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mysewingadventures · 4 years

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Historical Accuracy of Costumes in Period TV Shows - Anne With An E

I was very surprised at how well my historical accuracy post about The Aeronauts did, so I decided to write about another one! This time I’ll be talking about the fashion in Anne with an E, but I’ll be mainly focusing on the kids’ clothing because kids’ period fashion is something that’s very rarely talked about and we know very little about.

First of all, if you haven’t seen Anne with an E, please do, it’s an amazing adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables novels which I adored reading as a kid, but unfortunately I barely remember anything from the books so watching the show was kinda cool going into it without knowing what exactly was going to happen. But anyways, enough about the show, let’s get to the fashion. A little disclaimer: some of the fashion choices made by the department are very closely tied to the plot so I might be spoiling a little bit, but I won’t be talking about any big spoilers or plot points!

So, the story takes place from 1896 (season 1) to 1899 (season 2), so we’re in the late Victorian time period.

First up, we have this dress that Anne wears at the beginning of season 1. It’s obviously way too small, very simple and plain.

It was very typical for girls to wear aprons as an outer layer so they wouldn’t get their dresses dirty, we can see that all throughout the show with all characters. But here we have something that looks odd to someone who might not know the story and Anne’s upbringing. She’s an orphaned girl, this is the only dress she has and has had for years, hence why she grew out of it. It’s plain, simple, she’s a poor girl who goes from one family to another and has to work to earn her stay. In her surroundings, nobody would have given her a new dress, or even an older but fashionable one. I’m assuming she got it at some point just because she didn’t have anything to wear and "as long as it would do the job, it was good enough."

Now, let’s fast forward a little bit until Marilla decides to finally make Anne a new dress. She mentions having some fabric laying around, so she uses that to sew the new garment.

It’s still very plain and not fashionable for the time, but it’s a garment that fits her, which was Marilla’s top (and arguably only) priority at the time. Marilla is one of a kind, she’s the direct opposite of pretty much everyone else in Avonlea. I won’t get too deep into her characterization, but Anne’s fashion reflects Marilla’s mindset that I just have to mention how she’s a woman who lives in a classist society without really becoming a part of it. She’s old fashioned at first, sure, but her priorities are different from all the other families. While everyone else cares about how they present themselves to others and how they are viewed and their reputation, Marilla stays true to herself and doesn’t change for anyone. They’re not poor, meaning they could afford pretty clothing if they wanted to but to Marilla, this is clearly a waste of money and she values other things more in life. Okay, sorry about this little ramble about her but it’s important to know to understand why Anne doesn’t have the most fashionable dresses aside from the Cuthberts being “poorer” (despite still being middle class).

When Marilla announced she wanted to make a dress for Anne, Anne immediately requested puff sleeves, which is understandable considering they were very fashionable in 1896. Anne has never had puff sleeves before and all of her friends probably did, so it’s just natural for her to want her new dress to have them.

So, puff sleeves... Enter Matthew who has a soft spot for his daughter and doesn’t share the same strict world views as Marilla. He goes out to Charlottetown to get a dress custom made for Anne, which has... *drum roll* puff sleeves!

It’s this beautiful blue dress which Anne falls in love with and wears on every special occasion. With the lace and the frills it almost feels a little too much for a child, as girls’ dresses were usually similar to adults’ but less decorated and more simple. Anne does stand out a little when she wears it to school, but the dress was clearly not made for everyday wear, she was just too excited about it not to wear it.

Here’s a cast photo (I couldn’t find any other ones where you can properly see other girls’ dresses without the aprons) and you can see that they’re generally less embellished than adults’ clothing of that time and just a little frilly.

Unless I am missing something, this was the only puff sleeve dress that Anne owns up to the end of the show, and that is because puff sleeves suddenly aren’t as fashionable anymore in the following years. The dresses still have a wider sleeve at the top but nothing that comes close to a puff sleeve.

Let’s move on with my favorite Anne dress.

I love this dress so much because it’s quite simple but still has that elegance of the Victorian era. So maybe I’m biased but I’d say it’s absolutely accurate! I’ve definitely not been thinking about making a replica and wearing it just for the heck of it. It definitely seems child-appropriate and more like an everyday dress than the previous one.

I’d also love to talk about Diana’s dresses for a moment as she is the richest girl in town (I believe? It could be Josie I’m not sure) but her dresses are always on point and beautiful and just a prime example of rich girls’ dresses of that era. Here’s one of her and her sister Minnie May wearing the same white Sunday dress.

You had to be rich to give your kids white dresses with not even an apron. Sure, you wouldn’t wear an apron on a Sunday dress, but you had to be either rich enough so your kids were used to having the best manners and wouldn’t get dirty or you had to be able to afford to get a white dress dirty. The Barry’s are both of those things.

There are many more dresses that were shown in the show but if I mentioned all of them, I’d still be writing tomorrow! Maybe I’ll make a part 2 someday. However, I couldn’t finish this post without mentioning the iconic... Just see for yourself.

And... I have contemplated for a long time whether I should say this or not as all I’ve ever seen about this dress was pure adoration but from a personal point of view, I... don’t like it. I’m sorry. And that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not historically accurate, it’s just not my favorite personally. But I’ll get into the historical accuracy.

I had to rewatch almost the entire episode to see the dress in its full length, and after searching through a lot of fashion plates I have only found one that resembles it kind of.

But I’m still not 100% satisfied. The bodice almost feels a little outdated? If I had to guess I’d say this dress was more 1889 than 99. The skirt is historically accurate, though, as well as the sleeves. The blouse is laying a little too flat for 1899 and so is the bodice, it would have been more pigeon-breasted, just like the dresses you can see in this previous scene.

Granted, not all dresses in this scene have that silhouette and not all dresses in 1899 had that silhouette, but it just looks a little wrong with that particular style. A reason for that could be the fact that Marilla made it and maybe she just wasn’t completely up to date with the latest fashion trends and/or recycled an older dress, which is both something I could totally see her do. But then again, it could totally be something worn in 1899 and no one would bat an eyelash. Just because something isn’t common doesn’t mean it’s wrong! Actually, the more I look at it the more it looks right.

This brings me to another point I wanted to mention, which is the length of the kids’ skirts.

This is a photo I found in which they are approximately 14/15 years old.

According to a guideline I found from 1900 that I can’t include because of the 10 photos per post limitation but will link here, the hemline for that age should fall right above the uppper edge of the boot. The length we see them wear is appropriate for 4-8 year olds!

But that’s really the only thing I have to criticize. There’s not a lot of info we have on kids’ clothing so it’s hard to make a general statement but these are the things I noticed while watching the show and afterwards while doing research.

PS. The hats are all very cool and accurate! So many hats! After the lack of bonnets in some other movies seeing hats in a period film just make me happy 😊

#anne with an e #anne #awae #fashion #historical fashion #fashion history #victorian fashion #victorian #im gonna be ripped apart for saying her blue dress isnt accurate arent i #i am genuinely scared to post it lol but here it goes #let’s say the blue dress is POTENTIALLY accurate okay I’m just very confused because I haven’t seen anything like it #yeah that’s better

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gloomverse-theories · 3 years

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Who is Amaryllis?

The first magician in the history of Gloomverse, Amaryllis, is shrouded in mystery. A legend who opened the doors for humankind to a new era: one of magic, and freedom.

However, they have yet to make an appearance in the comic unlike the others, and they have been missing ever since that first accomplishment. In this post, we will try to figure out who could be Amaryllis.

Let’s start with the obvious one and get it out of the way:

Amaryllis is dead.

This one seems logical. It’s been 2000 years since that first feat of magic, and if the strain of parting the Storm didn’t sever them, then time took care of it.

But I have some objections to that.

Mancers seem unaffected by time, and are both ageless and hard to kill. Even Prisma is not completely gone after what the Dark Lord, another mancer, did to her. Unless the same happened to Amaryllis, they are likely still kicking as much as Amadeus, Malus and Hyacinth are.

What if the effort was too much? They were a young teen, a new magician who used magic for the first time in history! They wouldn’t have known about the rules and the risks, and severed themself.

As we have seen with Cakegirl, there’s still a body left after a severing. She’s also (probably) completely intact and not broken like a statue or with huge scars from the blast and the fall.

If Amaryllis had severed, the body would have been preserved! Sure, it could have been lost, but the myth would have more solidity to it if for a time there was a body to call Amaryllis. Oral traditions would pass the word around, and pilgrimage would have taken place, which is something that can be traced with archeology.

My conclusion? Amaryllis is still alive and actively avoided the spotlight. They went into hiding after that first act and remained a legend on purpose.

Amaryllis is Amadeus

We already alluded to that theory in some posts.

In my last point I stated that Amaryllis purposefully remained in the shadows, and… so did the Dark Overlord. Absolutely nothing is mentioned about a fifth mancer in Purple’s book, no name, no deeds, nothing. Yet there was a fifth figure in the illustration of the mancers, and that’s the only proof we have that they exist. The rest of the evidence and records of their existence might have been erased, possibly on purpose, to keep themself out of the spotlight…

But as readers, we have access to more knowledge than Purple. We know that our resident mooching Hobo is also known as Amadeus the Dark Overlord, and that he is undeniably a mancer. In the dream, all of the known mancers were present: Prisma and a younger Amadeus (?) who were the stars of the show, but behind Yellow we also see (who we theorize to be) Malus and Hyacinth rushing towards the temple.

They’re all in the same room! Except one…. Have you ever seen Amaryllis and Amadeus together in the same room? No? Then I rest my case.

More seriously, Yellow calls out a name, but never finishes it. She says “AMA—” before being interrupted/before Rylie wakes up. Coincidentally, both Amadeus and Amaryllis start with “Ama” and we have no way of knowing which one she was saying.

Our one eye witness of the scene didn’t seem to know whether the Dark Lord was a man or a woman, so their look is ambiguous (long dark hair, face obscured, (possibly malnourished) slim body, concealing rags, nothing to indicate a preferred gender presentation). If it hadn’t been that way, we would have been more prone to say “oh he’s a man, so it’s definitely Amadeus / oh she’s a woman, so it’s definitely Amaryllis”.

HOWEVER

That’s only if we assume cisnormativity.

Who’s to say an immortal and powerful being would stay as their assigned gender? Sounds fake.

If one person would get that gender is a social construct that doesn’t really matter, it’s a millenias old hermit with magical power.

Which brings me to this conclusion: Amaryllis and Amadeus are the same person who goes by different names depending on how they’re feeling or what others call them.

Hobo never threw a fit like Rylie about being called by his name, and in that he reminds me of Wander. Embracing the names given to him.

What about the Storm? Amadeus and Amaryllis don’t have the same magical abilities, one works with Darkness and the other deals with the sky. A good point, for which I fortunately have a retort.

Compared to a random magician, mancers have incredible powers and magic potential. This also includes their “magic personality” which is much broader and encompassing than your average magician. Compare Cakegirl who can only create and manipulate cakes and other sweets, to Amadeus who’s domain is darkness and who can presumably create and control everything that relates to it. Your first thought might be that controlling shadows isn’t as all encompassing and powerful as what I’m making it out to be, but I’ll reply that you’re thinking too small. With mancers, the sky's the limit! (pun intended)

Speaking of sky, a storm can count as Darkness, can’t it? It casts an enormous shadow, and if you can manipulate shadows, you could also manipulate what casts it. The Storm also has a color palette reminiscent of the Dark Lord: Red, greys, black… I think there’s a link!

And I’ll end with this:

Amaryllis was the first person to gain magic, and they did so as a child who grew up in caves, unable to go outside because of the raging Storm. Magic is based on your interests, on what you like to do. Would a child have such a love for the Storm depriving them of freedom that their magic would be sky-themed? Or would they resent it for everything they put them through? It’s possible that Amaryllis was indeed fascinated by the Storm and that their sky magic reflects that, but I think it’s also likely that Amaryllis’ magic was not sky magic, but rather shadow magic. They grew up in caves, playing and hiding amongst the omnipresent darkness, and I think it’s more likely that they developed a fondness for this rather than for the storm. Since their first feat of magic was getting rid of the Storm, people remembered them as a sky magician, and they disappeared into the shadow before proving them wrong.

Amaryllis is Yellow

Did that last one seem a bit too far-fetched? Well I’m not done!

Let’s say there IS indeed five mancers, and not actually four.

Amaryllis’ name has been cited in the comic by Cirrus. In Stratoverse, the Sun is revered as a Goddess who gives stratoversians their weather magic and looks after them. This Goddess is known by the name Amaryllis.

Amaryllis is a flower, as most ecoversians are named after a plant, but amarillo is also the color "yellow" in Spanish. Coincidentally, Yellow is both of those. She's originally from Ecoverse as her room indicates (the bed sheet has a Hyacy symbol), and she was briefly in Gloomverse during its foundation as part of Prisma’s entourage. After the events that transpired there, she went to Stratoverse where she is nowadays seen as a Goddess. The grandchildren of the King admire her and the Queen takes orders from her: she’s in a position of power, in the shoes of a leader.

Sidenote: if the theory that Prisma and Yellow were a couple is exact, and that Rylie is their child (or a reincarnation of), then she’s the “daughter” of two mancers and as such, probably dangerous. She’s also Rainbow themed, and what is a rainbow if not the convergence of Sky/Cloud and Light? Rylie Rainbow Mancer Confirmed.

It also makes sense that the weather mancer would find herself in Stratoverse, the cloud kingdom, near the planetary Storm that she cast away many years ago. She may be here because of the Storm, to keep it at bay with the help of other weather magicians. It is said that the closer you are to Stratoverse, the stronger magic potential you have. Coincidentally, Stratoverse is where the discoverer of magic resides. Could she be the source of magic?

However, Yellow has a ladder in her room and likely can’t fly. If she was a weather magician or even a weather mancer like Amaryllis must have been, then she should be able to fly like the other stratoversians. Beside her passive coloration abilities, she doesn’t showcase any magic. Why? Maybe she lost her wand and hat after the events in Gloomverse, maybe she can’t use magic anymore… or maybe she does not have weather magic.

In her room, the bedsheet has a Hyacy symbol which means she’s from Ecoverse, but AFTER the revolution of Malus and subsequent peace of Hyacinth. Unless the 500 years old Yellow really liked Hyacy ideology yet didn’t feel the need to intervene during the slavery, the revolution or the restoration, it’s safe to say that she wasn’t alive at the time and grew up during a period where it was already an established religion.

Purple also says that the Colors were a Mancer’s servant and even if “servant” may not be entirely accurate, Prisma still seems to be in charge. If Yellow were a mancer, would she still be “Yellow”? Being a Color puts you under the authority of Prisma, if she truly was a Mancer (and an older one than Prisma) why would she become one of her followers and not an equal? I can see two ways out of this. Either Yellow is indeed a mancer and wanted to have her abilities enhanced by Prisma via Colorification, or Yellow is not the original Amaryllis, but a reincarnation who became a Color before getting magic/figuring out her powers.

Between those two, Yellow being a reincarnation is more convincing. However we don’t know what are the consequences of becoming a “Color”, and if Yellow being a mancer would affect this in anyway. Since Harold’s and Purple’s “color palette switch” happened when they got their magic, we can theorize that Yellow became a color when she got her magic. How did it affect her powers? It’s unclear, but like I said before, Yellow can’t fly and likely can’t use other forms of magic. Prisma “gave” her magic (like Hobo did for Harold) but maybe also took its real version away? Prisma had the power of another mancer under her control, which could explain why she had to be taken down.

While Yellow = Amaryllis is a very interesting theory, I believe that Yellow being Amaryllis is a red herring.

She literally denies being a goddess to the Stratoversian children who believe her to be Amaryllis.

Amaryllis is Rylie

I mentioned in the last one that Amaryllis may have “reincarnated” or something of the sort in Yellow. It’s unclear if there IS a reincarnation mess in gloomverse, but the whole Color thing makes it seem plausible. It also explains why Amaryllis didn’t do anything when human rights were being violated: they weren’t there anymore.

Why Rylie though? Isn’t Yellow a much likelier Amaryllis? Well, my dear conspirator, this theory also explains why Yellow wants her dead.

Let’s go over the evidence!

Rylie’s magic is very air-themed: she has blue boots that make her fly and yellow gloves that make others fly (Cakegirl got to fly thanks to the AIR PUNCH Rylie gave her). Both of her altered hats have a little wing as decoration and her wand is composed of two clouds (and a rainbow) which are sky symbols.

We also know that Amadeus and everyone else involved in this shebang didn’t want Rylie to get magic. Why not? Magic is supposedly based on someone’s interest, so her getting magic when she was obsessed with unicron the unicorn would have resulted in a non-threatening magic. It seems they were more worried about her potential than what kind of magic she would get, though Hobo looked like he recognised her wand/power when she used them during the camp out.

Everyone looked away. He did not.

Rylie’s magic is sky themed, and her potential was frightening enough that Amadeus tried to keep magic away from her. That sounds like a (sky) mancer to me.

During her dreams (specifically Hereafter) she is often seen in a cloudy landscape, walking on clouds in an open sky with no lands beneath. The clouds take her where she wants to go, they obey her instinctually.

And where does she want to go? To a cave, similar to the ones early humans might have lived in, maybe the cave the original Amaryllis lived in? The scene she sees inside possibly comes from either Prisma, Yellow or the baby, but the outside must come from Amaryllis, or an equally old mancer.

Now here comes the fun part. Why did Yellow ask Virga to kill Rylie? Why did Amadeus keep her magic away from her for so long?

Because Rylie is Amaryllis. A Sky mancer with the Storm, the deadliest phenomenon to exist on the planet, under her control. What would happen if an inexperienced magician accidentally unleashed their power? What if the Storm came back and sent all of humanity in a dark age?

Well… what if it had already happened once before?

In his book, Purple mentions “The Return” but never explains what it is for legal reasons. We believe that the “return” that drastically changed stratoverse’s society was the return of the Storm.

Amaryllis was the only one who could control the Storm, but they disappeared for centuries, and had no reasons to make it return.

Which is why I think it was an accident. A newly reincarnated Amaryllis would not be aware of the scope of their power. Like Wallis showed us, magic tends to go wild when a powerful magician is feeling… strong emotions. Sadly that magical outburst affected a lot more people and threatened all of Stratoverse. It seems like people don’t want that to happen ever again.

It may seem harsh to kill Amaryllis and all of their reincarnation, but the fate of the world is in the balance. Yellow has shown with Stratoverse’s system that she cares more about the greater good than for the individuals. What’s one person in the grand scheme of things? Not much. It’s a trolley problem, really. Except you either kill one person every time they reincarnate, or risk dooming the entirety of humanity. Would you be willing to take that risk? Yellow isn’t.

Amadeus has tried a more peaceful way of resolving this conundrum: no hat, no magic, no problem! Alas Cakegirl forced his hand, and now he is keeping a close watch on Rylie. He won’t let it happen again.

