#he's the lesser evil to the former boss

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

I hope people know that when I say I really like Mori, I don't mean that I actually like him, I mean that I want to dissect his brain under a microscope.

Creepy mafia doctor man who has committed war crimes and would do so again without any compunction, but only for the sake of a goal. Why are you the way that you are.

[remy2fang]

Play A.K.I. in World Tour Mode before Arcade Mode

The story flow makes more sense that way. In an old post of mine (right here), I mentioned that most character stories in Arcade Mode takes place before the events of World Tour. I still stand by that. In A.K.I.’s case, it’s different. Her World Tour story seems to take place before her Arcade story.

Starting in World Tour, AKI sends you (the avatar) on a quest to see what the Shadaloo remnants are up to. You meet these Shadaloo remnants, and they all seem to be allied with JP. They also think that Ed will be the next Shadaloo leader like M. Bison, even though Ed goes against this organization in SFV. You come back to AKI and tell her the scoop. AKI then writes a report (and love letter) to F.A.N.G about JP and his plans.

You give this letter to FANG. FANG reads it and gets mad at JP for leaving him out on his plan to use Ed.

This is where we start with Arcade mode. Because FANG is mad at JP, he sent AKI to teach JP a lesson.

After beating JP, she issues a warning to him to not get ahead of himself and let FANG handle the revival of Shadaloo.

The Ed DLC is going to be interesting lore wise. Neo Shadaloo was mentioned in the main World Tour story, and it’s mentioned again in AKI’s story. But most importantly…are we going to see more FANG content too?? FANG had been wanting to revive Shadaloo ever since TOXICITY. Seeing that AKI has already sent the message to JP, we might see FANG in a more active role later on, whether it be playable or a very important NPC (like Bosch). Or…AKI might take on the role as the F.A.N.G of SF6? She might be the driver of the plot like FANG was while FANG acts like a lesser “M. Bison” of SF6 where he sits back and do nothing but be the “Big Bad” lol. But I much prefer FANG being more involved in the story haha.

Also to note, it seems that the DLC have the avatar more involved with character stories. Base roster cast and Rashid didn’t have the avatar affect their arcade story. In AKI’s case, she would not have hunted down JP if it wasn’t for your assistance in gaining information for her in the first place.

Now that I think about it, it’s wild that the Avatar gets to be in a weird alliance with a former evil Shadaloo boss. Majority of the Avatar’s Masters that were involved in SFV Season 1 fought against F.A.N.G and the organization.

[universitypenguin]

Do you think a mc needs to be likeable? The obvious answer should be no but then there are characters that just makes you go "ugh! They are so unbearable, I don't want to read this anymore!"

@ktficworld Here's my opinion: your character needs to be likable in comparison to the other people around them.

A key example of this is the movie Pulp Fiction. To give you a brief summary, without too many spoilers, this movie centers around two unsympathetic characters, Jules and Vincent. These guys are violent gangsters but right from the jump, Quinten Tarantino humanizes them with casual dialogue. He also sets up a shadow of darkness that helps you see the lighter shades of Jules and Vincent against a backdrop of pitch blackness. The shadow is their boss who is immediately positioned in the storyline as being so much worse than the main characters who we’re experiencing the story through. Knowing there's someone worse than Jules and Vincent wandering around in this universe draws us closer to these horrible criminals without us even noticing the slight of hand that Tarantino used to bring it about.

This, in my opinion, is the secret to making an “unlikable” character likable: play them against someone much worse than they are. Your readers will immediately pick the lesser of two evils and begin to cheer for your anti-hero.

Another factor about unlikable characters is that they’re often very engaging. Many of them are witty and humorous, a trait we automatically love in anyone because laughter makes us feel good on a biochemical level. It’s also important to recognize that an engaging character and a sympathetic character are two different things. Engaging characters fascinate us, but they don’t have to be sympathetic. 

For example, let's consider another Tarantino character: Hans Landa.

I don’t think anyone was rooting for the Nazi Colonel in Inglorious Bastards, yet he was the most memorable character of the whole film. Why? Unpredictability. The audience was spellbound whenever Col. Landa was on screen because you couldn’t guess his next move. He was active, motivated, and always had a clever plan. Even though he was incredibly unsympathetic, the audience wanted to see how Col. Landa was going to maneuver and turn things around to outsmart the protagonists.

Unexpectedness is key to selling an unsympathetic character, at least in my expereince. If your audience doesn’t like the person they’re viewing, then the best alternative to likability is fascination. This is probably the same reason people read books about serial killers. Their behavior is so deviant from the norm that it’s fascinating to study them and figure out what might have been going on in their minds or how they ended up so broken in the first place. 

Creativity is another factor that makes us like the villain. We know Batman is going to race to stop the train from crashing when The Joker places a bomb to detonate under the bridge. He’s the hero and that’s what heroes do. In that respect, Batman has become predictable. But The Joker can never be predictable - not really. Sure, he's going to cause chaos and mayhem, but how?! What will he think of next?! It's a question that easily holds our attention. We need The Joker to be original and find new, interesting ways of tormenting Batman. The audience is engaging with him due to the promise of unexpectedness and creativity. These are two sides of the same coin but I like to draw the distinction between making your unsympathetic character creative and making them unexpected. You can have the latter without the former in some cases, and it will work quite well. Throwing in some real creativity to your villainous character certainly adds spice to the recipe though, if you ask me.

This brings me to a common problem that writers - especially newer writers - can find themselves facing when they start working on longer plots. It’s what Brandon Sanderson refers to as “the Villain problem.”

The issue is that audiences often love the villain character more than the hero and they identify with the villain more than they do with the hero, because the villain is more active than the hero. Oftentimes the villain is the one who drives the whole story forward and the hero is trotting along, always lagging one step behind, which can become painful to watch unless that character is someone we’re rooting for. Hence, why the hero has to be sympathetic.

Let me prove my thesis about the villain being more captivating than the hero. 

Case Study #3: Thor and Loki. Who did you like more in the first movie? Loki. At least in the first two movies, I'd say that everyone was 100% on team Loki because he was so much more fun than Thor. He was motivated, active, and had a vision of what he wanted to accomplish. Thor was the reactive character who had no other goal than to stop Loki or, as in the first movie, to uncover Loki’s plot against him. Then in the 3rd movie the writers took the trope of ‘predictability’ and managed to use it against Loki, which was incredibly clever. Also, it proves my point that predictability makes a character boring.

The additional layers to Loki’s motivation fleshed him out as a character and really made his actions believable and highly sympathetic. However, despite all the sympathy he built up I would still say that his active role in driving the plot forward was a huge reason audiences loved him.

Another thing we love about an unsympathetic character is what I just touched on with Loki - understanding them. We want to know what could drive someone to such great lengths. If their reasons are plausible enough - as Loki’s were - then the audience will fall in love. Then your “unsympathetic” character can be turned into a real hit. 

To return to the metaphor I used in the Pulp Fiction example, Odin is the dark shadow that falls over Loki’s shades of gray. His actions serve to highlight the injustice that Loki suffered and turns his evil deeds - invading earth, trying to kill his adorable himbo brother - into inconsequential trivialities that the audience brushes off as if they were nothing, because we can feel Loki’s pain. We’ve seen the lengths he’s gone to in expressing that pain, how motivated he is to get the justice he feels he’s owed, and then boom! The unsympathetic character who was cast in shades of gray is turned into a bonafide anti-hero.

I’ll list a few examples of “unsympathetic” characters for you to consider below. If you’d like to do a few case studies of your own and see how my analysis stacks up against the portrayal of these anti-heroes, I would love to hear your thoughts on them:

Jules and Vincent - Pulp Fiction (1994)

Loki - Thor (2011)

Walter White - Breaking Bad

The Joker - The Joker (2019) & The Dark Knight (2008)

Hans Landa - Inglorious Bastards (2009)

Anton Chigurh - No Country for Old Men (2007)

Darth Vader - Various Star Wars Films

Thank you for such a wonderful ask - I had a lot of fun putting together my response!

[somereaderinblue]

Walker Siblings Rewrite

I totally did not write this bcz I have a soft spot for siblings. Also, Melanie is frickin gorgeous, she deserved better. DC hire me.

ANYWAYS! Upon reentering the BB fandom, I’ve decided to try my hand at writing for it, which brings me to this. Ft. my Bludhaven Beyond AU! Enjoy!

Melanie Walker/Spoiler

Loved her the moment I saw her, hated how the show treated her. Especially the comics, god don’t get me started on it. Why why why did they reduce her to a Faux Action Girl & Stalker who literally went into action just to impress Terry? Hell no, we ain’t doing my girl dirty like that so here’s how it’s gonna go.

Melanie’s primary goal doesn’t just revolve around Terry; it’s about breaking away from her parent’s emotional abuse/manipulation. It’s about breaking away from a self-destructive lifestyle of crime she’s stuck in out of misguided loyalty to them.

Thus, she and her brother move to Bludhaven for a fresh start. It’s a lot easier since no one would rlly gives a damn there. Plus, it ensures their parents will never find them.

She’s content to continue as a restaurant helper & even teaches kids basic coding part-time. Her brother had a harder time adjusting which caused some tension, especially after he got fired. Fortunately, he soon found employment at Dick’s gymnastics studio, easing her worries.

Unfortunately, the peace wasn’t gonna last for long.

At first, she thought her brother was desperate for adventure when he came to her with his crazy theory about Mr. Grayson being an ex-assassin. She decided to humor him like siblings wont to do (she’s the sane sibling to Jack’s irresponsible, you can’t change my mind).

They discovered he was half-right.

Redemption time baby! Time to stick it to the asshole parents by becoming what they hated most!

Her brother blackmails convinces Dick to teach him so he could take on the Nightwing mantle. Dick didn’t think it was a healthier alternative to dealing with whatever parental issues the siblings had but between vigilantism and crime, the former was the lesser of two evils.

Melanie wasn’t interested and for a while, she was Jack’s ‘guy in the chair’. However, as her brother got into worse scuffles due to rising gang activity, she realized she had to step in. Not just to protect what family she had left but to prove that she’s better than her parents.

Thus, she modifies her old Ace costume and debuts as Spoiler. Lame moniker compared to Nightwing but hey, she’ll take it over Ten any day.

Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Walker/Nightwing

(The fandom page literally just calls him Jack so I made up his civilian name, don’t judge.) 

I surprisingly came to like Jack despite what little screentime he had. Which is why I’m disgruntled with how the tie-in comics treated him. Him going back to being a criminal & getting beaten up by Batman just felt like the writers were pointlessly kicking the dog (Melanie) more. After all the crap she’s been through, she could’ve at least gotten one decent family member. So, let’s give this guy more depth.

I hc that Jack found it harder to straighten out bcz he’s an adrenaline junkie & kleptomaniac; something his family’s criminal lifestyle unhealthily enabled.

He tried to accept his restaurant job but his urges made him pilfer silverware/ small valuables from his coworkers. That combined with his haughty attitude got him into trouble until his boss finally fired him.

Pissed, he went for a walk to clear his head until he stumbled upon a gymnastics studio. He had some gymnastic/acrobatic skill thanks to his time as a criminal. So, he walked in and after chatting with Mr. Grayson, landed himself a job there.

Surprisingly, he enjoyed it. The physicality gave him the adrenaline rush, Dick (having caught on to his kleptomania) helped keep his urges in check & the kids loved his knife tricks (he has a heart, okay?).

