#she so clearly does not value herself inherently and sees herself as an object for others

[grideon-nav]

if someone doesn’t take a restored gideon nav’s face between their hands in alecto the ninth to tell her that her life meant everything and that she has inherent worth just as she is, and that she should live for herself and not for others, and then give her a tight hug, im going to do a john gaius on this bitch of an earth

[hushpuppy5-blog]

My gripe with Euphoria. Part 1:

The Defamation of Kat and Cassie

So against my better judgment, I watched the darn show....

Both seasons.

It had your typical "teen" drama filled with drugs, sex, and depression, and it was exploitation at its finest.

This is not to say that teens don't experience these things. Far from it, but the way the show frames these experiences does not come off as genuine. We get the sexualization of teen girls and the exploration of how women view their feminity. By exploration, I mean it was some grown man's interpretation of what he feels a powerful and complex teenage girl should look like. That usually always deals with her sexuality. She should be sexually desirable, even when her mental health is at stake. This is shown drastically in characters like Kat and Cassie, two young girls who feel like they are "empowered" in their sexually escapades, and this is done at the expense of their childhood. Teens are practically still children. Legal age has nothing to do with the development of the brain. These characters were told that their value was rested in mainly their sexuality, especially since society saw them as expendable and useless. They tried to show Kat coming into how she views herself, but that storyline was quickly tossed and they left her character hollow.

Image of Kat Hernandez, played by Barbie Ferreira

She started off an actual lead in the story. We see her as the odd one out amongst her friends, Maddy and BB. This oddity, of course, is her virginity. The concept of losing virginity goes back into the idea of a woman's purity and social standing. I have grown to loathe these plot points in teen shows. They are never handled with care or consideration, especially as it relays the idea that a girl can't truly progress in life until she has been conquered, presumably by a man. The story remains even more tasteless when these girls enter a party and Kat is coerced into having sex with some boy from another school. This results in a video being spread, showing her engaging in this deed. I'm sure some laws were broken here, but nevertheless, Kat has to do some damage control in order to stay out of trouble. It is unfortunate to see the show almost enjoy displaying what was clearly her first experience with sex in such a degrading manner. For the sake of plot, I'm sure it suited her to not have her face shown. Still, it makes one wonder about the facelessness of women who are watched online from such humiliating videos. We don't even know if they consented to being video taped. Kat sure didn't.

In episode 2 of season 1, we continue her story with flashbacks of her childhood that show her struggling with her weight as well as the loss of her first boyfriend. Her fight with body image is inherent. Even more heart-rending, Kat finds this new spike in internet fame to be intriguing and goes on to upload more videos of herself to a p*rn site (faceless of course).

Her cam-girl status was simply to shock, not offer meaningful commentary on teen girls and the exposure of themselves to a world that despises them. I believe the actress herself even commented on not wanting another "fat girl" plot line. Of course, not much followed from that outside of her story being cast out.

Consequently, we see her character get more and more one note. Thankfully, she has quit her dominatrix job by season 2, but ber struggles with identity are still realistically persistent. The show refuses to expand on that past episode 3, however. She grows unsatsified with a boy, Ethan, who appears to really like her. The show tries to dispaly how her self-esteem could not be solved through sex, but they refuse to leave her with a shred of diginity. At this point, we can infer that she loathes her body, but is afraid to admit that to a world that will reject her admission. Instead, she fantasizes about getting with someone that views her as an object to be sexually assaulted (shown in a weird Game of Thrones where she is practically r*ped by a warrior). Again, a real life circumstance for some teen girls and women, but also one the show refuses to explore further. We see her then gaslight and berate Ethan in the 2nd season's last few episodes, presenting the idea that girls only want "bad boys" in the end. This is in refusal to address Kat's emerging belief in how she lacks confidence herself and how it was a facade. We don't get to see her feel devastated by her actions, despite being shown as a character very capable of sympathy for others. Her facade of care free sexual appeal is put to the fore-front, and we as the audience are meant to see her just as shallow as she portrays herself. It is also important to note that her counterpart from the 2012 Euphoria series, a character by the name of Noy, dealt with a little more plot wise. Noy's character is actually shown to face long-term consequences from her sexual exploration. Kat's edition of this is shown to be so careless and almost glorifying as a result. Sex of any kind came come with risks, and that should have been shown for her. We don't know much about the men she experiments with, both online and off, how old they are, or what they've done in their pasts. The plus-sized girl in this series is not given any more nuance than she is in most other media portrayals. Kat is still the promiscuous and plus-sized girl who is hard to love. We are no longer able to have her point of view. We are no longer able to sympathize with the girl in this seemingly female-centric show.

Image of Cassie Howard, played by Sydney Sweeney

Cassie is shown desperately clinging to any male figure in her life, carelessly placing her own friends on the back burner. This may be reminiscent of real life, but again, the show does not attempt to humanize her. We are somehow meant to objectify her, especially with the amount of times we've seen her topless. The camera seems to thoroughly enjoy scanning over her body. It matches the ominous and far from hidden attention that her body received upon reaching puberty. This attention, of course, was given by men, strangers and family members alike. Of course, she is naturally unaware of the male gaze as it strips her first of her awareness, hiding behind smiles and gentle gestures. As her body blossoms, the world decides when it would be best to attack. Much like Kat, this attack is confused for affection. With an absent father, much of any male attention can be taken as fickle. Subconsciously, it becomes her mission to keep them however she can. She lives in a world where keeping a boy means you must give much of yourself away to please him. As we know, this does not earn the male’s respect, but rather his denigration. Her character is humiliated and remains unaware, as we see boys talking crudely about her behind her back. To them, she is sexually starved. It is almost sadistic, and masochistic on her oart, how much we are shown her being desperate. Even as we see her get with the seemingly kinder Mckay, it wasn't long before she was being roughhoused by him in bed and gobbling goldfish for his college initiation. The actress, Sydney Sweeney, even explicitly came out and said she asked for less nudity in her role. This is not something that should have to be told, but I guess the director didn't see her for anything but eye candy. You shouldn't need nudity to enthrall and audience, especially at the expense of your actresses. Sam Levinson (writer, producer, director) appeared to have eased away from nudity, noticeably in the show's second season. That did little to polish the show, however. In the 2nd season's final moments, we see Cassie spiral into a fit of grief and righteous fury, feeling rightfully that the world is against her. Of course, this does not excuse her from her own selfish acts. She is decides to get with the ex-boyfriend of her best friend, Maddy, and hide this up until all is revealed by a character I will discuss later. We know the origin of Cassie's lust for love, but she is ultimately shown as shallow and in the wrong. We do not get to discuss how she can come to find more stability in her life, to love herself and love other women. She just simply exists as visual entertainment beside the near sociopathic Nate Jacobs. We see Nate pull her close and push her away, and she is willing to come back everytime. We are supposed to believe she is not allowed mercy, even as she struggles with her own hidden addiction. We see her character painfully go through an abortion, which surely contributed to her declining mental state. This is shown in episode 7 of season 1. It's a plot fleetingly introduced and would never be spoken of again. Shock value for you. We do not get to see her mourn over this loss, although we are aware that this teenager would not do well with a child at the moment. Still, we don't know how she feels about having kids. We do not know how she feels about sex (I mean truly feels, not in how she presents it in scenes with Mckay and Nate).

Maddy confronting Cassie in season 2 episode 8

We do not get to see her discover that love does not exist solely in connection to a man. It should have existed in the love for her sister, possibly even in her flawed mother, or in Maddy and Kat. Primarily, that love should have been for herself, even if it took a long time to find. I highly doubt the upcoming 3rd season will give her that level of complexity and growth. She is just a dramatic plot point. Someone to be put in her place when she breaks under societal pressures. Obviously, self love is not everyone's conclusion, but Cassie, like Kat, is young and very impressionable. It is difficult to tell if the show sees them as such. Girls are told to act like mature adults, and are shamed if they don't achieve this in a way that leaves them both f*ckable and manageable. There is still time for them to learn, but where is their help? Or their conclusions?

[dangerous-disposition]

On Tragedy vs. Bad Endings

[Image ID: user @frostyfrogz​ replied to your post “my mag171 #thots: I fully agree with. I love jonmartin I want nothing but the best for them. I know my answer today was an obvious twisting of dialogue but its just frustrating sometimes because it seems like people dont understand some sort of tragedy will indeed happen. I have never and will never suggest that something will happen to Jon and Martin’s relationship I’ve just been saying the shows not going to end well no matter what.]

So I have a lot of thoughts about this very subject, and too much for the replies on my post, so allow me to try to articulate what I mean, and what a lot of us mean when we say “it does not make sense for either Jon or Martin to turn evil in the end,” even in a show that has been advertised from day one as a tragedy.

First of all, no one thinks this is going to end happy. The few who do are usually unaware that this show is billed as a tragedy, and are quick to be corrected. I didn’t know it was a tragedy until I was on season 3 and someone told me. It’s overall just best to assume that the OP knows it’s not going to be a happy ending, because “reminding” people or “explaining” to people that the ending is going to be sad is a fast way from people to get annoyed and defensive.

Anyway! It appears, above all, that people have either fundamentally different ideas of what a tragedy is or accomplishes, or that people have a fundamentally flawed understanding of tragedy and it’s place as a narrative device/theme.

My thoughts are that tragedies hurt, and tragedies can be devastating, but they have to have a message and they should not be cruel to the audience.

A cruel ending would involve leading the audience to believe one thing for the entire book, show, movie, podcast, what have you, just to rip it away at the last minute like a big “fuck you” to the audience. Those sorts of endings are inherently mocking of the audience, and ultimately disrespectful. The only people in the audience that “benefit” from this sort of writing are the cynics who spent the entire show talking down to everyone for seeing the silver lining in the impending tragedy, even if, up until the finale, the silver lining was always part of the narrative. Like it took actual twisting and outright ignoring of the narrative as it’s written to be cynical and sceptical all the way until the end.

That is, plain and simple, bad writing. Jonny Sims is not a bad writer.

Now tragedies often have “happy endings,” they just also have an element of sadness colouring that ending. A good, tragic ending should, in my opinion, feel bittersweet. We should see it coming, we should know it will hurt, but it should be for the greater good and should further the narrative that has been told from the beginning.

I said a few weeks ago that a tragic ending without a silver lining is just torture porn, and I stand by it.

Now, if Jon or Martin are revealed to be Actually Evil in the end, where is the silver lining in that? What narrative has even possibly hinted at this outcome, without putting on cynic glasses?

Every single plot point and plot “twist” in TMA has been clearly detailed, never relegated to pure subtext that you would have to comb through a single interraction and analyzing the tone in which it was said (which could easily be actor shortcomings or error). They have always been obvious, at least in hindsight. This is why, for a while, I subscribed to the Web!Martin theory, but due to recent episodes I’m more inclined to believe those “obvious things” were red herrings.

Throughout The Magnus Archives, the common theme in every. Single. Season finale is that “we are stronger together.” What do I mean by that? Well, here’s the general idea:

Season 1: The one time someone gets separated by the group for any significant length of time, like I mean the main group, she gets killed by the NotThem and replaced.

Season 2: Jon is alone, due to his intense paranoia and his reluctance to reach out for help. This leads to a disastrous series of events that leaves him a suspect of murder, and his friends even more doubtful of his character.

Season 3: In the episode just before they deal with the Unknowing, Jon literally says that isolation was his downfall, and he was going to work on trusting his friends more. When they got separated during the Unknowing, things went to shit. When they found each other again, they were able to rally and they “succeeded.” Conversely, they are also teamed up with Melanie and Martin who hung back to bring down Elias. They were successful, working as teams on separate objectives, etc.

Season 4: This is, by far, their most “successful” feats while simultaneously their least. The whole season was again showing the downfalls of isolation. In the season finale, Jon has Basira and Daisy’s help, and while bolstering himself with their strength, and the strength in his conviction to save Martin to be with Martin, Jon was successful in stopping Peter Lukas and saving Martin. Conversely, Martin and Jon’s isolation in Scotland could be, theoretically, implicated in how Jonah Magnus was able to succeed in the end like that.

Now evidence of this same train of thought in season 5? Jon literally says it: Gertrude would not have done well in this post-apocalyptic world, because she had no friendships, no anchors, no reason to stay human. And then Jon says “you are my reason” to Martin.

It is in the text of the story that the only way to succeed, or win, or survive, is through trust, friendship, and love. One of the main factors in so many of the statements, on why the statement givers succumbed to the fear in their story, for even a moment, had to do with very little personal ties to anyone else. Many of the statements feature isolation and, as Jon put it, “lack of corroboration.” On the flipside, many of the statements that ended with the statement giver escaping successfully, and surviving long enough to be reached out to for follow-up questions, involved them having close personal ties to someone else that kept them safe, somehow. Like the girl from Italy; remembering her mom saved her from the Lonely. Or, more ridiculously, the guy and his dog that escaped the spiral because he was so distracted by his dog and had to be home for dinner. In MAG170, it was Martin’s love for Jon, and his trust in the love from Jon and his friends, that saved him from the Lonely again. Jon’s incredible amount of love, and respect, and trust in his friends is what’s kept him from becoming another Jared Hopworth or Jude Perry. In MAG155, Cost of Living, he expresses open disgust in how that particular avatar of The End justified her actions, killing and killing and killing again because she viewed herself as more worthy of life than that person. In that same episode, he talks of not blinding himself because he hopes to use his powers to protect his friends, that without them they’re too vulnerable. Honestly, this is the same reason Peter Lukas is unsuccessful, because Martin only helped him at all to protect his friends. The fact that he didn’t see his failure coming was hilarious.

Gerry said in Family Business that there is no “entities of love”, and that might be true, but love and trust is literally what saves you from fear. How many of us deal with things that are scary in our lives, if only because we have some level of trust in the people or things around us. How many of us have been brought out of a panic attack by someone we love and trust?

So all of this has been presented to us, over and over and over again, which is what I, and others, mean when we say “it does not make sense for one of them to be evil.” That’s what we mean when we say “it would be Bad Writing to make one of them evil in the end.” The entire show has driven home the message that we need love, we need personal connections to survive fear. To rip that away from the main characters at the last minute and call it “tragedy” would be a spit in the face of every single listener who took the story at face value, without picking it apart and reading lines out of context. And Jonny Sims and Alex J. Newall have both said they hate lazy writing.

Now, none of the JonMartin fans I follow are deluding themselves to think this show will have a happy ending outside of very self-indulgent fix-it au fanfics.

The way I see this going down is that Jon and Martin will figure out how to put the world back to the way it was, but Jon will not be able to be part of the new world with Martin. That’s the tragedy; that the world gets saved, and Jon helps save it, but he doesn’t get to benefit from his efforts in any way. The tragedy is Jon loves Martin so much, and they deserve their happy ending, but they don’t get it. But, they still saved the world so others can have their happy endings.

