#but that's just me thinking they are among the narratively weaker books

[amphiptere]

what are everyone’s ranking order for the narnia books. as a kid mine was 5-7-3-4-6-1-2, or something like that, with each number denoting the chronological order. now I have come to my senses about the seventh and I’m midway through a grown-up reread but I think it’ll be something like 5-3-6-1-4-2-7.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Idk if your still accepting episode asks so sorry if your not but.

James and the bootlace? (Or whatever the bootlace ones call? I think it's that but I can never remember aha /LH)

Ah, so, I'm pretty fond of this one!

Seems to be a minority opinion (judging from endless Twitter discussions). I've consistently seen "James and the Coaches" ranked among the worst episodes in Season 1—but, really? Ugh, why?

I don't really mind James the Red Engine (the "worst Wilbert Awdry book," as many have claimed, including Awdry himself), and I actively love the S1 James arc. Allcroft made an excellent call once again in combining one of the weaker RWS stories with another, and, as a result, this is probably the best of the three S1 James episodes. (I know lots of people like the following one for showcasing Jamesian determination, and that's cool too, but for sheer narrative structure "Coaches" leaves it in the dust.)

This was one of my top-tier eps when I was a kid. Season 1 James is so emotional and exciting and dazzling; I kind of dislike how he was portrayed afterwards as "irritable asshole supreme." He is such a nice rich character in this season. So up-and-down-y. Yes, he can be a right bastard (to Toby, and to the poor broken coach in this very episode), but it is also so clear in this season how sensitive he is to everyone's opinions, how ambitious he is for glory, how crushed he is by failure. I'm not saying the rest of it excuses the times when he screws up; just, from a character perspective, he is so much more relatable and interesting.

Also, his red paint was indeed very eye-catching and his theme song was super catchy. That definitely helped.

This episode remains a great example of how Season 1 could both do character arcs and let characters fall out of focus? I love how in this episode the narrative shifts from mostly-Thomas to James, I love how Gordon and Henry drop out of sight altogether, I love how Thomas is barely there (but he is there in a natural and useful small role, not shoehorned in—love his two lines so much! he's in the role of "encouraging the newcomers" that is used in later, non-RWS seasons, but he still remains so charmingly in-character and self-important here, not bland at all). Getting to pan over to James, with Edward as deuteragonist plus a focus on some human characters, is just such a great change in pace. In thes early days the show feels like such a terrific combination of "episodic" and "serial" TV.

Gotta love how this is one of the stories that end on an unhappy note. Season 1 was great at this sort of variety! It's not even an "unhappy ending" following a formula used a lot in the early Classic Series of "engine fouls up, gets scolded by FC at the end." Here James starts by flying high, gets scolded in the middle, fouls up, and at the end has regrets and has already "learned his lesson" without needing to be chastised by FC at all (even though it's coming, lol). There's something just so nice and natural and not-so-samey about these early stories. I adore the variety. Adore it.

Also, props to James's crew in this episode, they are so underrated. "Well, where is the bootlace coming from?" asks the guard, like THIS is the biggest objection to this bit of DIY audacity. Love it! And of course Jeremiah Jobling is a one-hit wonder.

Overall, to me it's one of the best "overeager new engine disregards sound advice and gets smacked down by hand of fate" stories out there, and the adaptation is easy on the eyes (and ears) to boot...

(don't say it don't say it don't say it)

... lace.

[dahlia-coccinea]

I reread Patsy Stoneman’s essay, “Catherine Earnshaw's Journey to Her Home among the Dead: Fresh Thoughts on Wuthering Heights and 'Epipsychidion,” and my feelings towards it pretty similar to how I feel about J. Hillis Miller’s essays. I enjoyed reading it but I don’t agree with 85% of it. I haven’t reread any of Miller’s takes (since there are a plethora of metaphysical interpretations it would be so repetitive) and that probably allows for me to still appreciate his essays as much as I do...I think rereading Stoneman’s essay was a bad idea because reading it a second time made it much less enjoyable and I read it much more critically.

There are a lot of similarities between the metaphysical and Romantic love narratives, and they also share a lot of the same failings. They tend to be very selective about what scenes are analyzed and they aren’t put into a larger context, and they tend to be the most poetic scenes. Typically these arguments cannot place the meaning of the 2nd generation into the context of the novel either. I’ve already said quite a bit about the metaphysical arguments, so I’m going to try and discuss just the points in this specific essay. Sorry parts may be a little repetitive because critics often bring up the same quotes and ideas again and again. And this will be very long.

First, Stoneman identifies that there are two popular theories about Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship: “One is the myth of star-crossed lovers, who are cheated of marriage by social forces,” and then the metaphysical argument which, “presents Catherine and Heathcliff’s love as of a kind which is in itself incapable of social consummation.” She then volunteers a third option that is based on concepts of free love and/or “twin love” that can found in Romantic literature.

It is interesting, but I’m pretty sure Catherine also thinks she betrayed her own heart? She does tell Nelly she knows in her heart and soul she shouldn’t marry Edgar, and on her deathbed, she says “If I’ve done wrong, I’m dying for it.” I know some take it to mean she thinks that she didn’t do what was wrong to her, but she does add “You left me too” so I think she does agree with Heathcliff that she, in a way, left him. 

There is ample room in the novel to compare Heathcliff and Edgar as there are few similarities between them. The society in which they live is violent and hierarchical and that never seems to be questioned by any character - I think that is an important backdrop and allows for commentary on class, race, and gender. I don’t think this particularly has to do with how we view exclusive relationships. And based on the reasons Catherine gives for why she would marry one and not the other, I think Catherine understands she is limited by this society. Her reasons for marrying Edgar are all very practical.

Instead of any fulfillment, from the start, Nelly says Catherine struggled and had an “objection to her two friends meeting at all.” Catherine is aware they dislike each other from the start and this makes things more difficult for her as Hindley wants her to marry Edgar, Heathcliff is more and more remote, and the two of them are stuck suffering Hindley’s cruelty. Nelly even says during this time, “I’ve had many a laugh at her perplexities and untold troubles, which she vainly strove to hide from my mockery.” If what Stoneman says is true she would have to be beyond naive, if not utterly foolish, to think that a relationship with both Edgar and Heathcliff would be desirable for spiritual fulfillment after Heathcliff’s treatment at the Grange, or his throwing applesauce on Edgar (which this scene brings her to tears and she blames Edgar for Heathcliff’s resulting punishment). 

Stoneman does attempt to reconcile the Catherine confiding in Nelly that she knows in her heart and soul she is wrong to accept Linton’s proposal - she says this statement is negated by her insistence of never being parted from Heathcliff and that therefore means her love for him must simply be different and Romantic, rather than romantic/marriage-oriented. I’ve written a lot about this already but so I’ll just say that is pretty selective of the whole conversation with Nelly. 

Stoneman says, that from this scene and how we see Catherine greet Heathcliff this shows, “No sense of tragic irony seems to enter into her consciousness, nor any foreboding of difficulties.”? Seems to be a bit of an overstatement when you consider that Edgar’s proposal brings Catherine to tears because she feels she isn’t meant to be with him. She doesn’t excitedly tell Nelly that she loves them both, and she doesn’t seem very optimistic when she says Edgar, “must shake off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least.” While idealistic in thinking Edgar would help Heathcliff she is still pragmatic in understanding how few options she has. She fears Heathcliff listening to this conversation and will be hurt by this, or him finding out how much she loves him. Is her "delirious” joy upon Heathcliff’s return really a sign of her lack of conformity and utter loss at understanding their jealously? Or is it more likely because she thought he might be dead for those three years? She also tirelessly spends the next 3 months balancing Heathcliff’s dislike of Edgar (which I believe also spurs her to continue concealing her feelings towards him), Edgar’s jealously, and a new fun problem: Isabella’s infatuation with Heathcliff. 

I won’t go into too much detail in this because it’s so similar to the metaphysical argument, but Stoneman notes that in Shelley’s ‘Epipsychidion’ there isn’t just the concept of free love but of “twin love” between 2 of the 3 person triangle, so it assumes that Catherine/Heathcliff could more platonic or at least asexual. 

In this interpretation Catherine “revises the traditional masculinity” of the “Romantic lover:” 

“Shelly’s experiment depended on women’s readiness to be generous and co-operative, and Catherine’s similar plan founders on the combative notion of masculinity endorsed by our culture. Attempting to ‘divide’ her love between men who seem to her too different to be rivals, she finds them transformed into the ‘chained friend’ and ‘jealous foe’ of convention.”

I don’t agree with the idea that Catherine sees them as too different to be rivals? She does compare them which casts them as two men vying for the position of her husband. Also, she based her decision to marry one and not the other on socioeconomic advantage, not who she loves more, or how they differ as people and might give her different kinds of love, although she points out her changing/more superficial and limited love for Edgar compared to the love she has for Heathcliff which are like the “eternal rocks beneath.”

Her love for Edgar is full of stipulations - she would “only pity him—hate him, perhaps, if he were ugly, and a clown.” Heathcliff’s degraded state does nothing to change her love, which is why I say her love for them is unequal. I honestly think saying she loves them equally yet differently, or that she is totally unaware of their jealousies is so preposterous based on the text, I don’t understand how so many critics, that have written extensively on the book all parrot it? Yet Stoneman continues to assert Catherine is “innocent” and “baffled” by their jealously. With almost everything she says about Catherine I find myself thinking, “well yes, but no?” For example, with this idea: 

“Catherine’s apparent self-destruction has to be seen, not as willful egotism, but as a despairing response to her two lovers’ failure to love her enough to share her attention”

I do think this is mostly true. It is not willful egotism, and she is upset that they can’t tolerate each other - but Catherine’s illness is a long-running problem that is closely associated with her relationship with Heathcliff and his absence that began after he first runs away. Through the next three years, she says she “endured very, very bitter misery.” I’d say it has nothing to do with her feelings towards Edgar who she has been making herself distant during this whole time while telling Heathcliff (in spirit since he isn’t actually in the room): “If I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I’ll keep you.”

Again I do somewhat agree with Stoneman’s interpretation of Catherine telling Heathcliff, “you and Edgar have broken my heart,” which Stoneman says, “can only be explained if we accept that while Catherine still relates to both her lovers, Edgar and Heathcliff have broken her heart by defining love as exclusive.” I think they do break her heart by their selfishness over her, and I think she never intends to hurt either of them. She has at different times suffered to protect one or the other. But this still doesn’t change her stronger, unconditional, yet socially unacceptable and thwarted love for Heathcliff. Her issue isn’t the loss of Edgar, they broke her heart by both behaving in a way that cast Heathcliff from her company. Divorce was not really an option for her - the most dysfunctional couple in the novel, Heathcliff and Isabella, never legally separate even. So why wouldn’t she try to keep the peace between them to be near Heathcliff? The Romantic love interpretation is difficult to reconcile with her rejection of Edgar which happens on a few occasions and most apparent when she tells him, “What you touch at present you may have; but my soul will be on that hill top before you lay hands on me again. I don’t want you, Edgar: I’m past wanting you. Return to your books. I’m glad you possess a consolation, for all you had in me is gone.” 

As the essay went on I felt it got weaker. Stoneman says Catherine’s haunting of Heathcliff must be read as an “appeal against his failures of generosity.” Not because she wishes she was never parted from him, as Catherine herself said? Catherine doesn’t seem to die with any animosity towards Heathcliff - she forgives him for leaving her, asks for forgiveness, and tells him, “You never harmed me in your life.” 

**** EDIT *** I just meant that he goal isn’t to punish Heathcliff, since before her death she makes it clear she doesn’t want to parted from him. I do prefer the theory that she she haunts him in part to call him off his revenge and harming those she loves and to bring him back to her. I don’t think her ghost is static or simply a “reward” for Heathcliff despite all the wrong he did. I think she does become “incomparably above and beyond” them all and remains a force as she was in her life. Or she could be not a ghost at all and he encounters with could be proof of Heathcliff’s madness and later becomes a simple old folktale and superstition. (I’ll admit I like to view the ghosts are real and I think there number of references to them by other characters do suggest that we are meant to read them that way). ***

After Catherine’s death, Stoneman says, “There is, after all, something in the haunting which the usual readings of the novel fail to explain. If the ghost of Catherine wails to be let in, and Heathcliff begs her to return, what is it that keeps them apart?” I think we’d have to all agree that what Lockwood saw was actually a ghost, and I have seen this interpreted a million times? Stoneman says it is Heathcliff’s own “implacable obsession with revenge, which effectively shuts her out of his consciousness.” Which I could agree if we are reading it assuming the ghosts are real...but then she says that Heathcliff reaches his heaven only as he abandons his revenge against Edgar and “at last he ‘comprehends in his person’ the preposterous simultaneity of her loves.” This made no sense to me. I don’t see any reason for thinking he begins to accept Catherine’s love for Edgar, which he kind of already had? He tells Nelly that he doesn’t physically hurt him for that reason, he just also believes she loves him more. And I would say he does defeat Edgar and Hindley? Just because he can’t also destroy Hareton and Cathy II doesn’t negate that in his lifetime he outlives his enemies and has control of everything and everyone at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange (which he never shows signs of regretting his actions). It might not have gone as far as he originally planned, but I would say he does sort of win. And his abandonment of revenge isn’t ever associated with Edgar? Heathcliff does give some insight to what causes him to lose interest in his plot, an aspect of it being the connection to Hareton. In a discussion between him and Nelly he tells her she may think he’s insane “if I try to describe the thousand forms of past associations and ideas he (Hareton) awakens or embodies.” It is because of this intense association with him that he says, “his society is no benefit; rather an aggravation of the constant torment I suffer: and it partly contributes to render me regardless how he and his cousin go on together. I can give them no attention any more.” I believe the last time Heathcliff mentions Edgar is right after his death and he tells Nelly that, “I wish he’d been soldered in lead,” and goes on to describe yet another plot against Edgar by having his and Catherine’s graves opened on the side nearest each other so that they don’t have any barriers between them and then, "by the time Linton gets to us he’ll not know which is which!” So the idea he softens towards Edgar or becomes more willing to share Catherine in any way is...improbable to me. 

The theory also suffers (like so many others), in ignoring the ending when forming the narrative. Stoneman mentions the three graves and says that the people seeing Heathcliff and Catherine’s ghosts are basically country folk who are inclined to sympathize with “Heathcliff's final possession of his 'woman’” and also most readers fall into these same “hegemonic constructions” by not considering that the "the sleepers in that quiet earth” are at peace together. I agree with @princesssarisa that it doesn’t quite fit into the fact that many of the people that see the ghosts didn’t support or even know of Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship - the young shepherd boy doesn’t seem to know who Catherine even is. To also say that the reader is projecting their desired ending doesn’t feel right because the ending is something that Heathcliff and Catherine have been foreshadowing through the whole book. Catherine says, “I’ll not lie there by myself: they may bury me twelve feet deep, and throw the church down over me, but I won’t rest till you are with me. I never will!” She doesn’t refer to Edgar, who she says can be buried anywhere, it doesn’t matter to her (poor Edgar). She also tells Heathcliff, “I shall not be at peace,” and “I only wish us never to be parted,” as well as other similar quotes implying that she will be waiting for Heathcliff to come to her. I don’t like the view that Catherine is so lacking agency in her relationship with Heathcliff either - I’ve never thought that he “possesses” her. She’s the one who makes the demand that he leave the world behind and join her - the end does seem to be him finally following her, as she says he always does. 

And then, what of Cathy and Hareton? How do we reconcile the narrative with the features of the second generation? It would seem, if we assume Catherine has a differing yet equal love of the two men, and wished for a relationship where they can be peaceful together, and then the only scene we have of them together is in their graves, it feels pessimistic. Our one Shelleyan model is dead and buried with two people incapable of overcoming their jealousies and possessiveness. When considering the ending with Hareton and Cathy, would we have to conclude this a cautionary tale of Catherine’s naivety? Stoneman does make almost this suggestion and says it could also be because Emily had watched Branwell and Charlotte get hurt by love married people, so it could be showing what tragedy befalls if love is selfish and possessive. Though there is nothing to suggest that Hareton and Cathy love isn’t any of those things? 

I must be terribly boring because I think the easiest way of describing Catherine and Heathcliff is that they are, “star-crossed lovers, who are cheated of marriage by social forces.” Obviously, that is simplistic and glosses over their more spiritual aspects and certainly, they are not how the 1939 film interpreted them, which Stoneman rightly says, “recasts the novel in class terms as 'the story of the stable-boy and the lady’” - but I still think its closer than saying they are models of Freudian psychology, siblings, celestial beings, or Shelleyan. There certainly is spirituality and complexities in their love, and throughout the plot, as well as other characters, but it is still very much possible to read too deeply into double meanings and what is left unsaid.

