#With that one particular character Cosmo still does things to try and make peace

[cryptidcalling]

Posting more abt Cosmo and him yelling at ppl because for some reason I still have more to say

I think maybe “yelling at” isn’t the right way to describe it when it’s applied to 99% of people. There’s one specific character that Cosmo gets into genuine arguments with and who he doesn’t directly apologize to after, but that character is truly the only exception.

With anyone else, I think “lashes out” might be more accurate. It’s very brief, happens when he’s already feeling overwhelmed or very insecure, and after it happens he reverts to fawning and apologizes. He doesn’t stay mad at people and the anger doesn’t last long enough to be a real argument. It’s not prolonged yelling. It’s more like a lightning flash followed by a rainstorm.

[ciaossu-imagines]

Banri Settsu headcanons

Okay, but Banri is one of the characters where his official flower is something I want to talk about. From everything I’ve seen and read, Banri’s official flower is the cosmos. Cosmos are pretty, which fits Banri because he’s very much a pretty boy. However, cosmos are also delicate and dainty. Just overall, cosmos in flower language tend to represent order, harmony, peace, innocence, modesty, joy, and tranquility. I found it really funny because a lot of that does not connect well to Banri at all and is, in some places, the exact opposite of who he is. I had to keep digging a long time to find that purple cosmos in particular can also represent strength, royalty, mystery, and pride. Those, to me, fit Banri much better. Banri is someone who is naturally strong in a lot of different areas. He’s got some issues with pride, to say the least, though those issues aren’t completely unjustified. He carries himself with an air of confidence and grace and I’d have no issues seeing him as royalty in an AU. As for mystery? While there might not appear to be a lot of mystery to Banri’s character, I do think that, below his public persona, there are lots of little bits and pieces to Banri that would surprise people or that he doesn’t often get to show. Besides, I personally do headcanon one of Banri’s favourite colours to be purple, so I kind of love the connection there. Lastly, cosmos actually have a mildly spicy smell, which matches up to the headcanons I have when it comes to how Banri smells. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he were to use a cologne that did have cosmos in it or emulated that sort of scent.

We see, within canon, that Banri has a superiority complex. There are definitely reasons for him to have developed that superiority complex. Life has been easy for Banri for as long as he can remember. As a baby, he hit every milestone early. He was walking by the time he was six months, he talked early, started eating solid foods way before kids his age. When he started preschool, he had no issues doing any of the activities. He learned quickly and was talented at most things. Kids flocked to him and, like his parents, he was praised by the other kids and his teachers. This continued throughout his life. He caught onto things quickly and easily. Nothing ever gave him trouble; there was nothing that he couldn’t get or do without just minimal effort. Like Banri himself says, he lived his life in easy mode until his encounter with Juza. This superiority complex, because it was such a life-long thing and was reinforced so often during his formative years, is something that’s really hard for Banri to shake. Despite trying hard to become a better person, to learn humility and to stop seeing others as somehow less talented or lesser than him, he can still slip back into being egotistical or slip back into those bad habits. He needs to be called out whenever he does do that and, thankfully, there are several people within Mankai who do not hesitate to do exactly that.

Romance is another thing that has always been just too easy for Banri. He’s never dated seriously because there’s simply no challenge present to make it interesting for him. He’s always had admirers from an early age. Both male and female and everything in between, Banri was one of those guys who drew people’s attention and who others developed crushes on. He gets a confession at least every month, sometimes more. He’s showered with gifts every Valentine’s Day. Most of the people who confess to Banri don’t even know him that well or aren’t super close to him but it’s definitely not unheard of for his friend’s to end up confessing to him. Banri is used to the attention; he almost expects it now. It doesn’t excite him, it doesn’t surprise him, it doesn’t even make him all that happy anymore. What is going to surprise him? If someone plays hard to get or seems completely uninterested in him. When it comes to romance, Banri is going to be someone who really does need the thrill of the chase, along with an incredibly independent partner who has a lot going on in their life outside of him.

Banri has a little bit of an attitude when it comes to gaming. He knows he’s good at video games and he really does genuinely enjoy them. However, to him, the video games he plays are the ‘right ones.’ He plays a lot of MOBA’s, FPS’s, MMORPG’s, and action or horror roleplaying games. The harder a game, the more challenges present, or the more people to beat, the more exciting and worthwhile a game is in Banri’s mind. He can even see the worth in arcade games, rhythm games, games like Tetris – games with actual goals to reach and things to achieve. But like I said, Banri is kind of a gaming snob. Colouring games on your phone, idle clicker games, dating sims, visual novels? None of those are actual games to Banri and he’ll make fun of anyone who plays them and considers themselves a gamer.

Banri developed a love for and fascination with Yakuza based action movies as a kid and it’s still one of his favourite genres. He knows they’re often corny and over-the-top, but he just can’t help but want to watch any new ones that come out. He’ll often rope Taichi into coming to watch these new releases with him in the theatre, as Taichi also enjoys these types of movies. Some of Banri’s favourites are Ichi the Killer, Youth of the Beast, and Tokyo Drifter. He’s also a pretty big fan of horror movies, but not the ones that focus on supernatural beings. He’s more a fan of the slasher genre or, coming closest to supernatural beings, of movies like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, or the million and one zombie movies and shows that are out there.

Banri actually has a really hard time telling Muku no. He takes it easier on Muku than just about anyone else in the company. Part of it is, of course, to keep the peace between Banri and Juza, where Muku is Juza’s cousin. But there’s also just something about Muku and how earnest the boy is, how Muku looks up at Banri with his big, trusting eyes and that aura of both being intimidated by Banri but also finding him so cool…it gets under Banri’s skin a little bit and he can’t find it in himself to dislike the other boy at all. So, when Muku asked Banri to teach him to fight, even knowing that Juza would kill him for it, Banri couldn’t say no. However, it’s less that Banri is teaching Muku how to properly fight – he focuses on helping Muku tone his body, hone his reflexes, and focuses on more self-defense techniques.

Banri really likes puzzles, even though most of them are really too easy for him. He can solve a Rubik’s cube in an insanely short period of time and he’s gotten really good at different types of brain-teaser puzzles. I think that, because he’s not all that worried about money, he doesn’t hesitate to get a monthly subscription box that’s just made up of those brain-teaser type puzzles. The one he gets is called ‘The Thinker Subscription Puzzle Box for Masters’ and he really enjoys the different types of puzzles. Some of his favourites end up being the puzzle boxes or the safecracker puzzles. Interlocking puzzles are also really fun for him, but he finds them more on the easier side.

When Banri does get angry or upset, he does really need some sort of physical outlet for that anger and frustration. Fighting, along with being a thrill, was the perfect physical outlet for Banri, who was frustrated, as much as he tried not to think about it, with how banal and boring life was for him. However, since Banri largely stopped physically brawling people since becoming an actor, he’s had some trouble with finding that same physical outlet to help his anger issues or to help calm him down in the moment. He goes for a lot of long walks when he’s irritated or if he’s been in arguments, but they don’t help him as much as he needs them to. It’s actually Sakoda who introduced Banri to his replacement hobby, the thing Banri now uses to get out all his anger, frustrations, and to work out all his petty grievances, which is getting out to play airsoft.

While Banri’s good at a lot of things, there are some things that he just is shit at, completely terrible with, etc. One of the biggest of those things is that Banri can’t give compliments well. It’s not that he can’t or doesn’t acknowledge other people. Banri does see other people’s strong suits and he’s able to pretty accurately judge people’s characters and talents if his ego isn’t blinding him. But he doesn’t really see the point in verbally pointing them out or complimenting people. Compliments never really made Banri too happy, by the time he started having a lot of strong memories, compliments were such a common thing to him that they meant nothing. I think that really does feed into Banri’s trouble with praising his friends or troupe-mates, since he just doesn’t get why he should. Of course, there’s also the fact that doing so really does kind of embarrass him on some level.

Banri loves going out shopping. It’s a hobby for him. A day out shopping, hitting up a new café or such, dinner at the hottest new restaurant? It’s pretty much a perfect day for him and it’s likely a date idea that Banri will fall back on quite often. As mentioned, money doesn’t mean a lot to Banri, who has grown up in a pretty well-to-do family, so he doesn’t really concern himself much with a budget while out shopping. He’ll always walk out with something new for himself, but he also often walks out with a little something for one of his friends, for his parents or sister, or for a partner if he has one. Banri’s really generous and, because he’s actually quite an observant and astute shopper, he’s always finding just the right thing that either reminds him of a person or that he knows they’ll love.