One thing doesn’t hold up. Amaryllis is seen as a Sun God, as a personification of the Sun. Not as a sky mancer. Even though the sun is in the sky, it’s much more related to Light, to Prisma, to Yellow. Everyone is quick to assume that she IS Amaryllis, but in this theory, she would be usurping this name to get her ways. I don’t know if Virga would be aware of that, or if she’s going to find out that Yellow lied to her and ordered the death of her goddess. Wouldn’t that be fun :3

One last thing: AmaRYLLIS => AmaRYLIE

Amaryllis is Ylil

I know that it sounds crazy. Ylil is an inversian and she doesn’t even have magic. What sort of proof could I possibly have? Just one. Amaryllises the flowers are closely related to lillies. Lilly…. or should I say Yllil?

That’s it, that’s the theory.

More seriously, while they may not be Ylil, it is possible that Amaryllis lives in Inverse. Maybe not as an official resident or maybe not currently, but them retiring from the world by living in Inverse when all the other events went down would make sense. It would explain their lack of intervention or relevance.

Inversian eyes can only support blues because the color of the sky is the only one that can not be blocked. The sky, the weather, they cannot be blocked. They’re the only ones allowed. The only magician to be tolerated in Inverse is the sky magician.

Thematically, Amaryllis relates more closely to Inverse than to Stratoverse.

Important event marked by a discovery? Check

Retiring from the world to get away from magicians? Check

Only like the sky? Check

Very secretive? Check

Instead of Amaryllis=Stratoverse and Prisma/Amadeus=Inverse/Gloomverse, I think we have Amaryllis=Inverse, Prisma=Stratoverse and Amadeus=Gloomverse.

Amaryllis is… someone else

Sometimes people exist to add flavour but end up not being relevant and that’s okay.

It’s not. I’m a conspiracy theorist. Everything MUST be linked.

The end.

TL;DR

Amaryllis diseappeared on purpose, either by fleeing to inverse, staying in the shadows or going by a different name and face. While Yellow is a convincing Amaryllis at first glance, some stuff doesn’t hold up. Amadeus and Amaryllis are linked, if not the same person. It’s possible that Amaryllis reincarnated, perhaps in Rylie, and is a danger to humanity because of their control of the Storm.

#gloomverse theories #gloomverse #mod green #gv #amadeus #amaryllis #mancers #rylie #yellow #well that was long #also i came up with TWO MORE theories while writing this post #sooooo #welp #guess there's gonna be some more posts soon

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cats-moss-gays · 4 years

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@terflies

You’ve been all over my posts so I’m just going to consolidate into this one. I’m tired of scrolling past your long and quite frankly boring responses. This post will be divided into sections. If you’re going to respond please say something interesting. However I doubt either of us will ever change the other’s mind. These are kind of like closing statements and I doubt I’ll make anymore major responses because I’m trying to stay focused on offline things.

1. Unanswered Questions

There are some questions and statements in my reblogs that you conveniently ignored.

Definition of a woman? You responded with some generic bs that very clearly isn’t an answer. I’ll be more specific, what should the dictionary definition be? Any ideas?

If I don’t feel like a woman am I allowed to identify as one? You said you weren’t going to humour this question but it is applicable to me and many other gc women. I definitely don’t have any internal feeling of womanhood, or any gender. Does this mean I have to be agender? Is the female gender label restricted to a certain feeling? Or is there absolutely nothing that women have in common?

What is the feeling of womanhood? You kind of answered this but I have a follow up question. You say the feeling of womanhood is enjoying being perceived as a woman. If I feel indifferent to this does it mean I’m not a woman? Additionally, many women feel uncomfortable with being perceived as a woman because of the misogyny associated with the label, does this make them men?

2. Inaccurate Statements and Lies

I don’t believe any “TRAs” define women by gender roles

You may not but there are many who do. It’s also important to point out how deeply ingrained gender roles are in society; you can’t stop them by just saying your choices exist in a vacuum. I’m sure you think I’m just making this up for fun, so here are some examples ;) x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

So this whole…thing is dishonest from the start. Gender does not replace sex.

In another post you said that laws should be based on gender instead of sex. So which is it, either gender isn’t replacing sex or it is. When feminists talk about sex based oppression they’re called terfs. When gay people say their attraction is based on sex they’re called transphobic. When people were saying that only females get cervical cancer, they were called violent transphobes. Gender is absolutely attempting to replace sex as the basis of legal protections, safe spaces, political movements, etc. Two of the top post on my blog are more extreme example of this. x - x

BONUS: You’re saying TERF rhetoric

3. The “Questions” Post

You seem very confused about how to define biological sex and to some extent I understand that but you have to stop playing dumb. There must be some way that doctors are able to identify the sex of a fetus before it’s even born in the vast majority of cases, right? And before you try to say I’m just ignoring the existence of intersex people or trying to deny science, I’ll point out that I have watched and read a lot of “sex is a spectrum” stuff. I understand that DSDs exist and that biology is complicated. Our disagreement is mostly not over the facts but over how to define them. I know that however I explain it you’ll pretend you don’t understand it, so instead I’ll just link you to some other sources that explain it more in depth. x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

A third sex—and many creatures have more than two—does not necessarily mean a third gamete. Mostly this question is a childish distraction, but if you were to use a strict, gamete-based definition of sex the answer would be “none”.

So all infertile people are a third sex? To be female you have to be able to bear children? And you call me regressive, yikes. This can be debunked with the same sources from above but I wanted to feature it in my post because I want people to know that you think there’s a third sex.

I made a quick little chart to compare all the things gender has been compared to! The difference is that while many are socially defined, gender is socially constructed. If someone never interacted with other humans, they would still have a skin color, have or not have specific abilities, have a sexual orientation, and be male or female. They would not have an observable gender identity.

1 - You refuse to humor my questions about being a woman who doesn’t feel like one, however this is not in bad faith; I do want to know what you think. Many gc/radfems, including myself, and many women in general do not have a specific feeling of gender. This is especially true for gnc women, who often feel a disconnect from the feminine gender role and subsequently, the feminine gender. The solution is to realize that there are no standards to conform to to be a woman, no clothes or interests or feelings, just the biological reality one is born with.

2 - You say “the feeling of womanhood is enjoying being called a woman” but what does that mean? It’s circular reasoning, a fallacy called begging the question. How do you know you are a woman? If I gave up being a terf on tumblr, how would you advise that I identify if I don’t think I feel like a woman? My current plan was to just pick the mogai flag with the prettiest colors, but I’m thinking maybe there’s more to it than that...

3 - See my explanation above. Sex is comparable to race or disability or sexuality; gender is not.

4 - You say genders are social classes. If they are indeed social classes, they are unnecessary ones that reinforce oppression. They are undefinable when not based on biological sex or gender roles. The other example of classes I can think of is wealth. Wealth classes have obvious divisions, you can’t just identify into more money. Gender has nothing that is shared by every woman, man, or nonbinary, so you can just identify in and out of classes. Additionally, if there are like 100 genders, are there 100 classes?

4. The “Biological” Sex Post

Gender does not replace sex

Then why are TRAs trying to say sexuality, legal protections, bathrooms, spaces, political movements, etc should be based on gender instead of sex? You keep contradicting yourself; you should talk to your fellow trans activists because many would disagree. Also see my response in part two.

A number of points here aren’t factually wrong but simple (*simply) irrelevant

So you would agree that biological sex is important and that it is relevant to many conversations? Then why were people getting mad about this?

Or this?

On to the specific examples. This post is long enough already and I’m not going to spoon feed basic biology to you because you’ll probably just ignore it. I referenced a variety of sources earlier. I’ll just reference Invisible Women since it’s an amazing book.

1. This first point is, appropriately enough, true in isolation; it just doesn’t support Paradox Institute’s argument. Listing it leads the audience to believe that truth is on their side, but PI do nothing at all to justify that.

So nothing here is true? They’re just lying? Here are their sources btw.

2. Generally irrelevant, but not entirely biologically accurate, either. It isn’t that ‘male’ and ‘female’ are categories intrinsic to nature that produce small, motile and large, immotile gametes respectively; ‘male’ and ‘female’ are labels we assign (generally, but not always) according to gamete size.

So it’s not relevant that one sex has the ability to carry children or menstruation or get an abortion? It’s not like there’s any issues women face specifically for that, right? So we assign the labels male and female to gametes. If you want to play semantics, sure, we created the words, but the gametes themselves already existed. Not really sure what you’re trying to say here other than disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing and moving some words around. Are you implying that the categorizations of gametes are subjective? Are you saying there’s a spectrum of gametes?? Are eggs just big sperm and sperm just small eggs??? Genuinely have no idea what the fuck you’re trying to prove here.

3. Whatever your opinion of evolutionary psychology, this does not preclude gender. (On the contrary, we ought to include gender in our understanding of cultural development with respect to sex.)

The only gender in history was gender roles, and both were tied to sex in most cases. Sex absolutely came before gender and is more integral to our existence. In any time before the last few decades, gender and sex were basically synonyms.

4. Entirely a straw argument. And, to the contrary, precision greater than two sex categories would be beneficial (i.e. specific sex characteristics, history, endocrinology etc.).

Obviously doctors don’t just diagnose based on sex, they factor in medical history and other traits. Precision is irrelevant because it still focuses on sex not gender. If it’s “entirely a straw argument” why did someone else reblog your response with this?

Speaking as a member of a medical family, the medical one fucking OFFENDS me.

Blood type HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GENDER. Or biological sex! Both are totally irrelevant! And medication dosage is determined by AGE and SIZE. A 25-year-old 160-pound person with a penis needs the exact same dose as a 25-year-old 160-pound person with a vagina. In fact, possibly LESS of a dose, if the person with a penis is 5’10” and the person with a vagina is 5’5”. (The taller person may be underweight.)

This is just. UGH. I could scream.

@prismatic-bell this is one of the funniest and dumbest replies I’ve ever gotten. First of all “member of a medical family” tf is that lmao. This reminds me of that post where the “medical worker” tra turned out to be a garbage collector guy. I have no idea why you brought up blood type when it is literally never mentioned in the original post. Strawman much? Fucking obviously blood type isn’t affected by sex, and you’re completely missing the point if you think gender has anything to do with this. Medication dosage is decided by age and size, yes, but also biological sex. This is like basic medical science, dumbass. Mandatory reading from Invisible Women as punishment for your stupidity crimes:

People called her a terf for this :)

5. How sports are best divided is a far broader question than this point implies. We could, for example, segregate sports by relevant physical attributes (as is already the case in some sports) rather than by sex or gender. This point also presupposes (but does not justify) that a woman having an advantage in women’s sports by dint of being trans is significantly greater than an advantage any woman might have by dint of her natural attributes (which, empirically, she does not) and hence would be unfair. That said, enforcement of “female” sports is already marred by racism and perisexism.

You agree sex and gender are different, yes? So then why should males be in female sports? You’re trying to distract me with that stuff about physical performance and whatever. Focus on the question at hand, should males be allowed into female sports? We cannot eradicate sex-segregated sports because female athletes will be even more systematically disadvantaged. If you were truly a feminist you’d understand that female sports are the result of the movement you claim to support. More Invisible Women facts plus some interesting info about the plough hypothesis:

6. Simply untrue. Excluding trans women from statistics about women on the basis that doing so would affect those statistics is arbitrary at best. Those statistics may change, but that does not mean they are unsuitable or inappropriate. The exclusion of any subset of women can be justified in exactly the same way.

Nope! Stop trying to use women of color and intersex women as justifications for why we should let men pretend to be women. You’ve seen the hundreds of receipts of trans women committing all sorts of male violence. Has anyone found anywhere near a comparable number of trans men doing similar things? They have not, even though if trans men were truly men they would be much more violent.

7. The majority of single-sex spaces are, functionally, just as much single-gender (owing to the traditional equivalence of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and to the majority of the population being cis. Trans people have been using spaces appropriate to their gender for decades, whereas concerns about them doing so are based on speculation and hypotheticals rather than fact. (Aided, as with a lot of bigotry, by bad and manipulated statistics.)

I’ve spoken about my opinions on the bathroom debate before. If a passing trans person uses the bathroom of their choice I don’t really care, but there have already been many examples of men making women uncomfortable in their bathrooms, or worse. Making all bathrooms gender neutral is by far the worst idea, but unfortunately that seems to be where we’re headed. More Invisible Women, just for fun:

8. This is the worst red herring, exploiting violent misogyny for the sake of argument. It is another straw argument, too, since—even ignoring trans-positive feminism in practice and assuming trans people act only in self-interest—trans people are concerned with addressing such injustice.

Sure, many trans people are supportive of feminism. But we can’t effectively dismantle the patriarchy if we can’t accurately describe the (sex-based) oppression involved. Women are routinely silenced when talking about our biology, even when there is no “transphobic” language involved. “Trans-positive feminism” also often reinforces misogyny by supporting sex work and porn, and by shutting down analysis of things like femininity and makeup because “some women like it.” See also from trans activists: misogyny racism homophobia + lesbophobia

9. Similar to (7) there is no consistent distinction between sex and gender across law. Even so, this is another red herring as it is possible to recognise both sex and gender in laws and policies. Some laws already do (at least functionally, if not explicitly).

You can deny it but the TRA train is leaving without you and they’ve been clear about their goals. As you’ve seen in this post, gender is intended to replace sex. Those who bring up sex-based issues are silenced as “terfs” who deserve the hatred thrown at them.

Sorry for making such a long post but I was on a roll so I just kept writing. I don’t expect @terflies to respond to all of this but I wanted an excuse to make some sort of masterpost that links to a lot of my other posts and can be used in the future. Online school is going pretty well and I’m trying to start some doing some hobbies that are better than tumblr blogging.

#my posts #discourse #factfem #receipts #masterpost #there's so many things mentioned in this post i'm not going to bother tagging them all #debunking anti terfs #terf

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noonymoon · 4 years

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You Have Been Lied To #4

hello again!

in the first few posts we have talked about

how the public narrative is carefully constructed by a global elite

how our entire perception of our past and how we came to be was shaped throughout history

how the myths and stories about a great flood and giants throughout all the cultures are real

how there are children going missing in massive amounts

and why they are going missing 1 & 2

while i am not at all hurt on a personal level by the fact that many people start to unfollow me - i really don't care for status, fame, pleasure, distraction, an online-reputation, or ANYTHING at all anymore -, i am really saddened that only a fragment of people care for the Truth. the only thing i can do is keep going and pray that people will wake up in time. many others have begun to wake up (a lot of people woke up because of the Qanon movement but i am not a Qanon).

in this post today, i'm going to shed light on what Nazi-Germany actually was. i personally didn't dig deep into my own research because i am entirely overloaded with all kinds of researches and Hitler is not really my favourite topic in the world. but i've read a great book that pulls from many well-researched sources, plus i am using my common sense. when you can count 2+2 together and it makes sense, you know that ist is the Truth. the 2+2 we are going to look at today is the following:

- we've learned that the mainstream media and the entertainment media serves mainly two agendas: 1. to keep the truth away from us, and 2. to shape our perception of WHAT is possible, what is fantasy, what is truth and what is just too crazy to be real. right?

so, according to this parameter, let me ask you the question: why do you think there are SO MANY movies and works about the Nazis being deep into occult knowledge and into mystical artifacts? Captain America: Civil War, Hellboy, Wolfenstein, the Indiana Jones series, Iron Sky, The Keep, and many others are part of this concealing of Truth. the reason why Hollywood wants us to believe that this thought is too fantastical and too absurd to be real is that the Nazis truly had religious interest in the occult.

here is a brief overview about the topic

there are quotes by Hitler himself which make one think what the heck did he mean by that...? (looking at it from a public narrative perspective ofc)

according to what i've learned Hitler was a huge follower of the teachings of Madam Helena Blavatsky - who founded Theosophy, basically the doctrine where the New Age movement gets pretty much all its ideas, and on which all the secret societies are founded: the Knights Templar, Golden Dawn, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Ordo Templi Orientis, Illuminati and many more.

this image alone speaks volumes once you realize what’s being communicated.

the Lemurians? the Atlanteans? THE ARYANS? after breaking the veil of deception that is around all of us, it couldn't be more obvious that Hitler was deep in the occult knowledge that was brought forth by Theosophy in 1875. it simply does not make sense at all that Hitlers only goal was to create a race that "has blonde hair and blue eyes" (though it plays a tiny role in this as well). Hitler truly believed with all his rotten heart that there is a race that is superior to regular humans. this religious belief burned in him and his Nazis like an insane fire and they went on a lot of expeditions around the world to find more occult knowledge and also a very specific thing which i am not mentioning yet.

there are a ton of actual real photos of Hitler and his Nazis in Tibet visiting the monks, and also Hitler in the Antarctica (which is a whole rabbit hole for itself but that one is really crazy *lol*) and whatever you've heard in the public why Hitler went to these places, it is not the Truth.

when i was still in this witchy community on here, i often saw posts that basically told Nazis to f*ck off and stop using Runes. back then i had no concept of why any Nazi would use the nordic runes except maybe the superficial thought of "Germans are germanics are nordics" or whatever *lol*, the Truth is, in Hitlers quest to unlock as much as occult knowledge as possible, he also visited Iceland and studied the Nordic Edda. [ Hitlers goddaughter was also named Edda, just throwing this in here ] - Guido von List (an Austrian living in Germany) was apparently the first one to assign mystical meanings to the nordic runes and founding an occult Religion named Wotanism, he died in 1919.

another thing i want to point out is the Swastika. you probably know that the Swastika is pretty much an ancient symbol and appears in ALL kinds of cultures of this world. there is a reason for this that goes deep beyond any regular comprehension, but the public narrative is that Hitler simply stole this symbol and made it a Nazi-Germany symbol, but the truth goes much, much, much deeper than that.

of course we can pretend like all of these connections are just "coincidences" and of course we can cling to the public narrative that is telling us lies, lies, lies. i dearly encourage everyone who wants to know the Truth about this world to start researching. in all of the previous posts i've mentioned and linked really good starting points. you don't have to be a Christian or believe in Jesus in order to find out about the world we live in (though, after discovering all of the pieces and puzzling them together, the most logical thought for me was to literally RUN towards Jesus and i know this is different for everybody but i am praying for you to find Him). i know a lot of this sounds crazy and flat-out foil-hat-kind of way. but always remember that this image of the Truth is on purpose. people who dig into the Truth get out-cast, people who discover the Truth and want to wake other people up are being labelled as wrong and crazy, get silenced, get threatened, get assassinated.

to say it in Hitlers very words: "Truth is not what is; Truth is what people believe it to be" .... sadly, that is very true in our society today. everyone just picks and chooses what they want to believe and there is no concept anymore of ultimate Truth because we are being lied to from each and every side. and i know this sounds radical and Noony how can you say something like this, and so on and so forth, i really GET IT. i understand that it sounds radical, i understand that it isn't what people WANT to hear. you can condemn me all that you want, i really do not care anymore, this is way too important than setting my own comfort above it. Truth is truth, and lies are lies.