Idk about you, but between the “Jon turns evil in the end” and “Jon stays good and sacrifices himself to save the world” endings, only one of them has me in tears right now as I type this out, and it’s not the former.

I’m not against sad endings,I’m against bad endings that punish the audience for having even a bittersweet hope. I’m against sad endings that are just sad for the sake of being sad, with zero pay-off or reason to happen, especially when those endings throw out 5 years of hard work.

And hey, I might just be forced to eat my words in the end, but not before I fly all the way to England and make Jonny Sims eat a knuckle sandwich.

This was a lot longer than I meant for it to be, but I just have a lot of feelings.

[enneagramwingmiranda]

Stranger Things: The actual enneagram types of Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Eleven, and Max

The Lover: Mike Wheeler [Type 2]

“El, are you there? El? It’s me, it’s Mike. It’s day 352, 7:40 pm, I am still here. If you’re out there, say something… or give me a sign, I won’t, I won’t even say anything, I just… I want to know if you’re okay.”

Enneagram wing: 2w1|2w3 (Helper along with the reformer and achiever)

Core Desire: To feel loved, needed, and appreciated

Core Fear: Being rejected, unwanted and unneeded

Mike is a loyal to a fault going through great lengths to be there for his friends. He was willing to sacrifice himself off a cliff to protect Dustin. He never gave up pursing justice for Will. He also hid Eleven in his home despite the repercussions he may face with his parents and the evil scientists. The hidden motivation behind his actions are to be needed, loved, and wanted. He is very good at intuiting others needs as we see this in his close friendship with Will in season 2 and in his blossoming relationship with Eleven. He sees the good in others and is very trusting which Lucas, a type 6, doesn’t quite understand. He often asserts himself in situations where he is not needed and we see this become a conflict in his relationship with Eleven in season 3. We see him often go into an 8 in stress where he becomes aggressive, outspoken, dominating, and advocating for justice. I believe he leans on both of his wings equally; he shows to have a strong sense of right and wrong but also a innate desire to succeed, be admired, and respected. 

The Intuitive One: Will Byers [Type 4]

"Sometimes the bad guys are smart too."

Enneagram wing: 4w5 (Individualist along with the investigator)

Core Desire: Being accepted for one’s uniqueness 

Core Fear: Being inherently flawed, inadequate, or mundane

Will is the stand out of the bunch not just because of his strong introversion but also his imaginative mind and artistic hobbies. He has never been interested in what his age group has been interested in therefore he is misunderstood by his peers. He also lacked a strong father figure and this has resulted in deep feelings of inadequacy. He desires to be seen and understood by others and it doesn’t help his case that he “died” and lived to tell the tale. I’m hoping to see Will grow more into himself in the upcoming seasons because he is a valuable and important character. His link to the Upside Down proves that. I think he leans on his wing 5 for his intellectual hobbies. 

The Defender: Eleven [Type 9]

“I’m going to my friends. I’m going home.”

Enneagram wing: 9w8 (Peacemaker along with the challenger)

Core Desire: Inner peace and human connection

Core Fear: Instability and separation

Contrary to the life she’s had and the chaotic situations she constantly finds herself in, Eleven is 100% motivated by having inner peace. She is very much values her friends and adoptive family and leans on her wing 8 to protect them. She is a very complex character and this is clearly from the emotional and physical trauma she suffered in her childhood; she is tough but also extremely empathetic and has has the ability to see things objectively rather than emotionally (a true gift of a 9). This is shown in her choosing to spare one of the scientist’s life from Brenner’s lab despite his contribution to her abuse and Eight (Kali) pressuring her to show no mercy. She empathized with Billy and his abuse despite him being a raging bully. 

The Safeguard: Lucas Sinclair [Type 6]

“We have a lot of rules in our party, but the most important is, 'Friends don't lie.' Never ever. No matter what.”

Enneagram wing: 6w5 | 6w7 (Loyalist along with investigator and enthusiast)

Core Desire: To have security

Core Fear: Being without security

Lucas has demonstrated an innate maturity since season 1. He pushes others to practice self preservation. He likes to have a plan in their action and adventure. Lucas is motivated by his desire to be safe so he calls out others in their stupor, so much so, that his friends are nervous to confess their mistakes to him; this clashes with Mike’s agenda as his need to serve, love, and be there for others. Mike’s potential to be compromised by rose colored glasses, poses as a threat to Lucas’s need for security. Max makes it harder for him in achieving security by constantly raising the bar him in their relationship. Despite this, Max’s challenging nature is what is most attractive to him because it somewhat alludes to security. I think Lucas has balanced wings and draws from his intellectual side as well as his adventurous side. 

The Analyst: Dustin Henderson [Type 5]

“You always say we should never stop being curious, to always open any curiosity door we find. Why are you keeping this curiosity door locked?”

Enneagram wing: 5w6 (Investigator along with loyalist)

Core Desire: To be capable and competent 

Core Fear: Annihilation, depletion, and being viewed as lacking in capability

Dustin is the clear intellect of the Stranger Kids clan. He is always learning and storing information, mentally retrieving it up when necessary. He is essentially the one who makes the needed mental connections in their quest for victory. He is awkwardly confident yet insecure. He cares a lot about what others think of him and is motivated by a need to be seen as competent. Dustin’s friends mean the world to him and valuing that security from this support/community shows that leans on his wing 6. 

The Advocate: Max Mayfield [Type 8]

“It's just, I know I can be a jerk like him sometimes, and I do not want to be like him. Ever.”

Enneagram wing: 8w7 | 8w9 (Challenger along with enthusiast and the peacemaker)

Core Desire: Self protection and protecting my people

Core Fear: Being weak, powerless, and controlled 

Max is the toughest one of the bunch with almost bully-like qualities. She marches to the beat of her own drum and doesn’t care what other people think. Her character flaw is that she can be too careless sometimes at the expense of others. She is self aware of that though and does her best to combat it. She is motivated by a need to protect herself because no one ever protected her against the abuse of her brother and step-father. Despite her tough act, she cares deeply for her friends and will do whatever she can to protect them too; She is willing to be vulnerable to bond with them. She does not show to lean on either wing making me think she has balanced wings. She definitely doesn’t like to commit too quickly to anything and keep her options open (7) but also can try her best to mediate (9) when this is required of her. 

Note: In honor of Stranger Things 4 possibly coming out in 2021. See my typing of the Stranger Things adults here: https://enneagramwingmiranda.tumblr.com/post/639047330136522752/stranger-things-the-actual-enneagram-types-of

[mc-critical]

I don't know if it was asked before, but what do you think about Valide and Beyhan Sultan? I know she is not her real daughter in history, but in the show she still called her daughter and in episode 102 Hatice said they have the same mother and father. Yet...I think Valide was a little more careless to her if you compare her love for Hatice. Show didn't give us many details about Beyhan and her past, but for a mother who got sick just after hearing her daughter got betrayed (Hatice-Ibrahim), her reaction and care for Beyhan after Beyhan's husband death seemed...low and weak to me. Maybe it's because she is older, or wasn't with her for years like Hatice, what do you think? :)

I never got such an ask before, don't worry. :)

Valide wasn't shown to be that close to her daughters other than Hatice, but this could be more because of their place of introduction - Şah and Fatma got introduced in the third and fourth seasons respectively and that was when Valide was dead, hence leaving us with no chance to flesh her relationship with them out. Still it's weird that they got no more than a passing mention by Valide and that was in her monologue in E58. In the case of Beyhan, I feel it has more to do with Beyhan's prominence in the story - she was (unfortunately) barely around and when she was around, she was usually around for emotional support to other characters, which also didn't truly allow a detailed development. Not to mention that Beyhan was usually supporting Hatice, her most fleshed out relationship which consisted of separate scenes between them and limited even further her interactions with her mother. The sisters so often seemed to be a family that's independent of Valide, even though they consider her a part of it as well, maybe because they can share stuff with each other that Hafsa would reprimand them for or simply not understand. It's like the dynastic family learns to rely on each other first and foremost, something both Şah and Hatice advocated for and Beyhan seemed to be on board with. No matter how strong her will to cut her family out was after the execution of her husband was, she didn't cut Hatice or Şah out, even when she appeared to resent Hatice as much as Hafsa from trying to distract her while SS was executing the punishment of her husband to the point of claiming she would understand only when SS executes Ibrahim, too.

Despite of any and all shortcomings, Beyhan was the second closest daughter to Hafsa. It's true that they didn't get much chance to interact - just like Şah and Fatma, Beyhan was far from the harem and had a very solid life for so long. They were miles apart and she could visit only so much, but still they were always happy to see each other. Beyhan also holds family in a high regard and is shown to be a very stable and mature character for the little screentime she had. It's probable Valide took Hatice in her wing because of the death and misery she experienced, in contrast to Beyhan's relatively calm life far away. There's clearly a strive for protection of the daughter that seemed to have experienced more sorrow and not have a marriage where she could take her own life into her hands. Sure, at first Valide thought that's the reason for her sorrow (and it was, along with her love for Ibrahim, rendered impossible by the customs in the harem in her eyes) and tried to marry her as soon as possible, but there's a hint of favoritism Beyhan is aware of and mentioned to Şah - that Hatice is Valide's favourite daughter, the one closest to her, the one who is inspired by her and the biggest witness of the dynastic virtues Valide had and wanted everyone else to follow. Hatice being alongside Valide the most out of every other daughter of hers would normally trigger another kind of sentiment, different than anything else she had with the others. Being together everyday and being a long distance away does make a difference. And since Valide knew Beyhan was fine (before E21), she had no reason or need to bond with her all the more or visit her that much all these years before E21 happened (Beyhan visited instead). The system encourages the dynastic sultanas to have a separate life outside of the castle and that's something that's considered normal both for Valide and Beyhan, so why would that be of worry? They still had a pretty decent connection for such circumstances. As seen in E14 and E21, Valide and Beyhan were pretty fine until that scene happened.

Beyhan confronting everyone after her husband's execution is a very important scene for her, because all of her familial ties seem to be breaking apart. She is shown to be a big emotional support to everyone else afterwards, but here, it's like no one fully understood what she went through. Similarly to the way they were trying to help Hatice get over Ibrahim in S03, here Beyhan appears to feel the same Hatice felt. They were trying the way they knew how, but they weren't helping. And what's worse, while with Hatice they were mostly saying that it would pass, with Beyhan they try to justify SS's decision. They're right, yes, because the audience knows that he was a continuous traitor, but Beyhan didn't and couldn't see it that way (at least not yet) and they didn't understand. Only Hatice tried to understand, but to Beyhan that all was just empty words, because Hatice was trying to empathize, but how could she empathize when she doesn't know the actual extent of that pain? Valide also didn't understand. And she couldn't understand. She wasn't truly willing to go beyond what had to be done and consolation while justifying the object of Beyhan's rage would in no way work at that moment. Beyhan was indeed disappointed by everyone then, which caused her to detach herself to all these alleged familial values, because that was almost fully destroyed. And while SS was the most culpable in this aspect and Beyhan was aware of that, Valide (and Hatice) also plays a part in this with her bad attempts to console. And Beyhan's actions are totally understandable.

Still, we should note that Valide didn't react in the same way she did when she found out about Ibrahim's affair, because the situations were inherently different. Ibrahim's infidelity seemed to be both a bigger and more personal issue than Ferhat's execution. Or actually, Ferhat's execution was a necessity regardless, in spite of Beyhan's feelings, something that needed to be done for "the order to be kept" after so many betrayals from the pasha, while with Ibrahim we have a situation with a whole cascade of consequences and many, too ruthless executions. It would not only hurt Hatice's feelings, but it would distort all the balance and piece of the dynasty in a massive way. We once again circle back to Beyhan being more stable as a character, we see that, but Valide also knows that and she may not have expected Beyhan to want to cut herself out from everyone like that. She expected her to understand the necessity of the execution anyway, but with Hatice she knew that wouldn't be possible because of all she suffered because of Ibrahim and the fragile state of her mind. Beyhan was different in that regard and even though they lived far from each other, I believe Valide knew that about her daughter. And we see that Beyhan did the right call in cutting herself out for a bit and took things far better than Hatice did when it came to her husband's death because of it.

We should hand it to Hafsa for still trying numerous times to stop Ferhat's execution before it happened. It showed that she was perfectly able to take and did take the feelings of her children into consideration, because she knew that would hurt Beyhan in some ways and used that as an argument in front of SS. This even made him wait and postpone the decision as much as he could. But really, Valide took account of Beyhan's feelings, but I feel her reaction went past her worst expectations. There is also the angle of Valide's motherhood and value of family being in conflict with her immense care for tradition. (both layers of her character were in accordance in Hatice's case.)

And ultimately, Beyhan realized that a punishment for her husband was in order (but exile, not execution!), reunited with Hatice, regretting her earlier words to her, and came to mourn Hafsa after all, but the wound still remained and I don't think she let it go completely. She didn't come in the harem (except for E84 when Hatice called Hürrem out for the entertainment), which could mean that there's a part of her that would never go back there because of the lingering memory. And that included both SS and Valide.

[swanface]

If you had to pick new leaders and deputies for each clan and the tribe, instead of who would you personally pick- who would make for the most interesting picks?

oooh, trying to select “interesting” choices per each clan without inherently trying to think okay, who would make for a good leader or deputy, is...considerably hard. i tried to think through each clan and the current attitudes of each leader and see if i could “flip” those in order to make things interesting or essentially just different, so...here we go!

NETTLECLAN

Mottlestar + Featherflight or Mottlestar + Flintheart

though i don’t think it shows often, crowstar is a fierce cat. he’s not incredibly strict, as a leader — he’s warm towards his clan as a whole, and understands just how chaotic life can be — but he is incredibly willing to become stern and essentially strong arm any enemies that arise. he’s the sort to use his strength to his advantage, and, i think, the most likely of the current leaders to kill in order to solve a conflict. i wanted to give nettleclan a less certain presence as its leader and first thought about more anxious cats like twigpaw or pansypaw, but they feel too extreme, so i instead opted for mottlepelt becoming mottlestar. as a leader, i feel like he’d have a very flimsy sort of approach, and might tend to get stepped on by particularly stubborn clanmates or the fellow leaders of the other clans. he’s been shown in the roleplay to be a bit impulsive, and most of his actions are done with the intention of making others happy before considering consequences (see: his family), which i think would make for a very interesting nettleclan leader.

mottlestar as a leader feels to me like the kind of cat who would immediately gravitate towards choosing a deputy he knows well rather than a cat who might be a more steady or wise choice, and his options therefore are limited to featherflight or flintheart. both of them are actually pretty similar cats, when it comes down to it, colored by cynicism and very much unconcerned with anyone who happens to be outside of their own familial circles or social bubbles. they wouldn’t be making any friends with the other clans, and with mottlestar in charge, i think nettleclan would shift to being seen as “weak” or at least pushovers. featherflight might be a bit rash as a deputy due to her younger age, while flintheart would likely be very prone to snapping, too, as he’s clearly not a cat who works under the pressure of having the clan depend on him.

