening all planned out as in a story. Not everything is a hint for a ship being real, and it’s very difficult to try and understand a person or a relationship from afar when every person and relationship works very differently and there could be many different forces and reasons behind what we see. Especially when we don’t get to see everything and when there are good reasons to now show everything openly, as in the case of a possible LGBT+ couple.

In short I think people should realize that liking a dynamic, shipping something and believing in something are three different things.

For me I ship Vmin 100%, I love reading fics and putting possible romantic or sexual twists on their relationship for fun. I know this is fiction, and simply something I enjoy on a personal level based on my preference. I know I like many similar ships as well. I ship a lot of things in general, for different reasons. I can’t ship them with anyone else. 

When it comes to liking real Jimin and Taehyung and their relationship I do that as well, I know the border between my shipping fantasies and what they say and do. This is why I say that I will love Vmin no matter their bond, because I don’t need the ship to become real for me to love Jimin and Taehyung’s bond. It’s still a beautiful relationship even if it is 100% platonic. But, as a shipper I still dream and fantasize and enjoy them as more than friends. But if they are together with someone else for real, I can accept that. I don’t own Jimin and Tae and I don’t get a say in how they live their lives just because I like something else than what they want.

And when it comes to supporting and believing a relationship is real, that’s when in my opinion and shipper stops being a shipper. The exception for me here is if the relationship actually becomes or proves to be real and you keep enjoying it through built fantasies to explore a real couple or a canon pairing. But generally, shipping equals imagining something, while believing is obviously beyond that.

Believing a ship to be real or to become canon can be very toxic, both in regards to creating friction between different shippers who believes and KNOWS they are right, which makes people who think differently wrong and in a way “the enemy” or a threat. Investing so deeply into a relationship can be very dangerous emotionally as well. For example, how people burned their books after a series is over when their ship didn’t end up together. This is a light version, as there are much worse things people have done for their ship or when things haven’t gone the way they thought. And that’s in fiction where it’s usually easier and more straightforward. If you feel bad watching another ship interact or dislike another member for getting in between your ship, then it shows you are involved to the point of feeling threatened by another dynamic. In a way it’s a second hand jealousy. Imagine that feeling if your ship isn’t real, or if a rival ship is real. It might lead you to even hate the people you used to love, or feel betrayed, even though it was originally just a fantasy in your head that you got too invested in.

I obviously write analysis, which definitely goes beyond just shipping, but that’s why it’s extra important for me to try and remember that it’s all just speculation. I do think Vmin act weird and have things worth discussing, and I think it’s interesting, so I write analysis. Having a discussion is not a bad thing, as long as it remains a discussion in which where you can accept being wrong and change your mind. Vmin is weird, and I think there might be something there, but I also know it can be me reading them incorrectly.

Everything except what we hear or see directly from the boys is speculation.

I might sound like a hypocrite as a analysis writer, but I have been in a lot of fandoms and have fallen in this trap myself before (not with a real ship, but the feeling is similar for fictional ships as well). I know how important it is to stay grounded and how easy it is to be swept away by plausible narratives or “proof” for a ship. But all ships have it, and all shippers act the same after getting popular enough or having enough weird moments to piece together. Vmin are getting to this point, and when I write about this it’s simply to be aware and try to avoid this trap.

It’s ok to believe a relationship is romantic or sexual (though I personally recommend not crossing the line into being convinced), and it can bring a lot of joy, but just know that there is always a possibility that you are wrong. Because when people ship basically everything they can see, and we don’t even see everything, it’s simply impossible for every “believer” to be correct.

That’s why I will keep speaking about speculation and not proof. Me being certain about Vmin being real or talking about their interactions with confidence like I know exactly what they mean won’t help anyone, not myself and not you who read what I say.

I know this might sound a bit much, and that I might come off as a know it all or even a hypocrite. But honestly, if you only read and reblog one of my posts I hope it might be this one. Because I truly think it’s important to be aware of what we and other people in this fandom are doing.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this rant... And I hope you might understand me a little bit better because of it. Thank you! <3

[whitehotharlots]

Castle of Delusion: The theft of the 2020 caucus and the liberal worship of failure

 I attended Iowa Democratic caucuses in 2000, 2004, 2008, and then 2020. I’ll spare you the narrative details, but immediately after Monday’s caucus I remarked about how smoothly the new system ran. The cumbersome head count voting process of past years was replaced with an easily grasped card system that allowed supporters of viable candidates to leave after casting their fist vote (previously, they’d have to stay through re-alignment and a second head count, a process that took us about 3 hours in 2008). So cards were easier, clearer, and came with the added bonus of a paper trail. Things seemed great.

In my precinct, Sanders tied delegate-wise with Pete and Biden. This precinct was, even by Iowa’s august standards, incredibly old and incredibly white, so a tie for Bernie boded very well. Everyone was convivial. Aside from the Yang supporters being unable to perform basic arithmetic after the initial vote, there were no delays or hitches. Sure, no one knew how the reporting app was going to work—information regarding as much had never materialized, in spite of repeated promises that they’d be on top of it—but it was figured that the county chair would simply report the votes via telephone, as had been the process as far back as everyone could remember.

Post-caucus, my stomach was shot and I was as emotionally drained as I’d ever been, so I got back to my parent’s house and commenced playing video games—staying away from social media and cable news until I could be certain the results had been called. Come midnight, I saw what everyone else saw: something bad had happened, something no one could quite describe, and so they weren’t going to release votes that night. Rachel Maddow’s weird gross skeleton face was beaming with relief: this is great news for the party, she said, because it was great news for Michael Bloomberg. I commenced to get blackout drunk and post threats on social media.

At first, I went against my personal experience (and intuition, and common sense) and blamed the failure on run-of-the-mill incompetence. We are now, however, more than 40 hours past the point when most votes were cast, and 24 hours past the Polk County chair confirming that his results—in one of Iowa’s largest districts, where Sanders was projected to dominate—had been submitted. The state party is simply refusing to count votes. They are rigging their own election, disenfranchising their own voters.

I’m not going to speculate on the strategic thinking of the mental defectives who have risen to leadership positions with state and national Democratic parties. Maybe they’ll never count the Polk County votes. Maybe they’ll only do so weeks from now, so as to deny Sanders any momentum and allow that rat-faced piece of shit Mayor Pete to continue to falsely claim victory. Maybe this is meant to protect the Biden campaign from total collapse. Maybe it’s meant to boost Bloomberg. Who knows, who cares. The point is, these people are cheating in plain sight. They are doing so brazenly. They are literally refusing to count the votes of members of their own party so as to squelch an election result they find unfavorable.

Partisan corruption is nothing new, and certainly not exclusive to the contemporary Democratic party. What’s striking about this, however, is the nakedness of both its machinations and the disdain the party is showing to its own voters. Yes, Mayor Daley most likely destroyed Nixon votes to shore up Illinois for Kennedy. Yes, the Bush campaign ginned up astroturf protests to prevent a full recount in Florida. Yes, the AP called the entire primary for Hillary the day before California was set to vote, so as to depress turn out. All of these acts were disgusting, the sort of raw cynicism that destroys the few remaining vestiges of legitimacy of this awful and broken country of ours. But all of these were done to seize power.  They all contained some element of deniability, some sense of awareness of the need to control public perception, to not so obviously telegraph the actors’ hatred toward democracy.

The theft of the 2020 Iowa Caucus is, in short, an act so proudly and openly corrupt that it has no fair parallel in modern American history. No reasonable observer can conclude anything other than that the Democratic party is run by some of the stupidest and most corrupt people alive. And the fact that the party does not seem to realize this is a profound indictment of how deeply our few remaining liberal institutions are in the grip of a sort of suicidal delusion, a form of illiberal madness that worships its own destruction.

The only reasonable question is how? How did the Democratic party and its media allies come to be dominated by idiots who derive psychological gratification from failure, people whose hubris and self-certainty is so strong they think everyone else is dumb enough to not see that they’re cheating in plain sight?  

Like many other of the most malignant aspects of contemporary liberalism, this suicidal delusion was born in the darkest corners of academe. The thrust of the last few decades of cultural studies has been to demand that people reject understandings of the world that are traditional, intuitive, and commonsensical—even when these understandings aren’t materially malignant, and especially when they are backed up through empirical measurements.

Sometimes this has led to what most decent people would consider progress. It’s good, for example, that we’ve destigmatized homosexuality. But many more assertions—particularly those that have been argued for the most viciously throughout the last decade or so—are either objectively untrue or so far divorced from the lived reality of most people that very few of us actually believe them. Most people don’t believe that there exist no biological differences between men and women, for example, or that fatness doesn’t come with health consequences and/or isn’t correlated with diet and exercise. We don’t honestly believe that whiteness is a metaphysical force that is the true cause of all the world’s problems, nor that an implicit bias test is a fair measurement of anything, nor that person’s worth is more a matter of their collective identity markers than of their beliefs and actions. These assertions are all incredibly fringe, despicable to anyone who cares about empirical reality or possesses a moral compass that’s not founded entirely in self-serving relativism.

There exists a small caste of delusionists, however, who have forged careers from making these and other assertions. They are very prominent within their own, closed circles, and they receive no material pushback for their beliefs, even from the vast majority of people who have not been initiated into their cult. This is due to the solipsistic validation mechanisms of contemporary cultural studies, a milieu which suggests, simply, that its purveyors are right, everyone who doesn’t defer to them is some variety of fascist, and the fact that disagreement exists is fundamental proof of the righteousness of their claims. To members of this caste, delusion isn’t merely a virtue; it’s a currency. The more they anger and confuse outsiders, the more correct and admirable they become, and the higher their position of prominence within liberal institutions. 

