#but you always got the sense he was respected and valued by his government and the people he served

[shivvroys]

a long-winded ramble no one asked for on karolina/shiv and motherhood

Okay, so I got a comment on the last chapter of this fic that included the question of whether Karolina would have kids in my version of their world, and I wanted to dig a little bit into it.

This is essentially a lot of psychoanalytical rambling about Karolina and Shiv and their relationship to motherhood/raising children.

In my view, both Karolina and Shiv grew up in a house with an angry man (“there will always be an angry man in your house”). We know what Logan was like and what Shiv’s childhood essentially looked like, we’ve seen it written all over the siblings’ faces throughout the show, and I think Karolina’s background was not that dissimilar.

Being a child of immigrants, I think Karolina was always reminded that her parents had given up everything, had fought to give their children a “better life”, and that she had a sort of sacred duty to uphold that sacrifice and ensure she “made something of herself”. Queue the repression, and later on the resentment once the successful life she’s built for herself still isn’t enough because now she’s compromised her values, and she’s failed to build a family of her own because of her dedication to her work.

Working for a company like Waystar, and spending her time protecting corrupt men and the systems they uphold, I’d imagine has also been a constant point of contention in her household, and the inevitable catalyst for every fight during holidays and family get-togethers.

Then, later on, came the fact that she’s prioritised that work over starting her own family.

Now, and this is mostly coming from personal experience so don’t take my word as gospel, in the minds of someone who grew up in a country under communist rule, family was holy. If you were over a certain age, and you didn’t have a family, a child, you were seen as a failure to your country. In fact (again, not sure this applied to every country under the iron curtain), childless women over the age of 20 (and men over 25) had to pay a “bachelor tax”. The government needed workers, and if you failed to provide them, you’d failed your country. Women who’d birthed over ten children were given medals and called Mother Heroines (btw that term is still used today, albeit it is no longer a formal honorary title).

Combine that deeply ingrained sense of duty, with the added pride of having fought for their children, I’d say there has to be a lot of pressure there for Karolina to have something to fight for, to have a family that she could dedicate all that work to. For a parent who’s lived under communism, wealth for wealth’s sake doesn’t mean all that much. People who grew up in that environment wouldn’t even know what to do if they had that sort of luxury (a sentence that gets repeated by a lot of people who grew up during those times is “Even if you had money, there was nothing to buy with it!”).

For Shiv, I think the same principle applies, although her cross to bear is the fact that Logan uses his children as an excuse. He tells them that everything he’s built has been for their sake, when really he just loves the fight. And Shiv’s smart, she sees through it, but she’s also a woman, and she knows the same rules could never apply to her. Not in Logan’s world, anyway.

He couldn’t fit a whole woman in his head.

In Logan’s world, and the world both Shiv and Karolina have moulded themselves to fit into, a woman is never allowed to be more than one thing at a time. They can be valuable assets to the firm, or daughters, or wives, but never all of those things at once. And motherhood is the last stop. It’s a canyon drop that takes a lot of fucking work to climb out of.

Now, I also think it’s important to take into consideration Shiv and Karolina’s respective career points.

Shiv’s is…a whole mess. She’s nowhere near where she thought she’d be, and she has a lot of figuring out to do in the wake of everything that’s happened. Essentially, she’s got a knife ready in her hand but can’t find a worthwhile fight to throw herself in. She’s basically just flinging the knife around, hoping it stabs something. She’s still trying to find a canyon to climb.

Karolina, on the other hand, has found her fight. I think Dag shared her view in an interview that, as of the pilot, Karolina’s position as head of PR had been pretty newly minted. The amount of time that’s passed from the pilot until the finale is pretty short. She’s just managed to crawl on top of that canyon, so I imagine she’d want to enjoy the view for a bit, before taking that nosedive. In my world, that’s also where her hesitation to be in a public relationship (especially with another woman!!) comes from.

The emotional front is another beast altogether. I think they’re both afraid of passing that anger and that resentment down (letting the poison drip through).

Despite the breadth of privilege they both have, they still have had to learn to more or less survive in these structures, so I think they’d be terrified of not being able to protect their child from having to do the same.

I also see Karolina as someone who needs to feel in control, and who has a very strict order to her life that a child would be very hard to fit into.

And personally, I’m not fond of narratives that use children as catalysts for change. And I don’t see that as a value that either of these women would feel very connected to, either. The “think of the baby” of it all. At the end of the day, they’re both very selfish women. You kind of have to be when you’ve chosen to work in the belly of the beast of corporate America.

Thus, and coming to end of this giant fucking ramble (i am so sorry the world wide web has to house all that), do I think Shiv and/or Karolina would absolutely never want children? No. I just think there needs to be a lot of self-work on both parts before that choice can be made consciously.

Do I think they would find a way to raise an emotionally healthy child? Yes, actually!

But I prefer to imagine a world for them in which that is a choice they make, and not a consequence they deal with.

#succession #shivlina #karolina novotney #siobhan roy #shiv roy #GOD DAMN #where’s that tweet that’s like ‘i don’t understand how side characters get stans like why is your favorite succession character karolina’ #like i truly didn’t need to get *that* deep #anyway #im so sorry to the person who left that comment like they didn’t know my delusions run this deep 😭

[thislovintime]

Peter Tork; photos by Nurit Wilde.

“Tork in the late 1960’s” - Nurit Wilde, Instagram, June 19, 2021

“I’m free, I don’t know what I’ll be doing. I’m actually a little apprehensive, because there’s no doubt that there are three other incredibly talented fellows out there. They’re very talented guys. Mike is one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. Micky is even funnier and Davy is just cute as a button. Who could ask for anything more? Davy dances so great, did you see him dance in the film? I’ve not seen dancing like that on the screen except from Fred Astaire. The only other thing is that I’m both really relieved and really, really apprehensive. I’m terribly glad and also terribly sad.” - Peter Tork, NME, January 25, 1969

"[Tork] says The Peter Tork Project plays music ‘sort of on the heavy end’ of album-oriented rock radio. ‘We’re not heavy metal per say, but we’re just on the pop side of that,’ adds the affable performer. The band, formed in January with Scott Avitabile on guitar, Jerry Renino on bass and Derek Lord at the drums, is one of several ensembles with which Tork has performed since leaving The Monkees. [In the early 1970s, Peter was a member of the] San Francisco-based rock band named [Osceola]. ‘That was a name full of significance,’ he said. ‘[Osceola] was chief of the Seminoles, the only tribe never to have surrendered to the federal government.’ Tork said he identifies strongly with that kind of defiance. ‘All of my early life was spent feeling out of whack. Physically I matured late and never was very athletic and always found myself on the short end of the stick. I was raised in a liberal family in the middle of the McCarthy era.’ Against those odds, Tork inevitably developed an inferiority complex that he carried into adulthood and his musical career. When he became one of four young men chosen out of 437 applicants to become what were supposed to be the ‘American Beatles,’ his self-doubt grew to mammoth proportions. ‘Half of the time I would think I didn’t deserve it and the other half I would think I was God’s gift to the children. I got my head turned around. It was the “arrogant doormat” syndrome low self-esteem combined with arrogance.’ [...] Tork recalls now that he wanted things done his way, but wasn’t willing to put his effort where his mouth was. His subsequent attempts at a career of his own were consistent failures, and for a while in the mid-’70s he joined his wife in the teaching profession, instructing a variety of classes in private high schools. That career was shortlived. [More about Peter’s time teaching here and here.] ‘Not that I didn’t enjoy teaching, but there’s no money in it. It’s a tragic comment on social priorities, but there it is.’ Tork expresses fervent enthusiasm for his new group [...]. As for his old bandmates, with whom he enjoyed superstardom for such a short time so many years ago, Tork says he stays in touch. Assessing his relationships with each one, Tork favored the diminutive, British-born Davy Jones ‘because he could see things the others couldn’t. Occasionally he was able to reach down into the depths.’ Drummer [Micky] Dolenz, who gained childhood fame as TV’s ‘Circus Boy,’ was ‘a whole lot more fun’ to be around than the other Monkees. Nesmith, considered the most creative of the four, was the most ‘respectable, in the sense that he did his work and had a sense of his own work ethic.’” - The Daily Oklahoman, November 7, 1983

"To tell you truth… I… I never was able in those days [the '60s] particularly — I’m getting better at it these days — but in those days I was almost entirely unable to fight for what I saw as quality. If I didn’t get somebody fighting on my behalf then it didn’t, just didn’t come to pass." - Peter Tork, Headquarters radio, September 1989 (read more here)

"I had pathological self value. I really didn’t have a sense of it at all. I didn’t get why. I thought I had been picked almost at random. I didn’t have any sense of myself bringing anything except that character to the Monkees. What I thought they hired me for was that character, and I think to this day that that had a lot to do with it. I didn’t recognize how that sprung forth from whom who I really am. I thought I was faking them out. I thought I was handing them a lie and they were buying the lie — and so how could I value myself? Any time you compliment somebody and they can’t take the compliment, what they’re saying to you is, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ That’s the message that anybody with low self-esteem gives back when somebody compliments them. Which is where I was. All that played into this fame thing. 
And it plays backwards, too. The reason that I got into the fame game was because I didn’t have any sense of value. I thought, ‘Jeez, if I can get the millions to love me then I’ll be all right.’ I got the millions to love me — and it still wasn’t all right. What a surprise. Ha, ha, ha.” - Peter Tork, Toxic Fame: Celebrities Speak on Stardom (1996) (x)

#Peter Tork #Nurit Wilde #1960s #60s Tork #<3 #bearded Peter #The Monkees #Monkees #Tork quotes #<333 #Peter deserved better #long read #Release #Peter Tork and/or Release #The Peter Tork Project #also always so much respect for Peter's unflinching honesty in interviews #(and the last quote is one that resonates in particular re: low self esteem) #love his mind #1969 #1970 #1983 #1996 #Headquarters Radio #Toxic Fame: Celebrities Speak on Stardom #The Daily Oklahoman #NME #can you queue it

[sandraharissa]

Thor and Loki’s usefulness to Odin in being heir to their respective thrones is definitely some of the main things he values them for but I get the vibe ppl only bring it up to add to the list of proof that he’s narcissistic blah blah blah, when based on how serious he treats his job and his own striving to do his job flawlessly we can tell that he has the same attitude towards himself, and likely Frigga too, it’s just that she never does anything that would make her a bad queen and likely as a woman and queen consort she doesn’t have that much responsibilities and expectations put on her, and it’s also likely the same way he was treated himself when he was heir.

And imo it’s exactly how Loki views it too, based on his speech to Sif + W3 his primary reason to disturb Thor’s coronation was that Thor was unfit to rule, conveying that he feels a deep-rooted responsibility to ppl to for example not put a guy on a throne that’d immediately start a war. He’s got to have learned this from his parents, reflecting that he really internalized the responsibility as a royal family member aka part of the government that Odin expresses many times.

That’s one of the reasons why the play scene in TR felt off to me, cos it’s ooc for Loki. Loki always wanted to prove his worth in order to prove he deserves his place in the family, and I think it partially comes from this attitude he and Odin have towards the matter, hence if Loki did succeed in doing some great deal for Asgard and very tangibly proven his worth, and he’d start getting publicly praised ect. I think it’s way more in character for Loki to find the sudden widespread positive attention from strangers awkward, he'd only find it rewarding cos it’d bring him the kind of praise from his immediate family that he always wanted, but somewhat more importantly, he’d finally live up to his own standards.

Loki was always jealous of Thor but not in the sense he wanted the throne and everything that comes with it but that he wanted to be his equal. So he always wanted private recognition and not public recognition. Part of the jealousy was that Thor fit perfectly what was expected of a prince and Loki not so much, hence ‘failing’ at being a prince. But these ppl’s identities as royals and family members are so deeply intertwined. It’s like Loki’s family never expected anything of him to prove he belongs in the family but to Loki if he’s a bad prince then he’s a bad son, with others but especially Odin showing the same attitude that him being a father and a king are inseparable. And it was all manageable being the ‘underwhelming’ prince but then he finds out he’s not even legitimate by typical rules of monarchy and he’s not even related to them and he’s actually from the race of their sworn enemies, and suddenly in his mind nothing is guaranteed, his place in the family isn’t ‘earned’ with anything and he starts fighting for it and engaging in rivalry with Thor over it. If you get rid of the competition you automatically won, if you one up Thor then you’re the more ‘accomplished’ prince and son now.

