#AND HER PERSONAL EXPERIENCE INFLUENCED BY OUTSIDE FACTORS DID NOT MEAN THEY APPLIED TO ALL MEDICS

[paceywittergayboatman]

Do Revenge feels kind of racist towards drea and i dont like it

(I'm black and white but i rasied Cuban so if i step out bounds i apologize however black and latina women like brown skined women both face devasting conquesnes from racist perspectives in way so latina women tell me if out of bonds here however my analysis is more just fundamental understanding the risks and fetishization that extend and end within black and latina experience )

The White Femmine Hyper Femmine Dangerous Woman Movie Perspective Relationship to Women of Color Characters

First off I think Mean Girls, Jawbreaker, and Heathers are fantastic pecies on white femmine lesbian hyper femmine violence and internal grief. But they lack the amount of work woc have to do when entering white spaces hence it is essential that you write with intersectionality in mind. This did not happen here

Privilege, Power Dynamic and its Compilations with Applying Intersectionality

The main problem here is the power imbalance and privilege Drea and Eleanor have. A good homosexual anger revenge movie and text requires a ability for the characters to hurt each other but fundamentally understand at some point we both have to know the other is there own person even if its in a fucked up way

Heres a good example

The Hannigram Strat

Hannibal BBC is a perfect example because even tho like all the mess is involved Hannibal has to be forgiven by Will in order for there relationship continue now this also works because they are both incredibly smart in ways that are needed for there relationship hannibal always admire will as someone whos intelligent he doesn't dumb him down or think lesser because of his neurodivergency and eventually will kills that dude as a were even symbol but ultimately both men are grown and dont need to further purse to college they have lives and ways to make money and careers

This is what I'm calling the Hannigram Strat in which both partners come to understanding or arleady understand that theyre both on the same danger level and they are equals

Hand in Unlovable Hand

So this one is you have done or are capable of the same level of fucked up behavior therefore the risk of ditching is harder to do and when it's done its betrayal its sacrifice but its not something you can outright refer to as just abusive so if your raised in similarly dark environment your evil is based on a similar understanding of intensity. Which is determined and influenced by the factors of identity below

Intersectional Identiy Factors and Privilege

Drea: Latina, Cannot pass as white, lower class than her peers, also exists in space outside of white lesbian gender identity issues via her latina identity, also not someone who wants to presents masc and present as she wants

So already Drea dealing with being a racial minority in white school specficaly latina which means she has to code switch, work harder, and she can't risk being as messy as everyone else because she like scholarship or somehow more likely to get expelled via her economic standing she a visibly a brown skinned Latina so she isn't allowed to express her feelings of anger as that could be percieved as violent

Now I'm gonna talk about Drea the way i see her behaviors and such

Pre Sex Tape Drea

•The only technically out of blue mean girl behavior she does is say that eleanor was predatory towards her now this is like technically because he internalized homophobia and shame so as much eleanor sees it that way I'm not gonna count it that way in this secton

•She generally self centered and shes mean in her language

•One girl shames Drea for having Tara paying for her party and says she got her dress at(salvation amry)to which Drea says that this girl is going yo donate her clothes to said store this an unessarily intense response to the girls comment but not unprompted

Post Sex Tape Drea

•First of she gets Sophia Turner whom she thought released the sex tape in mental hospital and claims shes did cocaine which is extreme reaction but were in genre of revenge fantasy so its extreme but a response to a action that hurt her it's not unprompted

▪︎Drea thinks that it was Clarissa whomst outed Eleanor and puts her in the mentall health hospital area

•She gets the seinor class high on mushrooms without there consent

•She releases all of texts of Max flirting and cheating exbortant amount of girls in school this us technically violating him but it also hurts the girls who were also involved with max

•She pressures Eleanor to look femmeine in order to get her revange technically the thought process is we are helping each other you have to play a part but its also something i have to do where i have adjust myself in order to to survive in the world so this is same thing I'm asking you to do

•She then discovers that Eleanor has been manipulating her and even made the fake rejection letter

•She discovers this info and goes to confront miss eleanor who then foroces her to do this with this plan of sabotaging the popular people at the ivy party and threatens her (mom)

•Outs Eleanor's Relationship mess to ethan and the popular girls and ethan

Eleanor Analysis

Eleanor: white woman, lesbian, masc presenting, is good on money

Now i do feel if t Drea was white and actually vindictive and like wasn't more so an aloof cher from cluess self centered this could a really fun secret garden Mary lennox moment however this is not the case so lets talk about her how her identities give and loose her privilege

•Ok so being queer is difficult in heteronormative world and being called predatory and shamed for being who are when young is really hard so i think we can count that so she is oppressed for being a lesbian, and having to do the thinking of can i share myself and will i get hurt if i do this and i am discounting part of this purely because Drea is in denial of her own identity and isn't a vindictive straight person literally just being homophobic

• I will give Eleanor that the emotional and mental aftermath on her psyche is fucked up because it

Eleanor doesn't receive any sexism except from like max and she has no economic problems

•Drea does make her look femme but this isnt because she disrespects Eleanor masculine presenting self its because she already used to having to shed herself like a chameleon but its still self centered in the way she presents it

She forces Drea a Latina woman to play into the drug part of her revenge plan and she holds no thought of this could hurt her more as Latina women who could actually be in trouble for this and maybe go to jail

Conclusion or why this isn't quite as fabulous a story as its Pre Cursors

We have Eleanor who has nothing to lose who decides to do revenge against Drea who not only has everything to loose and isn't even plotting lady macbeth style pre the sex tape and is just not aware shes selfcentered who shows genuine empathy and devotion to Eleanor one she hears about this even tho shes dissociated her memory of it

And eleanor inability to deal with her valid anger towards drea because of Drea rumor of predatory behavior that is turned into i know i have more privilege and can't commicate but I'm gonna ruin your life not giving you rhe full honest truth and leaving you vulnerable to way harsh consequences to behavior I could get way with without sacrificing my life

This does not share that you any balance that the battle of power in mean girls and jawbreaker have

On the one hand it makes sense that Eleanor would just be like I'm mad that this girl did this to me but also like she literally was uspet for eleanor and showed empathy and especially because that was after the sex tape release she didn't have anything to loose by denying it its like what i would called the mary Lennox white girl complex (she thinks she a orphan girl in Victorian gothic story)

Dreas not a angel to do all of that but the anger and pressure and stress she feels because her initial oppressed position is what really makes her loose it shes feeling valid emotion and is honest just like teenager and she makes sure to this in way that she thinks in long term the white people will get over right

So Drea perspective is the more modern heathers and jawbreaker poc girl hyperfemmine revenge fantasy

then the interjection of Eleanor almost feels like out of place, Drea no regina george and she even as Eleanor states is better person and it takes this story which already has to characters who have such fundamental difference in privilege and if anything I would agrue its violation of Drea to make her go with the plan against her will because she is has more to loose and as woc it made so upset and felt like distrusting

So in the context of my gay revenge darkness duo rules because drea doesn't have the same ability to fight back at her because long term her goal is to have good standing in the world to survive Eleanors revenge plan fallls short against dreas cher cluesss esc actions that she would probably be willing to rectify(eleanor doesn't know this initially but the writers do hence my problem)

I also think the more intersting relationship between evil and regret crazieness is between drea and tara who have a more equal and related footing to what they could loose

One thing that important here is that Drea feels the white girls have it easeir they will recover faster and she has some anger from the privilege they already receive

I feel here is conflict in text and argument between the legitimate anger of Drea as latina lowerclass girl and the text refusal to allow her to be angry and get something out of it she doesn't get to win

I'm deeply umcomfortable with the lack room for the dreas unlikable character traits and the way she so deeply punished in way that regina George and courtney from jawbreaker are not which is worse because her initial highschool school motivations of setting herself for economic and career success aren't evil plan esc and her calling eleanor predatory, which in comparison to literally dealing with deadbody courtney, and aggressively on purpose keeping the status quo regina geroge (i know shes lesbian coded but she consistantly einforces her power) is just simply racism

Shes not nice and shes bitchy but again she has no agenda other than her own success she selfcentered as well but at this point her goal is get out of her school and move on she wants to have sucessful and happy life

Now ultimately Eleanor has the resources to get help and deal with her problems easily accessible she doesn't need to pick up her mom at her work and she doesn't depend college to be the entrance to really live life it's not the same need and as much traumatizes eleanor this will noy follow her into adulthood as strongly as a DRUG CHARE would follow Drea. Drea never gets to fight back or get a say in this world that refuses to let her be woman because shes seen as less human and fiesity and spicy in a almost animal like way(i dont go here so Latina who face this stereotype in that way and not in black way feel free to correct me)

Passing is great example of text in which to queer (subtextual) black women balance anger confusion and affection towards one another in what is deeply terrifying world for them in which in ends in devastation but both women have similar choice and whats more devasting is way they forced to shape themselves

What you notice about the texts I've mentioned (excluding clueless) is that theses dynamics are characters of the same race

So its hard at least for me to enjoy the eleanor twist when she not only is more privileged but literally could've communicated her needs she has everything she needs and Drea needs yale more baldy

So conclusion Do revenge could've been fantastic movie if had Drea Poc revenge fantasy playing on the 80s and 90s movie's but the interjection of white woman privilege ruined it

[wygolvillage]

i just remembered when i saw a post that said it was bad to dislike moth flight because she is adhd coded

[writingwithcolor]

Black woman saves and houses abused white woman and child

@dykecalianna asked:

Greetings! I follow this blog whenever I can and I recently came out with something in my story that I wanted to inquire about:

There’s a white woman in her late 30s, let’s call her “Vicky”, who (along with her daughter) is a victim of domestic abuse, and another character, a Black woman, “Cherry”, is made aware of this after a change encounter the two have at a café. She helps Vicky flee from her husband and lets her stay in her home - later, the two fall in love and get together.

I’m very aware of the White Saviour trope, and do my best to stay away from it. This is nothing like it, but does this fall under some sort of negative stereotype for Black women, like “saving the fragile white woman”? I should note that Cherry and Vicky are the exact same age, only Cherry is single and living alone. She is described by many as being very cute, and she is also secretly a well-renowned writer (she uses an alias when writing, so she kind of feels like a super heroine, which then ties with her storyline about Vicky). Also, I think it’s pretty clear, but the abusive husband is also white like Vicky.

I think it’s touching that Cherry saves this woman and her child from this abusive situation. I would like to discuss some areas that may help you explore if there’s a mammy / strong black woman / sacrificial negro dynamic here.

The chance encounter

Did Cherry (Black woman) meet Vicky (white woman) for the first time and instantly decide to get involved? I feel that it’s a bit sacrificial for Cherry to place herself in the middle of what could be a potentially deadly situation, as domestic abuse too often leads to, for a perfect stranger. 

This level of involvement would not align with how much one might put on the line for someone they do not know at all. Cherry is now at risk of retaliation from Vicky’s abuser if he finds them, or Vicky allows him back into their lives and lets them know where her home is / they make up and he learns about Cherry’s involvement etc. 

Their relationship prior to Cherry helping Vicky

The risk might feel worth it for someone you know, but it’s a lot to ask of a stranger. In the case of a “chance encounter becomes savior” situation, she also doesn’t know anything about Vicky and is letting a perfect stranger into her home. Of course, everyone is different and based on her personality and experiences may be willing to assume these risks. The child being involved might also influence that. Cherry might be one of those people, but it’s worth acknowledging as a big undertaking in the narrative. Her actions should not be brushed aside as nothing or just “her duty”. Too often servitude is just assigned as natural for Black women. Their own lives take a back seat and to take care of other people / ensure their well being comes first.

Suggestion: built a history between the women

A better fix might be to develop some level of a relationship between the two before Cherry risks so much to save them. They could even just be acquaintances. It helps if they know each other on some level,  at the least. Even if it’s strangers that see each other often at the cafe and strike up small talk all the time but never speak outside of that, old high school classmates that ran in different groups, friends of friends. This creates some sort of relationship where Cherry feels she knows Vicky “enough” to assume the risks, especially as a child is involved. 

Without knowing the exact circumstances, I’ll pose a few scenarios and explore the pitfalls.

If she witnesses the abuse

Witnessing the abuse and getting involved as she sees it happening - I wouldn’t fault her for that. I’d instinctively get involved too!

If something happens in the public eye, it would help if other bystanders get involved too; Cherry just happened to take it to another level and offered her sanctuary.

Again I’m still having a hard time figuring out why Cherry has been placed in this situation before proper authorities, women’s shelters, etc. if she doesn’t know her at all. As I’d suggested, it might be best if they had some sort of relationship prior, no matter how subtle.

The escape from the abuser

What role does Cherry play in the escape?

Physical strength / sacrifice 

Is she expected to use brute force aka be “Strong” to physically save Vicky or fight off her abuser? I would avoid that, as you will have a Strong Black Woman on your hands.

Must Cherry put herself in direct danger with the abuser to save Vicky and the child?

It's asking a lot for Cherry to storm into the home, potentially get harmed or die for a stranger in a domestic abuse situation that she does not know a lot, if anything, about. For example, what if  there’s deadly weapons in the house? 

Could Cherry involve others to help?

Maybe Cherry could call authorities and possibly show up alongside them.

If authorities aren’t involved, perhaps she waits outside to drive the getaway car as the friend and child escapes (I’m 100% inspired by Enough with Jennifer Lopez). Even better, if she could bring along someone else, preferably non-Black, who could help in the situation.

Emotional strength 

The Strong Black Woman is often about being forced into emotional labor.

Is Cherry allowed to react with fear, sadness and anxiety about the situation? Or must she keep it together for the sake of the White woman? Perhaps it’s triggering based on her past; she should be allowed to process that.

Allow Cherry to deal with her own wave of emotions. Even better if she has an outlet for that. She might not lay them on Vicky, but she also shouldn’t be expected to be a perfectly composed rock whose purpose is to comfort and support Vicky. 

Vicky shouldn’t rely completely on Cherry for emotional support. She needs other sources to expel her own fears and emotions. Whether a therapist, parent, other friends, chat forums, journal, or a dog!

Mammy (dynamic between Cherry and the white woman and child)

Given the other factors in the story, I would stay away from Cherry being asked or offering to care for the child. Vicky should take primary care for her child or get help from others besides Cherry or other Black women, as this would give their dynamic mammy and servitude vibes. 

Same applies to Cherry physically taking care of and serving Vicky - avoid it. Also, once Vicky is up for it or she has the means, they can split the chores or Vicky does the majority or contribute to housing expenses (again, if she has the means) but in some way she should pull her weight, so all the domestic care does not fall on Cherry. 

