#the entirety of each philosophy may not be right or helpful but i think they often speak to some fractured piece of the human condition

[trektism]

The reason why so many trekbros HATE The Motion Picture is because it quite literally makes no sense unless you interpret it as a love story. The death of the new Vulcan science officer at the beginning seems like meaningless brutality if you don't see it as a metaphor for Spock being irreplaceable. Spock, seeing no other alternative than to perform Kolinahr and atempt to purge his emotions after voyaging with Kirk, and ultimately failing to do so makes no sense unless you accept that he had emotions for Jim he could not purge. And finally, above all, Decker and Ilia seem like flat plot devices if you do not see them as direct parallels of Kirk and Spock that exist to thematically explore their relationship.

There are countless hints to the parallels between the explicitly romantic relationship of Decker and Ilia and perhaps the not-so-obvious-to-some romantic relationship of Kirk and Spock. Just to name a few;

- Decker having been a Captain, and Ilia a science officer.

- Decker being a human and Ilia a non human.

- Ilias/V'gers (AKA the probe's) cold logic directly parallels Spock's philosophy. The merging of the probe may be a metaphor for the fact that Spock is a hybrid between Human and Vulcan. (Side note: The V'ger tries to repress Ilias emotions for Decker... remind you of anyone?)

- Deckers confidence, competence and sense of justness directly parallels that of Kirk's.

- Finally, this one is so damning to me; Decker and Ilia, just like Kirk and Spock, were explicitly stated to have recently been seperated. What relevance does this have if not to help the audience draw a connection?

Kirks parallel, Decker, realizes he would sacrifice his life out of love for Ilia. Note his final words to Kirk specifically "I want this as much as you want the Enterprise". Through Decker, Kirk learns that he is willing to sacrifice the Enterprise for Spock, something which he very soon does.

Ilia's arch, starts with her being transformed into a being of pure logic, an ideal for Vulcan's, for Spock, as exemplified by his Kolinahr ritual. Her arc is explored through the v'ger, where it learns that it without human connection it is incomplete. V'ger/llia is joined with her romantic partner Decker in order to become complete. Spock's arc is a direct parallel. Through the v'ger he realizes that pure logic is not an ideal worth striving for, and that state of being is what leaves it "barren and cold" and above all, like the v'ger, incomplete. In the infamous "this simple feeling" scene, Spock finally lets himself feel his strong emotions for Kirk, realizing that without them he'd be as cold, barren, and purely logical as the v'ger. In this scene he joins hands with Kirk, a deeply intamate Vulcan gesture, and shows him that he's ready to love and be loved.

Of course one could easily just point to the t'hy'la footnote in the TMP novelisation to prove that Kirk and Spock have a bond deeper than friendship, but I think it's important to state that its quite literally right in front of the audience during the entirety of the movie. Just like the v'ger and Decker needed each other to be complete, so do Kirk and Spock. When you see it that way, the ending is quite satisfying, but if you do not... well, you can go a head and watch wrath of khan or whatever.

[mr-kiwi-the-wizard]

The person is made up of many things, both small land large. It's difficult to correctly conceptualize the entirety of it. So here I will provide a simple picture to illustrate the four pillars that hold you up.

The outer self is what you are as a person. Your body, the mind that operates it and the soul that keeps you going.

The inner self is your four pillars that hold you up. Should any of these pillars be lacking or fall short it will drag the other pillars down with it and thus, you too will be brought low. But what are they really?

Your physical wellbeing - This includes your health, hormones, fatigue, aches and pains. More often than not this can be brought low by poor diet like a lack of fruit, meat and vegetables. Poor hygiene and untreated health conditions like allergies or untreated wounds will also bring you down. Some conditions like loss of limbs and motor control however cannot be easily fixed and so, finding work arounds for your condition can be your best bet.

Your mental wellbeing - This is your ability to think, process and imagine. Being stupid or unintelligent won't affect you here. This is how you work with and process your mental machinations. Your mental wellbeing can often fall from a lack of use or external expression. Or even lack of satisfaction and sleep. Poor mental wellbeing can be a terrible cycle at times. Disallowing you to sleep which creates poorer health and making sleep once more poorer. Sleep allows us to process things and sometimes we want to do too much and avoid sleep all together. A few things can help here. A hobby or craft that requires creative input that only you can provide, such as art or writing. And also drinking plenty of water, making your bed and going to bed early at least once a week. Yes even if it takes away from your spare time.

Your social wellbeing - This is your relationships and interperson interactions. We all like to talk and complain and even encourage and discourage each other. It is human nature to try and bring everyone else into the same picture, to make sure people do not harm themselves and others with their actions. And people often misinterpret the reasons behind interactions for one reason or another. Anger over an unsafe action that mustn't be repeated, or disappointment in a decision that is unwise or risky. It is important to talk to people and understand them as well as be understood. If you wish to help uplift your social wellbeing then expressing yourself as well as having a practiced conversation before hand will help. Yes acting out another person can greatly help you understand and feel more comfortable with them if you don't feel comfortable speaking directly.

Your Spiritual wellbeing - This is your sense of right and wrong, of justice and behavior. Often you will see or hear something that you believe to be deplorable. Be it someone who may act in a way that's terrible to you and others. Or in a way that they simply don't agree with you. Many people use religion and the idea of god to help. Others adhear to philosophy. And some others still follow their peers and the whims of social movements. Your spiritual wellbeing will often be challenged by people who appear to you as evil or destructive. This to my own knowledge can only be helped by acceptance, reflection and finding your own place in the world around you. Which can only be found by quite contemplation. Sadly I'm not a priest and cannot suggest more alternate methods here.

These four pillars hold you up. And any that's found lacking will wearing and bring down the others. If you feel any part of your self falling to the following:

Mind - Stress

Body - Anxiety

Soul - Depression

Than stop... Take a deep breath and walk into an open quite space away from were you usually are. Flex, stretch, hydrate listen. Quitely listen to yourself. Ask yourself how your doing, about how things are going and quietly work through your problems in peace. And then work on yourself one step at a time.

[whosscruffylooking]

The Purest Things-First Day Jitters (Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader)

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: None.

A/N: There will be a Part 2 to this piece based on S3E10 in order to give some groundwork to the dynamics amongst the team once the reader joins them. Enjoy reading! I had so much fun making this piece. 

The Purest Things Masterlist

au! october 2007

"Criminal profiling is more of an art than a science. Modeling a criminal profile demands the precise marrying of psychological and rational instincts with the crime scene's particulars. What steps would you take in the process of analyzing a suspect to form a solid profile," the stoic BAU Section Cheif asks.

"First, I would want to accumulate all attainable information about the crime to help explain the "how" and "why" of the offense," you counter.

"What kind of information?"

"I'd want to acquire knowledge on the victim to examine the victimology. For example, I'd determine the victim's career and place of employment, friends, family, social status, criminal records, and daily routines and habits. Then, I can look at the connection between the victim and the unidentified subject. Did they know each other, or are they strangers? Why was the victim targeted, and was it them specifically, or are they just one quarry in a tangled web of attacks?"

You look for some signal in Cheif Strauss's attitude as to whether or not you should continue. 

Let’s ramp this up a notch. 

Taking the liberty of doing so regardless, you continue.

"Then, I want to know more about the attacker. I want to classify him...or her, as well as the offense. Why did it take place at a specific location? What is the motive? Is the suspect an amateur or a professional? This collection of data helps to assemble a proper crime assessment. I can now paint the picture of what happened before, during, and after the attack. Next, I can start to hypothesize and formulate a complete profile; I can deduce the kind of person we are dealing with. This assessment includes the age range, social status, what type of career he or she may hold, their I.Q., anything that describes the attacker. Now, I can give the profile to investigators and work to capture the assailant. The profile not only helps track him down but also helps refine the interrogation process."

Pausing the video recording, David sets the remote on the table.

"Academically, she's perfect for the job, Aaron. But will she fit in with the team? She seems too well trained, too straight from the textbook."

"That's why I wanted you to see this next part."

They both watch you in expectation.

"If I may Section Chief Strauss...as much as academic training benefits a student in laying the foundations for their selected career field, all of the studying and laboring over perfect grades becomes virtually obsolete once on the job. Instead, implementing the mechanics and learning through experience, trial, and error is far more beneficial. Executing what you've learned in the real world and refining your expertise in the field is the only way to accurately reveal whether or not you are capable of doing your job."

Rossi snickers at your straightforwardness. Aaron crosses his arms, struggling to fight back the urge to smile.

"Care to expound on that?" Strauss proposes.

"You don't trust the current...organization within the BAU. You feel as though Unit Cheif Hotchner and his team pose a threat to the unit. However, I think you put more emphasis on the chain of command. Specifically, you don't trust Agent Hotchner. In the entirety of this vetting process, you have continually undermined the Unit Chief's role in selecting a new agent. He has not been included in any of our telephone calls. Never once have you cc'd him on our emails. Nor has he been invited to sit in on our in-person interviews. I think the only time I've set eyes on him was in the lobby. He seemed to be completely unaware of my presence and purpose here. I'm sure that were I to be hired TodayToday, I could walk right into his office, and he would be blindsided entirely by my arrival and position on the team. Now, if I am to be apart of this renowned group of individuals, I want to know that I will be a part of it. I do not intend to be an outsider in my field or a pawn for higher-ups' ulterior motives. So, with all due respect Cheif Strauss, I would like to withdraw my application. If any of the aspects that I have touched on prove true and impact my role within this unit, I have no interest in undermining an established team that has no place for me."

Rossi claps Aaron on the shoulder, "She'll do just fine."

**********

You step inside the lobby of the FBI Academy. Although the sight is not new to you after your intense vetting process, it now takes on a new meaning. You have a new purpose. Processing your surroundings, you regard the entryway's clean efficiency. Considering the darkness that looms over this bureau, the lobby is welcoming all the same. 

So this is what my tax dollars have been paying for.

Noticing that an elevator has arrived, you call out to the person inside one of the many lifts. They hold it open for you. The sound of your clipping heels progresses as you run across the glossy tile floor. High heels may not seem like the most logical choice for your first day of work in the FBI, but when wearing them, you feel elevated. As if the world is your stage and you are the ballerina dazzling the crowd in her pointe shoes. Sure, they are uncomfortable at times, but wearing them can almost be considered a superpower. A quintessential accessory of the iconic femme fatale.

The woman in the elevator gasps as you climb on board, startling slightly.

"Are those Jimmy Choos?" She squeals.

You laugh and shake your head, peering down at the patent leather footwear, "No. I wish, though! They're just some old Steve Madden's I got on the clearance racks." Seeing her shoes, you imitate her enthusiasm, "Those are unique! I've never seen a green...quite that color on shoes before."

Chuckling, she thanks you, "Shoes are one of the many ways I express myself. I'm pretty sure at this point I have a pair of shoes in every color for every mood. Today I was feeling a little envious, so I chose this lime green."

"Envious?" You ask.

"There is a Doctor Who convention going on this weekend, and I have meet and greet tickets for the entire cast, but I've been called in on a case. Meanwhile, three of my friends from counterterrorism are on their way to meet David Tennant as we speak. So yes, I am envious."

"Oh my gosh, I heard about that! Catherin Tate is going to be there too. God, what I would give to meet Donna Nobel in the flesh."

"You watch Doctor Who?" Her eyes widen.

You shrug my shoulders, "I'm a bit of a self-proclaimed Whovian."

Shoving her bags underneath her shoulders to free her hands, she stretches them to you, "Penelope Garcia. We are going to be the best of friends."

Taking her hand in yours, you introduce yourself, "I'm Y/F/N/ Y/L/N. I look forward to having a best friend in the building. Today is my first day."

"Oh sweetie, you are going to do amazing," she looks up at the floor number as the elevator dings, "Well, this is my stop."

Stepping off alongside her, you notice her slight surprise. "Mine too," you announce proudly.

"Wait," she whispers, holding a hand up to your face in a stopping motion, "Today is your first day. Oh! Are you the newbie?"

"Today is my first day as a profiler at the BAU, yes."

Stomping her feet repeatedly, she cheers, "Oh, this day keeps getting better! My darling, you will fit in just fine. Now come with me. There's another fellow Whovian I'd like for you to meet."

Following her through the enormous glass doors and into the department, you can't help but feel slightly overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle. "Welcome to the bullpen," she turns around, beaming, "Oh! Spencer, come hither, the new girl is here!"

The young man spins around in his chair and raises his eyebrows, giving you a once-over; he strolls across the office to meet you. You can't tell if he is too tall or too thin. Perhaps, his head is just considerably big for his body, or his lengthy hair gives that illusion. When he nods at you, holding his hand out to greet you, he looks slightly like a little bobble-head doll.

"Dr. Spencer Reid at your service!" He melodically sings.

Nerdy pipe cleaner. I like him.

"It's a pleasure, Dr. Reid. I'm Y/F/N Y/L/N."

"I read you got a full ride through college and graduated from Berkley with a semester completed at the University of Kent for Psychology of Criminal Justice, and you have a degree in Forensic Psychology."

You nod, impressed by his research—time to dazzle him with yours.

"And you, Dr. Reid, attended Caltech. You completed your undergraduate degree at 16, and you hold Bachelor's degrees in Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy. Very impressive."

"You forgot PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering," he adds.

You nod, "My apologies."

Breaking a tiny smile, he shifts his gaze to the floor as you notice the light tint of pink shading his cheeks. Unable to resist, you feel the heat rise to yours as well.

"Ah! You must be our newest recruit—Benvenuto nell'esperienza della tua vita," a gentle voice echoes from behind you.

Turning around, you see a familiar-looking, dapperly dressed older gentlemen gliding down the stairs to greet you.

"And you are Agent David Rossi. I attended one of your guest lectures at Berkley three years ago," you reach your hand out to meet his.

"Call me Dave, and you can thank me for inspiring your career choice later. Right now, we have a case. It looks like it'll be a first day via baptism by fire for you kiddo," he lifts his thick eyebrows and winks at you. David motions for you to follow his lead, and you eagerly journey behind him.  

In the conference room, you are met with the eager faces of four other new colleagues. The first to catch your eye is the herculean adonis, whose attention fixates on you. You watch as his eyes scour you top to bottom, taking your whole body in.

Four words. Sculpted by the gods. Where has he been all my life?

"Where have you been all my life?" The statuesque man purrs, running his thumb across his bottom lip.

Ha. Jinx. You can buy me a drink anytime.

"Hiding from men who lead an introduction with that," you strut over to shake his hand. A knot swirls in your stomach as your finger-tips touch, but you quickly dismiss it as mere infatuation.

Throwing his head back in laughter, he responds, "I like you already. Derek Morgan."

"It's nice to see you again," the bright, blue-eyed young woman you recognized as the media liaison smiles, "I'm Jennifer Jareau, but you can call me J.J." On the day of your first interview with Strauss, she offered you directions to the Section Chief's office.

Next, Agent Prentiss introduces herself. Her thick, raven-colored hair elegantly falls to her shoulders and encompasses her diamond-shaped face. There is a spirited as well as clever expression in her eyes.

Finally, Agent Hotchner stands up. You are taken aback by his astute and severe manner. He's taller than you recall, although you have only observed him from afar. Like most men, he seems to have become an automaton of the modern workplace, measured and valued just for his productivity and obedience. He is tense, most likely swallowing intense trauma and concealing it so he can get up each day and do the same tedious job again and again. Most men display these traits in the way they parent, becoming domineering companions, stacking decay over destruction until their home-life collapses. What remains is a mass of bitterness resentment.

Yet, he exhibits none of this. Beneath this rather tough exterior, you can discern that he is the kind of handsome that infiltrates your bones, that exudes an air of olden times before he's even said a word to you.

Tag List:

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[perfectharmonyloveschaos]

Sora Is the Master of Masters All Evidence

Part 1:

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Backcover is the first instance that we meet the Master of Masters ourselves without anyone else’s perspective of events and see him as an individual character. From the get-go, the Master of Masters (or MoM as I will be addressing him throughout this theory for simplicity sake) is immediately addressed with heavy respect from his title alone. But, Chirithy also makes sure to mention his “mischievous” nature that we see a lot of throughout all of his appearances from here on. Due to the Master of Masters only being included and planned from Backcover onwards, it definitely seems more than coincidental that all of his similarities to Sora take place in the games technically made after Backcover which I will discuss; Backcover itself, KHX and KHUX, 0.2, KH3 and ReMind.

Both Sora and MoM are introduced as joker, light-hearted characters who use humour to lighten dark situations and comfort people. They hold themselves lightly and make fun of themselves to make others laugh or to lighten the dark of a situation. Sora did this when he comforted Riku by pulling a funny face (“how am I going to face everyone?!”/“like this?”) in KH2 while MoM pretended to question if Invi cared about him when she was overthinking things and getting worried about the events to come (“do you… want me to go?!”)

Both characters share several of the same gestures and body movements, with Sora copying a lot of MoM’s gestures especially in KH3 and ReMind. Both hold their arms behind their heads, tilt their heads or even bodies sideways playfully and poke things to name a few shows off their playful, animated gestures. Both use their right hands when using the Keyblade with Sora holding his in his right hand and MoM summons No Name with his right hand to give it to Luxu.

Along with these personality and movement similarities, we also have the infamous Gazing Eye' glitch found in KH ReMind that 'definitely calls this theory into question. Why does a glitch like this only happen with Young Xehanort, whom we know MoM interacted and met with? Why does it only happen when Young Xehanort uses his time alteration powers if this was simply a glitch in the texture of Sora and the Gazing Eye's eye? Would that not mean that this could be triggered at any other time? And why is it so cleanly done if not to be intentional? This 'glitch' appears perfectly on Sora's eye and doesn't affect any other texture on Sora. If Sora was in fact MoM, would it not make sense for his possibly clairvoyant/prediction abilities to be affected by Young Xehanort affecting time? This would be too difficult go be a simple visual glitch or error of the engine given how the texture of the Gazing Eye appears in both of Sora's eyes perfectly, as well as appearing bloodshot since there would be no reason for Sora's eyes to use the bloodshot texture AND the Gazing eye texture together.

