#they act according to their OWN experiences and traumas and weaknesses

[eyestrain-addict]

Don't make me say it again

Character making a bad decision(s) ≠ Character is a bad person

[lookingforhappy]

thnk u @air--so--sweet for pointing out the tua prop auction, i am obssessed so ofc im now writing up my own transcripts for stuff. i bet someone else has done this but i couldnt find it so here's my record of it:

this is from Reginald's red book in s1 (i presume the dates are written day/month/year as Reginald is english)

transcript:

"#00.01 Behaviour Part 4 -When given opportunity, he acts in accordance to my expectations, and to my instruction, and only to my expectation and instructions. Further experiments needed to figure out the extent of his blind loyalty. -Unknowable at this time if this productive for the cause or detrimental for the cause. 4/03/01 Conducted experiment in which I sent #00.01 to this woods to watch for threats. Not only did he not ask about said threats, he found ways to come up with his own possible threats. He stood watch in a weak, slight base camp from dawn until dusk, without asking if he should stay on overnight. He is still there. -Is it truly best to have the best follower be the leader??"

transcript:

"5/09/01 Another experiment conducted in which I gave #00.01 an unknowable mission, but this time had him try to lead the team in his cause. I instructed #00.01 to take the team and patrol the state beach. Up and down. Until the threat revealed itself. Within hours all members had referred to pursue mission on such little intel. #00.01 never stopped. Even after the pleading from #00.03. Whom usually shows an emotional weakness for. #00.03 Abilities Part 3 -Makes one wonder if she is all the Umbrella Academy really needs. -Her full potential makes the rest of the team look like an afterthought. -How can I convince her the team needs her? Confounded at not being able to capture a non-existent opponent flag. Their petty feud seems to know no bounds. But if the feud motivates #00.02 in a way to suceed in that types of scale, so be it. Work-load Capacity Ranking 1-#00.05 (negated by disregard for rules and safety) 2-#00.01 (enhanced by propensity to protect siblings) 3-#00.03 (strength in collaboration) 4-#00.06 (follower) 5-#00.04 (untapped and unfocused potential) 6-#00.02 (could be 1st or 6th depending on mood) Discipline Notes -Physical pain yields best results with males. -Emotional trauma yields best results with #00.03 and Klaus. Especially when inflicted on others. -Separation from group does not work on #00.02."

transcript:

"-Sensory Statistics -Visual - 21.4% -Auditory - 8.7% -Kinesthetic - 69.9% -Disorders -Likely tendency toward Oppositional Disorder (ODD) -Maternal family history of possible sociopathy (seems incongruent to dynamics with Seven; background research ongoing ref p.49) -Phobias -Darkness -Solitude -Binds Effective Behaviours Modification Techniques"

edit 03/07/2024: spelling corrections 😬

my thoughts beneath the cut:

Pic 1

interesting that Reginald seems more interested in Luther's psychology, and whether it's a mistake for him to be the leader due to his blind loyalty and strict adherence to instruction (to me, Luther reads as somewhat autistic here, following rules to the letter, but this could also be a result of childhood abuse).

Reginald's interest in Luther's blind loyalty, and experimenting on him to test where or if he has a limit on said loyalty, is very similar to the moon mission. Reginald said there was a purpose to it in s3, but maybe the purpose was testing the extent of Luther's loyalty. Maybe he was waiting to see at what point would Luther actually start to ask his father questions, or make requests of him or even outright defy him. We know Luther had started asking for more food, but maybe Reginald was pushing him further, to see at what point he'd ask to come home.

Since Reginald didn't send any of the Sparrows to the Moon it would seem like Luther's moon mission was unneccessary, but to Reginald there was nothing more important than training the children. Since Reginald seems to doubt whether having a Follower be a Leader, maybe he was trying to force Luther into a position that would help him learn how to use his own initiative?

Pic 2

this one is a gold mine.

Luther once again cannot not follow instruction or leave his work unfinished, but he's also considered to be very protective of his siblings by Reginald (which is a good thing in Reginald's books).

Allison is desperate for him to stop, but also seems like she has self-worth or anxiety issues that Reginald is unable to cure her of, likely related to her feeling like people would hate her if they knew the real her.

Diego's feud with Luther over being no.1 wasn't intentional on Reginald's side, but he didn't discourage it either as he felt it motivated Diego. Which is probably related to the fact that Diego doesn't seem to work well without the group. He also says Diego could be no.1 if he sorted out his emotions, but he ranks him in last.

Five is marked top of the group, above even Luther, but he's too opposed to rules and safety in Reginald's eyes.

Ben seems to be keeping quiet and doing as he's told, which also seems to be a good thing to Reginald.

also interesting that Klaus is referred to by name not number, and is grouped with Allison rather than with the "males".

I don't think "physical pain" refers to torture or corporal punishment, but perhaps exhaustion or intense physical regimines? Mostly because Reginald seems extremely hands off with the kids.

Pic 3

It doesn't say who this entry is about but "Oppositional Disorder" and "sociopathy" seems most consistent with Five. and now that we know his mother was a butcher, she seems the most likely candidate to have been thought a sociopath.

(edit: Although, Klaus is also suggested to have ODD in S3, this doesn't seem consistent with the earlier entry mentioning he is more receptive to emotional pain and pain inflicted on others, than to physical pain inflicted to himself. Plus, Rachel seems very emotionally intelligent, and this entry points out a positive relationship with Viktor which has always been more Five's thing)

I don't agree with the sociopath diagnosis, but it seems Reginald is hestitant to diagnose it in the first place since he notes that Five has a good relationship with Viktor, probably meaning he's not devoid of empathy.

the Phobias is also interesting. Darkness, Solitude and Binds all suggest he was forced into similar situations as Klaus and Viktor, where he had to use his powers to escape cramped conditions. the fact that he notes Solitude is one of his phobias is also v sad all things considered. plus the fact that Five is the only Brelly to sleep on a separate floor to the other 6 siblings - maybe this was Reginald's attempt to cure him of this phobia?

[aardvaark]

WELL I meant like. the writers could have just said he was good at playing violin but gets stage fright about it, like they just say Eliot is good at guitar and singing but gets stage fright about it. it seems mean to give Eliot that but not Hardison. the man is already getting dragged around every heist by his ear they could have let him have this one thing.

Anonymous asked: Also there's the tea-making scene from the Reunion Job where they demonstrate that Eliot is actually pretty weak to Sophie's brain-manipulation tactics and when Parker points it out, both of them react like Sophie keeps doing this to HIM in particular before, like buddy... hardcore enough not to crack under torture... touchstarved enough to get fully brainhacked by just a couple of affectionate arm-sqeueezes

Anonymous asked: Also NLP in particular is absolutely a pseudoscience lmao but I can always forgive a bit of fun hokum in my daytime tv. for the bit. it just seems so mean to cheapen one of Hardison's few non-computer skill W's yknow. ok thank you and sorry for one million anons

omg def don't apologise for sending asks, im so happy to get them!! hi again i hope your day is going well!!

YES re: stage fright being a better option. thats is a much better idea anon!! makes more sense that he simply DOES play violin. he has a LOT of skills. i mean, hardison is a genius, full stop. he can do what he puts his mind to, plus he's shown to be incredibly talented at a lot of things which aren't directly related to his job, like painting. i don't think he gets enough credit as being seriously extremely gifted AND seriously extremely dedicated to honing some of those skills... he has a lot of talents that he's very causal about, but then the ones like hacking that he focuses on? those are mentioned to take so much effort, sleepless nights, etc etc. there's a reason that he's the best hacker on a team of people who are the best in their fields.

and this is all while he's still half-learning. leverage is crime university for him, as episode commentaries tend to say lol. he's... i forgot, 21-22? when leverage starts (ik aldis hodge had just turned 21 when he was hired for the role. looking back on s1 especially, he is soooo young. ik im 20 but like. 21 is so young. it really is). and he's been learning & teaching himself for years already, but it's still early days in his crime career & he seems to already be better than anyone else at what he does. and is somehow fairly well-adjusted unlike anyone else on the team lol. but he does have his own trauma, and his own problems he encounters. eg he hasn't really had a long-term relationship (according to commentary on... im gonna say girls night out/boys night out jobs? idk. s4 somewhere), so while we get a lot of parker dealing with a relationship that she finds kinda overwhelming due to the total lack of safe connections she's had in her life etc etc, we also gotta remember that the parker/hardison (*cough* /eliot too, *cough*) relationship is a pretty new and intimidating thing for him too. and. oh i just realised how off topic i am. wow. if going on tangents was a sport i'd be an olympic athlete.

(and aldis hodge btw is also so multi-talented, he designs watches and paints and, of course, acts. i remember some commentary from the bank shot job saying how they were gonna have hardison be fairly awkward on the grifting, but aldis hodge is just ridiculously good at doing those scenes where he totally stumps the mark/lackeys/cops/etc, and a lot of it is improv. irrelevant ik but i just think it's cool just how good he is at those quick grifting scenes).

anyway. eliot is so touchstarved :((( and he loves his family even when they annoy him or brainhack him lol. he's kinda immune to threats and pain and stuff for sad reasons but the smallest affection, he responds to. which is upsetting to think about, how much pain you have to have to no longer acknowledge it, and how little love you have to experience/accept for any amount to be disarming. but yeah thats true, idk why sophie says hardison was a particularly good target then... i guess her NLP stuff is supposedly easier to do subtly than hypnotism? maybe. regardless, the NLP stuff is absolutelyyyy pseudoscience, but as you said, i just allow for sophie to be able to magically do that stuff lol. its not real but sophie can do the impossible so i just go with it for 42 mins lmao.

[yuikomorii]

Greetings, I come with late night ramblings abt diabolik lovers. Big fan of your blog, I really like the side of the fandom which discusses the characters

Sometimes i wonder what it was like for the mukami bros to turn into vampires. Since vampires look so similar to humans the fact that they are a different species really slips my mind sometimes.....

So sometimes I find myself wondering what that psychological shift was like. The mukami bros were all pretty young and had grudges against humans in some way when they were turned, so parting with their humanity wasn't on their minds I think lol.

But despite spending lot of their childhood/puberty around vampires they still do act a lot more human like than the sakamakis. Granted, the sakamakis def have a lot trauma that compromises their ability to have any type of healthy relationship. But characters like ayato suggest that vampires aren't inherently incapable of the more "human" emotions (don't rlly know a good word for it mb).

I do remember ruki saying somewhere that because he is weak he stays with his family (not the only reason ofc, but having to band together/find strength in numbers to survive is a very human-like thing), yet he and his bros abandoned being human/ hold some level of resentment for humanity.

Anyways all that to say the mukami bros have an interesting relationship with their "humanity" and I'm overanalyzing characters in an otome game of which the lore is constantly retconned. Complicating this is the fact that we don't have a "average" or "normal" vampire to compare with

Also reject totally missed an opportunity to make a character that didn't want to be turned into a vampire, and had to struggle with the changes.

// Hello, thank you for enjoying my blog!<3

Hmm… If the person who becomes a vampire is kind-hearted and mentally stable enough to avoid wishing revenge upon someone or using their newfound vampire status as an excuse to treat people badly, I sincerely doubt that the psychological transition from human to vampire would hit that hard. Trauma caused the Mukami brothers to develop such a vicious nature, exactly like Yui in HDB did at one point when, as a result of being mentally broken, she started killing people in an After story. While pure-blood vampires do have their own set of morals and they obviously need blood to survive, I wouldn’t say they are inherently evil, taking into account that in LP and VC, some vampires were nice to Yui and the Diaboys. They are indeed predators, that’s something they can’t control no matter how much they try, but not all of them are malicious.

The Mukamis got rid of their humanity but they still kept acting like humans around one another because, after all, that’s how they were initially accustomed to. As for the Sakamakis… due to trauma as well, they were pretty twisted since childhood. I mean, most of them were the main cause something bad happened to any of their brothers in the past, therefore it’s to be expected that their relationship is not a healthy one. However, vampires are actually capable of experiencing human emotions, and Ayato is the living example of this given that he is confirmed as being the most human-like out of all due to the fact that he was already capable of displaying these emotions prior to meeting Yui (for example: wanting to sacrifice himself for his brothers, ruining Karl’s blue rose so as Cordelia wouldn’t get sad, crying when Cordelia died and, most importantly, valuing his life). Additionally, a vampire will begin to experience human emotions the more Eve's blood he consumes, so... that's basically part of the plan, according to what Karl said in Ayato’s DF route.

I wouldn't say the Mukamis hate humans; they held a grudge against aristocrats, but not humans in general, because they only see them as an inferior species. As for Ruki, the reason he would feel weak without his family isn’t only due to banding together or finding strength in number but rather it’s about them as his emotional support. Kou, Yuma, Azusa respect, praise and accept Ruki with all his qualities and flaws, therefore feeling needed and appreciated is actually what makes Ruki strong.

