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tundrainafrica · 3 years

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So, what's your overall opinion on snk 139?

Something doesn’t sit well with me with how people on Twitter are complaining about 139. Personally (Hange backstory aside), it was satisfying and despite what people are saying that it ‘romanticizes genocide,’ I do not agree. I wanted to give my thoughts on the chapter overall so I decided to write it out.

In fact, I have another take on the overall message of the story and I hope people would give this a read.

Disclaimer: Sure, I am defending the story line and the ‘message’ that’s coming with it but I in no way, agree with the genocide. But there is a more nuanced take on this which I think will help people understand that there is an underlying message to all this and I wanted to just talk about it below.

Also, I found some cringe-worthy moments, I do not agree with Armin’s take on ‘Thank you for committing genocide for us’ one of the most horrible lines ever and I like to retcon that and never think about it again and I intend to read the Japanese raws though to check if it was just a translation error.

Maybe there is someone who already explored this but yeah, I’ll just write this in case no one has.

For now though, allow me to give a more detailed analysis of the message over all so people stop hating on the ending for ‘romanticizing genocide’ because I think this is a low key pretty shallow take on the whole thing and I want to provide some information, some analysis and some comparison to make people realize, this isn’t as easy as people claim it to be.

So let me start by mentioning something about the war with Marley to give people some perspective.

Yams pretty much set up a trolley problem on a wider scale and Eren was the one with the lever.

For people who don’t know what the trolley problem is, allow me to explain it below.

Here is a sample I found online: (See this link for details)

“A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workers who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. Adam is standing next to a large switch that can divert the trolley onto a different track. The only way to save the lives of the five workers is to divert the trolley onto another track that only has one worker on it. If Adam diverts the trolley onto the other track, this one worker will die, but the other five workers will be saved.”

There are a lot of variations to this like:

“A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workers who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. Adam is on a footbridge over the tracks, in between the approaching trolley and the five workers. Next to him on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very large. The only way to save the lives of the five workers is to push this stranger off the footbridge and onto the tracks below where his large body will stop the trolley. The stranger will die if Adam does this, but the five workers will be saved”

And there are so many other variations of this.

The runaway trolley is going after your mom vs. five escaped prisoners.

The runaway trolley is going after Pope Francis vs five serial killers.

These trolley problems show the moral tension between two schools of thought which are in two different ends of the moral spectrum: ‘Utilitarian ethics and ‘deontological ethics’ which are both either way, inherently flawed yet not totally bad. Utilitarian ethics focuses on the net happiness of doing an action as a determinant of whether something is good or not. So a utilitarian will find a way to kill less people and will probably go for the action which will actively kill people if it means saving others.

Deontological ethics emphasizes that the attention should be on the act in itself not the result is what makes something good. So ‘NOT pulling the lever’ even if it kills five people is the good thing to do.

The thing is, the trolley problem is not completely applicable in real life because you cannot really predict what’s gonna happen. Utilitarian ethics assumes that you will know what will happen in the end.

And here’s the thing, in the massive trolley problem created by Yams, Eren was the one with the lever. This was already proven in 138 and there were clear cut results. Eren knew what was going to happen. If he could, he would have just yeeted off to the woods with Mikasa and lived their remaining life together.

If he didn’t do anything, Paradis would have been completely destroyed and lost in five years or so. Marley was gonna overrun Paradis, the other nations were going to destroy it, take their resources and massive genocide was going to happen anyway.

Sure, Zeke and Hange offered their own suggestions to stop it. But as the founding titan, I’m sure Eren knew it probably wasn’t going to work. Because his daydream or the reality he saw where he lived in the woods with Mikasa implies that someone else took over the peace negotiations and Eren said himself, they had at least five years of peace before Marley and the other countries invade.

So with the results of both choices of the ‘trolley problem’ in Eren’s head at that time, he had a clear choice to make. Lemme quote the trolley problem again and apply it to his case.

“A runaway trolley (aka the war) is heading down the tracks towards Paradis who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. Eren is standing next to a large switch that can divert the trolley onto a different track. The only way to save the lives of the people of his hometown is to divert the trolley onto another track that has the rest of the world (or at least the victims) on it. If Eren diverts the trolley onto the other track, the genoicde (the intended genocide), but Paradis will be saved.”

Okay fine, it looks like Eren did do something horrible because he pulled the lever and let more people die which is considered bad under the paradigm of both utilitarian and deontological ethics.

But lemme show you another variation of the trolley problem which can put Eren’s choice into perspective:

“A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks towards your beloved family who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are standing next to a large switch that can divert the trolley onto a different track. The only way to save the lives of your loved ones is to divert the trolley onto another track that has complete strangers that have only hated you and are ready to fight back and kill everyone you love if you let them live. What will you do?”

This is difficult right? I don’t think it would be easy to make a choice to kill your family right?

So Eren went for the easier choice...

“A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks towards Eren’s loved ones who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. Eren is standing next to a large switch that can divert the trolley onto a different track. The only way to save the lives of his loved ones is to divert the trolley onto another track that has complete strangers that have only hated him and are ready to fight back and kill everyone he loves if he lets them live.. So Eren diverts the trolley onto the other track, this trolley kills the current victims of the rumbling, but his hometown Paradis will be saved.”

So, what fueled Eren’s choice? Can love fuel Eren’s choice? Is love a valid reason to push or to leave the lever?

I personally believe love is the answer. But here my explanation.

Utilitarian and Deontological ethics are on two different sides of the ethical spectrum and at their extremes they are both inherently flawed paradigms to live by. Most people actually flit between the two when making decisions in morally gray situations which I believe is generally the most appropriate way to navigate ethics.

Let me introduce one new ethical paradigm to this discussion. “Aristotle ethics’ or Nicomachean ethics which claims there is a golden mean for everything. So goodness is finding that golden mean.

So I personally believe the most ethical and the best option is the finding that golden mean in between utilitarian ethics and deontological ethics, and what is the golden mean?

It’s difficult to find but I always believed the golden mean for something as complex as morality is the ‘most loving option’ but believe me, the most ‘loving option’ is very difficult thing to find.

I never believed that ‘true love’ was an emotion. I always believed love to be something born of deep discernment more than everything else. Although Eren had touched on love when he made the final decision to kill, he lacked the discernment which makes his decision still inherently flawed in the grand scheme of things.

So what was the whole point of the story?

I never believed AOT to be a manga that ‘romanticizes genocide’ regardless of what people are saying.

I think what Yams was trying to set up here, after giving Eren the very difficult decision, was ‘who set up the tracks in the first place?’

Who forced that young boy from Shinganshina to stand at the side of the tracks and have to make the decision to kill millions or to let his family die?

Was it the cycle of hatred? Was it the crapsack world that just forces everyone to be an asshole?

And the thing is, their world is a shithole. Just like ours.

Everyone is forced to do evil every once in their life (even through small ways) but it doesn’t mean that these people are completely at fault. There are structures in society that force us to do ‘evil’ to survive and the Catholic concept of social sin explains this. I won’t go into detail about this but I just want to say...

Morality is incredibly complex and I do not believe a clear cut right or wrong exist. But I believe if everyone discerned for themselves what right or wrong is, if everyone did their part to make this world a better place, maybe so many people wouldn’t be faced with their own version of the ‘trolley problem,’ maybe so many people wouldn’t be faced with the decision to make such an ethically gray and questionable decision like Eren.

So what’s the message that I believe Yams is trying to relay with his story?

Stop the cycle of hatred, start talking, start discourse. Stop fighting. And I think he has shown it multiple times with Eren and Reiner’s conversation and with Marco’s screams of ‘WE HAVEN’T EVEN TALKED THIS THROUGH YET.”

Anyway, I hope this meta or this rant whatever you think it is, just gives some new perspectives on the ending. Don’t get me wrong, Eren made a very ethically questionable decision but it had never been an easy decision to make to begin with.

And I hope this type of analysis and reflection could be useful to your own thoughts and your own ways on how you choose to navigate life.

#snk 139 #snk spoilers #snk ending #eren jaeger #meta

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kittyprincessofcats · 3 years

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RWBY Volume 8, Episode 14 - The Final Word

Thoughts on the final episode of RWBY Vol 8 under the cut.

Also, I will from now on reblog spoilers for Volume 8, which will be tagged with “RWBY v8 spoilers” if you want to blacklist them.

tw: Since the episode itself had the same content warning, I should mention that I will be discussing themes of suicide in this post.

Also, everything I’m about to say is *my* personal opinion. I’m not trying to tell anyone else that they’re supposed to feel the same way about anything in this episode. In turn, please don’t tell me how to feel about it either.

- I should start by bringing up what I said in my post about episode 13, because all of that is going to become relevant now:

So... that all aged... interestingly.

- Next, I should say that I actually did end up getting spoiled about Penny’s death. I was trying really hard and didn’t go into any tags, but literally one day before this episode was released to the public, Tumblr recommended me two blogs with the titles “Penny deserved better” and “Justice for Penny Polendina”… so I drew my conclusions from that. And while I think those blog titles are valid sentiments, I do wish people would wait a week before putting spoilers in a blog title. But then again, I was weirdly glad to get spoiled this time, because it meant I was more emotionally prepared.

- And now, on to my very controversial opinion about this finale: I… uhm… I actually liked it. There, I said it. I liked it. I’m seeing a lot of takes from people who hated it, and that’s totally fair, but personally, to my own surprise, I liked it. (It’s kind of interesting that last time I said it would be “awful writing” to kill Penny now, then it happened, now the whole fandom is complaining about it being awful writing… and I’m here going “actually… that wasn’t so bad”.) That’s not to say that I’m a fan of everything in this finale, especially re: Penny – but overall, the good outweighed the bad *for me*. (Stressing again that this is just how *I* feel.)

- I think the main reason I feel that way is because I honestly expected way worse. If you read that thing I wrote last week^, you see I expected multiple character deaths. I was incredibly nervous. And after I’d already spent a few minutes genuinely thinking Yang died (because of a badly worded episode 13 spoiler I accidently saw), I had to think about the kind of deaths that would be a dealbreaker for me and make me drop the show. (Let’s say it like this: If either of Bumbleby ever died for real, I would be done with this show immediately.) So, in short, I was terrified of the finale and expected it to be the kind of finale that ruins the show for me (which has happened in far too many fandoms so far) – and it wasn’t. I have mixed feelings about how they handled Penny’s story, too, but this finale didn’t ruin the show for me and I honestly felt way worse after the Volume 3 finale. Maybe that’s because I wasn’t prepared for it at the time, but this time I spent a whole week being super anxious, so when I’d actually finished the finale, I just felt overwhelming relief.

- Okay, so let’s talk Penny: Back in Episode 12, I already wasn’t a huge fan of the idea to make her human (if that even is what she was?), but I think I said I’d reserve judgment on it until we see where they go with it. Obviously, it feels unsatisfying to have the show just kill her off after everyone’s been trying to save her all volume. And of course, it’s never fun to see a favorite character of yours (and Penny is definitely a favorite of mine) get killed off. The way it happened (a character who’s been trying to sacrifice herself the whole volume finally doing so through assisted suicide, even though there could have been several potential ways to still save her) feels incredibly unsatisfying and depressing as well. The “heroic sacrifice” cliché isn’t new, but there’s still a difference between a sacrifice that feels necessary and like it really was the only way (Hazel, Vine) and one that feels more like a character being over-eager to sacrifice themselves even though there might have been alternatives (Penny). So really, I understand why people don’t like this, especially because the narrative, so far, seems to validate Penny’s choice by having her plan work. And that does send the opposite of the “fight for every life”, “no one is replaceable” message this volume had been going for until then.

- And this is why, I think Penny’s death is meant to be awful. Volume 9 might prove me wrong on this, but I think we haven’t seen the end of this storyline yet. For me personally, it’s too early to judge this plot-point by itself because it depends a lot on how they deal with it in the aftermath and how things go from here. (For instance: I hated Pyrrha’s death at first because going into a fight she knew she couldn’t win also felt like a needless heroic sacrifice to me. It was only how the aftermath of it was handled from there that made me be okay with it.) So basically, what I’m asking is: How will the other characters handle Penny’s death now? Will Ruby (or anyone else) get angry at Jaune for agreeing to kill her? How will Ruby grieve in general? And, most importantly: Will the narrative really treat Penny’s choice as the “right” one or will it challenge that view? (And was there maybe more going on that we know because I’ve been reading those “Penny is alive” theories and… oh boy.) So yeah – for me it depends on how it gets handled from here.

- Also, I just want to say that I really appreciate RT putting a suicide trigger warning in the beginning of the episode and I wish people wouldn’t twist that into a bad thing. (I’ve seen some takes along the lines of “If they had to put a warning, that means they were aware it’s a harmful message, so that makes it worse” and… please don’t do that. Content creators putting trigger warnings on things is a good thing. Also, this might be a controversial take, but I don’t think fiction always has to “send a good message and teach you a lesson.” The important thing is that RT were aware that this episode could be upsetting/distressing to people and that’s why they put a warning and the suicide hotline’s number in the description.)