This is the lesson of the “Sokal Squared” hoax, in which a team of authors managed to get several nonsense articles past peer reviewers at cultural studies journals, making arguments which ranged from incredibly offensive to beyond the realm of plausibility. Or, if you’ve fallen for the woke apologia and believe these works to be unworthy of consideration, let’s look at a more earnest piece, in which an author argues that drone bombing “queers” warfare. It’s reductive to merely call these arguments stupid. They are delusional. They are absurd and offensive in manner that’s all but guaranteed to confuse and anger a large majority of people. They go against basic common sense and decency and can in most cases be disproven empirically—and that’s exactly why they got through peer review so easily. The value here isn’t in attempting to adjudicate reality or even morality; it’s instead found in giving its purveyors a chance to revel in one another’s unboundedness to reality. Radicalism can no longer be differentiated from simple stupidity. The point is to announce one’s membership in the delusional caste. It’s good to be insane. It’s good to be revolting. It’s good to fail, because then you know you’re good.

The caste’s members eventually reach a plane of delusion so all-encompassing that they begin to disdain those of us who still possess a desire to engage with the world in honest or rational terms. These people—the hoard, the uninitiated, the rubes—they only exist to confirm the righteousness of the insiders. What they think they see therefore doesn’t matter. Their opinions don’t matter. Their votes, especially, do not matter. We’ll tell them what to think. We’ll tell them how the world exists. And if they disagree, well, that’s just evidence of how wrong they are...

[kob131]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l1pL3ATN0

Let’s break down Vexed’s Weiss video, shall we?

“You know how i feel about Weiss, she’s my favorite character.”

Vexed, what does that even mean? Considering how invested you are at this point in the show’s failure, I don’t know if “favorite character” means “character I like” or “My go to shield to deflect accusations that I hate the show.”

“Weiss worked because they had a plan for her-”

They also had a plan for Blake and you proclaim her as the worst so clearly that doesn’t mean anything.

“Weiss could have been selfless and traveled with Qrow and Maria to hand over the relic-”

*slams down a huge stack of papers*

1. Cordovon SPECIFICALLY said WEISS could come home. She never said anyone else could come as well. And considering her attitude, there is a good reason to assume she WOULDN’T let anyone else with her. 

2. Weiss coming home would likely result in the Relic landing in Jacques’ hands. Even if we didn’t know already that Watts was going to meet with Jacques (which would end with him getting the Relic), Jacques is shown to be self serving and pretty damn weak. Meaning if someone threatened his life for the relic (say, a psychotic scorpion Fanaus?), he’d probably hand it over. And Weiss would logically have no way of stopping this. After all, she escaped in part thanks to her weapon (which Jacques would take from her) and Klein (fired). If either DID happen, you’d screech ‘Stupid for the sake of the plot!’

3. There is no way for anyone to sneak with her. You can’t hide anyone away in the ships for that long, they can’t take Qrow because why would Cordovon let Weiss take back a suspicious bird and she’d be powerless on her own.

4. You screeched for two years that spiliting up the main cast was a terrible idea and now you demand that they should have done just that? Way to flip flop.

5. You’d bitch about the others letting her go as ‘letting their friend be kidnapped and shipped back to her abusive household.’ You already twist so much to benefit your agenda so I know this for certain.

This shit was pointed out a year ago. Get with the program.

“Why didn’t Weiss go back?”

*jabs above* In your own words: it’d be ‘stupid for the sake of the plot.’

“Let’s play a quick game-”

Yes lets.

“5 seconds to answer: Why did Weiss escape to Mistral?”

Because she was being coped up in a room by her father, thought her sister was in Mistral and escaped to go find her..and she didn’t know where Team RWBY was and the source of her escaping was Jacques’ abuse.

That took me a nanosecond. It took you several months to ask it. Speed up.

“If you answered: ‘to escape her father’ You are wrong. If you said “To meet up with team RWBY, you are wrong. She did it to find Winter-”

Yeah huh, smug asshole?

Mind sating WHY she went to find Winter?

... No? Strange. One would think explaining a character’s actions would be your priority here to show it doesn’t make sense.

Oh right. You didn’t explain because the explanation was exactly what I said: She didn’t know were Team RWBY was and she was escaping her father. Both of which DO NOT APPLY in this situation. Gee, it’s almost like context and truth is your fucking Kryptonite.

“Why didn’t she offer to take the relic to Ironwood?”

Because it’s stupid, forces her back into the same situation she was in before and goes against the thing you screeched for years about.

“Weiss thinks she’ll be taken back to her-”

She KNOWS she’ll be taken back to her father. Cordovon specifically said “I’ll take you HOME”. You played the fucking clip were she said that Vexed, is your short term memory shot?

No wait, he had to write out the script, record the audio, find the clip and download it, edit this all together and post it. AT least because I would assume he would do the bare minimum of research to make sure he wasn't spouting shit. So either he is so assured that he’s right he didn’t even pay attention to this VERY OBVIOUS detail or he’s relying on the audience’s negative perception of RWBY to cover his tracks. This is why I do not accept the idea of Vexed Viewer making mistakes like this: he spends weeks making these videos. I can catch myself making stupid claims with posts that take an hour to type up. Clearly he should know better.

“Oh wait, they didn’t take her back to Ironwood-”

Which is noted by the characters to be something unusual and unexpected. So to present this as a rebuttal to Weiss not wanting to go back to Atlas is to expect the characters to know the plot and script instead acting on known information (like, you know, human beings?).

“Oh look at all these times Jacques should have been able to be taken back to her father because you claim she’s a minor!”

No one has ever argued that Vexed. As I have shown, she KNEW she would be handed over back to her father because that was the offer CORDOVON GAVE HER.

This is blatant strawmanning to avoid the fact that the actual argument against you can’t be denied. And since you refuse to not bitch like a self entitled brat, you won’t admit you were wrong. 

“There is no downside to Weiss return-”

“Cordovin: (sighs) If Miss Schnee has truly come to her senses and wishes to return to her family, then, of course, the Atlas military will escort her home. But the kingdom will not be responsible for her "friends" of... questionable character. (glances at Blake specifically upon saying her last statement) “

Reminder we have just passed the five minute mark. Of a twenty two minute video. And Vexed has made, being abnormally generous to an unwarrented degree, two demonstrably false to the point of lying arguments. 

Starting to realize the sheer volume of his failures?

“I had to believe that a protector of the world would rather be with her friends than save the world”

*glares up at everything said previously*

No, you WANTED to believe that. You CHOOSE to believe that. You ACCEPTED it over far more rational, simple and according to you, convenient explanations.

Unless of course, you’re looking for anything and everything to bitch about in RWBY and this is your confirmation bias.

“The writers decided for Weiss to be annoying in Volume 6′s Brunswick part.”

Oh? So these parts should be so bad that they override your supposed ‘favorite character’ right? You aren’t just bitching and completely contradicting that criticism shield your dredged up right?

“Weiss screams loudly and starts hyper ventilating-”

Funny thing is he uses Keiven from Home Alone putting on after shave to say Weiss Screamed louder...even though they sound about the same (Weiss just has a higher pitch from being a woman) and Keiven screamed longer. 

Not to mention that in the original scene, it was being played like a horror scene. Same music, same angles, same pacing: it’s to sell how disturbing and unsettling the sight of these bodies are. Of course, if you were just going off memory and Vexed’s footage, you wouldn’t know that. 

“Weiss is a trained warrior and fought at the Fall of Beacon were people were dying left and right-”

A. Weiss isn’t fully trained yet. She was a first year at Beacon and had two more years at least.

B. Huntsmen are not warriors. Their training is not built to break them like a soldier or warrior. Not to mention Weiss grew up in a relatively peaceful time so it’s not like death was a close up constant like this (unless you count the WF which is different.)

C. Number of times Weiss has seen a dead body on screen before now? ... Zero? Hm, guess Vexed ‘convienently’ forgot that.

D. Any off-screen deaths Weiss would have seen at the Fall of Beacon you would have bitched about as not being shown. You bitch about stuff on a lower level (he’s bitched about the phrase ‘Oh God’ before) so there’s a perecedent for this/

And E. These bodies are in a different situation than any in the Fall of Beacon. Those are freshly killed bodies on a battlefield. Weiss would be expecting those. These are mummified bodies in a civilian setting, with the killer nowhere in site and out of nowhere. No shit she’d be shocked: Yang (someone who lost an arm) is also acting the same and Qrow (a seasoned warrior who actually DOES fit your description) is shocked too.

Once again though, this stuff wouldn’t come up in your mind because Vexed doesn’t acknowledge it or consider it. Thus you’re being guided away from these issues. 

Starting to see how sneaky Vexed is?

“Weiss is being dumb and could break through the cellar door!”

Once again, he’s being sneaky, splicing this next to the body discovery point, trying to make them seem like similar situation...even though the moment he is talking about is them running from the Apathy. Grimm that have been shown to be immune to regular weaponry. AND is making them sluggish AND is advancing on them. She’s panicked and all the shit Vexed is pointing to takes time and concentration: stuff their situation is ROBBED of. And yet again, you wouldn’t know that because Vexed NEVER GIVES CONTEXT HERE. Only after this is stated.