one of my favourite scriptures in the Bible is "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." --- John 8:32 ... it could NOT be MORE accurate. it's actually mindblowing how relevant and true these thousand year old words are, especially today. i've never felt so light and free and happy and sane EVER before in my entire life. i've quit my psychopharmacy drugs a while ago (i've been taking prescription drugs for more than 10 years) and my life is looking just bright and wonderful right now, and this even though i almost died in April, still recovering from it. i am more courageous, more filled with love, more motivated, more friendly, more calm, my household is doing just fine, everything is clean and neat, i am doing my chores, my plants are thriving, and even though i am literally ALONE 24/7 (real life AND online) i never ever feel lonely. and i am living with wide open eyes and even though this world is HORRIBLE, i am peaceful now. the Truth really DOES make you free. i've stopped with all kinds of toxic things, from sugar to drugs, you name it. i don't crave neither stimulation nor attention anymore. it's incredible. i can only recommend it. what God and his prophets also foretold over 2000 years ago that it would be EXACTLY like this. "evil will be considered good, and good will be considered evil" - people who speak the truth and do the good deeds will be demonized by the masses.

doing witchcraft and magic and believing in the New Age NEVER felt evil because i was never harming anyone. and i am pretty sure that 99,5% of you people on here feel the exact same way. we are being conditioned by the entertainment media to believe that magic is wonderful, innocent and curious. Disney is doing a GREAT job easing little children into the concepts of magic and fantasy. and i know most of all people never harm anyone with their magic. and God didn't forbid us to do magic because he doesn't want us to have fun or to have a spiritual life, or because he thinks we don't deserve any of the things we can do for ourselves magically. God will HAPPILY provide each and every need of us. the reason why God forbid his people to practice magic, sorcery, divination and witchcraft is to protect us from being deceived. now, a lot of people will rebel mentally, and that's okay, i was the same way. before you haven't discovered the truth and combined all of the puzzle pieces, it really just doesn't make a lot of sense, is really provoking and sounds bad. i was really wrestling with all this myself. now, i am grateful to the Lord that this wrestling process ended up in me being OPEN to what He has to say, and discovering the Truth instead of rebelling and living a lie any further. Praise God for not giving up on me with my stubbornness.

today, i've listened to an interview with the Illuminati Defector that i've mentioned in an earlier post, who was going to be one of the highest ranks in the Illuminati (Queen Mother of Darkness). her name is Jessie Czebotar and she has made it her mission to bring light to this worldwide matter and help survivors being rescued. please listen to some of her interviews, it’s mind-blowing what she has to say.

honestly, when you realize how EVIL these people are and that they ARE witches and druids and that they USE the occult and witchcraft and magic on an EXTREMELY high and incredible level, the LAST thing you WANT is to continue doing the same thing. like. i am not judging anyone here, truly. because we simply do not know what's going on. but when you suddenly realize that EVIL PEOPLE like Hitler, like the Illuminati and the Freemasons and all of these secret occult societies did and ARE doing the same thing of which WE regular people think it's no big deal and it's okay, you simply wanna run, run, run from it as far as you possibly can. at least this is how i feel about it. i am not forcing anyone to believe me, i am simply encouraging you to at least find out why i am saying all these things to you, and then decide for yourself.

Jesus said that we will know them by their fruits. a good tree can only create good fruit and a bad tree can only create bad fruit. a good tree can not create bad fruit and a bad tree can not create good fruit. it's really quite simple.

God bless the ones that read this with an open mind.

#history of germany #occultism #theosophy #God bless the truth

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alastanor · 4 years

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youtube

To start, I would like to thank @cis-het-angel-kinnie for bringing this video to my attention, even if it was to praise the video rather than to point out it's flawed arguments against Charlie for main character.

If you have not seen the video yet, I recommend giving it a watch prior to reading this or you may be confused.

Click to read more...

What Is A Protagonist?

I am not bringing up this question because I think the source used was incorrect. However, the statement that "protagonists ask questions and antagonists make arguments" is an oversimplification of both roles. And I am going to explain why.

The trope of protagonist vs antagonist is an age old theme which has been used countless times throughout storytelling's history in books, plays, films, and story-driven video games. As such, the definition of both roles has continued to flourish and evolve over time. It is no longer good vs evil.

While @diregentleman used books written by, I assume, published writers for his argument, I am going to use Creative Writing and Literary Experts from a Masterclass article.

In the article, a protagonist is described as this:

"In storytelling, a protagonist is the main character or principal character or group of characters in a story."

More than one character is capable of being an antagonist in this story. Given that demons are meant to be redeemed, fitting the theme of the story, it is fair to surmise that all (or the majority of) the demons surrounding Charlie are protagonists in some form.

The article goes on to state that the protagonist's goals reflect the overall story goals and the plot moves forward based on their decisions.

This being said, Charlie's overall goal reflects the premise of the story, that being that Hazbin Hotel is a story about redemption. This is a goal that Angel Dust does not have.

In DireGentleman's video, he claims Angel Dust joined the Happy Hotel with the intention of being redeemed, albeit skeptical whether it could actually be done. This is actually inaccurate, and we see this in both the pilot and the comic.

Angel does display skepticism straight from the gate, but when they explain their reason for approaching him (that no one else has agreed), he makes this face:

Does that really look like someone who believes redemption may be possible? But for further establishment of just how little Angel believes redemption is possible, Angel also laughs them off and calls their goal "lame."

The only reason Angel agrees to Charlie and Vaggie's proposition is because it is a rent free place to stay. He admits as much just a bit further into the comic. By the end, Angel says "Redemption, it's silly. Huh, Nuggs."

The tone we are led to believe he uses is one of contemplation and relief. Relief due likely to the fact that there is some light at the end of the tunnel to the shit situation he was in.

This is just comic evidence, of course. If we go to the pilot, when Angel is engaging in the turf war with Cherri Bomb, he explains that he is using Charlie and Vaggie for free rent. Further exemplified when he later asks if participating in the turf war meant he didn't have a free room anymore. But also in his conversation with Cherri, he also admits that he is still taking some drugs behind Charlie and Vaggie's back. Something that we see immediately toward the opening of the pilot when Angel buys a bag of Angel Dust.

Character Dynamic

I cannot emphasize this enough, the Hunicast is NOT a good exemplifier for character dynamics. Every single "character interaction" is based on fanon, not canon, and they are prompted by the fans themselves. Only Viv really knows exactly how Angel and Alastor would canonically interact. It is no better a source for character dynamic than the wiki is for accurate information. IE, some things may hold true, but the majority of it is not and it is better just to wait until it is confirmed canon.

Moving on...

There is a lot of focus on Valentino as a main antagonist, based entirely too much on the hope that Angel will be the main protagonist. And this is really just disingenuous when you consider there are two other implied Overlords, as well as several other sources of strife within the world of Hazbin Hotel.

An Antagonist is someone working against the protagonist to prevent them from achieving their goal. Alastor would not meet this criteria, as he is a self-professed observer and conflict creator. But he is not a main antagonist. Someone working against the goal of redemption could be anyone from the Overlords (which, far as we know, would include Valentino), Lucifer, or even Heaven itself.

Where antagonists come into play, quoting Masterlist once again, I think these two types of antagonists were overlooked:

A conflict-creator. An antagonist doesn’t have to be a “bad guy.” Sometimes, they’re just a character whose goals are in direct conflict with the protagonist’s, like Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice or Javert working to arrest Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.

The protagonist themselves. The main source of conflict in a story can be from within the protagonist themselves—their shortcomings or insecurities are keeping them from reaching their goal. A prime example of this is Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. While Holden comes into conflict with many characters in the novel, the ever-present antagonizing conflict comes from his own obsessions and insecurities.

Now, why did I bring up these two types? Well! I'm glad you asked! You see, where conflict-creator comes into play would line up more with Alastor. He isn't really the bad guy, but he does create some friction where his goals meet with Charlie's. He is a professed observer, but it is strongly believed that there is something else, another goal, that he has omitted.

As for the Protagonist themselves, this lines up pretty strongly where Charlie is concerned. You could argue that it does for Angel too, but Angel's goal, as mentioned before, is not Redemption. That goal is Charlie's, and hers alone. Yet it is her naivety, inexperience, and insecurities surrounding her failures as a princess that are holding her back from achieving her goal. Going by this, not only do we have multiple protagonists, but we also have multiple antagonists.

"So far, no one else's past is wrought with tension like Angel Dust's."

Even if this wasn't a sweeping, dismissive statement made with limited information, it would still be incorrect. Why? Because each and every character in Hazbin Hotel is going to have their own story to tell. Stories that will each be as relatable and wrought with tension, the only reason we know Angel so extensively is because Viv put the most work into him. She has admitted that Alastor and Angel were characters she wrote based on past dealings and experiences she had. Let those implications sink in a bit.

Now, to further this, people don't need to empathize with a character to like them. They can sympathize as well, even if they personally cannot relate to the emotions the character is feeling.

And where Angel is concerned, he is not addicted to drugs. Angel has used drugs to escape the pain of his trauma. His response in the pilot to having his drugs stolen from him is not one of a typical addict. Which leads us to believe the drugs are simply a coping mechanism more than they are an addiction.

Real Audience for Hazbin is 12 to 16

I would really fucking hope you are joking. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this was said by someone who isn't a parent. While yes, kids will be sneaky and watch or play things they're not supposed to, a show with drug use/abuse, rape, sex, physical/mental/emotional abuse, and suicide is as much for them as Rick and Morty.

Further, it is not just these themes that make the show for adults. It is the format of the storytelling. Yes, you can complain about what you consider issues with the pilot. But at the end of the day, it did it's job. It established the story premise, introduced important characters (Fat Nuggets does not fall in that category, calm down), gave a basic understanding of their relationships to each other, and get the audience interested in continuing the series. Considering the views for the pilot and the resulting disproportionate growth of the fandom, I would say it did that in spades.

Hazbin Hotel is not Steven Universe. I cannot say this enough times, and the reason I cannot is because I cannot tell you how many times I have come into contact with the underage side of the fandom griping about lack of lore, griping about lack of production information, and overall being exceedingly impatient. At the risk of sounding like an old miser, the underage side of the fandom has never had to wait for additions to a series. Like waiting for Homestuck updates, or the new release of a Harry Potter novel. They have had a steady schedule of content, along with shows that give exposition dumps "in the first 3 minutes."

So don't look at Hazbin Hotel through the lens of kids' show fandoms. It has so much more to offer than that.

Alastor vs Valentino

No, this is not about whether Alastor could beat up Valentino. In the video, DireGentleman pulled a huge pet peeve of mine and lumped Valentino and Alastor together, labeling them both "monsters." Which is opening a huge can of worms for me. So, I will give a brief summary of why that is wrong, and provide a link to one of my other posts for deeper diving.

So, there is a reason why Valentino is more hated than Alastor is. Lumping them together is a mistake.

Valentino is a pimp that abuses and manipulates his victims through intimidation and (implied through) some kind of addiction to the red smoke (whether that is real or symbolism is yet unknown). He takes who and what he wants, be damned the consequences or who gets hurt. He is incredibly self-serving, with no consideration for anyone else. He uses people like pawns, and when those pawns refuse to do what he wants, what does he do? He forces them to do it anyway.

By comparison, while Alastor may use his people like pawns, he also has more consideration for them and doesn't abuse them (far as we can tell). The evidence to support this is the attitude of those serving under Valentino vs those under Alastor. Niffty and Husk both seem to not have a problem with Alastor, and where Husk is concerned it seems that his attitude toward Alastor is their typical banter. But definitely nothing that displays abuse. In fact, when Husker is hesitant or even refusing to do as Alastor asks, Alastor doesn't force Husker. He offers payment in the form of something Husker genuinely likes.

Now, while some might argue this is also manipulating through addiction, one could look at it this way. However, Alastor didn't make Husker an alcoholic. That was Husker's vice to begin with, Alastor simply has no intention of fixing it. After all, Alastor has said he doesn't think anything can change a sinner.

For further explanation and delving into Alastor, click here.

Parents don't 'get' Charlie = Disney Princess

Once again, we fall upon the slippery slope of disinformed statements. While the joke was made that the princess of hell expresses herself best through song, parent issues do not equate to being something that is relatable primarily or only to kids and teens. It's kind of offensive that there is a sort or implication in this statement that adults don't have issues like insecurities surrounding their own failures, or parent issues like what Charlie has or worse. And once again, we fall into the empathize vs sympathize realm and I once again will say that the audience does not need to empathize with the protagonist to make them a good protagonist.

Charlie is a failed princess, her people don't respect her and didn't even prior to her hotel announcement. Yes, she is sheltered and naive. Likely due to how little she was able or allowed to interact with sinners. After all, her ex-boyfriend was from another hellborn family. One that, from what we can surmise, interacts rather frequently with the Magne family.

And it is because of this naivety and inexperience that her method to redeem sinners will not work.

In the video, DireGentleman states that we can pretty much assume that Charlie's redemption methods will work. But her methods, as we see in her song, is to inject demons with meds and take away/burn their vices. She is seeking immediate resolutions to problems that require therapy and a long process that should be making sinners want to change. All Charlie is currently accomplishing is earning the ire and scrutiny of her people. This is why I previously mentioned that Charlie is both protagonist and antagonist, as she is getting in her own way to accomplishing the goal of redemption. And this is where we find that Charlie meets the "starts out being wrong" requirement mentioned in the video as well as "admiring a character for trying."

Charlie is also in a perfect position to be the tour guide for us, the audience, as we observe the metamorphosis of every demon who needs to be redeemed. She is, once again, surrounded by those who need to be redeemed which means we will witness every character arc. This includes Angel, who does not need to be the central focus for us to witness his story.

Finally...

It was stated, or at least implied, that Hazbin Hotel's pilot is no longer relevant. This is a statement that pretty much leaves me puzzled. The only way it would be irrelevant is if Hazbin went in a completely different direction, and we have no reason to believe it will. Vivziepop is still creative director for Hazbin Hotel, and A24 is notorious for giving creators their creative freedom. What A24 is doing is animating, making VA regulations, and ensuring there is an air tight lid kept on the project. Especially given it's popularity in such a short amount of time.

Contrary to what DireGentleman said, Hazbin Hotel will definitely live up to it's hype. Being picked up by A24 will not compromise the show simply because it's not in the same realm of indie production that Helluva Boss is. And it's a bit unfair to Vivziepop to imply as much.

In Conclusion...

Please do a bit more digging in regards to not only the show, but everything surrounding it. Don't lump fanon and canon together and expect them to be equal sources, and please do not claim an obviously adult-audience show is more fit for children and teens.

And lastly, please do more digging to better understand media and storytelling. Reading books is great, but what you were using as the foundation for your arguments were far too simplified and vague,, given the complexity of the protagonist and antagonist roles. Overall, the video just came across as one huge helping of Angel Dust bias with a side of strong dislike for Charlie.

#Youtube #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel charlie #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel husker #hazbin hotel video critical #video analysis #long post #diregentleman #counter argument

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bubbyleh · 4 years

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it was arrogance to think you knew how to handle this - chapter 2

yeah, sorry. not enough time has passed between the posting of the last chapter for me to provide any new insight! again, scroll down my blog for the ao3 link if interested.

chapter 2: green to blue

Gordon immediately rushes to Josh's room, who he wakes when he scoops him out of bed. At first he's groggy and confused, but Joshua is comforted by his father's presence and quickly falls back asleep. Gordon holds his son, the most precious thing in his life, as he sits on his couch. He holds the kitchen knife tightly, away from Joshua.

He's not sure why nothing is happening. Gordon is half an hour deep into planning a move in his head when he realizes this. The Fae who was outside seems to have just done... nothing? Gordon's not entirely willing to believe they've just given up.

The sun begins to rise. The clock begins to creep closer to a time Gordon would usually wake up. He convinces himself, maybe, that the random Fae was just a one-off encounter. Gently, Gordon sets Joshua down on the couch, making sure he's still covered by the blanket from his room. He doesn't really want to leave Joshua's side, but at least he can still see him from the kitchen.

Joshua will probably be up soon, and Gordon wants to have breakfast ready by then. Having something to eat will occupy Josh for at least a little bit, which means any chaos he causes today will be delayed for at least a little bit.

As quietly as he can, Gordon starts sorting through his kitchen. He leaves the knife on the counter, within reach should the need arise. Normally he wouldn't make pancakes without a special occasion, but after the stress of last night, let alone the stress of the past month, he thinks he deserves some goddamn pancakes.

It's extremely easy to disappear into a task. Making breakfast while keeping an eye on Joshua is enough that Gordon doesn't begin asking himself questions, like why Fae would even be coming around and asking for Joshua now. He pushes thoughts like those aside, because he's a rational adult who's fully capable of compartmentalizing! He can have a panic attack later, when they've safely skipped town!

Once Josh wakes up, he's quick to his father's side, repeating "Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes!" Josh jumps as he speaks, grabbing onto the edge of Gordon's shirt.

Well, Gordon thinks, Fae or not, kids love pancakes. He picks Josh up, holding him with one arm as he flips a pancake. "Whoah, no good morning?" he teases.

Josh grumbles out a, "Good morning" before attempting to climb over his father towards the stack of finished pancakes.

"Slow down there, kid," he says, pushing Joshua's insistent hand away from the plate. "What makes you think you're getting any?"

The absolute look of betrayal that Josh's face turns into is absolutely hilarious, so much so that Gordon has to stop himself from completely bursting into laughter. "But I want them!" Josh insists.

"Yeah, well, maybe I made them all for myself. Didn't think of that now, did you?"

Joshua furrows his brow and attempts to wiggle out of Gordon's grasp towards the pancakes. The safety hazard that is Josh messing around near a heated iron pan is not lost on Gordon, who cries out, "Josh, hey!" The words scare Josh enough that he freezes, allowing Gordon the chance to get Josh back on the floor, away from the stove top.

"Joshua," he says, in a typical dad warning tone. "What's the rule when Daddy's cooking?"

"Be careful around fire and pans," Josh mumbles, looking towards the floor. Gordon sighs, relieved both for Josh's safety and the fact he knew the rule. Gordon kneels in front of his son.

"I know it was an accident, okay?" he assures him, placing his hands on Josh's shoulders. "I just got real scared, there. That pan's hot enough that it'll hurt me if I touch it, you could have gotten seriously hurt." Which is... definitely something Gordon doesn't want to think about the implications of. He doesn't know if iron and fire burning stacks for a Fae, but he'd rather not find out.

Josh reaches forward and hugs Gordon, and for a moment, that anxiety is gone. Gordon just hugs his son back. He takes a deep breath, internalizes it for a moment, and then gets back to dad business. He pulls back.

"Why don't you go sit at the table, and I'll get some pancakes ready for you?" Gordon suggests. Josh's eyes immediately light up, and he nods happily. Gordon smiles as Josh climbs into his usual chair at the table.