Speaking of Sora’s eyes, this also brings me back to the pre-KH3 release conspiracy theory about Sora’s eye colour changing to green throughout the trailers which people passed off as being the reflections of the environment. This happened several times throughout the game and seemingly meant nothing, but when you consider who Sora was interacting his eye colour changed, him possibly being the MoM explains this. The first time we see this is in Mount Olympus, when Sora meets with Xigbar for the first time since DDD and we see Sora’s eyes have strong green tint compared to Hercules, who also has bright blue eyes that don’t seem to be affected by the lighting. Maybe only the KH original models are affected for some reason? Xigbar’s eyes are also not affected, while yellow, which would definitely show given how intense Sora’s are. Xigbar, is Luxu, so one could assume that anyone connected to MoM would make Sora’s eyes react, yes? Again, we see Sora’s eye go green with others as well. In Kingdom Of Corona, Sora’s eyes are once again green and while it it way greener here than Olympus, Marluxia’s—or Lauriam, who MoM choose as a Dandelion leader and survivor of the war—eyes once again are not affected, nor are any other characters’ like Rapunzel, Flynn, or Mother Gothel. Only Sora. We see this again with Ven when Vanitas is going to kill Aqua in the land of Departure and Sora wakes Ventus up from inside him, Sora’s eyes go green while no one else’s, including Ven and Aqua both of whom have blue eyes, have their eyes affected. And the final past character that is directly tied to the MoM through the dandelions and Sora whose presence affects Sora’s eyes is Ephemer in the Keyblade Graveyard. Ephemer has no reason to come to Sora here, compared to Ventus who he knew in canon and had every reason to help but let die in the previous ending, given that they do not know one another beyond Ventus. And as the camera zooms into Sora, Sora’s eyes gain a slight green tint to his eyes before the centre of his eyes change to a light, greenish blue that is very similar to another Name’s Gazing eye and focuses on his eye not only here, but once Sora snaps back to reality and focuses on the reflection of all the dead keyblades helping them. Here, Sora’s eyes are green again the exact same way that his eyes were green interacting with Xigbar/Luxu and Marluxia/Lauriam, both of whom were tied to the MoM. The green tint and highlight of the colour around his iris is identical to that of the Gazing Eye in No Name, with the environments and how others reacting to them in each of these worlds showing that these events and only these affect solely Sora’s eyes, proving that this is not just a simple light reflection but something done intentionally to Sora’s eyes.

Beyond physical and personality similarities, both Sora and MoM share another quality with only one other individual in the entirety of the KH cast; they are the only ones aside from Xehanort to have held and been the apparent wielder of the X-Blade. While we never see him with it, Nomura confirmed that MoM had had the X-Blade at one point and studied it to create the Keyblade that everyone in KHX used. He used the X-Blade as an example and managed to figure out, through studying it, how to extract the light/power from people’s hearts and shaped their Keyblades which he then trained the Foretellers with. As well as the X-Blade, MoM also had a sort of authority over Kingdom Hearts as well as Ira mentioned that he had given them Keyblades to protect Kingdom Hearts and Ava tried to warn Gula away from summoning Kingdom Hearts since MoM had said it was “forbidden”. Gula decided to try and summon Kingdom Hearts in order to force the MoM to return to set them straight, showing that he held a sense of cautious as well towards it and decided to not use it and lock it away instead. Given that the MoM’s word was seen as gospel, this was more than likely a serious warning and order. And what do we see by the end of Kingdom Hearts 3? Sora, earning the X-Blade and telling Xehanort that using it is wrong and that no one should use its power to change destiny, before closing it to keep the worlds safe. Both characters—with only Xehanort as the other wielder of the X-Blade and exception of this mindset—had this power and chose to not use it but instead locked it away from using it for their own gains.

Both of these characters also shared the same philosophy of destiny despite the power they hold; Sora, who has challenged and even changed his friends’ doomed fates claims that a true leader knows that destiny “beyond his control” and “accepts that”, something that makes no sense with how much he has changed his own destiny and the events written in the Book Of Prophecy. However, the Master of Masters shares these ideals and believes not in changing what is meant to happen, but rather in preparing for what happens after that in order to secure the best aftermath. Why would Sora believe in this given his past, if not to draw similarities between himself and MoM?

The Book Of Prophecies, as depicted in Backcover, also shares connections to what we assume to be the timeline of events surrounding not the the events of Backcover and the Keyblade war, but rather the events of the entire game series timeline. We see MoM looking at the Book of Prophecies through the Cases of the different Foretellers and Luxu, as well as Ira later on in the movie which we can use to create a basic ‘timeline’ of events based on imagery depicted.

We see the MoM look through throughout Backcover, with the ‘Case of Gula’ showing what seems to be the earliest part of the book we see with an illustration of a darkside heartless and a keyblade which would either be the Kingdom Key or Kingdom Key D, placing the beginning of the book at the first Kingdom Hearts game. The reason I think this takes place during KH1 rather than 0.2 is the Sora’s crown emblem being on the page previous to a Darkside heartless, seeming to signify Sora and then his first battle against the darkness either on his Station of Awakening or Destiny Islands, as well as these pages appearing to be nearing the middle of the book which would make sense given that Sora only entered the canon timeline after the whole Fairytale Saga, BBS and 0.2 took place. Then, we see the next page with an image of a shadow heartless, both which Sora fights on Destiny Islands after getting the keyblade and then in Traverse Town where he learns about the darkness or could simply represent all heartless as the most recognisable heartless. The page after this shows another Keyblade which looks like the Kingdom Key again, while the next page is the infamous ‘traitor’ that the MoM rips out and gives to Gula and the page after holding another illustration of Sora’s crown emblem. Given the pacing of events based on the concept of this book depicting the events of Sora’s experiences in KH1, the page detailing the ‘traitor’ may in fact be talking about Riku and his betrayal of Sora by accepting Maleficent's help. The MoM’s wording seems to support this, by telling Gula to “find the traitor hidden among you and stop them before it’s too late”, through Sora eventually learning of Riku’s fall to darkness and possession by Ansem before stopping Riku-Ansem and saving the worlds.

This causes us to question exactly how would the MoM know of Sora's first adventure given that his eye, at this point, hasn't even seen Sora yet? The only logical answer? Because he lived it.

During the ‘Case of Aced’; when Aced, who acts a lot like Sora in KH1, is angry at Ira being chosen to be the new leader and was constantly in Ira's shadow, much like how Sora was undermined by Riku who was seen as the better of the two and originally chosen first by the keyblade. These corresponding at the same time suggests a connection to KH1, Sora, and Aced. Even their whole discussion over why Aced shouldn't be leader seems to, much like his discussion with Invi over keeping up "otherwise you'll be left behind, all alone" seems to cause an unconscious reaction from the MoM. "I know you want it, but that just isn't enough. Any chump can say, 'You! Here's a huge promotion. Good job!' and make you head honcho, but enthusiasm alone doesn't make a great leader." The way this is worded, especially with "great" and not just "good" suggests he has a basis for it, similar to how Sora saw Riku as being better than him. His following line "Ira needs someone like you to give him a push in the right direction" is spoken with anger or bitterness, as if the MoM understood Aced's annoyance at being considered second and feeling similarly in the past, as if he had to act supportive and push someone who was considered better than him in the 'right direction' before. But, his "you need to support Ira'' line is spoken sternly, acting as though he knows from experience that someone like Ira would need the more emotional support of someone like Aced, who uses his heart to decide things rather than "always just thinking and thinking and thinking behind that Unicorn mask of his" as Ira does. Everything said in this scene definitely parallels Sora and his emotions in the first KH game up until Sora decided that his friends were his power and that he didn’t need the keyblade to be strong, something that the MoM understands and acts sympathetic towards Aced about while trying to push him towards the same idea; "you might not be entirely happy with your role, but just know that it's the most important one." There is also a sense of symbolism in this scene with the MoM using his hand to cover the Kingdom Key when telling Aced that he will be Ira’s right hand man, possibly paralleling back to Sora’s own sense of being overshadowed by Riku.

Other connections these two share include the emphasis of their bond with Dream eaters and the Wreck-It Ralph summon from KH3. Both of these two characters show a stronger connection to Dream Eaters than any other characters, with MoM being the ‘creator’ of the Chirithy dream eaters which hold a deep connection to their owners’ hearts and are affected by their owners’ state given that these dreams eaters, like when Sora fell into darkness, fall into darkness with their masters and become nightmares. And what is Sora’s nightmare in DDD? A figure in a dark coat with purple and pink colours and a dark dream eater symbol on their back, much like the MoM and his black coat and the Chirithy nightmare we see in Backcover and KHUX.

[leefi]

Starira MBTI III - Frontier

1. Seisho

2. Siegfeld

3. Frontier

4. Rinmeikan

Aruru Otsuki: ENFP

Just go and reread Karen’s entry.

FJDKSLDKL in all seriousness leaps and bounds of Ne from both of them. There’s a reason they often catch themselves saying the same things and why Karen sees so much of herself in Aruru. Not only are they both Ne doms, they’re the exact same type! Ne and Fi together hold that naturally sunny and joyful disposition they both have, and that extreme, passionate love for the people they’re close to. And her Ne may be even higher off the charts than Karen’s. From the entirety of Captain Twins, to improvising lines on stage with Misora as kids, to being the embodiment of Frontier’s free-spirit, pioneering nature - all of this is extroverted intuition, chasing at every possibility under the sun, no matter how absurd it may seem. Her STRONG tertiary Te -- which is much stronger than Karen's, by the way -- supports her dominant Ne, and this is where her gung-ho attitude comes from. “We have to write our own play?? No problem, wheel out the whiteboard! Nobody has an idea yet?? That’s fine, I’ll throw one out and get the ball rolling! Misora and I need three more people for our play? What are we waiting for, let’s go find them!!” All of this is tertiary extroverted Thinking, implementing your ideas out in the world.

Misora Kano: ISTP

She is so compelling!!! I wish we got to see more out of her!! She's already cultivated so many of her talents (and her function stack is pretty strong for such a young age too) - she'd really shine if you just gave her the spotlight! The second ISTP in this series who had her inferior Fe develop super early due to having 1) a ton of siblings and working with so many people from such a young age and 2) a gf with Fi in her dom/aux slot. I’m gonna start with her Fe again because, like Futaba’s, it’s so strong for how young she is - she is quicker to pay attention to social convention than Fi-aux Aruru, scolding her whenever she refers to older Karen by her first name, for example (don't let her see Aruru call Akira -chan). We see aux Se in how energetic and in the moment she is - she grew up acting and doing backstage work and helping her family with their troupe, and we never really see her stuck in her head or wondering about things that aren’t in the here-and-now. Her partnership with ENFJ Michiru to create a new Troupe is going to be SO SO GOOD in the future. They really are going to draw the best out of each other. As polar opposites, they have the exact same functions, just in reverse (like Karen and Junna, or Hikari and Ichie)! So Misora has Ti-Se-Ni-Fe, and Michiru has Fe-Ni-Se-Ti. It’s the perfect setup for them to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Honestly, I really wish we saw more out of Misora - she deserves more than just being Aruru’s sidekick, and that Feeling function in her inferior slot (extroverted, no less) means that it’s difficult for her to communicate what exactly it is that she wants, both for herself and from others. Like with Mahiru, it’s intuitively hard for her to speak up and say “Hey, I feel like I’m being left behind”. Somebody needs to tap Aruru on the shoulder and communicate that to her - Fe-dom Tsukasa, maybe, or ideally, Misora herself. I think that she’s been kind of shouldered into the straight-man role not just by Aruru but everyone at Frontier because they all have such big personalities (like...she’s got Aruru and Lalafin taking up space, which is already more than enough), and she’s likely been in this position before. She’s been helping her parents run a troupe since she was a child, and now she’s (unfortunately) playing second fiddle to Aruru for the most part at Frontier. She’s been mostly stuck using her Ti and Se, and I really really hope that AA has us seeing her use more of that tertiary Ni and advocating for the goals she has for herself. She deserves to shine so much!!

One final note - I find it so interesting that both ISTPs in this series have such strong senses of faith - Misora is cast as the Faith arcana (and, unlike some of the other girls who are cast as the “opposites” of their personalities, Misora’s seems true to hers), and Futaba obviously has that reverent faith in Kaoruko (and is canonically religious???). It’s a bit antithetical to the ISTP personality type, which values its individuality above all else and tends to be a bit of a rebel. I don’t have much to add here - it’s just an interesting observation.

Shizuha Kocho: INFJ

Lalafin: The Count was such a great actor! I’m sure he would’ve been great on stage too…

Shizuha: Heh heh, maybe!

Shizuha: But still, he never went back to his original persona even after his revenge. He had to stay as the count for the rest of his life.

Shizuha: And he was able to do that because he was good at becoming other people.

Shizuha: ...Although I cannot say if that meant he was happy.

Lalafin: Even after his revenge, he still wasn’t happy...That’s one point of view to make his sadness stand out even more!

Shizuha: Right?...Yes. I think I’ll stick to how I’m doing things now.

THE!! LOVE!! OF!! MY!! LIFE!!!!!!! I CANNOT OVERSTATE ENOUGH HOW MUCH I LOVE SHIZUHA KOCHO!!!! She was my first favorite character in the game (and still is!! But frontier gets no content :’)). As I said with Maya, INFJs are old souls - wise and idealistic, but typically reserved. Auxiliary extroverted Feeling shows up in how she suppresses herself so as not to intimidate or make others feel inferior - we see the exact same thing play out with INFJ sibling Koharu. She’s mysterious but amiable, kind and awe-inspiring - just like INFJ sibling Maya. And we see that token INFJ loneliness playing out with all three, as well. What I love most about Shizuha is that she’s a person of extremes. She is so cerebral and intelligent and dignified in a way that reminds you of Maya but she’s also so!!!! Fucked in the head!!!!! Ni doms baby!!!!!!! (I am fucking crazy. But i am free).

Unhealthy INFJs can develop this obsession with making themselves martyrs, and I don’t think I need to rehash out her AA conversation with Aruru (and her entire philosophy towards acting - see above quote) to get that across. I want to dive into this more. Truly I do. Shizuha deserves 10 pages of writing. But she is one of the last I'm writing and I've clicked through 3 different AA stories and accidentally found Rui and Yukko's first so I diverted and finished writing Yukko's entry and I've already spent so much time on this oh god the doc is already 18 pages single spaced uhhhh Shizuha my loveliest love I will write your character deep-dive later I prommy <333

(Also, seeing her synergy with Aruru is soo so cute. INFJ/ENFP supremacy!! Same dynamic as MayaKaren!)

Lalafin Nonomiya: ESFP

(Se dom).

She’s so athletic and energetic and in-the-moment and improvisational and quick on her feet (Se, Se, Se)! Fi over Ti aux because she has a much more subjective view of what’s “fun” - “what do I want to do? Where do I want to go? What kind of character do I want to play???". She’s got that trademark genki energy that so many ExFPs share, particularly that childlike zeal that she and ESFP sister Ichie both have. In her own way, Lalafin embodies Frontier’s pioneering, fun-loving spirit just as much as Aruru.

Tsukasa: Lupin is usually portrayed as mysterious and polished, no? But the way you perform him is more fresh and open -- almost like the main character from a children’s book.

Lalafin: Oh! Come to think of it, the book on Lupin I read when I was younger was written for kids!

Lalafin: It was about this big and had a realistic image of Lupin right on the cover!!

I don’t really have too much to add. She’s just a perfect embodiment of that excitable, fun-loving Se and Fi dom/aux duo. Childlike and simplistic-appearing at a first glance, but there's such a fire in there - just compare her to her ESFP twin Ichie!

Tsukasa Ebisu: ENFJ

I can see that use of Se - love of fashion, sweets, dancing, going out and enjoying life - yes, she had overprotective parents and could just be making up for lost time, but I think that nice material things are something she just genuinely enjoys for herself as well. So at first I thought ESFP, but we can’t ignore that enormously caring attitude she has for others and the way she gravitates towards caretaker roles, which indicates more Fe than Fi. So ENFJ it is! She has that Fe and Se, and we see that inferior Ti in how she struggled to realize something was wrong when she was trapped in the play. I love, love, loved her leading role in the Arise All You Sons event and how she and Yachiyo interacted to bring out the best in each other - we saw Yachi using a lot of that aux Ti to support Tsukasa’s inferior Ti and dominant Fe!

Her dominant Fe is SOOOO clear and contrasts to every other girl in Arise All You Sons. She’s the first to go “hey, wait, hold on - I’m not sure what (inferior Ti) but something about this feels artificial, and I don’t think it’s actually going to help the kids”. Inferior Ti/Dominant Fe speaks before thinking too - “Why did I say that?! Why did I do x?!” - it isn’t until aux Ti Yachiyo shows up to help her that she’s able to work through her thoughts. While she can get stuck in the rut of her own mind sometimes, Tsukasa is one of the most caring, empathetic, and mature characters in the series - and she does all this without sacrificing her own autonomy and individuality, which can be difficult for an Fe-dom to do.

[ploppythespaceship]

Dark Season 3 Review

I know I’m a month late to this party, but... I finally finished the show. So! Overall this final season was very good and made for an emotionally satisfying ending to the show. Everyone has been praising it and that praise is well deserved.

But that being said, it was definitely the weakest of the three seasons, and some parts of it have been bothering me.

Heavy spoilers to follow.

The main issue I took with the season was pacing and focus. Season 1 and 2 have basically perfect pacing, where the show feels like a slow burn while still giving you new developments and twists at a good pace. Season 3, on the other hand, felt very fast and at times rushed by comparison.

I think they may have bitten off just a bit more than they could chew -- juggling the introduction of a parallel world, quantum entanglement, and the transitions between the various time periods is a lot to manage in eight episodes. You have to fly through some explanations and gloss over parts here and there to make it work, and I do think the season suffered slightly as a result.

Additionally, the first two seasons were fairly easy to follow once you had the characters down. Information was presented in such a way that piecing it all together didn’t require much effort. But this season often went so fast and flew through some explanations at such a pace that I had to pause several times to walk myself through it in a way that made more sense.

