#will care about us when it ultimately becomes more profitable to allow us to die as well

[antiarcticmonkeys]

This post is meant to spark discussion, not make people fight or to attack anyone, so please keep that in mind even if you don’t agree with everything I say. I’m not here to evangelize, just to give food for thought.

That being said, I’ve seen a lot of people recently propping up the “lesser of two evils” rhetoric on tumblr, and I am going to be honest: it very clearly comes from a place of fear. I understand, the political climate is frightening right now. But if we continue to approach the situation from a place of panic, prioritizing damage control, we are going to be slowly but surely overwhelmed by the amount of damage we are trying to control. We need to fight for overarching change.

Whether or not that change will come from the electoral system is debatable, but clearly voting is an exigent issue at the moment, so if you believe in that system and put your faith in it, I would urge you to consider voting for someone you don’t think is even a little bit evil. I’m not here to judge you if you’re not ready to do so this election cycle, because yes, I understand that actually getting a third-party candidate in the executive branch in 2024 is a long shot. But I really hope that if you truly want and believe in large-scale change, you have the ability to believe that even just the small change of electing a third party candidate is possible.

If you really agree that by-and-large, Democrat candidates are working against us (albeit less so than republicans), I would encourage you to work to make third-party candidates more viable instead of just accepting that you’re going to end up with a shitty politician either way.

There is plenty of time between now and the election after this one. If you want a non-evil candidate, I would urge you to do what you can to lay the groundwork for one now, so we don’t enter our next election cycle with the overwhelming sense that we have only two options and they both suck ass. The only thing standing between us and a third party win is the allure of habit and the work of organization. I would suggest you research candidates you actually like. Campaign for them, post about them, talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about them.

Every time the election cycle comes around again, we get thousands of new voters who aren’t in the habit of voting for the lesser of two evils, who may be ready for a non-evil candidate. There are many, many people who are dissatisfied with both parties. Electing a third-party candidate is not impossible, just difficult.

[defensefilms]

Defense Films Lists His Favorite TV Characters Of All Time

5. Chris Partlow- The Wire

The ending of The Wire paints Chris Partlow as something closer to a serial killer. 

He wasn’t. None of his hits were done out of pleasure, curiosity or even impulse. Every one of those bodies helped the Stanfield organization become what they became, even the one on Michael’s stepdad.

What Chris represents is reliability and capability. The ultimate “get shit done” guy. Out of all the characters on the show, none were more dependable or crucial to the success of the institution they served. 

Lester Freeman was capable but not a good politician and ultimately a nuisance to his superiors. Bill Rawls was incredibly capable at his job but he was power hungry and ambitious. In season 5, Gus Haynes is the most capable man in the news office but the problem was that Gus questioned authority and didn’t “go with the flow” when the office decided the paper needed a “refreshing” of how they cover the local news.

Chris didn’t have any of these handicaps impeding the people he served.

He recruits the foot soldiers for the Stanfield crew, even training them himself and Marlo had something akin to a small army at his disposal as a result. He organized his sub-ordinates, handled all surveillance when Marlo’s crew was under investigation at the start of season 5 and took care of incoming shipments after they established a direct line to the Greeks. 

When the task required finesse or subtlety, like the time he stole Sergey’s picture from the court office, he was more than capable of that too. When Marlo is questioning how to address the murder of one of his dealers, he listens to Chris and chooses to retaliate on the perpetrator directly rather than targeting everyone on his corner. 

Marlo truly comes to rely on Chris in matters concerning Omar Little. Every step of how Marlo wants to get back at the near mythical larcenist, is first passed by Chris. Chris takes this as his number one job throughout the show. Anything concerning Omar is handled with brutal efficiency, tact and an almost out ouf place  sense of professional pride. 

That’s Chris’ most endearing quality. Through all the blood, guts, scheming, lying, betrayal that comprises Baltimore’s underworld, all of which Chris is very much a part of, he has a pride in how he approaches the day to day business aspects of what he does. 

Stringer Bell is arguably the best second-in-command in the show’s run but he was dishonest, ultimately harming the survival of the institution he served and damn near going rogue. 

Chris doesn’t share such qualities as blind ambition or selfishness. He understands that trust is all he has in this game. When the indictments eventually come down and Chris is facing a life sentence he doesn’t complain or even raise the possibility of turning state witness. Instead he ends up on the yard along side Wee-Bay. Marlo in turn makes sure that Chris’ people are taken care of financially.

Many of the men that serve in the various institutions depicted in the show could learn a thing from Chris Partlow. When the time came, he fell on his sword and did so in full acknowledgement that this is where it all leads. There’s a kind of honor in that.

4. Tony Soprano- The Sopranos

One of the biggest misconceptions about The Sopranos was that it was a story about a gangster. It wasn’t, or at the very least, that would be an over-simplification of what the story actually contained.

What it was was a story about a man and his family, both biological and criminal. That’s the tie the binds all of the story’s narratives together.

Another way of looking at Tony’s story is one of leadership. Having ousted his Uncle Junior from the seat of power, season 2 and onwards, as far Tony’s criminal life is concerned, focuses on what happens once you get to the top. 

While the show’s creators gave you plenty of grizzly, violent scenes, what leads to those is the story of a man struggling and failing at leadership. 

In every season, Tony has to deal with a problematic figure, employee or subordinate. 

Season 1 was his Uncle and the idea of old fashioned leadership. Then in season 2 it was the ever-acerbic Richie Aprile, representing a generation older than Tony’s, that still feels entitled to something. Seasons 3 and 4 gave us Ralph Cifaretto, the only one among the men I’m mentioning that actually earns his status and then in season 5, it was his cousin Tony Blundetto.

Each of these problems is uniquely stressful for Tony because of how they pull at the threads of both his family and criminal life. With the exception of his Uncle Junior, he kills all of them.

By that metric, Tony is in fact a very poor leader. 

He doesn’t really deal with the Richie Aprile problem because his sister beats him to it. He doesn’t willingly promote Ralph Cifaretto even though Ralph earns it and is the only one among the candidates with any real intellect and business savvy. In both the cases of Christopher Moltisanti and cousin Tony Blundetto, Tony allows favoritism and nepotism to cloud his judgement and ironically both those men die at Tony Soprano’s hands.

This paints a picture of a tyrannical man, slowly devouring everything around him because he’s got to be in control. Worse yet, his need to be in control doesn’t actually lead to smarter long term decisions or better people management.

Tony’s relationship with Ralph in particular is built on professional envy. He feels entitled to Ralph’s race horse winnings because “why should his subordinate benefit more from anything than he does?”. He then proceeds to take ownership of the racehorse itself without assuming any of the costs of owning the animal. Then to top it off, he steals Ralph’s girlfriend purely because he has the status to do it, even digging in to Ralph’s personal life in order to justify doing so.

Textbook mismanagement. Every type of managerial violation you could imagine.

So how does Tony handle it when an employee is actually being a problem on a criminal/business level?

He rewards Tony Blundetto’s deception after the Joey Peeps killing by letting him run an already profitable gambling joint. He promotes Christopher to “made guy” even with his drug problems being well known, and he promotes Bobby Baccalieri, partly at his sister’s behest and partly out of spite.

 It was fun to watch on screen but you’d hate to work for Tony Soprano.

How does that translate to his family? What kind of leader is Tony at home?

Season 3 does well at examining Tony as a father/paternal figure starting with his relationship with Jackie Jr, which is built on concern at first. Then later it starts to make Tony anxious. Before Tony decides to push nature towards taking it’s course, when Jackie runs afoul of men in Tony’s charge.

His relationship with AJ is also a bigger part of the show as the seasons go and it’s not much better in as far as the leadership or guidance that Tony offers. We can waffle on about AJ’s failings as a spoilt teenager but the real problem is that Tony doesn’t see himself in AJ. 

That’s the first step to any failure of leadership. An inability to find common ground or identify with the people you’re leading.

We won’t go in to how hypocritical it is because the entire way that Tony entered the mob life is because he himself was a mob prince and his father’s status definitely paved the way for him. 

Hypocrisy. That’s the other key to failure in leadership. 

All these negatives added up to make the most fascinating television character in over 20 years. A constant stream of contradictions and watching a man say one thing but do another was it’s own experience and you didn’t realize what a horrible human being you were watching until you saw the show over and over again. A scary observation that implies people are either blind or really comfortable with evil and narcissistic behaviour.

3. Noah Solloway- The Affair

Out of all the characters on this list, this one was hurt most by writers hitting a ceiling in how much they could say about the character or how much they wanted to say.  Divorced men don’t really have that much representation, so if you’re writing a character that so strongly linked to that one particular event in his life, you may hit a ceiling if you don’t actually have real life examples to work with.

They had the right actor, the right story and it was the right time in human history to tell this story, it just felt like they didn’t follow through on really speaking on the plight or rise of guys in Noah’s situation.

Anytime I watched The Affair, and unlike most, I was pretty loyal to it despite what reviews told me, I identified with Noah. All those other characters didn’t make sense to me the way Noah did.

The story begins with my man being stuck in a rut, the kind of middle age funk  married men tend to fall in to, so he drives out to visit some folks and while he’s there he happens to meet a baddie. Story of every man’s life. Only he does what you’re not supposed to do and sacrifices everything he has so he can be with the bad-bad. 

Then my mans starts popping off with his book writing, gets a publishing deal and in his 40′s, he starts achieving his highest career peaks. See this is important because it shows that the writers understood the subject matter really well, as well as the demographic they were talking about.

Then the next season, they go in to some murder mystery plot, Noah ends up in jail somehow, almost as if the writers and producers didn’t feel confident that they could tell Noah’s story without the theatrics/murder mystery element. 

The other danger that the writers probably didn’t want to indulge was rewarding the character with any kind of happy ending or positive outcome. Noah’s infidelity serves as the jumping off point to all of the story’s unfolding plots, mostly depicting the impact on the lives of his immediate family, a handful of which play out in sad dramatic fashion. So the writers likely felt like Noah couldn’t win at the end. 

In the 1930′s when gangster films were first being made, they would commonly feature PSA messages at the start warning against criminal behaviour. 1931′s “Little Caesar” starring Edward G Robinson, features a warning at the end that makes it clear the film’s producers and writers needed the character to go down in flames at the end, to prove the moral point that “crime doesn’t pay”. 

A writer’s moral obligation and the times in which they live can lead some to write the ending that makes a moral point rather than writing the most dramatic or honest ending. I think Noah Solloway kind of suffered from this.

I don’t know. 

There was a chance to explore modern men in a way that most stories fail to. They had the foundation. They knew enough about who and what they’re talking about. However it didn’t manifest in the telling of the story. 

I’m not saying Noah needed a positive ending, it’s just that the one we got was not the most fitting nor did it wind up ending the story honestly or even dramatically.

Noah Solloway should have got the Tony Soprano treatment in as far as how much the writers explored his inner world but instead the show’s creators decided it didn’t matter. They didn’t answer the question of why this happens to modern men.

If nothing else Noah Solloway can be a blueprint or foundation for those telling this story in the future.

 2. Ciro Di Marizio- Gomorrah

About as slimy and as low down as a television character can possibly be. Ciro represents Machiavellian criminality pushed to it’s extremes. 

When writers plot a character’s trajectory, they often fill it with moments that make the character more endearing. Exploring the relationship the character may have with a child, friend or spouse that makes you see the character’s more genuine/compassionate/likeable side. The writers of Gomorrah did plenty of that with Ciro.

However, they didn’t hesitate to show you just how off-the-rails and downright evil Ciro could be. 

What’s funny is that Ciro is defined by loyalty and servitude when the story begins. He is a capable captain and rises to 2nd in command when the Savastano family needs him to. However the death of his close friend and mentor changes him for the worse and he goes ham. 

What follows is betrayal and Ciro basically masterminding a coup of the Savastano clan but the levels of paranoia that his new found power push him to, make him question whether it was all worth it. The world burns around him and a kind of justice is restored when Gennaro is able to take back power and restore the Savastano name. 

That’s one aspect of the show that Ciro truly exemplifies in that he rises to the top but the throne never truly feels like it’s his.

He is Iago-like in his ability to understand the weaknesses of people around him. He proves himself more cunning, capable, strategic, murderous and even business-minded than almost every other character. Every character except for Pietro Savastano (the man he betrays) and Gennaro Savastano. 