- Anyway, I’ve been rambling for too long. My point is: I understand the criticisms and agree with some of them, but I hope the writers know what they’re doing here and I want to believe that they do. I also love all the theories about Penny coming back (in Winter’s mind, for example) and I think they’re not actually that unlikely. And if Penny doesn’t come back, then honestly, I’m okay with that, too. At the end of the day, she’s a fictional character. I can always go and read fanfictions where she’s alive and lives happily ever after with Ruby and nothing that happens in canon can ever take that away. Canon only has as much power as you want it to have. I can enjoy the canon show and the story they’re telling (even if Penny is dead for good this time), while still also enjoying my AUs where she’s fine. One doesn’t harm the other.

- (Also, let me take this moment to shamelessly promote my favorite cartoon show because I think this is relevant to the interests of anyone who hates the “person who’s been trying to sacrifice themselves the whole time ends up doing just that” story: The main character in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is self-sacrificial to the point of it being unhealthy, but the show explicitly doesn’t treat this as a good thing. When she tries to sacrifice herself for the greater good in the final arc and says it’s better that way, this is treated as a problem, and the lesson she ends up learning in the end is her life has value, too, and that she deserves to be happy. (The show’s also very gay.)

- I don’t know if brought any of this across properly. Basically… I’m not happy about where they went with Penny either, but I am okay with it. I still enjoyed the finale and will continue to enjoy the show. And I want to focus on the things that make me happy about RWBY and made me happy about the finale, so I’ll talk about the rest of the episode now (while rewatching it because I’ll forget stuff otherwise):

- Have I mentioned I really love the Volume 8 opening? Because I really do.

- That shot of the destroyed whale is still awesome.

- I love how the episode opens with all the fights we left off with (Winter vs. Ironwood, Penny vs. Cinder, Harriet vs. Qrow, Ruby vs. Neo) and cuts between them. Also, the music is amazing!

- Elm admitting that Harriet is their friend and that being what finally gets through to her was a nice conclusion to their little arc, I guess. Vine’s sacrifice and his admittance that they’re his friends and he’s doing this for them were touching. Honestly, Harriet is right to blame herself for his death. That said, while this volume made me strongly dislike her, I do hope she now gets an arc about actually dealing with her grief and changing. I think that would be way more interesting to see than still having her be bitter, especially after what happened in this episode.

- Qrow causing good luck to stop the bomb was a nice little moment and honestly makes sense. Good luck and bad luck are just a matter of perspective, after all. What’s bad luck for yourself will be good luck for your enemies and vice versa. So, maybe Qrow technically caused “bad luck” for the bomb? Either way, I like the idea of him realizing that his semblance is more than what he thought.

- Cinder breathing fire during the fight was awesome. I need GIFs of that.

- Blake was amazing in this episode! I love that she didn’t let her grief over Yang consume her, but got up and kept fighting, kicked Cinder in the face and told Weiss to get up. Good stuff!

- I wonder if Cinder’s “You should have never been born” line to Ruby was just a generic “I hate you” line or meant something more.

- Do people honestly think that Cinder betraying Neo was unexpected or like… super unreasonable for a villain? Neo did threaten her – most typical villains don’t react well to their underlings threatening them, so I really don’t see why some people are so shocked or downright offended about this (is it just because they like Neo?).

- Weiss being the last one standing and using Blake’s weapon in the fight was absolutely amazing.

- The tragedy of Jaune sending Nora to bring the Huntsmen and Huntresses back through the portal while not knowing the portal is a one-way deal…

- Cinder knowing that Salem is back because her Grimm arm started hurting was a super interesting moment. And Weiss’ shocked face in that moment was quite interesting, too.

- I wonder if Penny really meant dying when she said “Let me choose this one thing”. To me, it sounded more like she meant choosing the next Winter Maiden. Also, her “trust me” to Jaune is an interesting line. Between that and us not seeing how that conversation goes on, I wonder if there’s something we don’t know here. (*puts on my “Penny is alive” tinfoil hat*)

- I’m glad they at least didn’t graphically show Penny’s death – which is an interesting choice again, because this show doesn’t usually shy away from making deaths graphic and portraying them in all their brutality. So, the fact that we don’t see the act itself and then just cut to Penny’s conversation with Winter was interesting. (But I am glad about it because I didn’t want to see that.) It might honestly just be because of the nature of Penny’s death that they didn’t want to show it too much (and that’s fair).

- “You were my friend.” Gosh, this rewatch is making me cry now 😭. (I also think it’s interesting that Winter calls herself a machine and Penny is now the one who corrects her. It’s a nice callback to Ruby telling Penny she’s their friend and “not just a machine”.)

- I was also just reminded that Penny died thinking Ruby was dead… ouch. This possibly hurts me more than Penny’s death itself.

- People have also pointed out that when Penny transfers the powers to Winter, her aura looks yellow (like Jaune’s) with only some green sparks (like Penny’s). Hmm… I really wonder if there’s more going on here.

- “I won’t be gone. I’ll be part of you.” Who’s cutting onions in here?

- Honestly, the main reason I kind of forgave them for killing Penny was because THAT MOMENT of Winter opening her eyes with the powers while that epic music plays was just amazing to witness. And her fight with Cinder? EPIC. BREATHTAKING. BEAUTIFUL. I’m not even that into the idea of Winter as the Winter Maiden (I honestly thought Penny, the robot girl, becoming the Winter Maiden was a much more interesting plot), but the way it was done in this episode was great. I’m glad we’re finally getting that rivalry between Winter and Cinder, because their arcs parallel each other in so many ways. And I love the symbolism of Winter only getting the powers that Ironwood chose for her after she betrayed Ironwood. I like the idea that she only became worthy of them after turning on Ironwood (which does work well with her Volume 7 arc).

- Oh, by the way, I really hate the “Team RWBY will become the four maidens eventually” theory. Even if it didn’t require characters to die, I just think it would be cheap and way too obvious, and I think it’s boring to throw all the magic powers at the main characters. So, if they only made Winter the Winter Maiden so she can eventually die and pass it on to Weiss, I’ll be very annoyed. (But I hope that’s not where this is going.)

- I’m also just realizing that Cinder asking “How am I supposed to take her power if she’s dead?” about Penny a few episodes ago was foreshadowing… damn.

- Jaune’s sword breaking was a really cool and symbolic moment, too.

- Winter trying to save Weiss from falling and not reaching her in time really got to me. I’m mostly not that affected by any of Team RWBY falling into the void because… come on, we know they’ll be fine. But Winter thinking her little sister just died is… oof. Maybe it’s because I have two younger sisters, but stuff like that really gets to me.

- Also, Winter going through that portal and seeing her family after she just (as far as she knows) lost Weiss… ouch. They never got to all reunite with each other (yet).

- I absolutely LOVED that final scene between Salem and Cinder. They’re both such fascinating characters and I just live for their interactions. Cinder talking herself down (even though she got the relics, so she knows she succeeded at the most important part) was amazing on her part. She did learn from Salem! It’s also interesting that even though she got what Salem wanted, Cinder didn’t get what she herself wanted (the Maiden Powers). I feel like that’s eventually going to become important.

- I wonder if Salem believed Cinder’s lies or not. I’ve seen some interesting opinions in both directions here. (Also, again, I don’t get why some people are so shocked and offended about Cinder lying? I’ve seen so many “I hope she pays for her lies” takes and… really? That’s her biggest crime in your eyes? Lying to another villain?? I don’t think any of you villain-haters feel bad for Salem here, so why… oh. Oh, nevermind, I just understood. They’re not mad that Cinder lied, they’re mad because they wanted Salem to kill her. Gosh, that’s so dumb. Face it, people: That’s not going to happen because Salem still needs the Fall Maiden’s powers. She’s not going to kill Cinder anytime before Cinder opens the last vault.)

- Cinder killing Watts with the staff was kinda funny, tbh. Also Salem’s proud little smirk in that scene kills me.

- “And that’s checkmate.” THAT. Okay, THAT was the best line in the entire episode, I don’t make the rules. What an epic moment!! Gosh, have I mentioned I love Cinder to death? What a queen! This volume really completely changed my opinion on her. I’ve already said that she’s my standout character of the volume, and I stand by that. It was her volume in so many ways and it’s so fitting that she gets to say the last line. It’s also such an interesting line in so many ways: 1) Because this episode is called “The Final Word”, is the only episode in this volume that doesn’t have a one-word title, and the actual final word of the episode is “checkmate”, it implies that “Checkmate” is the real, hidden title of the episode. And that fits so well! They could have easily just named the episode “Checkmate”, but revealing it like this works even better. 2) I also love the chess symbolism in this volume in general. There was a really great analysis about it on here somewhere, but basically: Salem is the king, Cinder is the queen (the king can’t die and barely moves, the queen is out there getting rid of opposing player pieces). And the interesting thing about that here is that the king can’t actually checkmate anyone else, only other chess pieces can. So, it’s very fitting that Cinder is the one who says “checkmate”. Also, in a game of chess, you often have to sacrifice your own pieces to win, which is what Cinder did. 3) I also LOVE the realization on Ironwood’s face when he realizes that he’s been so paranoid about Salem, but he’s actually been playing Cinder all along. (Someone else on here pointed out that there’s something super poetic about Cinder, someone who was very much a victim of Atlas’ systemic problems, being the one to defeat Ironwood and destroy his kingdom. Ironwood was ready to sacrifice all the poor people from Mantle for his own goal, and a poor person who was hurt by people in Atlas is the one who destroyed him. Yeah, yeah, Cinder’s evil and all, but I love it! 4) It’s also really interesting to me that Salem said “This game is not yours to win, it’s mine” to Cinder in the first episode of this Volume, but in the end, Salem ended up being gone for the entire last part of the volume and Cinder is the one who got to say “checkmate.” IT’S JUST SO GOOD.

- And ngl, I’m super happy for Cinder. She really got it all. Yeah okay, she didn’t get the Maiden Powers (and I hope she never does, because one person being two maidens at once is lame), but she got the relics, got rid of her enemies and co-workers (or so she thinks), destroyed the kingdom that she was a slave to, got back into Salem’s good graces… good for her! And apparently one of the buildings that you see being flooded was the Glass Unicorn? Amazing. Love that.

- (Yes, I’m team “redemption for Cinder please”, but come on… it was never going to happen this volume. And if it never happens, that’s okay, too – I’m loving her as a villain as well!)

- Also, I hope that all the people who were specifically criticizing Cinder for not being a competent enough villain are very happy now. Because there you have the competent villain you said you wanted! I mean, I’m saying this as someone who used to criticize Cinder’s character for not being interesting/deep enough. I used to say that I’d like a backstory or something that makes her more interesting/compelling to me. But as soon as we got that backstory, I happily switched sides to team “I like Cinder now”. So, I better not hear any complaining from the “I just want her to be a more competent villain” faction now!

- Yeah, I admit I’m getting annoyed with the Cinder hate. Everyone has a right to their opinions, but it gets frustrating when you’re going through the tag of a character you like and half of the tag are people talking about how badly they want that character to die. (Maybe use a seperate tag for it?)

- (I’m just realizing that I said “Well, at least it was only one character death” earlier, but people like Ironwood and Watts actually did die… I just didn’t count those because I don’t care. Sorry not sorry.)

- We decimated Salem’s faction quite a bit this volume, didn’t we? There’s only Cinder, Tyrian, and Mercury left. I wonder if Salem will get some new people on her side.

- Overall, while I did like this episode, I feel like Volume 8 got weaker towards the end. Most Volumes were at their best towards the end, but I feel like episodes 8-11 were the strongest parts of Volume 8, while episodes 12-14 were still good, but not as good.

- My prediction is that Volume 9 will (of course) be Tearm RWBY’s way out of the void (or whatever that place where they ended up is called) – And I quite like the theory that we won’t see the other characters at all and it’ll be focused only on what’s happening in the void.

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tj-shmt · 3 years

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A Day of Curation

Unless its Wednesday, it should be around 11am right now when i get up. First things first, put in my headphones and go get some good music! Its Monday - time to listen to my Discover Weekly playlist, which Spotify usually tailors perfectly to my tastes.