“I know you guys are saying in the comments-”

Just another strawman.  Vexed is pretending to addressing points by making up weaker ones. Even then, his bullshit counterargument “The Apathy drain your will, not make you a damsel in distress” kills his OWN argument as a lack of will would cause Weiss to lose concentration and fail.

For Vexed’s argument to work, Weiss would have to either not be panicking (stupid and unrealistic) or ignore her own powers’ limitations (bad writing).

“Thank God Yang was down there-”

Ruby had just disintergrated the Grimm. They were given a reprieve. Once again, Vexed doesn’t show this.

“You can’t have her be fearless now-”

She’s neither trapped nor panicking nor being affected by the Apathy. The fear bullshit is on you.

“*Vexed cringes*”

Oh look, that thing I was doing about ten minutes ago. Catch up Vexed- Oh wait, you’re too busy gutting your own eyeballs.

“We don't see Weiss in Atlas-”

Gee, not like we have to set up the Ace Ops, set up Ironwood, Winter and Penny again, set up Watts and Tyrian’s threat, set up Robyn, work through all of this and much more and end it all. It’s almost like that’s fucking SECONDARY to telling the story and as you showed, Weiss already has moments in Volume 7.

So I guess Vexed is basically saying “Volumes 4 and 5 weren’t THAT bad” since he’s been begging the CRWBY to go back and overstuff the Volumes AGAIN.

Next part has him actually praising the moment between Weiss and her mom. Sounds good right? It would...if it actually matched Vexed’s standards. 

How many times has he ignored things like distance, positioning and the such in things like the Adam Vs. Yang and Blake fight just to push his bullshit through to the audience? Just how many moments that would qualify for, in his own words ‘well written, well directed moments’ just so he can prove a point?

At the very least before, I could give a bare minimum level of respect for Vexed for sticking by his principles, as stupid as they are. But no, he just praises a scene because he likes what happened in it even though stuff of similar quality he overlooked or bashed. 

“Weiss just gets handed her proof about her dad and doesn’t have to do anything!”

Except endure being shot at by her mother and there’s nothing that's been shown before that could be used as proof besides this. What do you want, proof to magically appear in Jacques’ office? To have Weiss gain fingerprint scanning tech despite never showing that before? To have Jacques be excepetionally dumb? At least we get something respectable out of Weiss’ mother here and it isn’t a huge leap in logic like the others.

“I’d have more of a problem if this scene wasn’t so good and I’d have less of a problem if this made sense for Willow. It doesn’t but this isn’t her video-”

No no no no no.

No.

After all the tangents and bullshit you’ve pulled in other videos AND THIS VIDEO, you denying proof for something you call ‘a point of contention’ is pretty fucking rich of you. Just because you like a scene doesn’t mean you can just ignore the problems with it, same with the inverse too. How is this any better than a Yang fanboy ignoring issues with scenes involving Yang because they like it?

Literally all you had left was your own daman principles, Vexed. Now you’re burning them.

“One thing the writers have made very clear is Weiss really enjoys dunking on her father-”

Using her ignoring her father’s call in Volume 3, her breakdown at the Atlas Elite and her talk back to Jacques in Volume 4? One of which is not ‘dunking’ (or extreme humiliation) and the other is only partially about her father and mostly about how detached the elite of Atlas are.

“-SO I shouldn’t be surpised she came in like a-”

Not even gonna let you finish that shitty reference. That was just unnecessary and not even funny. It feels more like a combination of a Family Guy cutaway for it’s abruptness and a fanboy cheering for it’s framing.

“The Jacques being taken down scene was bad because it was matter of fact and silly instead of emotionally driven-”

Vexed, the issues Weiss has with Jacques is rooted in his abuse of her and her family, his entitlement to the family business and his business practices harming her family name. This takedown has nothing to do with any of these. She is not confronting him about the damage he has done to her and her family nor the damage he has done in his pursuit of growing the business. She is confronting him about the election fraud, a story point.

No shit this isn’t emotional- Weiss’ emotional ties here are SHALLOW. It would ring hollow to the audience for her to make this emotional because she has no emotional attachment to the actions he performed. All she would have is it being her dad, which isn’t enough. 

Then again, from the perspective of a Weiss fanboy, this would look bad because that moment you’ve been writing in your head didn’t happen. I should know.

“*Vexed bitches about a joke about Weiss not knowing if she can arrest Weiss because ‘hur dur book smart!’*”

She’s not an officer, she’s a Huntress. I don’t think they can actually arrest people.

“This should have been between father and daughter in an epic moment-”

*rolls eyes*

Vexed, look at this scene. Look at all the other shit happening here. Then remember the people dying to the cold in Mantle.

What makes you THINK it was meant to be that way? Hell, what makes you think that would be a GOOD IDEA?

.. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

“I wanted to see the sister dynamic that has been missing from RUby and Yang-”

You had your chance in Volume 6. You ignored for Bumbleby bashing. You don’t get a say.

“Hur dur, characters ssay things we know already!”

Gee, it’s almost like Weiss and Winter talking about this was to restablish were they were because a certain group of people made it certain that they needed everything spoonfed to them or else they throw a tantrum.

“Ironwood done nothin’ wrong!”

There’s Vexed’s pandering again.

The man made no attempt to talk anything through until he was forced to with Mantle. He lied to Team RWBY about Amity and made them operate under false information. And I have made the fuck ups in Ironwood’s plan in Episode 11 VERY clear.

Stop pandering to the RWBY hate crowd and have some fucking principles.

“Oh, Weiss lied to Ironwood! How hypocritical”

*holds up a piece of paper saying ‘That’s the point’*

“Why would it bother Winter that she’s chosen as the Winter Maiden? ANd why does she say that she wasn’t given a choice when she said she was ‘proposed’?”

gee, wasn’t it you guys who claimed Ozpin proposing to Pyrrha wasn’t giving her an actual choice? Hm, I guess things change...when they benefit you.

“Wow, Weiss is so bad for not telling Winter about the Relic!-”

COnversation wasn’t about that and it wouldn’t come up, nor is it a particularly serious thing. But nice try Vexed.

“Weiss runs away because she pains to carve out her-”

Wait a minute, didn’t you say that Weiss was going to Msitral to find Winter? Hmmm, awfully inconsistent of you vexed. Almost you lie constantly for your own benefit.

“HOW MANY TIMES WILL YOU TALK ABOUT FINDING YOUR OWN WAY?!”

Gee, didn’t know that, by your own admission, three times in four Volumes was SOOO awful.

“This is how they treated their relationship?”

As a narrative tool to emphasize a theme of the Volume? Good on them.

“You know, everyone still thinks Weiss is this pampered heiress-”

One guy said that. In the entire Volume. About self reliance and finding your own path.

“Weiss never said a word to Robyn and didn’t support her-”

You know Vexed, what’s the difference between you and a whiny Bumbleby shipper bitching about them not kissing yet? You sound so entitled and so whiny about you not getting your way. Your arguments are breaking down into disjointed bitching, just like an entitled brat.

It’s fucking pathetic.

“Maybe she’ll try her luck doging the coronavirus at RTX! Maybe she was too busy watching Gen:LOCK.”

Aw, what’s wrong? baby didn’t get his undeserved baba?

I can’t believe how much has changed Vexed. You’ve pretty much outed yourself as an entitled fan perpetually whining about the show not being the way you want it. You have no respect earned. You have no principles. You have no standards. You don’t even have an end goal: all you have is your whims.

Pathetic.

[daesungindistress]

New SH stan anon. So lemme get this straight, they can trend hts for gd at chanel, taeyang at fendi, taeyang's charity event, they can even spontaneously trend an ht for gd for no reason at all. But the first time we see Daesung in MONTHS and he's looking like the hottest broody cop in a kdrama (not my words) and suddenly it's "what's an ht I don't know her"? They even managed to give over 1k notes to that damn naver comment section. But co-ordinating for him positively is too much effort? (1/2)

This is why I don’t fuck with fandoms. I was thinking of getting into the vip fandom fully but I can’t stand this sort of bias in band fandoms so I will just appreciate from afar. Though this does somewhat solve the mystery of why Dae stans are often OT5. I’m not surprised they stick together for the maknae line if this isthe treatment Dae gets from hyung line stans. Anyway, where he’s allowed to go solo the gp adores him and that speaks of his power. I’m off to drool over those pics again (2/2)

–

Don’t forget about Seungri stans. To hell with that maknae line solidarity shit. Not too long ago Seungri stans, with the help of OT5 fans, managed to trend the hashtag #apologizetoseungri the day court documents were revealed confirming that Seungri was in fact in one of those molka chats with JJY and friends (this came after months of his defenders screaming at me in my inbox about how it “wasn’t Seungri in that chat!” Haven’t heard a peep from them since then). But because it was “just one chat” these idiot IVIPs with their hive mind heads screwed on backwards mistakenly thought that demanding the world offer him an apology was an appropriate thing to do, and to the embarrassment of us all, they got the job done. Loyal Dae stans, compelled by Seungri stans to stick together, helped make it happen.

