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sweetbitterimpossiblecreature · 3 years

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A Brief And Concise Summary Of Is Wrong With The ACOTAR Series

I think we can agree that a lot of ACOTAR is pretty iffy. Consider this a very brief refresher.

What's Wrong With Feyre/Rhysand (juxtaposed against Feyre/Tamlin)

Rhysand drugs and sexually assaults her in Book 1

This is "for her own good". Because he "has no choice". Despite the fact that, from what we know of the plot, Amarantha thinks that Clare Beddor was the one Rhysand was diddling, and is only interested in Feyre because Rhysand, "her" man male, has taken an interest in her.

If we extrapolate from this we can figure that Rhysand is the one directly putting her into danger.

Now, let's be clear: drugging someone is bad. Sexually assaulting someone is bad. One could argue there were extenuating circumstances. But if, in such a situation, what your mind goes to is "I know, I should assault this person... for their safety" I have questions about your moral qualities. There were a million things he could have done. He could have done whatever he did to Clare - that is, remove her ability to feel any pain - easily. He could have helped her escape. Under The Mountain, he - while still there unwillingly - has a lot of power, as Amarantha's side piece. Maybe this would have resulted in him being punished- however, he is hundreds of years old and a badass motherfucker, and she is a nineteen year old human girl.

Now, onto Tamlin. Obviously not a lot of people really ship F/T anymore after ACOMAF, because compared to F/R, it's boring. I read another person's post about it, which was very enlightening: they said that Feyre's personality is essentially a mirror. When she is with Rhysand, she's snarky and malicious- because she is "bouncing off" his energy. When she's with Mor she's super feminist and "in awe of her strength". On the other hand, Tamlin is kind of an empty character. He's a pretty boy with anger issues, which should be more interesting than it is. SJM manages to make him bland. Because Feyre has nothing to bounce off of, (a lot of this is from the person's post), she and Tamlin together is mainly just him introducing her to his world.

What Tamlin Does: prevents a skinny twenty year old from going on dangerous missions with him and combat-trained soldiers, accidentally blows up a room with her in it, and, at the end, prevents her from leaving the house.

This is not a Tamlin apologist post. Obviously it was really fucking gross of him to do that, and their relationship was toxic. However, a lot of his abuse stems from their inability to communicate, as well as own negligence. He does not knowingly and purposefully sexually assault her or rape her mind. And tbh, leaving a girl without combat training at home while he goes on missions with a bunch of muscled sentries is... kind of reasonable?

Again: not a Tamlin apologist post. It was abuse. However, if Rhysand is "allowed" to sexually assault, mind-rape, and drug Feyre "for her own safety", why is Tamlin demonized for preventing her from leaving his mansion "for her own safety"?

Another pertinent point: Rhys is never punished for sexually assaulting her. It is brushed off as part of his "mask" or that his hand was forced. Jesus Christ my dudes, his hand was not forced under her skirt. If he has to maintain his gross rapist abuser tyrant oppressor mask... why? Who did that benefit beside him? None of his actions remotely helped Prythian. They were done solely for his buddies - five people safe in a rich hidden city - and no one else, which is explicitly stated.

Finally, the power dynamic is fucked up. Feyre is less than twenty five years old. Rhysand is 500. There is a tendency in fantasy romance to romanticize a centuries year old man with a young girl, because the man does not show symptoms of age, and so it is easily ignorable. However, can we just briefly acknowledge how fucked up it is? Rhys is over five times older than Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and other known predators/abusers. She is twenty. That is really fucking gross. She is in a vulnerable position and he takes rampant advantage of that.

If he had wrinkles, liver problems, and erectile dysfunction, more people would acknowledge it.

Let's be clear: I'm not saying writing a book with an uneven power dynamic is automatically bad. For example, in The Locked Tomb series, which is in my opinion THE BEST FANTASY SERIES THAT HAS GRACED THIS EARTH (lol i'm starting fires), one main character Harrowhark Nonagesimus is in a position of power over Gideon Nav, the other main character. However, this is not glossed over or romanticized. Gideon resents Harrow for this- there is a relationship of mutual antagonism, fraught with unwilling familiarity and intimacy from growing up together. They are roughly the same age. While there is a certain power dynamic (in that world, there is a dynamic of necromancer and cavalier, i.e. sorcerer and sword) the "empowered" character (Harrow) emphatically respects her and does not abuse this power, although both would of course deny this, and she does make a show of threatening and being aloof. In short, while Gideon obeys her, Gideon also has power over Harrow, and the idea of what is essentially slavery is not romanticized.

Feyre Doesn't Face Any Consequences For Her Own Actions

Let me present a radical notion: a guy preventing you from leaving his house does not justify completely fucking ruining his country and harming the people inside it.

In other words: Tamlin does not deserve what she did to him.

I know that sounds iffy. We're conditioned to think that if someone is an abuser, then they are the scum of the earth, they deserve to die, torturing/murdering/doing anything to them is completely A-OK. However, here's another radical notion: someone harming you does not justify you doing worse.

Obviously, the effects of psychological abuse can cause you to hurt other people (see: Nesta), but Feyre deliberately and maliciously (oh, God, that insufferable POV of her in Spring Court; she reads like a cartoonish Disney villain) dismantles his country. She uses sexual manipulation (Lucien), torture (causing the sentry to be whipped), and mind-rape (who didn't she do this to? lol).

A summary of the entire first half of ACOWAR: "It smelled like roses. I hated roses. For this capital offense against my olfactory system, Tamlin and the entire Spring Court deserved to burn in hell. I knew exactly what I was doing. I smiled at him sweetly: no longer a doe, but a wolf. He didn't see my fangs.............." *aesthetic noises*

Man. I'm starting to think SJM had a horrible experience at a Bath & Body Works and took it out on the rest of us. Don't do it, Sarah!! I know Pink Chiffon and Triple Berry Martini are way too strong, but don't take it out on an innocent population!!

She steals from Summer Court (there are, yk, other solutions to theft. Like maybe asking politely) and ruins Spring Court. Her boyfriend - yeesh sorry, MATE - does nothing while a dozen Winter Court children are murdered.

Now: moral ambiguity is not automatically bad. Again using The Locked Tomb as an example, in the second book (spoiler alert), Harrowhark has a sort of moral ambiguity. She was raised from the beginning to worship the King Undying as God, and so she obeys him without question. Because of this, she commits a lot of crimes in His name: she "flips" - i.e. kills - the life force of planets, and she plots murder (albeit the murder of someone who tried to kill her first). There is no attempt to justify this. There is also no attempt to paint her as a virtuous and yet also badass Madonna figure. She is desperate, plagued with the "wreck of herself", and the book clearly displays her moral pitfalls. While her POV is of course colored by her mindset, it also is limited by her lack of information, and we as readers can acknowledge that.

BACK TO ACOTAR: Feyre is seen by everyone as gorgeous, formidable, and essentially perfect. Rhys sees her as flawless, "made for him", wonderful, beautiful, blah blah blah. (THEY ARE SO BAD FOR EACH OTHER; THEY EXCUSE AND GLORIFY EACH OTHER'S CRIMES, IT'S SO BAD, GUYYYS). Tamlin is insanely batshit in love with her, or whatever. To the Night Court she's the High Lady. In this way she personifies the Mary Sue character. (Excerpt from the TV Tropes page on Mary Sues: "She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal." Sound familiar?)

There is the Ourobous scene. And yet, paradoxically, while presented as an acknowledgment of her flaws, it is in fact a rejection of them. She sees her own brutality... and instead of recognizing that she has these deep, deep moral flaws and realizing that she needs to grow and be better, she in fact "accepts" them.

Guys: Self love means: "I'm important to me, so I'm going to get a massage today after work", or "heck, why not splurge on some expensive lotion, you only live once" or "you know what? I had a tough day today. I'm going to get that strawberry cupcake". SELF LOVE DOES NOT MEAN "oh, I accept all the war crimes I have done, I love myself". LOVING YOURSELF DOES NOT MEAN ABSOLVING YOURSELF OF ALL WRONGDOING.

It's this refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing that is so grating about ACOTAR. It's so goddamn one-sided. And you can tell that after Book 1, SJM decided to completely change the trajectory simply because of how jarring Book 2 reads compared to the first one.

Also: Feyre is a very, very young girl (compared to the other ruling fey) who did not know how to read for the majority of her life. She has no experience whatsoever in politics. Her being High Lady is not a win for feminism.

Rhysand: He Sucks

First, he is 500 years old. He should be written as such, not as some 20 year old virile frat boy feminist. Fantasy is all the more compelling for its elements of realism, which is a concept that SJM does not appear to grasp.

Second of all, his morals are absurd. He is written as the Second Coming of Christ, as someone who can do no wrong, ever, and his flaws only serve to make Feyre love him more. Anything shitty he does is written as part of his "mask" and she can See Beneath It and knows that it "hurts" him to maintain this "mask".

Fellas, WHY DOES HE HAVE TO MAINTAIN THIS MASK???? There is no reason for it. If A) he does not give a shit about Court of Nightmares (we'll get back to that), only about Velaris, and B) Velaris is hidden/protected from the world, what is he pretending for?

It would not hurt him politically to be seen as someone who cares about his country.

"Pretending" to be "Amarantha's whore" does not in any way shape or form benefit the macro-world that is Prythian. In Amarantha's name, he commits atrocities. He commits war crimes; he systemically oppresses entire societies. It doesn't even really benefit Velaris, because Velaris is already hidden.

Let me put this in a real-world perspective. This would be like if Donald Trump was suddenly like: "I know I was a shitty president but IT WAS ALL PART OF MY MASK, WHICH WAS TO PROTECT THIS MICROCOSM OF PRIVILEGED PEOPLE THAT I CARE ABOUT". Like: okay? Sorry, or whatever, but I don't actually give a shit. What about the parents of the children who died? What about Clare Beddor? What about the people who were held in slavery, murdered, tortured?

Rhysand: omg it sucks that my cousin Mor was oppressed by this toxic misogynistic culture from the Court of Nightmares.

Also Rhysand: lol whatever, who gives a shit about Court of Nightmares. They all suck. They meanie. Lol what did you say? That there might be other girls just like Mor who are oppressed by this system? Lol whatever. I can't do anything, I gotta maintain my Mask. I gotta sit on this throne and show the entire Court that not respecting women is completely okay.

In summary: by parading Feyre around as his "whore" (!!) he demonstrates by example that it is completely okay for the Court of Nightmares to abuse their women.

A good ruler cares about all his people. Rhysand cares about a tiny tiny fraction of his people: those who were fortunate enough to be born into Velaris.

God, I'm exhausted. Onto Nesta:

The only character who successfully breaks the Mary Sue effect Feyre exerts on her people is Nesta. Her POV for the first half is a joy to read.

Obviously it sucks that Nesta was a huge bitch to Feyre for the beginning of her childhood. However, it was wrong for Rhysand to threaten her- he is a man male with a huge insane amount of power, and it is not okay for him to threaten to bring the brunt of it down on a young girl because she was a bitch to his girlfriend.

I've seen a lot of discourse on the morality of F/R sending her out of Velaris. Here is my two cents:

It was okay for them to cut her off of their money. If they don't want to enable her self-harm, that is their choice. Again, it's their money, even if it wasn't fairly earned (Rhysand born into an enormous fortune).

It was not okay for them to banish her from Velaris with the implication that she was an embarrassment. Let me explain.

If Rhysand and Feyre are talking to her as sister/brother-in-law, then that is that. They have the complete right to express disapproval and try to help. However, they should not be using their royal privilege against her.

If they are talking to her as ruler to subject, then they have the power to banish her from the city. However, a ruler would not give a shit about a random subject getting drunk and having sex. So, they should not be talking her about her problems as a ruler to subject.

I've heard it compared to her being sent to rehab. However, rehab is a system designed to help people with certain problems. It has specialized medical centers and involves therapy. Nesta gets her life threatened multiple times. It is not rehab.

In summary: why did SJM inflict this upon us. Throne of Glass was actually good! GAHHH! After the first few books she completely whipped around and introduced the idea of males and mates and fey and that C is actually A and the quality took a huge nosedive. Sigh.

Final horrible but unmistakable truth: The entire ACOTAR series reads like a bad A/B/O fic. I hate to say it but it's true. We're lucky there were no heat cycles. OH WAIT

#anti sjm #anti rhysand #anti acotar #anti acofas #anti acomaf #anti everything #anti feyre #to some extent #mentioned: the locked tomb #mentioned: gideon the ninth #mentioned: harrowhark nonagesimus #anti #strongly anti #pan-int #that's my ao3 tag!#meta #my post

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deadendtracks · 2 years

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TW:

i find a little disgusting about how tatiana as a character is viewed as "empowering" and "bad ass" in the fandom when what she did to tommy was straight up abuse and the chocking scene has rapey vibes all over it. and somehow it gets viewed as hot or as if she was sexually empowering and some weird stuff. we know tommy uses his body for business all the time. he is a whore. we know this. but the chocking scene is so uncomfortable because tommy was straight up having a mental breakdown and she still went ahead and had majority of the control in the sex scene but there was not actual consent. he was imagining grace all along. he was intoxicated and recently recovering from a head injury. but she gets turned on from pain apparently, one that wasn't reciprocated. because that scene wasn’t consensual. her whole character gives me red flags. this fandom goes off with the whole "she understood him" but she barely ever did. everyone with a little bit sense of perception could get what tommy wanted and how freedom and killing were touchy subjects to him. her interactions with him were bare minimum but the narrative makes you believe she had some sort of superior knowledge to who he is as a person. there was nothing empowering about her, her character is what steven knight decided was a powerful female character but it feels more like it comes from his own sexual fantasies. i was so so glad when she left and never brought up again because she made me uncomfortable. the actress was great but the dialogue felt forced as well, like they were trying too hard to make her deep and bad ass or a female version of tommy but it just didn’t work. it felt over the top, and this is a problem i have most of the time. that they need to make female characters too much like their male characters to claim it.

Yeah, the labeling of Tatiana as badass and empowering for what she did to Tommy has aways deeply bothered me, not only because of Tommy but because of the place where that behavior was coming from for Tatiana herself. It wasn't empowering her at all to do these things; it was a reaction to the situation she'd been groomed into by her family. A lot of people who have been abused react by hurting others, and this is what I see going on with Tatiana and Tommy in s3.

The actually empowering thing she did was to work *with* Tommy to escape her family by helping him steal their jewels.

I understand why you'd see what happened between Tatiana and Tommy as abuse. It was certainly dubiously consensual, in the parlance of fandom. I think the khlysty scene was pretty complex from Tatiana's perspective, because I got the impression she legitimately did it because she thought it would help him -- there was the implication that she knew about khlysty because she experienced it herself, after having lost someone she loved in the war. So again, it's a trauma reaction to me, to think this thing is something that would help him. At the same time, it's not only that, clearly. It's also one of her games, and those games are in part about power and risk. That's the interesting thing about Tatiana to me -- these things are not so easily separated.

But the circumstances in which she does this are not one of informed consent -- Tommy's incredibly drunk and had started to visibly break down about Grace's death for the first (and only) time we saw that season. He was very vulnerable there and Tatiana did this very dangerous thing without really giving him a chance to agree to it, if he was even capable of making that choice at the time. And at least part of her motivation had to be to try to have him in debt to her and under her control because that's what was expected of her by her family, and also she may think it will help her get free of them. This is the only form of power she really has.

