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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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The Critic Valentine’s Day Double Feature (Pilot/Sherman, Woman and Child)

Vivia Jay Sherman! Viva Quebec! Viva Valentine’s Day! And Viva WeirdKev who as happens for a good chunk of my content payed for this wonderful double feature for one of my favorite shows. The Critic was created by Al Jean and Mike Reis of The Simpsons fame, a comedy team supreme. While I knew the two wrote for the simpsons, more on that iin a minute, I had no idea just how many classics the two churned out: There’s No Disgrace Like Home, Moaning LIsa, The Telltale Head, The Way We Was, Stark Raving Dad (Sadly tainted by it’s guest star being a horirble monster but that’s not their fault), Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington, the treehouse of horror segments The Bart Zone and Clown Without Pity (The second of which may be my favorite treehouse of horror segment), and later coming back to write the story for one of my all time favorites Round Springfield and to outright write the classic “SupercalfragalisticexpalliDOHcious”. And to his credit Jean would later go on to write some classic post-golden age simpsons episodes during his tenure as producer: Lisa’s Sax, Mom and Pop Art, and Children of a Lesser Clod, which is notable if nothing else for this gag.

So yeah the guys are legends and were right to start their own show under Simpsons producer James L Brooks over at ABC. The show followed the adventures of film Critic, Jay Sherman, a parody of film critics with high brow tastes, impossibly high standards, and a huge opinon of himself, having won the pultizer at least once. Despite this he was also constnatly spat and shat on by society, divorced, lonely, depressed and eats like a thousand pigs combined in some horrific science accident. And given the last three parts describe me, as well as my profession of b eing a critic, naturally I love the guy and this show. I’ll get into his cast as we go as the first episode does an excellent job of introducing the entire cast so there’s no sense repeating myself. But the show’s style I can and will talk about: It’s basically Golden Age, i.e. season’s 1-10, simpsons, but with more pop culture refrences and movie parodies, since the show would often feature multiple on Jay’s show coming Attractions and took place in the celebrity hot spot of new york and was a love letter to the city.. and sometimes a hate letter but only when those digs at the city would be funny, which to be fair depsite never having been to or lived in new york most really are. That’s the series key asset: while a LOT of the jokes haven’t aged well as a lot of the celbreity refrences are dated as are some of the movie parodies, most are hilarious wether you get what their making fun of or not and to me tha’ts a good parody: where knowing what their making fun of HELPS, but you can laugh regardless. The show had the charm and pace of the Simpsons while having it’s own unique style and cast that was just as charming and I love it dearly. The show sadly only lasted two seasons, with ABC canceling it after one, and Brooks having it moved over to FOX, which was a good idea and lead to what’s probably my faviorite simpsons episode, a Star is Burns. Ironically despite you know, the show being created by two simpsons writers, backed by one of their producers and perfectly in line, creator Matt Groening was against the idea, publicly ranted about it to the press, and generally was an ass about it. Look I love the guy and even Brooks, Jean and Reiss were all nice enough in thier criticsim of the guy, but sitll very much understandably pissed off. .and i’m with them.

It gave what’s again, my faviorite episode and what is not a “30 minute add” but an episode that easily stands on it’s own and also you know, pokes fun at itself for being a crossover a few times. You don’t need to see the critic to enjoy it, and episodes most iconic gags, Boo-Urns, Man Getting HIt by a Football, Senior Speilbergo, all don’t involve jay. And again the shows were not at all dismilar: While the critic was it’s own thing it still had the simpsons sense of humor and pacing so I saw it more as a petty rant against having a crossover in general more than a legit critcisim. Especially since Groening had no such complaints decades later with the family guy crossover after both shows had all tehir talent surgically removed and had the gall to NOT remove a cheap shot at Bob’s Burgers. And yes i’m still bitter about seeing that in a promo for the special, Bob’s Burgers is fantastic, to the point that now, in a fabulous case of history repeating itself, it’s got it’s OWN show like the critic made by talented former crew members using a similar but sitll throughly unique comedy style , The Great North. My point is that controversy pisses me off, and The Great North is spectacular go watch it while you read this.

So yeah the Critic is awesome, me and Kev are both fans, and there are plenty of romantic episodes abound as the show digs into Jay’s love life quite a few times and has episodes about his son’s first love, his boss finding a wife towards the end of the series, his parents rekindling their spark and in what’s easily my faviorite episode, his sister dating a grunge rocker. So there was no shortage of choices but the choice made was brilliant.. and i’m not saying that because i’m being paid to, as my review of splatter phoenix’s first episode in darkwing duck and woops should show, paying me does not guarantee that I have to LIKE what your paying me to review. But here I did and he pointed out the first episode of each season, with season two being a soft reboot that while keeping the premise and supporting cast changed a few things around and added two new main characters, and both involve jay finding a new love intrest and intorduce a lot of the cast. I found him to be right, so where we are and after the cut i’ll dive into the good and bad of both episodes and see what changed inbetween seasons.

That gag will make sense.. later. Right now it’s time for our very first episode, the show’s very first episode as you could probably tell by the title.

Pilot: The pilot starts with Jay getting touched up by his Makeup Person Doris. Jay is played by legendary comedian John Lovitz, who this show gave me a deep and lasting appreciation for. Lovitz was at the time best known for his 5 year long stint on SNL, and film wise is best known for Three Amigos, the Brave Little Toaster, The Wedding Singer and Rat Race. Sadly while I do geninely love the guy.. he has been in enough crap to destroy the New York Sewer system, as everyone needs money and sadly not everyone appricates the talents of John Lovitz like I do.

So naturally he’s also been in The Stepford Wives remake, Grown Ups 2, The Ridiculous 6, Eight Crazy Nights, North, Benchwarmers and Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls. Yes that’s an actual movie, though it’s already better than the first one for virtue of not having Rob Schnider and David Spade starring in it despite.. that title. The irony is not lost on me that Lovitz has essentially made his money starring in the kinds of films Jay was forced to see for his job. Still a VERY talented, very lovely man.

Before we get to our next voice actor up, no profile of Jon would be complete without mentioning that time he slammed Andy Dick’s face into a bar. To make a very long story short, Lovitz was friends with the late great Phil Hartman, who even did some voice work for this very show, whose wife who had severe drug and mental ilness killed them both. Phil had told Lovitz he saw Dick give his wife cocaine, so after Phil’s tragic murder when Lovitz and Dick ended up on the same show, Lovitz ended up exploding at the guy out of grief and blamed him for her death, but later apologized like a gentleman. Living up to his name though Dick later went up to Lovitz at a restraunt Lovitz owned and said “I’m giving you the Phil Hartman curse, you die next”. Granted he was drunk but still...

Naturally Lovitz banned the guy and Lovitz later demanded an apology when the two ran into each other when they ran into each other at Lovitz regular gig at the comed store. Dick not only refused to apologize even when Lovitz put him against a wall, but said it was because “you blamed me for her death”... which was a decade ago with change by this point, the actions of a man GREIVING for his best friend whose wife’s relapse you caused which inadveradntly lead to her and her husband’s death, and something HE APOLOGIZED FOR. Naturally Lovitz took this how you would and did what we’d all like to do in general and broke the shit out of his face and only didn’t do more because they were seperated. IN short this man is a hero and I wil lbring up this story at every opportunity. Doris was played by the late voice actress Doris Grau, a script supervisor who worked on a LOT of films as one , the most notable I could find on wikipedia being Clue. This is a fact I just learned today but boy if it isn’t neat. Grau mostly did aditional voices for shows, most notably Ducktales and the Simpsons, where she played Lunchlady Doris, and of course this show. Still she seemed like a very funny and talented woman and it’s sad she’s gone. The two start the series mostly sniping at each other and while that never ENTIRELY goes away, Doris gets more supportive after a spotlight episode where she and Jay bond and Jay thinks she might be his mom. And while she’s not this surprisingly sticks and for the rest of the series while still not above making potshots at him on occasion, she’s far more supportive. She also informs him she’s out of spray on hair “I’m bald and ugly, get more!”. This show is naturally comedy gold and a lot of it relies on Lovitz sense of timing, though the rest of the cast aren’t slouches but we’ll get to them as we go. She ends up putting a hat over him and we get our first film parody, Rabbi PI starring Anuld, which is alright. Not one of the series best but passable and gets the gimmick of having film parodies on jay’s show across, which was a nice way to set it apart from the Simpsons. Jay reviews it on the Shermometor, a gimmick jay hates and that disappeared by season 2, giving it a bellow zero to the ire of his boss Duke Phillips. Duke is one of the best parts of the show, an unhinged southren billlonare who was a modeled after Ted Turner, down to the mustache, who built up his fried chicken franchise into a multimedia congrlomorate and is also mildly nuts, though that part would be more of a thing in season 2. In season 1, he’s mostly there to make Jay’s life hell, with about half of the seasons episodes having him either fire jay or put his job in jeapordy versus 2 the next season. He’s still not unfunny, but most of his best stuff is in season 2 when Charles Napier’s allowed to cut loose a little more and the character wasn’t shoehorned into just being a clueless executive. Charles Napier is a longtime character actor who showed up in TONS of films and tv shows too many to list.. and trust me with some of the lists of credits before and after this that’s saying something, his biggest voice rolls being in this series and Men and Black the Series as Zed. But needless to say he was ALWAYS this awesome and sadly passed in 2011. Jay’s guest for the day is Valerie Fox, an up and coming actress whose first film kiss of death is coming out soon.. and whose age is an engima and it’s only a problem because if she’s 20, like the episode mildly suggests giving her starting career and her voice actress being that age, then this gets really gross as jay is 17 years older than her then. But given she looks older than that and sounds certainly older than that, i’m going more with 30, since she looks more like it, and sharon stone, who she’s mildly based on given she stars in a basic instinct knockoff and does the leg thing, was 32 at the time of basic instinct. Valerie is voiced by Jennifer Lien, aka Kes from star trek voyager who I only know about because of reviews done by SF Debris and Allison Pregler. She was the childlike love intrest of Nelix, the ship’s resident pain in the audience asses who made them BEG for early seasons wesley crusher and who once, and I saw footage this wasn’t SF Debris exagreated, lunged at a crewmate in a jealous rage, unfounded by the way since Tom was AVOIDING kes depsite being attracted to her as he just wnated her to be happy and to not mess up her relationshpi, and screamed “i’ll kill you!”. Point is she hasn’t had a huge career, but was still worth noting and does a fantastic job here. Again I did not realize she was that young at the time by her voice, and that means she did a great job.

So Jay’s smitten with her, finds her super attractive and she asks him out.. but to the show’s credit, and Jay’s he does try to rebuff her because he knows ther’es a conflict of intrest there.. but ends up giving in. However at least the show not only is upfront that there’s an issue here but that ends up being the thrust of the last act. Granted there’s still some.. questionable stuff like when she does the basic instinct leg cross and he says “can we get a shot of that”, which no.. Jay.. no you can’t. Ewwww. Seen far worse, like It’s Pat, which was a VERY real SNL sketch about people trying to guess the titular pat’s gender because that’s not creepy or invasive even for the time. And they made a movie out of it because Wayne’s World was popular forgetting that Wayne’s World, one of my faviorite movies by the way and one I need to cover here sometime this year now the thought’s occured to me, was a labor of love, with a talented director and actual ideas from it’s two leads who actually fleshed out the character versus a concept that was NEVER funny to begin with and has gotten down right horrifying with age. And wasn’t I talking about the Critic? Not the abusive jackass mind you, Jay Sherman.

Ah yes so Jay takes Valerie to a date at Lane Riche, the rich jackass where we meet Vlada, a vaugely european man whose your typical hollywood suckup. As Jay puts it in a later episode Vlada: I love you too Jay: You only love my money Vlada: That’s true but it is a love that will never die. He also naturally scoots Jay to a less nice table in the Critic’s section once Conan O’Brian shows up... which WAS supposed to be a different kind of joke, as at the time Conan was just a writer on the simpsons and SNL, but now given he has a decades long career in late night and famously said fuck you to NBC during that whole Tonight Show debacle, which netted him his own show on TBS, it comes off more as the kind of self deprciating gag Conan makes about himself. So in other words it’s actually funnier now?

As for the critic’s section that’s a part of the series I’ve neglected to talk about so let’s do that: The kind of critic Jay is, one who plays clips of the movie and reviews them.. on television. And were usually academics who looked down on popular film, the kind Siskel and Ebert popularized, and both suprisingly had a huge guest apperance in season 2 and even reviewed the show on their show. This kind of film criticism just dosen’t exist on tv that i’m aware of anymore, and mostly lives on with internet reviewers , many of whom were inspiried by critics like this, and who range from acadmeics to average joes to some mixture of both. It never went away just simply went to a younger generation. Some of which squandred it and somehow still have a career like certain abusuive jackasses i’ve mentioned enough with that one gag a few paragraphs ago. Point is it’s a much more varied and different game now so the critic ended up as one of those shows or movies where the main characters very job feels like an artifact of it’s time, like our heroes in Wayne’s World hosting a public acess show, when nowadays they’d just put it up on youtube or the entire idea of a UHF station in well.. UHF. It’s not a BAD thing, just something to note.

But the date goes well as Valerie shows she’s really into jay and even takes him oggling her in stride, though we do get an utter classic of a gag when Jay says something about women being drawn to him.. and cue an old woman asking to rub his nonexistant hump for luck “You hunchbacks are all alike”. She does so anyway to his understandable annoyance.

But the two go back to Jay’s place, talk about his acomplishments including a pulitzer and then well.. the obvious happens they go to bed together and the next day after Valerie is horrified at his just woke up fac,e he gives her an easy out but she’s fine with it. It honestly shows just how low the poor guy’s self esteem is that he just.. assumes a woman will regret having slept with hima nd walk out and while played for laughs it really gives a clear look into Jay’s mental state: He’s so full of self loathing, not helped by the world being out to get him, that it’s really oddly endearing. And VERY releatable. The two are interupted by Jay’s son Marty. Marty is played by the very recognizable and very wonderful Christine Cavanagh, who sadly passed away in 2014. She voiced Chuckie Finster, Gosalyn Mallard, Oblina, Dexter from Dexter’s Lab and the titular pig from Babe. She decided to retire in 2001, so while her career was only about a decade she made quite the impact and is sorely missed. Unsuprisingly her usual voice is perfect for the very awkward Marty, who Jay asks to tell eveyrone about the beautiful woman in his bed especially his unfaithful and utterly loathsome ex wife ardith.

This scene demonstrates two problems. The first is just the pilot as Jay’s kind of sleazy. While Jay being thirsty wouldn’t go away, especially in the episode Lady Hawke, it’d be made more awkwardly endearing. Here there are moments of him just plain being creepy like the aformentioned oggling, which while not bad in itself, if a bit awkawrd, also has him creepily muttering to himself while doing so which removes any charm or relatability and just sends it straight into needing 10 showers just to wash this scene off. The rest of the series would just turn him into a bit desperate at worst. It also explains why the only other romantic story the guy has in the season is a pastiche of misery. Thanfully this would be GREATLY adjusted next season but we’ll get to that.