I also felt that several of the characters I cared most about and was more interested to learn more about were underused and overlooked. For example, Magnus, Franziska, and Bartosz being trapped in 1888 barely feels like a plot point at all. It’s brushed past yet so quickly -- yet I care about all of those characters and want to know how they feel about being trapped over a hundred years in the past.

And then when Bartosz and Silja turn out to be Noah and Agnes’s parents, the moment has no weight because the entirety of their relationship happened offscreen. We see Bartosz and Silja meet. We see Silja give birth to Noah. And we see her dead after giving birth to Agnes. That’s it. Why couldn’t we have slowed down to see the rest of that?

Another one was Hannah in 1954. After she decides to keep her child... we don’t see her at all until she travels to find Jonas in 1911. It’s possible that not much of interest happened, but I would rather have seen that, or simply seen Eva visiting her and young Silja. This could have easily been included as part of the “Between the Time” episode, and I’m not sure why it wasn’t.

Instead, a lot of the focus of this season was on the parallel world. Which is a good concept in theory, but in execution, I think the concept was a little half-baked and never felt fully developed. There were some elements I really liked -- everything in the parallel world being literally mirrored was a nice touch, and it had the added bonus of making some character’s faces look different in a very subtle way.

But there simply isn’t time to developed an entire parallel world to the same extent as the one we’ve spent two seasons now fleshing out. Yet the show tries to, taking a weird amount of time showing us slightly altered versions of events we’ve already seen instead of expanding on characters and events from the universe we already know and care about. The novelty wore off for me after the first episode, and remaining in the parallel world after that to focus on Ulrich and Charlotte’s investigation was just dull and unnecessary. All we needed to know was that everything in Eva’s world happens more or less in the same way as in Adam’s world, and the differences between the two are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

My last issue is about the time travel itself. For the whole show, the timeline has been treated as entirely fixed and immutable. Any changes that a time traveler may try to make in the past, those actions have always been in effect and have always impacted the future. Even if characters like Adam, Eva, and Claudia didn’t actively work to keep events the same way every time, they would still play out in exactly the same manner, with no variation, because the entire system is predetermined.

I really enjoyed this fixed timeline philosophy because it made Dark the single most consistent time travel story I have ever seen. Many of the logical contradictions present in other stories were simply absent, because everything is predetermined. It wasn’t a story about changing the timeline, it was a story about discovering how the timeline had already played out. It made the entire show’s structure incredibly satisfying, while also trying into the idea of fate and free will very nicely. The overwhelming theme was that your choices don’t matter, because everything you do has already happened. You are quite literally trapped in the cycle of time.

So naturally, season 3 stepping back from that to subscribe to the idea of a timeline that can be altered? That the timeline only loops on itself because Adam and Eva and Claudia actively work to ensure that it does? That didn’t sit right with me And I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.

The timeline changes were implemented in a way that is consistent with itself and with the story up until that point. And it didn’t feel like a cheat, exactly. Once I managed to rethink the timeline and the knot, it is in fact consistent with itself, and I’ve come around to the ideas presented. But it still jarred me at first and left me a bit underwhelmed.

(Side note: this video helped me with rethinking it the most -- don’t picture the time knot as a circle as I had been, but picture it as a slinky. A series of nearly identical circles, the end of one loop leading directly into the beginning of the next.)

Additionally, the loophole/quantum entanglement parts still don’t make sense to me, despite all the theories I’ve read and videos I’ve watched. Does this mean there are two versions of young Jonas running around at once? Or does this mean that the two outcomes alternate each time we progress through the loop? As in, the first time through the loop, Jonas goes to Martha’s world and dies, and the second time through the loop, Jonas stays in his home to survive the apocalypse and become the Stranger. I don’t know!! This doesn’t feel adequately explained to me.

Regardless, this all feels to me like it goes against the core conceit of the show. In a way it’s arguably more tragic -- the knot could have fallen apart sooner had Adam and Eva simply chosen to let it fall apart. But they cannot change their human nature, meaning that their stubbornness and utter commitment to their own selfish goals perpetuated an endless cycle of misery for everyone. But now it’s a story about human nature and refusal to change, instead of free will and determinism. Which isn’t wrong, exactly, but again, to me it feels like this goes against the philosophy of the show’s earlier seasons.

Then again, you could argue that the whole point of the show is to make you rethink something you thought you understood and view in a new light, so maybe the show did exactly what it set out to do? I don’t know! And I think the fact that I don’t know and have to keep mulling this over after the fact speaks to what a masterpiece the show is.

And in any event, I do get why the decision was made to change the time travel philosophy And I don’t think there were any better solutions. The show has been set up in such a way that the only satisfactory ending would be breaking out of the time loop. And in a completely fixed and unchangeable timeline, this just isn’t possible. The only possible outcome is that the loop continues indefinitely, and that would be such a bummer of an ending that... I get it. It’s a better ending from an emotional and storytelling perspective, and that should be prioritized over the logic of the time travel.

Which, from a storytelling perspective, it really does work. The idea of a third world being the origin of this knot, of Jonas and Martha ultimately being the ones to break the cycle that they started? Both are thematically beautiful. You can’t help but feel emotional watching everyone fade away, wondering if they will only be a dream.

So don’t misunderstand me and think that I hated the final season. I really didn’t, and it was a good ending for the show. And I immediately looked up theories and videos to try to wrap my head around the whole thing! I just can’t help but be bothered by some of these issues, and haven’t really seen anyone discussing them.

[ryqoshay]

How to Handle a Nico 10

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Words: ~2.6k Rating: G Time Frame: Maki is a surgeon. Nico is working as an idol producer. They are living together as a happily married couple.

Author’s Note: A bunch of cobbled together headcanons that I hope to someday expand upon and turn into full scenes in their own right, just like the rest of the numbered chapters. This one was inspired by VNVdarkangel’s fiception story about Egao Jōshō, to which I will link in the followup post.

“Nico Nico Ni~!” Nico sang as soon as she entered the room.

“Nico Nico Ni~!” An excited group of children sang in return, mimicking the twin-tailed idol’s signature gesture.

“Someone’s as popular as ever with the kids.” Tsubasa murmured to a redhead beside her, just loud enough to ensure Nico could hear.

“That’s because she is still like a kid.” Maki replied in a similar volume.

Nico resisted gritting her teeth and maintained her smile as she continued to greet the audience. The small room was packed from wall to wall with inpatient children, some in wheelchairs and one in a gurney. All were ready for a brief respite from their routines of surgeries, treatments, therapies and whatever else was being done to help them recover. Several attending staff members were also present as well as a handful of parents or other family members.

“Thank you for that wonderful greeting!” Nico cheered. “Now let’s all thank the woman who continues to ensure these concerts can occur; the amazingly adorable Dr. Maki-chan!” She swung her arms around in an exaggerated manner to indicate the woman beside her.

“Thank you, Dr. Maki-chan!” the children turned their attention to the named redhead.

“N-Nico-chan…” Maki protested quietly, unable to resist a blooming blush across her cheeks as she bowed in acknowledgement of the thanks.

Well, that was sufficient revenge against Maki. Nico then decided to leave getting back at Tsubasa for later. For now, she had a concert to run.

Nico took the single step up onto the raised section at the front of the room. It was an area small enough that her old school idol group, µ’s, would have barely fit with enough room to dance in place and have been hard pressed to perform larger scale choreography. Still, a stage was a stage, and Nico lived for every moment upon one. Likewise, an audience was an audience, and Nico’s heart pounded in anticipation as she turned to face a small sea of smiling faces.

Tsubasa gave a quick countdown with her fingers from her position at the karaoke machine and the moment she hit Play, the concert began.

By the gods, the thrill never faded. Nico threw herself into her performance with the same passion as when she had shared the stage with µ’s. It didn’t matter that she had been doing this for years. It didn’t matter that she could only dedicate a woefully small fraction of her time to the stage as her primary duties were to run her company. It didn’t matter that the high majority of the idols currently contracted with her company were around a decade younger than her. Nico was born to perform and would always give everything she had to her fans. Even if her fanbase eventually shrunk to just one person…

One fan…

There had been a couple times in her life that Nico had believed she had lost her entire fanbase; that she was hopelessly lost as an idol. The second half of her first and the entirety of her second year in high school, she had stewed alone in the clubroom, growing more bitter and jaded with each passing day. But the fiery passions within her had been reignited when she joined µ’s in her third year. It was in that group that she found a fiery redhead who captured her attention and became someone whose attention she sought in return.

Nico’s gaze found the redhead, no longer an idol, but now a doctor, leaning casually against the doorframe, ready to slip away swiftly and stealthily should some situation arise somewhere in the hospital. Maki, her wife and by far and away her favorite fan.

Maki was there the second time Nico thought she had lost it all, when the fact that the two were dating became a scandal that ended her solo idol career. Nozomi, Eli and the rest of her friends did their best to show Nico that she wasn’t alone this time, but looking back, Nico knew little of it would have mattered if she had lost Maki then. But she didn’t. Maki remained by her side, supporting her however she could and regularly reminding her of her duties as an idol; making people smile, even if just one person.

Also, years ago, in a rare moment of utter openness, Maki had admitted that when Nico was in the audience, she was the only one that mattered. Certainly, Maki loved sharing her music with others, especially those close to her. In fact, it was for this reason that she didn’t put up resistance when Honoka continued to insist on having Christmas reunions at the Nishikino home, even years after everyone had graduated. However, everyone else seemed to disappear if Nico was around as Maki had come to enjoy the attention Nico paid her. And as time went by, she started to crave it.

Nico hadn’t really thought about things in the same way Maki had explained them, but she realized that she held a similar sentiment. As much as Nico loved the lights, the cameras, the crowd, the cheers, the giddy and giggling girls anxiously awaiting autographs, it all paled in comparison to the attention and adoration of one fan. And the fact that Maki felt the same in return made it all the better.

Enthusiastic applause and cheers filled the room as the final song of the set came to an end, bringing Nico back to reality from the euphoric trance her performance had induced within her. She bowed and thanked the audience before relinquishing the stage to another raven-haired woman.

The younger idol was one who had taken Egao’s college program that allowed her to take classes alongside beginning her career as an idol. Recently, she had earned her degree and thus fulfilled her parents’ requirements. Immediately, she signed a full-time contract and dived headlong into the world of idols with a passion rivaling the likes of Egao’s founding members. This of course included active participation in the company’s volunteer program as often as possible, like today’s concert.

Nico made her way toward her wife while the stage behind her was set ablaze by the intensity of the performance.

“Another good show.” Maki said quietly so as not to distract from the idol on stage.

Nico offered a grateful smile before turning her back to the wall, leaning into her wife and resting her head on the taller woman’s shoulder.

“You’re definitely doing your duty as an idol, today, Nico-chan.” Maki continued, surprising Nico by sliding her hand into hers and intertwining their fingers. “Just look at all those smiles.” She smiled as well as she gazed fondly at the room as a whole. “You know, some days I believe this program does more good for these kids than all of the PT and treatments combined.”

Nico chuckled. “I dunno, I may sing my heart out up there, but I can’t mend a broken bone or treat any sort of disease, unlike my marvelous Maki-chan.”

“But you help ease the stress of the whole ordeal of being in a hospital as a child. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to definitively quantify the amount of improvements made. But there is no doubt that this makes a difference.” She squeezed her wife’s hand. “You make a difference. And I can’t thank you enough for keeping this project running.”

Nico decided to let Maki have the last point and offered her a hand squeeze in return. Sure, it had originally been Nico’s idea to start holding concerts in the Nishikino hospital, but the project would have never gotten off the ground had it not been for Maki.

Well, spinoff project, really. Egao’s volunteer program predated the production company itself. It all started with a request from Hanayo for Nico to help an overextended Rin. The orange-haired young woman had been working an internship position at a local school and was recognized by the fledgling idol group there. Though Rin wasn’t the type to complain about it, Hanayo was sensitive to the stress caused by trying to maintain a classwork, an internship and help a newly formed school idol group.

Nico, who was spending most of her days then awaiting approvals and licensing for this and that to get Egao up and running, had more free time to lend assistance to the group. Then Hanayo made a few appearances after her classes. Soon after, Tsubasa, Erena and Anju took time out of their schedules as well. Everyone involved had so much fun working with the up and coming idols that they quickly agreed with Nico’s idea to turn it into one of the cornerstones of Egao’s business philosophies.

Thus, the Pro Bono Schola Idoli project began. Just as lawyers in many areas were expected to put in so many hours a month for clients unable to pay normal rates, so too would Egao expect their employees to assist the next generations of idols. The project grew to include all areas, from pushing past trouble points in song writing to reviewing choreography, as well as donating materials for costume creation or making connections to secure areas for live performances. Naturally, the idols were expected to do the bulk of the work themselves, but quite often, even something as simple as receiving praise, criticism and advice from professionals was enough to boost moral for many groups.

It was through this program that Egao earned much of its notoriety in the industry and Nico began to worry about having enough volunteers to fill the incoming requests. But, much to her delight, such a situation rarely came to pass. In fact, after a couple years, the project began being mentioned by new hires and contractors as being a reason for their desire to work with Egao. And of course, with that level of popularity, other companies began to take notice and slowly, ever so slowly, started rolling out similar programs of their own, though to nowhere near a degree as Egao.

But a live idol performance in a hospital? Maki’s father had been right in saying the idea was utterly ridiculous. What had they been thinking all those years ago?

It was for the fans. Everything was always for the fans. Keep them smiling, even when, or perhaps especially when they were lying in a gurney, awaiting their terminal illness to take its final toll…

Jizenka… An amazing artist and avid fan. The first concert had been for her and had intended to be a special, onetime-only thing.

But news spread fast, and soon a nurse approached Maki about another young fan. And then another request came in. And then one for A-RISE. Then another. And another.

Nico heard from both Maki and Miyuki, the hospital’s head administrative assistant, about the heated debates among senior hospital staff as the concerts began to increase in frequency. Surprisingly, it was Maki’s father that ended up fighting the hardest to allow the concerts to continue. Through it all, he maintained his distaste for the genre of idol music but became unwavering in his position that the positive results he was seeing outweighed the potential disruptions. Certainly, it helped that all involved took extra precautions to minimalize such possible disruptions to normal hospital functions.

Eventually, and unsurprisingly, perpetual private performances proved to be unsustainable. Maki initially attempted to secure occasional use for the hospital’s auditorium, but that area wasn’t the most accessible for some patients, specifically those needing to remain in bed; the room wasn’t designed with gurneys in mind, after all.

Nico couldn’t remember who originally made the suggestion, but as the high majority of the patients attending the concerts were children, constructing a small addition to the children’s wing ended up being the best solution. The project was funded in full by generous donations from grateful parents with the excess being donated to children’s medical research. A dedicated area with full hospital level access, yet outside both general and emergency traffic paths and was an easy green light to be given by the paternal Dr. Nishikino.

Once the auditorium was built, it didn’t take long for other companies to take interest and the possibility of other, non-idol genres of productions started to become a reality. However, with two performances a week dedicated to the genre, the idols remained the most popular. Maki designated Egao as the point of contact for scheduling events and Nico maintained the position that all events would be free to those attending. Parents or others wishing to provide monetary compensation were asked instead to donate the sum to a designated list of charities, just like the excess funds from building the auditorium.

“Excuse me, Yazawa-san.” A woman said, her voice barely audible above the joyous cries of adoration as the second performer concluded her set and allowed the women of A-RISE to take the stage.

“Nico is fine.” The idol producer replied with a smile, turning toward the other woman.

“The nurse said we couldn’t buy tickets…”

Nico nodded. “That’s right, these events are free for patients and a limited number of their guests, courtesy of Egao Jōshō and the Nishikino hospital.”

A familiar expression crossed the woman’s face, one Nico had seen hundreds of times before. “My son has been a big fan of the girl who was just on stage and he was overjoyed to learn that she would be coming this week. Are you sure there is nothing I can offer, payment for an autograph or something?”

A card entered Nico’s field of vision. “Here is a list of medical charities.” She heard her wife explain. “Whatever price you believe would be appropriate, we ask that you donate that sum to one of them.”

“Thanks, Maki-chan.” Nico flashed a grin at the redhead. “Also,” she turned her attention back to the parent “if your son has any merchandise with him, we’ll be sure he gets it signed by his favorite idol. If he doesn’t have an item, we have plenty of paper.”

“Thank you.” The woman said, seeming to be holding back tears. “Truly, thank you.” With that, she bowed and made her way back to where her son sat in a wheelchair, barely having noticed her absence as his attention was held exclusively by the continuing performance on stage.

“You keep your own supply of cards now?” Nico couldn’t help murmuring to her wife.

“Of course.” Maki replied. “Your idol outfits don’t typically come with pockets.”

“True…” Nico returned to her prior position of leaning into Maki. “Say, Maki-chan, how much time do you have left before you have to go back?”

“I can stay until the end, unless some emergency happens, of course. Why?”

“Nico is starting to get hungry and now wants to have lunch with her favoritest Maki-chan before we both head back to work.”

“Oh… I’d… be alright with that…”

Nico giggled quietly, not having to look up to know the expression on the taller woman’s face. After a moment, she knelt to retrieve her phone.

No1Idol: I’m stealing Maki-chan for an early lunch

ByōinKasan: Roger that

ByōinKasan: Have fun you two

Nico smiled at the swift response from Miyuki. There was always the chance that Maki could end up being called back for something major, but at least this way, all minor things could be redirected to other staff or asked to wait a little while.

As the final song of the concert came to an end, Nico grabbed Maki’s hand. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

“Alright.” Maki replied, allowing herself to be led into the hall. But after a couple steps, she paused. “Ne, Nico-chan…”

“Mmm?” Nico turned as she felt resistance.

“I…” Maki glanced around, likely to ensure a lack of witnesses. “I love you.”

“I know.” Nico resisted the urge to tease her wife about her behavior. Sneaking in a quick statement like that before the hall was to be filled with people exiting the auditorium wasn’t quite as public a display as Nico liked to do herself, but for someone like Maki, it still meant a lot. “I love you too, Maki-chan.”

With their routine completed, the couple continued toward their destination of a shared lunch break.

Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

[insomniacowl]

Doing philosophy with Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA), and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (FMAB)2: Conversation between structuralism and post-structuralism.

