#which is which is contested. under progress | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

motthe · 9 months ago

Note

I was just rereading the house call the other day so I'm super stoked you're doing Arcane fics again! I adore the lumen au SO much. May I request academic rivals lumen au with Viktor? Him and reader both being incredible academics competing for the same position, but up til now haven't met in person and don't realize it's their soulmate they're trying to beat. However short/long you want and whatever format you prefer!

I hope you don't mind, I did fem!reader for this drabble. If not I can go back over it, no problem!

Professor Heimerdinger did his best to not show favoritism amongst his students. Each and every one of them had a grand mind, reaching aspirations, and a passion to learn. They were the stars to his sky and he would not trade anything for a single one.

But there were those who earned their place in the elite, guiding those with their brilliance onto a path of achievement some might fail to find. Heimerdinger did not make it any easier on them in their greatness, if anything he asked for more. And now with it being time for a new assistant he was having a hard time choosing from his collection of constellations.

“I’ve finally narrowed it down to two of you,” he said to Viktor, taking a moment to sip his tea. “You’ve shown marvelous progress this semester as you have for all the others—a constant, you are, my boy!”

Viktor swirled the amber liquid around in his cup. He had known what the meeting was about as soon as Heimerdinger had invited him to his office. It left his stomach in knots.

A softness grazed his ear, adding pressure as it traveled under his jaw. He allowed himself a small moment to bask in the touch before he raised his hand to gather your light and bring it down to sit on his leg.

Lumens all had their shows of affection, always doing their best to help when they sensed stress. You preferred to pull him out of his head by taking up his attention. From running through his hair and making a mess of it to nudging his cheek, you would do anything to get his eyes on you. Right now, he couldn’t have you distracting him, so he kept a hand over you, biting back a smile as you wiggled against his palm.

“And the other student you are ruminating on?” he asked.

“Hm?” The wise yordle’s ears perked up as he swallowed another sip of tea. “Oh, no need to worry about that. The point of this meeting is to gauge your overall interest in the job at hand.”

“Consider me interested, Professor.” Viktor set his porcelain cup down, leaning back to meet his gaze. “Is there to be a contest? A, eh, battle of the wits?”

“By the spirits, no!” chuckled Heimerdinger. “I would never pin you against one another like that. The last thing I need is having two of my best students at each other’s throats!”

“And, yet, you seem…concerned about me knowing of the other candidate.” Viktor raised an eyebrow as his professor coughed, turning in his chair and hopping down. The young man grabbed his cane and stood as Heimerdinger approached.

As soon as he raised his hand from you, your bright form went twirling up into the air. He blew a short breath at you as you tried to hover in front of him, clearly irritated if your budding red color was any indication. You bounced against his nose in retaliation, floating down to sit on his shoulder.

“I only mean to keep the mystery alive, my boy! There are many times in life we are faced with the unknown and must navigate blind.” He slowed his pace to remain by Viktor’s side as the two made for the door. “By the end of the week, I will have come up with something suitable to decide which of you will become my assistant, but for now, I ask you to think on it and be sure the job is something you truly want for yourself.”

“Of course, Professor,” said Viktor as he stepped through the doorway, cane clicking against the ground.

“Spectacular! Now off with you! I know finals are right around the corner for you two.” Heimerdinger waved before shutting the door, leaving Viktor out in the hall with an inkling he was not too fond of.

As he began his walk to the library, he noticed your stillness on his shoulder and grinned to himself.

“Pouting, are we?” he hummed. A flash of crimson light had him glancing over, but the majority of you was still a soft yellow. It made him chuckle.

Entering the library, he went straight to the front desk, nodding to the librarian as she looked up from her paperwork.

“Hello, Viktor, anything I can help with?” she asked.

“Just a pickup. I sent the requests this morning,” he answered.

“Let me check the cart.” Pushing her chair out from the desk, a purple lumen rolled off the counter to follow her as she went to the back office in search of his books. He waited by patiently, taking in the peaceful ambiance of turning pages and scribbling pens.

You nudged at his neck, done with your little strike. He brought his hand up to rub a finger over the top of you, returning the sentiment. The yellow light phased into that lovely pink shade he adored—the sign you were content.

“Here we are.” He looked up, surprised as the librarian sat down his books. He hadn’t heard her returning. “One of them was already checked out, it seems, but you’ll be the next in line for it as soon as it’s turned in.”

“Many thanks,” he said, gathering the study material against his side before heading off to his dorm.

There was mail—the scores from last week’s test, no doubt, and a vanilla envelope stamped with that cursed emblem. He rolled his eyes, attempting to prepare himself for what was to come as he unlocked his door. He went straight to his desk to drop off his books and sit. You wandered down his arm and under the lamp as he switched it on, enjoying the warmth of the bulb as he grabbed his letter knife.

As he scanned the parchment he was met with usual sight. His marks were as predicted in his class, but there sitting on the next column over for the professor’s second class of the day, was that same name that shadowed him since his third semester. He opened the second piece of mail with a sigh.

Guess we’re both head to head for the role of Heimerdinger’s assistant. He didn’t want me to know who I’m up against as I’m sure he won’t want you to, but there’s no mistaking his two, brightest candidates.

P.S. Tied again for perfect scores. I hope you’re studying for finals. Don’t want to end up a point shy again, do you?

He tossed the letter into the bin, jaw clenched. You moved from your spot to rub against his hand, back to your color of neutrality. He let out a slow breath.

“I know,” he murmured. “I shouldn’t get so worked up.”

He knew better. Years had passed but his rival had not lost a bit of their flare. He had met his fair share of competitive students as well as bullies, but this one walked a fine line.

Viktor never bothered to waste energy on such petty pastimes. He recognized her name and had heard it in passing from professors when they spoke of the highest grades. She was always mentioned—a star pupil. In the beginning, he had been curious, but she was a ghost, then. No classes were shared and Viktor was never a social being to begin with, so seeking her out was never a priority. He wouldn’t know her face if he passed her in the hall.

Yet, somehow, she tracked him down enough to send these little notes time and time again. He never replied, but it did not stop her.

He did his best to push her from his mind, burying himself into his classes. When he checked with the library the next day, the book he needed was returned, so he added it to his growing collection on his desk. The week went by quietly.

A knock came at his door.

“One moment,” he called, a tired breath slipping from his chest as he pried himself away from his chair and towards the door. You tussled along the top of his head as he peered through the peephole, humming. It was only went he looked further down he saw a tuft of hair.

“Professor,” he said as the door opened.

“Good evening, Viktor,” said Heimerdinger, holding up an envelope, “I’ve come to deliver my assignment to you and miss—er, to the other student I’m considering for the role of my assistant!”

He leaned against his door jam, managing a tight smile. “You need not keep secrets. I’m more than aware who your other ‘star pupil’ is.”

Heimerdinger sighed, brow furrowing. “Oh, fiddlesticks! I should’ve known you would figure me out. She did, too.”

Viktor would say it was obvious, but he spared the poor man. It wasn’t as if he knew how cumbersome the girl was, needling Viktor any chance she got.

“Well, it makes things a bit easier, I suppose,” Heimerdinger said, holding up the envelope again. “I know your exams are beginning, so I made this as simple as I could. The details of the assignment are within. I looked forward to it, my boy!”

With that, the yordle went on his way, leaving Viktor to slip back into his room and lock his door. Looking down at the parchment in his hand, he squinted as you fell into sight, catching yourself just in time before floating off behind him.

“Were you up there the entire time?” he huffed, raising a hand to fix his hair.

You twinkled mischievously, back on his desk and in the warmth of his lamp light.

Shaking his head, he crossed his room and eased down into his desk chair once more. You nudged the letter opener where it sat beside you.

The assignment was as Heimerdinger promised, simple. He wanted a written answer of what being his assistant would mean to him as both a scientist and a person. There was no word limit and he expected it to be turned in to his office by the end of the weekend before classes began.

“I’m assuming he doesn’t want a basic answer,” Viktor mused allowed, eyes slinking back to you. He smiled as you swayed from side to side, the outer layer of your light trailing with the movement. You were a strange combination of green and orange—excited and nervous. Perhaps plans for the weekends? Or maybe you were facing something just as important as he was—a door to the future.

“Better to start right away,” he breathed, searching his desk. When he couldn’t find his pen, he began closing and stacking the books to open up the space. One must have been teetering on the edge because the next thing he knew there was a mess on the floor.

Accepting the new chore with a roll of his shoulders, he turned and began to tidy up. He paused, though, at the book that lied open. Sitting in the crease of the pages was some sort of bookmark, thin and metallic if the light reflection off of it had any indication. Grasping the edges, he brought the text back to his desk’s surface, holding up the thin item for better observation. There was an intricate design that changed when angled in different ways. It was quite pretty and likely cost more than Viktor would pay to keep tabs in a book.

Flipping to the start, he looked for the checkout slip attached and slid it from the pocket, roving over the names until he found his. Above it was that cursed name.

“For the love of—” He let out an aggravated scoff, glaring at the bookmark. Of course it would belong to her. With all the letters she sends, she probably doesn’t glance twice at the cost of a stamp or mailing fees. She has money to spare if she buys trinkets like that.

He laid it aside along with the mess of books. When he turned in Heimerdinger’s assignment he’d give the bookmark to him as well. He would get it back to her.

Come the end of the weekend, Viktor was up bright and early to drop off his explication. The halls were mostly quiet, a few teachers offering a greeting as they went by. The students still recovering from whatever activities they got up to. Viktor didn't have the time. He needed to return the textbooks and check out more for the next exam, also grab some more pens. He was running low.

Turning the corner that was attached to Heimerdinger’s office, Viktor stopped as he spotted a figure by the door. The uniform revealed she was a student, her hair pinned back from her face as she opened the mail slot and tucked an envelope inside. He spotted a lumen in the crook of her elbow, a warm brown against the cream of her coat.

The metallic clap of the mail slot closing broke him from his observation. When he raised his eyes he found the girl had noticed him, eyes wide before a smirk curled at her lips.

“Well,” she chuckled, “we finally meet.”

“I beg your pardon?” he said, repositioning himself as she turned to face him.

“Oh, c’mon, Viktor.” She crossed her arms, careful of her lumen as she cupped a hand under it. His chest warmed at the sight. Despite such a devil-may-care attitude, she was soft with it. “Another student here this early, turning something into Professor Heimerdinger? Need I say more?”

“Ah,” he muttered, lips curling just a bit in distaste as he let her name slip.

“Ding, ding, ding,” she sang, chin rising. “I suppose it’s about time we met, being academic rivals and all.”

“You enjoy it a bit too much,” he said, shaking his head as you tumble from his shoulder, slowly floating forward. You’re a bright orange, so very excited. If only he wasn’t dealing with her right now, he’d smile.

“Oh, it’s all in good fun!” She glances at her lumen as it hovers up from her embrace before turning her attention back to him. “You’re always all by your lonesome. I’d thought you’d enjoy some friendly competition.”

“I don’t have time for frivolous games. I thought you might have understood that seeing as I never replied.”

You froze, midair, causing Viktor to realize just how far your light had wandered from him. That sparkling orange had dulled to a grayish blue.

He reached for you, concerned before he noticed his rival’s face beyond you. She was looking at the floor, smugness gone, and the lumen attached to her was now slowly floating up, a foot away from yours.