The other problem is just the tone... we get a good half a minute of Marty talking about how he calls Ardith’s boyfriend “Uncle Al” because he likes him a lot.. to his dad’s face. And granted his dad is being creeptastic this episode but the early episodes just pile on the Jay hatred by the world a bit thick, to the point one episode puts him as “worse than hitler”. Granted the audience is full of idiot teens who have no idea who hitler is, and the gag is kinda funny, but it makes my point: Jay is just utterly shat on by the world, and while he does get a few wins, most are undercut by something awful and it gets taxing sometimes. The guy is just too loveably pathetic to hate, too relatable even as a teen and not snobish enough to be really loathsome or WANT to see him knocked down by the world. It’s not overwhelming enough to ruin the first season, it still has good episodes but this episode does highlight a LOT of these problems. He does get to spend the day with val though, dancing outside the trump buliding, seriously even back then he was a joke and his lack of money half the time was well known.. how did the last four years happen, and they tell each other they love each other. I’d aww if I didn’t know how this ended. So jay relates the good news of how he feels to his best friend, Jeremy Hawke, played by Maurice LaMarche. LaMarche is one of the most talented voice actors alive, a master of impersonations paticuarlly orson welles, who was naturally brought on board because they knew they were going to need a lot of celebrity voices for the film parodies and needed one or two guys to do them to keep it cheap. The guy is like most of this cast a legend in the industry, having voiced the Brain, Squit, Dizzy Devil, the Human Ton, Big Bob Pataki, Egon Spengler, Sleet, Kiff Kroker, Headless Body of Agnew, Morbo, Various other Futurama characters because that list is long, Mortimer Mouse, Blue Falcone, Father, Yosemite Sam, Vincent Van Ghoul, Doctor Doom, Abradolf Lincler, and Odval. Point is the guy has been engranged in my childhood and adulthood and will probably even after he’s gone come back from the grave to do some voices. He even got the part of Jeremy Hawke here because he happened to do a REALLY good australian accent depsite not being australian. Jeremey was a combination of paul hogan, the star of the Crocodile Dundee movies and at the time sex symbol and at this time known anti semite Mel Gibson. Obviously neither of those refrences has aged paticuarlly well, but since hollywood ALWAYS has room for a super hunk from australia, just ask Chris Hemsworth or before him Hugh Jackman, the character still works and his breakout role, Crocodile Ghandi is so ludcrious it works. I.e. a white australian man playing the mahtma and saying before he brings peace “First a tasteful shot of my bum for the ladies. Jeremy, while sometimes increidbly oblvious, is still a fairly nice easygoing guy and an extremley loveable character. And whie Jay worries about Valrie meeting him because he’s sex on a cracker she ignores him and jay gloats for a bit, paticuarlly with the great bit “take your genatalia right back to australia”. And while Jeremy’s happy for him he tries to reign Jay in when Jay talks asking her to marry him. As Jeremy later relates on Jay’s fire escape “Bubala, i’ve learned there’s two things you should never do: Marry an actress and wear blackface to the naacp image awards. Two things I found out the hard way. “

So Jay takes her to meet his parents and finds out he’s adopted.. and their also rich. Jay’s waspy parents are his cold and overly honest mother Elanor, played by Judith Ivey, his kooky dad and THE best part of the series Franklin played by Gerrit Grahm and his loving and free spirited teenager sister Margo played by Nancy Cartwright. Okay (cracks knuckles) here. we. go. Judith Ivey is a tony wining stage actress and has also directed numerous plays and is mostly known for her stage work but I know her from Designing Women where she played BJ in the last season. Garret Grahm apparently shows up in a lot of brian depalma movies, including Beef in phantom of the paradise, a lot of tv work and to my shock the asshole dad from Child’s Play 2. Another thing I genuinely love I wasn’t aware an actor or actress from this series had a part in. Finally there’s Nancy Cartwright, who you DEFINTELY know from the Simpsons, where she plays Bart, along with Nelson, Ralph, Kearny, Database, and Maggie, and Kearny. Other credits include Pistol Pete, Mindy from Animaniacs, Chuckie Finster picking up for Christine Cavanagh ironically enough, Lu and Rufus from Kim Possible. She’s a talented lady and i’m glad sh’es still around. Whew.

Okay so yeah I do love the shermans and fraknlin is again easily the best part of an already excellent series and unlike Duke that’s in full display here, with him saying, when his wife mentions they were going to give jay back at one time, “Son if I’ve said it once I said it a thousand times.. who are all you people. “ and he’d only get better. Sadly he’s NOT in sherman woman and child. Our loss really. But he’s in pretty much every other episode of season 2 thankfully and most of this season so eh, fair trade off. Also we get the classic line, after Jay says he’ll love valrie even when he��s decaying in the ground, his mom quips “Cna’t we go one meal without talking about your rotting corpse?” Though Eleanor understandably thinks Valarie is using jay for a good review. Margo suspects her of the same and takes her on a horse ride, though all she can gleam is that Val genuielly loves jay and welcomes her to the family. Jay however does decide to duck out of the inteview by faking sick, which leads to a really sweet moment where Valerie visits him and they dance, in a hilaroius but oddly sweet parody of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty and King Dork. Despite the title and the song insluting him a LOT it’s still just endearing. This is a problem but we’ll get to in just a moment WHY all these touching moments are a problem. So naturally things don’t go that well for Jay as Duke has a tape of the film sent to him “My shrink was right: GOd does hate me!”

Naturally kiss of death is bad and valrie is bad in it and Jay is left uncertain what to do, but eventually decides he has to do what he feels is right,.. though he does take a picture of her while she’s sleeping. “In case you do leave”

So in a tender and heartbreaking moment Jay is honest, the movie does suck and she’s not good but he does compliment her, for her personality not her body despite his skeevy behavior and say she could get better. Instead when he arrives home.. she dumps him to his face and leaves never to be seeen again while he assumes she’ll come back. And that’s the issue it’s GENUINELY hard to tell if we’re supposed to side with Jay. On one hand he genuinely loves her and does the right thing and on the oth er he’s kinda creepy. It’s a mixed tone that just sorta hurts thing and something the series DID fix after this, as it found a better ballance of the guy being pitable while also still being an ass and ONLY usually being punished when he does something actually wrong, the only exception being Dial M for MOther which is easily the weakest episode of the series. The episode does close on a really funny moment as Jay’s dispondent because “I’m sitting on top of a volcano of rage and I don’t knwo where to direct it”. Marty mentions a new Sylvester Stallone movie where “He plays a concert pianst who” And jay dosen’t even need the rest of that to shout “To the multiplex!” The man is back

Final Thoughts for Pilot: This episode is not bad. It has it’s flaws as I said, mostly in tone, but the series would iron that out and it’s still a great pilot that organically introduces the entire main cast in one episode and really gives us the full idea of who Jay Sherman is. It’s also REALLY funny, as the series should be and it would get better, but i’d still put it over some more awkward first episode like Letterkenny’s “No Reaosn to Get Excited”, even with it’s brilliant ending or Bojack Horseman’s first episode whose title is way too long to put here in an article that’s already long as hell about about to get longer. But like those series this pilot worked pass the awkwardness and the result is a damn good series. but if you want a better idea of what it became.. wellllllll

Sherman, Woman and Child: So yeah as you can tell JSUT by contrasting images a few things were changed up between seasons, part of it at network instance. The designs were softened , the color palette was brightened with jay being the most noticably alterted between seasons.

The execs wanted jay a bit warmer, so his face was given wider more expressive eyes and was also scrucnehd down a bit. He was also made slightly less of a jackass, with his elitisim toned down a bit and his creepeir moments gone. For instance he no longer had a split personality/imaginary secretary named ethel. That was actually a thing. It didn’t even really change Jay as a person, this very episode mentions him not liking the Lion King, and he’s still snooty, he’s jusst not as punchable about it and that was for the best. But the cringe comedy in general was taken down a peg and replaced with more fun weirdness, which wihle present in season 1 really pops more here, especially with Jay’s dad who sadly dosen’t show up in this episode, but at various points dresses up like El Kabong, puts on the mask from the mask (”He did the same thing at Nixon’s funeral”), and blows up famous works of art while babysitting. But yeah things get a bit more surreal like the simpsons from season 4 onward, ironically enough given these guys left to make their own show, and it’s to the show’s benefit.

But besides a lighter tone, they also wanted two things to hook viewers in: A permenant love intrest for Jay, and an adorable kid character. The former.. was acutlaly quite resonable, as i’td both give jay a “win” as it were, allow the cast to have another femlae character and give him someone else to confide in besides Doris or Jeremy, to give those characters a break. The other was less so and we’ll get into why when we meet her.

This episode really is a second pilot, reintroducing about half of the main cast. Marty, Elanor, Margo and as I said Franklin are all absent. But their reintroduced soon enough with the fourth episode in both broadcast and dvd order, and my personal faviorite “A Song for Margo, is entirely focused on Jay’s parents and sister, while Lady Hawke has marty breifly at the start for broadcast order and he’s in the frmaing device for Sherman of Arabia in dvd order. So the characters all get a proper reintroduction to new audiences, but it was the right call to NOT shove them into this one, still introducing new people to the new cast, but letting the two new additions to it breathe and get properly intergrated into this universe.. well more Alice than Penny but we’ll get to that. It’s part of why, besides the genuine extra coat of polish aand seasonal changes I feel this is the better episode.

So we open with Jay on his show and two parodies in a row. The first is a few good men but with Jack Nichelson making fun of Christan Slater for sounding like him even though. they honestly aren’t too similar other than both doing that pause thing a bit. So yeah not their best but the second segment makes up for it “The Nightmare Before Channukah” a parody of the nightmare before christmas that was so beautifully animated and funny, that they actually bumped it up to the season premiere. But while the parodies are good Jay’s show is once again, this happened a LOT in season one, in jeapordy, being beaten by the Benedictine monk variety hour. Which while the Bendictine Monks are VERY much an artifact of the 90′s a choir of monks that somehow went mainstream, the whole segment is so absurd and wonderful it stands on it’s own and is still funny to me in 2021. Duke comes in anda fter trying to softball things shows the change I mentioned: He’s actually sorry the show is in danger and is genuinely sincere that he’s sad he’ll probably have to cancel it versus season 1 where he was ready to cancel it what felt like every other episode. And I prefer this, where he can still mess with jay or flex his power over him, but is more cordial with the guy and it allows more jokes between the two.

So Jay’s not doing so good.. and during his crappy day he spots a 30 something woman and her young daughter struggling in the rain and stops his cab to help. And gets maced for it “MMM, Jalapeno”. Though Alice does apologize and Jay does understand as it is New York and she graciously takes the offer. It’s in the cab their properly introduced. Aliice thompkins and her daughter penny who in a great bit punches jay in the nose for not liking the lion king (”rex reed did the same thing”) and then kissing him on the nose in apology (”Rex did that too” And he acompanies them in.. and also gets conked on the head by a potted plant and put in a materinity dress.

So we get to know Alice and what her deal is: Alice was once married to and supported the career of country star Cyrus Thompkins who was.. less than subtle in his music about how faithful he was

Easily one of my favorite gags of the series if in part for Pat Overall’s delivery. So she moved from Knoxville to New York to prove to her daughter a woman can make it on her own, and proves she’s smart, talented and driven she just needs a break. She seemingly gets one in a man in a bright white outfit who says “this is your ticket out of this rundown flophouse” only for him to cheerfully exclaim “Your being evicted!”... PFFFTT. Cue where the commerical would be

So during this lull in the action let’s talk about Alice and Penny’s voice actresses: Alice is voiced by Park Overall, though for some weird reason I thought she was voiced by Hollly Hunter. Dunno why. Park is an outspoken liberal, supporting my boy bernie sanders in 2016 and in general seems like a fascenating lady. Naturally like with Jay’s parents I know her from something more oddly specific, the sitcom Reba, as I did not realize she voiced alice depsite using a similar voice for her character there, Reba’s best friend Lori Ann.. And while Park TRIED her best.. the character didn’t work out: a combination of it being simply funnier that barbra jean tried to wedge herself into the roll and the fact Reba really didn’t need a horny abrasive sidekick meant the charcter had a very short shelf life and the audience had very low patience for her. I did like her constnatly insulting Brock as he was not a good person andi t was nice SOMEONE besides Reba actually got to roast him on a regular basis.

Penny was voiced by the one and only Russi Taylor, who sadly passed in 2019. She voiced Huey Dewey and Louie, Webby Vanderquack, Minnie Mouse, Fantasma, the imcomprable martin prince...

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Among tons of smaller rolls. She’s sadly missed. We’ll get more into what they add or subtract from the show in a minute, as the next day at work Jay wonders how to help, though Duke’s interjection gives us two great gags: his “30 second workout” which involvees throwing jay around like a medicine ball and.. well this.

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The man is a legend for a reason. He earned that golden statue. So Jay TRIES slipping alice the money only to give it “To my good friend crazy postman”, and Alice refuses the money due to pride.. even if you know, she has a small child and new york is expensive but Jay finds a better solution, hire her.. even if it’d make it impossible for them to date. For all of one episode. What keeps the power dynamics from feeling EUGUUUUGGHH here is that Jay treats alice like an equal partner at work and dosen’t let their relationship really impact things outside of one episode, and dosen’t use his position to get into a relationship with her nor does she use being responsible for a turn in his fortune for hers.

And yes turn in fortune, as a makeover and a change of attidue under Alice’s direction, which is utterly amazing to watch and wow’s duke and hte audience, wins back his fans and his job is secure. Duke meets alice and we get more great duke stuff. including something truly iconic...

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I want bears who sing for me, doo dah, doo dah. But yeah things are well though Jay ends up admitting to Jeremy he can’t stop thinking about her “Her merest smile is like pedals of the empreror’s bathwater, BATHWATER I TELL YOU BATHWATER. “ So Jeremey encourages him carpe canum “Seize the dog”. He does so.. and the day but instead finds Alice with her ex Cyrus whose trying to win her back. Wuh oh. Once the asshole leaves, and agrees to give her the night to think, Alice admits the only reason she’s considering it is she has a weakness: his singing melts her like butter on a bagle (”God i’ve been in new york too long”. ) Jay tries to talk her out of it at the critics meeting for “Dennis the Meance II Society” which involves Dennis pulling a drivebye on mr wilson.. why wasn’t this the second live action dennis the meance movie? WHY I ASK YOU. But Jay gets a good idea, as Alice TRIES to tell the asshole to get to stepping (And to see penny often, she’s not a monster), he works his evil song magic.. only for Jay to undercut it with his own amazing song on acordian. “Cyrus is just a virus, he wants to tie you down while your still young. Your potetial, is what’s essential, you could someday be another connie chung!” And that ultiamtely shows WHY jay is the better man. He just wants what’s best for her and dosen’t care if it’s him, he just wants it not to be THIS asshole. He’s not even trying to win her over, which a lot of these gestures creepily lead to. He just wants to help her be who she’s MEANT to be. And that’s why this works better: Instead of a fake relationship built on lust and someone conning the other person, it’s a real one built on genuine chemistry. Also Alice you know dosen’t just.. vanish after an episode but is a permenant part of the cast. I mean she does for the webisodes but we don’t talk about those.

So our hero undercuts Cyrus one more time Cyrus: “Loverrrr, without you there’s no other” Jay: Give him a chance he’ll do your mother....

I mean he’s not worng, So Cyus is sent packing and we get a nice romantic moment between the two.

Final Thoguhts: Sherman, Woman and Child This one is truly excellent. It relaunchs the show on all cyllanders. And frankly Alice was a fine addition to the cast: her own fully fleshed out woman with her own personality outside of jay, who was tough, smart and a good counterpoint and confidant to Jay and it felt like she’d always fit. Penny on the other hand, apologizes to the late Russi Taylor who tries her best, just dosen’t work and feels ultra cloying and out of place in the series and unspurisingly is barely used after this. But overall a better pilot than the actual pilot was already pretty good and a fine pair of episodes. Check em out whenever the series eithe rgets on a streaming platform or pops back up on youtube as Sony’s struck it down... despite not putting it up anywhere i’m aware of. Seriously sell it to HBO Max or Disney I want a reboot. But for now this series is awesome check it out and until the next rainbow, it’s been a pleasure.

#the critic #jay sherman #alice thompkins #marty sherman #duke phillips #pilot #sherman mother and child #jon lovitz #the simpsons #mike reiss #al jean #abc #fox #animation #the 90s

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wordsnstuff · 6 years

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Guide To Political World Building

This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!

– This is a subject that I see brought up a lot in book reviews by readers, but not very often when it comes to the writing community. I decided to search the internet and my own experience for as many tips and as much advice as I could find to put in one place for you all. I also addressed a lot questions (in fact, more than usual because I know this is a weak point for most fiction authors) in the common struggles section. I hope this is useful to those of you who have a lot of trouble finding help on this. It should help me as well because I’m in the middle of tackling it for my own series. Happy writing!

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Know What Details Are Important

Not all aspects of a political system in a fictional universe are important to the story-telling, especially when the story is more character or plot driven, rather than driven by the world building. It’s important to deliver relevant information to your reader in pieces, and at a pace that enhances their understanding of events and meaning rather than their knowledge of trivial details.

Know Your Demographic & Your Genre

For certain genres and age-demographics, your world building in the area of political systems and implications should be matured or simplified. The majority of your readership should be able to understand what’s going on, and the way you makes sure of that is know who you’re writing the story for. Certain genres also require a lot less complicated detail in political world building. For instance, YA romance should have less political world building than, say, adult fantasy. Sure, maybe in the case of writing a YA romance, there could require some, but definitely not as in-depth as that of the latter.

Choose A Model to Alter

If you’re going to do it, especially as a beginner, you need to pick some form of inspiration or something similar to what you’re going for. There are so many governmental systems out there that already exist, and if you should research plenty of them and them mix and match, add and subtract, and twist until you have something that serves your story.

Think of The Implications of Details

Every detail that you make prominent in the reader’s mind should be thought out in terms of the implications. Ask yourself how this affects different groups of people, how it’s evolved over time, what it means for the system as a whole, etc. This will make your story more three-dimensional in the reader’s mind.

Find Issues in Power Distribution

Most government tension (throughout history, at least) has come from inequality in the distribution of power. Whether it be between races, classes, branches of government, figures in politics, or groups of people with different opinions, or all of the above combined, most issues stem from the struggle for power, control, and influence over others. Explore this and find new ways to think of how this could be interpreted from your story.

Think of Culture’s Impact on Politics

Culture has a major hand in how politics works. A society’s values, religious majorities and minorities, gender roles, environment, what an average citizen looks like, how citizens are expected to look, act, use their time, etc. These things all impact political situation and how it changes over time with culture, so explore this heavily.