The show goes to great lengths to put forth the idea that crime families in Naples are on the same level as the pope. True modern day monarchies. Royal families that have the power to benefit or harm anyone around them. People bow their heads to them when they walk in public and use reverential terms when addressing them. They will often have salons, jewelers  or restaurants cleared out so they can enjoy the establishment in ostentatious privacy. 

When you look at it like that, Ciro was always an outsider. The difference between just sitting on the throne and being born of the throne. 

In that way maybe Ciro’s story is about redemption. 

He eventually sides with Gennaro Savastano again, helping him get his wife and daughter back after they’re kidnapped. He does this by essentially lying to/duping a crew of young dealers from Florence to fund this hostage rescue and then he offers himself as a sacrifice when the Florentines demand blood.

At his best Ciro served the clan and went to great lengths to restore what he had destroyed. 

1. Marlo Stanfield- The Wire

Is there any greater?

Sure there are characters like Tony Soprano whose world and whose inner thoughts the audience gets more familiar and intimate with. Within the same shared universe as Marlo is a character like Stringer Bell and the writers of the Wire go to great lengths to understand and convey his moral conflict as a drug kingpin turned wannabe real estate tycoon. 

Marlo is something purer though. 

You don’t need to know his inner-most thoughts like Tony because his utmost desire is simple, he wants to be the top kingpin of Baltimore. What more do you want?

He does not share Stringer’s moral complexity because unlike Stringer he is not conflicted at all. He’s not a drug dealer playing businessman, he’s just a drug dealer and that’s all he ever wanted to be.

From the start of season 3, it was fascinating watching this man move about on the screen with a confidence reserved for the richest and most talented. Indeed Marlo proves he has both in bundles. 

He outwits the older drug kingpin in Stringer Bell by maintaining independence from the Co-Op. He matches Avon Barksdale’s war effort step-for-step after Avon comes home from prison. He outsmarts the wily, Proposition Joe in order to learn how to launder his money and then get access to the Greeks.

It was fascinating watching Marlo avoid pitfalls, monopolize Baltimore, out-think his older counterparts and grow his empire to the scope that he did. 

There’s a youtube video that compiled all of Marlo’s scenes from his 3 seasons on The Wire and it pretty much plays like a feature film. Watch it here if you dig Marlo as much as I do.

You’re not watching a drug dealer become a kingpin, or at the very least that’s what I believe. It has more to do with watching the younger generation upset the order, and in a lot of ways that’s what Marlo represents. From the moment Marlo shows up, all old agreements are null and void. He does this over and over again throughout his story. Constantly upsetting the order and establishing his own. 

Indeed Marlo isn’t aware that this is what he’s doing. He’s acting on ambition, arrogance and naivety. 

It speaks volumes that most of the characters on this list have on-screen relationships that explore their personalities, like the aforementioned Ciro’s relationship with his daughter. Marlo has none of that.

Marlo’s most revealing relationship is his rivalry with Omar Little, a man he only ever encounters once. The continuation of their feud happens because Marlo refuses to let any perceived slight towards him slide. One way of looking at what this shows is that Marlo is both egoist and perfectionist, the latter of which is actually very prized personality traits in today’s business environment. The combination of the two is actually commonly seen among CEO’s and top executives.

Marlo shows every weakness and drawback of youth while exposing the follies of the more seasoned and experienced in his field. A walking contradiction in that way.

[bridger-2021]

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[science-fiction-is-real]

STOP TRYING TO GET ME TO VOTE FOR BIDEN.

Okay.  Look.  If you plan to vote for Biden, I won’t stop you.  And I understand.

But I would like to make a few points as to why I personally will NOT be voting for Biden.

We do actually have other options.  Biden is evil, not just “less than perfect,” but actually evil.  Donald Trump is not the cause of our problems, and this becomes especially clear when you look at the behavior of past Democratic presidents and when you apply a little Marxist theory regarding the State. Also A Biden victory is in itself a form of harm, not harm reduction.

1) WE DO ACTUALLY HAVE OTHER OPTIONS BESIDES VOTING FOR BIDEN.

First of all, the fact that you can even mention 3rd and sometimes even 4th and 5th party candidates indicates that: Yes, we LITERALLY DO have other options.  Are they LIKELY to win? 

No.  But only because people don’t vote for them. We are not trapped in a two party system, though we may be trapped psychologically.  It IS actually possible to create new political parties, and for existing small parties to grow into large parties.  This is a long-term goal, and probably not something that will happen by November.  But the first step is to realize that the democratic party are not our friends.

Second, and most important, voting is a tiny plastic water gun in the vast nuclear arsenal we have at our disposal when it comes to political activity.  Historically speaking, even the most nasty and reactionary asshole presidents suddenly start acting REAAAAAL progressive when they are faced with mass populist movements causing civil unrest.  This also applies to senators, congresspersons, and members of the court.  Remember Richard Nixon passing landmark Women’s Rights legislation?  In fact, the level of political activity of the masses is 8 millions times more important than who is in the Whitehouse.

Where we should really be focusing our efforts is in organizing and movement building.  Protest. Go on strike.  Propagandize.  Obstruct.  Disrupt.  And most importantly:

JOIN AN ORG! Join an org.  Join an org. Join an ORG!  Join labor unions.  Join political parties.  Join non-profits.  Becoming a dues-paying member of a Socialist organization is worth a thousand votes.  You will meet experienced comrades who know the ins and outs of political activism, who will show you the ropes, and will put you to work doing something productive.

Join the Democratic Socialists of America.  Join the Industrial Workers of the World. I’m a member of a political party called the Socialist Alternative.

2) BIDEN ISN’T “LESS THAN PERFECT.”  HE IS A MUSTACHE TWIRLING SUPERVILLAIN.

Biden is not a Liberal.  He’s a center-right conservative.  He embraces Neoliberal policies that leave working class people to die in poverty and debt.  He has made no serious attempts to cater toward Bernie’s base.  He is unspeakably Racist, and actually wrote the bill that created Mass Incarceration as we currently know it.

As part of the Obama Administration he was complicit in all of Obama’s abominable atrocities.  From the drone strike program which killed countless civilians, to the escalation of a draconian surveillance state, to the mass deportation of 3 million immigrants.  Obama created the structures that Trump is currently using to terrorize immigrants, minorities, and protestors.  And he created them for the very purpose Trump is using them for.  Biden was there every step along the way.  Biden has espoused violent rhetoric about doing violence against protesters, arresting people with certain political beliefs, and condoning police brutality.

Biden is better MAAAAYYBE better only on 2 issues.  Abortion rights and LBGT rights.  And while those issues are important.  I highly doubt he will make any progress on those issues.

Biden has said over and over again that he would pander to the republicans and compromise with them every chance he gets.  He certainly has stated callous disregard for the lives of working class people.  And we can only assume that he will betray women’s rights and LBGT rights the moment he finds it politically convenient.

And don’t give me crap about RBG.  Biden will not replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with another liberal.  He will replace her with a centrist, or do what Obama did and let the Republicans pick the replacement for him.   And also the supreme court is a tyrannical, undemocratic institution anyway and should probably just be abolished full-stop.

Joe Biden’s rhetoric isn’t even less fascistic than Trump's either.  He says his racist, sexist, anti-working-class sentiment out loud.

And with his billionaire and corporate backers, he certainly can’t be trusted to act on climate change.

He will not respond positively to the pandemic either.  He has expressed out loud no plan of how HE would handle the pandemic, and if his democratic colleagues in congress give us a clue… well, the Dems have been incredibly stingy with their money, refusing funds for relief for the working class.  They have not put up a serious fight for any measures to actually stop the Virus’s spread.

If he’s the “Lesser of Two Evils.”  He is just evil.  

3) IT DOESN’T ACTUALLY MATTER WHO THE PRESIDENT IS.

Trump is not actually the cause of our problems.  He isn’t.  Donald Trump is a fat asshole with a desk job.  Donald Trump did not invent racism.  He did not invent sexism or xenophobia or hatred against the LBGT+ community.  If Donald Trump died tomorrow, the forces of reaction would carry on their merry way.  Donald Trump is in office because he is willing to carry out policies that are favorable to the ruling class.  And the moment he stopped doing that, he would be quickly disposed of, either by impeachment or by a military coup.

And in fact, the violence we are seeing from the Trump administration comes from the way the government itself is constructed.  Not from some diseased ideology unique to the American Right Wing.

So let’s think about this a little more carefully.  Why do we have a government in the first place?  You know, a government, the “state,”  the law itself?  It’s not to negotiate peace between different conflicting segments of society, because they are obviously very bad at that.  It’s not to ensure the public good and protect the rights of the citizens.  Because the government doesn’t really do that either.

And this isn’t just a problem when Republicans are in power.  See my previous examples of Obama’s unspeakable atrocities.  

The reason we have a government is to enforce and maintain class based society.  The State is nothing more than Armed bodies of men who exist for the purpose of allowing one class to suppress another class.  The government’s job is to suppress uprisings, control the working class, assume risk on behalf of the capitalist class, and to fight wars on behalf of the capitalist class.  That’s why the Feds are kidnapping protestors.  That’s why immigrants are being put in cages.  That’s why the police harass and intimidate Black people.  To maintain and enforce the power structure.

All of these bad things happened when Obama was president.  And All of these bad things will continue to happen if Biden is elected. This violence we’re seeing isn’t the result of Trump.  You can’t even call this violence Fascism, because this is NORMAL. Fascism is a specific political phenomena that occurs under very specific circumstances . This violence is literally just the government doing its job.  It’s worse now because the economy is going through a rough patch, which isn’t the government’s fault, it’s just because Capitalism is unstable.

The Right and Left Parties represent different segments of the ruling class, and the election process is about the ruling class negotiating differences among itself.  The democratic party does not represent the interest of regular people like You and me, and you DO NOT OWE THEM YOUR VOTE.

2) VOTING FOR BIDEN ISN’T HARM REDUCTION.  IT IS ITSELF A HARM.

A Biden Victory could have several negative consequences.

The democratic party will continue its decades-long drift toward the right.  The democratic leadership will see once and for all that they can get away with running any evil sleazy candidate they want who will serve the interest of their corporate benefactors, and that the public will remain loyal as long as they coat their sleeziness with “Woke” rhetoric.  If the Democrats learn that you will vote for them no matter what they do, then your vote loses all of its power.

It could trigger violent backlash from Trump’s far-right base.

It gives legitimacy to an ultimately UNdemocratic system which is breaking at the seams.

It could pacify a lot of the militant, but less educated segments of the working class who have swallowed the rhetoric that Biden is their ally.  They will disperse from the streets, meanwhile Biden is free to continue the violent, racist, war-hawkish, neoliberal agenda that Trump, Obama, and Bush did before him.

CONCLUSION

Joe Biden is not our friend.  The Democratic Party are not our friends.  Trump is awful, and he sucks.  If we DON’T vote for Biden, Trump may very well win the Presidential Race.  But considering that Biden himself is very evil, and that Trump is not the true cause of the violence and hatred we see coming from our government, the stakes in this race are a lot lower than you have been led to believe.

A protest vote could send a strong message to the Ruling Class that we are not satisfied with racist, violent, neoliberal leadership, and that we want real change.  

Also, we actually are NOT stuck in a two party system.  There is a growing movement within the United States to create and grow a worker’s party that represents truly progressive ideas, one where regular people hold party leadership directly accountable, and the party is forced to serve our interests instead of those of the ruling class.  The first step in building such a party is to let the Democrats go, and stop placing our hopes in people who do not care about us.

But the most important thing to remember:

The ballot box is not the end-all and be-all of political activity.  The ruling class has created this little ceremony of “voting,” inviting us working class folks to come and play their little game of “pick the dictator,” and giving us the illusion that this makes a real difference.  But we have no way of holding politicians in office accountable when they break their campaign promises, and we are only allowed to vote for options the ruling class allows us to see on the ballots. 

We DO have power to change the system, but we have to do it outside the ruling-class’s terms.  We have to be organized and active and militant enough that the ruling class believes we pose an actual threat to their authority.

We have to do the type of things we currently see American’s doing in the streets right now.  Causing a major disruption, threatening the capitalists’ profits, and threatening the politicians’ sense of authority and control.