His breath caught in his throat as it moved higher. He let his hand fall to his side as it nudged against you, sending a bright flash that had him closing his eyes. When he blinked again his rival—you—were staring at the two lumens in shock. The dull color of your lumen had gone milky white.

You both stared at one another, then.

“I change colors?” you muttered.

He sucked in a breath. “Y-you do, yes.”

“Oh,” you said, rubbing your hands over your sides, “weird.”

“No, it’s, eh,” he stumbled over the correct words, bringing a hand to his neck, “you are honest with your emotions. Very, what do they say, er…”

“I wear my heart on my sleeve?” you said, smiling.

“Yes, that,” he murmured, nodding.

“I get that a lot,” you chuckled. It was nothing like the first one he’d heard from you. This one was much weaker. Sadder.

“I apologize,” he began.

You shook your head. “No, I get how irritating I must’ve been. I should’ve stopped when you never sent a letter back. That’s on me.”

“No, I ,” he sighed, taking a step towards you, the hit of his cane on the floor pulling your eyes to his, “I assumed you were ‘poking the fun’ at me. It wouldn’t have been the first time.”

“No, no I meant it to be friendly, I’m sorry,” you hurried to say, bridging the distance bit by bit. “I would never poke fun at you, Viktor. You’re brilliant. I hold such high respect for you.”

“Oh.” He was blindsided by the joy that came from hearing that, especially from his soulmate. “I, well, thank you…”

“Can we start over?” you asked, smiling nervously as you held up a hand. “I promise I’m much better in person.”

You are perfect, he thought, unsure how fate would bless him with something as beautiful and smart as you.

#viktor #arcane #arcane x reader #arcane viktor #viktor x reader #viktor league of legends #viktor x fem!reader #arcane content #fic content #masterlist #arcane fanfic #arcane series #arcane oneshots #lumen au #soulmate au

203 notes · View notes

sanctus-ingenium · 2 years ago

Note

Ooo!! What's the dragonriders of pern???

NOT to contest the claim of trekkies everywhere, but Anne McCaffrey of Dragonriders Of Pern fame invented sex pollen and omegaverse in the 60s. Whether or not this is a good thing is up for interpretation

Dragonriders of Pern is a series of sci-fi novels that started in the 60s about human settlers on the planet of Pern who live in a pre-industrial era. Every few hundred years, their planet comes under fire from Thread, an invasive rainfall shed by a nearby dwarf planet that destroys all organic matter it touches. To fight Thread, humans have genetically engineered dragons which breathe fire to burn the Thread before it harms anyone. The series starts during an unusually long lull between Threadfalls, and in the centuries people have neglected their dragon riders and dragons to the point where when Thread does inevitably fall again, they are completely unequipped to fight it. Nearly all common dragon riding genre tropes originate from Pern!! Anne McCaffrey was the blueprint. I adore this series, but my favourite part is how as the series go on, the characters slowly uncover the truth that they are aliens in this world, dig up ancient technology, learn to use it, and progress as a society. The genre shift from fantasy to sci-fi is one of my favourite things to experience and, as the reader, slowly realising the forgotten truths that the characters themselves are unaware of is great. In this regard, a big inspiration for my Siren setting.

The series contains scenes of sexual assault and a weird adult/minor love story so I can't in good conscience recommend it without pointing this out. It should be considered a product of its time and approached with a critical lens. It was also one of the first books I ever read with normalised gay side characters and gay sex (not any of the main characters) so that was cool. For anyone wondering my fave is obviously F'nor.

#also irish travellers as actual characters.. somewhat stereotypical but they're among the first dragon riders #ive never read another fantasy or sci-fi book that explicitly includes travellers

728 notes · View notes

artbyblastweave · 4 months ago

Text

It's like. The DCAU was not a deliberately progressive endeavor, right, it wasn't sending up signal flares about the political affiliation of the writers, it's exactly as reflexively deferential to the cops and the troops and so on as every other politically-middle-of-the-road childrens cartoon of the late 90s-early 2000s. The ways in which it matches to 2020s progressive stances are largely bundled in with what was just the common-sense zeitgeist of that period- corporations Bad, army Bad. It was often very sexist.

But that still caches out in a continuity where we get a U.S. general casually lobbing a nuke at a Caribbean island nation to kill Superman and justifying the collateral damage on the grounds of all the drug dealers that it'll kill. That's a continuity where we get superheroes from the 1950s who're depicted as well-meaning but nonetheless expressly racist and sexist. That's a continuity where we see a corporation moving its environmentally destructive manufacturing to a third-world country that doesn't have the resources to contest their presence. It's a continuity where Metallo's backstory is that he's a corporate soldier of fortune implicated in overthrowing the governments of unaligned countries in South America, and he's as close to a sex pest as you could plausibly get away with depicting in a children's show. The first episode of Superman involves an under-the-table arms deal to a dictatorship. The first episode of Batman Beyond depicts another under the table arms deal to the same dictatorship. The Justice League stops an alien superweapon and the army immediately carries it off to see if they can get it to work for them instead of against them. On and on like this, and almost always very matter-of-factly. Yeah, the world is awful in these specific ways, and we're putting names to the things. You certainly know where the writers of the modern iterations stand, but so often it feels like they aren't putting the names to the things, or they do so toothlessly. Something changed.

#thoughts #meta #uncharitable #I dunno is this nostalgia goggles?

69 notes · View notes

theoutcastrogue · 11 months ago

Text

"The majority of high-tech patent lawsuits are brought by patent trolls—companies that exist not to provide products or services, but primarily have a business using patents to threaten others’ work. Some politicians are proposing to make that bad situation worse. ...

The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, S. 2140, (PERA), sponsored by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) would be a huge gift to patent trolls, a few tech firms that aggressively license patents, and patent lawyers. For everyone else, it will be a huge loss. That’s why we’re opposing it, and asking our supporters to speak out as well.

Patent trolling is still a huge, multi-billion dollar problem that’s especially painful for small businesses and everyday internet users. But, in the last decade, we’ve made modest progress placing limits on patent trolling. The Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice v. CLS Bank barred patents that were nothing more than abstract ideas with computer jargon added in. Using the Alice test, federal courts have kicked out a rogue’s gallery of hundreds of the worst patents.

Under Alice’s clear rules, courts threw out ridiculous patents on “matchmaking”, online picture menus, scavenger hunts, and online photo contests. The nation’s top patent court, the Federal Circuit, actually approved a patent on watching an ad online twice before the Alice rules finally made it clear that patents like that cannot be allowed. The patents on “bingo on a computer?” Gone under Alice. Patents on loyalty programs (on a computer)? Gone. Patents on upselling (with a computer)? All gone. ...

PERA’s attempt to roll back progress goes beyond computer technology. For almost 30 years, some biotech and pharmaceutical companies actually applied for, and were granted, patents on naturally occuring human genes. As a consequence, companies were able to monopolize diagnostic tests that relied on naturally occurring genes in order to help predict diseases such as breast cancer, making such testing far more expensive. The ACLU teamed up with doctors to confront this horrific practice, and sued. That lawsuit led to a historic victory in 2013 when the Supreme Court disallowed patents on human genes found in nature.

If PERA passes, it will explicitly overturn that ruling, allowing human genes to be patented once again. ...

“To See Your Own Blood, Your Own Genes”

From the 1980s until the 2013 Myriad decision, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted patents on human genomic sequences. If researchers “isolated” the gene—a necessary part of analysis—they would then get a patent that described isolating, or purified, as a human process, and insist they weren’t getting a patent on the natural world itself.

But this concept of patenting an “isolated” gene was simply a word game, and a distinction without a difference. With the genetic patent in hand, the patent-holder could demand royalty payments from any kind of test or treatment involving that gene. And that’s exactly what Myriad Genetic did when they patented the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene sequences, which are important indicators for the prevalence of breast or ovarian cancer.

Myriad’s patents significantly increased the cost of those tests to U.S. patients. The company even sent some doctors cease and desist letters, saying the doctors could not perform simple tests on their own patients—even looking at the gene sequences without Myriad’s permission would constitute patent infringement.

This behavior caused pathologists, scientists, and patients to band together with ACLU lawyers and challenge Myriad’s patents. They litigated all the way to the Supreme Court, and won. “A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” the Supreme Court stated in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics.

A practice like granting and enforcing patents on human genes should truly be left in the dustbin of history. It’s shocking that pro-patent lobbyists have convinced these Senators to introduce legislation seeking to reinstate such patents. Last month, the President of the College of American Pathologists published an op-ed reminding lawmakers and the public about the danger of patenting the human genome, calling gene patents “dangerous to the public welfare.”

As Lisbeth Ceriani, a breast cancer survivor and a plaintiff in the Myriad case said, “It’s a basic human right to see your own blood, your own genes.” "

#information wants to be free #theory #I fought the law

241 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 3 months ago

Text

Sede vacante. The Holy See is vacant.

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff in history, died at age 88 on Monday at his residence in Vatican City. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, he led the Catholic Church for 12 years.

Francis was hospitalized for 38 days in February for double pneumonia. His doctors later revealed that he had had two close brushes with death. Francis was discharged from the hospital a month ago and had made several public appearances since. Most notably, he attended the Vatican’s celebrations on Easter Sunday. “Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter,” Francis told the crowds, before being driven across St. Peter’s Square on the popemobile, waving at the faithful. In hindsight, it was a fitting send-off for a pontiff who had become the people’s pope.

At times like these, the ways of the Vatican can appear mysterious. What happens after a pope dies? Who governs the Holy See? And how is a pope elected? Most non-Catholics are probably trying to remember the plot of the 2024 movie Conclave right now.

All eyes are now on the camerlengo, or chamberlain, Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell. He will run the Holy See until a new Holy Father is elected. No time is wasted after the pope dies. His body is quickly embalmed and then put on display for three days in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

Next comes the funeral, which also takes place in St. Peter’s Basilica or, if the weather permits, just outside, on St. Peter’s Square. The dean of the College of Cardinals always presides over the ceremony. Giovanni Battista Re, the current dean, has served in the Curia since the 1960s. If anyone knows how to compose a homily, it’s a man who has seen the deaths of multiple popes.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, popes have been buried in the ornate grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. But, in 2023, Francis decided to break with protocol. He will be interred in St. Mary Major, a basilica in the center of Rome, because of his “great devotion” to the Virgin Mary.

Although the official mourning period for the pope lasts nine days, the process for selecting a successor starts as soon as he has drawn his last breath. As the Italian proverb goes, morto un papa, se ne fa un altro. When a pope dies, another is made. In other words, not even the vicar of Christ is irreplaceable.

The new pope is chosen by conclave, the papal election dramatized in the hit film. It occurs roughly two weeks after the pope’s funeral. Only cardinals under the age of 80 can take part in it. This means that, out of a current total of 252 cardinals, 138 will pick the next leader of the Catholic Church—a global institution with more than 400,000 clergy members and 1.3 billion lay Catholics.

The conclave occurs in the Sistine Chapel, beneath a ceiling painted by Michelangelo. The doors are locked, and the cardinal electors can have no contact with the outside world. During this time, they are supposed to let the Holy Spirit guide their decision. Concretely speaking, it works like this: Cardinals are given a piece of paper with a header in Latin that reads simply, “I elect as supreme pontiff,” and they write down the name of their chosen candidate below.

To win, a candidate must secure a two-thirds majority. Until that happens, voting continues. Only one round is held on the first day of the conclave, but after that, up to four rounds can take place each day.