It's almost like monarchy is a bad political system or smth and part of it is that it’s inherently traumatizing to the royal family and so the nicest scene we ever get of the three interacting are the two Odin death scenes in TR where they’re just kinda chilling and Odin forgot for quite a while about being a king and just kinda doesn’t really bring this back up in their last meeting cos he’s at peace with his time as king / his time being alive being over.

#mcu #loki #odin #thor #frigga #the odinsons #loki odinson #brodinsons #loki meta #odin meta #the odinsons meta #loki odinson meta #brodinsons meta

[monstersqueen]

Why do you ship Dazai and Ango?

Well, why not ?

Also I didn't expect to ! one moment I'm like : "wow wouldn't it be fucked up if ango and dazai started a relationship just after odasaku's death ? With dazai's resentment and self-destructive's tendencies and ango's feelings of guilt and his inability to stop caring about dazai?" and the next it's one week later and not only have i read everything in the ao3 tag in english, i've started making the not-english fics go through google translate, visit the tumblr tag every day, and am considering opening a word document to write. Which i have done by now.

All the time going 'yeah but. i really don't feel that vibe from them in canon???'

But. I should have expected it.

Why do I ship Ango and Dazai ?

I've got a Thing about friends-to-enemies-to-lovers

the messier the break up the better

i like it where the feelings afterwards are complicated, especially since it seems like the feelings are murderously complicated :p

i really like ango and i want good things to happen to him, and that means getting dazai back in his life

i really like ango ! he's fascinating ! It's so easy to simplify him to the one government dude but. it's more complicated. It's also more complicated than him putting his friends above all - that's the way i've been going for a while, because he does love them a stupid amount, but it comes down to is his own personal moral code.

he's not in the government because he believes in it - it's a job that gets in the way of what he thinks needs to be done sometimes actually ! he helps odasaku and dazai (or try to :( ), and helps the ada and dazai, and part of it is affection but part of it is that it's the right thing to do.

but the interesting part is that. even though it matters to him it's also in flux and gets limited by the reality of working for the government and "I shall never walk in the light again" oh my god

and it's interesting because he's a liar ! he's an incredibly good actor !

anyway he is interesting and that makes me like him a lot and so i want good things for him. and also to see him break down crying. he's earned it

and honestly the thing about dazai ? is that for someone who doesn't really see the difference between right and wrong, not beyond protecting and caring the few he's chosen, it's interesting to look at the people he did choose !

in the whole mafia he regularly drinks with guy who doesn't kill and the dude they picked up because in the midst of a war he refused to reduce deaths to numbers

he has a deep respect for kunikida's principles, for all he loves needling him?

there's a point also about chuuya and the depths to which chuuya care, and his conviction, to make here to

anyway the thing is that what dazai likes in people is inner goodness and a strong moral code. which are things that are not his !

which makes sense. for all the noises shibusawa and fyodor make about how boring and predictable ordinary people are, i kidna think. someone who thinks like is in fact even more predictable and so even more boring.

and besides even the question of interesting i think dazai just likes people who makes him see the value in living. and people who sees value in life are so interesting.

anyway i really like dazai? and his attempts to live ? he's holding a lot for someone for which there's no inherent joy in living

there's something to be said for someone whose natural talents are manipulation and scheming but who's decided to use those for good

also they have very strong feelings for each other ? sure at one point dazai's strong feelings was 'pull his own gun on ango' but it's also 'everything i would never want to lose is always lost' and no i'm not crying

also right now ango is listening to dazai's heart which honestly in terms of symbolic is some crazy romantic shit. also he was stopping time (via proxy) to communicate back, seriously, with the right framing this is peak romance

also how the fuck did they put that together. when. did dazai manage to go through that conversation without letting some of his anger show his true nature as heartbreak ? i want to know

seriously the ada matters a lot to dazai; he cares for everyone in it, and not just because that's how he can keep his promise to odasaku, he cares about them

so ? right now ? he's relying on ango to make sure what his intentions and thoughts get to them. that's absolute trust. that's not "you betrayed me once but i'm giving you a chance and we'll see" that's "we were friends once and i know you and i know you still care and so i trust you completely" and even that is not possible without acknowledging one way or another that he still cares too

i'm absolutely crazy about ango risking his carreers because he trusts that dazai is doing the right thing. i think there isn't a lot he wouldn't do for dazai, but i also think he's trusting in dazai's good intentions

which given the while 'sabotaging his airbag' thing is ALSO a whole lot of trust

ango is going against the entire government, basically inflitrating it as a reverse spy (again), because he trusts that dazai is truly trying to protect people.

and risking his job. at the very least. can't wait to see where it all ends up for him

anyway we're talking about two people who used to be close, who were torn apart in ways that tore them both to shreds, left their relationship at the 'wow it would be fucked up if they got together now, that certainly wouldn't be love and it would be toxic as fuck' and 'pull your own gun on you' and 'sabotage your airbag' stage, and SOMEHOW got at "i'll trust you absolutely in a situation where the world has been turned against us"

in short i ship ango and dazai because dazai went from "i knew i was going to lose you because i would never want to" to "i'm going to pull your own gun on you and at least consider shooting despite that that would really fuck me and my team over" to "you are the one i trust when i can't help myself anymore" and that's. that's.

yeah.

#askbox stuff #Anonymous #dazango #bsd march 2023 not lb #the thing is ! ango might have been a spy but all the things dazai liked about him /are still true/ #the guild might have tied the special division's hands but ango is still going to meet him and warn him ! #just like he warned odasaku not to fight gide despite the special division wanting the mafia to handle mimic #suspecting that dazai is part of the reason he ended up in the hospital he'll still promise the division's help #and only after that negotiation will he confront dazai's about the airbag sabotage ! #ango's priorities are fascinating because they constantly diverges from the government and yet it's easy to forget it

[straydaddy]

Hear me out on some funny dreams...

I was in my childhood homeyard, doing the type of thing I'd usually do there as a kid, even tho I was my real age in it. Meaning, I was checking out some bugs and lizards.

Donald Trump was there for some reason. He was kind of lost (I mean yea, what are you doing in deep in Eastern Finland countryside exactly?). He was using my childhood home to hide from something...

He was not sure about where my loyalties lie. I could sense his short temper and that he wasn't far from nefarious decisions there! I was on my own. So I figured I needed to confuse him for a bit. I rambled at him autistically about the bugs.. He was annoyed but speechless.

Then some nonbinary person who was my friend, and also a person this dream made up from scratch, appeared and whispered to me...

"We got him. It's time!"

They tackled him to the ground by surprise, and I got ropes and we tied him the fuck up! I was in disbelief... Because I had not believed in our strength and capacity this much. But here we were doing it, capturing Trump, we were WINNING.

Then we magically shrunk him into a tiny guy.

I put him in a glass jar, lid tightly shut. Poured some honey on him so he'd get stuck there. Had a sharp pencil in my hand, and I and the friend were wondering if I should just impale his skull with the pencil and we'd be done, or if there was someone we should transfer him to, for his sentencing or whatever...

Then I awakened to a sadder reality where I just didn't have the power tho shrink powerful fascists into bugs I put in jars. :/

The dream felt empowering af... Like, actually being able to shrink rising fascism into a bug-sized squashable thing. It felt reassuring, like there is hope.

I myself am not from US. I'm from Finland and our new goverment is the most violently fascist we've ever seen. I've gone to two different protests already and joined several political organizations opposing it, - we quite literally want to end this government before it gets to work. Their plans are public and they are horrible. The whole country protests.

Over half of this country does not accept their racism, xenophobia, ableism or classism. Over half of us don't want this. It's a historical turning point we're living now. If we lose, we're doomed to years of misery and horror. If we win, we're securing the future of Finland as a country that values and respects humanity.

Perhaps my dream could've been a little more accurate by throwing our own fash in it instead of Trump, - but perhaps Trump was there to personify something both Americans and Europeans are familiar with... Imo the fascism looks very much the same for us both.

Very important takeaway from the dream;

- Feeling disbelief as we tied up Trump

- ...But you know, we DID tie him and shrink and capture him!

-> Just know what you're doing, do what you know works and execute it.

-> Measure your possibilities. Find organizations and organizers that are already doing work to end the injustices, - and join them if you can.

-> Exercise good communication skills to keep talking to your less radical family etc. about why they should partake in active antifascism. Dialectical materialism works, appeal to their self-interest to make them see that all our struggles are interconnected, and that tomorrow it could be their rights in the chopping block.

-> Don't isolate from community. You are not in this alone. Don't let the pressure crush your action. Any and all action matters.

-> Those who have power now, are not gods. Their power can be taken from them, bit by bit. Even if we don't see end of capitalism, (neo)colonialism etc. in our lifetimes, we can always reduce and repair as much damage as we can, and that will be life-changing to a huge number of people, perhaps yourself too. Any life improved or saved is good.

#antifascism #dreams

[t-t-t-t-twain]

Introductions

Hello! My name is Jordan, Jo for short. This is a college project for one of my upper English classes, so if you are finding this at random, great! I'm so glad you stopped by. If you are my professor or other classmates, also great! I'm glad you stopped by!

So, coming into this class I had a very limited scope on Mark Twain. I had half-heartedly read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in high school nearly five years ago and I had read one of the many versions of The Mysterious Stranger after watching this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntf5_ue2Lzw . At the time the video gave the book way too much hype and I found myself rather annoyed with The Mysterious Stranger and by relation, Mark Twain. As for Huck Finn, I recognized at the time that it was a good novel and it held so much value in the literary and nonliterary world, but I think I was too young to ever really appreciate it. Apart from these two works, Mark Twain was just a satirist that looked like Colonel Sanders and had a thing for boats and the Mississippi river.

I'm really hoping to offer insights into the way Mark Twain uses realism in his writing to not only bring characters to life but to critique real-world issues. I would really like to learn about Mark Twain's sense of humor. We are already three weeks into the class and with the material we've read I already find myself giggling at things that I never expected to find funny. I would also just like to learn more about Mark Twain in general, especially about his relationships with other authors and his life as a stage performer.

The two readings we covered this week are:

"The Christmas Fireside"

Justin Kaplin, "Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain"

Starting with "The Christmas Fireside". This is a satirical short story about the conniving, "infernalest wickedest scoundrel," named Jim. The entire piece is a commentary about the way boys are taught to behave via Sunday school books in which the sneaky little boy always has some sort of tragic epidemic that forces him to turn to the Lord and seek his salvation. In this story, however, the boy, Jim, never gets punished for any of his crimes, (one of which is murdering his family with an axe), and even "grew up, and married, and raised a large family... and got wealthy... and is universally respected and belongs to the Legislature," (Twain 23). There are several ways to interpret this short story, my favorite aspect is the one I've given here in this quote. This is an obvious jab at politicians and the nature of being a part of the United States' government, which is achieved by all sorts of foul play and cheating. Honestly, Twain is just trying to say that the most respected among us probably didn't get their political power by fair and just means. I'm sure many people would find this insight uncanny in the day and age of corrupt politicians, especially since now every corruption can be put on full display by way of the internet. I feel like this will be one of many times in which Mark Twain's wisdom will still hold weight over a hundred years after his death.

As far as, Kaplin's "Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain," I don't have much in the way of close reading or analysis, but I do want to comment on a line I found very interesting within the first twenty pages. In referring to Samuel Clemens, Kaplin writes, "He craved affection and admiration, found them in the laughter and astonishment of his lecture audience, and they came to be the basic conditions he needed in order to be creative and happy," (Clemens 15). First of all, aww. Second of all, I find it incredibly interesting that Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens was ever a live performer. I think it is incredibly easy to think of literary icons as old white men sitting in a dusty room, writing about worlds that they played no part in at all. It's refreshing to be learning about an author that not only was incredibly familiar with the things he chose to write about but actively participated in almost all the time.