[flourchildwrites]

I've been trying to convince myself that jelsie is not a jerza AU, but tonight is the night I give in.

I waited for years to see the jerza arc come to a satisfying conclusion. I was there, Gandalf, for the kiss that wasn't. Or maybe it was. I don't know. It compelled me. Still does.

The point is that I waited patiently. I felt it in my bones that at the very end of it all (and there was a lot going on at the end of FT), I was going to get that satisfying panel of Jellal finally making peace with his regrets and getting with Erza. No more of this, "It's complicated!" bullshit. Some actual character development to cap off the series.

Of course, it's complicated. It has been complicated for years. But I was over garden variety complication. It had gotten old, frankly. I wanted ✨closure✨. I wanted a payoff for investing in jerza, for believing in jerza. At the very least, I thought I could be satisfied with jerza couched in fan service because, let's be honest, I was desperate.

But did we get that? NO! What do we get instead? A mention that Erza is taking very good care of her hair...

No.

I went back to read that part several times to make certain that I wasn't hallucinating.

No.

No way would Hiro Mashima do this to me. No way would he build jerza up like that since the first season, setting the ship up to be a profound expression of forgiveness, friendship and love triumphing, to end the main story with Erza brushing her fucking hair.

You know who does get a pretty good ending? Zeref and Mavis. Zeref and (the Mary Sue) MAVIS SUE.

But, I didn't complain very loudly. I told myself I was going to wait for the anime to make good on what the manga failed to accomplish. Did it? I don't actually know because I found myself so squicked by the prospect of being disappointed again, but in moving color this time, that I just noped out the whole thing.

And then Edens Zero dropped.

Space? Robots? An Epic tale where time itself is bent? 🤲🏻 Yes, this sounds like something right up my alley. And Happy's back. We love Happy. Who doesn't love Happy? Let the healing commence!

But then I met, Elsie Crimson, the armored space pirate, and right after that, we see Justice of the Interstellar Union Army. And there was a part of me that just... No. Noooo. No way would Hiro Mashima do this to me.

Again.

It is one thing to make characters that look like your old characters. They're his. He can do with them what he wants. And I am all for someone writing the jerza AU where Jellal chases Erza across the cosmos, but why does it have to be the damn manga artist writing the AU? He could have just, you know, written the jerza ending I wanted in the first place.

Dammit.

But I also thought, "Hey, Flour. You gotta calm down. They're just fictional characters. This isn't healthy. And just look at Happy. Yes, he's an exceed, but he's also a robot. And just look a Jella- I mean JUSTICE's hair. It's only blue sometimes, and the face-tattoo/ether gear is more or less transient. So there! Not the same. This won't be jerza in space. It'll be jelsie, something new and different. See, they already kissed (as they stabbed each other) which is a hell of a lot more progress that jerza ever made, I think..."

So that brings us to the present.

I had a bad day. No getting around it or denying it. Really bad day, and I have a habit of waiting to watch animes that I know I'm going to like on bad days to turn them around a little. So, I turned on Edens Zero, and what did I hear?

Colleen Clinkenbeard and Robert McCollum. The English voice actors for Erza and Jellal as Elsie and Justice.

Gosh, no! I had to be mistaken.

So, I looked it up, but since my ears are well-trained homing beacons for Collen Clinkenbeard's sweet, sweet voice, I was NOT mistaken.

It's a jerza AU. That particular part of Edens Zero is a damn jerza space AU. And I am... beside myself bitching about it on tumblr, the only place weird and niche enough to tolerate this rambling rant about fictional characters that I care way too much about.

Goodnight, cruel fandom. I just can't right now.

[elencelebrindal]

Time to ramble about Shun

Sooo... you said you wanted my rambling to become reality. Here I go. 

Shun not holding back for the whole series would have been a disaster for our dear villains, let me tell you.  But let’s go in order. And I mean, from training to Hades. Obviously, this completely disregards the fact that Shun was Hades the whole time, because if I am to take that into consideration everything would end before starting.  Small disclaimer, this is mostly anime-based. I’ve read the manga, but my memory is so bad in remembering what was just manga and what was just anime, and I have a better memory for the anime.  Also, this is going to praise Shun a lot. No, not because of my undying love for this character, but because logically speaking, he’s freaking powerful; this young man stood against a god that was possessing his body, dammit. 

Now, his training.  Of course, I won’t even imagine Shun actually going to Death Queen Island, mostly because it was Ikki, and not him, the reason why he went to Andromeda Island instead.  What we know, is that Shun nearly awakened his Seventh Sense there and then, when he donned the Cloth for the first time. And we know that he won the right to the trial after winning a fight against his “rival”.  But, before winning, he took a good beating, because he held back.  What would have happened, in the eventuality that Shun did not hold back? Well, probably just quicker access to the trial for the Cloth, but also... this might be the only time Shun not holding back would have affected him negatively.  What if he, by not holding back, lost his right to the Cloth? Andromeda is famous for her sacrifice, after all, not for her brave charging into battle.  This is mostly my own idea about it, because of course Shun was destined to become the Andromeda Saint, but luckily he held back, and only fought when he needed to. 

That aside, now it’s time to tackle all the positive things that could have happened had he not held back. 

Galaxian Wars / Black Saints Arc (forgive me, I forgot the actual name)

We had a taste of how smart and capable Shun is during his fight against Jabu, but all of that was thrown away thanks to Ikki’s appearance. Now, this doesn’t mean than Shun completely lost his competence, but he definitely held back for the sake of his brother.  This is obvious when we take into account the fight they all have against Ikki, when Shun tries to help his brother rather than stop him.  We already saw how dangerous Shun can be, when he faced Black Andromeda, so it’s easy to understand how much easier it could have been for the Bronze to stop Ikki if Shun was there to actively help against him.  Sure, he helped in the end, but he was probably the only one (at least at that point, because remember, he was the only one to have almost awakened the Seventh Sense) capable to stand his ground against Ikki.  Seiya’s success was more plot than skills, honestly speaking.  Shun could have been infinitely helpful, at least in making sure they earned a faster victory with less blood spilled.  To me, what we know about Shun’s power (though it’s only revealed later) makes it that he has a huge advantage that is ignored because of 1. Shun’s personality and 2. what’s needed for the plot and what was known of the plot. You all know he’s my favorite Bronze, at this point, but following a logical reasoning I cannot find something against this. 

On a side note, can you imagine how fast he would have destroyed Black Swan, if only he used his brain and not his heart?  Considering the outcome of his fight against Black Andromeda, and his knowledge about Hyoga’s techniques (which are kinda imitated by Black Swan), it’s not difficult to imagine he would have won.  He wouldn’t have done as good against all of them together, at this point of the story, but a one vs one fight would have definitely seem him victorious. 

Silver Saints Arc

I have no clear memory if that Docrates mess is in this arc or the one before it (the Italian division is a bit different and it confuses the hell out of me when I have to switch), but let’s put him here.  Because come on.  Shun getting thrown around like a doll? Yeah, no. Docrates might be a powerful - and not so brilliant or likable - warrior, but to the point of overwhelming a Saint like Shun with so much ease? I hardly believe it. I can  believe Shun having a hard time against him, especially considering how they won that fight.  Full power, I think Shun could have helped way more. I’m not saying he could have defeated a beat like Docrates all by himself, not at that point. Hyoga’s help was crucial for him to actually deal an effective blow.  But I’m pretty convinced they could have had a bit of a better time - especially Saori - because power makes the difference, even if it’s not enough to turn the tide without aid. 

Continuing with the same arc, we have another example of Shun being extremely competent and showing how strong he is when he doesn’t hold back.  How long did it take him to completely obliterate a Silver Saint? Not even enough to appreciate how badass he was.  It didn’t seem forced at all, more importantly! Most times, especially with Seiya, their victories seem so... well, convenient that it’s hard to believe they’re actually strong enough to beat their enemies. The plot armor around them is stronger than their actual armor, from time to time. This fight against Dante, instead, felt completely genuine. Shun and Ikki beating so easily two Silver Saints seemed incredibly normal and realistic, rather than feeling forced by the plot.  Of course, all the other characters have their genuine moments (yes, even Seiya), but I wanted to point this out for Shun in this particular instance because it’s necessary to understand how underrated he is. 