CREEKCLAN

Milkstar + Willowpaw

currently, creekclan has a very traditional sort of structure with currentstar in charge. outsiders are still allowed in, but the way he chooses to apprentice them and integrate them into the clan speaks of structure and of valuing the ways of clan life rather than bending them like mantisstar or even crowstar might. because of this, the clear opposite of currentstar’s leadership would be a less traditional kind of leader, as well as one who would bring about chaos. milkstar would be my first choice as leader with this duo set up, because honestly, willowpaw doesn’t seem like the type who would even want to be in charge, but it would also keep creekclan from...well. completely crumbling, i think.

but still, with milkstar as a leader and willowpaw his ever faithful sidekick, creekclan would have a much more hostile vibe, i think. they’d probably be known as troublemakers — both milkpaw and willowpaw have been known to rush into things without thinking, and i can see that getting them into problems with the other clans — and i imagine they’d have a pretty harsh way of interacting with enemies if it came down to it. willowpaw’s more lighthearted, but milkpaw has a lot of untapped anger at his center. as a leader, i don’t think he’d be strict, exactly, but i do imagine that if you managed to piss him off, there would be hell to pay for it. as his deputy, willowpaw would essentially support him in all that he chose to do. they’re already a pretty unbreakable team, and i think that if it came down to a conflict arising for creekclan, willowpaw would probably egg on milkpaw’s already volatile temper.

JAGGEDCLAN

Leopardstar + Eaglepaw

i honestly contemplated the idea of leopardpaw being leopardstar and appointing starlingstep as her deputy simply because i find the “young leader, old deputy” dynamic to be pretty intriguing in most cases, but another option i think that would be equally as interesting and viable is eaglepaw. leopardpaw as leopardstar would be the stark opposite of mantisstar, who is exceedingly trusting to the point of fault. jaggedclan would transform from being perhaps the most “open” clan, willing to help outsiders and fellow rival clans alike, to something a lot more isolated and closed off. jaggedclan is currently the only clan to have a leader / deputy pair consisting of cats formerly from outside of the clans (mantisstar and oakjaw being former loners / rogues), and because of that, i feel like their reputation shifted from being the most hostile toward outside culture to the most welcoming.

with leopardstar, though, they would again be far more closed off. i thought that maybe a good deputy choice for her would be someone that could balance her distrustful nature, but an interesting choice might be eaglepaw instead. he’s close enough to leopardpaw that i think she trusts him, and though he doesn’t have quite the same suspicion levels, he’s also very closed off personally. really, i think he’d have a similar feeling to oakjaw now — basically just the right hand man of the leader, there to back her up, but in this case he would be backing up leopardpaw who is...very much not the same sort of cat mantisstar is. leopardpaw, in my opinion, definitely has the right sort of personality to be a leader — firm, certain, able to make decisions — and eaglepaw, though not particularly confident on his own, would function well in a supporting role. of the leader / deputy duos i’ve proposed so far, i feel like these two would be objectively the most functional. undeniably different from current jaggedclan leadership, sure, but they’d have way more stability to them than the nettleclan or creekclan duos might.

FOGCLAN

Foxstar + Hemlockpaw

fogclan, as of right now, is a clan on the outskirts. lilystar’s callousness does them no favors when it comes to being accepted into the general community of the original three clans. she’s far from personable, quick to act rashly, and really does not confide in anyone but herself. because of this, to flip the dynamic, fogclan would need a leader eager to reach out and forge the bonds that lilystar hasn’t — perhaps not for lack of wanting those bonds, but because she simply does not have the personality that would lend itself well towards...well. making friends.

foxflame as foxstar is exactly the sort of amicable, friendly cat who might finally be able to sway the general opinion of fogclan from negative to...at least slightly positive. he’s affectionate, respectful, and tends not to tread on any toes. he might be a bit ill suited towards leadership when it comes to needing to stand firm, but honestly, i think fogclan might benefit from a leader who is more flexible or even more willing to take a few hits for the sake of general peace. to compliment foxstar, i’d also think a really bubbly sort of deputy would suit him, and the first cheerful cat i thought of was hemlockpaw. he has a bit of that competitiveness to him that i think could make fogclan not seem exceedingly like pushovers (like i mentioned nettleclan might), but he’s not aggressive. he’d be able to let things run off his shoulders without taking them too seriously while still providing enthusiasm and general support.

TRIBE OF TWISTED TUNNELS

Twilight Sun, Crow Breeze, Tumbling Leaf, Elk Frost

the tribe is considerably more complex when it comes to how leadership works, and so to keep in line with the idea of heirs being selected...what if an entire litter of four had been crowned heirs? in normal litters of more than one kit where heir status is declared, like vixen and rose, it is clear that only one of them can go forth to be the actual leader of spring, buuut...in litters of four, the siblings are given a unique season each. this means that if a litter of four was deemed heirs, they would all be set up to lead their respective seasons some day.

honestly, i began with twilight sun and crow breeze as concepts meant to subvert the more frigid leaders that proceeded them. summer’s due for a cat who is warm like twilight, and crow is pretty much the perfect example of a spring born (unlike tiger breeze herself). once i realized that i’d put two of the four siblings into place, i also came to realize that tumble and elk are pretty contrasting figures against willow leaf and honey frost. willow leaf has some sternness to him, but he’s also more of a traditionalist. tumble...is not, clearly. it’d be really interesting if she’d not only been born with the expectation of adhering to fall and its duties but also been assigned to one day lead the season. she’d be a chaotic leader, that’s for sure, but she might be able to settle into the role eventually. elk as elk frost is similar enough to honey frost that it wouldn’t be a total shake up, but elk has the backbone that honey frost often lacks, and therefore i think he’d be a solid option as a genuinely good, passionate winter leader.

[solacesque]

7, 8, 12!!, 15 😬, 23, 26, 35, 47, 55, 59 <3 also your choice which u want to answer and who u want to do them for <3

aww thank u kristen! ohh so many okay

7. which party member do they understand the least?

for altair, definitely ahe. i think they’ve just lived such vastly different lives and he isn’t mature? old? enough to get her whole deal. i think there’s also something to be said there about ahe being the embodiment of grief and altair being the embodiment of the grieved for, at least at one point. it’s a little funny because they’re the water bitches but yes. i have nothing to say for vega bc i think she thinks she understands all of them skdfjdkf

8. what are three songs that suit them?

vega: coins in a fountain by passenger, the light by regina spektor, and weight of living, pt 1 by bastille

altair: the bitch is back by elton john, ship to wreck by florence, and brandy (you’re a fine girl) by looking glass ❤️

12. have they ever been in love?

altair definitely has! he was in love with his ex and like still cares about her i think but he’s so disconnected from his life before he died she seems unreachable. and vega has not! tbh i think she’s aro she does enjoy a good hook up though queen i do miss her so.

15. do they trust their party? why or why not?

sdfjsdkf loaded question. i think altair does a little bit, like he’s on his way to trusting them? even last session like the fact that he told the WHOLE group about the nimek + vega situation was a step forward because even a few sessions ago he might have just like. told gary and that’s it. or maybe told no one! but he is trying i don’t think he’s an inherently untrusting person the party is just Like That

as for vega! it is more complicated i believe. she trusts sena and skit when it comes to battle and survival and like their friendship and closeness but a lot of her self worth stems from her ability to protect and take care of and support. she didn’t trust skit to take care of herself when it came to myev, and she didn’t trust sena to curb her impulses, and she didn’t trust the party to save altair. part of it is probably the pseudo-older sibling vibes but also that survivor’s guilt really has its hooks in her, to the point of her near-self-destruction in getting possessed. what a bitch i miss her

23. how do they feel about nicknames, titles, or labels that have been given to them? how do they feel about their names?

altair loves a good nickname! he and vega and deneb had fun little nicknames for each other on top of their star names. plus names are pretty valuable and revered in northern culture like their only real coming of age kind of ceremony is when they choose their names. so i think both vega and altair have a lot of value in their names, especially in the way their names connect them to each other (and to deneb)

26. who do they miss?

i think altair misses his mom?? which i imagine is weird for him because they were never close. she was always out of town on work and his grandmothers were probably around more than she was, but at this point in his life like. he feels like he’s the only one that can save vega (which of course! is false) and he DIED and the people he’d come to care about on the walking poppy are all dead because of him and also the world is gonna end???? and it’s kind of vega’s fault so he should help right??? like there’s a LOT going on for him and i think for the first time in his life he misses home.

vega misses skit and sena. she’s spent the last like five?? years missing altair, and she still does, but it isn’t really the same? she sees him almost every night, and if anything she still grieves him but doesn’t so actively miss him if that makes sense? skit and sena though! like the fates’ relationship really burned short and sudden and bright and vega hadn’t felt friendship quite as solid and whole as that in a long time. she loves them desperately so she misses them desperately.

35. which party member do they worry for?

washkdljf literally all of them. vega always worried about sena getting herself killed and skit doing something stupid that she would come to regret. altair worries about ahe bc who wouldn’t worry about ahe even NETHAL worries about ahe hello??? and he worries about amandine because he’s afraid she’ll just spontaneously drop dead at any moment. he worries about nethal because he clearly has some trauma he is unproductively suppressing and he worries about garo because he knows it’s only a matter of time before he does something impulsive with consequences he isn’t quick enough to dodge through.

47. when they meet someone, what is the first thing they notice?

altair notices someone’s hands, vega notices their smell

55. whose hand do they reach out for?

each other’s :(

59. what is a quiet passion of theirs?

vega loves chapels and holy places, even and especially if they aren’t the light’s. when she was young, the place she felt she belonged was the only temple in town, a nondenominational one. obviously it connects to a much louder passion of paladining lol but she just enjoys religion as a construct.

as for altair! probably art / music appreciation? art for art’s sake baby! he enjoys looking at neat objects (and also maybe taking them) and listening to music whenever there’s an opportunity

[evilmortys]

hi  i  think  it’s  important  to  clarify  that  i  don’t  hate  rick  entirely!  

i  enjoy  his  antics  a  lot,  i  think  he’s  very  interesting ;  the  complexity  of  his  character  isn’t  lost  on  me  just  because  i  happen  to  take  issue  with  some  of  his  behavior  and  choices  and  do  it  very  vocally---

nor  do  i  think  morty  is  a  perfect,  infallible,  angelic  character  who’s  done  nothing  wrong  ever  in  his  life.  between  the  two  of  them,  though,  morty  is  undoubtedly  the  better  person  and  i  personally  find  his  flaws  more  endearing  because  they  are  very  human  and  understandable  beneath  the  layer  of  sci-fi,  crazy  adventure  bullshit  they’re  veneered  with.  

he  suffers  with  anxiety.  he’s  traumatized.  he’s  struggling  in  school.  he’s  crushing  on  a  girl  hopelessly  and  unable  to  take  any  real  action  upon  it  due  to  a  lack  of  confidence.  until  recently,  he  was  something  of  a  pushover.  he  struggles  making  friends.  he  has  an  unspecified  learning  disability  (morty  is  very  likely  autistic).  his  family  is  often  very  indifferent  to  the  issues  he  has  to  contend  with.  although  he  tends  to  word  things  very  bluntly  and  thoughtlessly,  in  ways  that  can  make  him  seem  childish,  he  actually  takes  the  role  of  someone  very  mature  within  the  family  dynamic.  morty  is  a  good,  flawed  person,  with  a  tendency  to  fuck  up  and  make  mistakes,  but  he’s  always  trying  at  the  very  least.

jerry  is  a  hapless  manchild,  beth  is  largely  fixated  on  herself  and  her  dynamic  with  her  father,  and  rick  is  an  irresponsible,  uncaring  dick  who  endangers  them  all  regularly  in  the  name  of  thrill  seeking  and  engages  in  an  egregious  amount  of  manipulation,  gaslighting  and  emotional  /  verbal  abuse  of  people  he  claims  to  care  about.  

morty  and  summer  have  demonstrated  far  more  emotional  maturity  over  the  course  of  the  show  than  their  parents  or  grandfather  have:  see  when  summer  called  her  dad  out  for  being  a  closeted  racist  and  general  bigot  when  jerry  almost  got  his  kids  killed  as  a  result  of  his  cowardice  when  it  came  down  to  breaking  up  with  his  alien  girlfriend,  and  when  morty  snapped  at  beth  for  making  summer  feel  badly  about  her  appearance  and  neglecting  to  emotionally  support  her  when  she  needed  to  hear  words  of  affirmation.  the  two  of  them  were  happy  to  attend  therapy  and  asked  to  go  again  after  the  one  and  only  session,  only  to  be  ignored,  and  their  feelings  in  the  matter  utterly  dismissed,  while  their  mother  dropped  them  off  at  home  without  the  slightest  acknowledgement  of  that  request  to  go  and  get  drunk  with  her  father.  craving  his  validation  like  she’s  still  a  young  girl  comes  first  and  foremost  for  her.

there’s  also  the  incident  with  pluto  to  consider.  he  put  aside  an  opportunity  to  get  an  objectively  flawless  grade,  no  sweat,  with  rick’s  help,  to  instead  preserve  his  father’s  feelings,  bond  with  him  over  a  father - son  project,  and  attempt  to  bolster  jerry’s  confidence  in  himself  and  his...  intelligence.  a  fourteen  year  old  is  able  to  pick  up  on  his  dad’s  emotional  needs,  yet  so  rarely  has  his  own  ever  acknowledged  or  consistently  supported  within  the  show.  yes,  we  occasionally  see  boundaries  being  established  for  morty  when  it  comes  to  rick  that  beth  will  enforce  for  all  of  an  episode  or  two,  but  they  rarely  seem  to  be  lasting.  their  parents  are  highly  emotionally  immature,  and  the  children  of  such  parents  often  have  to  take  on  responsible  roles  from  a  young  age.  summer  takes  a  more  rebellious,  strong  stance  on  how  she  conducts  herself,  whereas  morty  tends  to  be  more  uptight,  no  nonsense,  anxious,  and  easily  agitated  by  being  dismissed  and  brushed  off  when  he’s  trying  to  help.