But we have to remain organized and militant even after the current wave of protests dies down.  And we do that by building left wing institutional power -- by JOINING ORGS.

JOIN A GOD DAMN ORG YOU COWARDS.

[madmaudlingoes]

No man is a failure who has comrades

Last night we had Christmas with my MIL, which involves watching It’s a Wonderful Life and then as many versions of A Christmas Carol as we can find. (Muppets > all others, btw.)

It’s weird that some of America’s most beloved Christmas movies aren’t about Jesus or Santa, right? It’s weird that they contain such an implicit critique of capitalism?

I mean, it’s not a hardcore critique. Scrooge and Potter are both exemplars of greed, the Cratchitts and the Baileys of poverty, but both stories seem to conclude that problem isn’t a system that allows such monstrous inequality but the personal morality of the rich and powerful. George Bailey is also a capitalist, but a “bad” one, who puts kindness ahead of the B&L’s profit margin.

(Though apparently the FBI totally thought that Potter was deliberate Communist propaganda designed to stir up a hatred of bankers. It’s also interesting that Potter’s plot to ruin George unravels without Potter actually getting punished. He just steals eight grand and gets away with it. That’s a violation of the Hayes Code, that is.)

Charles Dickens was absolutely writing from a “fuck capitalism” perspective, and most film adaptations leave out some of the preachiest parts. Frank Capra was absolutely not intending to write anything anti-capitalist -- dude was a conservative who hated FDR and was obsessed with the American Dream and the idea of the self-made man. And yet the movie gives us lines like this:

Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? 

::cups hands around mouth:: WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY MR. POTTER. GET BENT

As @lofrothepirate pointed out to me, the state is pretty much absent in both stories -- we never see the mayor of Bedford Falls, and while Scrooge famously mentions taxes, the only people trying to actually improve the lives of the working class are Beaker and Honeydew the rich guys soliciting charitable donations from other rich guys. George Bailey was apparently born with an unshakable sense to duty to others, even as his personal ambitions curdle unfulfilled; Ebenezer Scrooge learns a kind of noblesse oblige under the threat of eternal damnation. It’s all about personal virtue, not structural remedies. Having a dictator wouldn’t be so bad if we could ensure it was always a “good” dictator, right?

And yet. The stories are mirror images in a lot of ways: Potter and Scrooge are both landlords, though we never really get into Potter’s head beyond George’s description of a “warped, frustrated old man;” he’s almost more of an abstract emblem of Vice than an actual character. Bob Cratchitt (and even moreso, Tiny Tim) is just the opposite, a walking icon of Virtue in the face of all hardship; George breaks down, lashes out at others, and has to call the divine suicide hotline. Scrooge has to speedrun empathy and face the threat of eternal damnation to change his ways, while George just has to be reminded of the fact that he cares about other people to free him from the Lonely break him out of his spiral.

(Also, the single most hilarious part of the film is the abject horror everyone holds of Mary becoming a spinster librarian. MY GOD, ANYTHING BUT THAT.)

Another thing that sticks out is that, despite the dystopian world being called Pottersville, Mr. Potter himself is completely absent -- there’s no scene where George passes him on the street or runs up to his mansion to see him lighting his cigars with wads of burning cash. All of the suffering Potter has caused is not actually attributed to Potter, but to George’s absence. And nobody ever does realize he stole the money. In parallel, the ghosts force Scrooge to confront how other people talk about him in his absence -- both in the present (his nephew makes fun of him, Emily Cratchitt cusses him out) and the future (people joke about his death, in contrast to the genuine grief the Cratchitts feel over Tiny Tim). But all the bullshit they witness IS Scrooge’s fault, if only as sins of omission, and he tries to make amends.

And finally, the epilogues: Scrooge is transformed from a miser into a philanthropist, while George is consumed with love for his community instead of a dreary sense of duty. Scrooge spends money, while George recognizes the power of solidarity friendship when half the town shows up to “loan” him the missing money. Which somehow nullifies the warrant and obviates the inevitable fraud investigation? Like, the bank examiner and the sheriff are right there, they know that there’s still an $8k error in the books. But LOOK PAPA THE BELL IS RINGING SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT AND NEVER BROUGHT TO MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND

Ahem. If Christmas Carol is about “the rich must be supernaturally terrorized into acting right,” then Wonderful Life is “local man cannot ask for help without literal divine intervention.” They’re both ultimately populist with a soft Social Democrat slant, and yet they’re the staple Christmas movies of the modern American kleptocracy. Also, Christmas Carol fetishizes the specialness of Christmas to a degree not seen outside of a Hallmark movie, usually, whereas Life is almost incidentally a holiday movie at all.

It’s weird, right?

[riv-kai]

Hope everything is going well for you these days. What with the mass panic and virus mess.

Thank you so much my Anon friend, I feel like this is meant to be because I haven’t known where or how to share the thoughts I’ve been having, so thank you for checking up on me and giving me a reason to speak up.

Before you read on, I want you to know I’m fine and I’ve been through much worse before this, I know this is just temporary so I haven’t given up hope. And I don’t expect anyone to reply or read this, I’m just giving my thoughts a voice so I don’t make myself feel worse by keeping it inside.

———

I’m having trouble communicating how this time period feels. Not everyone knows this, but I have multiple chronic illnesses, and have had them for all of my life after a medical-related injury that weakened my immune system at 18 months old. This allowed Lyme disease and co-infections (passed down from a parent who was unaware they had it) to come out of dormancy and take over my body in a time of immune weakness. From then on, it got worse and worse until it fully hit me when I got food poisoning and H1N1 in the same couple of months in middle school. At 16, after what felt like a full life of struggling to survive, I was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease. This means it was chronic, because hello, I have been on more antibiotics than my whole family combined and that didn’t even TOUCH it despite the CDC’s claims that a 30 day round should do it. I still had lyme spirochetes in my blood at 18 and a relapse I had to treat at 23 after aggressively treating Lyme and it’s co-infections for 9 years. Nine. In a youthful, fast-recovering body. The US government is the only country that no longer recognizes this disease to be “chronic,” claiming it’s a residual “post-lyme disease syndrome” as an excuse to say we don’t want to study your complex chronic disease and would prefer it didn’t exist because it’s a business obstacle for us. And despite having proof of the pathogen in my blood chronically, they won’t acknowledge its existence all because of some petty controversies and that we are now a liability to them. They won’t make insurance pay for your perplexing and unpredictable disease... if doesn’t exist to them. When their treatments don’t work and we are no longer profitable to Big Pharma, we are erased and become part of a silent epidemic. At the end of the day, all they had to do was be honest, even just with the fact that they haven’t researched enough to understand the big-scary-bug. But of course that’s a big ask from a big system.

At my very best, my body can’t work or live like abled bodies can, and if I force myself to (because I desperately want to) I always crash and burn. All because of pathogens. And I don’t want you to fear pathogens or give me a pity party. I’m someone who says fuck the system and believes I can continue to heal despite so many doctors giving me bad news throughout my childhood. I’ve already beaten the odds and am proud of it, so this isn’t about me. Right now, I just want someone out there to see what is happening surrounding another pathogen and to pay attention.

I never expected the whole world to understand any bit of how it feels to be at the mercy of a pathogen. Some people will act like you’re being dramatic, faking it, or that “even if it is bad, it’s not that bad because only the weak people die.” Listen, even if you don’t die (I barely survived a few times) that mindset totally discounts the trauma and suffering that lives with you forever. It doesn’t matter if you don’t die. This shit sucks. So now, I’m grappling with many things: wanting to help people through the beginning stages of processing this despite being decades ahead in processing it and sick of thinking about it, being wholly frustrated with those who STILL openly treat disabled people as expendable goods instead of human beings, and ultimately feeling like even if I did explain, it might only make people feel hopeless. However, these are all fear-based thoughts.

The truth is that I know what I’ve experienced for the past 24+ years, even if no one else ever can understand it or believe me, and these experiences helped me understand how pathogens and infections work from an emotional and mental level, not just what it physically does to your body. And I want to help somehow, so I’ll share what I can for now.

If nothing else, I want you to only take away this — pathogens are also living things. I don’t care if I sound crazy, wholly realizing this helped me end that nine year treatment battle with Lyme disease (even if I’m still working on handling the destruction it left behind).

An infection is just as much a mental and emotional battle as it is physical. These pathogens do not have the ability to understand that they are killing the hosts they need to survive and reproduce, they just take take take. I feel like we can all sense this beneath the surface. This microscopic expression of selfishness is a source of the deep, out of control, primal urgency we’re feeling. I’ve felt it before, and they are never the only ones acting out. And this is really important — we have to stop mimicking the pathogen’s behavior in response to its behavior, trampling over each other in fear and hoarding chunks of this world’s wealth/goods that are too big for us to hold in the name of “survival.” Or pretending the outside world doesn’t exist, that “you’ll be fine, so it doesn’t matter if I go out” and spreading sickness to others. This is an exact parallel to what the pathogen behaves like.

I need you all to care with me about fellow human beings. That is our strength as a species, and we are not pathogens so we don’t have to stoop to their level. Get your helping pants on. Tell someone you love them, and spend some time with them to distract or calm their anxieties. Stay home as much as possible and fight for those people who can’t go out or people who are forced to stay in, even if they want to.

And then I need you to hold our government and long-broken medical system accountable. Please, don’t let them brush their wrongdoings over this time, now that their behavior is out in the open. Don’t let them forget what they’re doing, who they are turning away, who they are making us believe are just “a few numbers.” Don’t let this pathogen take you down mentally, either. Even if you get sick, even in a mild case, and it effects you mentally on top of physically, you are not crazy. What traditional medicine tends to neglect is that these pathogens get into your head (trust me) and it’s important to realize that so you know it’s not something you’re making up. It’s not your fault. It’s not wrong to feel hopeless or shattered or depressed or unlike yourself when you get sick, you are just ill. You need help. Deserve it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Take it seriously, but don’t let it take over you. This is a delicate balance and you may waver from one side to the other, but I promise it’s possible to both care and not submit to fear. Pathogens feed off of “weak” openings, and so fear and stress before you even have it is the last thing you need. Btw, no one is truly “weak,” even if you go through moments of weakness. This idea of strong vs weak is just how primal thoughts work, and pathogens are very primal so I’m explaining through their instinctual “perspective” as a species.

And I’m not sure what I can do about this, but I don’t want more people to live like I did growing up. I want people to see what I’m seeing now, decades later, that there is actually hope. There is more to society than a government that treats its people like business deals. We are more powerful than we feel. We are capable of fully caring about each other, even if it’s just through one anonymous message on the Internet.

———

I’m sorry if this made no sense, especially in response to an anonymous message, but thank you again for being here. I hope you are staying indoors if you can, and are safe and healthy to the best of your ability. I know it’s hard even if you are healthy, and there is so much that can feel out of our control in response to illness, but what’s new and a possible hope for me is that we are not alone in this experience this time. I hope you can feel the love even from miles away, I’ll try to make an extra effort to show I care.

[grimoiresontape]

Reading Room: Demetrius Lacroix

This week I am delighted to be joined by my dear friend and godbrother-twice-over Demetrius Lacroix, to talk about good divination practices, client care, and combining community-minded charity and spirituality. Demetrius is a Tarot Reader, an Oungan Asogwe in Haitain Vodou and the co-owner of Botanica Macumba, an up-and-coming spiritual supplies store and community space down in the New Orleans.

Al: Laroye! Thanks for having this conversation with me. You are a great reader in many different styles and systems of divination. How do you help a client decide which kind of divination is best for them? When do you recommend, say, tarot over palmistry?

Demetrius: I try to guide all my clients to the information that will help them the most: Tarot and Palmistry are two of the prime examples that people have come to expect and ask for. Many of them are not aware of the ways these two divination systems work. Tarot for me is highly detailed, and lays out a very wide story and can tell the story with depth. Palmistry lays out many details as well, but they pertain more directly to the client themselves, their likes and dislikes, and the general things they can expect throughout their lifetime. The time-line of the information is much broader, much longer, and therefore not always totally helpful. Many of my clients are looking to know what is happening in the right now, this coming week, their relationship today, and I find that for me Tarot answers this more clearly than palmistry.