Common Struggles

-- The common struggles section of my “guide to__” posts are general questions sent in by readers on the topic at hand. If you have a question that has not been addressed thus far, you’ll probably find the answer in this section. As always, you’re welcome to send other questions to my inbox if you don’t find the answer in this post. --

~ How do I illustrate the evolution of a society’s politics?... I would choose a few major events and make the causation behind them more prominent than the actual events themselves. History repeats itself, and that’s very important in political foreshadowing and often how a society deals with political situations.

~ How do I write conversations about my world’s politics?... It depends on the tone of these conversations. The way casual conversations about politics are written can tell the reader a lot about your world’s political climate, and can be a very useful device. Heated conversations can be useful in showing different passionate sides of a political issue in your world. I would say, write them carefully and with intention.

~ How do I make the reader invested/interested in the world’s politics?... Show the reader why they should care, make them relate to it, and then make them relate your story to their reality. You have to use literary devices as well. Show, don’t tell works really well here. Don’t show the main character reflecting that the conflicts at the war front are bad. Show the war front. Show the severity. Make them feel the heavy emotions of the people. Show them the real stakes of the political decisions being dealt with in the story.

~ How do I create believable racial tensions?... Again, just mirror reality. Understand why racial tensions exist and mirror that in your story’s context. Racial tension is majorly caused by fear, prejudice, and response to the “other side”. It’s often a long, ongoing battle because it’s rooted in the way people are raised and the constant environment around them. Racism is taught, so show it’s bigger, more outstanding moments, as well as its less prominent ones. No political issue arises exclusively from large, explosive moments. It’s made up of a few big ones, notable ones, and then the many, millions of little contributing moments and factors.

~ How do I write reasonable opposition groups?... You’re the author, so you have the unique opportunity of setting the reader up to see the reasoning behind both or all sides. You can show the evidence and logic behind each one, and make the reader understand why each side believes what they believe, and the personal engagement that leads each side to fight so hard.

~ How do I connect a caste system to political tension?... Political tension within caste systems are commonly caused by people’s natural desire for power and control, which leads to dissatisfaction in cases of being on the less fortunate side of inequality. Caste systems are also typically a pyramid, which means there’s more of the underdogs. These things combine to create political storms because on one side you have few people and lots of power that add up to just a bit more than a lot of people with less power individually, but more when pooled.

~ How to I create a corrupt government without too many clichés?... The most cliché thing about typical corrupt governments is the one-dimensional evil figures that lead to corruption. Very few authors explore what leads a human who’s only job is to protect the people to turn against them. Explore their motivations and their personal struggle and justifications and you’ll have a more interesting and impactful corrupt government.

~ How do I illustrate a positive government that doesn’t come off as suspicious?... Work hard on perfecting tone, be very careful with what could be interpreted as foreshadowing, and show genuine goodness in not only the government’s words and actions, but actual results. Show your government talking the talk, and then walking the walk.

~ How do I set up the climax of a political issue?... Show the slow burn, and then the inciting events that set off the inevitable explosion. You need to establish to the reader that something is going to happen no matter what, but make the actual consequence and its place in time a surprise.

~ How do I develop a governmental system from the ground up for the sake of the plot itself?... As I said in a previous point, use a model or several to take inspiration from. In the case of world building being the centre of your story, build your world and your plot together so they complement one another.

Other Resources From My Blog That Help With This:

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

Commentary On Social Issues In Writing

Tackling Subplots

How To Perfect The Tone In A Piece Of Writing

Tips On Writing About Mental Illness

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

Writing Good Villains

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

Finding & Fixing Plot Holes

Resources For Crime, Mystery, & Thriller Writers

Resources For Writing Science Fiction

Resources For Writing Dystopian/Apocalypse

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: High Middle Ages & Renaissance

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: 1600s

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: 1700s

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: 1800s

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: 1900-1939

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: 1940-1969

Resources For Writing Period Pieces: 1970-1999

Useful Writing Resources

Useful Writing Resources II

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Resources For Worldbuilding

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Creating Characters

Mimicking Diversity In Science Fiction/Fantasy

Writing About Another Era

On Making Scenes/Characters Unpredictable

Info-dumping

Writing About Uncomfortable Topics

Support Wordsnstuff!

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sarahlwlee · 3 years

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Why do I cook?

I love cooking because it satisfies the following curiosities of mine:

The intellectual pursuit of science, history and art through a recipe and the act of cooking,

The basic need to nurture the soul and feed hungry bellies, mine and my husband’s, and;

The connection to my past and my family.

Since the pandemic began, I have been cooking food I miss from my home country, Malaysia. The desire for connection to family and friends from my past has weighed on me heavily as sheltering at home for the sake of public health safety takes its toll. At the same time, anti-Asian violence began to escalate mainly driven by racist narratives and further perpetuated by systemic racism. I don’t need to explain this part, there are plenty of resources on Google about anti-Asian violence and the history of racism if you need it.

When I heard about the news about an elderly Thai man being fatally assaulted in San Francisco, my heart sank and I started to cry. As I read the news, I said to myself, “he’s close to my father’s age and he looks like my dad if he were still alive and lived a better quality of life.” My father passed away during the pandemic in May 2020 (I wrote about this experience in my 31 Stories in 31 Days series for AAPI Heritage Month in May 2020, you can read the full recollection here). All the feelings of grief and loss came rushing back to me as I sobbed over the loss of this man’s life.

In the last few weeks, the mass shooting of Asian women in Atlanta broke my heart. The women’s ages were my mother and sister’s age as well as my good friends I grew up with. I was at a loss for words with so many thoughts in my head — struggling with my own experiences as a Chinese Malaysian woman and managing my anger over these continued acts of anti-Asian violence and racism. I cried and sobbed throughout my work days navigating feelings I pushed down so that I could be productive.

The media cycle reported heavily on this mass shooting. Spurs of dialogue on social media around not only anti-Asian violence but that the shooter had “a bad day” and his motives were not racially driven became a source of pain for many including myself. Defining what was a racially motivated hate crime and what wasn’t, it felt like being gaslighted. Not only this one time, but every time before — in this country’s history and even in my own lived experience.

I had been researching and reading about gaslighting for a while because I wanted to understand my own response to personal trauma. I came across a short TikTok video created by @risethriverepeat from a Facebook friend that highlighted a kernel of truth I had never known. The individual in the video said, “Overexplaining can be a trauma-based response to being gaslit in childhood. When I figured that out, I worked to stop doing so. If I already told the truth and was clear, there’s nothing else to say… then overexplaining leads to distortion.” A light bulb moment occurred to me and everything started to fall into place about how I became wired the way I am, especially hazy moments where I had to tell myself a different story so that I could make sense of what was happening to me. I spent a lot of time overexplaining in my lifetime. I can’t even remember when it started but there were some formative memories of having to accept something that wasn’t true.

When I was about 10 years old, I was part of a group of students who competed in a inter-school choral speaking competition (I wrote about this experience in my 31 Stories in 31 Days series for AAPI Heritage Month in May 2020, you can read the full recollection here). The short version of this story is we found the judges scoring sheets by accident. Our school should have won first place by default because we scored the highest points out of all the schools. Yet we were second. When our teachers and parents confronted the organizers, the teachers were taken away from the parents and students to talk about this. When the teachers returned to explain, they looked disappointed and said to both the parents and students that we lost and the decision was final.

The key thing here is the queen’s granddaughter was in the group that won. Basically the implication was that the results were fixed in her favor. This was a form of gaslighting at a systemic and cultural level. When I reflect back on various times where I second guessed myself, I realized many of those moments were gaslit moments where someone told me I “imagined it” or “you’re telling lies” or even worse “it didn’t happen”.

In this particular story about the choral competition, I am glad I had some resolve where my mom told me what happened. It was the only way I could process it but it also formed new behaviors in me to always rewrite narratives in my head to make myself okay with it and also overcompensate for areas where I felt no one would believe me, even when I was telling the truth. I had many more formative moments in my youth, even through adulthood, where I had to comply with believing something that wasn’t true for fear of retaliation and isolation; it was survival for me.

With this memory and the recent mass shooting, all the feelings of grief and loss from last year came rushing back once again with the pain of not being believed. Truly, what I needed to do in this moment was to process, grieve and heal so that I could re-align my internal compass with the recognition of what I believe to be true.

I read stories from other Asian women, talked to my mother, posted resources from Asians as well as Asian organizations in America, and spent time processing in spurts with others who would listen. Each of these actions helped me slowly embrace healing. The one part about healing I never enjoyed personally was remembering who and what we had lost. I felt like I didn’t have the capacity to hold it or that I didn’t have the courage to keep moving forward to not live in fear.

Keeping a memory alive of a loved one or of a moment time is how we make peace with ourselves, fill the cracks of our broken heart, and mending it back together so that our heart may beat again. So that we can be strengthened by our ancestors — our joy and love from rich cultural traditions passed from one generation to another. It’s inherent to our identity and how we continue to live authentically as we are. At least from what I have been told.

So why do I cook?

Cooking recipes that remind me of my dad, family, friends and moments in time of joy and love, helps me find peace and healing through action. It helps me bridge a lost connection; it fills my soul and mends my broken heart.

Last weekend, I made butter kaya toast. It is popular in Malaysia and one of the many local favorite childhood breakfast or treat. Kaya is a unique jam or spread made from pandan leaves, coconut milk, eggs and sugar. Combined and cooked down gently to a thick spreadable jam. Some have translated this in English as coconut jam or something decadent like coconut caramel. These translations don’t do justice for this unique spread. The forward flavor isn’t coconut, but rather the pandan essence. When combined with coconut milk, it becomes a rich unique flavor. Interesting fact, when you translate the word “kaya” from Malay to English directly, it means “rich”.

My mom and dad used to take me to these open-air coffee shops near where we lived in Sri Petaling and OUG (Overseas Union Garden) for breakfast or brunch. Since my palate at the time was a little picky, they would order this Hainanese breakfast meal for me comprised of kaya on two thin slices of toasted white bread with slivers of cold butter in between, two soft boiled eggs with soy sauce and white pepper to season, and a hot cup of Milo. Sometimes the alternate to kaya was just white sugar, which was also equally delicious but not in the same way how kaya satisfied my sweet tooth as a child.

Sometimes my dad or my mom would tell me stories about their childhood through food. Where they were when they first had it, who they shared kaya with or even where the best kaya they ever tasted came from. This often inspired my dad to buy little cylindrical plastic containers of kaya from local vendors on his way home from work. I remember his face lit up when he would tell everyone at home that he had bought kaya. When he made kaya toast for himself at home, he would always ask me if I wanted one. Whether I wanted one or not, he always made an extra one that he ate or shared.

This childhood memory became much more vivid with every bite of the kaya toast I made recently. It helped me feel closer to my dad even though I know he is no longer here on earth and that he is in Heaven. The act of eating and remembering gave me space to nourish not only my stomach, but also my soul and to feel whole again. I will continue to cook and relish memories of the past. The feelings of warmth, love and joy will always stay with me and be my source of healing whenever I need it.

I will always remember and keep working on myself.

If you would like to read more stories about my lived experiences as a Chinese Malaysian immigrant living in America, check out “31 Stories” project I did in celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander month in May 2020.

#aapi #stopasianhate #healing #grieving #reflection #cooking #joy #gaslighting #self care #self awareness #racism

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sepublic · 4 years

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Region-District Parallels

Fun fact; There is a direct duality, a parallelism between the six Elemental regions of Okoto, and the six districts of Xia in Bionicle: RaE! Each one corresponds to its other island counterpart, respectively, with Xia’s districts being a ‘dark mirror’ of the role the Mega-Villages serve on Okoto as well! Specifically, the Mega-Villages and their respective regions are synonymous in these dualities…

Stelt parallels the Vuata Maca; The Macans grow flora, crops, and food, and Stelt is where nutrition and crops are mechanically-grown and hoarded within greenhouses and facilities! The Gukko Airforce acts as the primary means of transportation for people and goods across Okoto, and Stelt does the same with its Chutes for Xia! Trade and Okoto’s economy is facilitated by the Gukko Airforce, while Stelt is the main heart of its economy, with black markets, banks, smuggling, all that stuff going on.

Tametru’s parallel to Tawahi is obvious; They both start with Ta and are adapations of Fire-related locations in G1. They’re both the hottest areas of their respective islands, and use that heat to melt down materials and reforge them into stuff. Weapons are made here, amongst other metallurgic tools.

Now, despite its heavy reliance on water and its presence… Voymari is actually meant to mirror Marn! Yes, water is a big deal and Voymari has a few shipyards, but its primary export and industry is mining; Just as the people of Marn specialize as tunnelers due to their subterranean location. Voymari relies more on mining and changing the landscape than anything else, deals with minerals in the air, and so it’s just naturally more suited for the element of Earth.

Zakaz and Levato go hand-in-hand. They’re both located in vast, barren deserts and rely a lot on scavenging. They have naturally brutal conditions, but also have entertainment; Levato specializes in the arts, in sculptures, as well as board-games, and sports like Kolhii. Zakaz’s entertainment comes in the form of brutal gladiator matches and races, but it also has its own sports like Akilini, and of course theater productions, studios, and casinos as well.

Nynrah goes with Kiniga! This one is less obvious, and that’s my fault; I never DID make my own separate post detailing Kiniga, but I may do that soon! I think I’ve finally begun to figure it out, so look forward to that…! Anyhow, Nynrah was and in some ways still is the sector of education, and Kiniga is where a lot of schools and textbooks are located! Medicine and healing is a big deal in Kiniga, and in Nynrah, the Nynrah Ghosts work specifically towards the anatomy of others and how to alter it. Water is the stuff of life, and it can sustain it… But with Nynrah, it was used to carry chemicals, mutagens, and Visorak into the bodies of others, horrifically transforming and distorting them.

Finally, Artidax is the direct counterpart to Kokoro! Both involve knowledge and information; Kokoro stores past texts, deciphers them, and reads the stars. It is well-versed in the lost traditions and ancient culture and religion of Okoto. Artidax’s computer-banks store vast quantities of information, and both areas value the power of the mind and ‘thought’. Artidax’s satellites can read weather patterns just as Kokoro reads the stars, and it relays information and decodes data transmissions, just as Kokoro interprets past texts and forms predictions, and then brings that information to the rest of Okoto through the Gukko Airforce. Both have arctic locations in the north; Or at least Artidax did, but most of the snow and ice has melted. Some of it still remains, however. Finally, while the Region of Ice hosts another race of sapient beings, the Frostelus, Artidax hosts sapience separate from humans in the form of AI!

Additionally, each Xian District in RaE has the same symbol as their corresponding Metrus from Metru Nui, you can probably guess which is which at this point. As G1 fans may have noticed (so basically, 99% of the Bionicle fandom), I took a LOT of inspiration from Metru Nui’s industrial, hi-tech city setting! If Okoto adapts the mythical, island parts of Bionicle, I wanted Xia to be an adaptation of the futuristic, sci-fi part of it, its later years; This includes the Bara Magna saga as well, which is somewhat represented in Zakaz and its Baran Desert. Naturally, Xia’s G1 namesake itself, as well as the districts’ namesakes, played heavy roles in influencing the island and its landmarks and locations, to varying degrees.

Each district also takes heavy, direct influences in terms of aesthetic, function, and appearance from locatons in other forms of media as well! Stelt is based off of the images we have of Xia in G1, specifically its polluted air and its dark, mechanical skyline. Its whole deal with trade is also from G1 Stelt as well. It probably has the least fictional influences, in all honesty.

Tametru is based off of G1 Ta-Metru obviously… But a lot of it is also inspired by Hotland from Undertale! In fact, everytime I think of Tametru, Another Medium plays in my head… Hotland is almost entirely responsible for my conception of Tametru as a location, not gonna lie, and I personally consider Another Medium to be my ‘theme song’ for Tametru! I love that song…

Voymari is actually based not only on Mahri Nui (specifically with the Fields of Airweed and the semi-aquatic setting), but also the look of its towns and the skyline and shipyards come from Corellia’s Coronet City from Solo: A Star Wars Story! Sue me, I thought it was a cool movie with lots of cool locations that visually inspired me… Also, the idea of ‘Saltlung’ comes entirely from the town of Stain’d-by-the-sea from All the Wrong Questions.

Zakaz is… literally just Bara Magna from G1, combined with Mad Max. Not much else to say here, honestly, other than that it also some adequately-developed cities and small nations, kind of like how G1 Zakaz had some urban areas before Spiriah ruined everything. Like G1, Zakaz has a LOT of conflict, and the Skakdi as well to boot!

Nynrah started off as Fallout’s post-apocalyptic wasteland, but then it was combined with a lot of Resident Evil after I got into the series and realized just how well it fit; Specifically, the whole situation with Raccoon City and monsters roaming about the streets. In all honesty, Resident Evil’s monster aesthetic and whole corrupt scientist group schtick has overtaken as Nynrah’s primary influence. There’s also just a LITTLE bit of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, believe it or not. I went with the fact that G1 Nynrah had the Nynrah Ghosts, who are very science-oriented, and worked from there.