That's it for now. See everyone next time with some reactions and comments on the ever-exciting Mark Twain.

Tata~

#mark twain #english #english degree #literature

[back-and-totheleft]

"The Truth, Please, About America"

A glass of white wine on the table separates us. In a blue suit, Oliver Stone eats shelled almonds from the cup in front of him while studying his interlocutor. "Why do you want to interview me? Your publication tends to be subtly evil." I ask whether it's true that, at age 23, he slipped LSD to his father? (He has just told the anecdote in a masterclass at the Zurich Film Festival.) "Is this the direction you want to take the interview?" he asks with the charisma of a Hollywood actor. His passion for research is fascinating. "I like the questions that make you think, even though I believe that most people don't listen to what they say in a conversation. They catch a sentence and then turn around and think about themselves. It seems to me that there is little imagination and little capacity for reflection."

The son of a Jewish Republican financier from Wall Street and a Catholic Parisian, Oliver Stone is an obsessive and ruthless researcher of the truth, a maniac in finding and sifting through cover-ups for his stories. It is enough to remember the whirling rhythm of JFK, the cuts to the interviews of Fidel Castro (Comandante) or the tracks obstinately beaten by his journalist main character to reveal a military dictatorship in Central America (Salvador): clues that speak volumes about Stone's idea of entertainment. Three Academy Awards (for directing Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July and for writing Midnight Express) and 11 nominations attest to his greatness. Not by chance, in the ten hours of his documentary The Untold History of the United States, he also dismantled 70 years of official American history. And who knows what will come up in the memoirs he is writing (and rewriting) for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, expected in fall 2020 and which he defines as "not simply writing, but like sifting for gold."

You wanted to point out that this is not an autobiography, but a memoir.

They are two very different things. An autobiography usually covers all of your life and tries to be objective. Memoirs tend to be subjective, they have an angle.

What angle did you choose?

I wanted to answer meaningful questions. "What was your life? What did your father represent? What about that particular period, or that movie?" At the age of 19, I wrote A Child's Night Dream, a very eccentric novel that was published 30 years later. Now I'm going back to a similar style, but after 50 years.

How did you frame your parents as an adult?

I put myself in their shoes. My mother, French and Catholic, came to America with my father, an American Jewish soldier. I find that this combination of US and Europe has interesting implications.

How did they meet?

It was 1944, Paris had just been occupied, and my father saw her at the park. He was 34 and was looking for a wife. He had already met many women, but something about her caught his interest. She was an immigrant in love with the myth of Gone with the Wind. But how does that film end? The marriage didn't work in that sense and, in the memoir, I'll explore it. Then they had a child: who is this child?

A child who, in many ways, would take after his father.

I got integrity from him, but maybe I'm a stronger fighter. Louis Stone was a cautious man: in his life, he was not a gambler. After all, in 1946, in the midst of the Cold War, you had to adapt. You couldn't question yourself about the value of Communism: it was the devil, period.

So you spent your life demonstrating that that is not true, including a documentary interview with Vladimir Putin. 

As a child, my father terrified me with the Russians. He said that they sabotaged all the institutions, that they were infiltrating everywhere, in the government and in the schools, the usual things they teach in America. And in the 1950's, when he was a highly respected Wall Street broker, he always said to me: "Don't tell the truth that you're Jewish. You're half Jewish, but don't say anything." He believed in the Cold War, he fought in the Second World War, he was an Eisenhower man. And Vietnam was the result.

You was born and grew up in leisure: an only and spoiled child who attended the most exclusive schools. Today, would you say that going to Vietnam twice was your worst decision? 

On the contrary, it was important to experience. If I hadn't done it, I would have a void in my life. I learned what it means to reach the bottom of the barrel, and to see life in such an intimate and dangerous way opened my eyes. I am very lucky to have survived and been able to portray it in three films.

You've raised public consciousness and shaken things up, for example with Natural Born Killers, which just turned 25 years old. 

Today the drive to "make a difference" with movies is greatly diminished; the cinematographic context has changed. A hundred films come out a week and TV has all those fucking channels. Even if you go out on Amazon, after a few days you're one of a thousand. There are too many stories, too much visual stimulation. Computers, video games, iPhones - they destroy the imagination and people end up looking only for sensationalism. I've reached a point where I've had enough. I shot 20 films and I don't think I have to impress anyone with the new Avatar.

Why go back to the Kennedy assassination [with recently announced documentary "JFK: Destiny Betrayed"]?

Because it was the most ambitious film of my career. It raised an uproar and I was violently attacked. I don't want revenge, I just want to clean up the mess. Furthermore, understanding that murder and its coverage is important because the US has undergone a huge change since Kennedy's death in 1963 and, since then, we have never recovered. As a young man, the more I read the investigations, the more I understood that they had been tampered with. I kept asking myself, "What's wrong?" Then I realized that the problem is that we don't want to be honest with ourselves.

With the #MeToo movement, your name is furnished among those talked about for harassment. The stories of harassment are not true. I directed tough films, in which women had to be sensual. I've also shot rape scenes, but that's only in fiction. I've never hurt a woman. I've never raped anyone: I was attractive enough not to need it. Actresses, though, are difficult people to interact with, you know?

An example?

I fired Madonna, on that fucking Evita film that we didn't even shoot. Actresses can be monsters, but also your best allies.

So you reject any accusations? 

I may have been too rude sometimes, I admit it. But what bullshit is this where, if you put your hands on a woman's shoulders, she says: "Do I feel uncomfortable?" Or why can't a producer be in a room with an actress without strange stories coming out? What are we talking about? It's ridiculous in Hollywood. I will say that my mother was French, and I'm more akin to the vision of [Catherine] Deneuve: women must remain women.

You even tried to defend Weinstein. 

I was wrong. I was traveling in Korea, and I read the New York Times article and not the New Yorker one. It was stupid, but at that time the truth was unknown, so it seemed better to leave it to the legal system, not in newspapers and on social media.

You grew up in New York and were there in the 70s. What do you remember about the feminist movement? 

I always liked Jane Fonda very much, as someone who has guts. But on the rest of the issues, I was perplexed. It seemed like, "I like to fuck, but I have the feeling that I don't like fucking ..." or at least that was my impression. But Jane was special and sexy, while others lost their charm for me. I learned about women along the way. I've been married three times: each time it was a journey. And my mother, who was a very dominant figure, influenced my life a lot. She was not a wallflower, when she entered a room it caught everyone's attention.

Is there a woman you would like as president of the United States? 

Elizabeth Warren. She's not particularly brilliant in foreign policy, but is very dedicated to domestic affairs as well as being a reformer. And, even if some of her ideas are too extreme for me, for example regarding the economy, I prefer her over many others.

-Chris Lloyd, "The Truth, Please, About America," Vanity Fair Italia, November 2019 [Translated from Italian]

#oliver stone #vanity fair #italy #italian #jfk: a destiny betrayed #jfk: through the looking glass #jfk revisited

[branmer]

my mum and i have been rewatching babylon 5 and every episode she is like heart eyes over g'kar. she said an interesting thing tho that she finds londo to be a sadder character because he's a bad person and knows he's a bad person but continues to do bad things despite having the opportunity to do otherwise and also being quite capable of being good if he wanted to (you had all the opportunity in the galaxy not to suck, londo). whereas g'kar is, despite a capacity for being bad (which, i stan scheming g'kar tbh) is like, actually fundamentally a good person with good intentions who is struggling for something that is actually worthwhile rather than just 'ooh let's build the shitty empire and be shitty again :)'

and tbh i think this is a big part of why they made such different choices when given the 'what do you want' question. londo is a very sad and empty person and all he really has is his dreams of the glorious past. g'kar has narn and dreams of the future

#anyway i love g'kar #ALSO #g'kar may not have gotten much respect from the other ambassadors and the command crew at first #but you always got the sense he was respected and valued by his government and the people he served #in contrast to londo who was literally sent to b5 as a joke

[septembercfawkes]

Scene vs. Summary & When to Use Which

When I was a young writer, I didn't fully understand what a scene was and what a summary was. Later, when I understood the difference, I wasn't always sure when to use which. These days, I occasionally help writers with the same things. They may use summary for what should have been a scene, or they may write a whole scene for what really should have been summary. Understanding the difference and when to use which can be key when writing a successful novel.

Sure, some of it is subjective.

But what might be surprising to some, is that most of the time, one is more . . . "correct" than the other.  

Scene

A scene is a structural unit that tends to have these qualities:

- Happens in Real Time

A scene will largely happen in real time. This means we "watch" the characters move, act, and talk, as if it were happening in real life.

- Dramatizes (Shows > Tells)

A scene dramatizes. It uses showing more than telling. If a character is angry with a friend, we see that anger in action and conversation. We may witness her yell or kick a rock, for example. It's like watching a stage play.

- Concrete

Because it is dramatized, a scene will usually be more concrete. It will more likely appeal to our senses and the physical world and experience.

- Characters Acting in a Specific Location

A scene will have characters in a location (in some very rare cases, the setting or society may act as characters). They might be talking on a train ride, or exploring a cave, or dueling in the snow.

Scene Examples

(Because a full scene often lasts pages, these examples are passages from specific scenes.)

"This won't take long, Andrew," said the doctor. Ender nodded. "It's designed to be removed. Without infection, without damage. But there'll be some tickling, and some people say they have a feeling of something missing. You'll keep looking around for something, something you were looking for, but you can't find it, and you can't remember what it was. So I'll tell you. It's the monitor you're looking for, and it isn't there. In a few days that feeling will pass." The doctor was twisting something at the back of Ender's head. Suddenly a pain stabbed through him like a needle from his neck to his groin. Ender felt his back spasm, and his body arched violently backward; his head struck the bed. He could feel his legs thrashing, and his hands were clenching each other, wringing each other so tightly that they arched. "Deedee!" shouted the doctor. "I need you!" The nurse ran in, gasped. "Got to relax these muscles. Get it to me, now! What are you waiting for!" Something changed hands; Ender could not see. He lurched to one side and fell off the examining table. "Catch him!" cried the nurse. "Just hold him steady--" "You hold him, doctor, he's too strong for me--" "Not the whole thing! You'll stop his heart--" Ender felt a needle enter his back just above the neck of his shirt. It burned, but wherever in him the fire spread, his muscles gradually un-clenched. Now he could cry for the fear and pain of it. "Are you all right, Andrew?" the nurse asked.

- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Mrs. Reed occupied her usual seat by the fireside; she made a signal to me to approach; I did so, and she introduced me to the stony stranger with the words: “This is the little girl respecting whom I applied to you.” He, for it was a man, turned his head slowly towards where I stood, and having examined me with the two inquisitive-looking grey eyes which twinkled under a pair of bushy brows, said solemnly, and in a bass voice, “Her size is small: what is her age?” “Ten years.” “So much?” was the doubtful answer; and he prolonged his scrutiny for some minutes. Presently he addressed me—“Your name, little girl?” “Jane Eyre, sir.” In uttering these words I looked up: he seemed to me a tall gentleman; but then I was very little; his features were large, and they and all the lines of his frame were equally harsh and prim. “Well, Jane Eyre, and are you a good child?”

- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Summary

A summary has these qualities:

- Condensed Time

Summaries condense time. They may cover a month in a single sentence. They may talk about recurring events over a time period, within one paragraph. They may relay a past event (or in some cases, a future event) within a brief moment. They don't happen in real time.

- Explains through Telling

Since the moment isn't happening in real time, the audience is told more than shown what happened. This gives summary a stronger, guiding, narrative hand. Rather than experiencing the passage like the character, it's more like the audience is being guided by a storyteller (generally speaking).

- More Abstract

For those reasons, telling is more abstract. It's more likely to express ideas and concepts, rather than specific experiences.

- Characters and/or Setting may Change Swiftly (or Maybe Not Even Be Present In Some Cases)

A summary may not focus on a specific character or stay in the same setting. It may move quickly through settings or may not even mention a specific setting.