the  fact  that  he  can  be  forcibly  hauled  with  rick  on  death  defying  adventure  upon  death  defying  adventure,  to  the  point  of  staying  away  days  on  end  with  little  to  no  rest  and  full  on  sobbing  and  breaking  down  after  their  more  elongated  expeditions  without  his  family  seeing  fit  to  intervene  speaks  volumes  to  me.  he  cares  about  his  family  so  much  and  yet�� they  so  rarely  seem  to  reciprocate  that.  summer  and  beth  have  both  expressed  admiration  for  and  often  seek  the  admiration  of  rick,  somebody  who  is  often  not  worthy  of  being  put  on  a  pedestal  and  looked  up  to.  morty’s  said  it  best:  he’s  not  a  hero.  not  even  close.  he’s  an  abusive  dickhead  who  occasionally  pulls  his  head  out  of  his  ass  and  does  the  right  thing,  or  a  good  thing.  but  two  people  in  his  family  see  his  objectively  terrible  traits  as  positive  things  ---  and  sometimes  even  he  feels  the  need  to  suck  up  to  rick  and  have  rick  like  him.

morty  can  be  perverted,  whiny,  and  stubborn,  and  as  i’ve  said,  he  tends  to  fuck  up  and  makes  mistakes  a  lot.  his  judgement  can  be  incredibly  poor  sometimes.  but  he’s  rarely,  if  ever,  malicious  with  his  intentions.  (probably  the  worst  thing  he’s  done  morally  is  the  love  potion  thing.)  

he  places  the  value  of  other  lives  and  other  feelings  above  his  own,  always.  he’s  a  character  worthy  of  being  rooted  for,  he’s  a  character  capable  of  being  better  than  his  worst  traits,  yet  he  generally  gets  put  down  for  bitching  about  things  that  are  perfectly  understandable  for  him  to  be  upset  and  annoyed  over. 

the  same  can’t  often  be  said  for  rick.  but  since  old  man  fuckers  want  to  suck  his  cock,  he  gets  countless  free  passes  on  all  of  the  shit  he  subjects  his  family  to.  he  has  relatable  issues,  too:  his  depression,  his nihilism,  his  self-destructive  tendencies.

but  they  manifest  so  much  better  for  me  personally  in  a  character  like  morty,  who  tries  so  hard  to  be  better  without  fixating  on  how  pointless  it  might  be  and  how  replaceable  the  people  in  his  life  are.  the  universe  constantly  punishes  him  for  being  unselfish,  for  giving  a  shit,  and  yet  he  still  tries.  that  is  admirable.

rick  is  good  sometimes,  and  i  enjoy  his  character  massively  when  he’s  not  being  an  extreme  dick,  when  he’s  joking  around,  and  caring  about  others,  and  helping  out  his  family.  but  for  the  most  part,  he’s  a  piece  of  shit,  and  people  who  pretend  he’s  not  are  genuinely  aggravating.  being  the  most  intelligent  man  in  the  multiverse  isn’t  an  excuse  to  be  a  condescending  prick  to  everyone  you  stumble  upon,  to  only  help  yourself  out  at  the  best  of  times,  or  to  be  indifferent  and  inherently  abusive  toward  the  family  that  3/5  members  of  clearly  want  you  to  love  and  care  about  them  just  like  they  do  you.

[brooklynislandgirl]

Hummingbird- what are your muse's comfort objects, comfort foods, comfort objects, etc?

...Of A Feather || Accepting

It’s a stressful day when Beth doesn’t text Tony at least three dozen times throughout their shifts. A meme here, a funny thing her patient told her there {that isn’t exactly funny, or falls into the realm of dad joke}, subtle indignation over the way the heterosexual male population treats her like a fetish of the week. But to go completely radio silent? It’s bad.

So it comes as no surprise when he lets himself into her apartment with the key she gave him months ago as an ‘in case of emergency break glass’ gesture {accompanying the key with a sand-dollar chain she made herself was a little speech about if he needed to go somewhere that wasn’t home, that she had plenty of space} to find her on her floor. Seated criss-cross in slightly baggy purple plaid pyjamas between the coffee table and the front of the couch. A plate of grilled cheese sandwiches in front of her, one showing a distinctive bite-pattern and nothing else. A large wine glass half empty with something dark and red ~her favourite, no doubt, called Amon Ra~ and cuddled to her chest in a death grip is a clearly old, clearly well-loved stuffed turtle that has seen it’s fair share of being patched over time and time again.

She’s watching some kind of forensic science documentary. Waits until the autopsy photographs are put on screen larger than life before reaching out and taking another bite of her sandwich. She chews it carefully before tearing her eyes from the screen and glances across the room. She doesn’t really say much, though her eyes trail down to his feet to make sure he’s taken his shoes off by the door as is her one house rule.  Then she nods toward the couch behind her and lifts up the blanket that’s draped across it, offering him the space to sit and snuggle.

“Wine ovah heah nex’ t’ me,” she finally announces. “Plenny extra grill cheese f’ya hungry. An’ we can watch some kine else if ya want, but dis is jus’ gettin’ good. Dis necropsy showin’ da victim suffer from an embolism from-” She pauses as she realises that such things might not be so soothing for someone that does his job. She offers him the most apologetic of smiles before scrambling to find something less objectionable. “Or we could...ah...watch rerun of Friends?”

~*~  ~*~  ~*~  ~*~

When it comes to comfort food.. Beth doesn’t have a lot. Most of the time it’s like herding cats to get her to sit down and eat things, and the same goes for sleep. But the one thing she doesn’t seem able to pass up is a good grilled cheese sandwich.  The combination of cheese, bread, and any other ingredients put into it doesn’t seem to really matter. There is just something about toasty buttery bread, oozing or gooey cheese that hits the spot. It’s also a case of heavy nostalgia. Once her mother divorced the Admiral, cooking became her brother’s responsibility. And at first most of it involved local fast food or ordered meals from regular restaurants. The first thing he ever successfully cooked for her was grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Even then Beth was primarily pescatarian though it didn’t have that name. She was simply considered a picky eater who would cry over most meat. When she got much older, she began to see the inherent value of wine as a relaxant and that it paired well with said grilled cheese. As for comfort objects, warm and soft things are key. Especially on the east coast, Beth always feels cold, regardless of the actual temperature outside. She enjoys slightly baggy clothes as a way to hide in plain sight. She is extremely sensitive to touch, and considers it her primary way of interacting with the world, especially since her hearing is impaired.

And finally, there’s her stuffed turtle. Given to her when she was five years old and in the hospital recovering from the shark-bite, it has been her constant companion for the last twenty-two years. It is particularly important now as sewn into it’s chest cavity are her brother’s dog-tags, which she put into the turtle after his funeral. Beth cannot sleep without it and suffers anxiety-induced panic attacks if it becomes misplaced.

[moonlitgleek]

Thank god someone finally said it! Catelyn was a HORRIBLE wife, a worse mother, and an even worse person. The most tragic and overlooked aspect of Ned's story is that he got saddled with her. It made his life miserable, and brought ruin to his house and seven kingdoms as a whole. Getting his head cut off might even be a mercy compared to coming back home and living the rest of his life with THAT. Then again, if it weren't for her, his head wouldn't have been cut in the first place.

Sometimes I really hate this damn site.

You know, it’s people like you that cripple discussion of nuanced or complicated characters through the tendency to take every bit of criticism as a confirmation of your hate and an invitation to spew it all over everyone. I shouldn’t be wary of openly criticizing a character for fear that those who hate them would misconstrue my words and use it to fuel their nonsense arguments, which happens near every time I think to criticize someone, especially when it’s a female character. Even when I specifically say that that I don’t think this character a bad person like in this case. Did you miss the last paragraph of my post? Did you miss the entirety of @secretlyatargaryen‘s post? Because it has been reiterated that Cat is not a bad person or a bad mother. The point is not to bash Catelyn as you seem interested in doing but to point out that her actions with Jon are wrong and that they affected more than just Jon. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone who calls a woman “that” as if she is some thing and who seems invested in blaming her for everything she does is only interested in using our criticism to disparage and vilify Cat.

By the way, your message is as factually inaccurate as it is disgusting, anon. Let’s break it down.

Fallacy #1: Ned was saddled with Catelyn.

In a society that cares not a whit about women’s consent or feelings, it’s almost amusing that you think that it’s the man who gets saddled with the woman. Between Ned and Catelyn, guess which one had any kind of power in the situation? Ned. Hoster Tully might have demanded that Ned honor the betrothal to Catelyn as a price for his support in the war but it was still Ned’s choice to accept or refuse. But the rebels needed the Riverlands if they wanted to win the war, you say. Sure, and Ned made a choice for strategic reasons, but he still had the space to make the choice. Do you think that Catelyn did? Do you think Hoster bothered to ask her if she minded marrying the brother of the guy that she has been betrothed to for years and grew up expecting to marry? Do you think he bothered to consider that it’s callous to marry his daughter off so soon after her betrothed died and to his own brother? And even if he did, a woman who was raised with Family, Duty, Honor so hammered into her psyche and who, like every other woman in Westeros, was raised on how her place was to marry someone of her father’s choosing stands no chance. The system is broken and Catelyn Tully is as much its victim as any other woman in Westeros.

Fallacy #2: Catelyn made Ned miserable and his death was a mercy compared to being with her.

What an egregious (and delusional) thing to say that Ned is better off dead than being with the woman he loves and the children he adores. What an awful thing to say that anything pertaining to Ned’s death is a mercy. The man’s death was a knife to the hearts of his wife and children, but you think it’s better for him than the company of the wife he literally spends a book yearning for. That’s messed up.

I don’t know what book you’ve read or what you’re basing your claims on, but in my copy, Ned Stark is a man who clearly loves and values his wife as a person. He builds a sept for her because he respects her and wants her to have the comfort of her gods. There is a great deal of affection and comfort that shines through their interactions, and clear evidence in Catelyn’s second chapter in AGoT that Ned seeks and enjoys her company. In my copy, I see a guy who shows tremendous political trust in his wife that he leaves Winterfell and the North in her hands when he leaves with the expectation that she would continue Robb’s education and who trusts her to start mobilizing the Northern banners. I see a guy who reacts in wonderment to seeing Catelyn in King’s Landing, and constantly reflects on how he wishes he is with her during his tenure as Hand. I see Catelyn occupying Ned’s thoughts in his imprisonment that one of his regrets is that he’ll never see her again. If that’s being miserable, sign me up. For more of Ned’s so-called misery in his marriage, please refer to this post.

But Jon Snow, right? Yes, but Jon Snow. Jon’s presence has always been a point of conflict between Ned and Cat but that does not change the nature of their relationship. No one says that a loving happy marriage doesn’t have its problems or that it has to be perpetually conflict-free. Also, don’t forget that Jon’s presence in Winterfell was by Ned’s own decision. I’m not saying that Ned was wrong to bring Jon to Winterfell and I’m very sympathetic to his reasons and respectful of his desire to do right by an innocent child, I have a lot of respect for the man precisely because he acted as a father to Jon and gave him a family. But I’m under no illusion that this didn’t come at Catelyn’s expense, which is something that Ned himself was aware of. I am critical of how Cat treated Jon Snow, but it’s important to see that she wasn’t in the best situation either, because this is just another sign of how little control or say she had, even in her own home. The entire situation was inherently imperfect but while I do fault Cat for taking out her lack of control on the one person who had less control that she did and who also happens to be an innocent child, I’m not unsympathetic to her pain and anger over Ned’s indiscretions or to her fear for her children. The patriarchy says that Catelyn should accept that her husband would cheat on her, that this is a situation that she has to accept and has no right to change because her husband has the power, that she can’t be angry and resentful of Ned for the situation. For the sake of her marriage, for the sake of her children, Catelyn had to let go of her anger towards Ned but that anger does not disappear just because she pushed it down, so she redirected it onto the living reminder of her husband’s nominal infidelity who also happens to be a reminder of her lack of control. That is not an excuse for her actions with Jon that are objectively wrong but it is an explanation that shows that Catelyn is not inherently a bad person. She is a victim of her society and its social construct, which is one reason that makes her abuse of Jon gutting to me, since Jon is also a victim of their society and its social construct. Cat took her own disadvantage on the one person who was more disadvantaged than her. I can’t fault anyone for having negative feelings towards her over that particular situation since she was essentially kicking down at Jon and taking her problems out on a child, but this is far more complicated than “Catelyn is an evil person”.

Fallacy #3: Catelyn was a bad mother and person.

People are more complicated than the binary of “infallible” and “monster” that you seem to be operating on. Good people can make grievous mistakes regardless of their good intentions, and it’s not like those mistakes suck out their morality with them. Catelyn’s parenting wasn’t perfect. She pressures Arya to conform out of a conventional viewpoint and a desire to see her daughter lead a good life (as does Ned, btw), but ends up harming Arya. Her grief over Bran’s fall and coma and her exhaustion in keeping a vigil by his bedside puts pressure on Robb and hurts Rickon. Her abuse of Jon echoes through the family and inadvertently hurts her own children. Even the well-intentioned fail sometimes. Would you care to hear about the times Ned did too?

However, it remains that Catelyn’s entire character is build around her love for her family and her dedication to her children. She throws herself between an armed man and her comatose child with no thought to her life. She is constantly tormented by her distance from Bran and Rickon and blames herself for not being there for them. She is literally the only one who thinks that Sansa and Arya’s lives are worth trading against Jaime Lannister’s. She wants nothing but to send Robb to safety when she meets up with his army but recognizes that this would be extremely bad for his position. She bargains for Robb’s life while injured and spares no thought to her own life in the process. She refuses to accept that Arya is dead and holds out hope for her return. She champions Robb’s cause and does her level best to guide him, but also affords him space to grown on his own and is greatly proud of his leadership. No, I don’t consider Cat a bad parent at all, even with her mistakes. Those errors were a result of parental frailty and misguided protectiveness.

Questioning Cat’s personality in general doesn’t hold up either. She defends and befriends Brienne. She tries to reassure Edmure that their father loves and is proud of him. She feels guilty after Rickard Karstark kills the Lannister prisoners and feels his accusations acutely. She empathizes with Jeyne and reassures her of her place despite her displeasure with the marriage. She feels sadness for Mya Stone’s innocence over her doomed love with Mychel Redfort. There are places where Cat’s empathy fail her but if I denounce everyone who has a moment of failed empathy or who ever does a morally questionable thing, I’d be dismissing every single character in this entire series as a bad person. There are no perfect people in GRRM’s narrative, so what makes Cat’s imperfections specifically worthy of condemnation?

Fallacy #4: Catelyn should be blamed for Ned’s death, the ruin of House Stark and the Seven Kingdoms.

Right. Tyrion’s arrest. That did not start the war because the war was already in the works before the royal family even arrives in Winterfell.