If she gets turned on by pain -- and I think this is probably a valid interpretation though it's just that, an interpretation -- I think it's less the inflicting of pain on someone than a mutual sharing of pain, a sort of twisted empathy. She sees him as a mirror to herself. She seemed to identify with his pain in that scene, and in the scene where she shows up in his marriage bed and puts on Grace's perfume. At the same time, it is about transgressing boundaries, very much so -- she sees this as freedom, but she doesn't take into account whether Tommy wants to go along on that ride, whether this will hurt him, and whether this is freedom to him as well. She's both earnest about it and a little mocking, in turn. I think she heavily identified with Tommy and thought she was mentoring him in a way -- what she says that night in Arrow House, about how she will show him how to use power, basically.

But what she doesn't understand is that she and Tommy don't have the same background with power at all. She grew up literal royalty -- which doesn't protect her from abuse and exploitation from her family, but is absolutely a level of power immensely higher than that Tommy grew up with, and still even as a rich as he was in s3, didn't possess. She and her family have coerced him into working with them under threat of hanging of his family, in order to restore them to this inherited power over an entire country. She may have little choice in the matter, but neither does he. It's complex, from a power standpoint, and I think those takes about girl power and badassery ignore all of this.

I don't agree the narrative is trying to make you think she has some kind of superior insight into Tommy as a character; if that were the case, he wouldn't have shot down her line about how she helped him through the grief over his wife. I do think that she was there to be a narrative parallel to him though. She's being exploited by her family, he's being exploited by Churchill (and her family), they end up forming an alliance in an attempt to subvert these powers.

I don't disagree that her character filled some stereotypes of cishet male sexual fantasies, at the same time I think she was more complex than this and the narrative had some compassion for her situation. I understand why you feel the way you do about her as a character but I don't share that opinion of her or of the other female characters on the show.

#peaky blinders #meta #dubious consent

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the-nysh · 4 years

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Alright, so since it looks like ONE’s spoiled us enough with his current webcomic quota, and has decided to leave us all hanging on such massive cliffhanger(s) like the generous but ~evil bastard~ he is, that gives me more time to collect my thoughts on ‘how will Garou react next?’

I’ve seen two opposite schools of thought on the matter: that he’ll either be 1) too depressed to bother fighting anymore, or 2) will effortlessly school Suiryu, giving him the manga equivalent ‘Gouketsu’ beat-down humbling moment to match up to his manga counterpart. Cause how Garou reacts will very much depend on how he’s mentally doing right now, which is still a big unknown, since the most we’ve garnered from him has been through his silent body language.

Here’s how he last felt immediately after Saitama:

Dejected and aimless after having his original dream shattered, and realizing the (compromised) mindset with which he approached his goal could never have matched Saitama’s limitless might. What should he do next? “For starters, go pay that bill,” Saitama says. He can do ‘whatever he wants’ later, after he rectifies and accomplishes that first step.

But here’s what’s most important: after feeling his deepest low, Tareo resparked his will to live.

After showing Garou who he (always) was and reminding him of what true heroism’s all about. (What Garou actually wanted to achieve, and in this case, needed to hear.) The light shining in his eyes here couldn’t have amounted to nothing. So it would honestly be a great surprise on ONE’s part, and quite frankly ooc for Garou to have completely lost his fire (his own ‘fighting spirit’) after this. His ‘monster’ power may be gone, but not that which makes him him.

After all, he was empowered enough to escape (at a speed no one else could track but Saitama), and traveled to the heights of a mountain peak to cleanse meditate on his life choices.

The speed with which he’s now bounced back among society, having followed thru on Saitama’s first step of advice (pay the dine n dash bill), to have already found an honest, constructive essential worker job (tailored to his physical strengths) is pretty remarkable. (As a lighthearted aside, his employer seeing just how much he can lift was probably like, ‘YOU’RE HIRED!!’ on the spot, aha.)

Also an important distinction: he’s a ‘part-timer,’ which means he still has time on the side to pursue his other interests and…hobbies (hint hint, just like Saitama). This is just the first step in getting his life back together, which can lead to many other possibilities going forward.

...But suddenly surrounded and ganged up on by Suiryu’s Neo Hero squad could throw a whole wrench into that. (Aside: if he still retains all his skills and sharp instinct, I bet he’s already sensed their presence.) Reenacting a familiar situation from his past could also trigger some of his worst memories…because the very thing he hates is seeing so-called ‘heroes’ (the Neo Heroes in this case) who parade around in the false name of ‘justice’ and what’s ‘good,’ but who throw away their morals/kindness and abuse their power/popularity/authority to wield excessive violence against those who’re socially deemed ‘bad.’ (What a mockery of heroism; the very thing that affirms to him why ‘pro heroes’ are no better than bullies...except this time, the Neos are actually worse, oh no.) That systematic unfairness, injustice, and bias that targets the weak/vulnerable/marginalized; the very core of his feelings and beliefs that both pisses him off and drives him into corrective action...all that is unlikely to ever change. He’s still Garou at heart; not a shell of his former self, but matured and awakened (to a new perspective) in another way.

Because if Sonic could quickly sense the Neo Heroes are shitty, there’s no doubt Garou can too.

The Neo Heroes who openly employ ‘homicidal maniacs’ like ‘A’?! Completely opposite to Garou’s whole character, even! (To make it clear, Garou has never killed humans.) If he senses their whole sinister plot going on here too, there’s a great chance he’s not gonna like it either.

I’ve seen people speculate he might assume an ‘enlightened pacifist’ role in response to Suiryu’s provocation this time (essentially, casually ignoring them or effortlessly shaking them off while prioritizing finishing his job), which is one amusing possibility. Because the other extreme of him reverting back to his old ‘hero hunter’ persona as before, would throw all of his development back to square one, and practically undo all the important self-realizations he’s had along the way. So it’s unlikely he’ll perform the ‘villain role’ all over again after he’s long since seen the light of true heroism. (Thanks to Saitama and Tareo’s help.) He may no longer even go by his old ‘hero hunter’ title either, but the Neo Heroes might just give him a very good reason to reframe that name in a brand new way....

Because he’s likely not about to start fights when he’s off peacefully minding his own business like this, but if he’s rudely targeted and unfairly attacked out of the blue, he will defend himself accordingly. That part of him is unlikely to change either. So I expect him to at least take some sort of stand.

After all, it’s just as Sonic said, who will be willing to take a stand against the Neo Heroes? (Saitama is currently...busy, while Genos is...welp.) As such inhumane truths and grievances against the Neo Heroes, especially when interrupting him and forcing Garou to get involved in the plot their whole mess like this, are likely to become things Garou cannot stand either. All eyes are open for how he reacts next!

#opm #garou #meta #webcomic spoilers #long post #speculation #me long awaiting for ONE to use his 'chekhov's garou' again: YES PLEASE #he could react to them in any number of ways but the core part of him shall likely not be extinguished

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jenn-coffin · 4 years

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Dear her

I remember my moment of clarity like it was yesterday. Which is interesting because I don’t remember much detail from that period of my life. The constant violence, anger and unpredictability put me into a state of fight or flight 24/7, and I have learned that when you live in trauma your mind forgets details in order to protect itself. My mind was protecting me long before I saw the danger I was in. But I remember my moment of clarity. I lived in this adorable little cottage in the old part of town. It was the place to be. We were surrounded by historic remodeled homes, and our little 1920’s cottage was tiny, mended and fixed up just enough to be liveable. I loved that home. It was what I always dreamed of living in when newly married and starting a family. I remember I was standing in the bathroom and I had just thrown up, which is how I started most mornings. At that point I was waking up with uncontrollable anxiety and fear. I couldn’t get out of bed without feeling nauseous. It had become my new routine, start the coffee pot, throw up, get ready for work. But this day was different, I was standing in the bathroom, not wanting to walk into the kitchen, not ready to put on a fake smile and my “everything is ok” look for my husband, I was staring at the scars all over the bathroom walls, partly from the age of the house and some from my husband's fists. I looked in the mirror and I finally saw the darkness I was feeling in my heart through my eyes. I felt as close to dead as one can while still being alive. I didn’t know what to do then, but I did know I was not living, I was barely surviving, and my body was disintegrating from the torture of abuse. I am not religious, It's kind of cheesy, maybe cliche, but in that moment I was reminded of the serenity prayer:“God, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”I finally saw that I could not control my husband's abuse, but I could control how I reacted, and it was getting time to leave.Shortly after that morning, my husband’s violence escalated to hitting me in public. It was still another two months before I filed for divorce. I share all of this because when I was asked to write this letter I realized I am writing to her. That woman staring at me in the mirror of that broken bathroom, in my dream home. I pray I never forget that darkness. It keeps me connected to where I came from, what I have overcome, and what others suffering in the silence of domestic violence need to hear.Dear Her,There is no other way to say this except, this situation you are in, being in love with a sick person, sucks. No matter how you look at it, living in this abuse is scary and it's sad. You have zero control of his continued choice to hurt you. I know he tells you differently, that he can’t control himself. He says it's because he has anger issues, and his anger is because of his childhood, or because he can’t keep a job, or because of alcohol, or because he is stressed about money, or because of his parents divorce, or because of his strained relationship with his sister, or because you don’t understand how to make him happy, or because of the way you said something. The list goes on and evolves depending on which excuse is closest to grab after the beating. The fact is, his abuse is a choice. His anger is a choice. He is able to control it when he is around other people. Just not you. This shows that he does have a choice and he chooses to hurt you. He hurts you because in his twisted sick mind, your tears and your fear and your pleading for him to stop because you love him makes him feel loved. It's weird, I know, with time you will start to understand this about abusive people. For now, you just need to know that his abuse is a choice that he makes every time he does it, and every time he doesn’t get help.Domestic violence, is hard to escape for many reasons, but the hardest to overcome is the genuine love you have for them. You have evaluated your love for him time and time again to make sure you are willing to stick around through hell until the love of your life can return and treat you like they did at the beginning. It's true, you do love him, and honestly, you won't ever stop loving him. You sincerely meant and believed your vows. When you said in sickness and health, you meant it, but unfortunately his sickness is actually hurting and killing you. He broke both of your vows when he started hurting you with the verbal, emotional, psychological and physical abuse. You cannot break something that is already broken, and he broke your vows for the both of you.Please know that you did not cause the abuse. There is nothing you could have done to keep him from doing the things he did. There is very little you could have done to have kept from falling in love with an abusive person. Domestic violence does not happen to an individual because of their characteristics, family background, mental health, race, sexual orientation, financial status, or an unconscious search for a certain type of partner. It can happen to anyone who has the misfortune of becoming involved with a person who wants power and control. You did not “let” abuse happen to you, you did not “allow it,” you did not get swept up into the cycle of abuse because of something wrong or lacking in you. You got swept up because that is how powerful the cycle of abuse is. Repeat this to yourself daily, write it on a sticky note, dedicate time, energy and emotion for this truth to sink in. It will help you forgive yourself, and you have to forgive yourself in order to live again.When you first get out, your life is instantly going to expand. Don’t get me wrong, you will grieve, but you will begin to feel the freedom of not living in fear. Enjoy this time, play with family and friends, let yourself dream about what your life in freedom will look like. This moment is called the pink cloud, and unfortunately it is temporary. Fear will creep back in through nightmares and potential stalking and harassing behaviors of your abuser. Enjoy the joy and dream the dreams you make during this time because it will be your fuel to continue healing and further separate from your abuser through the dark times in recovery.Connect with other survivors. You are part of an unfortunate club of badass, strong as hell, resilient, strategic, empowered, survivors. Survivors of abuse have some of the most powerful skill sets. We can manage high stress situations, juggle emotional turmoil, while managing our day to day responsibilities, care for others, and put on a smile while we do it. Through recovery and working with other survivors I have found that the soft skills I learned to survive abuse now are my greatest assets. But we need one another to recover and we need recovery to ensure these skills of ours are used for our health and benefit, and not for our detriment. As another survivor and author, Leslie Morgan Steiner says, “abuse thrives in silence.” When you feel the pangs of abuse creep in, and have thoughts of loneliness, despair, regret, self hate, disappointment, or worthlessness, talk to another survivor. Sitting in those feelings, mulling over them, trying to sort them out on your own, trying to understand what happened to you, what you did wrong, alone, is sitting in silence and continuing the isolation your abuser put you in. The shame of abuse is not yours to carry. Refuse to hold shame for something, someone else chose to do to you. To recover we have to step out of that silence and shame, we have to step out of our shell and talk about our experience. Only other survivors of abuse understand where we are, what we are feeling, and can offer solutions to get out of the holes our abusive partners put us in. This is why it is vital to find and connect to other survivors. We have all been there, we get it, and in fact, talking to new survivors helps us in our continued recovery as well. You can connect with other survivors by getting involved with a shelter or non-profit in your area. If by chance you are unable to connect to a local organization, which can be quite hard, you can find communities of survivors on Facebook and Instagram.No matter how hard you tried to not let their words of abuse sink in to how you see or believe yourself to be, more likely than not, they did. That's ok, with time the voices in your head will be yours again. It is not an easy or fast process, but it is possible. You need to practice everyday, identifying their voice and then replacing it with yours. It takes time but it is doable. Working with a therapist and other survivors will help you see when this is happening and help you change it.Recovery is hard. Sometimes it feels harder than it was to live in the abuse. In these moments you may think about going back. Don’t forget, you survived the abuse, you can survive recovery. You are going to miss them and hate that you miss someone that hurt you like they did. You will have nightmares, flashbacks, and sometimes feel paralyzed in fear. You will have a hard time focusing at work because you are hyper vigilant, a side effect of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Your other relationships may be difficult because of behaviors you learned in the abuse. Even if you don’t understand it, or think you need it, find a therapist that understands domestic violence and talk to other survivors. Talking to someone with a shared experience gets us out of the dark parts of recovery and empowers us to keep moving forward. Recovery is one day at a time, sometimes one moment at a time, and relearning how to meet our individual needs one need at a time. Reach out and ask for help when you don’t think you will make it through a day. We have all been there. Again, you survived the abuse, you can survive the recovery.Give yourself grace...As survivors of domestic abuse, giving ourselves grace is 100% necessary and unbelievably hard to do. I believe learning self grace is difficult for most people, but the difference for survivors of abuse is that doing it, giving ourselves grace, can literally feel unsafe in our minds and bodies. We have been conditioned to believe that giving ourselves a pass, or grace, is putting our guard down. We have learned that if we take responsibility, assume blame and make our self disappointment known, we can sometimes reduce or curb moments of violence with our abuser. Once we are free from abuse, victim blaming culture tells us we should be disappointed in ourselves for getting into and allowing abuse in our relationship. Looking back on my journey I see that there are two roads of recovery that run parallel to one another. One road is bereavement and it is lined with never ending regret, self hatred, and living in our trauma. The other road is self grace and lined with self forgiveness, love, appreciation and understanding our trauma. Unlike most parts of recovery, we have complete control over which road we take. Here is the deal, to step from bereavement to grace, we have to understand and accept that while living in abuse, we were doing the best we could with the information we had at the time of assault. The information we lacked or lack is that we were in the cycle of abuse, and that there is no fixing or stopping abusive behavior, there is only leaving and separating from it. Again, domestic violence does not happen to an individual because of their characteristics, family background, mental health, race, sexual orientation, financial status, or an unconscious search for a certain type of partner. It can happen to anyone who has the misfortune of becoming involved with a person who wants power and control.It takes work, but things do get better, that I promise you.Check out more blog posts at jenncoffin.com

#domesticviolence #domesticabuse #domesticviolencesurvivor #domesticviolenceawareness #ptsd #recovery

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warzofstarz · 5 years

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star wars Thoughts at 4 am

ok so rise of skywalker happened,,, and i have mixed feelings. i didn’t hate it but i didn’t love it either (and i usually love star wars movies), so i am in desperate need of a little rant about both the good and the bad in the conclusion of the saga

DISLIKE

1. JJ ABRAMS DISREGARDING ALL OF THE DEVELOPMENT WE EXPERIENCED DURING LAST JEDI. this is what i am most upset about. you don’t have to like tlj, but you can’t pretend it never happened. it’s like he was trying to completely backtrack on everything that happened in tlj bc it was ~his~ vision for the franchise. i think that is disrespectful to not only rian, but to fans who grew attached to the development of the characters. we see finn revert back to first movie finn (lovesick puppy lowkey), rey become an invincible child of the sith, the end of the skywalker family line, complete abandonment of rose, and a total shift in the message of the trilogy. all jammed last second into the film. the next few points all have to do w this

2. the fact that in tlj it is revealed that rey is truly nobody- she’s not some all-powerful descendant or some with royal blood- and tros completely ignores this and makes her a palpatine. the whole point before was that she’s normal, but that doesn’t make her any less powerful, smart, or strong. the message from the first two movies was that you don’t have to be in these elite categories to be special and powerful, which is an important message to every single child and adult watching. it empowers us as viewers to believe that we have the capability to be great, no matter our status, birth name, ethnicity, class, or where we are from. you can find family when you have none. you have the power to change your life. when jj decide LAST SECOND to make her a palpatine, with no clues thrown into the first two movies to lead us to believe this, it feels like a joke. the rey we had come to sympathize with is suddenly an all-powerful sith, seeming stronger than even anakin and yoda, even though she had never even completed training. this reveal is not emotional and literally loses respect rather than gaining any from the audience. a cop out. i felt less emotionally attached to rey than in the previous two films bc of her sheer perfect power

3. rose being 100% sidelined even though her character was incredible in last jedi. her arc was one that i truly couldn’t wait to see finish and sadly we never got it because she was completely abandoned so it could just be a trio once more. i love her. the disrespect.