One day, a local gang tried to rough them up for ‘protection money’. He helped Dick scare them away but after seeing his mentor kick ass, Jack began to suspect he had a secret. An ex-criminal would naturally recognize another ex-criminal! Or assassin, either one was cool, really.

He managed to needle his sister into snooping around until they finally found the old Nightwing costume. Jack’s heard of Nightwing from online forums and he’s a closeted fan.

Seizing this golden opportunity, he begged Dick to teach him more. He won’t admit it but he’s not just interested in vigilantism for the thrill but bcz he’s realized he can care for others and that he does care.

Also, this would be the ultimate middle finger to dear old daddy.

Thus, Bludhaven had a Nightwing once more. And after one too many close calls, he had his sister joining his side, this time as Spoiler.

So maybe he can’t have riches. But hey, the wellbeing of his sister, mentor and the kids were good enough compensation for him.

Oh, and Dick totally doesn’t adopt these ex-criminal siblings with parental issues. He totally doesn’t become a cool supportive healthy father figure to Melanie & Jack who no longer have to be accomplices in crime to earn affection. Look at him, Bruce, he doesn’t enable your chronic adopting.

(A/N: note my sarcasm.)

[put-me-out-of-my-destiny]

The more I think about the "Dante gets Angeloed, Lady and Trish (and to a lesser extent, Kyrie) actually get to be involved in the plot" AU, the more I realize that Lady and Trish didn't even need to be in the Qliphoth with Dante in the Prologue.

They didn't accomplish anything, they just fought Urizen - off screen - and then lost, so they could be fought as bosses later. And you don't even fight Lady and Trish, you fight two demons who are just using Lady and Trish as hosts.

They literally might as well have been left out of the game! Artemis and Cavaliere Angelo could have easily not had named hosts at all, and the plot would not have suffered for it!

And, dramatically, I think Dante facing Urizen alone at the beginning has potential. Think about it:

Dante is approached by a mysterious stranger, telling him his evil twin has been resurrected, and that he's replanted an evil bloodsucking tree in a new scheme to gain power. Dante finds the stranger familiar, but figures that deception isn't his brother's style, and anyone else wouldn't be a threat anyway, so he takes the job.

Dante arrives in his old hometown, and finds that the stranger was telling the truth, his brother is definitely here. However, he also finds that said stranger has - against Dante's wishes - involved Nero. They both fail to defeat the demon king, and Nero is dragged away from the Qliphoth by V, while Dante is captured.

Lady and Trish both receive word that Dante has been defeated. The former rallies some citizens, and later some soldiers who stayed behind after any military efforts failed, and forms a militia to slow the spread of the tree. The latter, certain that Dante is alive, ventures into the city to recover him.

Meanwhile, Nero has been training like crazy, and Nico has been perfecting her Devil Breakers. Eventually, Kyrie convinces the two of them to go to Redgrave and rendezvous with Lady. The kids are left with a friend, Kyrie brings fresh ingredients and volunteers for odd jobs around the base, Nico offers her gunsmithing services, and Nero makes his way toward the Qliphoth.

The game continues more-or-less as normal until Mission 5 because instead of an electrical knight riding a time-stopping horse, V and company encounter a knight clad in red, who goes absolutely berserk the moment he sees V. He would have killed V, if not for the intervention of a mysterious demon, who chases off the knight and flees in the opposite direction.

V and company follow the demon, and eventually find something they hadn't expected - Devil Sword Sparda. V attempts to wield it, and while he's distracted, the demon recalls the sword, revealing itself to be Trish in disguise.

A boss fight ensues, though it's clear Trish is just toying with the group. V wins - or at least satisfies Trish's curiosity - and she confronts him about his true origins. She learned from Dante's journals that Yamato can separate man from devil, and pieced together what happened. V confirms her suspicions, telling her the story of his "birth", and how he's come to regret what he's done as Vergil.

They join forces to track down the knight in red, who - as Trish suspected - turns out to be none other than Dante. Horrified to see how low his other half has gone, V resolves to free his brother. Another boss fight ensues.

Once Dante is freed, he's prepared to end V's life right then and there - he's figured out who he really is by now, and between involving Nero in this job and putting him in an Angelo, he is done playing. But Trish steps in - she knows what it is to have been on the wrong side and seek redemption.

And this is when Trish calls Dante out for rejecting help not just from Nero, but from herself. She clearly doesn't need Dante's protection, so what gives?

They take Dante back to camp, Lady repays that "this is my kind of rain" comment from DMC3, and they get him a change of clothes. Dante also finds out that Nero is making a beeline for the Qliphoth, alone, and takes off to stop him from getting himself killed.

Trish makes Dante take the Sparda - if he won't accept her help, then he can at least accept the sword. He's reluctant, he got rid of that thing for a reason, but he admits it would make things easier.

The game doesn't continue quite as normal from here, since Cavaliere Angelo doesn't exist, but it remains the case that Dante unlocks his Sin Devil Trigger and saves Nero.

Now that everyone knows how close Urizen is to reaching his goal, Lady decides it's time to take the fight to him. So, along with Trish, Nico, V, and the troops charge toward the Qliphoth. Nightmare leads the charge, possibly alongside a tank restored and modified by Nico, piloted by Lady. Kyrie, much to Nero's fury, is in the van with Nico, because it's better than leaving her alone in a demon-infested city, and Nico sure as shit isn't leaving before Nero's finished the job.

And I think the final act would proceed more-or-less as normal. Vergil is restored, they continue trying to kill each other, and Nero has to knock some sense into them. But I think Trish should play a role here too - she's the one who calls Dante out in the first place, and I think once you've been trusted with the Sparda you're basically adopted into the family. Maybe Trish beats up Dante while Nero beats up Vergil.

This is still about Nero realizing what he's really fighting for, but it's also about Dante accepting that he doesn't have to protect the human world alone. And by respecting Nero's (and Trish's) wishes by letting Vergil live, Dante accepts that they are a part of this family too and that they have a say in these matters.

[mariacallous]

The question of how Russian elites are responding to further developments in the Russia-Ukraine war has become one of the most discussed issues in Russian and Western media. That’s understandable: While ordinary Russians remain relatively conformist and show no signs of politicization—despite the unpopular mobilization—there have been some hopes that the elites could perhaps play a role in restraining Russian President Vladimir Putin from further escalation. Or, at least, that they would become a factor Putin would have to take into consideration when making his decisions. The debate over whether Russian elites are split or not has been intensifying against the backdrop of unprecedented internal conflicts questioning Russian tactics in Ukraine. So, are the elites a threat to Putin? And how might possible further military failures impact the mood among the elites?

When it comes to the war in Ukraine, what is important is whether the splits concern Putin and his decisions. Putin’s regime is well known for its inter-elite fighting; indeed, that is its natural state. Security officials, or siloviki, clash with other siloviki (the FSB vs. the Federal Protective Service, the military intelligence service vs. the FSB); some of Putin’s friends with others (businessman and mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin vs. St. Peterburg Gov. Alexander Beglov); senior officials with other officials (domestic policy overseer Sergei Kiriyenko has long been embroiled in a confrontation with his predecessor, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin); and so on.

But while the Russian elite is deeply divided, there has been no sign of any attempt to turn against Putin. The Russian elite may also be deeply divided over domestic decisions, be it social policy (the ruling United Russia party vs. the cabinet), energy topics (Rosneft vs. Gazprom), or domestic affairs (domestic policy overseers vs. the siloviki). But there have been no signs, at least publicly, of divisions over Putin’s decision to launch the war. Make no mistake, a significant part of the Russian elite considers the war a catastrophe. Some view it as a lesser evil but nonetheless an evil; some regret it, and still others have considerable doubts over the way Putin is conducting the campaign. But no one dared to act—until now.

Putin’s decision to launch the war came as a massive shock to the elites, who were not consulted and received no advance notice. Despite this initial shock, the elites rallied around Putin but with very different motives. Some, such as the technocrats (including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, and central bank head Elvira Nabiullina) opted to submit entirely: the easiest and safest strategy to survive. Others, rather pragmatically, have reinvented themselves as members of the party of war (such as former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and United Russia head Andrey Turchak) to gain political weight and secure their political future. The third and final strategy is to genuinely back the war in its harshest and bloodiest form, to get involved in it, and bring Putin his victory. Before September, when Ukraine launched its unexpected counterattack, the nature of the elite’s support for Putin did not really matter. Whatever the grounds, the results were the same: People stood by their president because it was the safest way to survive. After September, that started to change.

Last month, the prospect of Russia losing the war began to loom, impacting every layer of the Russian elite, whatever adaptation strategy they had opted for. The mobilization and the annexation of four Ukrainian regions brought temporary relief, creating a sense that Putin had finally woken up and started listening to more sensible and sober figures in his entourage, pushing the president to act more decisively. But that relief did not last long. Ukraine’s army has continued to advance, the bridge connecting Russia and Crimea was blown up, Russian troops are exhausted and thin on the ground, the mobilization is faltering, and people are resisting. The overall situation seems, again, very bad, while Putin appears inappropriately and overly optimistic, which scares people. The massive missile strike against Ukrainian cities, positioned as a response to the Crimean bridge attack, achieved little, while concerns over a shortage of Russian missiles have been mounting.

What options does Russia have now? Can it prevent further Ukrainian counterattacks? Will it be able to secure control over the annexed regions? What is Moscow’s Plan C, since Plan A and Plan B have failed? Dishearteningly for many in the Russian leadership, Putin’s statements during his press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Oct. 14 imply that Moscow is returning to its previous “wait and see” tactics: Moscow does not have the resources to advance, remains limited in its capability to carry out massive missile strikes, and can only count on freezing the situation, hoping to gain some time to regroup its forces. But will it have that time? And what happens if Kyiv continues to launch counterattacks? The absence of clear answers is shattering any unity among the elites and pushing them to look for better survival strategies: After all, no one wants to end up on the wrong side of history.

The lack of clear vision of how Russia can win has sparked tectonic shifts among Russian elites, who are now seeking ways to adapt to the deteriorating situation. For the first time ever, we may see an important part of the elite daring to intrude in Putin’s decision-making and imposing on the Kremlin its own vision of how the war should unfold.

Recent weeks have seen an unprecedented rise of elite indignation over how the war is progressing. Prigozhin, aligned with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and with public support from popular military bloggers on Telegram, has directed invectives at the Defense Ministry and General Staff, for the first time ever blaming Col. Gen. Aleksandr Lapin and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov for the military failures in Ukraine. Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of the state-controlled media outlet RT, has become one of the most prominent hawks. She has demanded a massive strike against Ukraine’s decision-making centers and dared to criticize the Defense Ministry. TV pundits are now going against the military. Even State Duma deputies who were until recently close to the Defense Ministry—former Deputy Defense Minister Andrey Kartapolov, now the head of the lower chamber’s defense committee, and former military commander Andrey Gurulyov—have joined the efforts, demanding that the prosecutor general investigate corruption in the army. In other words, the pro-war camp has set its sights on the Defense Ministry and army leadership, relying on support from state TV. All this has happened regardless of the fact that the military has been the key institution on which Putin has relied in his war against Ukraine.