Abstract

This essay aims to compare how the idea of the “Principle of equivalent exchange (PoEE)” is explored and framed between the two series Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist brotherhood (2009). The 2003 anime series will be referred to as FMA, while the 2009’s brotherhood series will be referred to as FMAB.

 FMA animation series that aired in 2003 is very different from FMAB. FMAB is a closer adaptation of the source material.

 For the uninitiated, take this as a spoiler warning. But to give it a try because it is still one of the best Shonen anime out there.

 Introduction

The aim of this comparative essay is not to say which is better. I believe that both have unique qualities that make them great in their own right. The bleak atmosphere of FMA contrasted with the upbeat Shonen element of FMAB are not two things that can be compared side by side in their entirety. However, there are constitutive materials that lie under what is needed to tell a story such as character development, world-building, and symbolism. This analysis compares how the idea of “Principle of equivalent exchange) (PoEE) is explored, and developed through the characters, mainly Edward, but also of Alphonse, “Father”, and other supporting characters. This essay argues that FMA takes a structuralist view, while FMAB takes on a post-structuralist one.

 Problem of PoEE

In both series, Alchemy is explored and defined as a tool of oppression by the Amestris state. They are incorporated into the military to serve as machines of mass destruction in times of warfare. This is hammer home repeatedly throughout the series, with state alchemists being called the “dogs of the state” and being dealt with weary, or hostility by many non-alchemists.

The institutionalization of Alchemy into the military war machine can be seen to parallel the enclosure movement of our world. The object that once existed for the use by the community, being fenced off and appropriated to benefit the rich capitalists. This creates resentment, and negative externalities, such as the forest being cut down and the land being used for mining in our world, or alchemy being used for military purposes in an authoritarian state.

 The reasoning given for the enclosure movement, that denies access to the land once used by the community is that it will result in the depletion of resources if everyone is allowed to use the resource as they wish, and thus it should be incorporated in the rational capitalistic logic. This idea is contradictory, as it comes from the capitalist logic that comes from the mind of the rich, who assume that their greed is natural and universal, while ignores how the commons were used by the community for centuries without depletion. This capitalist logic resulted in the destruction of the land and the livelihoods of those who needed to live off said land.

 The idea of institutionalization of what was once a common property, with their own implicit cultural rules attached, being appropriated by a destructive social system and destroying lives, is well displayed in the two series as well. There is the already mentioned use of alchemists in war, but I would like to focus on the scene that is going to be always talked about if one talks about FMA, Nina and Alexander.

 The transfusing of Nina and Alexander, or even Nina’s mother with an unmentioned animal by Shou Tucker, in his effort to become a state alchemist suggests several things. First, the institutionalization of the commons into a destructive social system compels those living in the system to disregard the wellbeing of others, and care only for themselves. Second, it shows that Alchemy may have more laws attached to it then is discussed in the story. I say this since Dr.Marco when he practiced medicinal Alchemy to heal people, the people in the town did not think of it as Alchemy, pointing to the fact that Marco did not discuss this to anyone, and that the majority of people in the state of Amestris does not know what Alchemy looks like (a similar argument can be made of the people in the town of Riol, and Father Cornelo in the first two episodes). Izumi who is highly skilled is not seen using her Alchemy to earn a living or help people around her, and the vast majority of people do not perform Alchemy, even though it was something (even if the bothers are described as geniuses), the Elric brothers were able to master before the age of twelve. Thus, we can say that there are likely rules in place to prevent people from attempting to hone their skill in Alchemy; gatekeeping it thus there are very few opportunities for Alchemists to earn a living with their skills, even if it means sacrificing their humanity as Tucker did. This allows us to draw parallels with our world where people who were chased out of the common land, moved into urban cities to work in factory lines, being exploited and separate from their species-being. 

 Using this framing, let's dissect how Nina’s death influences the character growth of Edward with his iconic line of “We are neither god nor devils. But just mere humans”. In both series up to the very end, this haunts brothers. But there is a difference in how it is shown and explored.

 In FMA (2003)

The incident with Nina is a traumatic experience for Edward in the 2003 FMA series. Even up to the final sequence, where Edward is thrown to the other world, he repeats the iconic line. Yet here, he digs into the idea of PoEE as a theory that needs to be further explored to uncover it in a true form; he believes that by viewing the Alchemy as a language to convey meanings across, is not yet perfect, but is something that can reach perfection with effort.

 The idea of thinking PoEE as a concrete rule set in stone is present in the world-building of FMA. One example is Alphonse losing his memory of his journey with Edward in the final episode, which is regained when he travels across the ‘gate’ leaving his old world and power of Alchemy behind. Thus one thing is directly exchangeable with the other and it is the job of the Alchemist to codify into language what is the value attached to each object of trade. This idea that there is a monolithic book of law that can be interpreted and codified into one single set of ideas and beliefs is the basic understanding of structuralism. Therefore, we can see that the idea, that by paying a certain price, even the dead can be brought back to life reminds us of how the lives of people under capitalism are robbed of their qualitative values and are distilled down to quantifiable that can be exchanged, losing their humanity in the process.

 The belief in the PoEE as the only form of knowledge results in greater hardship, and both Edward and Alphonse cooperate with Shou Tucker at one point or another due to it. When the brothers are made aware of Tucker’s effort of bringing Nina back to life, they help Tucker in this. But not only their attempt at helping tucker but thinking of this with the character of Sloth shows how the idea of PoEE can be problematic. The two brothers’ failure to bring Trisha Elric, their mother back to life resulted in the loss of their body/ limbs and serves as a reminder of their mistake in breaking the law of Alchemy. While in FMAB, learning that what they transmutated was not their mother happens early in the narrative, thus the understanding that the dead cannot come back to life brings the brother into a better path. However, in FMA, their human transmutation resulted in the creation of a Homunculus that looked exactly like their mother that carries with her pieces of Trisha’s memories. This difference is one of the reasons why the brothers assist Tucker’s effort in bringing Nina back to life and believing that modifying their understanding of Alchemy, yet relying solely on it; thinking of using Alchemy blindly to solve the problem that the very Alchemy brought about, without the consideration of how it may create further problems.

 In FMAB

In FMAB, it is Nina’s death is again a source of despair for the relevant characters, yet it also serves as a motivator. Even up to the final episode, they cite the reason for continuing their travel, Edward westward, and Alphonse to the east, to gain knowledge of other forms of practicing understanding-deconstructing-reconstructing outside of Alchemy. This motivation is made possible due to the brothers’ journey throughout the series, interacting with various characters from outside of the general Amestrian race, such as Ishvalians and those from Xing. They further cooperated with these groups and fought to save the people of Amestris, making use of the multiple systems of understanding outside of Alchemy.

 The theme that different forms of understanding being co-utilized to fulfil societal goals as being a more useful lens of understanding the world is further elaborated in the darkest hour of the fight with “Father” (I’ll refer to him as Dwarf in Flask (DiF) from here on) when Ed’s automail was destroyed, Alphonse’s body shattered, and everyone knocked out. It is with the help of May’s Alchahestry, along with Alphonse’s Alchemy that allows remote transmutation of Edward’s arm. Even if PoEE was in effect as Alphonse’s soul was taken in exchange, without May’s Alchahestry, Edwards’ body would have been stolen by DiF and it would have let to a very different and bleak ending. This co-utilization of theories of Alchemy and Alchahestry in cooperative ways to supplement where the other lacks and creates problems, and vice-versa, creating a complex and cooperative system of knowledge is a way to understand post-structuralism, that we can never reach a full understanding of anything by using one way of studying the text, but having a diverse way of analysis that results in the play of interpretation can bring about a more comprehensive understanding of the object, and therefore improve the society as a whole.

 In his conversation with Gracia in the final episode, Alphonse cites the motivation of travel as, to prevent further atrocities that happened to Nina from happening, and posits his hypothesis of what I will name “compounding compassion”, something that is summarised as “pay the kindness you received forward with a little bit of your kindness added on top of it”. Or perhaps, the kindness Hughes showed the brothers, Hohenhime‘s offer to exchange his life for Al’s, or Winry’s reply to Edward’s demand of exchanging half of each other’s lives already show that even without having to go far, we can see that PoEE is not enough to explain every observation made. Al’s hypothesis is something I believe that can be practiced even in our world, and that deep down, we all want to celebrate such act of kindness. A community we can trust to support us and that we desire to support as well; one that can be joined by yielding one’s tool of oppression, as Edward did with his “Gate”. This, I believe is the message Arakawa Hiromu wants to convey to us.

 Conclusion

We can see that FMA and FMAB tell the different message and can be used to think of the influence of structuralism and post-structuralism, in terms of having certain knowledge systems. Although I do not believe such comparison was meant to be drawn by anyone who had a hand in the creation of the series, having such case studies is an enjoyable mental exercise to perform. tl;dr Both are great series. I did some philosophy. GO WATCH THE SERIES!!

[historymortician97]

Green House Bistro (Legitimate Review)

Inexperienced residence bistro – an organic café in the heart of nature! The nearer we consume to nature, the higher and healthier we can be. In case you fancy the vegetables; whether or not it is the natural surroundings decked up with vegetation or farm to table clean, neighborhood and organic food, the green residence bistro by means of jehan numa retreat in bhopal will be your next meals habitat. Green residence bistro assessment

Green residence bistro review

opened just these days, the café gives a completely homey and countryside vibe via its jungle-like environment and sluggish food philosophy. Located at one of the most top class places in bhopal, throughout a lake, subsequent to a countrywide park, it's miles one of the most idyllic nature cafes i have come across so far. Encouraged analyzing for you! Cold spanish latte coffee by using di bella

coffee, brunch, and more at coffee through di bella the nerdy indian cafe exteriors the nerdy indian café – for the bibliophile in you! Sev puri ram shyam chaatwala ram & shyam chaatwala evaluate: mumbai chaat! The structure – a natural agreement

as the name shows, the café is built precisely like a green house; a metal structure made with obvious walls and roof wherein vegetation are grown. The green right here signifies not most effective the plants but also their natural herbs and veggies sourced from their own vegetable lawn proper across the café. Inexperienced residence bistro outdoor 2

the complete body is in sunglasses of black while the flooring is executed with traditional pink bricks as utilized in rural housing. Area is thinking about all sorts of plant life, in various sizes and colors that breathe existence into the café. You may also spot a few lovely plant installations that raise the natural experience of the vicinity. Green residence bistro indoor 2

the shape is designed as such to throw in lots of natural light and sparkling air for the vegetation to grow and so that it will inhale herbal goodness. And while it turns darkish, the atmosphere is lit with fairy bulbs striking from the roof that upload a mild warm temperature to the location. As you're taking your satisfied vicinity in the bistro, you may get a little peek in their in-residence farm and inn unfold throughout acres. The atmosphere is so quiet and serene that you could even meditate till your food arrives. Green residence bistro out of doors 1 even though there may be sufficient seating internal, the café barely expands outdoors to convey you lots towards nature. It’s almost like consuming at a farm. Consequently, if you want to enjoy maximum greenery with an open sky, please be seated outdoors.

The menu – organic nearby and clean

the inexperienced residence bistro absolutely promotes evidently grown meals and also desires to inspire the slow meals philosophy. What exactly is sluggish meals? In layman language, sluggish meals is just the opposite of fast food; some thing that takes time to prepare, is eaten sparkling and completely, is domestically sourced and seasonal. With the short-meals revolution throughout the globe, our traditional meals, recipes, and tastes are being forgotten. Whilst one eats sluggish meals, they may be added to the actual taste of the meals and its culinary traditions due to the fact it is so organic, sparkling, and local. The idea is to have feelings for our meals and cost our health above the entirety else. The cooks at inexperienced residence bistro aid the gradual meals philosophy and price the journey of meals – how the meals is cultivated, produced and fed on, that is visible in all their in-house preparations and the house-grown clean micro herbs and leafy vegetables. Their recipes had been cataloged to rediscover the traditional food with a modern-day-day twist, and tips vegan gluten-free, sugar-unfastened and non-dairy food and beverages that may be customized as in step with your preference.

Inexperienced house bistro vegetable lawn

for, eg. You'll discover quinoa integrated of their salads that is a gluten-free pseudo-cereal and a high fiber historic grain that originated in the south american mountains nearly 5,000 years in the past.  

“green house bistro is all about farm to fork concept, and we're happy to be the pioneers of green ingesting in the metropolis. We emphasize on natural meals and serve what is grown beside the desk. Our personnel arrives early inside the morning and handpicks clean herbs and leafy vegetables from the lawn each day. The bistro is pretty new, and we are hopeful that the human beings of bhopal will gradually take delivery of the idea of natural and sluggish food.”

their menu is also designed to encourage eco-gastronomy and strongly advocates the relationship between the plate and the planet; the reality that how our meals affects our health and the surroundings. What to devour at inexperienced house bistro? They have got a specifically curated menu for connoisseur breakfast and all day eating. Their in-residence specialties include a completely unique black burger for which they use black buttered buns organized freshly of their very own bakehouse. Black burger buns green residence bistro

they serve healthier versions of your all-time continental favorites consisting of oven baked pizza (attempt wild mushroom pizza), burger (try vegetables and oats and black bean and mushroom burger) and sandwiches (attempt vegetarian cubanos and toasted mexican sandwich). They've amazingly sparkling salads with plenty of blended veggies and homegrown herbs (strive home made sprouts, roasted pear and gorgonzola salad). If you are on a cheat day, do try their truffle oil and parmesan fries. Pizza inexperienced house bistro

if you want indian food, then they have multigrain versions of dosa (try pessarattu moong dal dosa) and kathi rolls (attempt paneer kathi roll). In addition they have an exciting variety of soups served as soup of the day – potato leek, pear & saffron velouté, corn chowder soup, veg clean soup, tomato basil are some to name. They serve a stimulating type of popular international desserts together with baked philadelphia cheese cake, pavlova with fruit compote, baked alaska and the most unique being signature c8 that is their signature style layered cake with factors of chocolate and fudge sauce. What to drink at inexperienced residence bistro? Inexperienced residence bistro herbal tea collection 1 you'll be spoiled for choices seeing their beverage menu. They've a wholesome assortment bloodless-pressed juices (strive fountain of teens and sparkling inexperienced) and smoothies (strive the healer) and vegan and non-dairy milkshakes (attempt almond avocado – keto shake) and hot coffee. What to drink in green residence bistro

in case you experience tea, they have ayurveda inspired herbal tea collection inclusive of chamomile, lemon grass, and moroccan mint, brewed sparkling and served infused in a pot. You could also try ordinary coolers which includes retreat lemonade crafted from freshly hand-picked lemongrass from their farm or have a hundred% pure coconut water. The body of workers – continually at your carrier team inexperienced house bistro with head chef debayan chakrovorty

the most comforting fragment of the inexperienced house bistro is their expert body of workers and the hospitality crew who're devoted to offer you peaceful dining revel in. The staff isn't only polite but also very informed about their menu and the kind of food this is served. They preserve taking immediately feedback as your food is served so you eat in your satisfaction and don’t complain later. Inexperienced residence bistro studies interviews

even as i was doing my research interviews and content material amassing at the café, mr. Chandrakant and mr. Afsar made sure that i am getting all of the data i need for my weblog. They helped me set up matters i required for the snap shots and the aesthetics. I am thankful for their cooperation. How approximately a inexperienced date? Well, within the organic international, nothing says date more than a nature-stimulated meal fenced by way of plenty of lovely flowers and cascading creepers, festooned via fairy lighting, all enclosed internal a comfortable and romantic inexperienced house bistro. So in case you love the whole lot, natural, clean, and local, ditch all your plans and arrive here with your loved ones. Common value – inr one thousand (meal for two)

observe: you can marvel who closes a café at 9 pm due to the fact humans in india don’t generally end consuming dinners that soon. They near in advance than the ordinary cafes because of hygiene motives because the bistro is packed with flowers and is surrounded through a large farm that could virtually appeal to quite a few bugs for your meals. So because it gets too dark past nine, the kitchen is closed. The chef recommends the other restaurants at jehan numa retreat if you need past due dinners. Also, there's no signage but that announces inexperienced residence bistro. As you input jehan numa retreat, drive gradual and simply look for a timber signboard that announces “organic, nearby, clean, open” in your left. That’s exactly the place you're looking for.

[mariaarnt]

Attack of the Clones Canon Divergence Poly OT3 Plot Bunny

So I dreamed the ENTIRETY of this last night, and I absolutely love it. However, since I literally need to crank out an entire YA novel by November (in addition to editing and publishing the first two in the series), I do not have the time it deserves to write it. Come December, I’ll have the new sequel to inspire me, and will likely write about that instead of more prequel stuff nobody cares about.

But, since my muse DEMANDS validation, I must share the idea with you. Because the summary I cranked out in a couple hours is very long and I respect your time and dash space, I’ll put it under a cut.

Super short version: because things went differently in AoC, Padme, Anakin, & Obi-wan end up in a Poly relationship, fight Palpatine and win, and Padme becomes Supreme Chancellor. I promise it makes sense but you gotta read the long version for that.

Follows the plot of AoC until

Padme insists on going with Anakin when he goes to find his mother. She’s able to comfort him & keep him calm. He can’t slaughter the Tusken village & protect her at the same time, so they simply leave undetected with Shmi’s body.

They arrive back in time to receive Obi-wan’s message live. The conversation is very short as Padme convinces him they should rendezvous nearby & he can use her ship’s more powerful communications array to contact the Jedi council. He quickly agrees & is able to leave Geonosis before the droids find him.

After they rendezvous, Obi-wan contacts the Jedi council & tells them about the Clone Army. When they suggest that they should use it to invade Geonosis, Padme butts in and warns the council that this would start a war they’re not prepared to fight. The clones were commissioned for the Republic, so the Senate should decide what to do with them. They reluctantly agree.

With no imminent emergency, Palpatine is not granted special powers. The Senate bickers about what to do with the army. A growing faction, including Padme, Bail Organa, & Mon Mothma, believe they should allow the Separatists to secede & have their own government in order to prevent a cataclysmic war. Palpatine is not happy with this, and his warmongering efforts cause him to begin to lose control of the Senate.