[sandorsubs]

hi an anon here, im just feeling overwhelmed and healing since i have so many emotional abuse interaction with ppl outside, it kind offended and im internalizing it and worrying my trauma will pop up when im manifesting, cause till today i feel vulnerable how they look at me, like i dont do anything to ppl and they hate and piss off to me, im a very spiritual person and its obviously i tend to be sensitive, im also insecure and worried if i have a bad energy or its just a reflection of their bad energy.

hi there anon. i don't think you have bad energy first of all. being a spiritual person can be tiring sometimes. i kinda felt that you are an empath. so you need to protect your energy. carrying our past is so tiring when it's mixed with our old harmful habits. for example you may realize you have same pattern in relationships because of your previous experiences. but you are not stuck in past even if it feels like it. according to your assumptions you may still attract negative people around you. i'll listen things you may want to be interested in because i've been there, i am still healing. most important thing is your will to heal. since you have that i hope you find this useful.

of course i will suggest therapy first because it's mind opening and makes us realize a lot. all healing process is like breaking a wrong healed bone to make it heal better again. but don't condition yourself it'll be hard or scary. it's fresh breath seriously.

you are the most important person in your life. this is a realization should hit somewhere in your life. it's cheesy to read it on self-motivation pages ik. don't just affirm but think about it. when a people pleaser say yes to something they don't want, who experience the discomfort? they do. being rejected isn't worse than discomfort. every grown up person should deal with rejection. but a people pleaser would rather feel discomfort than making someone feel rejected. whose team are you on? always check you feel good, comfortable and respected when you are with people. if you completely focus on other people's wants and opinions, you'll neglect yourself. but your life comes first.

as a previous people pleaser i used to imagine myself as someone else (since i am kinder to strangers) to be able to help myself. but do i bully other people? no. i didn't even write a single hate message in my life but oh the things i told myself...to the mirror. then i realized "i'm not surprised why i hate myself" because i treat myself very shitty. i neglect her, i shut her down, i bully her, i reject her requests. but i expect to be happy. how? according to external validation but it's sooo temporary if you don't love yourself. you experience this life yourself, you should love yourself most because they are always with you. please practice self love, external validation is out. it makes you weak and open to manipulation.

who can tell you who you are? you have been your own best friend from the start. you should know everything about yourself. but do you? do you really think you have bad energy? write down about yourself. your life, things you are proud of, your dislikes. this sounds so basic and you may struggle first but i promise you'll amaze yourself. don't be humble just be honest. even our families says horrible things to us sometimes. we think they are right just because it's family and they're close bla bla. but you can stop and not accept what they say. because you know yourself better than anyone. no one can make you doubt.

about past traumas. write everything down. literally every single thing you are offended by, every person that hurt you. now since you love yourself and know yourself, trust me you'll have a different perception. you'll know why you acted like that, why you said that and all of your experiences will make sense. because we get the damage and since we couldn't heal from it we still think it's our fault and feeling ashamed of our trauma. how is this fair? i am not a professional and i don't know what kind of traumas you have but get help, heal and build your trust in yourself again. would you let someone you love and know get hurt in front of you? no, since you build a healthy relationship with yourself you won't let that happen.

sometimes we forget who "people" are. you said you get hate for no reason. why do you care? look who is giving you the hate. a hater. i wouldn't be friends with a hater, i wouldn't even look at their face, they don't deserve to talk to me. i wouldn't let them approach to my kids. they just need to heal and stop having a ugly personality. because we've also been through shit and we don't have ugly personalities. sadly we can't stop haters from talking and reaching out but we can ignore. before directly accepting what they say, look where it comes from. i know it's hard but look at their faces carefully, they are not even aware of their toxicity. they are far from healing and being happy. they want to see you doing bad stuff only to tell themselves "oh great i'm not the only bad person". but you don't and this makes them crazier.

you have the formula. self love+knowing yourself+trust= self worth. past doesn't matter, what people says about you doesn't matter. focus on what you want and create that time for yourself to write and ask questions. like you get to know yourself from start. be clear about your manifestations and there is nothing to be afraid of

[sparklingmusicofstars]

From what I know, Catarina has her own romantic tastes, she dreams of a handsome prince from a fairy tale and a brave knight. I found out that after reading her novel over and over again, she also wants romantic actions from her future lover, such as carrying him like a princess, then protect him like a brave knight. remembering that the monkey girl in the past had minimal knowledge about direct romance experiences, so until now I think she is still making assumptions about the figure she adores...

According to my personal assumption, maybe these three heroes are Jeord, Sora, Keith, but it depends on the author in the end...

Hello,

In my opinion, Catarina doesn't necessarily dream of a "prince from a fairy tale".

Maybe in her previous life the physical of her partner wouldn't have matter but I think that now, after being reincarnated in an otome game and surrounded by charming and handsome people, she now wants someone quite handsome. (And it's also th case for most of the girls who play otome games) Though the personnality stays an important criteria for her.

Like Sophia she never fell in love with a real man but had "infatuations" with 2D characters so she doesn't really have an idea of what type of man she loves but she doesn't seem to be into playboys or perfect princes but also seems to love cool, wild guys, tsunderes and gentlemen with a gentle and smart personnality.

She is also okay with her partner having a weak side, flaws or even or trauma since she doesn't necessarily want him to be perfect because she would think he is too good for her. Since she was an average girl (it's only one of the reason) she doesn't mind the status and would completely agree to be with a commoner or someone of lower status.

She doesn't seem to love when Geordo is acting too princely because he doesn't feel human to her and can't help see him as capture target. She prefers when he acts naturally with her because she feels like she can see the "real" him. But she can see him as someone reliable who can protect her. And despite his black hearted personnality she still see him as a very good person and rather than a surhuman she can see Geordo is like anyone, he can pushes himself too hard and have flaws he tries too hide. But she still love him the way he is. But he needs to act more naturally with her and avoiding too agressive romantic advances.

And of course she wants her partner to protect her and to really care about her but there is still a limit. Like with Keith who it WAY too protective so he sounds more like a mother than her boyfriend. It's also why she can't see him as someone who can protect her.

She loves when someone is protective towards her but doesnt't like being scolded all the time (and it's normal) it's why Keith needs to change this bad habit but he has the gentle and gentlemanly personnality Catarina is looking for.

And yes, she likes romantic advances but not too much and not too suddenly. So I would say, at least sometimes agressive and sometimes sweet and gentle. It's why Nicol would be a good match if he is serious about her. So now Catarina still see him as the diligent, siscon, (very handsome) and not talkative big brother of her best friend.

Alan would be a good match because he is the type of wild, cool and tsundere man Catarina loves but he is too childish and Catarina can't see him as someone reliable because she still has his younger haughty immature self in her mind. It's why she can't see him as a serious romantic interest.

Sora is indeed a good match for her because he is the cool and has a wild side. He is very reliable and really care about her, he doesn't really scold her but always warn her to be more cautious in a curt way, reminding her of her second big brother. He is someone she can see as a knight figure and she finds his physical as amazing as his personnality so he would have his chances if he really try since he is also one of the only ones Catarina sees as a man. He also can make romantic advances, agressive and gentle ones.

It's the same for Cezar, he is the wild and cool type. He really care about her but like Sora, he doesn't really scold her but make her realize by herself how dangerous what she did was. She loves his personnality as much as his physical and can completely see him as someone reliable who can protect her and as a knight figure. Cezar also have a lot of experience with women so he can make romantic advances, gentle and agressive ones. (even if he seems more keen of gentle ones)

Raphael also has the gentle and smart personnality Catarina is looking for. He is someone she can really trust and who can protect her but since he doesn't appear often we can't really see if Catarina can see as a romantic interest but I think she can. He is very protective and even if he doesn't scold her often he knows how to make her really understand how dangerous what she did was and how much he was worried. He is very thoughful and really care about her. He is also very sharp and easy to talk to so Catarina is very comfortable around him. So I think that if Raphael was serious he could make gentle romantic advances.

But for the time being the only persons who are more or less serious are indees Sora, Keith and Geordo.

[autisticsociologymajor]

Male-Written Female Characters vs Female-Written Female Characters

Intro: Men write female characters according to their perception of women. Women write female characters according to their experiences being one & being around other women. Obviously that’s not a fact. But the way a character is written says a lot about the writer and their perceptions. So I’m going to do a comparison to show the difference using Jodi Mills from supernatural & Hannah Wells from designated survivor.

A/N: I actually have no clue who wrote these characters. This is just an example. In no way am I bashing the characters or writers. Just observing.

Jodi Mills is humanized.

Hannah Wells is a machine.

Jodi’s story began as a cop with a family. She was married with a kid. Hannah’s story began as an FBI agent tasked with solving the reason behind an attack. Jodi’s whole family died, and someone Hannah presumably had an intimate relationship with died in her story too. Both women were tasked with solving the case and getting answers for themselves and for others.

Hannah became obsessive. How dare she allow herself to get too close to someone like that. She’d never ever do it again. Hannah doesn’t cry. She has no emotional weaknesses because she doesn’t have time to be weak. She won’t allow herself to get too close or to let others know too much about her. She’s a fighter. She can single handedly take down entire t3rrorist organizations, fight alongside experienced soldiers overseas, she speaks multiple languages, and has survived numerous attempts on her life due to her physical strength/agility and her above average intelligence. In every way except physically, she is a heteronormative masculine character. She has no depth— her life is her work. And her work is in spite of her father (and every other male apparently). Physically, she’s the most hyper-sexual feminine character. She wears tight t-shirts and heels to work (yes, even when she’s trying to escape captivity), she’s slim and fit, and has an amazing figure. She wears minimal makeup and puts her hair up only when necessary.

Jodi Mills is humanized in the way that she didn’t become entirely obsessive and machine-like. She was traumatized by the loss of her family, as anyone would be. She processed this, processed the existence of the supernatural, and she acted accordingly. She stayed being a cop but does pitch in with the supernatural when she can, and she takes kids in as her own when they have nowhere to go in order to help them while also helping herself emotionally. This is a pretty normal response to trauma. Despite her past, she still allows people to get close to her and she’s able to open up emotionally. She’s both a fighter and a nurturer. She’s capable of being a mother and a cop, a lover and a fighter, etc etc. She’s human and has a work/life balance. She cries and experiences pain & emotion despite her above average intelligence and physical strength/ability. She dresses accordingly. Instead of wearing tight shirts, long hair, and heels into a fight, she wears her uniform, comes prepared with weaponry, and wears her hair short. She has an average body for her career and age.

In other words. Hannah Wells has the personality of a man, but still has the body of an idealized woman. Hannah appeals to the male audience by acting masculine while appearing feminine. In no way is her character grounded in any form of true reality.

Jodi Mills has the personality of a real-life woman, and the body of a real-life woman. Jodi appeals to the female audience and any other realistic audience member. She acts and appears like a real person any one of us could meet on the street someday.

I learned one thing in school. Heteronormative masculinity is grounded in 3 things — strength/usefulness, status, and denunciation of femininity. Heteronormative men NEED to be strong, wealthy, popular, dating an attractive woman, and all while denouncing anything that is “feminine.”

Hannah Wells is the epitome of that. She’s strong, she’s useful, she’s popular because of her status as an agent, dependent on nobody but herself, she’s an attractive woman but in no way does she act feminine at all.

Jodi Mills isn’t, because she’s human. She’s strong and useful. Yet she isn’t popular because of it. She’s both independent and dependent on others for certain things. She’s an average woman — not idealized yet not unattractive. She’s masculine in some ways and feminine in others. Aka. She’s human.

That’s all folks.

[ukaiknowsbest]

Gintoki, Otae on Self-Sacrifice

gintoki letting himself be captured (life actually in danger).

when he offered his life in exchange for asaemon

farewell shinsengumi

notes

had his weapon but surrendered

someone helped him escape

resigned to his fate and personal decision, ready to die anyway

otae getting captured (life actually in danger)

Lesson 1, First Episode

cult

yagyuu (marriage that she didnt want)

ryugu

farewell shinsengumi

silver soul start - otose shop raid

silver soul cabaret girls escape

silver soul siege of kabukichou

notes

surrendered completely (L1, Yagyuu) -no point in fighting back coz she walked into situation with clear eyes

didn't bring weapon (cult, ryugu, farewell shinsengumi, silver soul start) -she's not allowed to bring her bladed weapon in public

weapon not suitable for situation (silver soul) -as discussed before, she was more focused in letting other girls escape, weapon also was not good to be used when too many people are near her.

wasn't focused on the captor but was more focused in protecting someone/something else (silver soul arc) -silver soul start: more concerned about yorozuya office being destroyed -siege of kabukichou: safety and escape of cabaret girls / gengai and otose giving themselves up

didn't use her brute strength to defend herself (L1, cult, ryugu, silver soul start) -maybe in L1, sorachi still wasn't sure how her character was supposed to be OR!! since it was her first job dealing with men, she still acted according to rules of propriety of the time. -in cult and ryugu, it was most likely her intention to talk to the captor and expose them first, being captured allows that. -in start of silver soul arc she was more concerned abt others's safety before thinking about herself.

talked down her captors (cult, ryugu, farewell shinsengumi, silver soul start) -choose to use words first when there's a chance

believed in her friends (cult, ryugu, farewell shinsengumi, silver soul)

someone else helped her or intervened in situation (all)

resigned to her fate and decision , ready to die anyway (all)

yes L1 and Yagyuu arc is still considered her "death" because she was willing to give up the life she knew and loved to be indentured servant / wife to someone else.

otae in summary:

-uses words against captors as much as possible.

-her own safety is usually not her priority especially in dire situations.

-her weapon is banned for public use.

-weapon needs to be used in optimum conditions

-she's not a trained militia, martial skills are only for self defense.

-believes in her friends with all her being.

-ready to die with bushido when she is captured anyway.

-she has different kind of strength.

(It's on sorachi why she doesnt have plot armor compared to the rest. He always wrote her more realistically imo.)

REASONS FOR MAKING THESE NOTES

tbh these some of my thoughts in reaction to youtube comments saying things like "why is she so weak when it counts!!!"

Yet people don't chastise Gintoki when he gives himself up for others. Everyone always reasons out: "it's his trauma response!" "Knowing what he's been through, giving up his own life is understandable!"

AND I GET IT. I GET IT.

Why then, is Otae less forgiven when both of Gintoki and her are doing the same thing?

Is Otae's life not traumatic in itself? Is being orphaned young, having to see her best friend get hurt because of her, losing their home and source of income and raising/providing for her own brother for her whole life not traumatic enough?

How much does Otae have to lose before her self-sacrificing tendencies are seen not as a sign of weakness but of strength born from trauma, experience and circumstance?

...

otae is cool y'know? if people just look into her writing closer, she's probably one of the most fascinating characters ever created.

[lanawinters-ily]

My Anchor

The aftermath of Madison’s experience at the party. Will Cordelia be able to become the mother figure she needs?

Pairing: Cordelia Goode x Madison Montgomery (platonic)

Word count: 2200

Warnings: implicit mention of sexual assault, injuries

The water was lukewarm, but to Madison it was stifling. Freshly boiled water from a kettle was flooding over her body, & she couldn’t breathe. Heat was everywhere, hands everywhere, bodies heating her like radiators. Too close. Too close. She needed cold, ice, space. The memories were just as all-consuming as the shower water, everywhere, but there was no way to turn it off.