1. 🎶 SPOTIFY 🎶

Fun fact - this weeks "Discover Weekly" suggs. Usually I get the best music from there. I don't really recall the last time any of my friends really showed a song I didn't already know or was adequately good. Tho, I have to give Amelie some credit here, she constanly hits me with great Spanish tunes. (Also to Jasi and Safae which hit me up with some dope music from time to time) I mostly get inspiration from (sad to say but its true) tik tok or by randomly shazaming the world. I also really hate to limit myslfe to music i understand. On the contrary I LOVE LOVE LOVE music arround the world. Trust me i hear Tibetian Throat Singing to Russian Electro and even Islandic and Nativ American Tribal Music. To give you an impression of how important music consumption is for me:

Last Year i spent a total of 210 441 minutes on spotify alone. That is about 9 Hours a day. The average person uses Spotify for about 18 000 minutes a year. (My friend took the freedom to calculate how much money Spotify "looses" by my consumption. i pay $30 a year an Spotify gives $0,004891 per stream to the creator. An average of 3 minutes per song (70.000 streams) means spotify pays $342.37 to the creators. Thats $312.37 of deficit LOL)

Apart form that i cant really give Spotify a certain schedule when i listen to it cuz i listen to it all the time. During gaming, during coding, laundry, gym, work, class, before sleep. ✨Always✨

2. 💬 WhatsApp 💬

There is nothing better than sleeping for an eternity while everyone is already awake for probably 4 or more hours, working! *laughs in privileged design student* Since everyone is already living its live while I still drool, I gotta get up to date in the morning. Before i even leave bed, i checke my messages there. Similar to Spotify, I use WhatsApp the whole day and can't really tell when I would not use it. Except, my phone is always on silent (casual zennial phone call phobia) meaning i wont notice anything while zoning out or gaming (which usualy is the same).

3. 👨‍🏫 TEAMS 👩‍🏫

Yeah Yeah i can already hear it. "You wake up 5 minutes before class withouth breakfast or anything..." - bla bla bla. Yeah that is the case! I would usuly go on teams and enter the classroom, while preparing a breakfast (if you can call it breakfast after 12) sit down at my desk and listen to class. Causally everything that is too theoretical with music and whatsapp. Other classes that are interesting I`ll put my full attention to it.

But i hate teams in gerneral. Not cuz its sh**, no, usualy people that do their clases there have a weird way of using it. Finding material or looking up homeworks is such a struggle sometimes. (Props to you Kevin here, I have never seen anybody using teams in such a clean and struktured way than you do. Even tho you dont neccesarily use it as it was meant to be. (which might be the turning point on why its great))

4. 📺 YouTube 📺

Yup YouTube is usually the place to go after (sometimes during (I NEVER SAID THAT!)) class.

Actually, YouTube is the place to go for me. Relaxation, Entertainment, knowledge - anything! After class I'd usually watch "Cut" or other channels that produce let's plays or entertainment of some sort.

But it's also THE place to go during coding. I rather listen to Lofi or (Slowed, Reverbed) Music that doesnt really distract me. ALSO, during coding watch A SH*TLOAD OF TUTORIALS, cuz I am proud selftaught Zennial. #BestOfBothWorlds

5. 👨‍🍳 CHEFKOCH 👨‍🍳

I love to try new things and I constantly stalk the web for new recipes. Lately a lot of Asian and Vegan stuff. Chefkoch is the app to go where i also write down my own recipes to have them with me all the time. Great thing here is, i share this account with all my family members (currently 13, including my mom, aunts, other relatives). Great way to share the secret family recipes at any time!

(Cant recommend the recipe in the img, tho!)

6.🏐 ADDIDAS TRAINING🏐

Unlike all my sporty friends that used to hit the gym before covid and not got lazy, I started to use Training Apps like Addidas Training with its free Workout plans. I use it regularly and am happy i finally found a way to stay sporty.

7. ⌨️ VS CODE ⌨️

Its either Visual Studio Code, where I would code on my current project, or gaming. As mentioned above, I would get most of the inspiration from tutorials or using dev tools on different platforms.

8. 🎤 DISCORD 🎮

I´ll use Discord as a general term for Gaming since I play a lot but many different games, tho, always use discord to communicate with my freinds while gaming.

A great place to share random BS with friends and talk about anything that comes to my mind. I spent most of the evenings on Discord with my friends. Always did, in fact. Maybe the reason why I don't really feel so affected by the pandemic. I am used to being separated from my friends since they live all over Germany or the world in general. I always enjoy Online Live Events WITH my friends.

For me the web as always been a "with" not an "alone", which is why I never understand why so may struggle with feeling "alone" on live events online. JUST GRAB A FRIEND AND DISCOVER IT ✨TOGETHER✨!

9. 📼 DISNEY+ / NETFLIX 📼

Since I use both the same amount there is not thos or that. I never Really let anybody recommend me anything, cuz ... trust me, I WON'T watch it. IDK why that is, but I need a specific mood for each show. And nobody but myself can provide that. Probably why most ove the algorithms (esp Netflix) do not have an effect on me. I'm not in the mood for your ****, sorry!

Never the less, i periodically Binge a Series and then feel empty after it ended. Then i need some time to face reality again.

Funny tho, I binged Starwars Rebels on Disney+ and after it ended i just decide to buy 4 books on amazon that expand the story to starwars (#nerd i know). I will spend the next few months reading and probably not watching anything on both Streaming services.

10. 🤤 TIKTOK 🌈

... YUP.... I grew up with vine ... but TikTok got me. And honestly I don't regret it. It's the perfect algorithm that constantly finds the best videos that feed my thirsty queer ass. I mean ...

LOOK AT THE IMG ABOVE. YES, give me more....!

Its prolly not good for my digital wellbeing or my mental health but do I care at the moment..? noooooo...

Just give me more of Starwars Parodies, Sleepwalkers, Best off's of streamers, Queer content (cuz its time this heteronormativity world is fed with it! and no i do not indentify as anyting, im just the + at the very far end!) and yeah, even some sexy content if the creator feels good about it.

AND DONT YOU GIVE ME THAT SIDE EYE OF JUDGEMENT HERE - WE ALL THIRST FROM TIME TO TIME!

TOODLES!

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snapeaddict · 4 years

Note

YMMV but Lily was a stand in for Rowling. It's why the relationship with James is uncomfortable to read.

(I hope I guessed the meaning of stand in well because I am not totally sure)

In reference to this post about Gryffindor's (and JKR's) belief in their moral superiority.

Ah, yes op. I do think JKR wrote Lily as this, in her eyes, symbol of perfection for Harry, this symbol of goodness and kindness. I'm sure she saw her behaviour toward Severus as completely okay and positive, I'm sure she never questioned her writing of this apparently flawless character even during The Prince's Tale. But the fact she wrote Lily as flawless (more of a symbol than a character, honestly) doesn't mean she is actually flawless and we now know how problematic JKR's work can be.

I think, and this is a personal opinion, that JKR wrote Lily according to her standards of what a good person is like. Standards she also applies to herself, because she, as an author, and Lily, as her stand in character, have many similarities in the way they view the world and behave toward others. I am of course not comparing a real person and fictional character, but trying to show how one can influence the writing of a character - and what this person thinks of this character, which can be reflected through the narrative and main character's POV. Then, by extension, all of this strongly influences our own views on the character as readers, especially when reading the books for the first time. Some things that are disturbing to us and not understood by Rowling:

Strong belief in your own moral integrity: JKR seems to use her books as a weapon against those who point out her narrow-mindness, constantly reminding us she wrote them as a message of love and acceptance, "including" diversity in her world. She never questions her own behavior. She wrote Lily as morally flawless also because she is a Gryffindor and muggle-born: Lily, if you follow her narrative, is in her right to condemn and be critical of Severus' friends and choices, and to highlight her Gryffindor classmates moral superiority (ie they don't use dark magic) to justify the fact she grants herself the right to judge her friend and condemn his friends without addressing bullying. Because she knows better, and is moraly superior. Just as the narrative never really adressed the fact bullying by Gryffondors on a Slytherin isn't justified because they are "on the good side". JKR considers herself to be part of the Good People™, for many reasons, thus doesn't see any problem is writing blog posts explaining to some people why they are a threat to her own feminist fight or how they should behave. Of course I make NO comparison between her transphobia and a fictional character's behaviour; I'm just trying to show there is a similar pattern of behaviour which is, if I have to sum it up: I have moral integrity because [...] ➡️ So this moral superiority cannot be questioned ➡️ So this gives me the right to judge you/tell you how to behave without sweeping my own backyard.

Quick to condemn, unable to understand: This moral superiority (let's face it, Gryffindor are always portrayed as moraly superior in the books which nearly always justifies for discrimination against Slytherin) JKR thinks she has for reasons said above has for consequence the fact she gives herself the right to point out people's supposed flaws and "dangerous" behaviour without ever giving them time to explain, or listening to them. She sees what she wants to see, and so does Lily as she wrote her: the narrative makes of the fact she never gives Snape the opportunity to explain himself a normal thing, because we already know he is in the wrong; she already knows it and decided it, so why would she even ask?

Belief in your own right to judge and change people: for all the reasons I wrote above. You can question behaviours, you can point out flaws and issues: but you, as a person, cannot grand yourself the right to say "I know better than you do because this, this and this, so please change for me or I'll stop being kind to you." To JKR, this is perfectly acceptable behaviour (for example, "she knows and love trans people" but to the condition they remain silent and do not threaten her fragile views on feminism. If they do, she'll consider them a threat.) She writes Lily with a similar kind of behaviour regarding Slytherins: "without trying to understand who you are and why you are the person I see standing in front of me, without educating myself on your motives or asking for you pov, I ask you to change to match my own standards, no matter what it costs you."

Use of minorities, etc to serve personal aims and display your moral integrity: We have a whole history of JKR using sexual orientations or racial minorities to promote her work's open-mindness without ever giving them a voice or listening to them, trying to understand them. She writes Lily as a character who has such a good heart she is friends with Slytherin, dark arts affiliated Severus Snape and who knows it: "My friends (moraly superior Gryffindors) don't even know why I still hang out with you". ie "you should be grateful and their opinions have more values than yours to me." She points out her own benevolence at still accepting Severus as a friend, but never tries to understand Severus' own bravery and struggle at still being friend with her while having to survive in Slytherin house as a half blood (which was obviously more difficult). While reading this particular extract from the text, I cannot unsee the fact she (or JK) seems to think she does Severus a favor for being his friend (in context it's perhaps understandable), but it's very telling JKR would write this - we get the message as readers. The conclusion being, Lily had to be this moraly perfect girl as she had a Slytherin friend. I cannot say it's not implied by the narrative or it's not what JKR thought (she has lesbian and trans friends, so what she says cannot be discriminating/are justified by her supposed openness). Another disturbing and wrong way of thinking.

Belief that your belonging to one oppressed minority prevents you from oppressing others: JKR uses her identity as a woman in a patriarcal society, her statues as a woman who suffered from this patriarchy, to justify her transphobia and point out the fact she, as part of a group which is oppressed, do not oppress others (her blog post on "Why I'm not transphobic" is very telling). My feelings when I read Lily's character (but this may be interpretations from my part) is that her statues as muggle-born also automatically grants her moral integrity or at least a moral compass (narrative-wise) to be judgemental over Severus' relations and to decide whether or not the Marauder's actions toward him were serious: there is a kind of disturbing hierarchy that is created with Slytherin using dark arts and having prejudices against muggle borns (according to her) vs the Marauders and their pranks (not serious at all especially in comparison for her, and anyways they are Gryffindors). As if the fact she is the victim of oppressors means she doesn't have responsibilities or all she does is somehow justified or cannot mean ill (for example, turning her back on Severus while he is being sexually assaulted after he insulted her. She had a duty to perform as a prefect, which she wasn't even doing well before he said anything). The problem isn't her, she has reasons to act the way she does and flaws like all human beings. The problem is that the narrative (thus JKR) sides with her and never have us readers question her behaviour as well. It matches her inner belief that some people's moral integrity cannot be questioned for certain reasons. We are never offered another pov, we are never shown another perspective (of course Lily as a character isn't the one supposed to be this meta): for example, we could have been shown how easy it is to fall into radicalisation especially when you're an abused and neglected child from a poor social background and a minority. (Again I'm not saying it was up to Lily as a character to understand this. She had no obligation toward Severus and isn't all mighty and a Saint. The "problem" is that the narrative is trying to portray her as such because the author truly believes this is how a good person behaves and should be looked at.)

All of this of course being unconsciously accepted, but never put in question. Lily's behavior being of course viewed more positively because no matter how flawed it was, it served honorable aims: fighting against the disgusting blood purity ideology. Her values are honorable. So to me, of course JKR was convinced of Lily's human perfection and inherent goodness because I think she wrote her according to her own views and beliefs on the matter. Which is why, if we grant importance to the narrative, her marrying someone as crual as James Potter is disturbing according of what is said of her:

"Not only was she a singularly gifted witch, she was also an uncommonly kind woman. She had a way of seeing the beauty in others even, and perhaps most especially, when that person couldn't see it in themselves."

But, when you take a step back, you realise that her marriage with James is a consequence of JKR's internalised sexism, as she heavenly implied macho and possessive behaviour such as displayed by James were attractive to girls in the end, and, if you take another step back, you realize JK never understood the seriousness of the bullying she wrote so it didn't look so appealing to her that Lily would date James as it is to us.

Then, if we really think of the characters themselves and not JKR's intentions, I think James and Lily were a good match for various reasons, not all negative.