My end take - some lyricism of Epipsychidion is echoed in quotations from Catherine and I would have much preferred to compare and contrast the two works rather than the attempt to shoehorn the rest of the story into a similar narrative. I think if you made a comparison to just the part after Heathcliff returns, a really interesting and strong argument could be made about how Catherine does try to create a similar relationship as described in Shelley’s work. I don’t think the situation was ever her ideal, but she certainly has no desire to be cunning or vampish - that’s not in her nature, and her relationship with Heathcliff doesn’t necessitate them having sex. She does try to put into practice a semi-Romantic love triangle but I don’t think she harbors any delusions of Edgar’s and Heathcliff’s animosity. Rather than a bohemian approach, it is her forcefulness and controlling that keep them both at bay. Tellingly she tells Nelly, “I believe I might kill him (Edgar), and he wouldn’t wish to retaliate.” She feels confident in her sway over him to get what she wants and she wants to be able to continue her relationship with Heathcliff in any way she can. It’s not necessary to revise and add new narratives to situations in the novel that are clearly able to be discerned from the text - such as Heathcliff’s failing desire for revenge or people seeing their ghosts at the end. I don’t think Epipsychidion is a terribly good lens to read Catherine through as her love can also be jealous, selfish, and possessive. There are too many aspects of Catherine’s character that conflict with the ideas Epipsychidion expresses.

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (3/17/2021)?

Justice League #59: This issue feels like the biggest testament to the word that Infinite Frontier is just the interim before the real relaunch that’s coming, because there is zero pomp or circumstance here of the kind you’d expect even if you think Bendis sucks. Young Justice of all things felt weightier than this in its debut; this is perfectly passable mind you, but if it was anything less than Justice League I’d go “ok, this is one of those Bendis books I don’t care about” and pass it by. I’m pretty sure his more substantial plans for the title are being kept for a proper new #1 waiting in the wings, but in the meantime it’s a perfectly slick team book with a couple decent bits, a bunch of my favorite characters, and pretty Marquez/Bonvillain art so I’m fine with it. Obviously the V/Xermanico Justice League Dark backup was the highlight.

Superman: Red and Blue #1: Apparently a lot of Superman fans didn’t like this, which doesn’t surprise me - a lot of it is Clark beaten down, needing help, or otherwise on the back foot one way or another, and that triggers a lot of alarm bells for a certain type of stan at this point. For my money though these were almost all great, and I was even able to get the cover by the Final Fantasy logo artist Yoshitaka Amano.

* Ridley/Henry/Bellaire/Sharp: The big advertised presentation, I’ve been really curious in the wake of Other History what Ridley would do with a Superman solo story and this absolutely didn’t disappoint. A harrowing take on Clark as truly vulnerable and how his mindset shifts or doesn’t in response I’m kind of astonished DC let the team get away with, this came together wonderfully.

* Easton/Lieber/Chan/Cowles: The weakest of the bunch, a severe but moving tale contrasting Superman’s splashy adventures with his potential impact on those around him bookended by some much weaker stock “are you sure you’re doing enough?” material, though it’s absolutely beautiful under Lieber and Chan, especially the final page.

* Craig/Bennett: A fantastic little tale of parallels on the human scale existing in Superman’s wake, and while that material’s only front-and-center for a couple panels here I would kill to see Craig draw a big cosmic epic.

* Watters/Dani/Sharpe: The big standout aside from Ridley’s story, there’s kind of no excuse for this not having been the first feature of the issue given it’s about the gimmick of the format in a way that leads directly out of its inspiration in Batman: Black and White. I do wonder what colorblind readers would make of the message of this one though, even if I read it the point of what happened as extending beyond the literal physical. In any case, I desperately hope this and Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman won’t be the extent of Watters’ work in this territory.

* Bennett/Thompson/Peteri: A simple but sweet little story of a young Clark learning a formative lesson - don’t see the gimmick that often of having both caption boxes and thought balloons around for different purposes, and it’s one I’m always happy to see.

Nightwing #78: As a Taylor fan, gotta say, this sucks. Flat, twee, totally without narrative momentum or weight except for a single completely bonkers new element in Dick’s world I’ll discuss in another ask, and of all things for some reason a bizarrely shameless Fraction/Aja Hawkeye ripoff alongside its rote regurgitation of Dixon and Snyder. This is everything people who hate the guy’s (non-Injustice, non-DCeased) work think of it as, and Redondo, Lucas, and Abbott’s next level, jaw-droppingly gorgeous work here is crushingly wasted. I’m not sure I can judge this as a ‘failure’ when it’s absolutely going to succeed at its actual goals - not as a story even if I understand even more people are pulling it than the new JL, but as contextless panels to circulate around comics Twitter/Tumblr in perpetuity - but as someone who thought a lot of Taylor’s strengths have been often overlooked and was hoping he’d pull out of some of his worst habits, it’s such a downer to watch him dive in face-first. An instant drop.

Catwoman #29: Fully out of the Brubaker shadow for me at this point and into its own oddball take on crime in Gotham, it doesn’t seem to be attracting much heat but I hope the team gets the space to see its story through and I suspect this run will be looked back on very fondly as a hidden gem in years to come.

Batman vs. Ra’s Al Ghul #5: IT’S BACK BABY, AND LESS EXPLICABLE THAN EVER. So happy.

Captain America Anniversary Tribute #1: Actually picked this up for a friend of the family who was interested and it’ll be shipped to him later, but read it while we have it and it’s exactly what it says on the tin, so if a bunch of artists doing their spins on these pages appeals it’s perfectly worth your time.

Iron Man #7: I continue to be unable to believe in the best way that this is what the ongoing Iron Man comic is about now.

S.W.O.R.D. #4: Alright, alright, alright - probably the weakest issue so far (which is to say it’s still a lot of fun by most any other books’ standard), but we’re past the King In Black of it all and ready to get into the promise of that debut.

Radiant Black #2: I was really concerned whether this would live up to the promise of the first issue or immediately begin to decline, but I’m happy to report that so far this seems like it’s leaning into its better aspects even if the superheroism remains the weaker half, and I’m still curious to see where this goes.

Abbott 1973 #3: Picked up some after the last issue was losing me, I’m back in the tank for the remaining couple.

Orphan and the Five Beasts #1: Stokoe doing kung-fu horror, madness, and righteous vengeance, an easy win.

Ultramega #1: I was skeptical about this one - I’d barely heard of James Harren even as folks were suddenly talking as if him doing work was long understood as a must-see, the preview didn’t especially grab me, and this didn’t seem to much stand out to me among the increasing surge of toku-inspired material. I was ready for the hype to betray me, but while I’ve seen a critique of this as a sausage-fest unwittingly or otherwise building a lot of its narrative on the pain and death of mothers I’d like to see femme or nonbinary critics unpack further, as a reading experience (prior to seeing said critique) this absolutely blew me away. Incredibly dense even at 60 pages - where a lot of those are splash pages no less - beautifully disgusting, gut-wrenching even aside from the pages with guts being wrenched, monumental, and mysterious, a tale of what happens when we’re let down by the men forced into the role of godling-saviors and what happens next. That Harren mentions in the afterward that this is the first comic he’s written is as remarkable as its is infuriating.

[arcanalogue]

The Book of Symbols: King/Queen

I've been dipping into random entries from The Book of Symbols each morning, and yesterday's pull was "KING/QUEEN."

There's lots to unpack there, especially in terms of tarot cards. And also, as someone who has been telling my nephew a lot of fairy tales lately, it's a great reminder of the layers of meaning that are buried there. Like in Rumpelstiltskin, when you explain that the king is really greedy, there's implied danger there, because there is literally no higher authority for anyone to appeal to.

This ties into something that has been bugging me since 2016. I know the US President is pointedly not a king, but the symbolic associations are similar. Figureheads are important. It actually matters who occupies that position!

According to The Book of Symbols, monarchs “reflect what is sovereign within the psyche of an individual or a society, the principles or beliefs that hold sway.”

This is why people get so upset about the possibility of elevating people like Obama, H. Clinton, Biden, Sanders, et al to that office, and why it brings qualities like racism, sexism, and antisemitism to a boil. The possibility of being represented on a superlative level by a figure whom you deeply mistrust or hate on an unconscious level is bound to result in some intensely divergent and divisive conscious behaviors.

This also explains the absurd moral scrutiny candidates are placed under, and our abstracted interpretations of their past decisions. Sometimes these instincts serve us well, other times our judgment is being unduly affected on a symbolic level. And this is something that folks may even embrace consciously, saying things like "I don't agree with this person on many points, but I admire what they symbolize." Because of the strange and selective way we interact with the unconscious, this doesn't feel like an admission of having suspended rational judgment. It feels like an expression of personal truth.

So many people couldn't conceive of Trump as a viable candidate until it was too late, because it simply didn't gel with their idea of "the principles or beliefs that hold sway" in this country. And once he was there, it was very hard to accept that these principles WOULD hold sway, but among those with low awareness or whose unconscious is very susceptible to this kind of symbolism, reality readily conforms to whatever narrative is presented. If Trump believed he could be king, and then was elected, and then began acting as a king, there was virtually no way for some to resist that impression.

This is what's been so exhausting for those of us desperate to keep our head above water throughout this: it takes real effort to resist these impressions day after day, moment after moment. We had to keep telling ourselves: "Trump is not king. Our government was crafted to preclude that possibility, and there are safeguards in place to help us withstand instances like this. He is NOT protected by divine fiat. All this will end." Even as many others were energized by this symbolic elevation, we were constantly drained by it. And some definitely grew to accept elements of it, because on a symbolic level they became increasingly impossible to dispute.

Hence the frustration of my progressive friends who were deeply disturbed by the possibility of a Biden coronation -- sorry, I mean inauguration -- which on a symbolic level probably does feel comparable to Trump's, even though these men aren't really the same at all. When a person embodies ideals you find repugnant, the fact that they'll come to "reflect what is sovereign within the psyche of an individual or a society" is simply intolerable.

But the symbolic isn't everything, and our awareness is affected by many other factors. This is why, despite all the depression and fear and isolation, it's important for us to keep our minds flexible, and to scrutinize our own thinking and remain open to the possibility that we really DON'T see the whole picture, we DON'T know how this will end.

The symbol-laden stories we treasure, such as fairy tales, really only give us the broad strokes. Yes, everything we see around us is on par for what we dreaded in a Trump monarchy. But it's also not the whole story, and his eventual defeat is an outcome many could not bring themselves to believe was possible. For years our impressions have been unconsciously affected by this intense symbolism, allowing us to lie to ourselves with a completely straight face.

As the leadership shifts, so will our symbolic interpretations. Everything won't magically "get better," but new stories will seem plausible, new characters will emerge, and reality will undeniably change around us, as if by magic. We are part of that magic. And the more consciously you examine these symbols and the effects they're having on you -- and on your fellow humans -- the more honestly you may be able to engage with the present moment.

But that too takes effort. Conscious engagement can be just as tiring as resistance. The mind wants to drift, to dream, to react, to run purely on the fuel that symbolic realities provide so abundantly. We want the ease that comes from being told a story, we do not want the responsibilities and lessons that come from being a character in one.

My own (limited) awareness of all this was not enough to help me engage with the more "symbolically affected" over the last four years. I was lucky if I could even just keep my own head up at times. This is why we tend to see any mob as adversarial: they're under the influence of something so strong, we can't reason with them or break the spell. On a primal level, we see this as dangerous.

But also, from within the mob, there can be a sense of freedom, and rejoicing, and strength in numbers. Mobs can accomplish incredible things. They are our own weirdly human form of murmuration, the way birds and fish move in unison, appearing united in purpose, the conscious mind utterly bypassed so that something greater can be expressed. The shapes they create in the air and the water are thrilling (and sometimes terrifying) to behold.

I have been part of many murmurations over the past four years, related to the airing of sexual trauma, to celebrations of gender diversity, to demands for justice in the face of violent disregard for life. I have felt horror in these instances, feeling myself to be part of a headless body, a mob.

But when the symbolic head of the nation (and of so many departments and corporations therein) is completely diseased and actively rotting away, that "headlessness" ripples downward, and will express itself in wild, unpredictable ways.With a somewhat better "head" on its shoulders, perhaps many in our nation will have somewhat less occasion to murmurate. That does not automatically signify weaker engagement. If anything, it allows for more strategic and conscious responses to events as they unfold.

This is why I'm inviting people to resist the temptation to cling to all the ways they've engaged in the last four years. Some of it will still prove useful, but some of it won't. Copying and pasting that awareness over the events of the future will not serve you, and could actually end up prolonging the influence of everything we've just survived together.

Birds keep murmurating, but they never create exactly the same murmurations, nor do they swarm constantly and foresake other forms of flight. If they did, they'd gradually just drop from the sky, one by one, missing out on other aspects of bird life.

It matters who is king! But if you are still aspiring to remain sovereign over your own psyche, you've got to remember there are many other kingdoms, including ones which have yet to be founded. And since you are a kingdom in microcosm, it still matters who and what you allow yourself to become, which alliances you form, and how (or whether) you accept victory as well as defeat.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 9/30/20

Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 6 | By Reai and Suki Umemiya | Seven Seas – Another series down to “once a year” release—I had to jog my memory at the start to recall what had been happening. Many things are going wrong for our heroine, who is trying to be strong and tough but is also starting to break down, and I felt that the scenes with her and Dean struck just the right balance of comforting and letting the heroine cry without making her seem weaker. This sets the stage for her comeback, which is extraordinary. (And also has a corrupt Church, a constant in Japanese light novels, though at least here there are also honest and good religious people in it.) That said, eventually Dean’s identity will come out, and I do wonder how this very good “villainess” isekai will handle it. – Sean Gaffney

The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Jack Flash and the Faerie Case Files, Vol. 1 | By Yu Godai, Mako Oikawa, and Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – A faerie switched at birth for a human child, Jack never fit in in either world. Only in the mortal realm could she earn money for anime collectibles, however, so she decided to make herself into a tough, capable woman like her literary heroes and set up shop as a detective. Together with her fellow changeling, Larry the werewolf, Jack takes on supernatural cases in New York City. In this volume, Lindel tasks them with tracking down a missing dragon egg. I liked the resources Jack uses to obtain information, which include a dapper theatre ghost and a spell with components of rat whiskers and taxi tires because “Nobody out there knows this city better than them.” I still found this a bit hard to get into, though, especially the parts involving a perpetually tearful off-off-off-off-Broadway actress and her pickpocket boyfriend. Still, I will check out volume two! – Michelle Smith

Black Clover, Vol. 22 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – At long last, this interminable arc comes to an end. I enjoyed a lot of it, but I cannot deny it should have been about two volumes shorter. Most of the book is taken up by shonen battles, with the villain being nigh unkillable, the heroes almost breaking themselves to stop him, etc. Fortunately, the day is saved, and even the Wizard King turns out to be… sort of alive again? Shota fans should be happy. Asta fans perhaps less so—the sheer amount of damage done to the kingdom in this arc means someone has to be blamed, and give Asta has the “dark evil magic” it’s gonna be him, especially when he takes the incredibly obvious bait they use to get him to fight. Oh well, if Asta were smart, this wouldn’t be Black Clover. – Sean Gaffney

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 3 | By Nanashi | Vertical Comics – Part of the problem with titles like this and the other teasing works (Takagi-san less so as Nishikata doesn’t fall into the category) is that they are, at heart, the classic “extroverted girl acts overtly extroverted to bring introverted guy out of their shell,” and that’s not really a plot that feels comfortable in the Gen Z days, where you’re more likely to say “why doesn’t she just let him be in his quiet, safe space?” And by she I mean they, as Nagatoro’s two friends appear far more often here, which offers some good two-way teasing action, as they clearly see her crush on him, if not why. It’s still sort of hard to read, but if you pretend he’s more OK with it than he actually is, this is cute. – Sean Gaffney

Failed Princesses, Vol. 1 | By Ajiichi | Seven Seas – The concept of “popular girl meets unpopular girl” is a common one in yuri manga, and we do indeed hit several of its tropes in this first volume. The amusing thing is that Kanade, the shy outcast girl, is perfectly aware of how things are supposed to go, and keeps pulling back a bit to try to save Nanaki from, well, making herself an outcast by associating with the wrong people. The best part of the volume is that Nanaki really doesn’t give two shits about any of that, and seems set on making Kanade her best friend… and also making her over, which backfires a bit as Kanade cleans up nicely. I hear this gets a bit dramatic later, but for the moment it’s a cute and fluffy proto-yuri story. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 12 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – The first story in this volume is another “Rikka tries to make people understand Kotoko is an evil Machiavellian schemer,” this time with one of her ex-classmates, but again the response seems to be “we know she’s a manipulative bitch, but she’s a good person anyway.” The larger story, which will continue into the next book, seems to be a chance to write Kuro and Kotoko as an actual romance, as the man we meet here and his relationship with a yuki-onna… as well as his penchant for attracting misfortune… very much parallel them. That said, they’re very cute together, which is why I hope he avoids the murder charge he’s now being investigated for. Still a favorite. – Sean Gaffney