Hopefully, that filled today's Joshua Incident quota.

- - - -

For most of the morning, it rains, which Gordon is thankful for as it means he doesn't need to provide to actual reason he wants to keep Josh inside. However, it doesn't stop Gordon's eyes from straying towards the window, keeping an eye out for any movement. Even as Josh rambles as he scribbles vaguely humanoid shapes, Gordon can't find himself completely able to focus.

Because, horrifyingly, someone came to his front door with the purpose of taking his child. All Gordon can think about is potential encounters with this Fae increasing in severity. What the fuck do they even want Joshua for? It seems like a reversal from the old warnings he would hear growing up, that Fae would steal a human child and replace it with one of their own. Oh, if only Gordon could laugh at that now. Instead, he's clenching his teeth so hard that not even a single "hah" could pass through.

"Josh," Gordon says suddenly, interrupting the four-year-old mid-rant about princesses. Joshua looks up at his father, orange crayon stilled.

Despite Joshua's more chaotic tendencies, Gordon's heart swells when he looks at him. He thinks about their house, the place he's raised Josh in for the past four years. It's where he brought his son home for the first time, where Josh took his first steps, said his first words. The place their little family of two lives.

Which is why Gordon takes a deep breath before he says, "What do you think about moving?"

"Moving?" Josh parrots, his head tilting to the side slightly.

"Yeah, moving," Gordon keeps his voice steady. "Like to a new house. Somewhere else."

Josh turns back to his paper and continues drawing. "Um, all our stuff is here," he remarks.

"We'd take that with us, buddy," Gordon chuckles.

Joshua's eyes light up. "Let's take the house with us!"

Gordon hears the mail slot on the front door jostle, like someone is having trouble getting a letter through. Weird, they don't usually get mail. He decides to check on it later.

He shakes his head. "We can't take the house."

Joshua's bright smile turns to a frown. "But I like the house." He grips his crayon a little harder.

"The whole point of moving is that we get a new house," Gordon explains, but Josh still doesn't look too happy.

"But I wanna stay in this house! I wanna take it with!" Joshua begins shouting, and dear god, Gordon does not need to deal with this now. He's halfway through formulating a response when...

"Bro, just take the house with you."

Both Freemen snap their heads towards the hallway, where the strange voice came from. Gordon's heart nearly stops, as he recognizes the Fae from last night (or, more accurately, earlier in the morning). Except, he isn't exactly person-sized anymore. No, the Fae is closer to the size of Gordon's hand this time around, but that does not stop the anger that begins to rise in him.

"I don't understand the problem," the now small Fae says, absentmindedly scratching the stubble on their face. "S'not like you can't just take the house somewhere else."

Gordon shouts, "You again!?" at the same time as Joshua's, "Little guy!" He's almost too slow to stop Josh from running towards the Fae, grabbing him by the back of the shirt and holding him with one arm. It's easier, actually, to grab the Fae, who's four inches tall and doesn't make any effort to flee.

"What the fuck is your problem!?" Gordon yells into the tiny Fae's face. He ignores Joshua's scandalized gasp.

The Fae just looks annoyed and crosses their arms. "Man, I told you this, like, six hours ago. You should've remembered better." They point down at Joshua. "Just, um, give us the baby thing and we're all gonna leave you alone."

"I'm not going to give you my son!"

The Fae hums for a moment. "What if I like, marry you. Then it's also my son and I can take it."

"Wh- no!" Gordon sputters, "First of all, don't call my kid an it! Second-"

Gordon's cut off when the Fae begins to sing, small blue orbs flying into Gordon's face. Because, suddenly, a whole chunk of Gordon's anxiety and rage is gone, and he can't really remember why he was so mad in the first place. Mostly he feels... confused? He can faintly hear Josh saying, "That's pretty!"

Gordon gently lets Josh down on the ground, but he still keeps a grip on the Fae in his hand. "What did you just do to me?" he asks, his voice a little too unsure.

"Calm down," is all the Fae says. "Just give me the kid?"

Very suddenly, Gordon's anger returns tenfold, because of course that's why he was so upset, how could he forget? He's about to give this little shit a piece of his mind, but then Joshua sings. A stream of green and blue orbs exit his mouth, just like the one the Fae just used on him.

"Oh shit," the Fae, for once, looks thrown off. They squirm a bit. "You didn't tell me little dude was a mimic, man."

Gordon, once again, feels entirely unprepared for what he just witnessed. After a long pause, all he manages to get out is, "I've never seen him do that before."

The Fae laughs, but to be honest, it sounds more like cackling. "No shit. He can only do that when I'm around, because he's copying me. Stupid." They sigh. "He'll be able to do it a lot more if you just let him come with me, man. It would be way more fun."

Gordon's gaze finally returns to the itty bitty Fae in his hand. Walking them back to the front door, Gordon chucks them as far as he can into the woods.

#hlvrai #half life vr but the ai is self aware #gordos feetman #gordos freeman #benrey #joshua freeman #fae au #frenrey #eventually #it was arrogance to think #my writing

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starker-stories · 4 years

Text

The Cold, Chapter 3 - The Messages Series

This chapter on AO3

By @thestarkerisobvious and @starker-stories

New chapters in the series post every Thursday.

All links are to AO3. You don’t need to be a creator to have an AO3 account. You can have one solely as a reader. But to read anything at all in this series, you can just be an anonymous reader and/or commenter.

The best way to keep up with The Cold is to subscribe to the story on AO3. And the best way to keep up with the Messages Series is also to subscribe. Click on the ‘subscribe’ button on each of the above links.

Tags: Tony Stark Feels, Peter Parker Feels, College Student Peter Parker, Established Relationship, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor, Arc Reactor Kink, Peter Parker is a Mess, Spider-Man powers, Communication, They Finally Communicate!, And Fuck Of Course Look at Who It’s Written By Of Course They Fuck, Avengers Compound

The entire Messages Series. All links are to AO3.

Messages Unsent (complete & posted)

Nothing More Than A Machine (complete & posted)

Tomorrow (complete & posted)

My Virgin (Revisited) (completely & posted)

The Cold (completely written) posts every Thursday

Untitled Book 6 ( in progress )

Untitled Book 7 ( in progress )

Chapter 3: Cat-4 Hurricane

“You haven’t hurt me,” Tony said. You’ve always been skittish about it. I’ve always been a hundred percent certain that you won’t because, on some subconscious level, even when you’re far gone, you know it’s me and you won’t hurt me.

“But, if you’re capable of dropping off the side of the tower like that? Pete, I wasn’t just scared because I love you and, yeah, it’s scary. It’s… I’d say impossible, but you did it.”

Peter shrugged.

They were approaching the berm they had been headed to. Tony could see a white concrete wall had been built into it — the beginning of a structure that had been abandoned post-snap. They were only a few dozen meters shy of it when Peter veered left, walking toward some abandoned building materials that had been left in the field. Large wooden poles about ten meters long lay stacked beside several planks, probably pieces of a future obstacle course. Peter casually hopped on top of the short pile and walked across it.

“The reason actual spiders can fall from the top of the tower and be fine is because of their surface area… Sorry. Tangent. That’s not the point.” Tony stopped himself from heading off on an irrelevant lecture.

“A human-sized body can’t. Not even a spider-bitten one should be able to. But you did.”

Peter gave Tony a sideways glance and another shrug.

“So… I’m not going to argue the point with you. Something’s changed. It’s a problem. It can be worked. You’ll be okay. I know you will. I absolutely know you will,” Tony said, his first worry, as always, being about Peter.

“Oh, I’ll be fine,” Peter said casually. He bent down and picked up a large wooden pole with his right hand and bounced it in his grip until he was holding it dead center. “I’m not worried about me.

“But I’m not sure what Fury’s going to do when he finds out I can do this…”

Casually, he hurled it, javelin-style, at the berm. The pole hit the concrete dead on, on its center. As accurate as one of Clint’s darts and as easily thrown. It hit with such force that the meter-diameter post flowered out along its length, the harder center core holding just long enough for the outer to spread back along it, until the entire thing, all ten meters long of it, fell to the ground in a pile of splinters.

Tony’s eyes widened. When he took structural engineering, they demonstrated the strength of materials under the stresses of extreme weather. From the way it shattered, Peter threw the pole with the force of a cat-4 hurricane. As easily as if he’d tossed a pencil. Tony looked at Peter in disbelief. Peter shrugged as if he’d done it a million times before and knew exactly what would happen.

His idea that what Peter had to say about his abilities should remain secret, grew resolute. There was no way he wanted anyone to know about what Peter had just done.

“Nick Fury can bite my ass.” Tony took out his phone. He keyed in for FRIDAY to turn off the compound’s surveillance where they were walking. And to erase the existing footage of what just happened. “He doesn’t need to know anything you don’t want to tell him.”

“There is a lot neither he nor the Avengers know about what my tech can do.” Tony paused. “I don’t trust him to use the knowledge in the way it should be used. Fury hasn’t done so in the past. He doesn’t have the excuse of HYDRA being in the midst of SHIELD for most of the things I found out. So if you want my advice, not that you have to take it, keep things to yourself until you’re a hundred percent certain it’s safe to reveal them.”

“Can’t. I’m tired of guessing, Tony. I need to know.” He picked up a second pole, tossing it into the air and catching it with his left hand, where he balanced it and aimed carefully. ”It’s not like Old-Cap is around to challenge to arm-wrestle.”

He threw the pole with more force the second time. He seemed to be aiming for the top of the berm but the tip did not clear it. The post caught the top of the hill and spun up into the air spectacularly. Peter cursed and tried again.

“I need data. I need the training ground. I need numbers. Objective numbers. Things are changing. My body is changing.” He picked up the third pole in his left hand and tossed it without much effort. It cleared the top of the berm by several feet and disappeared from their sight. “That’s why I need to talk to Dr. Cho. I need to know if it’s ever going to stop.”

Tony thought about it for a moment. “It’s okay to talk to her about all this. She can’t tell anyone what she knows or finds out about your abilities.” He looked up at Peter. “Doctor-Patient confidentiality. It’s why, when I need to see someone, she’s the one I go to. I’m not enhanced, but there are things… she needs to know things about the arc and my body that no one — well, no one but you — can know. So yeah, you should talk to her. It’s safe.”

Peter hopped down effortlessly from the pile.

“That’s good. Because… there’s a lot of things. I’m worried. You said on the roof that the suit was too high-powered for my ‘neighborhood Spider-Man’ thing. But I’m worried that any of the suits would be too high powered now. Not that I hit people anymore. Tony I’m afraid to. You built the… all of the Avenger tech is about kicking the big guys ass. I need to talk about tech that slaps the car thief upside the head and doesn’t let Spider-Man accidentally kill him.”

“I said the IronSpider was overpowered because you were determined to give it back. I wanted to make sure that what you replaced it with would protect you. But the suit will do whatever you tell it to. It’s designed for alien-fighting and not neighborhood-ing, but that doesn’t mean it can’t do both. If you learn how to control it. Alien-fighting’s just the default setting. There are other settings. You just have to think them.”

“Think? That’s what scares me. And I know what you’re about to say,” he countered before Tony could speak. He lifted one hand to fend off the argument. “You’re about to say you trust me but I don’t trust me. The nanotech is answering to my brain and… Jesus Tony... my brain has been going to some crazy shit lately.”

“My brain does crazy shit all the time and the nanotech knows the difference. There’s a simple Functional MRI down in Bruce’s old lab,” Tony explained, reaching out for Peter’s hand. “It can crudely show your brain lighting up when you think of different things. But better than that, I have Killian’s brain scan tools that he used to develop Extremis. Kinda plundered his lab for the goodies before I let the authorities in.

“It’ll show definitively that Intrusive thoughts are processed in different parts of the brain from the thoughts that control the nanotech.”

Peter’s shoulders sagged in relief and they started to walk again. His head dropped back and he looked up at the wide open sky as Tony talked tech. He squeezed Tony’s hand and listened as Tony described the way the IronSpider used different kinds of thought — focused, directed, and automatic — to control its abilities. How all Peter had to do was be inside the owner’s manual, see the beta and my development notes. Then while he was learning how to control the suit, cut back on his patrolling until he’d mastered the suit’s capabilities, both large scale and small.

He was suddenly overwhelmed with the beauty of the day. His lungs filled with blissful, healing air. It was as if he had been holding his breath for a long time. (Well, really since the day he had told Tony they needed to come to the compound to talk. Since then.) Suddenly he was overwhelmed with the amount of air available — but of course a field of green would be full of oxygen! Peter felt high, and a little giddy and a little foolish. Why had he been so afraid to ask Tony for answers? Of course the genius he was in love with would never fail him when it came to the tech.

“The turmoil in your brain?” Tony continued, unaware of Peter’s sudden re-discovery of the joys of breathing. “Of wanting to hurt the guy more than you actually do? That’s l'appel du vide. Those aren’t real desires, even though they feel real. There’s not a person in the world who doesn’t get those.

“But there’s also part of human nature that has negative thoughts which aren’t intrusive ones. Everyone has a dark side. You learn to control it. That 3D-real-time brain scan of Killian’s also works for biofeedback. That’s the sort of thing that helped Bruce get a handle on his aggression. If that doesn’t work for you, I know a guy… I saw him for a fixed-time solution to my anxiety. There are coping mechanisms for anger, the same as there are for anxiety. It’s a skill like any other. You learn it. You don’t just go — grrr… argh… angry! — and expect the issue to go away.”

“And we can test that right? The nanotech’s reaction to my new Cold-brain? It can be tested in the lab. Where it’s safe, right? In case we have to work on adjustments. Some ‘Peter might really be turning into an asshole’ adjustments.”

“Yes. You know I hate to give anyone credit for the cool shit, but for all of the crazy mad scientist that Killian was, this? The brain scan device? Seriously cool shit.”

“Yeah. I’m still glad he’s dead.”

“Nice thing? He was so secretive about his super-villain evil plan that he never patented the thing. Look for Stark to be able to keep you in diamonds for the rest of your life when it comes out next year,” Tony grinned.

“You can’t now?”

Peter stopped suddenly and turned Tony to face him, cutting off his next quip.

“Wait, before you buy me anything else…”

He took both Tony’s hands in his, and tried to speak.

“So the suit… scared me. A lot. But there’s more. I need to…”

He lost his nerve immediately and looked down at the ground. A sizable wooden splinter caught his attention and he picked it up. They started to walk again.

He crushed the wood in his hand as he tried to speak. He found another splinter, even larger, and picked it up as well.

“So I guess I have to apolog… I’m going to say that ‘s’ word you don’t like now. I’m sorry for what I said on the roof. About the suit. No, wait, don’t say anything yet.”

He threw the wood towards the berm, but didn’t follow it’s progress. He looked at the ground. Absently he wiped the sawdust off his hands on the leg of his jeans.

“Look… I… I said I meant everything I said up on the roof. And I did. But I didn’t take into account that I’m also really stupid. I guess… oh god.” He rubbed his face with one hand, then firmly put his hands back into his pockets. He couldn’t hide behind them now. “I know. I know that when I considered breaking up with you, and I had been considering that very seriously, I thought… you might, you know. Want the suit back. And I had to make my peace with that.”

“I made it for you. Only for you. There are two nanotech suits in the world. Not for lack of Fury and New-Cap trying. But… It’s something that I gave to you.” Tony hesitated. “A piece of myself.”

“Yeah, I should have known that. And you said that on the roof. And I heard you, I really did. I just didn’t process it at the time.

“But when I got home that night, Tony, when I was in bed, I did. I processed it all. And I want to tell you…” He reached out and touched Tony’s elbow briefly. “It means the world to me, Tony. Whatever else we are, outside of everything we are now, it means so much to me that you think of me as an Avenger like Clint and Nat. It means everything.

“So when you said I could… “ He stuffed his hands into his pockets, hiding them. The urge to reach out for Tony was even harder to fight.

“When you said I could make my own suit, without you involved, well, that meant a lot to me too. But that was…” He choked on the word. He couldn’t make himself say ‘immature’, but it was immature, like a child running away from home and planning his budget based on his weekly allowance. So he tried again.

“…But that was not-smart. I mean I do want to play with the web formula, because I always want to play with the web formula, but I can’t make a suit without you. Everything you said was right. I am Spider-Man. The world expects me to be bulletproof.”

“Well you can play with the web formula without the nanotech,” Tony said with a quick smile. “But it’ll be cooler with it. Because… you’ve really got something there, Pete. I wanna let you at the microscope — I put a second one in my lab at home — and get it down to where you understand it inside and out. And yeah…” He seriously didn’t play well with others. “That’s gotta be done with me, at least in part.

“But you’ve got to be bulletproof, baby.” Tony turned and faced Peter, taking his hand and holding it tight. “I can’t lose you.”

Peter nodded. Then he nodded again. Then he spoke, and his voice was a lot smaller than he had intended. “So, do you forgive me? For what I said?”

Tony sighed. He hadn’t meant to. He meant to simply say ‘yes’. Because of course he forgave Peter. He’d always forgive Peter. It just took him a moment to answer. To ‘process’, like Peter had said.

“Yes. I don’t think there’s much that I wouldn’t forgive you for, Pete. I know I hurt you. You had every reason…” He hesitated again. “But that? I’m not gonna lie. It was rough. You weren’t just rejecting the suit…”

“I was trying to push you away as far as possible. That night I was feeling really… bought. Because I felt so lonely. And feeling lonely meant I really started thinking how many things I can do for myself, already did for myself. And trying to pretend I could just keep on going without you. But I can’t. Even if the suit blew up tomorrow, I can’t go on without you.”

“I know I did a hell of a lot to deserve it. But the feelings were complicated.” He gave Peter’s hand a squeeze. “A lot less complicated now.”

“Okay. So, I said I’m sorry. And here’s what I’m going to do. Uh… damn. I have to tell you something else.”

#starker #Messages Series #Messages Cold #Von Writes Stuff #Thewitchway Writes Stuff

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seenashwrite · 5 years

Text

The (Once) Demon Barber From Robintree

Word Count: 1.4K Category: One-shot, Behind-the-scenes canon compliant, Friendship-Turns-To-More, Humor, Fluff Rating: Teen & Up Character(s): Dean, Sam, Reader/Female O.C. Pairing(s): Sam x Reader/Female O.C. Warnings: None Author’s Note: *This is a re-post without tags and links in an effort to get it to show in searches*; from a reader’s request to do something involving a haircut Overall Summary: Sometimes accidents *do* happen accidentally, but most of the time, turns out it’s Dean. Now you might lose something you’ve worked hard for - though when it comes to Sam, perhaps you’ll gain something more.

“Peanut butter.”

“Second thing I tried.”

“Olive oil.”

“Third thing.”

“Wait, what was the first thing?”

“When Dean used two handfuls of a $40, six-ounce, brand-new tube of my conditioner.”

“Oh, shut up, Sam!” Dean exclaimed, and when he did, my head snapped to the side.