I’m growing increasingly irritated with the tendency to blame any random Stark for the war which builds on deliberate dismissal of what everyone else was doing that led to the war. Sorry to say but the war was inevitable even if Catelyn never seizes Tyrion. It was inevitable because Stannis knew that the royal children were illegitimate and was preparing for war. It was inevitable because Renly knew that the royal children were illegitimate and was preparing for his own takeover. That guarantees a showdown with Tywin and the rest of the Lannisters no matter what, and puts Stannis and Renly on opposite sides. Don’t forget that Littlefinger and Varys were invested in pitting the Starks and the Lannisters against each other for their own gain as well. The entire situation was a powder keg waiting to blow long before any Stark stepped a foot in King’s Landing.

Blaming Catelyn, or any Stark really, for the War of the Five Kings and all it brought only serves to exonerate those who are responsible for it. Jaime and Cersei have an affair, pass their children as royal heirs and kill to maintain that fallacy. Jaime pushes Bran out of a window and Joffrey tries to have him killed. Cersei plots to have Robert killed and puts her plan into motion before Ned even finds out about the twincest. Baelish encourages Lysa to poison Jon Arryn and frame the Lannisters, then lies about the owner of the dagger used in the attempt of Bran’s life. He betrays Ned to Cersei and conspires till he gets Joffrey to kill Ned. Tywin Lannister sends men to burn and pillage the Riverlands, then plans with the Freys and the Boltons to murder Robb and his army at a wedding. Balon Greyjoy decides that avenging himself on a dead man is the height of power and embarks on an idiotic campaign in the North. Theon betrays the Starks and seizes Winterfell. Imagine having all that awfulness and all these contributing players to the war, but somehow finding the war Catelyn’s fault. Yes, I know the reasoning is that her arrest of Tyrion put the Starks and the Lannisters in open conflict and “made” Tywin attack the Riverlands. Except that Catelyn is not responsible for the fact that the Lannister go-to method is to commit war crimes and go stabby. A normal person could have protested Tyrion’s arrest to the king and painted the Starks as the aggressors but no, Tywin Lannister makes his own laws and he chooses to take it out on the Tullys’ smallfolk. That’s on him. Also, are we going to pretend that the Starks and the Lannisters weren’t already poised for a conflict after two attacks on Bran’s life? Or that Ned’s discovery of the twincest and his execution on Joffrey’s orders wasn’t going to drag the Starks into the war anyway?

Fun fact: of all the fighting factions in the War of the Five Kings, it’s Catelyn Stark who tries repeatedly to put a stop to the war. She pleads for peace in Robb’s council. She tries to broker an alliance between Robb and Renly, and points out that no one but Robb is doing a thing to protect the people against the Lannisters. She tries to get the Baratheon brothers to unify and reach an accord because common sense says that they all of them have the same enemy, and their conflict benefits no one but the Lannisters. Catelyn does not start the war, but she sure tries to end it. Sadly, no one listens to her.

Now please don’t come to me again with your victim-blaming, character bashing arguments.

[kendrixtermina]

A lot of people are sleeping on the fact that we kinda DO know what Pink Diamond would’ve been like as a parent

Why? Because Amethyst.

There’s actually a lot of unjuiced juice here, like she clearly overcompensated for her own restrictive upbringing by letting everyone do whatever (including baby sour cream) and likely never expected her to act responsible - granted, she wouldn’t be the most suited person to show anyone How To Responsible.

IT’s also clear wanted to shelter her from all the homeworld crap by telling her as little as possible, and left orders that the same be done with Steven (I mean most of what they kept from him was on her orders - As far as Garnet’s own decisions go she’s actually the most forthcoming of the bunch) - with the unexpected side effect that it hit them unprepared in the face like a ton of bricks when Jasper and Peridot showed up, but that’s life, things don’t go as planned, and I think she knew that to a degree.  

For both Amethyst and Steven, meeting their “biological relatives” actually had net positive effects for their character arcs, like sure there were some poofings and mecha battles involved along the way but it ended in a definite sense that the truth was way less awful than they imagined and that they could now come up with their own answers instead of taking other people’s word for it. Also Steven and Amethyst would naturally want to know where they came from; Amethyst often seemed to feel left out for not knowing what the others were talking about, Steven did some reckless stunts to get info, (that PD would probably not have disclosed much more willingly if she were around) and both were kinda more secure in their self-direction and sense of self once they knew.

At the same time I don’t think she failed completely, since the actions of PD (as well as, let’s not forget,  Garnet and Pearl) provided the two of them with an environment that probably allowed them to have a more solid foundation than what they had, and just not grow up with the same kind of fear. Steven in particular was probably able to defuse the other Diamonds because he had seen a better alternative and could see them from a more objective distance.

Another thing to note here is that as per her speech in “Greg the babysitter”, PD  actually had a pretty negative attitude about her own species. Now we don’t need to take her negative beliefs about herself at face value any more than for any other character, but she definitely must have inadvertedly impressed that on Amethyst with the ironic result that Amethyst ended up kinda being the somewhat sheltered baby-slash-troublemaker of the group (though for the opposite reason) and believing she was somehow inherently rotten.

Though one could also surmise that it’s only natural that they would be somewhat alike, since again, PD kinda raised Amethyst.

In canonland Steven was kinda anxious about learning to use his powers because he wanted to be a proper member of the group and kinda sensed the hole PD had left, but if she had survived making him, she might’ve ended up actually discouraging him from that and wanted him to focus more on human stuff, it’s certainly what she seemed excited about in her video. On the other hand, she did want her own kid instead of just adopting a human baby, so much she was willing to die for it, so her feelings about having her kid possibly resemble her must’ve been seriously ambivalent.

This is also interesting to consider in the light of the knowledge that she’s, well, not a soldier ant but a queen bee, so to speak. She was kinda supposed to create new life/ reproduce and seemed genuinely excited aboutt that until she learned how destructive the - So the act of making Steven isn’t quite as subversive as if she was a war machine and decided to make new life instead, but, she’s still making a wholly novel hybrid being with the explicit intention of letting him be whatever the heck he wants to, and making a sacrifice to do instead of destroying other life, in many ways a total inversion of what the authority does. But perhaps she was also able to make her peace with what she actually is before the end, or I like to hope so because I want to believe that this poor space rock got at least a little bit of catharsis in her life.

Also, Amethyst might’ve compared herself to her, thinking that they’re supposedly the same gem type - its also possible that they never fused because the secret might’ve been out the moment they didn’t simply make a bigger quartz.

This is also one of the main things that excite me about season 6, because the cast have said they wanted to make an ep about how Amethyst got ‘adopted’ for ages, but apparently they didn’t do it before, perhaps because they felt the cat had to be out of the bag before this could land efficiently.

We’ve gotten some hints that they were pretty close - In “Maximum capacity” she talks about , she mentions that “Rose” at least tried to give her pep talks & validation in “crack the whip” (I fondly remember the wave of fanart that got us), there’s the “You’re not the only one who misses her” line and how we don’t really get a full read on her take of things in “Whats your problem” because she’d rather cheer up Steven... unjuiced juice there, is all am saying

Like, did they sneak out to visit human settlements together? Did they do shenanigans? Prank random beach city citizens? Did they cover for each other when they wanted to sneak out without the others knowing? Did the Purple Puma once have a tag team partner known as the Magenta Menace?

I wouldn’t be surprised if in the end, Amethyst turned out to be the one crystal gem who actually knew her the best - like, not in terms of having all the information like Pearl does, but in getting to see her real personality under the act.

But then again Amethyst is underappreciated as a character in general. Slightly less so since she got her little arc in season 3 and started getting along with most the fan favorites.

[him-e]

Due to SW I've been thinking about our perceptions of power and of course ended up thinking about ASOIAF. Would you say that power-hungry Tywin did raise his kids in a way that they can't see the power they actually have? While all his children crave power (in different ways), they constantly end up at the mercy of others, often by their own design. Cercei reduces herself to her vagina, Jaime to his sword, Tyrion to his Imp image (though he does it the least, prop because of his intellect).

Any examination of power and whether the lack thereof is real or perceived and how this can be a consequence of parental abuse needs to take into account the fact that Westeros is a deeply unbalanced society because of its rampant sexism, ableism and classism. So when you say that Cersei and Tyrion can’t see the power they actually have, the obvious objection would be: do they really have power? I mean, they both do compared to the lower classes—Cersei is the queen, and Tyrion is the son of a high lord, lives at court, has been hand of the King for a while etc. But the class privilege they possess is incessantly undermined by how Westeros’ society sees respectively Cersei’s gender and Tyrion’s disability as things that make you inherently less human—that happens when the default human being is thought to be male and able bodied—thus incapable, or unworthy, of wielding actual power.

It’s a combination of Tywin not valuing any type of power that doesn’t come from being male, straight, able bodied and rich by birth and transmitting this ideology to his kids, and the fact that by societal norms they have very little power compared to what an able bodied male would have in their exact social position. This lack of power makes them lash out and/or overcompensate, which inevitably leads to technical/tactical mistakes. They actually lash out more, and more messily, than most characters in a similar position do (which means they particularly attract this sort of “why can’t they use their power properly” discourse), and that’s because the only role model they have is Tywin who is the epitome of the kind of violent, aggressive masculine power that they both cannot access to no matter how they try. 

So there’s a huge dissonance between what Cersei and Tyrion are told they are allowed to do and what House Lannister is supposed to be.They’ve been simultaneously taught that they have to be Tywin to be powerful and that they’re unfit to be Tywin because of things outside of their control. They know that to make father proud they have to behave “properly” i.e. not exceed the limits of their gender and disability, but at the same time they understand that this sort of behavior is the opposite of What Tywin Would Do. For example, Cersei gets told to be a good broodmare and just shut the fuck up, but it’s no wonder that she struggles with the idea when it’s so clear that Tywin despises all things culturally feminine and prioritizes aggression and violence. It’s also no wonder that, being raised to believe that her only value is in her reproductive parts, she weaponizes those and remains blind to other ways to climb her way to power. Because those ways are inherently harder and imply a much greater defiance of societal norms that Cersei, who deep down still wants to please Father, isn’t ready to commit to.

The thing with House Lannister is that it replicates (exacerbating it) everything wrong with Westeros’ culture on a personal, familial scale, showing very clearly how bad it is to enforce a patriarchal, gendered idea of success and power on people who cannot adhere to it, and then punish them for trying. To make things worse, the current generation of Lannisters has no idea how to incorporate the feminine in their “hear me roar” mindset, in no small part due to the tragic absence of a matriarch in the house, one that could stand her ground against Tywin, show their kids that he’s not an absolute, and that different outlooks on power are possible. (for all that GRRM’s abuse of the *dead mother* trope is despicable, he has done his homework and knows that the easiest way to fuck a character up is to deny him (or her) access to their inner Feminine. And in turn the easiest way to do that is to prematurely sever their bond with the Mother)

Tywin’s role model is so toxic and unattainable that it fucked up even the one among Tywin’s children who was both male and able bodied. Jaime was, on paper, capable of “becoming Tywin” one day, according to Westeros’ cultural rules. But he ended up crippling himself LONG before he was physically maimed in ASOS. He joined the Kingsguard, essentially giving up his birthright; and then killed Aerys, utterly destroying his social respectability. Beyond the material reasons behind these actions—he killed Aerys because Aerys threatened to blow the entire city up and took the white because Cersei asked him to, of course—it would be interesting to analyze the ways in which those things might be a subconscious reaction/middle finger to the pressure of being ~Tywin’s designated heir~ and by extension a rejection of his ideology (though an incomplete, flawed one). (in fact, I would put the twincestin this category too, as it’s something that effectively taints Tywin’s legacy and hyperpatriarchal ideal of perfection)

[zenosanalytic]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Politics

So I’m FINALLY getting back to this after, as usually, letting myself get distracted with other things |:T Partly that was me wanting to do a rewatch to get my thinking on this issue in order, and then not having the time to before it left theaters(X| X|), but Anyway! I’m doing it now!!

Tl;dr: I feel like the details of the plot confuse and undercut its laudable messages, and that it furthers a sort of shallow, commoditized understanding of “rebellion” as a character trait/mindset rather than a political act, much like Rogue One.

Political Ethics

So like I said, the messages are good. The Rebellion is clearly presented as Good and the First Order clearly as Bad. The Rebellion is egalitarian, people-oriented, universalist(humans & nonhumans of all stripes are welcome, and there’s no visible gender discrimination), collectivist, and affirming of its members’ worth, needs, and initiative; these values deserve to be presented as Good. The First Order is hierarchical, object-oriented[1], exclusionary(no place for nonhumans; mostly filled with white men), aristocratic[2], and actively erases or ignores the individuality of all but its command staff[3]; these “values” deserve to be presented as Bad.

Unfortunately the plot focuses on the individual “heroes” of The Rebellion, an inherently aristocratic perspective[4] and, aside from the planetary evacuation, none of the Rebellion’s successes have a particularly collective feel to them. In certain respects this is necessary, Poe can’t start off understanding he has to think of the group first if learning to do that is his arc, but that’s a single character, and there ought to be a noticeable progression as he learns that lesson through the film; instead, he continues to make the same myopic mistake again and again until the very end. This mismatch does more than undermine the larger message; it makes it seem as if Poe’s actions exist to create drama in the film, rather than as part as a personal narrative, within a wider story. The presentation of Holdo is much better on this count, she’s almost always in a group, discussing and directing actions(that we aren’t privy to |:T), though unfortunately those are all distilled into individual moments for her, or antagonistically between her and Poe. One could argue that Poe’s increasing reliance on followers rather than his own actions --first Rose and Finn then what’s left of the pilots-- is meant to show him growing as a leader, but I find that argument unconvincing. Rose and Finn’s mission is a decision he makes on his own without consultation in secret in contravention of the collective’s decisions, and is explicitly presented as yet another “Heroic” mistake on his part. The Mutiny is similarly presented, and the collective aspect of it rest on a single scene, after which the focus moves back again to Poe. Something as simple as having Poe be with others, visibly leading them, in these arc-moments, or surrounding Holdo with bustle rather than just people, or showing extras accomplishing vital tasks, would have given the Rebellion a more collective, egalitarian feel. Instead, we get Poe taking the bridge on his own; Holdo standing up to Poe, alone; Holdo and Leia stepping out of separate smoke-clouds to stop his mutiny, alone; Holdo left on the bridge, alone, sacrificing herself for the collective.