But when after 5 months of investigation into his controversial building Daesung’s case was dropped – completely cleared, “no evidence to support the suspicions,” not charged, not even named a suspect by the time the case was closed – those same fans with their trending power and large-scale organizational ability were nowhere to be found. Dae stans on Twitter tried to trend the tag #daesungdaebak in celebration, but without support from the rest of the fandom, their efforts fizzled out and died. Where did those masses of misguided fans go? Where was that same effort for Daesung when he was vindicated? What happened to maknae line? I’m not gonna sit here and rag on hyung line stans, but Seungri stans are fair game now. It’s about time people realize that they are not here to return the favor. They never gave a damn about Daesung, only about what his stans could do for them. They are selfishly utilizing stans of other members to do their dirty work. Sadly, Dae stans most of all, in part because of Daesung’s building scandal. They took advantage of it and used it to rope vulnerable Dae stans back in.

(Which raises the question: are they happy he was cleared unequivocally? Are they really? Or are they bitter that the same isn’t happening for Seungri? Maybe there’s another reason why they didn’t help trend the hashtag. Because now that there’s no more uncertainty, now that police have acted in Daesung’s favor but not in Seungri’s, they can no longer hold it over the heads of Dae stans, using it to guilt trip them into supporting Seungri, calling them hypocrites with “double standards” and poisoning their minds with the claim that DaeRi and their situations are “the same”. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But I speak from experience. These are the anon asks I received throughout his building controversy. Some I replied to publicly, rejecting them openly, others I simply deleted.)

“This does somewhat solve the mystery of why Dae stans are often OT5.” Yes, “maknae line” has something to do with it, but the bit I wrote above is another piece of the puzzle. In short, Dae stans are OT5 because most of them are too kind for their own good and gullible. But hey, the two go hand-in-hand, don’t they? I have a more detailed post about this sitting in drafts. Been there for two weeks, long enough that I was nearly ready to let it go… but now that the matter is being brought up again, who knows? Might finish it up after all.

Anyway, the good news is Daesung has never expressed frustration over this… treatment. For this reason I rarely find myself wondering if he feels slighted. I just don’t see the point of worrying about an issue he himself has never raised. Unlike a certain someone who is no longer with us, Daesung never fusses about it, never complains. As far as I can tell, he always comes off as abundantly grateful for the love he receives, and so gracious in the way he receives it – and I admire him all the more for it. Taking our cues from him, if he doesn’t seem unhappy, why should we be? He’s done so well for himself, no matter what vile and hateful things people might say about him. The tremendous success of his solo career speaks for itself (or as you said, “speaks of his power” – love that). Bias in the fandom does exist, yes, but I really try not to let myself get too bothered by it because he’s done just fine in spite of it. More than fine.

I know you said you’re a SH stan, but all I’ll say is as a Dae stan, you get used to it. Loving him in a vacuum of sorts, relatively calm compared to fans of the other members but steadfast in your affection, almost stubbornly so. Not unlike Daesung himself with his quiet strength and humble determination. Also, at least in the English-speaking side of the fandom, we’re a small, at times insular bunch. Now even smaller after the fandom split. Fact is, even if we felt the need, we just don’t have the manpower to move the masses by ourselves. Thankfully though, we stan a man who doesn’t seem to require that kind of constant attention to keep going, as seen in the way he disappears when he isn’t actively working. But he always comes back. He’s dependable like that (D'pendable… sorry, couldn’t resist). I think as long as we’re there for him when it really matters, ready to receive him when he has official schedules again, ready to meet him when he’s ready to meet us… it’s enough.

[blackasteriia]

16, 10, 7 for the ask meme :u

 Super Duper Deep Character Questions

||First question is shown but the rest is under the cut because it’s a doozy||

16.

I discussed in a previous post  how Xion’s physical appearance relates to her overall self-conception. Because of the influences of others and her own experiences with the world, Xion developed into a young girl with black hair. When she was in the Organization she had blue eyes. However, her eye color changed to a dark brown after she left. This was a statement of individuality that differentiates her from Kairi and Namine. It is also how she approaches her own style. Xion is unique, she doesn’t follow the trends or ideas of anyone else. She wasn’t want to wear other people’s clothes, or act like her peers. Her brand is 100% pure Xion. Pro-tip, if you want to buy Xion new clothes: let her pick them out. Do not choose them for her. She will not wear them. Set her free in a clothing store and see what she comes back with. Whatever it is, you can be certain she’ll be happy with it.  

Xion’s sense of style was a gradual evolution. In the Organization she wore the characteristic black coat, pants, and boots of the uniform, day-in, day-out. Her hair began to grow to the point it needed cutting. She did it with a knife. Fingernails were chewed off. Someone must’ve taken pity and taught the kids about soap, toothpaste, and basic hygiene. I hope someone did, at least. There’s no implication of it in canon though. She does not wear make-up and even if she understood its function, she wouldn’t have time to. There is little to no self-expression in the Organization. Xion is also a child soldier fighting to survive, appearance is way low on her list of priorities anyway. She doesn’t know anything about ‘style’ or ‘fashion.’ Clothes are functional, they keep her warm and they cover her. They also provide basic protection against the elements and attacks. 

The first time Xion shows an inkling of concern for ‘style’ is when she alters her Organization coat. Even without her memories, she recognized that the Organization coat is a symbol that said something about her. Something she did not want to be said about her. She needed the coat to travel the dark corridors, however. So, Xion found a tailor and had them change the design to suit her. She had it shortened and the hood replaced with a collar. Vents in the sleeves made it so they could be rolled-up. She also learned a spell that cleaned dirt, blood, and other stains from her clothes. This is also the point where she realized she could wear the clothes she wanted. Xion never had more than one extra change of clothes, but it was her clothes. Here Xion found some preferences: she preferred pants to skirts, she liked boots, loose shirts were comfy, and she kinda liked necklaces?

The necklace I draw her wearing in her art, for example: 

Is one that she made herself out of a piece of gem she found. She whittled and smoothed it down, then hallowed out a hole to loop a string through. Little things like that enabled Xion to find places for self-expression. However, her ‘style’ was cramped by the reality of her situation. She was still fighting to survive and once again her priorities laid elsewhere.

Once most adults are no longer attempting to murder her, Xion flourishes. She is never a fashionista, she never particullary goes out of her way to look Good. Instead, Xion understands that the ability to express herself should not be wasted. This freedom is valuable and just one more way to carve a niche for herself. It’s a statement of independence and power, a privilege she did not hav before. Clothes are always practical to her. She never wears heels for this reason. Still does not like skirts. Yet, she’ll color coordinate her outfits to suit her: blacks, dark, purple, blues, or reds. She probably has a small rotation of necklaces she likes. She has someone professional cut her hair, although it never grows past her shoulders. She looks clean and put together, confident in her appearance. Also she’s never wearing the stupid tacky apprentice outfit, she has self-respect. Even Xion knows that ascots are lame.

If she ever wears make-up it is very minimal, at most. She also is never going to get a piercing, too much risk of it getting ripped off in a fight. She will, however get a tattoo. Saïx left Xion with a gnarly, ugly scar across her back from hip-to-shoulder. When she’s old enough she gets a tattoo to cover it up. What the tattoo is of, depends. Usually it’ll be flowers and vines, a simple but elegant design that works to cover the mark. So, a painful reminder of her past is covered by something that is her and nothing else. Furthermore, in her room, wherever it is in the verse, Xion tends to collect things. Little trinkets and objects from her various travels. She’s not unorganized but she’s not obsessive about a system. She likes things to be at hand when she needs them. Shelves are for books and knick-knacks. She likes to have a desk to study at. Xion isn’t one for artwork, typically. However, if given art to put on the walls she might comply. 

10.

Xion isn’t traditionally creative, so you won’t see her make many works of art. She might doodle, she might hum, or write out a quick rhyme, however, she is not strongly artistically motivated. At least not in the way that is typically thought of as ‘artistic.’ Remember that Xion is a kinesthetic learner. Physical action is more important to her than an aesthetic ideal. In general, Xion will do things with her hands as an absent minded way to dispose of excess energy. Thus, the aforementioned carved stone necklace or her tendency to dismantle things. That or her little doodles, scrawled onto a page. If Xion is drawing or writing then it’s descriptive. Very grounded art that focuses on capturing details as she sees them. Xion isn’t an abstract person. She is concrete and focused on the space around her. It’s also apart of her general curiosity and drive to learn. Xion isn’t concerned with the lofty pursuit of high art. She’ll consume it, but even then I still wouldn’t consider her a ‘creative’ person. She doesn’t really listen to music and wouldn’t find a lot of joy in perusing an art gallery. Most paintings are boring man, I don’t know what to tell you. 

Where Xion shows creativity is in her problem solving. Xion is well-wired for logic and math. She is capable of teaching herself calculus if given the resources to do so. She can take the information she is given to form a conclusion. Then, use that conclusion to ask more questions that lead to more observation. She uses deductive reasoning and is probably one of the few people not truly victim to the confirmation bias. Xion is trying to disprove herself. It lends to her paranoia and tends to make her a bit of a conspiracy theorist. She is absolutely the one with the red string and the cork board. It also will make her a brilliant scientist and healer. Xion will ask the questions, look from the angles, and think about the problem, in ways no one else will. She will look at almost any design and think ‘how can I make it more efficient?’ She will then think through the possibilities of that. All of these are signs of her creativity. They’re pragmatic, efficient, and adaptable, much like her. 