Because he was in a hand-talking mood. Because he was annoyed. And because his fingers were tangled in my hair.

So I jabbed my elbow behind me, but he dodged it and snickered.

“I’m gonna go get the scissors.”

“No!” Sam and I shouted at the same time.

“No,” I repeated, and quietly, trying to force myself into a calmer state. “This is fixable. We have beaten worse.”

Sam nodded, gave my knee a squeeze, continued to have that never-ending, grade-A, Sam-patented brand of sincere sympathy in his eyes.

And Dean continued to - I can only assume - pluck individual hairs from my scalp.

Slowly.

“Dean!”

“What?!”

“Bag in the kitchen, on the table - I got shortening, too.”

“I don’t—”

“GET THE DAMN CRISCO, DEAN!”

“Hey, I’m not the one who got the gum in your hair, okay?” he said, coming around the chair to frown at me.

“You’re the one who gave the kid the gum. Still don’t know why—”

“Stopped his crying, didn’t it?”

“—or where you even got the friggin’ stuff!”

“It was on the floor. Y'know, those little machines that got knocked over.”

“You knocked them over!”

“Did you miss all of the vamps in that store?! I’m not bitching about you taking out that mountain of apples—”

“What in the blue HELL do APPLES have to DO with the KID that you THREW at me—”

“I did NOT, I just HANDED him—”

“You LAUNCHED him like you were at the FREE-throw line, you motherf—”

“Okay! Okay, guys!” Sam cut in, standing from his crouched position beside me.

He held his hands up, like he was trying to show a pack of attacking animals that he was no threat. I closed my eyes, since I was getting a migraine. Dean crossed his arms, because he’s twelve.

“Let’s try this last thing, take a break while it…. while it….”

“Makes her crust all nice and flaky?” Dean asked.

“Ass.”

“Likewise.”

“AAAAND,” Sam cut back in, shooting Dean a look as he did so, “then we’ll discuss cutting. That sound like a plan?”

Dean went off to the kitchen and Sam grabbed one of the other chairs, bringing it over and sitting directly in front of me. I glanced at the table. The remains of our failed experiments looked like some sort of bizarro-world, condiment-based hair salon.

“Hey, talk to me,” Sam said, and I turned my eyes back to his.

“It’s just hair,” I told him. Told myself.

“You trying to convince me?”

Mind-reader. That made me smile. But only a little.

“I’ll cut mine, too,” he added on.

And even though I burst into laughter at the mere thought of it, this - of all things - was what prompted the tears that had been waiting in the wings to finally make their grand entrance.

His forehead immediately creased, then he took both my hands in his, the big softie, and for once I decided to let somebody hold my hand - literally and metaphorically. And he decided to keep his mouth shut and let me sniffle for the five-point-two seconds I allowed myself to do so. And then we both decided one of my hands should slip away so I could wipe at my nose with my sleeve.

I let my hand drift to the side, tucking a few gooey pieces of hair behind my ear, let my fingertips slip through, let them run down, all the way to the ends. Kept them there, too. Now I was winding and twisting, something I’d never really done before, but it seemed apt - we were working towards a now or never situation.

“It’s taken years, you know? It was already short when I was old enough to hunt - Ma always kept it looking like I was two steps away from enlisting my entire childhood. Then it was growing, and I just had to go and chop it because I liked Jody’s haircut so much, and before you say—”

“You pulled it off.”

“—it, no, I did not pull it off.” I looked down at our clasped hands resting on my lap. “Ma said it a million times, if it was too long, it was gonna get in my way.”

“Not exactly what happened, and you had it up… which, you know, is probably how the gum…”

“Oozed from one side to the other when I unwound it? Yeeeeeaahh.”

“Anyway, I’m sure she meant more like… something grabbing onto it, using it against you.”

“Well, I got a feeling that’s not gonna be an issue anymore.”

Dean came walking back in, beer in one hand, scrolling through something on his phone with the other.

Sam waited for him to get well past the threshold of the door, giving him more than a fair shot to tune in to the rest of the world. “Hello?”

Dean looked up, still coming towards us. “Yeah?”

“Where. Is. The. Grease.”

I’d said it with the same growl of an accusation I’d used on that kid, when I’d passed him off to his father and asked after the giant wad missing from his stupid fat cheek.

Dean turned on his heel without breaking stride, heading back upstairs. “If I had a dime for every time a woman said…” he trailed off over his shoulder.

“‘Woman’,” I repeated softly. “Huh. I think that’s my problem. I’m a grown-up. Not supposed to have long, time-consuming, adds-to-an-already-messy-life hair when you’re my age. Supposed to keep it as uncomplicated as possible. So you get whatever TV mom cut’s the most popular at the time. That’s what women do, that’s a thing, right?”

Sam shrugged. "Doesn’t have to be your thing.“ Then he shot me a crooked little grin, ran his free hand through his hair. ”Our thing,“ he clarified.

And something about the way he said it… something about the way he was moving his thumb over my knuckles… if I were honest, something about the way we’d been looking at each other since about five minutes after we met…

"What is gonna be our thing?” I asked.

We were staring at each other, neither of us knowing the answer, when Dean jogged back in, carrying that same beer and nothing else.

“I looked in all the bags, it’s not….” A brief pause while he - accurately - read the mood of the room. “Yeah, well, uh, Imma go check under the seats of the—”

“Hey, Dean?” I interrupted, still looking at Sam.

“Hmmm?”

“Just go find something to whack this crap off, will ya?”

“Awesome!”

I swear to god, it sounded like he skipped down the hallway.

“I’ll do it,” Sam told me.

“You’ll get all nervous.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you’re nervous right now.”

We’d been drifting closer, ever-so-slightly, and now were almost nose-to-nose.

“First kisses tend to do that,” he whispered against my lips.

Eventually Dean bounded back into the room, and we pulled apart, turning at the same time to see him standing there with a no-nonsense expression on his face. He was flipping an angel blade. His eyes were practically dilated, and were absolutely sparkling with glee.

“Scissors are busted. Gotta do this cowboy-style!”

“Did you get possessed between here and your room!? And cowboys didn’t—-”

“I’ll do it,” Sam repeated, this time with more authority and beginning to rise from his chair, but ol’ Sweeney Dean had already come behind me and snatched up the middle section of my hair.

“Hey, knock yourself out - of the two of us, ain’t nobody calling me the hair expert,” Dean said, and he flipped the blade one last time, holding it handle-first towards Sam.

“No, no, no,” I told Sam, and he sat again.

“Are you sure?”

“Your job is to hold my hand." And I gripped both of his, probably too hard, but Sam just smiled.

"Long as you need.”

“Won’t be long at all!” Dean announced, and I gasped at the sudden lightness, cool air hitting the back of my neck for the first time in what felt like eons.

He actually chuckled at my reaction, the maniac, now stepping to the side to continue his hack-job. Sam’s smile turned toothy, though, and my shoulders instantly relaxed - another thing that had seemed eons-gone. Part of me wondered if I’d just traded one set of tangles for another.

That is, til he slipped a hand out from mine and ran it across the side of my neck, then to the back, rubbing gently as Dean kept lopping away.

“This is good,” he said.

“Not bad,” Dean agreed.

“It’s perfect,” I told them.

And it has been.

Want more stories? My Master Post is linked in my profile, and it tells you about getting on the Tag List, too! If for whatever reason it gives you trouble, don’t hesitate to send an Ask and I’ll link you.

Re-blogs and feedback are fuel for a writer’s soul - please do let me know if you enjoyed. 😘

#Supernatural Fanfiction #SPN Fanfic #Supernatural Fanfic #Sam x Reader #Nash Writes

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popatochisssp · 6 years

Text

Hope for the Holidays

Sans is stuck in the past, even a whole year after reaching the surface with no more RESETs.

Maybe he could use a pep talk...or a Pap talk.

AO3 Link

I wrote this for the Undertale Secret Santa 2018! Pure Sans & Papyrus brotherly fluff. :3

It never got any easier.

Sans would’ve thought after about the millionth time it happened, he’d have gotten used to it, jolting awake in a cold sweat, his magic flaring as his soul was crushed by the overwhelming weight of panicked despair—fight-or-flight instincts sharpened by the horrible knowledge that it was all completely, utterly, terribly…

Useless.

He scrubbed a hand over his face, taking deep breaths and trying to quell his own rattling.

This had to stop.

It was over now…wasn’t it?

……His insistent nightmares disagreed.

Sans sighed, checking the clock next to the window—shades open, always open to the sky above the surface and its proof of an intact timeline—and he slumped in disappointment.

4:27 AM.

Too early for Grillby’s, too late to try going back to sleep, even for him.

There was only one thing to do.

Nothing calmed the nerves like a good, old-fashioned midnight snack, whether it was midnight or not…or whether any actual nerves were involved.

Sans was used to taking a quick shortcut down to kitchen for leftovers. It was a route he knew all the way down to his bones.

…heh.

Silently digging through the fridge and cutlery drawer was old-hat, ignoring the lights and the microwave for stealth reasons easy and familiar.

The taste of the cold spaghetti he shoveled into his mouth with shaking hands, though…

That was different.

It was edible, for one thing, with barely any glitter in it. It actually tasted…pretty good, a triumph of all the hours Papyrus had spent up here watching cooking shows and stalking recipe blogs.

Hours that haven’t all been RESET back to nothing by a world-bending power a kid should’ve never had.

Sans was grateful for it.

He was happy for the way things had turned out, really, he was.

But he couldn’t stop thinking about what it took to get it, either.

All the failed attempts, the do-overs, the ‘what would happen if I…’s

(The times Sans had to watch his world fall apart because of a child swinging a little plastic knife.)

Frisk promised.

They swore it was over, all of it, never to happen again.

No more RESETs. This is the best ending.

So…why couldn’t Sans just…believe that?

After a year up top, free of the Underground, it seemed like the truth. Life was finally moving forward, linearly, after stars only knew how long it had looped and weaved and stopped dead before starting over somewhere else.

Everyone else was diving right into surface life, vacations, new jobs, new hobbies, new lives—and it felt like Sans was the only one who couldn’t trust it.

He’d spent so long wanting this exact thing but now that he had it, it didn’t even seem real.

Why bother with anything? It was all just going to…

Sans buried his face in his hands and shuddered.

He hated this. All of it.

He wanted it to be over. He wanted to trust it was over.

But he just felt…hopeless.

He didn’t even notice at first when the kitchen light flicked on.

“SANS?”

That, he noticed.

Sans straightened, scrambling to put an easy grin on his skull for his brother, who was frowning at him in the doorway.

“hey, Pap.” Good, that sounded casual. “what’re you doin’ up?”

Papyrus just scoffed. “YOU KNOW I DON’T SLEEP MUCH. I’M NOT A LAZYBONES LIKE YOU.” He narrowed his eye-sockets, suspiciously demanding, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP? THE SUN HASN’T EVEN RISEN YET!”

Oh, stars, the sun.

Sans was gonna miss that the most when everything got RESET again.

The thought was unexpectedly painful and Sans rushed to cover it.

“ah, y’know, thought maybe the sun had the light idea, gettin’ an early start to the day.”

Expectedly, Papyrus’ frown deepened at the barrage of jokes.

Unexpectedly…he didn’t take the bait.

“YOU LOOK TERRIBLE,” he said instead. “ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

Sans laughed a little, hoping the nervous edge to it was only so noticeable to him.

He should’ve known a half-assed lie wouldn’t work on his bro—he was just too cool to fall for that.

A whole-assed lie, on the other hand…

Sans sighed, a little dramatically.

“alright,” he said, “alright, ya’ caught me. guess i am a little upset this mornin’…”

Papyrus finally came all the way into the room, browbones knit in concern. “CAN I HELP?”

“don’t worry about it, you already are.”

That just earned Sans a confused look.

Sans grinned, as infuriatingly wide as he could, waggling his forkful of pasta at his brother. “how can i be upsetti when i got your spaghetti?”

Papyrus scowled.

…But instead of throwing his arms up and stomping off in exasperation like he was supposed to, he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

“YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY TRYING TO GET RID OF ME,” Papyrus deduced, “SO YOU MUST REALLY BE OUT OF SORTS AND TRYING TO HIDE IT FOR SOME STUPID REASON.”

Sans’ eye-sockets went wide. “what? no, i—”

“AND NOW YOU THINK DOUBLING DOWN IS GOING TO WORK LIKE I HAVEN’T KNOWN YOU LITERALLY MY ENTIRE LIFE AND CAN’T SEE YOU SWEATING.”

Ah, jeez, was he? “look, Pap, seriously, it’s—”

“‘NOT THAT BAD’?” Papyrus guessed, folding his arms over his chest. “IS THAT WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY TO ME, EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE OUT OF BED BEFORE NOON AND I COULD HEAR YOU RATTLING EARLIER ALL THE WAY FROM MY ROOM?”

“……”

damn.

“i just—”

Papyrus cut him off again. “THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME YOU HAD A BAD NIGHT, SANS. WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION AND JOKES AREN’T GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF IT.”

Sans doesn’t even get his mouth all the way open before yet another warning.

“MEMES AREN’T GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF IT, EITHER.”

………damn.

Papyrus was just way too good.

Sans never stood a chance.

He wilted a little in his chair, rubbing awkwardly at the back of his neck.

Pap obviously wasn’t about to be dissuaded now, but…where to even begin with the bullshit plaguing him now? For years at least, if his data on the RESETs had been even marginally accurate.

It was… It was a lot, but…

Well, hell.

Sans had to start somewhere.

“alright. okay. rhetorical question, then.”

“FINE,” Papyrus agreed. “A COMPLETELY RHETORICALLY, DEFINITELY NOT ABOUT YOU AT ALL SORT OF QUESTION.”

“…really not makin’ this easier, bro.”

Papyrus had the grace to look a teensy bit chastened. “YES, OF COURSE. PURELY RHETORICAL.”

Sans took a breath, a long moment to weigh his words.

“have ya’ ever just felt…stuck?” he wondered slowly. “like…like nothin’ matters an’ there’s no point doin’…anything ‘cause it’s just…nothin’s gonna change anyway, no matter what ya’ do?”

“YES. OFTEN.”

Sans’ head shot up in surprise. “wh… for…for real?”

Papyrus just looked at him, like he’d be rolling his eyes if he had any. “STARS, SANS, OF COURSE I HAVE. WE WERE TRAPPED UNDERGROUND FOR THE ENTIRETY OF OUR LIVES WITH MINIMAL HOPE OF ESCAPE, BARRING THE EXTREMELY RANDOM CHANCE THAT THE LAST HUMAN MIGHT FALL SOMETIME BEFORE WE DUSTED OF OLD AGE.”

“……oh. right.”

Funny how easily he’d just…forgotten about that.

…Maybe not easily.

“WE ALL FELT STUCK, SANS,” Papyrus continued, not unempathetically. “PROBABLY BECAUSE WE WERE. IT WAS SO…LIMITING DOWN THERE! I HAD SO MANY THINGS I WANTED TO DO THAT I THOUGHT WERE IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE LONGEST TIME… UNTIL THEY WEREN’T ANYMORE! I CAN LIVE ALL OF MY DREAMS, NOW!”

Sans followed the logic—they were free now, and if Papyrus could live his dreams, he could too!

Except…

Sans remembered some of those dreams Pap had mentioned: getting to drive down an open road for miles with no end in sight, fresh breezes, real sunlight…

Sure, he had all of those things now…but for how long?

“what if…what if you couldn’t, though?” Sans asked, fiddling with his fork. “what if one day, it was all just…gone? we were back underground, trapped all over again, an’…an’ nothin’ we did would make any difference?”

“THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT WOULD BE A HUGE BUMMER.”

The glib delivery startled a laugh out of Sans. For all that he was the comedian of the two of them, he’d never seen a better Straight Man than his brother.

Papyrus knew it, too, if the smug look he wore was any indication.

“WELL, IT’S OBVIOUS TO ME,” he proclaimed, “THAT YOU, DEAR BROTHER, ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOME VERY EXISTENTIAL PROFUNDITY.”

Sans couldn’t deny that. “yeah, pretty much.”

“IN THAT CASE! I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER YOU SOME ADVICE!”

“…heheheh…yeah?”

“YES!” Papyrus exclaimed. “I KNOW A THING OR TWO ABOUT KEEPING MY SPIRITS UP, EVEN WHEN PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ELSE IS TERRIBLE. THERE’S A TRICK TO IT, SO YOU WON’T EVEN HAVE TO WORK VERY HARD—I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HATE THAT. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR IT?”

Couldn’t hurt…right?

“okay. lay it on me. what’s the trick?”

“MY AMAZING, FOOLPROOF, NEVER-FAIL TRICK TO STAYING POSITIVE……” Sans struggled to hold back a snicker at Papyrus’ suitably dramatic pause. “…IS REMEMBERING THAT NO MATTER WHAT, MY REALLY COOL BROTHER IS GOING TO BE THERE WITH ME! SO EVEN WHEN LIFE ISN’T PERFECT, IT’S STILL PRETTY DARN GOOD!”

Sans’ grin dropped.

“………”

It wasn’t often that he was rendered completely speechless.

But of course, if anyone could do it, it would be Papyrus.

And he wasn’t even done yet.

“YOU’RE ENOUGH, SANS,” he said, brooking no argument. “EVEN IF EVERYTHING SUCKS AND YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING TO FIX IT, YOU STILL MATTER. TO A LOT OF PEOPLE…BUT ESPECIALLY TO ME! SO IF YOU EVER NEED A PEP TALK…OR…OR JUST A REGULAR TALK…I’M HERE.”

……he was.

Papyrus was always there.

Even when the entire timeline uprooted and went back to the start, Papyrus was the very first thing Sans woke up to, kicking down his door for sleeping late instead of being at his sentry-post.

Even through the bad runs, Papyrus was there to hold things together when monsters were being dusted or spared all over the place and Sans drove himself crazy trying to guess a reason for which.

(And even…even when he wasn’t there, on the really bad runs…he kind of was still there, giving Sans something to focus on long enough to reach the Judgment Hall.)

Sans was dumbfounded for a few long moments.

How could he ever have forgotten that there was at least one constant, no matter how many RESETs there were?

Papyrus was always a real star, bright and shining.

Maybe Sans couldn’t believe yet that the RESETs were over, or that this peace on the surface world was something that could actually last.

But maybe…

Maybe he could believe in something else.

Sans shortcutted himself to the other side of the table and tugged Papyrus into a hug. His eye-sockets started to feel suspiciously wet, but he ignored it.

“bro…you’re the coolest.”

“NYEH-HEH-HEH, I KNOW!” Papyrus squeezed him back, standing and pulling him right up off the kitchen tile with the force of his hugging. “YOU RAISED ME THAT WAY! SO BY THE TRANSITIVE PROPERTY OF COOLNESS, YOU’RE PRETTY COOL, TOO!”