Summary Examples

Mother came home and commiserated with Ender about the monitor. Father came home and kept saying it was such a wonderful surprise, they had such fantastic children that the government told them to have three, and now the government didn't want to take any of them after all, so here they were with three, they still had a Third . . . until Ender wanted to scream at him, I know I'm a Third, I know it, if you want I'll go away so you don't have to be embarrassed in front of everybody. - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence, more frequently, however, behind her back.

- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

When to Use Which

Most novels are better written with more scene than summary. Scenes dramatize the story, so that the audience feels like they are experiencing and participating in it. Scenes are more impactful. Scenes are more likely to stir emotions. Because they are more concrete, they are more likely to stick in the reader's memory.

However, this is not to say all novels are better with more scene than summary. You can indeed find successful books with more summary. This can be particularly useful in books with huge casts and many viewpoint characters, books that take place over a long period of time (such as a character's entire life), or books with powerful, present omniscient narrators. Not all books that rely on summary more than scene are bad.

But most books are better told largely through scene than summary.

And pretty much all novels need some of both.

So when do we use which?

Sometimes I edit passages that are weakened because they are summarized instead of dramatized. Other times I read scenes that offer very little dramatic value and should have been summarized.

Scenes

A good rule of thumb is the more significant the moment, the more likely it needs to be rendered as a scene.

Big turning points and climactic moments should almost always be a scene--whether that turning point relates to character arc, plot, or theme.

This means that the climactic moments of the beginning, middle, and end, should almost always be a scene.

Anything we've been building up to in the primary plotline related to the arc, events, or theme, should probably be a scene.

If you are following a story structure, key moments in that structure should likely be a scene. The inciting incident should likely be a scene, the midpoint should likely be a scene, Plot Point 2 should likely be a scene . . .

Now, in a novel, there may be many plotlines besides the primary. The less important the plotline, the less likely you need all its turning points in scenes (or even on page).

Impactful moments should usually be scenes. If they are summary, sometimes the audience feels cheated. Imagine building up to the climax of a novel, only to have the author summarize it. It's almost always a letdown.

Sometimes newer writers do this sort of thing, because they are intimidated by trying to write the scene. They may feel unsure that they can write it well. Remember, you can edit, and edit, and re-edit the scene to make it better. Daring to write a poor scene and then edit it, will get you further in the long run than avoiding it altogether.

In many genres, you will have what are called "obligatory scenes." These are what they sound like. They need to happen. In a scene.

So in romance, you almost always need to have a first kiss scene. In a murder mystery, you almost always need to have an opening scene where a body is discovered. Obligatory scenes should be scenes, not summary, most of the time.

Summaries

On the other side of the spectrum, we have summary. If an entire novel were written with scenes, it would probably be long and boring. Not everything is important enough to be a scene. And if you make it a scene, it's a flat scene without any real turning point or change. This kills pacing.

Use summary when the audience needs to know the fact that something happened, but it's not important for them to experience it.

For example, the fact that Jacob didn't get much sleep the prior night probably isn't important enough for a full scene, but it might be important for the audience to know for the next scene. It might influence what happens in the next scene. That is a good time to use summary.

Use summary when you need to cover a broader length of time in a shorter amount of space. For example, you may have characters who need to trek to a distant land, which may take months. But the story isn't about the trek itself. Use summary to tell us about the trek, without making the story only about the trek. (Not to mention if the trek was all in scenes, it'd be overly detailed and likely boring.)

Along the same line, summary can sometimes be great for scene transitions--usually when what happened between the scenes is worth mentioning, but not worth dramatizing.

Summary is also important in providing context for the reader. Summary may be used to set up a situation or to provide additional background information that the reader needs in order to interpret what is happening in the story, accurately.  

For example, you may summarize a short backstory to explain a character's current behavior.

Scene vs. Showing; Summary vs. Telling

Scene is mostly like showing, and summary is mostly like telling. However, the concepts are slightly different. For example, I may write in a scene "Emily was tired," which would be "telling" but I wouldn't consider it "summary." Just as I wouldn't necessarily consider "I felt angry" summary, so much as I would consider it to be telling.

Likewise, you may have a scene that is largely introspection, which may be showing a character's thought process as he summarizes events through telling sentences.

Yeah, if we get deep, it turns into splitting hairs.

Even between showing and telling, if you want to make yourself really crazy, sometimes you can use summary and telling on a small scale to show something on a big scale. For example, to show that a character has a habit of being late, you may use summary that includes some telling about his morning routine, to cover several such instances. However, one could easily argue that you could simply do a scene that shows him showing up late, and have another character use dialogue that implies this is a common occurrence.

But let's not induce headaches today! My point is, that the boundaries do blur, and things aren't always as clear cut as we make them sound.

Nonetheless, because summary and telling overlap, you can use many of the same technique that we use to write great telling, to write great summary. And rather than rewrite all those techniques, I have them in my article "10 Cheats to Tell Well."

Mixing Scene and Summary

In order to write a great novel, many scenes will include some summary within them. Like I mentioned above, you may need to slip in some backstory information through summary. Or perhaps in the scene, the characters are having dinner, but you want half the scene to be the cooking and the other half to happen while they are eating. Depending on how long the food takes to make, you may need some summarizing: "Don finished putting the toppings on the pizza and then put it in the oven for 30 minutes."

Similarly, if you are going to have a lengthy passage of summary, it's often effective to include scene-like moments--perhaps a paragraph that captures part of a conversation in real time, before going back to summary. Or maybe the summary includes a significant action that would be rendered better with a little more detail, like a half-scene.

In any case, we want to make sure we are using both scene and summary, and perhaps just as important, that we are using them at the right moments.

#writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writeblr #writing reference #writing tip #fanfic #written #editing

[askthewvba]

Hippo Island Culture 101 (Crash Course)

Everything you’d never think to ask! 🤪

First off! Hippo Island actually refers to multiple smaller islands surrounding a larger landmass. The King Hippo has one of these smaller islands all for islands all for himself while the larger island is occupied by his people and the other smaller islands are each used for their own special occasions.

🍍Characteristics

Hippoans are human beings. Despite their intimidating and foreign appearance (and lack of noses) they are just as human as the rest of the Punch Out cast with their own language, culture, history and struggles. Just to get that out of the way immediately! While it is commonly believed that King Hippo is kind of a kind, that's simply not the case!

The Hippoans do all just be Built Different! All Hippoans are heavy naturally, and the heavier you are the more healthy and desirable you’re seen in their society. Having especially chubby children or a chubby spouse signals to other Hippoans that you’re a generous person and they know whose hut to visit at dinner time! There are rare exceptions to this rule but big is the bar set and big is beautiful.

This weight does come at a price however. Hippoans are so heavy with all of their heft and dense bones that they are completely incapable of swimming. Hippoans will sink like a rock!!! This has lead to most of them being absolutely petrified of the sea. Traveling from island to island is fine because the water between the smaller islands is typically not enough to drown in and otherwise is only a short ride by boat away. Traveling any farther than the lands governed by King Hippo is out of the question, and King Hippo is seen as indisputably courageous for traveling to the Mainland regularly. If a Hippoan falls from the boat they must be rescued and pulled back aboard immediately or face certain death by drowning. There’s no recovering a sunken Hippoan. They will simply never be seen again.

The dark part of a Hippoan’s face actually isn’t a mask or facial marking, but rather a natural indent on their face! This indentation and their thick fleshy eyebrows are protection against the harsh sun on Hippo Island.

The skin of a Hippoan is thicker and more resilient than that of a non-Hippoan. It’ll bruise like any other and Hippoans will bleed like anyone else, though it tends to be just a bit harder to take them down with the usual means like sharp objects. They are built different and are built to take a ton of damage. That being said, their tummies are always a weakness without exception. Why this is as of yet unclear, but a blow to the stomach is so potent of an attack that when struck there a Hippoan is absolutely thrown for a loop. It’s like a complete system reset, going unconscious and often waking up disoriented and confused.

We also haven’t discovered why they evolved to not have noses, but it is suspected their sense of smell works like snakes. Rather than flicking out their tongues however it may be that they are smelling when breathing through their teeth.

🥥Names

Names don’t exist in the traditional sense on Hippo Island. Your name is typically your job, but even then there’s a bit more to it than that.

King Hippo was born Hippo Heir IV, as he was a potential heir to his father's throne along with at least five other siblings. When he dethroned his Father, who was then called King Hippo, his son took the title of King Hippo from him for himself.

Toddy is a nickname bestowed on him by King Hippo’s friend and personal translator, as it’s a name for Coconut Wine. This is a reference to the fact that his mother, King Hippo’s wife, was a brewer before she became Queen Hippo. Toddy would be known to his mother as “son” or “Coconut Son”, and had a collection of other names and titles over the years before he became generally known and accepted as Prince Hippo, most prominently “Coconut Servant”. Coconut in this case is used as an identifier to separate him from the other servants King Hippo used to have alongside Toddy. It was originally due to his haircut resembling a halved coconut.

Queen Hippo still prefers her ‘maiden title’ Coconut Brewer. To King Hippo she is Wife, to her he is Husband. Despite her elevated status she still goes to work as a Brewer every day, and it’s in being a Brewer that she’s nicknamed her children after her favorites fruits to ferment. Her son is Coconut Son, meanwhile…

Her daughters are Pineapple Daughters, Pineapple Princesses, and before King Hippo and Coconut Brewer got married they were known to the villagers as Shell Collectors. They are nicknamed Tepache and Neerah by King Hippo’s translator for convenience. The translator tried to nickname every Hippoan she’d ever met.

Other examples include the Ferryman, who simply goes by Ferryman along with a few other nicks, the Weavers (Elder Weaver, Loving Weaver, and Mischievous Weaver/also known as “Silkie”; three generations of Weavers), Lone Builder who is married to Loving Weaver, Boar Herder (“Tusk”), and Chicken Herder (“Drumstick”).

There are also unfavorable monikers for the less reputable villagers. Hippo Island is generally a peaceful, crime-free community, however there are a few outliers at any given time who serve as exceptions to this. The only noteworthy one who you may come to know is a hunter, formerly Ferocious Hunter, who is now widely known as “Bonehead”.

After losing his title of King Hippo, his father would go on to be known as “The Loathsome One”.

Related to names, “One” serves as a replacement pronoun for “I” and “me”.

King Hippo: Needs no introduction. He is simply This One. Used to refer to himself as ‘this hopeful one’ and ‘this victorious one’.

Toddy: This dutiful one.

Brewer: This hardy one. She too now has the credence to call herself This One.

🍌Jobs

Jobs are normally determined by the work already in the family, but there’s normally no shame in changing career paths. A Weaver Daughter could decide to be a Warrior. A Builder Son could decide to become a Craftsman or a Child Caregiver.

Brewer was originally a warrior in training during her youth, before deciding she wanted less to do with the battles and more to do with the merrymaking and celebration that comes afterwards. Toddy was a fire dancer for the better part of his teen years, but due to circumstances in his life decided he wanted to be a warrior.

Staying within your family’s line of work is a safe way to live since you’re surrounded by seasoned veterans of that skill set, but by no means are you limited to work within your bloodline. While everyone’s personality is different, most Hippoans are happy to teach.

Children of Hippo Island are usually given menial tasks, like collecting shells, to both prepare them for adult life and to educate them on the barter and trade system that Hippoans operate under by having them trade their trinkets with other children.

🌋Faith

The elements are Gods and Goddesses, plain and simple. The Volcano Gods must be appeased regularly and the Gods of the Deep must be respected and feared at all cost.

While all of their Gods command respect, each family tends to put higher value on different Gods in accordance to their job, and these families are at the forefront of all celebrations relating to these deities. The Ferryman, King Hippo and Toddy stand alone when celebrating the Gods of the Deep.

🏝Customs

This is a bit of a Work in Progress, but we do know their romantic customs. 🥰

Interest in one another is expressed through flower crowns and chains. There’s an entire color language when offering flowers with some signifying friendship, gratitude, or condolences. For simplicity’s sake we’ll focus on three such cases however.