I'm afraid this is a little clumsy and I just really want to say, I'm not blaming Lily for her behavior even if we must acknowledge the fact she wasn't a very good friend and was very far from being perfect; I'm not making a comparison between real life issues and fictional ones, or between author and fictional character: I'm trying to show why Lily appeared as such a model of goodness into JKR's eyes, which shines through the way she tells the story, because she was written according to the writer's standards - some standards and positions we cry about every day when we open twitter. It's not really about her transphobia or use of minorities, but the reasons why she thinks she has a right to give judgemental opinions and ask people to change, her own system of thinking. Her - phobia are a consequence of this but I have to talk about them to show how it seems to me JKR thinks of herself and of others.

This is not anti Lily Potter, she still was a good person and lived in a particular context which also explains certain aspects of her behavior; this has nothing to do with making Snape look better or finding him excuses.

It has everything to do with the way the author viewed her characters and certainly failed to understand the seriousness and complexity of all subjects she chose to address. With the way she sees things and how her characters behave sometimes accordingly.

(Like, for example, not making any comparison, I'm sure she really thought it was positive when she created the house elves, slaves that are happy to be slaves and making fun of those who are disturbed by their conditions and having the only free elf die; I'm sure she thought the message was good when it clearly reeks of colonialist fantasy, thus her own opinions and views as a white British in the 90s [not generalising this to anyone else!], certainly internalised.)

PLEASE MAKE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SHE WRITES LILY THIS WAY" AND JUST "LILY".

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lovebuzz-indiandatingapp · 3 years

Text

Online Dating: Top 5 Ways to Initiate a Conversation

It is difficult to create a perfect opening message. Anything more exciting than “Hey” or "How's it going?" is an accomplishment.

Getting the conversation started isn't even the hardest part anymore - keeping it going is. It can be difficult to initiate a conversation with a total stranger, especially if you are not used to such encounters, or if you consider yourself to be quiet or introverted.

Asking the right questions and saying the right things will determine whether a relationship will lead to an in-person date. Consequently, we designed a little survey to determine which phases of conversation made people want to talk further.

In a survey, members of Lovebuzz, an up-and-coming free online dating site, were asked — “What was the pick line that got you talking?”

Quite varied responses poured in from all around. Here are the top 5 responses:

1. A professional connection -

Users of online dating apps noted that one conversation that always worked in their favour was showing an interest in the job. Let someone know if you think their career is noteworthy! Maybe they're a Youtuber, or a blogger, or even an NGO volunteer. Whatever the case may be, appreciating someone is a good way to initiate communication. There are better chances of getting a reply to such a message.

Client’s reference:

i) “Hey Priya, Fashion Designer! How cool is that job? What inspired you to pursue design?”

ii) “Author Siddharth! That's quite a profession! Developing characters and writing stories must be fun, right? As a bookworm, I love reading new stories. Let’s connect?”

iii) “What's up, petroleum engineer? I have to admit that I am quite intrigued! Well! Smriti here! Developer who wants to know everything about everything. So, what do Petroleum Engineers do?”

2. Appreciate Creative Bio -

Based on our survey, complementing a bio was the second-most frequently observed conversation leading to some starter. People spend a lot of time crafting a bio that speaks well of them and looks impressive. Recognizing their efforts on bio is often effective, always! It not only shows your interest in the person but also gives you a reason to take a lead without sounding desperate.

Client’s reference:

i) Bio - Workaholic by day, party animal by night! Response -

Your description of yourself has been so well expressed in just a few words! I'm blown away! About me- I am a man of few words, who loves to work smart and party wild. Let’s connect?”

ii) Bio - 3 things I can't live without — bike, dog, travel.

“Hey! I think we have a lot in common! Besides being a boho gal, I'm a Retriever mom. However, my love is not limited to a particular breed of dog. We should talk. I think we might click!”

3. Keeping up with Humour -

Girls love humour. Six out of ten girls say humour is their major turn-on. You can send someone a hilarious opening line, but if someone's profile made you laugh, tell them! All the more reason for you to strike up a conversation.

It is interesting to note that according to statistics, someone with humour is more likely to respond to you regardless of your looks or bio.

A funny opening line gets noticed easily and makes the best impression. Despite this, we ranked it third since not everyone is a quick wit. In light of this, rough humour might trigger a spam report or block. Be careful!

Client’s reference:

i) A guy in his geek glass Avtaar on the Lovebuzz stole my heart with this - “They say a good opening line is vital to initiate a conversation. Despite wanting to speak to you, I don't have the strongest opening line. Here’s my opening line, please consider ____________________. ;) P.S. I will always have something to say when I have nothing to say!”

ii) “

4. Dig deeper -

Check out the profile in detail and see if there is anything that interests you or you have in common. A deeper look at your profile will not only help you understand compatibility with the other person but also offer you plenty of conversation starters. A bio limit leads to people adding more information to their profiles, from place check-ins to hobbies and interests.

Thanks to lovebuzz, compatibility isn't a concern. A great feature of the Lovebuzz dating app is the 5-question daily compatibility test that gives you the best matches in advance. Thus, suggest the people on your profile who share your interests. Therefore, many topics are common.

Client’s reference:

1) "I noticed the collection of series you have watched. Wow! Do you have a favourite series?”

ii) “Wow, I’ve never been bungee jumping before, must be a wild experience?”

iii) “Ironman Triathlon! Now that is something I want to do. I am a marathon runner. Would love to hear about your triathlon experience!”

5. Pop a question -

Several Lovebuzz members said they fall for the profile picture but the bio does not have enough information to start a conversation, while the other profile information is hidden. In such cases, this is the best response to give, received by some of our Lovebuzz App users that quickly got them a response.

Client’s reference:

i) “I love watching. What does your ideal movie night look like? Chick Flick vs. Rom-Com; Popcorn vs. Nachos; Theater vs. Couch.”

ii) Foodie friend here! If you could eat only one meal again for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

Since we have spoken about the top 5 conversation starter that does the trick, we would also like to share some outdated messages that are serious turn-offs, as per various Lovebuzz users!

1. As much as we all love a compliment on our looks or profile picture, starting a conversation with a compliment on a profile picture feels too outdated and lazy to some. While there are a few who also appreciate it. Yet try to avoid these cheesy lines that make you look, wannabe.

“Hey you, pretty eyes.”

“Hi, You have the best smile in the world. Want to connect?”

“Hey! You look like someone I know. Let’s chat?”

2. Too simple messages that look effortless are total turn-oof and gets zero response whatsoever.

“Hey there!”

“Hey, wazzup?”

“Hi, Let’s talk!”

To know more of these conversation phase turn-offs, visit the lovebuzz blog and read —

9 Worst Conversation Phase Turn Offs During Online Dating

Still not sure about joining a dating app due to privacy concerns? Well! We have that sorted for you too. Lovebuzz takes an oath that your conversation is yours and we will not leak your identity or chats for even a zillion million dollars. To top it, Lovebuzz also offers the Avtaar option as a profile picture, so that you do not need to worry about being awkward bumps with your cousins or relatives.

So, HAPPY DATING with Lovebuzz!

#onlinedating #onlinedatingapp

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yogi-thee-bear · 3 years

Text

Is the Publishing Industry based more on LUCK than SKILL?

I wanted to rant today. Sorry. I imagine most writers want to be an established author; you want to sign a book deal, or maybe you want to sell off your WIP and never have to work again. All of this is fine, but the chances of it happening are very unlikely. That being said, what I am going to say will sound pessimistic.

Industry:

The publishing industry is a tough industry to jump into. A lot of networking goes into who gets the job. Some companies need more than just experience and skill. You’ll have to get your name out there if you want to be a part of the company. Don’t freak out or anything, that doesn't mean it's impossible. That just means you have to network. You could start an author's blog, meet other inspiring authors, maybe even be lucky enough to talk to best-selling authors. The industry isn't very diverse at the moment. People of color are always trying to push the expectations. Some have found their way into the big five companies and others have started or work with small businesses. Then there are people like me. People who don't have the opportunity to move to New York, or be a full-time author. People trying to get into the business but using different platforms to get their message out there. Either way, we're all Book Lovers and we are all valid.

Luck vs Skill:

Most of my favorite authors and most famous authors have had strokes of luck with their books. Victoria Aveyard’s friend sent her manuscript to her an agent, so she didn't have to query her book, and Angie Thomas found her agent on Twitter. In no way am I disrespecting these authors. Their books have changed the young adult industry. I just want you to know the full story of how these authors got from point A to point B. I have heard of other authors sending inquiries and hearing from agents, so it is not impossible. Just very difficult. I have heard from some authors that getting published sometimes requires more luck than skill. It sometimes depends on networking. Manuscripts are never perfect, but the ideas and the timing of the WIP make the story stick out.

Copyright is something you should keep in mind. Most traditional publishing authors sell the rights to their books. Some authors are fine with selling their work off, but I am not one of them. It's how people make their money and how publishing companies stay powerful. I couldn't part ways with a project that I have spent years creating from scratch. It would be heartbreaking. However, there is a way to keep the rights and make the book exactly how you want it, through self-publishing or Indie publishing. If you are fine with doing the hard work of publishing and marketing for your book, then you should totally do it. It is your product, your investment, your passion. There is nothing stopping you from achieving your goal. You should know that it takes a lot of money and resources.

Don’t Give Up:

I want the best for aspiring authors, but you should know about the industry. If you have a dream, go for it. Be realistic about things. If you want to be an author, you're probably going to get a day job, explore your other interests, and build up your social life. In your free time, write and plan about your perfect book. You don't have to rush to get your idea out there. Reading is not a race. If an opportunity to work in the publishing industry ever arises, I will take it. For now, I will enjoy finishing grad school, writing my WIP, and living life.

#authors #black authors #creative writing #writing blog #writers on tumblr #writing community #books #publishing #publishing industry #blogging

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cosmiclatte28 · 4 years

Text

Radio Romance (Doyoung x reader, Jaehyun)

This was on my wattpad too! Do check them out, I am working on my SuperM fanfiction.

Warning : Fluff, Doyoung and Jaehyun are radio DJs! Sweet ones obviously

fluff and safe for work ;)

enjoy !!!

A great hit by Adele fades out as the familiar prelude to my beloved radio segment chimes in. The catchy yet simple jingle makes me perks my ears.

"Good evening citizens! This is DJ Doyoung"

"And this is DJ Jaehyun. You are now listening to Night Paradise of One Two Seven Regular Radio"

"Where you can relax and sleep with sweet dreams." Said Doyoung.

"The time now is nine o'clock. It is Wednesday May 8 and tonight we will receive your song requests and of course the favorite Radio Romance program is still available." Jaehyunexplains their rundown.

I go to turn up the music louder, well the channel I am tuning in right now is our Campus' radio station and since freshman days, this radio station really helps me during the stress nights before finals until the lonely nights when I miss mother's home cook meal. I really love the program, listening to music, witnessing a guy confess to a girl he likes, sometimes I just like to listen to the bickering of the DJs, and mostly I just like having sounds in my silent room. I share an apartment with a foreigner from the same country but he is currently busy. And during these nights, the radio really entertains me.

"As we collect your messages and requests, first composition tonight will be from the latest hit by NCT. As the night is still early, we think a lot of our listeners are still sticking their nose to books and papers. To energize you, we present you Highway to Heaven." Jaehyun's deep voice echoes.

I smiled; this song is currently my mood booster. Picking up my pen, I can return to read my textbook and try my best to study more; Though it is challenging for me to keep on reading, instead of singing on top of my lungs while dancing wildly. As much as I want to do those two badly, I know that my parents sent me here to the United States from the Country of Ginseng and Kimchi to learn something and be someone. Halfway through the song, I can't hold back my feelings and grab my phone.

I quickly text a private message to someone,

"Seriously.. I can't focus. Finals are around the corner. Mum will kill me if A is not present."

I Hit the send button and locked my phone. I must not get carried away into chatting. That will end my life.

After calming my excited nerves with water, the radio DJs return with different love confessions and questions.

Ranging from

"What should I do to get this girl's attention? I'm super shy while she's the total opposite." The two each suggested dating advices. Which I believe were not from their experiences. It's definitely a google answer.

"I just broke up with my boy friend, and I need more comfort songs. Can you two please fulfil my request. Thanks, and DJ Jaehyun you're the best." To which Doyoung replies jokingly "Noted. More love songs. DJ Doyoung is in charge of songs tonight. You pick the wrong guy."

"I can't sleep tonight. I need to finish 3 works by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Please tune up the bpm." Jaehyun's cheeky remarks was "I think coffee will help you better than us. Our program ended at 10.. anyways, we hope you for the best! Fighting!"