A: That makes a lot of sense, palmistry being more concerned with the individual’s whole life. If I have a case that needs concrete specificity cartomancy is usually my go-to. I am very much a fan of Professor Porterfield’s cartomancy as taught in his A Deck of Spells book - very historically-grounded Hoodoo style of reading playing cards to answer questions and remediate problems. 

Geomancy is also good at delivering perspective on particular plans and projects, but is still a little less well known unfortunately. So, hey, what’s the weirdest form of divination you’ve ever heard of or seen?

D: My Mambo in Haitian Vodou reads with people’s left shoes, I’m not sure how that works but she can do it!  And while not necessarily being weird, it reading of molten tin or lead, when it is poured into water. The results are determined much like in Ceromancy, divination through candle wax.

I sometimes wish I could sit in a cave with lots of fumes of various burning organic matter and scry into a mirror or darkness, giving messages of fortune, for now I'll stick to my reading room in Botanica Macumba.

A: What do you find to be the the subtlest or trickiest kinds of questions or clients?

 D: I find that questions about love tend to be the most overtly tricky – I always try to divine on relationships from the perspective of both individuals, so I can try to read with balanced perspective. I feel like some people try to use divination as a way to get someone to validate or confirm plots and decisions that may not be given approval by their friends or other associates.  I have found that in readings, the client may not be willing to tell the full truth about a situation, and that they may be reactionary when you tell them news that is contrary to what they want to hear. Even though I have a tendency to be direct and straightforward where someone may feel like my message is an insult to them or what they value, it’s rarely my goal to.offend, it is my goal to interpret the information to you as is being presented. I believe the client wants a genuine reading, not just a cheerleader for bad habits and decisions.

 A: I like this technique of divining on the relationship from both perspectives. That’s really neat. So much helping people navigate their current relationships is about identifying unspoken projections and expectations, and the bridges and gaps and overlaps between two people, not some simple pronouncement on The Relationship as an abstract concept. 

D: It takes two to tango: I can’t place a value of helpful/not helpful good/bad without seeing both dancers moves across the floor.

 Also, I find that some people become obsessed with mysterious life questions like "when will I die?"

 A: That’s a puzzling one isn’t it? I’ve only ever been asked that by troublesome “clients” to be honest; specifically ones not taking the reading seriously. On the other hand, I’ve also heard answering that question described as The Worstest Immoral Thing a diviner can do. Personally, I think there are more unethical practices than that. Historically, it was a common question, and especially the particular variant “Will my spouse or I die first?” It was considered a pragmatic question; a matter of making informed decisions and making life plans. That said, I also accept it’s a pretty morbid and potentially saddening thing to know, of course.

D: It’s not that I don't think it should not be done, or entertained as an idea; just that usually the people asking won't profit from that kind of information, nor do I believe that tarot is going to draw that out clearly.

A: How much ritual do you do around your reading? Do you light a lot of candles, invoke anything particular, or just flip cards straight off?

D: I have very subtle rituals, I read both in stores, private homes and outdoors. I usually have a candle and water, maybe use some incense to clear the air, and to make a space somewhat suitable to the Spirits, and Ancestors. I also use cloth that I have done value spiritual work on top of. Also a lot of the seemingly random items I bring with me generally serve some purpose for me during before or after the reading.

A: What are your go-to sorceries and tricks to keep your divining muscles fit and active?

D: first thing is to make sure you are taking care of your self, and your Ancestors and Spirits. There are a lot of baths and observances you can do. I have a regiment of baths, special cleanings, ways I treat my cards, and the maintenance of amulets and rituals. For people who read like you or I, I also recommend downtime, I like to take long walks, have peacefully silence or music something that allows me to collect myself so I can be in peace and centered with my own spirit so I can continue giving quality readings. 

A: You co-run Botanica Macumba down in New Orleans - a magic shop everyone should go check out! - and have an upcoming event combining charity work for local underprivileged kids and celebrating the Lwa. Could you tell our readers a little more about that?

D: Vodou, along side many of the West African Diaspora Traditions talk a lot about community which is seen in action in their places of origin like Haiti, Cuba, Brazil etc, where people are coming together to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others. It’s important to me, and my business partners that we do the same. In these traditions, the spiritual work is not always an elaborate ceremony, sometimes it’s the work that lets us connect people with blessings, that helps feed a person who has nothing, or in the case of our next event, the prayer service to the Marassa, it allows us to help children. The Marassa are the Divine twins, and are the spiritual representatives of the potential power of children. Children during the holiday season all over will be given gifts, and it's a sad day when a child doesn’t have a gift to open on a day when all their peers across the country will open presents and be surprised. To give a moment of joy to a child is an act of service to the Marassa and the many other lwa. Mindless religious observation - while not taking into account the living world, and considerations made for humans, or the world around us - is often the norm, but we're proud to not be normal.

Toys for Blessings: A Service for the Marassa, The Divine Twins Botanica Macumba, in conjunction with Crescent City Conjure and Alombrados Oasis O.T.O., will be hosting a charity toy drive, prayer service, celebration, and blessing for the community on Sunday 8 December at 7:00pm. The service will include a ritual blessing from the Marassa and a celebratory feast in their honor after the service. Entrance is free for everyone who brings a new unwrapped toy for donation to help children who would otherwise go without. Alternately a $20 donation for toys is also welcome. This is traditionally known as an Action de Grace ( an action of grace). We offer this act of charity in exchange to receive blessings from the Marassa for ourselves and for the community. The Marassa are the Divine Twins and are the Spiritual force of children. They are seen as givers of blessings, they multiply blessings, and duplicate and continue to replicate the way they are interacted with; just like the way we treat children will reflect in how they will develop. To help children experience joy and happiness is the ultimate service to the Marassa and this joy is multiplied by them. It is our hope to elevate the children of today to a station beyond even what is attainable for us. Please bring a new unwrapped gift, or cash donation. Botanica Macumba is located at 3154 St. Claude across the street from the Family Dollar.

[q--uee--n]

So, here’s Part 1 of my shamelessly pandering, fluffy Post-Zero Requiem headcanons/notes because I just want everyone to be happy and content and I don’t care how unrealistic some of these are. fuck

(Note: the following 999.9% disregards Re;surrection and falls in line with the events of the original series.) 

Suzaku (Zero)

• at first throws himself into being Zero and protecting Nunnally, not at all thinking he deserves anything but the misery that’s been placed upon him. 

• mistakingly believes Nunnally hates him for murdering her brother. She ultimately sets him straight, and though they’re fairly close, there are still moments where Suzaku’s guilt becomes an obstacle to their relationship.

• for the first few months, he is cold and stoic as Zero, but as time passes and he grows into the role, he begins to soften. Still, his Zero is relatively distant and mute compared to Lelouch’s grand, theatrical version. 

• misses the hell out of Euphemia and Lelouch (even if his relationship with the latter was more complex than a Rubik's Cube) but, over time, slowly reconciles with their deaths. Slowly especially applies to Euphy’s case. It took a while, but he eventually limits his visits to Euphy’s memorial from once every two weeks to once a month to once every other month to once a year (in the distant future). 

• formally reconnects with Kaguya after she brusquely informs him that she’s aware of his identity. She manages to swindle him into having tea with her. Every week. It’s at one of these meetings where he breaks down and apologizes for all the pain he’s caused her, but she reassures him that she’s just happy they’re together again. They often simultaneously laugh and gag at the fact that they used to be engaged, and Suzaku becomes so attached to her, Kaguya’s guard detail starts to become suspicious of his intentions.

• on the subject of his relationships, he, against all odds, becomes close to C.C. and even closer to Kallen. He and C.C. have a weird understanding based on their love for Lelouch, and he bonds with Kallen (once she maneuvers around her own issues) over their mutual painful experiences, which is where they find common ground. 

• Gino discovers his identity by accident. Milly does so on purpose. Both are rather bizarre, cautionary tales, but as a result of them, Zero’s personal associates are up by two. 

• ironically has a large following among small children, who are at the receiving end of his softest interactions with the public. Mothers everywhere adore him just for that. As do stores that make the most profit selling Zero birthday cakes. 

• unironically has a large following among horny young adults. Is the topic of a popular tabloid, Zero Weekly, which mostly speculates about his sex life and what he looks like underneath the mask. He’s scandalized by the magazine, as are Kallen and Nunnally, but C.C. and Kaguya love it.

• utilizes multiple disguises, in part because Kallen refuses to be seen in a public setting with him while he’s Zero for a second time and the rest is because Nunnally just likes putting together outfits for him. 

• in the little free time he has, his hobbies consist of feeding the stray cats he’s accumulated over the years, reading poetry (it reminds him of Lelouch and a kinder time when they were friends), and watching the ridiculously bad American soap operas he swears he doesn’t watch. Their content should make bad memories surface, but they’re just so horribly acted, the effect falls flat.

• only after years of it being drilled into his head, he eventually accepts that he doesn’t have to be alone if he doesn’t want to and that the whole Zero thing doesn’t have to be completely miserable. 

• still healing from, well, everything but has acquired a loyal support base in the few friends he has, and though he still doesn’t quite think he deserves any happiness he’s found, he’s in too deep to reject it (and there’s no way in hell that anyone will let him). 

• cries the first time someone says they love him, halfway out of disbelief because he doesn’t think he’s worthy of anyone’s love and halfway out of relief because he’d never imagined there’d come a day where the phrase was directed at him again.

C.C.

• hangs around after Lelouch’s death because she can, not because she, god forbid, cares about the people in her life. Nope. Not at all, thank you very much. 

• lives in Suzaku’s quarters in the palace until he gets so frustrated by the pizza boxes piling up in his room that he asks Nunnally to give her her own space. C.C. is more than happy to move when she learns the room is Cheese-kun-themed. 

• formally befriends Kallen after the realization that they’re both assholes with trust issues. They have bi-monthly girls’ nights of epic proportions, ones that usually culminate in a single whopping bad decision. 

• is both intrigued and gobsmacked by the fact that Suzaku is still so cordial to her despite the circumstances and the things she puts him through daily. He’s the opposite of Lelouch in every way, but that’s what draws her to him the most. 

• may or may not be attracted to Suzaku. It’s hard to tell. 

• is online friends with Milly. Neither is aware of the identity of the other, but they’re nonetheless a powerful force that troll the internet with spam and shitposting.

• no one knows her real name. Except for Kaguya, of all people, and no one knows how or when or why they became close enough to be on first names basis, and it just doesn’t make sense at all, to the point where Kallen loses sleep at night thinking about it.

• once recounted the time Benjamin Franklin told her off to Suzaku after he returned from a particularly despondent assignment. Afterward, they stayed up eating pizza and reminiscing over fond memories they had of Lelouch, which allowed Suzaku to see a kinder, more vulnerable side of C.C. for the first time. It also marked the beginning of their weekly sleepovers, though they don’t refer to them as such.

• sometimes goes riding with Nunnally on weekends. The younger girl reminds her of her brother, and like his, Nunnally’s heart is pure and kind. She gives C.C. a warm feeling similar to the one she got from Lelouch.

• is constantly traveling and moving about but always returns to Nunnally and Suzaku’s side at their residence in Japan. 

• is well aware of the fact that everyone she’s come to accept as friends will die while she’ll remain living. This is her biggest point of contention, and she contemplates leaving more often than not, but she stays because she can’t leave.

•  "I said that Geass was the power of the king which would condemn you to a life of solitude. I think, maybe, that's not quite correct. Right, Lelouch?"

• has stopped accumulating experience and started living.

Kallen

• finishes her last year of high school and, soon thereafter, becomes a full-time college student. Focusing on her education, she takes time off the Black Knights but still works as a reserve officer and is never without the key to her beloved Knightmare Frame. Because just in case, and Rakshata is always updating the Guren. 

• resented Zerozaku for months following the Requiem, even though she knew everything that happened was all according to Lelouch’s plan. She overcomes her negative feelings after coming across Suzaku at Euphemia’s grave and realizing he knows the pain she’s suffering. She finds that maybe they aren’t as different as she thought.

•  proves vital in helping Suzaku heal and vice versa. They’re both disasters, and they’re opposite in every sense of the word, but all that means is that they never manage to stunt each other, even when they just can’t understand each other.

• after they become friends, C.C. is her second most contacted person. Milly is her first because that woman cannot be trusted. 