Pink flowers are used when first pursuing another Hippoan that they fancy. It is the general color of a new love or infatuation.

Red flowers are a more passionate form of love and serve as making a much bolder statement. Typically you want to avoid these when you’re merely confessing your interest in another person, as red flowers are most commonly used in marriage proposals.

For extra points one may want to include their intended’s favorite flowers or flower of their favorite color to show consideration and a more genuine interest in who they are.

When offering the Infatuation Flowers, there’s not much fanfare involved. Simply get your loved one alone and ask if they’ll accept it. If yes, they’ll wear it on their head or around their neck. If you’re showing your feelings to a Hippoan and they reject you, they might just eat the flowers. A rude rejection will involve stomping on the flowers to snuff out the affections entirely.

Offering Proposal Flowers has a lot more symbolism, especially if, say, you’re King Hippo. When King Hippo proposed to his wife, he knelt before her and held his flowers for her up over his head. Slowly he lowered his head to bow to her until the crown fell from his head and rolled over towards her feet. Bowing is apart of every Hippoan proposal, but the Hippoan royalty exemplify it’s importance. Your intended is someone who you place above yourself, you humble yourself before them, and you sacrifice the symbol of your pride by allowing your crown to fall off. For commoners the practice is still meaningful, as it means you see your significant other as someone worthy of being royalty, as they are the only person other than your actual King/Queen who you would bow to.

Arranged Marriages used to be somewhat commonplace until some short time ago, when it was realized that matchmaking was a largely imperfect practice. It has always been preferred that either marriage occurred out of love, or when the arranged marriage elevated the family by means of having a relative become betrothed to Hippo Royalty. Nowadays marriages outside of love are met with scrutiny and discomfort and harems are completely out of the question. (Though that’s not to say our King Hippo hasn’t laid with a few Hippoan ladies before tying the knot with his wife… that just wasn’t their status in the hierarchy and wasn’t apart of their naming scheme.)

When Hippoans pass away, they are given a funeral similar to that of the Vikings, though without the fire. Hippoans don’t have the land and therefore the luxury of burying their dead, nor would they consider cremating them. Instead the dead are placed inside specially made boats, sealed inside with flowers and trinkets from the deceased’s family, and after a small service full of mournfully singing Hippoans, they are pushed out to sea to appease their ocean deities. Unlike the boats that serve the living on their journeys, these boats are designed to eventually capsize and sink.

Hippoans… don’t really have the capacity to speak in other foreign tongues. Not very clearly at least. King Hippo actually does speak some English if you listen closely, but even then it’s very difficult to fully understand.

Hippoans are called such for a reason. Their growls and deep bellows are reminiscent of a hippo, though their language and variants of it cover a wide range of other animals as well.

Child Hippoans typically sound like bear cubs whereas infants sound almost froglike. Some Hippoans have even been known to sound like elephants. Hippoan singing, as mentioned in a previous post, sounds like a mix of throat singing and a chorus of bull frogs.

There are words formed under all of these animalistic noises and these words can be learned, but few take the time. Until our King Hippo, the Hippoans were widely forgotten about by the rest of the world. Even now tourism to Hippo Island is very carefully limited by the King himself.

👑Becoming King

There’s a ton of Hippoan history being omitted here to spare time. What you need to know is that due to a change for the worse over time, in order to become King or Queen (or Sovereign depending on your identity) you would need to defeat the ruler of that time in a fight, one that strongly resembles boxing. Normally to postpone that from happening, the ruler would sire a multitude of children via a harem (or their spouse should they have one; our last King Hippo did not), and then those children would be trained to eventually do battle with one another for the right to take on their parent.

Upon meeting defeat the siblings would depart from the islands by boat, presumably to never be seen again. Same was the fate of The Loathsome One when his son dethroned him. As the new King he could have done away with the banishment tradition if he desired, but due to the damage callously caused by Loathsome (and the assumed loss of his family) it was decided he deserved no mercy. King Hippo would have executed him, but he wanted to herald in a new age for the Hippoan people that saw an end to violence and needless bloodshed.

#punch out #punchout #askthewvba #nintendo #punchout wii #punch out wii #king hippo #punch out headcanons #punchout headcanons

[teruthecreator]

okay. thoughts on the grad finale

gonna slap it under a readmore bc i’m Sure i’m gonna ramble. 

uh spoiler warning for the finale of taz graduation, as well as spoilers for the season in general.

also, these are my own thoughts of how the season went, what the themes were, etc! if you don’t agree with me, that’s fine! but i don’t wanna have a convo w you in the replies about it i’ll be honest. if you want to share your opinion so badly, make your own post, alright? that good? we cool?

aight. so. finale thoughts.

to make it short: i think the finale was a satisfying end of a very good arc. 

to expand upon that, let me share what i think the themes of graduation were and why the finale satisfies those themes. 

i made a post about this a while back (here it is if you want) but my honest belief was that the theme of graduation was self-reliance: the concept that you don’t allow yourself to be governed by forces that go against your own beliefs. this concept was coined by essayist ralph waldo emerson to talk about how the american people shouldn’t allow the government to create laws that go against the will of the people. now, understandably, this feels very anti-capitalist which is what i think a lot of fans believed was reflected through the season. 

but, in reality, self-reliance has more to do with being active in your government and making sure you’re being represented the way you want to be by your representatives. that’s sort of the vibe emerson was going for in his essay, and i think. in a sense? that translates to graduation. but i took self-reliance in the more metaphorical about breaking away from those things that are controlling you. which, in graduation, was A Lot Of Things. 

the way i saw it, there were two major groups that inflicted order upon the world and the thundermen--conveniently separated as order and chaos (not the deities though, just the concepts). 

the order half of control existed mostly through the school and the HOG. the HOG created the economic reliance on the heroes and villains system, which removed all literal meaning from those terms and turned them into bureaucratic titles. society existed under these very strict checks and balances; heroes and villains supplied money to the kingdom in terms of entertainment, which then boosted that kingdom’s creditability and allowed them to contribute more to nua’s economy, which then led heroes and villains to have a higher demand, thus perpetuating the cycle. it’s important to note that this term does not represent the sort of morality we expect for heroes and villains--hell, even the term “evil” turned into an arbitrary term used to show those heroes and villains who failed the system. this is the more prominent representation of control that the thundermen break away from in achieving their own self-reliance. they don’t see the value in a system that holds no real moral code (fitzroy Especially, but i’ll get into that in a bit), and can’t help the public when there’s actually a serious situation. as we saw with althea in the beginning, the HOG had no way to help the thundermen when they were dealing with the whole Demon Prince situation (as he had already placed some of his own people in there, proving these kind of systems are easily corruptible). so this wasn’t a system meant to Actually create heroes and villains--it was just a way of boosting the economy. 

the chaos half of control existed primarily through grey and Chaos. grey represented how chaos could be controlled, through various means. he planted that tree for the centaurs to fight over because he knew it would constantly create conflict, which he enjoyed. he kept the school under a watchful eye to prevent anyone from stepping out of line with his grand ideas, and used several manipulation tactics to try and get his way (most notably, his own admittance of grooming fitzroy into joining his side, which didn’t work). grey was the perfect example of how chaos does not automatically mean a lack of control. he was very controlling in how he did things because he had an endgoal: find hieronymous and have a war. but he didn’t even realize he was contributing to a greater idea, that being Chaos’s insistence on causing general disarray. as we realize now, Chaos’s plan was both for them and Order, but i’m leaving Order out for a second because they only really rear their head in towards the end. for the most part, audiences were led to assume that Chaos was the Big Bad(TM); they were the one pulling the strings, allowing things to happen to cause general chaos and disarray. them supplying random mortals with their endless power was a way to plant chaos into the world of nua; but it was a chaos they controlled. fitzroy resisting them was not simply a refusal to bend to Chaos, but it was resisting the control put on him through his magic. 

these systems were constricting the thundermen on both sides. when they thought they’d find help in one side, they were disappointed to find that there was nothing anyone could do. the only people who could fix their problems were...them. so they forged a new path, set new ideas, and became self-reliant. that’s what i think is the most important aspect of graduation; not the anti-capitalist implications of turning over the economic and political systems in place, but the idea that if nothing that is supposed to help you is actually helping that you can just...do your own thing! 

and i think that’s what the finale really shows, at the end of the day. that these forms of control were not doing anything helpful, and were in fact ruining the fabric of space-time! that’s where i think Order comes in because Order is really...the ultimate culmination of control. they are aware that Everything being done will benefit their cause. the HOG? well, they make sure everybody’s so incompetent that they can do their work. grey? well, he’ll contribute to the plan without even realizing it. they even manipulated Chaos and enacted their own form of control over Chaos to make sure that they had no reason to believe that this plan couldn’t go wrong. but Order knew. Order always knew there was a chance for error, and that chance was very great. but they didn’t care! so long as they had control of things, they could try a hundred times to get it right. they had no care for mortals, unlike Chaos. 

the thundermen showing Chaos the truth is the final jenga piece that collapses this tower of control. which is why the finale is so great. 

travis does a phenomenal job of incorporating chaos (general chaos) into the battle mechanics. it may be stupid and slightly arbitrary, but having them change forms randomly and having to adapt to those new circumstances really does exemplify the season!!! the thundermen were constantly forced into new situations (being sidekicks/henches, fitzroy becoming a villain, being let in on the heiro dog situation, the unbroken chain trial, joining forces w grey, etc.), and in all of them they simply found a way to adapt and keep working their way. which made the finale generally interesting and also thematically interesting! 

i think my favorite part of the entire fight scene is right at the end, when argo chucks the shark’s tooth necklace at Order. and time stops. and they’re given a choice. 

the fact that they leave it to a coin toss?? oh my god...how fucking FITTING!! like, that’s disorderly. that’s going your own way. it’s new, it’s terrifying, it has DIRE UNKNOWNS ON EITHER SIDE, but it’s what they do! and...it ends up working out! i think it would’ve worked out either way, but the fact that they left it up to chance really shows how they aren’t allowing anything to control their actions. 

AND THEN WE GET TO THE EPILOGUE. MY GOD I LOVE THE EPILOGUE I’M GONNA GO OFF SO MUCH. 

first off, i loved hearing how Nua adapts to losing this very significant form of government/economic contributor and turns to more people-based work. citizens uniting together, fixing things, making amends, THAT’S SELF-RELIANCE BABEY!!! THAT’S THE WHOLE EMERSON SHIT! HAVING A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT THAT ACTUALLY HAS THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE AT LARGE!!! YEAHHHHHHHHH THAT’S THE WHOLE SELF-RELIANCE THING!

now, i’ll break it down by characters: 

fitzroy

GOD. LOVE IT. FIRST OFF, absolutely ADORED how his character arc involved him stripping himself of these self-assigned titles because he actually has an identity that is all his own and he doesn’t NEED arbitrary titles to prove his worth because HE HAS IT IN HIMSELF. not to self-plug or anything, but that’s ssoss!fitzroy’s WHOLE SHIT. I’VE ALREADY BEEN ON THIS TRAIN, BITCH, AND TO KNOW I GOT IT SO RIGHT...GOD. FEELS GOOD. 

but also, i just really enjoy how his ending went in general. the fact that he doesn’t really know what he wants to do, so he just...does stuff he likes to do? that’s so good! because, if you remember, fitzroy had a Very set schedule of life events when the campaign started. he was going to get his wiggenstaffs degree, go back knight school, get his knight school degree, and then go to goodcastle. but all of that was based on a very limited understanding of himself. 

fitzroy’s character arc has primarily focused finding himself, specifically in terms of identity. for someone who was bullied for his past, the present formation of himself was Extremely important to fitzroy. he thought that shutting out his past and taking on this grandiose title of knighthood would make him something more than himself. he would no longer be fitzroy; the poor, country kid trying to make it in a big world. he’d be Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt; respected, honored, revered, with a title to prove it. 