4. the sudden introduction of zorri just so that poe has someone to flirt with??? like if you wanted to prove he was heterosexual make him flirt w someone he has actual on screen history and chemistry with, like uhhhh idk? rey?????? dont get me wrong tho she is a badass and i love how she shuts poe down!! queen

5. how they throw it in there that finn is force sensitive but don’t fully explain it?? and he never even tells rey??? this is SUCH a cool concept yet it’s never even hinted at until the third movie and its not further developed as to why. likewise i wish we saw the stormtroopers before they left the first order. see what they dealt with and the abuse they endured bc it’s such an important facet of the trilogy and literally drives finns character

6. how we never touch on why poe felt it when rey was tortured?

7. i wish leia hadn’t died and she rallied support w lando

8. if they are a dyad why didn’t rey and ben fight palpatine together?? then no one would have died??

9. i’m just really sad that they chose to kill ben because even though rey takes their name, the skywalker bloodline is gone, while a palpatine lives on. the entire purpose of the first six movies is anakin bringing balance by defeating palpatine. somehow, palpatine survived this (never explained!!!!), which completely defeated the purpose of the first six films and strips anakins chosen one status and ultimate sacrifice of any true importance. in the end of tros, the palpatine bloodline lives on while the skywalker bloodline is gone, and i can’t help but to feel like that contradicts the theme of the original saga in which the skywalkers defeat palpatine and hope lives on.

10. lastly, i just don’t think george lucas would have wanted ben to die. when people kill off main characters to make the movie more emotional, he has literally said “i don’t like that and i don’t believe that” he goes on to say that he hates when main characters are killed, stating “the whole point of the film, the whole emotion that i am trying to get at the end of the film, is for you to be real uplifted, emotionally and spiritually, and feel absolutely good about life. that is the greatest thing we could ever possibly do.” so, i’m sure some of you could see why i have a little issue with killing someone who has finally recognized the error of their ways and wants to be better. yes, he has done awful things that cannot be separated from his new identity as ben, but i think that it would have been even more impactful to make him live with the crimes he has committed and still make him keep fighting his demons to join his legacy on the light side. overall, bens death left a sour taste in my mouth, and for that reason i don’t walk out feeling uplifted. i just wish i knew what george lucas is thinking right now.

1. ben solo’s arc and han. now, before some of you pop off at me, i still think he was awful and horrible and didn’t deserve instant forgiveness, but i also think that someone who has grown up his entire life being treated like the spawn of satan by all adults who are supposed to love him would fuck him up majorly, like it would to anyone else in that situation. i think that he deserved another chance at experiencing love and happiness, and i absolutely adored the scene with him and han solo. it was honestly one of the best parts of the whole movie. thank you harrison ford. the whole “i don’t think i’m strong enough” and him tearing up to his dad CUT DEEP. AND THE “dad-“ “i know” LIKE LITERALLY MY HEART. bringing back the “i love you” “i know” so they are LITERALLY TELLING EACH OTHER THEY LOVE EACH OTHER!!! i’m at peace. adam driver’s acting was absolutely phenomenal. so much respect for him. truly incredible.

2. i loved poe and rey’s bickering. lowkey thought it built some chemistry between them. and how poe seemed quite jealous that finn knew stuff about rey that he didn’t, literally asking him more than once (1nce) about it, like???? han leia vibes. tea. but also poe and finn

3. i really liked jannah SOOO much (and i usually am not one for introducing a character so late) but, like i explained in detail above, i wish they had built that backstory better and introduced her a little bit sooner with more screen time. but i loved her and finns connection and understanding of their trauma.

4. FINN AND POE BEING THE CUTEST HUMANS EVER. that’s all. i just love how they care so very much about each other like stop. cogenerals.

5. ALL THE JEDI VOICES WERE SO FREAKING COOL. CHILLS.

6. i honestly think that’s all. i don’t have anything more

7. OH WAIT HUX BEING THE SPY. i ate that shit up. yes. we stan. AND the hint that he was going along w poe’s phone call in tlj so that the resistance could escape (that’s how poe KNEW it) like YES

8. the animation of young luke and leia made my heart weep

9. that lil sketchy bitch babu and the new cone droid that talks,, mmm

10. OH THAT THE FORCE BOND LETS THEM TRANSMIT OBJECTS THRU IT LIKE THE VADER MASK SCENE WAS ICONIC

11. this is so sad that i am putting this in my “like” parts but the fact that they didn’t kill chewie and that they showed him being so torn up about leias death

12. OH AND CHEWIE GETTING HIS MEDAL THAT WAS SO HYPE

13. rey burying the skywalker lightsabers and looking into the sunset, perfectly tying back to luke doing the same 42 years ago

overall, if i don’t think too hard, i did like it and felt kind of at peace. BUT it could’ve been much better @ JJ :/ i feel like it didn’t do the saga justice as the “conclusion of the saga” bc there is still so much left unanswered. but, like i said, i did enjoy it a lot and have so much love for this world. rant over. i love u star wars. thank u for everything. <3

#starwars #tros #the rise of skywalker #star wars #ben solo #rey #rey skywalker #jj abrams #poe dameron #finn #george lucas #im upset #the last jedi #tlj #the force awakens #tfa

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natalienaughton · 4 years

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Trigger Warning: Sisyphus Cannot Convince Everyone out of *******

TRIGGER WARNING: sexual assault and suicide

Sisyphus Cannot Convince Everyone out of Suicide

Existentialism: Existence and Anxiety

December 19, 2014

Katie did not believe that life was not worth living, she believed that her life was too painful for her to stay alive. I met Katie in the emergency room as a rape crisis counselor following her sexual assault. She displayed flat affect, as if even though her body was present, her conscious mind was not. Katie explained that she tended to dissociate because otherwise the painful trauma from her past would lead to thoughts of suicide. Katie’s father had sexually abused her as a child, she spent three years in jail as a young adult, she had attempted suicide twice, and her suicidal ideation led to frequent hospitalizations. This particular evening Katie had come to the emergency room after surviving a sexual assault perpetrated by two strangers while she was waiting for the bus. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not embracing positions of existentialist philosophy can prevent people like Katie from dying by suicide, as there is no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future Katie will attempt to take her life again. I will begin by explaining Albert Camus’ position that one can make life worth living by accepting that the universe will never provide a concrete meaning for existence and by finding intrinsic value in the meaningless tasks of everyday life. Camus illustrates this argument by using The Myth of Sisyphus as a metaphor for how to live a meaningful life. I will argue that Camus’ position is not sufficient to prevent individuals like Katie from dying by suicide, as it does not offer her the ability to have autonomy over her life, which is a necessary factor for surviving adversity and reducing one’s risk of suicide. Camus’ argument does not apply to someone who faces extreme adversity, because rebelling against the absurd like Sisyphus is not enough to convince someone out of taking her own life.

Camus addresses the option of suicide in response to the absurd, which refers to how the world is silent and does not provide us a clear answer for living. The two obvious options to respond to the absurd are to invent one’s own meaning of life or to die by suicide. Camus argues that both of these options avoid addressing the absurd and are merely an escape from it. He suggests a third option of rebelling against the absurd through accepting that the universe will never respond to our questions and so we must find intrinsic value in meaningless struggles. Camus illustrates his argument by using The Myth of Sisyphus as a metaphor for rebelling against the absurd. In the myth, the gods punish Sisyphus by sentencing him to repeatedly rolling a boulder up a hill that will always fall back down for the rest of eternity. Sisyphus rebels by finding intrinsic value in this meaningless, never-ending, unachievable task by taking pride in his rolling of the boulder. Camus says that, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” (1) Instead of dying by suicide or inventing a purpose for rolling the rock, Sisyphus finds happiness in the challenge itself.

The Myth of Sisyphus is a helpful way for many individuals to make life feel meaningful. However, the problem with The Myth of Sisyphus is that it is not enough to steer someone who faces extreme adversity away from the option of suicide. Camus neglects to include that part of living a meaningful life where Sisyphus has the option of letting go of the rock and choose to do something else. Camus’ prescription for choosing an option other than suicide does not work for individuals who are seriously considering ending their own lives. The essential part of the prescription is to address symptoms of depression that lead to suicide by encouraging the individual to foster a sense of autonomy and embrace the idea that she cannot only control her attitudes and beliefs, she can also make concrete decisions on how she wants to live her life. The reason that this is important is because suicide is not often the result of philosophical contemplation over the meaning of life, but rather the result of painful depression and hopelessness that has become unbearable for the individual. Rebelling against the absurd like Sisyphus may be inspirational to an average individual tackling everyday tasks, but Sisyphus’ intrinsic happiness cannot convince everyone out of choosing suicide by powerlessly, yet joyously accepting one’s fate. One needs to be able to find intrinsic value in life, while also taking ownership of deciding how to live.

Camus would respond by arguing that the punishment for survivors of adversity is similar to that of Sisyphus because the individual cannot control what happened to her. The only option is to accept what has happened and find meaning in the challenge of tolerating the punishment. Camus believes that Sisyphus has sufficient autonomy because he controls how he thinks about the situation that he has no power to change. Sisyphus does not have the option to decide to let go of the rock because the gods have punished him to do so and they are the only ones who can make that decision. For Sisyphus, letting go of the rock would symbolize suicide. An important part of life is that everyone experiences events that they are powerless to change and this should be embraced in order to live a meaningful life.

However, Camus’ argument does not address that though everyone must accept that there are parts of life that cannot be controlled, part of living a meaningful life is believing that one can decide how to think and act. The gods punish Sisyphus in the beginning of the myth and there is no reason why Sisyphus cannot take ownership of his own actions and choose to let go of the rock. He believes that he must accept his task because the gods said he had to, and the only way for him to exert control is to think about the punishment differently. However, we can control more than our thoughts; we can also control our behavior. Katie was powerless to stop her assault from happening, but she can still choose how to respond to it. She has already demonstrated this by voluntarily going to a hospital to get help. When Katie eventually thinks about the option of suicide again, it will not be because she cannot find intrinsic value in her struggles, but because she does not believe that she can survive the emotional injuries that she has endured. Taking action also shows that she believes that there is enough meaning in her life to exert the effort to go to the hospital and tell strangers about what happened to her. What leads Katie to be suicidal is not the meaninglessness of everyday existence, but when she feels like the amount of trauma she has experienced exceeds her ability to cope.

I will argue that Camus’ use of the metaphor of The Myth of Sisyphus to show how one can make meaning in a meaningless world is not sufficient for persuading a suicidal individual from following through with the act. Philosophical rumination does not typically lead to actively suicidal thoughts; the thoughts are the result of depression and feelings of hopelessness. An important part of overcoming depressive symptoms is accepting the parts of life that one is powerless to change and actively choosing how to think. However, the most important aspect of overcoming suicidal thoughts that stem from extreme adversity is fostering the belief that one has the power to make decisions over what happens to her. Sisyphus may empower himself by choosing to view his task as a challenge rather than a punishment, but he never considers the option to let go of the rock and take ownership of his own fate. The Myth of Sisyphus perpetuates the idea of being a passive victim to the punishment of living a boring, everyday life, and since Sisyphus has let the gods influence him to think that there is nothing he can do to change his situation, Sisyphus romanticizes his struggles and finds his happiness in an act he would really not be doing if he believed that he had a choice.

Even if Katie is able to find intrinsic value in her suffering, it will not be enough to convince her that continuing to endure such suffering is even possible. Katie indicated that she believes her life has meaning by voluntarily going to the emergency room for help, openly letting her boyfriend know what happened so that he can support her, and allowing a nurse to treat her injuries. Many survivors of trauma are not able to execute actions that demonstrate a sense of self-care. Despite the evidence that Katie believes that her life is worth living, it was also apparent that she is still at high risk for suicide. Katie does not think that her life is meaningless and that she has no ability to dictate her own thoughts. Katie contemplates suicide because she is in such excruciating emotional pain and she feels like she has been robbed of the power to decide what happens to her body. If she were Sisyphus, the weight of the rock would exceed her physical capabilities and therefore accepting her fate to roll the rock up the hill would actually kill her.

Camus neglects to acknowledge the power of the individual to choose her own actions in response to adversity. The ability to control one’s physical self, as well as one’s own thoughts, plays an important role in convincing oneself that suicide is not the best option for someone facing extreme adversity. Sisyphus’ punishment should not imply that Sisyphus has no control over his physical body rolling a rock up a hill. It is great to acknowledge the freedom to find intrinsic meaning in everyday acts, but it is more important to acknowledge the individual’s freedom to choose how to act in response to an event that one has no control over. Sisyphus has the physical capability to let go of the rock, just like Katie has the power to decide whether or not to report her assault to the police, seek therapy, or agree to let a nurse take pictures of her injuries for evidence. The first conversation I had with Katie was about her right to consent. Katie had just been robbed of control over her own body, and part of my job was to remind her that she had the right and the ability to decide what happened to her from that point forward. Katie could decide to end the evidence collection exam at any point and it was her choice whether to report the crime to the police.

My official job title is “medical advocate.” This means that my main role in supporting survivors of trauma is to empower them by advocating for their right to choose what happens to them and their bodies. I provide legal, medical, and social service information so that they can make their own informed choices about how to actively respond to the traumatic event. My first objective is not to guide the survivor to try and find the bright side to her suffering, it is to support any decision she chooses to make, simply because her ability to choose what happens to her is the most important factor in emotionally surviving the event. Katie chose not to report her assault to the police and opted out of certain parts of the evidence collection kit, and I did not try to convince her otherwise. What I did do was reassure her that she had the power to make these decisions and that it was her right to do so.