“not as cool as you.”

Papyrus scoffed. “OBVIOUSLY, BUT THAT’S AN IMPOSSIBLE STANDARD! OUR INTENSE, COMBINED RADICALNESS IS BLINDING NONETHELESS!”

Sans started to chuckle. “hey, maybe i oughta start sellin’ sunglasses. y’know, for the poor, unsuspecting saps we pass on the street.”

Papyrus pulled back, squinting at him. “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO START THAT UNLICENSED VENDORING STUFF UP AGAIN, ARE YOU?” he asked. “THAT’S ILLEGAL, YOU KNOW!”

“nah, i won’t, you’re right,” Sans relented. “that’d be pretty…shady of me, wouldn’t it?”

“…………”

Sans was unceremoniously dropped to the floor.

“I TAKE IT BACK,” Papyrus said, a surly look on his skull. “YOU’RE NOT COOL AT ALL—YOU’RE ACTUALLY THE WORST AND I’M DISOWNING YOU.”

Sans laughed, louder and more genuine than he had in…

Stars, how long had it been?

He didn’t think he could say for sure, but it felt good.

The kitchen was getting a little brighter, more light coming in from the window as the sun started to come up outside.

It gave Sans an impulsive thought, and for once, he actually felt like chasing it.

“hey, if i’m disowned, can i still hang out on your porch to watch the sunrise?”

Papyrus, already turning on his heel and feigning aloofness, replied, “TAKE A SCARF, IT’S CHILLY—AND NOT A WORD ABOUT THE COLD ‘GOING RIGHT THROUGH YOU,’ SANS, THAT’S NOT EVEN A JOKE, IT’S A FACTUAL STATEMENT! HAVE SOME PRIDE, PUT SOME EFFORT INTO YOUR WITTICISMS FOR ONCE!”

Sans headed to the coat-rack by the front door, tugging down a skull-print scarf—human fashion, go figure—and putting it on.

“pride?” he echoed in disbelief. “effort? jeez, Pap, who do you think you’re havin’ a conversation wit here?”

Sans didn’t have to wonder if Papyrus heard him all the way from the kitchen, because he heard exactly the sound he’d been hoping for in response: distant and begrudging laughter.

“…NYEH-HEH-HEH, DAMN IT, THAT ONE WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD. GO, ALREADY, OR YOU’RE GOING TO MISS THE PINK CLOUDS! THOSE ARE THE BEST PART!”

It wasn’t until Sans was actually outside, watching the winter sky light up like a watercolor painting, that he realized he had to disagree with Papyrus.

The pink clouds were pretty cool…but when his brother came out to bring him a fresh mug of coffee, dressed in his own signature scarf, Sans couldn’t help but think that the scarlet-orange streaks were way cooler.

Seeing that color up there in the sky…Sans was really starting to feel like he could do anything he wanted up here.

Like it might actually stick.

Watching the sun come up with his brother by his side, Sans was filled with hope.

#undertale #fanfiction #sans #papyrus #myfic

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sciencography · 5 years

Text

Long overdue update!!

At long last the much promised and oft delayed blog post update that I've been promising off and on for MONTHS. Going to cover a huge range of topics here, therefore nothing that I cover will get extensive depth or attention. Will cover the App Store status, nControl, chimeraTV, electraTV, uicache / ldrestart recent changes / snafu, DalesDeadBug update, cycripter and any known issues that are occuring with any of the above. Will also include a link to a handy tutorial for saving OTA blobs for the 4K AppleTV, just in case we find a way to make them useful!

Saving 4K OTA blobs covered by idownloadblog:

nitoTV App Store

This is several months behind schedule, and at this point its pretty much entirely my fault. I still need to do some payment processing work on the amazon front regarding declined cards / failed payments, etc. Im going to be looking into this immediately after i finish writing this post.

If you hadn't noticed the new nito.tv website launched at the same time chimera(TV) did. You may have also noticed a beta code for people to help beta test it before i finally launch it, there is no way to get this code yet, not until i finish the payment work I mentioned above. Off the top of my head, this is the only thing holding us back anymore.

nControl

Obviously nControl was released a few months ago, to resoundingly positive response (thank you!) It's available on chariz repo for 10$ and is currently my only source of income, so all purchases are greatly appreciated! If you need any additional details about nControl in general I kindly redirect you to the exhaustively documented wiki page that I maintain on the subject: https://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/nControl

The tvOS version is only available through patreon and i'd actually prefer that people no longer go that route, patreon makes it WAY too much effort to get the money they owe you so I massively regret doing that in the first place, just didn't want to launch iOS and tvOS separetely and honestly thought the store would wrap up shortly thereafter.

chimeraTV

For the first time (potentially ever) the tvOS jailbreak was released in tandem with the iOS version of the Electra Teams *OS 12 jailbreak. This was a momentus occasion and was a large source of me being delayed from focusing on completing the nitoTV App Store. Its a rock solid jailbreak (especially with latest release) and I'm quite proud to maintain the tvOS version of it. It covers 12.0 - > 12.1.1 on tvOS, this is due to the fact the Apple staggers version numbers between iOS and tvOS for some unknown and maddening reason. For instance (12.1.2 on iOS == 12.1.1 on tvOS). It drives me just as mad as it does the rest of you, but it's been like that since the beginning of ARM based AppleTVs (send gen +) So I doubt it will ever change.

Candidly it was a bit of a challenge to get AppleBetas awesome UI to cooperate on tvOS but i'm glad iIforced myself to use the same code as much as possible (lots of ifdefs), since its written in Swift you can imagine the fight I put up to avoid using the same code base for the UI stuff. Eventually I acquiesced (yes I do make concessions!)

electraTV

Wow it's really been a long time since i've updated this blog (sorry!) electraTV was released several months before chimera (well the initial versions were, the 11.4.1 iteration wasn't THAT long ago) The electra jailbreak covers ALL versions of 11 (11.0->11.4.1) In its latest jailbreakd2 based iteration it is incredibly stable and reliable. Not much else to say about it!

uicache / ldrestart changes

I wasted most of last week fighting against issues with ldrestart. If you aren't familiar with ldrestart it is responsible for running after jailbreaking or loading any new Tweaks to make sure anything they may inject into gets restarted. With the older version of jailbreakd (in backr00m & versions of electraTV that supported 11.2.1->11.3, but not 11.4.1) couldn't handle the speed at which all the daemons get reloaded by ldrestart, this would lead to a lockup that would result in the system eventually rebooting (after being locked up for several minutes).

ldrestart has actually always been an issue, even when i used a kpp bypass in greeng0blin (Im fairly certain thats accurate!) So as a workaround i used to 'killall -9 backboardd' That would respring enough different things (PineBoard, HeadBoard et al) that i would be sufficient for the things i most commonly injected. Obviously this is a hacky stopgap, and uicache used to also kill a variety of other processes to cover them as well (lsd, appstored, etc) to help cover things like DalesDeadBug.

After coolstar re-wrote uikitools (including uicache) i decided it was probably a good time for me to take a look at uicache again. If you want to know how much of a hassle and challenge uicache was in the earlier days (pre APFS) read some of the older posts on this blog. It's history is covered ad naeuseum.

Since we no longer need to load from /var/mobile/Applications, a lot of the extra hurdles in uicache have ceased to be necessary, essentially all that is really needed is [[LSApplicationWorkspace defaultWorkspace] _LSPrivateRebuildApplicationDatabasesForSystemApps:YES internal:YES user:NO]; + tweak to force App states to return TRUE for isEnabled.

In the course of thinning down uicache I decided it'd be a good time to try and get ldrestart working on tvOS. After battling with it off an on all last week I came up with something that appeared to work pretty consistently on tvOS 12. Instead of being thorough and testing on 10.2.2->11.4.1 as well I hastily released it. This lead some people to get stuck in respring loops / lockups that eventually restarted the device. This was due to the fact that uicache:restart in postinst scripts would trigger ldrestart instead of uicache in nitoTV.

In the older version of uicache there was an issue that existed once our new apps were loaded in the UI, a respring was never "required" but if it didn't occur all applications would exhibit weird behavior where they wouldnt launch, or wouldnt exit once launched, etc, to "fix" that I made it always kill backboardd as a compromise. Since this was also no longer necessary I made uicache killing backboardd "optional" by appending -r. Lack of forsite here, the old nitoTV wouldn't know backboardd wouldn't respring anymore, nor to run ldrestart when finish:restart was received, this lead to people getting stuck with a red progress indicator forever when trying to update to latest (at the time) version of nitoTV.

Due to the depth and gravity of the issue I sidelined getting ldrestart working in backr00m (one of the only places it has show stopping issues still) I reverted to uicache always respringing until I have time to revisit the issue.

In conjunction with deciding I was pouring too much time into this issue Chimera 1.0.6 was released the other night with massive stability improvements. Libtakeover & related injection was stripped out into inject_criticald which provided massively stability improvements for the jailbreak, this made focusing on getting that out a few hours after the iOS release a very high priority.

The big takeaway from all of this:

* uicache run by itself (no arguments) is sufficient to gets apps loaded / removed after installing them into /Applications.

* ldrestart is part of uikittools on tvOS now and should be safe to run on latest electraTV release and chimeraTV release, but won't work at all on backr00m.

if you have installed a tweak and it doesnt seem to be working, try running ldrestart, it should help.

sleepy/wake

Part of the uicache update came the addition of 'sleepy' and 'wake' binaries. Use them from the command line to sleep or wake your AppleTV.

DalesDeadBug

This was recently updated to spoof newer versions, if you can't seem to get it working after installing it, prime candidate to run ldrestart after installing or making changes to that don't seem to be propogating. It works to get SteamLink installed on tvOS 10.2.2, but crashes immediately, not sure if im going to be able to fix it. It won't be possible to make that a priority (I looked into it briefly, thats the best I can do for now).

If you need more info on what DalesDeadBug does, please read the wiki page: https://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/DalesDeadBug

Cycripter

If you didn't notice, yesterday I decided to take one more brief detour to rectify a glaring deficiency in recent jailbreaks, inability to use cycript. I might have my differences with saurik recently, but this is still one of the most amazing projects he ever undertook and gifted to us.

cycripter / CycriptLoader.dylib have been updated and open sourced to make it easier to use cycript on iOS or tvOS. All details necessary can be viewed on the wiki and the git.nito.tv repo.

More Details: https://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Cycript

Known Issues

I havent kept a very exhaustive list of these, so I'm only going to cover two that I can think of right now.

* Infuse doesn't work on chimeraTV.

Try launching infuse before running the jailbreak (so if you are currently in a jailbroken state, reboot first)

if you run the jailbreak after Infuse has already been open it will work. I don't think it is necessarily any jailbreak detection, but it may be some kind of a protecetion from code injection, im honestly not sure.

* Music app doesn't work

Try updating to the latest version of chimeraTV on https://chimera.sh it didn't work in the prior version for me either, but after the latest install it started working.

Wrap-up

That's it for now, my core focus after this post is going to be to wrap up work on my long delayed tvOS App Store. I really hope to get it wrapped up this week or next. Stay tuned! And if you made it down this far, thanks!!

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naruhearts · 6 years

Text

13x20: “I don’t care what happens to me”-- Dean Worthless Winchester, John Winchester’s Death and Destiel

Oh my god!

I gotta say, 13x20 was an ANGSTY FEELSY amalgamation of meta and foreshadowing for the Big Finale Triad of 21, 22, and 23. It laid down S5 tones, key themes, and narrative direction, hoo boy!!!

I’m sorry I posted late! Time-of-month sickness was an interruption, yikes.

I’d like to start with the Dean & Sam final scene, then talk about the major culminating implications this Father-centric episode specifically holds for our beloved protagonist Dean Winchester the shackled child — the Man behind the Mask (which S13 has been a gigantic narrative mirror of) — and the Destiel narrative/Cas in relation to Dean’s arc and character disposition *rubs hands together*

Glynn & Co made Dean’s axel-swinging between communication and miscommunication pretty clear to me in the last scene of 13x20, especially regarding the dialogue that people thought was character regression into Brodependency.

After sleeping on it, I didn’t see the same scale of toxic codependency from seasons ago a la ‘there ain’t no me if there ain’t no you.’ It wasn’t mutual. I saw it as: 1. more from Sam’s end, and 2. Dean’s willingness to protect his loved ones (Sam and CAS, in bold) combined with letting go and the textual acknowledgement of his low self-worth carrying over from 13x05 (the low self-worth he internalized across 99.6798% of his life course).

Firstly, Dabb’s subverting S5.

He put independent Dean in S5 independent Sam’s shoes here, and it’s surely not a coincidence that Dean himself referenced their implosive S5 Michael-Lucifer mess: “Where we were last time we had front row seats”. S5 exhibited Dean’s Holding On vs Sam’s Letting Go, with lost Dean crawling to Lisa’s door and yeah, we know how that prickly-edged story went. It’s finally Dean Letting Go vs Sam Holding On. It’s indicative of S13 faithless Grieving!Sam re: Mary/Jack seeking his own emancipation and finding real introspective purpose away from the codependent strings he’s clinging to. We heard Sam’s “If we die, we die together”. Don’t fret, his current arc is constructed to get rid of this kind of thinking and move towards Faith!

Dean’s prepared to cut the codependent strings — already has via 12x22, and then in 13x05 (albeit in a suicidal grief-ridden manner. Speaking of, 13x20 this time shifted focus to Sam’s risk-taking re: Lucifer and the Apocalypse in itself. Unsurprisingly, we already witnessed this narrative train running in reverse -- early S13 Grieving!Dean and Functioning Sam swapped roles post-13x06 and in 13x11. Man, I am pumpin’ my fists).

Atop the bro dualism, Dean’s behaviour in 13x20 concerned me the most, saddened me the most, and intrigued me the most.

:’(

I may have yelled said that Dean has emotionally matured, eliminated toxic coping mechanisms, achieved an internal balance between his femininity and non-performative masculinity (acknowledged in 13x04; actively manifested in 13x16 onwards x, x), and gained a sense of non-combative communication and understanding (seen in 13x14), yet his low self-worth constitutes the biggest roadblock to his FULL personal growth.

Okay, I know you’ll exclaim: after Cas returned, Dean wasn’t depressed anymore!

Well, that’s accurate and relatively inaccurate. Dean’s low self-worth is the central facet of his characteristic development, and it does have a guaranteed correlation with depression. Yes, you can feel worthless without being clinically depressed, but worthlessness is maladaptive and contributes to feeling depressed --> Dean’s depression.

Dean’s case is a heartbreaking one. He’s been depressed for YEARS. He never really cared about what happened to him for YEARS = our Dean meta textualized in gloomy letters!!

Yes, the single individual -- the canon WIN -- that placed him back on the rails was Cas, his Everything, resurrecting from the dead. Cas’ return drastically mitigated Dean’s severe nihilistic depression (aka his rock bottom nihilistic grief when he lost Cas) BUT it didn’t necessarily fix his pre-existing depression.

S13 depicts Dean -- despite Cas’ bright presence -- as traveling the rails empty. There’s not enough coal to fuel his engine because he LACKS the mental faculties to appropriately cope re: trauma and give up his control. This is why he seems to oscillate between character progression and regression, and he still isn’t 100% HONEST and OPEN about his feelings. He’s keepin’ it in. There’s no healthy psychological unload taking place.

Case in point? Dean’s regressed to drinking the hard booze again; Cas FILLS the negative spaces (as he’s been doing throughout S13). Dean is not disclosing the whole truth -- not saying what he’s genuinely feeling (to CAS. I discuss it x, x, x).

Plus, Dean’s internal worries re: Death, the next apocalyptic war, Cas’ Heavenly plans, and his respective destiny/fate (Death’s “See you soon”) just exacerbate the personal instability he’s experiencing.

And then we observe Dean’s parental duty rearing its head:

To me this is what reiterated the Brodependency being dismantled in late S12/S13 (12x22 and 13x12/15 in particular). Don’t get me wrong – Dean’s mostly let go. He was willing to leave Sam behind in 13x05 after losing the one person who textually means Everything to him.

Dean’s psyche is at a point right now where he AIN’T okay with Sam’s risk-taking. He questions his little brother’s half-baked plans and sympathizes with the close-to-here manic desperation (again, mirroring S5 and S13 Grieving!Dean), except Dean’s low self-worth puts him in the dark position: I’m doing it, all of it, for YOU (Sam and Cas) since I don’t value myself enough to do it for ME. He further says--

He obviously does, but us, the audience, know--in dramatic irony fashion--that this is NOT Dean’s entire truth.

He values his brother more than himself, and he values CAS more than himself. He cares about what happens to CAS. Nothing Else Matters. And we’re aware that Cas canonically occupies the highest pedestal in Dean’s life, which TPTB absolutely highlighted during Dean’s grieving arc, Cas’ return, and 13x16 onwards.

(In this scene, Dean continues to tell Sam what he’s NOT telling Cas. USE THE RIGHT WORDS.)

Cas is the love of Dean’s life, his Everything, and his Win. I mentioned before that losing Cas a second time would destroy him.

(**Dating 101: Dean therefore cannot establish a truly healthy, mutually interdependent relationship with Cas if he has low self-worth. He’s trying, but his personal losses -- more LOSSES than wins this season i.e. AU!Charlie/Mary/Jack in AU, non-confronted traumas i.e. Cas’ death, and insecurities cripple his ability to give Cas ALL of himself, out in the open!)

Although Dean HAS FAITH (Cas), the decisions he’ll formulate to protect/save Sam, Mary, Jack, and especially Cas aren’t exactly derived from mental stability. Keeping them safe is too paramount to Dean that the choices he’ll encounter could be questionable/dangerous, putting him in the line of (sacrificial) fire.

Sound familiar? It’s deliberately supposed to sound familiar!

Jack, TFW’s Unity/Balance symbol and characteristic mirror, even stated that ‘if he can’t keep others safe, what’s the use’?

Dean will make the penultimate save-the-world (read: save my family) decision ALONE regardless of Sam’s regressive wish to die together. And I wrote that his arc is now DIRECTLY paralleling S11 Casifer & Depressed!Cas’ S11/12 arc, especially (mis)communicative 12x19 --> 12x23 ‘I Have Faith’ Cas. There’s prevalent narrative symmetry in Dean’s arc (intrinsically linked to Cas’ arc).

“You, me, and Sam...we’re just better together” indeed, and this year’s season-ender should unite TFW like last season--unite Dean and Cas--in order to change their fates/defeat Death, but Dean’s decision will be an isolated one --> one that was foreshadowed as he faced expositional Daddy Issues™ Loki by himself. And Dean may not tell Cas, just like Cas hadn’t told Dean in 12x23 about his sacrificial act.