 - - - - -

It had been her idea to go to the party that night, her fault, her stupid habits getting her into trouble; there was nothing new to that of course. Madison knew she needed to fill that hole that was left inside of her from her neglectful childhood, but nothing ever seemed to do. Her mother had pushed her into movies since she could form a sentence; pushed her into fame, into drugs, into alcohol. She was never loved, never held. 

Madison had always desired physical contact through her teenage years as she believed this would satisfy the real love she was craving, so she partied & made out with as many boys that would show her the slightest glance. But contrary to many people’s conceptions, she barely slept with anyone. 

It just didn’t feel right, & of course it didn’t now. It never would again. 

They had dragged her, hurt her, held her down. How did an act of love become an act of hate? Was this the only love she would ever experience? She was numb, yet there was so much pain. Too much sensation, too many people. God, when would it stop? She had been there forever, laid like a rag doll. Helpless, broken. She had never felt whole, but now she really felt shattered beyond repair.

She needed a mother more than anything; she needed Cordelia. But Madison had long since forgotten how to ask for help. Her iron-tough exterior could not allow even the smallest act of love or tenderness to reach her - walls reaching too high to ever be climbed.

 - - - - -

It had been an hour sat in the large bathtub of the academy’s washroom; the spacious walls of the tub suffocating Madison’s hunched up body, the only barrier from a world of hurt. It felt like she had been sat there for days, but also for minutes; time clearly another illusion in a trauma-filled consciousness. She never wanted to move again; they had moved too much & movement was pain.

Flashbacks would disarm her defenceless mind no matter what she did, so what was the point of anything anymore? 

The water had long since turned an arctic cold, chilling Madison to the bone, but she didn’t notice, much like she didn’t notice the footsteps approaching the door. A gentle voice calling her name, & a hand carefully turning the doorknob. 

 - - - - -

Cordelia had been working in her office when she realised that water was running upstairs. The police had been gone a good couple of hours & she knew that Madison had disappeared into the bathroom quickly after, rushing off to avoid any display of emotion.

Her brow furrowed in concern in memory of the broken girl, just her name carrying remembrance of the many nights where Cordelia had held her as she quaked from the cruelty of her drug withdrawal in her first weeks at the academy. She had arrived addicted & a mess, the subject of a mother’s abuse & neglect. Cordelia knew the cruelties of childhood from her own mother’s verbal abuse, but never once had Fiona forced any of her addictions on her, & had never caused her physical harm or forced her to this breaking point that Madison had surpassed. Luck, in a twisted sense. Cordelia vowed to be Madison’s mother at that point, feeling a magnetic pull to the girl mirroring her younger self. But this was never as explicit as she had expected, due to Madison’s unbreakable exterior, a protector from any further abuse she could be surprised with.

Cordelia had expected some consequence to Madison’s fresh trauma divulged by the policemen, but this could not prepare her for the sight that would meet her behind the door, & the headmistress was filled with an anxiety she had never felt before. But as a mother should, she made her way up to the bathroom in search of the running water, & the sight would pull her back into the past.

 - - - - -

Cordelia had to refrain herself from physically gasping as she slowly pulled back the sodden shower curtain. There was Madison, but this was not Madison Montgomery: the unshakable, badass Hollywood movie star. This was just plain Madison, & Cordelia’s heart simply shattered at the sight of the raw, broken body before her. 

Madison was curled into a small ball, back arched, spine sticking out of her flesh. Is it possible to look like skin & bones after just one day? Her body was littered with bruises; angry, purple marks imprinted in the previously unmarred skin, handprints a physical reminder of the pain Madison had endured. They were everywhere.

What was most concerning to Cordelia at that point was the fact that the semi-conscious girl had not moved in the slightest since she had entered the room, except for the barely noticeable rise & fall of her chest. A signal of life, if life was considered purely physical. Other than this, Madison seemed dead. Her eyes were staring straight ahead, blinking every now & again to fend dryness away, but no emotion resided in her brown irises. Her body was covered in goosebumps, pale, almost blue from the beatings of the icy water raining from above, like another cruel joke from the Gods. 

Oh, the cold. Quickly awoken from her deep concern, Cordelia sprang into action, turning off the shower & fetching the warmest clothes & towel she could find, rushing around with complete urgency. But Madison was still there, unmoving, as if she never could again. 

Cordelia peered at the girl again, so small, as if she would easily break with even the gentlest touch. What was she to do? How do you approach the most wounded of animals?

As if responding to her internal conflict, Cordelia’s hand reached forward of its own accord & resided on Madison’s frozen shoulder, almost recoiling at the pure iciness of her dropped body temperature.

For the first time, Madison sprung to life, as if she was jumping from the grave. Cordelia simultaneously bolted in fear & moved closer to the now shaking girl, to assess the damage of her frail mind; a motherly instinct attempting to make sense of an impossible situation.

 - - - - -

Madison began to hyperventilate quickly, her body already trembling from the cold starting to convulse violently as memories jumped into action from their dormant state, clouding her surroundings. She opened & closed her mouth, seemingly struck dumb from the reliving of her trauma once again, words lost in the depths of her spiralling consciousness, exactly how they had when they had touched her. Her once dead-still body could now not stop moving, out of control, but she didn’t notice, because her thoughts were the subject of her demons at the moment, all physical presence forgotten to exist.

Pure, unadulterated fright flitted across her face, before the terror-filled girl’s eyes rolled to the back of her busy head, exhaustion & chill taking over, her body no longer able to function.

- - - - -

Cordelia felt helpless watching the scene before her, as Madison’s state overturned from numb to sheer panic in the space of a couple of seconds. Blink & you could miss it. The white-faced girl’s turned almost translucent as she threatened to collapse & hit her head, pulling Cordelia to automatically lunge to catch her. She stared at the unconscious girl as she attempted to manoeuvre her delicate body into her contrasting warm arms, now being frozen by radiating cold. 

Madison was extremely light, & Cordelia cradled the still body to her, half in attempt to transfer warmth, but also in fear of ever letting her go again. Her mother’s instinct had failed her, & she would never let it do so again. She knew now that she had let Madison down; the snarky, bitchy facade the girl held was just shielding her from further heartbreak, & Cordelia had just allowed it, rather than attempting to break down her walls. Guilt flooded through the headmistress as she realised that she could have prevented this, & Madison’s other harmful habits, by just showing her a little more love & attention, just as she has needed as a teenager.

Her remorseful thoughts were once again interrupted by eyelids fluttering under her trembling hands, & a low groan snuck out of Madison’s closed mouth. “Sweetheart? Madison can you hear me?”. At these words, the girl’s eyes snapped open & she recoiled from Cordelia’s close hold, as if being burned from the physical contact. Madison jumped to her feet, weak knees immediately buckling in tiredness once again. 

This time Cordelia was prepared & held Madison close to her stiff frame, lowering them gently to the familiar tiled floor, the slowly collapsing girl being in no place to refuse any more contact. 

“Ok...ok you’re alright, you’re ok Madison. Deep breaths love, can you follow me?” 

Madison looked into the gentle, chocolate eyes of her teacher & sensed no malicious intent in her expression, prompting an alien sense of security to wash over her for the first time in these torturous few hours. She copied Cordelia’s slow breathing, ignoring her intrusive fears of being vulnerable for the first time since the drug withdrawals all those years ago. The younger witch knew she needed someone now, & the need wasn’t just a craving anymore, it was a burning fire that couldn’t be staved. She wasn’t sure if she could go on alone for much longer, the pain was just too much to contain in such a small, damaged body; an active volcano of untended emotion.

An overwhelming safety choked her & she moved closer into the arms gripping her body, hiding from the terrors of the world around her.

Cordelia felt Madison moving closer into her hold & cradled her as gently as she could, sensing the anxiety radiating off of the shaking form below her. After a little while, the headmistress slowly began to stand up with the girl, shushing her startled expression at the sign of movement. Her priority at the moment was warming the still-shivering body to prevent illness, & the inevitable emotional response could follow after. 

The unfamiliarity of the situation shook Cordelia & she had to bite down her own sobs, needing to be as secure as she could for Madison now. Fear had no place in her consciousness in this case, & she would go to the ends of the Earth for her girls, no matter what they needed. She was not about to let Madison down after she had been so strong for all this time. Often allowing vulnerability shows our bravest selves, & Cordelia was not going to take this milestone for granted again.

 - - - - -

Just a few minutes later, Madison was clothed in a pair of Cordelia’s warmest cotton pyjamas & embalmed in the fluffiest blanket they could find. She simply stared at Cordelia as the older woman pottered around, quickly getting changed. It was as if she was seeing her for the first time, in awe of the witch before her, who had been through so much, just as she had. We are biologically trained to understand that mothers are our security & the failure of this seems to be the ultimate betrayal, yet here the both of them are, surviving. 

Could Cordelia finally be what she was craving? The realisation of the healing maternal presence was a revelation & seemed to be a breakthrough in the actress’ disturbed mind. In Madison’s deepest suffering, she had found an anchor, & she was determined to cling on until the shore was in sight.

Cordelia carefully sat beside the pensive girl, gingerly making Madison aware of her presence to prevent any further alarm. The younger girl reflexively leaned into the warmth of her teacher, drawn to her caring ambience like a fish to water. This was her instinct now, prioritised naturally along with food & water. 

The pair stayed cuddled in each other’s arms for what seemed like a lifetime, until Madison uttered her first words of the night. 

“Cordelia?” she croaked in a shaky tone. The headmistress looked down at the earnest girl below her in wonder, a reaction reminiscent of hearing a child’s first word, saying; “Yes sweetheart?” & stroking the younger girl’s honey-blonde hair. Under Cordelia’s loving touch, Madison swallowed the anxious lump in her throat & answered with the question she had desired to express since meeting the woman for the first time.

“Will you be my mother now?” 

Cordelia’s eyes immediately filled with memory-fuelled tears as she remembered the same words she had questioned Myrtle with all those years ago on her arrival at the academy. She kissed Madison’s heated forehead with all the tenderness she could muster.

“Oh my angel, of course I will. Forever & always”. 

And she was.

Taglist: @ka-s @ninaahs @stayeviildarling @babypocahontas @lilypadscoven @winters-witch-bitch @basicasshole @bottom4delia @forevercountess @violentwavesofem0tion @sporadicsupercorpquotesmonger @liberosisaspire @mellowalieneggsknight @thecasualgeek1 @lucykilljoy

[animepopheart]

Wonder Egg Priority, Episode 11: “The Temptation of Death”?

Wonder Egg Priority is a beautiful, uncomfortable, moving and confusing series that starts out engaging all the things we don’t talk about—self-harm, abuse, rape, bullying, gender dysmorphia, and homosexuality, to name a few. Our silence and blindness to these issues have a weight and pressure to them, and WEP shows how this reinforces the isolation and hopelessness of the young women of the “eggs” who turn to suicide for relief. The first ten episodes have been exhilarating and exhausting alike.

And then there is Episode 11. This past week, the series took a bit of a turn, leaning hard into the sci-fi-philosophical, with appearances from Greek gods, a murderous artificial intelligence, and really, really disturbing insect girls, one of whom, despite being a brutal killer, is apparently a vegetarian. Has the show gone off the rails? Has it lost its way in departing from the familiar procedural approach of engaging a differing social or mental health issue with each episode?

Such a critique is perfectly legit, but before you write off the penultimate episode of WEP, just hear me out on why the abstract, meta turn in episode 11 may just be the most valuable thing this series has to offer so far.

Before we begin though, a little recap of what we learned this week. In episode 10, we hear the eggheads, Acca and Ura-Acca, discuss the need for warriors of Eros to battle Thanatos. This is our first hint that things are about to get lore-full and maybe a bit weird. Eros and Thanatos are of course gods in the ancient Greek pantheon, Eros being the god of love, and Thanatos, of non-violent death. Within the first minute or so of episode 11, it’s clear that the eggheads’ hope is now focused on Ai becoming the long-awaited warrior. At this point though, rather than continuing with Ai’s story, the episode shifts into flashback mode and we are finally introduced to the villain, an artificial intelligence created by the eggheads back when they were still human. Their lives gradually come to revolve around her: She is the fulfillment of their obsession to create life, and she is good.

Frill is associated with hydrangeas, which symbolise heartlessness and pride in Japanese flower language. But is it her heartlessness and pride, or that of her makers?

(Atelier Emily has done an outstanding series of posts on the flowers in WEP. Check it out!)

Only, it turns out she doesn’t play so nice when others join the happy family. After killing Acca’s wife, and putting the life of the unborn baby at risk, the AI—who named herself Frill—is unrepentant, all traces of her seeming humanity now revealed to be illusory, a mere affectation. Acca locks her away in a hole in the cellar. Years pass. The baby, Himari, grows up and is a ray of sunshine. But after effectively confessing to her ‘uncle’ (why does anime always do this?), she commits suicide. Ura-Acca discovers that Frill is still very much alive and active from her hole in the cellar, having powered up all the discarded monitors and laid down reams of electrical cables—to what end, we do not yet know. Though Ura-Acca surmises that she has somehow influenced Himari to take her own life. How else would the girl have known about Ura-Acca’s admiration for her mother? Where else would she have learned to make what will forever be to me now that uncannily sinister popping sound?

Here’s where it gets weirder. Unlike the suicides of subsequent egg girls, there is no indication that Himari, Frill’s apparent first victim, struggled with any mental health or other issues that would motivate her to take her own life. Indeed, her ‘uncle’ did not even reject her confession. (Again anime, why you do this thing?) Instead, the eggheads explain Himari’s suicide as being on account of the “temptation of death.” What now?

This is implying that death is somehow attractive, not just to someone facing overwhelming brokenness, trauma or pain, like the egg girls we’ve met so far, but to someone on the verge of stepping from a (relatively) happy childhood into young adulthood, with the promise of potential love to look forward to; someone who has not known suffering, but rather only smiles and cake. (To be fair, it is always possible that she experienced trauma in the womb, or was more deeply affected by her father’s sadness than Ura-Acca’s memories belie.)

That’s my question too, Ai.