Sanctuary Arc

Moving on, we have what I like to call “Shun could have choked Saga to death and ended the entire Sanctuary Arc in less than five episodes”. Listen, does it seem so unreasonable? If it does, remember how Shun (with Ikki’s help, this is not something I’m ignoring, I like Shun but I don’t play dirty here) used his chain to break free of the Other Dimension (a place that’s supposedly impossible to leave? Hello????) and literally reached Saga where he was sitting.  What the hell, are we just ignoring the fact that he legitimately broke into the throne room of the most protected place of the entire Sanctuary, stole Saga’s cheap-looking trinkets, and shattered his control over him? For god’s sake, I’m SURE he could have at least managed to try and kill Saga where he was.  I’m aware he had no idea what the hell was going on, but had he used a bit more of his cosmo? A bit more of his concentration and intelligence? To me, it seems really weird that he only properly awakened his Seventh Sense so late in the arc. If Seiya was able to screw the plot over and get his precious Seventh Sense so early and easily, why wasn’t Shun given the same opportunity? Well, I know why, plot and everything, Shun’s actual power was still very much a mystery, but I’m going chronologically, and by logic. And what logic tells me is: Shun should have awakened his goddamn Seventh Sense there, realized he was stealing costume jewelry from the Pope, and at least knocked him out for the next couple hours.  For as much as i like joking about it, I know Saga is smarter and stronger than the average guy, Shun wasn’t going to be able to strangle him with the chain. But a good old pointy cosmo-powered chain to the forehead, well... come on. Would have been hilarious, other than useful. 

For the rest, the arc was pretty amazing.  His sacrifice for Hyoga? Yeah, he wasn’t holding back there.  And the fight against Aphrodite we all know how incredible it was.

Something I’m going to point out is how much Shun held back against Leda and Spica. That was all his personality, but he was able to defeat both of them in a couple seconds as soon as he used his true power.  I don’t really want to count that as holding back, but I have to. Because he was keeping his strength low, and it counts.  That was a time loss that could have been avoided. 

Asgard Arc

Now this, this makes me mad.  As soon as Shun leaves canon territory, it gets turned into this weak warrior with no desire to fight.  Either that, or he gets to fight but accomplishes little.  And this is exactly what happened in this arc. 

By now, we know how lethal Shun can be, and we know he awakened his Seventh Sense. It’s not theory anymore, it’s not fan wishes anymore, it’s Shun with one more sense to deal with.  And what happens? They give him the fight against the only enemy his goddamn chain doesn’t want to hit. Of course he gets that, and that his - actually beautiful - personality refuses to fight and instead insists on diplomacy.  Now, I loved that. I love how Shun tries to find a peaceful way around the war. But, once again, this is not the point of my rambling.  The point of my rambling is: Shun shouldn’t have needed Ikki to come and save the day.  Let’s take away Mime’s tragic backstory for a second, and let’s put Shun in the “classic” mind of a Saint; fight the enemy to the death, or die trying.  Shun would have won without any help. Sure, Mime is powerful, but Shun is as well. And we know that Shun is capable of facing enemies that use music as a weapon (as we learn later, in the Poseidon Arc).  Also, I’m pretty positive he has control over his chain, is not like the chain is going to ignore him like that. That weapon has a mind of its own, that’s true, but seriously speaking Shun has to be able to control it more than the chain controls itself.  That, and Shun himself refused to recognize Mime as an enemy.  Without holding back, Shun would have seen him as a proper enemy, and fought with no chain deciding “oh no no no, this is a friend!” like an overly friendly puppy.  Wrongfully, maybe, because as we learned Mime was, in fact, not a real enemy, but that’s not the point. 

Syd doesn’t really count. Shun was actually standing his ground against him, and incredibly well.  The reason Shun didn’t win right there and there was not him holding back, but the plot advancing and throwing Bud at him.  I don’t know how high I should hold this opinion, though, because to me it seems a bit weird that Bud is so powerful/stealthy that no one realizes he’s there. I’ve been skeptical about him, especially considering how he incapacitated freaking Aldebaran, but it is still a good reason for Shun not having won the fight.  Stealth can be more effective than raw power, sometimes.  Though, I believe Shun (and Aldebaran, for what it counts) should have been able to sense him. What, they’re going to show us the Saints can sense any kind of cosmo approaching them or far from them, but not realize that there’s someone right behind them ready to strike? Eh, it’s bizarre. 

Poseidon Arc

Right off the bat, he got his moment to shine against Io.  THAT, my friends, was incredible, and if Shun didn’t hold back - because he did, to avoid killing him, bless his merciful soul - Io would have died pretty easily.  Shun claimed his rights as Gold Saint, there, didn’t use all his power, and still beat the everloving soul out of him. 

Also, the fight against Sorrento? Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  I literally have nothing to say, he had a reason to hold back there, and I will not give him a forced victory. Sorrento was on his level, and even though I think the Nebula Storm would have killed him (remember, that technique keeps getting more and more powerful the longer it’s used), they were pretty equal.  Shun didn’t hold back, save for when he understood what the hell was going on and got an ally. 

What I didn’t like, however, was how harshly he was treated when Poseidon was the threat. Damn, I’m not saying he should have been able to face a god, not without a Gold Cloth and not alone, but jeez, he ended up being completely ignored.  Like “wait, I’ll help!”, and then poof. Disappeared.  But in this instance, not holding back wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Unless you want to be 100% full of logic, and use the fact that Shun was already a vessel for a god, there’s no viable excuses for him to be able to fight a god on his own.  Not at that point in time, and not in his conditions.  Things work only if they can work. 

Hades Chapter

I don’t have much to say here.  Shun was incredible, he fought without holding back for almost the entire series, and showed an almost merciless side. A good handful of that behavior was Hades, if we go by how Shun was portrayed beforehand, but I like to believe he finally got his time to shine and acted competent again.  After hall, he had his angry moments back in the classic, they were no different from this chapter. 

What I will say, however, is how they diminished him in Elysium.  Because let’s face it: a Saint that not only survived one of the most powerful gods ever possessing him, but also tricked and held him back, had every single right to be powerful enough while wearing a God Cloth to obliterate Hypnos from the face of Elysium.  How are you telling me to believe that the same person that defeated the god of the Underworld just... fell asleep against a minor deity? He was the first to get his God Cloth without the plot aiding him (yes, I’m still salty about Seiya), yet he did nothing, and got defeated by Hypnos like he was a weak little boy.  I understand he’s a god, but Hades was worse! I’ll tell you what would have happened. Shun would have sent Hypnos’ sorry ass back in the void he deserved to be in (I actually like Hypnos okay, Shun doesn’t) without batting an eye.  Surely someone that was able to withstand Hades’ power - and overwhelmed it, even if for a short time - could resist some minor god’s power. 

To conclude, on the same not, Shun should have definitely punched Hades in the face.  He was probably the only one strong enough to do so, aside from Athena. And probably the one with the right to do so, also. 

This is probablt the stupidest rambling I’ve ever wrote on this blog, but I regret nothing. 

[sun-lit-roses]

A little gift for Threshold Day!

Title: On Evolution

Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager

Warning: N/A

Relationships: N/A

Characters: Tom Paris, Kathryn Janeway

Summary:

After the events of the Warp 10 experiment, Lieutenant Paris and Captain Janeway contemplate evolution and the fate of those they left behind.

I tried to stay in the spirit of the original episode! (It’s also under the cut, for easy reading.)

“Captain?”

“At ease, Tom,” the Captain held up a hand as she maneuvered through the darkened mess hall towards the coffee urns.

“Um,” Tom cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m pretty sure that I should remind you, as a medic, that the Doctor said no coffee for either of us for twenty-four hours.”

“I’m also sure that he said something about resting,” she countered with a raised eyebrow, begrudgingly turning away from her Pursuit of Coffee. “I don’t think sitting in the mess hall qualifies.”

“Hey, I’m not working.” Blowing out a breath, he then nodded in acknowledgment of her return volley. “I’m just trying to – sort things out, I guess.”

“It has been an eventful couple of days.” The soft pad of boots on carpet and a gentle shush of fabric filled the silence as she took the seat across from him. “Anything in particular about them on your mind?”

“All of it,” he admitted with a rueful laugh, “but I think my biggest question is, lizards? Is that really what we’re evolving towards? One day, somewhere far in the future, that’s what we’re all going to be? Something less than what we are now?”

Janeway turned sideways in her seat to look out of the windows, as he had been upon her entry. After a beat, he mimicked the action. It was strange to look out at the cosmos now, space warping by, and remember that not so long ago he had held the entirety of it in his mind. Even now, when the details were gone and the broad sweep of the feeling almost vanished, it still lingered as this forceful sensation of strength and peace. He hoped that would last.