It’s all about avoiding putting Cherry, the Black Woman, in the position as savior of white woman and child + servitude role any further than the implications the first incident creates. Initial comforting and support is fine, but the rest of the white woman and child’s world shouldn’t continue to rest on the Black woman’s shoulders.

Explore Cherry’s life outside of the white people

A very important aspect that will keep this away from SBW and Mammy tropes; give Cherry her own life. Cherry absolutely needs to have a plot line that does not revolve around Vicky and child. She needs to talk to other people, and about other subjects, besides those two. Her main problems, drama, and highlights of her life shouldn’t revolve around them. 

Give her emotions, weakness, and vulnerabilities. She needs other friends and/or family, interests, and a little romance absolutely helps too. She is this amazing writer, so you’ve got something to work with right there! Ultimately, she needs her own life, things going on that have nothing to do with them.

Good luck with your story!

Colette

[kationella]

To Be A Sun

This is me ranting about the symbolism of the Sun Arcana characters in Persona. Ok, thanks.

As of Persona 5, our Sun characters have been Tatsuya Suou, Akinari Kamiki, Yumi Ozawa, Ayane Matsunaga, Sho Minazuki and Toranosuke Yoshida. Unlike the Justice characters, the Suns seem to be completely different characters with no similarities. At least, at first glance.

The themes of this rant will be the following:

1. Loyalty

2. Solar Eclipse

3. Center of the Solar System

4. Supernova

5. So...

Loyalty

I will begin with a trait that the Suns have in common: Loyalty; although they don't have the same brand. Whether its loyalty for a certain person or their personal ideals, the Suns will stick by them to the end of times.

Coincidentally, this also means that it will be extremely difficult to change their mind about the object of their loyalty. Stubborness is a side effect of this.

Let's review.

Tatsuya's loyalty lies with his friends, especially Maya and Jun. The latter tried to kill him and Tatsuya forgave him the same day. Not to mention that Tatsuya stubbornly clinged at the memory of his friends even though it meant the possible destruction of Earth.

Though we meet Akinari near the end of his life, we get a glimpse of his loyalty to the protagonist in the way he was always waiting for him each Sunday afternoon and how he strived to say goodbye to the protag even after his death.

Yumi's loyalty is towards her mother, getting angry at her father on her behalf and forsaking her role in the school play to help her.

Ayane is an example of the other type of loyalty; the one dedicated to their ideals and beliefs. Even though she develops it late in her Social Link, she learns to stick by what she wants for herself.

Meanwhile, Sho and Minazuki are devoted to one another. The entire plot of P4AU is them trying to be alone together.

Old Man Tora shows the two types of loyalty. The first one towards his firm ideals and the other one towards the people he means to serve. This is what makes him the only politician I believe in.

A Sun Arcana is one of the best friends you could ever get. The ride or die type of friend. The problem with this is that, in their effort to stick by their object of loyalty, they forget to take care of themselves. It would be extremely dangerous for them to align their loyalty with a toxic person or dangerous belief. More on this later.

The Suns need to find their inner source of happiness so they can properly shine. Something no outside force can take away. And talking about external threats...

Solar Eclipse

The Suns already start with a distinct shine of their own. Something they were born with. However, when we met them there is always one external influence that blocks their sunlight.

And so, we have the Solar Eclipse effect, where a character from the Sun Arcana feels inadequate due to factors outside their control, not realizing they are perfect the way they are.

It's common for a Sun to have a certain individual related to those problems who serves as their blocker.

Whether it's some dimensional game you're a piece of (Nyarlathotep and Philemon), your parents' dispute (Yumi's father), a lost opportunity to show your worth (Original Trombone Player), experiments made on you (Ikutsuki) or a scandal you were wrongly accused of (Kuromoto).

The only one without a certain person would be Akinari, but to be fair it's hard to blame someone else for a genetic terminal illness. Ironically, his last days were spent talking with someone who had a piece of Death inside him. Who knows. Maybe if Akinari had known that Minato was related to Death itself...

Especially if we consider that almost all of the Suns had an amiable relationship with their blocker at one point or another.

Philemon was Tatsuya's guide through his journey.

Yumi felt gratitude towards her father for bringing her to the world.

Ayane did return the trombone solo to the original player.

Ikutsuki was the closest thing Sho had to a father figure.

Kuromoto was Yoshida's old mentor.

Once that blocker moved on with their fate, the Suns started to shine again. And what to do now that the heavens are their own again?

Center of the Solar System

The most basic fact about the Sun (besides the fact that it's hot) it's that it is the center of the Solar System. Every other planet rotates around them. The Sun stays firm, with a shinning light for the rest of the system.

In the same way as that, the Sun Arcana characters have the potential of becoming leaders and the protagonists of their own stories, setting an example for the rest of their acquaintances.

Tatsuya is the most obvious example. He is the main protagonist of his own game. Nothing to say that isn't already known.

Akinari writes a storybook that would become the inspiration of a new generation of children, if Nanako's love for it is anything to go by.

The whole point of theatre is to lead the audience through a story and create emotions in them through a character. Something Yumi excels at.

Ayane's Social Link is about being more selfish and grasping the opportunities presented to her.

Yoshida is the most literal example, being a politician and all.

Sho still has to find that *something* that will end up making him an example to others but he is on the way.

A fully developed Sun will be able to be a charismatic leader, who earns the loyalty of their team through kindness and generosity. Sunlight is meant to help others see the world around them, in the same way Suns will help others see their potential and own inspiration. You just can't take your eyes off them since you literally gravitate towards them.

This is the main point that separates a Sun from a Star. Those with the Star Arcana need to learn they can shine brightly for themselves, while the Suns learn that they can shine for others as well. They all start with low self-esteem, but their pride will keep developing as time goes on.

Suns have a natural talent for initiative. Through their stories we helped them realize their own potential but now its up to them to do the rest.

Supernova

As we all know, fire needs fuel to burn, but what happens when you allow your inner fire to burn you from the inside out and leave nothing behind?

You get the case of King Leo, the Reverse Sun.

So far we have only one Reverse Sun character but we can determine a lot from him. Basically, Reverse Arcanas are the "corrupt" version of their original personalities, so what happens when a Sun becomes corrupted? Well...

See, King Leo or Sudou fits all the criteria that defines a Sun.

He is extremely loyal to both Kashihara and Joker. However, this loyalty only brought him misery when both abandoned him. Sudou poured so much in them that when they disappeared, he had nothing left.

Sudou thought his Solar Eclipse was caused by Tatsuya and Maya, when in reality it came to be thanks to Nyarlathotep and his father. A life of hallucinations and misery caused by these two.

Sudou's position as an executive in the Masked Circle shows his leadership aptitude and potential to become the center of his own system.

Sudou spent so much time eclipsed that, in his desire to shine as bright as he could to break free, he ended up burning everything in his path. He literally exploded in a fiery rage and collapsed.

At that point it became mercy for Tatsuya to kill him.

His is a sad case, especially when comparing him to the other Suns and realizing his lost potential.

A similar case outside of Persona where the "Inner Fire Burns All" applies would be Azula from Avatar. Now that I think about it, she would make a good Reverse Sun Arcana... hmm.

So...

The Sun Arcana is such an interesting card. By all accounts, it symbolizes happiness and joy. A common mistake is to think these are given. No, a true Sun Arcana *fights* to achieve that happy ending. Once they reach it, their victory will be the sweetest of all.

Celestial Arcanas in general have the tendency to be a guiding light to everyone else (although some of them do it unintentionally).

There is also the matter of the writing parallels between the Suns and their Moon counterparts, but that is a theme for another time.

And now you'll ask me: "Kationella, what was the point of this analysis?"

Well, it all comes down to one question that has been plaguing me for days:

Would it be ironic for Suns to wear sunglasses?

[offtopicoverload]

how would your ideal LI season go?

oooh thank you anon this was really fun and definitely too long and entirely unrealistic because of all the variables but oh well i had fun lmao

Okay I’m just going to start by talking about LIs

I think one of Season 3’s biggest successes was making AJ available from the start, I think that definitely kept those who play for the girls interested

HOWEVER i also think we need one of each: an AJ, a Talia, and a Marisol

Someone you can couple up with right off the bat, someone that takes a bit of time to warm up, maybe around the halfway mark, and someone that isn’t available til the last or second to last recoupling, maybe because they’re only bicurious or its just in their character to take a while to warm up in general, they spent the season in friendship couples or blowing their shot because they didn’t want to move too quick

I know the amount of LIs in Season 2 is a huge attraction, but it obviously wasn’t maintainable, since so many LIs lost their personality after CA

Again, I think Season 3 did great on ideas, but bad execution on drama and actual plot

So I’d probably keep it about 9, maybe 10

And ideally one of them would be trans, probably a trans guy with top surgery scars. Someone makes a joke on the first day and he explains no problem, is open about it and his experiences, maybe he was kicked out as a teenager and is all about positivity and loving people for who they are because of it

I’m all on board for a enby or gnc character or MC, but I honestly think Love Island’s too binary for someone like that to thrive

OH! And an ace LI that’s probably sex neutral and really comfortable with it. They’re up front with their sexuality but have no problem with how sex-focused Love Island is, like they’re fine with the flirting and intimate stuff, they’re just not attracted at the end of the day

Or have this season’s slowburn female LI be demi? I’m not demi, only ace, so I can’t speak on that experience, but I think that might work pretty well, maybe she goes in knowing she’s demisexual and comes out of it knowing she’s demiromantic too? Id love that but idk

I want to touch on customization too, since there’s nowhere near enough

Definitely body types

I forget who said it, but have the typical thin type, a muscular type, and a plus sized

And don’t get me wrong, I know it’s extra work for the artists, but I personally think it’d be worth, but who knows

Make fantasy hair colours possible - blue, green, purple, pink, silver - with the type of variety S3 had, in a style closer to S2

Also tats! And piercings! Just like a septum or some ear piercing, maybe a lip, nothing too difficult

And allow for actually different personalities and careers

I get that most people who apply are going to be outgoing and influencers, but this is all fake anyway so who cares

Have your personality impact LIs, certain LIs are easier to get hearts with with a certain personality, while others have more negative reactions to that personality

Lot of coding but this is just my make believe, what’s the harm

Okay into each day

Id have 20 days, since I agree that that’s a pretty good sweet spot

And Im definitely on board with MC being a bombshell, but instead of introing her on the first day, Id do the second

First half of the episode is spent as a recap of the first day, 5 couples like usual, let’s call the Islanders Bobby, Harry, Camilo, Bill, Rohan, AJ, Talia, Elladine, Miki, and Erikah, I’ll explain later, it’s pretty much for one single reason each

So MC’s first day is the Islander’s second, she shows up like Lucas & Henrik, before all the Islanders are up, and she has an option to say hi to someone early, add a gem to be upfront about being interested or something, during the second half of the first episode

Second episode starts with all the Islanders finding MC and saying hi, whoever you chose to have a chat with’s partner is kinda salty, if you chose a guy

MC ends the day choosing between any of the guys and two of the girls, AJ and Talia

For the guys, like Season 3, three are endgame, ones a red herring like Rohan in Season 1, and one’s up front about it being a friendship couple from the start, since I definitely think we need actual friendship couples - this friendship couple guy is Bobby, but without the pushy crush

Rohan is initially interested, but like in Season 1, he gives it up after a while

AJ is super into it and happy if you pick her and has no problem with it, while Talia has a “no thanks” thing and makes you pick again

Basically, youre not supposed to pick Talia because she’s not open to that yet, and that tosses you off her route or makes it really difficult to fix, maybe only a few dialogue options over the next few days or a specific personality gets her to forgive you. If you don’t pick her, you can couple up later as normal

Day 2 is like it usually is, you’re LIs original partner starts grafting on your LI if you have a male LI, Bobby doesn’t care if you steal AJ, you just have to have a talk with him and he’s fine

You can attempt to reconcile with their original partner, and if you succeed they’ll stop, if not your LI will step in and tell her he’s not interested

Day 3 finds a whole Villa recouping with a dumping. If you have a female LI, then girls are choosing, and AJ will pick you, however there is no dumping for future numbers sake, I know it doesn’t make much sense for the guys to be safe but whatever

If you have a male LI, the boys are choosing. If youre with Bobby, you get stolen and have to help Bobby decide who to dump.

He’ll always choose to dump Miki, regardless of who your LIs ex was or what you say. His reasoning is that she hasn’t made a connection and she was accidentally mean to him once and this Bobby’s hella sensitive

Bobby kinda struggles with it and has a rough few days - You have the option to be sympathetic and keep him available as a friendship couple option, or be a jerk and lose the option to be in a friendship couple

Day 4 is a bit of a filler day, with a fun challenge and some actual conversations.

