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bowtiepastabitch · 7 months

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Let's talk costuming: Angelic Robes and The Unreliable Narrator

It's two am, I have to be up at six, but this has been fermenting in the back of my head for the past five hours I've spent doing homework and if I don't get it out I shan't sleep.

The costumes we see representing angelic character in Season Two are VASTLY different from those we see in Season One. (See my post on Aziraphale's Job Robe for an in-depth art history analysis of this individual costume piece.) In season one, the angelic flashback clothing we see is rather humble and uncomplicated. As all things in this show, this serves a very important narrative purpose.

Let's first compare these gorgeous gorgeous girls to their S1 counterparts, shall we?

Just look at the collar on that robe! In S1, we're introduced to Aziraphale in a very plain tunic-style robe with an unfinished neckline. Aside from a slight gold decoration and draping on the shoulders, this could easily be mistaken for rather primitive human garb. S2, by comparison, introduces angelic costume as non-ostentatious but still refined with a gold-trimmed gathered neckline and wide sleeves. The fabric itself, on a textile level, is much finer and softer. Overall, the robes give an air of innocence and angelic purity that is lacking from Aziraphale's S1 'fit. Let's look at another example:

Their Rome costumes are strewn with so many incredible details (check out this incredible post from 2019) but they still retain a bit of that historical ruggedness. Same for these:

The argument could be made for pure historical compliance, sure, but to claim a lack of anachronisms in this show would be a flat-out lie. No, S1 Crowley and Aziraphale are very distinctively human in their dress. The cloth has a wider weave, the ornamentation is minimal, all around it serves to highlight their fitting-in with humans and the humanization of their characters. They're 'going native,' as it were, no doubt about it.

So why, in S2, is Aziraphale suddenly showing up looking like he just popped out of a renaissance painter's wet dream?

Simple. Suddenly, Aziraphale isn't an angel among humans acting human, he's an angel being an angel doing angel things. We get to see the rest of the heaven gang in full angelic decadence as well, a bold departure from the starkness of 'modern' heaven. If this is, as many of you lovely folk have speculated, a series of flashbacks from Aziraphale's memory, the design choices designate very clearly Aziraphale's perception of himself as an angel. A perception which, mind you, would likely be influenced by later human ideas of angelic and heavenly aesthetics. As an unreliable narrator, Aziraphale is showing us not his actual wardrobe as an angelic being but his perception of his past self.

Crowley, too, is affected by this shift in dress. Bildad the Shuhite is everything S1 flashback Crowley is not: fashion-forward, smooth-talking, and impeccably well-dressed. We've got three different fabric textures (that's three times as many as any of his biblical S1 robing) and a definable silhouette. He's practically a fashionista.

If this were all taken as an objective narrative, the shift back to billowing-void peasant Crowley at Golgotha, where we next see her chronologically, would be strange to say the least.

So why is the costuming of the S2 pre-modern flashbacks so much more elaborate? There's three possibilities I can imagine for a change in costume design for any show:

Budget: this is highly unlikely an instant rule-out for me. I've seen what costumers can do on a shoestring budget, and besides the later period costumes make this demonstrably false.

Change in production design team: Technically possible, yes, but if there's one thing Good Omens does well between seasons it's continuity. I mean, they burned the fucking bookshop and then hand-painted tiles to recreate it exactly for the second season. This is not Harry Potter. This isn't it.

An intentional design: Everything, and I mean everything, in this show is intentional. While not everything the wardrobe team does is easily decodable (see Crowley's shapeshifting sunglasses) we've got a pretty comfortable bit of time to figure such things out. This is the only option that makes a lick of sense.

Wonderful, so we've established that this is a narrative choice.

So if it's a narrative choice, and it's distinct from the stylistic choices of Season One, then someone is lying to us. Or rather, we have an unreliable narrator somewhere along the way.

Most of the buzz on ye olde tumblr focuses on the idea of Aziraphale as narrator and memory-holder for S2, and that would certainly make sense from both a story and design. Of course he would see Angel Crowley as adorable and innocent and angelic (the hair is not helping his case either omg I love her), and of course he would see himself as grandly, exaggeratedly, almost dissonantly angelic at the major turning point in his faith.

If Crowley is narrating, then it calls into question why he would choose to remember himself this way. It holds a sort of nostalgic sadness, a memory of a joyful innocence permanently lost to God's cruelty. When we see Aziraphale in angelic splendor later, we're reminded again of what Crowley has lost. It echoes the aesthetic of his former angel self, the gathering and gold trim and bright white fabric, but also introduces a much more elaborate silhouette that reflects the shift toward heaven's new high-and-mighty attitude.

Finally, I'd like to point out that by contrast Season One focuses heavily on themes of humanity rather than ethereality. Narrated by God, no less, who probably has thoughts on their assimilation. While I think we can assume God to be a more reliable narrator than Crowley or Aziraphale, it's not out of the question that She would have her own story to spin about our Ineffable Idiots' shared history.

Ultimately, I think it's safe to say that whatever's going on in costume design is a Clue to the story we're being told in S2 and the one we will be told in S3.

#I would commit unspeakable crimes to work wardrobe for this show #just let me sew on some buttons and I'll be happy as a clam #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens season 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens costumes #costume design #ineffable husbands #unreliable narrators #angel crowley #go2 #neil gaiman #nerd shit

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aaronieros · 11 months

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i remembered that i never posted this here so here is my yakuza games tierlist (only of ones i've experienced so no dead souls kenzan etc) and here is my reasoning for each under the cut: (warning: this shit is long as hell)

1a. yakuza 6. first of all, the only game in which i like kiryu instead of being ambivalent at best towards him outside of funny substory moments. the absolute best thing they could have done with him, especially with the dragon imagery/reputation always associated with him, was give him something to protect, fiercely. he's old and tired and stressed out and he's all out of patience. one of the first things he does is tell a cps guy to go fuck himself and kidnap a baby. and it's the first game where he actually feels Threatening rather than being in stoic pacifist mode all the time. i do think he was genuinely ready to kill joon-gi for example, and he did punch his entire son-in-law through a glass door.

joon-gi is in 6 which automatically gives it a tremendous amount of points because i love him as he is and then i retroactively love him more due to the fuckery in 7, but the hirose family and the general plot are good enough that, upon rewatching a playthrough, i wasn't gnawing my arm off the whole time waiting for him to show up, because the game is already phenomenal without him. i fully acknowledge that some games (mainly kiwami and 3) i only think highly of because of one specific character, but 6 would still be good even if you replaced joon-gi my absolute beloved who i am obsessed with, with literally anyone else. also the ending was cheapened by kiryu being brought back into the fray of course but that doesn't change the fact that even Thinking about the steps scene brings tears to my eyes. love that shit. also fujiwara's voice acting as yuta is so fucking good. especially when yuta is going through some shit and his voice sounds completely hoarse and broken, and the subtlety with which it's delivered in some scenes as if he's trying to hide how affected he is (in serena while nagumo is asleep comes to mind). all in all just super super good. i love yakuza 6.

1b. lost judgment. my first actual rgg experience i fully sat through after playing yakuza 0 for a few hours but not enjoying the gameplay nearly enough to bother continuing. lost judgment is what ignited my passion for the series and essentially served as my actual entry point since i'd given up on 0 for the time being, and for several years no less. lots of beloved characters but i also really appreciate the actual storyline, more than any mainline yakuza game in fact. the scene on the roof with sawa might be my favorite in the whole game. the side stories are also very good, especially the boxing club one in my opinion (it's also neat that the school side cases are entire storylines in lj). i also really enjoyed the motorcycle gang one, and the minigame for the dance club was the main reason i even bought the game for myself after having watched a full playthrough.

a lot of people claim that judgment was better than lj, especially in terms of writing, but in my opinion, the only places lj falls flat in terms of writing are kuwana's character (there is so much about him that should be interesting but he is just a piece of cardboard to me) and the way yagami wields sawa's name after a certain point in the story. it really becomes a "drink every time yagami says sawa-sensei" type deal, which is comedic at best and annoying at worst. but every other thing in the story is not only good, but there's something else very specific to my experience that i'd like to talk about.

lost judgment made me rethink the way i view storytelling. i talked about this on twitter a long time ago and made these graphs to represent the way the characters are presented in the narrative of most stories versus the way lost judgment feels, with the black line being the protagonist's path and the colored lines being the rest of the characters in the story.

if you can't tell what i'm talking about, don't worry too much about it. it's difficult for me to put into words and i doubt people would readily agree with my perspective (or even that it's a better way to handle storytelling) even if i did explain it perfectly. it's just something that i really appreciate, that this one game allowed me to walk away with something so major, especially as a writer myself.

2a. yakuza 0. i have been talking too much already from my goated with the sauce category so i will try to keep these next ones more concise. 0 obviously deserves respect for being the technical starting point (unfortunately resulting in retcons and inconsistencies because it wasn't actually the first game) but it's also a fantastic game on its own. mainly majima's side. you will see a running theme where i just can't really care much about what happens to kiryu except in 6 unfortunately. but the cast in 0 is huge and all the characters have things to love and hate about them and it's so easy to get attached to them, seemingly moreso than other yakuza games (or people just play 0 to get in and then don't play any games after that, so it seems like the characters are more popular. it's also easier to give them attention Because of 0 being the starting point, because you can still get new fans who aren't deep into the series to relate if you're drawing/writing/talking about stuff from 0).

all in all 0 is very good and definitely deserves the popular opinion of it being the best yakuza game, especially with the work it did to revive the series and give it life in the west in particular. it demands respect on principle in the same way the first game in any series does, even if that game (not 0) happens to suck or be hard to play, just because it established the series and allowed better, more fun games to be made later. y0 is nice because it doesn't have the caveats of "well you have to respect it BUT" it's just a good game.

2b. yakuza 7. where to even begin. first of all, ichiban is infinitely more fun of a protagonist than kiryu. i happen to be extremely critical of all protagonists in every piece of media because they tend bore me extremely easily which sucks because they're the main character so they get the most screentime and we're stuck with them forever. ichiban never has that problem where it feels like a drag to be with him at all times. i happen to hate the brawling gameplay of the mainline yakuza games (and i only use crane style in lost judgment because it's the most fun) so it being a turn based rpg is extremely good. i bought it both because i knew i would enjoy that gameplay (especially with breaker ichiban in the funeral suit, that's such a good flavor that i wish was the canon default for him rather than hero/freelancer but i understand why it's not), but also because i am completely obsessed with joon-gi and wanted to witness every line and detail of him for myself without having to hunt for all of it online (especially since i only like the jp dub).

joon-gi's whole thing is my favorite part of 7, but only by a small margin. the plot of y7 in general was something i was extremely absorbed in and intrigued by, and my favorite scene in the game was the first coin locker scene. i, like many people, feel like the ending was extremely cheapened by what happened, seemingly for no reason, and especially with it being presented as a total non sequitur, but i do love that it gave ichiban the ability to perfectly parallel my favorite scene, all the way from what must have been an hour into the game, if even.

i happen to love all the party members including eri, who i wish had an actual role rather than being an optional party member. most characters in this game, i liked or appreciated in some way (for example, i do appreciate aoki but. "like" is a stretch.) so it didn't feel like a pain in the ass to max everyone's drink links. one complaint about the drink links i have though is that zhao's made it clear that he was only a party member as an afterthought, because for some reason his direction was different from all the rest, which i can reasonably assume was because it was directed quite a while after all the rest.

2c. judgment. i said i would try to shut the fuck up and then didn't so let's try it here. love the characters, love the story, i just didn't enjoy it *quite* as much as lj. i like kuroiwa but i do think people who say he's better than soma in any way are insane and high on copium.

2d. ishin. my beloved. as the tier name says, this one is only as high up as it is because i love historical dramas, but holy shit. first of all, obviously i am very happy to see izo (nishiki) and hijikata (mine), especially considering ishin gives us the opportunity to see mine when he's not in the middle of a combination homosexual and existential crisis because there's nobody in particular he feels insane about and capitalism hasn't ruined his life. but characters aside, the ending to ishin resonated with me something fierce and i regularly quote ryoma's little monologue about the future to myself and it makes me very emotional. the future's secure in the hands of so many others we've never known, whose faces we've never seen, whose voices we've never heard.

3a. kiwami. i think the tier name says it all. i am here for nishiki's corruption arc and how incredibly interested i am in chewing on him. i also recently watched a playthrough of the original yakuza 1 on ps2 and. i have to say, the retcons to turn nishiki into an actual character were a godsend. because based on nishiki in kiwami, you can't tell how or why shindo and kanda ended up as the next patriarchs considering nishiki's entire downward spiral started when he killed a rapist, only for some lame ass sex pests to succeed him. but in yakuza 1, it kind of makes sense given the line that implies nishiki thinks beating kiryu in a fight will make yumi "his". it gives the impression that he's so much more shallow and that he only killed dojima not to protect someone he cared about but because he was encroaching on something (someone) he felt entitled to. kiwami's retcons here are gentle and make it feel much more like he loved yumi but wasn't a freak about it, and that he killed dojima to protect her for her, not for himself. in conclusion, nishiki hard carries the game.

3b. yakuza 3. i do hold so much love for mine, but luckily he is not the only good thing about the game. the orphanage is introduced, you have the ryudo family and especially rikiya, but mine remains the best part of the game to me. only thing he did wrong was the ableism but to be fair he was having a complete and utter gay moment and freaked the fuck out because daigo didn't wake up within 5 seconds.