These vastly important storytelling threads ultimately conjoin with “I don’t care what happens to me. I never really have” as the PINNACLE of Dean’s 13-year long characterization; the progressive climax sparking his death/decay so that he can be reborn and revitalized aka THIS IS IT!! Dean’s impending death and self-sacrifice for his loved ones (CAS) = the ultimate catharsis in that S13′s narrative has finally approached the IRL scenario of 13x16 ghost kid (DEAN)’s release from father figure Bad Man -- from the negative influence of all the other literal (Loki, Odin, Lucifer, James Turner) and metaphorical (Asmodeus, Buddy, Michael) fatherly mirrors permeating this season. He’ll LET GO of everything that incarcerated him since he was 4 years old: his Blunt Tool role, control, manipulation, parental abuse and absenteeism, parental duty, the heteronormative patriarchy, and the long-standing trauma slapped on him by Alastair, Amara, and Cain.

He’ll burn the remaining pocket knife of all pocket knives tethering him to his past -- John Winchester x, x He’ll self-transform.

And Dean’s S13 death would fulfill the sacrificial Act of True Love (with Cas holding heavy weight in Dean’s decision for LOVE)--

--and S14 Winning Him Back in the subverted flavour of S10. Romance tropes abound!!

@thetwistedwillow and @sactownbrowns3 both ignited my stomach-churning feels. This is an extremely pivotal visual. The Michael-reminiscent sword and radiant halo-like lights atop Dean’s head? Yeah, set off HUGE Michael!Dean radars. Complete moral dualism with S10 Demon!Dean--selflessness vs selfishness. Free choice (saying yes to possession) vs stolen choice (demon transformation against his will).

Secondly, as aforementioned, Dean’s harbouring a LOT of traumas he hasn’t mentally confronted, with Daddy Issues™ re: John Winchester (reflected via Dean’s solo faceoff with Loki) as his overarching undealt source of trauma.

Loki tells Dean: “The truth is, [Odin] despised me, but he was my father. I’m sure you understand. What would you do for your father?”

And Dean stabs Loki’s hologram. He stabs the metaphorical father figure who neglected his sons. He stabs another narrative embodiment of John’s ghost, foreshadowing that Dean’s death = John Winchester’s final death. It’s time to deconstruct and conquer his influence.

(Gabriel was an extended mirror of both Dean and Sam, too. Gabe, the little brother whom deadbeat Daddy Chuck never paid attention to. ‘Ah, big bros, right? Always think they know best’ Gabe, who stabbed and killed deadbeat Loki. Gabe, who subsequently ran away from home, was used and tortured beneath Asmodeus’ control, embarked on a revenge trip, and didn’t feel good about it. Dean and Sam themselves knew what it felt like to be manipulated. While it’s true that their traumatic experiences are subjective, they share common Deadbeat Father-adjacent life courses.)

What beautiful and consistent silent storytelling!!

And oh look, narratively associated to this ^^ is the reappearance of Dean’s John-linked BAG OF EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE--

I can’t can’t can’t wait for him to let go of it PERMANENTLY!

And of course, Cas’ death remains his immediate significant source of undealt trauma (same links above: x, x, x)

*looks at Dean’s serious, intense, and emotionally laden expression* *clutches chest tight* *blinks away tears*

I additionally wrote something about Endverse!Cas and D/C (mis)communication a few months ago which I feel is relevant again:

And we know HUMAN Endverse!Cas was representative of that, a sad, depressed, and hollow depiction of the wrong choices for the right reasons who festers (AND DIES), in part because of Dean’s wrong choices, and also because of his own consciously uninformed, narrow-minded choices that led to this literal apocalypse of mind, body and soul.

5x04 laid down what Cas (and Dean) shouldn’t become. If both Cas and Dean (TFW) continue to fail in learning their lessons regarding healthy interdependence (where control must become equality; ignorance must become understanding; intransigence must become compromise; stonewalling must become transparency; lying must become honesty; silence must become communication), Endverse will be their life.

Thankfully, they’re learning as of S13 onwards and I’m ECSTATIC. Slow but sure progress (13x15′s conveying the shift), yet they still have to use the RIGHT WORDS.

Endverse!Dean, who never gave up his control to Cas nor listened to him, was himself consumed by the NEED over the WANT and an authoritarian means to an end. He lost everyone. And Endverse posed an ultimatum for Dean (and Cas’ own characteristic progress): keep your control forever, and you’ll have one destination–no growth, no life, no freedom.

Full circle!

Dean Winchester must die so he can live.

And what are Dean’s WINS (plural) by dying? Saving people instead of losing people--saving Mary, Jack, Sam, and Cas. Saving the world. Reuniting his family unit. Interacting instead of performing. OUTING INSTEAD OF HIDING. HIGH DEPRESSIONLESS SELF-WORTH INSTEAD OF LOW DEPRESSIVE SELF-WORTH.

Better yet, Dean will undergo character development in relation to his loved ones (and Cas). With high self-worth, Dean’s capable of learning how to value HIMSELF independently. In turn, without personal obstacles he’ll learn how to sustain HEALTHY interdependent relationships and COMMUNICATION as well as learn how to WHOLLY GIVE HIMSELF to others (Cas).

Tell Cas he’s not expendable, Dean. Disclose the real reason YOU “needed him back”. Expose your feelings, choose Want over Need, and push away your rejection fears! Cas loves you dearly—let him know that his love for you is reciprocated. Nothing but good things ahead!!

Gosh, this post is way longer than I expected—thank youu for sticking to it! Circumstances shall get worse before they get better, and it’s totally necessary to ensure our characters meet the final demise of their prisons.

BTW, I still can’t believe we got a borderline blatant onscreen bi!Dean (and Cas insert) treat!! What’s by is by! Overall I’m incessantly praising Dabb’s spectacular work so far + Glynn and Rich Speight Jr’s craft in this ep!!

Very little sub is left in the text, my friends. TPTB are rendering years’ worth of meta increasingly explicit in S13. I can only HOPE and expect that 13x23/S14 brings us past the Point of Know Return subtextual boundaries and into full-blown textual narrative! Authorial intent EXISTS.

**I know, I know--S14 wasn’t confirmed as the last season and S15 is fair game. The plot accordion, as per usual, re-emerges with the slight overhaul/pullback of characteristic arcs and narrative plot due to season renewals, but I’m Endgame Positive that slow progress is SURE progress. Imho Dean and Cas are so close in saying everything from saying nothing. THE UNSAID WILL BE SAID.

Bracing myself for the last 3 episodes—they’ll burn us in awesome ways!!

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zaggitz · 7 years

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VIDEO GAMES 2017: ONE MILLION GAMES ENTER, TEN GAMES LEAVE.

Well that sure was the best year in video games since probably 1998, wasn’t it? Nintendo put out a new console and 3 major franchise entries, basically every anticipated game of the early 10′s finally frickin’ came out, we got 4 new English Falcom games, 3 of which with good locs, and they made a new Nier? What???

What a time to be alive.

Let’s not waste any time getting to the list, lord knows VIDEO GAMES 2017 has already sucked out enough time from me for a lifetime.

Before we begin, here’s my lists for 2015 and 2016.

Honorable Mentions:

Persona 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaIo82uT0qs

It’s insane that this game isn’t in my top ten, hell, it’s insane that it isn’t in my top five. It’s less a commentary on Persona 5′s quality and more that the games that did make the list resonated with me a whole lot more. VG2017 truly was too powerful.

P5 is mired with stiff localization problems, but even without the loc in consideration, the thematic through-line of the game gets muddled and becomes a toothless version of the promising rebellious first ten hours the game provides by the time you reach the finish line, which also just happens to come 20 hours too late, in my opinion.

What a great looking and feeling game though.

Tales of Berseria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYXwD2CfxOs

On the flipside we have this game, the first Tales game I’ve enjoyed since Tales of Vesperia back in 2008. This game has an amazing story and great characters with a thematic backbone that sticks to your ribs after you finish it.

Now if I didn’t hate the act of actually playing it and having to scour its way too big boring empty dungeons and crappily designed world, it’d be a list maker for sure.

OKAY NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE CERTIFIED BANGERS:

10. Metroid: Samus Returns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhQWJG-_Oco

Somehow my least favorite Metroid game got two remakes that both made my list two years in a row?? This game is pretty great in it’s own right though it has a few control scheme imperfections and I could see a switch port easily being the definitive version to get.

The reason this game really makes the list though is because of how it lives up to its title. Finally an official Nintendo Metroid game that comes out and undoes Sakamoto’s vile character assassination of Samus back in Other M. .

The queen is back, and she has been missed.

9. Horizon: Zero Dawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD0DByDxJBA

An engrossing open world, great stealth/hunting/gathering systems AND robot dinosaurs are just a part of what makes this first outing for what seems like an extremely promising series great.

No, what really sets this game apart from its contemporaries is how it fleshes out its backstory, culminating in the creation of what might actually be the most despicable piece of shit villain ever put to writing for a video game. And he’s been dead for a thousand years so you can’t do shit to him.

Fuck you, Ted Faro.

8. Night in the Woods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2UUFFMGcgY

This game hit extremely close to home for me. Forced to come back home to a small, dying town full of people clinging to the good old days instead of doing anything for the generation after them, having this game to play and have it be said out loud that yeah, other people are living this nightmare too, was insanely refreshing.

For as much as we all need a bit of direction sometimes, sometimes what we also need to know being a directionless 20-something asshole trying their best is okay too.

Also Gregg rulz ok.

7. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNgph1g422Q

Great gameplay, great music, fun characters, one of the most fun to explore worlds in an action adventure game. This game truly nails the sense of pure adventure Ys is known for.

It’s a shame then that it’s plagued with one of the most laughable translation efforts in the industry, much of the games personality comes from the fact that even a bad localization job can’t overwrite some character quirks, but this still leaves the rest of the script feeling extremely stiff at best and incomprehensible at worst.

I hope the re-translation patch is good. Until then, Fuck NISA and have a good day.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiU65nQdZE8

I would describe this game as a great first step in evolving the Zelda formula. That’s not even really that accurate, the real first step was in Link Between World’s item rental/no dungeon order systems.

Nevertheless, BOTW amazes with a sense of scope and exploration no game has ever really come close to, and achieves it almost effortlessly by simply giving you the ability to climb anything.

More music, more proper dungeons, a deeper story and a few durability tweaks are basically all you need to make the next Zelda game the easy best in series.

5. Yakuza 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYB-D9qEwzI

This isn’t the best game this year, but it is easily, no question, the MOST video game this year. 110 hours in and only 60% complete, Yakuza 0 is the game that keeps on giving, with an enthralling true crime story that reshapes what we know about its protagonists. It’s pretty much a non stop emotional thrill ride to the finish line.

It effortlessly incorporates the best side story aspects from the many games in the series to come out before it, and utilizes them with a fantastical glee that keeps you with a smile on your face for the whole run. This is easily the funniest game I’ve played this year. Thank you SEGA.

4. Hollow Knight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1unm0LS10ao

God I can’t wait for this game to get ported to consoles. I bought a new laptop basically just to play this game and the absolutely enthralling metroidvania world design, hand drawn and animated aesthetic, and fantastic npc characters blew me away.

The encounter designs are tough but fair(except maybe the Colisseum) and the DLC so far has been great. I can’t wait for all the post release content to come out so I can play through it all again on Switch and probably PS4.

It’s insane only 3 people made this game.

3. Super Mario Odyssey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhciLj5VzOk

Nothing to say here that hasn’t been said by hundreds of others. SMO is pure joy distilled into video game form.

I can’t wait for Odyssey 2 to come out and somehow blow this one out of the water like Galaxy 2 did for Galaxy.

2. Nier: Automata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOM3lNFajE

An amazing contemplation on what it means to be alive, and a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to a story that, for me at least, has been told since Drakengard in 2003. Game after game of sad tragic stories with bad endings and characters fighting an imperfect world imperfectly and only making things worse while temporarily making things better for themselves.

And really even in those cases there’s caveats.

Caviats???? Anyway.

Ending E of this game finally brings some semblance of peace for this fucked up world where a deranged killer and his dragon fell through the sky and made things the worst for everyone for literally tens of thousands of years. Finally Devola and Popola can sleep. All is well.

1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wld2q4mLhYM

Another year, another Trails game at number 1. I’ll be real with you, I’m about to drop a bunch of personal rambly stuff about what this entire trilogy means to me so if you don’t wanna read that, that’s fine.

This game is basically a perfect epilogue to a game that means a whole lot to me and serves as an amazing capper to an amazing jrpg trilogy.

When I first played Trails in the Sky First Chapter, it was the PC version in 2014. Now in 2014 I was coming off being in college for about 6 years, switching majors a few times and not really being into what I was doing but, yknow, you gotta major in something and then you gotta get a job, that’s kind of what getting started as an adult is.

So I played this weird little jrpg that was, fundamentally, about a country and the people in it trying to move on from a tragic war years prior, hiding their still fresh wounds in plain sight and just trying to go on with their lives.

It was an extremely interesting game, for how plot-light it was in the early goings, you got to really feel the struggle of these people and the unseemly past they were trying to run away from or avoid repeating. This underlying conflict builds and builds until we can’t ignore it anymore.

When I played Second Chapter a year later, I had been laid off from a job I got right out of College and had no employment prospects. I hated the fact that I’d spent basically my entire adult life up to that point doing something I wasn’t passionate about and then got let down by the system.

At the same time, the shame of my situation lead me to close up and not tell anyone about the problems I had, I was broke, I owed two months rent, on the verge of getting evicted, I felt extremely alone.

All this to get to the point that Second Chapter was ultimately a game about pulling out the dark shit we don’t like talking about and saying “it’s okay to talk about this stuff, there’s always someone who will listen.” It got me to get over myself somewhat and actually reach out for help, and I’m really thankful for it not letting me hit rock bottom.

Two years later still, I’m in a much better place, I finally feel happy about where my life is and what I’m doing and oh boy here comes Trails in the Sky the 3rd.

Completing the journey I started back in 2014, I found myself playing a game all about how it’s okay to acknowledge the bad things that happened to us, so long as we learn and move on from them accordingly.

This trilogy has so much heart, and so many memorable characters, and so much to say. It’s so, so special to me, and I was openly weeping when all the characters I’ve come to know and love over 4 years finally parted ways.

Thank you Falcom for making these games, and thank you Xseed for bringing these games to us.

TL;DR

#game of the year #trails in the sky #nier automata #night in the woods #ys #metroid #mario oddysey #hollow knight #yakuza 0 #zelda breath of the wild #horizon zero dawn

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bambuizeled · 7 years

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If you’re unaware of why this is being posted---Read this first. Because I want to keep this relatively short. I purposely made this entire topic into two separate posts because I wanted to have something recalling the past while one is shorter and is about the present day---Which is more important in context.

If this sort of stuff doesn’t interest you---Blacklist “Moth Rants” for future references. I’m not open to listening to anyone’s opinion on my safety and health. Whether you like it or not---I deal with mental illnesses and trauma and I’m free to bring it up on whatever platform I am in. You have the option to blacklist or even unfollow. It doesn’t affect me in any way. Personally, prefer I keep quiet about ~drama~ most of the time and and I’ve been sitting on posting this for a while (as you can see from the timestamps) but if I don’t do it now---I’m just wasting time and I’ll get to why I’m barely speaking about it publicly now and I want to keep this topic dead afterwards.

So here’s what was written as a “Do not contact me anymore” message. I sent this on my old account before I moved to: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 Shortly after that message was sent, he was blocked on practically every website from DA, FA, and even places like Furvilla. Just depended on whether or not his username popped up and poof---He was blocked. But you know... Funny how I mention he was able to contact me on places like MC this entire time, right? You know... A website without a blocking system---Oh...

And then over a year later I get an “apology” message”. You know because apparently I didn’t make it clear in my first message that an apology wasn’t welcome. But it’s nice to know I told someone I was going to block him everywhere only for them to contact me on a site with no block feature? How much of a scumbag do you have to be to pick the easiest place? > “you don’t deserve me unloading that on you anyways.” > “ My boyfriend thinks I should hate you for some of the things you said to me when you made the decision to let me know we weren’t friends anymore.” Yeah. Don’t explain to me your behavior that caused someone to be miserable or a course of 6 years---and instead mention someone whom I’ve never met and someone who I don’t care remotely care about their opinions towards me. That perfectly appropriate to mention in this “apology” message than an explanation for how badly I was treated, right?

> “For you assuming that I’m still the same as when you and I first met, when, I’ve changed a lot.“ Alright. This is less of a sincere apology and more of a “you were wrong this entire time haha” sort of deal when I wasn’t remotely talking about current things. I was specifically talking about past events because the experiences caused trauma for me and that I finally wanted to break away because being around him.

But hey... Why not try to make yourself look good? And then mention the whole “hate” thing because you need a strawman so YOU don’t look bad, right?

You know what’s funny? I had a panic attack when I got the notification of a PM and I saw his name. I just logged out of MC for a few days and cried. Luckily I share my account with someone and they had read it for me to see if it was hostile or not. A few days ago---We actually asked staff to the site to block this person. Apparently staff can get onto it if you ask. I really wish I knew about that sooner. But oh well. Also in case anyone wonders why it’s still called a stalker case---- Take a quick glance at the name on my old Deviantart Account. And remember me mentioning that I moved on from particular accounts that he happened to follow---I purposely moved to get away from him. But the funniest thing about his apology is that my name listed on MC was and still is “Milque” and I never changed it to “Felicity” on purpose. So... What name was I addressed as in the “apology” again...? Looks like someone has been looking through my accounts and got familiar enough to know I go by “Felicity” now hm...

Also, for the heck of it---Anyone want to see some old vent art about me from 2011? (This was from the fight we got into that I don’t remotely remember nor do I really care about at this point.) Since he deleted his journals ages ago, I want you take a gander because this stupid vent piece can give you a good inkling about the shit he’d say about me on journals: https://dizzy-lizard.deviantart.com/art/Headstrong-207055157 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/5704221/

I mostly link it for this comment:

“This sounds like someone ended their friendship with you and you wanted to have the last word when you couldn't.”

Was never a more accurate to say and it’s still accurate to this day---Which is why this post exists. If I wasn’t contacted with the “last word” bullshit. Guess what? I wouldn’t be writing this and posting it.

That being said if I tell you I do not want to be in contact with you and even tell you it’s too late for an apology---if you remotely care about my feelings, you’d just respect my space with what I asked for. None of this “I know you didn’t want me to do this and I PROMISE I’ll leave you alone after” bullshit.

If you’re willing to overstep boundaries once----you easily can be accused that you will do it again!

So I will never accept that. I wanted to end off peacefully with my final words because I was harassed and roped into a friendship I had decided not to be part of. It’s really funny, even with the vent picture and the disagreement I don’t remember---It’s funny how it’s mentioned that he wishes he left me alone after I initially blocked him back in 2010. Maybe I had the best idea from the very start? There’s no “apologies are a good thing” in a situation where it’s been decided and stated that an apology was too late. I also addressed that being around this person made me uncomfortable. I’ve picked apart the apology already. It’s not even an apology. It’s a “you were wrong and I’m just going to say things like “I changed!” so I look like I was the good guy in the end”. It’s funny how I was told the “I changed” excuse yet that seems more like a lie with the whole “last word” and stalking bullshit. Anyways Darktornathore on DA/FA/@beastfox better leave me the fuck alone. If I have to post about this shit publicly---then I will.