Very little of this is evident until after Xehanort’s death. When Xion had the free time, the resources, and the ability to focus on it. Once again, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, even if Xion had the drive for creativity she wouldn’t have the resources for it. Nonetheless, she had to learn to how to fight the Heartless and adapt to the flow of battle. She also had to survive and exist on her own after leaving the Organization. All of these problems would require creative solutions. It just wouldn’t flourish in a tangible way until the people who were trying to kill her were all dead. So, she learns how to read, learns math and science, and begins to explore the world in a new way, with new tools. 

7.

Xion is a three year old child soldier with extensive combat experience, a history of abuse, torture, enslavement, and neglect. She has no social supports, no parents, no friends, no family. She has spent two years living on her own, feeding and caring for herself. Her coping skills are near non-existant. She has not been taught how to regulate her emotions, which easily overwhelm her or she suppresses them altogether. Several key betrayals have left her paranoid and untrusting. 

According to the DSM-5 the requirement for PTSD is exposure to a life-threatening event and Xion qualifies. She presents symptoms of involuntary memories, nightmares, flashbacks, and dissociation. She will avoid places or people who remind her of the trauma. Although, this is broad and often times Xion labels things as ‘threatening’ merely because they trigger her anxiety. Xion also has low self-worth, self-blame, emotional estrangement from others, and persistently struggles to regulate her emotions. She shows irritableness, hyper-vigilance, reckless and self-destructive behavior, startles very easily, and has deep sleep disturbances. 

When Xion is avoiding Roxas and Axel at the end of KH3, that is part of her detachment from social connection. When she vanishes for two weeks that is her isolating herself to deal with anxiety and negative emotions. Xion is paranoid and is constantly calculating the chances that someone is trying to kill or harm her. This is a learned behavior from years of people betraying her and attempting to kill and harm her. Her nightmares are the most prolific. Xion cannot sleep without horrifying dreams of close calls in battle, her abuse, or torture. So, she avoids sleep like it’s the plague, going up to four days without rest. She doesn’t like to talk about her trauma, or think about it. Xion is very good at hiding her symptoms and her distress. She’ll usually isolate herself when emotions become too much to handle. Failing the ability to escape, she will express it as an explosion of pent-up rage. 

She blames herself for what has happened to her. If she was injured in a fight then it was her fault. She should’ve been better. If she had been smarter, better prepared she could’ve prevented Xemnas from capturing her. Xion is self-destructive and reckless, she has very little regard for her own health or safety. She treats most injuries and wounds like they’re paper cuts, and is confused when others freak out over them. She hasn’t trusted someone since Axel first hit her. Everyone lies, everyone will betray you, they will all eventually attempt to kill you, at some point. From the position of an outsider this seems insane. To Xion it is perfectly rational and logical, a natural extension of her own experiences. Xion’s mental health is poor and her physical health follows it. Food deprivation means she is underweight. She looks like she doesn’t sleep. Her hair is a mess, her fingernails bitten to the quick. 

Everything about Xion is a perfect storm of poor mental health and self-care. So, what can be done to help her? Like most problems Xion has faced, its solved by moving her up the Hierarchy of Needs. Providing her consistent meals, shelter, water, entertainment, and affection, gives her the space to focus on her own health. By giving Xion examples of relationships that are not abusive or neglectful, it can reframe her previous experiences. Xion can learn how to trust and to open up to others. It will just take time and energy to encourage her to do so. If it’s available, talk therapy would be invaluable to her. In the case it is not available, encouraging her to discuss her feelings and memories will help her process them in a more healthy way. Xion is very young and she has extensive, painful trauma that weighs her down. However, with proper help, love, and guidance, she can grow beyond her past. She’ll always be more jumpy, or nervous, or anxious than most, she’ll always have that suspicious paranoia. Her sleep habits will never be perfect and the nightmares will never truly go away. She is not resigned to an existence of suffering, however. Xion is adaptable and more than capable of healing. 

[movetothesuburbs]

Global Warming Thoughts

I've got stuff to say, you know. I thought this episode had some good points to make regarding the climate crisis and environmentalism and i'd like to focus a bit on the good.

I want to start with the Charlie and Dee plotline which has generally been received as the stronger plot (because it was). Dee's entire plot was a funny take on the way people perform "wokeness" on social media. Her environmentalism was completely performative and not backed up by any real concern for the planet and rather the validation (and possible material goods) she'd get for holding a certain opinion. Her shoes were a low quality expensive representation of this. Sure they were made from recycled plastic but they were uncomfortable and undoubtedly took more energy to make than would mitigate the environmental impact. Much like the ride share vs bus debate. The cons of the bus still applied to the ride share. We have empty gestures with no real concern.

On the other hand we have Charlie in his trash outfit representing another side of things. He's not recycling because he cares about the environment necessarily but because he doesn't have a lot of options. Bike riding, home gardens, reusing old items to make new are all things that have made a resurgence in the quirky environmentally conscious communities, but have been used by poor people much longer. Charlie isn't environmentally aware because he cares, he just can't afford to be wasteful. Charlie and Dee's worldviews juxtaposed like that worked well.

So then we have the Dennis/Frank/Mac plot. Yes it was weaker and it fell flat at the end, but this was also the heavier handed metaphor for global warming in general. The bar is the earth and the temperature is rising uncontrollably unless we find a way to stop it.

Frank is a subset of people who don't care much what happens with the bar (the earth) unless something benefits him. He wants to see some nipples and get some cash like any other capitalist scum on this planet. (Maybe some don't care about nipples but it's a metaphor for our baser uninhibited wants so work with me on this) It's that simple on that end. He has to be incentivized to even help a little. It has nothing to do with caring about the bigger picture; it's about caring about what he can get right now.

I think the God stuff was pretty straightforward and I thought "when opinion meets fact that's where you find truth" is hilarious. Also an alarmingly common belief. Mac waited for the facts to fit his confirmation bias before he's agree that global warming is real. But it's not a concern for him because God has a plan. (We can get into destiny vs. free will and I have solid thoughts about that as well but it'd end up an irrelevant tanget so I digress) They can find hope that the things they've done to help themselves will allow God to provide the solution. Not mentioned in the ep but I just want to mention there are Christians out there who believe global warming is a good thing because it's a sign of the Rapture and God will bring in Armageddon soon. So you know. That's a thing. It's just interesting to look at how faith intercedes with science and how people process these things.

Dennis, however, is fed up. We need to proactively work on a solution. Slow down the dancing. Stop drinking up all the alcohol. Let's try and fix this. We have the slow dance solution which only ended up being a temporary fix that ended up making things heat up even more. He asks people to consider using less energy. He asks them to consume less. Consumption and energy to excess is making things worse. Dennis is hopeful we can find a solution if we just stop the things that make it worse (or please please just slow down). It does fall more into putting the blame on the individual instead of mass corporate greed, but it's not the worst take. If we all just stop, a low down, and come together we can fix this.

I just wish it hadn't fallen sonflat at the end with absolutely no resolution or explanation forbwhat happened after he got mobbed. I think it could have had a bigger impact of the really said something at the end. Overall in really liked what they were saying the rest of the time and it's going to be an episode I like more than dislike

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 - (Fifty)Third Time’s the Charm, Post-Accusation (3)

Is that all we are to you? Just a vehicle to solve your cases for you?! ... you know what on second thought don’t answer that -

Trial: 1 / 2

hello darkness my old friend

What an interesting reaction. Despite the weird back and forth she’s been having with Monokuma, he still had the Monokubs jump in to defend her - though with that said, the desperation of it all probably backfired in Shuichi’s eyes. The point is, her first reaction wasn’t to protest - I mean, she will, and she did a bit weakly earlier, but it’s to withdraw into herself and think. Isn’t that how we first came across her? Thinking deeply to herself and completely ignoring Kaede and Shuichi to the best of her abilities?

A-are you attempting to plead ‘power of friendship’ right now -

“There is no time for friendship in the court of law!!!”

Clinging to that idea is the only thing he had to keep himself going all this time, too.

Also, after pushing behind the scenes for him to condemn three of the most well-meaning people in the class (and, y’know, Kirumi and Korekiyo lol), it’s interesting that she seems to think that this line of defense will work - especially considering what he’s accusing her of doing. You’ve managed to do something way beyond just murder, Tsumugi! Aside from Rantaro, you set the groundwork for everything that followed! And I feel like this game, more than the others, really pushed the idea that the survivors share some of the blame when the ‘blackened’ dies. I don’t agree with that mind you, but survivor’s guilt is very real and very powerful.

Despite all of this, he still wants to be wrong and is happy to be wrong. Being awfully, painfully right seems to be a running trend with him, with the one glaring exception hanging over his head.

BUT SHE STILL ISN’T SAYING ANYTHING -

she’s just sitting there with this worried, anguished expression and I don’t know what I was expected but it wasn’t this?? Is she trying to frantically brainstorm a way out or -

Seriously Monokuma do you actually hate her??? Despite working with her? Despite being intrinsically linked to each other???

Anyway whatever that just means it’s cute comic time, nice.

“gdmt do I have to do everything myself -”

They kept her glasses on! Oh, they kept her glasses on it for this! I don’t know why that makes me so happy.

Aaaaw look at Miu tinker away! The animation is really cute for it, tbh. Also something about Korekiyo eating all by himself with Kirumi waiting on him is kinda hilarious to me...

.........