Finally, Artidax is a combination of the aesthetic of Blade Runner and other cyber-punk settings, but is also blatantly ripped from Sanctuary Fortress, from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes! Brilliant game… Fun fact, Artidax was the last district to be planned and designed by me, by a LONG shot. For like three years, I didn’t even know what Artidax was supposed to be, what its function was, what it looked like; All I knew was that The Mountain existed within it, and that was about it. And even then, it wasn’t like I intended for The Mountain to have anything to do with Artidax’s lifestyle, as well! Occasionally, I even entertained just giving up and making The Mountain take up the entirety of Artidax…!

But, I held on; I waited for inspiration, and lo it came to me with Sanctuary Fortress! I love Metroid Prime 2, it’s a great game and you should seriously play it! Metroid’s hi-tech, mythical settings are VERY conducive to Bionicle in general, and I have much to thank Retro Studios for their creative influence on me! Once I saw that mountainous region, with the hi-tech facilities of drones and computers, with coding that seemed to come from the skies… It all came into place!

As you can probably tell, the Artidax District bears the least resemblance to its G1 namesake. The G1 Artidax was known for having a bunch of volcanoes and being where Makuta Miserix was imprisoned. I sort of tried to maintain that spirit by making the Artidax District mountainous (and mountains are basically sauce-less volcanoes), because I already had the heat and molten theme with Tametru. Mostly, I just took the name of Artidax because it was an island location in G1, and I needed a name for the final Xian district.

#bionicle #Bionicle RaE #xia #stelt #tametru #voymari #zakaz #nynrah #artidax #worldbuilding #lore #parallels #vuata maca #tawahi #marn #levato #kiniga #kokoro

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maxsmusicmacrology · 4 years

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Interview with Jonathan Young

You’re a musician hoping to make a living off it. You’ve been uploading your songs to YouTube, Spotify, Bandcamp, wherever you can, but you’re having trouble building an audience. It’s been three years of little success, but you can’t imagine doing anything other than music, so you switch gears and become a cover artist.

This is how Jonathan Young came to popularity, and to this day he’s best known for doing covers of just about anything- Disney, top 40, anime, memes. My interview was conducted on Jonathan Young’s community discord server, and as such the questions and answers can be found by joining and then following this link. Not everything I asked will be covered in this piece, so I’d highly recommend reading through his answers.

“I have always hated the concept of having a career doing cover songs because they are much less creatively fulfilling than writing new music, and breed a culture of repetition where no one goes out of their comfort zone to find new music, they just reboot their favorite songs over and over and over. To this day the only reason I make covers at all is because it is one of the only ways to be financially stable in the modern clickbait music industry.”

He’s still been working on his originals, posting them when possible, and he has an album in the works. Despite that, his covers are by far the largest moneymakers. Covers are made with little passion, and which song gets made is determined by request or clickbait potential. Originals are made when there’s time for them.

“I am able to simply hire other musicians to do a lot of my work for me (the instrumental, mixing & mastering) and all I have to do is sing for about an hour each week, film for 10 minutes, and edit for an hour… Sadly, this well oiled production machine makes it very hard for new, small channels run by a single musician or band to ever get a leg up on channels like mine, because they aren't just competing for views with ME personally, they're competing with me and my entire production team that has my money behind them.”

You’ve been making covers for a few years now, and you’ve gotten remarkably successful. You don’t like it, but years of building an audience listening and re-listening to your old library brings in the dough. Your production team gives you more time to work on your personal projects, but you got famous as a cover artist, and for some people that’s your only work that interests them. Still, you’re making enough money to get by, and your originals are finally getting attention.

But you’re part of the exact same machine that made it so hard for you to get a leg up in the first place.

youtube

In 2018, Jonathan Young released Bait, a sharp critique of the influencer ecosystem and his role in it. It comes across like a confessional, laying bare how he “clickbaits” his viewers and presents an image crafted to build an audience. The final line of the chorus is “be careful when you choose to take the bait”, a warning to people who want to follow his career path. I’d highly recommend giving the song a listen.

“Everyone, including me, usually only shows the public what we want them to see, which is a sharp contrast to the generally held belief that "content creators" like me are "real" and "transparent" just because we don't answer to a corporation or mainstream record label or whatever. It's the exact opposite.”

You’ve developed a bit of a following, and inevitably several of them will want to be like you- or rather, the image they’ve built up of you. The image you’ve been putting out isn’t you, but it’s what some of your impressionable fans want to become. It’s not your fault. You’re a musician doing what it takes to make money. Our society elevates artists, puts them on a pedestal, it’s only natural people would want to be like you without knowing what “like you” actually means.

“Some of the covers I've performed that people say are the most emotional are also the covers that I hated the most and basically just put on an act for, but because I've done this for a long time people can't tell the difference… If it is popular to write songs about depression, there is nothing stopping a good liar from writing a well-put-together song about depression… A minor chord will always sound sad, no matter who is playing it, or what they are thinking when they play it.”

Jonathan went out of his way to stress that musicians aren’t dissimilar to people who make burgers. They combine basic elements to craft something specifically meant to be appealing. Music theory is a science, and anyone who has made music for 5 years can substitute theory for honesty. As such, some songs can feel like lying, even manipulation. The listeners aren’t empathizing with your emotion, they’re feeling the way you told them to feel.

“My answer on a small scale is to encourage my fans to stop idolizing and see me as a regular dude. If my covers inspire someone, that's fine, but they need to stop and consider that I probably made that cover in about 2 hours of work, and chances are I don't even like the song. That makes me feel like a con artist, and I think everyone should know that if I can inspire you without being inspired myself, so can a greedy corporation. It's a lot of food for thought.”

Congratulations: you’ve made it. You’re coasting on passive income from your years of music that you feel no passion towards. You have time for passion projects now, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to survive off them anytime soon, or that your following will be interesting. You’ve cracked your way into the independent music industry and become part of the same structures that made it so difficult in the first place. The image people have of you is a mere distortion of your real self, and you can’t do anything about people idolizing you no matter how much you hate it.

Is this discouraging? Probably. Should it stop you, if this is the path you desire? I don’t think so. Just be careful when you choose to take the bait.

#interview #music #music industry #capitalist hellscape #jonathan young #covers #cover artists

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storywriting · 5 years

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[ Bc yall have foolishly greenlit my Nirvash Headcanon production, here is a general discussion of who I think Nirvash is and I’ll thank you to give me excuses to be more specific. ]

First things first. The Nirvash is the first creature Eureka ever had a conversation with or considered her friend. While Eureka had to learn to speak to people, the ability to communicate with her own kind is one of the few things she was born knowing, so she took to Nirvash right away. The Nirvash is unfortunately one of the main factors that ended up landing her as an emotionally stunted military dog instead of having a normal life where she is nurtured and fully educated by humans. I honestly think if the folks in the lab hadn’t realized her piloting potential, Eureka would have been raised as a completely different person. Since science had never been able to crack the Nirvash typeZERO, she was very valuable to have. They didn’t waste their budget on anything else once they knew that.

I also think the Nirvash had never been called Nirvash by people prior to the discovery of Eureka. Nirvash was exclusively called the typeZERO until Eureka was able to communicate enough to tell humans the name.

Vaguely related, Eureka’s name is also not human given because she is named after an event experienced by the scub coral and it doesn’t make sense to me that humans in 11005 or whatever would think to name her after something that happened in like 2005. Eureka’s name comes from the very first time Scub Coral entered Earth’s atmosphere, where it crashed into a satellite and was forced to make a home in the Earth’s oceans. Based on what Sakuya says, it’s likely that the whole of the coralian system became aware when it was decided Eureka would be born. Nirvash likely told Eureka her own name if she didn’t already know it herself.

Archetypes are sexless, so as one might expect, Nirvash doesn’t have a particular concept or interest in gender identity. Eureka calls Nirvash “he” in the original series dub and “she” in all future adaptations. I suspect that using “he” might have originally been a mistake by the localization team since Nirvash isn’t voiced until the very end and the Japanese language doesn't really ever require a speaker to designate a gendered pronoun. Whether it was a mistake or on purpose, I tend to explain this by just saying that Eureka copied the words other people used whenever she would personify the Nirvash to them. That would be in line with her character.

Eureka also speaks about Nirvash like a child quite often even though Nirvash is most certainly an older life form than she is. I suspect this is to do with a difference in experience and the higher barriers of understanding for a creature like Nirvash. Put simply, Nirvash is a less developed creature than Eureka is.

In the AU movie archetypes arent the same type of creature as in the main series--they were made or evolved differently. In the film, the Larval Nirvash is somewhat intelligent. Larval Nirvash pays attention to people and tries to participate in conversations despite being unable speak. 10/10 very tiny and cute and runs around, always doing their best.

I honestly believe that main series Nirvash has a similar temperament and level of intelligence to this AU iteration. Also, the way Eureka speaks about Nirvash, like a child, in my mind supports the idea that the Nirvash is capable only of very simple thoughts and ideas early on. Nirvash isn't enlightened, per se. At least not at the beginning. Nirvash is a failed attempt at making a person. It makes sense that Nirvash would be less advanced. If we could hear Nirvash's early conversations with Eureka, I suspect Nirvash's interests and concerns would sound pretty simplistic. I hesitate to compare Nirvash to any stage of human development tbh, mostly because it seems like Nirvash is very intelligent about certain things (like in battle, Nirvash makes very strategic choices), but probably couldn't even match a toddler on other things. Emotional intelligence, for example, is probably something that takes a while for Nirvash to pick up even the tiniest shred of. Still, Nirvash's wants and feelings do seem to become slightly less simplistic over time. Still simple compared to a person, but the feedback Eureka gives originally is like "nirvash is happy" and by the end it's more like "nirvash feels x complex way because of what they did when x happened and how it turned out". Put simply, Nirvash knows what Nirvash knows, but not much else. Nirvash is maybe like Eureka in that regard. They're in their own weird stage of development where some of their stats are maxed and some of them are like...what are you even doing. I also pretty strongly headcanon that, like Eureka, Nirvash's understanding of the world and of humans is growing as the series progresses, which I think is fairly substantiated but rarely addressed directly.

As the audience we don't get to see the way Nirvash communicates very often, especially not in any direct easy-to-be-understood-by-people fashion. If you want to learn anything about Nirvash as a viewer you have to speculate based on the few times Nirvash displays some will of her own, or go by the very little information Eureka gives about what Nirvash is thinking. Eureka is somewhat private about her relationship with Nirvash at times, which I find interesting, but that’s a topic for another post.

I pretty strongly headcanon that Nirvash sort of dislikes people, or at the very least, mistrusts the ones she doesn’t know. I believe this because Nirvash outright refuses to be piloted, even by people with compac drives. Compac drives are the "keys" humans use to communicate with LFOs, but LFOs cant really communicate back. We know that Nirvash for whatever reason really didnt want to be piloted, but then Nirvash met Eureka and felt willing to activate for her because they could converse and agree on things. No compac drive required for that. Nirvash will fly for Eureka because they can have a relationship that is a two way street. It doesn’t require the kind of faith Nirvash would need to let a human do whatever they wanted.

I suspect when Eureka is piloting there is a lot of give and take. They're discussing what they should do. They compromise on a course of action by combining their understanding. The trouble any time there is something going on between the Nirvash and Eureka is that it's not a conversation the audience gets to hear. We just have to watch and do our best to interpret

I think that over time Nirvash comes to appreciate and even like some humans and seeks methods of communication with ones she vibes with. Ultimately the Nirvash does become more able to understand and commune with people because Eureka acts as a cultural bridge between them. I really like the idea that Nirvash becomes interested in communicating with humans in the limited ways available to her, but only after spending a lot of time with Eureka and taking a shine to Renton. I also know the show gives Nirvash a clear human sounding voice that makes understandable words but I honestly hc that Nirvash sounds more abstract than that in most situation. Like idk, machine noises, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites™ or something like that. I think if a human was able to hear Nirvash in any passive sort of way, it probably wouldn’t really sound like language. Eureka can always understand Nirvash but if you're Renton or maybe Ao just hanging around and are somehow catching bits and pieces of that consciousness floating in the air it's gonna feel weird and garbled in your brain unless you're able to make that more direct connection with the Nirvash somehow. It's just not natural to humans, it's not their first language.

On the subject of Nirvash getting on with humans, there is eventually a situation where Renton has to pilot the Nirvash himself. This is on the tail end of Eureka being really down and not really explaining why. Sometimes when she touches the Nirvash she starts to bleed and it becomes clear that The Girls Are Fighting™️. When Eureka sees Renton piloting she is taken aback by the fact that Nirvash would allow somebody other than her to pilot alone. Also, she comments on how that's 'not Nirvash's style'. It's left ambiguous what exactly her meaning is there, but she becomes pretty upset. There are a few ways I've interpreted it, though it's hard to pin down exactly. One possibility is that she’s upset because Renton and Nirvash Did A Violence. Alternatively it could be because the fighting Eureka saw from them was obviously more of Renton's own will than the give and take she prefers with the Nirvash. Another option is that Renton is not imposing his will, but rather bringing out something in Nirvash Eureka doesn't recognize and isn't comfortable with being a stranger to. Eureka is at this point very stressed that the Nirvash wont talk to her. She seems to go from very excited that Renton makes the Nirvash happy to very distressed that Renton is changing her relationship with the Nirvash. Nirvash is probably one of the only relationships Eureka has where she is comfortable and feels she is on the same page nearly all the time, so it's jarring for that to be challenged or changed.

A lot of the conflict with nirvash is never clarified in stone, but we know for sure that Renton causes Eureka to change and that's a big deal for everybody involved. Nirvash and Eureka don't really know change before this. In terms of Nirvash’s opinion, we know mostly about the parts Eureka reacts to, but if you think about it we dont really find out why Nirvash likes Renton in the first place or what initially caused Nirvash to becomes less open with Eureka. It's hard to place exactly what the conflict is. Just that it involves Renton and it involves this change. Despite Eureka being the best creature humanty has for communicating with Archetypes there are still certain barriers between them. They are the same creature, but theyre vastly different versions of the same creature with vastly different capabilities and experiences. Nirvash and Eureka will inevitably end up in situations where they don’t see eye to eye if for no other reason than their mental and sensory experience is vastly different from one another. I suspect that Nirvash is at times jealous of Eureka going off and having experiences and relationships with others, in the same way Eureka gets jealous when Nirvash seems to prefer Renton over her.

That all said, I do think Nirvash does have some sense of right and wrong even without Eureka’s guidance, but Eureka shows evidence of chiding or suggesting morality to the Nirvash throughout. Things like compassion and a moral compass seem to be way more pronounced for Nirvash later on in the series, after like 40 episodes of bonding and getting into and out of trouble together. Again, we can’t know all the details because the audience doesn’t get any unfiltered version of Nirvash’s perspective, but we know for sure that Eureka (and eventually Renton) is very very important to her even when the they are in conflict. In turn, Eureka regularly demonstrates that she trusts Nirvash implicitly and seems to respect Nirvash's judgement in many kinds of situations. The Nirvash is a member of the family through and through. She’s always down to help the cause, and she appreciates the great privilege involved in having a front row seat to Eureka’s experience. The Nivash has had an unprecedented opportunity to become enlightened about other creatures in ways the rest of the Scub Coral could not. In another life Nirvash could have had any number of destinies, possibly even safer ones with less strife and less change. She was never essential to the plan of putting yet another humanoid coralian into the world and could have moved for anybody else and had a completely different life. Maybe in times of conflict Nirvash thinks about that, but if there’s one thing that’s canon as hell I know that Nirvash would never trade away being loved by the Storywriter.

We stan a queen.

#∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹Tabula Rasa⊹ — 「 Headcanon 」#∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹To Be Continued⊹ — 「 OOC 」#∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹Little One⊹ — 「 Nirvash 」#cut bc #long post

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meanwhileinthebroomcloset · 5 years

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Mhm... This post was meant to be much shorter, honestly. Not to mention it got super personal, which was not my intention. It actually made me a bit teary-eyed and I’m usually an emotional constipated dumbass.

Am I ready for the potential backlash this is going to cause? Eh, probably not. Am I going to engage in the discourse this can cause? Ah, you wished. I have more to waste my energy on. I didn’t write this post to argument with anyone, anyway.

Gonna risk it, still.

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

Isn’t it kind of ironic that it was witchcraft that made me fully return to Catholicism?

I mean, I kind of never left, hence the ‘’fully’’ in that sentence. But now I really know who I am. Although I don’t think Catholicism is the most accurate label (Christo-pagan, perhaps?) it’s the one I grew up with, and the one that comes more naturally to me.

Studying the beginning of it all, the commentaries of Pagans and Jewish writers at the time are just so fascinating and honestly beautiful.

Then everybody started chasing and killing each order, and it sure wasn’t fascinating anymore.... ‘’Stop being murderous revenge-driven assholes’’ I angrily mutter into my book, while frying my brains for High Middle Ages exams.

And then it split into Catholicism and Arianism (not that Arianism! The no-holy-trinity-on-my-watch one), and that was a totally different can of worms. Then Rome got pissy and the Orthodox Church officially became a thing that existed.

Man, why is religion so messy?