Padme continues to work with Obi-wan & Anakin to mediate issues concerning the Clone Army. Since they were commissioned by a Jedi (allegedly) but for the Republic, there’s still some question as to jurisdiction. The Jedi complain that there are too few of them to keep the peace in such volatile times, and if they were allowed to lead the army as generals they could do better. The Senate’s compromise is to deploy the Clone Army as a peacekeeping force in place of the Jedi, answering to the local government authorities. They are particularly used in areas that are being harassed by the Separatists who have expressed no desire to join them. The Separatists likewise deploy their droid armies to areas they are having difficulty holding on to. All action takes place terrestrially, and besides a few skirmishes with locals, there is no active fighting between the two forces, although there are several very tense standoffs. The end result is a cold war, with stockpiling continuing until they are close to reaching assured mutual destruction.

Throughout this time Padme, Anakin, & Obi-wan all become extremely close with each other. The unresolved sexual tension between Padme & Anakin is nearly unbearable, but Anakin does his best to respect her wishes (it’s very Victorian lol, lots of situations where they end up in close physical contact, or try to comfort each other without giving in, etc). Padme & Obi-wan find each other incredibly intellectually stimulating, often engaging in “wit-sparring” when one of them plays the devil’s advocate, until Anakin about wants to throttle them both. And as Anakin matures into adulthood, Obi-wan finds that their brotherly bond is deepening into something the Jedi would likely disapprove of. (But he made a promise to Master Qui Gon and he is determined to see it through).

Finally, one day Padme decides to take action (as usual). She sits them both down in private. First, she tells Anakin that she’s reconsidered their conversation at Varykino, and she has come to agree with him. She’s tired of pretending that there is nothing between them. When Obi-wan uncomfortably objects that maybe he shouldn’t be present for this conversation, Padme turns to him & explains that she has fallen in love with him too, she just thought it was best to tell Anakin first so he didn’t go on a jealous rampage. (They all agree she’s probably right, even Anakin). Then she notes that she may not be a Jedi, but even she can tell there’s something between the two of them, too. Obi-wan turns bright red & objects that this would be completely inappropriate to a Master-padawan relationship, while a surprised Anakin says he thought it was actually part of that relationship, and to be expected. Besides, he should have been allowed to do his trials by now anyway (he salty) so it shouldn’t matter.

Padme asks, and stresses that she’s asking, not requesting or demanding, if they would be willing to leave the Jedi order & get married. 3-person marriages are not unheard of on Naboo, and before Kings & Queens were elected, they often had multiple spouses (as many as 5) as the emotional care & support of a regent was often too much work for one person. Anakin immediately agrees without hesitation. He’s had it up to here with the Jedi order, and he would do anything for her. Obi-wan is a little more reticent. He had considered leaving once Anakin passed his trials, as his duty to his own Master would have been fulfilled. But he feels the need to disclose his previous & ongoing love for Satine Kyrze. Padme says she can certainly understand if he would rather go to her, although it pains her to say so. Obi-wan simply smiles sadly and says “she never asked me to leave, though.” He just wants them to know the relationship exists. He doesn’t want to go into this with secrets.

That decided, Padme reveals that the reason she is asking now is that Bail & Mon Mothma (among others) have been encouraging her to make a bid for the position of Supreme Chancellor. Palpatine’s insanity is starting to show, and while it’s uncommon for subsequent Chancellors to come from the same planet, her calm & reasoned handling of the Two Armies Incident has garnered her a lot of support. It’s becoming clear that a war would last decades, if not centuries, and would probably only end in the entire dissolution of civilization as they know it. But she doesn’t think she has the strength to do it without them, and if they remained with the Jedi there would always be rumors that she was being used as a puppet. The Jedi are still largely out of favor as they seem resentful for being removed from their role as peacekeepers in the galaxy and relegated to spiritual leaders only, despite it being more consistent with their philosophy. Freed from their responsibility to the Jedi, Obi-wan could act as an impartial advisor to those things concerning the Jedi. Anakin says he’s not sure how he could help beyond emotional support, he’s terrible at politics, and they both kind of stare at him for a moment. “Anakin, you can be very intimidating sometimes,” Padme tells him. “Uh, thanks?” he says sarcastically. Obi-wan catches on easily. “Sometimes, it’s easier to get things done quickly if there’s a little intimidation behind the request,” he explains. “Oh, so I’m going to be the enforcer?” he asks, a little offended. Then he sits there and thinks about it a minute. “Yeah, I could do that. I’d probably be good at it,” he grins. “Do I get a title? A lot easier to be intimidating when people have to call you “lord” so-and-so.”

This leads to a not-unrelated conversation where Anakin admits that Palpatine has said some very concerning things to him & he is beginning to suspect he may have dabbled in the dark side of the Force (he’s also not sure how he feels about that). Padme agrees and admits that one of the reasons she’s been so resistant to a relationship with Anakin for so long was partly because her old mentor seemed so bent on pressuring her into it. It seemed wrong, especially when Anakin was so young and she thought it would essentially ruin his future. Obi-wan also agrees that it often seemed that Palpatine seemed to be trying to supplant his place as Anakin’s Master, but as he often found himself at a loss for how to guide him, he couldn’t gainsay the additional advice.

Padme & Obi-wan begin to discuss the logistics of them leaving the order (this will be his 4th time so he’s old hat at it) and getting married so as to minimize the political scandal. Anakin seems to be having trouble paying attention & keeps staring at the door. Padme makes a joke about him being impatient as she is to get it over with, but he says “Something’s wrong. Something’s… coming.” Just then the chime for her front door sounds. They sit in silence for a moment, and Obi-wan says the classic “I have a bad feeling about this,” line. Padme decides to answer via an interior room’s communication panel, rather than at the door. Anakin & Obi-wan take places to ready for an attack. At the door is a young woman, one of Palpatine’s aides. No one else is visible on the security camera, but Anakin says he can sense at least 5 more people, and Obi-wan agrees. Padme turns on the audio and says she’s in a private meeting and asks what it is the aide needs. She’s informed that Palpatine has sent to make sure that Padme is alright, as there is breaking news of Jedi attacking Clone Army units & local government throughout the galaxy, and he understood she was likely to be in the company of two Jedi. (In truth, he’s executed order 66 and spun it as incited by the Jedi). Padme responds that no, she’s just fine, and thank you for your concern.

Apparently, this is the wrong answer. The door bursts open, and a unit of clone troopers storms in. These are men that Anakin & Obi-Wan know personally, have worked with, and it’s extremely unsettling to be fighting them. In the process, Anakin’s arm is cut off when he hesitates. (Is he distracted by Padme or Obi-wan getting hurt? Does he freeze when thinks he must kill Commander Cody, a friend? Haven’t decided). But the three of them manage to prevail until they have one injured Clone Trooper left - Commander Cody. Despite his injuries, Anakin uses his pain to gain the power to pull the necessary information from his mind (think Kylo Ren, definitely dark side stuff). He learns the truth about Order 66, and breaks the chip. They rush Anakin and Cody to a medcenter, where Padme turns on the holonet and they see the violence unfolding all over the galaxy. Because the Jedi were not actively working with the clone troopers, it has not been as quick or as successful. The Jedi temple is under siege. Anakin expresses concern for the fate of the younglings within and argues that they should go fight to liberate the temple, despite the fact that he is actively being fitted for a prosthetic arm. When Obi-wan protests, Anakin argues that he can just use the pain to his advantage. Obi-wan chastises him for giving in to the dark side, but Anakin just yells “does it matter which side I use if I’m saving lives? If I’m protecting people???” Without a good argument to the contrary, Obi-wan shuts up.

Padme, however, does have a good argument. Vigilante action is likely to just get them killed along with all the other Jedi. She’s just received word that an emergency session of the Senate is being called. If they can bring Commander Cody’s confession as evidence, it’s more than enough to get Palpatine impeached for abuse of power. They rush to the Senate building, and Bail has already started proceedings for a vote of no confidence. When they present the evidence, Palpatine loses his shit and pulls his “I AM the Senate!” nonsense. Think Yoda-vs-Palpatine in the 3rd movie, but the whole Senate is there and it’s Palpatine vs. Obi-wan & Anakin together. But by now, they’ve learned how to be an effective team, and Anakin has the element of surprise as he absorbs Palpatine’s lightning and throws it right back in his face. (There’s some comment along the lines of “bitch, please, you’re the one who told me how to do this shit).

At the end of the fight, they have Palpatine pinned but they won’t hold him for long. Obi-wan is arguing that they should try to find a way, that he must stand trial, but Anakin is arguing he’s too powerful. They both look to Padme. She knows that this will probably destroy her shot at the Chancellery, but it’s the right thing to do. She tells Anakin to do what he thinks is right. He kills Palpatine. They retrieve Commander Cody, and he helps them figure out how to rescind Order 66. A lot of damage has been done, but the Temple held fast and the losses, while significant, are not even half of the Jedi order as a whole.

In the aftermath, the Jedi Council rules that while killing Palpatine was likely the right course of action, Anakin’s use of the Dark Side makes him ineligible to become a Jedi Knight and he must leave the order. He has the distinct pleasure of telling them the equivalent of, “you can’t fire me, I quit.” A beaming Obi-wan declares that he’s out, too. Bail Organa has been given interim control of the Senate, but he makes it clear that it’s only until things calm down. Padme, Anakin, and Obi-wan are married in a quiet but public ceremony. Shortly after, the Senate reconvenes and surprisingly elects Padme anyway. Apparently, her decision to support Anakin’s argument was actually widely accepted (it’s pretty clear the trial would have ended in the same way anyway). She almost immediately becomes pregnant (dammit Anakin and his super-special chosen-one Force-sperm lol) but she’s confident navigating that at the process of reforming the Republic into a Federation. The galaxy has grown too big to be ruled directly. It will be split into individual factions who agree to a loose constitution of basic rights and laws, but the particulars are left to the rule of the region. The Separatists are offered a seat at the Federation table, and surprisingly, they take it (without Palpatine pushing his buttons, Dooku makes a remarkably capable leader). Peace reigns in the Galaxy, Padme retires the role of Chancellor and they go to live on the estate that Obi-wan apparently now inherits (along with lots of money) and all raise a very happy and well-adjusted Luke & Leia.

Anakin still kind of wants to strangle Padme & Obi-wan when they argue though.

[aion-rsa]

Are You Afraid of the Darkness?: A Hopepunk Explainer

https://ift.tt/2PUZUv7

A brief guide to the hopepunk movement—its origins, and its possibilities.

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This feature originally appeared in Den of Geek's NYCC 2019 print magazine.

When author Alexandra Rowland (A Choir of Lies) first posted to Tumblr in 2017, "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on," she had no idea how intensely that sentiment would resonate with the platform’s community and beyond.

"Initially, I was just vaguely bemused that anyone was listening to me," Rowland says, "but at the same time, I understood intellectually why hopepunk was resonating with people. Simply put: they were hurting, and hopepunk was a thing that helped comfort the hurt."

What is hopepunk? It depends on who you ask...

Rowland, quoting her essay “One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives,” says: “Hopepunk is a subgenre and a philosophy that ‘says kindness and softness don’t equal weakness, and that, in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion.’”

To understand hopepunk as a concept it helps to understand what it stands in contrast to. Grimdark is a fantasy subgenre characterized by bleak settings in which humanity is fundamentally cutthroat, and where no individual or community can stop the world’s inevitable decline. Hopepunk, in contrast, believes that the very act of trying has meaning, that fighting for positive change in and of itself has worth—especially if we do it together.

read more: Autuonomous — Robots, Love, and Identity Under Capitalism

“I think it's a reaction against the overwhelmingly nihilistic, dystopian slant to a lot of stories in the world right now,” says author Annalee Newitz (The Future of Another Timeline). For Newitz, hopepunk isn’t a subgenre but rather “a reason to tell stories, a motivation, or maybe a narrative tone.”

“The idea is to tell a story where there are hopeful elements or maybe a hopeful resolution to the characters' struggles,” Newitz says. “I don't mean to suggest it’s all about having a happy ending, because you can have a pretty ambivalent, broody ending that still conveys hope. Hopepunk is really about showing readers that we can make it through even the most difficult situations. Even if your hero dies, hopepunk suggests that someone else will be there to take up her torch and carry on.”

Hopepunk is Curtis blowing up the train at the end of Snowpiercer, or Max and Furiosa deciding to risk everything and go back to the Citadel at the end of Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s Naomi choosing to open the Roci’s door to let in as many desperate Ganymede refugees as possible in The Expanse. It’s believing that humanity may not be inherently good, but we’re not inherently bad either, and that giving people the chance to prove themselves compassionate is a worthwhile choice.

“At Uncanny, we tend to think of this as ‘radical empathy’ or ‘radical kindness’—choosing to do the good, kind thing, even when the system doesn’t encourage that, as an act of courage,” say Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas, the editors of Uncanny Magazine.

read more: City in the Middle of the Night Review

The Thomases contextualize “hopepunk” as a marketing term, one that has gained prominence in the last few years but that has been around much longer: “There have been veins of hope (as opposed to grimdark hopelessness) across literature for hundreds of years, and for decades within the SFF genre.”

If hopepunk, by some definitions, is nothing new, it is a cultural lens seemingly on the rise after a pop culture period ruled by cynical stories, like Breaking Bad and The Dark Knight, and in a real-world environment that has become increasingly distressing.

“We can retreat into paralysis, and pretend that's somehow pragmatic or realistic,” says Newitz. “Or we can say, fine, this is a horrible problem, let's get together with other people and try to solve any small part of it that we can. Those are the two pathways we can take through a narrative, too. We can tell stories about people who try to fix things, rather than rejoicing in their splendid destruction. It’s a way of showing other people that just because things aren’t perfect, doesn’t mean they can’t be better.”

Has the definition of hopepunk changed since Rowland first coined the term?

“The heart of [my original definition] hasn't changed at all, but my efforts to remind people of the angry part of hopepunk definitely have grown,” she says. “The instinct is to make it only about softness and kindness, because those are what we’re most hungry for. We all want to be treated gently. But sometimes the kindest thing you can do for someone is to stand up to a bully on their behalf, and that takes guts and rage.”

read more: How Red, White, and Royal Blue Hopes For a Kinder America

In 2019, hope can feel impossible. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that the struggle to create a kinder and more just world is one that will never be linear and will never be over. It is bigger than any one of us, and longer than any lifetime. If hopepunk is the stories that keep us trying in the long shadow of that reality, then it is a vital ingredient to the recipe for change.

So what is hopepunk storytelling? It’s whatever you need it to be... as long as what you need it to be is a way forward in the darkness.

“In hindsight,” Rowland says, “I'm just very happy–when so many people find a philosophy like hopepunk meaningful and compelling... it sorta restores a bit of your faith in humanity, doesn’t it? Maybe all is not yet lost if there are enough people around to say, ‘Oh. Yes, this.’”

Hopepunk Reading Guide

Novels

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples Uprooted by Naomi Novik Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse The Expanse by James S.A. Corey Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell The Sol Majestic by Ferrett Steinmetz The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

Other

Our Opinions Are Correct Podcast, Episode 22 hosted by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders

Uncanny Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas (recommendations: "Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse" by S.B. Divya, "Sun, Moon, Dust," by Ursula Vernon, and "Packing" by T. Kingfisher)

Hopepunk Author Interviews

Due to the nature of print media, I was unable to include as many of my interviewees' insightful thoughts on hopepunk as I would have liked to. Here is a guide to the full interviews from various speculative fiction authors and editors. I highly recommend clicking through to read them in their entirety.

An Interview with Alexandra Rowland, Author of A Choir of Lies

Excerpt: "By telling hopepunk stories, we necessarily have to be asking questions like, 'How do we care about each other in a world which so aggressively doesn't care about so many of the people in our communities? Who do we consider community, and is that definition too narrow? How do we fight back against the people who want to make us sit down and shut up?'"

An Interview with Annalee Newitz, Author of The Future of Another Timeline

Excerpt: "I think hopepunk is the opposite of apathy. In so many stories these days, characters are (literally or metaphorically) lighting cigarettes and enjoying the end of the world. They may look cool doing it, but it's profoundly anti-social and toxic. As soon as your characters don't give a shit about anything, you're leaving hopepunk behind."

An Interview with Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damien Thomas, Editors of Uncanny Magazine

Excerpt: "We think that the world can always use more radical empathy and radical kindness. Culture is, fundamentally, a mix of people giving in to their most kind and least kind impulses, and much of our storytelling comes from that inherent conflict. We'd rather encourage the former, personally."

An Interview with Ferrett Steinmetz, Author of The Sol Majestic

Excerpt: "I loved it the moment I heard it. I'm an old punk who knocked around some of the Nazis that the Dead Kennedys decried in 'Nazi Punks F**k Off,' so the idea of punk utilized for something other than some Hot Topic-style cynicism flooded me with joy."

Note: The title of this article comes from hopepunk musician Frank Turner's "Blackout."

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature

Culture

Kayti Burt

Nov 7, 2019

Hopepunk

NYCC

NYCC 2019

from Books https://ift.tt/32pEbOv

[script-a-world]

Is it honestly actually possible that bad people run most of the galaxy or several galaxies? Or at least even just an entire planet? It's done in sci fi a lot. However in real life that obviously has never happened. I'm not sure how to well, begin, create the circumstances that will give them that kind of vast power and not be defeated before. Even if they are the good guys, still, can't see how they can run everything either.

Bina: Totally possible since “bad” is relative depending on you who ask. If they have a believable facade of being “good” (or if they ARE doing good....... to just the right people (such as, politicians or powerful allies who will back them up)), and if they have a lot of supporters who think they’re the good guys, then it’s super feasible that they can take control of the majority of the galaxy with very little opposition.

Heck they can even get away with people just not thinking badly of them. They don’t necessarily need supporters who think they’re the right people to have in charge. Having people be neutral towards them can also be also good enough for them to take control without anyone complaining. All they need is people not caring. People supporting them is bonus, but apathy from the common man also goes a long long way in helping bad people come into power. 