he explains to fauxronymous (pre-reveal grey) that the reason he wanted to be a knight was because he wanted to assist in doing good. morally good. fitzroy has Always had a very clear sense of his morality; this comes through when he refuses Chaos on the basis of many people having to die if he agreed. but being a knight also had the added of bonus of a very respectable title that no one would want to look beyond, which fitzroy felt he needed because...i don’t think he Saw anything beyond that. in himself. he wasn’t himself for a very long time, and i don’t know if he ever thought he would be again. he’d wear this new identity, start a new life, and be happier....he hoped. 

then, things changed! and he started to realize that arbitrary titles don’t do shit because plenty of people with Big Important Titles ended up being Awful People! so he started to value himself For Himself; his wit, his humor, his strength, his magical prowess. and, i think, he started to wonder what knighthood was Really about. was it about upholding a moral good? or was it just another bureaucracy filled with people who won’t do shit when things get bad. 

i think this is why him becoming a lawyer is fitting. especially because of the reasoning he gives sylvia nite. now for A LOT OF PEOPLE, i’m sure they hear lawyer and assume some corporate hotshot who doesn’t give a shit about people. but fitzroy is Not applying to be a corporate laywer. he SPECIFICALLY telsl sylvia that he wants to help people who cannot help themselves, and he wants to do good in that way. THAT kind of lawyer is more of the pro-bono, district lawyer. the ones that don’t make crazy amounts of cash, but help those who cannot afford lawyers and represent them when the government is fucking them over. those lawyers don’t rely on title, they rely on principle. 

that’s the perfect representation of fitzroy’s growth. holding his identity within himself, while still trying to do good by those who need it. 

firbolg (aka gary) 

i think the firbolg’s ending is so unique but so...right for him. his character arc has really been focused around finding his family. he had one, in the beginning, in his clan. but that didn’t end up, y’know...working out that much. so he had to go out into the world alone--something that firbolg’s are rarely--and try and navigate these foreign spaces all by himself. 

we see very early on how he latches onto the idea of groups. he likes being considered a part of the thundermen; he very much hoists himself upon the CFO title and wears it proudly. i think, where fitzroy needed to find identity within himself, the firbolg needed to find it within other people. which is completely okay! he’s still an individual, but you can tell he finds comfort in numbers because that’s what he is used to. 

him going back to his clan was, i believe, his finally severance with his identity as “firbolg”. he would never be welcomed back to his clan, and one of the few people in his life who supported him was now dead. but his father was proud of him; his father was happy he seemed to find his own clan, even if it wasn’t with other firbolgs. from that moment on, i think the firbolg begins to try finding himself within the thundermen. within his friends.

so his epilogue is neat! it definitely captures the loneliness he feels on his own, and how he feels lost with himself without others. i think it might seem silly to some that he would become a gary, but i think it’s fitting. the garys were always present in his time at school, and they were always helpful. they didn’t mind how long it took him to talk because the gary’s are stone gargoyles--what the fuck do they care about time? it was a group that the firbolg saw as familiar to him--always willing to help, slow, stony, and attuned to a larger group. 

and i think the way gary takes this idea of unity and family and puts it into financial assistance just...it just ties everything together! we saw how attached he got to the concept of finances, thanks to his very confusing accounting class. so he had all of this new knowledge--this knowledge that represented a separation from firbolgs--and this new clan. and he used it to help other clans and families!! i think the fact that the Garys financial advice works specifically with groups is what makes this so fitting. because gary wants families to feel stable within themselves; he understands how finances can create struggle and divides, and he wants to provide relief. 

giving financial advice to communities so they rely on themselves and not the government (aka inviting them to be controlled once more) is a VERY self-reliant concept. not that i think gary’s goal is to have no social networks to exist, but he wants to give communities the ability to rely on one another and foster that feeling of togetherness. so groups aren’t fighting over things, but are trusting and loving and relying. 

just like gary’s always wanted. and just like what he has with the thundermen.

argo 

argo’s ending is probably the funniest, but also the sweetest. i think that argo’s character arc revolved around finding his place. we see how argo’s early personality and motivations revolved around his past. he very much had a revenge story since the start; he wanted to enact revenge on the commodore for murdering his mother, no matter what it took. which made him very limited!! in terms of the self. he saw himself less for what he was now, and what he was then. and what he couldn’t do then. 

we see how much he finds comfort in being a part of the thundermen, but also how he feels...out of place. i think this is because a part of him is still attached to his past and doesn’t think he can do anything beyond his set plan. the unbroken chain certainly contributes to this, by not only separating him from the trio but also reinforcing his connection to his past through his mother’s involvement in the unbroken chain. 

the commodore also being a part of the unbroken chain is, i think, what causes the shift from past to present within argo. his life’s goal is standing right in front of him--attached to the group his mother once was a part of--with his friends at his side. letting the thundermen in on his history is the start of bridging these two halves of argo. and the fact that the thundermen are so willing to helps makes argo feel more a part of the team and more a part of this reality. 

when he kills the commodore, it isn’t intense. it isn’t overly dramatic (minus the fight prior, which was BADASS), it isn’t crazily staged. it is argo, staring down the commodore who lies prone on the ground. 

he kills himself unceremoniously and completes his life-long mission. 

what becomes of him in the epilogue is the culimination of both past and present. he takes what he knows and loves (the sea, the mariah, sailing) and blends it with what he’s come to love now (his friends, this adventure, and making people happy). there are SO many instances where argo uses performance to his advantage. this man is piloted by clint mcelroy, of COURSE he’s going to have a flair for the dramatic. 

so for him to open up a themed cruiseline, based on the stories of him and his friends? SO FITTING. and it isn’t forcing himself to leave his past behind or to completely ignore his present circumstances. because he’s found a place in the now, in the merging of these two sides. and by merging them, he paints a bright future for himself. a future that is partially known, partially not. partially old, partially new.

but it’s all his. 

after that, i think their final scene is just...sweet. a nice, jovial, joking send-off to a nice season. it proves these people have grown and will continue to grow, even when we no longer see their story. it does exactly what graduation does--shows you a struggle, a triumph, and a glimpse into the future. 

i’ll miss it so much, but there’s nothing more i could’ve asked of this ending. it was exactly what it needed to be; nothing more, nothing less. 

#taz grad spoilers #taz graduation #sir fitzroy maplecourt #argo keene #firbolg #taz fitzroy #taz argo #taz firbolg #ignorance cloud on #this took a while and now my head hurts so lol! #also if there are spelling mistakes leave me alone i cant read this text anymore

[rays-animorphs]

Book 8 Part 9 (final): to seek new life and new raisinets

“Humans are special, because we’ll fight to the death rather than surrender our freedom” is really not my preferred sci-fi trope.

Have I mentioned this before?

How do you have an intelligent parasite of a non-intelligent host? Does that even make sense? What does the parasite do with that intelligence? How is it adaptive?

“You bring the spaceships. We’ll bring the Raisinets and cinnamon buns.” That’s…remarkably sweet. Heck yeah, humans and Andalites cruising the stars in peace and cooperation. I’ll toast to that vision.

Is this series ever going to explore what “freedom” means? Beyond, you know, not having your mind forcibly taken over by a brain slug?

Fighting for freedom. Because that totally makes sense. Because nothing makes people free like killing other people and joining extremely hierarchical organizations that have near-total control of your life. Freedom.


Nominally, bonding over shared values makes sense. I’m just not sure any of them know what freedom means. The only time so far anyone has talked about freedom in anything other than “literally not being enslaved by Yeerks” terms was when Tobias talked about being “trapped” in hawk form, and it’s not like that has any unfortunate implications.

Do...do some people literally see the world that way, like "as long as my culture is dominant where I live, I'm free and that's what matters?" Ax's being trained to sacrifice his life before he's an adult and always follow his prince's orders doesn't make him in any way less free? High schooler humans in basically the same position in JROTC are not any less free? High schoolers in school (can't leave the classroom without a hall pass, can't leave the school without permission, don't eat in class, don't cuss, your homework is your "responsibility") are not in any way less "free" even though they're again literally not allowed to physically leave without permission, the most basic and literal definition of "freedom"?

Are there actually people who believe that if they lived under a different government they would be 100% not free, but as long as they're living under "their" government they 100% are free? (and heck, wouldn't that be true for people in other places too, that they'd be more free under this government, or at least one approved of by this government?) How does that even work?

(Yes, of course I'm thinking about "Operation Iraqi Freedom", I'm always thinking about "Operation Iraqi Freedom".)

Aww, Tobias. <I know one Andalite who would have been proud of you.> awwww

That’s got to be an incredibly inefficient way to eat.

What…what happens if an Andalite steps in shit?

Ugh. But can you get Tobias back into human form you fucking Andalite? Gah.

Hmm. So, we have the main character-development arc of the story being Ax’s conflict between following the laws of his people vs being fully part of the team. And that alongside, at a more deeper level, the burden of whether he can live up to the expectations on him as the younger brother of a big damn hero. And the end neatly ties them together: Ax chooses honesty with the Animorphs over strict adherence to Andalite law, and, yeah, I think he and Zuko would have a lot to talk about on the “you make your own honor” front. There is more to honor than obedience, and ultimately you don’t get people’s respect by holding their positive regard as your highest value. (You might not get it anyways. But if you’ve actually recalibrated your goals, you don’t need it.) Good character writing.

This is the best book so far, because it was from Ax’s POV. And because we got more big-picture backstory. And because we get the vision of different species exploring space together with shared values tying them together.

#animorphs read-through #animorphs book 8 #food tw #seriously though going back through my notes to post all this #has made me happier than I can say #and while the feels get darker and heavier towards the end of the book #it's still a really good book and I am glad it exists #and I'm glad that I'm thinking about it #even if I also don't really know how to turn off the #analyze this book through the lens of #justifications used for American imperialism #thing #uh series not book the whole series yeah #also I'm guessing we aren't going to explicitly get fun alien gender stuff #but I can hope #alien gender stuff is a very long standing sci fi trope #so it's conceivable there'd be some here #making it aliens gives some plausible deniability around the whole #threat to heteronormitivity and cisnormativity and the gender binary thing #obviously you couldn't acknowledge lgbtq *humans* in a kids' book #written in the late 90's #that would be like 'inappropriate' or something #*rolls eyes* #my school had a gsa though #I wasn't in it but it had one #high school I don't think my middle school did #I was in my college's alliance #although granted mostly for political rather than personal reasons at the time #I was slow to figure things out #I think the trans guy in my dorm might have figured it out before I did

[nyasha-of-germa-66]

hi! 💕i really like your blog! it’s so detailed and well written! not only that but it’s accurate as well! you’re doing great! ☺️ if someone hasn’t asked already, can u write general relationship hcs for the vinsmoke brothers! (excluding Sanji lol.)

You two are so sweet! Your words really mean a lot to me and I hope I continue to meet your expectations haha.~ But I’m not gonna lie, writing for these boys was hard. I thought Yonji was going to be the easiest, but he probably gave me the most struggle out of the three (can you tell which brother I’m partial to? lol). With that being said, I hope they’re not too OOC, and if they are... my bad. I really hope you guys enjoy it, though!~ Thank you for the requests!~ 😁

General Relationship HCs - Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji Vinsmoke

Ichiji

Ichiji is probably the hardest one to form a proper relationship with as he tends to let his strong sense of superiority dictate his behaviors, though his actions aren't necessarily governed by choice. In order to be in a relationship with him, his S/O ought to meet his standards. He doesn't want someone who's weak-willed or easily discouraged by a challenge; he wants someone who can keep up with him and share his unwavering mentality.

He's often distant in the relationship, only seeking his S/O if he wants something from them or wishes to brag of Germa's victory from their latest battle. He's mostly talking about how he practically does all of the work each time, but it strokes his ego when his S/O listens intently and compliments him.

Being the eldest brother, he prefers to keep a dominant role in the relationship where he gets to make a majority of the decisions, feeling content as long as he isn't undermined. His S/O will have some say, of course, but if he feels like he's being forced to do something he hates, he won't refrain from putting his foot down.

Ichiji will only behave romantically if the mood calls for it, so if he's not craving attention from his S/O, he'll just remain unbothered despite his S/O's advances. He'll smile at their gestures, but he values his autonomy too much to let anyone, including his partner, sway his actions.