• begins a charity in her brother Naoto’s name with the help of her mother. The charity is dedicated to reuniting families displaced by the war. 

• discovers she has an extremely high alcohol tolerance once she’s of age and could outdrink anyone at any time (”yes, Tamaki that also applies to you. ...Please, Ohgi’s son has higher tolerance than you”) but generally doesn’t fuck with alcohol because she doesn’t like the idea of becoming dependent on it. She makes enough bad decisions on her own, thanks. 

• is, like various other members of the original Order of the Black Nights, a hero of the rebellion and a bona fide celebrity, though she still has to work to support herself and her mother and is a tad bitter about that. Especially considering she has all the other “privileges” of celebrity such as sporadic street interviews while she’s on her commute to work.

• because of that one time she danced with Zero at that one party, everyone assumes they’re together, and the media plays it up. She can’t count the number of times she’s had to call in to news stations falsely referring to her as “Zero’s paramour”.

• “True or false? Are you involved with Zero?” “...Involved with–I’m not–who said–” “Ah. You hesitated. Does that confirm our suspicions?” “I didn’t hesitate because that shouldn’t have been a question” “Well, a source close to you informed us of the fact that–” “Source? What source–?” *cue the moment she realizes that the source is C.C. Or Milly. Or both.

• Gino is the source.

• sleeps over at the palace at Nunnally’s invitation when her mother isn’t home and she’s feeling particularly lonely, sometimes sandwiched between C.C. and Suzaku in his room but the bed is more than large enough. It’s weird but it’s comfortable and it makes her feel that much more secure.

• grows out her hair. By the time she’s twenty-two, it’s almost as long as C.C.’s.

• still loves Lelouch with all her heart, but does eventually become open to pursuing a relationship. (”Gino wants to go out with you, doesn’t he? Why don’t you just say yes?” “Just because I said I was open to dating doesn’t mean I want to date Gino, C.C.” “I suppose you’re right. Although that could be because you want to fu–” “One more word out of you and I’ll put Cheese-kun in the shredder.”)

• changes her legal surname to “Kozuki”.

[pacack]

Smash Bros. and Politics

So, I was seeing an argument on twitter that claimed that games have become steeped in politics to the detriment of consumers.

I thought to myself, “Alright, I know a game that spans game history from 1980 to now that we can look at to determine whether games have really gotten more political with time.”

Spoiler: Only 9.375% of the franchises represented by characters in Smash Bros. avoid political themes. Games are intensely political and always have been.

Actual spoiler warning: This includes spoilers for the general plot and themes of basically every game franchise included in Smash Bros.

Trigger warning: The following essay contains references to violence, death, war, emotional abuse, racism, racial and cultural stereotyping, sexism, minority oppression, poverty, gangs, animal cruelty, religious hypocrisy, pollution, and climate change.

Mario: Traditionally avoids complex plotlines entirely (though some games break that tradition,) but even the most barebones plots have “ruler who thirsts for power is a bad person, while ruler who does not is a good person.”

Donkey Kong: The themes are all blatantly environmental. The main characters are heavily intertwined with nature, while the big bad steals natural resources, uses technology that pollutes and disturbs the local area, and evolves over time from a corrupt monarch to a gun-touting pirate to a mad scientist. The evolution of the villain’s technology in the first trilogy is sending the message that oppression evolves over time to become more sophisticated.

Zelda: Varies from game to game but ranges from “bad guy literally is transformed into a pig because he desires power” to “crisis brings grief and makes us contemplate our morality, but that should make us value the connections we have more.”

Metroid: Game revolves around a skilled and wholly independent soldier/mercenary/bounty hunter that happens to be a woman. Laced with themes of “a person who is profoundly and intentionally alone does not need to be dependent on others to define herself” and “scientific progress that is intended for the betterment of mankind can and will be used to wage war by those who seek to do harm.”

Yoshi: “Communities should help and protect even complete strangers from those who would do them harm.”

Kirby: Themes range from “greed of a ruler leaves kingdom in poverty” to “people who band together in friendship can overthrow those who possess power.”

Star Fox: Tyrannical mad scientist plans to form an oppressive empire by using technology. Do I need to explain that?

Pokémon: Treat animals as partners and friends and marvel at the wonders of the natural world. Bad guys include:

an organization that abuses animals

an organization who aims to destroy the environment

an organization that doesn’t appreciate the current world and plans to reshape it into one where emotional attachment doesn’t exist

an organization that criticizes the current state of affairs in legitimate ways to hide their real intentions of stripping the common man from their power to resist their planned dictatorship

an organization that values beauty and power above all else (criticizing the French elite specifically)

A gang that recruits desperate people who feel they don’t have a family

A supposedly humanitarian organization that is headed by a possessive and emotionally abusive mother who is obsessed with owning things, people, and animals rather than loving them.

Earthbound/Mother: Discusses complex themes about love of family, pain of loss of and rejection from that family, the trauma one suffers because of that pain, and the importance of people learning form that pain rather than using it as justification for hurting others.

F-Zero: People meet one-another and trade, develop new social ties, have intellectual exchanges, and share technology, but some begin to abuse the framework of the system that brought everyone together to make themselves lavishly wealthy. These elites then develop dangerous sports for their own entertainment that the common man is enticed to compete in to improve their societal standing.

Ice Climber: Two characters that are coded as Inuit-Yupik enjoy themselves by cooperating and competing with one another in nature. While simple, the theme of connection between people over a shared activity can’t be recognized as completely apolitical when they’re in a minority group.

Fire Emblem: A just ruler is forced into conflict with a neighboring despotic country and must balance their duty to defend their people with their understanding that it is the innocent common folk of the other country that will suffer in place of the unjust rulers who began the conflicts. The game centers around meeting new people, many of them from the other side, who themselves are multi-layered and kind, but who live difficult lives. The unjust rulers are defeated, but a greater threat then brings all the people together, despite their differences, for the common good.

Game and Watch: Man juggles, cooks, and plays games with his friends :)

Kid Icarus: An angel who has a disability that prevents him from flying must save the world when circumstances leave him as the only person capable of resisting. He succeeds and is recognized by being promoted captain of the guard for his ability, courage, and tenacity. From that point on, the support of others allows him to live his life without his mobility defining what he can and cannot do.

WarioWare: The main character (who was conceptualized because artists’ freedom to create was limited by corporate greed and its insistence on maintaining the status quo) is a greedy man who plans on creating a poor, easily made product to sell to people as a get-rich-quick scheme with complete disregard for artistic integrity.

Metal Gear: The entire series began as a political commentary on the manipulation of soldiers by politicians in the Cold War. The series delves deeply into the morality of war and the negative impact that it has on a person, as well as discussing peace, revenge, racial violence, genetic engineering, censorship, societal loss of a person’s knowledge when they die, misrepresentation of history, and generational knowledge and bias. The main character, Solid Snake, is a critical analysis of the action hero trope, and the deconstruction of his character archetype reveals his increasingly broken spirit as he comes to see his life as unavoidably entwined with conflicts and war.

Sonic: Evil scientist destroys and pollutes the environment and abuses animals in his scheme to gain power, leading to the animals themselves revolting and overthrowing him for his actions.

Pikmin: A middle-class working man who cares only about supporting his family is made to work in dangerous conditions and suffers hardships because of his company’s desire to maximize profits.

Animal Crossing: A kind community of people welcomes a stranger and helps them to build a new life with them, teaching them how to survive and thrive on their own.

Mega Man: Society has advanced to the point that robots are used in day to day jobs, and an ambitious scientist hacks into them and uses the technology to throw society into disarray, with hopes of establishing a dictatorship.

Wii Fit: Fitness trainer teaches you how to exercise and become healthier :)

Punch-Out: A poor kid from the Bronx has dreams of becoming a star athlete, and his trainer, a kind, retired black boxer, trains and inspires him to achieve his dreams of having a better life. The international opponents in the game embody both harmless and harmful societal stereotypes of their cultures. The more ridiculous the stereotypes surrounding the group, the more ridiculous the opponent becomes. Ultimately the protagonist, a multiracial kid from one of the most diverse cities in the world, achieves his dreams and is respected globally for his skill and perseverance, reflecting the ideal of cultural harmony.

Mii: Customizable avatar characters play games :)

Pac-Man: Happy man eats food as cute monsters chase him around a maze :)…in a dramatic departure from the norms of the time in the industry, making the uncommon move of advertising to women by using cute, whimsical designs and appealing to and encouraging everyone’s common experience of eating. Avoided common themes of the time like violent space shooters, racing games, and sports titles, which were meant to appeal to young men.

Xenoblade: The plot revolves around predicting where the path you’re on leads you in the future and emphasizes heavily that there is nothing in life that decides your fate for you. Aims to explain that, while hardships in life can lead you to do the wrong thing, you always have the power to change that which seems destined in your life. It condemns those who use the hardships they’ve experienced to excuse wrongdoing and explains that a person has the power to learn and grow from those hardships instead.

Duck Hunt: You’re a duck hunter shooting down ducks with your trusty companion dog :)

Street Fighter: The continuity is a mess, but basically it boils down to an evil man being defeated by the honorable and pure philosophy of the protagonist. It involves different spiritualities that are a part of different martial arts and I’m not going to pretend to be qualified to talk about the cultural implications of them, but it generally discusses the morality of violence.

Final Fantasy VII: A soldier who lost his best friend in a battle long ago joins an ecoterrorist rebellion against a corporation that is draining the life force from the planet at the expense of energy. If I have to spell out the environmental themes there any more clearly you’re a moron.

Bayonetta: Sexual witch with guns sold her soul to demons and literally makes a living killing angels that are obsessed with the impending resurrection of God, the creation of a new world, and the destruction of the current one. Heavily inspired by and critical of Christianity, with the angels being named after virtues that they lack. The five main bosses in the game are the four Cardinal Virtues of Catholicism – Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Prudence – and the final boss is God herself, a self-centered and spoiled character that demands adoration from all. Contrasts the hypocritical, power-hungry, and overzealous forces of religion with the Bayonetta’s honest and unapologetic appreciation for worldly pleasures, her confidence in her autonomy, and her quest to understand her individuality.

Splatoon: Squid kids play paintball :)…except it’s actually a post-apocalyptic world where humanity died off due to climate change and cephalopods became the dominant intelligent life on Earth.

Castlevania: Heavy religious themes debating the worth of humanity as a man treks through a haunted castle to fight Dracula, a vampiric demon who keeps reincarnating and who occasionally quotes the Bible verbatim. Most games in the series center around the theme that, even though human life is fleeting, it is precious.

Persona: High school student goes into alternate world where his darkest subconscious thoughts manifest into a “persona” tied to him. Debates philosophical topics very, very heavily and questions the meaning of identity.

[pyreo]

Fixing Incredibles 2: stuff I would do

Hey wanna hear some thoughts on what I’d do to tune up a movie I found slightly disappointing? There’s three main aspects I want to deal with which are

1. badly utilised new supers 2. iffy villain motivation 3. third act was a mess

So here’s a few things I’d wanna do to rework some of that

So first off, that’s a lie, there’s really 5 things that bothered me. this should not have been an immediate sequel where no time had passed. they actually had to backtrack on the character development from the first movie to have them do the same character arcs again. Helen’s back on wanting her kids to stay away from dangerous heroics. Violet’s reward for learning to assert herself, a date with Tony, is erased and she has to win him all over again. Bob, in a weird 180 from his first portrayal where he adored spending time with Violet and Dash during his training montage... suddenly struggles with caring for them, though that’s mostly the fault of Jack-Jack’s powers manifesting. 

So firstly, I’d do what I always imagined the sequel would be and push it a few years forward. Allow it room to change. Have Violet be a college student with Tony as her longterm boyfriend. Have Dash be a teen who’s still eager to save the world, but needing to learn that no danger is better than stopping danger. And make Jack-Jack a child, still in need of supervision but not a total cartoonish liability who necessitates long sequences of adjustment to discovering his powers, again, a retread we already saw last time. Every character arc was a re-do and the constant burden of dealing with Jack-Jack really slowed stuff down. (this was my 5th thing) Fix this by skipping forward. (Also, Violet’s hero moment being... learning that she has to set personal glory aside and babysit Jack-Jack while everyone else does stuff? Are you kidding me?)