While the conclave is à huis clos, the outside world watches closely. The cardinals have only one way to communicate their progress: a chimney on St. Peter’s Square, connected to the Sistine Chapel. When a vote is inconclusive, the cardinals burn the ballots. In a separate furnace, they add chemicals to produce black smoke. When a pope has been elected, they burn the ballots one last time; this time, the smoke turns white. Habemus papam.

Conclaves vary in length. In 2013, Francis was elected after only 24 hours. By comparison, it took cardinals five days and 14 rounds to choose Pius XI in 1922.

Though the conclave is the final act in “making” a pope, what happens before matters, too. In the days leading up to it, the dean of the College of Cardinals convenes general congregations. All the cardinals, regardless of their age, take part. General congregations provide an opportunity to discuss the direction of the church and the qualities that the next pope should have.

The whole process is akin to politics, just swap the dark suits for bright red soutanes. “If history teaches us anything about papal conclaves, it is that the Holy Spirit is far from the only influence at play,” said Jessica Wärnberg, a historian who has conducted extensive research in Vatican archives and written a book on Rome and the popes, titled City of Echoes. She added that it has always been political. “Historically, major political powers, such as France and Spain, worked hard to sway voting. Today, factions are shaped along more ideological lines.”

But campaigning for the papacy is nothing like campaigning in a liberal democracy. For one, it’s very hush-hush. There are no leaflets or campaign ads. For another, cardinals eyeing the papacy are never open about their ambitions. Instead, they rely on allies to quietly drum up support. Subtlety is the mot d’ordre.

That’s not to say Vatican politicking isn’t ruthless. Think Game of Thrones but without the bloodshed. Various factions in the church push their champion. But if he isn’t able to garner enough support, a champion is ditched without mercy, no matter how preeminent he might be.

And, just as in Game of Thrones, it isn’t immediately clear who will win in the end. This is especially true of the upcoming conclave. “All bets are off when it comes to predicting who will succeed Francis,” said Philip Shenon, a former investigative reporter at the New York Times and the author of Jesus Wept, a new book on the modern church. “There’s no obvious front-runner.”

One reason why is that Francis completely overhauled the College of Cardinals. He appointed 110 out of the 138 cardinals who will vote in the conclave. That’s nearly 80 percent. The catch: Many of them come from far-flung corners of the world. They have spent little time together and therefore barely know one another.

Who wins is thus anyone’s guess. “It might be somebody very exotic, since many cardinals are from the other side of the world,” said Frédéric Martel, the author of In the Closet of the Vatican, an investigation into homosexuality in the church that draws on 1,500 interviews, including with prelates. “In fact, it might be a big surprise,” Martel added, “since nobody will have known of the sociology of the new conclave!”

This hasn’t stopped all of Rome from buzzing about the papabili, or the “pope-able.” For Martin Palmer, the CEO of FaithInvest, an NGO that works closely with the church, and a member of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission, the next pontiff will come from one of two factions within the church: He will belong either to “the right wing” in the United States and Africa or to the more liberal “Francis appointments” in Asia and Africa.

On the right, Palmer identifies Robert Sarah, a 79-year-old cardinal from Guinea, as a papabile. Sarah has long been in the mix to succeed Francis. A former prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican department overseeing the Latin Church’s liturgy, he is the anti-Francis candidate.

A traditionalist heavyweight who doesn’t pull his punches, Sarah has echoed the white-nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Europe, he said in 2019, is at risk of being “invaded by foreigners, just as Rome has been invaded by barbarians.” As he sees it, the continent is locked in an existential battle with the Islamic faith. “If Europe disappears, and with it the priceless value of the Old Continent, Islam will invade the world, and we will completely change culture, anthropology, and moral vision.”

Without surprise, Sarah takes a hard line on homosexuality. He has slammed Francis’s decision to allow same-sex couples to receive sacraments. And he has likened “homosexual and abortion ideologies” to “Nazi-Fascism and communism.”

Another conservative contender, Palmer said, is Raymond Burke, a 76-year-old cardinal from the United States. Best known for his love of the cappa magna, Burke is as outspoken in his statements as in his fashion choices. He has repeatedly criticized Francis—so much so that the pope took away his subsidized Vatican apartment. The American papabile has close ties to the Make America Great Again movement. For many years, he was an ally of Steve Bannon until the two fell out. Still, Burke remains a power player in U.S. conservative Catholic circles.

In the age of Trump, however, that may be a liability. Palmer, who was recently at the Vatican, said that “the negative impact of Trump around the world has significantly cast a cloud over right-wing American rhetoric. Burke and by implication Sarah are seen as tainted by their association with Trump-style politics.”

As a consequence, a staunch conservative like Sarah or Burke may not have the numbers to win. “Sarah and Burke have zero chance—or as many chances as Trump to win the Eurovision,” Martel quipped. “They are ultra-right-wing and ultra-marginal figures. It’s a joke!”

Shenon put it more diplomatically. “Well, conservatives could try, and they probably will,” he said. “But when the doors to the Sistine Chapel are bolted shut, there just aren’t that many of them in the College of Cardinals—at least not enough of the rock-ribbed archconservatives who would vote for a candidate who would reverse Francis’s legacy.”

The next pontiff, Shenon predicts, will at least maintain some degree of continuity with Francis. “Whatever happens, it’s fair to assume that the next pope will not have a dramatically different vision of the church’s future,” Shenon said. He believes that the cardinal electors appointed by Francis “doubtless feel great loyalty to Francis’s progressive legacy.”

Among them, Shenon identifies Cardinal Pietro Parolin—the Holy See’s secretary of state since 2013—as an “obvious candidate.” The 70-year-old Italian prelate would respect the late pope’s agenda. He has said Francis’s reforms were “the action of the Spirit, [so] there can be no U-turn.” If the cardinal electors are looking for a safe pair of hands, someone who knows the Curia and can safeguard Francis’s achievements, then Parolin is their man.

In a similar vein, Martel points to Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the 69-year-old archbishop of Bologna. Zuppi has Francis’s trust. Crucially, as the head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, he’s also popular with many prelates.

But if they want a bolder choice, then cardinal electors could go for the Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson. The 76-year-old is the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences. He has long been ranked as a papabile, even though his star has dimmed after he fell out with Francis. But don’t count him out, said Palmer, who has worked with Turkson and thinks that “he really speaks for the engaged African Church.”

Palmer also thinks that Cardinal Luis Tagle, the former archbishop of Manila, has a serious chance. Hailed as the “Asian Francis,” Tagle is a progressive. He backed Francis in his drive to protect the environment and his plans for a more inclusive church. “My vision for a synodal church is a church that rediscovers this wonderful gift of the Spirit given to the whole church in Vatican II,” Tagle said in 2023, referring to the Second Vatican Council, which modernized the church in the 1960s and has been attacked by conservatives ever since.

The Filipino prelate has also taken a more compassionate approach to doctrinal matters, deploring the “harsh words that were used in the past to refer to gays and divorced and separated people, the unwed mothers, etc.”

At 67, Tagle is young by papal standards. Francis was elected at 76, Benedict XVI at 78. If he does become pope, then he would have the time to enact sweeping reforms. “In recent years, Francis has seemed pretty convinced his agenda—and the spirit of Vatican II—will survive his papacy,” Shenon said, “which is why he keeps insisting with a smile that his successor will call himself John XXIV.” John XXIII was the pope who initiated Vatican II. Tagle could well be the kind of successor Francis envisioned—perhaps even taking the name John XXIV.

If neither conservative nor liberal factions manage to win enough support among the cardinal electors, then a compromise candidate may emerge. “Historically speaking, divided conclaves have often favored ostensibly neutral candidates,” Wärnberg said. “A papabile with a lower public profile, such as the careful and erudite Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary or the reserved and pragmatic Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden, could, therefore, emerge.”

In recent months, another ostensibly neutral prelate has shot up to the top of the papabili list: Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. He’s Italian but has spent most of his career in Israel. This means that he isn’t associated with the Curia and remains something of a blank slate.

On many key issues, Pizzaballa has kept his cards close to his chest. And when he hasn’t, he has sent signals to both liberals and conservatives. With liberals, for instance, he backed Laudato Si, Francis’s 2015 encyclical on environmental justice. But Pizzaballa is also open to the Latin Mass, prized by conservatives. “The cardinal is very meticulous in liturgical celebration and has no problem with the traditional Mass,” David Neuhaus, a former patriarchal vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, told National Catholic Register.

Despite being only 59, Pizzaballa has plenty of political experience. In 2014, he orchestrated the “peace prayer” in the Vatican Gardens, a landmark summit between Francis, then-Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Similarly, Pizzaballa has tried to strike a measured tone over the Gaza war, talking both about the horrors of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacres and the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Another compromise candidate could be the Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny. “If the conclave is looking for a safe caretaker pope to ease the transition from the dynamism of Francis, Cardinal Czerny, the cardinal at the head of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, is also a possibility. Quiet, efficient, and running the Laudato Si Dicastery, it is his dicastery that will guide that most radical of encyclicals,” Palmer said. “But don’t expect the church to be quite so on message about climate or the environment post-Francis.”

Conclaves aren’t an exact science. With a few exceptions, they are notoriously difficult to predict. The papabili seldom get to sit on the throne of St. Peter. The Italians have a proverb to that effect. Chi entra papa in conclave, ne esce cardinale. He who enters the conclave as pope leaves it as cardinal.

61 notes · View notes

synthetickitsune · 3 months ago

Text

Siren!Seungkwan (SVT) | Accident angst | 0.9k | gn!reader cw: talks of cannibalism, diet mention -> mermay masterlist

It’s been two days now that you’ve been pointedly avoiding each other. And while it may be for the best, all things considered, it’s starting to eat away at you.

Most sailors know to take the loneliness of the sea seriously, most except the inexperienced ones. Which is precisely what you are - and a very unlucky one at that.

The storm came faster than expected, the tides seemed to have turned against you. Honestly you were lucky to survive all that and with your rowboat in a functioning state too. You realized too late you’ve been too foolish and reckless. There really was no point in being cheap when you could easily pay with your life.

And then of course the whole issue at hand began. The siren’s song.

The first thing the siren did when you came to from under his spell was to inform you that you’re very lucky he’s trying to follow a healthy lifestyle and diet. The shock of the situation didn’t allow you to properly pay attention to the lecture he gave on the quality of different meats. Seungkwan, as you learned his name is, reacted about as well as anyone could when your semi-lucid self asked him if he just called you fat. The bickering only got worse from that point on.

And here you are now.

Not speaking.

Because you refuse to thank him for not eating you. As if it wasn’t enough that you already thanked him for saving you and your boat. Mostly your boat. What good would be your life if you were stuck somewhere like this without it. Besides he told you himself that he didn’t eat you for his own benefit. How can he feel entitled to another expression of gratitude?

But it has been two days without a word from either of you. You think you’ll lose your mind if you keep on going like this. Even with the land on the horizon, you don’t think you’ll get there in time to save your sanity.

“So, um, where are we?” you hope to break the ice between you. No response.

“I really appreciate you helping me,” you try again, “You could’ve just left me there to get hunted by someone else. But you didn’t. Thank you.”

Still silence. You feel your eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

“Listen, I already thanked you enough, haven’t I?” you huff, “What more do you want? Money?”

Suddenly you’re thrown forward as the boat comes to an abrupt stop. You hit your head, your arm gets twisted under your body and you hiss in pain. So when you look up, you’re understandably pissed. So is Seungkwan.