He puts a lot of value in his S/O's beauty, but not nearly as much as Niji and Yonji do. He tries to compliment their most alluring features, but they often sound like lecherous comments.

He certainly wants his partner to be loyal to him at all times, disliking when they scold him for his cruel and callous behaviors. It's confusing when his S/O claims to love him one second only to wish for him to change in the next. He feels belittled, and this doesn't sit well with him.

On a brighter note, he is very protective of his S/O, reacting violently when his S/O is in threat of danger. He can never keep a solid explanation for why he behaves in such a way toward them, but his S/O can speculate a few causes for his protectiveness.

Ichiji is not as active as his brothers, so time spent with his S/O often includes lounging around in silence or going for leisurely walks. Surprisingly, he does enjoy a good conversation with his S/O, finding amusement in their stories and hopeful plans for their future.

The eldest brother is rarely, if ever, affectionate with his S/O in public or in the presence of his family, but in private, he's much more willing to slink an arm around their waist or allow them to hold his hand. He doesn't quite understand his S/O's liking to his small affectionate gestures, but he will admit that he gets a good feeling from it.

Although maintaining a relationship with Ichiji comes with it's grueling challenges, there will always be moments that remind Ichiji's S/O that he willingly accepted to be in a relationship with them, and he does value his S/O. He just can't bring himself to say it so blatantly.

Niji

Of the three brothers, Niji comes across as the least desirable in terms of relationship material, but he may as well be the most considerate brother. Sure, he may lack sympathy and compassion for others, but he's still capable of forming a proper partnership with someone.

A relationship with Niji thrives on the idea of costs and benefits. He'll be more than happy to go on the little date his S/O planned for them as long as he gets something out of it, whether it may be a dessert he's been craving or a heated make out session by the end of the night. As long as he gets what he wants by the end of the day, he'll oblige his S/O's wishes.

He may be a tad more hotheaded than Ichiji when it comes to being questioned for his morally questionable behaviors. He'll yell and argue with his S/O, and maybe breaking something, but he won't raise a hand to them as he holds too much respect for them. The servants, on the other hand, may end up on the receiving end of his wrath, unfortunately.

Since he's got an explosive temper, his S/O has to be able bounce back from any fights or arguments that they have, or they should at least be comfortable with letting him have his episodes and not stir the pot. He'll calm down sooner than you might think, and he'll go back to being his regular self, as if the fight never happened. He never apologizes, but if his S/O does, he'll say that the feeling is mutual.

Among the three brothers, Niji is perhaps the most romantic and that's saying a lot on it's own. He's more attuned to what his S/O wants in the relationship, and he'll oblige so long as he gets what he wants, too.

Like Ichiji, Niji is very protective over his S/O, becoming visibly upset and worried when his S/O is hurt. He's the type to never show any mercy to those who harm his S/O, even if it was only an accident. In his mind, people ought to treat his S/O as if they're the most sacred person on the planet. Otherwise, they'd have to deal with him.

Niji also has a great sense of humor, as long as he doesn't feel like he's the butt of someone else's joke. He's prefers to laugh at someone else's expense, but if his S/O says something clever and sarcastic, he'll have a good laugh.

Being in a relationship with Niji is complicated and tricky, but if his S/O can navigate him towards his better self, he could make for a relatively charming boyfriend. And he may not come upfront with his love for his S/O, but he’ll remind them in his own unique way.

Yonji

Yonji is the most honest of his brothers, often speaking out about his desires and openly expressing what he likes, so it's obvious when he fancies the idea of a relationship. As long as his partner meets his standards, he'll gladly start a relationship with them.

He's terribly blunt, so when he flirts with his S/O, he's guaranteed to sound a bit sleazy. He doesn't mean to sound perverse all the time, but he honestly thinks he's being romantic and sweet with them. His S/O will have to teach him the difference, and whether he learns from it or not depends heavily on how mischievous he's feeling.

Yonji has a much better sense of humor than his two brothers, so his S/O is free to joke with him all they want. Pranks wars are another story. His competitiveness may lead to him taking things a bit too far if his S/O doesn't watch him. Aside from that, he genuinely enjoys making his S/O laugh until they're blue.

The green-haired Vinsmoke always tries too hard to impress his S/O with his strength and prowess. His idea is that if he keeps going over-the-top with everything he does, his S/O will continue to think highly of him, but he doesn't know that he looks like a dork sometimes. It might give his S/O a good laugh, though.

He particularly enjoys taking his S/O on dinner dates or picnic outings, as long as he's doing two of his favorite things: eating some good food and spending time with his S/O, one of his favorite people.

He absolutely loves it when his S/O is feisty. Nothing gets him more riled up than a partner who challenges him, and he'll sometimes push their button just to get them all fired up. He can't think of anything hotter than an irritated, yet gorgeous S/O.

As much as Yonji likes to spoil his S/O with expensive gifts and all the worshipping he can offer, he’ll never deny that he likes being spoiled. He wants his S/O to cuddle up to him, he wants them to surprise him with home-cooked meals even if those meals go wrong, and he definitely wants them to shower him with loving gestures and sweet praises. He is the baby, after all.

He's definitely a ride or die kind of guy, so if his S/O gets into trouble, he'll hop to the rescue in no time. If his S/O wants him to bend the rules a little bit, he's all for it. As long as he and his S/O are living it up and having a good time doing it, he'll gladly neglect his duties to Germa to have some fun.

Like his brothers, Yonji is very protective of his S/O, but he's less likely to throw punches unless he finally gets fed up with whoever was starting trouble. For the most part, he'll shield his S/O from any danger while bragging to his S/O that he doesn't feel a thing.

Yonji is also the most affectionate out of his brothers, always wanting to hold his S/O's hand and kiss their cheek. And though he can't explain why being with his S/O makes him feel warm and fantastic on the inside, he has a much easier time showing it through his actions. Even if Yonji's actions are a miss sometimes, his intentions are always there, and his intentions are to make his S/O happy.

#one piece headcanons #ichiji vinsmoke #niji vinsmoke #yonji vinsmoke #ichiji #niji #yonji #germa 66 #nyasha of germa 66 #thank you for the ask!

[dreamteamfanblog]

Me? Making another post disagreeing with a lot of Techno Apologist arguments? It’s more likely than you may think.

1.) “Techno was betrayed during the Manburg Vs Pogtopia war and then later by Tommy during their team up” 

Techno joined Pogtopia knowing full well the plan was to take back L'manburg, nobody promised him anarchy, in fact they did the exact opposite? He knew the plan, Tommy outright asked what he'd do when they take it back and establish their new government and he said, and I quote, "we'll cross that bridge when we get there". Nobody betrayed him. If he thought they wouldn't do exactly what they said they'd do from before he joined them he's kidding himself. If anyone was dishonest it was Techno. He was open about being an anarchist but every time he suggested he'd turn against them it was played vaguely or as a joke, the withers were gathered behind their backs, he sabotaged their armour without them knowing before the sixteenth in anticipation of the battle because he knew they had plans to start a government, and while it could be inferred that he'd betray them, he never actually said he'd blow up their city, he kinda just said ominously vague things about being an anarchist and wouldn't elaborate on weather he was going to turn against them or not. It was very similar during Tommy's teamup with him, Tommy made it clear from day one he didn't want to hurt L'manburg or Tubbo in any way and Techno brushed him off, hid plans to blow up the nation, and decided they'd "cross that bridge later" despite Tommy's boundary being pretty clear, when Tommy enforced that boundary and stood with L'manburg that wasn't a betrayal either? Now I understand Techno feeling upset he couldn't change their minds, if he expected them to see things his way and switch sides I get why he'd feel disappointed they didn't, however them not changing their views to fit his isn't betrayal.

2.) “Tommy owed Techno loyalty, Techno would have fought the world for Tommy, and Techno was going to help him get back his discs!”

Tommy has never valued the discs over people. To suggest so contradicts the text blatantly. If Tommy valued the discs first and foremost he wouldn't have traded them to Dream for L'manburg's independence. If the discs came first Tommy wouldn't have promised to put them aside again before the exile to fight Dream. If the discs came first he wouldn't have turned against Techno- who agreed to help get his discs back- and let Tubbo hand away Mellohi. Tommy has consistently valued his nation, his friends, and general morality over the discs every time a choice is presented to him. Standing in the wreckage of L'manburg he even outright asked Dream; "Why didn't you just burn the discs? Why didn't you just hurt ME?" and sounded completely and utterly distraught that Dream didn't. And if i’m being real, Tommy didn’t owe him anything tbh, the idea that Techno helping Tommy out means Tommy is obligated to go against his morals and let innocent people be hurt/have their livelihoods destroyed because he owes Techno now is ludicrous. Love doesn't come with strings, the second it does it's not love at all, it's manipulation. The idea that "I love you and have helped you so don't get in my way when I hurt people and things you care about" is a fair argument just doesn't feel right to me at all. If Techno cared about Tommy he would have cared how deeply L'manburg and it's people mattered to Tommy. He would have cared about the boundaries Tommy set on what he did and didn't support. He wouldn't have attached conditions to his kindness. He didn’t love Tommy and Tommy doesn’t owe anything to a dangerous terrorist that doesn’t even care about him.  Note the interaction when Tommy was trying to convince Techno not to do this because they're friends, when Techno voiced his concerns- "I'm a person, Tommy!"- and Tommy agreed readily "Yes, yes you are! But so are we!" Something Techno didn't agree with or acknowledge, only going on to talk over Tommy and dismiss him bitterly despite Tommy's attempts at communication. Plus during their time together Techno wasn't exactly the perfect friend either, was he? He openly refused to respect Tommy if the kid didn't subscribe to his worldview and consistently ignored Tommy's attempts to set boundaries with him as well as hiding the extent of his terrorism plans. Not to mention offering to hand Tommy over to Dream if Dream called in his favour. This all on top of the 'friendship' being conditional on if Tommy was willing to abandon all his other friends, his home of many years, and his moral compass for the sake of appeasing Techno. Ofc he chose L’manburg over Techno and the discs

3.) “Techno was right, the government was corrupt! Just look at the decision to exile Tommy and The Butcher Army!”

Lmanburg's government isn't corrupt. It isn’t what got Tommy exiled. Dream did. Dream unfairly forced Tommy's exile, threatening to hurt people, destroy homes, slaughter innocents if Tubbo didn't concede, Lmanburg's government wasn't to blame for Dream, a hostile foreign entity, exerting unfair control over a group of people with no means to defend themselves. L'manburg has always been about fighting tyranny, they formed specifically to break away from Dream and his delusions of grandeur because he was corrupt. Dream is wealthy and powerful, L'manburg is a union of disadvantaged individuals that don't wish to live under tyranny and bound together to have a chance at fighting off Dream's rule. And on the subject of The Butcher Army? Techno never told anybody in L'manburg he was retired. He blew up their country, promised he'd do it over and over again if they set up another government, then went off to hang out in the woods and didn't say anything to any of them after that. Not to mention that the fact that Techno says he won't do it again doesn't mean he won't- especially since he was still grinding wither heads in retirement- and that "I won't do it again I swear" would never hold up in real life for literally any crime, like, you still get sentenced weather you're planning to reoffend or not, especially since Techno didn't even actually communicate that he wouldn't reoffend.

I think Techno's worldview itself is flawed, I think him seeing a small democratic government which was formed as a union of disadvantaged individuals attempting to escape oppression but still being shoved around by Dream's tyranny and deciding that this democratic government was the problem and needed to be taken down rather than focusing on the root of corruption from the overarching dictatorship of Dream really highlights that his ideals are flawed, I think his willingness to destroy homes and lives for the hypothetical moral highground it may give him is delusional, I think him believing that leaving L'manburg in ruins and at the mercy of the actual dictatorship that originally oppressed it's people to the point of them needing to bind together in the first place is selfish, I think Techno is wealthy and powerful and on the top if the natural hierarchy so doesn't grasp that other's may need the help of a community or even organized government, I think Techno puts an ideal over real human lives and emotions, I think Techno's methods of achieving his flawed ideology are cruel, I think his apathy towards suffering he causes and certainty he knows what's best for people that have been disadvantaged by the system he's promoting in a way he'll never be is, again, ignorant, I think his sense of entitlement towards understanding and coddling and loyalty from others when he attaches strings to his own love or loyalty is incredibly hypocritical, and I think his excuses are bullshit, quite frankly.