In the end it’s all about controlling their narrative and their own publicity. They can be totally truly evil, but if they cover their tracks with enough propaganda and efforts to appear like they’re doing nothing wrong, or even that they’re doing things for the benefit of the people (or that they’re beneficial for powerful people who have more sway than the average person and can thus override the wills and desires of the common people), then the baddies can take power and the common man would either take no issue with it or be unable to do anything about it. 

Tex: The thing about leadership is that morality doesn't really calculate into it - they're two separate areas with very little overlap, especially if a leader is a successful one. The longevity of a leader's reign has more to do with their bureaucratic competency, organizational skills, competency to set and achieve certain goals that benefit those whom they rule (in some form), and ability to manipulate people. And, I hate to break it to you, but both "good" and "bad" people are manipulative, just for different reasons.

Al Capone is a classic example of how "bad" people can do good things that legitimately benefit others. He was a gangster that directly or indirectly had a hand in killing a great deal of people - but he was incredibly influential in making sure milk had expirations dates, among other things (Atlas Obscura). It could be argued that running bootleg alcohol at all was a good thing, given that a significant portion of the US population did exactly the same thing (to various degrees) during Prohibition. Is profiting off civil disobedience in such a manner against the mores of altruism? Murder or no murder, Capone straddles the line of "good" and "bad", depending on your point of view.

Martin Luther King, Jr, while on the surface might look like a paragon of virtue, did purposefully break laws with specific goals in mind - while his civil disobedience resulted in drastically fewer deaths than Capone's, he did still break the law. There are some schools of thought that believe adherence to the law is virtuous, and thus moral (and thus, "good"). Is MLK virtuous in this regard? Does his position as a minister of his faith grant him more morality than the average person, who isn't an official representative of a codified set of beliefs?

Both MLK and Capone caused immense upheaval in their respective eras and societies. Is this necessarily good? Is upheaval - change - bad? I'm sure there are proponents regarding both of them that can see the advantages and disadvantages of their respective actions. One is classically referred to as a "bad" person, and the other a "good" person. Why? And through whose lens are these judgements being made? Is the perspective itself moral?

Let me bring some fictional examples into this.

Emperor Palpatine, of Star Wars, is coded to be a distillation of evil - the evil, a scourge upon the galaxy. And yet, when he rose to power and declared himself emperor of a new empire, he was lauded as an incredible unifier. General evil-doer he may be, but his grip upon his own galaxy was ironclad, and his background as a senator and then chancellor shows that he was canny, able to organize his political agenda in influential ways that effected significant change upon the political and even economic landscapes of the respective eras of his life.

He was respected - yes, even by the Jedi - for his affable demeanour and bureaucratic acumen. His death, depending on the canon you subscribe to, did not end the vast reach of his influence, with post-mortem orders that were followed with the same fervent veneration as in life. Palpatine's opinion was trusted, and regardless of his moral compass, trust is still something that needs earning. What perceptions his followers are predisposed to, well- that's certainly another topic.

Aragorn II, son of Arathorn, of Lord of the Rings fame, ruled over the reunited kingdom of Arnor and Gondor after the war against Sauron. He is typically coded as the exact opposite of someone like Palpatine - generous, compassionate, wise. A unifier that began an unequivocal era of peace. However, his death toll is proportionally similar to Palpatine's during the war that secured his place upon the throne, and he had eschewed his responsibility as blood heir to the throne for a great deal of his life, a time during which there was famine, suffering, and death from Sauron's own influence. Are his reasons for obscuring his identity and being a Ranger good enough to justify the expansion of Sauron's reign through his relative inaction, his non-acceptance of leadership? Does the end of the war justify the means that Aragorn took to get there?

Is Aragorn more moral, more good than Palpatine, because his reign was brought about through total bloodshed? Palpatine's was wrought through the genocide of the Jedi, and yet his own reign brought a stability to his empire. It can be argued that the inaction on Aragorn's part, and the action on Palptine's part, during their respective wars pre-coronation, were a manipulation of the masses. They both chose to guise themselves for who they really were - the son of Arathorn II and the Lord descendant of Bane's line - only to unveil themselves at an opportune moment hastened on by their own actions to claim, and unify, these warring factions.

All four of these individuals, be the real or fictional, share something in common - the ability to be a successful leader. Their morality did not, in the end, impede them from swaying the masses to their opinions and leveraging the influence that they had - through argument, through force, through lineage - to assemble under a common goal. They all enacted dramatic, sweeping changes upon the society in which they lived, and utilized the power granted to them through their public's opinion to direct society in a direction that they wanted. They were good leaders, but that doesn't mean they had to be good people. 

Saphira: In my novel, I am working with two different rulers. One is an Empress and the other a Tyrant. I'll see what I can glean from each of these two to provide more context in a fictional setting.

The Empress has a positive perspective from her people, as he is backed by her Goddess and her long family line of rule. She has  well developed court, council and structure set by both the Goddess and generations of Empresses before her. (Yes, it's an all female-ruling lineage because they're Elephants and the species is largely Matriarchal, but I digress.) She uses generations of Faith-based morality and ideology  to cultivate the values and perspectives of her subjects. Her choices are just because the Goddess has told her to do it, and our Goddess is Benevolent for all. Behold, she has given us life and freedom beyond our bestial origins. She makes her decisions and rules her people using rigid methods and strict guidelines to keep the common life consistent and rational. Whether she is aware of it or not, it is not so much the faith or the prestige of her rule that is powerful, but that selfsame consistency and rationality of her people.

What I mean is this: because the way of life is consistent, it feels rational. Any good or bad that she does is ruled by the same beliefs as those before her. That makes it easy for her subjects to accept her decisions because it makes sense in the context of their everyday lives. Of course she is going to hoard all the 'non-essential' food in storehouses for the war, because we, the entirety of our people, have been preparing for the war that dominates over other races since our inception. Of course we will put finances into the arts, because we are the great race that will take over the planet and arts show how sophisticated and glorious we are. All of the laws that control, govern and guide her people tether to the same principles, and that makes her powerful. There is minimal resistance, because to resist is to change their daily life and core philosophies.

The Tyrant, on the other hand, has by definition stolen the power for himself by force, and that leaves him with a radically different set of tools to stay in power and rule his territories.

First is the Legacy. The narrative of his glorious victory, his noble war that dominated over the nations to protect the underdogs, helps give him some positive influence, but force is force. He is still dealing with those who will be able to mentally reject or object to his power. He could have taken one of two simple routes: A. Quell or crush any rebellion, or B. Wield that rebellion and outcry as a tool for positive change. A sometimes needs to be done, but his ideal is B. This helps create a positive influence over the territories to help reinforce his Coming to Power Narrative, and also fixes problems in the nation that allows him to turn his focus to other problems. Fun stuff.

His true power is that he is cheating. He is using his arcane ability (which won him the war in the first place) to A. live far longer than anyone has any right to, and B. give the overall impression that he can snap his enemies with the thought of snapping a matchstick. This makes his greatest tools Benevolence and Fear. Or, rather, Love and Fear. This gives the people two reasons to hesitate against him: "I don't want to because he does a decent job most of the time," followed by "also I just like being alive in general." 

Where he lacks in 'legitimate rule' with a long lineage, he has made  up for in a single, long lifespan. The current generation has never lived outside of his rule. Their parents were under his rule. Their great grandparents were under his rule. This also introduces a fear of change, and the fear of change is the greatest tool of all. If there is no great and colossal reason why something should be different (like, I dunno, a lot of people dying) then things tend to stay as they are.  

So what it comes down to are three factors, for staying in power. 

1. The populace thinking it's honestly not that bad, or it could be worse. 

2. Fear of change, or that this thing that claims to be better, isn't. 

3. The consequences of change are too dire. This person can murder me, my family and if they die the economy dies with them.

The moral strength of the character may be a direct influence over these factors. That moral compass might be completely irrelevant. That depends on the characters you want to write and what the narrative needs to present your ideas xor experience. Either way, it's how the ruler handles these factors, ether with skill or great lacking, that determines the strength and distance of their power. 

Constablewrites: Cracked just had an article about this from the perspective of the citizens: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-normal-people-allow-evil-rulers-to-thrive/ It's got some good links to sources discussing real-world regimes and historical examples.  

[heka-write]

Merlin Rewrite #2: Morgana’s Character Arc

Doing this rewrite series has made me realize that all of the characters in this show had a lot of lost potential. Merlin could have been more enlightened, Arthur could have been more accepting, Gwen could have had more natural character development. But Morgana was probably the most robbed character of all, and I think the show mishandling her character was ultimately one of it’s downfalls. 

Morgana Pre -Villain days

Morgana was really at her peak in Seasons 1 and 2. She was good at heart, but also edgy enough to be a rebel. She cared for the citizen’s of Camelot, both magical and non-magical. She scolded Uther’s treatment of the poor and the magicians, in contrast to Arthur who was more hesitant to question his father’s policies. 

More importantly, she was complex. She hated Uther’s policies and did plot to kill him so he could be overthrown, but when time came to actually go through with her plan (in Season 1 episode 12) she couldn’t do it. Not only does she really care about Uther, but she was good at heart. She couldn’t kill.

Even in the season 2 finale when she plots to kill Uther again, she shows such reservation on going through with her plan. You can see how hesitant and regretful she looks after the plan is set in motion. 

Then Merlin poisons her. She is visibly hurt and shows feelings of betrayal.  Morgause takes her away, and she is gone for a year. 

Naturally, her hatred for Camelot grows, and her anger for Merlin for betraying her is intact. It makes sense for her to try overthrowing Camelot once again. 

So what part of her arc in the show doesn’t make sense? 

Morgana’s Behavior Post-Villain 

Morgana comes back, rightfully mad at Uther, rightfully distrustful of Merlin, but she is suddenly brutally killing harmless guards, and letting innocent civilians die. 

Good? The whole reason Morgana went against Uther in the first place was because he was killing innocent people. Why would she say “good” or even put other innocent people at risk? Morgana joining the villain team because she has no other way of fighting against Uther’s tyranny makes sense, but this? This is straight up OOC. 

People often talk about how Morgana wasn’t an effective villain. Seasons 3-5 are essentially three seasons of Morgana trying a scheme to overthrow Arthur, failing and trying again the next episode. Critics are definitely right in this respect; the only thing that she really accomplished was killing Uther, and Arthur in the very end (but also dying herself, so that doesn’t really count) all of her other plans fail repeatedly. We know Merlin will come in at the end of the episode (or the next if it’s a two parter) and thwart her plan. 

In season 1, we had a different villain every week. Each one had their own unique personality and goals so seeing them fail didn’t get repetitive the same way it did for Morgana. 

Not only that, but her motivation was completely whack. Her goal was to protect innocent magical people from being killed, but she killed plenty of innocent people herself. How exactly would that work? None of the peaceful magical people would bow down to her if she looked like she would be a ruthless and cold leader. 

Her hatred of Gwen in particular came out of left field. Morgana had a strong bond with Arthur before becoming evil, and it made a bit of sense as to her hating him because he was following in Uther’s footsteps. However, her bond with Gwen was completely shoved under the rug for the sake of causing conflict. The show was trying to say she hated Gwen because she betrayed her (in her Season 3 takeover), but where did the hatred of her becoming Queen come from? Morgana never cared about royalty until she found out she had a right to the throne, so why is Gwen such a threat to her when they had an intense bond? When just the prior season she was begging Uther to save her (Guinevere and Lancelot)? Morgana didn’t just hate the way Uther treated magicians, she hated the way he treated the poorer civilians of his Kingdom. Her hatred of Gwen completely contradicted her motivations. 

I’ve watched the show twice as of now. The fact that I can’t pinpoint the exact actions or reasons as to why Morgana started hating her best friend shows how convoluted it all was. 

Back to her bond with Arthur, the aftermath of that bond wasn’t addressed well either. They were super close in season 1, distant in season 2, and after season 3 they are just enemies. There is no recollection of their pre-villain bond. No moments of hesitation or complexity. No mention of their bond before Merlin even came to Camelot. Morgana simply hated him and he simply treated her as an enemy. We only get some half assed lines about “my sister” or “my brother”, there is no real feeling behind them. 

All in all, Morgana was not an effective villain action wise nor motivation wise. Villains are nothing without their motivation, and the thing about Morgana is that her motivation was not evil. 

Her motivation was that she wanted to protect magical people from unjust persecution. Camelot embodied that oppression. Uther was a tyrant. Her motivation was actually good, but because it went against the hero’s (Merlin and Arthur) destiny, she was automatically vilified by the narrative. 

The reason Morgana failed as an evil character was because the writers’ were too desperate to have a consistent villain. They wanted a final boss instead of a villain of the week routine. It didn’t matter that Morgana’s motivation made little sense in portraying her as evil. It didn’t matter that two seasons of character interaction and relationships were being contradicted. As long as they could have a FV they would do it.  Morgana failed as a character because the writer’s shoved her complexity under the rug for the sake of making her a villain instead of embracing her complexity and letting it flourish. 

How it Should Have Been Done

I have spent the entirety of this post talking about how badly Morgana’s villain arc was handled, but I am not against the idea of her having a villain arc. In fact, I think Morgana would have perfectly suited the anti- hero arc, one where she joins the villains to fulfill the needs the hero team can’t meet, but ultimately comes back to the good side with a fresh perspective. 

Other people have pointed this out, but Morgana’s character would have been perfect for a lancer arc in the five-man band. In this case it would be the four-man band of her, Merlin, Arthur and Gwen. 

Arthur is the hero of the show, and in true lawful good nature he follows the law of the land and is completely loyal to his father’s ways. Morgana, in the lancer contrast, is more chaotic good and does what she thinks is right, regardless of if it is lawful or not. She has openly rebelled against Uther for what she thought was right. Morgana and Arthur were presented as complete foils to one another, and it fit perfectly well because they were half brother and sister. 

It does total sense for Morgana, not having any other resource to turn to, to join the villains to take down Camelot. Especially since Merlin had kept her in the dark, she could have joined them or worked with them but not go completely off the rails like she did in the show. 

A prime example of this is Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto. Sasuke was more morally ambiguous than Naruto or anyone in the Leaf Village, so he temporarily joined the villain Orochimaru to achieve his goals of getting revenge on his brother because his hometown simply could not help him. However (in the early days of the show) even when he was with Orochimaru he would not kill innocent people. The show had implied since the beginning that Sasuke would eventually come back to the good side, because he was never truly evil.

Plenty of other shows have followed a similar arc structure, and even though it may be cliche to some it would have been beneficial for Morgana’s character because it keeps her complexity while also highlighting the complexity of the issue.

Morgana, in her time away from Camelot, would have to struggle in deciding which side to choose. The villains would insist that the only way to get rid of Uther’s unjust laws is to hurt the citizens of Camelot, but she wouldn’t do it because she knows that’s wrong. Arthur and Camelot would insist that the only way to rid the world of the evils of magic would be to persecute magicians, but she would stand against that too. In her time away, she would learn that there aren’t just two sides to a problem, that the world isn’t black or white. That instead of joining Morgause or any other magical villain, she could join the Druids and other peaceful magical people in protest and rebellion. 

 If she eventually came back to help Camelot, this would have a positive affect on Arthur as well. The girl he thought betrayed him came back to help him, despite the fact that she is now working with magicians. He would be confused because his father had taught him his whole life that magic was wrong, but his own half sister would be fighting for good. 

Arthur and Morgana relationship could be a lot more fleshed out and complex. Arthur would be fighting the side of Camelot’s protection, Morgana would be fighting the side of innocent magician’s protection, and they would eventually have to come together and find an even solution that meets halfway. It would be especially symbolic because it would mean Uther’s children are bringing peace to the land by bringing together both sides that he had failed. This type of rivalry of philosophies in fiction is almost always done in male-male or fraternal relationships, so having it done through a brother and sister relationship would be something new. 

The middle ground that these two siblings would meet would obviously be through Merlin. He has always the one in the shadows mediating relations between Camelot and the magician, so having him do the same thing between Arthur and Morgana and eventually bring peace through that would earn him his title in the show. This would be possible if Morgana was still IC, and not just turned completely into a villain and closed off to Merlin. This scenario would be much more preferable than him simply taking Arthur’s side and eliminating anything that got in the way. The show completely threw his bond with Morgana under the bus for the sake of Merthur and fulfilling his destiny, and I think that was ultimately his downfall (but I’ll get into that in another post). 

This scenario could also fix the problems with her relationship with Gwen after season 3. I could definitely see Morgana being away from Camelot and resentful of it, but coming back to help save Gwen when she is in danger. Arthur would be annoyed, but reluctantly accept her help because someone they both care about is in danger. 

I could also see Gwen being resistant to Morgana, but ultimately accepting her because Morgana proves she is loyal to her, the same way she was before she found out she had magic. 

This storyline for Morgana would also make so much sense because in the Arthurian legend (to my knowledge) she does get redeemed at the very end. She does turn good, so why couldn’t the writer’s give her this chance in the show? 

In conclusion, this storyline for Morgana would have been 10000x better for the show than what we really got. The reason the real ending failed was because Arthur and Merlin ultimately failed. They failed to bring magic back to Camelot. They failed to bring peace. Arthur failed to live on as a successful king. They failed because they refused to acknowledge the humanity in Morgana’s argument, and the side of the magical people. If Merlin had reached out to the opposite side (the side that he has ties to), he would have been able to win them over. If he defended Morgana in front of Arthur more, she would have stayed good. Instead, anything against Camelot was automatically labeled as evil, and nothing was really able to change. The show just continued the cycle of two sides, and failed to bring them together because it failed to let Morgana be seen as a complex leader of her side. But I’ll get into the detail of Merlin’s toxic loyalty to Camelot in a different post. 

Believe it or not, this post was actually cut short. In the upcoming installments of the “Rewriting Merlin” series, a lot of my other posts would be influenced by a better Morgana storyline. That’s how important she was to the show. 

[honeybammie]

sunday morning › kim taehyung

↳ in which sleeping with a roommate isn’t the worst thing to do on a saturday night ↳ fluff, suggestive (but mostly fluff) 

I was used to waking up to unfamiliar faces, at times in my own room with light streaming through sheer beige curtains, but other occasions met by a new layout which normally posed a number of questions: why is their room such a mess? Is there a roommate waiting for discovery in the kitchen? Where is my left shoe, damn it? I learned my way around every room I slid into at one in the morning, and I exited just as smoothly, hardly glancing at the stranger next to me. 