Camus’ analogy of The Myth of Sisyphus as a way to rebel against the absurd or seemingly meaninglessness of life is valuable, as Sisyphus shows that though we cannot control everything that happens to us, our response is what makes life meaningful and worth living. However, though the analogy may be especially inspirational to a shift worker looking to make meaning out of everyday, instrumental tasks, like shopping at the grocery store or driving to work during rush hour, it is not enough to save the life of a seriously suicidal individual. Individuals like Katie do not become suicidal because they are frustrated that the universe will not provide them with a concrete answer for why life is worth living; they become suicidal because they feel powerless over their own lives. The first time Katie tried to die by suicide was the night before she was sent to jail for three years. The second time was during her incarceration. These were both situations in which Katie was powerless to decide what would happen to her and the only way she believed she could assert control was to die by suicide. The Myth of Sisyphus is not an uplifting philosophical analogy for someone experiencing struggles like Katie. Sisyphus plays a victim who somehow forces himself to see the fun in not being able to control his own actions, and what now puts Katie at a high risk for suicide is if she similarly continues to feel like a prisoner in her own body. The existentialist philosophy behind The Myth of Sisyphus cannot convince a suicidal individual like Katie out of dying by suicide. In fact, the powerlessness and lack of control Sisyphus has over his physical self would more likely convince her that suicide is her only option.

References

Soloman, Robert C. "Soren Kierkegaard." In Existentialism. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

(1) Robert C. Solomon, Existentialism, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 198.

#philosophy #mental health #existentialism #myth of sisyphus #sisyphus #trauma #psychological resilience #traumatic growth #survivor

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fuckblizzardbearlover · 5 years

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Why ppl who think the writers dont know exactly what they are doing with Sylvannas are dead, completely and utterly wrong: a Thread

from the official overview

“ The Broken Machine The machine of death is broken, and players entering the Shadowlands will find the realm of the dead in disarray. In the natural order of things, souls are sorted and sent on to an afterlife realm appropriate to the lives they lived, but now, but over the past few years, all souls who have perished—including the innocents slain at Teldrassil—are being funneled directly into the Maw. The Shadowlands are starving for anima even as the Maw continues to grow from the glut of fresh souls. Sylvanas has been seemingly perpetrating acts to bring about great amounts of death and destruction. In partnership with the Jailer, they have been working toward a common end for some time. “

so, i’m sure this will be one of the first things we learn in Bastion. or whereever.

emphasis mine.

past few years...BFA...Legion....ok thats a pair... So what if it is not exactly a few (3 ). Draenor sylvannas didnt have anything to do, But in MoP she didnt balk at causing death at Siege of Ogrimmar or Theramore and, in the Cataclysm she wiped out 3 cities. Catacylsm is the expasnion after wrath. After she died

From Sylvannas Windrunner: Edge of Night

“What did it matter if another corpse filled his vacant throne? Sylvanas Windrunner had her vengeance. The vision that had driven her and her people for years had finally been realized. And not a single fiber of her desiccated, animate corpse cared where the world went from here.It was over now. A part of her was surprised she was even still around, without his lingering presence always tugging at the back of her mind. She backed away from the throne and slowly turned to survey the cold gray world all around her. Her thoughts returned to that place of bliss, her half-remembered glimpse of what lay beyond. Home. It was time.

.............

She longed for it. A return to peace. The work she had begun in the forests of Silvermoon was finally complete with the death of Arthas. ,,,,,,,,,,,

...........

She could feel no cold, only a dull ache. She would feel nothing soon. She already felt her spirit reaching a place of calm for the first time in almost a decade. Her weight shifted toward the edge of the drop. She closed her eyes.

.......................

"There are so many!" he barked, falling silent as she raised a finger. "We have only two dozen rangers up there," he said, his voice now a whisper. "They cannot survive that!" Sylvanas didn't turn her gaze away from the dark mass of shambling corpses crushing its way closer to the river ford. It was the height of the Third War, and hours away from Silvermoon's fall at the hands of Arthas's army.

"They merely need to delay them as we fortify the Sunwell's defense," she answered, her tone measured.

"They will die!"

"They are arrows in the quiver," Sylvanas said. "They must be spent if we are to win this."

She was brash. Empty? No—a fighter. She had a warrior's heart.................

Before her waited a grotesque, quivering mass of corpses, their armor piecemeal, their bodies broken, the stench unimaginable. Their plaintive, desperate gazes reminded her suddenly of children. They disgusted her. But their need empowered her. "The Lich King falters. Your will is your own. Are you to be outcasts now in your own land? Or do we embrace the cruel cards fate has dealt us and retake our place in this world?"

.........

These poor people: peasants, farmers, priests, warriors, lords and nobles… they hadn't yet come to grips with what had happened to them. But for somebody—anybody—to assure them that they belongedsomewhere was electrifying.

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

Already he'd come to embrace his situation, referring to humans as if they were a separate race; she made a mental note to make use of him.

.........

"The humans will serve their purpose," she answered, her mind already calculating. "They believe they are liberating the city. Let them fight on our behalf and spend themselves for our gain. They are"—she stumbled upon an analogy she'd used before—"arrows in our quiver."

The heaving mass of undead clapped and coughed and hacked gleefully in assent. Sylvanas regarded the whole mob coldly. And so are you, she thought to herself. Arrows I will aim at Arthas's heart.

................................

No more would she be the vengeful leader of a mongrel race of rotted corpses. Her work was done, and her long-denied reward awaited her

...............

“"Your people will perish!" said the dark-haired Val'kyr.

.Sylvanas thought about her people. They had come far from their decimated origins, the yearning, confused mob of fresh corpses huddled about the ruins of Lordaeron's wrecked capital. The Forsaken were truly a nation now: a fetid, gore-caked, hideous mass of lifeless husks, skilled in combat, devastating with the arcane arts, and unhindered by fetters of morality. They had been honed into the perfect weapon. Her weapon. And they had struck the killing blow for which she had built them. She cared nothing for their fate."Let them perish!" Sylvanas cried. "I am finished with them!"“

........................

She saw only darkness.

And then she felt—truly felt, for the first time in a long while. She recoiled. In agony.

Here she was, her spirit once again feeling whole, only to feel it suffer. To feel once more, only to feel abject pain. Cold. Hopelessness.

Fear.

...................

There were others in the darkness. Things she didn't recognize, because nothing so terrible could exist in the world of the living. Claws tore at her, but she had no mouth with which to scream. Eyes looked at her, but she couldn't look back.

Regret.

She sensed a familiar presence. Recognized it. The taunting voice that had once held her in its grasp. Arthas? Arthas Menethil? Here? His essence rushed to her, desperate, then shrank away in horrified recognition. The boy who would be Lich King. Just a scared little blond child, reaping the aftermath of a lifetime of mistakes. If any part of Sylvanas's soul were not at that moment torn and tormented, she might have even felt—for the first time—the slightest glimmer of pity for him.

Now the others had her. Surrounded her. Gleeful, tormenting, tearing at her consciousness, delighting in her suffering.

Horror.

This was to be her eternity: the endless void, the dark, unknown realm of anguish.

....

"Sylvanas Windrunner, Dark Lady, queen of the Forsaken… you may walk with the living again through the sisterhood of the Val'kyr. As long as they live, so too shall you. Freedom, life… and power over death. This is our pact. Do you accept our gift?"

.....................

This was her only way out. But she didn't want to give her assent out of fear. She waited until she felt something more. A fellowship. A sisterhood. Sisters. Separate, they were all trapped. But together, they were free… and with them, she could postpone her fate.

.............................

"I was once like you, Garrosh," she answered, her voice quiet and steady, loud enough only for the warchief to hear. "Those who served me were tools. Arrows in my quiver.

......................

What he saw was a great black void, an infinite darkness. There was fear in those eyes, but also something else. Something that terrified even the great warchief.

"Garrosh Hellscream. I've walked the realms of the dead. I have seen the infinite dark. Nothing you say. Or do. Could possibly frighten me."

The army of undead that surrounded and protected the Dark Lady was still hers, body and soul. But they were no longer arrows in her quiver, not anymore. They were a bulwark against the infinite. They were to be used wisely, and no fool orc would squander them while she still walked the world of the living.

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

Now, look at the description for the Maw

“ This horrific prison houses the most vile and irredeemable souls in existence—ones deemed by the Arbiter to represent a threat to the Shadowlands if left free. Ruled by the enigmatic Jailer who none have ever seen—at least none have seen and lived to tell—the Maw inspires nightmares and legends even among the denizens of the Shadowlands. No one has ever escaped this vile place, and any foolish enough to venture there are never heard from again. “

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

So This short story was written before cataclysm launched in 2010. NINE years ago.

So yes “dur Blizz are bad writers that made sylvannas do a 180 and become evil for no reason”

NO. This was the biggest piece of characerization Sylvannas ever got outside of warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne. it establishes that she was a cold person more than willing to treat living people as objects to satisfy the needs of their military and their people. It emphasised MULTIPLE times that i highlighted that she HATED and was disgusted by the forsaken. ANd i emphasised at least twice that She has been using patriotism and their need for someone to care about them as a way to MANIPULATE them. And that was how she was. SHe didnt care about any of them They were just a tool to be used to kill Arthas. and with him gone she was ready to die.

The problem was she was ready to die because she HAD ALREADY DIED. we learn with the SHadowlands that good souls go where they are treated well, and even strong souls are treated well. but Where to evil souls go? either the maw or to the vampire place. She had died and started to enter the good place, Bastion no doubt. as a good protector of the innocent. but Arthas pulled her out and made her a monster

BUT SINCE THEN she became even more of a monster. She let her people embrace hatred. she allowed slavery and torture of prisoners for the sake of destroying life. she thought of nothing but how to USE and ABUSE people in order to get vengence so SHE could get her REWARD.

She became a “most vile and irredeemable soul”. So when she died her soul went to the Maw where it suffered with dark evil souls like Arthas’

and did getting rescued by the valkyre fix her outlook? No . she still saw her people as nothing. but she knew the horrors she’d face if she died, and so she viewed her people as a BULWARK against that.

But whats REALLY interesting is that I think Ion wasnt being completely honest . The lore says that “No one has EVer escaped the Maw of Souls”... however we know that we will do so. And we know that No one has been there. so how can anyone KNOW that no one has escaped. What if they just kept it a secret.

What if the Jailer started to, for whatever reason, decide to take over the afterlife. whether it was personal ambition or seeing the rest as redundant. And he saw this elf soul ESCAPE him. the only one to ever do so. By that Valkyre taking her place. The Valkyre are allegedly created by the souls of hte denezins of bastion, the angel people. So between having a connection to the lich king, guardian of the connection to the Shadowlands, and the fact that they are denezins of the shadowlands.. or were... it makes sense they might have had the power to rescue a soul from the Maw.....with the added help of the soul taking her place.

I emphasised other parts to because i think its important. the Valkyre USED to be denizens of the shadowlands. but supposedly Changed by the lich king. The valkyre emphasised it WASNT just a bond of sisterhood but a bond of hte Valkyre. I think in order to save her from the maw they basically had to enchant sylvannas to magically register as a Valkyre, and thats how they ‘made the switch”. so to speak.

Now remember what happened in Legion? She got a special lantern from Helya, the original Valkyr, who is a master of Death, trapping souls and creating dimensions And who has reason to hate Odyn who has his own form of afterlife?

So it seems to me that Sylvannas gained the attention of the Jailer when she was the first one to escape. and the fact that she escaped by utilizing Valkyre magic, but she wasnt bound to the ethos of most of the denizens of bastion. I think shortly after her original death she was contacted by him, possibly through the valkyre and they started their pact.

Ion said that Sylvannas does not have a master, she’s doing things for herself. However that doesnt mean that, just cus the Jailer isnt controlling her doesnt mean he might not be manipulating her.

Jailer starts to usurp the souls. Sylvannas, afraid of going to the maw. begins rampant death, in order to kill enemies and create a massive army of forsaken to use against any force that would come for her. This rampant death gains the attention of those in the afterlife, including the Jailer who gets more souls do to it. somewhere between Cata and the start of legion he contacts her. When vol’jin is dying he uses his influence to get Vol’jin to name Sylvannas warchief.

She uses her new power to go wherever she wants, which she uses to find Helya, another god of death who has a unique power. Realm magic. using the Lantern, Sylvannas uses the valkyre to send it to the jailer who cuts off the other parts of the afterlife, making it so ALL souls go to the maw. then now that the world threat is over, and she doesnt have to worry about dying herself, she uses her position of power to sew as much death as possible to feed her ally. with the ultimate plan of them destroying the natural order of life and death. She gets to be free of him and lets those she deems worthy live free. all others get to be the Jailer’s victims. no more souls wasted on the ‘good’ after lives or regeneration. no more foolish living to ruin a perfect, deathless world.

its all coming together.

#sylvannas #long post #sylvannas windrunner #world of warcraft #world of warcraft spoilers #wow spoilers #wow #warcraft

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avng · 4 years

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If Ursa had not left when she killed Azulon how drastically different would have Zuko’s character arc been?

They still would have gotten banished because Ursa would never allow Ozai to do an Agni Kai against her son, going over his head would have been enough for banishment. On the other hand she might not have known it was happening and right after it she comes in and insults everyone in the audience including Ozai, which would have gotten her banished along with Zuko.

Their journey would have certainly been different. Would Iroh have joined them? Iroh had gone along with Zuko in the original not just because he realized how truly evil his brother was but because Zuko didn’t have a parental figure anymore, would he still join Zuko now that Ursa was still in the picture? Iroh probably would think of it as his responsibility, Ursa had just left an abusive relationship so she was not necessarily well enough to support Zuko emotionally in the way that he needed her to be. Iroh would understand this.

So maybe Iroh did join them but let’s look at the situation if he had not: Ursa would probably not want to leave Zuko in charge of their ship because she’d think it was too much of a responsibility as a mother to leave to a child but she’d quickly realize he needed that, Zuko had been deemed honor-less by his father and giving him a position of power in the ship (although not something she would want to do) was something that she could recognize would help Zuko see his own value and strength.

Additionally, unlike Zuko, Ursa understood how this banishment was permanent and she had no false sense of hope, but she didn’t want to bring him down even more so she indulged him. She let him look around for the Avatar for a couple of years until time proved her point.

Ursa had never been kin for war but it wasn’t like she actively tried to stop Ozai, it’s not like she had seen it with her own eyes. Yet now, on Zuko’s search for the Avatar, she realizes the extent of Ozai’s destruction and pain. This is different than Iroh, because he had caused that pain and destruction before when he thought it was necessary, he thought that it was righteous. Ursa wallows for her lack for action, since she also knows the kind of power her ex-husband holds and she thinks nothing can be done. That is, until they stumble upon the Avatar.

When Zuko catches him the first time but Aang manages to escape she begins to have hope. She starts to do what Iroh did, sloppily and bit rushed since she didn’t go through the same spiritual awakening he did and she’s also trying to find herself through it all, but just like Iroh she saw the possibility of change in Zuko too.

The main difference is that Zuko is showered with love in a you-are-embarrassing-me-mom type of way. Iroh had approached his love in the way he could project an ideal father aka nothing like Ozai, but he never approached it from a motherly perspective (either because even in his secure masculinity that just wasn’t something he was comfortable with or because he didn’t think Zuko would respond well to it), and, although he tried his best, Zuko needed more of that positive/empowering femininity in his life.

At first it was hard for Ursa to show so much love since she was so used to the restrictions of the palace, but once she got a handle of it she wouldn’t stop (which reminds me of Mai). Zuko probably projects himself as being annoyed but he’s actually very happy to know that he still has her love.

Talking about still having her love, Zuko’s journey would probably be more of a projected vision for him. Instead of wanting to recover his honor, he would want to help his mother regain hers. He feels guilty that this thing “he” did separated her from his father. It’s guilt that a lot of children hold in family dynamics where there are divorced parents, he didn’t do anything.