Those are messages coming into their homepage

"Now moving on to the tweets, I have.." Doyoung laughs a bit

"To @osaka_prince I really miss you, let's meet for Takoyaki this week. Call me asap. From @nct_is_life"

"You heard that @osaka_prince, someone misses you! And next we have.."

tHis time Jaehyun's soothing voice exits the stereo

"To @ice_yongie how are you doing? I heard you tune into this channel regularly. Wish you all the best for your finals. From @fire_jung"

"Right... to every students, please stay healthy, have enough sleep, and prepare for your finals." Jaehyun said and continue with two more mentions.

After that they play another hit song, this time as the atmosphere starts to go bittersweet. Their choice was Because of You by Taeil.

The sweet voice and words I understands, made a good company for me. I finish reading my books as the last beat of the song drops and Doyoung'strademark voice comes in.

"We have one more hour to accompanyyour night. Now for the news, we have one from the school's Baseball team, one from the hospital and another from the cafeteria. After the news we'll head on to the Call Me Maybe segment. Please wait for it."

Jaehyun reads the news about the upcoming grand Baseball match this Thursday, it's Trojans vs Eagles. Don't forget to come with all your Trojans attire and merchandises we all know how the season will end. Winning is our middle name.

The next news was only about reminding students to take care of their health during finals and a new boba stall will open this Monday. Discount 50% for first 100 cups.

No matter how cheap that will be, I know I can't skip class just to queue for a boba. Not if I want to have my ass bloody red.

The Call Me Baby segment comes after 2 other compositions and oddly I love this segment. Though it may be weird to some people, listening someone making a voice note on air to their special ones and getting no reply.. still there is something in my heart that likes hearing those.

Apparently a lot of calls were desperate. From 5 voice message, 2 are clearly in a phase of knowing someone and trying to win their heart, the other 3 are asking how someone has been.. clearly they broke up one misses the other one, but have no choice other than to use the radio to ask his or her condition. Ego always wins right?

I feel bad for those three who cannot directly ask how the people who used to be special to them is feeling right now. Lucky I'm not in that condition.

Then they take a break with several advertisements and music.

I leave my room to wash my face and clean my books. Well I am sleepy, but I am waiting for someone to return home.

The radio DJs are currently online with the twitter. Since it is impossible to read every tweet on air, they take time answering some lucky listener's tweets. I scroll my twitter and smiles a little when my tweet got replied.

"Have strength! You can do it~" – DJ Doyoung

I retweeted it and afterwards continue scrolling and reading a lot of replies and stories. Apparently there's much more than love and broken heart problems. Some are posting questions of which food to eat, some are just saying hi, several others requested songs; others even post thank-you letters for the two DJ who work hard to make their nights enjoyable and fun.

I glance at the clock. It is 30 minutes to their closing. Turns out two hours is not a long time. Hufht if only every two hours lectures can be this quick and enjoyable.

The last segment was the story sharing time. Basically everyone can submit their inspiring stories to the channel's email and then the team will choose which one is good to share. Tonight the speaker was none other the school's favorite baseball captain. Lee Taeyong... he shares his baseball career path. He shares his hard works, his passion, and what keeps him moving forward. His 10 minutes talk is inspiring. I wiped a tear that falls from my eye, his story is really touching.

Jaehyun and Doyoung also seem to honor the man talking on air right now. They salute his never ending passion and hard work. Taeyong gets to greet some of his fans and cheer them up. The segment ends after 15 minutes and Both DJ wraps his visit by telling all listeners to support Taeyong and his team on field this Thursday.

More tweets are read and replied directly on air, soothing songs for sleeping also fills the room.

"We did not realize time is running. It was fun listening to your feeling. The stars are starting to shine on the clear sky. You might want to take a peek out of your window for a moment.And as the night deepens,our segment must end after this." Doyoung shares his regret.

"Right, we are sad Paradise Night is over, but worry not for we will see you again this Friday. Please keep on tuning into One Two Seven Regular Radio. I am DJ Jaehyun"

"and I am DJ Doyoung"

"We present you the last composition, UN Village by Baekhyun. Sweet Dreams and Good night." The two host harmonize and the calm upbeat prelude from UN Village takes over their voice.

My phone lights up as the song almost reach its chorus.

"I'm done. Going home now.. wait for me!"

I typed a reply and turn the volume louder.

I know that, I know that, I know Yes we are now

Hannam-dong UN Village hill Looking up at the moon from the hill

I walk from my room to the small balcony. The radio song fluently escapes my opened room. Isomehow remembered that Jaehyun or Doyoung earlier said the sky is bright. Turns out I can see sea of stars tonight. It's relaxing and pretty.

The front door of my apartment opens and closes. I turn around and see someone returning home with a tired face but a smile is still there.

"Thank you for waiting me... the stars are dancing tonight and the moon is big!" His attention distracted by the picturesque sky in front of our eyes. He stands beside me, one hand over my waist to bring me close to his warm body.

You and me, umm yeah

UN Village hill, eh

Side by side we look at the moon

We sway to the rhythm and the song ends not long after it. It was a nice closing song!

"I should be the one to say thank you!" I turn my head to face him.

He looks puzzled but a hint of smugness can't escape his lips which form a smile.

"Me? Why?"

"Because you did a great job hosting Paradise Night! I don't feel lonely and I can study better. Thanks to you and Jaehyun." I hug him and bury my face on his chest.

Doyoung softens at my words and returns my hug "Anything for my girl! Now, let me shower from the sweat of walking home.. and maybe I need some ramen tonight. I'm always hungry after hosting the radio." He walks to his room and after collecting his clothes and towel, he enters the toilet.

I make my way to the kitchen. Taking a pot to boil water and choosing our favorite night snack. While he clean himself under the shower, I prepare the dish and the side dishes.

"Hmmm it smells amazing! Thanks for cooking it for me." Doyoung greets me with a fresh smell of mint shampoo and he takes the sit across of me.

"Saranghae~" he sincerely gives me a heart with his fingers and digs into the food.

After a stifled laugh, I also begin eating mine.

Once again a beautiful night spent with the best radio DJ, who is luckily mine. Doyoung... na do saranghae💛

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todomitoukei · 4 years

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Sorry but in all honesty your answer really makes me feel angered. Cause not only you belittled me , when I was pointing out how Deku’s wishful thinking is ridiculous and that by teen I meant that he has room to grow up and being better and finally open his eyes instead of being bubbled in his dichotomic thinking.

No, you were just assuming I was accusing you, instead of reading that I was saying how childish the whole situation was. You think a teenager can handle a person who underwent abuses for years and most likely has a complex ptsd ? Good luck, even a pro in the field would have issues in picking the right word. Because they would know people like Dabi are so hurt that they could easily flip the table in full anger.

Deku is a teen, he’s scared and he go back in what he knows best. Am i saying Deku is right ? No. I started off with “I didn’t like what Deku said...” meaning I don’t stan for his behaviour.

Heroes vs villains is an ingroup vs outgroup battle pushed to total polaritation because heroes need this to keep on being heroes. And to never think “oh what that people endured, am I doing the right thing?” Constantly. Is this right ? No. It happens? Yes. Otherwise people would go insane. When Ingroup and outgroup happens people will always care more about their own ingroup. This is science. And it happens in everyday life. And it happens with you right here right now: you assumed I held a different position and just blindly attacked me when instead I share the same view on Dabi as yours (that’s why I started to follow you and reading your posts) but I was just providing another perspective on Deku. And about Dabi is right in his statement.

Because in real life many people doesn’t care if one was abused when they were young. People doesn’t care if they grew up in poor neighbourhood with 0 possibilities. Or if they had a severe mental illness never cured and resort to drugs to keep on living. Even with all of this, if said X person kills innocent (much like Dabi said he has done) is life long prison sentence or capital sentence. That’s how our world works, so why should Bnha’s work differently ? Deku is the product of society. He can gain critical thinking. But it’s not taken for granted that he has it. Because after all this is the society they were born into. Cool quirk= hero. No quirk / bad quirk = villain.

Deku just thought until now that encouraging and words could heal. They worked with Shinsou. They worked with Shoto. Why should he think he would fail? This is the reality he lived until now. And now FINALLY someone kicked him back into his place. But no. “Think-like” people ? Really? How dumb. How shortsighted. Basically you are answering like Deku did : protecting your ingroup without accepting or confronting with others perspective. It’s such a shame. I loved your post. Didn’t see that coming.

And about victims... if think you much like anyone else miss a point. Victim NEEDS validation. They are allowed to show their emotion. They are allowed to hold grudge. It they shouldn’t. And not because we are all saints. But because this hurts the victim. Forgiveness is correlated to wellbeing. When we forgive someone it’s us who benefits. That’s why many incredibly forgive even brutal murders of their beloved. What Dabi’s is doing it’s not right morally but more importantly isn’t good for his health. Saying “Dabi is right” implies that his behaviour is valid. It’s not . His pain is but in the end what did it cost to him ? He’s consumed by hate. He killed many people he considered innocents (aka he knows he did wrong and this is guilt).

His mental health is basically not there. He’s not happy at all. Yes he was abused, but neither the society and neither himself has done nothing to heal. To recover. Once dead he could have just put anything behind. Or just show up to his siblings. Leaving all of his hate behind because it’s toxic to him. He just go f you to his father and make his own life. But he can’t. He’s consumed by hate. And despite its not his fault, the fault he has it to never have tried to feel better , relying on someone (even inside the league why not) or just let all of it go. He could have just wait and totally ruin his father’s fame instead of all of this. But he just can’t. You think it’s good for a victim? Always living in the negative emotional state of their abusive even if they made it away?That’s not a good message at all. And no, in real life most likely abused victims are pushed to love on while recovering. Because all of this will make them suffer. Not their abusers. Imagine going on 10 years like this and now again say Dabi is a good example of victim validation. Or rather , say this to a pedo who was abused several times. Say this to a rapist who saw his mother raped day by day and interiorised this as a valid sexual approach. Tell this to the bully who grew up seeing a violent parent and gained that beating is a much more efficient way to make his voice to be heard.

Grow up in an household in which being an hero and make your father proud is everything and suddenly this is stripped away. A father who taught you must be great and always be on the top to even exists. A father who has incredibly high standard level i everything. And thus you translated to “well if I’m about to make him pay I’ll destroy the whole world who considered me dead. I’ll kill innocent, I’ll burn them alive, and lastly I’ll kill my family too”. And now tell me if you were to face this person who has no intention to stop and you’d say “yes, your pain is valid. You’re reasonable”. Would you see the person? Of the monster he became? Would you forgive him ? Or would you say what Deku said ? That Dabi is basically a villain? That’s he’s spitting on a man who’s trying to redeem ? Would you try to redeem Dabi and save him from his pain? Because no one did. And Deku is no different. No different by the people in his society. And no different by the people of OUR society.

If you’re are the person who could see the human beyond the action in the fore mentioned examples , hats of for you. But realistically what I said will happen. We are all Deku, who are willing to ignore others drama and to label villains as monsters to have no guilty at night. Because otherwise we would be the monsters.

I’m so disappointed. I really thought highly reading your posts and translations. I believed you could do better instead of rumbling and being annoyed.

I’m sorry you felt like I was belittling or attacking you - that wasn’t my intention.

You send me an ask with points that I disagree with, points that I’ve seen so much by now. You are allowed to have your opinions, but I am also allowed to voice mine and I simply am not interested in reading the same arguments used to justify D*ku’s behavior anymore.

Yes, I understand that he would side with Shouto - that that is the natural thing for people to do - but that doesn’t mean that we are not allowed to judge the way he handles things after so much time has passed and after he has been given so many opportunities to start thinking critically.

Please understand that my blog mainly focuses on the Todoroki family and the League. I’m not a fan of D*ku and with that, avoid talking about his character where possible because I don’t see a point in spreading negativity for no reason. On the rare occasion that I do, my notifications get filled with people trying to change my mind, which can get pretty tiring because people are allowed to have their opinions and we don’t always have to discuss and argue about every single opinion.

I agree that it’s not healthy for Dabi - or any victim - to stay in a negative mind space. It’s important to get help and learn to move on from the past; but that doesn’t mean that victims like Dabi don’t exist and that we shouldn’t talk about them. I know it’s a lot more difficult to have compassion for people like that - especially in real life - but I think fictional stories are partially there to challenge our views. I’m not saying Dabi is right in hurting people, but I can also recognize the mental downfall that it took for him to arrive at a point where he thinks this is justifiable. I disagree that we are all like D*ku in this and there are, in fact, real-life situations where someone commits crimes and people have compassion because they are given the backstory that explains how the person in question ended up doing what they did.

It’s great that you have a different opinion about this and I encourage you to continue having your views, but if you take issue with me disagreeing with the points you sent my way, then feel free to unfollow. I want this blog to remain as positive as possible instead of becoming a place where I argue with people over my opinions. So please don’t feel like you need to continue to follow me if this blog doesn’t provide that positivity for you.

Again, I’m sorry if any of my replies came off as condescending to you - that was definitely not my intention. Your opinions are valid. But please also understand that when someone interacts with my posts or sends me an ask that I am entitled to disagree and give my viewpoint.