The overall presentation of the Resistance/Rebellion adds to this confusion. The Rebellion/Resistance is supposed to represent the Galaxy and its people as they are, which is why its membership is diverse and why the oppressed like Rose and the children at the stables side with it. But the Resistance isn’t presented as a mass-movement: instead it’s a small handful of stalwarts Fighting the Good Fight, led by an even more select cadre of Heroes responsible for all their successes. It is more vanguard than expression of the common will, let alone defenders of a standing government which unites the galaxy. This desire to stack the odds against the “Rebels” --to emphasize their vulnerability, increase tension, and contrast their individuality with the dehumanized First Order-- ends up presenting the struggle for democracy and freedom as an elite endeavor. The common struggle for dignity, democracy, and freedom cannot be fought by a handful of mythic heroes; collectivist goals cannot be accomplished through elitist ends and avoid corruption into precisely what they fought against. Leaders and organization can and must exist to direct action and prevent subversion, but to present them AS the movement and the movement as alone and abandoned -as the “spark of hope” that “will ignite the galaxy”- is to present the people of the galaxy as the passive object of their will rather than as their partners in the struggle and society.

Which leads into a more delicate question about TLJ’s politics: people, sacrifice, who dies, and who matters. There are four events that focus and turn on these questions, in two mirrored pairs: Poe’s distraction/bombing run and Luke’s illusion; Holdo’s kamikaze and Finn’s attempted one. Structurally these are a bit imbalanced as three take place during or after the climax, and one at the very beginning of the movie. They are presented like this: Poe risks his life to distract Hux so the Rebels can escape, which is good, but then he needlessly risks, and loses, the lives of his pilots to blow up a dangerous ship, which is bad; Holdo selflessly commits kamikaze to save the Rebel transports and destroys much of the Order fleet, which is good; Finn tries to selflessly commit kamikaze to save the rebel base and destroy the Battering Ram, which is bad, but is stopped by Rose risking her life to crash him off course, which is good; Luke projects himself over galactic distances, knowing it will kill him, to delay the Order long enough for the Rebels to escape, which is good.

The message here seems to be that it is right to sacrifice your life for others in dire moments, and wrong to sacrifice the lives of others for your plans, which fits perfectly with the moral and political opposition established between the Rebellion and the First Order(and between Poe’s grandstanding and Holdo’s quite marshaling of the fleet), but the episode with Finn puts an asterisk on that. I am NOT saying Finn should have died; that’d have been criminal and derailed the whole franchise and ruined this movie for me. But I do feel like they could have handled that sequence better, or presented that attempted sacrifice with circumstances that more clearly explicated the ethical message. It must also be said that women are allowed to die and risk themselves for others far more often than men in TLJ. Given the central place of women in the film, Luke’s sacrifice, and that, as above, killing Finn off would be a Horrible Criminal Offense that I would gladly hemotoxin people over, I don’t think TLJ intentionally played into this trope of women being “naturally” more sacrificing, “giving”, and group-oriented than men, but it’s still a Bad Look. This is worsened by the writing of and around Poe; he’s never shown mourning the loses he caused, never blames himself, never questions his actions, never loses the regard of his crewmates or the fond forbearance of his commanders for his atrocious decisions. Nominally he is demoted but he’s still able to do basically whatever he likes and, if anything, his insubordination marks him even moreso as the future of the Rebellion(protip: this is nepotism, not institutionalized revolt). Out of all the bombingcrew and fighter pilots who die only one, Paige, is given extended attention and heroic treatment, and nobody aside from Rose even mentions her after her death.

And also: Holdo and the A-Wing Pilot were both Great, and I Loved Them, and why did you kill them, Rian Johnson, in a movie I mostly enjoyed???

Rose and Finn’s storyline was far more politically satisfying to me. Their escape is fundamentally a collective one(though making it a full-on prison break would have been nice for this); without the Fathiers, children, and BB-8(sigh, and DJ *eyeroll*), they wouldn’t have been able to get out. They free the Fathiers in the process of freeing themselves rather than using them to advance their goals. Moreover, Rose gets her chance to be part of putting a metaphorical fist through a town built on exploitation and the performative excess it affords. That the movie would take aim at wealth like this, implicating it in the fascist, ethnic-supremacy of the First Order(even rich non-humans; there is no ethical stock-trading in galactic capitalism), really surprised me; I just wish it’d aimed wider, at wealth in general, rather than at weapons-dealers. Though having said that, singling out weapons-dealers does have a particular salience to USian politics, so maybe that’s part of it. Anyway: the message is far clearer than in Poe’s sections, bolstered by the action, and they get a chance to throw barbs at a “both sides are bad” idjit on the way out, which: Very Satisfying ^u^

Rey’s story I didn’t really see as all that political but, thinking about it just now, there is one aspect of it that touches on morality and politics, and that is her desire to “turn” Kylo Ren. In Impermanence I went into the psychological reasons Rey may have had for wanting to do this, but it all lends itself to a political analysis as well. Rey’s attempt to turn a violent fascist is not, I think, a promotion of the “let’s debate them, guys” school of rhetorical critique. To begin with she’s entirely willing to throw down with him if he chooses his desire for dominance over his connection to other people(and does), and secondly there’s much less uncertainty for her in this equation than in real life. Rey can feel Ben’s uncertainty and doubt, his love for his family and the anguish he feels over hurting them, the truth of his conviction that he is a monster for doing it. He is, absolutely, manipulating her, and using her knowledge of his feelings to manipulate her, but it’s a fundamentally different situation than one where the only thing you really have to honestly assess another person’s intentions is their actions, and the goal their words are meant to achieve. Besides, TLJ is about a war with fascists brought on by a central gov apparently doing nothing to stop their rise; that seems more a promotion of confrontation than of “debate”.

Rebellion

The presentation of “Rebel” is my other big complaint. I don’t really think this will take very long. It basically has two parts.

The first is: these people ARE the government. Leia helped rebuild the Republic; all the soldiers, officer or grunt, are Republic citizens who must have learned about how to fight from Republic institutions(and if they have military academies, why wouldn’t they have a military?). There was the suggestion in TFA that they were secretly funded by the Republic. The First Order is a hostile, invading, outside polity defined, to the audience, entirely by its militarism and oppression. So what are the Rebels Rebelling against? The term “Resistance” is frequently used, but by the end of the film it falls away entirely for this “Rebel” label, which is taken as exemplifying their values, mindset, and situation. But again: they are fighting to defend a standing, democratic, egalitarian government. They are no more rebels than Union soldiers fighting Confederate traitors were. The Empire itself, based on what I know of the backstory, was a massive and short-lived break from the historic mores and institution of galactic society. There is little, if any, polity calling for the Empire’s return, and many worlds actively supported the Rebellion during the civil war. So why are they so few, the Order so many, and why does no one come to help them? All these decisions made to heighten the situation and amplify the heroism of our protagonists not only undermine the idea that the galaxy is behind them, but also pour into valorizing this “Rebel” label and marking these “Rebels” as the courageous conscience of an apathetic and passive world, but it is the First Order that is rebelling against the democratic government that galaxy has legitimated, and in the name of the very defunct fascist coup they help that government end. The Galaxy does not need to be saved from itself: it needs to be protected from the forces of oppression and exploitation.

The second is this, and it’s related. Rebellion is an act and, like any act, it’s morality is judged by its context: why it is done, what it is responding to, how it is done, and what it accomplishes. Rebellion, in itself, is absent of moral meaning. Yet we see here, just as in Rogue One, rebellion being presented as good-in-and-of itself, “Rebel” as a personal quality rather than an act(i.e.: Phasma: “you were always scum!” Finn: “Rebel Scum!”), and zero examination of WHO is rebelling in this situation, against WHAT, and WHY. “Rebel” and “Rebellion” are transformed from political actions with discrete content into brands for people to wear; to be more direct, into corporate logos for Disney to sell. This is fucked up and, in the political context of the US where murderous confederate diehards like Jesse James are STILL lauded as folk heroes, unhelpful.

Nitpicks

The rest of my quibbles are pretty unimportant and mostly have to do with effective worldbuilding, so I don’t think they really detract from the movie in any general way, or even for a general audience that DOESN’T get twitchy over how believable depictions of political and social order are on screen.

Here is a Convenient List of my Niggling Complaints:

where’s the Republic? It’s a galaxy-wide government built on a foundation of THOUSANDS OF YEARS of galaxy-wide democracy pre-dating the Empire and, while having its capital destroyed with all-hands would certainly sow chaos, it certainly wouldn’t make it disappear! In every system!!

Where’s the Republic Military??

If the Republic HAD no military other than the (unofficial) Resistance, then wouldn’t the sudden wealth of all these weapons-manufacturers just as the First Order’s ramping up its rhetoric be kind of... suspicious???

And why would a government birthed from a rebellion against a fascistic “Empire” disarm in the face of organized remnants of said Empire(led by another Dark Jedi, no less!) anyway????

Why couldn’t this story take place during an all-out assault on a confused and headless Republic+military, rather than with the Republic poofed suddenly out of existence?x5

The collapse of governments is chaotic on all aspects of society and especially commerce: couldn’t they have shown at least ONE person on Canto Bight freaking out about their portfolio, and all the deals with the Republic gov they had that have just disappeared?x6

So like I said these aren’t really BIG complaints, but they’re aspects of the film that make my political-history brain Itchy. Maybe they’re all answered in EU material but if they are: it’s kind of a bad idea to build movies on information that the audience isn’t going to have going in, and won’t get by watching. Anyway they BUG me --just like the Bombers for all their rhetorical importance BUGGED me-- in basically every aspect, and I just wanted to State that For the Record. States and Governments don’t vanish in a day, they influence and express the societies which create them, and they always leave behind survivors.

[1]putting its faith in tools(the Dreadnought, their Cannons, the Battering Ram) and surplus(large ships, numerous fleets, innumerable faceless legions).

[2]Everyone speaks with posh accents. Also: only command-staff is allowed to show their faces or include idiosyncrasy in their uniforms.

[3]And even their avenues of expression are supremely limited.

[4]A “Hero” is, necessarily, “outstanding” and possessed of “superior” qualities, whether physical or moral. To be a “Hero” is, by definition, to be “better than” and “above” other people, which is what aristocracy - “rule by the best/highest”- is all about. And Yes: meritocracy literally means the samething as aristocracy, so don’t let people tell you it’s a democratic concept.

[killthebxy-archive]

1. being bastard born in Westeros

          let me start with a simple but crucial point: Westeros is a medieval society --- which means it is traditional and built on strong patriarchal foundations, for the most part. Westeros is a racist, sexist, ableist society. and, in Westeros, and especially among the highborn, it is very rare that you will marry for love. if you are highborn, you will marry someone of similar status based on some benefit that this alliance will bring to your parents/ family/ house. if you’re lucky, you will eventually learn to love your spouse, but that is not a requirement --- what is expected of you is to have strong sons (preferably, that the firstborn is a boy) and beautiful daughters to continue your legacy. and you are expected to fulfill this goal together with the lord husband/ lady wife so carefully picked for you.

          what does being bastard born mean? simply put, it means your parents are not married. it means either you were conceived before your parents got married (either to each other or to another person), or that you were conceived through adultery (consensual or not). and, let’s be real, six of the seven kingdoms, Dorne being the exception, do not regard illegitimate children in a positive light. being bastard born, based on what i wrote before, means you were born from lust and/or from betrayal, and this, in this society, immediately implies you have bad blood. it immediately implies that a baby still in the mother’s womb is already expected to grow up to be wanton, treacherous, cunning, ambitious.

          this may not seem obvious but, in a way, being a highborn bastard is more difficult than being a lowborn one. one the one hand, it is rare that the illegitimate child of a big (or even smaller) House of Westeros will be allowed to live with their family, or even to be acknowledged at all. for example, out of all the bastards Robert Baratheon fathered, only Edric Storm and Mya Stone are directly linked to his name. Ned Stark is a rare exception in this case, for raising Jon Snow as his own son. note: for the purpose of this meta, i am assuming what we know from book canon up until the end of ADWD: Jon is the child of Ned and an unknown woman. i will speak of Rhaegar Targaryen further on, but this is the assumption of this whole piece of text.

          for this reason, highborn bastards are also seen as a much bigger threat. why? because it is common belief that they will try and steal what belongs to the legitimate children by birthright. again, because they are seen as inherently envious and treacherous. GRRM provides some tales throughout the books, of bloodshed between half-siblings for the sake of power, and Ramsay Snow/ Bolton emerges as prime example of such --- stopping at nothing to earn himself a legitimate name, first, and then the ruling of House Bolton + Winterfell.

2. Jon Snow as a bastard child

          no surprises, everything i just mentioned is valid in Jon’s case. Catelyn Stark herself worries that Jon will be a threat to her children, and, for example, argues with Robb when it is his will to make Jon the new King in the North, should Robb himself fall in battle. and this is important to mention for two motives. one, because Cat doesn’t despise Jon for his personality or character traits or any possible flaws --- she despises him for the symbol he is. and we are presented with evidence that she resents herself for being this way, for being unable to love a motherless child, but the very negative connotation of Jon’s birth and everything it entails make it impossible for her to treat him differently. and it doesn’t help that Jon is always described as the spitting image of Ned Stark (or the Starks in general), while her own legitimate children (Arya being the exception) have 100% the Tully looks.

          and, before i get to the second motive, let me point this out. have you wondered why Jon hates to be called Lord Snow, once he arrives at Castle Black? it may seem odd, because, objectively, it is a respectful title --- Jon is technically highborn, and Snow is his last name. however, the negative stigma of being bastard born is, exactly, why this title is both used and taken as mockery. because a bastard has no right to inherit anything --- therefore, has no right to be a lord unless legitimized. treating Jon as Lord Snow is actually incredibly cruel, because it is both throwing on his face something he can never have (i.e., Lord), and, at the same time, the reason for it (i.e., Snow, the name given to the bastards of the North). and this is so prevalent that it keeps happening even after Jon is elected to be lord commander, as we can clearly see in the discourse of Janos Slynt and Godry Farring, for example. even Ramsay, after becoming a Bolton, is still often described/ regarded under the light of his birth. being bastard born is something that accompanies you for life, almost always in a negative manner, and there is very little (if anything) you can do to distance your own identity from it. for the most part and for most people in Westeros, you don’t exist as Jon Snow --- you exist as Ned Stark’s bastard.

3. internalization of the stigma

          everything above brings me to the core of this meta: the impact that being bastard born has on Jon’s identity/ personality/ psychological functioning. and, to start this, i could pick half a hundred quotes from Jon’s chapters, but i’ll pick one that particularly speaks to me:

they still think me a turncloak. that was a bitter draft to drink, but Jon could not blame them. he was a bastard, after all. everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit.