There were way less riddles and metaphors with Ursa, mothers are usually way more to the point and I don’t think that she would be an exception. She would tell Zuko outright that he needed to change his approach with the sailors and treat them with respect, she wouldn’t have allowed him to burn Kyoshi Island or other places, she would have been firm and a bit more outspoken about what she thought was right (not outright because she knew Zuko wasn’t ready to hear that he needed to betray his father). She would have constantly told him that she loves him outloud.

The moment she snaps it’s at the end of Book 2, when Zuko considers joining his sister, Ursa tells him everything: That she’s never been more happy because she’s seen his real strength and capacity to love, that she wasn’t happy before and that it was her choice to pick Zuko and not Ozai. That her relationship with his dad wasn’t build on love but on war strategy. That Ozai used her as another pawn in his game, that once Ozai didn’t consider her or Zuko useful they were thrown aside. But it wasn’t just that they weren’t thought of as useful, it was that they posed as threats. And they were threats because they questioned him, because they dared him. That Azula might be more powerful in her bending but that Ozai had managed to shape her mind to care about one thing only: war. Why had she been able to conquer Ba Sing Se? Because she didn’t think or care about anything else, even Uncle Iroh at his peak couldn’t do it, because he cared about other things, he had a family. Azula had a Fire Lord reading her to bed not a father, nor a mother. And so she would break down to cry, because of the regret of not taking Azula with them.

Zuko wouldn’t join Azula that day, he would go on to join the Gaang. Instead of everything that happened in the first episodes of Book 3, he would look to get Azula to see the light, to see that there is no honor in war only destroyed families like their own.

I think Zuko’s original arc is amazing, but I also think that had there been a storyline like this it could have helped so many kids understand that their parents issues don’t happen because of them or as a result of their shortcomings. Along with showcasing the fact that there is future and hope for people in abusive relationships to look forward to.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #atla ursa #ursa #iroh #atla iroh #fire lord azulon #azula avatar #fire lord ozai #the gaang #there is so much more to be said but i needed to end it #this would have been embarrassingly long if i kept going #i mean it still is #i just wish they would have been more hopeful about ursa's storyline in the show #zuko's character arc is honestly like better than 90% of all arcs out there so im not complaining just contemplating the possibilities #andy talks atla

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caribbeanempressblog · 5 years

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Equilibrium ~ pt 1

Pairing: Yoongi x Assassin reader

Plot: Min Yoongi was just another target in your book for the right price but nothing could prepare you for his six year old daughter walking in you with a gun to her fathers head.

Warnings: Assassin Au Eventual smut, Murders, Attempted murder, kidnapping, implied rape non consensual, Angst, Assassins, depections of killing.

Word count: 5.1k

There was something soul corrupting yet empowering about taking a life it always set your soul on fire in the best and worst ways possibly. It was the thrill of the kill knowing that with just the pull of a trigger or the throw of a dagger you could end anyone you desired. It was the power that came with it something that no person in their right mind should be proud off but it was what you was trained to do it was who you are what you are a killer.

You looked down at the body of your latest victim sprawled off in a pool of his own blood one single shot to his head his eyes frozen in fear as he gazed back at you. Enrique was his name one of the crime boss of Seoul smuggling drugs and polluting the streets with filth tainting young innocent lives.He was scumbag not that it mattered to you he was just another target for you to eliminate for the right price. Somebody wanted him dead most likely a rival mob boss eliminating the competition making the best use of their money and your assassin skills hiring you for the job.They always let others do the dirty work for them pathetic excuse for men but who was you to complain you were going to be 50000 dollars richer once the job was done.You put the safety back on your firearm shoving it in your waist then pulled your jacket over it.

You pulled out a burner phone from your pocket flipped it open snapped a picture of the dead man and pressed send to the lone number on the device.

Confirmation of the kill was necessary or else you wouldn't get paid half upfront the other half when the kill was confirmed that was the rule of business. Two minutes later a text message came through.

Unknown number: message received payment processed.

You flipped the phone shut tossing it back into you jacket pocket then pulled out your personal phone hitting the right dial and checking your bank account deposit sure enough the remaining money was added amongst your own balance you smirked triumphant not that you needed to check these client knew better than to double cross you after all your reputation did precede you.

A sudden sniffle had you eyes raising towards the sound from the corner of the room a small girl curled up into herself tears stained cheek hair disheveled face and skin covered in bruises. You seethed inside but kept your face neutral as you watched the girl. Enrique was one of those scums who had a thing for helpless underage girl.

"Go now" you said firmly and her almond shaped eyes snapped up looking at you in alarm like she couldn't quite believe you were letting her live.

'Y-you're not killing me?" She asked in a small voice and you almost laugh at her absurdity.

"If you sit there asking me foolish questions when I tell you to leave then I just might" you told her as you stepped around Enrique body avoiding walking in his blood and leaving your boot prints as evidence.

The girl shot up at that not sparing a second wiping her tears and heading for the door a little wobbly on her feet, you stopped her in her tracks. "Speak nothing of what you saw here" your voice a warning to not be taken lightly.

The girl shakes her head in acknowledgment.

" thank you" she said as she exited the door then disappeared.

You watched her retreating back a feeling of sadness overcoming you against your will because whether you cared to admit it or not you've been that girl before a long time ago.

You scolded at the memory burying it as fast as it came then walking around the room making sure you left no evidence behind. There wasn't much to be left you always travelled light always wore your gloves plus you knew the angles to work to avoid the security cameras. You make your way towards the door swinging it open then closed it shut promptly not sparing a second glance for the dead man on the floor.

The maid would find him in the morning an unwelcome surprise for the poor soul but you could care less as you made your way down the steps of the motel of route sixty nine.

You pulled your gloves off your hand then shoved it into your jacket pocket letting the cold air hit your skin. Your boots crunching in the gravel as you walked across the motel path to the main road.

The night was relatively quiet not a single soul was to be seen as you walked down the road to where your bike was parked.

Your thoughts wandering away from you and back to when you were kidnapped and sold into the mercenary ring. The Elite was what it was called an organization that kidnapped young girls and trained them to be cold blooded killers to do their bidding. It was ruthless and brutal what they did, made you and trained you to do nothing but kill. Those who tried to escape was murdered you watched girl as young as you were at that time shot down and those who wasn't strong enough for the physical and mental abuse took their own life.

You never thought you'd see the light of day again your only instinct was survival of seeing your parents again your brothers faces it was what kept you going what made you do unspeakable things what made you come out alive in the end what made you Vixen.

When the government uncovered the organization the head of the operations Madame had no choice but to let her butterfly fly with the promise of an uprising once more. You ran away from there and never looked back since. You never contacted your parents after your returned to the world it hurt you more than anything but you had to keep them safe. If they knew you were alive and in contact with your family they'd come for you and murder your parents and anyone else so you stayed away doing what you were trained to do kill. You tried to leave that old life behind tried to find out who you were really meant to be but old habits die hard.

A horn honking furiously is what pulled you from your thoughts just in time to jump back to the side of the road as a speeding truck passed you by.

Fuck you swore you were losing focus the girl had affected you more than you thought . You took a deep breath then continued walking your motorbike coming into your line of vision. You quickly took the keys out your pockets and pushed it into the ignition making the bike come to life you straddled the bike kicking of safety handle then revving the engine the roaring of the engine filling the silence of the night you press the gas and sped away into the night.

It wasn't long before you were pulling into your home on the outskirts of town away from civilization. You slowed in front of the gate as the face recognition scanner came into view the machine whirring as it scanning your features recognizing you then send out a greeting as the gate slide open in front of you. You pushed the bike into a slow crawl up the driveway the garage opening on cue. You parked your bike then get off then climbed the steps that leads to your living room.

"Ada lights on"

"Activating lights" came the automated response from your computer program as the lights to your house came on.

You throw your keys on the counter taking off your jacket as you climbed a few more steps to your room. You pushed open your bedroom door and cast the jacket on a chair situated next to a desk in your master bedroom. You removed your firearm from your waist putting on your bedside table. You sat on the bed removing several pair of daggers from your boots and strap on your thigh resting it beside the gun you would put them in their rightful place later. You then kick off your boots then the rest of your clothes followed until you were standing naked in the confines of your bedroom a nice hot shower the only thing on your mind. You walked the familiar path to your ensuite bathroom filling the tub with warm water throwing in your favorite bath bomb then stepping inside as you let the warm water soothing your bones your mind your head resting on the tub edge as your eyes fluttered closed wandering mind back to your earlier kill.

Taking a life was something you learned was never easy to do your first kill was there to prove it. You hesitated when Madam placed a gun in your hand and told you to kill or be killed. Even knowing that moment would be the last breath you took you had hesitated your conscience getting the best of you. But when they started shooting down the other girls who dropped their guns refusing it was there you made the decision to take your first life it was either them or you, you choose yourself clueless that it was only the beginning.

Now you didn't hesitate anymore it was easy as breathing your conscience long turned to ashes as you let the thirst for blood consume you. Being a assassin with a heart is what got many killed. The ability to let feelings cloud their judgement is the worst mistake one could make you pride yourself on being not one to mix emotions with business It was something you learned the hard way when you thought you could be friends with the other girls in the Elite but Madam was quick to teach you there are no such commodity when you're being trained to kill people. Your best friend could be your next target would you kill or be killed.

"Incoming message" Ada programmed voice drift into your mind bringing you back to the present. You eyes fluttered open as you sat up in the tub.

"High class?" You asked not wanting to get out of your bath for some internet hacker messing around on the dark web.

" Top priority same client as before" Ada you could grab a towel off the rack and wrap it around your frame leaving your hair to drip down your back only wringing out the excess water. It wasn't uncommon to get back to back mission from the same client if you did the job to their liking you're always top of the list when they need a job done.

You walked back into your bedroom taking a seat at your desk clicking your laptop to life sure enough the notification of an email popped on the screen you clicked the email with excitement already running in your veins as you scanned the outline.

Unknown recipient: Job well done Clean and efficient.

Unknown recipient : New target acquired for your disposal. Due to the level of of this target the kill must be confirmed tonight. We will pay extra for the short notice.

You frowned as you read email that was definitely short notice it wasn't uncommon for clients to want target terminated as quickly as possible but it was rear to ask it be done so soon, no assassin in their right might would dive head first into a job without proper time to explore the backdrop of the assignment it also required them to dish out a lot of extra cash for the prompt disposal. You glance at the clock it was nearing eleven to do a job this late and such short of notice didn't sit well with you something felt off about it. As if sensing your doubt another message notification sound off you clicked the link.

Unknown recipient: 100k another 50000k when the kill is confirmed.

Well damn this was interesting to say the least whoever this person was they definitely was a high profile target no one in their right mind would pay this kind of money to have someone killed.

You typed your reply

Re Vixen: Target accepted

Then you hit the send button looks like the night isn't over yet.

You got of the chair walking to your drawer pulling out a bra and panty set then slipping the garment on then you were making your way closet you pulled it opened for an outfit to wear. You settled on the usual black jeans with black tank top and black leather jacket you put your usual boots on your feet as you was just finishing up the proccess of pulling up the zip another message came through.

"Ada pull up target information" you said as you already knew the contents of the email.

"Loading information" Ada respond not more than a minute later the target appeared in the middle of your bedroom powdered by the overhead projectile.

"Target basis. Min Yoongi. Male. Age 33. 2nd Crest drive East Seoul."

You looked at the display of the man you were about to kill eyes scanning every feature you possible could wondering who he had crossed for they wanted him dead. He didn't look like a mobster or a drug lord he didn't look like a criminal at all for that matter and nowhere did he looked like thirty three.

You didn't dwell in it though you had a job to do he was just another target it wasn't your job to question why anyone wanted him dead.

"Ada upload location information to my phone" you said your next command for the program ever the dutiful helper Ada was quick to respond to your command.

"Uploading commencing"

You walked back over to your dressing table arming yourself with several daggers you placed there just awhile ago intent on hanging it up for the night but as fate would have it no such thing.

You took your gun as well checking the rounds it was still loaded only a single shot was fired from it then you were shoving it in your waist.

" Upload completed"

You grabbed your phone and exited the room heading down the stairs a woman on a mission. Just then your phone notification beeped.

" A deposit has been added to your account" Ada already intercepting your messages.

You smiled "Thanks Ada be a doll and keep the place secure".

"As you wish Vixen".

A one million dollar computer software she was worth every penny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One hour later you were hiding in the shadows of a tree as you watched Min Yoongi through a window curtains drawn grilling over some papers in the confines of his office. You've arrived at 2nd Crest drive half hour ago and the man hadn't moved from where he sat his brow furrowed in concentration as he wrote documents upon documents. The streets was relatively quiet residential areas usually was only the sounds of dogs barking and cat hissing was your only friend during the wee hours of the morning. The moon was high in the sky providing the necessary light you needed to maneuver yourself closer to Min Yoongi window intent on getting the job done quickly. You had hoped he would of taken to bed by now but clearly the man was a workaholic putting a damper on your plans.

You couldn't afford to waste anymore time waiting for him to retire it was going to be morning soon it was now or never you just had to go for it.

You was right outside his window as you checked the lock attempting to lift the latch only it was locked as you suspected nothing you couldn't solve though the art of locking picking was one of the easier things in being an assassin.

You waited a little hoping he would drift off finally before you could make a move you sneak a glance through to window and sure enough his eyes was starting to flutter close his head nodding off towards the desk, you smiled things was working in your favour afterall.

There was two window to the room you chose the one on the opposite side of him so when you decided to sneak in you would have a direct line of his face incase he decides to wake up. You checked your watch it had been fifteen minutes you pressed your ears to the wall the rhythmic sounds of his breathing letting you know he was indeed asleep.

You pulled a dagger from your boots to use to pick the lock to the window after a couple moments the click of the bolt releasing filled the silence. You lifted the windows up with practice ease and silence like a thief in the night climbing into the house then closing back the window and pulling the curtains shut.

You turned to the target he was out cold head resting on the chair back mouth slightly open as he took in steady breath his black hair falling into his eyes. The only light in the room was the lamp currently perched on his desk illuminating his features. He looked so peaceful you thought as you walked closer to him boots leaving a trail of dirt on his carpet. So oblivious to what was to become of him. You gripped the dagger in your hand as you came to stand behind him the thrill of the kill sinking into your bones your heartbeat accelerating from the adrenaline. You decided to make it quick cutting his throat would be too messy although his neck did look easy to slit with the way it was expose to your gaze. You pocketed your dagger pulling out your gun instead screwing on the sound reducer as you came to stand behind the still sleeping Min Yoongi.

You bend towards him pressing the barrel to his temple one hand on his chest to keep him still as you bend to whisper in his ears.

"Any last words?"

He jumped up with a start confusion and alarm shaking him as he fought against your hand currently pressing him into the chair with intense force the barrel cold against his temple.

"Don't move" you warned him as you lift the safety of the gun so he would know you was not one to mess with that death had come for him this night.

"Papa what is going on?".

Your blood ran cold as you eyes shot up to where the question spoken so innocent came from. A girl no older than six stood in the doorway teddy bear clutched in front of her tightly he black bangs falling into her eyes like her father as she rubbed a hand across her sleepy eyes to see more clearly as she looked between her father and you holding a gun to his head.

For a moment you was too shock to move this wasn't part of the plan a fucking kid how the hell did you miss this but even more so how had your client forgotten to add this piece of information the equation.Your instincts telling you forces was at work here that you didn't know about.

"It's ok Yoonseok just go back to your room daddy will be there real soon" the man in the chair commanded the child.

For somebody who sat at the foot of death his voice held no shiver or fear as he spoke to the child confident that he would indeed live through the night His voice a rich tone powerful and hold no doubt whatsoever.

"B-but I heard something outside my window" Yoonseok replied a little pout forming on her lips as she stood in the doorway to the room her eyes a light with fear as she watched the two of you not quite sure what was happening.