4. yakuza 4. what can i say. akiyama was great, love his character and his story, and especially love the cutscene direction. i thought going back and utilizing the money explosion in y1 was very clever, and was impressed that they built an entire fleshed-out character around that. will confess that i literally have no idea why he has the slut reputation that the fandom slapped on him, but i also barely know anything about dead souls as of right now, so maybe he shows hole in that or something.

the parts of the game that were not akiyama. well. kiryu and tanimura were fine. saejima was not. initially it was fine, but the prison escape thing is highly cheapened by the fact that this man is fucking addicted to prison so you have to do it AGAIN in the very next game. not only that, and not only the extremely uncomfortable scene with haruka, but saejima suffers from the same problems ryuji and sayama do (i will get to them.), where the game overhypes the fuck out of them just for them to not really do much of anything. the rubber bullets thing is stupid but it doesn't change the fact that saejima *thought* he killed those people, i'm not saying he's actually a pussy for not having committed Real Murder (it's just that god forbid a playable yakuza character actually does a killing). it's just that he doesn't really have anything interesting to say or anything cool to do except that scene in purgatory where he humiliated the whole audience down there for not valuing human lives beyond ending them for entertainment. i was fine with him for a while before that due to not knowing any better yet, but it's now retroactively the only scene where i don't kind of hate him.

5. yakuza 5. guys? it's not good. saejima is addicted to prison and still not a well-executed character in the slightest, with baba being the only bright spot in his section (but still a bit overplayed). but shinada is y5's biggest problem. it's not just that i don't give a fuck about baseball, it's that you have to be EXTREMELY passionate about baseball to let the absolutely ridiculous and dragged out and, rather quickly, extremely predictable story slide. i spent months trying to get through yakuza 5 and hated the experience so much that i thought i just wasn't into yakuza anymore. then ishin came out and i loved that and i decided to just skip the rest of 5 and go straight to 6, only to discover 5 was the problem and i do still love yakuza so incredibly much. luckily, the start of 6 recaps the ending of 5, so finishing it wasn't even necessary. and thank god for that.

6. literally anything else you can think of.

7. kiwami 2. i am nowhere near enough of a misogynist nor a brainless homosexual to like anything about kiwami 2. the only people i see who like ryuji are the ones who are attracted to him which is beyond me. people who like sayama i can only conclude have zero standards for the way female characters are handled. let me dive into this the same way i've bitched on twitter about it 109280437127421897432 times.

first, i will just quickly mention again that ryuji and sayama have the same problem as saejima. the game itself hypes them up so much that they almost have no choice but to fall flat. but sayama falls so much fucking harder than ryuji. and so does yayoi. yayoi's thing is quick, so i will cover that first.

you are telling me. that this strong, scary, takes-no-shit woman. gets manhandled *without even being restrained* and needs kiryu to come save her. and then when openly sexually assaulted just gives shindo one pansy ass slap across the face. almost like it's a gag in a rather sexist comedy sketch. realistically, according to her character, she should have pulled out a dagger and killed that man the moment he tried to kiss her. unfortunately, she is a woman in yakuza kiwami 2.

but at least yayoi just has one scene where she is dragged relentlessly through the mud. sayama is stuck being a woman in yakuza kiwami 2 for the entire game. pretty much the first thing she does is get shot in the shoulder. the shoulder. and while any male character in these games would either shrug it off or die dramatically from a single non fatal injury depending on what point in the game you're at, sayama, for some reason, faints and develops a fever. which means she needs kiryu to carry her all through kamurocho. and then a bit after that, she calls him while he's out to tell him to buy her underwear. and then when he brings it to her, she reveals that she just got out of the shower and drops her towel in front of him. if you can't understand why it's infuriating that the only major female character besides the Small Child is treated this way, i genuinely don't know what to tell you. she then spends the rest of the game asking endless questions and acting flabbergasted by everything (me too, girl). only good thing she ever did was shoot that one guy. and then of course the ending is a make out scene. only for kiryu to never think about her again after her cameo in the beginning of 3 (referred to yumi, inexplicably, as the only woman he has ever loved in 6 (he loved her?????))

in conclusion. from what i can tell, people like kiwami 2 for the following reasons:

they like the gameplay

they want to fuck ryuji

they think sayama's girlbossing makes her a good female character

mix and match any of the above. this game's only redeeming quality is that emo phase daigo is funny (if completely pathetic)

if you actually read all this, thanks for hearing me out and i am deeply sorry you wasted your time on some guy on the internet's opinions.

#not tagging this with fucking anything so if the stans find me and get mad at which games i hate then that's tumblr's fault #di.txt

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defensefilms · 2 years

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The New Politics Of South Africa As Written By Defense Films

The following blog post, is a kind of rough draft/framework for a book I want to write about South African politics.

Think of this as a kind of manifesto that focuses on the kind of policies and legislations that can hopefully improve the lives of the average South African by focusing on the prospective implementation of the following key issues/policies.

Drugs, Cape Town And Free Zones

Taxes And A New Regulatory Body

Legislating The Alcohol Industry

Ensuring The Delivery Of Basic Services

Revamping Free Education Infrastructure

Eradicating Corruption Within The South African Police

Improving Health Care And Introducing Free Health Care

A New Prison Reform And Rehabilitation System

Relegislating Small Businesses For Economic Growth

Key Issues, Policies, Legislations

1. Drugs, Cape Town And Introducing Free Zones

For decades now residents of the Cape flats have suffered under a never ending wave of crime and poverty with no real end in sight.

From corporate involvement to governmental, policing and then community orientated legislation have all failed to completely redress or address a culture of drugs and gang violence.

Among the key problems when police do attempt enforcement strategies that will likely conclude in a raid, is that they invariably disrupt citizens.

What I would propose is for there to be legalized drug use and drug sales within a given location, outside of residential areas, a minimum of 5km away from the school or hospital on the outermost perimeter of the district/ward.

The idea here is to separate the drug use and gang violence from the citizens by giving them a space and funneling all criminal activity into one area.

Now of course, there is the threat of gang members being in closer proximity to each other, and more cases of violent incidents, but I fear we may already past that threshold, with violence already affecting the daily lives of citizens who would be better off without the gang violence.

Having all drug sales and drug-related violence pushed to one part of the neighborhood/ward/district, will ease some of the pressure for the police from both an enforcement perspective and hopefully, in terms of investigations.

The likelihood of the police doing and effective investigation will be heightened of the amount of places the incident could have occurred in, is within a 5 km radius.

At a communal level, this initiative will require help from some key people within any distric we choose to implement it in.

These are:

Drug intervention specialists

Gang intervention activists

Community activists

Local primary school principals, high school principals, and as well as Department Of Education representatives.

Station commanders of all the surrounding police departments.

Upon successful implementation, the first mandate of the government is to leverage the existing small business infrastructure (small scale car mechanics, hair salons, spaza shops and taverns) and organize as many of them as franchisees with the intention of growing the small business sector in the Cape flats.

The reason this is important is that while you can separate the criminals from the tax payers, most drug dealers have access to cash on hand and that will give them an advantage in bringing the community back in to the criminal element.

To curtail this, you must ensure that the community gains something from the absences of the dealers and the users, and the best incentive, is a way for them to make money on their own, and have something to protect, so as to discourage any financial dealings with the gangsters.

Should the FreeZone intitiative succeed in Cape Town, then the goal will be to use it to alleviate drug related violence throughout the country.

2. Taxes And A System That Fosters Accountability

What we need is a system that allows the average tax payer to go and look for themselves exactly how tax revenue is being allocated in their ward, city, town or province.

What I suggest is that Tax Revenue, and exactly how much tax revenue should be displayed to the public, the way the stock exchange lists the value of a stock.

Complete and utter clarity, 24 hours a day, every single day, with regards to the displaying of THE EXACT AMOUNT of funds available in the tax revenue,

Furthermore, we must create an accountability bureau with the goal of tracking all tax monies, and should taxes monies be rendered/ withdrawn for the sake of service delivery, or for the sake of issuing funds for a tender, not only will that transaction be a matter of public record via display, there will be tax accountability officers taske with tracking the expenditure of those monies ditributed.

The accountability officers should not be tasked with procurement of tax revenue at all. They are solely responsible for ensuring that monies taken out from the countries tax revenue are used appropriately, and only for the stated intention, and that includes procuring the change/remains from the expenditure.

Key to implementing this is creating the right kinds of legislation to empower the accountability officers by giving them access to South African Police personnel upon request, giving their cases and investigatoins priority and allowing the National Prosecuting Authority to act upon their findings in cases of deviance, thievery or fraud.

3. Re-Legislating The Sale, Distribution and Consumption Of Alcohol

I propose that the country must curtail the availability of alcohol in South Africa and for all of the county’s major distillers, breweries and outlets to export no less than 70% of their inventory over seas and across borders to other countries..

The 2nd piece of legislation to aid the limiting of alcohol is for South Africa’s bars, liquor stores, taverns and restaurants to cease sales of alcoholic beverages for a maximum of 5 hours per day.

That would mean that local liquor outlets should only be operational and serving beverages from 6pm-11pm.

Furthemore the legal drinking age in South Africa should be raised to 23-years of age,so as to curtail early exposure to alcoholism.

4. Restructuring The Implementation Of Service Delivery

-Across All 278 Municipalities, 8 metropolitans, 44 districts and 226 local municipalities.

To support the new tax accountability system and among the chief mandates to be implemented and entrusted to the tax accountability officers is related to service delivery.

How services and essentials are delivered to the impoverished communities in South Africa has long been an issue. Electricity, water, access to medical care, services and products are often not delivered to the intended to recipients.

Tax accountability officers must ensure the end of this by tracking government spending with regards to these communities, and in cases where service delivery was entrusted to a private company/business via a tender, the accountability officers must ensure that the service has been rendered or is in working condition, and that all moneis are properly accounted for.

5. Revamping Free Education Infrastructure

Improving existing free schooling infrastructure

Redefining what constitutes a private and a public school

Allowing private schools to operate as private institutions

Revamping government education curriculums (introduce early financial education, early introduction to the sciences)

The INTEC initiative and introducing trade skills to learners post high school.

Intergrating the South African Qualifications Agency, The Council For Educators and the Department Of Education in implementing

The first legislation that needs to be passed to affect positive changes in the education sector, is redifining more acurately what constitutes a private school and what constitues a public school.

Particularly with schools registered in quintiles 4 and 5 according to the Department of Education, where each student is allocated less than R1000 toward each child’s education, and the quintiles that also have the most financially self-sustainable schools.

This legislation would also allow schools in quintiles 4 and 5 to operate as fully independant businesses and allowing a free market as far as private schools are concerned, while also freeing up more of the total budget to be used on the poorest sectors of education and schooling.

Furthermore, the remaining schools, listed from quintiles 1-3, wll undergo a revamp of the education curriculum, with a bigger focus on the fields of financial planning, science, technology, and in some provinces, agriculture.

The implementation of these changes to the curriculum wll require careful strategic planning, because all schools will need to have new infrastructure installed like computers, tablets, cellphones, and this also means, installing new security at all local schools in quintiles 1-3.

The third piece of legislation will be the creation of a free post highschool tertiary college infastructure, where citizens of any age can attend to learn skills in trades like welding, plumbing, electrical maintanance, carpentry, metalworks, accounting, computer literacy, agriculture, administration and human resource management.

Ideally, this model would resemble something closer to American community colleges, where a citizen of any age, gender, class or race, can enroll and learn skills in variety at no monetary cost.

6. Eradicating Corruption Within The South African Police Service And Empowering The Prosecution Of Tax Thieves

Empowering Hawks and separating them, allowing them to run independantly of the SAPS.

Eradicating Corruption with the SAPS

Empowering the National Prosecuting Authority, supporting legislation that will limit any chance of another incident like State Capture.

Instituting a 20-year statute of limitations on white collar crime, tax fraud and embezzlement, to really empower prosecutors to engage in prolonged investigations into high-level crime and tax theft, with the goal of allowing prosecutors to act retro actively regarding investigations, prosecutions and recovery of tax payer monies.

The first and most important mandate relating to law enforcement and crime prevention must be legislations that empower the National Prosecuting Authority and enabling them to pursue more investigations into corruption at both the governmental and corporate levels.

The first way to do this is to extend the statue of limitation on white collar crime, racketeering, embezzlement, money laundering, tax fraud and/or thievery to 20 years or more.

The idea is to give the prosecutors and investigators more leeway to prosecute crimes and recover tax moneis retroactively.

The next piece of legislation is one that allows the Hawks, South Africa’s anti-corruption unit to be run 100% independent of the South African Police Service.

The creation of new office spaces, new databases, filing systems, operations, administration, investigators and officers, completely outside the jurisdiction and oversight of the South African police, and this will extend even further into active and on-going investigations and prosecutions.

Any and all internal affairs and investigations into the South African Police Service and it’s officers will be conducted by the Hawks and will be given priority by the National Prosecuting Authority.

7. Improving Health Care Infrastructure And Introducing Free Medical Health Care

Financing the improvement of our healthcare system to Increase the number of hospitals, quality of facilities and number of hospital staff throughout the country.

Implementing free health care for South Africans below a specific income.

Aggressively integrating traditional healers into the formal medical health sector.

The Traditional Health Practitioner’s act of 2007 provides us with a starting point as far as legislation that intergrates the traditiona and formal health sectors is concerned, but what we don’t have is on-the-ground integration and combined utilization of both traditional and formal medical practices by the working public.

For instance a more practical way to apply the act of 2007, would be to have formally trained doctors doing check-ups and diagnosis along side a traditional healer.

The ideal is for traditional healers to more actively participate in the medical services sector and function almost as auxiliary hospital staff.

The economics of how this would work is where the variables lie. For instance, one way to organize this would be to have traditional healers register under a local hospital but that on it’s own does not provide the kind of financial incentive for local traditional healers.

The other way is for traditional healers to receive government subsidies, and in this way they can be financed to have a premises of their own where they can take consultations and have a formally trained nurse or doctor on hand for additional consultation or vice-versa.

The point is that South Africa’s public health care sector needs help and there is already a culture that can help accomplish this, if the formal and public health sector can integrate traditional healers in a way that the public sees as helpful.

The National House of Traditional Leaders is a body comprised of traditional healers from all over South Africa and the formal medical sector must lean on this body to help bring in, organize and streamline local traditional healers in South Africa’s poorest areas so as to intergrate them faster and help alieviate the understaffing of South African public hospitals.