That being said, thank you for reading and enjoying my posts thus far.

#long post #ask #293 #bnha #bnha spoilers #bnha discourse #Anonymous

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smitti4thecity · 3 years

Text

Imagine you are reading something and it ends like this?? Can a writer do this to people? Can a writer survive writing like this? And more importantly what is this?? Read along and hey follow along... time to take the brakes off of story telling and introduce the first of many in the "UNTITLED FOR NOW" series...

Untitled for now begins with three characters: Teapot, Treyein and then we have Jug. The opening scene features a cry for help from Teapot and a sad confession of guilt from Treyein... and we start to examine the characters beginning with Jug.

Teapot – Hey Jug? You busy

Jug – Never too busy for you

Teapot – Thank You for your kind words

Can you come over, I would rather talk to you about this face to face.

Jug – GPS says 25 minutes, see you about 2000hrs

Jug has no idea what he is about to walk into and that does not matter because in his world his friend of 22 years needs him and has prioritized her over all things.

Meanwhile Teapot was fuming.. IVE HAD ENOUGH, the jokes, the innaprorpiate touching has to stop, enough is enough and she must escalate things before she finds herself in Wednesday’s episode of SVU.

Text message from Treyein comes in, Teapot begins to read it..

Treyein – look tea, I have decided to check myself into a rehab facility, I recognize in myself that I have demons in my past I must let go of or I will never manifest into the beautiful person I am inside. I hope this move inspires you to somehow take your leap towards greatness. You have so much to offer the World and I truly will pray nightly that you live in your gift.

Teapot – My life will never be the same because of you – you have literally taken my (knock, knock, knock) throws phone on the bed.

Teapot – opens door and greets Jug with a hug

Jug – well hello, nice to see you too, you look nice, nails done I see you tea... pot!! knowing damn well I love the white tip nails..… wait!!! what is this??? some sort of setup???. Are you about to tell me we are dating? What did I walk into.. you sittin around lookin all good..... smellin like YSL and lookin even better than you smell. Look, three letters woman!!! I DO

Teapot – laughing and smiling, no no no no no, we are not dating

Jug – sigh of relief and disappointment, don’t act like if I didn’t really try and holla you wouldn’t oblige

Teapot – shrugs, grabs Jugs hand… more serious now – come in, lets talk things right now for me are….. tear drop

Jug – hugs her closely, sweetheart what is wrong? What is going on? Jug silences his phone, takes off his shoes and hurry’s back to teapot.. grabs her face – look at me? I’m in the moment completely with you – talk to me.

Teapot – I need some time, just be here with me, tell me how you are doing? I will tell you I just need some time to gather myself…

Jug – Well look it doesn’t really matter how I am doing.. Please, you cannot hold this inside of you it is going to drive you down a dark road

Teapot – I know I know I know… just please you go first.

Jug for the first time in his life was asked how he was doing? Jugs mind instantly drifted to where it all started for Jug...

It was hot outside and Jug had to walk home from two a days football practice – now Jug lived below the hill and practice was above the hill so Jug started his journey towards the bottom. His feet draggin.. head down.. he all dirty with the long day face going on…sweaty.. smellin like last weeks practice…whoooo Jug was hurtin that day..… not even halfway into the walk a voice yells out of one of the homes:

Voice: Hey N WORD!!!! Get outta my neighborhood..

Naw I’m just playin, the Voice didnt say that..

Not even halfway into the walk a voice can be heard saying..

Voice: Whats up g? And there she was.. Teapot!!

Teapot goes outside with her wifle ball bat and says you hungry I got some pringles inside.

Jug: with all the life brought back into his body from that statement, Yes I am.

Jug went inside and banged some pepperoni pizza pringles and enjoyed some good conversation. That day 22 years ago jumpstarted an unbelievable friendship that stands stronger each day that passes. Jug was introduced to an entire different world on that day he had never seen a two parent home, food in the pantry and refrigerator, candles smelling all good, a garage, Jugs life changed that day. Jug would have to eventually walk down that hill and go to his home but Jug was completely in that moment wit tea and Jug was and has proven to be forever grateful for the value meeting teapot has brought to his life. Jug provided entertainment and Jug is good at it, you know the sober guy that’s loving life, the only one on the dancefloor, singing and talking the loudest like hey look at me. That is Jug, the go to guy for anything you trying to do good or bad because Jug has lived. Jug travels the country for fun, he has made a living by traveling to countries and providing some of the most epic memories in travel history. You look at Jug and just automatically get inspired ladies love him, businesses respect his word and opinions. Jug has the President’s personal number and thats him -- the only person that can make the impossible possible – it is so important to have those people in your life that can connect with every age group and just find a common ground between different parties. You just have to see this man to believe this man.

Growing up Jug went to the community academy that required Jug to spend 7 days at the academy and he would go home for a total of 16 hours and after the 16 hours Jug would head back to the academy to finish out his next 7 days he did this for 6 years in lieu of elementary school. Well in year three at the academy Jug was minding his own business and Jug went home for his 16 hour leave period and Jugs mom pops Jug in the back of the head like “wtf” Jug?

Jug: Momma what

Jugs Momma: Boy you been cutting your hair?

Jug: no momma

This continues for two continuous weeks and Jug is completely clueless because when Jug looks in the mirror all he sees is a billion dollar smile that he would sell his self short on if he grins... the dreamy eyes authors make up words to describe. “Let’s call it hazel”

Jug was winning, fresh lineup, clothes was bummy but hey they all wore the same uniform, so LG.. F is the problem.

Jug strolls into his momma house on summer leave that next week, and Jug momma put the paws on Jug. You know the whoopen where you gotta go find the belt and you gotta find the one momma talking about or you gonna get hit wit the wrong belt and told to go find the other one…

when yo momma say “go get the belt” vs. “go get MY belt” the difference and the tone in those two statements are completely different and has two different sides of the type of ass that gets whipped.

When you get “the belt” only a little bit of ass is getting tore up so you good… when momma says get “MY BELT” well that my friend is all the ass.

That’s one of them beat downs that go like...

Boy (pop) didn’t (pop) I (pop) tell (pop) you (pop) to (pop) stop (pop) cutting (pop) yo (pop) hair (pop)

Huh? (Pop)

Get done you got snot bubbles, had two socks on now one of them outside underneath the car the other in the freezer stuck to the ice tray like its been there for a week.. yeah that type of life

Well a couple days later Jug was in his room iceing his buns when he hears his mothers voice scream out for him under his breath you know what Jug is saying so insert something you’d be saying in lieu of my sentence.

Jug gets up and goes in the other room and his Momma looks at him as if he were a newborn with all the love and desire a mother does and says to Jug. I scheduled you a doctors appointment I have been talking to some people and they say I should …. Jug interrupts his Mom…

Jug: who is they Mom because if you are about to say what I think you are about to say then I need to meet them immediately.

Jugs Momma: Well what do you think I am about to say

Jug: Well, with all due respect momma - - I think you about to say …. Takes a deep breath and

That …

That umm…

Jugs Momma: say it son, you can tell me

Jug: you sure?

Jugs momma: yes son, you can say whatever it is you are thinking

Jug: I was going to say that I think you are about to say that “they” told you to stop beating my @ and like I been tellin yo xxxx xxx I ain’t been cutting my fxxxx hair, shoot”

Jugs momma: yes son its called alopecia.. wait a second Boy who you talkin.. you know what. Go get the belt…

Jug: sighs and drops his dobber and starts that stroll to the belt room and just as he takes a step momma gone say

Jugs momma: you ain’t gotta go get the belt but you better watch yo mouth, don’t know who you think you in here talkin to like that.. done lost yo mind.. clearly.

Think you talkin to boy.. I…

See when momma told Jug “boy … I” Jug was always curious to know – You’ll what? But Jug is a smart person… Jug takes his Loss… later in life someone told Jug the same phrase .. “boy…I” and Jug being the curious character he is.. Jug said it.. you’ll what? And to Jugs surprise Jug got muffed in the face and Jug would go on to never be curious again about what boy I… means.. because if someone tells you “Boy….I”

That means they are going to muff you.. so take your L.. or say “Boy..I” back to them and get ready for a muffing contest because boy I means nothing more than Boy I will muff you..in the face..

Jugs Momma: Yes son, in grown peoples words that is what I’m saying to you, and "they" is just people that gossip.

Jug: I don’t know momma, I don’t like gossip

Jugs Momma: not like that gossip, boy, shut up, you going to the doctor so go get ready.

School years begins Jug is bald, and Jug gets clowned every single day and Jug laughed along, soaked in the attention and listened to what the kids were saying. Laughed louder than the other kids, complementing the very kids that were talking so bad about him and Jug had no choice because Jug couldn’t fight and Jug was lost, confused. Jug knew why they were talking about him but didn’t know how to make it stop so Jug took L’s day in and day out until one day… The King of all Joke makers connected with Jug on a “I’m too great of a jokster to waste time talkin bout yo globe head self” type level...and that Jokster looked at Jug and Jug looked back and it was like the torch was passed to Jug.. and in that moment Jugs mouth opened and said one of the most legendary bars in the history of joke telling.

Jug: If you don’t get yo old…..

.. now “if you don’t get yo old” is the perfect setup however it is tricky to pull off but if you pull it off you are elevated to a different tier of joke telling…and Jug did it...

Jug was invicible from that day forward.. everyone loved Jug and Jug loved everyone.. For years the very kids that talked reckless to Jug was in the laugh of a joke (blink of an eye -- get it?? Laugh of a joke?? No?) Jugs biggest support system.

Jug transformed that day into a legend, and in that moment Jug knew it was his life’s gift to spread love joy and happiness all over the world and that led to him winning a unanimous decision presidential election.. Yeah..He was not even on the ticket, everyone in the country wrote his name on the ballot..the most unqualified candidate in the history of life ...thats a whole nother story....

Jug has just been asked the most important question in his life, no one has ever asked Jug how he is doing? Jug has made a living by connecting with people and for the very first time in his life Jug must complete one of the most important steps in overcoming and that is answering one very important question.

Teapot – Jug, you okay you kinda went to another place for like 14 minutes, I have literally been calling your name… it was like you were not even here at all – I mean one of the first things that you said to me was that you are in the moment with me… I know that look Jug, I’ve never seen it on you… but Jug!! I know that look.. what is it..???

Jug – tears begin to form

Teapot – NO!! NO!! NO!! No Jug, you do not get to cry your way out of this one… Now open your mouth .. use your words and you get in this moment with me… and you tell me what is going on…

Jug – wipes them tears away that almost dropped, drops his head and unleashes this:

Interested in more? Tweak or Delete?

#tumblr writing community #tumblr writers #creative writing #writers of tumblr #writers block #aspiring author #story telling #writeblr #novel writing #new to tumblr #late night reading #this is good #i see what you did there

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theleagueof13 · 4 years

Text

Rewriting the Entirety of SGE: The School Years

All of this is solely up to my own preference. Yes, some parts may be messy because I am inexperienced. I don’t even know what a plot is. Here we go.

I didn’t have any major problem with Book 1 until Agatha’s Glow Up, so we’re starting there.

Canon: Agatha realizes she was beautiful all along and literally two minutes later Tedros falls in love with her.

However, I think it would’ve been so much more impactful if she simply changed her perspective on her “ugliness” from a negative light to an objective standpoint.

We already know that Agatha is badass, so I think she should view herself that way. Insecurity is nothing if she amounts her features to the raw human ability that they possess. Her frame is tall and skinny because she’s athletic, her big eyes serve her the purpose of seeing. Agatha may not be pretty, but every bone in her body was made so that she could eat, breathe, laugh, fight, do parkour around School for Evil.

It’s obvious that Ever Girls only care about their appearance because they want to impress boys (in School for Girls, they are shown as letting themselves go). Agatha is characterized as having no interest in boys, and therefore she doesn’t need to be pretty in the first place. Now, I know that princesses need a prince in order to have their fairytale, but Agatha already thinks that’s bullshit -- why not go against it?

Also, this is extremely minor, but I'd rather have Agatha have some kind of deformity, like a cleft lip or crooked spine. It would really sell the idea that she was different. As a kid, even if Soman screamed in my face that Agatha was canonically ugly, I couldn’t imagine how she could be if the features she was described with were SO normal. Of course, her deformity remains throughout the book, because that is Not Cool if it’s magically removed.

I’ve said this before in my I Don’t Really Like Agatha post, and I’ll say it again. She is ungrateful for the opportunity she could have at School for Good. I’d literally kill to be there, I’d sit through every mind-numbing, subtly sexist class about smiling and posture just so I could practice magic, and I’m sure a lot of people think the same.

[edited: didn’t mean to sound so callous, it’s only an opinion]

Agatha isn’t even using this to expand her power. She uses her wish a total of 2 times in this book, and it’s not like she didn’t have time to use it. It’s disappointing.