Something was definitely wrong here your instincts continued to screamed,your assassin nature telling you be paranoid of everything.

You glance out the window and sure enough a figure emerged from the shadow of the tree where you once stood, for the untrained eye it would look like the tree casting shadows as the wind blow but the red light currently aimed at Yoongi chest was enough to tell you better.

"Get down!" You yelled as you grabbed him by the shirt instinctively pulling him out the chair and onto the ground with a thud just as a bullet flew through the air right where he just sat hitting the wall instead of him.

Chaos ensue after as numerous bullets flew through the air licking off everything in sight splattering paintings and portrait of the wall and unto the ground a broken mess as you hid below the table to shield yourself from the crossfire.

Yoonseok scream mixed with the sounds of the bullets ricocheting through the room and you swore as Yoongi pulled himself out your grasp and was crawling towards where his daughter who had the good sense to lay down flat hands over her ears as bullet flew over her head.

" Fucking stay down!" You hissed at him but he payed you no mind his eyes turning towards you cold as ice before he was turning back towards his daughter once more one thing on his mind.

Fucking stubborn bastard you seethed internally as you heard him scream to the child to stay down he was coming to her. But who were you to tell him what to do only a moment ago you were holding a gun to his head in his eyes you were no better than the people shooting up his house right now.

The bullets stopped after a few moments as you knew it would and you wasted no time every second was precious when your life hang in the balance you stood took aim and pulled the trigger the bullet piercing through the curtain hitting the target outside the window.

You turn at the sound of window being smashed in just in time to see another attacker clad in all black mask covered face climbing through the window on the other side of the room already had his gun aim at you.

You ducked just as the bullet went over your head then rolled unto your back then come up on your feet again in a crouching position pulling a dagger out your boots and throwing it at the man with practice ease who was now prepared to fire at you again. The dagger connect with his stomach and the gun drop from his hand to the floor as he clutched his stomach a cry of pain escaping his lips as he staggered backwards you took another aim this time at his head and pulled the trigger and watched as he collapse to the ground.

You got to your feet intent on getting out of here the mission compromise your client had doubled crossed you they had set you up but why though and why this Min Yoongi was the target they used.

Speaking of which you turned to the door where you last saw him heading to get his daughter only he wasn't there.

"Fucking idiot" you swear as you walked towards the door on high alert listening to whatever sound you could pinpoint. There was no telling how many assassin they had send to kill you. You already killed two but you couldn't be sure if there was more lurking in the shadows you didn't intent to find out.

You entered the living room gun up and pointed as you pressed yourself against the wall maneuvering over broken glass stealth mode activated. You couldn't see much the lights off or cut the only source of light was the moon casting shadows you squint around the room for signs of life stopping to listen to the sounds around you only your steady breathing could be heard.

You stood there listening only nothing seemed to be moving or breathing it was eerie really when just a minute ago bullets was being scattered all over the place.

You pressed on the door coming into your line of view all you had to do was cross the living room you turned to do just that when a movement in your peripheral vision made you duck on reflex just in time as a bat slice through the air where you once were connecting with the wall instead of your skull.

Mother fucker.

You regain your footing after stumbling from the initial shock of being caught off guard then turned to him fuming gun pointed at the attacker" Drop it or I drop you" you growled.

He stopped bat in mid swung high over his head but he didn't drop it his stance didn't waver either his eyes blazing as he watched you poised to swing at your head again.

"I said drop it" you repeated hand on the trigger.

Min Yoongi had balls you'd give him that even now the moonlight casting shadows on his face you could see the determination in his eyes even though he knew he was unmatched with a gun pointed to his head a baseball bat was no match for a gun neither a skilled assassin as you who could disarm him before he took his next breathe. He stood his ground sweat breaking out on his forehead arms shaking, you sure if you could hear it his heart was beating fifty times above normal. But none of that showed in his stance in his face in his eyes only strong-willed determination to protect himself and his daughter.

"If I wanted you dead you would be lying in a pool of your blood right now" you told him which is true you had no desire to kill him now he was the only real lead you had to unravel this elaborate set up he was more use to you alive than dead.

You lowered the gun in a show of surrender only because you concluded that he was in no form dangerous to you right now not when his daughter was in the house with him.

"But those men don't feel the same way I do and trust if they haven't had the house surrounded backup is already on the way".

"You broke into my house hold a gun to my head came here to kill me why should I trust you?" He asked with a sneer grip tightening on the bat.

If this was any other time you'd be impressed but you was furious and he was wasting your time. " Look I came here to kill you but instead I just saved your life if you wanna doubt my intentions I could care less but somebody set me up and used you to do it and I wanna know why so I can end them instead. Besides I don't kill men in front their kids" you said motioning to the girl who just peeked her head from out behind a door.

He turned at your gesture bat dropping to the ground at his side." Jesus Seokie I told you to hide why don't you listen huh ?" he chastised as he dropped to his knees on the ground the little girl flung herself in his arms tears bathing her cheek as she cried she thought she had lost him too.

"You will always have me I'll always protect you.Daddy got you baby " he tells her and you felt your cold heart tighten as he spoke his voice taking on a soothing tone that was far different from the one he had just used with you cold and untrusting.It stirred something within you that you couldn't quite place maybe it had to do with the fact that you had almost made a kid fatherless today. You were quite certain he wouldn't have been the first father you had killed but you never knew the side effects of your actions who it affected more so you didn't care you killed and you moved on never looking back but coming face to face with that reality seeing those scared eyes looking at you another reminder of your past another reminder of the person you were was something you wasn't prepared for.

"Is there anyone else in the house with you?"you asked impatiently glancing out the window.

Min Yoongi rose to his feet bat in hand once more as he round on you."it's just us" he reply face and tone hard again. You noticed how he shielded the child behind him away from your gaze but curiosity got the best of her as she peaked her head from behind his shirt eyes watching you with the same mistrust as her father.

You wanted to ask about the child mother but thought better off it he probably wouldn't have answered anyway.

"I'm leaving here you have two options either stay and wait for reinforcements to arrive and finish what they started or you can come with me your call". You said matter of factly.

Taking Min Yoongi and his daughter along with you was a stupid idea they were a liability to say the least but you had a set up to unravel and he was the only link to the puzzle but bringing him to your home seemed like a bad idea waiting to happen. He could be the trapped laid out there to catch you but Min Yoongi didn't seemed like a man who would risked his daughter safety or put her in harm's way for anything plus you were a good judge of character and nothing about read criminal.

He made no move to answer only continued to give you that cold stare that made you uneasy. Well if he wanna be like that that's his business.

"Suit yourself" you muttered as you brushed past him heading for the front door glass crunching under your boots as you walked you turned the handle on the door with a gloved hand.

"Wait"

You halted in your tracks and turned back to him.His jaw was tense face like granite the little girl still shielded behind him hands clutching his elbow tightly.

"I don't trust you but I will go with you" he stated and you scoffed but you liked his straightforwardness nothing you hated more than people who pretend for eye service.

"Hurry then I don't want to be here when reinforcement gets here".

You heard him whispering something to the child as you turn to the door once more not oblivious to the fact that you had just break your codes when it came to Min Yoongi and has daughter if only you had known that you had so many more to break for them.

#min yoong x reader #bts yoongi #yoongi smut #assasssin au #assassin reader x yoongi #equilibrium pt 1

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sewerloli · 4 years

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My Main OC (Pt. 1):

🎸 君勝紅子 (Kimikatsu Akako) 🎸

Birth name: Neev Redwood

Given adopted name: First name - 紅子 (Akako) • Last name - 君勝 (Kimikatsu)

Nickname: Aka (“Red” in Japanese)

Fandom: BNHA

Quirk type: Emitter, mostly long range but close quarters isn’t impossible for her.

Quirk: Projectile (Any part of the body chosen takes on the abilities of any projectile weapon that Akako studies in depth. She must intake Iron rich foods because the amo is made with the iron in her blood. Lack of iron will result in iron deficiency symptoms magnified to extreme levels. She sucks on a special dog tag necklace as an emergency iron replenishment when running low in battle.)

Stats: physical strength 2.5/5 - intelligence 4.5/5 - strategy 1.5/5 - stamina 3.5/5 - accuracy 6/5 - flexibility 4.5/5 - dexterity 5/5 - agility 3.5/5 - martial arts 4/5

Chosen Hero Name: Super Soldier

Height: 5’2

Birth Parents: Shery Redwood (Mother) and General Nolan Redwood (Father)

Adoptive parent: Hizashi Yamada (Present Mic)

Sexuality: Bi

Age: 16

Birthday: August 4th

Likes: Spicy Ramen, Rock and alternative music, drawing, sweets, etc.

Disslikes: The sound of loud chewing and swallowing, when people pry for her backstory, when people insult her music, the word “Moist”, Mineta, Monoma and the U.S Military.

S/O: Midoriya

Backstory: Neev (later named Akako)’s mother died of birth complications. Leaving her alone with her father, the head general of the U.S military. He was a loving father and taught her about the army in fun, child friendly ways with games, target practice, flying in jets and sky diving. Her quirk manifested at the age of four in a horrible accident. Her father was playing “war” with her. Firing finger guns in each others directions and throwing imaginary grenades. Neev went to fake fire at her father in a playful manner when a real bullet shot from her finger. The bullet nestled in her father’s head, killing him. She ran over to him in and screamed for help. The second in command, Sir Johnson, came running in and was baffled at the sight before him. From that moment on, she was in the care (more like abuse) Sir Johnson. They trained her rigorously despite her being merely a child. As the years passed they treated her less and less as a human and more as an object. A weapon for the convenience of the military. (They didn’t even refer to her as her name, they called her “Project S.S”.) They experimented her quirk’s limits. (One example is seeing if she was bulletproof by shooting her in the side with a small 9mm hand gun), forced her to labour during the day and study weaponry until ungodly hours of the night. At the age of six years old she was the strongest weapon the U.S Military had. But she was emotionally dead. One faithful day, she found a glint if hope. She was making her way around the Pentagon (her “prison”) when she noticed an open cargo plane. She surveyed the area for witnesses. Seeing there was no one around, then she hid in the cargo plane. The hatch closed not long after, the aircraft took off and she spent several hours in the freezing belly of a plane on a flight to an unknown destination. Upon landing, she escaped into the city. Not knowing where she was in the world, she lived on the streets of (what she didn’t know was) Mustafu Japan for five weeks until she was found by Hizashi Yamada. The young girl didn’t know a word of Japanese, so she was very lucky that Mic was an English teacher. He took her home that night giving her a warm place to stay because a six year old shouldn’t be living on the streets. She explained how she got to Japan and Mic listened carefully, understanding the situation and felling remorse for her. He asked for her name and she told him she couldn’t remember her first name and that the only thing she could remember regarding her name is that her last name was Redman. It was because she was never referred to by her name. Sir Johnson and the rest of the military always called her “S.S” or “Project S.S”. After careful consideration, Mic concluded that he would raise her to learn that there is more to life than fighting, sadness and war. Since she would have to learnJapanese, he diecided it would be wise to give her a Japanese name so she could fit into society. So, staying true to her known last name, he gave her the first name Akako, meaning “Red child”. For her new last name, he saw how courageous she had been through her life and how strong she was. He gave her the last name Kimikatsu, meaning “You win”. Because even though she was in a bad place, in the end she won back her freedom. From that day on, Mic taught Akako how to use her quirk in a non-lethal manner. Having her study the use of tranquilizer guns, paintball guns, harpoons, their personal favourite confetti cannons, and many more... Her being the adopted daughter of the hero, she grew up around many of the popular heroes such as Eraser Head who taught her how to not give any fucks, Midnight who helped her with lady problems and being there when she had trouble sleeping because of nightmares (PTSD), Cementos who tutored her in school, Fat Gum who always gave the best hugs when she would be sad, Mrs. Joke who taught her how to laugh again, and even All Might, who taught her to be noble and to be confident in herself. Mic also taught her a few things. he taught her two of her most loved hobbies, music and art.

Peronality: Akako is very easy going. She is often idealistic, but realistic when she needs to be. Her peers describe her as humourous, kind, supportive, empowering, independent and creative. Her faulty traits are that she’s overly emotional, overly empathetic, impulsive, indecisive, blunt (at times), and makes SERIOUSLY grim remarks at inappropriate times (Not the Hahaha dark humour. I mean the stuff that makes you question if you’re safe around her). Also uses dark humour to cover her emotional distress (but it just makes people even more concerned). When she hangs with her friends she is a literal crackhead. She loves all her 1-A pals as if they were her own children. (She actually refers to them as “Child” or “Children” or “My babies” even though she’s younger than most of them). When it comes to her past, she doesn’t talk about it AT ALL to ANYONE (accept to two people, Deku and Todoroki).

Elaborating on her hobbies: Being raised by Hizashi Yamada got her into many rock bands. Being inspired by her adoptive father figure, she learnt as many instruments as she could. They have jam sessions together, they play all their favourite songs. She plays Bass, electric + accounting guitar, ukuele and piano + keyboard. She had always be decent at art but improved when she started admiring heroes. She would draw all her hero mentors and get her drawings signed by them (because she was like a daughter to all of them). She would plaster them all over her walls instead of buying posters because she didn’t want to waste Hizashi’s money.

A little on her PTSD: Still has nightmares. She gets flashbacks when people mention fathers dying and when she sees news on the U.S army in the newspapers or online. Flashbacks result in her isolating herself or in worst cases, panick attacks.

How she got into the hero course: Reccomendations. Having all these connections to popular heroes, you best believe that they helped her train her quirk. She ended up having 11 different heroes reccomend her for the UA hero course.

Close friends include: Dekusquad, Jirou, Mina, Kiri and Bakugou (Suprisingly).

People who dislike her: Monoma (HATES her 10x more than he hates all of 1-A combined. He can’t use her quirk if he tried to copy it because he knows NOTHING about weapons or projectiles), Kendo (Dislikes her because she thinks Akako has an unfair advantage having the heroes constantly supporting her), U.S Military (Still searching for her),

What’s in her bag?:

Dorm room:

Clothing style:

Distinctive Marks On Her Body: A bullet wound scar and lots of freckles

This is the end of Part 1

Thanks for reading

Love you PLUS ULTRA💚

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daresplaining · 5 years

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Hi, long time lurker, first time asker here. What are your thoughts on Trish's arc in Jessica Jones S3, and where do you think it would go if this wasn't the final season? Would she find a way to appeal her case or break out of prison?

Hi!

I’m really torn on Trish’s Season 3 arc, and I’m not sure if that’s because it was horribly upsetting or because I had trouble making sense of it. I am also trying my best to look at it without the bitterness of it being the last season, because I doubt they knew it would be the last season when it was being written/filmed, and so saying that it was an unsatisfying way to end her character arc isn’t a fair criticism.

Jessica Jones has always been a show that takes its characters uncomfortable, morally iffy places. It leans into the fact that sometimes people are just terrible– and sometimes they grow and improve and sometimes they don’t. As Jessica comments in her narration in the very first episode of Season 1, this is a story about seeing the worst in people– the uncomfortable and messy aspects of just being human and handling the cruelties of the world in whatever way works. And that’s something I really like and respect about this show. It never backs down from its darkest themes, and all of its characters are unapologetically flawed. One of my favorites, Jeryn Hogarth, is a terrible person in this universe (her comics counterpart isn’t a paragon of virtue either, but he’s better). She starts out awful, she goes through some horrific experiences, and she clings to her awfulness as a survival tactic. She isn’t given a redemption arc or a neat, satisfying happy ending in any season, and that’s a gutsy storytelling choice that I absolutely respect.