8. A New Prison Reform and Rehabilitation System

The rates of violent crime in South Africa have become a kind of black mark on our country’s justice system and the rates of repeat offenders point to a further indictment of out prison reform system an whether it does indeed reform it’s inmates..

A country riddled in poverty is a country riddled by crime, and one thing that is clear, is that beyond policing and innovations in enforcement, one thing we can address, is how prisoners are reformed.

There are plenty of statistics and studies that prove that the more modern and somewhat humane practices used in Eastern European countries are indeed something to aspire to, and indeed using methods like these is not a matter of needing an ideal economy or any kind of distant future, to begin implementing more humane policies.

One of the ways to perhaps get better results and also achieve reconcilliation between victims of crime and inmates, are programs that facilitate direct, face-to-face dialogoue between the two parties.

For instance, in a situation where the victim of a murder has left a family behind that is now earning a grant from the government from having lost their provider, it will be the responsibility of the inmate to deliver the grant paymment, via a payslip already in the grant recipient’s name; to the grant holder directly and fac-to-face, every month.

Programs like these ensure a direct communication, and helps past violent offenders, see the effects of the damage they’ve done while also being part of the solution.

Among the key issues to be addressed is finding ways to remedy the alienation and isolatoin that inmates and prisoners have from the broader society, by implementing new inmate parole programs especially with regards to non-violent offenders.

Having a parole program that allows inmates to leave the prison facilities and either work or accomplish tasks in active society, and then return to the facility while they are serving their sentence so as to prepare them for life on parole and eventually freedom.

There are two ways to effectively intergrate former inmates back in to society.

The first is by incentivizing businesses to hire newly freed inmates in the form of grants and subsidies that pay businesses for hiring a certain number of former inmates.

Another is by creating businesses that exist specifically to hire inmates in the agricultural sector.

Inmates/ felons must face their victims or families of their victims.

A revamped parole system that aggressively implements putting former inmates back in to society.

State-owned businesses created specifically to support ex-inmate work programs, and which sectors/industries should be subsidized most aggressively in hiring former inmates.

Involving The Land And Agricultural Development Bank

9. Relaxing Small Business Legislation To Spur Economic Growth?

How does an economy grow?

Infrastructure Spending

Relaxing Regulation for small businesses and micro transactions, the return of sole propietorships.

Legitimizing and integrating the informal business sector

Re-legislating sidewalk spaza shops

Involving Black Owned South African Banks and Leveraging Their Expertise To Spur Growth In The Country’s Poorest Communities

SOURCES:

Daily Maverick.com On The NPA’s 2022 progress:

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2022-07-07-npa-is-finally-reaching-solid-ground-to-deliver-justice/

State Owned Enterprises:

https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/soe-s

Wits University On Healthcare 2021:

https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2021/2021-07/healthcare-in-south-africa-how-inequity-is-contributing-to-inefficiency.html

News24.com on Free Schooling In South Africa:

https://www.news24.com/parent/learn/learning-difficulties/why-the-no-fee-school-policy-in-south-africa-demands-a-serious-review-20220408

The Department Of Basic Education On Expanding Access To Free Education:

https://www.education.gov.za/ArchivedDocuments/ArchivedArticles/FreeBasicEducation0617.aspx

BMC Health Services On Public Health Issues In The Free State:

https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-019-4862-y

Herbert Smith Freehills On White Collar Crime And Statute Of Limitations:

https://hsfnotes.com/africa/2019/11/21/south-africa-white-collar-crime-law-and-practice/#:~:text=Section%2018%20of%20the%20CPA,as%20murder%2C%20rape%20or%20treason.

World Health Organization On Universal Health Coverage:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/universal-health-coverage#tab=tab_1

World Health Organization On Health Financing:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-financing#tab=tab_1′

Investopedia On Economic Growth:

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032415/what-are-some-ways-economic-growth-can-be-achieved.asp

Economic Research By Federal Reserve Bank Of Saint Louis:

https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/page1-econ/2013/09/01/what-are-the-ingredients-for-economic-growth/

News24.com Article on The Capture Of Denel:

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/investigations/the-deal-that-broke-denel-how-a-uae-firm-snapped-up-the-crown-jewels-for-just-r208-million-20220723

IOL On Careers In The Trades:

https://www.iol.co.za/education/matric/why-a-career-in-trade-might-just-be-the-right-fit-for-you-fa51ada5-bee3-49ee-8f6f-65f96769f9b8

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johannas-motivational-insults · 4 years

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“Friendship” in the Horde

Season 4 raised some interesting questions about how people who grew up in the Horde define friendship. Kyle claimed that his squadmates were his friends, despite how we've seen them bully him, and Scorpia admitted she didn’t even know how to be a good friend. We also saw further developments in Catra and Lonnie’s dynamic that have some interesting implications about their bond, both past and present. However, while these themes became more explicit this season, they are hardly new. The Horde worldbuilding is really quite brilliant, as the writers have been laying the foundation for these revelations by showcasing certain patterns since season one.

This got a little lengthy on me, but there was a lot to consider. The lack of healthy emotional expression and relationship modelling is one obvious problem in the Horde, but the hostile environment has also led to some very specific power dynamics and social structures. These structures, while potentially helpful in hostile environments, are maladaptive in terms of fostering healthy relationships. Ultimately, every character who grew up in the Horde is emotionally crippled. (I’m not even going into Adora, an excellent example, because her repression and communication problems are well-documented and I wanted to focus on characters still in this environment.)

Scorpia

Let’s start with Scorpia. Her revelation that she doesn’t understand what friendship is was a big moment for her, but for those of us who have been watching closely, it’s no big surprise. Scorpia was so desperate for a meaningful connection that she latched onto the first person who showed any signs of considering her a friend, ignoring all the red flags indicating that the relationship was not healthy. Actually, she didn’t ignore them so much as not recognize them, because she didn’t even know what a healthy relationship looks like. To her, the fact that Catra invited her to her room and chose her to accompany her on a mission was enough for her to dub them the Superpal Duo.

Of course, we all know how that went for her. She continued to support Catra unconditionally despite the latter’s tendency to use Scorpia as her emotional punching bag. They did settle into a somewhat more reciprocal and caring relationship after Scorpia saved Catra against her orders during 2x05, proving that Catra was more important to her than the mission (even if that wasn’t what Catra thought she wanted). It’s sad when you think about it, because that was probably the first time Catra ever experienced her wellbeing being prioritized above all else.

Unfortunately, the revelation that Shadow Weaver had gone running back to Adora after betraying her triggered a trauma response and made her clam up again, lashing out at Scorpia and shutting her out even though she had done nothing to betray her trust. It took Catra blatantly attacking and insulting Scorpia when she failed to bring back Entrapta’s recordings (and some well timed reality checks from Emily) for Scorpia to realize that Catra was being a bad friend and she couldn’t win her over by being a good friend.

And actually, Scorpia’s confession in 4x10 that she “thought” she was being a good friend to Catra implies that she had since realized that she wasn’t actually being a good friend to Catra either. She knows the scorpions were a loyal people and she ascribes to that ideal, and she has so much love to give and always tries so hard to be positive, but not setting boundaries with people or demanding a measure of basic respect does nothing for them or you. Also, you can’t ignore the fact that Scorpia forced her affections on Catra, inserting herself into Catra’s life in a way that made her uncomfortable, and continued to ignore Catra’s attempts at setting boundaries with her (which is also very disrespectful). While Catra was certainly the aggressor, she was not the only one who failed in this partnership.

Let’s go back for a moment to Scorpia’s earliest indication that Catra might want to be her friend, when she confides in her and enlists her help coming up with and then executing a plan. Being chosen as Catra’s wingman seems to be important here, and perhaps she was wilfully ignoring how she was the only person who could make Catra’s plan work, but being confided in and trusted was huge to her. And since Horde soldiers are so used to being used, they don’t see it as a red flag. Catra actually flat out said Scorpia was the only person she could trust. How could a lonely gay not interpret that as a sign of being special to someone?

The squad

The importance of trust also becomes evident when considering the interactions among the main squad. Loyalty seems to be paramount in the Horde, not just the scorpion kingdom. Adora defecting to the Rebellion and leaving her squad behind was seen as a huge betrayal, and not just by Catra. Did anyone else want to cry when Lonnie struck back at Adora with “we were your friends” in 1x09? Lonnie was deeply hurt by Adora’s abandonment, feeding into her disillusionment with the Horde. Similarly, when Double Trouble revealed they had double-crossed Catra, her devastated reaction was not that her plans were ruined, but that they had betrayed her. That no doubt was also related to her previous betrayals, but also serves to highlight the importance of loyalty in their subculture.

While all the Horde characters were interesting to watch this season when it came to the themes of friendship, the arc was most pronounced in Lonnie. As I’ve mentioned previously, Scorpia had a short arc over one episode where her rosy worldview was destroyed, causing her to leave (much like Adora), while Lonnie was already a cynic who was aware of the Horde’s imperfections and had to go through more extreme hardships to detach from this unhappy but familiar environment (much like Catra, we hope).

Though she and the boys didn’t leave the Horde until the finale, her disillusionment was already evident in her first episode this season. After Catra berated them for something that wasn’t their fault and demanded they risk their lives to fix it (big Hordak energy), she had her first big revelation: “Catra doesn’t care about us, Adora left us. Everything they taught us in the Horde about loyalty is meaningless. It’s everyone for themselves.” In the next episode, she was frustrated by Scorpia’s naïve enthusiasm and trust in Catra, but it took a big blow up between her and Catra for her to finally decide she was done with her, done with the Horde in general.

Kyle represents a sort of middle ground between Lonnie and Scorpia in terms of outlook. He was not treated well in the Horde, but still believed in the ideals of loyalty and squad unity. He wanted to believe Catra had sent them out on a mission into the Whispering Woods because she trusted them and wanted it to be a team-building exercise. His take on it was: “She may be mean, but we’ve always had each other’s backs. Ever since we were kids.” He saw the squad as his family, including Catra (and previously Adora). It took Catra baring her claws and threatening to attack Lonnie outside of a battle sim for him to lose faith in her.

Bullying, the pecking order, and squad unity

As is clear by this point, the Horde defections this season were driven by Catra mistreating the others, but we can’t lose sight of how mistreatment is a fact of daily life in the Horde. And as I mentioned above with Lonnie, it’s those who were most aware of and desensitized to the mistreatment who had the hardest time naming it and leaving the toxic environment. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, call it the sunk cost fallacy, but either way once you’ve submitted to a system that dehumanizes you, it’s hard to admit that that system is wrong and leave it for a better life. Scorpia and Adora grew up somewhat privileged in the Horde in that they were destined for greatness, so they were never abused overtly and they had a level of protection from power-hungry cadets looking to claw their way to the top of the heap. They were already at the top and couldn’t be taken down, so they didn’t have to bully or be bullied.

The importance of pecking order is much more evident when considering people like Kyle, Catra, and Lonnie. Within their squad, Kyle is obviously the omega of the gang (get your heads out of the gutter, that is not what I mean), the one who gets blamed for everything that goes wrong and is constantly getting picked on. Lonnie shits on him, Catra shits on him, and even Rogelio gives him shit and goes along with the blame game. Despite all this, Kyle considers them his friends, his family.

This starts to make sense when you consider it in terms of intra vs. extra squad relations. Maybe the squad didn’t show Kyle any respect or treat him with kindness, but they did protect him in battle sims (sometimes lol) and rescue him from the spore storm. You also kind of get the impression that although they bullied him and asserted their dominance on the regs, they would protect him if other people tried to hurt him. You might say he’s the pet of the gang – he has no power within the structure and it may not be pleasant, but the structure still offers advantages. Having allies was still good for him even if he was at the bottom of the pecking order within the alliance.

Through a sociology lens, you might say the squad (and the Horde in general, given it’s a military society) follows the stereotypical male model of friend groups with clear pecking orders that everyone buys into (with exceptions for blatant power struggles), as opposed to the stereotypical female model that appears less hostile and more cooperative outwardly but involves a lot of underhanded infighting. (Obviously those are broad generalizations and it can be argued how much of it is nature vs. nurture, but they are observable patterns that boys and girls are socialized into in many human societies.) This ties in interestingly to @jaelav3‘s observations about masculinity equating to strength and femininity equating to power in the Horde (a meta she really needs to write, because it’s brilliant). The hostility of the Horde forces soldiers into these rigid pecking orders in order to find protection in a dangerous place. When everyone knows and accepts their role, it is easier for the squad to function in a unified manner and protect each other, even if it’s at the cost of their mental and emotional health.

Now, when not everybody buys into the pecking order or it’s ambiguous, and/or if there’s a sudden power vacuum, that’s when things get interesting…

Catra and Lonnie, the perfect case study

Catra also suffered a lot of bullying and abuse in the Horde, but in a very different way than Kyle. She was in a unique and kind of contradictory position where she was somewhat protected by her close friendship with Adora, but she was also Shadow Weaver’s favourite chew toy and everyone knew it, which made her a target as well. If Shadow Weaver abused her, she wasn’t going to care if the other cadets abused her as well. Catra’s defensive body language and general distrustfulness and hostility gives the impression that she was bullied behind Adora’s back and Shadow Weaver turned a blind eye, perhaps even encouraged it.

This was all illustrated in 1x03, when Catra and Lonnie butted heads and Catra was forced to back down when two other cadets backed up Lonnie, then Lonnie told her to watch it because Adora wasn’t around to protect her anymore. That one line alone told so much of their story. This was also one of the few times we saw cadets using people from other squads to affect their own squad’s dynamics, as – like I said – that seems to be kept mostly in-house. It may have had something to do with Lonnie’s overall standing among the cadets or how Kyle and Rogelio rank lower in their little hierarchy and seem uninterested in getting involved with the power politics, but I digress.

The argument itself was meaningless, really - the whole thing was a pissing contest, an attempt to assert dominance within their squad’s sudden power vacuum. Lonnie fancied herself the new leader of the squad, and she ended up getting her wish in a backwards way when Catra was promoted out of the squad and given official power over her. Catra, of course, took every opportunity to rub this in Lonnie’s face, perpetuating the cycle of abuse she’d fallen victim to.