“We were those beings for such a short time, Tom,” she finally broke the moment. “Did we reach the end of our evolution? Were we still in an intermediate state? What does the impact of artificially accelerating to an evolved state have upon the outcome? There are a lot of questions that we don’t have answers to, and we may never have those answers. However,” she paused a moment in thought. “I have to believe that what we are evolving towards, what all beings are evolving towards – whatever those outcomes may be – isn’t something less than what we are now. That our efforts towards understanding the universe and ourselves, no matter how we may stumble and falter on the way, will eventually lead us to greater knowledge and acceptance, however it may take form.”

Her statements had no facts behind them, no proof in the face of what they had become, but as they sank in Tom felt a peace similar to the state he had felt joined with the universe. They sat a long moment in the darkened room, faces tilted towards the starscape outside, the wash of warp light reflected in their eyes.

“What do you think will become of them? The,” Tom stalled, searching for a neutral term, before finally landing on, “others.”

“Honestly, I’ve been trying not to think about that,” she answered with a short laugh. “I hope they do well, though.”

“They should,” Tom looked over at her, feeling his spirits revive, “they have the Janeway genes going for them after all.”

She looked back at him, a raised eyebrow momentarily making him wonder if he’d gone too far, before she favored him with a crooked grin. “I suppose their Paris genes might do them some favors, too. Assuming they don’t get them into too much trouble first.”

He grinned back, then a thought occurred to him. “Hey, did we note what planet they found us on? Just in case the Federation ever makes it back out here.”

The Captain nodded. “It’s noted on the star charts and in the logs. One muggy swamp planet marked down for the future. The crew even found the designated system name from a sparsely populated colony planet on their way to find us.”

“Really?” It felt surprising that the planet, which seemed wholly theirs in a strange way, had a name and a presence to others. “What is it?”

“It’s an awkward sound, the translators struggled with it,” she shrugged. “The nearest we can determine the pronunciation is: Dagobah.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not long before on a planet far, far away from the small starship receding somewhere across the vast expanse of space, a creature crawled out of the water onto a rock. It’s startled prey leapt away from it, striking towards the farther shore. Suddenly, the frantic movements were arrested, legs spinning but gaining no traction, hauled upward into the air.

In the depths of the forest, the eyes of sundry creatures watched or passed hurriedly over the scene. The trapped prey clawed vainly at the air, striking out at the nothing that encircled it. Managing to turn in the invisible grasp, it briefly glimpsed the arm of the creature outstretched towards it and the gaping maw behind.

* Slurp *

[drsilverfish]

A Pearl of Great Price - 14x13 Lebanon

Well, Supernatural’s 300th episode was SO affectingly emotional. And beautifully so.

But what exactly is up with that magic pearl in 14x13 Lebanon?

Continuing my meta series on the Jungian themes of S14 (have I mentioned how much I LOVE S14?) I’m going to talk about the significance of the Baizhu, the heart’s desire granting pearl of the episode, as the pearl of great price. 

In particular I’m going to talk about the pearl as holding special significance as the object which permits Dean to confront (and make peace with) the ghost of John Winchester. The pearl helps to move on Dean’s psychological haunting by an internalised construct of his father, which has oppressed and repressed him for so long  - part of the Jungian Shadow-work of the season. 

So, why was a pearl the magical object chosen to grant Dean’s wish-of-the-heart, thus altering the time-lines to resurrect John Winchester?

Pearls have significance in the Bible as metaphors for Heaven, because of their beauty and value...

In Revelations, the gates of Heaven are made of pearls, hence the pearly gates. And in the parable of the pearl, the “pearl of great price” is commonly interpreted to represent Heaven:

”Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”

— Matthew 13:45-46,

King James Bible

So, the pearl grants Dean’s wish for what he had long imagined as a kind of Heaven - his original family, Mom, Dad, Sam and himself, all together again. 

But, as with most wish stories (and I’m sure @prairiedust​ will be writing a great meta about fairytales and wishes) - be careful what you wish for is the maxim here.

Because Dean finds that the price the pearl exacts is too high. 

If they accept the world the pearl has delivered, he and Sam will, eventually (as the timelines course correct) no longer be hunting together. Sam will be a lawyer and a kale-eating motivational speaker (a hilarious nod to Tom Cruise’s dick character in Magnolia) and Dean will be on the FBI’s “most wanted” list again. They will be separated. Neither will the brothers have the gift of their mother’s return, because Mary will never have been resurrected by Amara. Additionally, their adopted Nephilim son Jack will not exist, because Lucifer (presumably) will remain in the Cage. And finally, Castiel will not have escaped his endless obedience mind-wipes in Heaven, thanks to his transformational encounter with Dean, starting with the raising of the elder Winchester from perdition. Instead, Cas will stand at that dick-in-Heaven functionary Zaccharia’s side, and will neither know nor love the Winchesters. He will still belong to Heaven (and not to Dean). 

So, the pearl can be understood as the pearl of great price, because the price the pearl requires is simply too great, and the “Heaven” it offers is a false one.   

Dean chooses (with Sam’s full assent) in the end, all the pain, all the suffering of his and Sam’s lives, including his 40 years in Hell and Sam’s agony in the Cage with Lucifer, because that journey has brought them to who and where they are now. Dean chooses the found family that their journey has brought, not the (impossible) fantasy family of his boyish imaginings.  

JOHN: (to Sam and Dean): “And now you live in this secret bunker, with an angel and Lucifer’s kid?”

later....

JOHN (to Dean): “I guess that I’d hoped eventually that you would… get yourself a normal life, a peaceful life, a family…”

DEAN: “I have a family.”

(And oh boy is that ever the kind of conversation that happens between a hetero-normative parent and their queer kid - but that’s another meta).

However, there’s more, because as well as representing too great a price, and a false Heaven, thanks to its Biblical associations, the wish-granting pearl in Lebanon also links to the season’s Jungian themes. 

A pearl has also (I argue) been chosen by Dabb and Glynn as the episode’s wish-granting object, because of that object’s connection to alchemy. 

Jung’s key interpretive understanding of the mystical pseudo-science of alchemy, is his revelation that the transformation of matter in medieval alchemical texts can be understood as representative of the (potential for) the soul’s psychological journey towards greater self-actualization. 

“The alchemical operations were real, only this reality was not physical but psychological. Alchemy represents the projection of a drama both cosmic and spiritual in laboratory terms. The magnum opus had two aims: the rescue of the human soul and the salvation of the cosmos. What the alchemists called ‘matter’ was in reality the [unconscious] self...”

Carl Jung in Speaking: Interviews and Encounters ( p228) (in a 1952 interview with Mircea Eliade).  

Here is one of the earliest printed books on alchemy (originally 1546, by the reputed alchemist Bonus Ferrara, but translated into English, as here, in 1894):

You can actually read a copy of the translated text itself here:

https://archive.org/stream/newpearlofgreatp00laciiala/newpearlofgreatp00laciiala_djvu.txt 

The “pearl of great price” is another name for the “Philosopher’s Stone”. On a material level, in alchemy, this is the supposedly mystical and magical substance which could turn base metals like mercury into gold. So alchemical texts, like Bonas’ one above, read in part as weird chemistry recipe books. But, on a metaphorical level, this chemistry was understood (in Bonas’ book and elsewhere) as analogous to the soul’s journey to God:

“The Sages represent the Stone as bearing the same relation to the metals which is borne by form to substance, or, soul to body.”

Jung takes that Christian interpretation of alchemy (made by correspondence of the world below with the world above) and transmutes it into a psychological one. For Jung, the alchemical work is the work which psychoanalysis can assist a person with - the work of facing and integrating with one’s Shadow self.

My previous series of meta on S14 and the Shadow is here:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/180906003584/the-shadow-14x08

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/181122764984/14x09-the-spear-jungian-decoder-ring-edition

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182299438269/jung-and-deans-journey-towards-self-integration

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182486474324/ouroboros-in-prophet-and-loss-14x12 

So, how does the episode’s pearl of great price (aka the Philosopher’s Stone, aka the mystical substance which makes possible the soul’s journey to God, aka, according to Jung, that which makes possible profound psychological progress) happen for Dean, in particular, in Lebanon (given that he was the one whose wish the pearl granted in the first place)?

Well, Dean has been running from an internalised psychological construct of his father, a haunting by John Winchester’s ghost, if you will, for a very long time.  

The opening sequence to 14x13 Lebanon is key in recognising this. Because one of the flashbacks we get is to 14x04 Mint Condition, in which Dean confronts the ghost of “Hatchet Man”. 