A Storm of Swords --- Blood and Gold, pp.171

          this isn’t anyone talking about Jon; this isn’t Alliser Thorne of Janos Slynt or Cregan Karstark calling him the bastard son of a traitor --- this is Jon speaking of himself. this is Jon describing himself as a bastard and everything it entails, to the point where he cannot even bring himself to blame others for mistrusting him --- because it is to be expected, because it is his own fault for being bastard born. this isn’t the first time in the books such an appreciation is found, we can already see similar introspection in the first half of the first book. Jon has entirely internalized the stigma of being bastard born. now, from the ever-helpful Wikipedia:

social stigma: disapproval of (or discontent with) a person based on socially characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to distinguish them, from other members of a society.

internalization: involves the integration of attitudes, values, standards and the opinions of others into one's own identity or sense of self.

          basically, what this means is that Jon sees himself, whilst a bastard, the same way society does. it means that he was taught what being bastard born means (all the negative connotations i wrote before), and he’s accepted this as being true in regards to himself. he seems himself as different, for being bastard born, and he sees himself as lesser. and this doesn’t happen at Castle Black, where he starts being mocked as Lord Snow. this has started before he was even born, because he’s not seen as a baby but as the proof that even the honorable Eddard Stark once screwed up, and this continued throughout his childhood and early teen years, when he was raised and educated like the rest of Ned’s children but, at the same time, was ever made to know his place and that he was different --- that he was below them. for example, how he’s not allowed to sit at the dais together with his family when King Robert’s court visits Winterfell, because such a thing could cause offense to the royal family. as curiosity, reminder that, in the books, this is exactly the reason Jon gives to Mance Rayder to convince him that he was a desertor: did you see where i was sitting, Mance?

          what is this impact on Jon’s functioning then? first and foremost, it means he tends to see himself in a negative regard. during his first chapters, like when he firstly arrives at Castle Black, he tries to externalize this burden. he’s cocky and he’s immature and he acts on his short temper and makes every other new recruit hate him. why? because he so much wants to prove (to them, to Benjen Stark, to the Night’s Watch as a whole, to himself) that he’s better than everyone else --- that he’s better than his symbol as a bastard, that he’s better than what everyone expects of him. we don’t really get a chapter where Jon tells Benjen (or anyone) why he wants to take the black --- by the time they talk, Jon has already made up his mind. therefore, this bit is a headcanon on my part, but i don’t think i’m wrong in assuming that Jon wanted to join the Night’s Watch because he didn’t have anything else left for his future. he’d never have a right to Winterfell, and the most he could ever hope to inherit was, maybe, some little keep somewhere in the North, and to defend it under Robb’s name. the Watch gave him at least an opportunity to rise above his bastard status, and, when he arrives there and keeps being treated the same, that’s when he snaps and starts literally bullying everyone else for it.

          Donal Noye has a crucial role in Jon’s change, and he is also the underlying tone of the whole kill the boy and let the man be born --- but this is subject for another meta, and i will not touch it here. basically, once he starts treating the Night’s Watch as his new family/ home, Jon’s negative regard of himself slowly and gradually stops being directed to the outside, and starts being directed to the inside --- to his own self. this becomes exponential after Ygritte’s death (which he blames himself for, not exactly for being bastard born, but he still does and this adds up), and even more so after he’s elected lord commander. and, as i like to say, when you look at AGOT Jon and ADWD Jon, you see two different persons. lord commander Jon forces himself to be guarded and isolated, for the sake of better leading his men, and he suffers a lot with insecurities and self-doubt --- because, let’s be real, he’s a 16 year old boy suddenly charged with responsibility to guide nineteen castles and all the men and women inhabiting them. we often see Jon wondering what Ned would have done in his stead, and even more often we see him worrying if he’s making the right decision --- but having to push through, anyway, because winter is almost upon them and he doesn’t have time to sulk.

          and what does being bastard born have to do with this? it is, exactly, the fact that Jon, simply put, believes he’s a bad person because he’s a bastard --- and how he’s come from trying to fight against it, literally fight, to accepting it and letting it subconsciously become his default mode of functioning. Jon is a perfectionist and very, very hardworking, because he knows there’s no other way for him to be. let it be known that both Jon and i love Robb beyond any words, but Robb is the heir --- whenever Robb makes a mistake, that’s okay because everyone knows he’s honorable and righteous like his father, so it’s human to make mistakes. when Jon Snow makes a mistake, it is because of his bad blood and because he’s the bastard son of a traitor, and what else could you expect. this is why none of the Stark children can ever understand what being a Snow entails, even Arya who ever fought for the sake of her brother being treated as an equal. Jon lives on the edge, constantly, and he’s well aware he’s got no room to make mistakes.

          this is why he’s always so sullen, this is why he takes apparently harmless jokes very personally, this is why he has a hard time believing in praise offered to him. because his entire identity is built on being inherently less than most others, even before his birth, which leads him to always having to push his limits and be perfect --- being good isn’t enough for him, he cannot allow himself the luxury of making a bad decision --- and this is tenfold when he’s in a position of leadership, be it as lord commander or, in show canon, King in the North. which, non-surprisingly, is extremely tiring and always has him under tension. and this is also why he tends to draw to himself the guilt over matters that aren’t even directly under his control, and why his biggest fear is the fear of failure. because, all his life, Jon Snow wanted to be Jon Stark --- wanted to prove to his father, and then to everyone else, that he was more than a negative symbol, and worthy of his/their trust and acknowledgment. failing, even something as silly as sending a raven during the night when he was supposed to send it during the morning, means he’s not worthy of his father’s name; it means that the world is right, and that he’s no more than his bad blood. needless to say, all of this is why Jon is so adamantly against fathering bastards of his own --- because he would never want a son/daughter to have to carry the burden he’s carried for his entire life.

          as a conclusion, this is also why, in this blog, the annulment of Rhaegar’s and Elia’s marriage will never be accepted. it goes without saying that Elia deserved so much better, but the point of this meta is that being bastard born is the foundation of Jon’s identity, and it has impacted his story and functioning in ways that cannot be erased. suddenly making him Aegon Targaryen 2.0. for the sake of sitting his fine ass on the Iron Throne does NOT change his past and does NOT change who he is. therefore, in my personal portrayal of Jon Snow, even in purely show-based threads and despite what season 8 may throw at us, he will always be bastard born --- Ned’s bastard or Rhaegar’s bastard, it makes no difference. because the Jon i love and write doesn’t need to be of legitimate blood to matter and to be valid, nor will i ever completely erase and disregard the circumstances that made/ make him who he is.

[ganymedesclock]

ok so i just saw a post that was like "keith never defends himself". like all the times lance insults him he never bristles up enough for it to turn into a fight, and when Allura is pissed about the "half galra" thing he just... accepts it. I don't think there's anywhere in canon where he actually gets upset for himself? like even when BoM!shiro called him selfish he seemed more apologetic than anything. i really want to hear your input on this, bc your character analysis is incredible,

So this is... picking at two actually unrelated threads.

The first thread: You’re right in that Keith clearly invests less in the rivalry than Lance does. This has nothing to do with Keith sticking up for himself, and it has a lot more to do with after the third episode, they are pretty much ambivalent to each other. Their “arguments”, both ways, become kind of lighthearted and ridiculous, not things to get offended about. Because in the first episode? We do see them nearly come to blows. Because at that point Lance is bitter and he’s taking shots at Keith that really hurt. Later on in the show that hurt isn’t there so neither is the vehemence of the response.

But in general, Keith isn’t passive towards Lance. The Paper Airplane comment in s1e9, s2e5′s “very far away.” We even see Keith instigate several times: s1e6 “Hey Lance, I got your Lion back,” and then claiming his radio isn’t working, s3e3′s “I’m glad we’re all making fun of Lance.”

Keith gives just as good as he gets. The thing is, again outside of the first two episodes it turns much more to playful rivalry. And even in those first few episodes, with the fall exercise in s1e2 both Keith and Lance pile into the ground because they both were escalating it. Also, arguably the first dispensed sass between the two of them was Keith to Lance. “We could toss off some non-essential weight.”

Keith is totally sassy! It takes him a little to open up to people enough to be willing to do that, but in s2e9 he cracks a joke at Hunk that Hunk points out. The thing is, he doesn’t care too much about the rivalry because he’s not particularly mad at Lance most of the time, and he never was. This was highlighted in the first scene with them together- you have Lance, hackles up, addressing his Rival, while Keith is sort of trying to recall who this person is and why Lance is so mad at him. Especially early on, you can see several times Keith just looks confusedly towards Lance, sees an irritated expression, and gets mad himself. So they bounce off each other as kind of a:

Keith “what the heck is your problem?”Lance “what the heck is YOUR problem?”

where both of them kinda feel like the other person started it. And as they get to know each other better, they learn what to, and what not to, take personally, and pretty much none of it is actually personal because they don’t hate each other.

You can see this pretty clearly at work in s3e3, for example- Lance gripes at Keith when he feels like Keith isn’t listening to him, but when Keith, super distraught, pretty much actively crawls back to Lance talking about how Lance was totally right and he got everyone in trouble- Lance clearly doesn’t exploit that, or even consider doing so- he sets his own ego aside, doesn’t mince words (”yeah, you kind of did”) but focuses on, in effect, reassurance- the issue is fixable, they can make this work and take responsibility and Lance is there to help him. And the only reason Lance was so angry in the first place was that he felt like Keith was putting the whole team in danger, which, he had a point.

Keith opens up these vulnerabilities to Lance because he can trust Lance with them. And Lance returns the favor- consider s3e6 and the “leave the math to Pidge” conversation. Again, Keith doesn’t mince words, but emphasizes proactive motion- that it’s okay, Lance can stay with Red, they’ll figure something out that doesn’t call for inordinate sacrifice from anyone. 

They’re “rivals” but they’re rivals who trust each other enough to actually genuinely let their guard down and say “here’s what I’m worried and scared about” and trust the other person isn’t going to mount it on their wall like a trophy because getting one up on each other was never a high priority and it’s certainly not higher than the other person’s wellbeing as a friend.

Keith doesn’t defend himself from Lance because Lance isn’t attacking. They have their back and forth but it’s harmless and they both react to it like it’s harmless. It might seem like Lance has a ‘bigger’ response because Lance generally is much more surface about his emotions than Keith is.

The second thread here: as you say, Keith specifically doesn’t defend himself against Allura’s rejection, and hologram Shiro’s rejection. I phrased that in a specific way because here’s the unifying thread there.

Keith is, to a traumatic degree, terrified of feeling abandoned by people. He laid this out very explicitly in his vlog: a large amount of his psychology was shaped by that first perceived abandonment- feeling like he was rejected by his mother. Later traumas- the loss of his father, likely rejections by other people in the foster system (official bio states he lost his parents at a young age, but doesn’t have any adopted family we know of which would suggest he shuffled around multiple places before leaving the system on his eighteenth birthday)- just sort of added fuel to that fire.

The reason why Keith folds up into a little ball and turns uncharacteristically passive in the face of perceived rejection from people he cares about (especially Shiro who is still a very high value friend to him) is that he is functionally, and quite literally, being triggered. His history and trauma tell him this is all his fault, that there’s a fundamental flaw in who he is, he’s a bad person and unlovable and everyone hates him.

Which isn’t true, not at all- but frankly? The way Keith engages with the whole galra revelation and Allura’s response, the way Keith sees this, it plays directly into his cognitive biases. His attempt at connecting with Acxa in the Weblum boils down to he’s trying to convince himself that maybe there’s a scrap of good to the galra that’s not just limited to the few rebels who’ve rejected their nature.

Keith is looking at his own heritage through a flawed eye here- so he doesn’t defend himself against Allura’s feelings, that she herself admits aren’t reasonable, that she still cares about Keith, that she’s hurt because she feels like he hid this from her and her own prior trauma is lending a huge amount of heat to it.

Because to Keith? Wholesale rejecting him for being a galra is perfectly reasonable. He’s got enough internalized issues he can’t really relate to the Blade because he’s a lot more scared he’s the other kind of galra they’ve encountered. The part of his brain that says “nobody likes you because something’s fundamentally wrong with you, all of these other people get along just fine,” just found something that seems to support that conclusion. “You’re related to the murderous space conquerors” is a hell of a lot louder in his mind than “the galra as a people are more complicated, we just met a bunch of rebels attacking them, even that mysterious person that robbed you saved your life and was not very Victory Or Death about it.”

The trial of Marmora was even more direct- it’s not showing us a real situation, it’s showing us Keith’s nightmare. That Shiro, too, will reject him, over some kind of perceived inherent nature (“You’re just being selfish like always”? not anything remotely approaching Shiro’s actual feelings or the reality of the situation) and leave, and Keith will end up alone and it’ll be his fault.

This is his worst fear, paired with ‘greatest hope’- that hurt, scared, and exhausted, he wants to see his only long-term friend pre-Voltron come tell him things are going to be okay.

Which, incidentally, it’s the hope, not the fear, that we see the real Shiro living up to. While it’s cut off by the awakening of the blade and Keith clearing the trial, Shiro would sooner fight his way past a huge organization like the Blade, alone, towing an injured Keith, than force Keith to give up the weapon to appease him. His decision, in that instant is, “I’m taking Keith, he’s taking his knife, and we’re leaving.”

But look at that picture- look at how Keith isn’t looking at Shiro. There’s a cognitive disconnect for Keith about how much other people mean to him.

In s1e4, we do see Keith trying to fight a perceived rejection- he’s the one who digs his heels in and yells at Pidge for trying to leave.

He aggressively avoids, in his logic, any implication of “please don’t do this, I care about you, I don’t want to lose you.” He tries to put everything in the most objective language he can put it in, but it’s pretty clear with how incredibly upset he is, this is not just about defending the universe.

Keith is both terrified of losing people and has an internalized attitude that he’s not good enough to make others want to stay around him. And this is something he’s processing, slowly, but out of the characters, this specter of perceived unworthiness is Keith’s demon- it’s what’s keeping him from the truth of who and what he is that is arguably his birthright as the Red Paladin, whose virtues are instinct, passion, and personal clarity.

In part, Keith has been deprived accurate mirrors to know himself- s1e10′s purple hand incident and the appearances of other half-galra we’ve seen tell us that Keith has seemingly been denied his own real appearance, as well as any contact with the galra half of his heritage. He has powers he doesn’t understand or even really realize they’re there, because no one has been around to recognize these qualities in him. He has had supports- Shiro and the other paladins- but all of them are, until outside intervention, just as stumped as he is.

But another part is- Keith is hiding from these revelations because he’s terrified of the idea of becoming- or having been all along- something unacceptable to other people. Something fated to be alone. Because again, deprived of people he can relate to and the context that makes everything about him make perfect sense? He’s mis-diagnosed himself hard as an inherently unlovable person and while that’s something he can fight in many situations, certain issues and scenarios seem to feed that fire and when it does, Keith tends to just give up.

So yeah- Keith doesn’t tend to defend himself when he feels like someone is rejecting him, and it’s a particular flavor of learned helplessness and cognitive biases.