The reason they had a power struggle in the first place wasn’t just because Adora left, it was because their pecking order was previously unclear. Catra wasn’t very cooperative and tended to go rogue, so she didn’t slot nicely into the power structure. She was also perceived as lazy, as she had adopted an air of nonchalance once she realized she’d never get the recognition or praise so easily heaped on Adora. (Why try when failing hurts so much?) That being said, she was Adora’s best friend and basically her sidekick, so in a way that made her second-in-command of the squad.

On the other hand, Lonnie was devoted to the squad and was always around to provide tangible support, so she was also kind of Adora’s second-in-command. Combined with her harder work ethic, this also gave her a very legitimate claim to the throne. She was obviously pissed when her teammate she saw as a lazy asshat got promoted, but to her credit she lived up to her own personal ethics, buying in and not pushing back against Catra’s authority until late in season 4.

Despite the power struggle, however, Catra and Lonnie do seem to have a bond. Even if they don’t like each other, they have a certain level of trust in each other. When the princesses invaded the Fright Zone in 3x04 and shit started to go sideways, the first person Catra was looking for to try to get support and/or answers was Lonnie. Then in 4x10 when she was starting to lose her mind amid a lack of sleep and Scorpia’s defection, she pulled Lonnie aside and demanded to know what was going on among the soldiers, what they thought of her.

This was an incredibly interesting scene with some deep implications. Because while it was on one hand an expression of trust in Lonnie, it was also an acknowledgement that Lonnie was one of her bullies and held clout among the people who have demeaned and abused her in the past. It also showed that Catra still has social anxiety and her sense of social power (as opposed to power in terms of rank) is very fragile, which is extremely characteristic of a bullying victim. Also, the fact that Catra said, “Just leave. Like everybody else.” implied that Lonnie leaving would hurt her emotionally, which is rather illuminating.

As for Lonnie, her loyalty meant she bought into the system and expected to Catra to do her job running the place, taking care of the Horde. And Catra certainly succeeded early on, taking territory and increasing productivity. In return, Lonnie was a loyal and obedient soldier, even if she never hesitated to give Catra a bit of attitude. But she became frustrated in season 4 when Catra went on her sunk cost fallacy spiral and ended up making things worse for everyone else as well as herself. This failure was a huge betrayal to Lonnie, and it’s important to note that she wouldn’t feel betrayed or disappointed if she had expected nothing of Catra in the first place. It’s one thing to be kind of a dick about your superior rank, another entirely to endanger your squad/friends (or anyone you are responsible for, really) and run them into the ground as a remedy for your own anxiety.

The breaking point of course was the scene in the locker room in 4x12, when a lonely Catra tried to be “friends” with the squad again and was briefly successful in mending fences a little until she snapped at Kyle and then at Lonnie, calling them pathetic. This prompted Lonnie to shove her, which in turn made Catra bare her claws and rush Lonnie. There was really no coming back from that, even though Kyle intervened before anyone got hurt.

As an aside, Kyle stepping up in this scene was amazing - this season in general was everything I wanted for him. And it’s important that it was him who intervened, because he was really the only one who could ask Catra, “We used to be your friends, why are you treating us like this?” It makes perfect sense for Catra to push back at Lonnie given their history, but Kyle doesn’t have a history of bullying Catra (quite the opposite). And wow, it had an impact on Catra. You could just see the confusion and regret on her face before she brings back the façade of anger and kicks them out.

When the squad left the Horde, Lonnie said that they were done protecting Catra. This assertion is interesting, given their checkered past – since when was anyone protecting Catra? Lonnie bullied her, and none of them protected Catra from Shadow Weaver, not even Adora (though bless her heart, she tried). But this does make some sense when you consider how much of the idea of friendship is based on loyalty, and how important that adherence to the structure is for protection. In Lonnie’s mind, even if Catra was now their commander, they were still a unit in a way. And she saw standing by and obeying Catra to be a form of protection, helping her stay respected and carry out her plans. Lonnie is a good support person, and by removing her support, she was in a way removing her protection as well.

(After the series is over I might just go all out and do a huge-ass meta about Catra and Lonnie through the seasons. I am absolutely fascinated by this relationship, if you can’t tell.)

Allyship

Overall, you can’t help but get the impression that the Horde’s version of friendship is more akin to allyship. It’s protection, unity, loyalty. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t get emotionally attached, it’s more that how you feel about someone is less important than what that relationship can do for you. That’s why Scorpia doesn’t even understand what friendship is. That’s why Catra tolerates “friends” who annoy her, because they’re useful to her (not that she doesn’t get attached in time, but that’s not why she tolerates them in the first place).

Catra’s one of the few people in the Horde who has experienced real friendship, as her bond with Adora was much more emotional than practical (even if it was both). And that explains why she eventually lashed out at Scorpia and said they were not friends when clearly they were by the Horde’s definition. Her and Adora really had taken the friends thing to a different level, and she was missing that dearly.

It will be interesting to watch the interactions between the Horde characters when they are thrown back together in new circumstances, out of the Horde’s rigid power structure. Honestly, the redefining of these alliances and friendships is one of the things I am most looking forward to in the final season.

#spop #she-ra #she ra #meta #the horde #catralonnie #scorptra #catradora #horde squad #catra #scorpia #lonnie #kyle #rogelio #adora #bullying #abuse #sociology

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vashak · 3 years

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Different worlds: Eiji (2)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Originally posted on 7 August 2019 in Turkish here.

In Part 1 of this meta, I wrote about Eiji’s life before he met Ash and how helping Ash became a new purpose in life for him at a time when he felt lost. In this part, Eiji will get to know Ash better and discover his inner turmoil.

When Ash finds out in Los Angeles that the whole business with Banana Fish is basically a bottomless shithole, the first thing he does is to talk to Eiji to send him back to Japan where he will be safe. He doesn’t mince his words at all and flat-out tells Eiji “You’re a handicap to us.” But by then, having learned about the kind of childhood Ash had and seen the place he grew up in, Eiji has grown more attached to Ash. Also, Eiji saw more action in the last couple of months than he ever had in his 19 years—all when he was with Ash. So, naturally Eiji’s deeply hurt to hear Ash dismiss him so callously, but at the same time he knows that Ash is doing this for his own good. Eiji also can’t help but admit Ash is right, saying, “I can’t even protect myself. I will just mess things up… I know I’m useless.” But to Eiji’s surprise, Ash disagrees.

This is also the first time when Eiji gets a glimpse of what Ash thinks of him. Ash doesn’t go easy on him but makes sure that Eiji understands how unusual it is for Ash to see someone do something for him without expecting anything in return. As for Eiji, he did what he did because he wanted to and he thought it was something to be taken for granted. I had the impression that he was going to say “Anybody would have done the same thing” in the scene above before Ash interrupts him.

The sad thing is that the next time Ash and Eiji get together after this scene, they will have been cheated by Yut-lung, lost Shorter and barely escaped from Golzine’s clutches.

After Shorter’s death, Ash and Eiji grow more attached to one another. While the guilt of having killed his best friend gives Ash nightmares, Eiji becomes an anchor in his life, allowing Ash to mourn Shorter. As for Eiji, he holds himself responsible for what happened, believing that Ash killed Shorter to save him, and decides to stay with Ash no matter what.

Like I mentioned in the other meta, this scene tells us how traumatic killing is for Ash. By the way, Banana Fish Official Guidebook – Rebirth (Thank you @i-swim-best-free-for-the-team for the translation!) highlights an interesting point in this scene: The fact that Ash can bring himself to cry and ask himself “What have I become?” is all thanks to Eiji. The tears he sheds are a first step towards confronting his trauma. Ash “allowing” himself to confront his trauma means that he feels safe and it’s Eiji who gives him that sense of safety. If Ash didn’t have Eiji in his life—someone he can trust enough to be just himself—perhaps he wouldn’t have nightmares in the first place. The need to be always on guard compels Ash to push it all down and bury his feelings. So he can’t process how adversely he is being affected by everything that’s been happening to him.

Let’s not forget body language. Ash is ashamed that Eiji has to see him in that state, so he is looking down to hide his face. Eiji, on the contrary, wants to see Ash’s face to understand what he’s feeling. So he doesn’t sit next to him on the bed but crouches on the floor so he can make eye contact. It’s only when Ash breaks down crying that Eiji moves to sit next to him and puts his arm around him to let him know that he’s there for him. I was happy to see that the anime adaption paid attention to these details.

What’s really striking is to witness the depth of Ash’s trauma with killing people after he bought so many guns for himself and his gang only the day before. Ash knows that he will after to kill again after what happened in Golzine’s mansion. But he still tries to reign himself in.

And Eiji doesn’t miss that. This is also the first time Eiji sees Ash in his habitat when he’s surrounded by his gang members, and notices that the way Ash acts around them is different from how he acts when he’s with him. This realization leads Eiji to a very important conclusion.

Leaving all joking aside, this right here is exactly what Ash and Eiji’s relationship is built on. Ash thinks of himself as “bad news”—a street punk beyond redemption who will never escape the vicious cycle of crime and gang politics. He thinks he’ll never get rid of the smell of blood and gun smoke that permeates his entire being. Eiji, on the other hand, thinks of Ash as a friend—a teenager just like himself who happens to have an embarrassing fear of pumpkins. But in a way that fear represents Ash’s human side in Eiji’s eyes.

So why am I going on and on about this as if we didn’t know all about it already? Because this is the first scene that highlights the contrast between Ash’s perception of himself and Eiji’s perception of him. That must be why in the next scene Max and Ibe-san’s conversation steers towards this very subject.

By the way, I want to make one thing clear: The fact that Eiji thinks of Ash as a teenager like himself doesn’t mean he’s not affected by his charisma. Of course Eiji can see how striking Ash looks physically. He is well aware of how intelligent, strong, resilient and capable Ash is and goes “wow” at times, both to himself and out loud. Ash is so different from Eiji in every aspect, but at the end of the day Eiji feels like he’s with a friend when he’s around Ash.

But Eiji can tell that Ash is slowly going over to the dark side, as reflected in his thoughts in the scene above. All that killing and seeing his loved ones getting killed, not to mention the horrible revelations of the secret dealings between the state and the mafia, the relentless chasing and living every single day with death breathing down his neck… It all takes a toll on Ash’s human side, slowly turning him into the monster he thinks he already is. Having realized this insidious transformation, Eiji strives to prevent Ash from slipping through his fingers into a place where he can’t reach him anymore. And how does he do that? By staying with him.

What an uncanny coincidence that the scene above (where Ash wakes up from a nightmare and breaks down crying in front of Eiji) takes place on the same day when Eiji first realizes that he might be slowly losing the Ash he knows. It’s possible to interpret this as a cry for help. In a moment of vulnerability, Ash opens up to Eiji as if to find an answer to the question “What have I become?” I chose the word ‘vulnerability’ over ‘weakness’ because this scene shows us just how strong Ash still is. He knows very well what lies ahead for him and he’s trying to cling on to the child within himself, to Aslan, with all his might. That’s why he tells Eiji to “stay with him” because Eiji is not someone who was stripped of his innocence like Ash was.

Eiji hears Ash’s cry for help and promises him “forever” (I wish we could have heard that promise in the anime too). Sure, Eiji feels indebted towards Ash because of Shorter, but I think what triggered this promise is beyond that: Eiji realizes that Ash needs him to preserve his humanity.

But Eiji’s promise of forever will soon be put to a test.

Read the next part of the meta here.

#different worlds #i really like this part #banana fish #eiji okumura #banana fish manga #meta #analiz #yorum #english #banana fish türkçe #orta

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dwellordream · 3 years

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A Six of Crows Review: Joost and Inej I

This marks the beginning of my review of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Before I go any further, I want to provide context for my experience/knowledge of the book and its fandom. Six of Crows was published in 2015 when I was 16. I picked it up in a bookstore and read the first few chapters idly while shopping, before putting it back down.

At the time, my dislike of what I’d read was probably primarily fueled by the realization that it was by the same author as Shadow and Bone, which I had tried to read a few years before and disliked, and because at the time I was aging out of the YA genre in general and had very little patience for many of its familiar tropes.

In recent years, Six of Crows and its companion and predecessor series, the Grisha Trilogy, have become one of the most popular YA series online. The avid fan response and promotion of it on social media no doubt led to the Netflix series being greenlit and it is obviously trending at present due to the success of the series. With all that in mind, I’ve decided to try Six of Crows again and see for myself what all the hype is about.

Some more caveats: I am 22 years old. I am aware Six of Crows is YA literature intended for a middle and high school audience. I will not be holding it to the standards I would hold an adult grade fantasy book, in terms of prose, themes, or content. I am aware that I am not necessarily the target audience for the book and these reviews are in no way intended to shame or disparage anyone who enjoys the book.

Criticism is a healthy part of any fandom and does not necessarily constitute hate. I will likely critique elements of the book in my write up. That does not mean I have a personal vendetta against the author, publishers, or the TV show. Please do not take this as a personal attack if you’ve enjoyed the book. This is just intended to promote discussion and to gather my own thoughts.

If you follow me, I am tagging this as ‘in review’ so you know what to block if you don’t want to see my posts on your dash. I will be going through 1-2 chapters per weekend. This weekend I will be looking at the prologue, aka Joost, and the first Inej chapter.

Jumping into things, here is Joost:

The prologue is our introduction to Ketterdam, the setting of Six of Crows. It’s been a very long time since I read Shadow and Bone and so all I really know is that Ketterdam is a city in an island known as Kerch, based off the map. The major countries or kingdoms of the mainland to the east appear to be Fjerda, Ravka, and Shu Han, though it is unclear how they differ from one another at this point.