That was before I woke up next to Taehyung. 

I recognized the room—not that I entered it often—from the moment my eyes opened, distinguished by the shelf of books on romantic painters during the renaissance and the wall of paintings by local artists he would support until his dying breath. The pillowcases smelled like drops of lavender and cedar wood oils. He claimed they helped him sleep. 

Why do I know that?

Only then did I realize why I knew the room so well, and why I could pinpoint the scent of essential oils I had never used. I was in Taehyung’s bed, and most shockingly, I was not hungover. Of course I wasn’t hungover. Taehyung didn’t drink, and he’d never take advantage of anyone who’d had too much. Especially me. Often times he led me back to my room with a hand on the small of my back and helped me remove my heels, but he never undressed me more than that. 

Until last night, which had started with sparking apple cider poured into champagne flutes. He dared me not to go out for once on a Saturday night, and I never passed a challenge, especially one that let me lay on the couch in one of my mother’s hand-me-down sweaters while he read chapters of a new story he nabbed earlier in the week at a book exchange. 

“You have a sexy voice,” I commented after he closed the cover. He lulled me half to sleep but the sugar from my glass of cider was dissolving into my blood and pumping out liquid courage. 

I don’t remember his reply, or what I said after him, but I did remember his slender hands and delicate collarbones offset by a broad chest, revealed after I dipped my fingers under the hemline of his favorite hoodie and—

Focus. 

His back faced me, dipped in gold and traced with thin red nail lines. Had I done that? Brunette hair lay in a disheveled mess on top of his head, and his only sound was the occasional breathy snore. Even if I had never met him before, I could’ve paired him and his room together if given a line-up. 

Focus, would you?

I already spent more time admiring Taehyung than all my previous one-night-stands combined, meaning it was well past time for me to pull myself out of bed and leave. 

To where?

No sooner than I sat up did I realize my dilemma. I could not go back to my apartment if I had never left my apartment, and we weren’t drunk, so counting on him to forget was out of the question. Perhaps my best option was to steal a seven-hundred page book from his collection and hit him over the head with it—or maybe I should start by finding my clothes. 

My sweater was hanging off of the nightstand, but—as if my luck hadn’t already run out—it was hanging off the nightstand on his side of the bed. Fortunately, my pants were directly beside the bed. I didn’t even need to stretch to grab them from the ground and pull them over my legs, kicking the sheets off somewhere in the process. 

Taehyung stirred. I fell silent. He rolled over. I stopped breathing. 

Don’t wake up. Don’t wake up. Don’t wa—

He opened his eyes. 

He squinted at first, probably because of the sunlight or the sudden contrast between the blackness behind his eyelids and the white of his walls. I read somewhere that a person doesn’t remember anything in their first three seconds of waking up, hanging in a few moments of utter and blissful ignorance, and I wondered if I could run out of the room in such a short time frame. 

Unfortunately, I spent the entirety of my three seconds wondering about running opposed to actually running. 

My name fell off his lips, punctuated by a yawn. “You’re still here,” he stated, neither thrilled nor disappointed as far as he let on. 

“You remember what happened?” I asked. 

He pulled the blankets up to his chin, a shiver running through him, but other than the cold he was wholly unbothered. “Why wouldn’t I?” he countered. 

“No reason, just my wishful thinking,” I murmured to myself like he wasn’t right there. 

“You don’t want me to remember?” He raised his eyebrows. 

“Have you forgotten we’re roommates?” I scoffed. “We’ve been living together for nine months, and usually this sort of thing ruins the entire dynamic of the relationship and shifts the entire ecosystem. You should know. You read books.” 

“Clearly not the same books as you,” he said, his eyes accidentally travelling to my bare chest, but he remained as unfazed as before. I supposed my naked torso was no longer a mystery to him, anyway. “Did you lose your shirt?” 

“Over there.” I nodded towards his nightstand, and he reached over to hand the garment back to me to pull over my head. Regrettably, it didn’t leave me any more comfortable than I already had been. “Now what were you saying?”

“We don’t have a dynamic to our relationship,” he said. “It’s not like we ruined a decade of friendship with an ill-advised decision. We started living together after I posed online that I needed someone to pay half the rent, and that’s it. We don’t even eat our meals together, since my breakfast is at seven and yours usually isn’t until ten, and I don’t even remember the last time I’ve seen you on a Saturday night.”

“I do. It was last night, and you saw a lot,” I said, not intending to be funny, but he laughed anyway, running a hand through his hair. I didn’t get it. Taehyung hardly participated in frivolous hookups, meanwhile I breezed through them on a regular basis, yet he seemed infinitely more prepared for this moment than I was. “Did you think this would happen?”

“I didn’t think it would, but I knew it might,” he elaborated. “Look—if you want to forget this, I understand. We can continue to go about our days hardly acknowledging each other if you think it’s for the best.”

“What happens if I ask not to forget?” I tempted my curiosity. 

“I’d ask if you want to stay,” he said. 

“Do you want me to want to stay?” 

He toyed with the question for a while and in turn toyed with me. I may have been the one bombarding him with questions, but he had the upper hand. He propped himself up on an elbow to answer. “Your other option is to go back to your room, but that doesn’t really escape the issue, considering your room shares a wall with mine.” 

He wasn’t helping, which frustrated me to the nth degree, but why was I so worried? I practiced this game far longer than he had. “Either you tell me what you want, or I go back to sleep in my bed, and we never speak of this again.” 

A flicker of desperation sparked in his eyes, giving his emotions away. Checkmate. “I…” he stumbled for the first time, unraveling his façade. “I’m never opposed to morning spooning, and you usually complain that your room cools off too much overnight.” 

“I can grab an extra blanket.” I shrugged, pushing myself off the edge of the bed.

“Not so fast.” He reached forward, trapping my torso in his arms and pulling me backwards in a graceless display of limbs, accidentally smacking him in the face. “I’ll be your extra blanket.”

“This is new,” I said, decidedly. With nowhere left to go, I relaxed into his embrace. He always struck me as a small spoon. Not that that was my first surprise of the morning. 

“I could get used to it,” he murmured into the side of my neck. 

“Do you think this is the beginning of a terrible idea?” I asked. 

“No,” he said. “Who you fall asleep next to on a Saturday night may be a terrible idea, but if you choose to stay in bed with them on a Sunday morning, you’re fine—or something like that.”

“Nice philosophy. Where’s it from?”

“Kim Taehyung, circa two-thousand-eighteen,” he noted. “He’s a wise young philosopher. Very well read. Handsome, too.”

A laugh vibrated my chest as his smile tickled the shell of my ear. His arms pulled me flush to his chest, and within a few minutes his breathing slowed. 

I could get used to this too, Taehyung. 

a/n: refined and unbothered roommate!Taehyung is my biggest kink this is my first published bts imagine so please enjoy ♡♡♡

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #85

UPDATE 85: Miasma is a Good Word

Last time the heroes made their bomb attack, courtesy of everything they confiscated from Bakuda, and apparently they got rid of Crawler and Mannequin! That’s a feat! Since there are like three Slaughterhouse Nine members left, Jack may be upset, so they’re all bracing for retaliation. Let’s continue.

I set Atlas down on the ground and hopped off.  “Whatever the fuck they just dropped on the city, it apparently took out Crawler and Mannequin.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Tattletale said.

Pretty good philosophy in a world where some people have powers. I have hopes Mannequin and Crawler were defeated and died in a blast of Bakuda’s bombs, but I sure won’t take it for granted until they’re described. It won’t be a guarantee, but it sure will go a long way when it’s about ascertaining someone’s life or death status in a story like this one!

What Skitter did may have weakened the Siberian’s true body, and maybe even killed him, if Bonesaw wasn’t able to counter the poison in time. It’s a small chance, admittedly, but it exists. Not going to place any high hopes on that, though. Bonesaw works quickly, and she also has all those mechanical spiders. Maybe she could do something.

Skitter informs everyone of everything that happened, including telling them Legend told her to scram so she wouldn’t get in the way, good intentions or not.

“And this threat?  Do we know what it is?  Some zombie apocalypse?”  Regent asked.

“No.” Tattletale shook her head.  “She sees herself as an artist.  She’s going to want to do something that catches us off guard, something that scares us in a way that simple horror movie monsters don’t.”

Pretty hard to say. A parahuman of the caliber of Bonesaw could do pretty much anything she wanted. There are countless possibilities. I would be surprised if it’s not fatal, though. Artist or not, she’s a mass murderer by definition, and they threatened the entirety of Brockton Bay. Anything they have planned must be able to kill everyone, or at the very least cause widespread sickness that can’t be cured.

Much to Regent’s...subdued amusement, I guess? – I sure bet he’s amused – Sundancer admits Bonesaw scares her. Pretty natural reaction, yeah.

“You two do raise a point, though,” Tattletale cut in.  “Capes are powerful.  If she wanted to scare the locals, she’s done that.  I’d be willing to bet the ace she has up her sleeve is going to be more aimed at scaring people like us, like Legend.  She wants to terrorize the strongest, target people who everyone looks up to and fears.”

I don’t know, the obliteration and/or extermination of an entire city’s pretty scary even for the strongest people. There are heroes, and then there’s people like Skitter who are empathic even though they’re a villain, and if Bonesaw plays her cards right, then she’ll strike fear into the hearts of villains, making them feel like she’s on a different tier than them. I’m expecting things to get real ugly around here.

In the distance I think Legend is still fighting the Siberian or something. Over here, they hope they won’t have to worry about Bonesaw’s plot, but I think it’s guaranteed it’ll happen. It has been hyped so much so far it’d be rather disappointing if it didn’t. Mr. Wildbow wouldn’t let the readers down!

I’m pretty sure everyone who fights tinkers hates them too, Skitter. I bet even tinkers hate other tinkers.

Oh, right, it was supposed to be something that’d spread through water, right? If so, then I suppose there must be a reason for it to have to be through water instead of, say, air. I was about to consider this further, but then Grue stopped my train of thought when he wants Tattletale about the dangers of tunnel vision and, well, he’s right. I’m supposing too many things, yes? And basing too much on Tattletale’s assumptions. I should sit down and keep reading, see where things go from here. Besides, it’s not like they can counter whatever will happen. Even if they find Panacea and she agrees to help them for the greater good, she’s one person. By the time she’s able to do something, whatever Bonesaw made may have caused too much damage around already.

There it comes. That was fast!

The water was turning crimson.  Where it was only one or two inches deep above the pavement, it turned a dark red that resembled blood.  That alone might have been spooky enough, but it was spreading over hundreds of feet in a matter of seconds, and there was a thin red mist rising in its wake.

She earns points for style. That’s a chilling image, and it’s unmistakably her work. Way to go, Bonesaw! And if it’s spreading that fast, then it’s pretty much unstoppable. The effects of whatever this is must be already felt by the general population. Is it even possible to get away from it? If a mist is rising from it, then there’s an airborne component, and that’s going to be harder to get away from.

The theory as to why it’s spreading so fast is that Bonesaw prepared things beforehand, my bet is that it was right when the rules of the game were established. Just to have it ready in case it was necessary, and now here it is in action.

Everyone’s reactions it to seek high ground and run away. Skitter gets on her beetle and flies, the others get on dogs, and Sundancer evaporates the water – something Bonesaw was prepared for, because the steam from the evaporated water takes the same qualities than the water itself. It’s matter of time before someone in the group is afflicted by whatever this is.

There we go, it almost happens. They’re barely saved on the way up thanks to Skitter forming a barrier with her insects. It’s interesting that there’s nothing saying the insects were affected. I’m sure if they were, Skitter would have noticed immediately, and they’d know what’s going on. It’s not some sort of poison or disorienting substance, I guess...either that or this has to be carried through water and the mist isn’t as effective. Who knows.

To get themselves on a higher spot, Tattletale indicates a taller building and Skitter flies over there, Trickster proceeds to swap her with someone, and this process is repeated a few times until Trickster and one of the dogs are left behind. The mist is creeping near him.

He’s safe, lucky guy. All around them, the miasma – that’s a good word – floats all over the buildings around. It’s pervasive, it’s covering everything, and is only matter of time before it rises up to the building they’re in right now. As I see it, the only hope anyone has is to get in an airtight place. Not many of those lying around, I bet.

“Probably something else.  Or it’s poison, but it’s designed to do something besides kill us.  How are the others doing?”

It’s a bit hard to know what other effect it could have besides killing – supposing it is designed to kill, I mean. My mind is blank. My thought is that it’d be some sort of control thing, but...is that the Slaughterhouse Nine’s style? I don’t know, it seemed to me they like to do things by themselves. They wouldn’t control others to make them kill each other, that’s what I think.

Looks like we’ll find out the effects sooner or later. Grue, Heckpuppy, Ballistic and one of the dogs are inside a glass dome they got into, and it’s matter of time before the miasma gets in there. Uh-oh, they’re doomed. Bad pun intended.

Since Grue and Heckpuppy are inevitably going to be affected pretty soon, Skitter wants to at least save Tattletale, even though Tattletale tells her to go and leave her behind, because in the end Skitter is much more versatile in action than Tattletale. She has bugs and also a gun, she’ll be able to fight Jack, Bonesaw and the Siberian’s real body. Well, yeah, that’s true. Whether she’ll be able to win is an entirely different matter. With a lot of luck and skill maybe, but still, pretty doubtful she will.

Once Skitter gets to the top of a taller building, she waits for Trickster to swap the cluster of bugs she’s forming in the shape of a person. They’re running out of time, the miasma is climbing up the sides of the building they’re on. The bugs are swapped, but instead of Tattletale, it’s Sundancer. Oh, Skitter isn’t going to like that at all.

At least she’s not blaming Sundancer for what undoubtedly was Trickster and Tattletale’s decision. In fact...

She shook her head, “They didn’t say anything.  They were both really quiet while you flew off, and then Tattletale said ‘It doesn’t look like her plan will work out.  Tell her I’m sorry.’  Trickster teleported me here before I could say anything or ask what she meant.”

If she says that then it must be for a reason. Tough pill to swallow, but yeah...maybe it’s for the better? Besides, Sundancer hits hard. When it’s about having a way to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine, she can pack quite a punch. I don’t think even them have anything to counter a miniature sun being launched at them, unless the Siberian’s projection protects them.

While they sit around, Sundancer takes the moment to develop some characterization. Neat!

“I hate being alone,” Sundancer said.  She settled into a sitting position.  “It’s like, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually been on my own. When I was little, I was always with my mom, or always in school, always in afterschool activities.  Ballet, violin, lyrical dance, voice lessons, acting lessons… never a moment to think for myself.  Even after I stopped all that, I was with my friends.  Always in a group.”

So she’s not comfortable being by herself...I don’t think it’s dependence, I think it’s more like she feels comfortable with people around her. Doesn’t seem to me like he particularly regards the other Travelers as lifelong friends or anything like that, but they’re a group and therefore she feels kind of okay with them. Not that much, though. Just like Skitter points out now, she has said she feels lonely, even among the Travelers. What brought all of them together in a team, again? I don’t think that has been explained so far, I hope it’ll be said at some point.

In a while Skitter will go fight the Slaughterhouse Nine, and Sundancer will be left behind, alone and with nothing to do other than wait for stuff to happen – the most likely possibility being the miasma reaching her, I’d say. Guess that means Skitter’s going alone. Oh well. Best of luck to her, I hope she won’t get grievous injuries this time.

The miasma reaches Tattletale and Trickster, but there’s no immediate reaction. Hm. Maybe it’s delayed? Or it’s something that cannot be seen. The second one seems more likely, I think.

To encourage herself and Sundancer, Skitter says humans are much stronger than you’d think, both physically and mentally. Everyone has the capacity to keep going despite mental or physical punishment, if their willpower is strong enough. That’s what the capes have done, that’s what the Slaughterhouse Nine has done. Sundancer doesn’t like what she’s hearing, so Skitter salvages her speech by saying it’s an almost pessimistic outlook. Hah! Well, maybe it is, but I believe her intention was to give herself and Sundancer encouragement, so she may have meant everything as something positive.

The conversation is cut short when Sundancer tells Skitter to go already, and after Skitter goes she gets underneath a tiny sun. I hope that keeps her kind of safe. Skitter flies towards where he had left Legend last update, and also takes a look at Tattletale and Trickster, who aren’t reacting at all. They don’t signal her to come back. Why would they do such a thing? Even if they’re okay, they sure wouldn’t risk putting their teammates at risk! Could be dangerous.

Another thought as to what the miasma could be: what if it’s a way for the Slaughterhose Nine to go unnoticed even in plain sight? Like what Imp does. That’d give them free reign to kill whoever they want around, and not even the parahumans would be able to stop them or know exactly where they are – well, most of them, I figure, but the Slaughterhouse Nine would think measures to get away with as much as they can. Could be that, yeah?

Skitter directs herself to the catalyst of the miasma, and evaluates the situation. She hopes the civilians got to higher ground, where there’s not that much flooding and therefore are a little safer from the miasma. It’s matter of time before it reaches that too, I bet.

Legend is still around! And he’s still firing lasers around, even though he’s in middle of the red fog. I take that as he hasn’t been affected by it yet – or it doesn’t impede someone from fighting. Skitter gets her bugs into the miasma to have an idea of what’s going on.

He wasn’t fighting the Nine. Legend was shooting at teammates.  He shouted something, but neither my ears nor my bugs were able to pick out the words.

Ah, of course he’s fighting his teammates. Effect of the miasma, I figure. It’s not a berserk state or rage brought by the fog – demonstrated by Trickster and Tattletale being civil around each other instead of tearing their throats off at the first chance, and also because Legend is pulling his punches. He’s not the only one affected, Weld’s keeping everybody away, and Vista gets herself in an unreachable spot.

Paranoia?

I don’t think it’s hallucinations...so paranoia seems like the right answer to me. Maybe they think their teammates are not to be trusted anymore. Does that mean if someone from the Slaughterhouse Nine stepped forth, they’d trust them? I wondeeeer...