You learn about your LI and someone else of your choosing, whether that’s a friend, like Ell or Erikah, or another LI youre romancing, like Talia or another of the guys

This is the first time Talia starts to be honest with MC about maybe fancying her and being open to seeing what happens

Day 5 has bombshells: a guy and a girl. The girl is our Marisol of this season, which can also explain away why she’s so slow to open up, she feels like an outcast since she came late and MC can empathise better than anyone which is how they initially bond

The guy is also a LI, but far more bold than Marisol, he has no trouble grafting in front of MC’s LI and trying to steal her or win her over - I’m just going to call him Lucas

Day 6 has another boys’ choice disaster recouping, but with the threat of a dumping on an AJ route

No matter how you reacted to Lucas’ flirting, he picks MC, whether you were going to couple up with him or not, he still steals you from your LI just like Season 2, for simplicity’s sake

The other couples get mixed up, a Nope-adjacent couple are split up, let’s say Erikah and Camilo, but they don’t make it all about them. One of the girls had been pining after a guy but he chooses someone else even though she’s available (Elladine, but Bobby’s oblivious), the girl Bobby was planning to couple up with gets stolen (Talia, but regardless of your route, she doesn’t fancy him), so he couples with Marisol

On a male LI route there is no dumping because the couples are already even

On an AJ route, Rohan is the deciding factor between AJ and Miki. Miki is always dumped because she was barely involved the past few days and Bill isn’t that interested in her even though they were coupled up

Day 7 is the start of Casa Amor, but much shorter this time. Two of the guys are endgame - let’s say Arjun and Carl, two are interested in other girls - let’s say Graham and Nicky, and there’s one you CAN get with, but cheats and gets dumped later on, essentially a Rocco, and one just isn’t interested, another friendship couple opportunity if you don’t want to share with one of the LIs - let’s say Seb

Day 8 is still Casa, you get to know the boys or can crack on with any of the female LIs, though this is still applicable to Day 7

You get a chance to either commit to AJ further or say you want a break to crack on with someone else

If you reassure her, she’ll pie off all the guys and you can stay on the daybed together, essentially ignoring the disaster recoupling and pretending youre still together. But if you dump her, she’ll crack on with Seb if you’re not paired with him, and Arjun if you are, just as a sort of revenge

During CA you can get closer with Talia, cheeky winks in public and getting kinda nasty during a challenge

You get sneaky scenes with Marisol where you learn where her head is at and how she has a hard time opening up and letting people in. You can reassure her and say you’ll be patient or pie her off and she’ll get with the season’s Graham, though they’ll have a different dynamic and ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE AS A COUPLE

Im sorry but boaty mcboat face and MARISOL?? i just dont get it, im sorry

You can graft on Arjun & Carl, tell them where your head is at, and they’re far less pushy

They try to impress but they’re not like poking you until you tell them you’ll take them back to the Villa like in S2

Day 9 is the final day of Casa, with a stick or switch

You can take back Arjun, Carl, Seb, or Rocco, although Seb is a platonic option but you can pair with him the rest of the season as aromantic representation

AJ never switches to save Rohan, and to be loyal if youre on her route

Talia doesn’t switch no matter the route, she spent Casa just hanging out which honestly isn’t the best idea outside of her route

Erikah switches, because like Season 1 Erikah, her head turns quickly, it’s just a matter of time. She switches to Rocco if you’re not on his route, and Arjun if you are. This is going to absolutely blow up in her face

Elladine switches because she gets worried Bobby will, picks Nicky and they actually get on really well

Marisol switches to Graham if youre not on her route to stay safe again, though they dont last anyway, and sticks if you are because she spent Casa with MC instead of the guys

Bobby sticks cuz Bobby

Harry always switches to someone, let’s call her Cherry cuz why not

Camilo sticks to get back with MC or Erikah - Erikah switched, effectively dumping him and really upsetting him

Rohan switches to someone, lets call her Shannon, no matter the route

Bill always sticks

Lucas switches to someone, lets call her Blake, no matter what, just for simplicity’s sake and because I’m already ripping from S2 so who cares

Day 10 is aftermath, much like Season 2

You can talk with your previous LI, 

Day 11 has a massive dumping where you vote to save a few people

One of the original Villa boys stays, Camilo is the default but if youre on Harry or Bill’s route, they’ll fill his place

Rohan and Bobby survive

If you brought back a Casa boy, you pick between him and Lucas to be dumped 

If you didn’t, Lucas is safe automatically

Rocco/Arjun survive, they’re coupled with Erikah

Either Nicky survives to stay with Elladine or Graham is saved for Marisol if she brought him back, Nicky automatically survives if not

For the girls, Erikah, Elladine, Marisol, and MC are safe

You vote between Cherry, Blake, Shannon on who to save, Shannon is the encouraged option because her and Rohan are actually really cute, but he’ll be nice to any of the girls for the rest of the season

You have to vote between AJ and Talia, sorry queers, i hate it too

Day 12 has a recouping where Talia is finally available if you saved her after everything from Casa Amor

You can reunite with your LI from pre-CA or simply stick to youre CA pick, it’s girls choice, MC is somewhere in the middle

Day 13 has two bombshells - both guys, let’s call them Levi and Tai

Levi grafts hard on MC whereas Tai takes a backseat and MC has to go to him instead if shes interested

Day 14 is a grafting day, you can graft and bond with your LI, Levi, Tai, or Marisol

Day 15 is the second to last recoupling, where you can get with every LI 

If youre romancing Marisol, you have a fight in the morning because she still won’t commit and she hasn’t really had an drama on her route yet

Day 16 is an explosion of drama

It’s another Roccogate but on an even bigger scale

If you’re on Rocco’s route, you suffer the backlash, and if you’re not, Erikah does but it still blows back to MC in order to keep her involved

Rocco makes a move on Erikah when MC’s with him, and MC when Erikah is. If he makes a move on MC, she can reciprocate or blatantly shut him down and Erikah will always reciprocate it when he’s coupled with MC because whaddaya know her head can turn at the littlest thing

If he made a move on MC, she can tell her LI who will chew him out privately, or keep it to herself

They basically get caught in the act by Levi, who doesn’t say anything until the afternoon - a lie detector that reveals a bunch of stuff, ill discuss later

He’s asked if he has any drama and he lies, saying no but eventually spills that Rocco made a move on MC/Erikah, and regardless of whether MC reciprocated or not, he says she did

If MC’s with Rocco, she can attack Erikah until someone steps in, maybe Bobby? Or Arjun? and reasons with her. She can get most of the Villa on her side about Rocco being a prick - except for Levi, no matter what, he’ll always side with Rocco and say it’s part of the show

If MC’s not with Rocco and denied him, her LI will accuse her of lying and she’ll have to essentially win them back by the next day or try and get Rocco to clear her name, which she can if they have a high relationship

And if MC didn’t deny him, her LI will dump her on the spot if they have a low relationship, or still win them back if they have a high relationship - but it will still be remembered

Back to the lie detector

There’s the typical S1 questions, cheating is revealed, you can commit to your LI

BUT 

If youre on a Marisol route, your LI asks you about her and MC has to confess, which drives a rift between her and Marisol because yeah

y i k e s

Day 17 is the final recoupling

Marisol basically storms into the kitchen when MCs making breakfast and says they’re coupling up and just leaves again. MC has the option to be like “yeah okay, chill” and go back to her breakfast or “what the fuck? no” and chase after her and pie her off

If you don’t pie her off, she chooses MC herself, because that scene in S2 is just really cute and I want another

There’s a double dumping of two boys - Levi and Rocco, and you have no say in it

Erikah, MC, or her LI will essentially turn the Villa against Rocco, while a few of the Islanders resent Levi for his take, mainly the girls

It’s a couple vote, and even if you vote for someone else, they still get dumped because they have the most votes

Day 18 is filler and fluff, meet the parents and final dates, with a surprise dumping where you can get a say and can help them pack, but its a strictly platonic goodbye

There’s so many possibilities and I don’t feel like listing them out right now, but it’s a single couple between three at-risk ones

Day 19 another surprise dumping, why not stick with prom? I just really dig the art, and but maybe make it closer to Season 2? And more personalized speeches!!!

And have a Lottie/Hannah moment! 

Idk who all would be here, I don’t feel like listing it out, but I think I have all the dumpings listed below the cut

You can pick between both people dumped who you want to help pack, and can have a moment with either of them, opening a “runaway” option after the finale or reunion

Day 20 is the finale, with the Islanders gossiping and stressing in the morning as some filler content

The afternoon is the announcement, and your placement depends on your couple - If you were loyal the entire time you were with them and have a max relationship you get 1st, if you were loyal but dont have max hearts, you get 2nd, if you weren’t loyal but still have max hearts, you get 3rd, and if you have neither you get 4th

If you win, your LI gets the money no matter what and it’s not based on relationship, it’s based on where in the relationship you are - if MC agreed to be their girlfriend on Day 18, they split the money, and if MC didn’t, then they don’t see a future and keep it

The last episode is the finale party with options to dump your LI for good, make plans to move in, reconcile and explain why MC didn’t say yes on Day 18, or get with someone else entirely

Oh and I want two of the dumped guys to show up together and have started dating outside of the Villa

Cuz I can’t think of another opportunity for mlm in this chaos

This is really messy so I’m going to list out couplings under the cut to try and make sense of this, I think I got everything but probably not its a disaster

LIs

AJ

Day 1 - MC or Bobby or Single

Day 3 - MC or Bobby or Bill

Day 6 - Rohan

Day 9 - Rohan

Day 12 - MC or Bobby or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Bobby or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Bobby Dumped

Talia

Day 1 - Rohan or Single

Day 3 - Rohan or Bill

Day 6 - Camilo

Day 9 - Camilo

Day 12 - MC or Bobby or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Bobby or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Bobby Dumped

Marisol

Day 6 - Bobby

Day 9 - Single or Graham

Day 12 - Graham or Harry/Bill/Camilo

Day 14 - Graham or Harry/Bill/Camilo

Day 17 - MC or Graham or Harry/Bill/Camilo

Harry

Day 1 - MC or Elladine

Day 3 - MC or Elladine

Day 6 - Elladine

Day 9 - Cherry

Day 12 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped 

Day 14 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Camilo

Day 1 - MC or Erikah

Day 3 - MC or Erikah

Day 6 - Talia

Day 9 - Talia

Day 12 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Bill

Day 1 - MC or Miki

Day 3 - MC or Miki or Elladine/Erikah

Day 6 - Erikah

Day 9 - Single

Day 12 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Lucas

Day 6 - MC or Erikah

Day 9 - MC or Blake

Day 12 - Blake

Day 14 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Erikah or Dumped

Arjun

Day 9 - MC or Erikah or Dumped

Day 12 - MC or Erikah or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Erikah or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Erikah or Dumped

Carl

Day 9 - MC or Dumped 

Day 12 - MC or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Erikah or Dumped

Tai

Day 14 - MC or Single or Elladine

Day 17 - MC or Erikah

Rocco

Day 9 - MC or Erikah

Day 12 - MC or Erikah

Day 14 - MC or Erikah

Day 17 - Dumped

Levi

Day 14 - MC or Single

Day 17 - Dumped

Other Islanders

Elladine

Day 1 - Harry or Single

Day 3 - Harry or Bill

Day 6 - Harry

Day 9 - Nicky or Harry/Camilo/Bill

Day 12 - Nicky or Harry/Camilo/Bill

Day 14 - Nicky or 

Day 17 - Nicky or Tai

Erikah

Day 1 - Camilo* or Single

Day 3 - Camilo* or Bill

Day 6 - Camilo or 

Day 9 - Rocco or Arjun

Day 12 - Rocco or Arjun

Day 14 - Rocco or Arjun

Day 17 - Tai or Lucas/Casa

Miki

Day 1 - Bill or Single

Day 3 - Bill or Dumped

Day 6 - Bill or Dumped

Day 9 - Dumped

Day 12 - Dumped

Day 14 - Dumped

Day 17 - Dumped

Shannon

Day 9 - Rohan

Day 12 - Rohan or Dumped

Day 14 - Rohan or Dumped

Day 17 - Rohan or Dumped

Blake

Day 9 - Lucas

Day 12 - Rohan or Dumped

Day 14 - Rohan or Dumped

Day 17 - Rohan or Dumped

Cherry

Day 9 - Harry

Day 12 - Rohan or Dumped

Day 14 - Rohan or Dumped

Day 17 - Rohan Dumped

Bobby

Day 1 - AJ or MC or Single

Day 3 - AJ or MC or

Day 6 - Marisol

Day 9 - Marisol or Single

Day 12 - AJ/Talia or Elladine/Marisol

Day 14 - AJ/Talia or Elladine/Marisol or Single

Day 17 - AJ/Talia or Elladine/Marisol

Rohan

Day 1 - Talia or MC

Day 3 - Talia or MC

Day 6 - AJ

Day 9 - Shannon/Cherry/Blake

Day 12 - Shannon/Cherry/Blake

Day 14 - Shannon/Cherry/Blake

Day 17 - Shannon/Cherry/Blake

Graham

Day 9 - Marisol or Dumped

Day 12 - Marisol or Dumped

Day 14 - Marisol or Dumped

Day 17 - Marisol or Dumped

Seb

Day 9 - MC or Dumped

Day 12 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 14 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Day 17 - MC or Elladine/Marisol or Dumped

Nicky

Day 9 - Elladine

Day 12 - Elladine or Dumped 

Day 14 - Elladine or Dumped

Day 17 - Elladine or Dumped

[yurimother]

A Late Night Ramble on Death of the Author and Queerness in Yuri

I was sleepless, so I decided to do some reading late night reading and perused Kastel’s article on Barthes’ Death of the Author. A fantastic piece of writing, although one I somewhat disagree with, mainly in their statements on how separating authorial intent from a work depoliticizes it:

When conservatives apply [death of the author], they assume that this ultimately means divorcing the intentions of the author from the artwork. This means if, say, an artist may have fascist beliefs that it is possible to focus on the art itself and not the author. This depoliticizes the artwork and thus the death of the author.

I consider this to be an “excuse” by conservatives to not critically engage with the work. It assumes that the ideologies inherent in the work are normal and that an apolitical criticism is the only way to go.

This passage refers to how conservatives use death of the author in a malicious attempt to remove politics from art and literature, a futile task, in my opinion, as all work is political. They are correct in this point that some justify, nonexistent, normalcy in art by removing the author and their intentions, and thus their politics, from it. However, Kastel creates a false absolution in observing how these conservatives use the concept, a statement that separating the intent of the creator from the work is always in an impossible attempt to destroy politics.

There is great value in separating a creator from their creation. Removing an author and their intent from art does not remove politics from the work; instead it creates space for it and its politics to be interpreted outside of the author. Thereby the reader can analyze the creation and determine its politics based on its content and presentation, not the transcendent “author” figure idolized behind it. To use the bluntest of examples, Mein Kampf is not fascist garbage because Hitler was fascist garbage, but because Mein Kampf is fascist garbage. Even when separating the author from the work, it does not remove the politics present withing. Still, they can now be seen and interpreted by the reader’s perspective without being distorted by the clouded lens of the authorial figure.

There are certainly times when using death of the author in such a manner is inappropriate. Take my job for example. In reporting, it is not only tricky but irresponsible to detached the creator from their work. My responsibility is to inform consumers of the goings-on with various works in the yuri genre, and developments within the genre as a whole. To deny the information about those creating within this genre is one, lousy journalism (if one can truly call what I do that) and two, robs the consumer of their choice to interact with work with or without the presence of the author.

In my own personal time reading or when I incorporate a work into my analytical writings, I make a choice to separate the author from it (or not). There are times when I do not, such as when exploring work from a familiar creator, “I suspect The Rain and the Other Side of You will make me uncomfortable because Moto Momono’s creations always do,” or “I am reading this because Morinaga Milk wrote it and I like her stuff.” However, the majority of the time, I separate the two, to the extent that it is possible.

Vampeerz is a perfect example of yuri that I treat differently in reporting and reading. It is a yuri vampire manga, but the author, Higashiyama Shou, is, from my, and I believe prevailing wisdom’s, point of view problematic. He has been accused of tracing artwork in Prism and creates ped*philic manga. If I so choose, I can read Vampeerz for myself, or I could use it in an article analyzing vampires in current yuri manga without thinking of the creator or his “politics.” However, when I seek to teach and inform others, usually this occurs within reporting and occasionally reviews, I have to acknowledge both Higashiyama Shou’s action and how my bias colors my perspective and reporting on him negatively. 