The notion of death as somehow attractive or even beautiful is rather alien to Western culture. Certainly, there will always be some who romanticize death, à la star-crossed lovers (Shakespeare, I’m looking at you). But in general, Western culture views death as something ugly and frightening, something to avoid until it is staring you directly in the face, and even then, closing your eyes in denial is a perfectly reasonable response. Death is one of those things we don’t talk about. In my experience, Anglo-American culture is not very good at even mourning death. We lack the grieving rituals and observances of other cultures, and instead seek to confine death to the sealed, sanitized spaces of hospitals, care homes, and funeral parlors. We keep it shrouded tightly in silence. How could there ever be anything like the “temptation of death”? How could we ever consider death to be something desirable? Are the eggheads or CloverWorks simply aestheticising suicide and death here to make it sound deep and philosophical?

No, I don’t think that’s it. Instead, Acca and Ura-Acca are doing what all good researchers do—and indeed what all Christians, as believers in an unseen spiritual reality, are also called to do: They are looking more deeply into phenomena that seem, on the surface, to already be explained. The two idol fans were consumed with their obsession, so when their idol killed herself, they followed suit. The young woman whose identity was wrapped up in her own appearance ended her life to preserve her beauty. The abused gymnast saw no way out, no hope in ever living free from torment. Some explanations may be more sympathetic than others, but they all possess their own internal logic. Contemporary society is full of a vast array of pressures and stresses and each one, taken to breaking point, can result in death. Case closed. This might very well be our conclusion from the first ten episodes.

Only the case isn’t closed. Because there is a question that has pervaded every episode until now, but has remained unspoken: How is it that death could even become an option for the egg girls? Why does reaching a breaking point trigger suicide? What made death seem like a savior to these girls? This is the question that episode 11 tackles, in its own admittedly obscure way. The eggheads are focused on the underlying, deeper reality that unites all the eggs’ stories, as disparate as they are—the common thread, which is the idea that death is a release, a rescue, a beautiful ending, and as a result, it is tempting.

“But we wondered if there could be another push that drove them to suicide,” explains Ura-Acca.

This is a really important question for us to be asking. Because it’s not just these traumatized, vulnerable girls who fall for the seduction of death. We do, too.

Just ponder for a moment: Have you ever anticipated how wonderful it will be when, in heaven, you no longer struggle with that particular temptation? When your temper is no longer so short, when you’re not afraid of being hurt anymore? Or maybe you think about how one day, on those gold-paved streets, you won’t have to worry anymore. All your hard work coping and just keeping it together will finally pay off and you’ll cross that finish line and heave a sigh of relief, knowing that you made it in the end. Have you ever contemplated these kinds of things? I know I have.

But here’s the thing: When I expect my liberation to come only after I die and not right here, right now, then it is not Jesus who is my savior, but death. I am waiting for death to free me from temptation and sin and fear and brokenness, and usher me into eternal life. I make Thanatos my god.

The temptation of death is not limited to the drastic act of suicide, but also permeates all the accusations and fears that inspire us to put off living the fullness of life in Christ here and now. It’s the temptation to believe that it is death that will ultimately solve the more difficult and painful problems in life.

Acca and Ura-Acca seek to create a love that suits their ideals, just to relieve their stress.

The source of this “temptation of death” in Wonder Egg Priority is Frill, the AI. That is, a man-made, artificial version of love—with ai meaning “love” in Japanese. According to Ura-Acca, they made her “just for fun,” as a way of dealing with the stress of their enclosed lives. They designed her to suit their preferences, to make it easier to love her and forget that she was artificial. In this sense, Frill is the fruit of their self-centeredness, her every characteristic designed to satisfy their own ideals of how a daughter and woman should be. And this artificial love born of selfishness brings death into their midst and beyond, spreading it through the horrendous deformities of girlhood that she in turn creates, in imitation of her fathers. (Only perhaps her creations are less deceptive than theirs, wearing their monstrosity plainly on the outside…)

Frill’s creations. We’ve met Dash (right) and Dot (center), but who is that on the left? And is her name Morse??

To counter her destructive influence, Acca and Ura-Acca need true love, a genuine love. They need Ai, a messy, at times very weak human being, but one who nevertheless is willing to fight to live up to her name and maybe, just maybe, become a warrior of Eros.

There is also a deep, underlying force at work in our world, one that connects all despair and the actions born of it. A wide range of social issues, traumas and mental health challenges can and do trigger suicide, but they do not explain it fully. The deeper reality is the existence of an enemy who seeks to manipulate us into believing our true savior can only be death, whether it is right away by our own hand, or more subtly, decades from now by natural causes. But this is a lie, and it is one that we can combat. Just as I’m sure we’ll see in the final episode that Ai is equipped to wage the coming battle in WEP, so too are we armed, here and now, with the power to overwhelm the enemy’s “temptation of death”—we possess already the words of life, given to us by our true savior.

Jesus began his ministry with a public announcement that he had come to heal heart wounds, comfort those in pain, fill broken lives with beauty, and wrap those in despair with reasons to praise like a warm protective blanket, so that they might celebrate with joy once again. He came to bring freedom to prisoners and captives alike, giving a fresh new life to those locked up because of deeds done wrong, and those punished and injured at the hands of others. He came to take the outcasts, the weak, the traumatized and broken and transform them into mighty oaks, clean and strong; into people with the vision and skill and compassion and fortitude to rebuild a broken world (Isaiah 61:1-4, Luke 4:18),

He came to rewrite and restore our experience of life here on earth, and through us, to redeem our communities, cities, nations, and the world. God does not withhold the fullness of life from us until we finally make it to him in heaven. No, instead he moved heaven and earth to get right up close so that he could pour his own life out into us, even going so far as to breathe his very spirit into our hearts and bodies and minds. We don’t need to wait for death’s rescue—our hero has already come. But we do need to remind each other and ourselves of this truth pretty often, and let it work down deep into all the cracks and bruises in our souls until it strengthens all our weak spots.

In Deuteronomy 30:19, God tells the Israelites that he has given them the authority to choose between life and death. But he also tips the balances in their favor, urging them to choose life. In Jesus, he comes to tip the balances even further, making it possible for us to step into eternal life here and now, immediately and forever. So let’s do it. Each day, through each struggle we face. Let’s choose life and not death.

Warrior of love? And is Ai’s himawari (sunflower) related to Himari somehow?

Join me (in spirit) for the final episode on Tuesday to see Ai’s love triumph! (At least, I really really hope that’s what happens!)

[dreamsatdusk]

Analysis:  Baghra and the Apparat

I received an Anon ask a while back and accidentally published it before it was done a while back.  Privated the post but decided to have the final product as a new post just in case; I don’t want it buried in tags from way back.

The Ask:

Hello! Can you do a breakdown on Baghra's character and the Apparat's? I'm interested in reading your thoughts about them

Thank you for the ask!  And apologies for the delay in response.

Baghra

One of the first Grisha meta posts I wrote years ago was about how the way Baghra and her hut are portrayed evoke the impression of Baba Yaga.  Her appearance, hut in the woods (likely amidst birch trees), and something of her attitude all lend themselves to it.  Since then, I’ve also come to think there might be a bit of tie in to the tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful, who was forced to go and bargain with Baba Yaga for a light against the darkness.  

Looking past that surface, in the trilogy we are presented with Baghra as a figure both ascetic and penitential, as well as bitter and unkind.  The latter traits are well explained by what we learn of her history:  she has had a long life filled with a great deal of loss, with countless threats to Grisha and particularly to she and her son, different as they are even from other Grisha.  Her childhood was a sad one brimming with trauma and what she recalls of her parents to Alina causes me to think that she did not feel truly loved by either one of them.  I think their treatment of her and behavior toward each other shaped her perspective on life in profound ways, ones she never got past.

But the former traits don’t have so obvious a cause on page if you look more deeply.  Her lifestyle is very austere despite the fact there is no need for it - she is not on the run and in hiding any longer as she was in the Darkling’s youth.  Her conversations with Alina in regards to her son are couched in religious terms:  she is worried about his being beyond redemption, she speaks of merzost as abomination, and so forth. In R&R, she has Misha read religious parables to her to pass the time.

This clashes with what we know of contemporary Grisha.  It is said at one point in S&B that Grisha don’t put much stock in religion and we see the Darkling does not seem to either.  Not to mention the fact that he and his mother knew at least several Grisha who later became considered saints.  I find it likely they suspected other saints could also have been Grisha - Grisha and martyred for it, their true identities obscured so later people could pray to them and not have to consider the ‘unnatural’ people they were.  It makes a lot of sense that neither Baghra nor the Darkling would invest much consideration in Ravkan religion as it is presented on page.  In fact, it seems like they’d find it more infuriating than anything.  And yet.

The Second Army has no need to lead lives of deprivation.  Yes, they eat ‘peasant-style breakfast’ and such, but their rooms are gorgeous, they have beautiful clothing, sugar for their tea and so forth.  Baghra surely wouldn’t be living in a tiny dark hut in the trees unless that is what she wanted.

There’s also the fact that she shows signs of not using her summoning powers.   Even before S&S, she’s apparently quite chilly a lot.  It makes sense she wouldn’t show she could summon shadows where other Grisha could see.  But the indication is she isn’t using her powers at all.   That is another way she seems to have chosen to deprive herself, to the point of impacting her health.  Perhaps she even hoped that it would lead to her death, but apparently it has not been enough to override the impact of her amplification talent.

Looking back at the woman seen in Demon in the Wood and was glimpsed in the tale she tells Alina of her past, it very much seems to be something happened to turn who Baghra was into who we see in the trilogy.  

I suspect much of the true reason is that she is pretty much a plot device in the story.  She needs to spook and horrify Alina into running.  Her talk of ‘redemption’ and ‘abomination’ are peculiar in terms of many other elements we see in the books.  I’m writing a meta on the amplifiers and merzost and such that goes into this further, but I’ve also written some in the past about how there’s no real reason to believe merzost is inherently bad. Baghra has clearly decided it is though and speaks of it and her son’s actions in absolutist terms.  Because she needs to in order to have the narrative run how it does, more than once.

And again, what reason would this character really have to put so much faith in Ravkan religion?  

What’s a possible in-universe explanation for this?  I think the creation of the Shadow Fold works well for that.  We find out that what the Black Heretic was actually trying to do was recreate Morozova’s amplifier experiments and something went wrong.  (This is the focus of the upcoming meta I mentioned above.). The Fold happened and all of the people within its bounds were transformed into volcra. All in all, a horrific situation, however much an accident.  This could have functioned as such a systemic shock to Baghra’s worldview that she sought solace and perhaps forgiveness in religion.  I suspect she felt guilt, which is pointed to in things she says in the trilogy.  Also, she’s the reason the Darkling even had Morozova’s journals - she went back to the village she was born in and found them, per R&R.

I still think her being invested in the Ravkan religion itself is a weak point, but could be generously explained by just how traumatized she was by the Shadow Fold situation.  She may have desperately wanted something to believe in.  That said, the lack of any sign in the books of what more lies behind Ravkan religion than Saints and the fact that Baghra knows that at least several of those Saints were actually Grisha, doesn���t make this the strongest argument to me.

I also wrote some weeks back on how Baghra was portrayed as emotionally and physically abusive to Alina and according to their own accountings in R&R, other Grisha as well.  In the early days of the fandom, I never really saw that acknowledged, though it has gotten far more recognition this year with new people reading the books since the release of the tv show.

Overall, she is a very bitter person and I think a lot of what we see of her is driven OOC by her being largely a plot device and IC by guilt.  She feels guilty about the Fold’s creation and so forth and lashes out at others in misdirected anger.

I think this also relates somewhat to her treatment of Alina in S&S and R&R.  She blames Alina for not ‘adequately’ running away (went after the stag instead), blames her for the Darkling putting himself beyond redemption (in Baghra’s mind - like too many people IRL, she seems to not understand what redemption actually is), blames her for the sea whip, for wanting to find the third amplifier.  She blames Alina for these things, but it is likely a mask for further personal guilt. Of all people, Baghra is likely the one who would have been most successful in stopping the Darkling before things took the path they did.  He trusted her.

But her nasty treatment of others obscures that Baghra is largely a passive character in the trilogy. Whether out of love or some variety of religious concern, she doesn’t try to kill her son.  She doesn’t remove Alina from the situation in a more final way, only tells her to run.  And in the end, she commits suicide rather than more directly confront the Darkling.

The Apparat

Okay, after all that, I don’t have near as much about the Apparat. *L*

If Baghra’s surface details are meant to evoke Baba Yaga, then I think the Apparat’s point to Rasputin.  His physical description was practically a caricature (if you’ve only seen the show, he looked far less revolting in that than he was described in the books) and he starts out as a trusted advisor to the Ravkan royal family.

One of the big questions about the Apparat is about what he truly believes.  He was in cahoots with the Darkling around the coup against the Lantsov dynasty in S&B, but he later swung his support behind the Sun Summoner.  I think it would be a believable reading of the text to suspect he may have planned to do so since learning of Alina’s existence.  There’s no real reason to think he truly supported the Darkling’s cause or cared much for Grisha themselves; on the latter point, I think the greater support is for the idea that he does not care about the Grisha and just used them to get what he wanted.  

His presentation is a mix of True Believer and power-seeker and a great deal of the questions around him relate to where one thinks he falls most strongly on that spectrum.  Alina’s interactions with him in S&B have the hallmarks of a fanatic, but then, these signs are also seen through Alina’s eyes and you have to consider whether she is seeing reality or a careful act.  I think the case could be made for either.   But either way, I also think he wanted power.  I suppose you could argue he wanted power on behalf of Sankta Alina, but I think his actions in R&R show that an Alina who wasn’t going to comply with his wishes was deemed more trouble than she was worth. If she had died, I don’t think he fundamentally would have cared.  She had established enough of a reputation, was known to enough people, that he could have exploited her as a martyr without having to deal with the reality.

The Apparat was the sort of character I tend to really dislike (religious manipulation, etc.).  Something that struck me in all the books is how more than one character was strangely...tolerant of him. He backstabbed people more than once and yet nothing was every truly done about it.

[lankoshine]

Star Wars. Far away galaxy forever Khaetskaya Elena Vladimirovna

My preface: I've wanted to post this for a long time. This text literally expresses my attitude to what is happening with my favorite character Anakin Skywalker, and confirms my doubts about the "wisdom" of the Jedi Order (they are not fools, but they are not wise men either). Wisdom should include all aspects and all-round thinking, but at times it "stagnates", "ossifies" and turns into a rotting swamp, in which the light that it should carry is drowning. And as a result, enlightenment turns into extinction and darkness.