On a certain level, I feel the same way about Trish’s arc. She has always been an imperfect person– not to the degree of many of the characters around her, but still. In Season 1 and The Defenders she was a hopeful figure– a success story of someone who had escaped an abusive situation and managed to rebuild her life on her own terms. She believed in the superheroic ideal– the image of a strong and noble individual protecting the weak and saving the world– to a degree that Jessica, thanks to her own traumas, no longer could. Trish served as a light in Jessica’s darkness, to put it sappily, and pushed Jessica along one of her (Jessica’s) main character journeys: that of seeing herself as a good person and a hero again. And that was very powerful and wonderful, and aligned with the themes of the Kilgrave plot. This part of Trish’s characterization was also further boosted by the complicated nature of own desire to be heroic. After spending her life as a victim who had no say in her own life or identity, she wanted the kind of power Jessica had to protect others from that type of situation and to also feel empowered herself. Trish’s desperate desire to be a superhero cannot be separated from her childhood as “Patsy”– an adored public figure who she had no say in becoming. Building herself a new public persona, gaining both literal and metaphorical power… it’s all about “killing” Patsy and recreating that same sense of positive influence on her own terms.

With this in mind, it has been horrifying (by design, to be clear) to watch this justified and understandable desire turn desperate and corrupted, and to see Trish transform into an antihero in the last two seasons of the show. As Trish, despite her better judgment, starts rebuilding her relationship with her mother, all of that past trauma comes back to the surface. She loses her grip on her life. And this comes out in her fervent desire to gain powers at any cost, thus warping her concept of heroism. Trish does what, in fact, many of the characters in the show do when their lives fall apart– she copes poorly. Her plans go awry, she makes mistakes, then she tries to justify them, and on and on, digging herself deeper and deeper until the idea of becoming a hero by murdering “bad” people seems like a logical and reasonable solution– the only way to feel like she is actually doing something “good” that makes a difference. This season emphasized the fact that, despite the illusion created in Season 1, Trish never actually escaped from her mother’s influence, she never actually moved on from that trauma, and those lingering ties end up destroying her.

Again, on a surface level, I don’t have a problem with this. I actually love dark stories with hopeless endings, and it is in conversation with Jessica’s journey of escape and personal reinvention. But Trish’s arc felt wrong to me, and beyond the anticlimax of the show’s cancellation, I felt it lacked nuance. If I think about it really hard, I can justify Trish going full-on Punisher. But in the moment, on an emotional level, it felt like a forced leap in her characterization. We weren’t deep enough in her head to fully understand how she ended up going so far off the rails. There’s also the problem of Trish not being the main character. In some ways, her story felt more like angst fodder for Jessica than anything else. As a Jessica fan, I love the final moment of the season, when she decides to stay in New York in spite of everything. But as a Trish fan, it felt unfair for Trish’s pain to just be treated as one more thing Jessica has to endure. There’s also the fact that Trish– Patsy Walker– is a long-established and beloved Marvel character. Her life has been dysfunctional, of course, but she is a superhero. She is Hellcat. And currently, she is a fairly positive, upbeat, and heroic figure within the Marvel Universe. I know it’s not fair or constructive to compare the shows/movies with the comics in this way. The MCU is its own universe, and Jessica Jones in particular has made many, many deviations from the source material. These are essentially new characters in new stories, and that’s fine. But I am always a little grumpy when adaptations blatantly disrespect their source material, and the plain fact is that the many Hellcat fans who waited and waited for Trish to get her superhero origin were given the middle finger this season.

I have to assume that following seasons would have continued her journey. She is a major secondary protagonist, and with her mother dead and the very real consequences of Doing Heroing Wrong staring her in the face, her story would invite all kinds of further development and, hopefully, an actual, successful origin story. Jessica and Trish need each other, and I feel like that would remain true even now. I could see Jessica agonizing over what to do about Trish, considering breaking her out, deciding against it, drinking a bit… and then maybe Trish would get herself out. Or outside forces would intervene. Either way, I can’t imagine Trish would have spent the entirety of a hypothetical Season 4 locked up– and I suppose one upside of the cancellation is that we can imagine all kinds of scenarios from here to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing.

#Jessica Jones spoilers #breckstonevailskier #Netflix Jessica Jones #Trish Walker #Asks #Commentary

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noisemakerreviews · 5 years

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‘Joker’ Paints An Uncomfortable Picture of Today’s World

Never did I think I’d see the day where I could parallel even the darkest of Batman themes to the world we live in.

Todd Phillips’ latest blockbuster Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as the clown prince of crime we all know and love. Phillips’ other films include the Hangover trilogy, but this new film doesn’t have a happy go-lucky trio trying to remember their drunken stupors and find their fourth mate.

Joker makes the audience laugh, but in a nervous, sort of uncomfortable way.

At the Venice Film Festival, Joker received an eight-minute standing ovation.

Reviews poured in following the Italian premiere and they backed up the hype. Mark Hughes of Forbes said, “The fact is, everyone is going to be stunned by what Phoenix accomplishes, because it’s what many thought impossible — a portrayal that matches and potentially exceeds that of The Dark Knight’s Clown Prince of Crime.”

The film opens with Phoenix touching up his makeup in front of a vanity. He hooks his fingers in the corners of his mouth and pulls them upward in a smile, downwards in a frown, then back up again; a single, mascara-stained tears roll down his cheek, and laughter ensues.

Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, an eccentric man with a funny laugh and a horrifying past, searching for his identity. The film encapsulates Arthur’s journey with himself and his downward spiral into becoming the Joker.

There are some prevalent themes within Joker that are worth talking about; the most prevalent being mental health and its effect on people in today’s society. There are several scenes in which Phoenix is sitting in front of his therapist, and she eventually jerks the needle off the record and informs him that the city has cut the clinic’s funding and their meetings must come to an end. The therapist goes on to claim that the higher-ups, “don’t give a shit,” about people like him or her.

According to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, in 2016, 9.8 million adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. had a serious mental illness; 2.8 million of those adults were below the poverty line. Insurance companies have also been known to skimp when it comes to mental health cases, which makes it that much harder for people relating to Arthur to seek help. According to a study published by Milliman, in 2015, behavioral care was four to six times more likely to be provided out-of-network than medical or surgical care. In President Trump’s proposed 2020 budget, his administration aims to cut $241 billion from Medicaid, an assistance program that provides healthcare to low-income Americans.

Dancing is a symbol that is heavy in Joker. According to a Harvard study, “dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections, especially in regions involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition.” After especially tense scenes, Arthur begins a slow, emphasized dance routine that is hauntingly beautiful.

With mental health being such a prevalent theme, Arthur clinging onto dancing as a coping mechanism or escape from the world backs up the analysis that he’s doing it to improve his mental health — or at least attempt to.

In any Batman rendition — comics, movies, TV shows, video games — Gotham is always on fire… literally. In Joker, we see a bright Gotham in the beginning, with normal big-city crimes happening: teenagers stealing things, muggings, etc. By the end of the film, Arthur has bred chaos in the streets, and we see the imagery of Gotham that has become so prevalent within the Batman universe. In both Arthur and Gotham’s descent into madness, there’s an arc that’s ever present: protesting the elite.

All around the country, protests have emerged to combat the elite. Most recently, climate change has brought criticism on the world’s elite members and their inability to make a change. In the past, police brutality has created protests in riots from victim’s families and their supporters, calling for change in law enforcement procedures. Countless marches have been held in response to several pieces of legislations passed (abortion laws, Planned Parenthood budget cuts, LGBTQ+ rights).

“Kill The Rich” is a headline that pops up time and time again throughout the film, feeding into this “protest the elite” arc. Arthur guns down three rich men in the subway following their harassment of a woman and a physical altercation between himself and the men. This sparks a movement within Gotham that empowers Arthur and makes him feel noticed, something he’d never experienced in his life before. Citizens of Gotham supporting this movement don clown masks to imitate the suspect, aka, Arthur.

Joker has faced its fair share of backlash. Stephanie Zacharek of Time Magazine took no prisoners in her review, stating that Joker, “lionizes and glamorizes Arthur even as it shakes its head, faux-sorrowfully, over his violent behavior.” Other reviews have had similar opinions. In 2012, a mass shooting broke out at a Colorado movie theatre during The Dark Knight Rises premiere. The assailant fatally shot 12 people. Family members of the slain victims wrote a letter to Warner Bros. expressing their concerns.

Sandy Phillips, mother to 24-year-old victim Jessica Ghawi, told The Hollywood Reporter, “I don't need to see a picture of [the gunman]; I just need to see a Joker promo and I see a picture of the killer … My worry is that one person who may be out there — and who knows if it is just one — who is on the edge, who is wanting to be a mass shooter, may be encouraged by this movie. And that terrifies me.”

In what is perhaps its most iconic scene, Arthur eccentrically dances down the stairs that we see him trudge up throughout the film. This is also the first time we see him in that iconic purple suit, green hair, and a full face of makeup. He is dancing to Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part Two,” which has earned the film more backlash. Gary Glitter is a convicted pedophile currently serving a 16-year prison sentence. According to CNBC, Glitter is allegedly slated to receive royalties from the use of his song in the movie.

People took to Twitter to post their opinions about the film. One user tweeted, “#JokerMovie was the most brutal, uncomfortable and tense movie experience I’ve had in a long time. Joaquin Phoenix is chilling. The film was spot on and did everything it should have for a character like the Joker.”

Another user tweeted, “Outstandingly Disturbing. Prolific. Necessary Blessing to Modern Cinema.”

As much as I enjoyed the film’s premise, production, and Phoenix’s performance, I do think there are some troubling themes that need to be brought up. Arthur often justifies his heinous actions by stating “they deserved it” and using the defense that society treats “people like him” like “trash” so, they should all die. He feeds into the “Kill The Rich” movement that he involuntarily created in the subway when he committed what we presume to be his first murder(s).

Though I know the concept behind the Joker character, I can see how this can be construed as glorifying gun violence. However, we can’t have the Gotham supervillain without violence and guns. It’s an accurate representation of the character, and it’s unfortunate that it parallels a lot of what’s going on in the world today.

The Joker is also painted to incite pity within viewers, which a lot of times, it does --- or at least attempts to. This is classic Joker behavior. In Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s comic Mad Love, readers meet Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. She gets assigned to none other than --- you guessed it --- the Joker. Though this woman is highly educated (we won’t talk about the things she did to get that education), the Joker still manipulates her and convinces her to not only help him escape Arkham, but become his partner-in-crime as well; Harleen Quinzel is no more and Harley Quinn is born.

She pities him and his situation, and he spins his tale of woe so expertly that she has the wool pulled over her eyes. Throughout the comic --- and the general timeline for Joker and Harley --- Joker mercilessly abuses Harley, from pushing her out a window to not noticing she was gone for six months. He is a cruel, manipulative psychopath that nobody should follow in the footsteps of; however, he’s good at his job, and Joker showcases that, however controversial and uncomfortable it may be.

Joker is rated R for a reason; not only are there a few F-bombs, the violence is staggering. However, when dealing with a character that is known for inciting violence and not caring about the consequences, tough scenes are necessary. Phillips didn’t shy away from blood and intensity in his murder scenes, and Phoenix went all in when it came to brutality. Personally, (spoiler!) I never really wanted to see Robert De Niro’s brains blown out the back of his skull, but you can’t have the Joker without some blood.

And finally, while the troubled citizens looking for a leader are terrorizing Gotham following Arthur’s murder of Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) on live television, our hero’s story starts. Thomas and Martha Wayne are gunned down in an alley outside a theatre by a rogue thug and Joker fan, and young Bruce Wayne begins his famous story.

Joker was original in concept and plot, but had just enough callbacks to the comics to make it permissible. The atmosphere in the full theatre I was in was palpable. There were chuckles and titters here and there when Arthur would make a funny joke, or everyone was just laughing off the tension of the moment. There were also audible gasps and groans when things got especially rough (such as the aforementioned Robert De Niro scene). Joker did exactly what the real Joker would have wanted: it incited a reaction out of people.

I had low expectations going into the movie because, as someone who grew up reading Batman and loving to hate the Joker, I was afraid my favorite complex villain was going to get ruined (looking at you, Jared Leto). I was pleasantly surprised by Phoenix’s performance and Phillips’ take on Mista J, and it was a refreshing performance that was a polar opposite from the late Heath Ledger’s, but equally as convincing and chilling.

An Oscar seems to be on the horizon for both Phillips and Phoenix for Joker. The film is raunchy and tense, and I didn’t know I could hold my breath for two hours. It’s exactly what a Joker movie should be, and I’d encourage anyone to go watch it.

#joker #the joker #joker movie #review #joker review #comic book #comic book review #movie #dc #dc comics #todd phillips #joaquin phoenix #pop culture

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sol1056 · 6 years

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My ask box continues to fill up, and I have no answers for any of this. I’ve gotten comments that @dreamworksanimation is good about things like fair representation in other shows when it comes to disability, queer relationships, racial diversity, and just plain solid storytelling. Why was @voltron the exception?

Or you can just have the questions from my asks:

I really, really wanted [Dreamworks execs] to address the situation, to tell us why VLD took that enormous shitty turn and to apologize and do us better. But I'm guessing we already know the answer (arrogant inexperienced EPs) and I think they won't do anything about it, just try to fade Voltron to the background as it's ending and focus on She-ra, if they ever decide to apologize, they're just gonna focus on the LGBT rep as if its the worst problem of their story.

You know what, I hope someone makes an extensive list of all the morally questionable messages Voltron has sent with all its characters (Shiro & Kuron everything, and Lotor as abuse victim in particular), all in detail and shove them in their faces saying, but to you it's 2 guys in love and in a healthy relationship that is wrong, instead of ableism, racism, homophobia, etc. When I think of what the kids will take from Voltron I feel sick. But queer love is the problem here, right. I’m disgusted.

Us: can we get a happy ending too like the het people and couples in the show?

VLD: no, not a happy or even semi-happy ending, you'll get a miserable ending but get this, we're going to write the last survivor of the 4 queer characters we killed off to be totally on board with this. We'll write him and animate him as if he's happy and got resolution, growth, and catharsis and not as if he got demoted, sidelined, isolated, discarded by his family, worst of all by Keith. We'll say a monster like him can’t be a paladin.

Let’s also go back to talking about how they not only made Lotor, a victim of child abuse not to mention biracial character who grew up with everything against him: suddenly evil, be the same as his abusive "father" and "mother" (who even after remembering who he is pulled the same crap as before), took every happiness away from him and had the nerve to mock his abuse in S7?! As a child abuse survivor I'M HORRIFIED.

The messages in the Shiro/Adam scene is disgusting, this is such a difficult subject, even for adults show with plenty time to explore and be fair to both characters while being explicit about it all. I was worried: in a kids’ show? how can they write this in a way they'll get it? With barely time for it? but look what they wrote, Adam gave an ultimatum instead of support and died, then they blamed the disabled guy for everything. Message: you’re gay so your relationship and your life are worthless, you'll be miserable and alone.

For a team that is all about working together, voltron members after 7 seasons still don't feel like a family and more like colleagues from work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It feels odd knowing that they weren't actually battling homophobic higher ups. It feels more tactical and greedy for social justice points than out of genuine desire to showcase diversity. Is it coincidence that the character they dislike the most is the one selected for this honor? As a lesbian fan i'm skeptical and angry and refuse to watch anything else by these two.

People keep trying to excuse this stuff with "Voltron is a kids' show", but you know what? There are gay kids out there. There are disabled kids out there. Much as we may wish it otherwise, there are kids out there experiencing trauma. Do we REALLY want to teach those little kids that they are broken and tainted forever and nothing good is waiting for them in the world from here on out? People need to know how damaging it is to have ZERO stories in media showing realistic healing of trauma.