So, imagine that Agatha just GRINDS in her school-work. Sure, she fails the challenges related to Strategic Blushing and Matching Outfits, but everything else she excels. At first she just didn’t want to be turned into a plant, she was only studying to survive. Now, it’s more than that.

Agatha is introduced as having a fondness for villains, and it’s apparent that beauty is irrelevant in their success stories. Although she is hurt when Sophie alludes to how she’d “fit in” with the immature, trigger-happy Nevers, she can apply those values of dismissing outer appearances while still being Good. It’s not as if Agatha is greedy or deceitful. She saves the Wish Fish, forgives Sophie countless times, and doesn’t do anything outright vicious. There’s no reason to question that she’s NOT a Never. She can be ugly and an Ever at the same time, wasn’t that the original message?

Hypothetically, she gains more knowledge and strength in spells and potions and such, and just like Sophie, even if everyone doubted her, she could rise through the ranks. There’s no point in worrying about your looks when you’re the most powerful girl in school. (Did I make Agatha too close to Evil? Maybe. But she doesn’t need to push people down to bring herself up, she’s just a natural like that.)

Also, if she needs a boy to ask her out to the Snow Ball, she 100% hates that. She could just talk to Dovey, are they really gonna fail the baddest bitch there?

No. They’re not.

Okay, here’s the biggest part that everyone will hate me for. No Tagatha. At least, not until TLEA.

When Agatha comes out of the Groom Room having just kickstarted her self-esteem and everyone’s drooling, Tedros is attracted to her instantly. I guess that’s fine. Reasonable. But consider this:

Agatha doesn’t love Tedros back.

When Tedros asks her out at the Circus of Talents, she declines. Because if she really knew her own worth, she wouldn’t say yes before making friends with him first. That’s only fair. Actually, I’d say a part of insecurity is settling for any guy who gives you attention (aka Tedros). Y'all are gonna hit me with the damning “We accept the love we think we deserve”.

EVEN IF SHE BELIEVES SHE DESERVES HIM NOW, IT DOESN’T MEAN SHE’LL JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO DATE HIM. THAT’S MESSED UP.

Okay, I know Sophie threw her bitch fit because Agatha was being a hypocrite and dating Tedros. So, tweak that and have Sophie throw a bitch fit simply because Tedros asked Agatha out in the first place. That still makes sense with her entitled selfish personality.

In the stupid war of Evers and Nevers, (which was like, strange considering they’re kids but they’ll have a similar conflict for the next two years), Tedros and Agatha are not together. You could throw in a bit of “Tedros wants to prove to Agatha he’s a hero” but for god’s sakes we are NOT putting in that little chauvinistic “how dare a princess question me”. That one line gave me a bad feeling about Tedros — foreshadowing for AWWP? And it’s crazy that Soman wrote that, along with his lack of brain cells. Are you trying to make readers bully him in memes and instagram group chats? Not from personal experience.

Oh, and this is more of a complaint. But, why did Soman make Sophie bald, pockmarked, and toothless in her transformation of embracing Evil? I thought this was about breaking stereotypes.

The Evil stigma that’s drilled in their heads about being pretty and in general taking care of yourself, is completely inane to me. I can’t believe that Sophie’s “trickery” of Tedros was so revolutionary. None of the Nevers, in 200 years, thought of that?

Instead of her beauty regressing, I’d actually want it to be heightened. It’s what set her apart from the Nevers the moment she walked in. It should be the icing on top of the cake. When Sophie is at her peak of power, she’s a princess. Who could kill you.

If you’re worried about reducing women to be pretty objects or seductresses, stop. It’s okay. Sophie has other powers like summoning ravens, wasps, locusts, bats, using her singing voice for torture, and she is skilled in curses and death traps. In short, the Hot Evil Lady trope works for her. (I think. Someone correct me.)

At the end of SGE, Agatha chooses Sophie over Tedros. Needless to say, Tedros feels betrayed. If you wanted to make him an idiot, with anger issues, daddy issues, and an inferiority complex, this is the easiest way out. He’s under the misguided impression that Agatha belongs with him simply because 1. He loves her. 2. He’s the prince of Camelot, damnit. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

Not to mention that his father pressured him not to make the same mistake. And Tedros thinks that School for Good is his pool of suitors since Arthur married his classmate Guinevere? There is no line of logic in this man at all, did you miss the part where Guinevere cheats and runs away? Maybe Ever Girls isn’t the only place you should look! There are thousands of other girls in the Woods and you intend to find your soulmate at 14?? Goddamn.

In conclusion, Tedros’ hurt feelings continue to AWWP. Easy.

And if y’all gonna come for me about how Tedros is easily swayed by looks (he’s convinced that Sophie and Agatha are in the wrong schools for half the book) I’d want to make him a bit smarter. I know that’s impossible.

In canon, Tedros turns on Sophie because her true colors showed, and her witchy phase gives him that confirmation bias. He goes feral with testosterone and heroism, as we know.

I’d like him to understand that just because his solely physical attraction to Sophie grew when she’s evil and pretty, it doesn’t mean that she’s not any less dangerous. If Tedros, of all people, learns the difference between appearances vs reality, it would really drive the point home.

All right. You’re still here?

Here’s some extra headcanons you could add in here and here.

In the meantime I’ll think of more.

If there were any hard-hitting themes I was supposed to include, please tell me, I usually gloss over them while reading.

But anyway, thanks for reading this far.

#The School for Good and Evil #School for Good #School for Evil

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fanartfunart · 4 years

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Heya! I really really like your style and saw the commission thing and was wondering how to, y'know, commission a tningy ^^' I haven't done it before

Glad you like my art and like it enough to consider commissioning! ^u^

My commission information page is here. I suggest looking through it. I explain how I work in that as well, at the very bottom. But, I’ll give ya a breakdown for the Never Commissioned Before. (since that version lowkey assumes at least slight familiarity)

It’s not too difficult or anything so don't stress it! If you want a general price-point before diving in or anything: for me, an average work tends to be around $35-50ish USD (usually mostly depending on color or number of characters) but some of the more complex stuff, which often includes multiple characters and background goes more up towards $200ish. If you’re tighter on cash, as I know a lot of people are, I suggest setting yourself a budget and telling me what it is! That way if you want something, but you can’t afford it, I can help make it something affordable! (ie I may suggest not using full color, or having a bust rather than a full character- etc)

For the actual process, I’ve put it under the cut. I go pretty in-depth and it got long.

Step One: Message me with what you want to commission me to do. Give a short description.

You can message me on tumblr or through my email [email protected]. I like it if you come in with a semi-solid idea of what you want. Hopefully you read through my commission page, but, I’m also happy to provide suggestions and ideas as well. I do fanart and original works! You should have a description of what you have in mind ready.

Here’s two examples on each extreme of what I can work with:

“A picture of my character, standing with their hands on their hips. They have long brown hair and eyes and wear a pirate-like costume”

“A picture of my character, standing with their hands on their hips, a little sassy in pose an expression. They have long brown hair that goes to their hips, and is parted to the left. They have brown eyes, and a small scar on their cheek. They’re a little stocky and they wear a v-cut loose black tunic, a purple vest and leather belt.”

I’d ask more questions for both of these! I’ve never had a commission where I don’t feel the need to ask for more information. If it’s an original character (or even au-versions of fanart or characters I’m not familiar with), I love hearing about who they are as a character, since that gives me a sense of what energy I’m trying to portray with the character. If you have references (doesn’t matter if it’s an amalgamation of references plucked off of google or something you drew yourself) that’s awesome! I don't require it, but, they’re always appreciated. I am totally open to helping you make decisions too! if you have the base idea, but you don’t know if you want them to have a coat or not, I can give you sketches with both options.

Step 2: Pricing.

If you don’t already mention it, I’ll ask you specifics of the things in my commission post- ie: if it’s full body or a half body, or if it’s full color or anything.

If anything on my commission post confuses you, you can always ask me for more examples or an explanation of the difference!

After determining exactly what you want me to do, I��ll usually give you an estimate for how much it would cost to complete. Sometimes, if you’re still deciding between things that determine the price, like how complex the pose is, I might do some sketches first and see which ones you like before giving you a price. I have a little leeway on pricing here, and if you think it’s too much, you’re welcome to ask me to explain why I priced it that way and if I can lower the price. That said, a lower price means lower complexity and detail.

If we’re confident in the price, I like if you pay me at this point, rather than later, as it’s easy to forget, and frankly, I’d rather not do all this work just for someone to take the image and not pay me at the end. I have some leeway, but I usually prefer if you pay me before I get to the last step before completion. If it’s a lineart work, that means after the sketch. If it’s a colored work, it means after the lineart.

Step 3: Sketches.

When I get started with sketches it usually takes me a day or 2 to get them done. I’ll give you several to choose from. I usually do about 4-6 individual sketches and label them by number (because I’m dyslexic and for the life of me never remember left vs right).

Once I send you a batch of sketches I’ll ask you for your opinion. I basically want to know: which sketch(es) fit your idea the best and if there’s anything I’m missing or need to get rid of. It’s going to be loose and messy, so if you want me to explain anything about how it looks, please feel free to ask. I can combine sketches if you like parts of one or two of them but as a whole they’re not perfect. If I’m totally off the mark, you can totally tell me so! That kinda means I didn’t do my job right in step 1, and I’ll ask more questions to understand which aspect I’m missing.

Once we have one sketch that works, I’ll ask you a few more questions about what you’d like to see on the lineart.

Step 4: Lineart

Depending on how complex it is and how busy my life is, this might take me a day or a whole week.

Using the sketch as my base I’ll use this time to make clean lines, get some details in (this is usually where expressions and clothes are defined beyond the general structure.)

I’ll send you the sketch after I’m finished and once again, ask you what you think and what might need adjustment. Your job is to nitpick here! Please, feel free to nitpick. Is the hair too short? Is the arm in a funky angle? Tell me! You’re buying it, you get to critique it. I’ll work with you to come to an agreeable look.

If you’re commissioning me for a colored work, I’ll also ask you for any clarification/changes from the original concept for the color.

Step 5: Color

This tends to take about 1-3 days.

If it’s flat color, it’ll be pretty simple, and shading or lighting will be done with kinda flat bold lines unless otherwise stated that you just want it Flat-Flat. It’s not my usual style, so most people tend to go for full color. Full color is my usual coloring style, and I use some pretty soft shading. It tends to reflect a midday-look, but if there’s a specific background I’m doing, I will match the color to it. Dynamic shading is a secondary layer of color. I usually do color and shading on one layer. Dynamic shading is where I work with really bold, dramatic lighting.

I usually work with a background at the same time as everything else, but, sometimes I don’t because I focused on one aspect or another, so that might be an additional step.

Once again, I’ll send the work to you and ask for your opinion.

Step 6: Finishing up

Once you’re happy with it, all that’s left is A) confirming you paid me (I’ll usually remember or write it down, so if you had, I won't ask.) B) signing the artwork and C) sending it to you via email. I usually send it as a .png but you’re welcome to request other filetypes. I’ll ask you for all these things too.

You’re also welcome to request that I record the process I can take screen-capture videos or I can screen-shot each step that I’m not screen-shotting already to send to get your opinion. (you’d have to ask me to do this at the beginning though.)

After all that, I’ll usually post it on my tumblr here, and you’ll have your commission!

#commissioning #answered asks #fanart's commissions

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edwardslostalchemy · 4 years

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the thing that kills me about bakugou is when the plf go "having a powerful quirk means i'm better than you"and basically advocate for eugenics, it's horrible and corrupt, but when bakugou does it, it's lol funny and 'oh that gremlin.' in a recent chapter he made fun of the past OFA holders for having 'weak' quirks and dying and he said these things in front of Toshi, who has himself given so much. just...what was the point of him knowing about OFA if he was just going to be a disrespectful ass?

I have no idea why it was necessary for him to know, tbh. I think it was a waste of an opportunity to give him growth by NOT telling him. And honestly, I agree that k*tsuki and the plf have similar ideals because they’re elitists. :/ They think they’re better than others. Unironically, the lov wanting k*tsuki on their side would have been like, them all sharing this same thought. Idk, I just don’t like him. The things he says and does are played off as comedic relief now and it’s honestly so annoying. He needs to be brought down from his pedestal.

(I have multiple messages so I am putting them all in one post under a read more, I hope it works, but if somehow it doesn’t, I’m really sorry. My computer says it works, but mobile doesn’t show it. This will be a long post.)

Anonymous said:

You know... I wouldn’t mind Bakugou winning vs Ochako so much if his blast had simply redirected enough rubble for him to make it though the pelting, and the fight had ended with an actual visible inflicted injury on his part, like a cut on his face, that stuck around for the rest of the tournament. Make the close call have more concrete, visible consequences for him then his arms aching a bit.

I agree with this completely. That thing about his arms aching doesn’t show much of the consequences at all. And he gets over it rather quickly. I hate that he has so much plot armor.