This person actively did a block evasion so that is accountable against him.

FUCK OFF.

So, all in all----To anyone reading this, Because he’s done this in the past----Please do not contact me for him. Please and thank you. All it does is rile up past trauma for me. I’m so sorry for having to post this. But if anyone’s been following my past posts and journals---I’m getting really tired of this shit. I’m sorry for getting to this two months later. I was scared and was almost going to hold back on it---But I’m not tolerating this at all.

#Darktornathore #You know since he actively posted journals to shit talk about me and then make that art submission about me---This is just karma #But I want this to end

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qqueenofhades · 7 years

Note

I know you've professed your love for Richard I and I've clicked on your tags of past postings but many of the links back are now broken. I always think of the line from the '95 Sense & Sensibility movie - Margaret is reeling of the kings of England "Good King Richard, Bad King John" While I know he led crusades and performed admirably in battle; considering how little time he spent there before and during his reign, was he, in fact a "good king" for England and its people?

(If you want to find my old Richard posts. my tag is here. Heh.)

Honestly, one of the things I love best about Richard is that he was so complicated. It is very, very rare to find a historical figure conveyed to us so vividly through the limited and biased nature of primary sources, and when you read them, you can understand why his contemporaries found him so striking and controversial (as he still is today, obviously) and generally larger than life. As I said in my answer to the John ask, the Plantagenets were almost all incredibly talented, dynamic, colorful, driven people, and they were likewise almost always just as flawed as they were gifted. That is rich stuff for both a historian and a novelist to explore (hence why they’ve become such popular subject) and yet it often gets flattened and used to paint a simplistic black-and-white portrait. I love Richard because there is so much depth and interest and complexity that comes through just in terms of what people wrote about him, and which must have been so much more in what he was like in real life (if definitely not pleasant at times, especially if you were on his bad side).

As for the basic question of whether Richard was a good king for England, it is inextricably tied up with his status as a crusader. In the nineteenth century, when the British Empire was at its height and going overseas and colonizing the “savages” was cool, Richard was treated as the perfect idealized king, pinnacle of chivalry and nineteenth-century Victorian values, etc. It was not an accurate picture of him, and nor was the twentieth-century reaction to that image, which became about pointing at the crusades as the epitome of fanatical religious violence (which we supposedly don’t do anymore, to which I say HA and also LOL) and in turn framing Richard as the embodiment of that mindset, he was unworthy of his heroic status, Look How Bad He Actually Was, we are smarter than ye olde dumb people now, etc etc. I have never seen any medieval figure attract the same kind of lightning-rod controversy that Richard does, and so much made of his personal flaws – which were not terribly different from that of any king of the period, and in some places much more admirable. It is also absolutely tied to the debate around his sexuality, and good old-fashioned Straight Historian homophobia. So you have this project of people trying to deconstruct Richard’s heroic image, while insisting that our violence against Muslims is super different from the crusading era’s violence against Muslims, while also insisting (as I’ve written about) that either Richard was a good king because he was straight, or a bad king because he was gay. So yes.

The comparison is especially interesting because the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin and his forces in October 1187 was twelfth century Western Europe’s 9/11. It was that shocking and marked that much of an upheaval of/violation of the homeland. The Christian kingdom of Jerusalem had been established after the successful (and extremely bloody) capture of the city in 1099, at the end of the First Crusade. To have it fall back to the Muslims (especially after the West had ignored the Frankish settlers’ calls for help for decades, and then were shocked when the kingdom was conquered, kind of like how we repeatedly ignored intelligence warnings about 9/11 and then were shocked when it happened) was a watershed moment for medieval Christendom. George W. Bush had something like 90%-95% public support for bombing Afghanistan after 9/11; support for the Third Crusade, which was called as a direct result of Jerusalem’s fall, was at similar levels.

Richard going on crusade soon after he was crowned is framed as him haring off on some personal religious vendetta and leaving England behind (often from English-nationalist historians whose view on Richard’s success or failure focus very myopically on England), but the fact was, the entire leadership of Western Europe was going on crusade – Richard, Philip II of France, most of the French territorial lords, the Italian city-states, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, etc. Richard’s father, Henry II, had sworn a crusade vow before his death (although it was doubtful he ever intended to go). This was not a thing which anyone was opting out of, and was part of the entire accepted paradigm of political leadership (similarly, one might remark, to the Western world banding together for the “war on terror.”) England WANTED Richard to go on crusade, and they remained, on the whole, incredibly supportive of him while he was away, especially while John and Philip II (who came in for all kinds of criticism for leaving the crusade early) were making trouble. Richard was doing the right thing, in their view, by going on this expedition, and that was what they wanted their king to be doing.

Of course, Richard’s capture by Henry Hohenstaufen on the way home from the Holy Land, and subsequent very expensive ransom, is pointed to as another example of Richard “costing England.” (Funnily, the people who gripe about this don’t often discuss that Louis IX of France was captured TWICE on his crusades and cost his kingdom even more money to free him – again, this becomes something that somehow only Richard did wrong.) Richard also had to recapture the territory that Philip II had pilfered while he was away, and since those two had an extremely personal rivalry, this became an ongoing war. Again – all medieval kings, including literally every king of England through the Hanovers, were engaged in various land maneuvering and attempts to defend or expand their territory, but this again becomes only Richard’s fault.

It is true that Richard does not seem to have been terribly personally fond of England (and likewise, the English nationalist historians clutch their pearls over this, because not liking England is a terrible crime in their eyes) but there is no indication that he treated it differently or ignored it altogether. He was very lucky to have his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was an incredibly shrewd political operator, and played a major role in governance especially while he was away. But the fact is, Richard wasn’t in England during the latter half of his reign because England didn’t need him there. He had set up the advisory council that more or less managed to run the place, and mostly counted on England to provide him money to fund his defense of his French lands against Philip. England did this fairly well, if not without several inventive stunts on Richard’s part, so that was its overall use. Richard’s premier title was obviously king of England; all his French territories were technically subordinate to Philip, which was a constant sticking point, so England was the association and the rank that was the most important to be emphasized. And since the one constant throughout all of English history has been hating the French, if Richard was sitting on his ass at home while the French were trying to steal his stuff, this would not have made him at all popular. Indeed, one of the major criticisms of John was that he could not defend the English crown’s incredibly important, wealthy, and prestigious French territories as well as Richard had, and ended up losing nearly all of them to Philip.

This ties into the fact that successful medieval kingship had something of a recognizable political/diplomatic/statecraft element to it, especially in the later medieval era, but was still first and foremost about being a soldier, defending territory, and defeating enemies. You could disqualify someone from the throne by blinding them so they couldn’t fight or lead armies, as in fact happened fairly often (especially among the Byzantines). Richard, whatever else he was, was a hella good soldier and strategist who beat nearly everyone who tried to match wits with him, and this was what made John and Jane Q. Medieval Public think, hey this guy is a good king. Richard remained popular in his own day, by and large, because of his prestige as a crusader and his talent on the battlefield. His financial exactions, to be sure, were not as popular, but no tax, ever, in the history of anywhere has been appreciated by the public. So regardless of whether we look at his rule and say that he was a good or bad king, England at the time did not view him any more unfavorably than any of their other rulers, and oftentimes much more favorably (and certainly more than John).

Frankly, I love Richard because of that color and vibrance and talent and controversy and strengths and flaws that are so easily visible around him. He was a crusader who approached the project from a thoroughly pragmatic, rather than religious, perspective (which ended up biting him in the ass). He consistently punished those responsible for riots against the Jews, which were a major and unfortunate part of crusading fever, and in 1194 made a law protecting them, which literally nobody else in Europe was doing. He went to the Holy Land as part of the twelfth-century War on Terror and then announced he liked the Muslims better than his scheming and self-serving Christian allies. He and Saladin admired the hell out of each other, he called Saladin’s brother al-Adil (known as Saif al-Din or Saphadin) “my brother and my friend,” he cultivated numerous high-level Muslim diplomatic contacts, including al-Mashtuq, a commander of Saladin’s whom he had once held as a prisoner, and which ended up with al-Mashtuq arguing on Richard’s behalf during treaty negotiations. He was a six-foot-four (or thereabouts) redhead who swore like a sailor; he would have been literally larger than life when the average guy was five-foot-eight. He had an absolutely wicked sense of black humor. He was queer (gay or bisexual, and you can fight me on this.) He was clever and flawed and violent and educated (he spoke at least three languages and probably more, and wrote songs and poetry) and nobody who met him EVER forgot the experience. As I said, he comes through in the primary sources in a way that very few figures ever do, and we get such a clear and compelling picture of him as a result.

I have actually applied to give a paper at next year’s International Medieval Congress about Richard, and how modern treatments of him and his personal character (especially said queerness) is directly tied to our memory of the crusades, our institutionalized homophobia and view of crusading masculinities, our discomfort with the project of a “war on terror” against the Muslims in various ways, and our determination to insist that We’re Not Like Those There Fanatics Back Then In Ye Olde Dark Ages. The Straight Historians and the academy in general have done all kinds of things with him that they haven’t with other kings, and while in one sense it’s to be expected with someone whose legend has acquired such stature, in another it really needs to be looked at and challenged, and that is what I have become so interested in doing.

#history #medieval history #richard the lionheart #hilary fucking loves richard and writes a mini novel #oops?#emn1936 #ask

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nirikeehan · 5 years

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Power, Politics and Star Wars: Armitage Hux Edition

I read this article that tried to explain what Hux did in TROS and justify it and I was just not feeling it so I wrote a whole thing about it. So I thought, why not post it.

https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2019/12/22/star-wars-tros-general-hux/

I just wanna start by saying yes, I understand the logic of what happened in the film as explained by this article. I'm just here to challenge exactly what happened, why, and the article writer's attempts to justify it, because I don't find them to be an accurate summation of Hux's character.

"It’s not hard to miss that the way The Last Jedi framed his character was very different from what we saw in The Force Awakens. At first, it almost felt as though he was a completely different character, having gone from Nazi-like general to an officer everyone refused to take seriously."

Right, and I think it's worth trying to examine why that shift in portrayal happened – behind the scenes. The writing changed hands from TFA with Lawrence Kasdan & JJ Abrams to Rian Johnson. So, clearly Johnson decided to go in a different direction with Hux. But why? Was it a continuing ploy to "subvert expectations" like he did so much in TLJ? Hence, if Hux was big and scary in the first film (obvious Nazi parallels in imagery and speech, commits literal genocide while hordes of stormtroopers look on), he had to be... silly, ineffectual and easily mocked in the second? Why?

Maybe it fits into a larger theme with Rian Johnson's writing, like... it seems like authority figures can (and should, maybe?) not be taken seriously? Think of all the authority figures in the Last Jedi. With the notable exception of Leia (who has such an iconic history) and Holdo I guess (random insert without much substance in my opinion), every single character who is, could be or once was in a position of power is cut down to size in some way.

Luke Skywalker - crotchety old man.

Poe - too hotheaded, needs to learn his place.

Kylo - emo boy in a mask.

Hux - butt of yo mama jokes.

Snoke - literally cut in half.

While I like this technique in some ways (I think I'm in the minority as someone who actually liked Luke being a disillusioned asshole lol, I thought it made him more interesting; and pointing out the obvious that Kylo is a conflicted try hard made him way more human and relatable to me), doing it to this extent was excessive. Especially in a film series that is supposed to have clearly defined villains. While I like the murder of Snoke because it was unexpected and it let Kylo actually have some agency to try to take over the galaxy on his own, you can't do it with every villain, or the audience isn't going to think anything is at stake anymore. So it always played really weird to me that Hux was taken from General Genocide to the target of slapstick humor. Which brings me to the next point...

"Looking back, it’s possible to interpret this as the result of how other characters viewed and treated him from that point forward, rather than an actual drastic change to the way he was portrayed. It’s possible that after Starkiller Base, the masses lost great respect for him — on both sides. He is no longer a man to fear. He’s General Hugs. He doesn’t scare anyone."

I just don't see how this is possible, to be honest. Like yeah, Starkiller base was lost, but surely not before it destroyed the entire Hosnian system, which, from what I understand, contained the entire seat of New Republic government. So I assume that means the president, vice president, whoever else was in the executive branch, all of the Senate, etc etc. Like imagine some terrorist leader called down a laser from space and obliterated all of Washington, D.C. while the President and all staff were in the White House, Congress was in session and the Supreme Court was hearing cases. We'd be like, oh my god, everyone's gone, we have no federal government, what the fuck. Even if the American army managed to destroy the weapon that did it, there'd still be basically irreparable damage to the very structure of the government and its ability to function. (Sounds like the plot of a future Michael Bay movie, but I digress.)

The point is, whoever was responsible for the attack would probably still be pretty fearsome to the masses. And in Hux's case, considering his goal in TFA seems to be to usurp the New Republic and replace it with the First Order, at the end of the first film, he seems to be in a perfect position to do exactly that... which is why I was super confused as to why he spent TLJ chasing down like 30 rebels, who were already basically defeated?? Like, now would have been the time to take over! Don't just leave that power vacuum sitting there, buddy! Someone else is gonna fill it if you don't! (More proof I don't think Rian Johnson has cracked many history books, but the lack of coherent political framework is a major failing of the sequels in general, so it's not all entirely on his shoulders. He did seem like he was trying to engage with some of these ideas i.e. Canto Bight illustrating the evils of the military industrial complex, but they fell so flat because he just wasn't that informed about the socio-political commentary he was trying to make.)

"This is further evidenced by the way Kylo Ren treats him the moment he becomes Supreme Leader of the First Order. Kylo quite literally begins pushing him around, constantly putting him in his place, belittling him, and making him look incompetent and expendable."

LOL this is such a fundamental misinterpretation of Kylo and Hux's relationship at the end of TLJ. Kylo didn't start pushing Hux around because everyone had lost respect for his authority. Kylo starts pushing Hux around because Kylo killed Snoke and took the Supreme Leader role himself, giving himself a BIG promotion over Hux. He went from like, army commander to freaking king. He's on a power trip, trying to assert his authority not just over Hux, but literally everyone in the First Order. The dialogue (handily linked by the article above) between them after Snoke's death very clearly states this:

Hux: Who do you think you're talking to? You presume to command my army? Our Supreme Leader is dead! We have no ruler!

Kylo: *starts choking him* The Supreme Leader is dead.

Hux: *choking* Long live the Supreme Leader.

Kylo is subduing Hux by violence and coercion and filling the power vacuum himself (see, that's what happens to power vacuums, usually the most brutal asshole around arrives to fill it!). That's not something Hux brought upon himself in any way; it's something Kylo took by force. Hux isn't the only one following Kylo's orders by the Battle of Crait, the rest of the First Order army is also because they're all too terrified of Kylo to question him. Somehow making this only about Hux and Kylo as individuals is a really narrow-minded, boring interpretation of pretty much my favorite part of TLJ.

"And here lies the deep change within Hux that leads us into The Rise of Skywalker. General Hux knew he would never regain anyone’s respect. He knew that Kylo Ren would continue to publicly humiliate him. He knew his chances of ever being able to regain power in the traditional sense were lost."

I still don't see how this is possible, especially since as far as I know there's no supplementary canon material to back this idea up. The article writer is grasping at straws trying to make sense of TROS's nonsensical character choices for Hux. There's all sorts of ways Hux could still regain power. I don't even know what "in the traditional sense" means? Hoping for a promotion, maybe? Sure, he could suck up to Kylo and make himself invaluable to Kylo's continued status as Supreme Leader (this is the route I took in my fanfic, since it seemed pretty plausible; Hux is set up to be the brain to Kylo's brawn). He could have Kylo assassinated and take over himself. He could recruit a whole faction of people to mutiny against Kylo. He could even sell out Kylo to the Resistance, sure, which I guess is what he was doing in TROS, but all of that is still in service of regaining power for himself.

"Hux is so angry with Kylo Ren, and filled with so much rage toward all he is and all he stands for, that he decides it does not matter which side of the war wins as long as the Supreme Leader isn’t on the winning team."

Again, I don't think this has shown to be true at all before TROS. By all appearances, Hux's goal has always been obtaining power, and the supplementary canon with his backstory seems to support this. There's so much with his father being an old Imperial and Hux growing up with the old imperial ideology and the belief that returning to some semblance of the Empire would be the most ideal outcome of the First Order's war on the New Republic. And by this logic, shouldn't Hux be thrilled by the (totally outlandish) possibility that Emperor Palpatine himself would come back to rule? Imagine all the Nazi holdovers after World War II finding out Hitler had RISEN FROM THE DEAD. They'd probably be pretty excited, no?

But this is why reducing Hux's character to some petty asshole who has no personal values or larger ideology and just "wants to see Kylo Ren lose" is so dumb and boring to me. It means he literally no longer cares about his own personal ambitions or that of his larger ideological ones. Everything he worked for his whole life, countless hours of blood, sweat and tears, deciding to commit genocide of billions of innocent people to get the galaxy to fall in line with his vision........ amounts to literally nothing. As long as Kylo loses their little schoolyard tiff.

Nah, I don't buy it.

But this just speaks to generally larger problems in the sequel trilogy with the writers not having a strong grasp on the mechanisms of political power in the universe they're working with. In the films, who's fighting who and why has always been painfully vague and often confusing (why wasn't the Resistance just the New Republic army in TFA? etc), but while at least Rian Johnson used TLJ to try to engage with some of these questions of politics and power – albeit at times with cringeworthy naïveté – TROS abandons it completely. It never once clarifies who's actually in charge here. Ostensibly it should be Kylo since he’s still got the title “Supreme Leader” in the opening scrawl, but he's running around chasing zombie Palpy! And the First Order is still very obviously still just a military operation focusing on the Resistance, so are all of the galaxy's sectors just... self-governing right now? If so, why?

TROS's complete abandonment of the notion that anyone in this universe could even want power was completely baffling to me. It's always about power. The original trilogy was about power. Even the prequels were about power (to a micromanage-y, super boring degree. Embargoes! Trade disputes! Senate meetings with votes of no confidence!) To bring Palpatine back from the dead to make him some weirdo with a death cult who just wants the whole galaxy to die (I guess?)... none of that's compelling to me. And it seems to completely misunderstand (or willingly sidestep) any kind of interesting real world parallels, of which the original trilogy had plenty (and the 90s era EU/Legends novels in particular were really good at engaging with, probably why they're my favorite entries in the whole franchise). Which does play into my cynical suspicion that TROS was deliberately sterilized of any potential political commentary by Disney to appease the increasingly authoritarian governments in their international market. Can't have those pesky human rights cutting into their profits. :/

#armitage hux #tros spoilers #star wars

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