#long post #dream smp discourse #dream smp #mcyt

[whetstonefires]

Since you like the Hellboy...*perks up* Can I ask what you like about it? Does this need to be part of the ask game, if so, smash it in there. But opinions! I would love!

Ooh! Hm. This is actually surprisingly hard to articulate.

I’ve been ‘into’ Hellboy for like. Half my damn life now, and while I could have gone on at length about all the things about it I found fun as a teenager it was at its core very much a ‘this makes me Feel Happy’ thing. And now that glow is less intense but it’s bolstered by that habitual sort of attachment you feel to like. Family members.

Let’s see how far I can break this down lol.

I have never been able to much like most of the BPRD tie-in type materials and I was not at all pleased with the films, so to an extent I think I can say confidently part of what I like is the way Hellboy is situated in a superhero-comic-adjacent space while being very much coordinated by one overarching creative sensibility--like, other people were brought in to work on Hellboy a lot over the course of the run, but Mignola always had a unifying voice and even when I don’t actually agree with his taste or values that level of artistic...intentionality? Judgment? Presence? Something like that. Gives the work a sense of...integrity? Maybe just unity.

Anyway makes it feel less plastic than comics often do. This is a corporate product of course but it’s also just Mike Mignola hanging out doing whatever he thinks would be cool. Drawing rocks and monsters because that’s what he wants to draw. I like that.

Some of the higher-quality webcomics you get nowadays, when they don’t take themselves too terribly seriously but aren’t outright comedic, can land similarly in terms of voice, but even just fifteen years ago webcomics weren’t really at that point yet as a medium, and even now most are still amateurish as well as amateur. Which is fine, but different.

To get slightly less meta, I love the collection of genres that are smeared together for Hellboy--we’ve got a lot of detective noir stuff cut together with cosmic horror and like...the genre where people research folklore and then mostly punch it. Does that have a name? And then there are a bunch of other influences stirred in, sometimes for only a single issue, sometimes more.

Mignola managed to be significantly less offensive than average about the way he adapted world folklore into his weird groddy kitchen-sink fantasy system, which is pretty funny because he doesn’t come across as being careful about it at all. Not that I think there was no effort made, but also he just used research as a basis for narrative much more often than he started with a story premise and stretched the creature to fit, which by default gave him less scope for dickery.

Also I think the only god he ever fights is Hecate and she’s handled from a 19th-century-occultist angle rather than a Classical angle.

Also Hellboy fights Nazis and cyborg gorillas as well as like. Baba Yaga and vampires. The balance of schlock and gonzo nonsense to pathos and sensitive emotional bits is usually about where I like it.

The episodic format is really well used. It lets the storytelling style lean heavily on the late-19th-through-mid-20th-century short story genres that it borrows a lot from, and which honestly has always worked better for comics than end-to-end long-arc serialization. I like how the anachronic order of many sections of the series allowed for a lot of ‘building outward from the middle.’

Also it means the story can stay true to its roots and kill off a lot of characters in gothic excess without constantly sloughing main cast or having to do fakeouts.

...I can’t believe that since Hellboy isn’t really emotionally involved with the issue of his birth parents except inasmuch as it explains the world-ending stone hand, the single angstiest part of his backstory is technically when he went on a drinking binge road trip around Mexico in his teens and made friends with vampire-fighting luchador triplets but then the youngest one whom he was closest to was kidnapped by the vampires and Hellboy had to kill his best friend, and this is all established in a random side story that pushes the intentional genre absurdism to its breaking point and is equal parts comedic and grotesque.

(The second angstiest is probably the bit in volume 1 when he finds his dad murdered by frogs.)

I also just love characters who wear trench coats and are actually really clever and knowledgeable and kind but tend to resort, in extremity, to just hitting problems really hard. Okay? I like that. That’s a fave.

Hellboy’s whole character design is very strong, a bunch of dramatic broad-strokes decisions that contrast interestingly against one another, and then a lot of subtler elements layered in crosswise.

The way his relationship to the narrative ‘occult-fighting antichrist figure’ could be really straightforward, but keeps stepping a little sideways off the usual shape of the tropes in a way that creates depth.

He’s a giant red demon guy who stopped aging in the 50s; he’s never going to be able to be ‘normal’ or pretend he isn’t what he is--but also he’s a dude with a government job and probably a Social Security Number who goes and interviews people about the situation and says ‘I’m Agent Hellboy’ and gets called ‘Mr. Boy’ and is just this guy who knows his shit and can take a beating.

(This was one of the major things I hated in the first movie, that they decided to make him this weird secret cryptid whose dad keeps him locked in a vault when he’s not fighting.)

The way the identity thing is never reduced to comfortable binaries with him except by enemies trying to psych him out is just really satisfying. He fights monsters not because he hates them or himself but because he was recruited into this career young and he’s really good at it, and he feels good about helping people who are being victimized.

When something occult isn’t hurting anybody he’s down to chill, and if it turns out they secretly are after all he’s always so tired and disappointed, and if they really aren’t then he has a new friend. Whom he may never see again or may hit up for a game of cards next time he’s in town.

(I also like how he combines ‘being pretty private’ ‘being very casually friendly’ and ‘being an asshole who makes a lot of enemies’; it’s not that unusual a combo for his type of main character but it’s one I enjoy.)

When he breaks off his own horns as part of his rejection of being Anung Un Rama it’s not ‘choosing humanity’ or w/e it’s choosing not to be used for this. His name is Hellboy, which is an objectively awful name but it was given to him by people he loved and who chose him, not the people who made him or brought him to this world to be used, and he chooses it.

And that has weight. That has force enough behind it to carry a world.

Just in general in spite of all the identity stuff he gets swamped with he’s really good at self-knowledge and letting other people’s ideas of who and what he’s supposed to be just wash over him. As the story goes on and shit gets weirder his sense of identity gets shaken, but he never quite loses that anchor in the knowledge that he is the ultimate arbiter of his own identity.

His exasperation on being told via stabbing that he doesn’t get to be King of England even if he is the first male descendant of King Arthur since Mordred is so funny. Why is this a thing, says Hellboy. Why am I finding out like this. Why do I always find out this shit like this. Why would anyone think I wanted to be King of England. I already punched so many skeletons about not wanting to be King of Witches.

He’s got so much righteous anger that comes out when people are treated as disposable, or as less for being not human or less human or superpowered, and of course it’s founded in his own experiences and his own fight for respect but it’s not about him. It’s about the person who’s suffering now.

One time his combat one-liner before shooting something started with ‘The Torch of Liberty said I was the worst shot he ever tried to train’ that’s so funny! I love that!

He’s my boy okay.

#have this rant lol #hellboy #my opinions #fandom recruitment pitch #i have all 12 volumes and a number of very disappointing tie-ins #i almost didn't get them all because i was collecting at a leisurely rate #and then all the bookstores stopped stocking it because it had wrapped up #and guess what??? #volume 11 of 12 ain't easy to find used! #comics #writing #identity #names and naming #beastenraged #ask #hoc est meum

[kaladin-mymorningstar]

bnha is fucking relatable

*SPOILERS*

First of all, I am in love with this role reversal--

Bakugou used to be the one shrugging off everyone else, determined to do things on his own, hurting people close to him because he thought he had to be strong alone--and damn that poor boy was so depressed--

Deku was always all optimistic and happy and team-work oriented, and let’s all play nice and keep the status quo, worship the heroes and quickly forgive, compassion for everyone--

Now Deku’s actively rejecting his mentor, shoving people away, working alone because he thinks he has to do everything himself--he’s seen people he loves be hurt, and he’s taking too much on himself--which he has always done--and it’s been seen as a mark of heroism but now it’s too much and it’s making him depressed and unhinged and bitter--

And now Bakugou is the calm and collected one, the one that’s coming to help him, to reconnect him to his friends and get him accept help, accept weakness, accept the need for others--

While STILL BEING HIMSELF--like Best Jeanist and All Might are his mentor figures and he does value their opinions and input, but there is no part of him that bends to what they say. Best Jeanist wants him to have a respectable name? Fuck that, he’s the Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight! All Might wants him to be a nice, easy-going person like Deku? Fuck that, he’s Bakugou, he’s aggressively kind the same way he’s aggressively passionate, he’s going to be the number one hero his OWN damn way--

And anyway, I think Bakugou is honestly ahead in all of this because he’s been on both sides now, he knows what it’s like to be alone and he knows that it’s not actually better, despite knowing full well how shitty people can be (lest you forget that he has known about Endeavor this entire time, not to mention that he’s been through ALL the same events and shit that Deku has)--but he doesn’t let that make him question his own morals and goals, instead just strengthening and broadening his own motivations to be heroic--and I think it only makes sense that he’s going to be instrumental in helping Deku out of whatever place he’s in right now--

And maybe this is just because of what I’m going through in my own life right now, but I relate to so much of this arc--yeah it’s kind of dark and a depressing and morally questionable and I miss the LOV (WHERE are my baby psychopaths?!) and Class 1A (Minaaaaaa), but also it feels like adulthood in so many ways--

Because growing up for me, everything was innocent and fun, you enjoy time with your friends and everything fits into nice black-and-white categories, it’s easy to identify who is good and who is bad, and bad things happen but there’s a righteous heroic entity out there (whether that’s God or fate or government or celebrities or whatever) that’s leading the world in change and helping and serving the weak and making a difference and things will always ultimately end up okay--

And then you grow up a little more and then that entity feels like a lie--God lets people suffer, the government only cares about power and money, fate doesn’t give a shit about all the good you’ve tried to do, healthcare is a fucked-up business, some humans are significantly less equal than other humans and hello misogyny and racism and transphobia and hate crimes and violence, your heroes are actually assholes and your family is actually manipulative and your friends will turn on you in an instant--

Trying to find meaning and hope and joy after that is fucking DIFFICULT, and it can make you crazy and bitter and jaded--

We’ve got Hawks, who is a victim of this society too--turns out that the hero that’s gotten him through so much is an abusive dick (that maybe is trying to do better but definitely not enough, but also he’s a powerful asset that does actually try to protect people, so that’s all just morally gray humanity for you)--his predecessor joined the other side, and can you blame her? and can you blame Hawks for being emotionally invested in her--and he’s trying to make an ideal world of good and kindness, but that goal means so much to him that’s he’s lost sight of the actions along the way too, or else he wouldn’t have killed Twice (my LOVE) or continued to work with Endeavor, except to him it seems like the only option now, and ISN’T it the only option that has been presented to him?--

And Lady Nagant who is just so damaged, the poor thing--who is like so many protagonists of our contemporary action movies, doing the dirty work and killing people to maintain society, except she actually is having a realistic moral conundrum about it, because so many people turn a blind eye to the crimes we commit in order to have our lavish lives (don’t even get me started on the genocide of Native Americans)--

And Death Arms, who I’ve always loved, who has tried so hard to selflessly be a good person and fight for good, and finally hit his limit--I can relate, I was a nurse during COVID-19, it is thankless and back-breaking to begin with, and then when people make FUN of you for something as stupid as wearing a mask, let alone criticizing and attacking your entire career and scrutinizing your every action like poor Death Arms--like yeah, fuck that

And when you’re a heart-on-your-sleeve, optimistic, cares-about-people-so-much-you’d-do-anything-for-them person like Deku, that is actively praised for those attributes--waking up to reality fucking SUCKS. Now people are taking advantage of you, telling you that you’re-not-actually-supposed-to-care-about-human-rights-and-happiness, that having your heart on your sleeve is actually a vulnerability and a weakness and how dare you want to FEEL anything in this society, you have to look out for yourself first--and then he actually does that, and now people think he’s a villain--

Like, damn. I relate to this a lot. 

#bnha manga spoilers #bnha bakugou #bnha manga leaks