Faith is such a strange thing. So much power, so much potential for good and evil and everything in between. I started losing mine some years ago.

Contrary to some horror stories you may hear, especially from people who are now no longer Christian, I was raised in a pretty open environment.

‘’Don’t be mean, have faith, give second chances... Here are the commandments. They’re perfectly acceptable, see?’’

‘’Yes, there are different religions, but you should always respect them and the people that believe in them. Remember, Jesus was Jewish. Here’s some historical context... ‘’

‘’What the hell kid, nobody here is going to hell. Also, you’re five, there are no children in hell. No, the cops also won’t... Lord give me patience... Are you sorry? Did you apologize? Are you going to try to not repeat it? Great! Then it’s all fine and dandy!’’

‘‘Man, we are definitely all going to hell... At least since we’re all gonna be there, we could form a basketball team. The devil can be the referee. He will be an awful one, but hey, we’re in hell’‘

‘’I know the bible says the earth was created in seven days, but when that story was written, people didn’t know dinosaurs were a thing. Science is cool, and we are not in the middle ages. ‘’

‘’Blind faith is dangerous, kid.’’

‘’Thinking thoughts and acting upon them are two very different things.’’

‘’Yes, the second mom in that Solomon story was willing to see another kid die for the sake of an argument... sometimes people are that bad.’’

‘’God is perfect. People aren’t. That’s the world we live in and it’s okay.’’

‘’There are people who do terrible things in name of religion or say they’re doing it because the bible says so. Don’t believe them. There’s no excuse for murder and abuse.’’

‘’Yeah, Portugal is very enthusiastic when it comes to Catholicism... ’’

Pretty good summary of religion in my childhood.

Still, I found my faith waning. I didn’t really know why and I’m still a bit iffy talking about that.

‘’What did witchcraft do, then?’’

Well for once, it reinforced my ideas on how faith worked, and how strangely powerful it can be. Being skeptical is healthy but completely closing yourself off because something isn’t completely clear is too radical and you're just doing the equivalent of closing your eyes to the less brighter lights.

My god, I can hear the hardcore atheists coming...

Can I remind you there are more things in life that will not provide the proof you want, but that won’t mean they aren’t there? Relationships. Relationships are too complicated to have straight answers, a lot of the times. People hide their feelings, they fake them, express them and react to them differently. There are so many things we don’t understand or know about yet, like space and organisms that live on this Earth.

Sometimes what you need is a different approach to see they exist! It’s one of the things I learned with witchcraft.

There was also the religion itself. As I worked on my magic, I started seeing magic around me again. Not just with gods I had never considered and the one I was leaving behind, but with the faith I had always known.

The affection when someone says ‘’Our Lady’’ when talking about the Virgin Mary, my family calling upon Saint Barbara when thunder comes, children screeching excitedly because the Compasso has arrived to give us the news that Jesus has come to life again in Easter, the marble cemeteries, the comforting prayers, the masses I couldn’t ear because the local church’s echo is terrible, those boring long-ass weddings (oh my god, how many blessings do two people need?!), the loving dedication I see in every saint carved, my church's priest’s good humor... I never owned a rosary, but I always like the ones my aunts and grandparents keep.

I found Christian and Catholic witches on this site and I finally got to my conclusion. It’s really there. I just needed a different approach to it!

These things made me believe again, but also in new things.

‘‘But you can’t do that! You can’t combine magic and christianity’‘

Oh, watch me. And also watch the centuries of cunning women and witches in European history and those still alive today. The women that make ‘’mezinhas’’ and other types of favors in Portugal sure as hell are doing witchcraft, but you can bet your ass they don’t think they’re any less Catholic than anyone else. They don’t care about your opinions and I will hopefully do the same.

Relationships with deities are personal, and my relationship with God, Jesus and all of them is no different in that regard. I am a witch, I am human, I am catholic. I’m a follower, not a fucking mindless sheep.

You know what? I always compared God to Aslan. The lion wasn’t always there for Narnia, he wanted his people to solve their problems on their own. Get their independence, as a good parent does. They both don’t come up all mighty, that’s a posture reserved for evil and people who need a good slap in the face. They come to your level. God may come through one of the less eldritch abomination looking angels, though...

‘‘Well, if you have god, you shouldn’t need anything more. He's everthing. Why are you also a witch?’‘

Excuse me, do I look like a goddamned saint to you?! What part of human did you not understand?

And before you bitterly start quoting the Old Testament, let me remind you that it’s Old for a reason. Christ came to this earth to give us new rules since he technically saved us and things became different. That’s why Jewish people follow the Old Testament, for them, the messiah hasn’t arrived yet. Not to mention that to them that testament is not Old, it’s just the Torah.

You can keep quoting the bible to me all you want. But in my short twenty years of life, I was thankfully able to learn a few things. One of them is that the world isn’t black and white. Yes, I know this sounds obvious but there are some really dumb people out there. Also, this is the hellscape that we call tumblr.

Anyway, as I have mentioned several times before, I’m a never-ending knowledge seeker I found the world beneath my feet is not pure myth and I want to explore it. Look at me go.

I keep a critical mind with everything. Faith and religion are not an exception. I’m not overly skeptic about faith itself, but I am of its writings, interpretations, translations and etc... I study history, it’s a skill you naturally develop.

And there’s quite a few plot-holes, characterization differences and much more. It was written by humans that couldn’t do a cohesive collaboration even if their lives depended on it. Godphones sometimes don’t get a good reception. There’s a ton of cultural context to unpack. I hear people saying all the time that taking the bible’s words literally is one of the most stupid things you can do.

And when I say people, I mean priests, clergy, theology students, etc... I didn’t hear this from my drug dealer in the street corner..

...... I don’t have a drug dealer.....

Anyway...

There are many problems with the catholic church. There are many problems with a ton of catholic and christians out there. I will never deny that. Shit needs to get fixed and maybe even chucked into the trash.

But I still believe in God, I still believe in the saints but I also still believe there are more gods and spirits out there. And those things are separate.

I have no interest in converting you. I’m just yelling into the void.

If you are one of those that no longer is a christian, or catholic because some dipshits banged self-hate onto your head, I’m really sorry. I hope you heal well and get the help you need in your new faith or lack of it. Banging the ten commandments back onto their heads repetiedly and tell them to actually read the damn book is optional, though.

In the end, if you are (or are trying) to be good, you deserve respect and freedom to worship whoever or whatever you want. You don’t need to be perfect, you can just strive to be the best you can be in your situation.

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

And now back to our schedueled programing.

#well #that was a thing #rant #christian witch #catholic witch

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ciaoalex · 5 years

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Weeks 4 & 5 (oops!) - Milan and Naples

Time goes by crazy fast here, and I accidentally skipped a week of blogging! So here are two weeks compiled into one post.

Last weekend, I went to Milan with Lina. I absolutely loved the city; it was a combination of Rome and New York, so I felt at home with the hint of modern, American culture, but still felt like I was in Italy! Of course, I adored the fashion capital and loved strolling past countless designer stores (not going in them of course, since I have the budget of a college student :( maybe next time..). Our first stop in Milan was the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. It turns out that I really had no idea who Leonardo da Vinci was (oops), but it was an absolutely fascinating museum! It was so interactive, and Lina and I ran around like children trying out all the different games and simulations in each exhibit. Afterwards, we settled into our AirBnb, did some sightseeing, and some shopping, of course. That night was Valentine’s, so we went out for a romantic dinner by the canal and got drinks. The next day, we went to the Duomo, which was absolutely breathtaking. Hands-down one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life; I could’ve stared at it for hours.

While at the Duomo, we experienced our first scam. The piazza was filled with hundreds of pigeons, and a man offered to take our picture with some of the pigeons. Knowing that many people here try to trick you into paying for things, we politely declined. Then, he said it would just be 3 euro for a photo, so Lina convinced me to do it (please note that it was not my idea!). He ended up turning it into a photoshoot, telling us to do different poses, and taking 26 photos. Afterwards, he just walked up to us and said “81 euros please!” Turns out, it was 3 euro PER photo, but we only asked for one! We fought with him for a good fifteen minutes. I thought about running, but there was a pretty big group of his scammer friends surrounding us. Once he started to get angry and a little aggressive, we gave him a final offer of 30 euro total. We handed him the money and ran away ashamed and embarrassed since the whole fiasco happened in front of thousands of people. Check out the photos that we got, which I posted on the blog and Facebook (as you can see, I was petrified and very grossed out by the pigeons). We decided to save the Duomo for another day (bad memories, ya know?), and explore other parts of Milan. We took a bus tour and spent the afternoon looking at different parts of the city.

The next day, we tried the Duomo again, with no scams this time! We entered the cathedral first, which was incredibly moving. I was almost brought to tears as soon as I got inside. I can’t explain what exactly connected with me so much, but I definitely felt God in that church. I lit a candle for my late Grandpa Joe, honoring a beautiful person inside the most beautiful church I have ever entered. We climbed to the top of the Duomo, which was a dream. I felt like I was in a castle! Afterwards, we went to a cocktail bar overlooking the Duomo, and got drinks made by a robot. Then, we headed home on our overnight bus and got ready for another week of class!

This week, I discovered the beauty of alone time. Although I usually love being around others 24/7, this experience has been a lot to process and appreciate without a quiet moment to sit and think (also why I’m always so bad at keeping up with my blog!). I pushed myself to take a few afternoons to myself and sat by the Colosseum and journaled. Taking time to come back to myself made a huge difference in my whole perspective and attitude for the rest of the week!

On Friday, we embarked on a class excursion (basically a weekend field trip!) to Naples. I went with my International Finance class, and we were paired with the Food Studies class. The professors that took us are childhood best friends and grew up in Naples, so they were super knowledgeable and enthusiastic about everything there. Also, since we went with a food class, we got to eat awesome food all weekend! We stayed in a hostel, which turned out to be like a 5-star hotel. There was even a jacuzzi! I befriended a few Italian girls in my class a few weeks ago, so Lina and I stayed in a room with them. I love hanging out with them and getting to talk about our different cultures. First, we went to a castle, which had amazing views of Naples. We took a very long walk throughout the neighborhoods to get a feel for the area. Then, we had a dinner in a traditional Napolean house, where street performers came and taught us some traditional songs and dances. It was odd at first, but once everyone dug into the bottomless wine, we really enjoyed ourselves! Then, we got free time, which we spent getting to know the Italian girls and some other people in our program. Afterwards, we went to a really nice dinner, where we had delicious Naploean pizza! We explored the nightlife and had lots of fun dancing the night away with our friends!

The next morning, we visited two farms. The first one was pretty boring (it was a social cooperative), but the second one was AMAZING. We were greeted by a huge lunch that was sooo delicious. This farm was a buffalo farm, so we got to walk around, learn about Bufala Mozzarella (a very famous cheese in Italy), and feed the buffaloes!! I had the time of my life bonding with the buffaloes. After they saw me kissing and hugging the buffaloes, everyone in the program told me AGAIN that I should be a farm girl! Little do they know, I am far from that! Lastly, we stopped at a winery, got to learn about the winemaking process, and got to sample some of the wine. We headed home and I jumped right in bed for an early night. The weekend was SO fun, but it was exhausting!

On Sunday, I went to the zoo in Rome with Lina and Sam, another one of my roommates. If you know me, you know that I absolutely love zoos, so this was a great day for me. We spent probably an hour just watching monkeys and got to see some turtles “making love” in front of an audience of children, which was hilarious.

The past two weeks here have been amazing. I definitely feel at home in Rome now, but have been SO busy! Schoolwork has been the last thing on my mind, which is also unnatural for me, so I need to go catch up on the past three weeks of work that I haven’t started! Oops.. Thanks for reading about my travels if you are still reading all of this! See you next week!

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changarroo · 6 years

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XO Mistletoe // Changbin - Holiday AU

a/n: last holiday au :((( I hope you enjoy this one everyone <3

genre: Fluffy

Word Count: 2.3k

Type of AU: Holiday AU, High School Party AU

Y/N/N = your nickname

Dear Loyal Readers,

Well, it’s that time of the year again when everyone around us is getting into the holiday spirit. Stores are going crazy as people are trying to get the perfect gift for family and friends. Plus let's not forget everyone here at Glow High, whoever is in a relationship is dying to figure out what there significant other is getting them. Yet everyone here is just love and gifts. I’m not complaining at all everyone but don’t you just imagine what Christmas would be like minus the gifts? Just a bunch of people coming together celebration the end of a year and a beginning of a new.

Oh well, this will be my last blog post for the year unless anything interesting happens to me. Which I highly doubt it will. Goodbye 2018 and hello New Year. I’ll see you guys in the New Year.

XOXO Y/N/N

As you hit the post button you looked at your blog, looking at all of the new comments rolling in as soon as you posted it. Your blog wasn’t anything special to the public eye, just for people who go to your high school. Your blog was a way to express your thoughts that other people could relate to anonymously. You constantly got questions about relationships and what to expect as far as boyfriend/girlfriend. You found it very interesting to hear about people’s problems. Throughout the school years, your blog has become quite popular especially to a member who’s username was pizza_face you always found his asks interesting because the female he was talking about reminded you of yourself.

Before logging out of your laptop you notice that your ask bell rang. Looking at it you saw that it was your lovely internet friend pizza_face.

Pizza_face: hey Y/N/N, so there this holiday party coming up and I’m in total need of advice. I would ask my friends but I know that they will just mess with me. Well all of them minus two. Anyways there is this holiday party coming up and I know like half of the school is going. I think my crush is going to but I’m not sure. If they are,,, how do I approach them?

You: Well first you kinda have to man up and you know actually talk to them… but in all honesty just be yourself and talk to them. What is the worst that going to happen? Like them can reject you but also see you differently and warm-hearted that you care about them. I wish you the best of luck pizza_face with everything. I’ll talk to you in the new year.

And with that, you officially logged off of your blog for the year.

The next day you were getting ready for school. Putting on your uniform, making sure your hair wasn’t a bird’s nest, and makeup was acceptable. You finally grab your bag and headed out the door.

“Y/N! Finally, it took you long enough,” Bambam said leaning on his car door. “You know if you’re going to treat me like this I can just walk to school”. You opened the passenger side door and enter his car as Bambam did the same on his side. “Are you going to the huge Christmas party that happening at Jay’s house?” Bambam asked starting his car. “No, why would I? There just going to be a bunch of people partying and getting wasted”. “Come on Y/N!” Bambam said turning into the school parking lot “Okay let’s make a deal, this party is going to be the last huge party of the year and you never been to a Jay Park party before. If you go with me I’ll never ask you to go with me to another party again”.

Thinking about the offer at the table it was very easy to turn down on the spot. But thinking about it you thought about how nice it would be never hearing about another crazy party ever again.

“Okay fine, send me the details. I’ll go,” you said leaning further back into the car seat. With that Bambam did a little happy dance in his seat. “Yes, finally you're going to a party where there will be people to socialize with! This Friday will be the best! Oh, you have to cover it fro your blog”. “Bam that's a fat no, I don’t want people to know that I went beside it’s not my ideal subject”. “Then what is your ideal subject? Cause your legit the Dan Humphrey of our high school.” Bambam said turning off his car.

“I do not like to write myself into the high life of our school social status! I mainly just write about what I observe at our school,” lowering yourself further in your seat. “Just admit it, you like writing about all of the students who have a high social status”.

“You know the song Crush Culture by Conan Gray, that basically my eternal mood about couples and social status”. “You are legit the Scrooge of holiday romance aren’t you excited for the holiday?” Bambam shook his head and crossed his arms “I take back what I said, your the Grinch and Scrooge combine into one. Come on we have to get to school”.

Entering school it felt like you were walking into a high school movie, cliques were separated into there simple groups. With your headphones in you avoided the student to get to your class.

“Hey Y/N,” your friend Changbin said setting his bag next to you “did you finish the reading for bio?” he said sitting down in the seat next to you. “Hey, Changbin, umm yeah everything is set and ready for the lab today” you continued to read your textbook. “Oh before I forget, I made you this,” he handed you a flash drive. “What is this?” you questioned the flash drive. “I notice that you always have you earbud in when you enter and leave the room so I made you a mixtape. But instead of having it on a CD or a tape I made it on put it on a flash drive. Kinda like an early Christmas gift, I guess” he said rubbing the back of his head. “Wow thank you Changbin,” you smiled back at him and processed to put your lab goggles on.

“Okay so looking at the animal cell we can find the cell wall and all of that fun stuff” you looked into your microscope. “Hey Y/N are you going to Jay’s party this Friday?” Changbin asked as he dropped his pencil on his textbook. “Yeah, I actually am shocking, why?” you lifted your head from the microscope. “I was wondering if you wanted to go with me? As friends, you know cause we are sorta friends? Right” Changbin looked up and made eye contact with you. “Of course we are friends Changbin and yes we can go to the party together it sounds fun.”.