We now have a different angle on Helen’s worries - she’s not just concerned about putting her kids in danger. She acts like it, she tells them not to start jumping at the chance to get into heroism. She tells them to apply themselves in school and get normal lives too, in case it doesn’t pan out. But this feels familiar, because it’s what she said in the first movie, and it’s a front. She’s worried about her kids growing up, becoming adults - Violet basically is one - and how she can’t protect them if they move out. She pretends it’s about their powers to cover this. This also refocuses the movie’s main character arc onto Helen like it’s... supposed to be, instead of putting it on Bob’s learning to parent and accept his wife’s super- importance, because despite being framed as Elastigirl’s time to shine, it’s not her story when she doesn’t embody a change of character. It’s still Bob. 

So, those things established:

1. Better villain ideology

Revenge because supers failed to save your parents? Basic. Also not that believable, because the reason the heroes failed to answer Daddy Business’s call is that they’d been outlawed and given new lives as normal people. They could not have come to the rescue; it was illegal. And a superhero enthusiast would have known that. And, hey, ‘criminals shot our dad and then our mother died afterwards of a broken heart’? Are you kidding me? Just have them both get shot, fuck it. Stop this ‘women dying because their man tragically died’ shit. It’s getting melodramatic at that point. 

No criminals, no revenge stuff. Have the Deavor’s parents die when they were in early teens. The brother and sister had to support each other as they started to navigate adulthood. This instilled in them the philosophy that’s common to the type of silicon valley startup wizards they parody - that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be hugely successful if they try hard, having come from orphans near poverty to multimillionaires. 

I want both of them, brother and sister, to be the villains together. You don’t really need to twist that. They both come off as helpful fans who want to put their money to use helping supers get back in the game. After all the biggest complaint keeping supers illegal is the property damage and lawsuits, and what fixes that? Money. They also both believe, as is Evelyn’s motivation for real, that superheroes are actually causing the public to develop dependency on them. 

I would set up the siblings as advocates of Randian objectivism in how they work. They think everyone can go from nothing to having everything. They think it’s a personal imperitive to be hard working, to contribute and make yourself a success, without relying on others. They think needing a safety net - superheroes, as a metaphor for social facilities - is a weakness that stops people from taking responsibility for themselves. I want to downplay the ‘tech company who makes tiny cameras’ thing, because that was far too modern day to fit in the 60s, and make it more about sheer money generation and the ability for the siblings to pay off debts and influence public opinion; essentially, that money can get you anything, glossing over the corrupt nature of that by claiming it’s doing the right thing to help the heroes. 

Winston still had a childlike adoration for supers as a kid, but it was killed when he grew up without parents who couldn’t BE saved, followed by extremely hard work in the financial sector, dealing with stress, and realising that he worked just as hard, but got no media acclaim, as people who just happen to have been born with powers. Both siblings invest in personal security solutions, aiming to eventually reveal a plan to put superheroes out of business by outpacing them with technology. To use the free market to provide ways that normal people can protect themselves, without becoming complacent, relying on dubious, flawed heroes, without becoming blind to danger because they expect to be saved. Their evil motto is basically ‘don’t expect anyone to save you’, putting the burden of responsibility on the individual to take care of themselves and be solely in charge of their success or failure. 

The superheroes, of course, represent altruism, saving people just because they can, just because they were given an ability and can use it to help anyone and anyone they wish. Making no judgements between rich or poor, personal backgrounds, social class... everyone can be saved just the same. 

The villains intend to gain the trust of the three main heroes - Mr Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone - and push them into good public opinion by funding everything they do or break. Destruction is paid for, claims are settled. Heroes shouldn’t have to worry about it, they say. What they actually intend is for the heroes to become dependent on their company for money, just as they see the public growing dependent on supers instead of taking steps to protect themselves. They will set up a huge, climactic battle in the most expensive part of the city, after the heroes have been encouraged to ignore the financial cost to their feats. Then they’ll withdraw support, burying the trio in horrific debt to a level they cannot recover from, while also pushing a new line of tech solutions to make money off people’s protection. Technically, they want to help people, but they need to make sure the legal battle for supers will finally crush them out of work so they can get the maximum profit from their products. 

2. More cohesive new super team

It’s not that they were bad, I just felt it was jarring after the profiles Syndrome kept on his targets - all supers were completely normal people who happened to have abilities. The new guys were okay, but felt like oddball ideas and out-of-place mutants (the whole point is that supers are being pushed into normal lives and hiding their innate abilities. I dunno how you do that as an owl-man). I would make all the new guys young adults and teenagers. 

One, to point out the reality of the situation with supers. The new blood is going to be young. After what Syndrome did, nearly all adult heroes have been killed. I want to point out that, in order to bring back the idea of superheroism, we have to acknowledge that the ones who are going to do that are a generation down. Elastigirl meets them (we’re keeping Voyd obviously, but they’re all nervous youngsters like her, 15-22 ish). Elastigirl get confronted by her protective instinct - legalising supers means all of these kids going into danger. But, through talking with them, she realises how much it means to them, not having to hide who they are. They’re all like Voyd is. They were all shunned, pushed away, and ultimately hid their powers while feeling like absolute shit for being abnormal. There is a very clear real life allegory here. Helen realises that legalising supers isn’t just about throwing yourself into danger. It’s about allowing people to be who they are, and not shame them for something out of their control. They’re unpractised, they’re ashamed of showing their powers to her, and Helen mentally adopts every single one of them instantly. 

Helen gets a montage of training her super team to understand their powers better. She sees them become more at home with themselves after an early life full of restriction and even self-hatred. It’s not just about being cool, it’s about your identity, and Helen gets that and stops having reservations about legalising supers again. It’s bigger than her family. And the Deavors arrange and fund this, because they want as many heroes implicated as possible, they want both generations of supers wiped out and to never be able to return. Dependency is a crutch they would say, and humanity needs to learn to survive without it. We can keep Screenslaver as the fake villain setting up the big final battle, and we can keep his monologue about dependency on screens as a metaphor, but devolving into a diatribe against the nature of neglecting your personal success by vicariously watching someone else’s. 

3. The third act didn’t fit 

We already don’t have the dead weight of baby JJ crashing the pace of the story. He’s a young child, and we’re going to have Edna watch him (she can love it like she does in the movie, Jack-Jack can find her research enriching too). This time it’s Frozone, Elastigirl and Mr Incredible who get taken by mind control. The siblings are going to stage a fight between all three, pretending that superheroes are unstable, liable to turn on each other at the cost of civilian lives. That should turn the public against them for good, while causing massive amounts of damage. They use the Screenslaver persona to set up a showdown in the city, only to capture the three supers and turn them on each other. 

Not mind controlled? Elastigirl’s recruits. They just barely manage to escape it. They go to get help from their mentor, only to find the supers gone, and Violet and Dash seeing the carnage on TV and getting suited up to find out what’s going on. The kids get an introduction and team up together, heading off to stop their teacher and parents, new blood vs old guard. 

That results in six or seven barely trained supers going up against three extremely experienced ones, while they also have to try to minimise loss of life and property damage. While dealing with the trauma, for Violet and Dash, of being attacked by their own parents and not knowing why. Also, they get backup from Honey. Frozone’s wife. SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THIS MOVIE. She was designed and then cut and that’s a TRAVESTY. She’s already popular, she was a breakout hit, let her be in this. She steps forward, no powers, regular civilian clothes, and helps the kids out with advice from the ground, picking them up when they fall, and huge vocal encouragement. She kicks ass because that’s what she fucking does. She helps direct the crowds to safety, she tells these kids to look at their super suits and believe in what they’re capable of. And it’s her who snags Frozone after his powers get strategically rebuffed, she grabs him and grabs his goggles off and fixes it herself. 

With another adult on their side and better confidence the new supers manage to pull Elastigirl and Mr Incredible back to reality too, which concludes Helen’s anxiety about their capability and the passing of the torch. They did it, they were responsible - there’s no casualties and with all their powers combined, they managed to avert damage better than Helen and Bob ever did. The adults realise that the kids can be trusted to handle heroism and Helen is super proud of her trainees-slash-children. 

That leaves the actual capture of the villains, which comes down to running from the combined might of all the supers who gradually cut down their ability to escape, culminating in Winston stopping Evelyn from getting away, and having a personal realisation. A resurgence of the boyish glee he once had for heroes stopping the villains. He foils his sister and turns both of them in, willingly, in a weird way fulfilling his dream of saving the day like his idols did. 

To round off, thanks to the rehabilitated (and not sabotaged) hero image, and the display of capability the young supers put on, supers are legalised again. Helen and Bob now work as teachers to the kids as part of a new government program to make sure kids with powers learn how to responsibly control them, Helen of course continuing her role as mentor to her massive new family, and Bob finally able to work without restraining himself. The government agrees that encouraging kids to train properly and learn how to avoid risk and costly situations is worth endorsing. Dash befriends some of the other teens in the supergroup and has friends he can push his abilities with, without it being unfair. 

Finally, it’s time for Violet to move out, because things must move on. Helen, Bob and Frozone (who gets an updated suit because come on) are accepting that they’ll eventually they’ll have to let others take their place. Violet’s going to move in with Tony and get a normal job, because she still yearns for a normal lifestyle underneath it all, but she won’t be far away and can always answer the call to join the family in the field. They all bid her farewell (”Finally maybe I can get some peace without Dash bursting into my room-” “I can run to your apartment in one minute 28 seconds, I checked!!”) but Helen isn’t worried any more, because she has renewed faith in how well her children have grown up and is accepting they don’t need has as much any more. And besides, she has tons more children who need her too and it’s up to her to help them find their true potential. 

Thanks for reading this way too long exercise in figuring out what I wanted from the sequel to one of my favourite films in the world... the original Incredibles was centred around heroes also just being human, who make mistakes and have to grow up and change, and the villain’s fanboy mentality was the antithesis to that. I would’ve wanted a sequel that understood the message of its predecessor in that people have to develop and grow, one aspect of which is letting go, but what we actually got seemed too static and unwilling to move away from what we had already resolved in the first one.

[iggytheperson]

“The development of Eva and Fate post-negima/pre-uq holder feels almost as though someone just told Ken to switch their personalities around” - an analysis, product of my growing irritation with this bullshit.

So let’s see. On the right we have Eva, an ancient evil demon queen who’s killed thousands if not millions of people, attempted to murder our original ten y/o protagonist, made him work to the point of near death and then berated him for not being able to do better, threw a 15 year old girl into a blizzard buck-naked and forced her to live there for two weeks straight, told another 15 year old that experiencing happiness instead of working herself to the bone every waking moment would cause her loved ones to die, and was generally just kind of a horrible person. Regardless of the sympathetic circumstances that caused her to be like this and the fact that her behavior is completely understandable in context, she’s a proud villain who revels in tormenting people.

On the left we have Fate, a 20 year old who was taught from birth that his purpose in life was to save the world. That method of saving the world is to send the whole world to heaven before the planet becomes unsuitable for living, but from Fate’s perspective it is literally the only way those souls can be saved from an eternity of suffering. His hobbies include saving war orphans and making sure they can live comfortably and happily for the rest of their lives. He has five adopted daughters. Regardless of the fact that some of his actions are misinformed, he always has everyone’s best intentions in mind and is, all in all, a good guy.

One of these people went on to create a non-profit organization that works to make the world a better place, sheltering orphaned minorities and helping the poor.

One of these people went on to create a couple hundred child soldiers and to execute a plan that ultimately puts millions and millions of people in danger, for the sake of one guy.

At this point it all of this already begs the question of what the fuck, but let’s dissect this even further.

So, Evangeline AK Fucking Mcdowell, a woman who, after many centuries of being miserable and having no joy or hope to hold onto, was finally able to make a life for herself with people who loved her, was then was forced to watch her decades-old comrades fly off into battle and meet fates worse than death. 

Then she finally joined the hero business so she could help her surrogate son, one of the only people left in her life that she could ever possibly have room left in her heart to care for besides Chachazero and Chachamaru. 

Then both her century’s long best friend and her son fly off into a heroic last battle and never return.

Her first moment in hundreds of years that she uses to do the right thing is a moment that completely and devastatingly betrays her. Evangeline has been given every single reason to go back to hating heroism as she always has, and every reason to be completely destroyed by this turn of events. There is no logical reality where the mentally grounded and well intentioned Yukihime we see throughout all of UQ Holder would exist. There’s no reason she would continue being a goody two shoes when heroic bravado is what ended the only happy segment of her long and painful life. It’s just dumb and weird. 