Here is the 14x13 Lebanon flash-back at the start of the ep. Dean, with the axe:

confronts the ghost of the comic store owner, animating the life-size model of “Hatchet Man”:

As my meta on Mint Condition made clear at the time, 

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/179735406854/batman-vs-superman-connection-and-conflict-in 

the episode, “...invites us to see Stuart’s conflict with the ghost of his father-figure, the comic store owner, as a mirror for Dean’s conflict with the ghost of his own father, for whom AU Michael (in the narrative arc of S14) acts as a mirror (AU Michael = John Winchester = Dean’s own internalised repression via the metaphor of Dean’s “drowning” possession by Michael).”

That the psychological construct of the ghost of John Winchester has been a very repressive internal construct, for Dean, is further symbolised in S14 both by Dean locking AU!Michael in a closet in his mind AND by the Ma’lak box Dean has built and has been intent on locking himself inside for all eternity.

Just to re-emphasise this, the opening sequence of 14x13 also shows us AU!Michael once again banging on the doors of Dean’s mind-closet:

Dean repressed a lot of himself in order to be a “good little soldier” for his Dad, in order to try and be the parent for Sam that his Dad was manifestly failing to be, and in order to embody the kind of (straight) masculinity he thought his father approved of. 

So we can think of John in 14x13 Lebanon as partly representing the opportunity (at last) for Dean to confront that internal “ghost of John Winchester”, i.e. for Dean to confront a part of himselfL

When Dean is able to hear his father tell him he is proud of him, when Dean is able tell his father, out loud, that he loves him, when Dean is able to tell his father that he has a found family that includes Castiel and Jack, when Dean is able to tell Sam out loud (as a result of his encounter with his father) this:  

DEAN: “Look, we’ve been through some tough times, there’s no denying that, and for the longest time, I blamed Dad. I mean, hell, I blamed Mom too, y’know, I was angry. But, say we could send Dad back, knowing everything, why stop there? Why not send him even further back, and let some other poor sons of bitches save the world? But, here’s the problem? Who does that make us? Because I gotta be honest. I don’t know who that Dean Winchester is. And I am good with who I am...”

that is Dean being able to tell himself all those things:

I am proud of you

I love you

I have a “found family” whom I love

I am good with who I am.

Jung tells us that the more we run from the Shadow, the more its terrifying haunting power over us grows. It is only when we turn and confront it, and embrace it (as the repressed parts of ourselves) that we can achieve psychological growth. 

As I said in my meta last week on “The Riddle of the Sphinx” in 14x12 Prophet and Loss:

“The Jungian solution, which the S14 narrative is offering to the metaphorical Riddle of the Sphinx, is, to turn around and embrace the Shadow-self (the parts of oneself one has repressed) and in so doing, to evolve - to become more fully human.

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182482293379/the-riddle-of-the-sphinx-14x12-prophet-and-loss

The pearl of great price in 14x13 Lebanon, in symbolising the transformative alchemical power of the Philosopher’s Stone, has enabled Dean, in confronting and embracing the ghost of his father, to undertake some powerful Shadow-work. Shadow-work that will, eventually, help him to defeat both the repression locker in his mind where AU!Michael resides and the eternal repression locker represented by the Ma’lak box. 

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Guardians commentary time, because I was honestly too wiped out to get to it last night but I’m still very up for it now. 

1. So here’s my question about the opening sequence on Morag. If Ronan had hired the people that faced off with Quill in the opening sequence on Morag, was it just the case that Ronan’s men arrived 2.5 minutes too late, like Peter arrived just early enough to beat out Yondu? Because initially my impression was that they were indigenous and guarding it, but I know now that not to be the case because Korath is very much a devotee of Ronan, etc. But even if it is the case that Peter beat Ronan’s people, holy timing Batman. Seriously kudos to Quill for being even if incidentally two steps ahead of even Ronan’s game. 2. Okay one, Nova Prime Irani Rael is a hot piece and two she definitely deserves to be the girlfriend of General Leia Organa you can disagree with me but that makes you a suspect human being. Anyway, Rael making the diplomatic call to the Kree to denounce Ronan was not out of bounds for normal statecraft. Especially with a new and tenuous alliance, she’s not only right in calling bullshit that the Kree empire has said nothing to denounce Ronan, but she’s also right in advising they make a statement to stabilize their early peace because early peace is amazingly fragile. But like way to not maintain an alliance at all Kree Empire. You suck. 3. The actual diversity of felons on the Kyln is pretty neat, I’m not going to lie. Not just interspecies representation but also body type representation. There’s big very obviously non-straight criminals. There’s cool as shit looking alien species. There’s chubby feminine looking criminals! Tell me who they are Marvel! Tell me. 4. Now that Thanos’ real character has been revealed in the course of IW it is no damn wonder why Thanos thought of Ronan as a petulant child. Granted, Thanos’ logic is worse in that it is slightly better, but by comparison Thanos is an overly dire pragmatist were Ronan is very much just a racist bigot with a power complex. Thanos predictably find’s Ronan’s racial shortsightedness pithy, and I really have zero doubt that if Ronan had actually gone to piss on Thanos’ front lawn he would not have lasted long. 5. On the other hand, really Thanos. #1 piece of advice in the universe is don’t torture and dismantle women and then trust them to be complicit. You will die. 6. If anyone doesn’t feel pelvic sorcery during a close listening to Fooled Around & Fell In Love they are definitely soulless. 7. I also really really want to know what the hell they were drinking on Knowhere that got Rocket and Drax drunk (I mean who knows they might both be lightweights but I doubt it.), because Stephen wants some. 8. I’ll come right out and say it it’s a fucking shame that Tivan’s collection gets blown to hell. Not because Tivan isn’t twisted as hell keeping live specimens and slaves to himself, but more on the “holy crap what cool stuff just got destroyed that the universe will never see again” kind of way. It’s like the burning of the Library of Alexandria, only somehow worse. 9. The nods given to Thor: The Dark World and The Avengers are of course interesting given there’s a Dark Elf and a Chitauri, but I’m super curious about what made those particular specimens of each special enough for Tivan to keep them. Tivan deals with the depths and breadths of the universe coming in and out of Knowhere, and he doesn’t just snag one item from every species or race he comes across. So was there something interesting in particular about that Dark Elf and that Chitauri? Was the Chitauri one of the only remaining survivors after the nuclear explosion? Was the Dark Elf one of Malekith’s higher ups? I’m just curious about them, and curious about Tivan’s reasoning for keeping them. 10. Okay but adding to this whole Tivan’s collection tangent, Cosmo the Space dog cracks me up and not just because it’s funny for Tivan to have a doggie cosmonaut in his collection. Cosmo is a legit character in the Guardians comics, and he’s head of security on Knowhere and telepathic. So even if Tivan is keeping him in his collection or is just trying to keep him out of the way for something, just imagine what it’s like having an angry Russian dog thinking at you all the time because you’re getting in the way of him doing his job. 11. Slightly different bend on the Tivan train, but Carina legitimately just heard Tivan talk about how the stone was capable of destroying even a whole group of people who tried to wield it, and she was still willing to take the risk of being incinerated rather than living with her current conditions. Carina wasn’t resolutely making the hero play - she was making a suicide play knowing full well it would end that way if the hero play didn’t work. 12. When Yondu states that Peter doesn’t give a rip about Terra like. Dude. How many fucking references in this movie has he made to Terran culture? Music and movies and art and holy shit would you look at that, he sure as hell talks like a more culturally integrated human than anything else you twat waffle. Great way to piss him off though and get him to play it your way, which granted is what I think Yondu was probably doing the whole time but still. You don’t look at this boy who idolizes Footloose and knows who Jackson Pollock is and tell him he doesn’t care about Earth. Caring about Footloose and Jackson Pollock at all is a labor of love. 13. Speaking of Yondu, how the fuck is that the jewel frog bauble considered by anyone to be worth of the “high end” community? On top of it just hurting me, it does really raise the question of how is trite crap like that so valuable? Does it have some vector of worth and rarity because its origins are weird, obscure, or finite? Are the gems magical artifacts of some kind? Are the wealthy in space that mother-fucking self-ironic? Because if they are I want to know them. 14. Peter Quill, everyone, who makes a dick message to garner trust 15. Not for the first for for the last time will I say this, but Ravager tech is impressive. And I am amazingly intrigued at how Ravagers got such good technology and resources on their hands. True, they steal things and make money off of trades and pilfering. But that isn’t the only way to acquire goods and it’s not the only thing a viable pirating economic model can survive off of. Half the reason the Ravagers succeed is because they run like a business, have clientele, and are clientele for certain sects, right? So what kind of powerful connections do they have that allow them their advanced fleets? That’s the kind of shit I want to know about. 16. Also what the hell are Ronan’s pilots with the weird glowy psychic spheres on the Dark Aster? Is the Dark Aster itself Kree technology, or something Ronan got from Thanos who appropriated it from some other world he’s conquered? Because we know so little about the Kree in the MCU it’s hard to say, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if the Kree ever do become a part of canon so we can have more data with which to make a comparison. 17. Guardians does a pretty good job of taking at least some time to portray how terrible aerial dogfighting is on a mass scale because honestly it’s a bloody nightmare. It’s pictured so often and so carelessly in film that it’s not something we often think about, and the only movie I’ve ever seen that addresses how it feels in human terms is Dunkirk, but the intensity and messiness of it in Guardians is still pretty realistic and I give it props for that. 18. It occurs to me that maybe the younger, post-GOTG Groot is so bitter and antisocial for a while because of how giving the elder Groot was, and the seedling felt the sacrifice and his existence was under-appreciated? It was just a thought that crossed my mind. 19. Also Ronan you twat. “Engage Immolation Initiative” is just Big Mean & Fancy for “light ‘em up fuckers,” don’t pretend you’re any cooler than anyone else. 20. I really really appreciate the design that went into the Xandarian cityscape as a fully intergalactic multicultural society that shows it even in the way the city and buildings are assembled. The city isn’t uniform like a lot of science-fiction cities are - it’s got texture. Different sectors have different styles of buildings and different architecture. Like a real metropolitan area, it’s a patchwork of influences and it’s very well done. 21. Kudos to Rocket for identifying that ground-to-air is a super viable defense strategy. One thing that people tend to forget about ground-to-air is that aside from clouds, there’s no obstacles behind which to hide in the sky, so while ground defense might seem clumsy at times, air offense is hugely precarious because there is absolutely no defense mechanism against any attack except maneuvering, and when a defense is fully able to target that weakness it’s pretty damn effective. 22. It’s interesting to me how well superhero movies integrate climaxes within battle sequences? Some people might call it lazy but I call it interesting when when defense lines break, plans fail, and when teams encounter interference to push the plot forward. Plot movement in Marvel movies curry a lot of momentum from these events, but actually they’re pretty interesting replications of how modern society has been built on the results of such events within our own history. History has been moved by these exact same sorts of events, which is why they make sense to us in storytelling. 23. Peter protecting Groot from Rocket’s crash into the into the Dark Aster? Golden. And then Peter immediately going to Rocket from the wreckage? Stellar. Peter Quill you are a gem. 24. I will never forgive Marvel for hurting me as bad with “We are Groot” as Warner Brothers did with “Suuuuuperman” in Iron Giant. Stop giving Vin Diesel more opportunities to rip my heart out of my chest, please. 25. My mom and my uncle, her brother, both adored the entire GOTG soundtrack so much and it brought them so much joy watching it together that it got me into Motown. Even though it was oblique and dorky, Marvel did something amazing with this movie and gave my parents a piece of their own youth back, while giving me a chance to share in their knowledge and experience. It’s stuck with me ever since, especially because fundamentally that experience is the reason I got into Motown music, which I now adore with all my heart.