“You’re unbelievable,” he scoffs, hands on his hips and tail swishing so furiously under the surface that the water splashes all the way to his chest. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“What I get is that you’re being difficult,” you accuse, “I thanked you like a hundred different ways already.”

Only one of you was being unreasonable and it definitely wasn’t you. Stalemate is reached. You’re determined to win this staring contest. And you do.

“You really don’t get it,” he shakes his head with a defeated sigh, “Guess you have no way of knowing.”

You frown, lips pressed together. You don’t know him but you can read the room. Whatever is on his mind can’t be anything good.

“I wasn’t even trying to pull you in, okay?” Seungkwan runs a hand through his hair, “You weren’t supposed to be there, nobody was.”

“But once you hear the song, there’s like, I don’t know, bond gets established,” he continues, looking progressively more… ashamed? Frustrated? Guilty? “You have no idea how hard it is to resist attacking a person like that. It changes something in us. The people taste so delicious you can’t get enough.”

Your stomach churns and it’s not with seasickness. For a second you think you’ll be sick, the sudden realization that the miracle that saved you was actually far from one hitting you like a train. Of course your survival has been dependent on Seungkwan’s kindness regardless, but it feels different now.

“Oh,” is the only reaction that comes to mind.

“Yeah,” he clears his throat. The ocean doesn’t allow for silence.

“Thank you for not eating me,” you eventually say. Maybe you should’ve just listened and saved yourself all this drama.

“I told you I’m trying to stay healthy,” he waves you off but he seems pleased and in much better spirits. He also resumes your journey forward. The boat might have survived but your rows didn’t.

The silence is slightly more comfortable now. The new revelation is still eating at you though.

“Do you… Do you still feel the pull?” you ask, playing with your hands to distract yourself. There’s not really much you could do to help him.

“Yes,” he admits after a moment of hesitation, “It’s weaker now. It makes no sense to stay fixated on a single prey for a long time.”

“So you’re still tempted to eat me?” you blurt out before you can stop yourself. He scoffs.

“I’m not gonna do it,” he reminds you, “But you should be more careful next time.”

You definitely will. Maybe you won’t laugh at the old sailors telling stories in the pub next time. Maybe you’ll be more mindful of the weather and the sea too. At least it was only your confidence and ego that took the hit this time.

“Thank you,” you repeat yourself.

Seungkwan turns to look at you and gives you a wink that seems almost friendly.

You wonder if he told you the truth. Or if he’s always going to feel that temptation to find you and hunt you down. If you’ll see him in your dreams, chasing you through the dark water.

#seventeen scenarios #seventeen reactions #seventeen imagines #seungkwan x reader #svthub #seventeen x reader #seventeen angst #seungkwan angst #seungkwan scenarios #svt scenarios #svt angst #svt reactions #drabble #angst #mermay 2025 #mermaid au

51 notes · View notes

goo-dripley-art · 1 month ago

Text

actually remembering to do smth, doodles of stuff in my room if it were a darkworld. more (kinda unorganized stuff) under the cut lol

little explanation rq: the idea i had in mind for the world as a whole, the creation splits the psyche into a couple of dudes (shoutout to my BrainGuys) who are now trying to "end the dream" so to speak. basically, im locked away in the container and the #Girls must save me..... they will be shown later

which leads into Lockinsky! He's a lock-box that I keep some personal items in. I thought the idea of a power-hungry dude who Literally wants to fill the void within was a cool lil idea.

Pockitt is, if you could believe it, a pocket knife i've had since i was a little amoeba. Highly skilled assassin, she shows up occasionally just to be a dickhead. No allegiance to anyone, she's just in it for the love of the game. and money.

bunch of doodles. featuring pockitt's living blade (maybe her sister????? i havent decided)

Creeptake is probably my favorite of the one's I've designed so far. When Lockinsky took over he locked a lot of things away; any perceived threat to his rule was swept under the rug. Art was a big one, and an entire gallery (my unsorted art folder on my laptop) of what he calls "freak pictures" was abandoned...

Normally, you wouldn't even be able to get here in normal game play... unless, you find the curator. Since "Man" does not exist in this reality, she takes his place to offer a progression item. Completely optional.

Back to Creeptake. They're a living painting who simply is not content to be forgotten. They want to be seen, to entertain... Their "fight" is more of a chase sequence than anything. Very IB and Ao Oni inspired in that regard. Little fight segment at the end that, in essence, is a prolonged staring contest.

i luv creeptake thats my booboo. it's a real softie once it calms down.

it also talks like, this. ^

but it aint a darkworld without like. players n whatnot. say hello to the 4 bitches that share this brainspace🫡

There's a doc i have with a couple o loose ideas, but i dont feel like getting updated screenshots. you understand, of course

(shoutout to my friend giving me the idea of 'ForeCaster' as a class. its peam)

I imagine the gameplay would be a little different (i keep picturing a more borchestra-esque placement system) but i didnt feel like reinventing the wheel

thats all i got atm though, was gonna do some area sketches today if i can stay awake long enough. thank you for coming to my Slime Talk (ted talk if it was slime)

#darkners #dark world #deltarune #is there a tag for “my room” dark worlds??#this was such a fun exercise. highly recommend #character design #oc art #original character

53 notes · View notes

royal-chandler · 2 months ago

Text

a little fic requested by a commenter on ao3. while this can be read alone, it's a follow up to my last several sentences sunday.

Alex goes for a morning run and comes right back through the front door in the time it takes for Henry to make it to the kitchen and pour out a glass of orange juice.

“Good morning,” Henry greets him when he trundles in as worn out as Henry’s ever seen him. He droops against the island, planting elbows first and his head hanging between his shoulders.

“Buenos días,” Alex mumbles, pathetic sounding. He looks it too, a miserable and boneless bent over shape. When Henry skates a palm up and down Alex’s back to console him, he feels a startling tremble run its length. Freshly protective, Henry ends up sneaking his arm around Alex’s waist, his thumb finding a notch between ribs and heart.

“Can you manage a bit of juice?” Henry asks.

Alex’s answer isn’t immediate but eventually he lifts his head and gets upright. Near nasally, Alex breathes out, “Yeah, thanks. I think that I might actually be coming down with something.”

“The throat scratching and sniffling in the middle of the night clued me in on that. A foreseen consequence when you don’t mind your boyfriend’s warnings to keep your lips away from his lips.” Sweetened with affection, Henry allows an exasperated smile. He keeps his hold on Alex—keeps him close—and uses his free hand to pass over the glass, murmuring, “Idiot.”

“Don’t conveniently forget that you caved in and kissed me back every single time, Henry.” Explicit relief slides over Alex’s expression as he gulps down almost half of the juice and it unfurls a tiny fraction of the tightly snarled concern within Henry. Terribly, Alex’s tongue pokes out to lap the curve of lower lip before he goes on to add, “So, as a wise lightsaber-wielding philosopher once pondered, who’s the more foolish: the fool or the fool who follows him?”

“That’s unfairly attractive of you, you realise. How am I supposed to stay disciplined?”

“Sounds like a personal problem that I refuse to help with.”

Alex looks all too pleased with himself, even when sick, his grin without its usual ease but stunning still with laugh lines. His mouth then twists in an effort to contain a cough, only for it to quickly progress into a full fit. Carefully and firmly, Henry is pushed away to a safe distance to helplessly watch. Alex pitches one last cough into his elbow and then drains what’s left in his glass, holds himself boyishly.

“Jokes aside, I don’t want you going through another round of this. I feel like absolute shit and seeing you deal with it was worse. No contest.”

“I really am sorry that you caught the flu from me.”

“Worth it to love on you.”

Henry steps toward him until he can frame his favourite face and look into his favourite set of eyes. His love for Alex is uncomplicated and his want for him aches like a new bruise. He softly grieves the loss of kisses in the near future, the curls of Alex’s hair that are going slack under the force of a fever. The skin against his fingers radiates heat and he makes a mental note to fetch the bottled medicine as soon as possible. Henry touches Alex in wonder, shaking his head in disbelief. He doesn’t have to break away from Alex’s red-rimmed gaze to trace down the line of his jaw. “That’s a mad thing to say, Alex.”

“My feelings are my feelings and they are valid.” As he has done time and time again, Alex turns his head and presses a heart-smouldering kiss in Henry’s hand. When he pulls away, he promises, “Last one.”

“I’ll be dunking it in a pool of sanitiser now,” Henry mournfully and refusing to join in Alex’s laughing.

Which, predictably, turns into another bout of coughing.

Henry sighs. “Okay, that’s enough yakking. We’ve got to get you on the mend, love. What else do you need? Anything at all. I can order takeaway, some chicken noodle soup or that sweet and sour you’re fond of. I’d be happy to fix you a cup of tea?”

“Later maybe?” Alex’s smile is small and tilted. He shrugs one shoulder. “Right now I kind of just want to crawl back into bed, to be honest.”

“Oh, okay. If you’re sure,” Henry says, frowning and twisting his hands together. He’ll have to sanitise them both now. “Erm, the medicine is still in the cabinet in the loo. I’ll come up and check on you but should you change your mind before then—”

“Henry.”

“Yes?”

“I want you,” Alex stresses, voice rough and, most wonderfully, sincere. “Come up with me?”

“Oh. Of course.” Henry nods, hopes to mute exactly how eager he is to take care of his darling. “Yeah, yeah, of course.”

#firstprince #rwrb #alex x henry #red white and royal blue #rwrb fic #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #my fic #my writing

32 notes · View notes

bnhaobservation · 8 months ago

Text

Quirk counseling: canon, the cultural references and what we can guess from this all (now with the bit about Chap. 431)

So, a recent ask I received pushed me to dig more into Quirk counseling, in hope I could offer better information about it.

Also thanks to @poppy5991 who helped me to expand the overmentioned ask adding to it things I forgot to mention. Hopefully this time I've covered things better. If not, I apologize.

2024-12-05 edit: As Horikoshi added a bit about Quirk counseling in Chap. 431 I've expanded this post to include that too. You can find it at the bottom of the post under the title "CHAPTER 431 AND WHAT IT TELLS TO US".

LOOKING AT CANON AND WHAT IT TELLS US

There’s not much about Quirk counseling as it gets mentioned, as far as I know, exactly 6 times in the whole 42 volumes (and the anime).

The first time Quirk counseling comes up, is after Shigaraki’s attack in chap. 22... and not much is said.

MIDNIGHT ‘Shōgaku-ji no “issei ‘kosei’ COUNSELING” uke tenai no kajira...’ ミッドナイト「小学時の『一斉〝個性〟カウンセリング』受けてないのかじら...」 Midnight “Didn’t he receive “universal/mass/simultaneous ‘Quirk’ counseling” in elementary school?” [Chap. 22- Ep. 14]

From what Midnight says we can infer that ‘Issei “kosei” COUNSELING’ [一斉〝個性〟カウンセリング “universal/simultaneous/mass ‘Quirk’ counseling”] is given in elementary school as kind of a group activity or class lesson as ‘issei’ (一斉) generally is used to say “simultaneous”, “all at once”, which should imply all the kids at elementary school (or more likely, all the kids in a class) get it at the same time.

For contest, Midnight brings this up because they think Tomura has too much power and was never taught to ‘control’ it (as in not to use it to do what he wants). So we can guess Quirk counseling would, in their mind, have given Tomura a better grasp of what was allowed to do with his Quirk and what wasn’t (with becoming a Villain being definitely on the ‘Don’t do it’ list).