Interviews with Monster Girls, Vol. 8 | By Petos | Kodansha Comics – The author knows what people want to see, but also knows that the best way to get readers is to drive them crazy by not showing it. We finally get what we’ve been begging for here, as Tetsuo asks Sakie out on a date. (This is after rejecting Kyouko’s love confession, both because she’s his student and also, as he is forced to admit, as he likes Sakie.) The stage is set for the date… and the rest of the book is thus spent with the three main student girls going to Kyouko’s for a fireworks viewing and meeting her family. They’re good chapters, and I really liked showing how difficult Kyouko has it as a dullahan in terms of everyday life, but GOD, please get back to the teachers, I beg you! – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 16 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – The series has gotten to the point where the more rewarding chapters are the ones as part of a larger arc. Not that the one-shot chapters are bad—though Maki’s journey to India may be the most pointless thing in this entire series to date, we do get Chika’s iconic “shut up or I’ll kill you” here. But the larger arcs, featuring Miyuki and Kaguya attempting to date without interruptions, and setting up Ishigami and Iino for a romance—though given the number of limbs broken in this book, and Iino’s own horrible lack of self-awareness, it may be a ways out—are better. This series is still hilarious, but we’ve come to read it more for the heartwarming moments. Heck, there’s even some serious drama here. Very good. – Sean Gaffney

Nineteen | By Ancco | Drawn & Quarterly – Although it was translated and released second in English, Nineteen is a precursor to Ancco’s internationally award-winning manhwa Bad Friends. The volume collects thirteen short comics originally published in Korea over a decade ago which absolutely remain relevant to today’s world. While understandably not as polished as some of Ancco’s later work—one can observe her style evolving and growing over the course of the collection (which is fascinating)—the comics still carry significant emotional weight and impact. Nineteen includes diary comics, which tend to be more lighthearted, as well as harder-hitting fictional stories, many of which also have autobiographical inspiration. As a whole, the collection explores themes of young adulthood, growing up, and complicated family relationships. In particular, there is a compelling focus on the relationships among daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. Some of the narratives can be rather bleak, but a resigned sense of humor threads through Nineteen, too. – Ash Brown

Ran the Peerless Beauty, Vol. 8 | By Ammitsu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Shoujo manga that has couples getting together BEFORE the end of the series is inevitably going to have an arc dealing with how far the lead couple should go now that they’re dating, and this is Ran’s turn, as she and Akira and their friends go to a beach house Ran’s family owns and have some beach fun. Unfortunately, the cast gets winnowed down one by one until it’s just the two of them… and her overprotective father, who arrives in time to provide the cliffhanger and no doubt ensure that nookie does not ensue. Not that I think it should—these two kids are even purer than the couple from Kimi ni Todoke, and I think they should mature a bit more before going further. Plus, watching them blush and kiss is wonderful. – Sean Gaffney

Spy x Family, Vol. 2 | By Tatsuya Endo | Viz Media – Having spent our first volume establishing that our found family can really come to love each other deep down, this volume shows off how they are also, at heart, fundamentally awkward and unable to socialize normally. This is unsurprising—hints of Loid’s life we’ve seen show him as a war orphan, Yor is a contract killer, and Anya basically grew up being experimented on by bad guys. As the school soon finds, this leads to issues. The second half of the book introduces Yor’s sister-obsessed little brother Yuri, who turns out to be a torture expert for Loid’s enemies. As always, half the fun is that everyone except Anya has no idea who their real selves are, and the cliffhanger tells us we’re in for some hilarious family fun. I love this. – Sean Gaffney

Spy x Family, Vol. 2 | By Tatsuya Endo | VIZ Media – After a brief spell atop the waiting list, Anya officially makes it into Eden Academy. Loid is anxious to progress to the next stage of his mission and, believing there’s not much chance in turning Anya into an elite scholar like his agency wants, focuses instead on having her befriend the younger son of his target. It does not go to plan, of course. Anya is very cute in this volume, and I also really appreciated how Loid genuinely listens to Yor and values her input. The arrival of Yor’s brother, a member of the secret police, is going to be a fun complication, and another cast member with a secret, but my favorite part of this series is probably always going to be how much love these three are already feeling for each other. So unique and good! – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 6 | By Tomo Hirokawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – The weakness of this manga is the same as always—it’s written to tie into the games, and features several characters I just don’t recognize, which can be a problem given this is the big final let’s-save-the-world ending. That said, this is still a decent SAO title. Kirito gets to be cool and badass, but because this isn’t written just by Kawahara others do as well, and it’s a nice balanced effort that focuses on heroine Premiere. I also really liked the point where all the NPCs are worried when everyone has to log out for several days for maintenance. While I’ll still remember this as the “SAO only everyone is alive” manga, I enjoyed reading it, when I wasn’t confused. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

[bluemilkboys]

Kev’s Comic Book Odyssey #1 - Spider-Geddon and The Batman Who Laughs

Hello there! Haven’t posted to this blog in a minute! Last time I did I talked about Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, what an absolute riot that was, huh? Well this is going to be different. In my isolation in attempt to help stop the spread of coronavirus, I have dived deeper into comic books. 

Now, the world of comics is one of the most complicated mediums of entertainment one can simply just venture into. And to avoid having existential anxiety about knowing exactly what was going on in the Marvel and DC Universes respectively, I devised a very simple method of how I would get my feet wet. My favorite superheroes are Batman and Spider-Man. So when trying to find something to invest my time in, I sought out the popular stories from those characters. This rang true more for Batman than Spider-Man (I’ve been on a pretty heavy DC kick in general lately).

So in my story hopping, I found myself really sinking my teeth into two stories in particular, Spider-Geddon, and The Batman Who Laughs. Let’s start with Spider-Geddon. 

What originally drew me to this story was the inclusion of the version of Spider-Man from the 2018 PS4 game, and my familiarity with the previous event of this nature, Spider-Verse. It’s relatively easy on new readers like myself, and I and I had enough familiarity with characters like the Superior Spider-Man to be able to infer enough and be able to understand the story completely. I guess I should give props to more stories that are able to do that until I gain enough comic book literacy to where it’s not needed anymore, huh?

Anyway, the story centers around the villains from the previous Spider-Verse event, and they’re back for more. And to be honest, the Inheritors are fine, but I wasn’t focusing on them much. They make an immediate impact in their first big confrontation with the Spider-people, killing a few of them including Spider-Man Noir, but this story was much more for me about the seeds of dissent that were slowly and gradually planted throughout the series. Otto Octavius, the Superior Spider-Man, is very adamant that he be the one to lead the team of Spider-people in the absence of Earth-616 Peter Parker, who is gone for the majority of the story, and throughout the story there is a natural sense of distrust in Otto, due to him you know, being a supervillain before, and all that. Otto is determined to end the threat of the Inheritors forever by killing them, something that the Spider-Gang elected not to do the first time around, and honestly I think this is where you see one of the weaker parts of the story. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a weak point as much as it is a missed opportunity. I think the entire moral conflict on whether to subdue or kill the Inheritors is not explored enough, and there was an opportunity there to do a little bit of a character deconstruction about Spider-Man’s willingness, or lack thereof to kill his enemies. And I LOVE character deconstruction. It’s one of my favorite things that people can do with a character. To display such an understanding of a character, that you’re able to peel back the surface layer stuff and give readers a deep tissue narrative massage, I LOVE that shit. 

I also really enjoyed PS4 Spidey’s role in this story. He was obviously not in Spider-Verse, and I don’t think anyone should have expected him to come in here and be the center of attention, so the way they utilized him really resonated with me. He was the newcomer who didn’t really have a full grasp on everything that was going on, and so I was able to appreciate his perspective because I personally do not have a full grasp on everything that’s going on. Not just in the Marvel Universe though. Just generally. In life. Anyway, PS4 Spidey gets consistently surprised and amazed at all the different Spider-Totems across the multiverse, including my personal favorite moment in the entire series right here:

All in all, I had a great time reading this event, it was a really fun Spider-Man story, and not to spoil, but the twist toward the end really got me. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m a novice in the game, or if it was just that good, but nonetheless, I still enjoyed it. Spider-Geddon gets a solid 8.5/10 good book!

Alright let’s get edgy, lads. It’s time to talk about The Batman Who Laughs. 

BWL is such a wild part of DC’s Rebirth. And according to people I talk to who’s opinions I trust, Rebirth is largely a big stinky mess, so I feel confident in saying this is one of the bright spots. God, this character, it’s entire existence is so chaotic. BWL exists in a negative version of earth, in a “dark multiverse” where different versions of Batman have become evil in different ways. Among them is the Batman Who Laughs, a terrifying fusion of Batman’s intellect, and the immoral propensity of the Joker. His origin issue was absolutely fucking wild, and a hell of a way to introduce a character, but now, he’s got his own series. From like 2 years ago. But I digress, let’s talk about it!

What I liked about this series was that it returned an element of horror that is always somewhat present in Batman’s best stories. I also love when an author knows a character so well, that they feel comfortable deconstructing that character and really exploring what makes, in this case, the Batman the Batman. BWL does a good job blending those two concepts. We’ve seen Batman pushed to the edge before, but me personally, I have never read a story that featured Batman getting pushed by someone who knows him so intimately, literally another version of himself. The story however is relatively low stakes, and relies a lot on the power of the characters and how attached you are to them. I wasn’t familiar enough with Jim Gordon’s son really at all before reading this, and a decent part of the story revolves around him, so I guess that was one aspect of it that fell short for me. And for a story literally called, “The Batman Who Laughs” there really isn’t a deep dive into the namesake character. I would actually even go as far as to say the Grim Knight gets more attention. It’s a good Batman story, but what drew me in was the Batman Who Laughs character, but this story doesn’t have much to say about him opposite of Batman.

I think Batman has been in a weird spot since the New 52, and this story, while imperfect, I believe was a step in the right direction. 8/10.

Thanks so much for reading this first in hopefully my long series detailing my journey into comics! Make sure you check out the Blue Milk Boys podcast, and follow me on Twitter @kevinOMO_. See y’all next time. 

[anewworldorderseries]

A New World Order (BB x NB Crossover AU) - Prologue

Author’s Note: It’s finally out into the world! This is definitely the biggest writing project I’ve taken on (and stayed committed to) ever so, I’m so happy that it’s successfully made its way outside of my head and into actual words. Ever since Cal’s cameo in BB2, I needed these two groups to meet and it gradually turned into this epic crossover story. We also just need more time with the Nightbound crew in general since we didn’t get a book 2. All the open ends about the creatures in New Orleans really allowed me to experiment though and go outside the parameters the canon universe has. 

Get ready for epic narrative themes! I’ve managed to interconnect these two pretty well (maybe even too connected). You’ll also see a couple cameos of characters from two other books (well the modern-day vampire versions anyway) as well. I’ll also be posting these on my main blog @adrianadmirer so that more people will see it but, I created this blog just for the story since it’s such a big work. 

I just hope you love this story and these characters as much as I do.

Characters: Isabel Martinez (Bloodbound MC, mentioned), Zelenia Laskaris (Nightbound MC, mentioned), Alaric Laskaris (OC), Phoebe Laskaris (OC), Derek Laskaris (OC), Rheya (The First Vampire)

Rating: PG-13 (some mentions of violence)

Summary: An old threat has risen from the ashes and is ready to use their original purpose to enact it’s new diabolical plan. 

Update: Hello! Since book 3 has come and gone, it has influenced what I want to do in this story including changing some key things. First, I didn’t really like Rheya at all. Definitely more than I had planned to. Also, I like my BB mc, Isabel, as a vampire and the entire plot of book 3. So, I’ve decided to change the timeline of this to be after the end of the entire series which means Rheya is dead and won’t be in this anymore. It also means that Isabel will be a vampire from the start. I think this will be a good thing because I can focus on some of other characters and plotlines in greater detail. 

However, there is one major difference from the canon ending. Jax and Lily (and the others) are very much alive. I’m going with my rewrite ending for this story (where Gaius is the sacrificial lamb). 

@endlesshero1122 , @kinda-iconic , @voseho , @something-in-red , @bloodboundsstuff , @lovemychoices, @mrsmatsuo, @galaxyside-0, @jlpplays1, @brightpinkpeppercorn, @desiree-0816, @tabithacarlisle, @shelley-parah, @ladykateofhousebeaumont, @ella-raines, @furiouscloddonutpeanut, @itlivesinpixelberry, @fluffy-cat-whisper, @strangelycami, @heatherfilliez, @edgaluten, @parrotdrama

(If you see yourself tagged its because you’ve liked a lot of my Bloodbound fics and/or you liked my previous Nightbound fic)

A nondescript black Range Rover pulled up to the curb outside of Rikers Island, the impressive structure a menacing presence in the pitch black of night. Pulling to a stop, the headlights shut off as the people inside waited. Not a sound could be heard, the silence stretched on endlessly into the night.

After several minutes, a tall muscular figure finally appeared around the side of the building, breaking into a sprint towards the car once the coast seemed clear. The windows rolled down as the dark-haired young man approached. 

“Get in son,” a male voice ordered, and the back door opened. 

Letting out a dry laugh he climbed inside, sitting between the two already there. “Hah, maximum security my ass.”

“Shouldn’t have had to bribe you out of there in the first place,” the older man said with a sigh. 

Age and height were among the only details that differentiated the two of them. 

Then, the brunette woman next to them cleared her throat. “I’m assuming the guards got the money?”

“Yes, aunt Phoebe.”

She nodded approvingly before checking the time on her expensive watch. “Good. Let’s make sure that Warden Daniels and Chief Mikalsen get theirs. Then, we won’t have anyone trying to get you back.”

The SUV came to life once more, driving off into the glittering city towards their destination. 

“Where are we going, Father? Home?” the young man asked, leaning against the cool window. 

“Briefly, just so you can change,” he responded. “Then, you’re headed to the airport.”

His son’s eyes widened and he tilted his head upright once more. “Already? Where to? Why?”

“We finally have our new headquarters finished, somewhere they’ll never be able to find. This means soon we’ll be able to launch a renewed attack on the vampires to wipe them out for good and we’ll be one step closer to our actual goal. You know from the letters what that is.”

This news proved surprising. “So soon? But...but the death of Balthazar...the destruction of the Mydiean compound...shouldn’t it have taken years to rebuild?”

It was his aunt who responded with a scoff, a smirk tugging at her painted lips. “Of course not. We have cutting edge technology, far greater than anyone has even anticipated. We had it stored in a secret location underground in case this very thing happened. The Order isn’t just back to normal...it’s even stronger now. Practically unstoppable.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question,” he retorted. “Where are you sending me?”

His father gave him a sideways glance. “New Orleans. For a while.”

This was met with an incredulous stare. “Why there?! Aren’t the bloodsuckers much weaker there than here? Do you not believe in me anymore?”

“I thought I told you never to question me, son,” his father roared, his face turning bright red even in the dimly lit car. Exhaling, he continued at a lower volume. “That’s exactly why both of us need to be here. We need more resources, more time to bend the public to our will. Besides, we’re not just worried about vampires anymore. There are...more monster species to worry about down there. Once we thought we eliminated years ago.”

He got his desired shock from his son who sat up. “What kind of...monsters? Like...the ones you used to tell me and Zelenia about when we were kids?”

The woman nodded. “Yes. Werewolves, witches, even the pesky Fae have rebuilt Lamrian to staggering heights and reestablished their connection to the realm. For us to succeed all of them must go. Including my daughter now that she’s chosen to embrace her half-breed nature.”

There was a brief silence. 

Then, the young man became animated once more. “Okay...well what about her...Isabel? You need me to kill her don’t you?”

“No Derek.” His father’s exclamation made the car interior vibrate. “You got caught, that’s why we’ve had to bribe have of the city’s officials to bust you out. We can’t afford to take that risk again, especially since we couldn’t get that protection order removed. Besides...now that she’s with them she’s too valuable now. We need her to be unharmed, at least for now. To break her, yes...cause then they’ll crumble. But, we don’t need human blood on our hands yet unless they get in our way.”

“But, I--”

“Stay away from her,” he ordered. “Or I will personally see to it that you are kicked out of The Order permanently. Understood.”

The young man simply nodded, his jaw clenched. 

“Excellent. I don’t want to disinherit my only heir.” He let out a low chuckle, his foul mood from seconds earlier now gone. “Not when they’ve done our dirty work for us. Now that the First Son, our dear fraud of a leader is dead, we can move on from this self-righteous talk and take power for ourselves just like we were destined to do from the beginning. If we’re the ones to prove humanity is superior, it’s only fair that we get rewarded.”