Alright, done with that. These are... just getting longer and longer I’m sorry guys no one should have ever allowed me to do this. Oh well. Too late to stop me now. Captain America: The Winter Solider is up next, and oh the pain.∞

[gibsongirlselections]

A Limited Case for Trump

Is there anything that could be more expedient than expressing vitriol for Donald Trump? It is one thing to offer legitimate critiques of a President, and not a few come to mind with Trump. And yet, is it not something else, different in kind, to offer an unrelenting and constant stream of disdain and disgust? No knowledge of the subject matter is required, or even presumed. The vast ocean of opinions is what we are wading in, and many are desperately willing to jump in for the swim. 

The mention of opinions and knowledge with respect to politics is reminiscent of an ancient quarrel that is worth calling to mind, as it may be of certain help in our present time. The specific quarrel I am referencing is that between politics and the practice of philosophy. The tradition of classical political philosophy, illuminated by Plato and Aristotle, inaugurated this political problem that is still with us: what will be the status of the philosopher (or philosophy) before the politician? 

For classical political philosophy, the activity of philosophizing was considered to be the highest good, or the best life, for human beings. It was through philosophy that one would come to know the the whole of nature and the causes of things, of what is. This tradition of philosophic inquiry affirms that the purpose of the human mind is to know the order called reality, independent of the mind. The claim to know entailed the connection between the mind and the order of things as they actually are. Such an alignment is called truth.  

Among other things, the central implication of this means that the mind-independent order of reality is not something which properly belongs to the political realm. In other words, it does not fall to politics to determine what nature or justice is. Aristotle, thus, rightly observed that politics does not make man to be man, but accepting man as he is, looks to make him good. What it means to be human is a question whose answer lays outside the authority of the political. It was precisely this point of departure that classical political philosophy makes the ultimate declaration: philosophy alone will save us. If only philosophy will save us, then we must affirm that politics cannot. Here, in summation, is where we can hopefully see why it is worth pondering this relationship over the political character of philosophy. 

The precise nature of the problem was articulated well by the 20th century political philosopher Leo Strauss. According to Strauss, democratic citizens, in general, did not have much of an affinity for philosophy.

According to Strauss, it is modern liberal democratic regimes that could be better than any other at fostering philosophy. More than anything else, liberal democracy has a strong capacity for staving off the worst political (or apolitical) conditions imaginable, namely, tyranny. To stand against the threat of tyranny is to openly acknowledge that the horrors of arbitrary and oppressive rule are not conducive for human flourishing. Regardless of one’s conception of the human good, what John Rawls coined as a “comprehensive doctrine,” democratic citizens can certainly agree upon this truth. Understood from this angle, democracy appears decently equipped to thwart an individual or collective Thrasymachus, whose philosophic modus operandi is to equate “justice with power.”

Although this is a rather caricatured account of the classical tension between philosophy and the city, it is offered to serve as the foundation for the main thrust of a larger argument. The argument put simply is the following: a Donald Trump presidency is a rather strong case in support of staving off the political threat of tyranny. How could such a case be made?

Various answers can be given, and the question is worthy of much more insightful reflection than will be offered here, but I want to zone in on the particular context of Trump’s presidency, and the possibility of a second term. 

The political left in the United States does not have, deep down, a political philosophy in the strict sense of the term. More accurately, it is an ideology whose motto is derived from Thrasymachus (mentioned above): the aim of politics is to attain and maintain power. The riots and civic unrest experienced since the end of May are coordinated attempts to cause social instability and political decline. And because the actions of the rioters are being intentionally portrayed within the category of identity politics, then it is undeniable that their framework is, and will be, that of the contemporary Democratic party. It does not seem much of a stretch to equate “being woke” with “being a Democrat.” This admission is no longer something requiring proof, but is overwhelmingly self-evident.

As this alignment between rioters and the political left has solidified, we can also affirm the unconventional success of President Trump. For whatever one thinks of his various strategies, it seems incontestable now that since taking office, the President has had a singular focus in getting those on the political left to reveal their cards. I agree with the assessment of the political philosopher Joshua Mitchell, who contends that Trump’s use of Twitter is like a “sixth sense.” The President’s tweets act as a kind of sonar sent out into the cosmos. He is waiting for a kind of reverberation, a bleep on the radar of public discussion wherein he can gauge some real sense of various dialectical narratives surrounding a said issue. 

Trump’s tweets may be vulgar, crass, and un-presidential. But a limited defense of Trump does not rest upon his virtue, or even lack thereof. The fundamental concern within the tradition of classical political philosophy is not whether everyone can be a philosopher, even a sitting president. Instead, the issue is whether the very conditions of philosophy would still be possible. For Strauss, this was the political status of philosophy. Will the philosopher, or those who seek those truths that transcend the current political orthodoxy of mere opinions, be allowed to live in the liberal democratic regime? To put this more poignantly: would a President Trump bring a Socrates, or Christ, before him and threaten them with death if they did not give unfailing allegiance? Is hemlock or the Cross really possible in an America where Trump is President?

The answer to these latter questions would seem to be a resounding “No.” Of course, Trump is neither a philosopher, nor a rhetorician. The ad nauseam attacks that he is not are beside the point. What we should seek, at one level, are the social and political conditions whereby truth is still allowed to be voiced and heard. The tension before us as democratic citizens is whether nuance in thought is permissible. The dialectical squabbles over COVID-19, especially the ever increasing attempts to silence and snuff out dissenters, is providing disturbing answers.