Russia’s retreat from the Kharkiv region and its extremely fragile positions in Kherson, combined with Putin’s indecisive and hesitant behavior, have created a vacuum of political leadership at a crucial moment in Russian history. Prigozhin and Kadyrov’s moves show that they believe they have the right to interfere and be listened to by the Kremlin, since they personally have sent men—Prigozhin’s mercenaries and Chechens loyal to Kadyrov—to the slaughter in Ukraine. The rebellion is a direct response by the most ambitious segment of the party of war to Putin’s apparent lack of decisiveness. In an attempt to prevent Russia from losing the war, this part of the elite has succeeded in reaching out to Putin and convincing him to shift tactics to take a more critical approach to the military top brass and even implement personnel reshuffles. (Sergei Surovikin, openly backed by Prigozhin, has been appointed commander of the “special military operation,” as Putin calls the invasion.) This time, instead of shaping the political reality, Putin must learn to listen to those proposing alternative proposals. The circumstances are starting to shape the president.

This has had the effect of a political domino. Putin’s tolerance of the camp targeting Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has opened the floodgates for TV managers in the presidential administration to become bolder. These managers have dared to take a more critical stance, raising questions of whether the army is coping; United Russia’s deputies have ventured to lash out at the Defense Ministry, followed by the in-system opposition. All of this is taking place against the backdrop of the presidential administration ceding the initiative. Putin’s staff, traditionally viewed as a demiurge of Russian politics in these circumstances, has been forced to submit to trends it does not control. The presidential administration, whose influence is nothing compared with what it was in the 2000s, continues to shrink, transformed into a tool used incrementally by the hawks to meet their demands.

These days, an important part of the Russian elite—made up of Prigozhin, Simonyan and TV managers in general, Kadyrov, and, with some reservations, United Russia—has started to question the way Russia is fighting in Ukraine: Putin’s exclusive zone of responsibility. They are targeting the military leaders, and even if they are not turning against the president (and they will not yet), they want Putin to act differently in order to secure victory. This is an attempt to compensate for the absence of a discernible and convincing plan in Ukraine from Putin, as well as tangentially questioning the way Putin deals with the military threats.

So, what will happen if Putin sticks to his (at least publicly) hesitant positions? His recent statements suggest that he is still counting on Kyiv capitulating one day, believing that Russia only needs to buy more time, sporadically resorting to strikes in exceptional circumstances (like after the explosion on the Crimean bridge). His public messages suggest that he does not intend to fight the Ukrainian army but merely stop it from advancing and that he would rather opt to threaten the West with the use of nuclear weapons than try to conquer Ukraine’s territory using its own forces. The hope that this plan may all work out and bring Ukraine under Russian control seems profoundly mistaken and may lead to new retreats and losses. It may even mean a larger mobilization with severe political consequences.

If Russia loses, that will lead to a situation in which the circumstances will be stronger than Putin. These circumstances will inevitably further fuel anxiety and uncertainty among the elites. They will not, perhaps, turn against Putin but will have to either find a way to bypass him (to adapt the policy without him) or manipulate him by imposing uncontested options and defeating those on whom he relies. Putin, having failed to implement every part of his plan so far, has been becoming more dependent on those who invested in this war, who have become a part of this war, who justify it, push it, and lose their people in the fighting.

Having launched this war as a personal surprise project, Putin now finds himself in a situation in which he can no longer make decisions in isolation. It’s not so much how the elites can threaten Putin but how Putin’s own position will gradually weaken as his plans fail. Even as they remain pro-Putin, the elites are becoming bolder and more decisive.

[hopeaterart]

If it’s not too spoilery, who are the other possible love interests?

Not a problem at all ^^

So, beside Wizard who's available from the start, there's a love interest gained in each chapter. There's some minor spoilers with the last one, but it doesn't reveal anything I'm not ready to reveal yet. I do want to mention that, if you've romanced a character prior to romancing the others, you need to talk about it to said character so they know you're not cheating on them. ('Canon' is either that you're only dating Wizard, or you went and romanced everyone) In order and with their respective requirements, we have:

Amelie, Zenith and Midnight's manager and long-time friend. She serves as the second boss of the second chapter, having cornered Ku in helping her help her friends, and things end up turning violent. You need to make the logical choice with both her (apologizing for jumping to conclusions after beating her) and her friends (going along with her scheme to get them out of the public eye) in order to romance her. She's very business-oriented and likes having things to do. Her romance route is partially helping her find something new to fill her time with since Zenith and Midnight are on break.

Velvet, a former member of the ORIGAMI terrorist group. They serve as the final boss of the third chapter, where they've taken over an abandoned temple in the Eco Squares to throw parties in (request from Eka, who lives near the temple and can't sleep at night). You need to make the emotional choice (going along with their request for a dance battle, which will make the their boss battle similar to Zenith and Midnight's. If you win, they've accepted to leave willingly) and get a high score to be able to romance them. They're a high-energy party animal and in desperate need of company. Their romance route is partially about helping them find proper outlets for their energy.

Hwan, a biker and small-time criminal who lives in the Blacklight District. He serves as the first boss of the fourth chapter, were you go to him because Wizard's been kidnapped and you're looking for information. In order to unlock his route, you need to both get a high score in the race part of his boss fight, and not let Ku loose their temper more than three time in the negotiations part. He's aggressive and petty, but genuinely one of the lesser evils in the Blacklight District if the same block he's protecting from the Scarlet Stars means . His romance route is partially about helping him enter a genuine bike race in order to get out of the vicious cycle of crime.

C.J., a mech pilot and programmer working for the government. He serves as the first boss of the fifth chapter, where he's sent to stop you when you first break into the Watchful Eye compound. In order to unlock his route, you need to 1) get him to talk about how much he hates his job during the preamble to his fight (he has hacked into your comm channel by then), and 2) make sure he's alright after his boss fight. He's a very sarcastic man who struggles with anxiety, and takes immense pride in his talents. His romance route is partially about helping him find a new direction to his life after leaving his soul-crushing job.

Kuan-Ti and Athan, two A.I.s stuck in one body (or are they...?). They're the first boss of the sixth chapter, a Killing Unit sent after you by Whelton when he realized you were coming too close to uncovering the truth about him. You then help them beat the programs that were placed to keep them in line, after which they help you reach the last step of the discovery on who you are. The only requirement you need to romance them is beat the main story, after which Wizard will have made them new bodies, and they can interact with you freely. Kuan-ti is somewhat shy but firm, whereas Athan is more outspoken but unstable. Nonetheless, the both of them are very proud, and seem to operate on a similar thinking wavelengths. Their romance is partially about helping them reclaim their agency, the same way you did throughout the story.

[cainmachado]

Double Black

As a quick note here that I couldn’t really place anywhere without it being extremely short and breaking the overall flow of thought that I have, I want to say that I really enjoy the dynamic between John Steinbeck and H.P Lovecraft, John plays off of Lovecraft’s weirdness really well and they are a powerful duo. Unluckily for them, they had to face the de facto power duo of the series. Tanizaki and Kunikida.

This covers what I read from chapter 16 all the way into chapter 37, finalizing the arc for the Guild. As I said in my first analysis, I am caught up with the series and will use of knowledge outside of the manga here and there. This was a lot more than last time and should be significantly longer, but I feel like it comes with the series, a story so rich in characters and themes is going to generate long analysis. Also, I like to talk about the things that I like, so yeah. Let’s get on with it.

 Koyou motherly feelings

All these titles are based on what I wrote down as notes for what I felt like talking about, so some of them will be direct like this one, others will sound poetic, other will be a joke. All that aside, let’s talk about how parental figures project their own pains and experiences with life down on the children they are supposed to raise, shall we?

I don’t think I can come here and say that Koyou’s feelings are false or anything like that, I truly believe she has a motherly attachment to Kyouka, however due to her life in the mafia and the dark side of Yokohama she can’t really teach anything other than what she experienced. A man tried to take her away from that life of darkness and she was punished for it, she saw the light but it burnt her. So, from that she gets the idea that people like her will get burnt by the light if they try to live in it, and she sees a lot of herself in Kyouka and she tries to protect her by keeping her in the darkness. She knows it’s a bad thing, but in her eyes it’s the lesser of two evils.

As we all are aware, that is not the case. Why, ever since she came to the Agency Kyouka has felt a lot of affection and overall happiness from being with people that care for her and that see her as more than something to be used. From what we can tell, the only one who showed any affection to Kyouka was Koyou herself. But in Koyou’s mind it’s not a “it happened to me; it might happen to you.” situation. It’s a “It happened to me which is why it will happen to you.” To Koyou Kyouka is walking a line too close to what she experienced, she sees in Atsushi the man that dragged her to the light only to get hurt in the process. You see, it’s not about the former boss punishing her by killing the man, well it kinda is, but I will explain it in a second. It’s about the man dragging her to the light, giving her a glimpse of what could be only to be tragically cut down before anything can be done. Atsushi is that man. So, while she hates the former boss of the Port Mafia for what he did, she cares little as to who will cut down Atsushi, only that he will die and that it will harm Kyouka.

In trying so hard to protect Kyouka, she brings the pain she is trying to prevent with her. She has good intentions, I’m sure, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In her mind if Kyouka experiences what she experienced she will see the truth of this world, that people like them are not meant for the light. This is proven wrong later on, with Kyouka finally passing on the entrance test for the ADA.

This kind of attitude is not uncommon on parents around the world, it comes from a sense that what we experienced is the undeniable truth and, therefore, will be the truth for their children. You see this in a more controlled and healthy form when parents say “don’t do that, you will hurt yourself.” They have experienced it in the past, so they know that there is a chance the child will get hurt. Then we have examples like Koyou, from who every single bit of traumatic experience becomes the undeniable truth and the child must learn that truth even if it’s non-appliable. Atsushi isn’t going to die, Kyouka isn’t going to get burnt by light by his or the ADA’s actions. She learns this eventually and accepts that it’s the best for Kyouka.

 Akutagawa vs Nathaniel

The desperation for Dazai’s approval

This one is interesting, as Nathaniel himself does a brief analysis of Akutagawa when they first meet, recognizing him as the Devil, to which our edgy boy confirms that he is in fact the Devil. But this changes during the course of the fight, as now Nathaniel sees him as a beast that bares his fangs only towards the weak, stating that he “only fights ability users weaker than him.” Which we could argue about. Up until now his fights have been one brief fight with Kunikida, which ended with Kunikida escaping (this happens in Kunikida’s novel I believe), one with Gide, several with Atsushi of whom has less experience as an ability user and fighter overall, but who can punish Akutagawa’s frail body. So yeah, it’s kinda true. You could argue that all the ADA members have a boost from the president’s ability, but it wouldn’t really matter. With Gide’s case he actually faced a stronger opponent and caught an L, only to be saved by Oda.

Yet Akutagawa is a wild dog, he will throw himself against all kinds of enemies only to prove himself as strong. As for him his strength is never enough, he needs to get to a level where even Dazai is left speechless, and, as we will learn in the future, he is in a hurry to do so as he will die of his lung illness. This put a timer on him and a greater level of desperation, as he feels his entire life will be invalid if he can’t prove to Dazai his strength and overall growth when compared to Atsushi. He had a problem before, but after Dazai mentioned Atsushi, it got to a whole new level.

This is seen in his dialogue as he mentions that he’s always been weak and that defeat and humiliation walk hand in hand with him. Akutagawa has been fated to never be satisfied with his power, no matter how big it is, no matter what enemy he takes down, it will never be enough. This is what Dazai was talking about when talking to Oda about teaching Aku “how to sheathe his blade”. Dazai went with it the wrong way, but he was right in this need to teach him how to control these impulses.

Now onto Mitchell’s sacrifice. This is the part that I wish that she and Nathaniel had more screen time in this arc, because while I could buy that they were comrades I never got the feeling that they were “die for each other” kind of person. But it was sad and will come back in a future point.