Even when I am not considering the author’s actions, the work does not become apolitical. Vampires, like every piece of literature, has politics, actions, and statements. In my view, they are not the same as those of the creator described previously. If they were to become so, if Vampeerz began advocating ped*philia, then I would have to comment on them even in my own reading (outside of reporting) as even with the author separated, ped*philic “politics” (using that word loosely here) exist within it.

In short, removing the author from their art does not remove politics from it, it is just a state of mind for readers to critique what is present within the work, including its politics, without outside influence.

Now then, to tie this all into yuri, I shall replace politics with queerness. I have mentioned this briefly before, but to remind everyone, yuri does not necessarily equate to LGBTQ. In fact, yuri historically and continuously often robs characters from queer expression or identity. However, if we use death of the author to divorce the creator’s identity and their intentions about making a queer work (or not) from it, queerness moves to the eye of the beholder. A manga or anime series is not a yuri or gay, because the creator said so or because Seven Seas has labeled it as “Yuri” on their website. It is because the content of the work is queer. Of course, this works both ways, and often products not created nor advertised as queer become so in the reader’s eye.

Princess Principal provides us with the perfect framework for examining these ideas. Many people, myself included, notice romantic actions between Ange and Charlotte in the anime. However, the creators have gone on record saying they did not intend for their relationship to be sapphic. Ultimately, their statements are irrelevant, as the readers’ interpretation based on what is present in the book holds the same weight. In fact, before yuri became its own genre in the past decade or two, it exists primarily as a feature of text in the reader’s mind. Here is where I can incorporate aspects of death of the author into my reporting. Even though Princess Principal was not intended to be queer and Journey of Elaina is not labeled as yuri, I still report on them because, in my mind, there are.

Just as using death of the author to separate the creator from art is situational, it only works for certain people. Take the writings of another yuri critic, Erica Friedman. Take the following with a grain of salt, as this is merely my perspective on another human. Friedman has an uncanny ability when consuming media to detect the creator's queerness and intention. In other words, they can watch an anime or read something and know if it was made by or for queer people. This is an essential factor for them in their critique and enjoyment of media, and rightfully so. It is how their mind works, it is how they consume and love yuri.

I suspect that Friedman’s incorporation of outside queerness in the form of the author or intent is one of the critical ways we, two people who share some tastes in the genre, disagree on many works. I am more lenient of problematic elements in works, a fact I believe we both recognize, then them. In effect, they hold works and creators to higher standards than I because the ways we look for and identify queerness are different. It is the reason that we can look at the same work, Citrus, and I can say “here are some problematic elements, but it has a lot of great stuff and some queer elements” whereas they say “this is unrealistic and unacceptable.” Note that I believe both our interpretations and methods are valuable and valid.

Just so, whether one removes the “creator,” or the concept of the creator, from a work or not is entirely a matter of choice and a legitimate method of examination and reading. However, no action can add or remove politics or queerness intrinsically present or absent in a work which are interpreted and filtered through our individual and collective experiences and perspective. However, because it is the interpretation of the text is what matters, there can be no one absolute truth or politic in a work of art.

If you do not already go read Erica Freidman’s amazing work on Oakzu and check out Kastel’s essay on their blog.

[thelatelockdownlist]

A Series on Series 01: Bridgerton

Hi. I’m Alex, a YouTube newbie. 

I resurrected this channel mostly because I wanted to do this thing. It’s something I’d planned back in 2019 and never got around to it because I was too lazy. However… life happened and I thought that with everything that happened in 2020, I should stop procrastinating. So I did nothing in 2020 -- aside from the usual like work. I was one of the lucky ones whose only inconvenience really was being unable to go outside when I wanted to -- which, to be honest, wasn’t really that often. In ordinary circumstances, I don’t really like going out. But the thought of having an actual lockdown order PREVENTING me from going out, well, that’s a whole ‘nother thing.

So 2020 was a bust, but I wanted 2021 to be different. However long this pandemic is going to go, I wanted to make better use of my ‘free’ time.

On to the show. I’m doing A Series on Series, where I talk about my favorite book series. I figured since I read a lot of them, might as well talk about them right here. So let’s start with what’s currently popular: Bridgerton.

So I watched Bridgerton on Netflix the day it came out in my country, January 1. 

I’d actually read the Julia Quinn series -- all eight books -- years ago. After I watched the first season, I went back and reread the first book in the series which is the basis for this first season.

Just a disclaimer: I’m watching this through the lens of someone who has read historical romance novels almost my entire life. I understand that there are a lot of issues that should/need to be addressed here like race. However, as I’ve read the books that this series is based on, I know the period in which it’s set. That is to say, the characters are mostly white and mostly straight. It’s the overarching theme of most historical romance novels.

With that said, it’s not to say that I won’t have comments about current issues that we see play out in the series, but I just want to ground this -- this whole thing -- on my own experience mostly because that’s really my frame of reference. 

On the race issue, my comments are going to be from someone who is a person of color BUT has lived all of my life in a country, Philippines, where we’re really mostly just one race. There are a lot of biracial people in my country, but for the most part our issues are nothing compared to what black people have experienced and are experiencing everywhere -- especially in the U.S. What I’m saying is, I am aware of the Black Lives Matter movement and I agree with what they stand for and what they’re fighting for. What I’m also saying is that as a person of color who lives in a country with people who have the same skin color as I am, I don’t have the same issues of representation in the media. In OUR media here, I am very much represented. However, in the U.S. people of color are in the minority and struggle with representation. I’m saying that now because we’re going to come back to that later. Also most of my comments are going to be from the lens of someone who identifies herself as a decades’ long (yes, I’m aware that I’m aging myself) historical romance reader. However, even though I used to be the kind of reader who belongs to the ‘the author is dead’ school of thought, these days, one finds it difficult to divorce the author from the work. 

From “The Death of the Author,” an essay by French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic and semiotician Roland Barthes. Basically, it says that the author does not factor in the reading of their work -- that their words get to be interpreted by the reader however they may. The point is not to try to understand what the author’s intentions are, and just focus on the actual work itself.

I went to school for this so I’m going to have to balance the death of the author vs my own thoughts -- immediate and otherwise -- when it comes to what I read. 

So we’re good? If not, I’ll come back to it -- if you’re still here. [wink]

So in this first episode of A Series on Series: Bridgerton, I’m going to talk about my impressions regarding the series and then point out the differences between the Netflix Season 1 and the first book, The Duke and I.

First impression of the series & some issues:

I was pleasantly surprised to see a black man play the Duke of Hastings.

In the book, he is described as tall, dark-haired and with ice-blue eyes.

Also a pleasant, surprise? Queen Charlotte played by a black woman.

You see, some historians believe that Queen Charlotte was Britain’s first black queen.

She was born the youngest daughter of a duke and a princess in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in northern Germany. She married King George III -- yes, of Hamilton’s ‘You’ll Be Back.’

However, in this timeline set years after that, he’s more The Madness of King George.

Going back, historians are split about this because while some believe they can trace her lineage to the mixed-race branch of the Portuguese royal family and that the royal physician of her time described her as having a “true mulatto face,” other historians say that it’s never been proven. 

History says that she might be black or she might not be. In the series, she is, and I had absolutely no problem believing from the get-go that the black actress playing her is in fact, Queen Charlotte. 

Some people actually point out the casting of black people in the series -- not just the Duke and the Queen -- but others as well like Lady Danbury, the late Duke and the current Duke’s sparring partner, Will Mondrich -- as race baiting. 

Merriam-Webster defines it as the making of verbal attacks against members of a racial group. But that’s the 1961 definition. However, its other definition says it’s  the unfair use of statements about race to try to influence the actions or attitudes of a particular group of people. This, I think, applies better. 

As someone who isn’t black, I feel like my opinion doesn’t hold much water here -- or at least not the ‘diamond of the first water.’ Yeah, yeah. I went there.

But for me, since the series creator -- who is white -- made a big deal of wanting a diverse cast and ‘colorbind’ casting, a lot of hype surrounded the casting of black people in these particular roles -- who are white in the book. I think certain expectations were set -- whether intentionally or not -- about what it means to cast black people in historically white roles. Hence, the issue of race-baiting. 

Was that an issue for me? No. But I’m not black and I’m not the one who may or may not be baited. So what I say isn’t exactly something you can hang your hat on. However, I’ll say it anyway. I like the black actors who play their characters. 

In the book, Simon is almost god-like because of how handsome he is. The actor who plays him, really hot. I don’t mind that he doesn’t have ice-blue eyes. 

Lady Danbury is my favorite character because of her interactions with Simon and how fierce she is as a friend and aunt. She doesn’t feature much in the book. 

Queen Charlotte, also not in the book, is great. I especially liked her in that scene with George who was lucid one moment and then crazed the next. I didn’t think this at the time, but she must have both pitied him and been afraid for herself because he did threaten her. And what does that threat really mean for her? Is it just for her? Or for her people as well? 

Because as Simon says later during his conversation with Lady Danbury, their ‘elevation’ relies on the whims of this madman. 

The late Duke, well, he was just mean. But that part, when he gets so mad that Simon can’t speak -- I sort of understand why he wants a perfect child. It’s self-preservation. He says that their situation is precarious, that what they have will only remain theirs as long as they remain extraordinary. I felt that vehemence there. While I don’t condone it -- after all, he’s doing this ranting at a child, his child -- I understand the reason behind it. Book OG Duke doesn’t have that reason. 

The series kind of followed the book. There were certain departures, but it didn’t really bother me. 

For those of you who have not seen the series and/or read the book and don’t want any spoilers, leave now. 

Okay. 

SPOILER ALERT

The first 9 minutes (more or less) in the series don’t actually appear in the book. But it does a good job of setting up this world. We’re introduced to the Featheringtons and the Bridgertons. 

In the first book, the Featheringtons don’t really feature as much. Also, the Baron is dead there. Then there’s Marina Thompson, the Featheringtons’ distant cousin --

Not in the book.

Then there’s Lord Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton and his mistress’ (Siena) amorous activities -- also not in the book.

But I suppose it’s there to give us a glimpse of his character. You know, that he’s a playa.

Also, in the book, Daphne has come out -- as in debuted -- for nearly two seasons. In the series, it’s actually her first time hence the presentation to the queen. 

Lady Danbury’s ball is in the book, but Daphne’s entrance which causes a stir due to her being proclaimed as ‘flawless’ by the Queen and --

#recordscratch

Did you think I’d forgotten about Lady Whistledown? Of course not. Especially when she’s voiced by Julie Andrews. I love that they chose her to be Lady Whistledown, but for the purpose of this comparison, I won’t be dwelling much on her, as much as I love Dame Julie Andrews.

#backtoourregularprogramming

Lady Whistledown as ‘a diamond of the first water’ doesn’t happen in the book. While book Daphne was by no means unattractive, according to her: ‘no one was dazzled by her beauty, stunned into speechlessness by her presence…’

Then there’s how Daphne and Simon meet. In the series, Daphne bumps into Simon accidentally, trying to escape Nigel Berbrook. In the book… it’s a little complicated.

First, there’s when and where (and really how their ‘grand scheme’ is concocted). In the series, it happens at Vauxhall Gardens where Simon overhears Daphne and Nigel Berbrook arguing. Then he discovers them after Daphne hits Lord Berbrook when he tries to assault her. Then Simon concocts the scheme with the dramatic cutaways of them rejoining the crowd as they watch the fireworks. 

In the book, this actually happens at Lady Danbury’s ball (which we see in the series; the ball. The scene with Berbrook does happen, but it’s at the ball, off a corner. It’s how Daphne and Simon actually met. Anyway, it’s a whole coverup. They leave the unconscious Berbrook and they go back to the ballroom, separately.

Simon meets Daphne’s brothers and they end up introducing him to Daphne and they both agree to pretend that they’d never met before. Anyway, Simon gets all these looks from Lady Featherington and the other mamas and feels the need to escape. He then asks Daphne to dance. 

THIS is where and when they concoct the scheme. The plan -- thought of by Simon, same in the series -- actually happens during this -- their first dance at that ball. AFTER their witty repartee, while waltzing. They multitask. 

And unlike what happens in the series, the scheme didn’t happen because Daphne needed to be saved from ruin. Simon proposed it because he wanted an out from being stalked by ambitious mamas and offered it to Daphne AND this is a departure from the series -- to make her more desirable to other men. 

See, in the book, Daphne always gets FRIENDZONED. I know, I know… but the term really does apply to her here. And with no malice, really. 

They don’t view her as someone desirable. She says that she’s still unmarried “because everyone sees me as a friend. No one ever has any romantic interest in me. Except Nigel.”

So Simon’s reason of “men are always interested in a woman if they think other men are interested,” which he also says in the series is due to this. 

So to sum up the difference: In the series, it’s to save Daphne from ruin; in the books, it’s so she no longer gets friendzoned. 

So they both agree and the next day…

In the series, Daphne and Simon start to hang out and they go out on dates. 

Kind of the same in the books, BUT they let Anthony in on the secret. 

Anthony was incensed because Simon appears to be breaking the bro code. You know, the one where family is off limits? So they had to tell him. Of course he thinks it’s stupid, but goes along with it because he does see the benefits for Daphne. 

In the series, Anthony is in the dark.

Anyway, the dates. BECAUSE this is a historical romance novel set in the regency period, book Simon isn’t quite so bold. The spoon scene?

Not in the book.

The scene where Simon basically gives WAP tips to Daphne?

Not in the book.

And the biggest plot in the series that isn’t in the book?

Yeah... he’s not in the book.

But the part where Anthony catches them in flagrante delicto? 

That happens.

And the duel?

In the book.

The heartfelt speech to the queen?

Not in the book.

The scene where Mama Bridgerton tries (and fails) to explain the birds and the bees? 

Happens. And it’s actually funnier in the book because Daphne asks her, “So you did this eight times?” (whisper) And her mother blushes furiously and says that, no, not just eight times because sometimes you do it because you like to. 

Read the book. I found it funnier than the scene on Netflix. For one, Daphne is actually quite eager for this conversation “I’ve waited for this all week.” -- which shocks Mama. 

The wedding?

Kind of the same, since Daphne only remembered the funny moments -- which were not shown in the series. 

And I know you’re waiting for this: the wedding night. 

Um, they were different. 

For one thing, the ‘I burn for you’ line?

Not in the book.

In the series, their wedding night was pretty intense.

In the book, it starts out funny because remember Simon telling Daphne how he couldn’t marry her because he CAN’T have children? Well, Daphne -- having had what passes for sex education for women in Regency England -- thought that meant he COULDN’T have sex -- as in he’s impotent. Which sends Simon into paroxysms of laughter. 

And then there was sexing. 

But in the book, the sexing was confined mostly in the bedroom. 