Further words of the author:

Jedi: "the era of stagnation"

“The main content of the second trilogy, that is, the prequel, was the story of how Anakin crossed over to the dark side of the Force and how the entire Templar was destroyed ... That is, excuse the reservation: not the Templars, of course. Jedi. All Jedi were destroyed. Except for a few - Obi Wan Kenobi and Teacher Yoda. The first film, The Phantom Menace, portrayed Anakin as a boy; the next two - "The Clone Wars" and "Revenge of the Sith" - a handsome young man.

Anakin's childhood was not that unbearably difficult or completely bleak, but it could have been better. His mother Shmi and he himself (father, by the way, is unknown) were in slavery from the dealer of spare parts Watto, on the familiar "hole of the universe" - the planet Tatooine. Since Anakin from an early age was distinguished by diverse talents (for repairing equipment, for programming), the owner encouraged his studies, and the boy was busy with creativity: he would assemble a racing car from the trash, then he would build a robot and program artificial intelligence for it.

So, by the way, the boy Anakin created, again, the well-known droid C-3PO. Talkative, cowardly, endowed with useless good manners, the bore C-3PO, whom we fell in love with as Luke Skywalker's "funny magic assistant", it turns out that it was once designed by his father. (But then this droid's memory was erased, so he started the "original" trilogy from scratch.)

Naturally, such an outstanding embodiment of the Force as the boy Anakin could not remain unnoticed for long, and soon he was discovered by the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn, who immediately recognized the Young Anakin as the Chosen One. According to ancient prophecy, the Chosen One must restore balance to the Force (by exterminating the Dark Ones). In any case, the Jedi were obliged to take possession of this promising child.

By and large, it was the Light Jedi who brought Anakin the first real grief. It was they who separated him from his mother when they took him from Tatooine for the sake of a "great future" which, for Anakin himself, remained an empty phrase. The reason why the powerful (and, undoubtedly, not in need of funds) light and noble knights left the boy's mother in slavery and inflicted severe moral and psychological trauma on him remains unknown. You can find some kind of "rational" explanations, for example: a real Jedi must free himself from all earthly attachments - but this does not change the essence of the matter. Which of the nine-year-old Anakin is a "real Jedi"? And why should he suddenly free himself from attachment to his mother? After all, this is the most natural and, in general, the most positive of all emotions - love for mom!

Jedi ideology, presented in different ways from the screen, is constantly bursting at the seams. You can, for example, remember how Obi Wan Kenobi, in the form of a Force ghost, appears to Luke in Return of the Jedi: "You must stop Darth Vader." Luke, a mentally healthy and sensible young man, answers quite logically: "I cannot kill my own father." Then the luminous ghost of Obi Wan sighs and says, “Then everything is lost. You were our last hope."  What happens? That the Jedi were urging Luke to commit an unnatural act - parricide? And they did it right from the focus of the Power! If the earthly, living Obi Wan spoke so, it would be possible to write off such speeches for the usual human ability to make mistakes, to be delusional. But Obi Wan is already a ghost of the Force, so he cannot be wrong. Why is he pushing Luke to the brink of a psychological and moral abyss? Maybe this is the last test? Provocation? Harsh - and risky, especially when Luke remains "the last hope" ...

The Jedi's behavior towards Anakin Skywalker looks much more brutal and far more risky. No matter what they argued, remaining within the framework of naked theorizing, in practice the picture looked monstrous: in fact, they raised a man with their own hands, for whom it was the most natural choice to kill all the Jedi.

Moreover, the viewer, on common sense, comes to the conclusion that Anakin, in general, if he was not completely right, then, in any case, was not greatly mistaken when he chose the Dark Side.

Let's try to trace the path that led Anakin to the dark side.

... Qui-Gon took the boy with him to the planet Coruscant (where the capital of the Galactic Republic was located) and demanded permission from the Jedi Council to teach the Chosen One in all the intricacies of Jedism. By the way, the Jedi Council is very pompous meeting in the spectacular Jedi Temple on the same Coruscant. This temple plays an important role in the history of Anakin and consists of five giant spiers. The largest spire, in the center, serves as a sacred place for contemplation. The other four are the High Council, the Primordial Knowledge Council, the Reconciliation Council, and the Reassignment Council. (This structure alone can judge how complicated, even bureaucratic, everything was arranged in the Jedi world ... somehow not in Zen, to be honest!)

So, the Council did not give permission to train the boy Anakin. There is nothing to spoil the child! First, Anakin is too old to start training. The boy is already at a conscious age, he has significant life experience. It will be difficult to brainwash such a guy. Secondly, Anakin experiences negative emotions - fear and anger. Which is not surprising given his past. (The fact that the attitude of the Jedi to Anakin's life circumstances was the reason for the increase in fear and anger is not taken into account.) Quite conveniently, there was an occasion to regale Anakin (and the audience) with the maxim: “Fear is the way to the dark side. Fear breeds anger; anger breeds hatred; hatred is the key to suffering. I feel a strong fear in you, ”says the wise Master Yoda to Anakin during the Jedi Council.

Yoda is right in essence: fear is the father of many troubles and vices. But how soulless and out of place it all is!

Eventually, the dying Qui-Gon will instruct Obi Wan to train Anakin. Here the Council, albeit reluctantly, agrees. Why?

The most logical thing would be to assume that the Council, though slowly, came to the conclusion: it is much more dangerous to leave such a gifted boy unattended at all than to start his training, despite the "strong fear" and other "shortcomings."

At first glance, the choice of a mentor looks somewhat artificial. Obi Wan Kenobi was considered a very average Jedi, so Anakin kept saving his life along the way. The behavior of Obi Wan himself regularly looks completely reckless (if not "stupid"), and the young student had to "clean up" after the teacher. Although it is postulated that they were friends, Obi Wan constantly nags Anakin and actually humiliates him. Then Anakin, and for the umpteenth time, has to pull the "mentor" out of the next pit.

So was Qui-Gon Jinn wrong about Obi Wan Kenobi? Why did he choose such a weak teacher for such a dangerous young man?

According to one suggestion, Obi Wan was just pretending. But in fact ... Secretly ... Carefully hiding from everyone, he was a mighty Jedi. He just successfully pretended to be a weakling. But then why? Where is the logic?

Or maybe the Jedi reasoned like this: since we could not get rid of the inconvenient Anakin, we will give him a frankly bad mentor so that he does not reach the Jedi heights?

But here - in general, it does not even lurk, but lies on the surface - there is a great danger: surpassing the teacher, the student begins to wise up on his own and in the end it is not known what he will think of (which, in fact, happened). No, a strong student needs a strong teacher, and the Jedi could not help but understand this (otherwise how did they even manage to exist for so long).

It seems to us that the answer is simple: and there was simply no one better.

The Jedi in the prequel are reminiscent of the Politburo of the mature stagnation era. A formal approach, indifference to a particular living being, a complete lack of flexibility, undercover intrigues ... Yoda - and he looks ossified in his great wisdom. Humanity will come to the old Taoist much later, when the Jedi are exterminated. Presumably, then Obi Wan will cover his famous ability not to condemn anyone (you see, he had enough time, living as a hermit on Tatooine, to think over everything that happened and analyze his own behavior first of all).

The Jedi actually used Anakin. And this is very insulting: to understand that you were taken advantage of by those whom you idolized, considered the focus of the Power of Light.

By the way, Obi Wan Kenobi had a flaw with the Jedi Code: Anakin did not understand many of the provisions. And then Chancellor Palpatine appears, who begins to secretly, but consistently and intelligently cultivate the seeds of Darkness in Anakin's soul ...

* * *

So, one of the most important factors in Anakin's transition to the dark side was the lack of trust in mentors. And in this, Anakin was right: such mentors do not deserve any trust. Virtually every prominent member of the Jedi Council had a purpose of their own, and Anakin did not like being a puppet of someone else's interests at all.

One of the most important reasons for Anakin's fall is his forbidden love for Padma Amidala.

It is obvious to Palpatine (as to any sane creature) that one who has loved ones is extremely vulnerable. Therefore, noticing Anakin's attraction to Padmé, Palpatine arranges so that Obi Wan and his student receive a responsible task - to be the beauty's personal guard. And then Palpatine could just relax and wait, allowing events to develop naturally.

The Jedi Council further aided Palpatine's plan by recalling Obi Wan for another assignment. So in the end, a handsome young Anakin, not fully trained, subject to all sorts of passions and weaknesses (the Council is well aware of all this, but for some reason no one, not even Yoda, attaches much importance to this), is left alone with a young beautiful girl ... Of course, this girl is formerly a queen, and now a senator, and Anakin is previously a slave of some dealer in spare parts on a seedy planet, and now a Jedi-dropout and a bodyguard ... But when and who was it stopping?

However, yes. After all, the Jedi explained to the young Skywalker that passionate feelings are absolutely unacceptable. Was there an explanatory conversation? Was! What's more?

Only the "era of stagnation" in the Jedi world can explain such thoughtlessness. Here, what is called the “formal attitude” to the personality, its individual characteristics, and its fate worked in full measure.

Didn't it occur to any of the Jedi that it was more than enough to tell the young boy about the "harmful passions"? In order to achieve true dispassion - not the ability to control oneself after a sleepless night spent in hot fantasies, but real dispassion, when a young girl evokes nothing but warm, brotherly or paternal feelings - years of spiritual exercise are needed. And even then there are breakdowns, because all people are human and nothing human is alien to them.

And then for some reason everyone decided that it was enough for a guy overwhelmed by passions to say: "Don't look at the beautiful Padmé, she is not for you, and in general your destiny is celibacy, because that's how it is for us, the Jedi," and that's it, the job is ready , he will obey. What arrogance!

... But we remember that arrogance is one of the greatest vices in the interpretation of "late Ben", "officer and gentleman" performed by Guinness. The true wisdom of Alec Guinness gave us the answers to all our questions twenty years ago ...

However, let us follow how the Jedi themselves dug their own grave.

Anakin's feeling is passionate; his love is earthly, he longs to possess a girl. In theory, such feelings are a direct route to the dark side. In theory. In fact, they represent a completely natural stage in the emotional and physical development of a young person. Demanding that the young man behave like an eight-hundred-year old man, the Jedi actually expected the impossible from him: that he should distort, mutilate his nature. He, in their opinion, should not improve himself, not investigate and subordinate himself to reason, but simply break.

Anakin had the will to disobey. And in his attraction to Padmé, he is absolutely right.

And then the detonator of Anakin's first earthly affection is triggered: in a dream he sees that his mother is in danger. The Jedi were of no help to Shmi Skywalker. They simply took away from her the only living being that she held dear. Well, yes, she later got married, but how can you forget your son, being apart from him? Of course, she was sad and not completely happy.

And then - the raid of the sand people (the very same Tatooine natives, whom we saw in the "original" trilogy, in "A New Hope"), who captured Shmi as prey. This is what caused Anakin's disturbing dreams - he did not cut ties with his mother. The young man already knows: it is useless to ask the Jedi for help in such an "empty" case as rescuing some kind of Shmi Skywalker on the distant planet Tatooine. Serious adults have more important things to do. Therefore, Anakin simply takes the matter of saving mom into his own hands and flies to Tatooine. True, the Council sends him some orders after him, but this is about mom! And Anakin sends the Council to hell.

Mom still has time to die in the arms of her beloved son. And then Anakin is overcome with hatred. Undoubtedly, this hatred affected everyone who treated his mother so cruelly. Including the Jedi Council. But only sand people were at hand for revenge. And, not remembering himself from grief and rage, Anakin exterminated the entire tribe, including the elderly and children.

It was here that Master Yoda felt the "great outrage of the Force." Mostly caused not by the death of a minor barbarian tribe, but by the rage of a young Skywalker. It's time to actually draw at least some conclusions ...

And Anakin completely lost faith in the Light side. What intriguers they are, liars and mumblers! They didn’t really teach anything, they jerked them with discontent, tortured them with senseless (unrealizable) demands, they forbade saving my mother, they forbade me to love Padme, they forbade me to be a normal person at all - but what in return? Never mind! The sacred right to be a brainless tool in the hands of politicians who do not even consider it necessary to explain something to him.

Then another episode takes place, which can be considered the most important step of Anakin on the path to Darkness. To some extent, the Light Ones are again responsible for this step. We are talking about the operation to free the captured Chancellor Palpatine (then he had not yet revealed his true face - for some reason, even the wise Yoda did not know about anything and did not feel any "disturbances of the Force").

The intrigue was complex, but overall it looked like Chancellor Palpatine was captured by rebels - separatists. Their leader, Count Dooku, seriously wounded Obi Wan Kenobi, after which Anakin had to join the battle, who defeated the count. And then Palpatine gives the order: to decapitate the unarmed, defeated enemy - "he is too dangerous to be left alive!" (recalls, by the way, the requirement of the ghost of old Ben: to destroy Darth Vader).

Anakin, however, freezes in some doubts: somehow not chivalrously ... The enemy is defeated, he surrendered, he is wounded and unarmed ... But Palpatine is the chancellor, Palpatine insists, and Anakin obeys.

Why did Anakin obey an inhuman order that seemed wrong to him? And why on other occasions did he violate the wrong orders of the Council?

Because Anakin didn't trust the Jedi at all. And he did not have a clear idea which orders were correct and which were not, so the young man was forced to be guided by one single criterion: his own opinion. If it was about mom, then the advice is not a decree to him: in any case, mom needs to be saved. When it comes to Padmé, the Council is also not a decree: he loves Padmé. But if we are talking about Count Dooku, who is not related to Anakin at all ... here a hesitant young man who does not have clear moral criteria may obey the order. After all, in the end, he was trained: the Council is always right, obey the orders of your elders!

But the Council, as it turned out, was almost never right ...

* * *

Anakin was still with the Jedi — perhaps by momentum, but most likely — because of Padmé. Anakin eventually entered into a secret marriage with her (witnessed by two droids, our old friends R2-D2 and C-3PO).