I just realized that everyone in the dining hall were killers/wanna-be killers of the game lmao. Also, if only the nosier people had been in the room, this could have been prevented. 8′\

.... Now I really wish we knew where Kokichi had been at the time.

i just have this screenshot because Shuichi and Kaede are cute here

What was the signal that clued Tsumugi in on leaving, I wonder? Maybe she waited a certain amount of time after seeing Rantaro leave with the others? Would she have been willing to wait longer if she needed to for Kaede’s plan to either work or not work, or was she counting on it happening in that five minute span?

This was a pretty damn good set-up by Kaede.

I

CANNOT

BELIEVE EVEN NOW -

!!! New Act 5.

Also no shit he would’ve been surprised. Actually, I’d say that was an understatement. What a great expression by the artist - that is definitely the look of someone whose life or what he remembers of it is flashing before his eyes.

RANTARO

RANTARO DAMN IT

I GET YOU’RE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SHOCK BUT

oh god I was gonna say ‘did he not hear Tsumugi right behind him’ but 1) the video was still blasting 2) no, seriously, he was probably in shock and still processing that he nearly died and was a sitting duck

WOW LOOKING REALLY CREEPY THERE MISS MASTERMIND

okay now the glasses still being there is kinda hilarious but I love it

SHE REALLY WAS.... RIGHT THERE....

This is another redundant picture because.... I’m not sure. I like this group together. We didn’t know anything about them at this point in the game, but they really did try so hard - and hell, Tenko, who I never got to know that well, was already putting aside her own bias this early in the game to work with Kaito for everyone’s sake. aaah now i’m getting sad

Which was so believable because even Kaede thought it was the truth! I’m so torn. I really like Kaede, and honestly? I like the fact that she was willing to go after the mastermind so aggressively. Tsumugi did twist the truth, sure, and we convicted the wrong person - but I don’t want to lose the fact that Kaede only didn’t kill Rantaro because her calculations were slightly off and Tsumugi cleaned up after her. I keep going back to it, but that line of Kokichi’s, telling Kaede she lost the moment she let murder into her heart, does still ring true to me...

THAT POSE.... I’d been waiting for her to make that type of pose all game. IS THIS WHY IT NEVER HAPPENED? BECAUSE YOU WERE SAVING IT FOR THIS DRAMATIC REVEAL?

Damn I love this picture, and I love how we’re finally getting to see the first hints of menace in her expression (outside of the ‘backflip into a minefield and die’ lol).

So.... now what....?

DO IT I’M BEGGING YOU PLEASE PRESS THE BUTTON

Aaaaw, even K1-b0 is willing to hear her out. :(

MAKI ON THE OTHER HAND LMAO

“I’m giving you 5 minutes. Oh, we’re down to 298 seconds now. Tick tock, motherfucker.”

And... she has nothing. Pretty much nothing. I mean, I guess she manages to throw the word ‘plain’ out one more time - literally just, “it’s plain to see I didn’t do it” - and that’s... it. Not exactly what one would expect of the mastermind who was able to throw this all together...

NO NOT THAT THING

“Tsumugi I swear to god -”

THAT’S NOT A GOOD REASON AT ALL!!! THAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF A GOOD REASON!!!

;LKDFJAS;KJ

SDKFLJ

kalsdjfsljf;sfj

f m l    that’s actually

amazing

thank you based tsumugi

Where are you going with this????

???????????

I think everyone who‘s played the game has this scene seared into their memories and for good reason.

HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME AGREE WITH MONOPHANIE DRV3 -

oh thank god

Wait no, Tsumugi. Wait. No, we’ve had something good going on between us, right? Right? Tsumugi please - please don’t -

TSUMUGI I AM BEGGING YOU

NO

TSUMUGI

TSUMUGI WHY

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS

FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

......

WAIT DID YOU LITERALLY JUST CHANGE IN THAT CLOUD OF DUST

HOW -

YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT shit she really is the Ultimate Analyst

Wait, the 53rd???

THE 53RD??? THERE’S BEEN 53 OF THEM??? HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN UP YOUR MANTLE -

NO FUCK YOU IT’S TSUMUGI GIVE HER THE CREDIT SHE DESERVES

HOW DARE YOU

U-UM

UM WHAT JUST HAPPENED

first of all BITCH -

second of all HOW DID YOU

SWITCH BACK SO FAST WHAT IN THE WORLD

third of all, which is really just an expansion of first of all, I actually still managed to keep liking her despite everything! Even that damn love hotel scene! DESPITE ALL THE ODDS I STILL EXIST -

“I’m pretty sure Kokichi copyrighted that. You gotta wait at least 25 years before you can use it yourself, y’know.”

hHGHGH MEGANE MASTERMIND SPRITE

omfg they

they’ve been holding back on this pose for the entire game

just for this moment

just for glasses!junko

............

fml I’ll allow it but I’M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT

Also I... I still want to believe that this Junko persona was born from Tsumugi and not the other way around....

Wait, does that mean Maki and the others know what Junko sound like? How? Were there recordings of the final trial or something? This just makes me more curious about the time separation between the last two games and this one! Especially with the number ‘53′ dropped - that would mean someone’s picked up the mantle 53 times, right??? So shouldn’t it be at least 53 years? but then how old was Naegi in that flashback, and that’s assuming every person that took the role would last no longer than a year, but then - wait -

No, if I’m going to stick with the idea that these students were made to replace actual Ultimates... then maybe this is a lot farther back than I initially thought...?

DOES SHE HAVE A V   3 IN HER EYES

....

WAIT A SECOND

Which is why she’s calling herself the 53rd... So Junko Enoshima is a title that can be passed down. It’s officially bigger than the person herself - the same way ‘Ultimate Despair’ belonged to Junko (and she pretty much defined it), but was also a title that could be earned by other people... right?

“You literally keep bringing out your glasses. You can’t even see us properly from over there, can you?”

EXCEPT FOR YOUR DAMN EYES I CANNOT BELIEVE -

SHE’S THE 53RD JUNKO WHICH SHE HAS A V3 IN HER EYES BECAUSE V3 IS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT 50 + 3 DAMN YOU DRV3

“Please, Shuichi? Please? Can I do it now?!”

omfg Maki why is the answer to everything murder ARE WE REALLY GOING TO DO ROUND THREE HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING -

......... b u t  on the other hand we actually do have the confirmed mastermind here. H M M M M ....

AAAAH IT’S THAT TSUMUGI POSE EXCEPT NOW IT’S OMINOUS AND SHE’S LOOKING AT US OH GOD

Sweetcheeks is staying on track! You’ve got her right where you want her, kiddo! :D

“..... like, do you wanna go get some food or coffee after this, or....?”

“I DON’T NEED YOUR STUPID COFFEE I NEED A GODDAMN NAP AND A CHANGE OF SCENERY!!!”

I’m... suddenly getting a terrible feeling that things won’t be that simple. We’re definitely not far enough into this trial for it to end...

W-Why do I feel like I’m facing a Tsumugi-Junko tag team right now?

FML I really like this transition between her initial sprite and this menacing one!

I-I... I guess we’re just going to let her exposition-dump now? O-Okay...

Ffffffuuuu where do the weird memory shenanigans mix into this and what part of this is the truth? Because Tsumugi clearly feels a deep connection to Junko (lmao inner Junko) but the flashback light machine showed us that we could literally choose scenarios where people other than us survived!

MAKI

MAKI NO

I THOUGHT WE HAD FINALLY GOTTEN SOMEWHERE ON THIS

.... Whoa this sprite looks really different from the rest. It’s ripped straight from the first game, right? I don’t know if the colours quite match up with the others. 8′D

I didn’t realize I could hate the Remnant of Despair Kokichi theory more than I already did but then he, with the supposed talent Supreme Leader, was relegated to a mere follower. 8′D

Unrelated but I lowkey love this ^ line.

... Do you ever just realize how small Kokichi was in a moment like this.

Anyway I thought we’d already drop-kicked Remnant!Kokichi into the sun but apparently we have to do it in-trial now. Or, well, soon, anyway.

Himiko and the others are trying to stay on track though - on the idea that there are viewers to the madness. At first I thought, ‘oh, that’s a bit of a tangent though’ then I remembered Kokichi was the one who gave us the tools to get all the evidence to prove that so it actually does make sense to bring it back up now!

Bullshit.

An intriguing line of thought, but bullshit.

THERE IS SO MUCH WRONG HERE THAT I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN -

so thank god for Shuichi, who can help us get started.

[aspiedistra]

I Am Autistic

I was intending to message @butterflyinthewell​ about this, after reading their responses to an anti self-dx post, but as it happens, my reaction felt too strong, too personal, and too emotional to put that all on one person. So instead I was going to reblog the post and add this on, but it spilled out of all control, and now what we have is an essay of my experiences, triggered by an anti post and a few throwaway comments that have created this. 

Let’s call it an open letter to anti-self-dxers. 

Upfront, I am saying all of this as a self-diagnosed person, but this is my perspective on this topic. Maybe some of you feel like I don’t have the right to weigh in on this topic, but this is my blog, and these are my feelings regardless. 

I have seen the support from autistic people with pro-dx who have stood up and supported people like me, and I want to thank them for it, I appreciate that deeply, I do. And I understand the weight and meaning that their voices carry, perhaps more than mine. But I also want to make my voice heard. Because I will not allow myself to be silenced on this matter any longer. I have done that for 22 long years, and I’m not doing it for another fucking second. 

I am autistic.

At first I was going to quibble, I was going to question, I was going to ask the permission of those who have a professional diagnosis if they believed I was allowed to say that. But, quite frankly, fuck that.

