#or dissatisfaction and anger at society which i think can fuel a lot of these kinds of views like even tho i hated conscription bts need to

[mobiused]

at the risk of being so so dumb what’s good about military consignment? I don’t care about bts or if they do it or whatever I just don’t understand really why people want them to do badly. is it just because it’s precedent and the idea of them being exempted feels unfair to people?

Not much is good about it, I didn't mean to imply that. I don't support conscription. I just hate the posts that condemn exclusively the ROK for being backwards and rightwing (which so easily leads to orientalism and racism) without acknowledging the reason for it, which is American imperialism and occupation. This isn't to suggest South Korea is blameless or not complicit, or not accountable for its various military activities and atrocities (see Vietnam war for example). But really I'm not the best person to ask about this so here's some other people (relevant section starting pg. 15) who talk about it better (and it's worth looking into the origins of the Korean War and the US' involvement in it for more details on why mandatory conscription persists to this day yourself, for your own edification).

The conscription system serves to intimidate ROK's brother in the North, which keeps Korea further away from peace and reunification, and only serves the US' imperialist and anti-socialist agenda - not only threatening the DPRK with its presence, but also the entire Pacific theatre. ~650,000 soldiers that MUST fight and die for the US due to the mutual defense treaty is surely a huge threat to any nation in East and South East Asia. Again, this only benefits the US and its maintenance of its empire, and keeps Korea divided.

Most Korean people want BTS to service because of "fairness" - even if they don't support conscription - there are more people who don't believe in compulsory conscription then there are people who do. I think this is more to do with Korean attitudes towards justice as opposed to a reflection on how the population feels about conscription, though.

[makeste]

on Re-Destro and the source of the “stress” that fuels his quirk

continuing to make my way through @thequietmanno1′s asks! once I’m done with these I’ll work on going through the rest of my inbox.

I received this ask after chapter 238, if I'm not mistaken (so things have changed just a little bit, but that's my bad for not responding to this earlier).

And now I’m kinda feeling bad for Re-Destro, just a little. Like, that flashback doesn’t show much, but it speaks volumes about his character. The smart suit, the focused, determined yet somewhat resigned, unhappy look on his face, the neatly groomed hair, standing beside presumably his mother in front of some faceless shadowy figures telling him he must fulfil their ambitions.

I wonder if, at one point, Re-Destro didn’t want to fulfil his legacy, but wanted to choose his own path in life, yet the pressures and responsibilities heaped upon him by Destro’s old supporters and his family made him bury that desire, that part of himself that resented having to take up the mantle, until it because an unconscious source of strength for him. His power grows from stress, so his unknown resentment at being born a figurehead for a movement he might not have truly agreed with at his core caused him to build up stress from having to become someone he didn’t want to be, and fulfil a grand objective he might not have been confident he could pull off. He outright said that Quirks have a Personality Power aspect to them, so his own Quirk is indicative of the burden his role has placed him in, one he’s been in for such a long time that he’s forgotten who he was before he because Re-Desto.

I’m wondering if all his little breaks of temper and swift and sudden outburst of extreme violence may have been because of this unconscious desire to not be Re-Destro- because if the movement fails, or is mocked and looked down upon, he’s then wasted his life for a cause that he was forced to support, and never had to chance to be someone else- and he was lashing out because of the rage and anger that he’s had to hide behind a mask since he was a kid. Like, he seems to become calmer and focused when he’s raging because he’s finally able to act like he wants to, but is still controlling himself tightly because that’s how he’s been raised, to be a perfect leader even at the worst of times.