Meanwhile, the Council is giving Anakin another reason to part with the Light Side. For starters, the young man is publicly humiliated by refusing to be promoted to the rank of Jedi Master. Moreover, he is ordered to spy on his patron, Palpatine. And this is simply low.

And then Anakin had another ominous dream: as if Padmé had died. He remembered well how the affair ended when he had a similar vision of his mother. Therefore, Anakin is terrified.

He is still trying to find some way out of the situation, remaining on the Light side. It seems that the Jedi temple contains some information that could save Padmé. But access to this part of the archive for him - as for the uninitiated - is closed. And the Jedi refused to raise the young Skywalker to the rank of Jedi, despite the high patronage of Chancellor Palpatine.

Finally, Anakin turns to the wisest of all - to Master Yoda: prophetic visions persistently tell him about the imminent death of a loved one ... what to do, what to do?

In response, Master Yoda burst out with a priceless sermon:

“Death is a natural part of life,” he said in his inimitable florid style. - Rejoice for your loved ones, who have transformed into Power. Do not mourn for them and do not grieve for them. After all, attachment leads to jealousy, and a shadow of greed leads to jealousy. You must let go of everything that you are so afraid of losing. Fear of loss can lead to the Dark Side. "

Oh, how wonderful - for eight hundred years! But it is definitely not feasible when you are barely twenty and the woman you love is facing death. (Subsequently, Yoda tried to advise something similar to Luke, but he stopped in time: it did not work with father, and will not work with his son.)

... And Chancellor Palpatine is right there: he promises to save Padmé if Anakin goes to the dark side. The dark side, according to Palpatine, has the power to conquer death.

By and large, there is nothing holding Anakin on the Light Side anymore. And he becomes a supporter of Palpatine - all, "with giblets."

And then finally the truth is revealed to him: Chancellor Palpatine is the very Sith Lord Darth Sidious, whom the Jedi hunted for a long time and without success.

Once again, Anakin’s moral precariousness is evident, and nothing has convinced him that the Jedi Council can be trusted. Discipline required the Sith Lord to be “turned in”. And Anakin reports his discovery to one of the masters, Windu. And he once again demonstrates distrust of Anakin: they say, you wait for me in the Jedi temple, and I will grab a couple of faithful knights and go and figure it out myself. Maybe this was the last straw. Either way, Anakin changed his mind.

Palpatine promised to help rescue Padmé; Palpatine was the only one who treated him with respect and support all this time. Therefore, Anakin at the last moment intervened in the duel between Master Windu and Palpatine and with a sudden blow cut off the Master's hand with a sword. After that, Darth Sidious easily destroys Windu. The choice is made, the die is cast, the Rubicon is crossed. From now on, Anakin finally goes to the dark side and receives a Sith name - Darth Vader.

* * *

It is instructive to compare how Palpatine / Darth Sidious / The Emperor lures Anakin Skywalker to his place and how unsuccessfully he tries to repeat this act with Luke Skywalker.

In the case of Anakin, the entire Jedi order is on the side of the dark side: it was the Jedi who, in their arrogance, finally shattered the moral foundations of a very dangerous young man. In the case of Luke, on the contrary, on the side of the Light side - even as if Darth Vader himself. After all, it was Darth Vader who clearly explained to Luke what an unsightly future awaits him: loneliness, universal hatred and selfless service to the nasty evil old man who, as if on purpose, gets into an important conversation between father and son, shouting: “Oh yes! I can feel the hate flowing through your veins, my disciple! " - although in fact, the Emperor in Luke does not cause anything but irritation in this scene. Palpatine is not just not listened to - he is a hindrance, a buzzing fly.

The success could not be repeated. Why?

It is speculated that because Anakin was vulnerable because of Padmé Amidala. Luke didn't have such a passionate affection.

But love, even passionate, cannot in itself be the cause of the fall. Many additional factors are required.

Everything was pushing Anakin to fall.

And everything kept Luke from falling.

The Jedi paid a terrible price for understanding, but those who remained were able to correct the mistake.

Anakin was unlucky in that sense. Nothing - neither the state nor the knightly order - can exist for a long time in a state of stagnation. At some point, there is an explosion, a revolution. In this case, Anakin - Darth Vader served as a weapon of revolution: he begins the systematic extermination of the Jedi.

Obi Wan and Yoda survived, as we know. In the final battle between his former mentor and former apprentice, Obi Wan managed to cripple Anakin and throw him into the boiling lava. Not bad for a mentor who has failed his mentorship.

"Obi Wan killed your father" - remember? Oh yes, Obi Wan, Master Yoda and all the wise Jedi Council - they all somehow killed "the good man Anakin Skywalker." All of them, with lies, manipulation, arrogance, intrigue, mistrust, insults, inattention, a formal approach to a very gifted and very young person - they all pushed him to the Dark Side.

And when this, quite naturally, happened - they tried to destroy it physically.

However, Darth Vader did not die: burned and barely alive, he was saved by Darth Sidious. Now Darth Vader has to live in a special spacesuit, equipped with a special life support system, and breathe through a mask: inhale - exhale.

Well well. It's time to remember the "prophecy": that the young Skywalker is destined to "restore the balance of the Force." In fact, such prophecies are very insidious: those who know them do their best to ensure that something sinister does not come true - and usually achieve the exact opposite result.

The prophecy said that the chosen youth would restore the balance of the Force ... by destroying the Sith. It is somehow illogical: what kind of "balance" can there be when the Dark Ones are destroyed? This is not a "balance" of the Force, but simply the triumph of Light. If you think about what happened, the Council itself brought Anakin to the point that he ... really restored the balance: on each side there were two left (Obi Wan and Yoda - Light Ones, Darth Sidious and Darth Vader - Dark Ones). What they wanted to get - they got it. “Maybe we misinterpreted the prophecy,” the wise Master Yoda dropped meaningfully on this matter ...”

I apologize for the crooked translation, mainly the translator helped, but the essence seems to be conveyed. After reading it, I stopped believing even more in the "Light Jedi", and indeed in everything that is openly declared as "bringing good and light." In Star Wars, only Luke, little Anakin and Padmé were true goodness and light. And when someone starts talking about what the Jedi Council is the wisest and the kindest, and Obi-Wan is the very embodiment of kindness and fluffiness, then think about what they will do to you if you are not pleasing to them. They will not even lift a finger to somehow save or sort out your problem, and will you be immured in disgusting armor, equipped with prostheses, while morally and physically crippled. Them easy to say that you yourself chose to be bad, instead of trying with your wisdom and experience to understand what drives you. Wisdom should cover all aspects, and not be one-sided and divide the world into black and white. "Only the Sith make everything to the absolute" remember? Oh god! How many times have Jedi done the same thing? Or does it not count? In short, pleasant reading and may the force be with you, my fair ones.

https://biography.wikireading.ru/1240

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

Fantasies, dreams and desires, ideas of normalcy and fears of difference. A slightly queer reading of 15x14

Mrs Butters is a delightful character who is built to parallel so many things in the show. She occupies perfectly the semantic sphere that the narrative has crafted around Dean’s desires; also, you know, cake.

We could talk for days about the significance of food and drink in Supernatural. One of the biggest themes that run through the entire show is hunger (or thirst) and food is very often a symbol for an emotional need of sorts. Supernatural draws a lot folklore, and human stories have always used symbologies that put together food, desire, love, sex, family, goodness and darkness and all those human experiences.

We have discussed the shit out of every instance of food in the show, analyzed parallels to other stories and fairytales, scrutinized queer-codings and subtexts, got called nasty names by impolite people accusing us of saying that a slice of baked good means Dean likes sitting on dicks. So, yeah, I’m not gonna start explaining everything from the beginning. Let’s jump to the parallels.

- The comfort food. Motherhood, hugs, and the past that can never return: the ideal of childhood and the 50s fantasy

We’ve already talked about how Mrs Butters functions as a parallel to Mary and a symbol of the ideal motherhood that both Mary and Dean struggled with. In Dark Side Of The Moon, we see a memory from Dean’s childhood, where we learn that Mary would cut off the crusts off his sandwiches. Mrs Butters also says that she cut the crusts off, establishing a direct parallel to Dean’s ideal of childhood and child-parent relationship. Or, we should say, as both Mary’s and Dean’s ideals of a child-parent relationship, because we know that Mary set up her life with John and the kids as an elaborate “scene” according to her idea-slash-fantasy of the perfect safe life.

She strugged with that, because her ideal life could never match with reality - she had loose ends from hunting to deal with, she at some level liked having those loose ends to deal with because as much as she hated the hunting life and craved for safety and “normalcy” that was still something she was in her element doing, probably more than the perfect housewife role. Of course when she came back she attempted to recreate the scene but quickly discovered that it was impossible and dropped all attempts to do so, embracing the opposite, or at least what she perceived as the opposite (having a pretty dualistic view of hunting life-domestic life where they cannot be reconciled).

Dean, on the other hand, started out with a similar dualistic view, figuring that he’d always belong to the hunting world and could never have the domestic, “normal” thing at all, embracing his “freakness” as opposed to the concept of normalcy represented by civilians, by the middle class, by the suburbs, by the apple pie, white fence life (insert heavy queer subtext here). And yet there was always an ambiguity with him (again, he’s never one-or-the-other, he’s always both), because, while on the surface he embraces this rebellious, devil-may-care persona, that’s not quite what he is as a full individual. He grew up essentially a housewife from a very early age, has a very caregiving personality, and thrives in taking care of others.

Dean is both Mrs Butters and Mary, where the difference between him and Mary is that Mary couldn’t (didn’t have the time, support, resources?) reconcile parts of her that Dean instead was able to (and in fact recently helped her with: before dying, she’d reached a pretty healthy balance of living her own life as a hunter and having a warm relationship with her sons, at least as healthy as it can get in that kind of circumstances).

Another important parallel to Dark Side Of The Moon, borrowed by Scoobynatural, is the nightgown that feels like being wrapped in hugs: we are reminded of Dean’s “I wuv hugz” from when he was a kid, a symbol for his early life of affection and safety that he lost with his mother. Childhood hugs, comfort food, loving gestures like cutting off the crusts are all symbols of a past that cannot return.

On a level, from a “coming-of-age story” perspective, childhood, with its innocence and perception that adults will always keep us safe, is obviously something that everyone needs to accept as something that belongs to the past and cannot return, to embrace instead the responsibilities and risks of adulthood in a healthy way. In a sense, Dean needs to go through all these steps - acknowledging that his mother was a flawed person, that in fact both of his parents were flawed people who made mistakes but he can forgive them for his own sake in order to be able to let go of trauma and carry on... - to become a healthy adult able to be a good parent to his own child.

(There’s also the cholesterol thing - Mrs Butters chastizes Dean for his diet, but we know that there’s a depth to Dean’s diet, not only his extreme appreciation of food due to experiencing food scarcity and insecurity as a child, but also the memory of his mother’s comfort food, such as the “Winchester surprise”, a monstrosity of meat and cheese. While the “meat man” persona would appear on the surface as a sterotypical masculinity thing, it has layers, in a typical Dean fashion... not coincidentally, in the latest episode he calls himself the meat man while wearing an apron that we’re told he’s very fond of, painting him, again, in a mixture of different meanings, masculinity and femininity, fatherhood and motherhood, devil-may-care attitude and caregiver attitude.)

On another level, a more political level, there’s the 50s fantasy element. We all know the significance of the idealization of the post-war period as the “good ol’ times” in American culture, and it’s an ideal that Mary definitely drew from when she built her perfect life with her family. Mrs Butters represents this in a very literal way, being literally from 1958 when she “froze” herself, and acts as a very stereotyped governess for a bunch of men that feel like they are above housework, what is considered women’s work. Dean initially comments “how progressive”, knowing exactly how bullshit these conversative ideals are, but then appreciates the comforts of the perfect caretaker.

In fact, Dean’s “giving in” to the comforts of a governess makes me think of that famous feminist manifesto “I want a wife” by Judy Syfers... because housework is very much Dean’s work in the bunker. It’s interesting that Mrs Butters immediately comments negatively on the cleanness of the bunker and their clothes: we know that Dean cleans and washes, and, while it’s likely that he cannot keep everything super perfect like a governess would because he’s busy doing many other things, it’s a way Mrs Butters uses to establish roles that she knows and is comfortable with. She is used to being the one who does “feminine” work while the Men of Letters have absolutely zero skills in that regard, and doesn’t really even stop to question if that’s the case with the men in front of her.

Anyway, let’s go back to the 50s fantasy. The show has repeatedly made commentaries on the vacuity of it. Peace Of Mind is the most obvious instance, but there’s plenty of subtext in the show that deals with that typically American aspect. Just like the childhood aspect, the narrative tells us that the “good ol’ times” are also an idealized thing that cannot return (if it ever existed, because Dean’s childhood was built on a fantasy, and the “good ol’ times” are also a fantasy, because the real 50s were horrible for anyone who didn’t swim in privilege). Mrs Butters cannot stay, the 50s fantasy-slash-childhood fantasy cannot last, and Dean embraces his role as an adult-slash-modern housemaker. Blah blah gender, blah blah cake. (Yeah, sorry, but you can fill in the blanks.)

- The contaminated drink. Poison and weakness from the forbidden sexual desire to the forbidden family domesticity

Aaaand now the second branch of parallels that Mrs Butters pinged on my radar, which sends us in an even more queer-subtext-heavy territory. We’re going to talk about the smoothies and the tomato juice. Yes, I know, the smoothies are given to Jack, not Dean, but symbolically Dean and Jack share the same semantic area; both are given a magically conjured drink, and both end up locked away waiting to be killed. For this analysis, they basically overlap.

Let’s start with the tomato juice. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that Dean is given something that visually reminds of the blood the vampires drink. The tomato juice is a stand-in for blood, and blood in relation to vampirism has a long history of subtext in the show that connects to sexuality, sex, sexual fears and contamination. While vampires are not necessarily always invested of those meanings every single time they appear in the three-hundred-whatever episodes of the show, their main symbology is connected to sex and sexual fears, as vampires do in modern western literature, after all.