 Tanizaki take me to church

This is kinda brief and the title explains what I’m on about, but let’s talk about Jun’ichiro’s dedication to Naomi. Interesting theories aside, let’s consider them as two incestuous siblings for the moment, to see a brother doing everything in his power for his sister is a trope in manga that is common to say the least. But here we have one that clearly states that he worships his sister to the point where even the ADA’s morals and the world as a whole don’t matter.

While I believe that John feels the same way about his family, he probably wouldn’t put it in the same words as Tanizaki did. He is said to like the Holy Scriptures after all, I don’t believe he would go comparing other people to God. Not a problem for Tanizaki however, it comes to him as easy as breathing. And let’s think about his plan for a while because I am sure he didn’t put that much thought into it.

What if the truck hit him or Kunikida? What if the truck was a gasoline truck and exploded, like they often do, upon crashing? Did he care about the wellbeing of Kunikida? I don’t think so. Tanizaki is certainly one of the most interesting characters as far as determination goes, he is willing to walk through hell and pick flowers for a bouquet if it meant keeping Naomi happy.

 Atsushi and the need to protect

From his flashbacks, and from some dialogue from the Beast novel, we are led to understand that Atsushi has a deep need in him to protect other people as it was instilled in him by the director of the orphanage (we will get to this lampshade head bitch on the next one), telling him that if he can’t protect anyone than he is worthless. This is what leads Atsushi to fight with all he’s got for the new people in his life. That is all good. Here is where we see this backfire.

Under Q’s influence he attacks Naomi and Haruno, hitting one in the back of the head and strangling the other all while believing that they were under Q’s influence. On his eyes, to protect them, he had to get them down so he could go for Q, but once he realized this he went into a breakdown, all this power that he had to protect others was used against the very ones he was supposed to protect.

Behold! This is who I am right now! Such is my power! In order to prove the people in his past wrong all it took was a push for him to get himself drunk on power, of course, he wouldn’t do or say those things without Q. But with the right push, there he was, letting his innermost desires run rampant.

This desire to protect, to be strong is what makes him weak in the first place. Think about it, the moment something doesn’t go Atsushi’s way he gets a Naruto flashback to the orphanage for the director to tell him how much he sucks. He is shackled to that place and to those words, the damage inflicted on him was so big that even with the slap and the advice from Dazai he continues to doubt himself. It won’t go away, such is trauma.

His failure to establish his power to protect is what drives him to go after said power. He also seems to dwell on thoughts of him being a calamity to those around him, destined to destroy what he touches. Gotta say, whatever the director’s plan was for Atsushi it sure worked, huh champ? He criticizes Akutagawa for being unable to see his own power, but he fails to do the same thing for himself. Something I will touch later on.

 Francis and the need to protect

This is a bit of a short one, but it was good character development and I don’t want to skip over it. He goes about it the wrong way, what with the “I own you, so it’s my right/duty to protect you.” But at the very least he develops a sense of duty towards the people that fight with him, he wants to avoid them all being defeated by the enemies and end up like Mitchell. For someone who only seemed to care about getting the book and bringing his daughter back to life, he sure went out of his way to guarantee that they would all be protected.

Shame the plan would have killed millions of people according to Wikipedia. But it did show that Fitzgerald was willing to protect the life of others instead of just exploiting them. Something small that came kinda late, on purpose by Asagiri no doubt, but that speaks for his character. Also let me just add that Fitzgerald is one of the most fun villains I’ve seen.

 God exists, but he doesn’t love you

Another short one, but this line was soooooooo good and it did a lot for Q’s character. The whole situation makes you think about how they grew up, how their ability first came into play, how they handled it and how long it took to break them. It’s as simple as Steinbeck’s says, it’s an existence that no god could have wanted, at least not the one he believes in. We get physically hurt by other people very constantly when we are young, be it by playing around, by getting into fights or just doing any team activity in general. Q didn’t have any of that, they were given a burden to bear from such a young age and they are only thirteen.

It’s really no wonder that the kid went insane, anyone else would.

 Soukoku

The most anticipated part for me when reading again through this arc was this part, I remember reading through it the first time and loving every second of this team up, the way they bicker with each other, how they are plain childish around each other, the trust that they share. Their bond is formed by trusting each other with their lives without a second to doubt it, that’s not the kind of thing that just comes to you, it needs to be built.

There really isn’t much I can say that hasn’t already been said, I can say that they are the perfect duo who despite their problems work together perfectly, which has already been said, I can say that they are gay as hell, also been said. So, so many times. But allow me to talk about the building part of this entire process, I will be talking strictly about the manga and what I have seen from the anime. On the process of reading Fifteen and never read Stormbringer, so can’t say much about their interactions there, but reading it, it just radiates of history.

How long where they partners for? Must have been a very long time given how they even have names for operations to do in the middle of battle, how they know they can have time to play around, although that is mostly Dazai. What kind of missions did they go on? We get a glimpse of that in the Dead Apple movie, but I honestly don’t remember much and aren’t going to go off of that alone. Their chemistry is just perfect, it gives the feeling of old friends really well even though they will never call each other friend.

And Tainted. Fucking Tainted. A technique that could only work with Dazai there, something that should never be unleashed without his presence just came into the conversation so naturally. No “I hate to consider this option.” Or “This is our only shot.” Just casually mentioning that they have one option and going for it there’s one page and a half of them talking about it while other mangas would give you the long explanation about the ability before even talking about using it. You know the ones. “We have to use your secret technique. You know, the secret technique you’re never supposed to use, the technique that entails…”

Soukoku is a thing of beauty.

 Poe is gay as hell

That’s it. There is nothing else to add here.

 Shin Soukoku

About this one I have a lot to talk about, because when I first saw it, I hated it. Why team up a perfectly good loner with Atsushi? But reading again (and knowing of future events) made me reconsider this. As I mentioned before Atsushi notices that Akutagawa never notices his own strength, that it’s never enough for him and that the same is valid for him. Well, Akutagawa has his own brand of this.

He says that Atsushi never notices the things he already has, that he was pretty much gifted them, he has Dazai’s approval, has friends that trust and believe in him and… Yeah, Akutagawa, you kinda have that too, but you focus too much on the one thing that’s lacking. He has Higuchi, Gin, the Black Lizards, Mori’s approval, Chuuya’s approval, pretty much the whole Port Mafia recognizes how strong he is and he doesn’t notice it. I won’t go in on how the abuse at the hands of Dazai made him who he is now, I feel like I have already made myself clear with the first one.

But I will say this, both recognize a flaw in the other that they also possess and they both see in the other the one thing that they feel they are lacking. Atsushi sees in Akutagawa the strength that he doesn’t have, Akutagawa’s ability is perfect for a more defensive and supportive role while also being able to deal some damage, which is what Atsushi wants. Notice that he never throws himself in harm’s way, only when he has to protect someone else. Atsushi’s ability is strictly offensive, sure he can block blows from others, but not as well as Akutagawa can.

Akutagawa does a good job showing that he has an offensive power, that’s what Atsushi notices. And Atsushi has received praise and recognition from Dazai himself, Akutagawa heard it with his own two ears. He attributes Atsushi’s happiness not to the other contributing factors, but only to Dazai, because that is what happiness would constitute in Akutagawa’s mind.

At this point in the story, they don’t have much of a dynamic other than “I hate you, but we gotta do this.” Which is fine and works well for what it is shown and it will gain more as time goes on, and we were given Chuuya and Dazai to have a certain idea of how things could work out between them in the future, but for now there is only hatred and maybe a slight touch of respect for the strength that the other holds.

And as Fitzgerald said, they are very similar. I think that is the main point of difference between SSKK and SKK, while Chuuya and Dazai work really well together they have more differences than similarities, both in personality and in beliefs, but you know, opposites attract each other and they work because of that. I feel that in Shin Soukoku’s case it’s different, yeah, they are really different from one another, but they are linked by their past experiences, struggles and desires. In one way or another, both want to hear the words that will set their shackles free, the main difference for Atsushi is that he will never get to hear these words from the director of the orphanage as we find out in a few chapters.

[fortuitousraven]

That’s the thing about perspective flips, you can do exactly that, flipping the perspective to tell the story from the villains’ pov and expand on their motivations. Unless the original was very one-dimensional, the heroes are going to have flaws and mistakes and villains are going to have virtues and good points, and you can explore either of those using the new perspective.

Or you can flip the narrative to present the villains as actually having been the heroes of the story. That’s different from the former, because in that case you have to disagree with the author about who was in the right about the central narrative conflict. (That, or completely miss the point about what the story is about ;p)

Which gets tricky with ‘Lord of the Rings’, because the central narrative conflict is not one where a lot of people could seriously disagree with Tolkien that Sauron was in the wrong. Tolkien lays this out very well in Letter 183:

 It seems clear to me that Frodo's duty was 'humane' not political. He naturally thought first of the Shire, since his roots were there, but the quest had as its object not the preserving of this or that polity, such as the half republic half aristocracy of the Shire, but the liberation from an evil tyranny of all the 'humane'* – including those, such as 'easterlings' and Haradrim, that were still servants of the tyranny.

 Denethor was tainted with mere politics: hence his failure, and his mistrust of Faramir. It had become for him a prime motive to preserve the polity of Gondor, as it was, against another potentate, who had made himself stronger and was to be feared and opposed for that reason rather than because he was ruthless and wicked. Denethor despised lesser men, and one may be sure did not distinguish between orcs and the allies of Mordor. If he had survived as victor, even without use of the Ring, he would have taken a long stride towards becoming himself a tyrant, and the terms and treatment he accorded to the deluded peoples of east and south would have been cruel and vengeful. He had become a 'political' leader: sc. Gondor against the rest.

 But that was not the policy or duty set out by the Council of Elrond. Only after hearing the debate and realizing the nature of the quest did Frodo accept the burden of his mission. Indeed the Elves destroyed their own polity in pursuit of a 'humane' duty. This did not happen merely as an unfortunate damage of War; it was known by them to be an inevitable result of victory, which could in no way be advantageous to Elves. Elrond cannot be said to have a political duty or purpose.

 ...

 In The Lord of the Rings the conflict is not basically about 'freedom', though that is naturally involved. It is about God, and His sole right to divine honour. The Eldar and the Númenóreans believed in The One, the true God, and held worship of any other person an abomination. Sauron desired to be a God-King, and was held to be this by his servants;† if he had been victorious he would have demanded divine honour from all rational creatures and absolute temporal power over the whole world. So even if in desperation 'the West' had bred or hired hordes of ores and had cruelly ravaged the lands of other Men as allies of Sauron, or merely to prevent them from aiding him, their Cause would have remained indefeasibly right. As does the Cause of those who oppose now the State-God and Marshal This or That as its High Priest, even if it is true (as it unfortunately is) that many of their deeds are wrong, even if it were true (as it is not) that the inhabitants of 'The West', except for a minority of wealthy bosses, live in fear and squalor, while the worshippers of the State-God live in peace and abundance and in mutual esteem and trust

Gondor does in fact have an imperialistic streak and this is a bad thing, as shown with Denethor, but their flawed side isn’t really relevant to the moral point of the story. As a Christian, Tolkien focusses more here on why it’s blasphemous of Sauron to want to make himself God-King over everyone, but I don’t think a lot of atheists would disagree either that Sauron instating a mandatory theocracy centering on himself is morally unacceptable ;)

[piracytheorist]

Since the first thing that strikes me about re8, story-wise, is that it seems to be all over the place? Again, I’ve no idea how it ties to previous games but it feels like this parental/mother-child theme is just hanging there with no resolution at all? I mean yes, Ethan saved his daughter, presumably breaking some sort of abuse cycle, yay, congrats, but what about his wife/gf? Isn’t she supposed to be like the main protagonist of the story of a mother bereaved to the point of tyrannical madness

Or rather, this specific story is not the right choice for his character since there’s SO many ethical and philosophical issues and questions implied but never properly explored because of Ethan’s ‘fuck you, idc’ attitude (which is completely understandable in those circumstances but adds virtually nothing to the plot and arguably even ruins it a bit). Heisenberg could’ve been an excellent ally with fascinating grey morality (provided the writers wouldn’t push him to the point of absolute insanity and let freedom, not power-hunger be his main goal and motivation for rebellion).And again, aren’t the lords supposed to represent child development stages? In which case Ethan what? Kills the possibility of some evil version of Rose? Or his own chance to experience fatherhood throughout all of those stages? Either way, it seems a bit… weird to have a Parent destroy multiple people whose main relevance to the plot is that they’re children of an abusive antagonist in a storyline so extremely focused on parent/kid relationships.