The discussion about Quirk counseling won’t progress any further.

The next time Quirk counseling is mentioned is in chap. 165.

Ikoma Komari ‘Hai… shōgakkō teigakunen wa jinkaku keisei ni oite taisetsuna jiki desu...〝Kosei〟 no chigai ga ōkiku eikyō suru tame COUNSELING o okonai. Sukoyakana seishin o hagukumeru yō SUPPORT suru no desu ga... COUNSELING mo bannōde wa arimasen. Kono CLASS no ko-tachi wa watashi-tachi ni kokoro o tozashite shimaimashita. Watashi no sekinindearu koto wa shōchi shite imasu...! Desuga...! Yume ni mukatte hagende rassharu minasama to fureau koto de massuguna kimochi o omoidasa sete age rarereba…’ 生駒小麿里「はい…小学校低学年は人格形成に於いて大切な時期です...〝個性〟の違いが大きく影響する為カウンセリングを行い。健やかな精神を育めるようサポートするのですが...カウンセリングも万能ではありません。このクラスの子たちは私達に心を閉ざしてしまいました。私の責任であることは承知しています...！ですが...！夢に向かって励んでらっしゃる皆さまと触れ合うことでまっすぐな気持ちを思い出させてあげられれば…」 Ikoma Komari “Yes... the early years of elementary school are an important time for personality development... differences in “Quirk” have a big impact, so we provide counseling. We support them in developing a healthy mind... but counseling is not a panacea. The children in this class have closed their hearts off to us. I know that it is my fault...! But...! I hope that by interacting with all of you who are working hard towards your dreams, we can help them remember their honest feelings...” [Chap. 165-Ep. 79]

Here we don’t talk specifically of Quirk counseling, just of counseling and of how ‘differences in Quirk’ have a big impact on personality development, also adding that counseling is not a fix-it-all. Ironically though, all the kids in the class seems to be the same according to their teachers, ‘mondaiji’ (問題児 “problem children”) who’re always ‘hanko-teki’ (反抗的 “rebellious”/“defiant”) no matter what she does despite them all having very different Quirks, children who have ‘closed their heart’ to them (aka they aren’t listening to them anymore) and feel they’re better than anyone else and it’s clear with this class counseling didn’t work at all.

We jump at chap. 226.

CURIOUS ‘Inō no yokuatsu ni yotte jibun o koroshita fukōna shōjo, sore ga anata nandesho? Toga Himiko. ‘“Kosei” COUNSELING’, jita rikai no yugami o kyōseishi shakaisei no suri awase o hodokosu jōsō kyōiku (read: PROGRAM). Mochiron, kanpekina PROGRAM de wa naishi, kojinsa o yori tsuyoku kanjite shimau to iu mondai o kakaete imasu. Chi o nomi henshin suru, umaretsuki motsu sono inō ni yotte anata wa “chi” ni tsuyoi kyōmi o hikareru yō ni natta. Shikashi shin no fukō wa “akogare” to iu dareshimo ga daku futsū no kanjō. Chi to akogare kamiatte shimatta nitsu no yōso wa tōtei shakai ni ukeire rareru MONO de wa nakatta. Dakara, anata wa FUTA o shita. Jishin o yokuatsu shi kamen o tsukutta.’ キュリオス「異能の抑圧によって自分を殺した不幸な少女、それがあなたなんでしょ？渡我被身子（トガヒミコ）。『〝個性〟カウンセリング』、自他理解の歪みを矯正し社会性の擦り合わせを施す情操教育（プログラム）。もちろん、完璧なプログラムでは無いし、個人差をより強く感じてしまうという問題を抱えています。血を飲み変身する、生まれつき持つその異能によってあなたは〝血〟に強い興味を引かれるようになった。しかし真の不幸は〝憧れ〟という誰しもが抱く普通の感情。血と憧れ噛み合ってしまった２つの要素は到底社会に受け入れられるモノではなかった。だから、あなたはフタをした。自信を抑圧し仮面を作った。」 Curious “You’re an unfortunate girl who killed herself by suppressing her supernatural powers, aren’t you? Toga Himiko. ‘“Quirk” counseling’, it’s an emotional education (read: program) to correct distortions in self-understanding and other things, and to adjust for socialization. Of course, it’s not a perfect program, and it has the problem of making individual differences even more apparent. Your innate ability to transform by drinking blood has made you very interested in “blood”. However, your true misfortune is “admiration”, a normal emotion that anyone can have. The two elements that go together, blood and admiration, were never going to be accepted by society. So you put a lid on it. You suppressed your confidence and made a mask.” [Chap. 226]

Episode 109 should be the one in charge to transpose this scene in animation but episode 109 cut the references to Quirk counseling.

CURIOUS ‘Inō no yokuatsu ni yotte jibun o koroshita fukōna shōjo. Sore ga anata nandesho? Toga Himiko. Umaretsuki motsu sono inō ni yotte anata wa chi ni tsuyoi kyōmi o hikareru yō ni natta. Shikashi, shin no fukō wa akogare to iu dareshimo ga daku futsū no kanjō to chi e no kyōmi, kono futatsu ga kamiatte shimatta koto. Sore wa tōtei shakai ni ukeire rareru MONO de wa nakatta. Dakara, anata wa FUTA o shita. Jishin o yokuatsu shi kamen o tsukutta.’キュリオス「異能の抑圧によって自分を殺した不幸な少女。それがあなたなんでしょ？渡我被身子。生まれつき持つその異能によってあなたは血に強い興味を引かれるようになった。しかし、真の不幸は憧れという誰しもが抱く普通の感情と血への興味、この二つが噛み合ってしまったこと。それは到底社会に受け入れられるモノではなかった。だから、あなたはフタをした。自信を抑圧し仮面を作った。」 Curious “You're the unfortunate girl who killed yourself by suppressing your supernatural powers. That's you, isn't it? Toga Himiko. The supernatural power you were born with has made you very interested in blood. However, your true misfortune was that your fascination with blood and your normal emotion of longing were intertwined. This is something that could never be accepted by society. So you put a lid on it. You suppressed your confidence and made a mask.” [Ep 109]

It’s a bad decision as Quirk counseling was meant to become important later but that’s what they decided to do.

Anyway in the manga there’s something we can work with, if before we were told Quirk counseling helps in developing personality, here it’s clarified the help is aimed at helping people to act ‘normal’, so that they can have a correct perception of themselves as well as socialize and interact correctly, the problem is it suppresses whatever is judged ‘not normal’ in a person and Quirks often generate wild differences between what’s normal for a person and what’s normal for another.

The result of this is that Quirk counseling ends up remarking in an even stronger way the differences between people, by forcing them to suppress feelings that are dictated by their Quirk.

We then jump to chap. 370.

? ‘“Kosei” COUNSELING!” Kosei” kyōiku! Kore ga nise (read: mayakashi) de aru koto o! Wareware wa “katachi” o motte shitte iru!.’ ?「〝個性〟カウンセリング！〝個性〟教育！これが贋（まやかし）である事を！我々は〝形〟を持って知っている！」 ? ““Quirk” counseling! “Quirk” education! This is phony/bogus/sham (read: fake/deception)! We know it due to having this “shape/form”!” [Chap. 370-Ep. 152]

At this point we’ve a nameless heteromorph guy claiming Quirk counseling (along with Quirk education) is basically a sham, it’s not it didn’t work with that class of kids by coincidence, it’s just something that doesn’t really work with Heteromorphs.

While there’s not really an explanation we can guess that, if the point of Quirk counseling is making people ‘normal’, Heteromorphs, who in Japanese are called ‘Igyō’ (異形 “abnormal”), have a hard time with it, since they’re not normal by definition and can’t really change/suppress their ‘not normal’/‘heteromorphic’ traits.

We aren’t told what Heteromorphs are told during Quirk counseling, and the thing is made more complex by how somehow in big cities there’s no discrimination, while in rural villages people still go for ‘chiharai’ (血祓い “blood cleansing”), beating and scarring Heteromorphs who dare to come into contact with not-Heteromorphs, no matter if it’s to save them.

We then jump to chap. 392.

? ‘HAI kyōsei shite ikimashou “futsū” ni. A HAI mō chotto matte kudasai. Sugu sotchi ikimasu. Etto… ē daijōbudesu. Sō desu ne… tsuyoi “kosei” o motsu ko niarigachi na tōsaku desu yo. Kono shakai de wa yoku aru koto desu. Tadashite keshite ikimashou.’ ?「ハイ矯正していきましょう〝普通〟に。あハイもうちょっと待ってください。すぐそっち行きます。えっと…ええ大丈夫です。そうですね…強い〝個性〟を持つ子にありがちな倒��ですよ。この社会ではよくあることです。正して消していきましょう。」 ? “Yes, let’s correct it and make it “normal”. Ah, yes, please wait a moment. I’ll be there right away. Um... yes, it’s okay. Well... it’s a common perversion among children with strong “Quirks”. It’s common in this society. Let’s correct it and eliminate it.” [Chap. 392]

Here we see a person talking with Himiko’s parents. We aren’t told this person is a Quirk counselor but, I guess, that’s the idea. It’s hard to say if she’s Himiko’s teacher or an external figure, however it makes clear Quirk counseling is more or less what Curious said. That person thought Himiko being fascinated by blood was wrong, she actually calls it a ‘tōsaku’ (倒錯 “perversion”), albeit one she labels as common, and tried to force Himiko to suppress her feelings so she could perceive herself and socialize with the others in a ‘correct’ way.

An interesting difference between the manga and the anime is that in the anime that person’s talk is more streamlined... and we see her also talking with Himiko's parents.

? ‘Hai kyōsei shite ikimashou futsū ni. Sō desu ne… tsuyoi kosei o motsu ko niari-gachina tōsakudesu yo. Kono shakaide wa yoku aru kotodesu. Sei shite keshite ikimashou.’ ?「ハイ矯正していきましょう普通に。そうですね…強い個性を持つ子にありがちな倒錯ですよ。この社会ではよくあることです。正して消していきましょう。」 ? “Yes, let's correct it and make it normal. It's a perversion that is common among children with strong Quirks. It's a common occurrence in this society. Let's correct it and eliminate it.” [Ep. 158]

This might imply that in the manga that person is actually busy with more things at once, she doesn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to Himiko’s parents and therefore she doesn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to Himiko.

Back to the conversation though, regardless of the source, the person talking makes clear that what Himiko does isn’t just something that’s “rude”/“inappropriate” to do in society but that it’s a “perversion”, a common one, yes, but a “perversion” and she says so to her parents who were already worried she wasn’t human.

Chichioya ‘Mō nekko ga!’ 父親「もう根っこが！」 Father “Her core/roots is/are already– (gone/rotten)!”

Hahaoya ‘Ningen ja nai ko un jatta!’ 母親「人間じゃない子産んじゃった！」 Mother “I gave birth to a child that isn’t human!” [Chap. 392-Ep. 158]

And later

Hahaoya ‘Watashi-tachi ga waruin desu. Mō… tsugunai kirenai desu… ganbatta kedo damedattan desu… ano ko ha… akuma no konan desu.’ 母親「私たちが悪いんです。もう…償い切れないです…頑張ったけど駄目だったんです…あの子は…悪魔の子なんです。」 Mother “It's our fault. We can never make up for it. We tried our best but it was no use. That child is a demon's child.” [Chap. 226]

So Quirk counseling didn’t really reassure her parents nor solved Himiko’s problems. They weren’t going to accept that Himiko could have different feelings from the norm and help her to cope with them correctly, they just wanted to eradicate them from her. As she couldn’t, she was forced to suppress them… and since she couldn’t keep them bottled up forever they eventually exploded and lead her to hurt Saito.