In the series, it was everywhere, including the bedroom. You know, the library (against a ladder), the mausoleum, in front of the swans near the lake 

all to the tune of an orchestral version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Wildest Dreams.’ 

BUT

You know the course of true love never runs smooth. Our lovely couple has to hit a snag. And it’s in the form of animal husbandry, planting and a little putting of two-and-two together.

How Daphne finds out is sort of the same, but also different. 

Like I mentioned before, I’d read this years ago. I’d forgotten about the particulars of this. So when I saw this scene in the Netflix series, I somehow sort of hazily remembered that that’s not what happened in the book. But as soon as I re-read it, I had to put it down. Not because the scene was well-written. But because I just had so many problems with it. 

Which kind of makes me thankful that they changed it for Netflix. Because in the series, Simon doesn’t come inside Daphne but this is also what convinces her that he DID lie to her. Remember that earlier scene when Mrs. Colson, the housekeeper, tells Daphne the story of Simon’s parents? How his mother died in childbirth and how his father always wanted a son and blamed his wife when she miscarries? Then Mrs. Colson says, “A womb won’t quicken without strong, healthy seed.” 

In the series, Daphne clues in to this when during one of their romps, AFTER she’d spoken with Mrs. Colson and the wheels started turning, she noticed Simon spend on her handkerchief. She then marches to her maid’s room and asks her for essentially a rushed version of sex ed. Then after Daphne and Simon have dinner, they have sex… and I honestly don’t know if Simon came in her or not. But that’s when she accuses him and Simon basically admits it, they then fight. From then on, their marriage becomes strained and they sleep in separate bedrooms. So that awful scene in the book doesn’t exactly appear in the series. 

Book Simon comes home drunk because he and Daphne had been fighting because of THE LIE. He manages to convince her to stay with him in bed, and she does. Then she is awakened later and as she talks to him and starts basically caressing him in his sleep, he responds. Which she realizes that this is when she could do WHATEVER she wanted, have WHATEVER she wanted.

So she basically giddyups and rides him like a cowgirl and being super extra, impressing even Simon, as is written in the book. BUT things take a turn when he starts climaxing and she essentially uses what strength she has to pin him down so he couldn’t pull out. 

He’s angry and is feeling betrayed and then he starts to stutter -- which makes him angrier, with her, with himself. He’s just a confusing mass of emotions at this point. 

And then he leaves for one of his other estates. Daphne goes to London and her brothers visit. One day, she assumes she’s pregnant and sends a letter with Anthony to send to Simon. Simon receives said letter and promptly sets out for London. 

In the series, this doesn’t happen. They’re basically living separate lives, apart from posing for a portrait, several social engagements and a ball. 

In the book, Simon goes after Daphne who’d been out riding at Hyde Park and she tells him that as it turns out she’s not pregnant. They don’t exactly resolve things there, but at least they’re talking. Daphne’s brothers sort of accost them at Simon’s house demanding that he convinces them that he loves her. Which sort of terrifies Daphne, but Simon takes her to another part of the house and in there actually professes his love, which he does unknowingly in front of her brothers who followed them. 

And then sex. This time they both finish. Together. Inside. With enthusiastic consent. On both sides.

In the series, we have sort of the same but in the rain. Not just the Bridgerton boys as audience, but all of their guests. 

Then sex. This time they both finish. Together. Inside. With enthusiastic consent. On both sides.

In the series, it ends with Daphne giving birth to Simon’s heir. Then we see them saying good bye to Colin who’s off to tour the continent. Book Colin actually returned FROM the continent the night of Lady Danbury’s ball. 

Then we get a hint of the next season, knowing that it’s going to be Anthony’s turn. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

What do I think?

Well, the series was HIGHLY entertaining. I enjoyed watching it, which, for me, is the chief purpose of TV shows like this. So that’s one box checked.

Was it faithful to the book?

Largely, yes. And whatever departures it made didn’t take away from the book, IMO. 

Was I bothered about the ‘colorblind’ casting?

No. Like I said before, I had no problems believing the black actors were the characters they played. It wasn’t a shock and it certainly wasn’t distracting. 

So I loved it; I may rewatch it from time to time while waiting for Season 2 as we go into Anthony’s story in, The Viscount Who Loved Me.

[with-pryde]

spot the difference:  excalibur kitty pryde v. evolution kitty pryde

𝙴𝚇𝙲𝙰𝙻𝙸𝙱𝚄𝚁:

academics.  in junior high (so grades 7-9, approx. ages 12-14), she was enrolled in college courses and was so ahead of her peers that she barely had anything to do with them, and rarely ever saw them.  like a lot of gifted kids, she sees herself as “better” than her peers and she can be quick to alienate kids her own age, and isn’t entirely sure how to socialise with them.  she got off on the wrong foot with the new mutants even before getting put on their team by calling them babies, despite the fact that some of them were older than she was.  problem was, she had more experience and was smarter, thus, age didn’t factor into her assessment.

the two exceptions to this rule are her two roommates, illyana and rachel, but it should be noted that, as roommates, both spent a lot of time with her to break these barriers.  and both had such horrific childhoods, illyana in limbo and rachel as a hound in the future, that they were forced to grow up and mature faster than kids their age.  and, thus, like kitty, they both also don’t really have much of a connection / fit in well with their peers (unless they work at it), so they’re more exception cases than the norm for kitty re: friends her age (though rachel IS maybe a few years older than her anyway).

aggression.  as noted above, kitty had very little to do with her peers and, after joining the x-men at 13 (and a half), her main influences were those she served on the team with (namely ororo, colossus, kurt, logan and the professor, with scott and psylocke also featuring).  of those, she forged strong bonds with kurt, logan and ororo, but she takes after wolverine a lot, even using his phrase bub when in a bad mood.  she’s pretty quick to resort to violence, though she’s of course mindful of who she’s up against.  the goal is to hurt, not kill (though when she’s mad she often thinks about how good it would be to kill them).  granted, she doesn’t understand wolverine’s “berserker rages”, and isn’t much like that, until she joins excalibur and Sees Some ShitTM that makes her understand what whole consuming hate and rage feels like. 

also worth noting during this time she’s dealing with a lot, including loss of those who were like family and chronic pain, but even so she has a pretty short fuse and will punch you in the face.  or, in the case of a friend, will have something smart and sarcastic to say.  also kitty is very much the type of person where, if she’s mad, she’s mad at the whole world and will unduly take her anger out on people who aren’t even remotely responsible for her misery.  she gets better about not yelling when she lashes out (she mostly drops that by excalibur), but she still lashes out with mean / sour comments or gets very snappish and snarly.

authority.  again, like logan, she doesn’t always take kindly to authority.  granted, she does tend to like her teachers and likes to receive praise from them, but she will also yell at the authority figures in her life without batting an eye.  she will also go against their wishes, too, like facing threats on her own to prove she belongs on the x-men main team instead of the new mutants.

colour palate.  she loves colours, mostly jewel tones and saturated colours.  blues and hot pinks and creams.  when she wears her cream sweaters, however, she’ll accent it with colours like red elsewhere.  while she used to wear the most eye-catching bedazzled outfits, she’s mainly toned it back to a bright splash of colour in her outfit, usually her shirt.  her clothes also favour comfort over style and attraction, and the one time she tries skinny jeans she hates them.

computing.  she’s a computing genius and sometimes jokingly calls herself the goddess of computers, with every right.  she especially excels at hardware, and can make a stunning array of gadgets, including a handheld non-telepathic cerebro.  she can also programme, however, one of her best friends, doug ramsey, a mutant gifted with an ability in language (including machine languages), he could often take her most mediocre efforts and make it work amazingly well and, often, handled a lot of the code and programming.  they did work together and she learned a lot from him.... but she also relied on him a lot, too, and so when it comes to software and programming, she’s not as strong as her evo counterpart for it.  

confidence.  in the toilet.  again, because she has little contact with kids her age and looks down on those her age, kitty pryde tends to crush on older people who are out of her league age-wise.  they don’t really pay attention to her, at least, not in a romantic way (as it should be), but she tends to take this as rejection of who she is.  her roommates, illyana and rachel, too, are very good looking and tend to get a lot of attention that she doesn’t, and so kitty goes through her younger years believing she’s not very attractive.  she’s also incredibly self-critical and just.  doesn’t have much self-confidence outside of her ability to beat people up.

cussing.  she doesn’t outright cuss, but instead uses words like flamin’ and devil.  it doesn’t sound bad nowadays, but i’d say it’s like the equivalent of crap, and she’s constantly reprimanded for her inappropriate language when she uses these terms.

demeanour.  when she first arrives to the x-men, she’s bubbly and cheerful, if a little introverted.  by the time excalibur rolls around, she’s travelled to space, across galaxies, faced gods and aliens and her worst fears ten times over.  excalibur forms, in large part, because the x-men are dead.  she also has no real way of dealing with and working through all the trauma.  as such, she’s more serious when excalibur rolls around or, at least, knows when to get serious.  she’s still quippy but more measured and, again, she has a short fuse, a problem that’s only exacerbated by sharing a small living space with the whole the excalibur team.

music taste.  kitty absolutely had her boy-band phase, and loved dazzler (sidenote, it’s because of dazzler she wanted to wear the roller skates in her first costume) however, by excalibur, she’s refining her taste.  she still likes music she can dance to, however, her favourite band, cat’s laughing, is one whose lead singer is also kitty’s favourite writer.  it’s more refined, with good lyrics and writing.  think kind of like hozier lyrics but with more of a danceable beat.  she also likes big band music and jazz from her dancing days, music that’s old for her even then.  the key is danceability, though.

personal style.  while she absolutely detests “preppies”, kitty pryde dresses like one when she leaves the house, with collared shirts under sweaters and full on suits being things she wears out.  often, she’ll pair her outfit with her black leather jacket, a prized possession, which often lends a bit of toughness to her otherwise preppy look.

at home, it’s usually it’s loose sweaters / shirts and leggings with her hair restrained in a ponytail, especially when she’s working on something.  she also wears glasses when tinkering.  as mentioned above, she always has a splash of colour somewhere, which applies to at home as equally as going out.

because this is the 80s-90s, when she dresses up (and even her costume), the outfit usually features poofy sleeves and/or very pointed and defined shoulder pads.

relationships.  as colossus and pete wisdom are not canon here, she hasn’t had a canon relationship, which also feeds into her insecurities and low self-confidence.  again, because she tends to have eyes for older guys and gals, relationships rarely pan out for her.  occasionally, however, someone her age catches her interest (in canon, part of her loved doug ramsey, for instance, because although he was her age, he, no pun intended, spoke her language) but, usually, she needs to be forced to see people her age.  like with larry, she was told by a teacher to dance with him at a school dance and only then did she find out he was pretty nice (that ended badly but the Concept applies).

teamwork.  kitty tends to do her own thing.  she can and does operate as part of a team, but she doesn’t always coordinate well with them.  she definitely starts out as more of a team player because she’s not equipped to handle situations on her own, and because she’s scared, but as she receives more training and her confidence in her abilities increases, she often thinks she can handle it on her own and grows more self-reliant.  it makes her more capable and better at devising plans, but sometimes it means she bites off more than she can chew.  as well, if she thinks she has something to prove, she’ll try and tough it out alone.

training.  she’s been possessed trained into a killer ninja by a master with a bone to pick with wolverine in a very traumatic milestone.  she hates to think about it, but the training did remain even when the “demon” did not.  she’s incredibly deadly, though she still hasn’t added the swords to her repertoire.  also, during the events of excalibur, her default state is to be phased, making her extremely difficult to target (barring her powers malfunctioning for whatever reason).

𝙴𝚅𝙾𝙻𝚄𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽:

academics.  kitty is taking advanced and college level classes and graduates a year early, however, unlike her excalibur counterpart, she’s not so far beyond her peers that she never sees or interacts with them.  at most she’s a year or two younger than those in her class and, in this verse, all of the x-men are teenagers meaning she spends a lot more time with people her age and is generally more social and more sociable.

aggression.  again, she’s got more social skills.  this translates to an increased understanding of those around her and her first tactic is to try to mediate and preserve social cohesion.  like her counterpart, she can and will stand up and say something if needed, and she will get into fights if needed, but it’s usually to protect a friend rather than herself and when there are no other routes for compromise (like when duncan takes away scott’s glasses and tries to get him kicked out of school, she shows up ready to brawl but, also, when duncan and his pals leave, she lets them, without pushing for a fight).  

while sometimes sarcastic, she’s also less sharp with her sarcasm.  for her, it’s less about hurting the other person and more about highlighting the situation whereas, in excalibur, her words hit much harder.  part of this, i think, is her social cohesion with her team; she’s more mindful of how her words can hurt and, therefore, doesn’t throw them around as quick or to be mean.  she also knows how to contain her anger better; she may be annoyed and grumbly, but she won’t be yelling at someone who isn’t responsible, only maybe venting if they’re willing to lend a listening ear.

authority.  again, like her excalibur counterpart, she thrives on praise from her teachers and authority figures in her life.  unlike her excalibur counterpart, she’s much less likely to go against them and usually only does when it’s a friend on the line.

colour palate.  kitty also favours colours here, but she wears a lot of pastels that her excalibur counterpart doesn’t really.  pastel pink, sherbert orange, pale lavender.  she does also wear some jewel tones (green, burgundy and purple), but her go-tos are the pastels.

computing.  she favours software to hardware, unlike her excalibur counterpart.  she has no doug ramsey to help in this show, so she has to develop and write her software on her own.  hardware-wise she’s not inept, training with the x-men gives her a strong base with it, but it’s not something she nurtures.  because she grows up in a more typical school setting, she still wants to have a sort of normal life, and working on hardware just isn’t it.  software is easier and, as she takes a computer class, she also meets people who are into it and she can connect to over the interest, namely in risty (mystique in disguise, but obviously she doesn’t know that) and arcade (yes, that arcade, though the show changed him considerably).

confidence.  because kitty tends to like guys (yes, guys, i’ll get into the heteronormativity piece in the relationships section, but that’s deliberate wording here) her own age and they’ve liked her back and she doesn’t have the same superiority complex (resulting in looking to older people outside her league and facing their rejection), kitty in evo has way more confidence than her comic counterpart.  of course, like any high school girl she has things she hates and she does find flaws in the mirror but, on the whole, she doesn’t feel ugly or less than compared to the other x-men the same way her comic counterpart does.  (if she does feel inept next to them, it’s mainly due to her inexperience, though that inspires her to do better and eventually goes away as she gets more settled into the life of being an x-man).

cussing.  no cussing.  heckin is about as bad as she gets.  granted, as she grows up she starts cursing more but, during her years in canon her language is pretty tame.  because this is the 90s / early 00s, she does say lame a lot which, while not a cuss word, isn’t good to say, but for different reasons (ableist and rude), but that’s a different thing.