I feel like the main theme of re8 is not just parenthood/motherhood, but the relationship itself of the parent to the child. There's a lot of mentions to "children being used". Miranda kidnapping people, experimenting on them and mutating them and then treating them like they're her kids; Miranda kidnapping and practically killing Rose; Dimitrescu making daughters out of reanimated corpses she experimented on; Heisenberg wanting to use Rose's powers, etc etc.

And it's important that Miranda is at the center of this. There's something very interesting she says to Ethan in her boss fight:

"Why do you interfere? Surely you have no need of Rose now, so close to death?"

And that's where her mistake was. Ethan wasn't doing all that because he needed Rose herself. He was doing it to save her, fully aware that he wasn't going to be a part of her life cause he knew he was dying. Miranda was way too dependent on her love for Eva - and like, I honestly get it that losing your child can devastate you (if anything my fear of that is one of the reasons I don't want to have kids) - so much that her life literally revolved around her child. Once Eva died, Miranda wanted to die. Once she found the Megamycete and discovered she maybe had a chance to bring Eva back, she dedicated her entire life and ruined multiple others to do just that. Her one and biggest need was to get Eva back. It wasn't a simple want or wish. It was a need. She'd get her child back, damn everyone else - including other people's children.

Miranda had no-one to blame directly; Eva had died from the influenza, it wasn't like she had any chance to change things. Ethan's case was different; he had people to blame, particularly, the one who kidnapped Rose and dismembered her, and her lackeys who kept said parts and fought him for trying to take them back.

So on one end, you have a parent who lost her child due to a tragedy, and ended up destroying other - innocent - lives in order to get her back. On the other, you have a parent who lost his child due to a crime, and ended up going after the criminals responsible in order to get the child back. Like, it wasn't even revenge, and it wasn't that he "needed" Rose in his life. He simply wanted to save her and ensure she'll be alright.

I fully agree it could have been Mia as the protagonist in re8, and that it was a wasted opportunity to simply fridge her and have her in the sidelines angsting over her husband. But whether it was Mia or Ethan as the protagonist, I feel like the theme that I explained above does offer a resolution, showing the opposites of Miranda and Ethan, and ending Miranda's tyrrany of her "need" to have her child back through Ethan's determination to ensure his child's safety and happiness - even if he doesn't get to be a part of any of that later on. Miranda showed obsession; Ethan showed dedication.

And this is how I see the abuse cycle breaking and the resolution is reached; an obsessed parent hurt a good parent's child to bring their own child back - the good parent's dedication stopped the former, allowing the former's tyrrany to end and their child to grow up safe.

Seeing as this is a horror game, I don't tend to focus on the morality issues (if I'm interpreting your second message correctly). Like, the developers are making a grant effort to put us in Ethan's shoes, first-person POV, plain character protagonist and all; our child got kidnapped and practically murdered, and we have the chance to bring her back. We'll absolutely raise hell to the people who are responsible for it and we will get our child back, fuck any moral dilemmas we might have. When someone is threatening your life, you have the ability to kill them to defend yourself. In the case of a caring parent, that ability may multiply by a lot when the threat is towards their child. And I feel that this is what the game explored in the end. Though the whole survival issue is taxing on Ethan, he doesn't give a damn about who he has to kill if it means saving his daughter - but again, it's only the responsible parties. We see how watching all the people at Luisa's house die affected him, and even before Elena died, he wanted to ensure her safety before he went searching for Rose; he is sympathetic and morally rational, but also capable of cold-blooded murder if someone is threatening his child. To a lesser extent, we saw that in re7 too. With his life on the line, he killed Jack (multiple times) and Marguerite, and at the end he recognized how they were actually victims of Eveline. But they were still actively trying to murder him so he wasn't given the chance to help them. With Zoe, he promised to send help, and he did, even wanting to talk to her once she'd been rescued by her uncle and Chris. The same applies to re8, but as I said, it's multiplied since it's his daughter who's in danger, and the end of re8 proves he cares for her safety more than his own.

Now, all that said, I think it's important to note how it's stil a Resident Evil game. I haven't actually played or watched any playthroughs of other games, but the basic concept in these games, from what I understand, is that the player shoots zombies; ex-human beings who have lost any human mentality and will just come for your throat if you don't kill them first. They're not humans anymore, they can't be reasoned or sympathized with. It's not really an issue of morality, ethics or philosophy. Your life, and the life of your child in the case of re8, are in danger. You don't give a shit. You just start shooting and hope for the best. Again, I don't know if the morality issue is explored in other RE games, but to be honest... Resident Evil doesn't sound like the kind of franchise that's thematically into going super deep into the morality of shooting zombies to save your life.

I have to admit I haven't thought of the Lords being representative of child development stages. I think they could be put as Moreau being a toddler, fully dependent on their parent - funnily enough, the Greek word for baby is "moro", pronounced almost exactly the way "Moreau" is pronounced in the game - Donna as a child, Heisenberg as a (rebellious?) teenager, and Dimitrescu as a late teen/young adult (if anything, Dimitrescu seems to behave like the eldest child of the bunch). But I'm not sure the connection that has to Ethan as a father, if anything because the bosses are fought in complete random order of age, if my analysis is correct. Like, I understand the symbolism behind the Lords' behaviours, maybe as you said they represent the obstacles Ethan had to overcome. In one single day and with his life on the line, instead of in the course of Rose's entire childhood and adolescence, but that's exactly why he hated being a protagonist of a horror game, lol.

Anyway, yeah. All in all, I don't think Resident Evil is a franchise where we should expect to sit down afterwards and ponder whether we were right to shoot the zombies that were trying to kill us. Again, I'm not the right person to ask this, since I don't know anything about other RE games, but that's the conclusion I'm making in a meta-thinking way.

[opbackgrounds]

Oooh can you do a post on the tenryubito?

So I feel like this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I pity the Celestial Dragons. 

That isn’t to say that they aren’t all (mostly) abhorrently evil megalomaniacs with  an institutionally enforced god complex who treat the torture of human(oids) with the same blasé disregard as a kid pulling the wings off of a fly, but there’s a part of me that just finds them pathetic. The Celesital Dragons are a group of people who have the world as their silver platter, yet are so small-minded and infantile they literally trap themselves in a tiny bubbles because they’re too scared to breathe the same air as the so-called lesser races.

There was a time when I didn’t think much of the Celestial Dragons because I thought that Oda’s exaggerated storytelling had gone one step too far. They were too cartoonishly evil to be believable—nothing but a bunch of mustache-twirling villains too ridiculous to be taken seriously—and though I found Luffy punching one in the face very cathartic I wasn’t terribly invested in the World Nobility as a worldbuilding element. 

But if there’s something I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older, it’s that there is a depressingly-large number of cartoonishly evil people who through no merit of their own find themselves wielding enormous amounts of power, and the Celestial Dragons are more realistic than I ever thought possible. 

The Dragons are One Piece’s exploration of the idea that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Eight hundred years is a ridiculously long time to be in control of a single territory, let alone an organization as massive as the World Government. To put it in perspective a little, eight hundred years ago was when the Magna Carta was signed. Even real-world dynasties tend to have major fluctuations in power over the course of generations, but It seems that the World Government—and by extension the Celestial Dragons—have for eight centuries kept an iron hold over what they consider theirs. 

Which just happens to be everything. 

The actual origins of the CD tie into series lore and will probably play a big part in Robin learning about the True History, but I fall in the camp that believes that they originated on the moon because 1) they’re the Celestial Dragons 2) there’s gotta be some significance to Enel’s cover story, and 3) Oda clearly modeled their hairstyles and clothing off of the King and Queen of the Moon from the movie The Adventures of Baron Muchausen

Which, if true, makes them a foreign imperialistic force that used military might and a totalitarian regime that specializes in censorship and terror in order to turn the One Piece world into a giant colony while presenting itself as an egalitarian, unifying coalition where no single ruler is fit to sit on the Empty Throne. 

And to think, there are some people who don’t think One Piece is political.

What’s really fascinating is that most of the rank and file Celestial Dragons don’t seem to realize their own history. Their traditional enemy has become a bedtime story used to scare children, and they’re too preoccupied in their petty games and pleasures to even notice that they’re not really the most powerful people in the world. It’s like their freedom to commit atrocities is the world’s worst example of bread and circuses, because as long as their attention is held by the shiny new slave or fixated on bringing in another tribute then they can’t use their immense power to actually do anything, and for the most part they’re too stupid to realize they’re being used. 

Granted, I’m doing a lot of guesswork here, but we don’t really know where Im and his giant pointy crown fits into all this, or how aware the average Celestial Dragon is of his existence. Is he a world noble? Are the Elder Stars? I personally don’t think the latter are, but is it possible that there’s an even more secret and exclusive group within one of the most secretive and exclusive groups on the planet? And what in the world does the straw hat locked in a freezer have to do with any of it? Was that the treasure Doflamingo used to blackmail the Celestial Dragons into submission, and if so, who did he parlay with during his negotiations? Because I can’t see idiots like Saint Charlos or Mysogard before his character development giving two shits about any of it. Was it CP0, and if so, how much do they understand about the man who sits on the Empty Throne?

What I’m trying to say here, is that there’s a whole lot we don’t know. 

What isn’t guesswork is how little the Celestial Dragons understand about the real world, and this is where I go back to feeling sorry for them. Even the best-intentioned noble we’ve seen so far (Homing) has no idea of what it is to be “human”. 

This mansion is just...comfortable. It’s a downgrade. It’s how Homing thinks normal people live, and he thinks he can just plop his family out in the real world and live a quiet, normal life without blowback from a population that has suffered terribly at the Celestial Dragons hands. His ignorance and naivety, while well-intentioned, is staggering.

Because remember, slavery is technically illegal within the World Government.  Only criminals and people from nations not affiliated can be taken to auction. What initially seems like a kindness turns out to be sending pigs to the slaughter, because what nation wouldn’t react the way this one did once they found out the truth?

Because what the WG (and by extension the CD) have done is punish nations who don’t kowtow to their power in order to fulfill the demand for slaves. Even the bit about criminals is terrifying when this is a world where for some it’s a crime to even be born, to say nothing about the Celestial Dragon’s refusal to obey their own laws if it means they can get what they want, when they want it. 

The whole Homing situation puts a different spin on Doflamingo’s speech during the Marineford War. People who have only known peace can’t understand those who have only known war, and that lack of understanding is what ultimately led to his undoing. 