The last time Quirk counseling comes up is at the end of the manga.

? ‘Tsudzuite wa TEAM-UP NEWS. INGENIUM, FROPPY, CREATI soshite URAVITY ga zenkoku no shōgakkō o megutte imasu. Teki (read: VILLAIN) hasseiritsu no genshō ni tomonai katsudō no haba wo hirogeru “HERO”-tachi sono naka demo-- URAVITY no uchidashita “kosei” COUNSELING kakuchō keikaku wa ima mottomo hitsuyō fukaketsuna katsudō to iwa rete imasu.’ ?「続いてはチームアップニュース。インゲニウムフロッピー・クリエティそしてウラビティが全国の小学校を巡っています。敵（ヴィラン）発生率の減少に伴い活動の幅を広げる〝ヒーロー〟たちその中でもーーウラビティの打ち出した〝個性〟カウンセリング拡張計画は今最も必要不可欠な活動と言われています。」 ? “Next up is team-up news. Ingenium, Froppy, Creativity and Uravity are touring elementary schools across the country. As enemy (read: Villain) occurrence rates decrease, the “heroes” are expanding the scope of their activities. Among them, Uravity’s “Quirk” counseling expansion plan is said to be the most essential activity right now.” [Chap. 430]

In this bit it seems that expanding Quirk counseling became a key factor in lowering the occurrence rate of Villains… which, of course, doesn’t seem to be possible since in almost all the other cases in which Quirk counseling was mentioned it turned out it either didn’t work (with the Masegaki elementary school kids) or made matters worse (Himiko and the heteromorphs). Is it a typing mistake as apparently the program already reached all the elementary schools so it didn’t need to be expanded and, anyway, didn’t work? Or does ‘expanding’ refers to actually put more resources and people in Quirk counseling so they can actually devote more time to the kids and help them better? Hard to say.

LOOKING AT THE CULTURAL CONTEST AND WHAT IT TELLS US

Counseling in Japan

While, of course, there’s no Quirk counseling in Japan, by 2006 Japan had school counselors (スクールカウンセラー) available in all the public middle schools. Prior to it though, this work was entrusted to the homeroom teacher (担任教師 ‘Tannin kyōshi’) and often also the school nurse (看護教諭 ‘Kango kyōyu’ ) who were meant to dispense discipline, encourage better conduct, increase motivation, provide career guidance, and offer advice. Those teachers though, were not trained in counseling, and it was often a duty they disliked, often choosing to use their classroom hours for something different than “moral education” depending on their personal educational agenda. Now instead, when problems arise, the teacher or the students or the students’ parents can ask help to the school counselor, which would also offer the plus of being a third party figure, so that they would be people not involved in evaluating students (and therefore have no conflict of interests with them) and would be professional in the field of psychology so as to offer better help to them.

Currently in Japan a school counselor visits a school about once a week to give children advice about various problems they face. School counseling is provided by clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other professionals with expertise in mental health issues. In addition to advising children, the counselors can advise parents and teachers about how to handle their own day-to-day. A school counselor stands by in a counseling room where he or she listens to children’s problems one-on-one. Children can seek advice about whatever may worry them, such as relations with their friends, their family problems and uncertainties about their future and the counselor will advice them about how they should handle their problems while also talking with their homeroom teachers about what would be the best solution to each problem.

The problems with this system are often that the Clinical Psychologist isn’t also trained as a school counselor which leads with problems of interaction with the teachers, that there is confusion about the role of teachers and school counselors, and that there’s a HUGE stigma of shame at the idea of students or parents seeing a counselor. Much of the counseling that is now conducted in the Japanese schools is remedial with the individual as the focus; an approach that is contrary to the Asian interdependent view of self, an approach that seems to further exacerbate the student’s reluctance to see the school counselor.

It’s possible that Horikoshi, for earlier Quirk counseling, went with mix of the above, with it given both by the class homeroom teacher and by a specialist, or it given by the homeroom teacher only. It's not really clear.

Honne, Tatemae and Giri

Honne (本音 “true sound”) refers to a person's true feelings and desires.

Tatemae (建前 “built in front”, “façade”) refers contrastingly to the behavior and opinions one displays in public.

Giri (義理 “duty”, “obligation”) refers to the social obligations each person have.

Okay, fine, why should we care about these three words? Because Japanese people go to great length to hide their honne (true feelings) and show their tatemae (facade) so as to fulfill their giri (social obligation). They must do everything they can to avoid the disapproval of others, to avoid direct confrontation or disagreement. They’re completely justified in telling white lies to hide their true nature and present their Tatemae, so completely justified they can lie even in trial, that they’re expected to do so (remember when, in chap. 306, a guy said Enji should have just lied in regard to what Touya declared?).

Part of the Quirk counseling plan is clearly based on this, on teaching children how to show a socially acceptable tatemae and hide their own honne. This is what Himiko was taught, that her own fascination for blood was an unacceptable honne and needed to be buried inside herself if she wanted to be ‘normal’. That it was her duty to present herself as ‘normal’ and therefore show solely an acceptable tatemae.

Tōsaku (倒錯 “perversion”) and double meanings

As said before ‘Tōsaku’ means “perversion” and it’s used to describe how Himiko is fascinated by blood… but this is a word also used to describe sexual deviances… and Horikoshi clearly had fun with using words with double meanings in Himiko’s case, for example the onomatopoeia for sucking blood (ちうちう ‘chiuchiu’), sounds also like the onomatopoeia for kissing, Himiko is referred as a ‘ijōsha’ (異常者) which can be translated as “deviant” but also as “pervert” and so on. In short Horikoshi subtly create parallels between Himiko’s love for blood and the fact that Himiko’s way of loving people is not what in Japan is labeled as normal (she also loves girls and not just boys and would like to hurt people she loves). So, while Himiko’s problem of being fascinated with blood might seem distant from the audience as people in real world don’t have a Quirk that makes them fascinated with blood, the parallelism with sexual inclinations bring Himiko back into someone with whom people can relate and, in a way, someone that stands in parallel with Magne.

Heteromorphs, how ‘not normal’ they are meant to be and blood impurity

In English the word ‘Igyō’ (異形) had been translated as “heteromorph” but a better translation is “abnormal” or, more literally “not normal shape”. In a Quirk counseling program that aims at making everyone ‘normal’, who already starts with a name that states they’re not with a normal shape is clearly cut out of the race.

When Shouji talks of what was done to him he mentions ‘chiharai’ (血祓い “blood cleansing”) [Chap. 371] and, in the previous chapter, he was told he had ‘imi chi’ (忌み血 “cursed blood”) [Chap. 370].

Japan is very invested in blood purity, in pre-Meiji era Shinto and Buddhist traditions considered blood (血 ‘chi’) a source of symbolic pollution or ‘kegare’ (穢れ “uncleanness”, “defilement”) with elaborate rituals of avoidance and purification, however, in the Edo period (1603–1868) blood gained the positive meaning of “lineage”/”life force”, overtaking the preceding key metaphors for heredity. This though ended up causing the solidification of a hereditary status system that placed certain groups of people as being permanently “polluted” because they had works tied with blood, like executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners called ‘eta’ (穢多 “great filth”) as well as beggars, street performers, prostitutes, convicted criminals, and the physically disabled among others called ‘hinin’ (非人 “not people”) which together form the group called ‘burakumin’ (部落民 “village people”) and were considered outcasts. Their own blood was considered permanently impure, they were subject to increasingly stricter sanctions that prohibited their contact and mixing with the rest of society by means of restricted residences, economic activities, special clothing, hairstyles, and tattoos and since now blood also was a term used to define lineage, its polluting property also came to be regarded as inheritable and permanent which is why people still don’t want to marry (aka ‘mix blood’) with people whose ancestors were ‘burakumin’.

This was also made worse from the 1900 eugenicist obsession with blood as a medium to modernize the Japanese race and nation.The pure Japanese blood, or “Yamato blood,” was now heralded as a refined superior substance to be protected or enhanced through social programs of reproduction and health also through eugenic marriage counseling services.

This ultimately expanded to include people who had mental illness or familiar with mental illness but also with people who are of not pure Japanese ancestry. We would probably talk about genetics. In Japan it’s referred as blood.

Blood type is, in Japanese mentality, also tied with personality and discrimination can be so high that some would just discriminate people with blood type B or AB as negative stereotyping credits the B types as selfish, and ABs as eccentric and unpredictable and therefore more prone to have a loose morality.

As a result even if Shouji being a Heteromorph is tied to his Quirk and his genes, the story talks about his ‘cursed blood’… and people could refer to it also in relation to how the Todoroki are related to a criminal, Touya/Dabi.

(Plus this also tells you why Himiko's fascination for blood could NEVER be accepted since things related to blood lead to impurity)

While all this doesn’t tell us much about Quirk counseling, it helps to get a better perspective on why blood is mentioned when Heteromorphs are discriminated and how strong discrimination can be based to blood ties, clearly making it something that can’t be overcome with just the discriminated person in question trying to ‘act normal’ by presenting an acceptable ‘tatemae’.

The series leaves unclear what exactly falls into the Heteromorph category because, if the problem is just the shape being not normal, things like having tapes in your arms or engines in your legs, or horns on your head also give you an abnormal shape. Overall we can assume that the more the shape is abnormal and hard to ‘disguise’ as normal, the more one ends up being considered as an Heteromorph (Shouji’s arms are a much more visible ‘abnormal’ trait than Iida’s legs or Sero’s arms).

Just so you know currently Japan lacks any law which prohibits racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination nor has any national human rights institutions. Although racism exists it’s a taboo topic. In the past in the name of national unity, the Japanese government identified and forcefully assimilated marginalized populations, which included indigenous Ryukyuans, Ainu, and other underrepresented groups, imposing assimilation programs in language, culture and religion. Japan considers these ethnic groups as a mere “subgroup” of the Japanese people and therefore synonymous to the Yamato people, and does not recognize them as a minority group with a distinct culture. This is why in the story Heteromorph discrimination isn’t punished but it could also be the basis for why the Quirk counseling doesn’t keep into consideration how Heteromorphs are different but tries to force them too to act ‘normal’.

Quirk

We’re all familiar with the term Quirk that in Japanese is ‘kosei’ (〝個性〟 always written between quotation marks) which, translated literally means “individuality” or “personality”. In a country that is group oriented, values uniformity and thinks standing out is bad, Quirks that instead grant an even more marked ‘individuality’ and that are unique to each person, should feel like a big deal… but also it you tie a superpower with your personality you might get some unpleasant combo that aren’t really meant to be. For example thinks at Tomura and at how his Quirk destroy/decay things. If you think that his Quirk is his ‘personality’ or tied to it, you get the idea Tomura is someone who can only destroy/decay, that has a destructive character, or that who has an animal Quirk has an animal character.

WHERE ALL THIS LEAVES US?