A slow smile eventually spread on the young man’s face, the two of them hauntingly alike. “I won’t let you down, not this time.”

“I’ll guarantee it.” 

An equally diabolical grin covered the dark-haired woman’s face, her blue eyes shimmering as she caught her reflection in the mirror. “We are so close Alaric. Soon, everything will be ours. Balthazar was right about one thing, there will be a new world order. Ours.”

They continued to drive further into the dark night, the glow of the city fading into the background once more.

[xenosgirlvents]

The ‘Primarch’ Effect

And finally I found the time to finish this draft. I am so dead after this xD

Let me just put a disclaimer up here first: I’m not at any point suggesting, implying, saying or meaning that I hate the Primarchs and won’t them all gone or removed or such. I’m talking about specifics I strongly dislike about their manifestation as characters in the narrative, not mechanics, of the Warhammer 40k narrative universe.

So then lets start with the obvious point, namely that I’m about to out myself as being part of some teensy-tiny part of the current 40k Narrative fanbase (and I use that distinction since I know there are, and that’s perfectly fine, many people who mostly care about the game. I’m the reverse though so I’m just talking about the story here) who doesn’t heavily focus on Primarchs, their relationships, the Emperor or people connected to Primarchs.

When I think about when I began getting into Warhammer, there was even Fantasy back then, Primarchs were not 90% of almost all discussion about 40k’s narrative. Today Primarchs are insanely popular, easily 80% of all Fluff discussion about 40k has something to do with a Primarch (and the remaining 20% is like 8% Emperor, 6% Chaos Gods, 4% other humans and 2% Other) or stuff relating to Primarchs. I mean Primarchs have become so influential and popular that GW’s even bringing them back into the main game’s narrative to benefit off that popularity. No doubt a lot of this has to do with the Horus Heresy getting its own extensive book series and side game (is it even a side game? That sounds like I’m implying its small which I don’t feel is right).

So what is the ‘effect’ in ‘Primarch’ effect even refering to?

At its heart its talking about the way the Primarchs render every other factions characters either irrelevant or second-tier by making it that a single group, the Primarchs, occupy the top slots in everything.

To use an easy analogy; if you’re familiar with Dragon Ball Z and, now, Dragon Ball Super you’re probably also familiar with the way the story tends to make Saiyans who are main characters stronger than anyone else, with non-Saiyan good guy rivals like Tien or Piccolo quickly fading away into relative meaninglessness before unstoppable march of moar Saiyans and moar Saiyan forms.

In the same vein Primarchs are a top all the other characters in the 40k setting, the vast majority of the time. In DBZ/DBS we do, at least, usually get non-Saiyan antagonists stronger than other Saiyans (Frieza/Cell/Majin Buu) whereas in 40k even the strongest Bad Guys tend to be Primarchs.

So we get this effect where all the strongest everythings and everyones, all the best characters at everything, in the narrative are all from the exact same group; Primarchs. The few exceptions which do occur are either the Emperor, a character I have my own problems with which I’ll discuss some other time, or once-off entities like Drach’yen or the Beast who’s power is poorly examined, difficult to gauge, and practically never exist outside of small isolated cases.

Whilst it was all in the Horus Heresy it...bothered me still, sure, but I was content to ignore it since it wasn’t in the narrative of actual 40k yet. Despite my desperate desire for Phoenix Lords to be comparable to Primarchs I knew that obviously a comparison of Phoenix Lords with Horus Heresy Primarchs would end up looking like one Primarch could solo all the Phoenix Lords, but I could pretend it wasn’t so cause it wasn’t like Primarchs were ever going to show up in main 40k (or if they did it’d just be to show off how cool a loyalist Marine is by having him humiliate and beat said Daemon Primarch)? That wouldn’t happen right?

But of course it did/has happened and, judging by everything, is going to continue to happen.

So now we’re confronted with the stark reality of the effect, with no non-Primarch character being anywhere near as powerful or important as a Primarch unless they’re in a supporting role ala Yvrainne (cause making the female protagonist’s role being healing and support is not at all an overused trope). So what do those factions without Primarchs in the narrative do?

Well mostly they die in droves to make Primarchs look cool (Orks/Tyranid/Astra Militarum) or they work for Primarchs (Eldar/Aeldari) or they barely feature at all (Tau/Necron).

In Hand of Darkness we already even get Eldrad and Yvrainne practically treating Roboute as their superior, which makes sense for Eldrad since he’s never been able to achieve anything without a Space Marine holding his hand, but seemed strangely out-of-character for Yvrainne. But he’s a Primarc so what do? I mean Rise of the Primarch already explicitly just spells out that Slaanesh and his/her/they/its minions are literally more interested/concerned with Roboute’s return than with Ynnead.

This has all been in a general sense, who has the most agency in the narrative, wields the most power, wins the most fights and so on and so forth. But even if we get specific the effect continues to rear its head;

Who’s the best Psyker of the characters currently moving about in 40k? Magnus. A Primarch.

Best Commander? Roboute. A Primarch.

Best Warrior? Probably Angron. A Primarch.

If we talk about the Primarchs as a whole, so not just the ones currently around, we can also then mention the fact that Lorgar’s the greatest Chaos Prophet ever, despite their being Daemon Princes like Belakor and more besides with millions of more years spent in the service of the Chaos Gods. Jaghati’s definitely gonna be a better pilot than any Eldar ever will be, Corvax is stealthier than any Eldar, Angron’s more ferocious than any Ork, the gear forged by Ferrus and Vulkan eclipses the weapons seen being wielded by people like Imotekh and the Phoenix Lords significantly.

They are just the best. Only once you’ve gone through them all do you even begin getting to the characters from any other faction. You end up with Xenos being beaten in all the things they’re supposed to be best at, and all the top leaders of Chaos and the Imperium just being the same identical group of men (it doesn’t help, I’ll admit, that a side effect of this is that practically all the top leaders of the Imperial and Chaos side are all men now as a result of the Primarchs being a mono-gendered group).

But is what it is, I don’t expect it to change, one of the things the Primarchs are even built on now is practically that the only other characters who can threaten/challenge them are other Primarchs. They’ve killed the top characters of a lot of factions already; Ghazghkull’s nowhere near strong enough an Ork Warboss to fight them and he’s meant to be the single strongest Ork alive since the Beast. Avatar’s of Khaine jobbed to them just as they job to everyne, the Yncarne can’t even beat Ahriman let alone a Primarch, no Tau, Phoenix Lord or Dark Eldar’s ever gonna be allowed to be that strong. Nids don’t have a chance, their best Special Character, the so-called pinnacle of Tyranid combat evolution, can’t even win a 1-on-1 with Marneus. Necron really don’t do too well in combat either. Greater Daemons, like the Avatar of Khaine, die to make Primarchs look cool, they don’t actually win fights.

So yeah. It is a pity, a legitimate pity, but also something I was sure was going to happen if Primarchs were ever introduced back into the narrative in 40k. The Yncarne at the outset was made quite explicitly weaker than Guilliman so that’s the only chance the Eldar/Aeldari had at a character who might be Primarch level. There just isn’t much that I can see ever challenging this, the status quo of Primarchs being better than all the other faction’s special characters, of relegating everyone to always just be a matter of competing for the sub-Primarch tier and such.

Particularly its a pity that the factions which are meant to have specific hats they excel at; Ork ferociousness, Eldar Psychic, Tau Strategic planning, Necron Artifice, Dark Eldar Pilots and such will always be at best second to whatever Primarch also dabbles in that field.

So now I prepare for the inevitable murdering for criticising Primarchs as a whole and not just one particular one because of personal feelings. I know Primarchs are a rather sensitive topic so I’ve gone ahead and prepared myself in case.

Oh, also, to those aggrieved Chaos fans who can, quite rightly, point out ‘But Magnus lost to Bjorn’ and ‘Angron got beaten by 100 Grey Knights’ or ‘Mortarion got his heart taggedby Kaldor’ my anwser to you is; ‘yeah among the Primarchs obviously traitors still fare worse than loyalists, what story did you think you were reading?’

But I mean it mostly in jest, I understand how frustrating the ability of loyalist Marines to 9/10 times win everything in fluff can be.

[columbuscomicscorner-blog]

X-MEN MONDAY REVIEW: WEAPON X #6

Writer: Greg Pak Artists: Marc Borstel, Ibraim Roberson, and Frank D'Armata Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna Cover Artists: Skan NCBD: 7/26/17 Publisher: @marvelentertainment Review by: Rob Carey We're almost to the end of the "Weapons of Mutant Destruction" crossover with this issue, Weapon X #6, part five of six in the story. In this book, our heroes break in to the bad guys' facility by posing as -- you guessed it -- pizza delivery people. As they enter, Totally Awesome Hulk summarizes the objectives: 1) to destroy cyborgs and the equipment used to produce them, 2) to capture William Stryker, and 3) to save Bobby, the test subject. As the team explores the facility, they're attacked by waves of cyborgs until they make their way to the holdings of Dr. Alba's earlier test subjects. While Warpath, Domino, and Hulk deal with the prototypes, Logan, Sabertooth, and Deathstrike head off on their own to find and kill Stryker. But Hulk, who doesn't want to murder anyone yet is on a team full of proven murderers, catches on to the plan. Hulk finds Logan's group just as they're about to capture Stryker, and Hulk stops them to let Stryker escape and to lecture Logan on murder. But all this pacifism talk and stalling has given Dr. Alba just enough time for her monster (H-Beta) to animate, and it's coming for Domino and Warpath as the issue ends. What I think this crossover suffers from -- among other things -- is that the narrative set-ups are too labored. After spending seven set-up issues leading to this one (two preludes, a one-shot, and parts 1-4 of the crossover), we learned, repeatedly, that Totally Awesome Hulk doesn't trust the Weapon X team because he thinks they're all murderers, and the bad guys have a weakness for pizza. There were about five or six scenes up to this issue reminding us of these two points. So surprise! In this issue, the team sneaks in to the enemy base via pizza delivery, and Hulk's saccharine pacifism becomes a liability. It's patronizing when comic writers beat the readers over the head with these constructs instead of trusting the readers to put the pieces together on their own; that patronizing hurts my enjoyment of this issue. There's no shortage of moments in this issue that stand out for all the wrong reasons. Hulk's explanation of their three objectives in the beginning of the issue immediately smacked of "video game," a parallel that was then reinforced by waves of mindless cyborgs to button-mash. Warpath and Deathstrike were underutilized on the team again (although Warpath did have a few panels with Domino indicating their attraction). And there's one too many plot-holes. A car full of assassins is going to trust the guard at the gate not to set off any alarms as soon as they drive away? When Domino is shooting at guards in the lobby, Cho calmly transforms into Hulk and explains the plan; but isn't Hulk's pacifism a cornerstone to the plot here? Shouldn't he have reacted to Domino's shooting spree? And now that we've seen the "end boss" of this game, couldn't this monster be destroyed by any number of more qualified super heroes? Without even getting into the mythos of Hulk, I feel like even Quentin Quire could take this thing down. Is that what this has been building up to? On top of the narrative problems, the art fails to improve, and I suspect this is yet another case of Marvel's publishing schedule harming a series. In this issue, we've added more artists to help Borstel complete the panels, and we lose a lot in the process. The faces (particularly those of Domino and the red shirts) remain inhuman. Sabertooth is unrecognizable in some shots. And there is confusing panel progression and storyboarding. In succession, four panels show: the team driving through the front door of the facility, Domino shooting at civilian guards, Cho -- unphased by all the shooting -- calmly transform into Hulk, and Warpath rip a hole in the wall. Do these accurately explain the events here? Someone is missing the point of visual storytelling. But probably most frustrating in this issue is that after all this build-up, we finally get to see some legitimate action. But the action panels are, unfortunately, dull. Not one of them gave me any sense of dynamism that we would expect from this unique blend of characters. And after starving the readers of action up to this point, the action panels needed to deliver. The singular highlight of this issue is that we got to see yet another impressive depiction of Domino's mutant powers. This issue was supposed to be our cashing-in on the story thus far and a redemption of the crossover's weaker entries. Unfortunately, that bar might have been a little too high for this lot. The issue deserves a low score on its own failures, but it's position as the penultimate issue in the crossover and its disappointing delivery has brought the whole crossover down with it.

4.75/10

Hear more discussion of Weapon X #6 on the X-Men Monday Podcast, here.

[warlordgab]

Analysis: Romance in One Piece

Note: I’ll be posting condensed versions of this analysis in other sites

A) Relevance of plot and characterization AKA Unbiased Readers Vs. Delusional Shippers “Who lives on illusions dies from disappointment” – An old Puerto Rican saying Most of us know One Piece is a very popular manga. Its high quality and popularity depend on several factors, among them we could name memorable and likable characters along a deep, compelling, fun and action-packed story. The One Piece many know and love wouldn’t exist without the balance between these factors When talking to at least 3 different One Piece fans, each of them non-shippers who analyzed the manga they all enjoy, I found interesting and pretty sound perspectives of the One Piece story and its nature. All of them value characters, story, development, consistency, and logic; something I can totally relate to But I also found a pattern; these 3 guys shared one single outlook on the very same subject: shipping. Regardless of their expectations, all of them expressed distaste for shippers’ general mindset and “odd” viewpoint: One of them called shippers out for ignoring characterization and very clear and direct statements made in the manga. His attention was centered on a Luffy pairing and how it contradicts his own character. Oda once explained that he writes Luffy as someone pretty straightforward when it comes to expressing his thoughts and feelings, and this non-shipper said with brutal honesty that for the discussed ship to happen we would need to disregard and/or discard the very core of Luffy’s character. Meaning Oda would need to stop being consistent and faithful to his own story and characters The next one explained how shippers tend to turn a characters’ relationship into a sappy teen love fantasy that doesn’t match One Piece at all. His analysis also exposed how integrating this kind of underdeveloped “love” into the story would severely damage One Piece originality, ruin the series and needless to say destroy the likable dynamics between several characters as well as their own development. This fantasy, this so-called “love”, is what the vast majority of shippers support and defend. The same kind of “love” most non-shippers, fans, and critics dread The third non-shipper gave me a more detailed explanation: this is even more rough than the other two as he describes that the common shipper mentality of “he/she likes her/him so they should be together” can “only be likened to that of elementary schoolers”. And how shippers take every little meaningless detail and blow it out of proportion with no regard for context, legitimate bonding or the canon story! But we can’t put all the blame on shippers. Many manga authors seem to have no idea how to write a character-driven series or complex character relationships. In fact, mainstream shonen writers have their fair share of guilt into promoting this common shipping mindset by being notoriously bad at writing romance. Which results in underveloped premises that leave your average fan skeptical, and your average critic disappointed at a poor portrayal of emotional bonding and a severe lack of cohesive narrative in the "romantic love" department This is the reason why many fans, critics and non-shippers hold the shippers’ perspective in a very low regard. Just like the third non-shipper states: “The blushing, longing stares, corny ass lines etc. That kind of poorly portrayed romance is the kind of thing dreaded by the average fan because it reduces the quality of One Piece to the level of such poorly written series” So an author needs to build a relationship the same way one person would construct a building: stablishing a strong foundation on companionship, respect, trust, signifcant moments, and emotional bonding. All of this must come before reaching the status of “romantic interest". In relation to this subject, there’s a trope called “First Girl Wins”, a portion of its description truly fits this criteria: “From a [extradiegetic] point of view, the Law of Conservation of Detail suggests introducing the Love Interest early. An early introduction allows you to get the audience interested in her and rooting for her, gives you space for Character Development, and gives her relationship with her (eventual) partner the most time to develop organically. And with all that said, it's such a common device that in all likelihood, it sometimes gets played for its own sake.” – tvtropes.org, 2017 Notice this isn’t a cliché, this is a literary device to enhance the story. Pairing up two characters without meaningful moments, emotional build-up and development, is the equivalent to lazy writing. Having such elements firmly stablished for two characters and then deciding to go for a different “route”, pretty much wasting a well-developed relationship for the sake of a “weaker” premise, would be the equivalent to bad writing Is Oda, the man who’s willing to die for One Piece, a lazy writer? Of course not! Is he, a man who planned the ending years ago and is still sticking to said ending, a bad writer? Being number 1 in Japan and having such a loyal fanbase all around the world prove he’s not! Do shippers want Oda to be a lazy/bad writer? Facts already answered this question as many (although not all) fans value their own fantasies and delusions over the manga canon and/or the author’s take on the characters and their relationships Many (but not all) shippers now have a war. Not only against rival ships but mainly against One Piece story and consistent development. Yet as the old saying goes, those who live on delusions will have to eventually face reality and disappointment, because Oda is not a lazy/bad writer like some people here would want him to be