You’re probably going to think, wait, what? What has Mrs Butters got to do with sexual fears? Yeah, I know, it sounds weird, but hear me out.

The tomato juice - a stand-in for blood, with a vampire reference - parallels Mrs Butters (who represents trauma, remember) to 6x05 Live Free Or TwiHard. Sexual assault, blood, contamination via the poisoning liquid.

Next to the tomato juice there’s the smoothie. It’s a poison in disguise, a contaminated drink that makes Jack weak. We have, in fact, a pattern of Dean being given contaminated drinks that place him under another’s power. Not just the vampire’s blood, but also Jeremy from 3x10 Dream A Little Dream Of Me, who offers Dean a beer through which he connects him to his dreams. There’s Nick the siren from 4x14 Sex And Violence, who contaminates Dean through the flask. The venom in the siren’s saliva parallels straight to the gorgon Noah in 14x14 Ouroboros, and I don’t have to start explaining what all those things represent, right? (I have written posts about these things, it would be nice if tumblr didn’t suck and showed them to me when I go look for them.)

(Oh, there’s also Crowley’s human blood addiction, which is not, as one might expect, a parallel to Sam’s demon blood addition, but Dean’s First Blade/Mark Of Cain issue, and the First Blade/Mark Of Cain arc is all imbued by the queer subtext of the Dean-Crowley-Castiel triangle.)

Basically, Mrs Butters is inserted in a history of queer subtext, although it appears as obvious that Mrs Butters hardly represents homosexual desire, unless we go a pretty stretchy route of her occupying Cas’ space in the Dean-Sam-Cas-Jack family (I mean, that’s true, but it’s not simply that). It is also true that Mrs Butters represents Cuthbert Sinclair, and here the radar pings, because Cuthbert Sinclair is totally inside the pattern! He wanted to make Dean part of his collection just like the vampire in 6x05 wanted to make Dean part of his pack, with supernatural means of exorting control over Dean and heavy heavy rapey tones. (I know we don’t like to talk about this, but the show does play with incest subtext, John mirrors are often rapey.)

So, we have all this semantic area of poison, weakness and submission to external control painted in overtones of sexual assault and sexual fears especially in relation to homosexual desire. (I am NOT linking homosexual desire to sexual assult, nor the show is, it’s a wide and volatile semantic area where the common denominator is fear, fear of being hurt FOR being different sexually, it’s about vulnerability because of being different. It’s a horror narrative, guys, remember, queer fear is a recurrent theme in the genre. Dracula was about the horror of what happened to Oscar Wilde, we’re running in circles.)

Now, what kind of fear is explored in 15x14? Well, the episode is about the fear of losing family. The plot is about Dean’s feelings towards Jack after he killed Mary. Dean doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to lose Cas soon also because of Jack. Mary and Cas are both very noisy absences in the episode, and we know that Dean is going to suffer something horrific again that will shatter his family again. This goes past the fears regarding forbidden sexual desire: we’re in the territory of forbidden familial desire, so to speak, Dean’s craving for a domestic peace with his family.

Jack is both the culmination of Dean’s process of family-building, as the son figure of the family, and the element of destruction of that family-building. Not a coincidence Jack’s birthday was referenced, as Jack’s birth coincided with Cas’ death and Mary’s supposed death or at least separation. Now Jack has supposedly killed Mary (or is it a inter-universe separation again? @drsilverfish​’s theory always pops up, and we keep getting reminded of other universes - the telescope is broken...) and we know that Cas’ ultimate death hangs above us.

We’re always running in a spiral, Dean’s relationship with Mary, Dean’s relationship with Cas, Dean’s relationship with motherhood and gender roles, Dean’s relationship with sexuality. There’s a big picture of mirrors in the semantic area of fantasies, idealizations, desires and dreams. I hope I managed to make this post make sense, but I’m always open to requests of clarification or elaboration. Thanks for reading!

[conspirwbytheorist-inactive]

Some Cinder Thoughts

So I saw this post from @hoepunkausta a while back and was going to reply. Then I realized that this was the first time I’d actually sat down and taken a good look at Cinder and holy cow is there a lot to this character. Anyways, it got me thinking about Cinder's potential background and, while I've always seen her as a foil and tied to Ruby, I never realized how she could potentially tie in to ALL of team RWBY. Which is. . .pretty awesome from not only a narrative point of view but in regards to character redemption as well. Full take under the cut.

TLDR: If we assume Cinder’s backstory is in keeping with the popular version of the Cinderella tale, it ties-in to a lot of the our heroes’ traumas, giving each of them a reason to relate to her. Currently, Salem maintains control over Cinder by presenting herself as the fairy godmother, because were Cinder to see her as the stepmother she was, she would potentially leave. Were she to break away from Salem, recognizing her shared traumas with the members of Team RWBY could provide her with the connection needed to grow and heal as a person.

***Content Warning: Mentions of abuse/abuser tactics***

Intro

The post itself is pretty simple. Do we think Cinder came from an abusive background or do we think she came from a normal family that died under tragic circumstances before she met Salem? I’d always gotten the vibe that Cinder came to Salem searching for power after a life of rather horrific abuse similar to a more traditional Cinderella story.

The way she craves power, not just as a resource but as something she desperately needs for her own survival (her line about Pyrrha “taking her fate into her own hands” in V2 and the “I refuse to starve” of V7 come to mind), leads to believe that she came from a home that didn’t allow her much freedom or agency. She seems to know exactly what it feels like to not be in control of her own life and, now that she has found her escape from it (Salem), refuses to ever go back.

But how does this translate into ties to Team RWBY? She obviously has been foiled with Ruby, but the other 3? Kind of a big leap to make. Well, stick with me. Naturally, when thinking of a Cinder backstory, it makes sense to look at her main allusion, the Cinderella fairy tale.

A Cinder Story

Cinderella doesn’t start her story with an evil stepmother and step sisters. By most accounts she started out fairly privileged. With that in mind, imagine this woman, who we have come to know as a murdering power-driven villain, as a small child with seemingly everything she needed. A loving family, relative financial stability, decent social standing, etc. until one day, out of nowhere. Her mother dies. And suddenly she finds her world turned upside down. Her father remarries to a woman who loathes her and, who, after his death, does her best to control her, isolate her. Everyday she is told she is lesser than her sisters, meant to act as a servant. To cope with the difficult circumstances, she daydreams about a perfect place (in the main story, the ball/landed nobility but in Cinder’s case perhaps the opulence of Atlas) where if she can just prove herself good enough, endure enough pain, she can finally earn a happy ever after.

Now, what’s interesting here is that in just this bare bones outline of the Cinderella story, we touch on the key traumas of each of our four protagonists. Ruby and Summer’s death, Weiss’s isolation and molding under Jacques, Blake’s experience of racism as a faunus and abuse under Adam and Yang’s attempting to live up to Summer’s ideal to cope with abandonment. Which is really fricking cool because it means if ANY of this hypothetical backstory were to come to light, at least SOMEONE if not EVERYONE from the team has a potential point of empathy for where Cinder is coming from.

Something I love about RWBY is how it (for the most part) does its best to show how people are not inherently good or evil, but rather products of their circumstances and environment. So imagine the narrative and thematic potential of a villain for whom each of our cast could theoretically look at and think “Wow. That really could have been me” instead of “look at this monster”. A moment where they realize that, had things gone a bit differently, had they not been a position to cope with their traumas and actively choose to love instead of being engulfed by their pain and anger, they very much could have been this story’s villains rather than its heroes. A moment where, through Cinder, they concretely realize themselves as products of choice rather than destiny and, in that same vein, perhaps Cinder can see the same for herself.

Okay, but what about the Salem part? If we reduce “badness” all to a matter of choice ignores another key theme of RWBY: the importance of an awesome support network and team to back you up. At every point of the series our heroes have had someone to help them. Ruby had Yang and Qrow growing up before her team and JNR after Beacon, Weiss had Winter and Klein, Blake Ilia and Sun, and Yang had Ruby growing up and Tai after Beacon. But who did Cinder have to help her through her darkest times? No one. Except Salem.

The Case of the Fairy Stepmother

That brings me to the second part of the question: Is Salem the stepmother or Fairy Godmother? Honestly I think it’s both. The real question (and what I think will be the biggest obstacle for Cinder growing as a character) is how does Cinder see it?

In the Cinderella story, the Fairy Godmother and Evil Stepmother play opposing roles. Stepmother does all that she can to keep Cinderella underfoot and away from realizing her full potential as a person while the Fairy Godmother steps in when Cindy is at her lowest and uses her magic to give her all that she needs to get that “Happily Ever After”. In theory it should be impossible for one person to be both at the same time, but turns out it’s a matter of perspective.

Imagine Cinder at her lowest point. Maybe she was a no-name seamstress in Argus who daydreamed about being swept up into the glamour of the Atlas elite. Maybe she was a scared kid who saw becoming a huntress as her ticket out of poverty and into a life of adventure. Imagine her getting that wish of her own accord. Playing the game, doing everything right, biding her time until finally, she escapes - only to find herself trapped in a new way. (a Prince Charming who controls her as a plaything, a student not willing to be a child soldier, there are so many possibilities here). Only to see that the system was stacked against her in way where she could never escape it under her own power. That’s. . . a lot to process and a feeling of hopelessness that I think a lot of us can relate to (especially in our current world-state).

Then Salem comes in and not only promises Cinder the power to create her own destiny, but delivers it. Cinder goes from having almost nothing to magically receiving the means to accomplish anything she desired. All because of Salem. I see a lot of people question why Cinder is so loyal to Salem, but given this view, it’d be very difficult for her not to feel indebted to her savior in some regard.

Furthermore, Salem seems relatively fond of Cinder. She defends her from ridicule in Volume 4, goes out of her way to praise her strengths and, honestly, seems to have more patience with her than the rest of WTCH.  Given her backstory, I wouldn’t even be remotely surprised if what drew Salem to Cinder was the chance to give this angry young woman the power she wished that she had had prior to her curse. It’s almost. . . motherly. In a way I would expect a millennia old woman driven mad by isolation and Grimm Lakes and a very traumatized Cinder to view motherhood.

But, that doesn’t mean that the two have a healthy relationship. We as the audience see how Salem’s “love” comes at a price. She never hesitates to keep Cinder underfoot: oscillating between praise and threats of punishment, criticizing Cinder’s discomfort in Volume 4 as weakness, and making it clear that Cinder is only important to her insofar as her usefulness. The whole “Without you I am nothing” really illustrates how far out of her way Salem goes to make Cinder painfully aware that all that she has, all that she has accomplished is because of Salem’s magic. Salem hasn’t helped Cinder as a benefactor. A benefactor would let Cinder proceed to live her own life. Salem has instead taken advantage of Cinder’s lack of any support network and feelings of isolation to establish herself as Cinder’s sole source of support.

While we as an audience can see how abusive this dynamic is, Cinder can’t. Right now, she’s more or less fully embedded in Salem’s manipulation tactics - Salem’s narrative is her truth. And, even if she does come to see it (don’t think I missed the hints of resentment in the trailer), there’s nowhere for her to go. What can she do? Go rogue? The woman has an entire Grimm army! Turn to Emerald, Mercury, or Neo? They’re all either children or also in on all this! Just like the Stepmother, so long as Salem keeps Cinder feeling isolated, the chances of her escaping or changing remain slim.

Seeds of Support and Redemption

So, that leaves us with two things Cinder needs in order to break away from Salem:

Recognizing Salem as a controlling/toxic “Stepmother” figure instead of a  “Fairy Grimm-Mother” and that this is NOT what she wants out of life.

Finding connections/a support network she can go to after leaving

This is why Cinder having parallels to all of Team RWBY is so frickin cool. I’m still not 100% certain of a full Cinder redemption. Like, I love her as a character. But part of the reason I love her is that she is a hot mess who will go full ride or die no matter the situation. So getting her to even pause and go “is this what I want out of my life?” is probably going to take something pretty drastic to rattle her current convictions.

However, that being said, I find it really suspicious that the team would take a character that could be used to parallel the traumas of all four main heroes and just hang her out to dry. In a different show, I might think they could set her up with a death as a warning for our protagonists. But, that doesn’t make sense. Every possible warning I can think of motivating Cinder’s death is already being conveyed by another character. The dangers of falling to spite? Adam. Isolation causes only weakness and pain? Raven. Sacrificing humanity for the sake of power is a crap idea? Ironwood.

Instead, these seems like a great way to set up a situation where Cinder can find connection. After all, if our team could potentially look at Cinder and go “This could have been me”, what’s to stop Cinder from looking at them, seeing their pain and how they support each other, and going “Huh. Maybe this could be me?”. Especially if something radical has just happened to get her to want to break away from Salem for whatever reason. Maybe I’m just crazy, maybe I’ve been sitting on this too long, but I think that that would be really cool for a show about the power of love and connection to have its longest-term “villain” illustrate how, given support and humanity, victims of abuse can grow and find genuine connection with people.

[empmoniitor]

HOW WORKPLACE BULLYING INVITES LEGAL COMPLEXITIES FOR ORGANIZATIONS?

Once in a while, every employee has suffered workplace bullying or harassment, producing an extensive level of demotivation and self-question. Unfortunately, it is not merely a childhood dilemma but in adulthood too. According to some studies, bullying is the reason behind someone’s mental problems, suicidal acts, and emotional stress encompassing the globe.

Technically bullying in the workplace is defined as an abuse of power. It can be humiliating, intimidating, and degrading employee behavior and often creates a sense of helplessness in the target one.

Bullying is different from aggression. Aggression may mean an individual act. Whereas bullying involves repeated attacks against the victim, creating an ongoing pattern of behavior.

Workplace bullying is a dominant matter of concern for organizations and causes a downward slope in the productivity and efficiency of employees. Sounds haunting, right? In this blog, we will further break the terms related to workplace bullying, the laws associated with it, and if you got into trouble, how to get over it. If you want to know how to avoid workplace bullying and its side effects, please read ahead.

EXEMPLIFICATION OF TERM WORKPLACE BULLYING & ITS TYPES :

Defining workplace bullying can be a persistent pattern of behavior that causes physical or emotional stress and humiliation. It can be of companions and occasionally assistants. This leads to non-productive behavior towards the organization.