Will a second term for President Trump ensure a victory for philosophy against tyranny? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps there is no better public visual of this classical tension incarnated in our time than in the recent congressional hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr. Like the rioters we see on the news, Barr’s interlocutors at the hearing were not interested in that thing called speech. The goal was much more sinister, and direct. They simply sought to smash, not his arguments, but his capacity to speak. 

The 2016 election was ever the humble reminder that human affairs cannot be predicted, as much as our scientific political models may desperately try. Yet, Michael Anton might be right once more, with Flight 93 in the air again.

My hope would be that a continued Trump presidency, if it might be anything, can continue to support those conditions where truth can be uttered and heard. The alternative will not be a world of peace and rationality, of open dialogue and speech ordered towards grasping the truth. Instead, we will witness those political and social conditions wherein we come to worship in the only religion left, namely, the despotism of our own opinions.

Brian Jones is a Ph.D Candidate in Philosophy in the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas.

The post A Limited Case for Trump appeared first on The American Conservative.

[s-ephiroth]

Silver Birdcage [Chapter 25]

Greetings. It’s 4 in the morning and I’m having ice cream. I’m also updating my fic because that’s something one should do when one wakes up with a huge craving for ice cream.

Anyway, before I stop making sense. Your casual reminder that we have a suicidal character in this. Also I didn’t edit this because it’s 4 in the morning and I just want to update before I feel tempted to rewrite this entire thing tomorrow or something.

Onto it.

[From The Beginning] || [Current Update] || [Ko-fi]

He listened intently to the sounds as they approached the room, while staring distractedly at the bags he and Cloud brought along with them after leaving Cosmo Canyon; not that much clothing, but enough to be comfortable. Those took a little space out of the third bed in the room, away from the door that would open at any moment then. His shawl was folded neatly near those, along with a certain, charging Cait Sith.

“Yeah, he’s really okay,” he caught Cloud saying outside, “I mean, not okay because he’s dealing with everything that happened, but you get what I mean.”

Safe to be interacted with.

Someone yelled about that not making much sense, in a rather crass way, to which Cloud just laughed and concluded it’d make more sense after they all talked. The sound of his voice like that had something inside Sephiroth fluttering gently.

Tifa chose that moment to reappear from the bathroom.

“Well, it’s time… I guess,” she just said and sat down on one of the beds, doing her best to avoid as much eye contact as possible. He couldn't really blame her when he couldn't bring himself to make much eye contact without feeling weird, either, focusing on anything else — Cloud's warm and familiar voice among the others’ outside, footsteps, shifting around — just so he could find some peace of mind to prepare himself.

Sephiroth felt even less ready for it when the door opened, when the very first person he saw was the heiress of Wutai herself.

She turned around to say something to Cloud but was simply told by someone else to “just get in already,” which she did, calling Tifa’s attention for a quick hello but staying as far from him as possible. For her, it was something to tease Cloud a little with a harmless, unconscious Sephiroth around, but it was something else entirely to interact directly.

With each one who followed and took their places in the room, clearly avoiding to sit in the same bed as him, the little reminders of everything Sephiroth took from them seemed to haunt him even more than they usually did.

The fact that two, different colored Cait Siths were having some sort of family reunion on the corner didn’t help much with setting his mind at ease.

A blanket of silence covered all of them completely for a long moment after Cloud sat down by his side, eerie enough that he preferred to stare at his lap than at any of them. He’d never liked big meetings back in Shinra, nor saw the need for his presence in them. He wasn’t a board member, didn’t have much to add that would please said board members and Hojo was present in most of such occasions. They only made him feel overwhelmed. So longer after, away from that company and in the presence of different people, he still felt as though he would rather drown than have to bear the weight.

Cloud put a hand in his shoulder, effectively keeping him from drifting away any further, and assumed the leading role that anyone else in that room refused to pick for their own reasons.

“So, we’re here because Teef found something in the Shinra manor and because I’m now in charge of an oversized, sad ball of feathers.” He gestured at Sephiroth. “Ask me anything.”

That seemed to lift the mood at least a little bit. Just enough for a few of them to try to disguise any sort of laughter, Sephiroth included.

Cid raised his hand to ask, “Does he still have that long ass sword of his?”

“I don’t know. Sephiroth?”

“I…” He hesitated for a few seconds. While he was associated with Jenova, he could summon it out of thin air if it was needed. But Jenova was long gone, so maybe… “I’m not sure. I haven't tried to call for it ever since I woke up.”

“Try,” Cloud suggested, “To clear out any doubts as soon as possible.”

“...Here?”

He got nothing but a nod and some urging for him to stand as a reply.

That made him even more nervous than he already was, even as he took his distance to avoid any possible accident. Enough people had been stabbed by that blade as it was. To increase that number would be to increase his already countless sins.

He caused Masamune to appear with the same ease he had in the past; the weight of it gradually becoming real in his hand. However, once it was there, something quite… peculiar happened to it. Green light washed all over the blade and changed its shape, darkened the metal while coloring the edges a gentle violet and spreading silver details all over. A wing-like shape formed near the hilt, reminding him of Genesis’ beloved weapon.

Something about it felt… Ancient, in the way the Black Materia had felt in his hand.

“What the fuck?” Asked both Cid and Barret at the same time.

“I didn't do anything.” Sephiroth felt like clarifying, somewhat shocked, himself. “I just… summoned it.”

Something in the air carried a slight fragrance of flowers.

If he didn't know better, he’d doubt what happened, even if it had taken place before his very eyes. He suspected it had something to do with a certain someone handing over a familiar blade to him. Maybe that much was enough to change its very essence, to transform it into something new and to free all of them from the memories associated with its original appearance.

To make it a Cetra Blade.

He didn’t dare mention that, of course, as he realized that particular flower girl was still a sensitive matter for everyone present.

Cloud stood to take a closer look at it with the expression of someone who’d recognized something about that, even though he wasn’t saying anything out loud other than a comment or another about how the new blade seemed to be stronger than Masamune’s or how it suited his style.

Once Cloud seemed to have enough of it, Sephiroth let the sword fade away from existence once more, leaving nothing but dissipating black feathers in its departure.

“Alright,” Cid said once the two of them were sitting again, “so he still has a long ass sword.”

Tifa chose to ask what everyone was wondering about that.

“I suppose that if we take it from you, you’d be able to summon another one, right?”

Sephiroth nodded, though he seemed a little uncertain about that. He grimaced when realization hit him of why exactly she was drawing that conclusion, of a certain Masamune left behind in the Shinra building. He closed his eyes a little pained by that thought. Granted, President Shinra had been someone vile in life, but many people who worked at that place did so out of other options or due to Shinra painting itself for the masses as a good company. Oh, the things he did while associated with Jenova…

“I don’t intend to repeat any of what you saw of me before,” he said a little quieter than usual, “When I came back to my senses and I could see all I did, before Cloud helped, I… All I wished for was my death. Even now part of me still wants it, as punishment for what I took away. Because I understand my existence after all that happened will be a problematic one for myself and for others. But...”

“You aren’t doing that,” Cloud interrupted, “And you aren’t gonna sleep your life away as some sort of ‘closest solution,’ either.”

Vincent, who initially planned to just listen to the entire thing before offering any thoughts, had something to say when it came to that.

“I tried that. I can’t recommend it.”

“We can’t fully trust you just yet,” said Reeve through Cait Sith, “But I don’t think any of us would sit back and watch if that’s how you feel. If Cloud accepts you and if he nursed you back to health willingly, you count as Avalanche. I guess. So we’ll help.”

The entire room fell quiet, processing that. Well, it wasn’t exactly wrong, that. It was just… very unusual. Not that the way the others joined the team was in any way usual to begin with.

“I… thank you. I was going to say that, even if I really wanted to do it, I… I can’t die. The Planet doesn’t accept me because of who I am. It’ll either tear me apart or trap me in my own mind, and I don’t want to go through neither of those things again. So I want to help instead, if I can.”

There was a certain reason why Sephiroth’s eyes ended up on Yuffie as he said that, but it was something he didn’t feel quite ready to talk about with so many eyes on him and so many ideas already popping up among the others about ways he could help without possibly being recognized by anyone who could cause mass panic.