The lady who betrayed them got a proper send off scene even tho she send Adam & the others like pigs to slaughter & betrayed them & caused them all to almost lose and die. Got screentime & some characterization. But sure why respect Adam that way too. I will never forget the dread I had for him when I saw he was with the fighters who were sent to die, then watched them one by one lose their lives until he too, was killed. I still feel sick thinking about it. We never even learned his last name.

I know it's been a while but I'm not over how they treated Lotor in s6. I'm from a broken and dysfunctional home and this show I watch for escapism told me I'm doomed to repeat the same mistakes of my parents, end up just like them. ... Are they even aware of the messages they send to their audience? Not all of us had good childhood like Allura.

From a chronically ill perspective, I felt downright insulted by the choice they made to give Shiro a degenerative illness. The idea of a chronically ill hero is cool but they pull the cure narrative, they don't give him a real illness, and it's just used for cheap irrelevant drama. Plus the whole "Has to choose between loved ones and goals" thing was pretty insensitive, we're already expected to sacrifice so much as ill people so the reinforcement of that was unpleasant to watch and read meta on.

Even if everyone was white cishet abled guy the messages sent to kids were awful: One who fought to carve his own path was forced to become someone else, one who suffered and fought till the end was told he’s a monster that can’t be a paladin, the insecure one will never be worthy as himself and he'll always be someone else’s replacement, one who survived genocide and suffered loss upon loss until reduced to nothing, one who suffered by his parents’ hand became like them, the whole Kuron thing. You cant brush off all THAT.

going into the new semester with the horrible messages of s7 on my mind...i’m lethargic. i have been since the “retired paladin” interview. it was bad for me to balance my mental health on the state of a fictional character, but it was really effective. Until that awful message that disabled people are helpless in controlling their own lives. I’m trying to disconnect and thrive anyway, out of spite against ableism if nothing else.

I had this horrible realization: you know how Shiro is a victim of abuse and him getting the Black Lion was him regaining the control the lack of he suffered in his capture? I think they gave him the illness and handwaved it with the clone, so as to argue for his removal from the Black Lion. They claim that the reason he wanted control was the illness and not the victimization in the Galra hands. They're essentially erasing his trauma.

Writers: so we'll write endearing multidimensional characters with many layers, we'll have them subvert stereotypes, especially those that characters like them usually are written with, ie. Keith isn't a loner nor is he angry just 'cause, but a lonely abandoned kid with trust issues due to his mom leaving him, thus has poor emotional control and anger management, struggles to connect and open up, he is the one whose arc embodies the found family theme more than anyone.

EPs: nah we want stereotypes loool

We talk about Shiro and all the ableism in his story but we don't talk nearly enough about how horrifying the message is that Keith is the one to take it all from him and kick him aside. Keith chose to discard Shiro because he's broken and useless, so he can take his place. I've been through things they both have and I find all that horrifying. S7 sent terrible messages to kids watching.

They had the chance to let Shiro overcome and be a hero. To defeat his own abuser (Sendak) except Keith takes over everything and fixes everything for him while he lies helpless on the ground without a new arm yet. They had the budget. The animation. They could have empowered Shiro. They saw how many people saw themselves in Shiro's struggle. They must have seen the concerns. And they actively chose to go against that.

The Bury Your Gays trope is even worse this season when you consider the heavy lesbian subtext with Lotor's former generals who get blown up on screen. And naturally, it's the one with a crush on Keith who turns good and survives.

Was there a minority that hasn't been screwed over? Bury Your gays was merely the last shocking straw, because the whole season was chockful of terrible messages and proved they would never treat their characters right and address stuff from before. Homophobia, racism, ableism, sexism, mocking of abuse, excusing abandonment & so on.

I’m adding my voice because I'm so, so tired. None of the characters i see on screen are the characters we got to know in s1/2. The character i most related to was beaten down out of spite for 4 seasons and now may as well be a cardboard cutout. DW and the EPs don't seem to give a single shit about how badly this season has affected people. i don't know whether to jump ship or spit fire over everything. i'm just... exhausted.

I want a transparent statement & apology from DreamWorks. I want to know THEIR stance & role in this, ALL the events that ended up with us getting a show that is not only homophobic but also ableist, racist, mocks child abuse and so much more. I want them to acknowledge & explain why they allowed the marketing team to bait fans with ship content in their videos, thumbnails and even that EP interview about shipping. I want to know who and why allowed the show to to take a worse direction in recent seasons.

I have no answers for any of this, @dreamworksanimation. If there are any explanations, any reassurances that you’ll work hard to prevent any repeat, you need to say so. The longer you’re silent, the more it looks like you’re fine with the story and all its horrific messages. Are you?

#vld #voltron #representation

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emeraldnebula · 6 years

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Thoughts on the comic book industry, Part 4

Having talked about how the comic book industry is still clinging to creative and marketing tactics that are at least 2½ decades out of date, there's really only one other place to go with this line of rambling. And in the age of social media, it's the most self-evident of all.

Not only is the comics industry stuck decades in the past, but it's hopelessly out of touch with reality, both creatively and politically.

It goes beyond being unwilling to look outside the box from a business standpoint. That's bad enough on its own, but it's a by-product of the creative side of the equation. Creatively, the major publishers are not only stubbornly devoted to outdated and stagnant methods from decades past, but they're stubbornly devoted to their own pet ideas at the exclusion of all else. It doesn't matter how unpopular their ideas are even from the beginning, it doesn't matter how poorly their pet directions sell, it doesn't matter how much the vast majority of fans object to those bad ideas. It's what the company wants, therefore it's inherently good and to hell with anything else. If the audience makes it clear they don't like the company's pet ideas, that's just all the more reason for the major publishers to cram it down the readers' throats. If the readers don't like where the major publishers are going with their products, the publishers aren't above bullying, insulting, and pressuring readers into caving in and supporting them regardless.

Now keep in mind, I'm not talking about the kind of fans who scream bloody murder over an old costume design being updated sans trunks, or who throw screaming hissy fits over creatively stale and burned out creative teams being replaced with fresh blood. I'm not talking about the kind of fans who cry havoc and protest when a franchise needs to be rebooted, or just needs some freshening up. Those are the kind of fans DC and Marvel actually WANTS, and largely caters to. I'm talking about DC and Marvel actively alienating, insulting, and belittling the vast majority of what once was/should be their readership – the fans who truly love the characters and object when the major publishers actively crap all over their characters, betray everything the characters stand for, pull event-gimmicks and stunts that are just purely hateful and serve no real creative purpose, and actively reject and disregard legitimate criticism. Little by little, DC and Marvel have whittled their readerships down to the tiny, selfish minority whose tastes mirror that of the companies. And in no small part has it contributed to the downfall of the industry.

This isn't a new thing by any means. Even as far back as the Iron Age, DC and Marvel were dismissive of anybody who objected to their pet directions. Batman fans for years had objected in the letter columns to Catwoman being retconned by Frank Miller as a hooker, as well as to Batman's increasing devolution from a heroic man of honor to a paranoid, hostile asshole. DC repeatedly disregarded those concerns, insisting that Miller's conception of the characters was canon and would not be changed. (And once Miller's go-to editor Bob Schreck took over as Bat-editor and brought Miller back to DC, everything Batman fans had been objecting to got ramped up a thousandfold.) The Superman books were levied with complaints about Lois Lane's abusive behavior toward Superman before and during their Iron Age marriage, as well as nonstop objections to Lois' '90s-era loverboy Jeb Friedman. DC blew off those complaints as sexist backlash to a "strong woman," even though comic book creators had similar complaints about the direction of the books. Even before "One More Day/Brand New Day" used a satanic pact to end Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane Watson, the '90s-era Clone Saga was conceived primarily to force Spider-Man back into bachelorhood, even if it meant claiming the Spidey people knew for years was a clone and the real deal was AWOL. The Green Lantern books respoded to fan concerns about the Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan being reduced to a one-note crazy bad guy...by doing just that and asking fans if they were pleased with the results. And so on.

Jump forward to the 2000s, and what do we have? Stephanie Brown/Spoiler seemingly tortured to death in the Batman books for no real reason, and the writer responsible, Bill Willingham, bragging about how much he alienated the fandom and how "golden" it is to turn your fandom against you. Marvel editor Tom Brevoort claiming on message forums that angering and alienating your readership translates to better sales, because a happy fandom makes your sales too "soft." (Never mind how blatantly untrue that is, especially since the '90s comic boom ended.) The aforementioned "One More Day/Brand New Day," where Joe Quesada and Dan Slott not only went out of their way to insult, bully, and disregard anyone who dared disagree with their vision, but also opened one of the "Brand New Day" issues with a character ordering the readers to "just shut the fuck up and give me your money!" Cry for Justice/Rise of Arsenal, where backlash to the ruination of Green Arrow and Black Canary's relationship was met with a sales pitch for a new Gail Simone Birds of Prey book and where complaints over the needless deaths in the story were dismissed with excuses that DC could have killed off even more Green Arrow characters. The current situation with Marvel's SJW-leaning comics, where anyone who voices objections to bad far-left propaganda and blatant mouthpiece characters is hit with every politically charged insult in the book. Or DC's "Rebirth," where anyone who voices disagreement with DC's current direction dismissed for being "fake fans" or being mocked for calling out how nonsensical and malicious the company's pet ideas are.

Do you see where this is going? Where it's been going for the last couple decades? Over and over again, the major publishers have made a point of ignoring legitimate criticism and feedback, disrespecting a readership they badly need, and insisting on pursuing what they personally want no matter how much it fails ansd how much it drives readers away. The idea that what they're doing is wrong, or at the very least misguided, is utterly foreign to them. If sales are plunging, they don't take it as a sign that they're screwing up or that what they're doing no longer works. They take it as a sign that they're shedding undesirables and that what's remaining are the true believers. They'd rather have total control and a shrinking minority of ass-kissers whose tastes mirror their own than to make the effort to appeal to a broad audience. And for what? Deservedly bad reputations. A dying industry for which history will ultimately blame them. Franchises that have been rendered toxic, or at the very least laughable.

And what's worse, the Big 2 absolutely refuse to learn from their mistakes, instead doubling and tripling down on them. If an idea is conceived and executed in bad faith and it deservedly fails, DC and Marvel don't recognize it as such. They view it as the readers being too stupid to know what's good for them and dial it up to 11. If they lose readers with their bad decisions, they view that lost readership and that lost money as being fair weather phonies. And if readers speak up as to why they're giving up on the books, if they're lucky and don't get insulted or mocked, they'll get a sales pitch for DC and Marvel's other wares. Again, this isn't a new thing. During "Knightfall," when a fan wrote in expressing how he felt Superman's death and Batman's impending spinal injury (a leaked plot point early on) felt like cheap gimmicks, what was the response he got? A sales pitch for The Flash, Legion of Super-Heroes, and DC's Vertigo line. No reassurance that Batman's temporary paralysis would be purely a test of character, no explantion that "Knightfall" was intended to be an examination of what it truly meant to be Batman, just a cheap attempt to cajole an unhappy fan into buying books he may not want.

The prevailing mindset of the last 26 years – if not longer – is twofold. On the one hand, there's the idea that if the characters' lives are made to be endlessly tragic and miserable, the readers can feel better about their own lives. In fact, a DC editor (Kevin Dooley, if I recall) said just that in response to a fan who wrote in about his dislike of the abritrary tragedy that had piled onto Aquaman leading into the Peter David revamp. On the other hand – and this one's arguably the more pervasive – there's the idea that if you make certain characters outright selfish assholes who always get their way no matter how unrealistic it is or how many people they have to stomp along the way, the reader will be inspired and empowered by them. Again, this shows just how out of touch the Big 2 are. Nobody saw anything inspiring about Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto. They saw it for the selfish, short-sighted, cowardly act it was. Lois Lane has been regarded as a hostile and unlikable character for decades, and her reputation only worsened when DC made her a "strong" (re: abusive) woman. Batman's degeneration into a insufferable, arrogant Marty Stu figure was harshly criticized even as far back as the late '80s, with people writing in begging for his heroism and humanity to be restored. And the meanspirited treatment of Superman, Green Arrow, Arsenal, the Green Lanterns, Aquaman, and others hasn't made the vast majority of fans feel better about themselves. It's angered them. It's made them feel betrayed. People go to art forms like comics, movies, TV, theatre, and radio drama for escape. They want to take a break from the bad stuff in their lives. They don't want to go from their regular troubles and see something even worse play out before them. Again, out of touch. The publishers are only playing to a tiny minority that's more or less in total agreement with them.

Now, you could argue that during the '90s, the big comic book boom more or less gave DC and Marvel the freedom they needed to pull off this kind of crap. Event-gimmicks and shock value being big sellers at the time and all. But 26 or more years later, what's the excuse? The industry is bleeding readers not just by locking itself decades in the past, but also by actively driving away anyone who isn't of the exact same tastes as the Big 2 or isn't a social media ass-kisser. Bad press doesn't equal big sales anymore. Aside from the odd milestone issue and maybe #1 issues of certain titles, people aren't buying anymore. And even at comic book conventions, talking to comic book creators past and present...they're fully aware of how far the industry has fallen, and they have their own horror stories to share about some of the bad decisions that have led to this point. But those who are still in the industry have to go along with those bad decisions simply because they've got to pay the bills. And those who aren't so active in the industry know full well that it's unwilling to change for the better.

What makes it even worse is that beyond the creative stagnation and selfishness, there's also a political bent to the way the industry carries itself. In the age of bad feminist/SJW/PC politics, comics have swung very hard in that direction, with Marvel going whole-hog into it. Many of the more prominent creators are very openly far-left, and very active in the social media mob mentality. Some, like Mark Waid, have been very open about running anybody – creator or fan – out of comics if their political leanings aren't far-left. Again, this is an industry that's wildly out of touch with reality. Not everybody shares the same political beliefs. Not everyone who's right-leaning or a centrist (my own stance) is a monster. Not every far-left talking point or goal is a good or even practical thing. Art – a even commercial form like comics – as with all things, NEEDS differing viewpoints, needs differences of opinion, needs all walks of life to be full-bodied and valid. Nope, the current comics industry wants a hive mind in all respects, politically aligned in one direction and mindlessly cheerleading whatever it is the Big 2 decide they want.

None of this is remotely viable. Aside from the major publishers going out of their way to do stuff they know the vast majority of people do not want at all, how do they expect to sustain themselves on an audience that's purely of their preferred political stance? Especially when, as social media and even the behavior of some comic book pros has shown, the far-left is just as extremist and reprehensible as the far-right? (Aside from admitting to leading purges against creators who aren't far-left, Waid also recently violated anti-trust laws to shut down an indie comic called Jawbreakers simply because its creator disagrees with Waid's/the comics industry's politics.) Speaking from personal experience, it gets really tiresome listening to comics creators you like endlessly bitching and moaning about anything even slightly center-of-left, or mindlessly spouting anti-Trump propaganda regardless of whether or not it's true. I as a fan don't like being talked down to, and I as a person don't like anyone trying to bully me into converting to their personal politics. Most people, when they read a comic, listen to music, or watch movies, TV, or plays, just want to be entertained for a little while. If you keep hammering away with bad far-left bullshit and getting mad when people don't just fall in line at your say-so? You're out of touch. You're ignoring the reality of your audience, and of day-to-day life in general. And you're alienating fans and/or potential fans in that way as well.

"But," you say, "if the Big 2 are this far gone, why not just support other publishers? Surely there's other stuff out there to devote your time to!" And that is true to a degree...but with the decline of the comics industry has also come a major atrophy of what's available out there, and how the distribution monopoly has limited the playing field in favor of the Big 2. And this will be where we go next.

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