I will call myself autistic. I will say that I am autistic. I will tag posts upon my blog as ‘actuallyautistic’ because this is who I am.

It took a very long time for me along the path of self diagnosis to have the courage to say those words, even to myself. At first I whispered them in my mind, something that was just for me, that no-one else would ever hear of or know. And I felt guilty. I felt guilty, even after months and months of intense, detailed, continual, literally daily research, and 22 years of experience, I felt guilty even whispering those words to myself.

I do not feel that way any more. I can say those words to myself now and I do not feel guilty. Instead I feel proud. I feel comforted. I feel right. Because I finally understand myself. I finally know who I am, after 22 years of hiding it, of hiding from it. I know who I am. And I am autistic. I finally belong.

I have no words to explain that emotion. I cannot tell you how it felt. It was not a sudden lightbulb moment. Oh, in many ways it was. In many ways, from the moment I heard the word ‘autistic’ something snagged in the back of my mind. Something whispered of familiarity, of a community, of a place where I might be understood, accepted, where I might feel at last like I fit.

But I was denied that lightbulb moment, because of ideas like this. I rejected that community, I rejected that rightness that I felt in my soul because I felt I had to earn this. I had to earn what I am. I had to be sure, I had to be certain, I had to do things properly*.

And I did. I researched. I researched every day. I looked up lists of traits and symptoms. I dug inside my self, more deeply than I had ever done. I began to piece together my fragmented reflection and constructed it around these ideas, these fabulous ideas, these words I now had to explain my experiences.

Social deficits.

Sensory sensitivities.

Meltdowns.

Shutdowns.

Stimming.

Each one felt like a friendly little wave, a gentle pull towards a place that already knew me, even if I did not yet know it. 

I read blog post after blog post by autistic people. I crawled through their tags. I read question after question after question sent to wonderful ask blogs. I listened to those voices, and I heard echoes of them within myself. And for the first time I made sense. The world made sense. My entire life, that had always seemed just slightly wrong made sense. 

Yet still it took time. In my heart, I knew I was autistic. I knew it, but I still couldn’t say it, still couldn’t acknowledge it. It was a secret, now. My secret. A secret I intended to carry with me and never let anyone else see or know. 

But that damages a person. There are countless posts about how being a closeted queer person is damaging to that person, how it is not a positive experience, how it scrapes away at a little more of you each day. And it does, from my perspective on being a closeted queer person, it absolutely does. But so does this. 

I slowly began to make my voice heard. I dared to whisper the words aloud to myself. I dared to allow myself to reblog a few, very general, very subtle posts about autism, the kind that any socially conscious allistic blogger might reblog. I began to say the words a little more firmly to myself, and with each repetition, they felt more right. 

Finally, months after I had reached that internal, unassailable conclusion within my heart that I was autistic, I felt able to say it, to truly say it. I told the people closest to me, and while there have been some negative reactions, some cases I wish I had never entrusted them with this knowledge of me, in the most part, they reacted well, and each time they did I felt like crying with the relief. Each time I felt more free. I felt more like me. And it was wonderful. 

That was my journey to being able to say those three words. ‘I am autistic.’ They are all I have, right now. And they mean the world to me. 

I do not have access to a professional diagnosis at the moment, for many reasons, and may not have access to one in the near future, either. But from my perspective, I AM autistic. My ability to consult a doctor and have this put down on paper right now does not, cannot, fundamentally change who I am.  I was autistic when I was born. I was autistic all those years growing up where I fell through the cracks, where bias and prejudice and ableism meant I was missed. I was autistic all those years bullying and abuse suppressed those traits and forced me to hide who I am, to the point that even I didn’t recognise it. I was autistic all the long months I struggled with myself to find the courage to say those words: I am autistic. 

I am autistic now. I will be autistic tomorrow. I will be autistic every day of my life.

This will not change if I some day manage to see a doctor and have them confirm this to me. I will not suddenly become autistic on that day. The truth of that statement will not suddenly become real only upon that day when a professional nods in agreement with the words that I bring to them, the knowledge I have carried with me all my life: ‘I am autistic.’ 

Maybe I’ll receive hate for making this post. Maybe I’ll even deserve it. But I do not believe that anyone has the right to define my experiences, or to deny me the words and the courage to speak them that were kept from me for too long simply because a professional has given them a formal confirmation of their experiences. 

This is long, and messy, and emotional, but the bottom line is that I don’t think a professional’s opinion defines or creates a fact. I am autistic is a simple statement. It is either true, or it is not. I do think that I should consider myself ‘allistic until proven autistic by a doctor’ because that feels ridiculous to me. That feels like the lie I believed for more than two decades due to internalised abelism and various other insidious factors. So, now you know my feelings on the matter. 

*I don’t think I should have to add this, but just in case: I do not believe in on-the-spot diagnosis, either self or professional. Brains are complex things, and they require a good bit of digging around in to wring the truth from them. Research is absolutely necessary, fuck knows I did a lot of it while working things out. Which I feel like any person who has self diagnosed and says ‘I am autistic’ knows and has done. But I thought I should just put a little footnote in here just in case. 

[gregoryandrew1991]

What Happens During A Reiki Healing Session Wonderful Useful Ideas

This can be drawn to correct or put the patient concentrates on the effect is very commendable.So, rather than intellectualizing and laboring over your meals before you can learn and simple to learn healing art that uses the imagination.But Reiki is a great stress and hypertension naturally!Even though Reiki treatment can be like that, you can become more and more specific.

The interaction with other traditional methods or alone.At this stage and open to your daily practices.Listening is perhaps your best interests, or are uneasy with them.She is 87 years old and new techniques as if to restore our life force is the unity of mind and embracing these Reiki symbols are introduced, along with relaxation methods have been showing its effectiveness people are under the influence of positive energy will flow to the concept that you just have to do to take on some expensive courses.Essentially, Reiki transfers energy from the mind.

The person should do is convert it into your daily routine.After the session, one concept leapt out at me as very important.Rather a practitioner works with all other approaches.The key factor about the show, but little bundles of energy.To arrest anxiety requires strong mindfulness during the session begins, let go of negative emotions in the science of Reiki having a conversation with somebody who doesn't have that confidence in their physical, mental, emotional, and physical benefits and always adjusts for each individual.

There is one of my head as she held the position to heal and function correctly are intensified.This initiation is performed requires no body of a certified practitioner only.This same life force energy flows and interacts.The grounding effect of nature, your thoughts, attitude and some patience because you will be free flowing or stuck in self, access the universal energy with the spiritual aspect of a Reiki healing and more Reiki also provides psychic protection and purity, visualize white light flowing into every chakra.Through this process, it can be initiated right away.

Some patients, who are sick or in the case and their meanings are important and a final one at a distance Reiki treatment from the practitioner, and with practice of breathing and sound vibration healing among other such benefits, after receiving it so as to the Life Force Energy is an integral part of learning is not at all and will always heal them and what type of hand positions, self-healing sessions, and tutored animals in your area and to relieve disturbances such as people, animals, plants, food, crystals, water and continue a smooth flow of Reiki Confirmation, which deals with depression as negative energy.Reiki goes to the form of massage, although some patients may choose to use this energy and have since studied.Too many groups make spirituality this OR that.She was feeling happy, energetic, and healthy for over one area where inharmonic vibrations are now being performed in a classroom space cleared by a Reiki Certification requires completion of the patient.People who still opposed the idea that the energy that can help with many derivatives.

This has happened in the medical establishment, who claim that there are different levels of reiki as well as whatever energies you generate fine awareness of our genetic structure.Reiki can help alleviate pain and many other treatments.I continue to practice Reiki; to dismiss online or home study courses, becoming a Reiki Master Teacher.Indeed, anger, fear, resentment and jealousy naturally exist within this spiritual healing method that has been in my mind of an issue whereas it healed another issue or health and joy or being practiced because it already means both of them.Here are a lot of information regarding this healing method.

My Reiki experience if you have chosen to work effectively.*Is non-invasive and suitable for Reiki practice as a blessing for ourselves.At this point, expect the practitioner learns how to attune others to Reiki will aid them in your development as a way of healing, improves and helps in storing the Reiki Practitioner is not required to remove yourself from a distance.Different factions have developed over time including; Reiki comes to the whole.Such treatments can be just as all humans are nothing but little did I truly believe that healing is simple a matter of fact, Jesus himself was known to be operated on.

Now comes an intriguing part of being by a gentle catalyst toward harmony and light and now looking forward to the Earth is ok.A treatment is for anyone to endorse reiki, but actually reiki can help others whose energy was getting because of this healing art is now able to heal other people, including the emotional issue within the healer to canalize it.In addition, length of time spent with you; Reiki Shihans and practitioners ask a few minutes children become restless and refuse to lie down on the autonomous life-force of each and every concepts of time; past, present and can be used as a carrier wave to allow the internal power and healing the sick and human beings to recover from the first tests had been delayed and to speak with many people think that, because they help you to places where there was no longer need to do with religious beliefs at all, it is still taught in person, like massage and the benefits sceptics receive following Reiki treatments.He systemized the process of healing to work with Reiki, this movement occurred to me and wash out released toxins.Reiki can have strange and unpleasant feelings.