Here is an example of some workplace bullying are;

Unwanted criticism

Criticize without factual justification

Being managed differently than the rest of your workgroup.

Being cursed at

Being screamed at or being denied

Being the target of practical jokes

These are some actions involved in workplace bullying, and, at certain times, it comes from unethical behavior from the employees and results in targeting individuals. There are some types of workplace bullying, let us witness, so please keep reading along;

FEW TYPES OF WORKPLACE BULLYING

Assertive Bullying: The most common image that appears in the mind when someone mentions bullying is the situation of bosses yelling at their employees, screaming, getting angry at small ignorable things. The side effect of bullying does not threaten the targeted person nor all the co-workers who might get intimidated by the subsequent victim.

Institutional Bullying: It occurs when a workplace allows, acknowledges, and even promotes bullying to practice. This type of bullying might incorporate nonsensical result objects, quarries, and enforced overtime that can not hold up.

Verbal Bullying: This type of bullying could include humiliation, personal jokes, gossip, or other spoken abuse, leading to targeted personal demoralization and insulting situations. Verbal bullying can leave persistent scars that damage the victim for time. Many tormentors practice their verbal messages to injure or insult the target. Therefore, technically physical and verbal bullying often go hand-in-hand.

Prejudicial Bullying: Bullies based on someone’s culture, spirituality, or sexual orientation are ordinarily considered prejudicial bullying. Prejudicial bullying majorly consists of physical, verbal, or cyberbullying. Targeting someone who acts or looks differently or favoring someone and degrading someone is prejudice bullying.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF WORKPLACE BULLYING?

Workplace bullying creates team turnover, desertion, and the productivity level to go downhill. Employers encounter complex problems and cause the organizations to carry a bag of losses and suffering. Undoubtedly, bullying in the workplace not only brings suffering for employees but also employers too.

Here are the after-effects of bullying for both employers and employees.

BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE SIDE EFFECTS IN EMPLOYEES;

Stress

Emotional trauma

Anxiety

Sleeping problems

Lack of self-esteem

Suicidal thoughts

BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE SIDE EFFECTS FOR EMPLOYERS-

Low productivity level

Towering absenteeism

Depressing work environment

Constant searching out for the replacement

Expense over legal actions and investigations

You might be thinking that people at work are selecting the victims or somehow hunting the most vulnerable for bullying. Well, it is not always the case if you have been bullied or abused and doubting own-selves. Why me?

We have listed 04 reasons why people become the target of workplace bullying;

PROFICIENT EMPLOYEES

Majorly the targets are the skilled and talented workers who receive a lot of attention, are knowledgeable, dedicated, and creative. Employees who get an appraisal regarding their hard work and creative minds attract workplace bullies to an extent.

There is also some evidence that depression and other stress-related conditions might attract the attention of bullies. If you are living with any of these conditions, it is vital to take treatment. Talk to your healthcare provider about your symptoms. Depression, anxiety, and stress-related problems should never be left untreated. What’s more, bullying will exacerbate your symptoms.

ADMIRED OR GENUINE PEOPLE

An employee who is caring, friendly, and collaborative is the one who gets undoubtedly targeted. Victims are the most proficient, supportive, and well-liked employees. However, this does not mean that you have to adjust your behavior or nature, but you get insights into being targeted and bullied.

NON-CONFRONTATIONAL OR VULNERABLE

Discouraged, introspective, and submissive employees might bring the attention of bullies toward themselves. Significantly melancholy, stress-related dilemmas and non-confident employees are the ones who get bullied and abused in not only the workplace but also in day-to-day life.

BEING OBSERVED AS PREJUDICIALLY

Bullies are targeted by gender, age, race, and religion. The reason for being bullied can be any disability or disease, or some prejudicial reason against any individual. Technically, workplace bullying targets the people who are deviating from them in some other means.

All along up till this section, we have learned what workplace bullying means and who are the preferred targets. Let us see how to deal with it and what to do if you witness some of it.

Also, we recommend that you don’t ignore it even if you are not the victim. Because these types of exercise are illegal, although if not stopped early can be turned over to you too.

05 TACTICS TO DEAL WITH WORKPLACE BULLYING

When witnessing this type of abuse, it is obvious and natural to feel weak and vulnerable, but there is a solution for every problem. So if you are experiencing any bullying, here are some tactics that can help you learn how to tackle & actions to take to stop it. Some actions to take when you witness bullying are;

01 – REPORT AND TRY TO SPEAK ABOUT IT

As soon as you experience workplace bullying, try to report it on an immediate basis. If you are not comfortable talking to the supervisor or administrator, the Human resource department is the best place to go. It is always best to report about something that traumatizes you instead of suffering it.

02- DOCUMENT AND COLLECT THE EVIDENCE

It is the safest option to prove yourself right, keeping on track of abusive actions. Try to note down the date, the time, the place, and witness that bullying. Remember to keep safe all the evidence related to the bullying, like notes, comments, or emails. These shreds of evidence will help you to prove your case.

03- SEEK HELP FROM YOUR CO-WORKERS

If you feel comfortable, try to seek help from your co-workers. Talking always helps to solve the most puzzling situation. Communicate with professionals, friends, therapists, anyone with whom you are comfortable. This way, you can explore ways to cope up with the situation.

04- LEGAL GUIDANCE

Legal actions may not be possible in case of workplace bullying or abuse. Although, seeking legal guidance can help you to sort this situation to a certain point. Look for the workplace policies and any legal issues related to bullying, ragging, and abusing. This way, you can take some low-level actions against the abuse.

05- CONFRONT THE ATTACKER

The last of the action is confronting the attracter, only if you are comfortable doing so. Seeking out the help of your trusted one and defy the attacker with talk and ask to stop it. Remember the old saying that it is always better to confront your situation rather than hiding or avoiding it.

HOW CAN EMPLOYERS PREVENT WORKPLACE BULLYING ?

A little slight ignorance of administrators can result in workplace bullies. Organizations have been applying strict workplace policies to avoid such situations. Apart from strict policies some of the measures are necessary to dodge this situation in the company.

AWARENESS-

One of the efficient methods to deal with workplace bullying is spreading awareness and encouraging the employee to report it.

MONITORING-

These days, monitoring employees is the most preferred and reliable way of avoiding workplace bullying and abusing situations. Time tracking, monitoring, and managing tools can be the best aids for ensuring the employees should only focus on work and maintain a healthy work environment.

EmpMonitor is a cloud-based software that can monitor, track and manage major office-related tasks. With this real-time computer monitoring software, you can view activities as they happen and manage them instantly.

ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT-

No longer need to rely on hard copies to maintain attendance. EmpMonitor tracks accurate work hours and manages the attendance department, removing the cluster work of marking the attendance. The unbiased extract ready-made report makes the management task easy, also minimizing the chance of tampering.

TIME MANAGEMENT-

EmpMonitor assists in managing the time and tracks the employee’s presence and productivity. The generated report can be accessible to the supervisor that can help to optimize your team efficiently.

AUTO SCREENSHOT-

Customizable monitoring parameters and random screenshot capturing can help ensure that the employees stay on track and productive.

RESPONSE –

Quick and immediate response and actions against it can encourage other staff to speak up against it. Once reported, the strict steps are mandatory by transferring, or if required firing the culprit.

HOW WORKPLACE BULLYING LAWS MESS UP WITH ORGANIZATIONS ?

Nearly every country has its laws against workplace bullying in different forms. Queensland, Australia, follows a code of practices especially for workplace bullying- The Prevention Of Workplace Harassment Code of Practice, 2004. Spreading awareness among the employees about the laws and policies against workplace bullying will automatically discourage the culprits from the abuse.

Check Out Our Latest Blog : Employee Satisfaction Survey- Check What To Ask And How? Instagram Account Types: What’s The Difference Between Personal, Creator, & Business The Ultimate Revelation Of YouTube Shorts

WHY IS PREVENTING WORKPLACE BULLYING SO CRUCIAL?

Workplace bullying is not different than sexual harassment or rape, it is furthermore illegal, and now is the high time for any organization to stop and take precautionary steps against it.

However, with the mass strength of workers, no department can keep an eye on the employees, and not everyone dares to complain and speak up against it.

With EmpMonitor, you can track and monitor the activities of the employees, measure their productivity, and idle time-wasting on other activities apart from working.

Workplace bullying not only affects the physical and mental health of the employee but also hurts the reputation of the employer. It can dissuade people from entering the company. Additionally, workplace bullying can bring unnecessary legal difficulties which no organization wants to attract.

The moral of the story is that workplace bullying can damage the company’s reputation, affect employee productivity, demotivate and bring mental complications for the individuals. Therefore organizations must put an end to this type of illegal activity.

Originally Published On: EmpMonitor

[fallen-gabrielle]

Headcanon about Numbuh 999

Her background and relationship with Monty

It is really a shame that we didn't get to know more about Numbuh 999, a.k.a. Nigel's mom. It is revealed in the very last episode. Kinda too late to explore the character, huh? Well, that's what the fanbase is for, isn't it? Headcanons and theories is what gives the fandom some content while on hiatus (or because we won't get anything canon ever again since the sequel will not be a thing).

I tried to piece together the few information we had in the cartoon to give her a backstory. Things we know for sure:

she was the first girl operative of the 7th age of the KND, she has a long lost brother who is the father of Numbuh 10

...Okay, that was fast. Most of the following is based on some personal experience and knowledge of the mid 60s. I headcanon that Monty's rebellion happened in the early 60s. Also, I gave her a headcanon name, because she needed one. I refer to her as "Margaret".

So, how did kids got lost/separated ? I'm going with the divorce of their parents. And my train of thoughts starts here to follow a logic path.

She went to live with their mom and he went to live with their dad. Simple. But 999's journey just had begun.

A single divorced mother in the mid 60s was actually not well seen by society. So they would always shame the mom for ‘failing her marriage’ and 999 would constantly be reminded that a girl like her with that kind of background would never be able to do something good in her life. Teachers back then loved to shame a kid for living with a divorced parent. Being a victim of adult tyranny, when she learned she could make a difference by joining the KND, she didn’t hesitate. But of course, joining a ‘boys band’ was actually difficult, most of them thought it was ridiculous for a girl to fight. ‘Girls can’t fight! They all cry when being slighted touch, don’t like getting dirty and so on!’ Would be the arguments the KND use to exclude her.

Monty was actually neutral about girls (mostly because he didn’t really know how they work since it seems his mom died and thus not having a womanly figure in his life before). It was with the ‘girls are also victims of adult tyranny’ argument that sold the idea of having girls operatives (people keep saying that girls should act in a certain way and not speak for themselves, for exemple). So yeah, 999 wasn’t part of Monty's rebellion. She joined the KND some time after.

I believe with that in mind that she was extremely cocky, and showing off her toughness. Most of it was only a facade, because she needed to. She would totally have disobeyed direct orders just to spite her hierarchy and piss off Monty, because she didn't like to blindly obey to a boy (also, she secretly enjoyed to piss him off, cuz annonying the guy always so serious and sure of himself was funny to her). ‘I am a woman of action!’ is totally one of her lines. I just like the idea Nigel got some of his ‘free spirited’ temper from his mom, while he got the rest from his dad. "It's okay to ask for help" Why I believe this quote fits 999:

Like I already said, she was constantly reminded that, as a girl, she couldn’t be as strong as boys. She fought her ass off to prove herself to everyone and was always scared to ask for help, that would make her seem ‘weak’. At some point in my story, she yeet herself in a battle/mission when Monty actually ordered to not engage. Leaving a kid completely on her own kinda triggered Monty’s trauma from losing Ben to the social services, he really didn’t like to see a fellow kid all alone, so he went after her. They both get separated from the bigger group, and in the end they still did the mission with plan a (which Monty thought it would be too dangerous, so that’s why he said ‘do not engage’ but she didn’t listen). Thing is, she twisted her ankle in the precipitation, and Monty immediately proposed to carry her, but she said she was able to walk (spoilers, she really couldn’t). At this point, Margaret always defied Monty’s orders and authority, because she thought he was just being bossy for the sake of being an annoying boss for the girls, while he just didn’t care if the operative was a boy or a girl, as long as the work was done well. He was just always thinking of every different outcomes for each situations, because he didn’t want to repeat the only mistake he made: thinking that his father was the only source of evil in the world and thus didn’t see the social services coming for him and his bro. So he started to think about all possibilities and really pondered his decision. He was kinda sick of her behavior and they had a heart-to-heart talk. He asked her what was her problem, and she answered him that, as a boy, he couldn’t understand what it was like to be told how to act and what to become according to their society and adults. Except that Monty did understand: his father always tried to make him the next head of the family, thing Monty never liked. She also told him that her mom would get the "blame" in her parents’ divorce, and that the men in her family (father and brother) left her and her mom alone. While Monty couldn’t understand what I felt like to be in the middle of a divorce, he could a least relate to her for being separated from her brother too. He then tells her that it’s not a crime to ask for help when we really need it. It means we know our limits, and this is the first strength we can have. He then convinced her to heal her ankle (he was good at healing injuries, because of Ben), and you know, he wasn’t exactly the best when he was talking to girls, so she asked him if his mom ever taught him how to talk to them, to which he answered in a deadpan tone it was kinda hard for her to do it since she was already dead for years. Awkward silence as she realised that if her family was fucked up, other kids had it even harder, and felt ashamed for thinking he was being pretentious: he was just hiding some big sadness (and girl, you haven’t heard of Ben yet, so brace yourself). It was also the first time Monty ever mentioned his family to a knd operative other than his best friend so it was a weird moment for him to think about his mom since he never did it all this time.

In the end, they completed the mission, and after that,  they started to see each other, to learn more about themselves. Their relationship grew until they fell in love. When he felt really at ease with her, he told her everything about his family: who his dad was, what happened to his brother. He was kinda scared at first, because he thought she would reject him if she knew his origin. Since he loved her so much, he needed to be completely honest with her (and he already knew about her family’s drama soooo). She then told him that he wasn’t responsible for his father’s sins. That he shouldn’t feel guilt for something he never did. Her feelings for him didn’t change. In conclusion, their relationship was rocky at first, and then evolved through talks and learnings.

Some more details on her here.