That’s not to say that the Celestial Dragons are incapable of change on an individual level. One Piece is, ultimately, a very optimistic series, so while I was initially surprised that Saint Mysogard returned during the Reverie chapters as a good guy, upon later reflection it made sense with the points Oda was trying to make during the Fishman Island arc—that if different groups can try to understand one another, they can get along. 

But it took an extraordinary event in almost being killed by his own former slaves and an extraordinary diplomat in Queen Otohime to change the mind of one (1) Celestial Dragon, and it doesn’t look like Saint Mysogard has been able to bring anyone else around to his point of view in the 10 years since he realized he was, in fact, human. And when feel like you’re due everything because you’re a god, why would you want to lower yourself to the position of a lessor being?

 The Celestial Dragons are trained from birth to think of other human(oid) beings as less than animals, where sadism and torture aren’t only encouraged, but celebrated. The system has corrupted to the point where there’s no incentive to change and no oversight to prevent the abuse of power, and with the ability to call the admirals on anyone who pisses them off the average person has no hope of fighting back. It’s difficult to guess how noble the progenitors of the current Celestial Dragons were, but judging by what we know of the Void Century we can guess not very. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine them starting out as the mustache-twirling villains as we see in the current day. The only difference between the Nefertitis and the other kings was one man’s choice to stay with his people. In an alternate universe Vivi could have been a Celestial Dragon.

Now there’s an AU idea.

At the end of the day, the Celestial Dragons play an important role within the One Piece universe, but they are not, by themselves, important to Luffy. He hates their guts and enjoys punching them in the face, but he’s a pirate, not a Revolutionary. The future for One Piece is delightfully opaque, and it’s hard for me to see how the Natural Enemy of God ends up tearing the system to the ground. Will the Straw Hats end up going to space? I don’t know, but there are a lot of people who think it’s at least a possibility.

I personally find them at their most interesting when they’re playing the part of the outside influencer. The Celestial Dragons have only been the direct opponents to the Straw Hats a handful of times, but they’ve played a direct role in the lives of so many other characters—both heroic and villainous—that without them the series could not exist as it currently does. 

And that’s the power of good worldbuilding. I don’t need Luffy to face off against Im to be satisfied with the series. In fact, he was brought in so late that I’ll be a little disappointed if he ends up as the final boss fight. I’m okay with the Revolutionary Army storming Mariejois off-screen, because while those are important players and major chess pieces, that’s never been where Luffy’s focus has been. He’s the man who’s going to become the Pirate King, and until the Celestial Dragons somehow get in the way of that dream he’s not going to bother with them. This lack of focus allows the inherent darkness of the Celestial Dragons not to overshadow the more lighthearted, whimsical aspects of the series. They explore certain themes that are important to One Piece, but the story doesn’t dwell in the mire, and I think it’s all the stronger for it. . 

[surveillance-0011]

Evil and fucked up AU time

Hmm what if. Emperor was given more time to incubate (like an extra year or so) and actually ended up being indestructible like The World and Moon.

Emperor develops to have a more insectoid appearance like World. They have an iridescent shell and wings. They retain their shapeshifting abilities, but now they are stronger and their form is more stable. They easily overpower both agents and go on to put their plans into action.

Between this and a second wave a year or so later in which the World is awakened, humanity does not stand much of a chance. The world collapse happens earlier to a somewhat heavier scale, with humans being wiped out completely in some spaces. The other bosses are brought back, and like in canon, 2006 sees the return of Hangedman and Chariot, as well as the birth of Moon (and also HP is there too haha funky little octopus). The creatures pretty much take over, and both Goldman and Thornheart are left to see what happens from here.

And something unexpected takes place.

Some of the creatures begin to change. They develop scales or patches of the same chitin Emperor and the World have. Their eyes (for all who still have eyes) become tinted teal or green. Their bodies heal, somewhat. And their devotion to the two "siblings" only increases.

Those not affected by those two either remain the same or simply take on traits of the other "superiors", in this case Moon, and possibly Magician, Wheel of Fate, and perhaps the Devil when they eventually come around.

Emperor and World have their strange pseudo-utopia of lesser creatures quite literally hardwired to devote their lives to their leaders, humans being ruled with an iron fist, and corrupt "officials" that do as they please. Moon keeps the few who seem to stand with him close (whether they want to be or not) as he strives to knock the higher society down a peg.

Magician initially sides with the former, but is left somewhere between the divided forces

Few humans form resistances, some short lived, some still continuing and gaining traction.

And Goldman and Thornheart realize they have created a society just as bad, if not worse than, humanity itself.

[egg-emperor]

What's your favorite game version of eggman? For me its both sonic unleashed and sonic forces because of the balance of humor and just how done he is with sonic at that point. He's tired, he's pissed after years of defeat and I can just imagine him in those games going "why won't you die!!!!" And personal opinion I love the xbox version of unleashed because I love the werehog stages more than most daytime stages and eggmanland needs to be appreciated in its full long stage glory!!!!

It's difficult to choose just one because game Eggman never fails to entertain, there are still of aspects even in the games with lesser quality writing. Like Colors and Lost World for example. I could pick out five that I think have the most going for him above all here though!

I love how bold and dramatic he is in Adventure, being his first fully voiced game portrayal already began to shape his character for the modern series and Deem Bristow nailed it! He had lots of tricks up his sleeve with the way he discovered and awakened Chaos, built the Egg Carriers, his newest mechs and E Series, tricked Knuckles, consistently had success in retrieving all the emeralds and he almost blew up Station Square.

I enjoyed his SA2 portrayal slightly more than the former because I love that we get to see things happen from his perspective a lot more and how much he takes part in the action by infiltrating the base himself to retrieve Project Shadow, gathering emeralds to power the Eclipse Cannon, blowing up Prison Island then later half of the moon, holding Amy hostage, tricking Sonic and Tails and nearly killing them both. It showed the incredible lengths he’ll go to so he can get what he wants.

There’s actually quite a lot that I like about him in ShtH 2005 too because despite the mistreatment he got story wise, they portrayed his character nicely in it. He was brave and well prepared to take on the challenge of both the Black Arms and G.U.N. He was dark and threatening in the intense scenes but still kept his vital comedic side in a lot of his dialogue, mostly during the missions. Especially with the way he could still have fun and proudly show off his theme park to Shadow when the world was in a total crisis.

In Unleashed, he also had that important balance of his characteristics there too. There was fun humor involved and we got to see him get down to some serious business. It was (literally) his most world shattering plan yet and a good look at the worldwide impact his actions has. We also got to see part of his Eggmanland fantasy become a reality and how much of a beautiful nightmare it is. Eggman knew it was going to be one of the most difficult levels, he doubted Sonic could make it to him to file complaints. XD 

And he was furious and threatening throughout the boss fights to an incredibly thrilling degree. Like during the Egg Dragoon battle, where he told Sonic to "give up and die already!" because he’s absolutely had it with him. He has some of the best dialogue and performance in any game. He was goofy and energetic but also intense and evil, offering endless entertainment. It's just a let down that he had to be betrayed by Gaia the way he did. (And same here, I love 360/PS3 Unleashed and I pretty much have a preference for the werehog stages too!)

A more recent portrayal I've enjoyed is Forces which I touched on in this post better than I can probably summarize it here. He showed how much he's had it with the way he had Sonic beaten and locked up, took control of the world and planned to show off his completed empire before banishing him. But even when he escaped, his trickery, well thought out strategy and ingenious back up plan really gave Sonic and friends a serious challenge. That's the magnificent evil bastard I know and love! 💜

[prorevenge]

Abusive boss "acidentally" picks on his own boss and pays the ultimate price.

As I sit in a bar, enjoying my coffee, a story pops into my mind from 10 years ago of how I put a jerk down to the ground for venting his frustrations over to his subbordinates.

Let us begin with the back story, which is quite long, but necessary for you to get a feeling of what was going on at the time. It was just months before the financial crisis and I was working for the tech department in a very large company. It was quite a large department in which we handled electronics.

That department stood out from most of the company, as it was receiving a bit of a different treatment. The company thought if they create an extremely pleasant working environment there, they could get away with paying those stationed there with considerably lesser wages than they could be eligible for.

And it was also a "meritocracy". Your rank and station was based on what you were capable of, not how long were you in the company. I say that because just after two years, I was running the whole department! The reason for that was that because aside from being a computer technician, i also had skills in electrotechnics, electronics, programming and online advertising, which the company realized and put me in charge of the whole bunch. However before you question the validity of this story, you should know that while I had the rank, I made only marginally more money than the rest of the department, the only plus was the rank, and that I had half the working hours of the rest of the department. My only job was to make sure that everybody was at their best while doing their job and paperwork, along with comms and coordinating with the rest of the company.

I felt it was important that you knew the entire story because now I want to introduce you to Dick (fake name). Dick was a hard worker, but a sick, evil, miserable bastard who was at the company for over 6 years but couldn't get any higher up the ladder other than shift supervisor for the machinery boys because all he knew how to do. He was 2 ranks below me. Dick was an utter Dick. He constantly picked on his subbordinates, berating them, yelling at them, picking on the "coffee boy" (it was the rookie, bringing coffee was an initation ritual), essentially Dick being in charge of you was a very unpleasant experience.

At the time I didn't know this was going on, Dick was not in the group I ascended over and I dealt with that group over his superior. I didn't know was going on because I had my hands full with running the whole thing from an office halfway across the company building (big building).

Before we continue, you should know that my country has a law against workplace abuse called "bossing", in which, if there has been emotional harm inflicted, the person who performed bossing could even face jail time, and the company in question could pay massive fines.

To continue, suddenly I reveived an email from my superior, telling me there was an incident regarding Dick and that I have been scheduled for disciplinary action. Apparently there was a coffee girl in his group which he utterly destroyed to the point where she had a nervous breakdown, and as a department administrator I received huge flak for "not sustaining a pleasant working environment", which was department policy so that people wouldn't complain so much about the subpar pay they are getting.

Dick got me in so much trouble that I had to spend a week of constant damage control with my own superior. In the end, I was ordered to take appropriate action against Dick to prove that I was still "the man for the job".

Dick got me in a lot of trouble. Dick was going to pay. There was just one problem- there was no evidence against Dick. So I was going to have to be sneaky. I send a message to Dicks superior, notifying him that that they will be getting a replacement coffee boy from another group tomorrow... ME! I was going undercover to stick it to dick.

There is a saying: you see a guy in a suit and tie and you think he's successful, until you realize he's working for a man in jeans and and polo shirt. This hold true as dick is a suit and tie guy while I wear jeans and a polo shirt to work.

Its the day of revenge. I take no special preparations other than a hidden recording device, and I even wear the aforementioned outfit. I arrive at work and ask two security guards to go with me to wait just outside Dick's work area. I purposely wait until I am 5 minutes late, then enter the work area with Dick's people, greet everyone and go straight for the coffee pot. Dick notices my tardiness and starts ranting:

DICK: Coffee boy! What the hell do you think you're doing? Come late on your first day? Get your ass moving and serve everybody!

ME: Yes sir!

I serve coffee to everybody, but one of the techs recognizes me. I pour some coffee in his pot and tell him to say nothing because I am recording Dick. At that time Dick was across the room, insulting another employee for misplacing his tools.

After I finish serving coffee I go to "my" workplace and start working. I intentionally fumble at my work, as a rookie would, in order to get Dicks attention. It works and Dick notices me and races right towards me.