Ironically, it seems this hidden resentment may be why he failed to kill Shigaraki, since he outright says his stress is fading away. Maybe he recognised Shigaraki as someone similar to himself (probably some bullshit about understanding someone by crossing blades/fists with them) and actually respected the teenager for having the courage to reject his own legacy and forge his own path according to his own desires. There’s been quite a few evil counterparts between the league and the MLA – Dabi and Genten over their conflicting views about how quirks define them; Skeptic and Twice over their instability born from failure (Twice from failing all the time and feeling worthless for it; Skeptic for refusing to fail and be considered worthless more than once); Trumpet and Spinner over both of them being people who define themselves via their relationship to someone else’s dream. And here we get to see how Shigaraki’s rejection of his own family legacy counters Re-Destro’s acceptance and hidden resentment of his own legacy. Many villains have called Shigaraki a simple, one-dimensional character for just focusing on destroying the things he hates around him. But that same desire is simple, it’s pure, and it doesn’t waver under pressure. Just Like Spinner couldn’t be crushed under Trumpet’s breaking speech because he’s already accepted his poor character and flaws, Shigaraki’s pure desire to destroy makes him more grounded, focused and determined than Re-Destro, who has been struggling with his own flaws and dissatisfactions in private for his whole life.

Going forward, this simplicity may be what allows Shigaraki to rise to the top, much like AFO had the simple desire to become a “King of Evil” and set out to achieve exactly that. This is actually true of every character who’s had an origin chapter - a reminder to themselves of the simple desires that drove them to become who they were, and by bringing that to the forefront of their mind, allows them to redefine themselves and their purpose and continue on their path with renewed purpose. The whole fight is symbolic of that really. Initially Re-Destro seems to have the upper hand in numbers, resources and goals, but as the fight drags on, each one of these gets broken under the league overcoming their personal demons to become stronger for the sake of their simple desires. When Re-Destro first fights Shigaraki, he overwhelms him in speed, power and convictions, crippling his hands and trying to tear him down to prove he’s the better villain between them (which, now I think about it, served no real purpose to Re-Destro, but may have been a way for him to quell the hidden resentments he had about being forced into his role, by striking down an upstart challenger to his destined throne, and reinforcing his wish to prove that the whole MLA wasn’t a mistake he was forced into making). But once Shigaraki recovers his memories and his origin, he just keeps tearing through Re-Destro’s arguments and attacks one by one with his pure desire to destroy. He overcomes the two finger limitation, proving he’s not as limited or weak as Re-Destro thinks, and keeps destroying his ultimate attack, becoming more sane, focused and confident as he does. Re-Destro keeps trying the same move- the apex of his power and probably something he was forced to develop in childhood, so to him it represents the absolute conviction that the MLA is the correct Choice for the Next Villain overlord. Yet Shigaraki keeps striking it down again and again with one simple, pure move every time, no matter how much he ups the power or used more complex mechanisms to enhance it. That’s why his stress starts to fade- because some part of him, that he’s long buried and forgotten, despite it fuelling a great amount of his quirk, recognises and respects Shigaraki as an equal, as someone who had the courage to reject his defined path in life and make his own, consequences and social conventions be dammed.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making you think he didn’t exist, and perhaps the greatest trick AFO pulled was giving Tomura the illusion of choice in Becoming the Symbol of Fear. As far as the boy could see, he alone was responsible for the death of his family, unconsciously on behalf of everyone else, willingly on behalf of his father, and that warped perception of himself let AFO give him the little pushes necessary to complete the transition. If there’s one thing this arc has shown, it’s that villainy is perhaps a lot like gravity- you only need a little push to go from nobody to outcast, with no-one to accept you but the rejects of society.

---

nothing much to add to this, except perhaps another apology for being late in replying. I think it’s clear as of chapter 239 that this analysis is spot on. RD clearly did grow to respect Tomura during their battle, and I think you nailed it down as to exactly why Tomura was able to earn that respect.

I still don’t know if I can honestly say I feel sorry for RD, but I appreciate the way that Horikoshi slowly developed his character over the course of the arc. he never gave us a real, complete backstory for him, but he didn’t really have to; the little tidbits he dropped here and there, along with RD’s own passionate villain monologues about the MLA's philosophy and its history, were more than enough to establish why he is the way that he is. and it led up to the perfect ending, IMO. this was a really great arc.