B) Romance Dawn AKA The not so secret origins of One Piece “If we don't know where we are going, it can be helpful to know where we come from” – Jostein Gaarder When debating posible outcomes, fans rarely look back at the time when One Piecewas a still a work in progress. Taking a look at Romance Dawn V.1 and Romance Dawn V.2 helps us to see there are constants present in all versions of these Works that made it into what would later become the most popular manga in Japan But before discussing those constants I would like to clarify the meaning of the word: “Romance”. There are people who doesn’t really grasp the concept of “Romance” both One Piece and Oda work with. Luckily the first two non-shippers I meantioned shed some light on this subject: Romance: "A mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful" "A long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time or place" "A narrative in verse or prose, written in a vernacular language in the Middle Ages, dealing with strange and exciting adventures of chivalrous heroes" – thefreedictionary.com, 2016 "A prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious" –  Merriam Webster, 2016 Romantic: "Marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized" "Having an inclination for romance: responsive to the appeal of what is idealized, heroic, or adventurous" –  Merriam Webster, 2016 These definitions match pretty well One Piece and Oda outlook on this concept. Even Oda lampshaped this by giving his own translation to the title: 冒険の夜明け (“Bōken no Yoake”, “Dawn of the Adventure”) So Oda’s “romance” covers a wide variety of themes: Adventure, heroism, mystery, virtue, idealism… we can find comedy and tragedy, happiness and sadness. And among the virtues and the idealism we find companionship and love. As the second non-shipper I mentioned explained One Piece is pretty much like an “Adventure novel”, which is why we’ll find in One Piece many of the tropes commonly used in those books Among those tropes, we find a couple of constants in all versions of “Romance Dawn”

The golden-hearted protagonist and the “First Girl” who doubles as a female lead. Think about this "what if" scenario: If things would’ve played different back then and One Piece never went beyond “Romance Dawn V.1”. If that story were to be elaborated futher, which two characters would had shared the most moments to become endgame? The answer is pretty simple: The golden-hearted protagonist and the female lead! But when debating, the weight of the argument depends on edvidence so we need to rely on what we can confirm. And we confirm this, what’s the constant in Luffy’s story in all versions of Romance Dawn? a Nami-like character

This becomes even more interesting when we discover that at an interview at “Manga no Chikara” and others, Nami was supposed to be the first one to join Luffy but her debut was postponed by Oda’s editor at that time. Edvidence of this being a last minute decision remains on the first color cover:

Yet as the second non-shipper noted: “her role as secondary protagonist was not altered” for “Nami shares with Luffy the largest character development in the entire series”. And as explained here we already know how the trope goes when someone seeks to write a natural growth for an emotional connection between two characters 

In fact, the relevance of Nami to Luffy’s story is implied in what Oda himself said about Strong World: “I really wanted to make a ‘hero saves the heroine’ story (ヒロインを助けるヒーローを描きたい the japanese sentence). [....]. You might think otherwise, but I had no intention of bringing in someone new to fill that [heroine] role. So when I had to think about whom to use for it amongst the straw hats of course that meant Nami”

In Oda’s mind, Luffy is the hero and Nami is the heorine! We can tell that the hero and the heroine are meant to be the driving forces of the series, and therefore putting them together makes the most sense from a storytelling perspective

C) LuffyxNami AKA LuNa/LuNami “Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men” – Thomas Huxley

Many shippers tend to ignore and disregard the importance of staying faithful to the canon story, and the author’s take on the characters and their relationships

To makes matters worst some of them even deem as illogical any argument solidly based on these factors. While considering stuff like lines, frogs, sweat, fire, nonexistent sexual tension, assumption of sexuality, and even assumptions of pregnancy, as legitimate proofs of a plausible outcome! In fact they even value comparisons to other series with a different tone, themes, and characters over anything that the One Piece author conveys through his work There’s even people who goes as far as editing the wiki as if that would change the story to match their preferred pairing! But in order to reach a conclusion that remains true to One Piece and its nature we have to rely on the very same foundation that was already described several times: mutual trust/respect, faith on one another, significant moments, stress in their relationship and emotional development. If the story doesn’t let you build your premises on these elements, the conclusion you’ll reach will obviously be flawed and stray away from what One Piece really is So here I’m not only defending the premise I strongly support; I’m defending the very same story and build-up that contributes to this bond’s natural growth: As explained before there’s nothing explicitly romantic about major interactions. But given we’re dealing with a good and dilligent writer, what we’ll get to see is how big to small moments stablish an emotional connection between two characters, and how that becomes the base for a even greater growth First we have the themes of trust and faith: At first Nami doesn’t trust Luffy very much, out of her clear distate for pirates, until witnessing how far was Luffy willing to go to selflessly help others. Even then Nami treated their relationship as a mere business and later betrayed the crew Still Luffy always trusted Nami to the point of putting blind faith in her. Even when given reasons not to do so. One remarkable example is when Luffy was informed by someone trustworthy (Johnny) that Nami apparently “killed” to Usopp, and Luffy not only kept holding onto his blind faith in Nami but he also threatened Johnny for saying such things about her

This becomes something remarkable when we take into consideration that Zoro quickly gave up on Nami and later tried to attack her without even a second thought! While Usopp just wanted  the Merry back…

And it would later become even more impressive in the Whiskey Peak Arc when Luffy came to doubt Zoro because of the words of wounded man he didn't even know, and even doubted Robin during Water 7 until Nami told him and the crew the truth behind Robin's desertion:

But what else makes this situation with Nami any different from others we see in the manga? Some might point to the saga where rescuing Robin was the primary objective; but in Robin's case Luffy knew her life was in danger for Robin was planning to die for the crew, and he got the resolve to save her only after learning the truth. Others might point to the current arc, but he saw right through Sanji's act and got desperate to rescue him only after hearing his life is in danger. Here, Nami’s life wasn't in danger as far as Luffy knew. And he constantly try to reach out to her despite her harsh attitude and the fact he knew next to nothing about her past and her current circumstances. It was only when he saw her cry he got enough motivation to beat Arlong, and it was only when he got a small glimpse of what she went through that he lost it! How does Nami respond to this? Initially she wanted to get Luffy out of her villaje and her life. While Nami indeed grew fond of Luffy and the others she wasn't willing to bond with any of them; she held on her distrust of others. But that changed when she finally hitted her lowest point, when she finally lost all hope. Then it comes Nami's first major development as character: she realized she needed to rely on someone else, she realized Luffy was her only hope Nami decided to rely on him. The following scene marks the first time of many when Nami relied on Luffy to a emotional level. And the first of two times when Luffy entrusted his treasure to her in a touching gesture to provide comfort and hope:

From the very beginning the emotional build-up between Luffy and Nami was a key factor for one of the most meaningful and memorable moments in One Piece. The moment when Luffy becomes Nami’s “emotional anchor” The effect Luffy had on her character was also quite powerful as we could see during the 2nd pass of the hat: back then at Skypiea arc Nami could still panic at dreadful situations: 

But as soon as Luffy gave her his treasure, the panic stopped and when he was later removed from the battle field, Nami was capable of drawing enough courage from Luffy to face the big bad from that arc:

Not to mention Luffy’s final move against Enel was combined effort of the two as well as an impressive display of mutual trust/faith We can continue to appreciate their development even futher as the story goes on. As someone already pointed out, Nami during Water 7 displayed an impressive resolve and determination, but as soon as she got the chance to explain Luffy their situation she opened her heart to express how she felt, her anguish and her distress. When Luffy reassures her that he will save Robin, she doesn’t cry anymore until she reunites with Robin Their bonding is even futher explored in the only One Piece movie fully written by Oda: Strong World. As this is the author’s take on their relationship is still a valid argument to support Luffy/Nami development: We already considered how impressive Luffy’s blind faith in Nami can be. So after listening to most of Nami's recorded message, Luffy gets enraged! Why?

Well, after all that time Luffy relied on his navigator without ever doubting her. He was likely expecting all his trust and faith in Nami to be reciprocated Turns out Nami does return that feeling! And why can we say that? Remember the movie's ending: Nami finds out everyone in the crew got her hidden "save me" at the end of her message... everyone but Luffy. Then when Luffy is about to play the recorded proof of Nami's unwavering faith in him, what does she do? She tries to get rid of the "edvidence" out of embarrassment 

It’s easy to see then why Nami seeked out Luffy for hope and comfort during Zou. And how she did something similar to what happened in Water 7: she opened up to Luffy

I said it before, since Luffy is Nami’s “emotional anchor”, it makes sense for her to keep strengthening her bond with Luffy. And given Luffy needs a guide to new adventures and someone “mature” enough to sometimes keep him in line, it makes sense for Luffy to grow closer to Nami She once summed it up pretty well: "He always talks big, but when it comes down to it, he knows nothing about the sea! He's severely lacking in the 'sense of danger' area! And he always overdoes it...if I left him alone, he'd die. And he's stupid, so I have to take care of him. That's why I'm gonna help him!" - Nami, chapter 596 Still, none of this is explicitly romantic in the traditional sense of the word. But just like someone who’s constructing a building, we start dealing with the foundations to then proceed to make a solid structure: a well-written relationship that enhances the story As someone once reviewed, Luffy and Nami dynamic doesn’t need to change for them to become endgame for they already have anything they need to finish that “building”. And that’s what’s being a potent pairing means: having everything to your favor for further development and growth. Luffy and Nami definitively have the major moments and the emotional bonding while remaining consistent to the One Piece canon to be considered a Potent Pairing

Bonus:

It's interesting we find other interaction that proves how comfortable is Nami around Luffy: 

She doesn't mind having Luffy around her, what she really minds is Luffy wanting to go to dangerous places But why is this relevant? In Thriller Bark we had a clear showing of how she reacts to pervs trying to accomplish what Luffy did here. She electrocutes them. We can confirm she haven't changed in this regard because at the end of Fishman Island arc Nami electrocutes a perv for trying to peek at her while she was taking a bath Another interesting detail about Nami's attitude toward Luffy is a change we see in WCI. Of course, we have the remarkable faith and trust Nami puts on Luffy by even boasting how him being the future Pirate King ensures their victory over Cracker's ability.

But the real change is when Sanji brutalizes Luffy. Nami already stated she felt guilty for what happened when Sanji got taken. But when Sanji did his "little" number on Luffy her attitude changed, she not only begged him to stop but was also promising they'll leave if he did (Luffy clearly disagreed on that)

After seeing the way Sanji treated her captain, Nami did something the could seem pretty justified because of what happened: she slapped Sanji and then sarcastically played along Sanji's "royal" act. When she goes to Luffy and finds out her captain is not relenting on his effort to get Sanji back, she gives us this little gem:

The Japanese text for Nami's dialogue reads: "Luffy!! Why?! No matter what his reasons are, after he did all that to you…" The term she used here for the line in bold conveys the idea of severe mistreatment. She was obviously mad at the way Sanji attacked and badmouthed Luffy and his dream. Ironically Luffy is the one who shows far more emotion to the prospect of getting Sanji back than Nami, she kept displaying far more concern for Luffy as the chapters went on Nami is now showing, little by little, more of an emotional attachment to Luffy. Which makes a lot of sense given what we saw in their story

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: The Gathering Storm ch 8

Siuan reminisces, Egwene Amyrlins, and ACTUAL COMMUNICATION.

Chapter 8: Clean Shirts

Haven’t seen that chapter icon in a while.

Siuan now – there’s been a lot of quick POV shifting in this book so far. I suppose it’s been mostly centred on Rand and Egwene – and their various affiliates – these past several chapters, but it definitely lends a feeling of a quicker pace. Which works, given where we are in the series.

No sailor would miss [those clouds]. Not dark enough to promise a storm, not light enough to imply smooth waters either.

A sky like that was ambiguous.

The whole world balanced on the edge of a knife, with little to tell right now which way it will eventually fall. Rand himself barely balanced between Light and something very like Shadow. A world uncertain, moving towards the ending.

What, you thought I was going to ignore Portentious Atmospheric Details?

HA. IT GETS BETTER.

On a day like this, however, when there were gloomy clouds but no proof of storms, the dockmasters would charge a full day’s rent. And so the fisher had to make a choice. Stay in the harbour and wait, or go fishing to recoup the dock fees.

A fisher. Or should I say a Fisher. This delights me.

She doubted many fishers had chosen to go out this day.

Well I can think of one probable capitalised exception…

Lelaine has no time for symbolically important discussions of the sky.

Siuan could still sense shock in some of the Aes Sedai she passed. Egwene was to have been carefully controlled. What had gone wrong?

Egwene. That’s what went wrong. You Aes Sedai all thought you had a prayer of controlling Egwene in the first place, failing to realise that this is the girl who took one look at someone else’s Call To Adventure and said ‘mine now’. And that was just her starting point.

Siuan would have taken more smug delight from those looks if she hadn’t herself worried about Egwene’s continued captivity in the White Tower. That was a lionfish’s veil indeed. Potential for great success, but also great disaster.

Yes, well, that describes approximately every single situation in the plot as things stand, so. I’m sure it’ll all be fine. What could possibly go wrong? Aside from everything?

Lelaine and Romanda are still doing their thing, though things seem to be shifting slightly in favour of Lelaine at the moment. Okay.

I’m a bit ambivalent about this particular conflict at this point. On the one hand, it’s probably more realistic for it to continue, especially given Egwene’s absence and the sense of uncertainty that brings. On the other hand, I find it hard to actually care about it, because Egwene’s arc has moved past this, and so this ends up feeling a bit stale. But then, just because her story is no longer just with the rebels, that doesn’t mean the rebels should magically have all their problems solved; that would make it too easy. So it works, I just don’t really care. Ah well.

When she’d first been Healed, her reduced power had been a disappointment. But that was changing. Yes, it was infuriating to be beneath so many, to lack respect from those around her. However, because she was weaker in power, many seemed to assume she was weaker in political skill as well! Could people really forget so quickly? She was finding her new status among the Aes Sedai to be liberating.

That’s an incredibly mature and sanguine way of looking at it. And the fact that this doesn’t even scan as self-deception is truly impressive. There are indeed advantages to her new situation, especially for one with her political acumen combined with a prominent past and a present need for discretion, but to truly understand and embrace that – especially without then giving up the advantage it conveys – takes a special kind of resilience.

So Siuan’s sent Lelaine off on some pointless political trail of distraction, mostly by mentioning Romanda. You would think that if your goal were to become the political leader of a group known for their politicking and manipulation, you’d at least try to hide what can be used to manipulate you. Romanda and Lelaine are so perfectly unsubtle and they fall for this shit every time. It would be fine as a front, maybe, but it isn’t even a front. They’re really that easily led.

The Amyrlin needed to hurry up and finish with her plotting in the White Tower. What good would it do to undermine Elaida if the Aes Sedai outside crumbled while Egwene wasn’t watching?

It’s a fair question, and does highlight the complexity and delicate balance of Egwene’s entire situation. She won the rebels and brought them this far, and she’s winning her strange not-quite-war in the Tower, but she can’t forget one while she deals with the other. That’s rather the point, isn’t it? The Aes Sedai need to be unified; the Tower needs to be whole. Otherwise something is always going to be falling apart.

Either Lelaine is teasing Siuan about having a crush on Gareth Bryne, or she is actually that oblivious.

And Siuan is definitely not going to let Lelaine pay off Siuan’s debt to Bryne. Because reasons.

That would just move her debt from Bryne to Lelaine. The Aes Sedai would collect it in far more subtle ways, but each coin would end up being paid one way or another, if only through demands of loyalty.

Okay that is definitely a valid reason.

Lelaine is indeed actually that oblivious. How has she risen this far?

Siuan gets a ride on the back of a turnip wagon, which makes this the second time in this series that Aes Sedai have ridden with vegetables. The cabbage merchant from Avatar is probably sweating nervously somewhere.

Secrets, those powerful, dominating secrets. They had become her life. No love save for youthful dalliances.

So Moiraine was just a ‘youthful dalliance’? I think not.

No time for entanglements, or much room for friendships.

I suppose she could be putting Moiraine in the ‘frienships’ category here, which…okay. In a general sense, I have no problems with that. Nor will I ever, under any circumstances, try to argue that friendship is in any way less meaningful or important than romantic love.

And very likely, Moiraine wasn’t intended to be specifically implied by ‘youthful dalliances’, or even by ‘friendships’; they were close friends and they loved each other, but they both chose the Blue Ajah and they both knew what dedicating themselves to this cause would mean: they would have to put it above everything, including their own personal wishes or relationships.

So, fine, it’s not a direct slight and I’m not trying to go out of my way to find things to be indignant about. But my issue here is more that…it’s as if the relationship Siuan and Moiraine shared in their younger years is forgotten by the narrative itself. Because either Moiraine was indeed a ‘youthful dalliance’ – thus implying that ‘girlhood things should be left behind with girlhood’ as Tarna put it – or Siuan’s relationship with Moiraine is so insignificant that it doesn’t warrant a mention at all. There’s a sense of oversight there, and it bothers me a bit.