demeanour.  she hasn’t quite had the same level of traumatic experiences as her excalibur counterpart and, moreover, they’re way more spaced out than they are in the comics so she’s pretty bubbly and upbeat throughout most of high school.  this changes a bit with the emergence of mutants and when the world hates them, she’ll sometimes get down about it, but, on the whole, her world tends to look up.  like her excalibur counterpart, things do eventually take a turn for the dark and in future verses she’s more measured and has lost some of this shine, but she definitely is upbeat for longer.  

music taste.  very, very pop heavy.  boy bands, britney spears, taylor swift, katy perry etc.  she’s not a jus.tin bie.ber fan but that’s about it in terms of restrictions.  as she gets older she branches out more, including into electroswing, but she’s more of a pop girl at heart.

personal style.  again, she tends to dress “preppier”, but 90s/00s style: so a collared shirt except it shows her midriff or capris and a cardigan but the shirt under her cardigan shows her midriff.  lots of midriff outfits (even her school dance dress was two pieces and showed some stomach) and collars (her costume even has like that business shirt collar thing going on).  she tends to favour comfort, too, but also pairs it with some style (like, platform sandals: comfy but also very in).  also plastic jewellery, chokers, etc.

relationships.  as she goes to school and has a lot of contact with her peers, she actually crushes on and dates people her own age in this show (and we love to see it).  granted, she kind of lets a lot of things slide in her first relationship that aren’t cool, something which informs her relationships going forward (in that, she realises they weren’t okay and isn’t going to take it in future ones), and her first relationship is very, no pun intended, rocky, with break ups and get togethers galore but.....it’s with someone her own age which, have i said how much we love to see it?  because kitty is in school in the 90s/00s, and felt the pressure to try and fit in for longer, she absolutely internalised some heteronormativity (in the comics, too, but she sheds that faster after leaving school so young and joining the x-men), and, while she looks at women, it’s very much in a “wow i love that outfit on her” or “wow how’d she get to look so pretty, i gotta ask for tips” way, and it takes her time to connect this to an interest in women, too so, generally, for her canon / high school years, she only really looks to guys/male presenting peers in a romantic way (or, that she connects to as romantic).

teamwork.  finally, she’s better about working in a team here, too.  partially because she doesn’t have the skills to be completely on her own (no ninja training til post canon) and partially because her team is all the same age and her friends both at school and at home, she’s more used to looking to them for support, especially scott.  something happens and her first instinct is to go to him and get his take on it.  sometimes she’ll still act on her own but, barring a time crunch or someone really instantly in danger, she favours waiting for the team.

[executive-geneticist]

@poppyluck said:

With the compliment of finding out if this spring was indeed anything worth noting, her cheeks grew a slightly brighter shade of red and her smile broadened. Searching for the truth was what researchers did so just these small words reminded her that she had achieved her dream. Well, partly anyway. There was still little luck in finding legendries but from the few she had snagged glimpses of she had become better at tracking them over the years. Stranger rumors, like the spring for instance, almost always lead back to some legend of myth.

Poppy’s eyes lit up the moment they announced themselves to be a scientist. Not a researcher but in her book, close enough. They both wanted a better understanding of something or to discover something for themselves and lay claim to it. As they mentioned they focused mainly on evolution, she could feel herself almost leaning closer, wanting to know more about this person, what knowledge they might be willing to part with if any. What had made them want to be a scientist in the first place? Why was evolution their main focus? As the questions began to swirl about in her head, they offered up a slightly sheepish smile and gave their name. Even more exciting, they had offered to tag along.

    “Not at all Apollo,” giving a slight shake of her head only to verify this. “I’d actually love the company plus, now it’s a chance for both of us to possibly come across something new!” Plus, she could ask them as many questions as they would allow and get to know her new possible friend better. “We need to head in the direction we were both walking before I stopped you,” a sheepish look now coming across her own face.

    Turning on her feet, she began to walk forward and glanced over to Apollo, smile now bright on her lips. “So, you said you study evolution? Then I’ve got a kind of weird question for you, but I hope you’ll humor me a bit.” A slight pause, waiting for any sign that she could continue forth. “Do you think it’s possible that legendary or mythical Pokémon might have evolved from another Pokémon or that they can evolve further? I mean, so little is known about them so it might be possible.” A brief pause before adding with a nervous laugh, “Sorry, I know that was kind of weird question. You don’t really have to answer if you don’t want to.”

-If her cheery attitude wasn’t infectious in and of itself, her bright smile certainly was on its own. He found himself rising to meet her joy with a broad grin of his own-- bereft of any sinister intention to the gesture. As she explained the direction of their ‘new’ path, he gestured outward with one hand to allow her to lead the way ahead of them. Once she resumed her original direction, he fell into step to the right of her, clipping his usually long strides to keep up with her own. His gaze remained largely focused ahead of them as they walked, but he would turn his head briefly whenever her voice met his ears.-

As long as you know which way we’re going, that’s what’s most important. I’m already pressing my luck with this supposed short-cut I meant to find, so hopefully your direction is better than mine.

-He considered her question in momentary silence, his head tilting one way and then the other in thought. When he answered, he gestured some with his hands, emphasizing his words.-

In my experience-- limited though it may be where legendaries are concerned-- Pokemon evolve as the direct result of some kind of outside influence. The most common means of evolution is through stress-- be it the stress of battle, the anxious excitement of being traded to a new trainer, exposure to certain kinds of radiation, that sort of thing. There are certainly other means by which Pokemon evolve, of course, but even those means relate back to a source of stress or heightened emotion. If I were to apply this concept to a legendary Pokemon, given their immense power and ability, it must be that they are either entirely immune to the effects of outside stressors-- and therefore represent the epitome of evolution themselves-- or that we have yet to encounter the right amount of stress or the right circumstances to cause one to evolve.

All that being said, I’d like to think it’s possible for them to have evolved from an earlier stage given that their resilience is most likely the result of eons of exposure to any number of stressors and outside factors-- otherwise they wouldn’t be so impervious to evolution in their current states. Likewise, it might be possible to find the right means of expanding their abilities and powers. We’re only just beginning to tap into the strange powers of Mega Evolution, for example. Who knows what legendaries are susceptible to those mysterious circumstances.

-He paused, clearing his throat in something imitating sheepish embarrassment as he realized he’d spoken rather at length without pause. Smiling briefly to cover his impromptu monologue, he gestured towards her.-

What about you? What do you think of the matter? Do you hope, like I do, to find something that unlocks the true hidden potential of these mythical creatures?

[metalempire]

The Agarthans Did Nothing Wrong: A defence of the villains of Three Houses and also Edelgard

Spoilers ahead for Fire Emblem Three Houses, obviously.

The point of this post boils down to fuck the church it’s bad and stop calling Edelgard a fascist when that’s not what fascism it you braindead idiots please use google and basic reading comprehension for once in your lives. It also covers the wider ideas of the world of Fodlan and bigger picture political impacts and social structure with a historical viewpoint applied to it. Obviously, the villains do bad shit to achieve their goals, but the actual goals far outweigh the price paid to obtain them. 

The whole thing will be long and thus under a readmore. 

So after playing all the routes and nabbing all the lore and then looking back on the Crimson Flower route I ended up concluding that the villains weren’t actually the villains so much as they were the people killing the most amount of other people at any given time and thus villains by proxy. The actual villain is Rhea, or rather Sothis, kind of. To dive into that we need the basic backstory of Rhea and Sothis, which is given in Verdand Wind. The rough summary is Sothis breathed life into Fodlan, and her children, the Nabateans, a race of immortal dragon people (basically manaketes) ruled over the land. This included the human race, and eventually enough humans are said to have seen themselves as gods and challenged Sothis and the Nabateans in a war that humanity ultimately lost. Those humans were the Agarthans, better known as Those Who Slither In the Dark or TWSITD for short. They retreated underground and created Shambhala, which would become an advanced civilisation and their base. Meanwhile Sothis rests, and the surviving Nabateans live in Zanado with her. Nemesis comes along, kills Sothis in her sleep, drinks her blood and makes the Sword of The Creator from her bones and then massacres the Nabataeans with the 10 Elites to make the other Crests and Hero’s Relics from their bodies. The survivors of this are Rhea, now known as Seiros, and the 4 Saints, who go on to create the Adrestian Empire, beat Nemesis and 10 Elites and create the Church of Serios. The rest of the lore plays out as we know it. However, Nemesis wasn’t a hero, but a level 99 kickass bandit who was working with the Agarthans to get back at Sothis, which is why they recovered his body and that of the 10 Elites. The King of Liberation is the name they gave to him, more on the meaning of that later. 

Edelgard also reveals that the Empire and the Church pretty much exist to control humanity, with the Church as the religious and social control and the Empire with the political and legislative control.  Though Kingdom and Alliance came to be, so long as they had the national religion be Seiros, then they were under church influence all the same. So long as the church controls human culture and belief, it doesn’t really matter. The nobility system is also put in place by Seiros, using the crests created from her fallen brethren that humanity now has, in order to have a pseudo-Nabataean rule vicariously lived through them, which is why the nobles hold power in all regions, and why the Crests have the myth perpetuated as gifts from the goddess alongside their weapons. The church has its’ approved houses all naturally be pious on some level (see: one of Lorenz’s dialogue options earlygame in the monastery where he asks if you come to pray, even though he isn’t highly religious, he explains all nobles must be pious on some level) in order to instill the faith in the ruling powers, and thus, their ideologies and social practices will endure. 

The Insurrection of Seven is very important to all this, since Hanneman reveals that the Emperor was trying to take power away from the nobles so he could control the Empire himself. On the outside this looks like a dictator kind of move, yet in context of the world of Fodlan, this is hum trying to regain power of the Church to be able to determine the fate of the Empire without the Church. The nobles won and the Emperor lost power, yet the Empire does not collapse because regardless, the Church has control thanks to the instilled ways the nobles operate originating from the interests of the Church. 

Now that we know all this, it can be quite obvious that the Church, ruled by the last surviving Nabataeans, namely Rhea, is the continuation of the original social order. Dragons controlling humanity, albeit less overtly this time. With this in mind, the Agarthans didn’t think themselves as gods, but, considering the name they gave to Nemesis, they were simply humans who wanted to decide their own fates, to govern and rule themselves. In Hubert’s A Support, we hear him echo their very sentiments, in which he expresses the importance of humanity for humans, and how inhuman creatures with incredibly long lifespans can’t possibly have enough humanity to know what is best for humankind. Personally I’m inclined to agree with him here, since it’s a very logical point to make. Humankind needs to make advancements in science, culture, medicine, architecture, politics, language, agriculture and technology in order to survive. Living beings need to advance over time and evolve, which is what happened in our world, we developed civilisations and technologies and slowly improved everything over time to reach the point we’re at now. Immortal dragons have far less of a need to make all this progress, their lives aren’t short and limited, the future of their kind depends not on progress, but on stagnant peace “How lovely it would be for this moment to last forever. To hold on to this stolen time, for you and I to create a world without end.”- Rhea, after you complete Chapter 10. The best way to illustrate this is the compare Shambhala with the rest of Fodlan. Shambhala is a much more advanced city, with glowing walls and electricity flowing through it, with magical technology and powerful animated titans, as well as missiles that they use in Verdant Wind, controlled by magic, but clearly made of technology. The Agarthans made advancements in magic and technology when absent of the control of the Nabataeans, of the church, while Fodlan is forever stuck in the middle ages, with no changes made in the thousand years of history, forever a medieval world. With the Nabataeans in power, with the church in power, humankind is forever stuck in stagnancy, never advancing.A great example of this backfiring is when Faerghus experiences a plague that almost ends them all, yet they’re saved by Cornelia. When Cornelia is fought as a boss, she uses Agarthan technology, and is either one of them, or an ally to the Agarthans, as Thales mentions her importance in Crimson Flower, and punishes Edelgard for killing her by blowing up Arianrod with a missile. Cornelia used the advancements in technology, and likely medicine, to be able to beat the plague, which wouldn’t be possible in the stagnant world the Church preserves. 

That’s where Edelgard comes into all this. As the Flame Emperor, she is given the power of two crests, the Crest of Flames no less, after the prototype experiments on Lysithea were a success, in order to have enough power to rival Rhea, and to reshape the world with the power of the progenitor god, the same power Byleth has. Edelgard endured the torment because of two factors; Agarthan desires and the Insurrection of Seven. With her uncle Arudnel being Thales, it was clear he planned on using her, and had infiltrated the royal family, but with the insurrection, it meant the nobles had made it unsafe for her to be in Enbarr. Everything lined up for her to be experimented on and to become the Flame Emperor. She had witnesses her father be defeated by the corrupt nobles of the Church, and she had seen her family die because of the importance of Crests. And so, rather than grow an eyepatch and cry about it, she takes her trauma and pain, and resolves to carry on the Agarthan legacy, but as she states, “There will be no salvation for you and your kind.”, Edelgard has no intention of letting them go free, even though they want the same thing, to liberate humanity from the control of the Nabateans, to allow life itself to move forward, she cannot forgive what they’ve done, and turns on them in the Epilogue of Crimson Flower for all that they did to get here. This is arguably hypocritical of her, but in the end it does also help to make right her own wrongs. It will never absolve her of starting a war that claims lives, but as far as history in the far future she creates is concerned, she took the fight to the right people to kill, and then did it again. History doesn’t care for the people and places lost in the past as much if the future they died to create is a good one. If human progress becomes a reality, then it is considered worth it in the end by those who live in a better age. Edelgard wiped out the Alliance and the Kingdom, and unified Fodlan, all to break the hold of the Church. She took a hard stance and presented an ultimatum, either renounce the Church or die. In her mind, and on a larger scale perspective, the Church is very much like a disease, an infestation that takes hold of the mind and the beliefs. If she compromises, the nobility system will endure and cause pain to people like her, MIklan, Sylvain, Ingrid, Marianne, Lysithea and so many more. 