Ketterdam through Joost’s eyes is a sinister and dreary place, a city under a grimy night sky and full of dangers. Joost works as a hired guard for a very wealthy man named Hoede, who keeps grishas, powerful magic users, as indentured servants. Joost is infatuated with one of them, Anya, a healer, though he knows she is not likely to return his affections and furthermore cannot wed without the permission of her owner. We also learn that grishas are at risk for being kidnapped and sold by slavers due to their value. However, the indentured servant system of Ketterdam thus far doesn’t seem to be much better than slavery, given how little freedom the grisha have.

Overall, the prologue is supposed to give us a sense for the setting of Ketterdam and interest us in the main hook of the novel, which seems to be a mysterious substance that grisha can ingest to heighten their powers for the benefit of their masters, though it has the risks of making them uncontrollable. How well is this done?

Through Joost’s perspective we can glean several things; Ketterdam is a dirty city with rampant income inequality, full of crime and corruption. Magic is an established system within Ketterdam, but the magic users do not seem to be at the type of the hierarchy despite their powers, which suggests they are a minority to the extent of which they can still be controlled by the elite class of non magic users, if they have enough money and power.

It is also very obvious through the references in the prologue that Ketterdam is heavily based off the Netherlands during the Golden Age, which was Amsterdam’s (Ketterdam… Amsterdam… not subtle) economic and cultural boom during the 17th century, aka the 1600s. Notably the world’s first stock exchange began in Amsterdam in 1602, and it was a major port and trading hub for the Dutch East and Dutch West India Companies.

It is not clear if Ketterdam is also intended to be a 1600s-esque society, timeline wise, but we know that rifles are common place and there is a thriving merchant class who rule as opposed to old aristocracy, which seems to indicate a Renaissance style setting, as well as the urban environment in general. (That said, from the advertisements for the Netflix show, they seem to have updated it to a more Victorian-era 1800s society, in terms of fashion and general aesthetics).

Overall, the prologue does its job. It gives us a vague idea of what Ketterdam is like, how the society is structured, and who holds the power. It also ends on a suspenseful cliffhanger, leaving Joost’s fate unclear. Where it falls flat is that I think a little more time could have been spent fleshing out Joost as a narrator, even if this is his only showing in the book.

His internal monologue comes across as a bit dry and mechanical, as if the author is aware he is just a means to an end to start the book off with a bang, and he quickly turns into a walking camera (just there to report events to the reader, with no internal input from him), for the second half of the prologue, as we switch to just watching Anya and Hoede through his eyes. That said, it’s not a major problem, as Joost is clearly not intended to be a main character, and his narration still effectively conveys what is happening and sets the dark tone of the novel.

What I would have liked to see from the prologue is perhaps the POV of Anya herself, or the small child she is being forced to experiment on, as that might have been a more compelling and immerse introduction to Ketterdam and its dangers rather than the fairly bland and neutral Joost, who doesn’t really feel like a character so much as a bland stand-in for the reader. If we were put in the shoes of Anya, suddenly called upon by her power hungry employer to participate in this unethical test, or in the shoes of the small boy caught up in the middle of this, it might have been both more thrilling to read and given a more gritty sense of what it’s like to be on the lowest rungs of Ketterdam’s society, at the mercy of the most powerful.

Moving onto Inej, we run into some similar problems. After Inej’s first chapter, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about her, other than that she was an acrobat as a child, that she is part of the street gang known as the Dregs, and that she intensely values loyalty. This isn’t a problem, per say, but while that’s all good to know, it doesn’t give me any sense of Inej’s actual personality, which doesn’t exactly bode well. Like Joost, she comes across more as a walking camera and occasional tourist guide as opposed to a human character with her own worries, hopes, and fears.

I think this may become a recurring problem with Bardugo’s writing - ie all tell, no show. Inej is good at telling things. She tells us where we are as we follow her to the location of a stand-off between rival gangs, she tells us that Kaz, their leader ‘doesn’t need a reason’, though she never exactly explains what that means other than that he is widely feared, she tells us that she is very fond of her knives.

But in terms of writing, we shouldn’t have to be force fed all this information via her internal monologue, which, again, entirely cuts out once the action picks up, just like Joost’s. While I don’t need her thoughts on every threat or gunshot, it would be nice to feel as if she hadn’t just vanished from the story completely as soon as the dialogue starts.

We also meet Kaz and Jesper, though I couldn’t tell you much about them utter than that Inej clearly admires, even venerates Kaz as an accomplished intimidator and chess master, and that Jesper is clearly the joker of the group.

It also feels incredibly weird that this parley between gangs in happening in front of the city’s stock exchange. Inej tells us this is because the Exchange is one of the few remaining neutral territories, but it’s also heavily guarded, which means every time a gang wants to parley, they have to pay out the cash to bribe all the guards to very pointedly ignore a meeting between rambunctious and trigger happy street gangsters on their literal doorstep.

I understand why Bardugo chose this location, wanting to contrast the violence of the gang members with the economic injustice that the Exchange and its merchant rulers represents, but it just seems a bit silly. They couldn’t meet at the docks? In an alley way? This is like picturing the American Mafia hosting a public meeting at the New York Stock Exchange with a bunch of cops twiddling their thumbs nearby.

The foreshadowing that Bollinger is the traitor (‘I’m not going to bet on my own death’) also seems very heavy handed and a little much, but I’ll let it slide.

It’s also not really clear while Inej is present at this meeting in the first place. Kaz commands her to keep watch from above, but he has also put a contingency plan in place that doesn’t even involve her, having bought out some of Geels’ men from under him. Why put Inej looking down from above if you’re not involving her in this plan? Her only role seems to be to watch, and she doesn’t even have a gun she could play sniper with. It just seems like a hamfisted way of getting Inej out of the danger zone so the author can have her as a passive spectator to the violence that follows.

This is my main problem with this chapter. It’s supposed to introduce us to Inej, but really, it’s introducing us to Kaz. Which is fine, but as he also has a POV in this book, it seems a bit lame that her own chapter is completely overtaken by showing off A. his smarts and B. how dangerous he is, despite being dismissed as a young ‘cripple’ by the likes of Geels.

Geels is also… not a greatly done villain. I get that he’s supposed to be small fry and is just a precursor to much more threatening opponents, but his every line of dialogue feels designed to show off how cool and Machiavellian Kaz is in comparison. He doesn’t seem like an actual hardened criminal who has underestimated his opponent, but a somewhat cheesy cartoon thug who unironically says things like “How are you going to wriggle your way out of this one?” with his full chest. The effect is comical, and not in a good way.

This chapter also shows off Kaz’s sadistic side in full display, which is probably one of the only interesting things about it, though it would be nice if we got any input at all from Inej on this… instead she completely vanishes from her own narration, to the point where she might as well not be present at all. Kaz has no qualms about tracking down his enemies’ weakness, such as lovers and family, and threatening them.

But the open horror and shock Geels reacts with seems incongruent, as if Kaz were the first up and coming gangster to actually consider threatening someone’s family or girlfriend. That seems pretty par for the course for violent criminals trying to claim territory and unnerve their rivals, yet Inej and Geels himself react as if no one had ever thought of sinking to the level of ‘do what I want or I’ll kill your loved ones’ until Kaz invented it. It just feels a bit silly and on the nose.

Really, my overarching issue with this chapter is that it’s not about Inej at all, it’s just an introduction to the Kaz Brekker fan club. I don’t automatically hate Kaz as a character, but his introduction is heavyhanded and comes at the cost of any establishing character moments for Inej. The most we get out of her is her brief pangs of sympathy for Bollinger despite his treachery, and her brief reference to her childhood. Maybe future Inej chapters will totally change this, but right now, it’s not a great sign of what’s to come.

I can think of about a hundred things Inej could have done or said this chapter to develop or establish her personality at all, but all we got was her briefly holding a knife to someone, and her briefly saying a prayer for Bollinger. I think it would have worked much better had this plan to catch Geels with his pants down been Inej’s invention or at least worked out between her and Kaz, rather than her just there to play lookout and admire how cool Kaz is.

Or at the very least, we could have seen the scene referenced where she searches the crime scene of the assassination, instead of that getting two lines and an entire chapter being devoted to what boils down to a pissing contest over which gangs gets rights to a certain neighborhood.

Next week, we will look at Kaz I.

#in review #six of crows #ya lit #inej ghafa

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thenugking · 4 years

Note

THANK u 4 providing the text, i am mostly an aurion romancer (but i love xi LOADS too) and AAA ive always loved the detail that mr umbrater malisar etc etc spent a whole YEAR trying 2 ask the mc out, its just soft, the ros reactions to a full monster mc is also very interesting too!!! u said u spent the most time on the homecoming chap, do u mind sharing some info on the GANG? i probably am already familiar w it but on the off chance im not! either way its fun 2 talk abt gaffv! - ghxstwriter

He’s just..... adorable. Likes yes Aurion you’re super evil, greatest villain, yeah, yeah, but also you’re a Cutie!!!

Link To A Google Doc with The Same Points But Better Formatting, I Hate Tumblr

Anyway I started off trying to point out, like, differences in approval and stuff in the Homecoming chapter but then I just got distracted so here are some of my fave Aurion, Xi, Phil and Kinistra things

So Aurion is Homecoming Tyrant if you’re not. He makes you Lieutenant if you’re his LI/nemesis/commander/minion. Otherwise, it’s Kinistra Unless she’s romancing you, in which case it’s Phil, Unless he flunked out, in which case it’s Xi. I don’t know if this is meant to show Aurion has friendships with the others, or just that he’s running through the list of the only people he knows, but either way I like it.

Also between this and the fact that, if you ask Aurion to be your nemesis in the second game but don’t have high enough approval he tells you that there’s someone else, I think Aurion/Kinistra is maybe a thing if you don’t romance either of them?? She’s also apparently in Fantasy in the second game, if you convinced her to be a villain.

Xi needs 10% higher approval than the others to agree to be your nemesis, and if they do agree, tells you that of course they’ll be your enemy, they like you. They’re the only nemesis you can’t have a final battle with in the first game, and iirc, tell you to be patient if you suggest the two of you should maybe fight at all.

If you ask them to be your nemesis without high enough approval, they tell you DarkBoard is their nemesis, and that they, "Dread and worship and will one day be completely subsumed into," them. So basically, Xi treats having someone as their nemesis as a sign of affection. I love them

They all have different levels of approval to be your love interests, and each has a particular skill they apparently find hot.

Phil is obviously easiest, needing 65% approval, lowering to 50% with 60+% hedonism. Or if you’ve taken the Don Juan course, you can romance him at any level approval.

Aurion and Xi both need 65% approval. Aurion’s lowers to 60+% with 65% competence, Xi’s lowers to 55%, with 60+% style.

Kinistra is the hardest, needing 70%, but lowering to 60% if you have only 50+% chaos. Her romance can also cut off if you’re romancing anyone else

Also I mentioned this before but Phil and Xi are both canonically polyamorous, and Xi’s in a relationship with DarkBoard. None of this is super hidden or anything I just appreciate it a lot.

As Homecoming Lieutenant, Kinistra and Aurion are both Very Eager to get up on stage with you, and Aurion announces himself Homecoming Lieutenant if you win without a nemesis/LI/commander/minion. Xi on the other hand, really does not seem to enjoy doing it.

As your commander/minion, Phil tells you he’s a Fallen Angel, like most of his family. Professor Arthenes also gives his full name as Gavril Philippe Des Anges Dechus after the midterms. (Although this may not be his “true” name, since Phil says in Chapter 2 that his real name tends to burn out people’s minds.)

We also know that his dad’s powerful enough that the debt dragons answer to him, and if you failed to get Phil to help you kidnap Kinistra and try bribing him with your mother’s connections you get this:

Even the normally unflappable Phil looks a little impatient at this. "Your mother? Oh $!{firstname}, come on, it's not like she could… I mean, do you know who my father is?"

So basically I’m pretty sure Phil’s dad is Satan. It also explains why, although Maedryn will insult Aurion and Xi in chapter 4 if you’re close to them, she doesn’t mention Phil--his dad outranks even her.

Speaking of the Kinistra kidnapping, there’s a lot of fun stuff there if you don’t have high enough approval with whoever you choose as a co-conspirator. They all ask for a bribe.

Phil wants 25% of your budget, which he apparently just considers a nominal sum. Look, I love Phil, but sometimes I remember quite how rich he is and then I slightly want to guillotine him.

Aurion wants 50% of your budget because at this point he has, like, no money, and he can’t hide his delight at getting some.

Xi asks for 75% but doesn’t actually seem to care about the money, as much as about making you suffer.

They each have an extra thing you can offer them if you can’t or don’t want to pay. Aurion will take favours from your mum, since he’s not very well off, Phil will take any contraband you smuggled into the school because he thinks it’s hilarious, and Xi will take an upgraded map so they can narc to DarkBoard about the areas DarkBoard’s missing in.

If Xi is blackmailing you and you offer them favours from your mum, they just stare at you until you get uncomfy and leave.

Also, if you do get Phil as your co-conspirator, you discover that his “room” is an opulent suite taking up the whole of the Horror dorm’s top floor.

If you try to let Phil fail in the mid-terms, but don’t have high enough hedonism, Aurion lets Phil cheat off his paper and it’s very cute look!!

Aurion, sitting at your table, hastily attempts to conceal his blush with an incongruous snarl. "Aurion? But you--but he--I thought you hated him!" I do!" Aurion protests, unconvincingly. "Lazy--worthless--no real commitment to the Dark Path--”

In the final chapter, if Kinistra or Phil steal control of your replica’s body and the hero-neutralising black hole and you’re in a romance with them, they do it by kissing you. Kinistra’s response is, “Well, I am a hero.” Phil’s response is basically, “Well I am Phil.”

Also if you’re in the Hero Conspiracy and ask a romanced Kinistra if you can trust her, she kisses you. When you worry that this seems a very heroic thing to do, she tells you to stop worrying because, “This is also standard deflection technique for Seductresses and Femmes Fatales." I really need to romance Kinistra at some point, she’s wonderful.