On its own, it might not stand out as much of an issue. However, there’s a pattern here of including but then almost simultaneously dismissing love between women. This isn’t even a particularly egregious example, but it becomes frustrating when mixed in with the tendency to treat ‘pillow friendships’ as a kind of youthful phase that all but the evil ones grow out of.

No series is perfect, and you can’t have everything, and I’m sure Jordan and Sanderson had good intentions – or at least, did not have bad intentions – with regards to this sort of thing. But the execution falls short for me sometimes.

She’d focused only one one thing: finding the Dragon Reborn. Helping him, guiding him, hopefully controlling him.

Moiraine had died following that same quest, but at least she had been able to go out and see the world. Siuan had grown old – in spirit, if not in body – cooped up in the Tower, pulling her strings and nudging the world. She’d done some good. Time would tell if those efforts had been enough.

She didn’t regret her life. Yet, at this moment, passing army tents […] she envied Moiraine. How often had Siuan bothered to look out of her window toward the beautiful green landscape, before it all had started going sickly? She and Moiraine had fought so hard to save this world, but they had left themselves without anything to enjoy in it.

Having said all of that, I absolutely love this bit here. I do really love the way the friendship aspect of Moiraine and Siuan’s relationship is presented. They are bound so closely by love and a shared goal, but one of those has had to take precedence. They loved each other before prophecy took over their lives, but their shared secret and their determination and devotion forced them down different paths.

And yet, from both their perspectives there has always been a strong, if understated and often bittersweet, sense of the friendship that underlies this shared quest. They never came to resent or hate one another, and they both kept firmly to their aim, and accepted the rest as it came. It didn’t destroy their friendship because they both accepted that the quest would have to come first. And so when it did come first, and when it did separate them, and when it did – at least as far as each of them knows – kill the other one, they understood that, too. It’s a strange kind of mutual trust and understanding upon which to build a somewhat strange relationship, but there is something rather beautiful about that.

And Siuan’s musings here are really lovely, in that same kind of bittersweet and nostalgic way. Take what you want, and pay for it. She and Moiraine have both lived by that. Siuan has no regrets, because this life is the consequence of the task she accepted. And she may envy Moiraine, but even now she does not resent her.

The last line especially is beautiful. I really, really hope Siuan and Moiraine both survive what is to come, and reunite at least once to share in the completion of their decades-long task. Even if they then go their separate ways – because that is how it has always been for them, and somehow it works.

Or they could just decide fuck it, let’s retire early and go on a roadtrip full of pranks and mischief to see the world we’ve helped win for ourselves. That would also be acceptable.

Siuan the Amyrlin hadn’t had any time for entanglements, but what of Siuan the attendant? […] Was there, perhaps, room in her life for a few more changes? 

The wagon reached the far side of the army camp, and she shook her head at her own foolishness as she hopped down, then nodded her thanks to the wagon driver. Was she a girl, barely old enough for her first full-day blackfish trawl? There was no use in thinking of Bryne that way. At least not right now. There was too much to do.

So I’m quoting this mainly for the last part, because my usual line when complaining about characters getting caught up in romantic subplots is ‘stop cheating on your plotline!’

Which is to say, I appreciate Siuan’s priorities here. Even though I’m probably supposed to roll my eyes and tell her to just live a little, the world is ending after all.

Though I don’t particularly mind the thing between Siuan and Bryne; it’s relatively unobtrusive and doesn’t interfere too much with the plot or either character’s competence.

And by ‘thing’ I mean…utter failure at flirting and an ongoing low-level prank war.

“I have to say, Siuan, that I’m surprised. I had assumed that an Aes Sedai would know little of work such as this, but rarely have my uniforms known such a perfect combination of stiffness and comfort. You are to be commended.”

Siuan turned away from him, hiding her blush. Fool man! She had caused kings to kneel before her! She manipulated the Aes Sedai and planned for the deliverance of mankind itself! And he complimented her on her laundering skills?

The thing was, from Bryne, that was an honest and meaningful compliment. He didn’t look down on washwomen, or runner boys. He treated all with equity. A person didn’t gain stature in Gareth Bryne’s eyes by being a king or queen; one gained stature by keeping to one’s oaths and doing one’s duty. To him, a compliment on laundry well done was as meaningful as a medal awarded to a soldier who had stood his ground before the enemy.

It took rather a lot of explanation and narrative enforcement to make that work, but I think it does work in the end. It certainly fits with what has been established about Bryne’s character. He doesn’t give a single shit about where someone is supposed to rank; he cares about character and competence. He gave the army to Egwene when most Aes Sedai still thought she would be little more than a puppet, because he could see in her something worth serving.

So…yeah, it’s a bit of an insulting compliment, from a certain perspective. Siuan’s indignation is not entirely out of place, and I like that it’s acknowledged. But I also like that she understands Bryne enough to know that it is actually a meaningful compliment – and also that he clearly understands her well enough to know that she would be able to take it as such.

Ah, and now we’re back to the question of why Siuan broke – or truth-twisted her way out of – that oath in the first place.

“So you claim I’m a liar?” she demanded.

“No,” he said. “Just an oathbreaker.”

Ouch. Point to Bryne.

“That question drove me here, you know,” he said. “It’s why I hunted you all that way. It’s why I finally swore to these rebel Aes Sedai, though I had little wish to be pulled into yet another war at Tar Valon. I did it all because I needed to understand. I had to know. Why? Why did the woman with those eyes – those passionate, haunting eyes – break her oath?”

That’s…a surprising amount of openness and honesty, and I rather like it. Especially because Siuan has been wondering for so long why he did follow her, and why he stayed. And she toyed with the idea that it might be because of her, but then discarded it as a silly fancy, but now thanks to the wonders of this new invention called communication, she knows that really is a large part of the reason. So credit to Bryne for deciding to just…tell her.

“Another excuse,” he said softly. “Another answer from an Aes Sedai. Will I ever have the truth from you, Siuan Sanche? Has anyone ever had it?” He signed, and she heard papers rustle, the candle’s light flickering in the faint stir of his movements as he turned back to his reports.

“When I was still an Accepted in the White Tower,” Siuan said softly, “I was one of four people present when a Foretelling announced the imminent birth of the Dragon Reborn on the slopes of Dragonmount.”

His rustling froze.

Yes. Honesty begets honesty; it’s not the first time that has proven true in this series. Bryne finally gives her an unguarded truth…and so she finally gives him this. And it’s no small truth. This is the foundation of most of her adult life, and it’s been a secret and a burden for so long, because she has so long had to work within a system of secrets and shades of truth, all the while carrying something of this gravity.

Very, very few have ever had the truth from her. Moiraine. Rand, arguably, in TGH, though even then it was given somewhat as manipulation. And Bryne’s reaction here shows that he knows just how closely-kept a secret this has been. That he knows just how much of the truth she is actually surrendering to him, here.

I always love moments like this, when a character finally faces another and tells them everything. When done well, it grants a particular and very satisfying sense of catharsis – especially when the reader knows the secret, but has watched the character carry it so long in silence, never able to truly explain themselves, and often suffering for it.

It’s a great moment of honest, open communication, on both sides. That’s a rare thing in this series, but the payoff is almost always worth it; the moments where characters finally do communicate are often beautiful and fitting and genuinely effective.

I think this is a large part of what makes the whole Wheel Of Absolutely No Communication thing work, at least for me. It’s frustrating as hell sometimes, sure, and there are definitely moments where I want to just bash characters’ heads together and tell them to JUST FUCKING TALK TO EACH OTHER FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED.

But, while characters frequently and spectacularly fail at doing exactly that, moments of genuine honesty don’t tend to result in further misunderstanding. When characters do finally open up to each other, it is almost always rewarded.

Where some authors lose me is when they bend over backwards to prevent those moments from ever happening at all, or else let them happen and then force the miscommunication or misunderstanding to persist anyway. Instead of feeling realistic, it almost always ends up feeling contrived. WoT toes that line sometimes, but the payoffs make it work for me.

So we get a quick recap of New Spring, because Bryne clearly hasn’t read it yet.

“There was only one other person I knew I could trust, and she is now dead.”

And neither Siuan nor Moiraine could really afford to grieve, when they thought the other to be dead. They knew it could come to this, but…it’s such a loss, for both of them. Please let them at least find out that the other is alive.

“You blame me for the loss of a barn and some cows. Well, then I suggest that you consider the cost to your people should the Dragon Reborn fail. Sometimes, prices must be paid so that a more important duty can be served. I would expect a soldier to understand that. […] Should I have spared even a moment when the entire world was wearing the hangman’s noose?”

She held those eyes, demanding an answer.

“No,” he finally admitted. “Burn me, Siuan, but no. You shouldn’t have waited.”

And he offers to hold her oath fulfilled. She refuses, of course, but this is what I mean by payoff. They have each been entirely truthful with each other at last, and instead of answering in the negative here, or refusing to understand, he accepts her explanation. And she doesn’t question his. There is a reward for honesty.

Now they’re back to incompetent flirting, but progress has been made. They trust each other now, and that’s no small thing. Oh, they trusted each other before, but more in the sense that they each believed the other to be a decent person. Now they both know something close to the full truth, and they each revealed it willingly, and the very act of doing so – each one knowing how much it means for the other to speak that openly – has forged a much stronger bond of genuine trust. They’re together in this, now. Even if they can’t sort out other definitions of ‘together’.

When other oaths no longer have a hold on me, she thought. When I’m certain the Dragon Reborn is doing what he is supposed to, perhaps there will be time. For once, I’m actually starting to look forward to being done with this quest. How remarkable.

…Okay, and with that line, I am now far more worried about her survival than I was a few minutes ago. I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I think Siuan will make it; I could see it working both ways.

Bryne has worked out her Tel’aran’rhiod schedule, and possibly the general notion of Tel’aran’rhiod itself. Of course he has.

She’d have to do something to get back at him. Mice in the bedsheets.

Ha. Oh, Siuan, you are incorrigible. Nice throwback there, to a prank she and Moiraine planned back in their Accepted days, given how that time has been on Siuan’s mind this chapter.

“A sword, Siuan?” Egwene’s voice suddenly asked. “That’s novel.” Siuan looked down, shocked to find herself holding a bloody sword, likely intended for Elaida’s heart.

Things I didn’t know I needed: Siuan Sanche with a sword. Is there fanart? Please let there be fanart.

Egwene was getting very good at the calm serenity of an Aes Sedai. In fact, she seemed to have grown measurably better at that since her capture.

Well, she’s had a lot of practice. And more than that…it’s not a brittle mask of serenity on her. It’s true serenity, an outward reflection of inward calm purpose and understanding. She’s not trying to make herself harder in order to face pain, or make herself seem stronger in order to appear commanding. Instead, she has come to understand, and with that has come a strength that is unforced.

She showed more of herself around Siuan than she did the others. They both knew how heavily Egwene had relied on Siuan’s teaching to get where she was.

Though she’d probably have made it there anyway, Siuan admitted. Just not quite as quickly.

Siuan and Moiraine dedicated themselves to the task of finding and guiding the Dragon Reborn. But they – Siuan especially – have arguably been more successful at finding and guiding Egwene.

That’s not to say they failed in their task; Moiraine did find Rand and has been a lasting influence on him, especially once she realised that she needed to approach things differently. Meanwhile Siuan is no longer Amyrlin and has not seen the Dragon Reborn in over a year, but she has been instrumental in helping Egwene become a true Amyrlin. Which will, I have no doubt, end up being a critical step in ensuring the world’s survival. Without Egwene as Amyrlin, I struggle to see how Rand and the White Tower would reconcile to the point where they could approach the Last Battle as allies. With Egwene, it will undoubtedly be difficult, but their once-friendship might just be enough.

So Moiraine and Siuan have both ended up following the task they swore themselves to, but – like so many other things in this series – not quite in the way they planned. And I like that they both played a role in guiding Egwene, as well as Rand, given all the other parallels and inversions between the two. It’s nice symmetry, both of Moiraine and Siuan and of Egwene and Rand.

Egwene decides she doesn’t want to spend a moment longer than necessary in the study of the Mistress of Novices. Shocking.

“One of the Forsaken was in our camp,” Siuan said. She hadn’t wanted to think about that too frequently. The knowledge made her skin crawl.

“Is anyone dead?” Egwene asked, voice calm though her eyes looked to be steel.

It’s nice to get an outsider POV of Egwene during this part of her arc. So much of it has been told through her own eyes, and it’s all kinds of fantastic, and it’s definitely important to see it from her perspective because a lot of it is about her own understanding and growth. But I always love seeing what characters look like to others, and seeing Egwene through Siuan’s eyes here helps to emphasise what has changed outwardly, and how very like a true Amyrlin Egwene looks to those around her.

Even when Siuan says it was probably Halima, wielding saidin, Egwene barely reacts visibly. No doubt this is a shock to her, but she lets almost none of it show. Because what good would that do? She can’t go back and suspect Halima, she can’t save those who were killed, and letting herself be thrown by this won’t help anything. So she takes it calmly, and focuses on what she can do. And on what needs to be done.

“Mother, it appears some of the men who follow al’Thor have bonded Aes Sedai.”

Egwene blinked a single time. “Yes. I had heard rumours of this. I had hoped that they were exaggerated. Did this Asha’man say who gave Rand permission to commit such an atrocity?”

“He’s the Dragon Reborn,” Siuan said, grimacing. “I don’t think he feels he needs permission. But, in his defence, it appears he didn’t know it was happening. The women his men bonded were sent by Elaida to destroy the Black Tower.”

“Yes.” Egwene finally showed a sliver of emotion. “So the rumours are accurate. All too accurate. […] “We shall have to deal with the Dragon’s foolishness at a later date. Perhaps his men acted without his direct orders, but Rand must take responsibility. Men. Bonding women!”

I can’t entirely agree with Egwene here. I can see where she’s coming from, because she is Amyrlin and Aes Sedai, and while Siuan can give her some context for what has happened, neither of them knows all of it. But…while the forced bonding of Aes Sedai is hard to call a good thing, it really was probably the best of several bad options. And the notion that women should be able to bond men but not the other way around is kind of absurd – at least, if it is accepted that saidin has been cleansed.

As for Rand taking responsibility…that’s a difficult one. On the one hand, he had no idea any of this was happening, and it wasn’t on his orders, and he was far from happy about it when he found out. On the other hand, he himself thinks of the Asha’man as his creation, his responsibility. It’s a tricky one because he thinks of them that way when he needs or wants to, but he also has all but ignored the Black Tower since putting Taim in charge of it. He keeps trying to have it both ways, and it keeps coming back to bite him.

That said, the offer of recompense kind of is his way of taking responsibility. Or at least of trying to offer as close to a solution as possible. The whole situation is a mess, and there have been several points at which there really are no good options.

It’s also interesting to see how Egwene thinks of Rand versus how she thinks of the Dragon Reborn. Here, he takes the latter role in her mind, because it does come down to issues of command and responsibility. Rand has had similar thoughts about Egwene when thinking of her as Amyrlin and Aes Sedai. It’s not fair, perhaps, but their roles are larger than they are, and they have both had to accept and deal with that. Egwene is Amyrlin, thinking about the Dragon Reborn. As simply Egwene, she has been angry with Elaida for hurting Rand. It comes back to individuals versus roles, and how that can shape what they must do and think. How she can be angry with the Dragon Reborn but still care about the boy from Emond’s Field. It is, I think, similar for Rand. As Dragon Reborn he can be angry with or suspicious of the Amyrlin, but still care about Egwene. Though at the moment he’s not letting himself care about much of anything, so that complicates things a bit.

“They claim saidin is cleansed,” Siuan said.

Egwene raised an eyebrow, but did not object. “Yes,” she said, “I suppose that might be a reasonable possibility. We will need further confirmation, of course. But the taint arrived when all seemed won; why should it not leave when all seems to be approaching pure madness?”

That might be the best reaction I’ve seen to the cleansing yet, from anyone but a male channeller. She doesn’t reject the idea outright, or go on about how it’s impossible. She’s rather willing to accept it, and just asks for further confirmation. Which is not an unreasonable request; she hasn’t linked with an Asha’man, or even been told that anyone else has. But I think she would accept some of that as confirmation, where others reject all proof that is offered in favour of saying it’s impossible. Egwene isn’t doing that. And I rather love that last thought – it’s kind of a perfect way of looking at things, isn’t it? Parallels and inversions. A victory for the Shadow at what should have been the Light’s greatest triumph, and a true victory for the Light as all else darkens.