Interestingly, Edelgard doesn’t oppose religion. When fighting Rhea in chapter 12, she states she has not made an enemy of the goddess, only of the church. What this means is Edelgard allows religion as a belief, and is fine with Sothis worship on a personal level, but has clearly drawn the line with the church, which exists to control people on a sociopolitical level, and is ruled by a literal dragon, not a human with human interests in mind. For her, religion as a belief is fine, but as an institution, it has too much power over the world, and has not been used for the benefit of humanity,  but of the Nabataeans. This is further reinforced by the fact that Rhea used humankind for her own ends, using Byleth and those who came before them to try and resurrect Sothis, and have her mother rule the world once more. For Edelgard, this would create further disparity, where a literal god would rule the world, rather than humankind, and so things would only stagnate further, and possibly degrade. Due to their belief system of worship, people would be subservient to a resurrected Sothis, never rebelling or complaining, becoming like slaves and ultimately never advancing as a species. Edelgard had to destroy the church, wipe out the remaining Nabateans (you actually miss two of them on Crimson Flower lol so she didn’t even manage to make them go extinct) and give humanity’s destiny back to itself, shattering Rhea’s ambitions and allowing the world to move forward. Her path is very similar to Emperor Rudolf’s from Shadows of Valentia, starting a war in order to ultimately have events play out that have old gods of the world, who were degenerating into madness, die out and give the land back to humankind. Edelgard does much the same, using a war to liberate humanity as a collective whole from the reign of the Nabateans, crushing their institutions of power and setting her own in place instead. Whether or not this creates a better future is unknown, but the potential for that future can exist now, whereas under the rule of the Church, it could never be possible. 

Edelgard and Agarthans brought death and suffering to many people, but in a world ruled by people instead of stagnant gods, an even greater number of people could be living in a world far better in every way to one that came before it. In the end, it’s a question of if the means justify the ends. Is it worth war and bloodshed, for the sake of freedom from the control of institutions that are self concerned and perpetuate social and political misery and stagnancy? Only the people of a future Fodlan can answer that question, but honestly, I think it’s worth taking a chance on a better future for all humankind, even if it means alot of people won’t live to see it, because in the end, our future is the only thing we have as a species, and it shouldn’t be in the hands of those who could never understand what it means to live and die, and to move forward through time. 

Also turns out all of this is pointless anyway cos Verdant Wind is a better outcome anyway thank god for Claude Von Ending Racism for proving everyone is colossal idiot. 

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

The Murderess from the Grunewald (28): Preparing for War (3b): “The Monster in the Petticoat” (2)

“Paris” by riccardomortandello 

Note: This chapter contains, among other things, the mention (not a description!) of the sexual abuse of a minor. If this topic triggers negative emotions/memories in you, please skip this chapter.

Chapter 27

         "Thank you, Professor Nerz. I appreciate your support. How did the story of the Violette Nozière go on?

         "As I said, the story from the Rue de Madagascar was just right for Paris in 1933, and the fact that it was a story with many sequels did the rest. The influence this criminal case and the way the press dealt with it had is expressed in a caricature of the time, which can be found in a French newspaper called L'Œuvre. It shows Hitler who, after reading a French newspaper, complains that it is only about 'this Violette'. Violette Nozière even eclipses Hitler's seizure of power. She or her case dominates the headlines, the title pages. Even Hitler disappears behind them. Can you imagine that?"

         "That's really remarkable," Jamie agreed.

        "As I said, these articles illustrated with photos changed the reading experience of the people. At first, only the police officers and the work of the police were photographed. In the days when Violette Nozière was on the run, they looked for her or her corpse in the Seine. There was this suspicion that she might have thrown herself into the Seine and so excavation work was carried out there. All this was photographed by the journalists and printed by the newspapers. By doing so, the newspapers changed the reader's view of what was happening. The reader is now drawn into the action, he becomes a kind of 'co-investigator'. The questions raised by the newspapers spur readers on to come up with their own thoughts about what might have happened, and speculations grow immeasurably.

Violette Nozière (1933) via Wikimedia Commons

         And just when you think the scandal couldn't get any bigger, there's an unexpected twist. On August 28, 1933, the accused makes a statement and confesses the murder. And what a confession that was! She testified that she wanted to kill her father because she could no longer bear that he had sexually abused her."

          Jamie let out a surprised "Oh!"

          "Exactly!”

          Professor Nerz nodded and remained silent for a moment before continuing:

          "We live 87 years later today and you, in particular, belong to a generation that is not afraid to say everything that needs to be said. But, Dr. Fraser, at that time it was quite different. Abuse! That was a word that one neither dared to pronounce nor to write nor to listen to at that time! And now imagine that: Patricide and abuse! I don’t know whether it is clear to you, but there is a double taboo here. And I don’t mean the two offenses! No, the act of abuse, of incest, is, of course, a taboo. But it is also taboo in French society at that time to talk or write about such an act. That was the situation at the time.           I know that many people associate quite different things with the name of the French capital. Paris! This is the city of love. Have you ever been to Paris, Dr. Fraser?"

          "Oh yes, I even studied there for a while!"

          "Ah, then you know what I mean. Paris, that makes one emotional, doesn’t it? You hear Paris and you think of the flowering avenues along the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame. And who doesn't think of romance, Montmartre and free love? Everything is free in Paris! The sky over Paris is full of violins! And while these wonderful pictures are running in front of our eyes we hear Charles Trenet singing quietly in the background with his characteristic voice 'La Mer' and we start dreaming.”

          Jamie had to smile.

          "Yes, yes, Paris, the city of love ... and the guillotine! For it was in Paris, the city of love, that the guillotine was first applied in practice, coloring its streets blood-red. Red, the color of love and yet it is also the color of bloodshed by a murderous revolution."

          Jamie was shocked out of his thoughts, for when Nerz had pronounced the word 'guillotine' as if to emphasize it, he had struck his desk with his flat hand loudly.

          "Red is not always the color of love. It can also be the color of the guillotine. You see, Dr. Fraser, that's exactly our job. We have to confront the people inside and outside the courtroom with the facts. Facts count. What counts is not the idea that we or others have of something. Facts. Not the opinion that we or others have about a thing or matter. The facts alone matter. Whether something has been declared a taboo, as here in the case of the Violette Nozière, is of no interest to us."

          Nerz was silent for a moment, then he asked:

          "Have you seen the movie 'Never look away’”, Dr. Fraser?"                                          "Oh yes!"

        "This moment when the lie is confronted with the truth. There's no evading it anymore. It doesn't take many words, just facts - and a whole world of lies breaks up. In a single moment."

        "That was really very impressive," Jamie agreed.

        "It reminded me of something I read many years ago. An English theologian was asked how he would defend the truth. His answer was: 'No different than a lion. I open the door of their cage and let it out. That, Dr. Fraser, will be your job. On each new day of the trial, you must unleash the Lion of Truth. And you must trust the power of truth. Sometimes it will look as if the truth is losing the battle. But that's not true. That only means that the hour of the truth has not yet come. Then you just have to go on."

        Nerz was silent again as he wanted to give Jamie an opportunity to let sink in what he had said.

        "Let's come back to Violette Nozière. As I said, the abuse was a taboo, a taboo that could not be talked about. But if a crime cannot be talked about, then it cannot be denounced. And that is exactly how the newspapers react. The press knows that if it were to address the incest, it could lose at least part of its readership. So they don't denounce the deed, but the talking about it. The choir of the Parisian newspapers unanimously condemns Violette Nozière's testimony as 'heinous accusations'. The 'argumentation' that we can read in the almost 90-year-old publications is the same one that is still used today to silence rape victims. They said: 'If Violette was really raped by her father, why didn't she confide in her mother or her grandmother? She is said to have had a particularly intimate relationship with the latter. How difficult it was (and still is!) to talk about this topic, the press didn't say a word about it.         And another factor plays a role here. Besides the economic and political problems, France has a demographic problem at that time. Society is aging. And young people, who will be the future of the nation, are a cause for concern. It is said that there is a decent youth and a corrupt youth. Let us be honest, these two groups of young people have always existed. Quite apart from the fact that there have always been these two groups of adults. But, in this particular situation, this way of looking at things becomes more important. And Violette Nozière is, of course, an example of the side of the corrupt youth. Young people who live into the day and no longer respect role models and values. And throughout all social strata, there is a fear that this immoral youth could tear the country even deeper into the abyss. What is to become of a nation whose youth is so corrupt? Well, to be honest, Violette Nozière also gave enough reason to have this image of her. As I said before, she had many friends and lovers at a young age and now it becomes also known that the young woman posed for nude photos. And such a person dares to incriminate her honorable father, a long-standing and excellent employee of the French railways, in such a disgusting way? That was the reaction of many Parisian citizens and the newspapers took up this mood.

Apartment of the Nozière family / Crime scene via Wikimedia Commons

         Jean-Baptiste Nozière and his wife were regarded as hard-working people who sacrificed themselves for their daughter's education. They lived in a small two-room apartment in the east of Paris. They were a kind of model for a working-class family that had managed to move up to the lower middle classes. That was the life of many people, or at least that was the life many people aspired to. And then the newspapers came and brought photos showing how the family lived. You can still see it today. A small, cramped apartment, a modest luxury. Furniture and pictures made to look antique. Wallpapers with large flower patterns, which were fashionable at that time. How many people would have thought: 'Well, that looks almost like at home?’ And now imagine what these people thought when Violette's accusations became known? How dare she! This ungrateful child! That wicked slut! Yet the lifestyle of the young Violette could have been seen as an indication of the truthfulness of her statements. Today we know that young people who experienced abuse at the age of Violette can show exactly these symptoms: school skipping, a sudden drop in performance, repeated stealing, manipulative behavior of others and promiscuous behavior."

        Again, Nerz kept silent to let what was said sink in.

        "About ten days after her arrest, the responsible judge has the family's apartment examined again and now a rag with semen stains is found. Violette Nozière states that her father used this rag to prevent her from getting pregnant. This is not evidence, but a find that irritates the investigators. And then, on the father's bedside table, they found offensive, pornographic, pictures. Now the mood is slowly turning and the press, always anxious not to lose any readers, follows this path. And yet: Violette Nozière must remain in custody. She is not listened to. The public's opinion is divided and that is good for the press because it knows how to serve both parties with different articles and comments.         But now something is happening that has never happened before. Other victims of abuse send letters to the judge. These letters have remained in the files to this day. These women turn to the judge and tell him about their own experiences. And they ask him to believe Violette.         And then something else happens. The Surrealist movement takes up the case of Violette Nozière. Under the direction of André Breton, some artists published a volume of essays and drawings entitled 'Violette Nozière'. They break with the taboo and at the same time attack the patriarchy. The volume was published in Belgium because it would have been banned by censorship in France. It was the figure of the femme fatale, the sexual aura of Violette, that attracted these artists. Violette's story, especially her indictment of her father, fit into the program of the surrealists who attacked the traditional family.

Violette Nozière vor Gericht (Agence de presse Meurisse [Public domain]) via Wikimedia Commons

         On October 11, 1934, the trial against Violette Nozière was finally opened. For more than a year, the accused has been in prison and for more than a year, the press has shaped people's opinions. Among them, of course, is the opinion of those who will now take part in this trial as jurors and determine the fate of the accused."

         Jamie let a loud sigh be heard.

         "My goodness, how could they be able to judge them neutrally?"

         "Exactly, Dr. Fraser. In Violette Nozière's case, there was no one to defend the arguments that spoke for her in public. Her two lawyers were not in a position to do so. What would two men do against crowds of journalists and millions of printed articles?"

         "Hopeless."

         "Exactly. And the jurors were all men and fathers. Women were not admitted to the jury in France at the time."

         "Absolutely hopeless."

         "As you say. The jurors then only need an hour to pass sentence. They find the defendant guilty and the court sentences her to death. Just two days after the trial began! The accusation of abuse, of incest, was not taken into account. Nor was that necessary, because incest or abuse was not listed as a criminal offense in the penal code in force at the time! The penal code, according to which she was sentenced in 1933, dates from the time of the French Revolution and was last revised in 1810."

         "She never had a chance, did she?"

         "No, she never had a chance. And the majority of the French welcomed this verdict. That is very understandable because 'order' has been restored. Everything is good and one or should I say 'man' can return to everyday life.          But, Violette Nozière is not executed. Three successive French presidents pardoned her. President Albert Lebrun converts the death penalty into a life sentence. Marshal Philippe Pétain then reduced her sentence by decree of August 6, 1942, to 12 years of forced labor from the day of her imprisonment in 1933. And on August 29, 1945, she was finally released. On November 17 of the same year, General de Gaulle, President of the Provisional Government, lifted the 20-year ban on French territory imposed on her by a new presidential decree. She married and has five children, for whom she is a good mother. Her own mother reconciles with her and believes her that she did not lie in court. On November 26, 1966, Violette Nozière died of cancer."

         "My goodness, what a story!"

         "Isn't it?"

         Both lawyers were silent for a moment. Then Nerz spoke again:

         "Violette Nozière had no one to defend her in public. She had no one to fight the suspicions of the press. Your client, Dr. Beauchamp, will have us on her side. You defend her in the courtroom and we take over the litigation PR outside the courtroom. We will not allow the press to destroy her client's life and capitalize on it."

          Jamie took a deep breath.

          "I appreciate your help."

          "As I said at the beginning, we can see a number of applications from this process in the case of your client. Let us now come to these specific points.”      

[kalynnternet]

How I became Agnostic

This post is a sort of silent play/series of movie screen captures that detail the how, why, and when of my becoming an agnostic. I’m sharing in hopes of expanding the amount of personal experiences told by the agnostic community, since there are many ways one can be agnostic and believing only one narrative is limiting.

ACT I : Childhood Existentialism

My name is Kalynn and through the next 20-ish photos of my poorly-cropped self, I hope to provide an interesting take on my agnostic origin story. 

I was raised by a conservative Christian mother and my very-opposite-of-that father:

I grew up hearing about Jesus and God and was very sheltered from any religion outside of Christianity. As a kid, it was just basic knowledge that God created the Universe. I didn’t know anything outside of Christianity, and I remember being confused when I found out people did things against God’s rules or when someone casually stated that they didn’t believe in God.

But my pure relationship with Jesus would soon be tainted by my family’s and church community’s stories about Hell... The idea of eternal punishment suffered by non-believers was and sometimes still is one of my greatest fears.

Thinking back on it, this was a pretty intense conversation topic to be discussing with a 7-year-old. My experience with religion then on was weighed down by worries of not doing enough or not believing enough. 

I was sort of just going through the motions of religion, getting saved and baptized because I thought that would protect me from infinite torture. Passion for the faith and love for a celestial being took a back seat, my fear overriding any actual feelings of belief in the religion. Looking back, I can see that I didn’t truly have faith in the way my family wanted me to even before I was exposed to the “secular world.”

I had a nice childhood, but the threat of going to Hell always loomed in the distance. I thought about death more than a child probably should, keeping tallies of sins and figuring out ways I could possibly rectify them. It was my main source of anxiety for most of my young life and I struggled for a long time...

ACT II : The Influenced Middle Schooler

Among the bustling chaos of middle school life was where I really began to “stray from God’s light,” one might say.