Going back to looking down at the cell you didn’t notice that the little smile that was one on Changbin face turn into a huge grin as he looked at you. “Okay everyone that will conclude today lab,” your teacher said once the bell rang indicating the end of class “I’ll see you all after the break;. Stay safe and enjoy the holiday”. Collecting your books and grabbing your bag you and walked out of the classroom.

Before you put your earbuds in you felt a hand on your shoulder. You were faced with a friendly smile again. “So what time should I pick you up,” Changbin said movingWalking closer to your locker you opened it thinking of a time for Changbin to pick you up at. “Hmm, how about seven? Will, that work?” You asked setting your science books into your locker. “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow then Y/N,” Changbin winked at you before walking to his next class.

Soon Friday came, and you were getting ready for the party. Since it was a holiday party you have no clue what to wear, like was it supposed to be a fancy dressy situation or an ugly Christmas sweater type of party? The world will never know.

[you 16:57] help

[bam 17:01] what's up?

[you 17:02] I need help picking an outfit :)

[bam 17:02] why do you need help picking out an outfit?

[bam 17:03] we are going to a high school party,,, just think of what Jennie would wear.

[you 17:04] ugh your no help I’ll think of something.

[you 17:04] thx bam I’ll see you at the party

[bam 17:05] wait don't you need a ride?

[you 17:07] no I'm going with Changbin so I’ll just meet you there.

[bam 17:09] ooohhh Changbin okay I see you ;)

[you 17:11] stop it bambam were just friends,,, I’ll just see you at the party.

[bam 17:13] or will you ;)))))

Set your phone you questioned why you were friends with someone like Bambam. They think about it some more you couldn’t imagine your high school life without him in it. So then your final proceeded to pick an outfit that you felt fit the holiday high school party. The doorbell rang and that was your indication that Changbin was here,

Opening the door you were met with a handsome looking Changbin, hair pushed back so you can see a section of his forehead. “Hey, wow you look amazing Y/N,” Changbin said looking at you. You lower your head due to your shyness, a piece of your hair move in front of your face. As the kind gentleman that Changbin was, he moved it behind your ear. “What is this feeling that I’m feeling inside of me,” you said to yourself.

“Are you ready to go?” Changbin asked extending his hand out and you softly grabbed it. He opened to car door for you and the two of you were on your way. The ride there was surprisingly very enjoyable, you never really hung out with Changbin unless it was for study reason. But actually being with him made you find his charming point you found very interesting.

“We’re here” Changbin turned off his car and ran over to open the door for you. Walking into the party it was already lively, you didn’t expect most of the student body to be here but again who do expect when this party is hosted by one of the most popular and richest people in your class. “Do you want something to drink?” Changbin asked yelling over the loud music. “Water is fine for now,” you replied but to him “hey I’m going to go find one of my friend really quick.” you started to let go of his hand. You gave a soft smile telling him to come to find you when he got the drinks.

“Y/N!” Bambam yelled once he saw your face “I can’t believe that you're actually here where Changbin?”. “He went to go get us some drinks,” you pointed towards the kitchen. “Well,,, how do you like hanging out with him?” Bambam crossed his arms and looked at you. “He not who I expected to be like I only know his as my Biology partner but on the drive here I got to know a whole different side of him and I kinda like it”. “Wait, Y/N the person who hates the whole relationships thing maybe falling for someone?”. “Shut up Bam” you throw a napkin in his face before walking off to find Changbin.

It wasn’t long before the two of you were united again. “Here you go one water and a coke for myself,” Changbin handed you a red solo cup meep it's me. “Thanks, Changbin,” you smiled and grab the cup from his hand. You took a sip and started choking immediately due to that fact that the DJ started to play your favorite song. “Woah Y/N are you okay?” Changbin asked while grabbing some napkins from behind you. “I’m fine, it's just this is my favorite songs,” you dabbed the napkin on your mouth before throwing it away. “Well then, do you want to dance?” he smiled at you and right then and there you felt your heart fly away into space.

You danced the night away Lalalalalalala lalalalalalala that you didn’t realize how much time had past. Soon the party started to die down and everyone was getting ready to return back to reality. Your feet your legit KILLING you so again the gentleman that Changbin was piggyback you all the to his car and then as your front door once you got home.

“Thank you for going to the party with me Y/N, I had a lot of fun,” Changbin rubbed the back of his neck “maybe we can hang out like this again? But not like every party maybe food and listening to music?”. Smiling at the ground you thought Changbin was cute and took him off on his offer but giving him a little kiss in his cheek. Once the kiss was over you quickly turned around in shyness nothing knowing how it would react. “Um Y/N I hate to break it to you,” he slowly reached for your hand and turned you back over to face him “but we are standing under the mistletoe”. Looking up you saw a piece of mistletoe that was never hanging at your doorway before. “Huh look like we are,” you looked at him right in his kind eyes before taking a small step forward.

The two of you closed the gap that was between you. You felt his soft lips on you and they felt amazing. You wrapped your hand around his neck and he did to same but with the waist. The kiss lasted a solid six seconds but when you kissed Changbin the whole world just stops.

“I’ll text you tomorrow okay Y/N,” Changbin said before kissing you one last time before leaving. You watched as the kind biology partner of your left your house. Once you were inside you rushed quickly to your room and opened your laptop.

Dear Loyal Reader,

I love mistletoe so much right now

XOXO Y/N/N

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scripttorture · 6 years

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Torture in Fiction: Star Trek, The Next Generation, The Chain of Command

This one was a request from @aspiringwarriorlibrarian and well since I usually start these things with a statement of bias as well as a plot summary I think I should probably say that I wouldn't have come across it on my own. Star Trek is one of the longest running sci fi series in the world, genre defining and remains incredibly popular to this day. But personally I've never really enjoyed it. For two episodes I thought this was probably worth giving a go and I am glad I did. While I still didn't particularly enjoy them these episodes are an interesting example of how torture gets used in science fiction stories.

Once again I am rating the depiction and use of torture not the series or episodes themselves. I'm trying to take into account realism (regardless of fantasy or sci fi elements), presence of any apologist arguments, stereotypes and the narrative treatment of victims and torturers.

These two episodes take place as tensions are mounting between the Federation and Cardassians. Picard and two of his crew are tasked with a secret mission: illegally entering Cardassian space, breaking into a research facility and destroying the bio-weapon the Federation believes is being produced there. This turns out to be an elaborate ruse to capture Picard. Picard is drugged, interrogated and reveals truthful information under the influence of drugs. He is then tortured, first using a combination of stress position and deprivation and later with a high tech implant designed to cause maximum pain.

His torturer, who is mostly presented as calm, collected, well informed and cultured, repeatedly asks Picard how many lights there are behind him. There are in fact four but the torturer bluntly tells Picard that there are 'five' and hurts him for 'incorrect' answers. The torturer also lies to Picard on multiple occasions and plays mind games. He says that Picard is free to go, since he isn't 'breaking' under torture, then says that if Picard leaves a colleague will be tortured in his place. (The woman in question isn't a Cardassian prisoner but Picard has no way of knowing this).

Military 'diplomacy' eventually leads to Picard's release. Before handing him back to the military proper the torturer makes one last attempt to 'prove' he's effected Picard. He offers Picard a bribe, a life of comfort and leisure, if he'll only admit there are five lights. Picard stares for a long time then spits out that there are four.

Later on the Enterprise he tells the ship's therapist that he saw five lights.

I'm giving it 5/10

The Good

The writers and crew consulted Amnesty International for this episode and there are points when that advice really shows through.

There's a point early on when the episodes shift from truth drugs to a very realistic and well handled torture scene. The torturer gives Picard the opportunity to 'cooperate' and when he refuses Picard is manhandled into a stress position. His hands are cuffed above his head and his clothes are cut off. The implication is that he's left like that at least over night and possibly for anything between 12-24 hours.

During this the torturer makes several deliberate attempts to humiliate Picard. Aside from forcibly removing his clothing he refuses to address Picard by name, saying that he'll refer to him as 'human' from now on. These efforts to dehumanise and denigrate are very in keeping with real life and I feel like the episode handles them well. Both actors do a great job portraying this.

Patrick Stewert's acting generally is superb throughout by turns pained, exhausted and defiant. He does an excellent job with the script putting a real power and passion into his lines.

The torturer also tries to manipulate Picard several times and lies to him. At one point Picard is told that he's too 'strong willed' and they're letting him go, only to be told that the torturer will then have to move on to a captured colleague. Unless of course Picard chooses to stay. Which Picard does. I think this was a brilliantly handled moment; it neatly showed a realistic form of emotional abuse and manipulation on the torturers part while also showing that torture hadn't changed Picard's strongly held beliefs, including his duty to protect his friends.

Throughout the torture scenes Picard resists and he resists nonviolently. The scenario and the way his injuries are acted makes it clear that violence resistance is beyond him: he just doesn't have the physical ability to fight effectively. But he consistently refuses to give in to his torturer's demands. He speaks against torture. He confronts his torturer over letting a child into the torture chamber (as a witness). He attempts to smash one of the devices used to torture him. He bluntly tells the torturer that he is pathetic and continues to do so as the torturer hurts him.

Some of Picard's speeches against torture and his torturer specifically are phenomenal. It's a powerful script in the hands of a masterful actor and the end result is something I feel all torture scenes should be: incredibly emotive and steadfastly on the side of the victim.

They also effect the torturer intensely, taking away any sense that the torturer is in control of the situation or Picard. As Picard continues to verbally antagonise his torturer the torturer slips up and calls him 'Picard'.

Picard states that torture is ineffective both as a means of interrogation and of control 'one wonders why it is still used'. This sounds like it came straight from Amnesty and I really enjoyed it. He also uses what he learns about the torturer, bringing up the torturer's past neglect. 'You are six years old weak and helpless' Picard says, telling his torturer that no matter how bad the pain gets this is how Picard will always see him.

For me this entire scene works very well, it shows torture as cruel, brutish and ultimately pointless. It gives the victim dignity, power and agency without ignoring his pain.

At the end of the episode Picard is shown to be receiving professional help. It's incredibly rare to see a survivor in this genre getting therapy after torture and while it's only a short scene (which has some serious problems) I really appreciated this nod to the fact survivors need long term help to recover.

The Bad

The accurate information the Cardassians have on both Picard personally and the Federation generally isn't in keeping with an organisation that practices torture. Torture reduces the ability of organisations to gather accurate information in several ways. It reduces the amount of information volunteered. It takes personnel away from genuine investigation. It discourages any sort of fact checking. It also causes organisations to fracture and reduces cooperation necessary to intelligence gathering.

The use of so-called truth serums to obtain accurate information is treated as realistic and entirely separate to torture. This is at best misleading and at worst torture apologia. Truth serums don't work. Their use doesn't have to be torturous, but in reality and these episodes they are heavily linked to torture. I feel like this use of them early on undermines many of the good moments that come later.

Picard remembers being drugged and clearly remembers what he said under the influence. This isn't in keeping with how 'truth serums' work. And while it's very easy to imagine a new drug in a sci fi setting like this one I don't think the memory loss side effect is one most torturers would want to lose. Because that memory loss is often used against victims: they're usually told that they did reveal accurate information and betrayed their friends. The memory loss obscures the failure rates of the drug. And that would be an important and ‘useful’ side effect even with sci fi drugs that are more likely to magically 'work'.

While Patrick Stewert does an incredible job acting wise throughout these episodes I feel as though he's been poorly instructed or directed at some points. Immediately after a prolonged (but ill defined) period in a standing stress position Picard has little trouble staying on his feet. He voluntarily stands. He walks a few steps fairly confidently. He does seem to have trouble with mobility in his arms but they're stiff and close to his chest which isn't what I'd expect from the stress position he was subjected to. I'm also not convinced that the make up department did enough to show his injuries. There's no swelling from the stress position and there's little in the way of small bruises and dirt.

One of my notes on these episodes says 'Restraints? Do these aliens have wrists?' Except with rather ruder language.

I admit I was counting down to the inevitable high tech torture device. For a while I thought they might give it a miss and was ecstatic. Then the episode introduced a pain inducing implant, with multiple settings, controlled by a remote and I put my head in my hands. Torture is not high tech. It's not complicated. And any device that would require this level of time, skill and effort to create and use would never get off the ground. (For a more detailed discuss of high tech torture I have a post here.)

I feel like the end of the episode works to undermine many of the positive points. During his therapy session Picard admits that he saw five lights at the end instead of four. He knew there were four lights but his torturer had insisted over multiple torture sessions there were five. This gives the torturer back the power previous scenes gave to Picard; suggesting that the torturer was able to affect and control Picard in exactly the way he intended to. It supports ideas that torture victims can be 'broken' and that torturers have far more power then they in fact do. It undermines what Picard said about torture being ineffective as a means of control.

Together with the beginning of the torture scenario, the successful interrogation via drugs, it feels as though the writers were hedging their bets, unable to quite commit to the idea that torture fails.

Miscellaneous

There are several things I don't like about the way these episodes chose to characterise the torturer but I'm not sure they're inaccurate/impossible so much as over used. Over the course of the episodes we find that the torturer is cultured, knowledgable, had a childhood characterised by neglect and that he can be quite sociable when he chooses. The result is a sort of Hannibal Lecter-esque figure, an affable 'psychopath'. It's not impossible for torturers to have these traits and the lack of research on torturers makes it difficult to pin down 'typical' characteristics. But most of these do go against what we know of torturers in a general sense. Organisations that torture generally actively screen out people with mental health problems, making a severely traumatic childhood an unlikely background. The mental health problems torturers develop as a result of torture make it more difficult to socialise, stay calm, form friendships and keep them. And a lot of the people who join these organisations do so because they're poor. They don't have a lot of perceived opportunities other than these organisations. As a result they're more likely to have been denied educational opportunities.

I feel like this pervasive image of the well educated, sociable torturer owes a lot more to a handful of figures from the Second World War then it does to torturers generally. I don't think it's a stereotype that encourages torture but it might hamper our understanding of torturers and that understanding is crucial to stopping them.

Overall

I think my overriding impression of these episodes is that they're confused. There are moments that feel incredibly true to life, incredibly accurate and incredibly powerful. Patrick Stewart's acting is phenomenal, but it feels as though he's been poorly instructed. He's showing pain, but often in the wrong places. His mobility isn't affected in the ways I would expect.

Alongside this there are a lot of moments, lines of dialogue and narrative choices that undermine the well handled moments. There doesn't seem to be any real reason for some of this, a lot of it seems to be expectation: that this is what genre fiction 'should' do. Things like the ridiculous implant designed to cause Picard pain, the use of so called 'truth serums' and the moment right at the end where Picard admits he saw five lights. None of these things actually seem to add to the narrative and I can't help feeling the only reason they're there is convention. Some of it, such as the Cardassians unrealistically getting accurate information via drugs, doesn't seem to be convention so much as narrative laziness. The writers felt the Cardassians needed to get information about the operation Picard was part of, but couldn't be bothered to come up with a realistic way they could get that information.

These choices don't just cast doubt on the accuracy of Picard's powerful speeches against torture. They undermine the moments when the story shows torture failing.

For me this leads to a story which feels like it's hedging its bets: the authors couldn't quite decide whether they wanted to commit to portraying torture well or not.

The moments when they used Amnesty's advice seem incredibly clear to me. As are the moments when they ignored it, or didn't think very hard about the implications of what they were writing.

I'm sometimes asked why I write so much in response to the questions I get. It is a lot more work but this is why. Because I think without presenting authors with detailed information on what they're trying to write, how it works and what the implications of particular plot lines are… well this happens. We fill in the gaps in our knowledge with the background radiation of popular culture. We fall back on the conventions of the genre without thinking about how they apply to the scenario we're writing.

These episodes went much further than I expected in terms of good and powerful moments. It's a shame that they don't stick to that throughout. For me that doesn't come across as due to lack of trying or lack of information, it feels to me as though it's due to holding on to genre trappings or quick narrative fixes without considering what they imply.

And that makes it a very good pair of episodes to review. There's a lot to learn here from both the good and bad moments.

So thank you this was a really good choice.