Siuan wants Egwene to come back and look after the Hall, Egwene says she has work to do here and Siuan can do fine on her own. Which, so far, has been the case. So credit where it’s due for delegating, but at some poing she is going to need to move to reunite them.

“Do your best,” Egwene said. “But don’t worry if Lelaine refuses to be diverted.”

Siuan frowned. “But she’s usurping your place!”

“By building upon it,” Egwene said, smiling. […] “Lelaine’s gambit will only succeed if I fail to return. She is using me as a source of authority. When I return, she’ll have no choice but to accept my leadership. She’ll have spent all of her effort building me up.”

“And if you don’t return, Mother?” Siuan asked softly.

“Then it will be better for the Aes Sedai to have a strong leader,” Egwene said. “If Lelaine has been the one to secure that strength, then so be it.”

Clever. And I like how Egwene points out the win-win nature of this situation. She’s not in this for herself – being Amyrlin isn’t some kind of power-trip. She doesn’t lack ambition, and she’s made use of it to get where she is, certainly. And she needed to. But her efforts now are wholly dedicated not to herself but to the White Tower. She is Amyrlin because Elaida is incompetent, and this is the best way Egwene sees to heal the Tower and see it to Tarmon Gai’don. But she will not put herself before the Tower; if she loses, or if for whatever reason she ends up unable to do what she needs to do, she can accept that another may need to take her place. She won’t destroy the Tower to keep her position. Which is a a large part of what sets her apart from Elaida.

“I’m actually learning to deal with my…new situation. It’s not so difficult to stomach, now that I see that it has some advantages.”

Egwene frowned, as if trying to figure out what advantages there could be in lessened power.

That’s very likely more than an abstract thought; Egwene is, after all, spending all her time dosed on forkroot and barely able to channel.

“Elayne once mentioned a room to me in the Tower, filled with objects of power. I assume it really exists?”

“Of course,” Siuan said. “The basement storeroom. It’s in the second level of the basement, on the northeast side. Little room with a plain wooden door, but you can’t miss it.”

OH HELL YES BRING OUT THE ANGREAL LET’S LEVEL THIS UP.

I mean. Um. Yes, good, thank you for that advice, Siuan, I’m sure it will come in handy.

“If there was a Forsaken in our camp, I’d bet half my father’s inn that there’s one spying on the White Tower too.”

Please let Egwene take out at least one of the Forsaken. She deserves it.

Next (TGS ch 9) Previous (TGS ch 7)

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The Empathy Effect: How Befriending Your Future Self Can Impact Your Health Today

You are not the person you were fifteen years ago. The cells that compose your tissues and deliver oxygen have been recycled many times over. Your face has changed. You move differently. You’re probably slower and weaker, or, depending on your daily habits, faster and stronger. As it becomes available, you incorporate new information into your belief system. Even the neat narrative we imagine we’re orchestrating unbroken in our heads has nightly intermissions lasting hours during which we have no real clue what happens.

Is this all just philosophical navel-gazing better suited for 2 AM in a dorm room covered with Bob Marley posters? Not exactly. Accepting the idea that past and future selves are different people can have real benefits today—and tomorrow.

A study from late last year found that disrupting the temporo-parietal junction—a part of the brain that studies reveal is consistently involved in empathy, essentially our ability to overcome self-centeredness and put ourselves in another’s shoes—led human subjects to choose smaller, immediate rewards over larger, long-term rewards. It had no effect on people’s ability to perceive time, space, or numbers. They understood that the reward would be bigger if they just waited. They just didn’t care. In other words, when people were no longer able to empathize with their future selves, they made choices that benefited their present selves while shortchanging their future ones.

We already subconsciously envision our future selves as different people. Today I’m going to argue that we should be doing it consciously, too, and that doing so can help improve our lives in the present and future.

As I go back through my time as a coach and, now, a health author privy to the trials and tribulations of people trying to get healthier, happier, and more productive, I’m realizing that the biggest successes almost always included some reckoning of the future self. They’d “write 5 year plans.” They’d see how their parents ended up and resolve not to do the same. In almost every instance, they were imagining some version of themselves in the future. Now that I’ve come across this “empathy for future self” research, I’m convinced that these people were inadvertently treating the person they’d eventually become as another person worthy of empathy.

I’m wondering if we can make this work on a conscious level. How can we leverage this “future self as being worthy of empathy” phenomenon?

I’ve got a few ideas.

Write a back blurb for the novelization of your dystopian future.

Dystopian futures are huge these days. From zombie wastelands and father-and-son duos trudging through ruined Americas to shiny high-tech societies where every whim is satisfied but the soul’s, popular culture assumes the future is bleak and horrifying. Imagine, for the purposes of this exercise, that your future is also bleak and horrifying, that someone’s writing a book about it, and that you have to write the back blurb that lays out the basics: the setting, the protagonist, the main conflict.

We all have fears about our future. We all wonder about the worst case scenario. Just how bad could it get? It’s frightening to think about the subject with any sort of depth, so we end up pulling back before it gets too visceral and realistic. With your blurb, get visceral. Imagine in excruciating detail what you don’t want to happen, and write it down. Paint the most miserable—yet conceivable—future for yourself.

Make it so bad that you feel deep empathy for that miserable wretch. And, hopefully, do everything in your power to avoid becoming them.

If you’ve got it in you, write a full-page synopsis.

Write a letter.

A common exercise among life coaches is to have the client write a letter from their future selves telling the present self how awesome their life will be. It’s supposed to help folks believe in the power of change and to see beyond their present circumstances to the glory that lies just around the bend. I’ve put a spin on it: Have your future self write you a letter requesting help with specific tasks.

It could be a positive or negative future. If it’s a positive one, your future self will make requests that ensure things go well and turn out right. If it’s a negative one, the requests will help you avoid the mistakes “you” made.

Daydream with focus.

People often think of daydreaming as reverie: a conscious float through the subconscious. And most of the time, you really do drift from thought to thought to fantasy to thought to imagery. It’s a pleasant way to de-stress, relax your racing mind, and potentially stumble upon an interesting revelation or insight.

To increase empathy for your future self, go into your daydream session with a purpose. Imagine yourself a year, two years, ten years in the future. Imagine you’re living the best life possible. What kind of shape are you in in the future? What’s in your refrigerator? How much can you squat? Don’t steer things too much in one direction or another. Just see what “you” are up to in the future, investigate the details, ask questions, and then return to waking life. Debrief yourself. How’d it look? Did you like what you saw? How do you feel about your future self? What can you do differently today to realize (or avoid) the future you witnessed?

Think of it as a mini vision quest that occurs entirely inside your head. Hallucinogenic toad secretions and 5-day-long fast in the desert are optional.

Ask “How does this affect my future self?”

I don’t suggest you ask this question before every action. You’d end up paralyzed if you had to figure out the long term ramifications of wearing the jeans or the slacks. But the ones with clear impact? The “should I get up and go to the gym or squander another hour staring at my phone in bed?” The “oh man, the salt and vinegar kettle chips are on sale” moment? Ask the question.

We probably already kinda do this on some level. And I bet those who ponder this question on a subconscious level most often are the ones who have the most success and make the right decisions. Some people might never consider doing so on their own but will after reading this. So consider this post a nudge. Ask the question.

Oh, and be sure to answer it to the best of your ability.

Try “Self-Authoring.”

I heard Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan’s podcast a few months back, and he really resonated with me. A clinical psychiatrist and psychology professor at the University of Toronto, Peterson studies myth, meaning, truth, personality, and self-improvement. His lectures, which he posts to Youtube, get rave reviews. He’s got an extremely unique take on religion, tradition, and how it all relates to scientific facts. Peterson also has a product called the Self-Authoring Suite.

It has three components—Past, Present, and Future. For each, you complete a series of writing exercises designed to help you identify, understand, and eventually realize what you want out of life. There appears to be a good deal on the whole shebang right now, but you can also buy the components separately.

It seems to work. Ethnic minority students in Holland who tried the self-authoring program ended up erasing the academic gap that usually separates minority students from native Dutch students. Think about how it might help you push beyond current obstacles or old stories.

Try a guided meditation to meet your future self.

You probably know that I’m not big on sitting meditation. It just doesn’t work for me. So I do other things that get me into similar mind states. One of them is the guided meditation. Although I don’t listen to guided meditations very often, I’ve really enjoyed the ones I have. They seem to “do the trick” and allow me to reach that place fans of sitting meditation are always gushing over.

Turns out they have guided meditations designed to help you meet your future self. You can go long—this one clocks in around an hour long. You can go shorter—this one from Tara Brach is just over 7 minutes long. If you’re a fan of meditation and find you’re able to achieve those mind states, using a meditation to meet your future self could be extremely convincing.

When you do these exercises, do them for real. Fully inhabit the future self. Take them seriously. If you just half-ass your way through it, your temporo-parietal junction will know it. If this is going to work, you have to commit. You have to really meet and extend empathy for the future self.

That’s it for today, folks. I urge you to give some or all of these exercises a try and report back. Did it help? Do you have any other tips for achieving the same effect?

Thanks for reading and take care!

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Originally at :Mark's Daily Apple Written By : Mark Sisson

#Befriending, #Effect, #Empathy, #Future, #Health, #Impact, #Self, #Today #Fitness

[entergamingxp]

15 Upcoming Indie Games to Put On Your Radar in 2020

January 16, 2020 12:00 PM EST

2020 looks to be another great year for indie games. Here are 15 of them to keep an eye on as the year rolls on.

Last week, we gave you 10 2020 releases that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. However, that list mostly dealt with the biggest games of 2020. What about all the awesome games being made by smaller studios? Well, here’s the list for them. Below are 15 incredible-looking games coming from the indie scene in 2020.

Before we start, it’s important to note that with the continually growing indie space in games, there are hundreds of games that could easily make this list. I’ve capped the list at 15 mostly for my sanity, but the initial shortlist for this article was a mile long. Here are a few extra honorable mentions you should give a look: TemTem, Boyfriend Dungeon, Griftlands, Minute of Islands, Sable, Roki, Baldo, Garden Story, Ikenfell, Knuckle Sandwich, and She Dreams Elsewhere. I also chose to not include Axiom Verge 2, as that was already covered in last week’s article. Anyways, on to the list.

Lenna’s Inception

This Legend of Zelda-like from Bytten Studio is actually out this week. You play as an unlikely hero in a procedurally generated world that flips from 8- to 32-bit pixel art. It looks to turn the typical conventions of the genre on its head with a wild storyline that features multiple endings. You can also play the game with a friend in local co-op. A Link to the Past is my all-time favorite game, so any game that looks to iterate on that excellent formula is automatically something I’ll be paying attention to.

12 Minutes

Time loops are all the rage these days after the excellent Outer Wilds took the world by storm last year. Interestingly, 12 Minutes is another Annapurna-published game that explores the mind-bending concept. While Outer Wilds had you exploring an entire galaxy, 12 Minutes’ experience is a bit more intimate. As a husband trying to share a romantic evening with his wife, you’ll discover the many secrets taking place inside your apartment. On the surface, it might not sound like the most thrilling concept on this list, but everything I’ve seen has been very impressive.

Cook, Serve, Delicious 3

Before seeing this in action, I wasn’t really sure if the world needed another Cook, Serve, Delicious game. After all, how much more cooking, serving, and delciousing can a person reasonably expect to do? And then I saw that the game takes place in the post-apocalyptic US and you play as the owner of a food truck. As you travel across America, you must both cook food and fight off roving bands of evil cooks. It’s hard to imagine a cooking game with a better elevator pitch than this one.

Eastward

Earthbound-like games are a dime a dozen these days. The SNES classic made a major impact on the developers of today, and we’re seeing that love play out in games like LISA, Citizens of Earth, and, of course, Undertale. However, there’s something about Eastward’s style that really sticks out to me. While other games have done a great job of capturing Earthbound’s charm and gameplay, Eastward also nails the look. If I close my eyes and imagine what Earthbound would look like in 2020, Eastward isn’t far off. Hopefully, the team at Pixpil can nail everything else it’s going for just as well.

Sports Story

Golf Story is my favorite game for Nintendo Switch. Full stop. And now Sidebar Games is adding tennis and dungeons and espionage and buried treasure and a meeting with a queen? I need this game yesterday. If Golf Story wasn’t up your alley, this probably won’t be either, but for us beings of superior intellect, Sports Story is set to be one of the most exciting releases of 2020. I cannot wait.

The Red Lantern

The Red Lantern basically looks like FTL except instead of crossing the galaxy, you’re racing the Iditarod with a team of the best boys. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the book Stone Fox. So, a game that lets me play out the fantasy of racing Searchlight through the Alaskan wilderness is very much right up my alley. My only worry is how brutal the game looks. The trailer has a scene where a bear attacks one of your dogs and I really hated watching it. Hopefully, that’s a rarity or else this might just become an idea I love and not a game I play.

Spelunky 2

Spelunky remains one of the best rogue-likes on the market. The platforming is tight and the game has so many awesome secrets for you to discover. The sequel looks to be more of the same and I can’t wait to join the community in uncovering all the weirdness that lies within. This spot could also easily go to UFO 50, which is another Derek Yu project I’ve been waiting for with bated breath. Crazy to think both games are likely for 2020.

Spiritfarer

This is a resource management sim that is all about dying. You play as a ferrymaster to the deceased. As you craft your way across the world, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to improve your custom death ferry. Spiritfarer has a unique setting that is well worth a look. However, the thing that really made me pay attention is the game’s visuals. The hand-drawn art quickly catches the eye and seeing it in motion is even better. I’m intrigued to see if the game’s look and premise are matched by its quality.

Carrion

Spoiler alert for 2016’s Inside. Carrion is like that ending sequence where you play as the gigantic amorphous blob except that’s the entire game. Oh, and this blob is straight out of a horror movie and is very interested in eating everything. Publisher Devolver Digital describes it as “a reverse horror game” and I have to agree. The way the blob moves through the levels is both deeply unsettling and incredibly cool.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Y’all remember how Hollow Knight is one of the best Metroidvania games of the last decade or so? Or how it was a perfect match for Nintendo Switch? Well, how would you feel if I told you Team Cherry was going to do more of that except even more polished? Great news! That’s what happening and it’s going to be great.

Ori and the Will of Wisps

If you are a fan of sequels to tough-as-nails platformers with Metroidvania elements, 2020 is going to be a great year. Getting both Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Hollow Knight: Silksong in the same year seems like an embarrassment of riches. Plus, Axiom Verge 2 is coming, which is a bit different, but still sits in that same realm. Personally, Ori is the one I’m least excited about; however, I can’t deny that this will probably be great.

Mineko’s Night Market

Mineko’s Night Market is maybe the cutest game on this list. The “adventure/merchant simulator” wears its Animal Crossing inspiration on its sleeve. However, developer Meowza Games aims to put a much bigger emphasis on narrative and crafting. You play as a young girl named Mineko who has arrived on an island filled with cats. Your options for what to do are varied, but discovering the game’s secrets and preparing for the weekly Night Market is paramount. Mineko’s Night Market looks like it could fill a similar space to games like Stardew Valley. Great experiences to sit back, relax, and let wash over you.

Cris Tales

Cris Tales is billed as “a love letter to classic JRPGs”, but with a big twist. The game lets you simultaneously see the past, present, and future of your actions, which results in some fascinating situations. Maybe you warp your enemy into the future to make them older and weaker. Or you warp yourself to the past to make you shorter and are able to more easily dodge an attack. It’s an innovative idea that has major gameplay and narrative implications. The best part about Cris Tales is that there is a demo out on Steam right now. So, if you’re interested, you can go check it out and see if this game is up your alley.

Murder by Numbers

Picross is one of the best types of puzzle games in video games. However, outside of Picross 3D, there haven’t been that many innovations in the genre. Murder by Numbers looks to change that by adding a murder mystery narrative to the game. What a perfect marriage! And the whole thing is set to a score from Masakazu Sugimori who counts Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Viewtiful Joe among their credits. I need this game now.

Emily is Away <3

Both games in the Emily is Away series are incredibly moving experiences, especially for those of us who grew up in the time of MSN Messenger and AIM. The third game takes the series forward to a Facebook analogue. It’s tough to say if this release will hit as hard as the first two, but given the pedigree, I’m pretty confident in saying that Emily is Away <3 will be worth your time.

Obviously, the number of video games releasing in 2020 is vast. It would be a herculean task to try and cover everything. However, this list should be a great reference point for games to put on your radar. Of course, the best indie game of 2020 might not even be announced yet, but you can rest assured that when it is, DualShockers will be there to cover it.

January 16, 2020 12:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/15-upcoming-indie-games-to-put-on-your-radar-in-2020/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=15-upcoming-indie-games-to-put-on-your-radar-in-2020

[aaghector8424071-blog]

Stay clear of The Complying with Mistakes To Your Outfit For Excellence.