If you’re in the Hero Conspiracy and ask Xi to teach you how to disable DarkBoard portals, all their responses are wonderful. If you’re in a romance, they tell you you’re predictable for trying to seduce them into helping you, but then basically just go, “I’ll do it tho.”

If you’re not in a romance but have high enough approval their response is:

"You want me to demonstrate my power over the great and ineffable network that is DarkBoard by showing you how to remotely disable DarkBoard portals?" Xi demands. Their tone is as flat as always, but you suspect there's sarcasm there. "Sure, all right."

But then nope, they’re not being sarcastic, they really mean it??

And then if you don’t have high enough approval they just make a terrible joke and laugh at it??

"You want me to demonstrate my power over the great and ineffable network that is DarkBoard by showing you how to remotely disable DarkBoard portals?" they demand. "Pull the other one. No. Not the red one. Any wire but that one." They go off, cackling to themselves; it's the most emotion you've seen Xi display in months.

I love them.

Also some fun Aurion things from the sequel!!

If you challenge him for leadership of Fantasy after the dorm blows up, it mentions he’s wearing his Night Cape. Because he’s adorable.

If you try to throw the initial fight for your genre’s leadership by immediately surrendering and begging for mercy, but you don’t have high enough hedonism or chaos, your opponent will object that they’re surrendering. Which most of them are fairly chill about, but Aurion’s surrendering goes like this:

"Not," he says, "if I surrender first."You point out that if we're talking first, you were the one who started the surrendering."All right," he says through his teeth. "Not if I surrender [i]harder[/i]." Whereupon he seizes a heavy brass lamp and whacks himself in the head. He drops back onto the sofa as heavily as the fall of an axe. The others agree that you are indeed the winner by default.

In the DarkBoard simulation, the genre leaders all start talking about how there’s three of you, like on a heroic quest. And their individual responses are basically:

A Baroness: Obviously I'm the brains

Dev: We represent the psyche, I'm the id I guess

Sona: I'd be the fighter!

Aurion: I'm the Hero!

YES AURION YOU’RE SUCH A SUPER EVIL AMAZING VILLAIN oh my god i still can’t believe that that is the first thing he jumped to.

#Anonymous #ghxstwriter #grand academy for future villains #asks about gaffv #choice of games #aurion umbrator malisar #xi #princess kinistra #gavril philippe des anges dechus #long post #asks post

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silverypurple-rosedlions · 3 years

Text

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓟𝓾𝓻𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮 𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓯𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓼

𝖄𝖔𝖔𝖓 𝕵𝖊𝖔𝖓𝖌𝖍𝖆𝖓

[💜💍]: Yoon Hong Joshua Jisoo

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Depression: A disorder that causes the person constant feelings of sadness, unmotivation, discouragement, and loss of interest in daily activities. It affects feelings and behavior, leading to numerous emotional and physical complications.

Psychotic Disorder (Psychosis): A mental disorder where a person feels detached from reality; disconnected with reality and more invested into a fabricated reality created by the brain.

Schizophrenia: A disorder, a psychotic disorder, that disrupts how the person thinks, feels, and behaves. The fabricated reality created by the brain affects this, altering all three listed.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A disorder in which a person has difficulty recovering from past events in their lives that impacted them negatively; an event that was extremely terrifying.

[Facts]:

-> Due to past events, Jeonghan has trust issues. Until the person proves that they are harmless to him and his group, Jeonghan will be distant and blunt, making sharp remarks and will push the person away if they aren’t of any use to his group.

-> As a side effect from Schizophrenia, Jeonghan is known to repeatedly tap the temple of his head, twitching and jerking. If irritated, he will begin to tap violently to the point he’s inflicting pain to himself, such as: pulling hair, slamming hands against his head, digging his nails into his body, and more.

-> His past is a very sensitive topic for him. He will not answer or explain his past unless you have gained his full trust. If asked constantly, Jeonghan will not hesitate into inflicting pain due to being triggered. So do NOT question his past until close with him.

-> Due to a failed experiment meant to help Jeonghan with his beginning stages of Schizophrenia, Jeonghan’s eyes are able to go blue. This being referred to by all members as, “blue eyes.” When in this state, Jeonghan loses all senses of the world around him, encased in his episode, and will attack anything and anyone until the episode is over, or is calmed.

-> On his back, he has a large burn of The Purple Rose logo branded on him. This was by accident, during the beginning year of the infamous gang when he received this. Despite it healing, it is forever imprinted on his skin, the melting burning too deep. But many, those who aren't informed at first, can sometimes mistaken it as a tattoo.

𝖄𝖔𝖔𝖓 𝕳𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝕵𝖔𝖘𝖍𝖚𝖆 𝕵𝖎𝖘𝖔𝖔

[🤍💍]: Yoon Jeonghan

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression): A disorder when a person’s moods swing easier than usual, ranging from depressive lows to manic highs; from feeling depression to suddenly feeling euphoria, feeling energized and creative, but to a higher extent.

Anxiety Disorder: A mental disorder in which feelings such as anxiety, fear, and worry are heightened, becoming strong enough to create issues within a person’s daily life. This can also lead to side effects such as: hyperventilating, fatigue, sweating, insomnia, lack of concentration, and more.

[Facts]:

-> Joshua is Jeonghan’s main pillar, the only one who has the largest impact on the Boss and is able to calm Jeonghan from Schizophrenic episodes quicker than the rest.

-> Joshua is one of the friendliest members in The Purple Rose. He’s easier to approach, but do not underestimate him. Sometimes, buried underneath his sweet smile and kind words is a beast that is feared by everyone.

-> Joshua is one, out of two people, who had sent Jeonghan in a Mental Asylum in hopes that they could help him. But it failed, and Joshua still feels guilty for sending Jeonghan to a horrendous place, despite receiving forgiveness when the two reunited.

-> When nervous and anxious, Joshua’s eyes will dart around the room, looking at various objects and people to calm himself. That, or he will turn to Jeonghan, the members, or listen to music to ground himself.

-> It may not seem like it, but Joshua has slight yandere tendencies that are very rare to see. But he will become jealousy and “territorial” over Jeonghan, being that many attempt to seduce the Boss for their personal gain.

𝖂𝖊𝖓 𝕵𝖚𝖓𝖍𝖚𝖎

[💕💍]: @seventeen-chatbot | Jeon Wonwoo

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Psychotic Disorder (Psychosis)

Schizophrenia

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

[Facts]:

-> Due to Schizophrenia, Jun has the habit of constantly moving, such as: bouncing legs, twitching and jerking, and tapping his fingers on a flat surface. Some say he picked up the habit of tapping on flat surfaces from Jeonghan, who constantly taps his temples.

-> Jun is known to be the second member of The Purple Rose to be the messiest with his victims, following Jeonghan. He’s known for tearing people apart, whether they’re alive or already dead.

-> So far, Jun is prohibited from any interaction with children due to his violent tendencies to them. But it is unknown as to why children trigger him.

-> Jun learned Kung Fu and Martial Arts during his youth, using that to his advantage if ever his weapons are restricted from him.

-> Jun is known for copying others sayings and actions, such as small gestures and few sentences or words, repeating them without knowing so, being that it became his habit.

𝕵𝖊𝖔𝖓 𝖂𝖔𝖓𝖜𝖔𝖔

[❤️| Uncertain and anxious . . .]: @pup-hendery

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D): A disorder in which the brain creates other alters/identities to distribute trauma to, so that the main person, the host, is protected from past events that occured in their life that they aren’t able to handle alone.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD)

Psychotic Disorder (Psychosis)

Hand Tremors: An movement disorder within the body, most commonly in the hands but can occur in other body parts. An involuntary, rhythmic muscle contraction that causes shaking. Can happen every now and then, or constantly.

[Facts]:

-> In total, Wonwoo has 17 alters. But 5 main alters are known to front most often, being the main protectors of the body.

-> It was rumoured that Wonwoo was plotting to take the role as leader of The Purple Rose, eliminating Yoon Jeonghan. But it was never confirmed.

-> Due to poor eyesight, Wonwoo is required to wear glasses. But when doing work and handling targets, Wonwoo will not need them. Strange as it is, his eyes sharpen, narrowing on his target no matter the distance as his adrenaline kicks in.

-> Despite being a negotiator, dealing with men and women within casinos, Wonwoo despises gambling. He can’t tolerate the smell of strong alcohol, betting, and smoke.

-> Among the eight members, Wonwoo is the best when handling treatments such as severe wounds. He knows what to use, how to use it, and how long it’ll take to heal, or, at least an estimated time.

𝕷𝖊𝖊 𝕵𝖎𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖓

[💜]: @heartbrokenxinseong

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Psychotic Disorder (Psychosis)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

[Facts]:

-> Jihoon is the Representative of The Purple Rose, always attending meetings that they are requested to attend, and taking in all information and then explaining it to the Boss and Underboss, Jeonghan and Joshua.

-> Jihoon’s main job is to not only process information, but to plan each mission, and how they will be carried out. It has been his job since the start of The Purple Rose.

-> Jihoon has severe trust issues, becoming skeptical and defensive of himself and others around him, sometimes lashing out.

-> Jihoon does not accept being called “cute.” Despite his height, Jihoon is hostile, and will not hesitate to attack.

-> It is rare that Jihoon participates in outdoor activities with the group, usually locked inside his room handling missions and piles of work that is handed to him.

𝖃𝖚 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖍𝖆𝖔

[💚]: @kjiwon

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Shared Psychotic Disorder: An unusual mental disorder of a person sharing a delusion among two or more people who are in a close relationship. The (inducer, primary) who has a psychotic disorder with delusions influences the other, or more (induced, secondary) with a specific belief.

Psychotic Disorder (Psychosis)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

[Facts]:

-> Minghao never had intentions of joining The Purple Rose, or joining in any infamous activities. But, because he was influenced and close with Jun, he didn’t have any other option but to become a member, sharing Jun’s Schizophrenia.

-> Minghao is a cannibal, and has been since the age of 17. He tends to make comments now and then on people, wondering what they would taste like but will not pursue them depending on his relationship with them.

-> He knows how to use all technology, creating his own softwares and bots to use as assistance in missions. He’s crafty, and with Jun and Mingyu help, he creates his own unique gadgets that are used frequently.

-> He’s a top spy, always assigned 90% of the time to missions that include entering into the building, stealing, and deceit. When doing this, he temporarily dyes his hair a different color.

-> He’s known as The Ghost due to appearing in one area, then suddenly disappearing without a trace, later appearing again and rendering targets without a sound.

𝕶𝖎𝖒 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖞𝖚

[🧡]: @arinschoi

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

Psychotic Disorder (Psychosis)

PTSD

[Facts]:

-> Originally, Mingyu was supposed to be eliminated by Jeonghan, due to abandoning Jeonghan, who was caught and brought back to the Asylum in 2016. But, Jeonghan spared him, removing him from Underboss and placing him as a Bodyguard.

-> Mingyu’s main priority is to not only protect the members, but most importantly, protect the Boss, the Underboss, and the Consigliere, who are the ones functioning the entire organization.

-> Mingyu is known to be the cleanest member, always cleaning after them and doing normal house chores that he’s mistaken to be a germaphobe. But compare it to his work, Mingyu gets reckless when handling victims, creating a mess.

-> Aside from working as a Bodyguard, Mingyu acts as a spy and seducer. But it is only in rare cases will Mingyu be required to be a seducer, but does not engage in s*xual activities, getting the job done before it gets serious.

-> Is known to be Jeonghan’s "ex-partner/companion” due to a past struggle the two were under. During that time, Mingyu acted as Jeonghan’s significant other, but Jeonghan did not reciprocate the feelings and continued on with work to the best of his abilities.

𝕷𝖊𝖊 𝕾𝖊𝖔𝖐𝖒𝖎𝖓

[💙💍]: @ghoulxbaekhyun

[Characteristics]:

[Mental and Physical Illnesses]:

ADHD: A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness, which begins during childhood and into adulthood. Effects self-esteem, education and work, and relationship

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

[Facts]:

-> Seokmin is a cannibal, beginning this at the age of 18. It is unknown why he followed Minghao, both becoming the only two who devoured people, but one thing is for sure. He doesn’t always eat victims, but he won’t hesitate to take a bite.

-> Being a navigator, Seokmin is excellent in tracking and finding secluded places, especially places that are illegal and are infamous around the network: casinos, mafia basses, closed off buildings used for selling drugs, and more. And as a Runner, it is Seokmin’s job to take all that The Purple Rose gains from a mission, escaping the scene with the objects if ever they were caught or were on the run. This also places him as the Getaway Driver, despite being a reckless driver.

-> Seokmin can be easily persuaded if lured into the trap by the right bait. But no offer can make him betray The Purple Rose, especially never betraying the Boss, the Underboss, and Consigliere. He follows their orders strictly, despite bending the rules.

-> Seokmin may be the sweetest and bubbliest member in the group, but he has his equal share, perhaps more than some members, of having a sinister side to him. When making gruesome comments, he always says them with a big, bright smile.

-> Seokmin despises usage of drugs and alcohol. He’ll drink now and then, but no more than two cups. Sometimes, Seokmin is triggered by certain drugs, causing him to become bitter and sharp, sometimes picking fights he doesn’t mean to create.

OG: @yanlee

#the purple rose #purple rose: profiles #cw mental health #cw mental illness #cw #cw ptsd #cw schizophrenia #cw dissociative identity disorder #cw adhd #cw depression #cw bipolar disorder #cw psychosis

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wat-the-cur · 3 years

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I watched SBM again, last night. Once again, I’m here to say that I love it with all my heart, but the changes it made, especially to the characters of Teddy and Vern, still really bother me.

Dysfunctional familial relationships were certainly a theme in the novella, but the main theme was centred on and represented by the Treehouse Gang. The idea that there are some people who are doomed to remain unchanged and never make progress in their lives, and if you stick with these people, they’ll drag you down with them. Teddy and Vern are portrayed as being such people, and it really stings to think about that. Teddy and Vern are just children, they are heavily implied to be mentally, as well as physically disabled, and their home lives, as like Gordie’s and Chris’, have had huge affects on them, emotionally. Yet, in a moment that is handled off-handedly in the film, Chris looks at them with a sort of grim horror and reflects that he will be shackled to them for the rest of his life, while Gordie makes something of himself.