Japanese youths have been fighting so as to have their individuality recognized in various subtle ways but it’s still an ongoing battle. The same goes for the descendant of the Burakumin and for people in the LGBTQ+ community. Sadly most of those topics are kind of considered taboo to discuss in Japanese culture so it’s possible that Horikoshi’s attempt at saying that Quirk counseling would be improved is a subtle message that’s meant to say that in the BNHA world steps would be taken to improve the acceptance of those people and the recognition of each person’s individuality, implying more a change into mentality/education than a change into some institutionalized thing called ‘Quirk counseling’, hence he didn’t need to develop much how it would work.

Of course mine is purely speculation.

Ultimately, if we solely look at the story, how Quirk counseling work/is administered is hardly well explained in the story, and how is reformed is explained even less (saying just it underwent an expansion) as well as why Uraraka, who had no idea of Himiko’s problems with Quirk counseling, decided to focus on it. But it’s likely the cultural context that’s meant to make it work for Japanese readers using solely what little is explained as reference and, for them, improving it, is likely a big step.

For whose of us who are instead cut out from the whole cultural context, there’s just too little to work with and it feels forgettable and confusing.

Okay, my analysis originally was meant to end here but then chapter 431 was released and it talked about Quirk counseling and so I added this extra bit.

CHAPTER 431 AND WHAT IT TELLS TO US

In the volume version only chapter 431 we have a last mention of Quirk counseling, which ‘shows us’ a bit how it’s done now.

Uraraka Ochako ‘Masaka senpai-tachi no tsugō ga tsuku to wa‼ Kitto minna yorokobimasu!’ 麗日お茶子「まさか先輩たちの都合がつくとは‼きっと皆喜びます！」 Uraraka Ochako “I never thought my seniors would be able to make it! I'm sure everyone will be happy!”

Tōgata Mirio ‘Ore nankade ī no kana‼’ 通形ミリオ「俺なんかでいいのかな‼」 Tōgata Mirio “I wonder if I am the right person for this?”

Hadō Nejire ‘Nande sonna koto iu no? Fushigi!’ 波動ねじれ「なんでそんな事言うの？ふしぎ！」 Hadō Nejire “Why would you say that? Strange!”

Amajiki Tamaki ‘URAVITY no “kosei” COUNSELING ni kyōryoku dekiru nante kōei da yo.’ 天喰環「ウラビティの"個性"カウンセリングに協力できるなんて光栄だよ。」 Amajiki Tamaki “It's an honor to help Uravity’s ‘quirk’ counseling.”

Uraraka Ochako ‘Kono gakku no jidō no shiryō-me o tōshite moratta to omoundesu kedo nani yori daiji na no wa COMUNICATION desu. Ikken nan no mondai mo nai ko demo nayami o shimaikonderu koto ga ōi desu. Daishō towazu toku ni katei kankyō nanka shotaimen no otona ni hanaseru hito wa ōkunai desu. Demo jikan o kakereba kanarazu SAIN o dashiteru koto ni kidzukeru node shiryō ni tayori sugizu! Meyasu wa ikkagetsu teido desu ga naiyō shidai de zenzen hendō shimasu. Kazu wa ishiki shinaide otomodachi ni naru tsumori de!’ 麗日お茶子「この学区の児童の資料目を通してもらったと思うんですけど何より大事なのはコミュニケーションです。一見何の問題もない子でも悩みをしまい込んでる事が多いです。大小問わず特に家庭環境なんか初対面の大人に話せる人は多くないです。でも時間をかければ必ずサインを出してる事に気付けるので資料に頼りすぎず！目安は一か月程度ですが内容次第で全然変動します。数は意識しないでお友だちになるつもりで！」 Uraraka Ochako “I think you've looked through the materials about the children in this school district, but the most important thing is communication. Even children who appear to have no problems often keep their worries to themselves. Not many people, can talk to adults they meet for the first time, about problems big or small, especially about their home environment. But if you take your time, you'll definitely notice the signs, so don't rely too much on the materials! The guideline is about a month, but it can vary greatly depending on the content. Don't worry about numbers, just try to make friends!”

Amajiki Tamaki ‘Taihen da ne.’ 天喰環「大変だね。」 Amajiki Tamaki “That's tough.”

Uraraka Ochako ‘Zenzen! Jin'in no SUPPORT wa jūbun desu shi minasan sugoku teinei na oshigoto o sarerun desu yo. HAWKS ga monkashō ni kake attari kakusho ni kyōsan o tsumettari shite kurete “kosei” kyōiku no kankyō wa daibu kaizen sarete kiterundesu.’ 麗日お茶子「全然！人員のサポートは十分ですし皆さんすごく丁寧なお仕事をされるんですよ。ホークスが文科省に掛け合ったり各所に協賛を積めったりしてくれて"個性"教育の環境はだいぶ改善されてきてるんです。」 Uraraka Ochako “Not at all! There is enough staff of support and everyone does a very careful job. Hawks has been negotiating with the Ministry of Education and providing support from various places, and the environment for ‘Quirk’ education has improved considerably.”

Amajiki Tamaki ‘Jā ima wa jibun no tame no jikan mo torerunda?’ 天喰環「じゃあ今は自分の為の時間も取れるんだ？」 Amajiki Tamaki “So now you have time for yourself?”

Uraraka Ochako ‘Gimu toka… sekinin toka nai wake ja nai desu kedo ato kara tsuitekita mono desu. Yorokobu kao o miru no ga suki nandesu. Watashi ga yaritaikoto shitemasu. Tsuyu-chan mo hobo zutto TEAM-UP shite kureteru shi tomodachi to mo aeteru shi zenbu jibun no tame no jikan desu yo!’ 麗日お茶子「義務とか…責任とかないわけじゃないですけど後からついてきたものです。喜ぶ顔を見るのが好きなんです。私がやりたい事してます。梅雨ちゃんもほぼずっとチームアップしてくれてるし友だちとも会えてるし全部　自分の為の時間ですよ！」 Uraraka Ochako “It's not that I don't have obligations or responsibilities, but they came after. I like to see people's happy faces. I'm doing what I want to do. Tsuyu-chan has been teaming up with me almost all the time, I've been able to meet up with my friends, and so it's all time just for myself!” [Chap. 431] Now, I’m not 100% sure if the idea is to always involve Pro Heroes or ‘the supporting staff’ can be composed also of ‘not Pro Hero’ people, but we get a general idea of what the people who decide to take part to the project should do. They read the documents about the kids, they’re encouraged to make friends with them, possibly/likely involving them in a game in which they use their Quirk which will allow them to receive what we can call ‘Quirk positivity’. All this in order to help children to open up and talk about their (Quirk related) problems. This last for around a month then, if no problems are detected (or if they are but they’re solved by that time), the people involved move to another school.

Now… maybe it’s just me but this is basically what was done during the ‘remedial course’ arc with the kids from the Masegaki school, only, they’re given documentation about the kids and, instead than lasting one time, it last one month and it involves Pro Heroes, not Heroes in training who might not be interested in interacting with children but are forced to do it if they want their license.

In this sense the whole ‘expansion’ thing of chapter 430 finds it’s explanation. Heroes are expanding their activities (aka also taking part to other activities like Uraraka’s Quirk counseling program) and the Quirk counseling program is being expanded as well as now its scope isn’t anymore to just help children to fit into the standards of normalcy society created but to offer them Quirk positivity and to create a connection so that THE CHILDREN will be willing to talk about their problems with Quirk and with their family.

Storywise it’s a pity the original characters involved in the ‘remedial course’ arc aren’t mentioned as being involved in all this, especially Shouto (who not only had an extremely troublesome Quirk related family situation plus a brother with problems with his Quirk who almost killed himself, was targeted by a Villain, became a Villain and eventually died). Yes, we can picture they are, but, as far as canon is concerned, he isn’t mentioned AT ALL, not even as one of the sources of inspiration for how Uraraka’s project is structured (canon also didn’t show Bakugou or Shouto talking about their remedial course with classmates) but okay, this isn’t really related to Quirk counseling.

Now with all those additional info I can talk a bit of something else aka:

REALITY CHECK

Uraraka’s project is nice and well meaning but it’s also very fairytalesque, in the same way as Hawks claiming that Heroes having free time would be a good thing. It’s all well and good and, since BNHA is a tale, I’m sure it’ll work like a charm and if you want to stop reading here and enjoy such a happy world I’ll understand you.

However if you want to know if this will work in the real world…

In the real world, if the request for Heroes were to decrease because there are less Villains (and having less Villains would surely be a good thing), it wouldn’t mean people would hire the same amount of Heroes and keep on paying them just the same, we would simply have more unemployed Heroes or society would self regulate itself by simply giving out less and less Hero licenses. In short, society would NEVER allow Heroes to have more free time, it would just hire less Heroes or, in the very best case, pay them less. Sure, the problem can be solved with Heroes reinventing their job, for example volunteering to take part to Uraraka’s Quirk counseling project so as not to lose their job and their source of income.

With this though, comes a worsening of the main problem I see in Uraraka’s Quirk counseling project.

There is no mention whatsoever that the people involved are TRAINED to spot (Quirk related) psychological problems. Kids with psychological problems (due to their Quirk and family environment reacting badly to their Quirk) aren’t necessarily always showing a villainous behavior or a transgressive behavior (which is what Heroes are trained to spot), they can be acting as ordinary well behaving kids, or be meek or be people pleasers or vivacious but apparently harmless kids.

While it’s true that elementary school kids are generally more direct in their actions and reactions, some of them could have already mastered the fine art of hiding/masking things for fear of repercussions or due to them being educated to lie about certain things or even being made believe in such lies so they don’t even know they’re lying anymore.

Quirks, it’s worth to mention, don’t necessarily manifest at 4, they can manifest as early as their childbirth (see the luminescent baby or AFO himself), and sometimes a child can be born in a house where the ‘Quirk problems’ are caused by the parents’ expectations (think at how Enji wanted his children to have a certain Quirk and inherit his place). In short they might have been forced BY BIRTH to interact with ‘unpleasant’ situations and might have also been forced to learn to cover them up.

Fuyumi for example, lived in a toxic environment but, likely, masked that up well. Himiko took longer at learning to mask it up well, but her Quirk manifested when she was areound 3 or 4 and gave her a really strong instinct, for which she was left with zero family support (actually her parents’ reaction is completely out of proportion, kids at that age do plenty of stupid and gross things and then can grow up perfectly normal provided they’ve normal parents to guide them, there was totally no need to beat Himiko up and panic like that) and yet she learnt to mask it perfectly by the time she was in middle school, possibly even sooner as the journalists couldn’t find early signs and they likely searched for them like starved piranha.

In truth even professionals might miss the signs or might approach children in the wrong manner, causing more troubles than good because it’s a HARD job… so the idea that if completely untrained adult people who just read some data about the children (which might have been written by who already missed the signs or is misinformed about the real situation of the children) were to make friends with them, they would surely get them to open up or would surely notice signs that something is wrong and act in the appropriate manner to fix it is… well… very naïve.

It’s well meaning and it can surely help in some cases but, unless Japan had a REALLY ABNORMAL PROBLEM so that the TINIEST help would make a BIG difference, don’t expect the big change the press is talking about… especially if Heroes who have no more Villains to capture and zero interest in helping kids will be ‘forced’ to join the program so as not to become unemployed.

On the other side the lack of psychological preparation in people can be very well explained with how there’s a strong stigma in Japan regarding psychological problems.