[theliterateape]

Untwisting the Jounced About Bottle

By Don Hall

You grab a bottle of soda and shake it up. You sit it on the counter. You know what’s going to happen when you untwist that cap.

Now imagine a truckload of bottles of soda, all shaken up at the same time, just ready to blow.

According the oddly named World Happiness Report, Americans are less happy (or more unhappy) than ever. The report, which has been released every year since 2012, surveyed one hundred fifty-six countries using six metrics: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, the freedom to make life choices, social support, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.

And despite a having strong economy and low crime rates, the US dropped in the rankings for the third straight year and is now the 19th happiest nation on Earth.

Like an entire nation of bottles shaken up and waiting to burst, showering anyone and everyone with the spew of anger and dissatisfaction. 

I've been thinking a lot about those shaken up soda bottles lately - watching how incredibly uptight and entitled we are - and I'm thinking it goes a bit deeper than simply intellectual bullying or insistence on shaming people when they don't see eye to eye with us.

I continue to look around and realize that A) we all think we're really fucking important and B) we are incredibly uptight because we know, deep down in the dark snake mind, that we aren't.

In the grand scheme of things, most of us aren't all that much to crow about, historical significance-wise.  When you consider that most of us can't name the totality of all 44 presidents, the existence of someone NOT voted into the highest office of a just over 200-year old country on a planet filled with humans (with more and more every second) is laudable - you exist! - but hardly notable.  But like a dog that can process reason and create imaginary fears, we sniff the asses of our neighbors, eat garbage, wallow in our own shit and then wonder about the meaning of it all.

Some of us have convinced ourselves that mankind is somehow "specialer" than other species. Deities (that strangely look like us) have created us individually for a divine destiny.  Some are just out for ourselves, acquiring stuff and feeling entitled to our cable TV, Cheezits, Coca Cola and planning for our retirements when we no longer have to work that job that is the equivalent of being a Big Hairless Hamster in a Wheel.  We are all the starring character in the movies of our lives and everybody around us are bit players that come and go and exist to fuel our own selfish narratives.

And yet we are reminded, time and time again, that Life isn't a movie and it really isn't about us.  We are held hostage by the process of aging, by the dull cadence of days that drone on and on, by the ravages of Nature and these reminders that we are NOT in control make us create rules and structures and SOCIETY.

And when the people in the world do not behave by these rules, we pounce upon them, declare them deviant and either shame them into submission or destroy them entirely.  Unfortunately, there are now so many people on the planet that, if one falls into the minority, like a Sneech without a Star, there isn't anyplace to go to hide from the majority and the majority Rules and the Rules are stiff reminders of our desperate need to maintain control in a Planet simmering in Chaos and Destruction.

Sex should be between a man and a woman.  Citizens should speak English.  Drugs are evil.  Germs are bad for you.  Children are too fragile to leave the house.  Aggression is wrong.  Sex, even when between a man and a woman in consensual coitus, is WRONG. The true worth of a man or woman resides in his or her bank account.  Different is scary.  Conformity is required.  Credit scores matter. All life is precious except for the poor or the black or the ones with funny accents or odd names that sound like baby talk, clanging silverware or the menu at a Taco Bell.  All [insert race or religion or sexual preference] people are easily stereotyped as being lazy or cheap or privileged or criminal or promiscuous.

The bottle is societally predisposed to be shaken and we're all set to explode in some ways when we least expect it.  The bubbles that simmer and pop are the constant fear of loss of control and the knowledge that our fellow citizens can and will turn on us as soon as we break one of the conventions of polite society.  The pressure is incredible and it's no wonder we're insane as a species, worshipping blood-soaked violence in our entertainment and terrified of the sight of sex instead.

The flip side of this is that soda is delicious. It’s a bottle of sugar-laden carbonated water. It’s sweet. It’s amazing when ice cold on a sun-soaked day.

And there is only one way to deal with a bottle of delicious, ice-cold soda when the bottle has been tossed around a bit and is set to go off.

Wait a while for it to settle down. If the bottle had something so anthropomorphic as patience, we could all benefit from that.d