Disclaimer

#tw torture #torture in fiction #Star Trek #star trek next gen #effects of torture #writing victims #resistance #torturers #high tech torture #interrogation

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davidcoopermoore · 5 years

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Survival Literacy

I'm not sure what I think students "need" at a minimum level of competency to be considered to be "done" with school -- and my use of scare quotes here should give you a sense of the turmoil that I've been feeling around some very foundational beliefs I've long held about school itself, its fundamental purpose and role in students' lives. I've been teaching in an alternative high school for four years, a daily teacher with a full course load, but in an environment that is about as "loose" within the traditional strucutral confines of a public school as you can get. Sometimes this looseness is good -- the students like it here; we don't have any fights; we love our kids and help them on their first postsecondary steps. Sometimes it's not so good -- things are very messy, and there are lots of little fires to put out, many of our own making, trying to do things a little differently and creating new problems as a result. But I've come to realize how insufficient the professional norms of reading instruction (these norms are different from research-based best practices; by professional norms I only mean "what do districts and administrators and classroom teachers expect to happen in the classroom") are for the majority of our students, all of whom have become disconnected with their previous high school. Some students come to us with high standardized scores in literacy and numeracy and seem to gain little from the direct instruction we might provide in reading and math, say. Some students come to us with borderline learning disabilities that have gone undiagnosed. Most come to us with severe gaps in their knowledge and skills according to the general scope and sequence of what they should have learned between fourth and ninth grade. You can see these gaps in their diagnostic scores, and in math these gaps even tell a story of educational turbulence and, sometimes, trauma -- students who have poor grasp of numbers and operations but can do passably well at certain types of algebraic thinking, say, usually because they had a terrible elementary experience but a few good math teachers in middle or early high school. Part of my job has been to take in all of this information in consultation with students and teachers and work with them on an individualized plan for making progress in their classes -- an ad hoc academic support position that is not technically special education but tries to implement some just-in-time learning needed to be successful in a class. So I've become more and more interested in how you actually teach people how to read, and how you might translate what seems to work for young learners to adult literacy. (I've been reading a lot of Tim Shanahan lately.) There is much less liteature on teaching adult literacy than I expected; much of it essentially takes strategies for younger learners and applies them to adults more or less unmodified, or expands the concept of literacy to areas that may or may not improve reading ability. Research on adult literacy seems to have a good sense of how many adults can't read, who they are, and some of the reasons why, but from what I've found so far there is a lot less convincing information on what the best practices are for intervention. I've started thinking about rudimentary literacy a little differently from how I imagined it when I took a media literacy approach -- i.e., a holistic sense of what literacy is, including multiple symbolic forms. Although I still love media literacy, I think there is something categorically different about print literacy, both in how it works -- at a basic cognitive level -- and in how we are expected to actually use it in the world. (Maybe I'll write my post about reading as photosynthesis later.) The metaphor I'm circling right now is survival skills. I had a conversation the other day with my wife about swimming. Our oldest son not only can't swim but has a water phobia. In other cultures, swimming is part of the environment, a survival skill that children can learn at very young ages. I've read that babies naturally know how to hold their breath if put into the water in a particular way. Even my own sister, who insisted her sons learn to swim early, had them in the pool at age 2, fairly regularly. (I've also read that actually swimming is probably more like reading developmentally, and that you should probably start formal swimming instruction closer to six years old. Hang with me; it's just a metaphor.) The extent to which reading is a skill for survival depends on more complex social context than swimming does. "If you're near water a lot you should know how to swim" doesn't quite translate. Instead what I'm thinking about is the purpose for teaching survival skills versus the purpose for teaching for enrichment and enlightenment. We focus so much on a love of reading in school, and also subsequently conflate love with motivation (a topic for another post that I won't go into now), that I think we miss defining which aspects of reading are actually necessary for one's life as a "survival skill," and which develop more naturally after those basic skills have been mastered. The problem with reading is twofold: (1) many but certainly not most children become expert readers before they've had a lot of instruction in reading, let alone targeted literacy intervention, so it seems like their love and their ability are linked and (2) the students who don't "take" to reading are then often engaged at the level of motivation and ease -- trying to make reading a pleasurable experience, by "leveling down" reading to where they're comfortable -- while also getting certain reading interventions that are uncomfortable and involve a lot of practice. A lot of literacy instruction focuses on instilling motivation and appreciation in students, for understandable reasons -- it seems like master readers should want to read, and we also know that master readers are motivated to read independently. We had a long and unproductive program at our school trying to implement sustained silent reading at our school, which failed for both site-specific reasons (we didn't do it with much fidelity, too many distractions, etc.) but also, I think, failed to take into account the fact that our students struggled to do more basic reading than we really liked to admit, even when in guided instruction they showed that they could read. They didn't like reading, and we didn't really have the school culture to instill that basic affection and motivation. But they also didn't have some of the precursory skills you would need to enjoy reading. But I'm not sure that the primary job of literacy instruction should actually be to instill an affection for reading any more than I think that the primary job of swimming instruction should be to instill affection in swimming. Without basic skills -- in swimming or reading -- it is literally impossible to develop affection in any meaningful way. You can't be motivated to read independently if you can't read any more than you can be motivated to "swim for pleasure" if you can't swim. Add to this what I see in my students -- they have specific blocks to reading that resemble my son's water phobia. So on top of whatever technical instruction they need to get to the basic level of literacy motivation, they also need a different sort of motivation, a motivation to overcome what I would call something like a fear of reading -- more accurately, a combination of distrust, deflation, and past negative experience. They are discouraged about reading. The logic that we tend to use in school is that if you get kids encouraged about reading, they will read more. But we also underestimate the level of reading mastery it requires to actually feel a basic level of encouragement, and then, crucially, for this encouragement to translate into actually reading well. My son feels encouraged when he puts his face in the water. But he can't swim. He needs to be able to put his face in the water for his comfort, but it may not be a skill that he needs to practice and focus on intently to learn how to swim. It may be a way of filibustering, a way of avoiding the thing he actually needs to be able to do. In fact, it is possible that part of him learning to swim will be to be put in an environment where that kind of incremental thinking based on his own comfort vanishes altogether. Survival literacy cuts both ways. We also don't need to expect our students to love to read, maybe ever. This is a profound and destabilizing idea in English education in two ways. First, it shifts a lot of the kind of content we teach in English classes. Fewer books and novels; more short and non-fiction pieces. This was a controversial component of the Common Core standards that I happen to think is on the mark when you are considering students who already are far behind in their literacy ability. That is, for my students, exploration of a novel might have some value, but lots of practice with short, relevant pieces -- journalism articles, reports, etc. -- will be more likely to help them with specific goals they have for reading. But the most destabilizing thing about a survival literacy mindset is that I'm not sure that the classroom is the best place for it to happen at all, and I'm also not sure that "classroom" is the right space to imagine successful literacy acquisition. I'm starting to think of literacy, as a functional process of decoding and low-level comprehension, as something that one has to acquire by hook or by crook, often alone and with deliberative practice. That it can happen in a classroom doesn't mean that it should. All of this goes away when you reach a baseline competency, but I think that we have the bar too low for what that baseline is and how much rigorous literacy instruction you need to be able to read independently and contribute within a culture of print literacy (i.e., read independently and then talk about it). Again, these are baseline competencies. I'm not suggesting that I believe that there is no role for reading in a classroom! But that for interventions and the basic development of that baseline competency, the classroom environment that fosters a love of literacy isn't the right way to think about what learners really need. This has been hard for me to digest, and I'm not anywhere near done in my thinking -- in fact I'm returning to grad school soon, I think, to devote myself more fully to literacy -- print literacy -- as a component of understanding the world.

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paper-mario-wiki · 6 years

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hey yo my interview with that university i was talking about is coming up in 9 hours. im kinda stressing but also kinda confident, which i think is a good combination of things to feel.

idk why but i feel the urge to post the statement of purpose i gave to them in my admission so here it is. i think i did a good job makin myself sound like a smarty who should be given a cool visa

it’s a little late, but lemme know if i sound too up-my-own-ass while also bearing in mind that i had to make myself look like a Good Student To Accept, ya kno

A pursual of higher education has always been something I’ve wanted to steer towards in my life. Although there are plenty of jobs and opportunities that would more likely benefit from experience rather than a degree, I’ve come to find that through plenty of meditation and intrapersonal thinking that spending time at a college would be beneficial for me. When I say this, I mean that I’ve spent the past several years asking myself the question “what would make me happy?” and almost always coming to two things: Learning a new language as well as tightening my grip on my native language. This, combined with a longstanding interest in Japan and its culture, has led me to ILA.

I, personally, am very interested in writing, mainly focusing in the aspects of comedy, as well as short, digestible ideas and thoughts (if given the choice, I’d much sooner pick up a book of trivia than an encyclopedia). For these reasons, my interest in Liberal Arts is mainly invested in that of Literature and English. Allowing someone’s ideas to come to life in the mind of a reader, whether they be short or long, is an incredible and versatile tool. Discovering rules, techniques, and cliches of the language I speak is what I want to give my time up to. The prospect of travelling to a place where people from a variety of unique backgrounds come to study things like this is incredibly exciting to think about. This, of course, leads me to my next point: what about Japan, specifically, is so enticing to me?

For a very long time, likely a decade (if not longer), I’ve been interested in Japan and the aspects of its culture and history. The idea of a society which, at face value, seems to be similar to that of the western society that I have grown up in, yet subverts all expectations with a new set of unspoken rules, is so interesting to me. I hesitate to say “mysterious” when describing it because there is little-to-no mystery about it. I’d like to make it clear that I’m not interested in Japan in the same way that a child would be interested in a carnival sideshow. My interest lies, rather, in the idea of exchanging one culture, with all of its flaws and imperfections, for another culture that comes with its own brew of guidelines and problems, while also gaining or losing each of their respective benefits. I’ve spent time in Japan before, in Higashiyodogawa,Osaka, as well as Nakamura, Nagoya. During my time there I found myself feeling more at ease with a place than I have in a long time, even more so than in my own home. I feel that if I am to truly see if Japan is the kind of place I’d like to spend a lot of my life, I’d need a more full, residential experience, rather than being limited by a 2-week vacation in a space that I couldn’t truly call “my own”.

Additionally, while I am already able to use resources available to me in the US (dictionaries, textbooks, online grammar guides, and everything in-between), I won’t ever truly have a holistic Japanese learning experience unless I’m in an environment that wouldn’t allow me to slip back into the comfort of my native tongue whenever I’m not actively pushing myself. Learning a language is an important part of understanding a society and, more importantly in my case, incorporating yourself into that society. If I am to, as I said, have a full residential experience, I will absolutely have to learn the language in a natural setting. I have the building blocks, as I’ve been studying casually for a little over a year. Now all I need are the blueprints.

Throughout this entire statement I’ve been focusing on why I’d like to study at ILA. Now, however, I would like to take a moment to cover why ILA might be interested in having me in its alumni. For starters, I’m a very motivated person and when I attach myself to something I keep at it until it’s done. If I can do something in fewer sittings, I will. That said, I’m not a sloppy person when it comes to my work. I’ve been told that I’m very articulate and that I have the ability to put across complex concepts in a comprehensive way. Several of my teachers from all across my schooling career have told me that I’m very well suited to discussions, and I have a very solid, and sometimes even elegant way with words.

I also have a knack for coming up with unique ideas and interesting perspectives on things, which I feel could really show well in writing, and it has before. Through a popular blogging website, I’ve accumulated a large quantity of people - a number in the tens of thousands - who follow my blog and enjoy my ideas. This blog, as a matter of fact, actually helped fund my original trip to Japan. Through two months of campaigning, as well as doing voice-over work (a hobby of mine) for commissions, I was able to raise $3,500, which I used to take the aforementioned two-week vacation to Osaka and Nagoya. The platform also creates larger discussions and furthers the fleshing-out of any single kernel of thought that I might plant within it. This is, more than anything else, because I want to make people happy.

While I’m not the kind of person who would likely be seen on the cover of a medical magazine being celebrated as the founder of some super-medicine that could prevent a major disease, nor would I likely be seen as the head of a major rocket science corporation, I’ve found that I can still help bring people joy through my words. On countless occasions people have told me that I help them get through the day with my positive messages and jokes. The messages I’m most proud of, however, come from those who contact me telling me that I’ve convinced them that life is worth living, and that they should keep on trying. In those moments I know that what I’m doing is truly beneficial to the rest of the world, and it makes me incredibly happy.

I have high hopes for a future that might be waiting for me at ILA. Understandably, I already think about what it would be like, and what interactions I might have there. I’ve never felt as excited as I am typing this for what kind of experiences would come to me in this kind of academic setting. I find myself periodically watching the videos on ILA’s YouTube channel and thinking about how wonderful that would be for me. This kind of leap for me is something I’m very passionate about and, through my words, I hope that I’ve been able to convince you that my mind and heart are in the right place. Even more than that, I hope that I’ve been able to competently and understandably explain how and why ILA should consider me for admission this coming fall.

#text #thank u

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trentteti · 6 years

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Predictions for the January 2019 LSAT

For the January exam, we’re going to switch our typical predictions post up a little bit.

For the past few years, we’ve jokingly made hyper-specific and ridiculous predictions for each LSAT that, unsurprisingly, were not borne out by the actual exam. The “joke” was that making actual predictions on the LSAT was a fool’s errand, since you won’t know exactly what the Logical Reasoning questions, Reading Comp passages, or Logic Games would be about. And, even if you did, that knowledge wouldn’t be of much use. So, we’d make a few winking, sort-of-inane predictions, and then remind students that as long as they were comfortable with the concepts that get tested on every LSAT, they’d do great, irrespective of what would end up showing up on the test.

Buuuut … as it turns out, people about to take a very important exam would like to have some idea about what will be on said exam. Who could have guessed that? So we’re going to take a bit more honest and forthright approach to January’s predictions. This is officially the truth corner, where we tell the truth.

Except — here’s the thing — the January test is nondisclosed, which means that it’ll never get released to test takers or test prep companies. So we can’t check whether our predictions — no matter how truthful or “hilarious” they may have been — were accurate.

Plus, prior to last year, the only nondisclosed LSAT every year was the February exam. Before 2018, LSAC would release three of the four LSATs administered each year, and keep one nondisclosed February exam for itself. LSAC did this to have a bank of usable, unreleased exams to give to international test takers, those who observe Sabbath and take the LSAT on a different day, or in case it had to administer a make-up test for whatever reason.

But then LSAC changed up its test schedule in 2019. On top of the usual four exams, it threw in a July test for good measure. And that July test was nondisclosed, just like the past February exams. And when that July test came, they didn’t make a new, previously unused nondisclosed exam. They simply re-used an old February exam (the February 2014 exam, to be specific). And people were not happy about this. Their argument: those who took the February 2014 exam had an unfair advantage. An obvious counterpoint: those few people who spend over four years studying for the LSAT probably need every advantage they can get.

Anyway, looking ahead to the new schedule in 2019, we realized that LSAC would no longer hold a February exam. We could no longer pinpoint the exam that we knew would be a new nondisclosed exam. And we noticed there would many more nondisclosed exams on top of the July 2019 test. In 2019, the January, March, July, and October exams will all be nondisclosed. And that means that — unless LSAC is somehow able to almost double the volume of tests they produce every year — some of these will also be recycled nondisclosed exams. Probably a majority of them.

So, the big prediction for January — really the only one that matters — is whether LSAC is going to give you a new, previously unused nondisclosed exam (like they did for past February exams), or if they’ll again recycle a past nondisclosed exam (like they did in July 2018).

Our prediction: this January test will be a new nondisclosed exam. It’s essentially taking the place of the usual February exams in the 2019 schedule. Plus, if LSAC is going to administer this many exams every year, they’ll eventually have to replenish the supply of fresh nondisclosed exams. They can only draw from the well of past February exams for so long.

So what’s going to be on this presumably new exam? Well, this is the honesty part we promised: we can’t say with certainty. We don’t possess any inside knowledge or clairvoyance or even particularly keen gifts of foresight. But based on what we’ve seen on the recent exams, here’s what we can guess:

On LR, there will be a lot of Strengthen and Flaw questions. And you can expect a lot of those Strengthen questions to be of the Strengthen Principle variety. You won’t see many Implication questions, but almost all of them will be Soft Must Be True questions. You should diagram about 10 questions, and well over half of the questions will involve one of the common fallacies. There will be one fallacy in particular that will show up over and over again. In the spirit of our old super specific and unsubstantiated predictions, let’s posit that the exclusivity fallacies will rear its ugly head multiple times throughout both LR sections.

On Reading Comp, you’ll get at least one passage about science and at least one passage about the law. The remaining will be about some combination of social sciences, history, the arts, or culture. The comparative passage will be, in all likelihood, the most difficult passage of the bunch and an objectively challenging and dry piece of content.

For Logic Games, expect a 1:1 ordering game and a tiered ordering game. You’ll also get a grouping game of some sort — the smart money is on an unstable grouping game, but one of the other games could show up too. The fourth game will either be another ordering game (probably involving some principles of distribution), another grouping game, or a combo game. I mean, I basically just told you to expect all the games you’ve spent the last few months practicing, but, as I said, these are honest and forthright predictions.

Of course, we might be wrong about the prediction that the January test will be a new nondisclosed exam. In that case, LSAC will draw from a past February exam. We’ll assume they’ll want to keep it recent but not too recent, so we’re guessing it’ll be the February 2012, 2015, 2016, or 2017 exam. The February 2013 and 2014 exams were the last ones used, so probably not those. Maybe do some internet sleuthing about those exams. Be aware, you won’t be able to figure out that much. LSAC has rules that prevent anyone from getting too specific in their post-exam commentary for this very reason. But maybe that research will give you a general sense of the difficulty level you’re in for and the scintillating subjects you’ll see in your Reading Comp passages.

Either way, if you have the basics down, it won’t matter whether the test is new or old. Instead of using this last week worrying about what might be on the exam, brush up on the skills you know get tested on all exams. Get some practice diagramming conditional statements, and making deductions with them. Review all the common fallacies, and practice identifying them on Flaw, Parallel Flaw, and most Operation questions. Study up on causal relationships, particularly how to strengthen and weaken them. Do some final Reading Comp passages, and really focus on recognizing the author’s attitude and conclusions. Go over when to make scenarios in ordering and grouping games.