Since Vista is the one least likely to kill her whether it’s on accident or on purpose, Skitter approaches her, and immediately gets a reaction.

She whirled on the spot to look at me, then swiftly began backing away.

I raised my hands to show her I meant no harm, “Hold on!  I’m safe!”

“That’s just what they would say!”  She retorted.

They as in the Slaughterhouse Nine, it seems. So even though the miasma, they know the Slaughterhouse Nine is a menace. These effects are limited only to paranoia, it seems...

Vista doesn’t listen, so Skitter moves to leave after Vista threatens her very clearly. She makes a bad move, though, movement Vista takes as a threat, and tries to hit her with asphalt, which in turn gets Legend’s attention. Legend’s lasers stun her, throwing her off the beetle, and she crashes against a rooftop in what surely would injure gravely anyone without armor or resilience like Skitter.

Not enough, Vista surrounds Skitter with a section of rooftop, entrapping her. Also, Skitter is right in middle of the miasma. Ah, time to find out about its effects firsthand!

Nothing in particular yet. Worth noting Vista is full of anger, but it doesn’t seem to be the effect of the miasma, because Skitter doesn’t feel anything like that despite, you know, actually being in danger, relatively.

I tried to think back to my prior experiences with her and found nothing.

What was her name?

Oh, she can’t remember Vista! I seeee...I think.

Skitter makes a few mental exercises to find out just how badly her brain is malfunctioning right now. She doesn’t seem to be suffering of brain damage or concussions. She can remember herself. She can remember her parents.

I tried to picture her expression.

Again, that gap, the chasm.  Nothing.

There it is! So this is the effect of the miasma. Looks like it makes everyone forget about other people, including the experiences they have lived with them. They know those people exist, they know who they are, but they can’t remember how they look, or their personalities, or anything else that makes a person a person. Rather insidious, hm! And also original. Not sure about the practical use of it, though.

I mean, the Slaughterhouse Nine undoubtedly have a reason for this, but I wonder what it could be. This is meant to be the penalty for breaking the rules and having such a sizable advantage. I’m not sure what use they’ll have from this...because everyone’s so paranoid even if someone from the Slaughterhouse Nine approached them, they’d still be attacked. In fact, it could be worse because of the paranoia.

There must be something I haven’t considered yet...but what could it be?

The miasma makes her unable to recognize Legend and Vista even though she was fighting them not too long ago. Legend knocks out Vista – ouch – and Skitter, not having any other option, asks for help.

If I didn’t have the benefit of being able to remember my actions over the past few minutes, it would have been impossible to say whether the two people here were allies or enemies.

That explains why Tattletale and Trickster weren’t fighting. They could still remember what was happening a few moments before the miasma affected them. That’s unfortunate, even if Skitter remembered them and went to seek their help, they won’t remember her anymore.

Sundancer’s worries about being alone struck me.  We were all alone, now.  Every single one of us.  From teams to individuals, everyone was fending for themselves because they couldn’t afford to trust the others.

And it would ruin us.

It would be impossible to mount any kind of defense against the Nine if we were fighting them as individuals.

Ah, there it is! That’s what I had missed! I see the logic, now I can see how this is dangerous and plays right into the Slaughterhouse Nine’s plans. Okay, I see how things are supposed to go, and I like this. Nice. Keep going! How are you going to counter this, Skitter? She’ll have to both overcome her amnesia and the fear she’ll feel towards other people.

Pleading for help to Legend actually makes him hesitate. He’s a hero, after all. He can’t just turn his back on someone asking for help, even if this could be a trap or something. He has to at least try to help.

Nevermind, he doesn’t. He just tell her to stay there, fights around for like ten minutes more, and then flies away. Thanks for nothing, Legend. Hah! But yeah, in all seriousness, Skitter thinks maybe the miasma’s making him less rational.

This wasn’t rational for him, it didn’t jibe with my knowledge of him.  That could mean there was something about the miasma that was making him irrational.

We’ll know for sure, if Skitter does something irrational too. It’s a possibility some component of it clouds people’s judgment and decisions, I guess, but we’ll know for sure only when it happens to Skitter.

Since Legend is gone and he sure won’t help her, Skitter has to help herself, wriggling out of the asphalt the best she can. It’s actually a long ordeal, there are several paragraphs about it. It’s all because of the armor she’s wearing underneath her costume. Oh well. There’s...well, there’s no immediate hurry. Even if she finds the Slaughterhouse Nine, she won’t know it’s them.

Several people have been knocked out, Skitter helps a couple so they don’t suffer ridiculous deaths such as drowning in a puddle. Along the way she finds a creature that may be one of Heckpuppy’s dogs, or could be Crawler. Thorny exterior...I don’t think I have ever read the dogs being described as having ‘a thorny exterior’. Skitter’s decision of not approaching may have been the right decision.

“Skitter!” a voice called out.

I stopped.

A blond girl, waving at me.

I drew my gun and leveled it at her.

The smile dropped from her face.  She brought both hands to her mouth as she shouted, “It’s me!  Tattletale!”

Aaaaah...hm. Doubts. I have many. I find a bit hard to believe Bonesaw wouldn’t take into account Tattletale’s power and make it so she can’t use that to identify the people she encounters. I’m not ruling out this could be Tattletale, but...I sure won’t think right from the start it’s her.

Tattletale informs everyone else is currently hiding, and Grue and her are walking around, presumably looking for her. Skitter feels at ease and actually talks with her, asking what this miasma is about. It’s not amnesia, it’s agnosia. They didn’t lose their memories; they just can’t use it. That’s different, because everything is still there.

What Bonesaw did may be incurable and terminal, and although Panacea could help, I doubt she will. She was already jumpy and didn’t want to cooperate, the miasma’s going to make her even worse. The next fifteen or so arcs will happen during the next few hours, can you believe that? Worm’s timeline and pacing are going to slow down like never before!

Maybe it’s because I’m suspicious of this all, but Tattletale sure sounds...hopeful. And cheerful. I still don’t like this at all.

Tattletale brings up the mad cow disease to compare to Bonesaw’s punishment, and it makes some sense. I can see how this miasma is fatal. I don’t think the mad cow disease had a cure – can’t check right now if I’m correct -- but since I doubt everyone in Brockton Bay, Skitter included, will die during the next few hours, there must be a cure for this.

“If we’re going to save everyone, we need Amy.  For that, we need to ask Cherish.”

Supposing this isn’t Tattletale and instead is, let’s say, Bonesaw, I’m not sure if the objective is to find Panacea or Cherish. I can imagine pretty good reasons to find any of them. Pretty doubtful Cherish would say anything without a deal, though. Looks like a pretty obvious roadblock to me.

Speaking of Cherish, I remembered Regent is with Shatterbird. I hope the miasma didn’t break his concentration, and that he still has her under control. Things are going to get rather messy if he doesn’t have her as a puppet right now.

Grue is here! And Skitter welcomes him with suspicion. Tired of having a gun pointed at them, Tattletale asks what’ll be necessary for her to trust them, so Skitter asks them a question.

“The fight with Empire Eighty-Eight’s mooks.  When I made the human-shaped tower of bugs for the first time, and they shot into it while I crouched inside…”

That was when they went to invade Heckpuppy’s shelter, wasn’t it? She was with Heckpuppy, not with these two. Tattletale avoids answering, arguing she was orientating herself thanks to her power, but it seems she’s not able to answer this. Skitter can’t think of any other way to find out it’s them. Oh boy. This is a standstill.

Since proving it’s them didn’t work, Tattletale appeals to Skitter’s heart, she begs her to listen to it and react accordingly. That’d work if her heart was telling her anything! Hah! If Tattletale and Grue are fake, this must be getting really frustrating for them! And if they’re the real deal...well it’s going to get frustrating anyway. The agnosia miasma is seriously inconvenient.

Tired of having to appeal to Skitter, Grue suggests they continue alone. That elicits a reaction, because being alone in middle of this miasma is something Skitter would like to avoid. Grue then continues insisting, telling her they know how she feels and that he feels the same, even if he trusts Tattletale, and that she should trust her heart.

I wanted so desperately for it to be like in the movies, where people could trust your heart.  Where you were holding the gun and you had to choose between shooting the evil clone and shooting your friend, and you just knew.

It’s never that simple, and especially not when you have agnosia. Seeing this is leading nowhere, Grue takes action and approaches to give Skitter an awkward hug. Not the time, Grue – if that’s your real name, bucko.

Okay, so far I was thinking I was jumping to conclusions with all of their actions, but something’s just off about all this. Tattletale, can you stop grinning? Not the time for that either. Boy am I going to be so embarrassed if it turns out they’re the real deal.

“Priority number one, we get in contact with Cherish,” Tattletale said, grinning. “From there, we can decide whether we want to track down Panacea or go after the Slaughterhouse Nine.”

Honestly that’s a hard decision. Do you try to cure the possibly fatal miasma, or do you hunt the culprits before you die? Going for any of these options and failing for one reason or another will waste time, and most likely lead to failure – and that’s supposing Cherish is cooperative. I sure don’t think she’ll be willing to be a good trooper and lend a hand in a selfless manner.

Still, that’s the current plan, so it’ll be done. Skitter doesn’t let go of her gun, even if she feels uneasy about it, because she feels uneasy about everything right now. Reminds her of her school. Wow, talk about an awful school atmosphere. Not that I’m surprised about it.

I muttered, “Sooner we’re fucking cured of this miasma, the better.”

“Hey!”  Tattletale paused, pointing at me with a stern expression on her face.  “Don’t swear!”

Oooookay, now I’m certain it isn’t her. She sure didn’t protest at all about their language in the past. I doubt the miasma will also give her agnosia as to how little she cares about swears. Then that means Skitter is currently in the grasp of two of her enemies – supposing these are the Slaughterhouse Nine. Also, she got hugged by one of them. Icky. But yeah, the point is, she’s in trouble and she doesn’t realize that to the full extent yet. For her sake I hope she realizes it before she digs too deep of a hole.

That’s the end of the chapter. Good one! And the arc still isn’t over. This will be a long arc.

Next time: in three updates

[serialmurderothercrimes-blog]

How Do We Profile? Let Me Count the Ways

How Do We Profile? Let Me Count the Ways©2019

by Janet E. McClellan, Ph.D.

This is the first in a series of blog articles on the myriad of ways in which profiling has been or is being used in criminal justice to provide information about persons of interest, suspects, and unknown assailants. The first article will provide an overview of the history of activities/research efforts and results that can be defined as being profiling. In the body of this historical synopsis of those efforts will be the examination of the typical product outcomes of those efforts. Lastly, in this blog piece, we will examine the generalized structure, efficiencies, and effectiveness of the various types of profiling.

To begin, I would first like you to consider that human beings are inherently prone to and like to put things, everything from living creatures, non-living things, feelings, artifacts, and other people into categories, types, and descriptive characterizations. These categories of descriptive characterizations may also be referred to as profiles. This, of course, is using the broadest definition of profile available but it has value and will aid in our understanding of what profiling does for us whether we are profiling a variety of insects, architectural types, personalities, or serial killers.

If you look up the word profiling in a good thesaurus you will find that it is related to other terms such as: characterize, sketch, diagram, depiction, portrayal, identify, and inform, because that is exactly what the profiling of a species of fish or type of human behavior does, it sketches, or illustratively outlines the features of that which we are studying. A profile, like a sketch, is not the thing itself, rather, it is a representation of the known features, kinds, and traits of the thing we seek to depict/describe. Think of it as a blueprint for the mind, therefore, less bulky and cumbersome than the thing itself.

One of the earliest known examples of profiling was sometimes done by members of the Roman armies as part of their preparation for the invasion and subduing of city-states or nations that had attracted the interest of their empire. They spied on, lived among, bought information, interrogated anyone they could get hold of or buy off, in order to find out the belief systems, political systems and intrigue, and weaknesses of the regions they intended to invade. They used the information they had gathered to determine how best to conquer their target and how best to rule/control them once they had them under their power. Moreover, rather than merely the using their study of that conquered nation to run roughshod over them by using military might and terror, the Roman’s tended to seize and maintain their control over conquered territories by learning how to manipulate the desires and fears of previously used by the established power-bases and the manipulation of that nation's wealthy and political systems to their advantage.

Human beings have always had a curiosity about their own behavior, the behavior of others, and the sources of those behaviors. Our contemporary explorations as it regards criminal and noncriminal behaviors (motivations and ways of acting) therefore, has a long history rooted in the ancient past up to our contemporary time and surely continuing on and into our future.

Sociology

The earliest attempts at systematic thought giving rise to the characterizations and categorizations of human behavior regarding individual and social life in the West were the ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato (427-347 B.C.) and his disciple Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) who through their dialogs presented representations of individual characteristics and social constructs inherent in those characteristics. These early philosophers are followed by the likes of:

Auguste Comte: Auguste Comte is rightly called the founder of sociology because he was instrumental in the establishment of sociology as a science which would encompass the entirety of human life and associated activities. He was the first theorists to consider that all characteristics of social life are unified and that has an evolutionary structural base.

Emile Durkheim: Durkheim was the first modern theorists who highlighted the reality of society. He stated that social facts are exterior to the individual but provide significant impact (effect) and are the subject of a general science which can be arranged in categories. Talcott Parsons: Parsons developed what he referred to as an action-frame in which an individual behaved, rightly or wrongly, in their activities. The action-frame contained four (4) elements of individual or group social action and a structure for understanding how values and norms within a society (or one’s place in society) impacted their roles and status within that society. The action-frame included: the individual, the end achievement of the actions undertaken, the situation in which the individual acted, and the means (methods, processes, or aims the means provided) that were used by the individual to create/forward the end they intended or desired.

Psychology

Of additional interest to our examination of profiling are several historically important persons in psychology whose methods and analysis are still considered and used in the contemporary inquiry. Those persons are:

Sigmund Freud: Freud essentially was the founder of the discipline of psychology. His work argued that not all mental illnesses have physiological (biological) causes and provided evidence that cultural differences have an influence on psychology and behavior of the individual. His work and writings contributed to our understanding of personality, abnormal psychology, and human development, although much of it has been discredited.

Carl G. Jung: He was a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work remains influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, and, philosophy. He examined areas of the human mind and behavior that constitute the psyche, and the way in which beliefs held and expected/required behavior influenced one another. He surmised that humans project a persona or the impression of ourselves that we wish to present to the world (other persons) and hide (from ourselves and others) what, he called our shadow, or those aspects of ourselves that contain our concealed anxieties and repressed thoughts. Works by Jung that might be of interest to the aspiring profiler include, “Man & His Symbols”, Psychological Types, and Psychology of the Unconscious.

Albert Bandura: His work focused on social learning theory (remember Freud’s cultural differences?), and stressed the importance of how human beings learn through observing others, imitation of others, and modeling others in seeking connection, reward, and success within the social environment (family, community, etc.) in which one dwells. Works by Bandura that might be of interest to the reader include, Social Learning Theory, Social Learning & Personality Development, and Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory.

The list of theorists and researchers noted above in sociology and psychology is not meant to be a complete list but rather serve as an example of persons who have contributed to our contemporary understanding of human behavior and motivation. Other theorists may be equally deserving of attention, even those we have come to know or understand that their earlier works may have been interesting but were inherently incorrect. Knowing and understanding the pitfalls and advances are equally important as both serve to illuminate the way ahead.

Early Profiling

One of the first criminal offender profiles created was that of Jack the Ripper. Of the eleven deaths in the White Chapel area, five were believed by the police to have been committed by the same person. The underlying basis for that belief and elements of the profile included the facts that each victim had their throats cut, that the wounds had been received from someone using a slashing motion from left to right, and that each victim had been extensively mutilated. Based on the facts that the offender preyed on known prostitutes, traveled undetected in the more squalid parts of London, hunted his prey alone at night, and managed to convince his victims to go with him or take him to locations hidden from direct view, that "Jack" (a diminutive of the name John ... and a John a name used to refer to the customers of prostitutes) was someone who would have been considered an unattractive middle-aged male who lived by his financially independent means (Marriott, 1888).

One of the first profiles created regarding a person to help those who were trying to understand the individuals’’ motivations, beliefs, and potential actions and reactions of another was created by the United States military during World War II. The subject of the profile was Adolf Hitler. The profile included an analysis of his known socio-economic history, his interpersonal behaviors with familiars and subordinate cabinet members of the military, and predictions of his future behavior as the war progressed and after the defeat of Germany. The document was created by a Harvard psychologist. Henry A. Murray, MD in 1943 entitled, Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler with Predictions of this Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with him now and after Germany’s Surrender.

The Mad Bomber of New York City terrorized New York from 1940 to 1957. It was not until 1956 that investigators approached James A. Brussel M.D., a psychiatrist at a New York hospital known to have some expertise working with criminals and understanding of criminal behavior. Dr. Brussel employed what he then referred to as “reverse psychology” utilizing the information he obtained from the investigating officers regarding the physical evidence and crime scenes, he applied his training, experience, and extensive readings of psychological techniques to provide a profile that narrowed the search for the bomber. His profile was so accurate that, as he expected, when the subject, George Metesky was arrested he dressed in the type of suit Dr. Brussel had predicted.

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As mentioned, human beings like to categorize things into manageable classifications that provide what we hope are practical and informative briefs for all manner of things. Thus, we depend upon knowledgeable persons and their fields/disciplines of study to provide accurate, pragmatic, and informative information in discovery and investigation into those varied arenas. Ultimately, when we seek out and discover the facts and information available in those fields, we frequently provide ourselves with greater opportunities for success in our own endeavors and sometimes, we improve the chances of our own survival or the survival of others because of that information

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Some Source Material

Cannel, M. (2017). Unmasking the Mad Bomber: When James A. Brussel used psychiatry to

think like a criminal, he pioneered the science of profiling. Smithsonian.com.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unmasking-the-mad-bomber-180962469/

 Canter, D. (2000). Offender profiling and criminal differentiation. Legal and Criminological

Psychology, 23-46.

 Marriott, J. (1888). The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel Murders. London: Werner.

 Murray, H. A.(1943). Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler with Predictions of this Future

Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with him now and after Germany’s Surrender.

http://hydrastg.library.cornell.edu/fedora/objects/nur:01134/datastreams/pdf/content