I think one of my biggest influences came from the music I started listening to. I look back fondly on my days of sneaking into my mom’s computer room and listening to “Slut Like You” by P!nk and, as pictured below, “Va Va Voom” by Nicki Minaj (a song about seducing a taken man).

Songs like these helped to desensitize me to “immoral” lyrics, cuss words, and using God’s name in vain. After a while these things became casual parts of conversation around friends. Once my rhetoric evolved to include these sayings, my relationship with Christianity as I was raised to believe it started to weaken. 

And then, I developed my first crush on a girl.

WOO did this put a dent in my standing with Christianity. This crush was on one of my friends “Kasey,” and it ended up causing problems in our relationship because I started acting weird around her and tried to avoid her (I was told all my life that homosexuality was an instant ticket to Hell, no way was I going to willingly explore my feelings).

I think one of my aunts started to suspect I was “going down the wrong path,” so she gifted me Christian “help” books such as the one above (Lies Young Women Believe). I remember skipping to sections dealing with homosexuality and reading the advice given there, but it only managed to make me feel guilty instead of curing any gayness (surprise surprise). As I feel is the case with many ex-Christians, conservative Christian views on homosexuality is one of the biggest reasons I dropped out of the faith. Its views about women was also a big “yikes” moment for me, even when I was still figuring out what “feminism” meant.

Middle school was also when I heard the term “agnostic” for the first time.

My friend Drake and I were having one of our scheduled existential school bus talks when he mentioned that I might be “agnostic” since I knew I wasn’t an atheist but I also didn’t feel like “religious” or even “spiritual” applied to me anymore. 

After talking more in depth about what the term meant and researching a little on it, I decided I would adopt the term for myself.

ACT III : Optimistically Agnostic

As I move along my academic journey, I have solidified my position as an agnostic even more in present time.

Education has been probably the biggest factor in my becoming an agnostic. Learning about how much our society has been dampened by patriarchy and white supremacy and whatever else really opens your eyes and makes you view structures you thought you knew differently. 

Going to college has presented me with all kinds of new experiences as well, and I’ve learned that “White Christian America” isn’t all there is. There are so many ways of understanding, especially when it comes to religiosity, that I find it impossible to say one is better than another. Who am I to tell you that your religion is false?

However...

Although I have just described my reasons for falling out of religion, I want to clarify that I don’t think faith is stupid, pointless, or bad. 

There are plenty of upsides to it that recently I have been more open to experiencing. I realize now that the problems I had/have with religion come from others’ interpretations of it.

There’s a quote from the legendary Carrie Fisher that goes as such:

“I love the idea of God, but it’s not stylistically in keeping with the way I function. I would describe myself as an enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God. I can see that people who believe in God are happier... But I doubt.”

As usual, Carrie Fisher has elegantly put into words what I feel. 

I’ve grown to be comfortable in the “agnostic” label and now I feel like re-exploring feelings of spirituality. I’m still valid as an agnostic when I do this. In fact, you can be agnostic and also part of a religion if you feel like it; agnosticism is defined as admitting you don’t/can’t know what happens in the afterlife, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hope for something or feel like there is something after death. Likewise, you could also be an agnostic atheist if that fits you better.

There is a lot of discourse surrounding agnosticism, including people arguing if it’s even an actual thing, what constitutes a person being agnostic, whether it’s just a placeholder, etc. Some people consider it to be an intellectual endeavor; by stating the fact that no one can actually say what happens after death, no one can prove or disprove any religion. Others see it as a humanist approach-by saying simply that you aren’t sure, you aren’t disrespecting or endorsing any religion over another. If there’s anything that studying rhetoric has taught me, it’s that using confining language to talk about an identity isn’t something that goes well. 

I am agnostic because sometimes I find myself believing there is something in the afterlife, but I don’t know what it is and there isn’t a way for me to know for sure. I’m comfortable with this identification, it has helped me leave my depressive existential crisis state. 

Thank you for reading my experience with agnosticism!

End

[dispensemiracles]

I've been lurking around and I saw this post/150316160668 and I'm very interested! Indulge us please?

(( JDXAIOJ THIS WAS A JOKE PROMPT ACTUALLY

Back then I wanted to set up for a Berserk joke and someone I knew sent it in not long after so I could reply the whole thing

Even though it wasn’t serious at all I’ll take it for real this time

Eli becomes one of the centers of Nozomi’s world, something I think she felt at their first meeting onward. I don’t mean this in the way of completely forgetting herself or her own interests/goals outside Eli though. She was more and remains even in the worst scenarios that wouldn’t break them one of her emotional pillars of support, the first person to actively care for her and to whom she reached out earnestly instead of staying to herself the way she did until they met. That significance is something no one else even others close to her can have. 

To be shown genuine care, respect, and time from someone, someone not so different from her, and who didn’t initially have any obligation to her (like her runaway parents who neglected to show her that first) would have shaken her and her perceptions of her self worth sky high. For once there was a real sense of social and emotional stability available to her, and after so long knowing only her own company I think she jumped at the chance to immerse herself in all the new things Eli offered, and learning what she could give in return. Thus, it wouldn’t take much for her to eventually fall in love. Eli was not only interesting and someone she could sympathize with, but a learning experience in feeling more like a human being and not a ghost.

So when she feels and becomes romantically involved with her, that bond is incredibly fierce as Eli opened the door to Nozomi reclaiming her life. She’d defend her tooth and nail to her last breath, and though she can see Eli’s faults and fears she picks her right back up either literally or with her words, and receives the same in return. If she has to face life’s hurdles, there’s no one else she’d want right there next to her while it happens. Their relationship is built on mutual understanding, respect, and communication. Sometimes things can interrupt those, they aren’t perfect people after all, but I think they could bounce back from nearly anything given enough time and work. 

I’ve recently developed the opinion that more realistic factors should go into their relationship too, like the struggles of not only being LGBT in a human rights shithole like Japan on that front, but also racism. Eli is a Hafu, a Japanese term generally derogatory and describing half Japanese half a foreign heritage people, but would still apply to any mixed race Japanese like Eli is. In real life she would not be treated so nicely in the show or series in general. Some places would refuse to serve her, people would oogle and dehumanize her by treating her like a piece of meat or asking so many ignorant questions. Theres people who’d treat her like a fetish or randomly proposition her for sex. At some restaurants if she’s allowed to eat there they’d still treat her like she can’t speak Japanese even if her usage is perfect (even if its Russian accented as I’ve also headcanoned given much of her early formative life in Russia having to speak Russian). There’s schools that would force her to dye her blonde hair black to be “normal”. Realistically Nozomi would’ve had to work twice as hard to befriend someone paranoid and unsure of her initial motives given how others would’ve treated her.

Nozomi would also be very influenced by the media she was exposed to as a kid, being raised by the TV and pop culture (as shitty as that can be). To her she has to treat Eli with her best gentleman-like behavior especially when they’re in public, not only because she expects it of herself from what she’s seen, but also because she truly loves her. By nature she’d also treat her with a measure of subtlety and reservation, making every gesture she does for her is personalized toward Eli and not always a flashy show unless something calls for that and she wants to have some serious fun

I hate the popular idea of Nozomi being utterly submissive or mostly serving the purpose of having sex with Eli, the same goes vice versa. A healthy relationship (and love for that matter) is not a one way street of demands and lust, that’s an abusive parasite relationship and not only undermines what they actually have in the show, the fact that its so often romanticized when its portrayed that way bc some dumbass who flunked middle school English and only reads bad YA or never touched a book at all wants to jerk off instead of thinking about their actions and what messages theyre sending disgusts me. 

They’re a huge love in each other’s lives no matter what they chose to pursue as individuals and I like to imagine they were able to stay that way till the end after the curtains fell

))

[pooma-islam]

WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES TO LOOK FOR IN SPOUSE.?

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QUESTION

Dear scholars, As-Salaam `Alaykum. What are the criteria for choosing life partner in the light of golden teachings of Islam? Jazakum Allah khayran.

ANSWER

Wa`alykum As-Salaam Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “A woman is married for four things, i.e., her wealth, her family status, her beauty, and her religion. So you should marry the religious woman; (otherwise) you will be a loser.” (Al-Bukhari)

Answering your question, we would like to quote the following from the course “Family Law I” offered by the American Open University:

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us in many hadiths about the various characteristics which one looks for in a spouse, their relative importance, and which ones determine success, and bring Allah’s blessing on a marriage. Among those hadiths are the following:

Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) quotes the Prophet as saying, “A woman is married for four things, i.e., her wealth, her family status, her beauty, and her religion. So you should marry the religious woman; (otherwise) you will be a loser.” (Al-Bukhari)

Accordingly, the most important characteristics that one should look for in a spouse are:

1- Religion:

In the above hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned various characteristics that people, by their nature and custom, look for in a spouse.

He did not advocate any of them, but merely stated them as facts of human nature except for the issue of “religion”, i.e., a prospective spouse’s piety and religiousness.

About this characteristic, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “So you should marry the religious woman; (otherwise) you will be a loser.”

This order is quite different from the general statement at the beginning of the above-mentioned hadith.

We must be careful not to be superficial in this issue. The mere wearing of hijab or keeping a beard and praying in the mosque, as routine compliance with requirements of piety, do not by themselves guarantee it.

There are many people who at first glance appear to be abiding by Islam, but upon closer inspection have a twisted understanding of Islam and their practice in reality may leave much to be desired.

Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) once told someone who had testified to the goodness of a person by the fact that he had seen him in the mosque that he did not know him as long as he had no dealings with him that involved money, did not live with him, and did not travel with him.

The characteristic of piety applies to the groom just as much as to the bride. This should be the main focus of both the woman’s guardian and suitor.

In this context, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “If someone with whose piety and character you are satisfied comes to you, then marry him. If you do not do so, there will be disorder in the earth and a great deal of evil.” (At-Tirmidhi and others and classed as Hasan)

2- Character and Behavior:

In the above hadith addressed to guardians and parents, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded them to facilitate their marriage when they are satisfied with two issues: the faith of the suitor and his character.

Character is of extreme importance in Islam and goes hand in hand with faith and piety. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has even described it as the purpose of his mission to mankind as we can see in the following hadiths:

“I have only been sent to complete good character.” (Al-Hakim and others and classed as Sahih)

“I am a guarantor of a house in the highest degree of Paradise for one who makes his character good.” (Abu Dawud and it is Hasan)

Allah establishes the relation of this issue to marriage, saying:

“Bad women are for bad men and bad men are for bad women. And good women are for good men and good men are for good women.” (An-Nur 24:26)

One of the important issues of character in the spouses is the quality of wudd. This means kindness, lovingness and compassion.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Marry the loving/friendly, the child-bearing woman, for I shall outstrip the other nations with your numbers on the Day of Judgment.” (Ahmad, Abu Dawud, and others and classed as Sahih)

3- Child-Bearing:

As we see in the above-mentioned hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) recommended men to marry women who are child-bearing.

This characteristic is related to some of the goals and purposes of marriage that were mentioned earlier such as procreating the Muslim Ummah, raising a pious family as a cornerstone of society and so forth.

4-Virginity:

There are many hadiths which recommend that a man must marry a virgin woman; such as the following:

“Marry virgins for they have sweeter mouths, more productive wombs, and are contented with little they get.” (At-Tabarani and it is Hasan)

Other narrations indicate that a virgin is more likely to be pleased by a man and less likely to be devious and deceiving.

Once, when Jabir married an older and previously married woman, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him, “Why not a virgin? You could have played with her and she with you.”

Muslim scholars stress that this good attribute applies to man just as it applies to woman. `Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) once heard about a woman who was married to an elderly man and he said: “O people, fear Allah and let people marry their types.”

5- Beauty:

This characteristic has a certain role to play since one of the purposes of marriage is to keep both spouses from sins.

The best way to do this is to have a strong attraction between spouses.

Although this is something which surely grows over time, initial impressions can in some cases become an obstacle to a successful marriage.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) separated Qays ibn Shamas from his wife in the famous case of Khul and her stated reason was that he was exceedingly displeasing to her.

There are many hadiths which urge the prospective spouse to get a look at the other before undertaking the marriage.

Once a Companion told the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he was going to get married. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked if he had seen her. When the man answered in negative, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Go and look at her for it is more likely to engender love between the two of you.” (Ahmad and others and it is Sahih)

Ibn `Abidin, a famous Muslim jurist, said:

“The woman should choose a man who is religious, of good character, generous and of ample wealth. She should not marry an evildoer. A person should not marry his young daughter to an old or an ugly man, but he should marry her to one similar.”

Beauty has its role, but remember that it is way down on the priority list under piety, character and religion. When a person puts beauty above all else, the consequences can be disastrous.

This is one of the main reasons that young people seeking to get married must be helped by more mature family members in making their choice.

Elaborating on what one should look for in a partner, the late Sheikh Sayyed Ad-Darsh, the late Chairman of the UK Shari`ah Council, adds:

The age difference between potential partners should not be too great. It is not fair to give a young girl to a man who is twenty or thirty years her senior.

If she, for one reason or another, accepts – or if he accepts, then it is their choice.

But they should be aware of the future of their relationship and the implications of such a marriage.

A gray-haired man once passed by a young black-haired girl and he proposed to her. She looked at him and said, ‘I accept, but there is a snag.’ He enquired what it was, to which she answered, ‘I have some gray hair.’ The man passed on without a word. She called out. ‘My uncle, look at my hair!’ She had hair as black as coal. He said to her, ‘Why did you say that?’ She answered, ‘To let you know that we do not like in men what they do not like in women.’

Marriage is not for fun or experience. It is a life-long relationship. For that reason, any factor detrimental to the relationship should be avoided as much as is possible.

Highly educated males and females should seek partners with a similar educational background. Cultural and family background is very important. Common language is an essential way of communicating. Such things help the two partners to understand, communicate and relate to one another and are factors of stability and success – as are financial independence and the ability to provide a decent acceptable level of maintenance.

Again, this is a way of ensuring that outside influences do not spoil an otherwise happy life. All ways and means should be considered, giving a solid basis for a new human experience which is expected to provide a framework for a happy, successful and amicable life.

The questions of common language, background, education and age, etc., are meant, in an ordinary stable context, to maximize the chances of success and stability in a very important Islamic institution, that of marriage.

However, considering the particular position of Muslim communities living in minority situations, young Muslims, male and female, are exposed to all sorts of challenges – be they cultural, linguistic, racial or social.

The most fundamental question when choosing a partner is a religious one- As far as language, background, or social position are concerned, these are not significant factors that absolutely must be fulfilled before a marriage can take place.

If the prospective partner is of good character, with a strong religious inclination, and the two young people are happy and feel compatible with one another, other considerations are not of such importance.

Allah Almighty knows best.

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