Her clingy attachment with Touta, the only thing she has left even resembling her late son, would make sense if it was actually portrayed like that instead of just her being a normal, nice, regular mom. But alas, Yukihime is so abstracted from her original personality she might as well have be another character.

And on Fate’s side of things, we have another 180 of moral compass.

There is no world wherein the Fate Averruncus of Negima would exploit a child as a means of paying off bills. There’s no world wherein he would do something that would lead up to that, nor where he would work with a company that condones such things. Fate is a man who, at ten years old, murdered his abusive brother to protect a child he barely knew, and his morals aren’t any worse than they were back then.

The reason Fate chose to go against his master’s will at the end of Negima, was not the result of some magical spell being lifted or other such bullshit as one would expect from a lesser story, it was the result of him realizing that the fate of the world could be a better one if he and Negi worked together. Because Fate has been raised from birth to pursue the most logical, rational option that would allow for as many people as possible to be happy. 

And there’s no goddamn way Fate would risk the world for Negi. Not the immediate world nor its distant future. He’s been willing to see his crush dead just for ticking him off once, if Negi told him after years of trust and friendship “Hey I’m going to be a threat to the world soon, kill me, ok?” Fate would stand by that request. He would be heartbroken, yes, but Fate has been groomed since birth to be a world-saving super soldier.

I just. don’t understand?? how this happened??? who thought this was ok?????

Again, if it were switched around, it would make sense. Eva is a bad person. Straight up. If UQ Holder had told me that she went full blown sociopath again after Negi’s assimilation into the Mage Of Beginnings out of a desire to save him that superceeds her concern for humanity’s wellbeing? Yeah. Ok. A bit extreme given that she was more of a detached stepmom to him than anything, but certainly less logically suspect than her starting a charity organization. And given the entirety of Fate’s characterization, that charity organization is exactly what I’d presume he’d do without any kind of sequel telling me that. The whole point of his character in the first place is that he’s a good person whose plan to save everyone and everything in the universe just so happens to involve pieces that are at odds with the hero’s goals (and also includes hiring murdery demons, but to be fair, if the demons are busy helping him save the world then that also preoccupies them from doing evil). And it’s not like UQ Holder has entirely forgotten about this but...child soldiers. Child soldiers. C h i l d  s o l d i e r s. That’s not. Conceivable. As being anything that Fate would have ever, ever participated in. He’d have turned the guy who suggested it to stone, dumped the guy into the ocean, given him immortality and unpetrified him so that he’d drown forever for even hinting at the idea of hurting a child.

It’s dumber than dumb, folks.

[zachwritesstuff]

Dragon Pilot: Old vs New

Warning: This article contains spoilers to Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan’s later parts and ending.

Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan is, in many ways, a fabulous series. The animation is great, the characters are lovable, and the story hits emotional high points in strange and unexpected ways. It’s probably one of my most recommended series of the Summer Season, and possibly of the year! But I could spend paragraphs talking about how much I loved this series, when really, I want to talk about one specific thing that stood out to me about it.

I don’t think it’s a controversial statement to say that anime has changed in the last decade or two. In fact, it has to change, or else it will stagnate and die. But in recent years, there has been a different kind of change happening, not on screen, but behind the scenes. While reports come in on Anime shows and franchises seeing record high profits, more reports are coming out about the troubling financial and personal conditions that animators and production assistants on shows have to live in, and the treatment from upper management and fans alike that people inside the industry have to go through. It’s no surprise that more public figures, like voice actors and idols, become traumatized and sick from all of them issues they have to deal with outside of their control.

It’s reassuring to see that things might be looking up for the lower workers in the Anime industry, from more affordable dorms and housing being crowdfunded, to new avenues of production opening up new ways to get anime to an audience, doing away with the strict and punishing guidelines. And creatively, more challenging shows are starting to be made, ones that poke fun and challenge the classic cliches and tropes of Dumb Big Breasted Women, Blank Slate Heroes, and Marketing Driven Shows. Instead, we are seeing more uses of Absurdist Comedy (Pop Team Epic, Asobi Asobase); Introspective shows about the creators of anime and the people who indulge in anime (Shirobako, Wotakoi); And shows that take classic romance plots and apply them in new, inventive ways (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Recovery of an MMO Junkie).

A wholesome slice of life comedy~

Even outside of the industry, Japan is seeing political change, with more protests against militarization of the country and support for LGBT rights popping up to challenge the instilled conservative views that have been a mainstay in Japan for so long.

I bring all of this up because I believe, whether purposely or subconsciously (And I do believe that it’s mostly on purpose), Dragon Pilot is a reflection of the changing industry and how it’s dealing with these issues, especially when it challenges the classical/traditional way of doing things.

The first major clue, and the thing that caught me on to this theory, is the design of the show. From the get go, it stands out from other shows in how it lays out it’s world. It strays away from the use of Key frame animation and highly detailed backgrounds, instead using a much more fluid movement and watercolor spaces to give everything a more down to Earth feel. And even when they use newer technology, like CG animation, it’s only used sparingly, as to not interfere with the natural flow of the animation. The two styles are used complimentary, instead of as a way to fill space.

Inside the actual designs of the Military base, everything looks old and lived in. There are spots of dirt everywhere, doors are uneven, and equipment has been put through the ringer. Even the character designs themselves seem to carry this style, many of them being a mismatch of character archetypes from the 60s, 70s and 80s. This all in spite of being in the modern day, and many of them having smart phones and updated Military hardware, like the parts that make up the Dragon’s disguise.

This, I feel, sets up the main conflict, even before you learn what the series is even about. It’s an establishment that has done things in one way for many years, and even though it tolerates minor advancements around it, it always sticks to its core values, never straying too far from what they believe to be the proper path to success. This could be applied to the Anime industry, as even when experimenting with new ideas, core ideas have always been forced in: Fanservice, merchandising ability, storyline tropes, etc...

Awkward situations is the main staple of modern anime

Which brings us to the main plot of the show. In a quick summation, the main Pilots, called OTF pilots, must control dragons, disguised as planes, to lead a world destroying God Dragon to it’s new resting place, a tradition that they must do every 76 years. They do not find out until after they begin, however, that one of the main parts of the journey involves sacrificing a shrine maiden, in order to ensure safe passage. This appalls the main characters, and they hatch a plan to prevent it from happening, eventually succeeding with much hardship.

This, I feel, reflects the current state of the Anime industry. For years, it’s been leaning heavily on the things that made it the most money, like shows with heavy fanservice, shonen shows that were played into the ground, harem series that allowed the viewer to place themselves into the empty husk that is the main character. While they allowed little changes in technology and storytelling, the core values have roughly been the same since the 70s. But it’s not the 70s anymore, and things do have to change, lest they get eventually outdated and left behind. Of course, the people running things do not and will not agree, so sometimes you have to be a bit more forceful and creative with how you make those changes.

It’s not just the overall plot that clues into this either. Even the smaller side plots play with classical tropes in interesting ways. Romance ends up being a leading factor, as the Pilots end up not able to link with their dragons properly if they are feeling love for someone else. While it’s mostly played literally straight with Hisone and vaping engineer Haruto Okonoji, things play out slightly differently with the other three pilots.

The biggest crime of the entire anime, promoting vaping...

For example, let’s look at the other focused romance between the hard nosed dragon pilot Eru Hoshino and the perverted male pilot Yutaka Zaito. On the surface, they are introduced as a very played out idea: Perverted, somewhat sexist boy falls in love with a girl that is sickened by his attitude, yet still falls for him when he starts to become less sexist and perverted. And though it’s pretty much done word for word as it’s done in the past, they do pull one interesting twist out. Because she fell for him, she’s unable to pilot, and despite the man’s best wishes, he actively sabotages the relationship, making her hate him so as to complete the mission successfully. Though it works out in the end, it’s a surprising route to take for a show that has romance as a main plot mover.

And speaking of romance, let’s talk about the other two pilots: The motherly Mayumi, and the sullen Liliko. When they are analyzed for their possible romantic links, they are simply written off as “not a concern”. While it’s never openly stated, the coding for the two characters  seems to be that of an aromantic type, and at least in Liliko’s case, asexual. Throughout her time on the base, Liliko seems to show no romantic interest in anyone, and when even asked at the end if she was interested in anyone, she simply mentions “Kingdom”, the manga she reads. Mayumi is a little harder to tack down, as her interests seem to lie in caring for someone rather than having an active relationship, shown in her way she deals with her dragon and how she only seemed interested in someone else because they seemed well fed and groomed. When you have an industry filled with strict guidelines for relationship (Shonen has only hetero relationship, romance is either m/f, m/m or f/f, no crossover), it’s very refreshing to see a mishmash of different ideals represented.

One of the funnest characters, btw

Even the way that Hisone reacts to her choice between love and duty is different. Hisone is forced to choose: Either stop loving the engineer boy Okonoji-san, who represents her personal life and self worth, or else never be able to pilot Masotan ever again, who represents her dedication to her craft and what she’s built her life around. When faced with a final choice, she initially chooses neither, instead choosing to quit. This gets a negative reaction from her higher up, who somewhat literally throws her out, yelling insults the entire time. But soon after, she chooses to actively follow the plan, only to go against it at the last moment when she learns about the sacrifice, ultimately deciding to take things into her own hands and perform the ritual herself, risking her own life.

This, in a sense, could represent the constant struggle of newer animators, producers and voice actors face when breaking into the industry. They are told the traditions and things they have to do, and to question or reject them could lead to their abilities being insulted or questioned, their job threatened, and in some cases, termination and blackballing from the entire industry.

No pressure

When Hisone reenters the Air Force, apologizing for what she did, she is showing her respect for what the tradition is, and how it has helped their country for centuries. She feels that she can balance work and her personal life if given a chance, despite the heavy toll it takes on her, like having to work for dozens of hours on end because that’s the expectation of her; Having to follow ridiculous order after ridiculous order, with little explanation of why or what the benefit is; And any question she places against it being shot down. These conditions which might resonate, not only with production workers, but also many other jobs around the globe…

But when faced with the horrible idea of having a person losing their life, she knew it was the final straw. She saw a young person forced to take the fall for an institution that consciously and knowingly lied to and built up this person for failure, something they had done for years. Hisone knew it was too far, and instituted change herself, despite those around her telling her it was a suicide mission.

And what happens? Hisone does it, and everything works out. Despite being told for eons that this thing must be done one was, and any other would destroy everything, when Hisone tried a new, inventive, and more importantly, less toxic way of doing things, it worked out fine. Hisone lived, the Air Force learned that their lesson, and everyone was left to figure out how to live their lives with this new way of doing things.

And being fucking adorkable while doing it all~

Ultimately, Dragon Pilot is a show of hope. It shows that, even against overwhelming odds, the way things have been done before are not the way things must always be. The world evolves, so with it, an industry must as well, or else they’ll simply be left in the dust. And even if it might seem hard, impossibly hard even, sometimes that’s just a sign that you must work even harder to make it happen. So hopefully, the Anime Industry learns a lesson from it’s own show and cleans up its act a little. A little less of shows like Darling in the Franxx, and a little more of shows like Dragon Pilot.

[seekfirstme]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2021. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.net

Meditation: Who do you love and cherish the most? God did not intend for us to be alone, but to be with others. He gives us many opportunities for developing relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Why does Jesus seem to ignore his own relatives when they pressed to see him? His love and respect for his mother and his relatives is unquestionable. Jesus never lost an opportunity to teach his disciples a spiritual lesson and truth about the kingdom of God. On this occasion when many gathered to hear Jesus he pointed to another higher reality of relationships, namely our relationship with God and with those who belong to God.

What is the essence of being a Christian? It is certainly more than doctrine, precepts, and commandments. It is first and foremost a relationship - a relationship of trust, affection, commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, kindness, thoughtfulness, compassion, mercy, helpfulness, encouragement, support, strength, protection, and so many other qualities that bind people together in mutual love and unity.