It was a good thing that they were distracted enough not to notice or comment on Cloud gently squeezing his hand and offering him a little smile before calling the others’ attention to the other things they had to discuss.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: The Competing Politics of the Jamaica Biennial

Installation view of the Jamaica Biennial 2017 at the National Gallery in Kingston (all images courtesy the National Gallery of Jamaica unless otherwise noted)

KINGSTON — What is a biennial for? What does it do? These questions came up on my visit to the Jamaica Biennial 2017, where I was invited to participate in the symposia and performances convened for the closing weekend. While looking at parts of the show and in conversation with other guests, I found myself wondering repeatedly what the aims of this national exhibition were. It was clear that a thicket of bureaucratic and intensely political complexity had ended up making the biennial a mash-up of competing claims and interests.

The Jamaica Biennial 2017 was actually four exhibitions at multiple sites, stitched together under one slightly leaky umbrella. Veerle Poupeye, a Belgian transplant who’s the executive director of the National Gallery of Jamaica, laid them out for me: a juried section chosen by a panel of artists, dealers, gallery directors, and curators; works by about half of a group of 72 artists who have been permanently “invited” to participate in the show by the National Gallery’s Board of Management, which some of those same artists serve on (one can see how this already starts to become unwieldy); a small tribute to the traditional, figurative painter Alexander Cooper and the recently deceased photographer and self-proclaimed “media terrorist” Peter Dean Rickards; and a selection of pieces by artists from the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora, grouped under the rubric of “special projects.” The final tally was about 160 artworks installed at the National Gallery; its original home, a historic building known as Devon House; and the National Gallery West in Montego Bay (which I was not able to visit).

Cosmo Whyte, “Golden Kicks/Where You Get Dem Clarks (2016), charcoal and gold leaf on paper, 84 x 72 inches

I walked through the parts of the show I could see a few times, but they never quite settled into clarity. There were several standout pieces and one or two sections where the works spoke with each other eloquently. The loveliest of these contained Cosmo Whyte’s “Golden Kicks/Where you Get Dem Clarks” (2016), an ethereal charcoal drawing of a troupe of dancers wearing what look like grass skirts. The figures are interspersed among a copse of trees, which have the same hue and tone as them, but they’re distinguished by the gold leaf shoes on their feet. Whyte’s drawing created a hushed atmosphere in which I could almost feel the water lapping against a man’s head in Nadia Huggins’s “Is that a Buoy?” (2015) on the opposite wall. In that work, a photograph diptych and video, the figure becomes lost in the watery scene, so that his head is only barely distinguishable from a buoy. Claudia Porges Beyer took up a similar visual theme with “Splendour in the Grass” (2015), which consists of a pair of Manolo Blahnik mules almost submerged in water inside a medium-sized briefcase. The brilliantly cogent surrealist object signals the near drowning of a particularly historicized sign of femininity and elevated socio-economic status.

Claudia Beyer, “Splendour in the grass” (2015), mixed-media assemblage

Installation view of the Jamaica Biennial 2017 at the National Gallery, with Nadia Huggins’s “Is that a Buoy?” (2015) at right

Phillip Thomas, “High-Sis in the Garden of Heathen” (2017), mixed media on fabric, variable dimensions

For the most part, artworks in the show simply had to hold their own space and meaning against the tumult. Some did this better than others, including Phillip Thomas’s installation “His-Sis in the Garden of Heathen” (2017), which allegedly grew from the painting at its center — an arresting portrait of a character who’s festooned with medals and has camouflaged hair like some fantasy cartoon general. I still haven’t fully figured out what relationship he has to the strip of fake grass laid down before him, along with various gardening tools such as a machete and shears, but I think about the piece days after seeing it.

Marlon James’s portrait photographs are compelling because the people in them are so odd: one has lips that are a bruised purple color and a gaze so inward, his eyes might as well be closed. I was grateful for the small oasis of quiet created by Simon Benjamin’s “Urban Beaches: FORUM IV” (2016) and have long appreciated the whimsical feel of Leasho Johnson’s work, which was displayed at Devon House. I walked by Kelley-Ann Lindo’s “Send Love Inna Barrel” (2016–17) with barely a glance, but was later told by the artist Ebony G. Patterson that it needed to be activated by two people sitting at either end of the long, continuous tube created by several barrels suspended together. She said that the sound the piece makes when two people talk to each other through it extends the metaphor of the barrel, which is often used to send food and gifts from other countries (particularly the US) to Jamaica. I do remember, as a child, getting such barrels from my father, who was in the US at the time, and being excited to taste the Juicy Fruit gum sitting atop the other goodies.

Kelly-Ann Lindo, “Send Love Inna Barrel” (2016–17) (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Simon Benjamin, “Urban Beaches: FORUM IV” (2016), white marl stone, gold paint on plastered plyboard, video projection

Here’s a metaphor for understanding how the biennial felt to me: During the first event I attended — a session organized to offer critiques of student portfolios — the student musicians were giving their recital right outside the rather thin wooden doors of our room, so that much of what the visual art students said was washed away by the music. Competing aims and interests and a lack of consensus on what the biennial should be and do made the exhibition similarly dissonant. Poupeye indicated to me that she wanted a familiar model: a thematically arranged or juried exhibition that displays to the international art community the work of artists from a particular geographical area, who have a specific set of concerns or sensibilities that marks them as unique. Yet right now, the Jamaica Biennial is also a way for some local, legacy artists to show every two years at the National Gallery — a boost to their pride, however this arrangement threatens, to use Poupeye’s term, to end up “looking like someone’s backyard.” Petrona Morrison, an artist with work in the show and a member of the gallery’s board, said in the weekend’s final public panel that the biennial “is trying to be all things to all people.”

Installation view of the Jamaica Biennial 2017 in a corner of the National Gallery

Senior curator O’Neil Lawrence acknowledged the problems, saying to me, “We know that it is an ugly baby … and that we birthed it.” However, the fault doesn’t lie with the curatorial team; it’s rooted in the politics compressed within the confines of the National Gallery, which are in turn inflected by the politics of the small island nation where I was born. In Jamaica the economic situation is even more desperate, more pressured than it has been in the US for almost a century. When my father left Jamaica in the 1960s, the unemployment rate in Kingston was almost 25%. Many people on the island still struggle to make a living, and in that context, cultural capital means a great deal. People contest each other for it.

Several people I spoke with, who asked not to be named given the delicacy of the situation, said that David Boxer, the National Gallery’s previous director, despised the direction Poupeye wanted to take the museum in, despite having trained her himself. Boxer allegedly stacked the board with his friends who are similarly disposed to leaving the legacy aspect of the biennial in place. I was informed that certain members of the board are actively working to make Poupeye leave her post. And so the organizers ended up with an exhibition in which some of the work by the permanently invited artists was terrible and brought down the worth of the whole show, but it was displayed alongside strong contributions by, for example, Margaret Chen, whose “Cross Section of a Curve” (2016), a sculpture of painted X-rays torqued as if caught in a tornado, cleverly evokes Louise Bourgeois.

Margaret Chen, “Cross Section of Curve” (2016), X-rays, bamboo, wood, paint, variable dimensions

Leasho Johnson, “In the Middle” (2017), Dutch pots, speakers, clay, variable dimensions (photo by Randy Richards)

The obvious question is: why is it this way? And the short answer is: Jamaica is highly political. It’s an island where status is recognized, guarded, and defended. Once, at a party in London, I was asked where I was born. I responded with the name “Half Way Tree,” a neighborhood in Kingston. I was then told that this area signified a certain set of politics: not the quietly middle-class scene of Spanish Town, where my mother lives, nor the more rough and tumble but urbane environs of New Kingston, where my father’s family now lives — but somewhere in between. Yes, even far away from the island, my birthplace is bogged down by the politics of social status.

But then change happens unexpectedly. Over the weekend, David Boxer passed away after a long struggle with cancer. As sad as that is, it might also be an opportunity. Perhaps, over the next two years, enough people who are invested in the Jamaica Biennial can forge a peace about what they want the next one to do and be.

Jasmine Thomas-Girvan, “Parallel Realities Dwelling in the Heartland of my People” (2017), mixed-media assemblage, variable dimensions, installed at Devon House

The Jamaica Biennial 2017 took place at the National Gallery of Jamaica (12 Ocean Blvd, Block C, Kingston), the National Gallery West (Montego Bay Cultural Centre, Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay), and Devon House (Hope Road, Kingston) from February 24 through May 28.

Editor’s note: The author’s travel and lodgings were paid for by the Jamaican Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport.

The post The Competing Politics of the Jamaica Biennial appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2rug3cP via IFTTT