DICK: What the hell do you think you're doing boy? What is this mess you made? You are completely useless! I cannot use you for anything! I should send you to mop the floors and you will even screw that up!

I turn towards Dick, put my hands at my hips and lean fowards, going in dicks face. Dick presses his second and third finger against his thumb and starts to wave it my face:

DICK: Don't you get uppity on me boy, I am your boss, I know the administrator and I can get your ass on the street in 5 minutes! Do you want to go home? ANSWER ME!

ME: I am the administrator. SECURITY!

Both guards arrive, going to into full badass mode, grabbing hold of their mace pockets with one hand and fists clenched in the other. I swear, Dick immediately dropped a couple of spoon fulls into his pants.

GUARD: Yes, mr. OP?

ME: Escort mr. Dick to my office immediately for (I lean right into his face) SEVERE disciplinary action.

GUARD: mr. Dick, come with us.

Later in my office, Dick was sat down, and listened to the audio recording of the incident, as well as I made him read out loud an extract of the labor law concerning "bossing", then I go full cold turkey on his ass:

ME: mr. Dick, you have been caught severely abusing your employees, which is not only against department policy, but is also a criminal offense, punishable by jail time in certain circumstamces. Do you have anything to say in your defense?

Sweating, shaking, stuttering: DICK: I would, I, but I, I am...

ME: It's what I thought. Let me tell you what is going to happen. I have ebought evidence to pin the breakdown of coffee girl on you, which means that I have the power to send you to jail. (Not sure if true, I was bluffing). So your disciplinary action is going to be as follows. Firstly, you are to be demoted for at least a period of two months. Your previous group was lacking a coffee boy, I think you would be perfect for the job. Secondly. You are going to love it. Thirdly, your are going to send flowers and a letter of apology to the girl you broke down. But if you: #1, try to quit within the time allotted for your punishment, and #2, so much as look as your former subbordinates in a way they wouldn't like it and #3, not do your work with utmost distinction, I will send this evidence to the authoroties and use every scrap of power I have in this company to send you to a jail so bad that when you come out of it, you will be wearing diapers for the rest of your life, HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR?

Utterly pale and defeated Dick: yes, mr OP.

To add insult to injury, I inform his group of Dick's demotion. I told them that he has absolutely no authority over them anymore, and that he is going to serve them coffee until a time I see fit to rejoin them, but only as a serviceman equal in rank to the group. Dick was also forced to clean out his office in front of the group, as the coffee boy wasn't even entitled to his own cubicle, let alone a desk.

Is this nuclear revenge? I disagree. I feel that he got exactly what he deserved. He is now going to have to lick the boots those he treated so badly before. I am but no means an angel, after all, I did fail to notice the abuse that was going on umderneath me, but to fair, nobody was brave enough to stand up to Dick in fear of losing their jobs due to the crisis looming overhead.

(source) story by (/u/-BigBadBeef-)

[mw-moriearty]

Superman III is an Anti-Capitalist Parable and Way Ahead of its Time

No seriously. Here’s the skinny.

Superman III came out in ‘83 and was directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the markedly inferior theatrical cut of Superman II three years earlier. Lester had a very different approach to the Superman series than his predecessor, Richard Donner: he insisted, ostensibly at the studio’s urging, on taking the series in a more camp comedy direction rather than the Old Hollywood epic movie tone Donner brought to the table. It makes sense, then, that audiences would push back against the goofier, lower-stakes tone of III. They were used to the (comparatively) operatic tone of the original Superman and, to a lesser extent, its sequel.

Superman III was a financial success, but it was negatively received by audiences and by critics, a negative reception that helped send the follow-ups Supergirl and Superman IV: A Quest for Peace to the bottom of the trash heap (not that they needed much help).

But, unlike those two installments, Superman III, when watched today with an unbiased eye, holds up much better than its reputation would suggest. The emphasized comedic undertones don’t stand out so much in this era of light, bantery Marvel films.

And, what’s more, Superman III is probably one of the most plainly anti-capitalist superhero movies of all time. Its maybe not “woke,” but its pretty damn close.

At the core of the film, and perhaps its most controversial element, is the comic relief character played by comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor’s character in Superman III may not be the most nuanced character of color in film, but he is also certainly not the Jar Jar Binks minstrel clown some make him out to be. What he is, is a naturally-gifted computer programmer so brilliant that he is able to hack into a government weather-controlling satellite while completely blitzed and effortlessly design a supercomputer so sophisticated it gains self-awareness. It is obvious the only reason that he lives on unemployment and can’t keep a job rather than being the next Bill Gates and giving the millionaire villain orders is the deep institutional racism upon which capitalism is founded.

The film is well aware of this racism, highlighting it in ways both big and small. Pryor is blackmailed into serving the rich white Trump-esque antagonist, played by Robert Vaughn, after being forced by his ridiculously small paycheck to commit embezzlement (the only victim of which being Vaughn himself, who is so dripping with surplus wealth that he has an artificial ski slope on the roof of his skyscraper). Their first interaction is full of condescending microaggressions on Vaughn’s part, such as cringe-inducingly calling Pryor “my man” in a manner that brings to mind the dad in Get Out.

When Pryor travels to Smallville, Kansas later in the film, he is visibly aghast at how eerily lily-white the whole place is, particularly staring in horror at a trio of porcelain-tinted mannequins in a store window. I’m sure his discomfort would be echoed by many black men taking their first step in rural southern America. Later, to infiltrate one of the businesses that he plans to hack in the small town, Pryor wears one of the awful suits worn by the aforementioned dummies and puts on an affected “white voice” to earn the trust of the drunken redneck that watches the place at night, a fitting commentary on how black men and women are expected to homogenize and “act white” to be above suspicion in white America.

And what happens when Pryor convinces Vaughn to give him the resources to construct his incredible supercomputer? Why, Vaughn and his sister appropriate it for themselves and put its unique capabilities to nefarious ends, shutting Pryor out of any control of his baby and leaving him out in the cold. 

Pryor is much more than a victim through all of this, however. I already mentioned how he took the initiative to bolster his paltry computer programmer’s paycheck by using a clever scheme to embezzle from his greedy millionaire boss. He also doesn’t let said boss kick him around, either. Though his circumstances leave him with little choice but to be a cohort in Vaughn’s schemes, when push comes to shove, he stands up for himself. He refuses to allow Vaughn’s order for complete control of the oil tankers to be irreversible, he fights for his fair cut of the loot when Vaughn starts profiting off of his brilliance, and in the end he stands by Superman against his bourgeoisie bosses. He even saves Superman’s life on multiple occasions, using both his computer smarts and eventually a fire ax to come to the big guy’s rescue. 

Given that Pryor has at least as much screen time as Supes throughout the picture, one is left wondering, who’s the real hero here? Why, its the guy running around in the frilly pink tablecloth, of course!

And Pryor’s not the only example of a downtrodden minority not being allowed to live to their full potential in a white supremacist patriarchal capitalist society. Perhaps the most interesting character in the film is the villain’s girlfriend, who is initially presented as a vapid, gold-digging bimbo until we learn that this is all an act on her part and she actually is a computer-wise, philosophy-reading secret genius herself. She only plays the part of the brainless trophy girl because life has left her few other options. It is a very fun subversion of the typical villain-moll dynamic, and it is a shame we don’t get more of this character, though she like Pryor is ultimately disturbed by Vaughn’s increasingly villainous actions and bails on him in the end.

But lets talk about Vaughn’s villain, and how he’s emblematic of the film’s ideas on rich white privilege as a whole. This is a guy who is so used to getting everything he wants that he sics a freaking hurricane on Colombia just because the country is competing with him in the coffee export industry. If that ain’t capitalism at its finest. He even repeats the tired adage “it is not enough that I succeed, others must fail,” misattributing it to Genghis Khan like an idiot. I mean seriously, who does this sound like?

This is the guy who gives us probably the most immortal line from the whole movie.

And that’s only the tip of the white entitlement iceberg. There’s also the running joke of the old white couple who win the Daily Planet’s vacation lottery and get sent off to Colombia, where we are treated to the wife saying things like, “look dear, a native wedding!” Cut to the most conventional looking church wedding ever. After this parody of cultural voyeurism, we have the couple later threatening to SUE Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White because A HURRICANE RUINED THEIR VACATION. What a couple of Karens.

The whole film is about the struggle between the working class and the rich. I’ll paraphrase one of the Smallville locals who, after seeing the chaos caused by the gasoline shortage brought about by Vaughn’s forced oil monopoly, says “I don’t know what’s going on, but I guarantee you, someone’s getting rich off of it. Someone’s always getting rich off of it.”

Oh yeah, and Superman is in this movie too a little. There’s a plot wherein Vaughn tries to synthesize an artificial kryptonite in an effort to kill Superman and prevent him from foiling his dastardly deeds. But, this being a kryptonite forged in the capitalist machine, its a lazy, half-assed copy that doesn’t even work right (leading to the above line).

That doesn’t mean that the kryptonite has no effect, though. Indeed, the symptoms of this knockoff kryptonite are fascinatingly similar to the effects of living under the crushing wheels of the capitalist regime. 

We actually see Superman, through this physical manifestation of the exertion of capitalist oppression, deteriorate into a selfish, depressed, bitter shadow of his usual self. As this happens, the colors of his costume subtly grown more dark, drab, and dingy. Superman becomes concerned only with doing what is best for himself without regard to anyone else, giving up the whole “saving people” thing and even letting himself be coerced by the moll into ripping a giant hole into an oil tanker in exchange for a little nookie (the subsequent disturbing image of a massive oil spill creeping across the surface of the ocean is maybe the film showing its hand a little bit). Many socialist and anarchist thinkers have raised the thought that this exact selfish mindset is the natural effect of being socialized in a capitalist society.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t just “evil Superman”. This is Superman so crushed by self-loathing and the futility of his actions that at the lowest point in his decline we see him looking like this:

Indeed, this sad, alcoholic Superman very deliberately mirrors another character in the film: the aforementioned drunken yokel, who is also the former star quarterback of Clark Kent’s high school graduating class. This is a character who found, after graduating, that his celebrity status in school translated to nothing in the adult world, leaving him woefully unprepared for a real life where he is a functional nobody. Cue binge-drinking and pining for the glory days.

This all culminates in the movie’s most iconic scene, wherein Superman crash-lands in a junkyard and splits into two separate individuals: the above Superdick, and plain old Clark Kent. They then proceed to beat the shit out of each other.

Obviously, we aren’t meant to read this scene as literal; it isn’t actually, physically happening. It is a clever visualization of the internal struggle between the character’s two halves: Clark and Superman.

In fact, this very conflict is the heart of Superman’s story throughout the picture. This is examined in the form of Clark’s re-kindled relationship with childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. After the always tragic will-they-won’t-they of Superman and Lois, Clark and Lana’s romance is refreshingly positive and healthy. The obvious reason for this is that, unlike Lois, Lana isn’t just interested in the Superman persona. She loves Clark for Clark. He can be himself around her. Indeed, any romantic incursions between Superman in costume and Lana are portrayed as downright toxic, as in the unsettlingly realistic scene where Superman, first beginning to feel the effects of the faux kryptonite, makes several forceful, sexually aggressive advances on Lana in her own home. The obvious fear and discomfort on Lana’s face during this scene is incredibly telling. She isn’t interested in an inhumanly privileged, aggressive thug in spandex. She likes Clark Kent, the regular guy.