Not only was this theme unique in comparison to the film’s emphasis on Gordie’s family life, and likely to leave the viewer far more shaken, but it also gave Teddy and Vern a real relevance within the group. This is something that the theme change rather robbed them of. Chris And Gordie were always more central to the story, but the film made it so that nothing of thematic importance would really be lost, if Teddy and Vern were absent from the story.

Less time is devoted to developing Teddy and Vern. Teddy in particular, suffered most from adaptational changes, going from an angry and disturbed, but no less caring child, to an equally unsettled boy, who is also a bully, who holds his friends in contempt (I made a whole post about this, previously). Vern, while closer to his portrayal in the novella, has what little significant dialogue he had given to Gordie. It was originally Vern who said “Maybe it shouldn’t be a party.” While after this he did compare Ray Brower’s body to a panel from a horror comic, it’s not played as him being insensitive, or stupid. He was trying to express that same depth of emotion about the trip that Gordie was feeling, but in his own way, in the only way he knew how. It put Vern on the same level as the rest of the gang, as character, rather than simply comic relief.

SBM may not have been so beloved, had it stuck rigidly to the novella (all though it still stands as one of the best Stephen King adaptations, in my opinion). Still, I have to point it out as the reason that Teddy and Vern are a great deal more flat in fanworks than Gordie, or Chris. I think Gordie and Chris would always have been more well loved, but I feel like Teddy and Vern might have been treated better, had they held the same significance and character as in the novella.

#stand by me #stand by me (1986)#the body #the body (novella)#stephen king #teddy duchamp #vern tessio

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, July 30, 2021

Alaskan coast 8.2 magnitude earthquake was the strongest one in decades, official says (CNN) The 8.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off Alaska’s coast Wednesday night was the strongest one since 1964, an official told CNN. The very strong quake was located about 56 miles (91 kilometers) east southeast of Perryville, Alaska, and happened around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said. “This event was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak,” according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.

Homes lose water as wells run dry in drought-ravaged basin MALIN, Ore. (AP) Judy and Jim Shanks know the exact date their home’s well went dry—June 24. Since then, their life has been an endless cycle of imposing on relatives for showers and laundry, hauling water to feed a small herd of cattle and desperately waiting for a local well-drilling company to make it to their name on a monthslong wait list. The couple’s well is among potentially hundreds that have dried up in recent weeks in an area near the Oregon-California border suffering through a historic drought, leaving homes with no running water just a few months after the federal government shut off irrigation to hundreds of the region’s farmers for the first time ever. Officials have formal reports of 117 empty wells but suspect more than 300 have gone dry in the past few weeks as the consequences of the Klamath River basin’s water scarcity extend far beyond farmers’ fields. Worried homeowners face waits of six months or more to get new, deeper wells dug because of the surging demand, with no guarantee that those wells, too, won’t ultimately go dry. While much of the West is experiencing exceptional drought conditions, the toll on everyday life is particularly stark in this region filled with flat vistas of sprawling alfalfa and potato fields and normally teeming wetlands.

Biden orders tough new vaccination rules for federal government (AP) President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new pandemic requirements for millions of federal workers. Federal workers will be required to attest they’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus or else face mandatory masking, weekly testing, distancing and other new rules. The newly strict guidelines are aimed at boosting sluggish vaccination rates among the four million Americans who draw federal paychecks and to set an example for private employers around the country. The administration encouraged businesses to follow its lead on incentivizing vaccinations by imposing burdens on the unvaccinated. Rather than mandating that federal workers receive vaccines, the plan will make life more difficult for those who are unvaccinated to encourage them to comply. Biden also directed the Defense Department to look into adding the COVID-19 shot to its list of required vaccinations for members of the military. And he has directed his team to take steps to apply similar requirements to all federal contractors. Biden also urged state and local governments to use funds provided by the coronavirus relief package to incentivize vaccinations by offering $100 to individuals who get the shots. And he announced that small- and medium-sized businesses will receive reimbursements if they offer employees time off to get family members vaccinated.

Mexico declares $3 billion U.S. security deal ‘dead,’ seeks revamp (Washington Post) Frustrated by raging violence, the Mexican government is seeking to overhaul the Merida Initiative, a $3 billion U.S. aid program that’s been the centerpiece of security cooperation between the two nations for more than a decade—but has failed to reduce bloodshed. Mexican officials say they have been meeting with Biden administration officials since late spring to refocus their cooperation against drug cartels and other criminal groups, amid growing concerns that such gangs are expanding their control over Mexican territory. “The Merida Initiative is dead. It doesn’t work, okay?” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told The Washington Post in the government’s first detailed comments on the discussions. “We are now in another era.” Launched during the presidency of George W. Bush, the Merida Initiative initially provided hundreds of millions of dollars for aircraft, helicopters and other hardware for Mexico’s security forces. In recent years, the funding shifted to technical aid and training to strengthen Mexico’s police and justice system. But despite the billions of dollars in aid, there has been a “huge, huge increase in violence,” Ebrard noted. Homicides in Mexico have quadrupled since the initiative was announced in 2007. Drug overdose deaths in the United States, meanwhile, soared to a record 93,331 last year, fueled by the rising use of fentanyl, much of it smuggled across the southwest border.

Something strange is happening in Britain. Covid cases are plummeting instead of soaring. (Washington Post) This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They were supposed to soar. Scientists aren’t sure why they haven’t. The trajectory of the virus in Britain is something the world is watching closely and anxiously, as a test of how the delta variant behaves in a society with relatively high vaccination rates. And now people are asking if this could be the first real-world evidence that the pandemic in Britain is sputtering out—after three national lockdowns and almost 130,000 deaths. Public health experts, alongside the government, predicted that cases would be rising in Britain at this point, perhaps even exponentially.

France Gave Teenagers $350 for Culture. They’re Buying Comic Books. (NYT) When the French government launched a smartphone app that gives 300 euros to every 18-year-old in the country for cultural purchases like books and music, or exhibition and performance tickets, most young people’s impulse wasn’t to buy Proust’s greatest works or to line up and see Molière. Instead, France’s teenagers flocked to manga. As of this month, books represented over 75 percent of all purchases made through the app since it was introduced nationwide in May—and roughly two-thirds of those books were manga, according to the organization that runs the app, called the Culture Pass. The focus on comic books reveals a subtle tension at the heart of the Culture Pass’s design, between the almost total freedom it affords young users—including to buy the mass media they already love—and its architects’ aim of guiding users toward lesser-known and more highbrow arts. Opponents accuse Macron of throwing cash at young people to court their vote before next year’s presidential election.

Europe on vacation, but vaccinations not taking a break (AP) Europe’s famed summer holiday season is in full swing, but efforts to inoculate people against the coronavirus are not taking a break. Instead, with lockdowns easing despite concerns about variants and nations looking to breathe new life into their ailing tourism industries, vaccinations are being taken to vacationers. From France’s sun-kissed Mediterranean coast to the azure waters of Italy’s Adriatic beaches and Russian Black Sea resorts, health authorities are trying to make a COVID-19 shot as much part of this summer as sunscreen and shades for those who are not yet fully vaccinated. The new drive to take shots to tourists is a way of adapting to Europe’s annual summer migration, when it seems whole cities empty of their residents for weeks.

Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots 'worrisome,' U.S. govt watchdog says (Reuters) Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots marks another "worrisome development" for the Afghan Air Force as it reels from a surge in fighting, a U.S. government watchdog said in a report released on Thursday. At least seven Afghan pilots have been assassinated off base in recent months, two senior Afghan government officials told Reuters, part of what the Islamist Taliban says is a campaign to see U.S.-trained Afghan pilots “targeted and eliminated.” The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in its quarterly report to Congress covering the three-month period through June, broadly portrayed an Afghan Air Force (AAF) under growing strain from battling the Taliban amid the U.S. withdrawal—and becoming less ready to fight. The AAF’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, for example, had a 39 percent readiness rate in June, about half the level of April and May.

Floods make thousands homeless in Bangladesh Rohingya camps (AP) Days of heavy rainfall have pelted Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, destroying dwellings and sending thousands of people to live with extended family or in communal shelters. Just in the 24 hours to Wednesday alone, more than 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) of rain fell on the camps in Cox’s Bazar district hosting more than 800,000 Rohingya, the U.N. refugee agency said. That’s nearly half the average July rainfall in one day while more heavy downpours are expected in the next few days and the monsoon season stretches over the next three months. Citing initial reports, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 12,000 refugees were affected by the heavy rainfall while an estimated 2,500 shelters have been damaged or destroyed.

Thailand sets up hospital at airport; Cambodia closes border (AP) Health authorities in Thailand raced to set up a large field hospital in a cargo building at one of Bangkok’s airports on Thursday as the country reported record numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths. Other field hospitals are already in use in the capital after it ran out of hospital facilities for thousands of infected residents. The airport, a domestic and regional hub, has had little use because almost all domestic flights were canceled two weeks ago. The quick spread of the delta variant also led neighboring Cambodia to seal its border with Thailand on Thursday and order a lockdown and movement restrictions in eight provinces.

Outspoken Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu sentenced to 18 years in prison (CNN) Billionaire Sun Dawu, a vocal critic of the Chinese government, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” according to an official statement posted by the court. Sun was arrested in March this year. His company, Hebei Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, owns farming operations in China and employs about 9,000 people in poultry processing, pet food production and other industries. He is also famous for being an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party. As part of his 18-year sentence, Dawu was also fined 3.11 million yuan ($480,000). Sun was one of very few people in China to publicly accuse the government of attempting to cover up the extent of the African swine flu outbreak in 2019, which eventually killed more than 100 million pigs in the country. In an interview with CNN in May 2019, Sun said local officials had only retested his pigs for the disease when he had started to post pictures of the dead animals online. Sun’s sentencing comes amid a growing crackdown on private enterprises in China, as Beijing attempts to pull into line the country’s free-wheeling entrepreneurs. In a set of guidelines put out in September 2020, the Communist Party said the private sector needed “politically sensible people” who would “firmly listen to the party.”

Lockdown Under (Reuters) Sydney, Australia announced Wednesday that they would be extending their lockdown by four weeks. The extension was announced with frustration by Premier Gladys Berejikilan, who stated, “I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality,” during a televised news conference. Berejiklian added police would boost enforcement of wide-ranging social distancing rules and urged people to report suspected wrongdoing. The multiple lockdown extensions have turned a “snap” lockdown into the country’s longest, with many fearing another recession.

Probe into Beirut blast stalls again, leaving families fuming one year on (Reuters) Ibrahim Hoteit lost his younger brother, Tharwat, in the huge explosion that ripped through the port of Beirut last August. He went around hospitals collecting body parts, starting with Tharwat’s scalp, and buried his remains in a small coffin. Nearly a year later, Hoteit, a spokesperson for families of more than 200 people who died in the disaster, is still trying to call to account those he says are responsible for allowing the accident to happen. As Beirut prepares to mark the first anniversary of a blast that flattened large swathes of the city, politicians and senior security officials have yet to be questioned in a formal investigation. Much of the devastation from the blast is still visible. The port resembles a bomb site, and many buildings have been left in a state of collapse. Major questions remain unanswered, including why such a large shipment of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in bombs and fertiliser, was left stored in the middle of a crowded city for years after being unloaded in 2013.

#headlines #news

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enzymesblog · 3 years

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A large body of the zipper should be smooth