The reason why real life normal counseling is often not used in Japan is because Japanese people don’t want to talk with a Clinical Psychologist (as said before now that’s the specialization a counselor needs to have) so Horikoshi’s ‘hey, but those people are normal, well meaning people, possibly even Heroes kids admire, not psychologists so talking to them doesn’t mean you’ve psychological problems so you can totally open up with them safely’ is meant to address this fear and, of course, it’s better to talk to an untrained person than not to talk at all so in this vein, this could be seen as an ‘improvement’.

I don’t know but I guess this is now really all we have about Quirk counseling.

Said all this, which is likely still an incomplete overview, I hope my ramblings will help people to understand Quirk counseling better. If not, I apologize.

#boku no hero academia #bnha meta #mha meta #bnha spoilers #Toga Himiko #bnha observations #bnha ramblings #Uraraka Ochako #Kayama Nemuri #Ikoma Komari #Kizuki Chitose #Iguchi Shuuichi #Shouji Mezou #Shigaraki Tomura

110 notes · View notes

yoghurtsgirl · 2 months ago

Text

If I held that wish baby, I would wish that Russell T Davies never returned to Doctor Who

RTD2 has been a colossal mess. Last season was maybe the worst series the show has ever had, with the only truly good episode being Rogue. After The Empire of Death, I thought I was done with the show. Then I killed time by watching Joy to the World on Boxing Day and I thought I was done with the show. But on my quest to show my girlfriend Doctor Who, I thought hey it might be an idea to do the new stuff just so she knows why I don't like it. And guess what we found?

We both really liked this series. The Robot Revolution was a super fun camp introduction to the season, with Belinda instantly being ten times more of a character than Ruby Bloody Sunday was. Lux was creatively unique and even though I wasn't a huge fan of it, it was a big swing which I really enjoyed it taking. The Well was a surprisingly great base-under-siege sequel to Midnight, something I never thought could happen. Lucky Day touched on really interesting themes and emotional beats even if it didn't stick the landing. The Story and the Engine was absolutely fantastic, pure joy and the most original episode in all of Doctor Who. And then we got the Interstellar Song Contest - an episode with incredible production values but god awful internal politics.

And here we are. Wish World, a story has some real interesting meta commentary of conservative power-structures that suppress people who don't fit in with the patriarchal worldview, how the world the right-wing strive to get back never really existed, and they have to ignore literal holes in their philosophy for their fiction to make sense. The production design is superb and it does look lush, with redressings of sets in super clever ways. On a production design and on a commentary level it is better than last year’s first part of the finale, but it left me feeling nothing. It left me feeling very little hope for The Reality War. I've been let down before by this show, and been let down by you, Russell. Surely you won't do that again.

Well Russell, fool me once shame on me, fool me twice? Fuck you.

The Reality War. What a heap of absolute piss. There's something truly incestous about the show now. This god-damn boys club that's had its claws in the show since the 90's is still here, and it refuses to progress. When the show returned in 2005, Russell was on record saying the kids watching the show in twenty years would be running it, they would be Doctor Who. 20 years later the old bugger is still here. And I have to wonder, was it worth it? Is all this worth it?

The MCU-ification of the show - and all media, let's be honest - is a plague. I don't mind the deal with Disney, I don't mind the lil mid-credit scenes I guess. What I do mind is how the show is being made as content and that's it. It's jangly keys tv. It's not a show, it's not made as a production. It's made out of legal obligation. This show is being made for ten year olds who have been watching the show for forty five years. It's made so broadly and yet so fucking niche it's for nobody. I enjoy lil cameos here and there, I enjoy lil references to silly little lore. What I hate is building entire episodes - nay, seasons - off references to decade old plot points that haven't been referenced since 1983. Oh, speaking of which...

Susan Foreman. Hi Susan. I love Susan. Why were you here? Or specifically, why weren't you here? If I had a nickel for each series of Doctor Who which built up the big return of The Doctor's first companion, only for her to not actually appear, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it not only happened twice, but in back to back seasons no less. Her cameo in Interstellar Song Contest was nice, but it amounted to nothing. Why was she here? Who was she for? The Fugitive Doctor's cameo in Story and the Engine was nice, but amounted to nothing more than jangly keys. The Thirteenth Doctor's cameo here amounted to nothing because she pops in, and it's lovely to see her again, but her whole cameo only existed for one reason - to give me vindication on how good her era actually was and how no one fucking believed me. We had it so good, man

The Rani - why? She's a character that exists only to be The Master-lite. I do like her, but she's often just a less interesting villain archetype. She's camp, she's silly, but that's kinda about it. I'm glad her grand return happened so we can stop with the "oooh the Rani is coming back" speculation every damn year, but god almighty what was this? Mrs Flood is the epitome of making it up as you go along. There's no arc, there's no actual thinking things through. Go back and watch her first appearances in Season One - she's clearly not The Rani. She just exists to be a buzzword so people can make lore videos about. "Ooh, are you not excited this character who hasn't appeared since The Doctor was Scottish five times ago is coming back??"

No. Because I care about writing. I care about plotting. I care about this show. Well, fuck me. Because if I had a nickel for each time a season finale brought back a legacy character who aspired to be a God, reduced his character to just being another boring God, with a CGI body of a dog, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it's happened twice... two seasons in a row. Why is Omega here and why is he like this? He got Sutekh'd. Holy fuck. How was this allowed to happen.

Why is there no story? Why is it all fluff and waffle. And when there is a story, about the Doctor having a daughter and how if they fix the world she disappears from time, why does it not matter? They pretend it does, but it not only is obviously a reshoot but it clearly lacks all the emotional weight of times long gone. You cannot tell me RTD2 was made to be accessible for new fans, and at the same time mention Looms in the same sentence. Because Looms are canon now. LOOMS. FUCKING LOOMS. The most insane and worst part of 90's Who Lore. Hey, remember that time the Time Lords got cursed by a witch and made them sterile? No? Well that's canon now. Oh, and bi-generation was explained as something Time Lords can do to reproduce, and not actually a one off magical event based on a Time Lord myth. WHAT THE FUCK REASONING IS THAT FOR THAT ALREADY AWFUL IDEA???? The Doctor having children was such a huge part of the show in RTD1, and how he lost them (in the Time War or not) was super impactful. But now he's retconned his own era - the Doctor never had kids because he's sterile but Susan... exists...?

Susan is a real weird part of the show because she existed pre-all this lore about The Doctor and the Time Lords and regeneration came about. He left her on an alien world to live a life of her own, and said he would come back for her. He never did. His granddaughter. But because of all the new lore over the years, her place in the show was left super unclear. Was she a Time Lord? Could she regenerate? Would she age like a human or a Gallifreyan? Well fuck you, because now she's not even the Doctor's grandkid. I don't want those answers to be explored really, because exploring too much of the Doctor's past could be damaging, and damning in Susan's case. But the answer is now no, she's not even his grandkid, is fucking insane to me.

And look, nostalgia is a dangerous thing. Nostalgia is a really powerful tool but it's remembering a past that never truly existed, it's the memories of past events that should stay that. And it's always good to remember. But that same boys club running the show for the past 20+ years refuse to let go of nostalgia. Because Ncuti is gone. And Billie Piper is the next Doctor Who

I fucking mean this, that is the single choice that has forever broken the show. Hey, Doctor Who is Rose Tyler now. Rose Tyler, his ex, who he last saw hundreds and thousands of years ago and six regenerations ago. We've had five Doctor Who's since David Tennant (first) left the TARDIS. And Rose has not been relevant in the show since 2009. Why are we still doing this? Beyond the optics of regenerating into his ex, beyond the nostalgia-baiting, I have to ask. Does anyone even care about Rose Tyler like this anymore? I have no hope for the future of the show, because it refuses to let go of the past.

And poor Ncuti. I feel so bad for him. He was so hard-done by. Two seasons of poor scripts, awful plotting, negative character arc. He came in with nat-20 charisma and I love him for that, and in this season he got to pull back the layers a little more and have him be a more complex character. All for it to come undone here. The best Doctor who deserved better; he's joined that pantheon alongside Colin Baker, Paul McGann, Peter Capaldi, and Jo Martin. The only Dalek appearance in his era was a reused clip from Day of the Daleks (which, by the way, was a clip from the special edition that featured new Dalek voices by Nicholas Briggs, which means the original serial isn't canon but the special edition is? Oh my god, Russell T Davies is the George Lucas of Doctor Who...) The only Cyberman appearance in his era was in a comic strip. No, we're not doing old baddies unless we're turning them into big dogs. No, we have whole new baddies and monsters! Like... a Nazi, a victim of a genocide who is villainised to the extent the Doctor joins the cause to kill him, and a monster made of snot. WOW, SO INCREDIBLE THERE

There is no sauce here. Nothing special. The directing and blocking in this episode was truly awful. The lighting flat as a pancake. Insane uses of characters. Anita from that god awful Christmas special stands there as a doorstop and says nothing for the entire episode. They throw the main companion into a literal fucking box for half the episode and she does nothing. Rose, Donna's transgender daughter is also here. And again, she does nothing (at least this time she did more than only look at a bloody iPad though). Like,,, wow, go girlies!! Give us NOTHING!!!

Also it's insane that the optics of the story where a fascist creates an alt-timeline where the men go to work and the women stay at homes to look after the babies, only for the resolution of the story to have the main female character stay in the sci-fi cube. Now that's what I call feminism. Reducing a female character to just being a mother. Belinda wanted to get home all this time because she was an independent woman who had a life of her own to lead, with zero set up of her wanting to start a family. She even hated the idea of being Mrs, of being seen as incomplete if she didn’t adhere to a family unit. But no, the Doctor commits suicide to change time and make her a single mother and rewrite her entire life. What the fuck. Also insane that Anita is a pregnant woman, yet her whole function in saving the day is to stay standing for uncomfortably long. It’s not like pregnant women need major physical support or anything. Fuck off. The gender politics of this episode Jesus fucking Christ.

It’s truly fucked up. Why did no one stop this? Poppy getting erased from time, The Doctor awkwardly giving up his life to save his and Belinda's daughter, only for her to come back and re-write Belinda's entire timestream so she was a single mother. Because in this story, women are just for breeding or something?? Wtf is that about. It's insane that the Doctor died like this even. On paper I love the Doctor giving up his life to save one person. That's so so good and something that has been done before, and even in this era the idea of one person being missing is so heartbreaking and the Doctor would do anything to remedy that. But the emotional and thematic beat of the Doctor finally having a biological child (which is a heap of piss but let's go along with it for a moment) is completely gone because no, he doesn't have a kid. Poppy doesn’t matter because her life got completely rewritten too. We don’t even meet her dad. Fuck you.

This has been a whole ramble of a review, and I have so so many more thoughts on it. This is entirely unstructured, but I'm disappointed. My girlfriend Jane is disappointed. She's a pathological enjoyer of media, she's somebody who will find the good in anything and love it for that (is that why she's dating me, chat?) and she hated it. I hated it. And you should hate this too.

If 1980's Doctor Who was not worth saving, this shit isn't either. I said the same last year, and I'll say it again. I hope Disney pulls out. Doctor Who deserves better than Bad Wolf and Russell T Davies.

Sack Russell T Davies, sack Jane Tranter, sack Phil Collinson, sack Julie Gardner, sack Murray Gold. And then I'll come back to the show...

#Doctor who #doctor who spoilers #dw spoilers #doctor who is bad now #rtd #ncuti gatwa #billie piper #dr who #fifteenth doctor #sixteenth doctor #tardis #doctor who review #dw

32 notes · View notes