Physical body Auto mechanics: While in university, starting massage therapists tend to make use of incorrect physical body auto mechanics considering that they haven't come to be adapted to exactly how they ought to utilize their bodies for leveraged stamina as well as harmony. The next mistake a considerable amount of individuals bring in is that they do not provide on their own the permission to be who they want to be. A great deal of folks have aspirations regarding that they would like to be as well as they could even stand in front end of the mirror and picture being actually a actually cool and hassle-free person often, I assume it would be quite certain to say that almost everybody has fantasized regarding a scenario where they dealt with every thing completely and saved the time. A big blunder first time shoppers help make is focusing on the month to month property payment amount when making a decision if they may afford a specific residential property. Seek the weaker regions in your lifestyle like confining opinions that cause you to create blunders then aim to modify these restricting behaviors, actions, as well as beliefs. Keep in mind that oversights are certainly not signs of weakness or clumsiness; recouping off them confirms strength and also willpower. This's intriguing that any sort of tendency to court or put down people comes from our own wish to be mistake-free, our own worry of errors. The longer you wait to address the error as well as your component in this, the even more opportunity your client, or even your competitors, needs to generate their own narrative around exactly what happened and also just what could occur down the road. Many people also shared online video footage of the moment, underscoring the look that crucifixed Pharrell's face when Jenna created the mistake. You mention that someone does something accidentally or, in additional professional English, at fault. For technical calculations, a gathering might have the ability to allot the agreement on these grounds provided that the other gathering does certainly not try to take advantage of the oversight, or 'seize up' the offer (entailing a discount that people carried out not aim to earn, betrayed through an inaccuracy in calculation etc.). This will definitely be found through an unbiased criterion, or even if a reasonable person would be able to recognize that the oversight will certainly not make sense to one of the parties. The right procedure from correction is carried out by passing the diary entrance in a manner by which the adjustment is made through giving result to the submitted access that has to possess been actually passed. However when you do, make the effort to experience the assessment method so you can learn from that and after that let this go, knowing that you could not alter the result or even the collection from situations in which the oversight was developed. Sadly, most ladies trying to get their ex-spouse back create a variety of errors that wind up destroying their chances. This simply commemorated its own eleventh anniversary and made it through the current decline along with very few missteps. When appearing at independent error, one have to to begin with identify in between mechanical computations as well as organisation mistake. See - or even select the observing associated with get property owners insurance coverage prices quote off top-rated business and also view how much you may save. He was actually having a function with a staffer while his wife was actually perishing from cancer cells He also defined this as a mistake. Occasionally gaining your RI Child Protection has to do with the oversights that you steer clear of as opposed to exactly what you carry out straight. Business & Entrepreneurial Students: I've talked to 163 of the field's ideal company minds so you do not need to make the very same oversights they have. Hence, an accused can easily certainly not later on declare that she or he was actually confused when he or she really recognized the situation. An unilateral oversight is where only one participant to a contract is actually misinterpreted as to the phrases or even subject-matter consisted of in a contract. In their passion to set up a business lots of folks usually create the oversight of adopting the wrong membership supervisor for example. Go on. Envision if you never made that error, if that terrible point had certainly never occurred, if you weren't experiencing swamped by this factor impending in your past times. Oversights exist to encourage our company and also promote our company to maintain moving and also maintain feeding our Heart as well as our thoughts-- to keep living! Children should come to be relaxed in taking as well as making oversights duty in assistance to deal with whatever occurred. You have to stay clear of these typically devoted oversights in if you wish your site to seem among the best 10 sites in SERPs search engine optimization. Once more, there's no excuse for this blunder - as well as it is one that will establish you aside from the others in your business. If you was located to your husband or wife, spent way too much on the charge card, or performed anything which ultimately led to the break-up, you should profit from your blunders. Here's more info on yellow pages online phone book [http://www.gunzonline.it/l-ingrandimento-del-pene-macrolane/] take a look at our web site. By preventing these blunders you can quickly modify your sub communication and hereby alter the technique individuals respond to you. The 1st installment of the twelve part Merryll Mysteries produced its own American debut in the spring season of 2008. More mature movies that you could possess viewed just before, today you obtain the possibility to see them in High Definition for the first time. The 3rd blunder is that once the business experiences a difficult time, they reduced their advertising budget plan as well as take inside their shell like a tortoise. As well as if you perform have somebody in your life who is actually trying to maintain you from neglecting and removaling on, realize that this is their own world they are producing and that they may delight in securing those emotions and thoughts of previous errors over you. Oversights massage specialists often make are actually to either fall into a routine where they provide the very same massage over and over again, or even to disregard the customer's ask for pressure/ emphasis and also instead simply concentrate on just what the counselor experiences is necessary. When you miscalculate, the greatest thing to do is actually admit it and try to offset it; certainly not apologizing for an oversight is actually yet another oversight. Each opportunity you consider an error you've created, it is actually as if you are actually creating that mistake throughout again. One of the best common credit rating mistake is co-signing on a loan for loved ones participants that don't pay there expenses. They said to the information internet site that the particular technique for dealing with such a mistake was unknown considering that such errors had never been created in the Oscars' 88-year background. Don't trump your own self up. Return to the very first step where you evaluate the blunder. After Mayhem to Money visited imprint, as well as after duplicates were actually being actually offered as well as shipped out, I found a number of blunders in this. The worst resided in the About the Author" part. Mistakes vary in level and also type as well as some can be harder to recoup from than others. No one delights in miscalculating however sometimes they can easily deliver a significant learning knowledge. The primary error managers make-and because that is primarily subconscious that is very important to be thoughtful along with ourselves as well as each other-is to not become aware of, combine, accept, and own your own authority. Nonetheless, this is simply intensifying the mistake you have actually produced in multiplying up on a losing profession through motivating you do the same thing following time you're in this setting. Actually, a number of the errors that daddies as well as mothers create are mistakes produced in an effort in order to get an unjust perk. The listing can easily continue. Nevertheless, my experience as a card-carrying participant from the POP Culture delivers me to the final thought that the essential error is the synthetic pas. Enable your own self to fantasize and think large, dare one thing worthy, create lots from mistakes along the road-- as well as fill out your knowledge carton to the edge! Numerous people fear to also have a couple of sure things because they may activate a blunder." So they do not make an effort everything new. The oversights that our experts create as Forex investors are typically nothing at all much more than a case of allowing emotional state to slip into our investing decisions. Other masters permit their ministers create their oversights for all of them, however Louis demanded creating the necessary errors individually. Those very first thirty secs from chat along with a female are actually vital, as well as one blunder can spoil your opportunities of acquiring anywhere with her. She possessed an unparelled present, especially pen in palm, from pressing large mistakes right into tiny possibilities.

[profgandalf]

Gender Differences: What a Great Idea!

Applying the concept of gender dynamics to our understanding of Literature.

Note: to be clear, this discussion functions with the binary concept of gender.  I know that homosexuals are real as are individuals who are bi, but they still fit into one of the two.  If you are a gay guy, you’re a guy, and if you’re a gay girl, you’re a girl. “Sorry Tumblr”

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;

male and female created he them."

Genesis 1: 27 (English-KJV)

"And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and

 he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman,

 and brought her unto the man.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall

be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Genesis 2: 21-13 (English-KJV)

". . .neither was man created for woman, but woman for man."

1 Corinthians 11:9  (English NIV)

EMILIA

'Tis not a year or two shows us a man:

 They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;

 To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,

 They belch us.  

OTHELLO

       Why did I marry?. . .curse of marriage,

       That we can call these delicate creatures ours,

       And not their appetites!            

DESDEMONA

EMILIA            

       But I do think it is their husbands' faults

       If wives do fall: say that they slack their duties,

       And pour our treasures into foreign laps,

       Or else break out in peevish jealousies,

       Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike us,

       Or scant our former having in despite;

       Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,

       Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know

       Their wives have sense like them. . .

       Then let them use us well: else let them know,

       The ills we do, their ills instruct us so        

I would note that I consider this speech by Shakespeare one of his best examples of negative capability and that it matches the famous speech by Shylock in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.Act 3 Scene 1 Lines 49–61

Introduction

Humans have always been fascinated by the fact that there are two kinds of us: female and male.  We are alike in so many important ways, and yet it is our differences which constantly confound us.

The Cause of Tension  

"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me. . ."

"Ew!  You actually LIKE Girls?!"  This raw response of a seven year old boy to a friend who has been "consorting with the enemy" reveals the underlining hostility which seems to permeate the relationship between the two genders.  Oh, we may change our tune when we get older.  Biological attractions overcome boyish disdain, but it must be admitted that on some level many men never get over their boyish opinion of women.  Thus, the term misogynist (one who hates women) has been in our vocabulary for quite some time.  The question we might want to consider is "why?"

Duh! For One Thing, We're Different!

This Image taken from 10 Things Men Never Want to Hear Their Women Say

One of the central reasons why men and women frustrate one another is that in some ways we are just plain different.  For a light-hearted look at this check out Matt  Groening’s “Women speak in estrogen and men listen in  testosterone.” Whenever I teach this section I ask the students (just as I asked you) what differences exist between men and women.  Here are some of the typical responses

Men

Rational                                                       Practical (Concrete or Bone headed)                        

Insensitive

Steady

Communicative Challenged

Physically Stronger

Single Minded and

Hierarchical in tasks

Primarily interested in act of procreation

Women

Emotional

Abstract (Transcendent or Nebulous)

Empathetic

Uneven (cycles)

Communication Addicted

Physically Weaker (but able to handle pain better)

Simultaneous Multiple Perspectives on Tasks

Primarily interested in the emotional nest (romance) needed to maintain the products of procreation (children).

Please let me state here that I do not stand behind this list as an absolute definition.  At best these are but generalities.  My mother is a former math teacher whose rational skills have navigated us through many a map and have left me checkmated more often than not.  In my own marriage my wife is far better with math (and money) than I am.  And when we were joined, she was the one who brought all the practical power tools to the marriage.  I brought books.  What this list does do is show at least the perceptions of differences between the sexes.

The question which often confounds scholars is how much of this difference is artificially created by culture and how much is biological innate to our beings.

The debate is pretty heated about this.  The only true biological differences with which most agree is that women have the equipment to bear children and men, in general, have more upper body strength.  These differences are enough to lead into the next question of abuse since lack of strength and the connection to domestic work has left women often at the mercy of men.

Abused Power = Breakdown in Communication

It is a sad fact that among humans whenever there is an imbalance of power there is the potential for abuse.  It happens between grownups and children.  But historically it has especially occurred between men and women.   When such abuse takes place communication and understanding break down.  (One does not usually want to understand those whom one subjugates.)  So in many households there have been two adults living under the same roof with two different agendas.    How the weaker has achieved her ends has caused for an even greater division between the genders.

Some may claim that the subservience of women is God's Law.  This is a debatable point with Christians arguing on either side.  However, what some might call God's ranking system--which never condoned the abuse of women--can not explain the world-wide existence of female inequality.  There are so many social expectations around the world which violate Judeo-Christian expectations.  Thus, to claim God's law is responsible for male female inequality ignores the simple fact that even in places where God's will is barely known, women are still kept at a lower station then men.  Thus I conclude that Male dominance is not based in God's will: the cause must the use or abuse of power.

Let's face it, if all women were as strong as this young lady (Shelley Beattie) on the left appears to be, the number of domestic disturbances would probably go waaaay down. But most women are matched with men who are physically stronger than they. 

(Note: Please don’t fuss about how attractive you do or do not find Shelley; the fact is that this kind of conditioning involves training, a lot more than what most women and most men want to put in each day.  The point is that most women do not have this kind of physical strength.  Sadly I just learned that In 2008, Ms. Beattie committed suicide.  Very sorry.  According to the Wikipedia article about her, after her retirement Shelley not only starred in the TV show American Gladiators, but she worked with people with physical impairments (she suffered herself from deafness), made drums and jewelry, and worked as a personal trainer, clearly a special person lost).

Thus, women have lacked the power to achieve their goals directly.  When conflict interests occurs they have found other means to reach their ends than direct conflict.  See the lecture on   The Taming of the Shrew  specifically   Shakespeare's Good /Bad and Bad /Good Women. to see both methods examined as part of the analysis of the play.  Briefly women have two choices:

Confront the oppressive patriarchy directly–and be     branded a shrew (or in modern evangelical circles “a feminist”) or…

Submit and give verbal support that the male should be dominant and then subvert that power via manipulation be it sexual or psychological.

The Depiction of the Tension

The study of literature reveals the importance of the tension between genders.  Unfortunately until recently most of the canon has been determined and created by men.  So there are few female forces through history to help give alternative perspectives about the nature of, forgive the cliché, "the battle of the sexes."  (Note, the existence of this cliché shows how old the problem is.)

The Anti-feminist Tradition

Medieval literature abounds especially with antifeminist themes which they based on certain scriptures.  In a civilization which looked to scriptural narrative to explain who the world worked as it did, women were often blamed for the fall of humanity because Eve first gave in to the serpent.  Because they are weaker than men, women are often shown using guile and deceit to bring about the ruin of their opponents.  In some of the Arthur legends they play the role of enchantress and temptress.  And it is no small matter that Queen Guinevere love for Lancelot eventually brings Camelot down.

There exists also a long tradition negatively portraying women who contradict their husbands directly.  These developed into a "stock character" often called a shrew.  Such characters usually were only two dimensional and lacked development beyond just a joke.  One of the most famous examples of this appears in medieval mystery plays involving Noah's wife who insisting on her right to gossip with her friends even while poor Noah is attempting to get her safely on the ark.

These shrews also are portrayed as sexually overt.  Thus in The Roman De La Rose (the Romance of the Rose) there is an old woman who gives advice to a young bride on how to abuse her husband sexually.

The Wife of Bath in Feminist Tradition

Chaucer's Wife of Bath is both an affirmation of the medieval concept of the shrew as well as a rebuttal of it as the poet engages in a tour de force of the male imagination in "negative capability" (Keats).  He may start with a stock character-- a stereotype based on male fears-- but he then continues to reveal and develop her personality and examines her first from the outer qualities people see, then to her own experiences as framed by her testimony in her prologue (the longest in the Canterbury Tales) and finally to her own tale in which elements of her personality may come through without her overt knowledge. 

This is strong psychoanalysis for what is in essence a figment of an artists imagination and yet, in a very real sense, Chaucer shows a woman first physically, then through her mind and finally through her heart.  For more of this go to Chaucer's Multiple Levels of Revelation of The Wife of Bath

Shakespeare's View in Taming of the Shrew

Meanwhile, in Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew he presents a wonderful study in contrast between two types of women (two sisters) with two different ways to deal with a oppressive patriarchy.  Bianca is all sweetness and all the men love her.  However, as the play progresses she is shown to be manipulative and not nearly so honest as her older sister.  Katrina meanwhile, confronts directly the male dominated society she finds herself in, but she also finds herself trapped in the cage of rage.  She is branded a Shrew and in fact fulfills that nature. This will be developed further in another lecture Shakespeare's Good /Bad and Bad /Good Women.

The Modern Feminist Tradition

Writers within this tradition embrace a wide variety of approaches to the question of women's place and power in culture and society.  Most of these approaches are allied by their critical analysis of patriarchal (male0dominated) and phallocentric (male-centered) institutions and practices.  Furthermore works may be analyzed by their interests in promoting women's issues and concerns.  These concerns rise to the forfront of literary concerns with the late 18th and early 19th century and have continued on to the present.  Among our readings the short story "A Jury by Her Peers" (written in the first part of the 20th century) is especially notable since it was written by a woman (Susan Gadspell). responding in a subversive way to the domineering and condescending attitudes of men 

The social parameters clearly shape the course of action that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.  At first glance "Roman Fever" written by another woman,   Edith Wharton, a little later than the first (1934) does not at first seem to fit the Feminist tradition.  However, part of the difficulties these two women share is that in their world, affluent New Yorkers, they are defined by only their roles as wives and mothers.   In "A Rose for Emily" this same gender tension (complicated still further by the roles of a daughter to a domineering father) is at the root of the problems Faulkner depicts the aristocratic Emily Grierson.  Finally the struggle between sexes over what will happen to a woman's body finds a critical analysis in  "Hills Like White Elephants" by Earnest Hemingway

 Conclusion

Thus gender tensions should be kept in mind while reading our selections of literature.  Don't be afraid to object to what may be an inaccurate assumption by an author about the nature of a gender.  Also ask yourself whether negative capability actually exists which allows the author to transcend the limitations of his or her gender perspective.  Consider also the roles of the sexes in today's world and compare them with the times being depicted.  Even stories based in the 1930s find a world different than our own.  Consider the classic film A Christmas Story (Ralphie wants a bee bee gun).  The entire controversy over the leg-lamp could only occur in a house hold in which the wife did not feel she had the power to object honestly and overtly.