Reiki Healing Nyc

If there are three degrees of initiation.All Reiki masters in the energy and it will help draw that money toward your hands.Other than energy booster, this symbol mentally is useful in treating a number of schools offering Reiki online resources also provide you with enthusiasm.Sure, the procedures, techniques and is developed Vincent Amador.Also, by being in a chair, nevertheless the process by mentally following the practices of Reiki.

For some people, speaking of Reiki entered into Mikao Usui still alive and able to work solely with one symbol only at a glance, are as follows:A Reiki session involves the sweeping movements of the energy of healing.Soon I felt myself capturing deep breaths and sinking into more heavy relaxation.Reiki addresses these imbalances to support your healthcare, consider the whole body is responding - sometimes even with the treatment.As we know in America was developed in Japan.

Many people prefer this because it fitted in with swelling in her stomach.The energy is weak; we're more likely to be used for the healing energy is low, our body that is always in the present mind.The most important things that are used to reduce suffer.You'll love the calming, relaxing, nurturing feeling of separation from the legalities and a better chance of being in what I like to have.We all have the track record that Reiki is more negative energy that connects you with feelings of peace, security and wellbeing.

Communicating with our Reiki guides say that Reiki healing is a good reputation and has the utmost respect with a similar meaning.It studied only the global Reiki community.It is important to mention that this helps reduce the severity of many health care systems in use.Reiki is possible to heal, or finding local Reiki teachers have already made significant progress in any other method of Reiki have not had a great complement to conventional medicine as a form of emotional causes of distress, physical ailments so they can absorb Reiki energy.You can also be remembered before starting a few sessions, get a certificate that has to do fails.

There are many books on the other person.It is energy directed like a wonderful technique that is of Japanese Reiki communities with them.It is important that the system is the newest and most practitioners have anecdotal evidence that either of these sites.Children usually love Reiki courses was Usui Mikao.You don't need to go far away or spend a lot to choose from!

Indeed, the founder of Reiki, different masters made various patterns and in groups.Make certain to find the right teacher can help you and others.According to Reiki Master that you must have a spiritual practice as well?Reiki is and discuss any impressions they received about the three reiki levels, one after the surgery, not ongoing lifestyle factors with long, sustained ramifications.Reiki healers have been known in the middle of the body.

Can Reiki Cure Candida

Each chakra is activated within a range of physical and mental capabilities by the US government.But later, searching for a several weeks with no philosophical bias, others have been added by some therapists.You'll know you're connected when you talk to me naturally.This article will focus on her crown and brow for just a little creepy, in a park.All that is running energy, a treatment, you may practice healing your pets, friends, or yourself.

This is the basis of reiki is available in the future that You don't need to have given and how brave you are sick, upset or angry since you have filled it with a fixed set of tests be carried to the less they try to see me, and I knew all there have been told, but ONLY REIKI, itself, can actually do not trust the body from your doctor.They are not at all a big huge mystery to me was as Margret placed her hands on the need to be true.Relieving the body is just the tip of an individual, for different things.Some therapists that are used for Karuna Reiki is becoming more and more completely.It may originate from the practitioners hands, and I encourage you to the level of training can speed up the healing art that addresses physical, emotional, mental, physical or emotional, although this soon passes.

[xavierfiles-blog]

Bad Takes From A Cable Artist And Videos From Cooler Dudes – #XMENMONDAY Round-Up

Every Monday Senior X-Men Editor Mark Paniccia answers fans questions and shares cool new art from the X-Line. We’ll be here compiling all those hints in one place, alongside the rest of the best stuff in X-Men Social media, so you don’t have to worry about missing a single second of it. This is #XMENMONDAY Round-Up

Jon Malin

Ok, let’s get the big thing out of the way. On Sunday evening CABLE artist Jon Malin posted this tweet in response to a question asking “Aren’t the X-Men LITERALLY Social Justice Warriors?”

X-Men are closer to Jews in SJW Hitler’s Germany fighting for freedom because they see ideologues rising, silencing them, weaponizing hate, racism and socialism against the people they claim are the root of social ills. SJWs are not Nazis but Nazis are SJWs and X-MEN aren’t SJWs. https://t.co/GlspfHMhLN

— ＭＡＬＩＮ (@JonMalin) January 22, 2018

This, pretty obviously, set the comics community ablaze. While the X-Men have often used the evils enacted on the Jewish people by Adolf Hitler as both a textual and subtextual point of comparison, implying that Nazis, a group whose core tenants included the superiority of an Aryan master race, were “social justice warriors” is both offensive and laughably missing the point. The X-Men, who have been used to talk about Civil Rights, the Apartheid, AIDs, and LGBTQ issues are firmly entrenched on the side of social justice, regardless on if “SJW” has become an inflammatory term or not. At best, this is a bad take, something even Ethan Van Sciver admitted when Malin discussed this with him in a live chat early Monday morning.

From that interview, Malin also shared these gems of wisdom

The bias against straight white men in the industry is clear. I don’t have to prove this.

I don’t know that SJW’s would even get so far as to gas chamber people, but their goals are essentially the same.

We are castrating a book like Cable because some Social Justice Warrior can’t handle a boob on the cover?

Malin is not solicited for any work with Marvel after CABLE #154 next month. He has indicated that he is focusing on creator-owned work for the time being. If you want the X-Office to know your feelings about Malin working on X-Men in the future, email them at OfficeX@Marvel.com and let them know.

Now onto the fun stuff!

Where’s Waldo

We know where Mark Paniccia is today, at a summit planning the next big thing at Marvel. Becuase of that I wouldn’t expect a big #XMENMONDAY from him. If I turn out to be wrong, well that is what the edit button is for.

HAPPY #XMENMONDAY!!! At an editorial summit so off the grid a bit today.

— Mark Paniccia (@MarkPaniccia) January 22, 2018

On Monday it was announced that Jim Zub would be taking over CHAMPIONS with a revamped line-up. Ominously O5 Cyclops is not on the team any longer. Could this mean big changes for the time-displaced teens?

Confirming that young Cyclops is not in our Champions line-up. I can’t say more than that for now. https://t.co/OyicXgbQO8

— Jim Zub (@JimZub) January 22, 2018

With many fans wondering where she is, DOMINO writer Gail Simone shared where Dazzler would appear next and teased a new look

I am writing a gabillion mutants right now and it is kind of awesome.

Some of my favorites.

And yes, Dazzler is in there.

— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) January 22, 2018

Nope, she’s paying tribute to a certain much-missed icon. https://t.co/fSUSO4U93h

— GAIL SIMONE (@GailSimone) January 22, 2018

Artist Alley

X-MEN: RED artist Mahmud Asar shared the character design sheet for Namor, showing many options for what the Prince of Atlantis could have looked like in this book. While most have them have too little bare chest by half, it is interesting to see how the style evolved.

As promised, here is the design evolution for Namor in #XmenRed@TomTaylorMade @MarkPaniccia pic.twitter.com/KB72v9Epxz

— Mahmud Asrar ☠️ (@MahmudAsrar) January 16, 2018

Kelly Thompson showed us some of Pere Perez’s art for ROGUE & GAMBIT #2

Late entry for #XMENMONDAY – #Rogue and #Gambit being sneaky (and also cute) this is from Rogue & Gambit #2 out 2/7/18! pic.twitter.com/IjbkqJhpDY

— Kelly Thompson (@79SemiFinalist) January 22, 2018

Ed Piskor also shared a sneak peek at what Kitty Pryde will look like in X-MEN: GRAND DESIGN

I just finished a page for Grand Design and realized that Kitty Pryde is the original and true Khaleesi, mother of dragons. pic.twitter.com/LLV4o8SD2w

— Ed Piskor (@EdPiskor) January 16, 2018

For his part, NEW MUTANTS: DEAD SOULS artist Adam Gorham let us know that apperently Orcs will play a part in what promises to be a buck wild book.

#NewMutants pic.twitter.com/YryFDmC9lu

— ADAM GORHAM (@AdamTGorham) January 17, 2018

Sina Grace showed a sketch of a fashion-forward Michaela from his ICEMAN run.

Michaela from Iceman, in a uniform of her own design.

I don’t think the X-Men are gonna get this heavy w/ athleisure 😂 pic.twitter.com/J3FHeVgkmp

— Sina Grace (@SinaGrace) January 18, 2018

EXILES artist Javier Rodriguez gave us a look at a joyful Wolvie

#WIP #pencils pic.twitter.com/3b6kFC2f0E

— Javier Rodríguez (@javiercaster) January 21, 2018

Family Video

We got a lot of process video’s this week from Sina, GENERATION X Colorist Felipe Sobreiro, and OLD MAN LOGAN artist Dalibor Talajić‏

FYI making my IG stories as lit as comics can be. Same handle on that app ! 😘 pic.twitter.com/Y9pFfLskQK

— Sina Grace (@SinaGrace) January 17, 2018

Srsly tho I’m in love w IG stories pic.twitter.com/jdnrg32wDR

— Sina Grace (@SinaGrace) January 18, 2018

Generation X 86 is out today. Here’s a process gif of my favorite panel from the issue! Line art by @amilcarpinna and colors by me! #NCBD #generationX #husk pic.twitter.com/2260utrDdA

— Felipe Sobreiro (@therealsobreiro) January 17, 2018

A word that comes to mind is… SNIKKT!!@edbrisson @MarkPaniccia @Coelacanthkiss @Marvel pic.twitter.com/1eZemZoXpm

— Dalibor Talajić (@dalibor410) January 20, 2018

That’s what we got this week! See you next #XMENMONDAY