God seeks a personal intimate relationship with each one of us

God offers us the greatest of relationships - union of heart, mind, and spirit with himself, the very author and source of love (1 John 4:8,16). God's love never fails, never forgets, never compromises, never lies, never lets us down nor disappoints us. His love is consistent, unwavering, unconditional, unrelenting and unstoppable. There is no end to his love. Nothing in this world can make him leave us, ignore us, or withhold from us his merciful love and care (Romans 8:31-39). He will love us no matter what. It is his nature to love. That is why he created us - to be united with him and to share in his love (1 John 3:1).

God is a trinity of divine persons - one in being with the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and a community of undivided love. God made us in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26,27) to be a people who are free to choose what is good, loving, and just and to reject whatever is false and contrary to his love and righteousness (moral goodness). That is why Jesus challenged his followers, and even his own earthly relatives, to recognize that God is the true source of all relationships. God wants all of our relationships to be rooted in his love and goodness.

The heavenly Father's offer of friendship and adoption

Jesus Christ is God's love incarnate - God's love made visible in human flesh (1 John 4:9-10). That is why Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep and the shepherd who seeks out the sheep who have strayed and lost their way. God is like the father who yearns for his prodigal son to return home and then throws a great party for his son when he has a change of heart and comes back (Luke 15:11-32).

Jesus offered up his life on the cross for our sake, so that we could be forgiven and restored to unity and friendship with God. It is through Jesus that we become the adopted children of God - his own sons and daughters. That is why Jesus told his disciples that they would have many new friends and family relationships in his kingdom. Whoever does the will of God is a friend of God and a member of his family - his sons and daughters who have been ransomed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus Christ we become brothers and sisters - members of God's family

Lucian of Antioch (240-312 AD), an early Christian martyr once said that "a Christian's only relatives are the saints"- namely those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and adopted as sons and daughters of God. Those who have been baptized into Jesus Christ and who live as his disciples enter into a new family, a family of "saints" here on earth and in heaven. Jesus changes the order of relationships and shows that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood.

Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all of our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God first and to his kingdom of righteousness and peace. Do you want to grow in love and friendship? Allow the Holy Spirit to transform your heart, mind, and will to enable you to love freely and generously as God has loved you.

"Heavenly Father, you are the source of all true friendship and love. In all my relationships, may your love be my constant guide for choosing what is good and for rejecting what is contrary to your will."

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2021.

WALKING OFF THE JOB

“I plead with you, then, as a prisoner for the Lord, to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” —Ephesians 4:1

Are you on a job that’s not just a waste of time but even immoral? You may not be a a human-trafficker or a member of a crime syndicate, but does what you produce, package, or sell distract or turn people from Christ? Life is too short to waste it working for perishable food (see Jn 6:27). Eternity is too long to live for self rather than for Christ. Jesus did not die on the cross for you to spend your time doing something other than His will. He has a precious plan for your life and work. Don’t accept anything less than God’s best. Look at what the Lord did with St. Matthew’s life. He called him to compose a Gospel of the New Testament.

All this does not apply to people who merely don’t like their jobs, but only to those whose work is immoral, in that it doesn’t serve God’s interests. Most people are called to stay on their jobs, even if they don’t like them. Yet there are plenty of people, like Matthew, who need to walk away from their jobs.

Ask yourself: Is Jesus entering my place of employment, looking me right in the eyes, and saying to me what He said to Matthew: “Follow Me”? (Mt 9:9) If so, may you do the same thing Matthew did: Get up and follow Jesus.

Prayer:  Jesus, I accept You as Lord of my life and my job.

Promise:  “People who are in good health do not need a doctor; sick people do.” —Mt 9:12

Praise:  St. Matthew once thought only of his own profit. Then he met Jesus, the ultimate Prophet, and thought only of working for King Jesus.

Reference:  (Be a Matthew. To help you start reading the Gospel of Matthew order, listen to, or download Bible Commentary on Matthew on CD 21-1 or DVD 21 on our website.)

Rescript:  "In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat for the publication One Bread, One Body covering the time period from August 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021. Reverend Steve J. Angi, Vicar General, Chancellor, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio January 12, 2021"

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[jared-hirsch]

Diaries, Greece

I. Hydra, 2019

It was so unlike her. She kept comparing her hand to the Iranian of our group and would burst out of restaurants with pride when the waiter or waitress asked if they were siblings. He was too short to be her boyfriend but their chemistry wasn’t that far off; so I suppose sibling was the default between this six-foot blonde thing and this five-foot-and-some-negligible-inches boy. I must admit that she was quite dark. 

So I sat there and I stared at her and thought how unlike her this whole thing is. We would roast for hours and hours, drifting in and out of sleep but never drifting out of the brutality of the sun upon on our skin. My mother was always terribly afraid that I would do this. I still can’t spend a day in Montauk without thinking of that shiver that would run up my spine as the aerosol hit my back. And the smell. I screamed like a child – I suppose I was a child – and cursed her. Yet here I am; staring at someone who reminds me so much of my mother and wondering why she, or any of us, really, would do this. She took calculated risks. She had a trust fund, I’m sure, but had already started contributing to her retirement the second that she could. I remember the shock with which she broached the fact that I had yet to begin planning for my own and, after convincing me that she must know my social security number – “the last secret between us” – it became quite the open secret between herself, her mother, her mother’s financial institution that creates IRAs and other things of that nature, and myself. I forgot it, actually, and I have the feeling that she knows it by heart like she knows so many things. She’s a genius, really, not necessarily because of some innate ability but rather because of her strive to perfection. Men, her career, backgammon or some novel thing, the coyness with which she asked for that number – it was all perfected. 

Yes, so, I’m sitting there and wondering why on Earth she would torch her skin the way she has and considered whether she, or any of us, would do such a thing with age. I supposed we all wouldn’t. I supposed that it was itself a calculated risk, with the vein boost that comes with white clothing upon tanned skin as the ultimate reward. It really was lovely to look around and see everyone in the color of innocence and the long, flowing curtains that adorned our bodies as we sipped the horrible Grecian wine and smoked cigarettes until our throats bothered us. We are to turn dark now, I thought, not later when there’s the children, husbands, wives, mortgages, and all of the inevitable arrangements that will dissolve whatever bonds exist between us. Although sometimes I doubt that I will ever have that sort of life. Our host – Sergei – is an unhappy man that I see so much of myself in. He was a man of New York, of Gstaad, of here, there, and now Rome who graciously lends us his home each year hoping that the aura of youth that inherently accompanies the conversations we share over a joint as the sun rises, or the naked swimming and cliff diving, or the stumbling to the night’s conquest, will remain. 

It doesn’t, of course, for Sergei is an unhappy man. You wouldn’t expect it yet the fact remains. He lost his lover to AIDS, succumbing to the disease himself, and spends many frivolous hours reminiscing about it on the Internet to the nameless, and small, mass of people that watch him pour his wealthy heart upon the screen. I feel for him. He loves me, apparently. Keeps asking Isabel’s mother to set us up; a request I would probably entertain if he were a few, or many, years younger. I’m an activist, of sorts, planning to work with gay men and women in the courtroom, a selfish sort-of-thing that I am nonetheless passionate about. Sergei was the first openly gay therapist in Paris, having worked in San Francisco during the epidemic, and translating that experience into the realities of the French. In a certain way, he carved the way. I think that as I sit on his terrace, too; a terrace I have thought of jumping from a number of times. I haven’t and I won’t. Although I do sit here sometimes and think of how lovely it would be to disappear; not to die, but rather to climb that mountain beside me and leave this world behind. I would miss my mother, and Montauk, and all of these people, though. The toilets also don’t flush here and the showers are rather terrible. Third-world, my friends say, as a Jeff Koons designed superyacht docks in the port. Youth. 

Katie does not torch her skin, or rather her skin is untorchable. Blonde and blue-eyed, she was a shape-shifter. In a white dress she was youthfully innocent – curtsying it across the dancefloor as she learned to do at debutante balls and Chapin Hall. Black, though, was her true form. She was a New Yorker and she wore the color as a badge of honor – at the opera, at the beach, anything was the appropriate occasion. As we piled off the ferry, we agreed that we wouldn’t smoke this trip. Then we smoked, so we agreed that we wouldn’t smoke during the day. Then we smoked during the day, and we realized that our promises to ourselves and all others didn’t matter much on this sparsely populated island. There were no cars, and something about that meant that there were no worries or responsibilities. Only this. Only all of us staring nervously at one another around a table quite densely populated with aperitifs and ouzo, making predictions about our impending foray into adulthood that we tentively accept as fact. 

There’s Campbell – who woke me from my drunken dreams to tell me that Riley was threatening suicide by way of that same terrace from which I considered jumping – and then there’s Riley – who wasn’t threatening suicide but was indeed crying over a bottle of wine that she stole from the fridge of the creperie we found ourselves in after the bar and who wished that Campbell – the boy who woke me up – would treat her better. I sympathized with Riley and made my allegiances clear. She will move to Chicago in a month to trade energy at British Petroleum, after climbing Kilimanjaro, and they will break up, I’m sure. He is moving to Los Angeles to both pursue a graduate degree in some type of engineering and “escape” his perceived shallowness of New York… in Los Angeles. There is Sina, from Boston, the Iranian boy whom Isabel uses as a color-swatch. We had spent time together in Barcelona, though not much, and the only thing I had surmounted by that point was that he was both gay and quiet. I have come to learn that he was quiet because he was slow to accept the first fact that I had come to know and that he was, in fact, quite loud, quite brilliant, and quite funny. He told Isabel of his sordid secret approximately two months ago with the announcement that he was dating someone and that someone’s name was Robbie. I don’t know much about Robbie except that Robbie was enough to allow Sina to accept himself for who he is so I do believe that I would quite like Robbie as well. Sina holds not one, but two degrees from Wharton, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a perfect GPA in each. 

And then there’s me. My defining characteristics are my height, my sense of humor, and my knack for the dramatic. I hold a degree in Financial Economics from an Ivy League university – as does everyone I have just described – yet I will shortly be working for a non-profit focused on child welfare. I don’t particularly care for children but I decided that if I truly felt that I couldn’t escape the sin of homosexuality then I could at least adorn my life’s work in morality instead of money. Dramatic, as I said, I’ve managed to become afraid of everything in the past six-or-so-years and have spent the last of those six years overcoming each and every thing one-by-one. That’s what brought me to this small island merely eight months ago and unbeknownst to my friends, it’s what brought me here now. At some point, I decided it would be better to jump from some exotic terrace than to never step foot on one and thus I’ve made it a mission of mine to stray further and further away from home, from comfort, and from the familiar. 

We arrived nine days ago. We spent time with Alex, a local fisherman that we have referred to as “Odysseus” since our arrival last year. “Penelope” is a more fitting name given that the gentleman awaits Isabel’s arrival eleven-of-twelve months per year as she, who I have referred to as “Circe”, turns men to swine across the world. Or perhaps they’re already swine. The allusions have become a bit tangled but we perpetuate them to remind everyone that we have read the Odyssey and literary references come natural to people like us. Alex would find us line-dancing and smoking in bars, sharing shots of ouzo or a strange beer-and-liquor concoction with the bartenders, or flirting up something that wasn’t him or Dinos or one of the tens of other island men that knew both us and each other but remained quite anonymous by way of names we could neither remember nor pronounce and steal Circe from her nymphs. We would stumble up our two-hundred-and-thirty stairs cursing his thievery only to wake up, share a freddo cappuccino, and do it all again. The sex, Isabel said, was some of the best. Hours, she would say, hours, and we would all agree that hours feels a bit long and perhaps the mechanics of the whole affair contributed less to her ranking system than did the context within which it occurred. She concurred. He, of course, wasn’t the only man that infiltrated our circle but he did figure the most prominently. Alex would take her spearfishing, intermittently pausing to admire her newly carved figure and seduce her into yet another romp in the moonlight, in some cave or open water, or beach on the mainland that would be distant to the prying eyes of the people of Hydra. Privacy, Alex lamented, was hard to come by on the island. That became clear when people began greeting us. We heard you’re back! they would say, and for whatever reason they rejoiced. Parting gifts in the form of shots or lunch or Prosecco or jewelry – courtesy of Alex’s father – were offered and, of course, taken. Bon voyages! were given and one or two people waved as our ferry pulled away from the port. 

Last year was much the same, except it came with the four-day power outage that would see us without phones or plumbing before flying off to Mykonos.