Anonymous said:

Ngl i dont ship Todo/deku (dont really ship Izuku with anyone lol) but its such a nice ship like?? People can ship what they want but why ship Baku/deku when Tododeku is RIGHT THERE. I would rather have todo/deku be the twin stars like.. Todoroki having to overcome his fathers legacy and be a better hero then his father ever could be while Izuku perpetuates all mights legacy and carries the legacy of One For All?? Poetic cinema

+ I SENT AN ASK ABOUT PREFERRING TODO/DEKU TO BAKU/DEKU AND I WANTED TO ADD SOMETHING SKSKS. we could totally have an "its your power" moment. Izuku getting Todo to accept his left side and Todo getting Izuku to remember that OFA is his power now.

Todo/deku is really the poetic cinema we need and deserve. Idk why people like b*kud*ku, that’s what they prefer, but the ship itself is not healthy in the slightest and I find it pretty disturbing. I agree with you, nony. Everything you said is correct.

Anonymous said:

If I'm gonna be honest the whole "he was raised in a household of screaming and abuse" isn't a good enough reason as to why Bakugo has no chill. Like we've seen people like Todoroki raised in a household much worst but he didn't come out as a jerk or bully. I'd like to see more of Bakugo's interactions with his parents but for the most part the dad seems like a pushover and his mom is just loud at times. But no where close to Endeavor. So yeah Bakugo shut up challenge

Yeah, idk how their dynamic works, it’s just mitsuki screaming at k*tsuki while his dad tries to intervene, but doesn’t do a good job about it. I don’t like that she smacked his head. But I think people really stretch it to give him a tragic backstory when in reality, he doesn’t have one. He is a spoiled brat. Shouto has proven how to be a better person. He’s just a better character in general.

Anonymous said:

This might be long but I want to get something off my chest and I love your blog so I used to like bk//dk. If you asked me why. It's because I was enamored by the fanon ver of this pair with a better bkg and the whole appeal of childhood 'friends'/reconciliation trope it had going on and some fans have convinced me that their relationship wasn't as bad as it's portrayed before UA and that bkg was only like that because of society and thinking Izuku was "looking down" at him. 1/3

Thinking about it. it's really stupid and the verge of victim blaming but anyways. What stopped me from liking it and instead hating the pair is that after dk vs kc 2 I was expecting the improvement in their relationship, for a moment I thought we got it. But in reality it's just bc we haven't seen them interact much after the overhaul arc and before the joint training arc.Then the joint arc came and the 2nd internship arc came and whoo boy, I feel like I was cheated on. 2/3

Rather than making bkg's behavior improve towards Izuku, He's still as much of an asshole who belittles him, mocks him ,acts like he can't stand him but less threats of killing him combined with Izuku who just takes it because he's a nice person. But the narrative acts like their good friends now and I have been feeling so frustrated with this, I wanted a mutual relationship with mutual respect on both sides and bk//dk hasn't reached that part and it shouldn't take this long for it to be. 3/3

Thank you for sharing this with me, nony!! I appreciate it. It’s really sad that their relationship hasn’t improved at all. It’s so long overdue and now things are played as comedic relief like him hurting Izuku with his spike and also being extremely disrespectful during the ofa meetings. Their relationship isn’t healthy and it isn’t friendly, no matter how canon wants to paint it that way.

Anonymous said:

the only reason bkg gets to know OFA is because he guilted Izu into telling him a half truth in S1 then guilted AM and Izu with his tantrum in S3 He also had the privilege to know Izu since childhood and saw AFO so he had the advantage Izuku would have never told him otherwise. Same time Izuku's friends don't "deserve" to know about OFA, rather, Izuku deciding to tell them himself will make the revelation to them more special since its Izu deciding to tell a piece of himself than being forced to

HOT TAKE

@havocsss said:

i just wanted to say i appreciate your opinion on bnha about bakugo (bc someone finally said it 👀) and you put into words for me how i feel abt that character - and that's partly why i just can't watch it. he's the bully that everyone idolises and gets let away with murder and naaaah mate that's not how it works

Thank you, I’m glad to hear it. I don’t like that he, a literal bully who has suicide baited Izuku and has hurt him with his explosion quirk, is the fandom’s favorite and the most popular character. Literally any other character would have been better to stan than him. He’s everywhere and I can’t enjoy part of the series because of him always being there. It’s so annoying. I will continue to yell about why he is not a good character until horikoshi gives us the development he desperately needs AND an apology to Izuku for being so abusive to him. And yes, bullying is abuse.

Anonymous said:

I know that feeling. I also greatly dislike Bakugou. He almost ruins the manga for me at times. I can't even think of a plot with Izuku where Hori won't try to include him in some way. I tried reading metas abt him, tried to look at him in a different light but I realised that I really hate his personality, combined with his overhyped popularity just makes me can't stand him. I wish I could even just be neutral for him but that's being a challenge.

Yeah, he’s not a good character. Very infuriating and annoying. We do not stan him in this house.

Anonymous said:

I feel like if Aizawa actually knew that Bakugou used to bully Izuku he'd probably whoop Bakugou's ass

OOF I’d like to see him expel him.

Anonymous said:

I like how it's framed like I'm supposed to feel sorry for Bakugou because he feels manpain for not being the strongest in the class. Like the dude went from a regular school to the best of the best and he still expected to be the strongest person there is with no challenge?

Awww, is the spoiled brat sad? Good. He can die mad about it.

Anonymous said:

If Aizawa did the combat training instead of All Might he would've stopped Bakugou the first time he used his gauntlets and automatically failed him and I really wish that would've been the outcome

Tbh he should have been expelled for trying to kill a classmate.

Anonymous said:

Oh yeah I remember that character entrance when he just basically I insults his partner for training. Look I love the kid but if I was a teacher I would've flamed him so hard like there could've been a hostage, that weapon could have went off, his partner could've been captured. That's how you ended up failing the license exam

OOF. When will he learn.

Anonymous said:

Um excuse the ever living fuck out of me but I just saw a fic that was bakugou/consequences where Izuku attempted suicide and you know what the ship was?? My pure green son who deserves the world and his literal bully/abuser are you SHITTING ME???? I try very hard not to hate ships I do really try but I just CAN'T with this ship it disgusts me

It's not a healthy ship. I am disturbed by this fic and I don’t even know what it’s called and I don’t want to know. Eww.

Anonymous said:

I see myself as Izuku cause I relate to him a lot and I just read something where Bakugou does what my abuser did to me to Izuku and now I'm having a very hard time stomaching the thought of him and like I really loved kiri/baku too but now I can't even think about it cause someone who shipped my notp thought it would be a good idea to make Bakugou an abuser and give Izuku Stockholm syndrome ☹

Oh nony…I’m so sorry to hear about that. That really sounds rough and I hope you’re feeling better. That sounds awful. I’m just…I’m appalled. Also giving Izuku Stockholm syndrome with this ship is just. Wow.

#anti bakugou #anti bkdk #iamtypinglike98madmen #havocsss #anonymous #tw abuse #if anyone needs anything tagged let me know

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frumfrumfroo · 5 years

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My best friend has never seen Star Wars but went to TROS with friends. She doesn’t watch/read Sci-Fi or fantasy. She teaches literature, & somehow her take on the movie was that it was good if somewhat simplistic. She said she saw the clear vision of good vs evil, the Jesus allusion, the Romeo/Juliet allusion, & hope/love save the day. I love your meta & don’t have the same skill in explaining why the story doesn’t work. Could you share some points that a non-Star Wars person would understand?

I haven’t and will never actually watch this film in its entirety, so I’m not really the best person to give you a detailed breakdown addressing it on its own merits instead of why the concluding beats are inexcusable in context.

But I would hope someone who teaches literature would know better than to think there’s anything like a coherent vision of good and evil here? Would know what Romeo and Juliet is actually about and that it has nothing whatsoever in common with this nonsense?

This isn’t Romeo and Juliet. R&J is about the idealistic lovers as causalities of a pointless conflict based on pride and stubborn clinging on to hatred the source of which isn’t even remembered. The opposing sides aren’t functionally or morally different, it’s just prejudice. The avoidable and unnecessary nature of the lover’s deaths is the thematic centre of the narrative.

In Star Wars the war is a metaphor for the conflict going on in the human spirit between selfishness and love (aka compassion, aka selflessness). The Empire/First Order/Dark Side are straight up evil and there is no compromise possible with them. People on the dark side can be saved, people in the First Order can be saved, but they are on the wrong side and the good guys are right to fight against that side. The problem in the galaxy is selfish choices and selfish choices create evil, but love is always stronger than violence and love is productive- choosing love is choosing life. There is no punishment and sacrifice is rewarded. Love doesn’t kill you, love sets you free and allows you to live.

R&J is also a tragedy in the most textbook literal sense, where Star Wars is supposed to be an idealistic fairy tale about hope. Maybe people should keep this in mind when comparing the endings. Edit: And I thought it went without saying, but I guess I need to mention: Romeo and Juliet both died. The point was the waste of their lives and their love. Ben dying for Rey to live just has nothing NOTHING to do with that. Sad lovers =/= R&J. Read more than four books ever.

Another anon summed up some points on agency and good/evil:

TRoS is not even remotely good at its own merits, like: judging from the clunky dialogue this is *ostensibly* about Evil being seemingly inevitable and Good being a free active choice, but the story undermines all of that! Finn’s deflection as a result of Force sensitivity, “And I am all the Jedi” and “Rey, Rey Skywalker” present Good in this story as being just another determinist system. The only act of heroic choice is Ben’s, and he still inevitably dies unmourned and unacknowledged

And what they have done to Rey’s story has completely stripped her of moral agency of any kind. She has power because of her bloodline, she has some kind of ill-defined ‘darkness’ because of her bloodline, nothing organic to her as an individual remains. She has no conflict or moral choice, she’s just Innately Good. This determinism is violently opposed to the message of sw that everyone always has a choice, that evil is something you choose over time, that good is a decision you can ALWAYS make.

Ben’s redemption is completely undermined by making his motivations suddenly totally unclear and predicating his turn on Rey telling him she wanted to take ‘Ben’s hand’. Implying a) that he’s only Ben when he’s good instead of calling him on his bullshit persona and forcing him to accept he’s always Ben b) that her love is conditional c) that he turns not because he has realised he’s wrong about fatalism and the ends justifying the means but because he’s realised Rey will never be with him on the dark side and d) that Rey has never faced any temptations or even considered being selfish by buying into his damaged world view just to be with him.

This is morality chain writing and robs both characters of any resonance. Turning because he wants to be with Rey is not redemption. Rey giving him an ultimatum is not grace or love. There is no SW heroism here.

Rey’s whole battle with Palpatine and death is stupid and makes no sense. She wins with violence and makes no sacrifices. Ben’s sacrifice is arbitrary and not justifiable and doesn’t conclude his arc. It’s a continuation of his enslavement, an abnegation of his identity and legacy when he needed to reclaim it.

My tags for the foundational principles of sw and how they work and also the character tags with posts explaining why this shit don’t make sense for them:

space crime and punishment

Rey

Ben Solo

redemption

the legacy

don’t call the exorcist we got a happy murder pact

Like, everything your friend said is wrong if they think any part of this holds together, but I’ve written dozens of disparate rants on why and I’m not really prepared to summarise atm. The Rey tag is your best bet for some good overviews of TRoS bullshit, and there are some compilations with links further down. Ben tag has more about fatalism (also Luke’s arc in TLJ, also Vader’s only textual set up for redemption in the OT).

Ben dying for her is totally unacceptable predestination rubbish in a moral drama about the power of an individual’s choice. There’s no hope unless he lives because he is the happy ending of the previous trilogies, there’s no hope or light possible in the GFFA unless he lives because if the family’s existence was one of tragedy, failure, and suffering then the Force made a mistake in creating the Skywalkers. Or the Force is not benevolent. It breaks the entire story and all of its mythology.

And they gave Rey everyone else’s arcs (for no reason) after stripping her of hers (for no reason), except she resolves these arcs by being Born Good and never struggling where the characters to whom they organically belonged made meaningful choices. She is handed everything where Ben doesn’t deserve to live because he couldn’t raise himself and couldn’t cope with being abused his entire life without making some mistakes and having some ugly trauma. He redeems himself (BY himself) and it’s still not good enough. Rey makes no heroic unselfish choice, he does and he’s rewarded with death. This makes love and good transactional, it means he needs to pay for Anakin’s sins. He’s a victim and barely comes-of-age, but he’s dead while his family doesn’t give a shit. It’s disgusting.

#trosspoilers #salt #a mess but I'm too tired and angry to actually give you a good overviews I'm sorry anon #I'm not chill #PEOPLE DON'T FUCK WITH ATONEMENT DO THEY?#I'm not going to start about Jesus on here #just know that your dualism is what's wrong with society #the Force is not a demiurge #the Force is pure Being #we're getting too deep abort abort #if you've studied literature you should know this is not how you scapegoat in an idealistic story #WRONG ABOUT STAR WARS #wrong about theology #just wrong

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