[mikhalsarah]

We could easily re-title this as, “6 Things Entitled Black Activists Need to Do to Completely Discredit Their Own Movements and Drive Even Other Black People Away From Them”

Afterward can just throw this on the general pile marked “Things Entitled Leftists Have Done since the Civil Rights Era to Completely Discredit Their Own Movements and Drive Even Other Leftists and Liberals Away From Them”

But with a two year hiatus to consider it, let’s unpack this, cause unfortunately covid hasn’t shut the stupid down, and now we’re trying to make Jesus black instead of Levantine, and all kinds of crazy....

1. Well, the thing about white privilege is…

Yeah, the thing about it is that most white people don’t actually get it. To them a “privilege” is something you get that nobody else gets AND nobody else is entitled to. It’s an extra, not something everyone should be getting. So mostly this whole notion and change in the meaning of the word confuses the fuck out of them.

When blacks get their human and civil rights violated just for being black, the fact that white people aren’t experiencing that (except on college campuses) is not a privilege, it’s a BASIC FUCKING HUMAN/CIVIL RIGHT which is being violated. When blacks get held to an unfair double standard, the fact that whites aren’t being held to that standard is not a privilege. It is a basic ideology (though not well-lived) of all modern western liberal thought that people should be treated with the same dignity, respect and rules, and black people are still not being uniformly afforded that. When you call that shit “privileges” you sound like a kid who’s mad cause their sibling gets to stay up and watch tv and they don’t. You completely belittle it with that word.

I happen to get the concept of Privilege just fine. I studied it way back when it was part of the Cultural Backback Theory, before a bunch of cultural Marxists subjected it to their half-baked Sokal-esque  hermaneutics. My objections to what’s been done with it lately have nothing to do with “not caring” (about black people being the subtext there) but about really fucking caring about the integrity and relevance of the original theory and how it’s being denigrated by extremism and stupidity.

2. As a white woman, Rebecca, you have to understand that…

No I don’t, you’re right. I don’t need to understand anything “as a white women”.I simply need to understand it. If I understand the concept, then I will inherently understand my place or part in it. But that presumes that the concept at hand is logical, sensible, and works in practice, not just in theoretical cultural Marxist hermeneutics.

We already know that enjoying entertainments created by black people has SFA to do with whether a person is racist or not. We also know that a white person having sex with a black person does not mean they are not a racist. We’ve known this since the slavery period, so we have an area of agreement. Marrying them though? Historically we don’t find many people who marry people they think are inferior and beneath them. Strictly speaking you can have racialism and racism without the supremacy and denigration (Asians are all good at math!) but we don’t normally bother to run around decrying them as racist.

Could dear Rebecca have stray beliefs about black people that are incorrect? Yes. Everyone has incorrect ideas about other groups of people. Know what else, they even have incorrect beliefs about their own people and culture. I just had a liberal Jew tell me all the ultra-Orthodox Jews are married to their cousins and was very annoyed when I showed them the demographic data on which Jews actually do marry their cousins at high rates, cause really they just wanted to hate on the ultra-Orthodox and not be informed. Things like truth and respect only matter to most people when it’s their own group and interests they’re protecting, not when it’s somebody else’s. Since I’m self-evidently not ultra-Orthodox with all the swearing, and some of those u-O people would whip bottles and dirty diapers at my head in Israel, you can clearly see that I value the truth even about someone who views me as a dangerous moral pollutant to be expunged violently. I got the suspicion though that you’re not in that category with me

Could some of Rebecca’s incorrect beliefs have filtered down from the racist and eugenicist beliefs of yore? You betcha! She probably doesn’t know, for the same reason my best friend called herself “Hymie” in front of me because she didn’t want to spend money on something. It was something picked up from her parents, who picked it up from their parents, who picked it up from...well somewhere along the line they picked that up from when dyed-in-the-wool antisemites said shit like that. When I politely told her it comes from the Jewish name “Chaim” and was meant as an insult about being cheap like a Jew, she was horrified, as were her parents when she told them. 

And why the fuck are white women being singled out here like they’re the only people still holding wrong beliefs about black people? Asian people have some of the most openly horrible racist beliefs about black people and I have yet to hear, “As an Asian woman, Wei-yi (or Sundeep, or Aisha), you have to understand...”  (or change all that to man and male names). Why don’t I hear that? Because A) Some of them really don’t give a shit, and you know it, and B) Most of the Asian people immigrated relatively recently so they don’t feel guilty about slavery, and  C) many came from the middle and upper classes back home and they will not put up with that illogical racist crap toward them, and have not yet been brainwashed that they should. Most white women who are liberal are so concerned with not being perceived as racist that they will tie themselves into any ridiculous intellectual knot and bend over willingly to be fucked up the ass rather than be called a racist. They are an easy target for your kind of victimized-entitlement bullying. I’m not, because your “radical” kind have so watered down the word racist now that it basically means “existing while white.” If everyone is racist, as you claim, then being called “racist” is about as meaningful as being called “human’. There’s a law of diminishing returns at work here.

Way too many ignorant “liberals”, who don’t even understand the principle’s of liberalism, think that the most radical voice is the most correct now, and bow down before the most abusive little bullies. That’s an example of, how did you put it? Ah yes, “the nuances of privilege and how Black people and other oppressed groups can wield it as well”. In any part of North America and Europe where these pernicious ideologies have been allowed to take root there are pockets of society, where white people, especially women, are now scuttling about with their tails between their legs terrified of being called a racist,outed as a “Karen”, twitter-mobbed and fired, while everyone else is engaged in a pissing-contest over who is less privileged than whom. Liberal people of other races, again especially women, are not far behind them. Why? Because in the world of cultural Marxism that has filtered down into everyday liberal thought, the least privileged person is the person who gets to define reality and no one else gets to contradict them. Victimhood = Power, and the power to define everyone else’s reality is absolute power. 

The problem with ultimate power is it corrupts absolutely. Take it from a Jew. Don’t want to? Well according to your worldview, you’ve been oppressed for 400 odd years by colonialism and slavery and their legacies. Jews have been oppressed for nearly 2000 years in the West (and that’s not including all the pre-Christian invaders and mass population transfers) and someone tried to wipe us off the face of the Earth to the tune of 6 million dead within living memory. I’m also not straight, so that’s like 3000 years of oppression and death. I’m also disabled, wow, don’t even know how long for that. I win the oppression olympics, ergo what I say is reality. Don’t like the sound of that? I wonder why....

We Jews have currently got the market cornered on entitled victimhood. So much so that we’ve convinced entire governments to make criticism of Israel a form of anti-semitism. Guess who that will silence? The entire Palestinian Rights Movement and all its supporters including BLM. WHAAAAT? Yeah, black people who want to support Palestinians could get kicked out of schools, BLM chapters could get kicked off campuses, fined or sanctioned. Finding that situation a little unfair, are we? Well too bad. According to cultural Marxism, black non-Jews need to sit down and shut up with the rest of the non-Jews because you’re all part of the problem. 

As a non-Jew, what you really need to understand is that you were raised in an antisemitic system and your entire thinking is tainted by it. Even if you are not a Farrakhan, and don’t support anyone like him, and would never dream of erasing Jewish identity by calling them Khazars. Even if you liked Mad Magazine and Seinfeld, even if you were to remove yourselves from all organizations influenced by antisemitism (like BLM)...you are still an antisemite and complicit in the system that continues to oppress me by making me work on Shabbat. Why just last year someone tried to erase me by telling me that Jews should “integrate” into Canada by giving up Judaism and Jewishness. Even though they were white, you’re complicit in that just because you’re a non-Jew, living in an antisemitic system. Also you appropriate our culture by putting “mazel tov” in your pop songs about sucking dick, which religious Jews find offensive. And as you know, if ANY member of a minority, not matter how crack--potted, tells you your use of something is appropriation, not appreciation, then it’s appropriation. End of story.

So, it only took us 70 years of “anti-colonialist liberation movement” to become some of the most right-wing, racist, violent assholes on the planet. How long ‘til you go from “not moving out of the way on the sidewalk”, to “pushing people off it into traffic”, hmmm? Cause you already had a Yusra Khogali...a young woman who has NO connection to American slavery or the Civil Rights struggles, and in fact arrived fairly recently in Canada from Somalia, screaming that white people are recessive genetic defectives who should be killed. God forbid reading the comments on that because out comes every dumb-ass white racist to prove that they’re better than black people at everything, including making as ass of themselves. The difference being that liberal white people don’t celebrate those people and make them the leaders of our movements. (Instead we celebrate racist white people who hate other white people, which is not really better).

You have black geneticists trying to tell everyone to stop mis-using genetic discoveries to make broad sweeping statements about race, and do you celebrate those people, your best and brightest? No. You call them Oreos. Instead you celebrate an idiot girl barely out of her teens who has as much understanding of genetics as Mendel’s pea plants. Red hair is recessive (having two of the same mutation at the same locus, that would otherwise be eclipsed by a more dominant mutation). Blue eyes are also recessive. Skin colour is NOT recessive, it’s the cumulative outcome of differences at 378 different loci...most of which happened before humans left Africa and are also present in African populations. Congratulations. You’re genetically defective, too. Welcome to the club.

3. There’s a great article out by…

How about all the great articles out on Malcolm X, particularly his disillusionment with NOI, his Hajj, his change of heart on the ability of whites and blacks to interact as equals, his embrace of working with mainline civil rights groups, and about how some of y’all are wearing his face on t-shirts one day, but fawning all over the organization that killed him and people who said he deserved to die the next? 

Yeah, some of us do read articles by black authors pretty routinely. Whole books and histories even. If I’m not reading the “great article” you want me to read it’s probably because I’ve read the kind of bullshit you write and that has turned me off before I could turn the page.

4. No, you can’t even sing the word because the history…

Once upon a time “the Word” just meant “black”. You can see the etymological relationship to less “Wordy” words like negro, negra, nigra (as in substantia nigra), and vinegar. But you’re right, at some point the word was totally ruined by association.

So why hasn’t it fallen out of use? Because YOU are now the people keeping it from being consigned to the rubbish heap of history, with all that bullshit about reclaiming it. If the word is so god-damned awful and painful that white people can’t even sing a song that black people wrote that contains it, then maybe you should stop writing songs that fucking contain it. I guarantee you, if you do that, you will not hear it come out the mouth of any white person who isn’t on David Duke’s mailing list.

Jewish people don’t walk around calling ourselves “Kikes” (which by the way started as an inter-Jewish slur against Eastern European Jews). Pakistani people don’t call themselves “Pakis” The only people who’ve managed to “reclaim a word” successfully are the GLBT+ community with “Queer”, because they don’t scream at people who use the regular word queer (odd) in context (unlike Wendy Malik who nearly got fired for using the title of an unfortunately named 1970s book on Quebec Sovereignty while discussing the actual Quebec Sovereignty movement) and don’t even get mad when straight people refer to things as “Queer Rights” or “Queer support groups” or any other clearly non-derogatory use of Queer. 

Maybe it’s time for a decision...is the word so bad it should be banished, or should it be reclaimed totally, like Queer, even though you’d have to listen to some off-key white people singing it on TikTok? Because trying to eat your cake and keep it too doesn’t seem to be working out IRL.

5. Excuse me.

So I guess I don’t have to be polite to you anymore either, because some of you are fascist, black supremacist, antisemitic, homophobic scum?

Oh, and my 6 foot 180 lb trans daughter will now be blocking your use of sidewalks you transphobic cisscum. We’ve already taken Tai Chi (as a martial art) and Kung Fu but we were delayed in starting Krav Maga by covid. Future looks bright doesn’t it?

Got to get our reparations for 3000 years of Queerphobia and 2000 years of Jew-hatred/antisemitsm somehow, right?

Yeah, that’s right sad that you didn’t actually personally commit the queer hatred and antisemitism, but that’s how Identity Politics work: Even if you didn’t do the crime, if you fit in the same box you do the time. You’re guilty by association.

Up ‘til I read your piece I was broadly in favour of slavery reparations, because even though the people who did it are gone, the nations and governments who did it still exist, and it’s fair game to try to sue them. But now that you’re trying to take it out of my hide personally, I don’t feel so disposed to make a fuss on your behalf. See how this works yet? You want my support, that’s why you’re mad when you don’t get it, but you’re also saying, “Fuck you and your support, and I’m going to be a complete cunt to you even if I get it.” Not much incentive for me there.

Holding people individually responsible for things their country, culture, religion, or even direct ancestors did doesn’t make much sense. If you tell me your ancestor was raped by a white slaveowner and you descend from that, should you be placed on the Sexual Offender Registry?

And oh, isn’t that precious. You have direct ancestors who were slaveowners and, so far as I know, I don’t. The Norman side might have some somewhere, but yeah, my family didn’t get here until 1965. We get demerits for having been part of the British Empire, even though most of us didn’t want to be. But if you are going to blame a new immigrant from one of the more than 28 European countries that never had a colony, or any of the countries that never participated in the slave trade, save a finger to point back at yourself for having actual slaveholding ancestry. And wait, let’s go back to Miss Yusra Khogali, a Muslim Somali....unless there’s relatively recent reversion there, some of Miss Khogali’s ancestors were probably part of the Arab culture in Somalia that was trading in sub-Saharan Africans while Denis the Peasant was still wallowing in the English mud. Oh the joys of Arab slavery. Sure, you could eventually rise to great power, especially if you “reverted”, that is if you managed to survive having your genitals cut off. (2/3 eight year old boys tested didn’t). You’re very quiet on that, as you are on the plight of actual Africans actually being enslaved right around the time you wrote this in Libya....beaten, branded, auctioned for $400. What, you’ll raise 50 000 dollars for a dancing prostitute but you still can’t even mention Libyan slavery in 2020? Clearly not ALL black lives matter.

I suppose it’s just too much cognitive dissonance. The Libyans are Berber and Arab-Berber mix. They’d totally be identified as black in America. Blacks enslaving blacker blacks in this day and age? And you can’t even blame that black on black violence on American racism. Take a stab at blaming colonialism if you like, but we’ve already established that Arabs and other Africans were enslaving Africans long before Europe got back in the game (most of us enjoyed a nice long hiatus from slavery after Christianity arrived - not that serfdom was such a much but still). I imagine it’s all just too hard to look at head on, isn’t it pet? Getting a wee feel now for what it’s like to be confronted with every sin people who look like you have ever made for the last millenium? But I’m not the one saying you are to blame, or should be held responsible. You’re being indicted by your own belief system. I’m just pointing it out, sweetie.

6. I forgive you.

.And I’m not forgiving you for 2000 years of Christian Jew-hatred, 1400 odd years of Islamic Jew-hatred, 3000 years of Queer hatred, forever of sexism, etc.

I can’t “forgive you” for something you didn’t personally do.

I will sleep fine at night, knowing I, also, did not do any of the shit you don’t want to forgive me for.