And since everyone loves a curve prediction — even on a nondisclosed exam where the curve isn’t released — I’m seeing a -10 curve. Honestly, I hope I’m wrong about that one, though.

Predictions for the January 2019 LSAT was originally published on LSAT Blog

#January LSAT #LSAT #predictions #trent teti #lsat

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keepyourpantsongohan · 6 years

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I’ve been really possessed of the idea of a post-Kaguya no chakra AU lately, so here’s an unnecessarily long ramble about what it might look like:

Since Kaguya is the originator of chakra in the Naruto universe, sealing her and Zetsu also subsequently affects the ability of all ninja to mould chakra. Kaguya wanted to take all chakra back, and inadvertently, her sealing does just that.

Perhaps the continued existence of Black Zetsu and the God Tree in the world was the only reason ninja could combine energies in the first place - a spiritual link between humanity and chakra.

This has a lot of immediate fallout. For one thing, Sasuke has no reason to fight Naruto any longer. If no one is able to use chakra, then Sasuke no longer has enough power to tilt the axis of the world, and the world itself has already tipped - the shinobi system he wanted to challenge is crumbling at its foundation.

So Team 7 doesn’t fight. Perhaps without that fight, Sasuke would be unable to have an epiphany about relying on others, but the outcome remains the same: Sasuke doesn’t attack his comrades.

It’s possible that, as jinchuuriki, Bee and Naruto would be exempt from this circumstance. But even then, they’d only have access to the power in a transformed state, where their bijuu can act as the link between them and chakra. On the day-to-day, they’re the same as the others around them. It’s likely that every other shinobi loses their chakra-based techniques entirely. Even doujutsu would require infusing chakra into the eyes, so regardless of an eye’s appearance, there are no longer any accompanying abilities.

Without moulding chakra, there’s no medical ninjutsu, so even in the days that follow, more people are lost as they succumb to their wounds. There are plenty that do survive though, albeit much weaker than they would’ve been if they could be healed.

Each shinobi is eager to return home, even the wake of all the confusion. There’s some uncertainty about leadership now. The Kage are most often chosen by their power. They no longer have access to their bloodline limits. Onoki and Tsunade, whose bodies have suffered the most, immediately feel its effects. (A reasonable explanation for why Tsunade would so hastily abandon her post.)

The villages still need leaders, so Kakashi still ends up becoming the Rokudaime Hokage. But for the first time, his strength is irrelevant - he’s chosen entirely because he has the trust of the village (particularly Tsunade) and a sharp mind. Konoha needs someone to lead them into a new age.

The daimyo are greatly concerned. Their military strength has relied almost entirely on the ability to infuse chakra. One thing agreed by both Kage and daimyo is that, for the sake of preventing further calamity, Bee and Naruto will be the last jinchuuriki.

They rebuild. By hand, this time, since Yamato’s mokuton is gone. It’s a slow and arduous process. They’ve organized themselves around being shinobi for so long, it’s hard to figure out where they’ll go from here. The academy is a defunct structure. Many people whose jobs relied on their abilities lack a clear source of income.

Kakashi appeals to the daimyo for this. He secures enough funding to open several new research facilities, not focused on ninja techniques, but on other things. Technological advancement. Agricultural production. Sustainable energy sources. Medicine.

It’s not just the sciences which advance. Now that the shinobi system has fallen apart, there’s a great interest in examining its history in detail. The other nations are less reluctant to share intel, since they’ve fought a war together, and all the secrecy behind their techniques is irrelevant now. So in Konoha, and every other village, historians gather, creating previously unexamined and wildly conflicting accounts of the world from chakra’s beginning to end.

There’s an interest in opening up a university, in the years that follow, so that the knowledge produced by these fields isn’t available to researchers alone. The money once used to maintain their supply of weapons is re-purposed, and there’s an opportunity for all citizens to be educated for free. The curriculum changes each year as new advances are made. There’s greater demand for teachers, because many people have wanted to spend more time learning, but never had a place to do so. There are all new kinds of cultural and technological production driving their economy now.

Clans become far less important, and far less politicized. There’s no point in worrying about keeping secrets if you no longer have a family technique. The Hyuga, especially, are forced to change. Even if the war hadn’t changed their perspective, there is little point in concerning themselves so heavily with main and branch families if they can no longer use the Byakugan.

Sakura focuses her energies on learning new medical techniques that don’t require chakra. She pulls research from any recorded history she can find about early medicine used when chakra wasn’t so common. She is at the forefront of her field, and Tsunade and Kakashi lend their support to her as she restructures the hospital.

Sasuke’s situation is unclear, for a while. The military he defected from technically no longer exists. He killed an acting Hokage, but on the edge of a war, and one who’d been responsible for the deaths of countless Konoha citizens. He’d never actually attacked the Leaf, but he’d certainly harmed a lot of people. People don’t know whether to jail him or call him a hero for his actions in the war. He himself isn’t sure how he feels about Konoha. Team 7 helps. They advocate strongly for Sasuke, and continuously pester him while he’s on house arrest. He feels a bit like he did when he was 13. Not exactly bound to the village, but bound to his team at least. He even ends up becoming better acquainted with Sai and Yamato, because Sai is wary of him hurting Sakura and Naruto, and Yamato will sometimes accompany the others on their visits.

When he’s pardoned again, he does still think about leaving. Sakura and Naruto tell him that he’s an idiot, and they physically hold onto him until he says he’ll think about staying, even when that takes a day and a half. “This hug is getting really sweaty,” he says, as they cling to him in his kitchen. “Don’t you have places to be?” They both shrug.

Kakashi offers him a job. He thinks part of the reason that Sasuke was so obsessed with vengeance is that he could never find any justice. So he asks Sasuke to think about what their new civil and criminal justice systems should look like. Less subjective to the whims of whichever Hokage or councilman is doling it out, and instead relying on due process. Systems where people like Danzo would be held accountable for their actions. And systems where people could arbitrate their problems, so that discrimination like that which spurred the Uchiha clan to coup could not happen. The appeal of being able to prevent another Itachi from occurring is too great, so Sasuke stays.

Naruto’s a little lost in the wake of all this too. Most of his plans for the future had always assumed that the shinobi system would still be in place. He’s not sure he knows what to strive for anymore in this new world. Kakashi asks him to help Sasuke work on the justice system reforms. He thinks Naruto would be a moderating influence, and that their combined pessimism and optimism might just create something functional. When it comes to the subject of the laws and procedures that affect children, Naruto finds himself particularly driven. He thinks he’d like to ensure that no child would ever grow up as lonely as him or Sasuke again. So, with Kakashi’s guidance, he helps to draft procedures which protect the children of their village from abandonment, endangerment or abuse.

Naruto doesn’t stop there. It’s one thing to put it in the law, but he’s always been more of a doer than a thinker, so he wants to create actual programs where children might have better resources available to them. A functional foster system. Social programs which allow for education and socialization even for children who haven’t found homes yet. Charities which specifically collect resources to make sure these kids are looked after, both physically and emotionally. He’s a force of change in a different way than he ever imagined.

There’s a recognition that the people who’ve been shinobi to date need different accommodations, and that job falls to Sai. Having grown up taught to separate himself from his emotions, he understands how hard it is in the aftermath to have to confront them. So with Sakura’s help, he becomes in charge of a counseling centre for veterans. He isn’t a counselor (he’s still got some healing to do, himself) but he administers the place so it functions effectively, and makes certain that anyone who needs a place to deal with their emotions has it.

Orochimaru would’ve been one of the first people held accountable to the new reforms on child protection, but as it is, it soon becomes irrelevant. Orochimaru’s body decays. The experiments he’s performed on his body cannot be sustained without the continuous moulding of chakra, and so he falls apart. They give his body to Otogakure, and one of his former subordinates buries him in an unmarked grave.

So, Yamato stays in the village too. He still feels guilty about what happened to him in the war, and is confused about who exactly he is without mokuton, but part of him is glad he can never be used as a weapon again. Even without his mokuton, he’s still the best at designing buildings in the village, so as the village not only rebuilds, but expands, he becomes the most sought-after architect in all of Konohagakure. Sometimes he’ll even receive requests from the other villages, but he always returns. He spends weeks building himself a home on the edge of the village, exactly to his liking, and with enough room to host all of the kids of Team 7, when they come by. He claims he lives alone, but Kakashi’s most often found there too, complaining that the Hokage residence is too stuffy for him to be comfortable.

As in the days of Hashirama, the other villages follow suit with the changes of Konohagakure. This time, it is less about maintaining a balance of power and mostly just because the reforms are working. People are happier. Fewer people die. Children are cared for. And while their system isn’t perfect - they’re under a feudal lord, after all, and there are concerns about the future of their military - it’s better. And that’s the optimistic world we’re left with when Naruto finally becomes Hokage.

#ayesha talks anime #wow this is a very long post #but yeah this is what i wanted thanks for coming to my tedtalk #team 7 #naruto series #au headcanons #headcanons #i guess???

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yeastofeden · 6 years

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Hello! Your Traitor Uraraka theory was an amazing read! I want to dive into the world of character/story/literary analysis too, but I dont know where or how to start... Any advice/tips you could share?

Thanks so much! I’m honestly flattered you would ask… I’m ahobby writer so a lot of what I know about analysis is what I learnedin grade school, on my own, or adapted from what I know about artcriticism & analysis….. Since you’re not sure on the start,I’ll just talk about all the core things I feel helped me getinterested in this.

Read If I had torecommend anything specificfor reading, I’d say lookinto classic literature – not because its “critically acclaimed,”but because a lot of the time classic literature has been analyzed byprofessionals in their fields, so it can be a nice way to see howother people handle character interpretation, storytelling, worldbuilding, and so on. I liked Shakespeare a lot, and you probablywouldn’t be surprised to hear that people analyze the shit out ofShakespeare. I probably picked up the most of my understanding ofcharacter analysis from indulging in Shakespeare alone.

Don’t like Shakespeare? I’d say look into stories that are just over 50 years old; Lord ofthe Rings, Catcher in the Rye, Pride & Prejudice, Lord of theFlies…. So long as you can find actual scholars analyzing it,you’re golden. Read things you enjoy; if you like anime and only care about that…maybe check out textbooks on classic anime.

Alongwith looking up how others analyze, start being critical with all themedia you consume. Movies are a great way to do this because it’sshort format and easyconcumption. You can stayfocused on critical thinking for a couple of hours while enjoyingsomething–I also think movie reviews are a good way to experiencecritical analysis. And don’t just watch good movies… watch badones too, and figure out why they’re bad.

WriteActuallywrite. Take all the interesting things you learned and apply it tosomething. Don’t just think about it; the tragedy about onlythinking is that nothing really solidifies like it does once youfinally put it out there. Talkto friends about it if you can drag them into aconversation;a lot of my analysis started out because I was talking with otherpeople. If you don’t have anyone to talk to about a series or don’twant to bother people with your miscellaneous thoughts, get a sidetumblr or a dreamwidth and just write things there to get themdown–ifyou’reshy, just don’t tag things.Tbh, sometimes I just write things out and then delete them when I’mfinished just so I can get the thought out of me. Writing is just apowerful tool tohelp organize thoughts into cohesive opinions.

Butdon’t just write thoughts only… build on them. Write your owncharacters and stories just for fun. Write fanfiction. WriteAlternate Universes. Really just explore your own taste in fictionand the kind of things you yourself want to see. If there’s onevery easy thing I could suggest… take your favourite characters orship and slap them into story that already exists. I wrote one of myOTPs a few years ago into HasChristian Andersen’s theLittle Mermaid,andit was interesting andfuntrying to suit different characters into the roles of the story.

Writingand reading as a combination are just good things for you; they helpbuild competency with literature and language, andby just indulging in the two of these while remaining critical canjust naturally better your ability to read deeper into things.

ResearchAlongwith the earlier mentioned analyses that you should look into, it’sworth it to look into like extra resources. Check out interviews withyour favourite authors; look at like Ted Talks about creativity andwriting; read into tropes and motifs; find creative people you likeand follow their work and look for trends; lookinto writing concepts and themes.Storiesare just made up of patterns and once you start finding the patterns,you can start exploiting them. A Hero’s Journey is one of the mostfundamental patterns we can follow in storytelling, and with someabstract thinking we can start to predict the events that will occurin a story. A lot of my theory is built up on observing patterns.

IfI could point you toward one single video, it’s Kirby Ferguson’sTED talk “Embrace the Remix.” It talks about the idea thatnothing is original and all things are just remixed versions of eachother. This is part of why tropes exist; you could go look attvtropes.org and hit random and start learning about these patternsright now. Granted, I don’t recommend using tropes as a foundationof an argument, but knowing tropes can help you connect the dotsbetween series.

IfI had to suggest any non-literary research that’s worth lookinginto….Check out psychology, art, and/or culture. Psychology is just morepatterns, I use Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs when I write andobserve survival horror. Art is another way to tell a story and isespecially useful when observing visual media. Culture can help youunderstand why people write the way they do, becausethere is a difference between Eastern and Western media andstorytelling trends.

“Personality sections”Alittle back story on me: pretty much all of thereading/writing/researching I do thesedaysis because I do a lot of text-based roleplay on Dreamwidth. I’vebeen doing this for about8 years.Overthe years, I’ve written out easilyover 30 “personality sections,” which are basically 500-2kcharacter summaries–for characters like Sakura from Naruto, Makotofrom Free, Jake English from Homestuck, and so many others–as apart of a way to “prove” that I understand the character I’mroleplaying whenjoining organized groups.I’ve also read literallyhundredsof these personality sections because I joined vetting teams forsaid organized groups, and have written many rejectionresponses to help people understand where they can improve.A lot of people I know hate writingthese personality sections… but I love them.

Youcould join RP and get a feel for it thesame wayI did, but that might not be your thing. But the process of writingthese “personality sections” wasbroken down to a science byroleplayers,and can be seen as a base form of character analysis. Wetalkedabout a character’s personality, what shaped them to be that way,and sometimes how that affected them in the future of their story.When I led a vetting team, these were the requirements I set:

Mustbe at least three paragraphs long for minor characters, fiveparagraphs long for main characters. Players should be able to conveya good understanding of their characters, but just describing apersonality isn’t enough. Make sure that when you explain aparticular attitude that you back yourself up with some canon proof,otherwise mods have to wonder where you are getting this informationregardless of our knowledge of canon. Be sure to explain clearly andconcisely, organizing your paragraphs so related subjects aretogether. Avoid explaining the personality in such a way that itreads like a history section - generally this is determined byunnecessary use of chronological order.

Andthese are the same guidelines I hold myself to when I work on my ownpersonality sections. Some people have broken down personalitysections in such a way that they are formatted “three positivetraits, three negative traits” withsome variance.Some like to talk about important relationships aswell.I always defend that personality should be backed up with actualcanon evidence. “Uraraka is kind,” I could say, but I should backit up with an instance where she showed kindness, such as when shesaved Midoriya from tripping when they first meet.

TheorizingIfI’m honest, I don’t much like theorizing. I like to read theoriesand I like to think about things, but I’m not actually partial totrying to predict the future of a series because I feel likeserialized stories are too choppy to be worth my time, and there’snot much sense trying to predict the future of a story that’sfinished. I’m more inclined toward theorizing about the past, orwhat’s already happened but wasn’t explained.

Mydisinterest in theorizing kind of shows….I’ve only written twotheories for Tumblr–Urarakais the Traitor (My Hero Academia), and Both Shiros are the Clone(Voltron). I think I ended up being right about the second one butI’m not sure where the interview isthatproves it, justthat it was SDCC stuff.Thereason I’ve written any theories at all is because I personally wasmotivated by frustration–I didn’t know why people weren’ttalking about these things. SoI made a post to try to get people to talk. BeforeI posted my theory, no one would have looked twice at Uraraka andthat drove me nuts.Now I’ve made a following strong enough that Uraraka seems to beone of the highest contenders in terms of just… gossip. Which,thanks guys. I’m floored.

So…. Myadvice would be to pick a subject you think should be talked aboutand go for it. Do the research. Canon-review. Takenotes. Search for patterns outside what you’re trying to analyze.Writeand rewrite and rewrite again, becauseanalyzing is basically high school but fun.

And…lastly…. Prepare to be wrong. You have a different sense ofstorytelling than anyone else. I have been bitten right in the assbecause I viewed and loved many-a character because I saw them theway I wanted to, and the author clearly did not share my views.And people might not like your theory; people might super hate iteven, and that’s not such a big deal. In the end it’s just fiction and we’re all just here to enjoy a story we love.

I…know that’s a lot, but Ihope it was at least helpful information! Ithink in the end the most important part is just to be critical andremain open-minded. Never stop learning. Choose your battles. Write about what you love.And don’t worry so much about being wrong.

#Anonymous #literature #by me

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