So it is no accident that in this climactic junkyard scene, Clark comes to represent the character’s “good side” and Superman the “bad”. Because this is not simply a struggle between Superman’s good and bad halves, it is a struggle between Clark Kent, the spectacularly unspectacular working man, and Superman, the ridiculously naturally privileged enforcer of statist status quo. Proletariat vs. bourgeoisie. And Clark Kent, the proletariat revolutionary fighting his way out of the bourgeois Superdick’s corruption, wins.

Not that Superman then becomes a perfect champion of the working class for the rest of the film. He does defeat Vaughnald Trump and blow up the evil computer, but he also remains something of a parody of typical movie “white savior” figures. This is mostly clearly shown in the denouement where Superman, obviously thinking he is providing some great act of charity, drops Richard Pryor’s character off at a dirty coal pit far from his home and recommends him for an entry-level computer job there. Pryor understandably decides he’d rather not slave in a coal mine in the middle of nowhere for the rest of his life, and chooses instead to walk the nine miles to the nearest bus station. There is also the final scene where Superman (who in evil mode had straightened the Leaning Tower of Pisa earlier in the film in an extreme act of pettiness) returns to Italy and “fixes” the tower, smiling and waving in smug self-satisfaction at the locals below, oblivious to the poor souvenir salesman who has just finished making his setting up his new display of now-straight replica towers.

tl;dr, I think that Superman III deserves reevaluation not as the moment where the Superman franchise began its descent into crappery, but instead as a flawed but biting satire on privilege and capitalist corruption in America.

That’s my two cents.

[bleachintothemultiverse]

THE BIG BLEACH HC MEME centering around politics, repost & fill out! For anyone who wanted to explore those aspects more, considering it played a big role in the story. Some things may be unknown to your Muse, just think in WHAT IF then & well, have fun and take your time!

BASICS

Name:   Byakuya Kuchiki   / / /    Age:  200+  / / /    Gender:   male Race:   Shinigami / Quincy / Hollow / Fullbringer / Visored / Human / Other Currently lives:   Soul Society / Hueco Mundo / Silbern / Living World / Hell Exact Location:  Soul society. (Division six or kuchiki manor)  Group(s):  Gotei 13.

QUESTIONS

- Would your muse consider themselves more: GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL ? - Would your muse consider their group more: GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL ? - How does your muse think others see them: GOOD / EVIL / NEUTRAL ? - How does your muse think others see their race: GOOD / EVIL / NEUTRAL ? - How does your muse think others see their group: GOOD / EVIL / NEUTRAL ?

- Is your muse considered a threat: YES / NO ?  From whom?:  Anyone who challenges the soul society. - Is your muse powerful: YES / NO ?  Could they be considered OP:  YES / NO ? //he has like three bankai forms??// - Did your muse commit any crimes: YES / NO ?  //does loopholes count as crimes??// - Does your muse think they are doing mostly the right thing: YES / NO ? - Would society think the same: YES / NO / MIXED OPINIONS ?

- Does your muse think they are treated unfairly: YES / NO ? - Does your muse feel understood from others: YES / NO ? - Is it important for them what others think of them as a person: YES / NO ? (As a noble- its require for him to keep a good image)  - Would they welcome death:  YES / NO ? - Will they ever find peace:  YES / NO ?

01.0.  Do they fully stand behind the group they are part of? YES / NO. Why is that? Explain:  His his whole life- He grew up in the soul society. He has great pride in following its law and traditions. Even if he knows some of them are outdated. 

02.0.  Do they like as things are in Soul Society? YES / NO / INDIFFERENT. 02.1.  Is there anything they would change? Explain here:  He would like to change the unfair noble traditions that are there. He does believe some of the laws in the soul society are very corrupt- but he knows that change is useless and that he cannot do anything about it with out causing conflict or bring dishonor towards his family.

03.0. Would they ever actively try to bring change (in general)? YES / NO. (passive change) 03.1. Is your muse more: passive / active ?  Introverted / Extroverted ? 03.2. Does your muse care more about: others / themselves ? (He cares about his comrades then his self, despite not showing it.) 03.3. Do they trouble their mind over a lot of problems, others? YES / NO. 03.4. Do they mostly involve: the world / everyone / themselves / comrades / friends / family / elderly / kids / teenagers / home / workplace / strangers / souls / humans / quincy / shinigami / nobles / fullbringer / visored / hollows / espada / arrancar / (former) boss(es) / pets / animals / zanpakuto spirit / enemies / partner / lovers / soul king / god / other…(add more) 03.5. Name (up to) three which are the most on their mind (optional, adding names): Rukia. Protecting his comrades. work.

04.0. Do they think frequently about politics? YES / NO / SOMETIMES. Why is that? Explain:  As a captain- He has to get involved with politics. Not to mention his family has access to the soul society Archive. So he is well verse in Soul society politics. 

05.0. How do they feel in their current location: POSITIVE / NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL ? 05.1. Why is that?:   He is fine where he is at. he has no complaints as he a noble and can use loopholes to get what he wants. Not to mention, he is around people he has the most respect and love for. So he is pretty happy with his current location.

06.0. Does your muse have any goal: YES / NO ?  BIG / SMALL ? 06.1. Does it involve anything world-changing: YES / NO ? 06.2. If goal or not, any future plans? Share here:   He doesn’t really have any future plans?  He is pretty content with how things are at the moment. 

07.0. Does your muse know about the Original Sin of Soul Society*: YES / NO ? * curious? Read about it here. 07.1. If they knew, would it change their views on Soul Society: YES / NO ? 07.2. More: POSITIVE / NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL ?

08.0. Who is the worst person in their eyes?:  Aizen 08.1. What should happen to them? Execution (quick / slow death) / Imprisonment / Stripped of their powers / Torture / Repay for their sins / Pay a Fine / Social Work / lose their loved ones / Exile / other… (add more). 08.2. Explanation:  Aizen did many treason acts. Byakuya agrees that the soul society should change- but not the way that Aizen was doing it. Not to mention- it was because of Aizen that Rukia got in trouble and almost executed.  So he agrees with the punishment that was given to Aizen, sense Aizen cannot be killed.

09.0. Thoughts on: Quincy Massacre if they knew: POSITIVE / NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL ? 09.1. Would they be alright with such thing happening again: YES / NO / INDIFFERENT ? 09.2. Would they try to prevent it: YES / NO / DEPENDS ? 09.3. Explanation:  Byakuya is not a fan of genocide. He isn’t a fan of the Quincy- But to go so far to kill all of them is to far in his eyes.  But if Central 46 ordered another massacre- and if he couldn’t find a loophole out of it. He would follow that Order- He was taught sense he was a child to follow orders given to him. Even if they weren’t morally right. 

10.0. Would they ever switch sides: YES / NO ? 10.1. If yes, What could bring them to do so?:    - 10.2. Would they create a new one: YES / NO ?  or join a current one? If so, which:  -

11.0. Does your muse follow a certain moral code*?:  YES / NO / GRAY AREA ? 11.1. What does it involve?:   He has a moral code of keeping up with the laws and traditions of the soul society. But he will find loopholes out of them if possible, if they are ridiculous with his noble influence.  11.2. What does it NOT involve?: anything that would cause major damage against the rules and the traditions of the soul society. (That isn’t loopholes) 

YOUR MUSE’S VIEWS / OPINIONS ON THESE GROUPS ?

Central 46:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:  Byakuya Knows good and well that they are corrupted. He heavily disagreed on some of there choices during his life. But never fully acted against them, that wasn’t a loophole. That wouldn’t get him or his family in trouble.

Four Great Noble Clans:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:  He is the head of the Kuchiki family, he has great respect for the clans.

Royal Guards / Gotei 13:   positive / negative / neutral .   ━   because:  He has full respect for the Gotei 13 as he is a captain. There for he respects mostly all of the captains that ever worked along him. But when it comes to the royal guard. He doesn’t really have a opinion on? He sees him as a higher respect as they earned that rank. but other then that. He doesn’t really have a full on opinion about them.

Fullbringer:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   Well one of them gave him  trauma by screwing with his past and memories. he sees them nothing as more as Shinigami wannabes who just steals powers that isn’t rightfully there’s. 

Visored:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:  Well- some of the captains are visoreds. He has some what of a respect for those who became a captain. He used to think of them as exiles who were rightfully exile- because they did something illegal- but after learning that Aizen was the one who turned them in that. His opinions on them change to a extend. knowing they didn’t intend to break the laws. Not to mention they helped in the fight against Aizen- so he has negative opinions turned to positive ones over time.

Espada:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   They work under Aizen. He seems them nothing but a thread to him and the soul society. Not to mention one of them literally tried to use Rukia against him. So he has hard feelings towards the Espada’s

Quincy:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   He has mix opinions about the Quincy. He knows why they are mad at the shinigami. They have every right to be.  But he doesn’t believe in there goal and full on hatred towards the shinigami. He doesn’t fully hate them, but he won’t heistate to kill one of them if they threaten his family or his self, not to mention, he was literally almost killed by one of them. So his opinions on them are mostly negative to a point. 

YOUR MUSE’S VIEWS / OPINIONS ON THESE (IMPORTANT) PEOPLE ?

Aizen:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   Treason acts. almost causing Rukia to die. Trying to over throw the soul society and the soul king.  Literally becoming god. Byakuya heavily disagree with the purpose of trying to become a god. He agreed that the soul society needed to change- but not like the change Aizen was trying to purpose. Aizen was doing it for his self- not for the good of the soul society. There are better ways to impose change then becoming a god. 

Yhwach:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   He tried to throw off the balance between the worlds and started a war with the shinigami. He wouldn’t really agree with the standards of his policy. Seeing him nothing more as a lesser Aizen, who almost achieved the goal of united all realms. Which would of threw off the balance of the soul society.

Mayuri:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   Byakuya finds Mayuri to be creepy and rather stay away from him at all times. But he also has low respect for him because he is a captain, and is doing a good job at keeping division 12 running. Even if he may or may not be doing human experiments. 

Kurosaki:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:   Byakuya has high respect for Ichigo. After all Ichigo did save his sister and helped stop Aizen.  Ichigo is one of the only people- he would allow Rukia to marry. If she wanted. But he would never admit any of his feelings out loud about how he feels about Ichigo. But over all- he has high respects for him.

Soul King:   positive / negative / neutral.   ━   because:  He sees the soul king as great importance to the soul society and the realms them selves to keep balance. But over all- he doesn’t really see him as anything else but that. He is supposed to be a god, but Byakuya doesn’t really see him as a god. Just some one who has great importance, there for he doesn’t really have any opinions on the soul king either way.

EXTRA(optional): add more characters which hold some meaning to your muse.

Rukia: Little sister, and some one who he truly loves platonically of course. he would do anything in his power for his little sister to keep her safe. Even if he won’t show it to her.  Tsukishima: He only holds meaning to him- as some one who messed with his memories and past- because of that. He dislikes him greatly but he also considers him as a rival to a point of, he would be willing to train him with him in the future. He is the one of the only people to fully get past his safe zone and catch him off guard.  Renji: Holds great respect for his Fukutaichou.  Does believe that one day Renji will get strong enough to finally beat him in a duel. But for now- is glad that Renji is willing to work under him and follow him through hell and back. 

CONGRATS, you managed till to the end, now tag your fellow bleach partners!

TAGGED BY:  @skyvar TAGGING:  @viciousvizard​ @dragonflyofiron @ofdeathandwinterstrawberries @rukia-kuchiki-divided @gentleshinigami.  @wild-pineapple-butt​ anyone else who wants to steal this.