Line reference samples and drawings. The surface where gall material be required by the version of the CD standard is not missing pieces multi-chip. Plus cotton parts: 100g loose cotton: hat in × 1, cap piece × 2; 200g cotton: collar; 100g needles: 1 / 2 small collar, placket, 1 / 2 pocket mouth × 2Plus gall material parts: placket, pocket mouth, small collar, and collar. Production steps|Plus cholesterol mine feeding site: fly, pocket mouth, small collar, collar,Reference lines like clothing and drawings|Line reference samples and drawings}. From 11 - 13-pin pin / 3cm open air track, 12-14-pin / 3cm dark trace. Commissural with a 11 Wholesale Twill Fabric Suppliers needle, wire needle with a 9 #. Shun color line, surface and body with the color line. All parts to be straight line, sewing thread trace 30cm may not have two single hop and continuous stitch, stitch does not allow skipping. Surface, the bottom line should be suitable elastic, pin ups and downs to be played back. Sleeve Chouse: unlined chip Chouse first, and then charge down the sodium line. Pleating lines and the shoulder seam to seam. Steam eyes with color across the mattress. A large body of the zipper should be smooth, not from the waves. Zola placket chain puller requires the right plug, Ji-0.1cm open wire. The main standard, including small nail in after years; Water Wash, including in the left side seam 1 / 2 as the standard under the mouth. The cuff in surface cloth is pointing. Pocket 1CM decorative line after the line first filling cashmere series. Cotton cloth hat on, circle of 0.1cm lines, 0.1+2.5cm lines before export hat. Hat bottom port 0.1 open. Cap seam strip. In particular, line drawing. Shoulder, axils, pocket cloth and tape. Semi finished products must be small iron, ironing smooth, without Aurora. Other specific practice reference sample Finishing:All clothing must be large hot steam; hot semi truck small cage. Wireless head, no oil, no powder trace No debris inside pocket. Neat, clean, smooth. Tidy, clean, smooth.Suture requires ironing hot uniform, no aurora|Suture ironing uniform requirements, no Aurora}. According to the sleeve folded backward hat, order, body bent back ninety percent off. When packing, the tag according to the order of playing together, and flat, buckle in zip top. According to the ratio of packing, required clothing folded neatly and evenly. The box must be marked section number, name, shape, color, quantity, unit of production. Tag Water washes to sub-paragraph number, color number, shape and so on. Indicate the number of inspectors, the total check number, the gray or white duck down duck down and so on. Down materials are mainly down and coated fabrics. The feather: pinnacle and cashmere child (also known as the red velvet ) mixture} Use of duck and goose hair, by the washing of separating the pinnule and cashmere child as eider down wadding . Down with gray two, white is preferred. Down the quality, charge down the volume and cashmere. Down refers to a charge down the amount of down into the flock weight expressed in grams, usually about 250 grams, less filling velvet, warm and bad; cashmere velvet refers to the child down in the content, expressed as a percentage, usually with down the amount of 50 to 80%. With cashmere high, is of good quality. Because cashmere to make human body heat dissipation is not easy, and soft to the touch, but when pressed and when wet easily after the timely muster, and pinnacles now can make clothes to keep clothes fluffy muster more air, is helpful to keep warm, but the pinnacle much heat easily, Diaspora, and Mao Gang. . So the cashmere and pinnacles must swallow anything and everything, proper proportion. The coated fabric with weft yarn high density of silk, cotton, cotton / polyester fabrics, the rolling processing, so that the weft yarn interstices between contractible, and then coated with a polymer slurry, and make the fabric forming a transparent coating layer covering the delivery chain, to seal the fabric gap} Some in the coating slurry adding fluoride phosphate resin or silicone waterproofing agent, so that the fabric has dew proof cashmere, water impervious performance. The 1980s have been without a special high density fabric coating, can also play the anti-dew down, the role of seepage water and ventilation. Downing the fabric points for hard and soft second-class. Polyester, Dacron, # cotton belonging to government hard, wear leveling; silk taffeta, Nisi Fang is a soft, comfortable to wear. Down under the general source can be divided into goose and duck down, according to the color is divided into white cashmere and grey flannel, in addition of course, there are Iceland eider produce black cashmere and so on. Relatively speaking, better down from larger, more mature birds, therefore velvet will slightly better on the duck down . From the color of speaking, white cashmere because it is white, can be used for light fabric instead of translucent color, a grey flannel is more popular. Ranging from 5% to 95%. For example you can say: 90% white goose down, etc. Cashmere filling quantity: Cashmere filling volume is not measured down quality indicators, it refers to a down jacket filled all the feather weight. General the charge down the amount of outdoor jacket design is different depending on the target at 250-450 grams. Cashmere (down content): cashmere rate is the ratio of down inside the velvet, generally expressed as a percentage. Outdoor cashmere jacket is generally above 80%, the data content of the surface of which is down 80% feather is accounting for 20%. Fluffy (fill power): Fluffy is the measure of warm down the main index of degree, refers to certain conditions every ounce (30 grams) down the volume cubic inches of numerical. If an ounce of down space required is 600 cubic inch said down the fluffy degree 600. Down the fluffy degrees higher, in the same cashmere filling volume of feather can be fixed to a larger volume of air to heat preservation and heat insulation layer, so the warm down. Fluffy at home is not a rigid index, and the measurement of relative error is larger. Down jacket fabric basic requirements Wind ventilation: Most of the outdoor jacket has a certain degree of wind resistance. Breathable outdoor clothing uniform requirements, but many tend to ignore the Down Mix is the importance of breathable fabric. A gas-tight Down in the mountains on the result is often fatal. anti-velvet: Enhanced anti-velvet fabric down of three ways, one in the fabric on the coating or coating, film or by coating to prevent leakage of velvet, of course, the first prerequisite is breathable and does not will affect the fabric of light and softness. Second, the high-density fabric through the post-processing improves their anti-cashmere fabric. Three is in the down in the fabric layer to add a layer of down-proof fabric, Down-proof Fabric will have a direct impact on the whole garment quality. in equipment light weighting today, down jacket fabric light level will directly affect a down jacket's overall weight, and soft fabric, for itself is bloated down jacket, down jacket will enhance the wearing comfort. On the other hand, thin soft fabric helps to better play the fluffy down, so warm and will be higher Water: Mainly for professional-type jackets, extreme cold conditions in the direct Watchman, down jacket fabric used to directly replace the jacket Down fabric type:Waterproof coating (coating) fabrics. This kind of fabric is similar to assault garment fabrics, with waterproof and moisture permeable performance, generally used for alpine professional down jacket. But the difference is that the whole fabric is thinner and lighter than the jacket fabric soft number. In addition because down in cold environments, mainly aimed at the ice and snow melt water to water in the solid state, so the fabric resistant to water pressure requirements will not be like the jacket so high, and most of the down jacket is made of waterproof fabric without a pressure adhesive Another point to note is that, some low down in order to prevent leakage of cashmere and use of breathable coated fabrics, if only for everyday wear, can barely considered. Represent fabrics: dry loft, PROO-TEC LM etc. High density waterproof fabrics The density of the fabric itself is high, generally above the 290T. Then fabric surface by high temperature fusion to reduce the gap in post-processing technology fabric to improve the anti-down nature. The thin fabric and soft fabric inside the jacket of the highest of all, while with wind, water repellent, breathable performance. This kind of fabric is down and down sleeping bag using the method of fabric, but later the treatment process for the level of fabric Down-proof great influence. Represention fabrics: pretax, soft-b etc Ordinary woven fabric with anti flannel Generally use lower density nylon or polyester, Down in the production when added in the anti-flannel fabric in the side, can play a role in down-proof, anti-down performance is good. Drawback is, Down-proof Fabric affects the eider down softness, and increase the whole garment weight. The most important is that if you are using the inferior Down-proof Fabric words, down jacket permeability will be greatly reduced, and after washing, Down-proof Fabric easily damaged or agglomerate. Another way is for anti-down process, the process is in the fabric of the inner layer rubber brush on a layer of anti-velvet, fabric feel poor, and airtight. The behalf of fabric is many but not well-known fabric manufacturers. Three types of fabric performance comparison: tailored said that the best performance; waterproof coating ( coating ) breathable fabric hypothesis is consistent with the requirements, common woven fabrics inside the down-proof fabric also hypothesis is consistent with the standard . This table only basic reference value, the actual situation in the fabric according to three types of technology will have greater access. Down clothing accessories basic requirements have two: one is low, because the use of the environment in general on the condition of low temperature, temperature intolerance accessories is likely to fracture. Second, durable, imagine, minus 30 degrees in environment damage your zipper pull on suddenly, and it will be any results. Zip:Down on the main chest zipper used in the main chain, zipper pocket closure; require the use of smooth, with auxiliary zipper anti-pinch device. Representative of the product: yak series zipper. Down on main rope buckle, buckle hat adjusting ladder button and zipper head supporting, require the use of smooth, closed firmly, and resistance to low temperature. Representative products: more resistant to Fu series of fasteners. Sewing thread:Sewing thread requirements are soaked through silicone oil, can prevent leakage caused by widening the eye of a needle down, and the strength to meet the requirements under the premise of the fine as possible. Velcro:Velcro-type using four weeks rounded, and preferably not hooks hair varieties. Down clothes sewing technique has its particularity. Feather weight is light, easy to go with the wind, when making should be the garment piece most sewed, leaving only the cashmere filling mouth to cashmere fillingIn order to prevent the cashmere silk from the needle eye out, when making the required fine type 11 machine needles . Uncoated fabrics in general should be lined with synthetic paper.

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spiralcompendium · 4 years

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Day Six: Arc One World Critique

This will be a review/critique of each of the five worlds in the first arc--what I thought was effective and ineffective about each world’s plotline, setting/lore, and characters! Spoilers: there are a lot of Problems but I still love this horrible little game anyway.

═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══

.·:·.✧ Wizard City ~ A- ✧.·:·.

✦ Plotline ✦

Wizard City functions well as an introduction to the game. We immediately get introduced to the main villain, but we don’t know what his plan is yet. The Wizard’s mission, at this point, is to stop Malistaire’s undead from overtaking the streets. After we defeat Lord Nightshade, we learn that this was all a distraction from Malistaire’s real plan--to get the Krokonomicon from Krokotopia. Even though this means that what the protagonist did in Wizard City doesn’t have a direct connection to the main plot, I still think that it works well as a low-level story.

I appreciated the originality of some of the subplots on each street; some standouts include stopping undead from siphoning powerful Storm magic from the Storm Mill on Triton Avenue, as well as defeating Cyclops Lane’s Cyclopes and Trolls, who were originally summoned to defend against the undead.

While some of the side quests were just your standard MMORPG delivery or defeat quests, some were also pretty interesting! For example, Gloria Krendell’s and Duncan Grimwater’s quests provide insight into Malistaire’s backstory. Even the more simple-seeming quests had flavor text that made it a bit more fun. Being sent to defeat a boss to get back the Sleeper’s Timepiece, a watch that can bring nightmares to life, is a lot more interesting than being sent to defeat a boss who’s just evil and attacking citizens.

✦ Setting and Lore ✦

Every game needs to start with a relatively basic area, and in this one, it’s Wizard City. Still, I love all of the little details that flesh out the world. The devs could have chosen to go with really basic fantasy areas and use just houses, castles, and libraries. Instead, we have places like the Storm Mill--“one of the main sources of magical energy for all of Wizard City,” the Hedge Maze that is watched over by an ancient seraph, and the Fireglobe Theatre in the center of a burning street. It’s also really cool how all of the different streets have a different “feel”--Triton Avenue seems very industrial, Colossus Boulevard seems very upper-class (despite the Gobblers), and Firecat Alley seems very artsy and creative. Having abandoned areas like the Haunted Cave and mysterious places like Sunken City imply a history to the world. Still, Wizard City doesn’t feel like it has much of a past.

Overall, Wizard City has a good amount of lore with the various magical creatures and villains, especially considering Bartleby, the creator of the Spiral, lives here. With the addition of the Catacombs quest, it seems like Wizard City has a lot going on behind the scenes.

✦ Characters ✦

Very few characters stand out at this point in the story. I liked Duncan Grimwater’s arc (although this doesn’t pay off until arc three), and I loved dealing with the shenanigans of both Nolan Stormgate and Cyrus Drake while questing in Cyclops Lane. Still, none of the characters have any major presence besides Ambrose, who is just there to be an Old, Wise Wizard. I would have liked there to be a maximum of six or seven major characters, possibly to represent each of the main schools. They wouldn’t all have to travel with us everywhere, but it would be cool to have more overlap instead of just meeting one or a few separately in each street. I also wish that some of the villains had a larger presence in the story. We don’t even hear about Lord Nightshade, the final boss, until we’re sent to fight him.

.·:·.✧ Krokotopia ~ B- ✧.·:·.

✦ Plotline ✦

In Krokotopia, the Wizard is chasing Malistaire to try and prevent him from getting the Krokonomicon, a book of powerful Life and Death magic. They are also stopping the awakened Kroks and some undead along the way. The plotline could have been more compelling if there was more of a focus beating Malistaire to the Krokonomicon, stopping Malistaire, or having Malistaire find different ways to stop the Wizard. Instead, Malistaire has very little presence, and we learn at the end that he beat us there--who knows how he got there or what he was even doing the whole time.

By itself, though, Krokotopia’s plot isn’t too bad. Freeing slaves and reassembling an ancient magical order of anti-authoritarian Kroks is a good premise.

✦ Setting and Lore ✦

Krokotopia’s setting is somewhat compelling in theory, but I do wish there was more variety--we’re pretty much inside hallways the whole time. I liked how each major area (the Pyramid of the Sun, the Krokosphinx, and the Tomb of Storms) has their own Krok leading family, such as the Nirinis and Sokkwis. I liked the family conflict between the Ahnics and Djeserits in the Tomb of Storms, as well. Krokotopia has a much more obvious history to it than Wizard City. I really liked the Marleybone presence, as well, which hinted at their dominance over many different worlds in the Spiral; it also showed that the various worlds are interconnected and not just levels in a game.

✦ Characters ✦

Yeah, no one in this world is particularly important. The major Marleybonean characters are pretty much just there to give quests, and the villains are just there to be something to fight, similar to Wizard City. Hetch al’Dim’s character trait was Anxiety, which I thought was pretty cute. Alhazred’s character trait was Old, so… alright. Once again, we get introduced to our final boss pretty much right as we have to fight her. Still, her design is pretty fabulous, so that’s cool.

.·:·.✧ Marleybone ~ D+ ✧.·:·.

✦ Plotline ✦

Marleybone’s importance to the overall plot of arc one is minimal:

1. Malistaire frees Meowiarty so he can steal the Krokonomicon.

2. Malistaire gets the Krokonomicon.

These last two events happen at the very end of the world, so everything else feels like a lot of filler. The Wizard has to put a stop to gang uprisings and attacks by automatons, only some of which Malistaire is connected to--and these were only started to interrupt the Wizard chasing him. It would have been great if the narrative as a whole was a mystery; despite having some elements of a mystery story, it wasn’t one. Also, it would have been interesting to have more of a focus on the obvious social issues occurring in the world. We see the dogs discriminating against the cats, rats, and frogs throughout the story--accusing them of crimes they didn’t commit and literally paying the Wizard to attack Street Sweepers out of a pavilion who were doing nothing but loitering, at worst, just because Abigail Doolittle wanted to have a party celebrating the police. Yikes!

Beyond that, a lot of the side quests were unquestionably bad. I always hate doing the quests for the ladies in Marleybone, because it’s all just bringing hats and scarves to different places. One quest like that would have been fine.

The moment when the Wizard had to chase Malistaire and Meowiarty during the prison break was pretty fun, although (as @calamity-callie pointed out) they immediately moved to an unrelated case in Knight’s Court instead of just continuing to ramp up for the Meowiarty fight. This makes the story seem kind of janky. Again, I would have preferred for both Malistaire and Meowiarty to have more of a presence in the story.

✦ Setting and Lore ✦

Marleybone’s setting is a lot of fun, and I love how much it contrasts Krokotopia. While magic is deeply ingrained in Krokotopia (from the presence of the Balance school down to the colors of the Manders’ scales), Marleybone doesn’t practice magic at all. I like how dark the world is--it’s very fitting for a place that has so much turmoil. I definitely would have liked to see more of a variety in the specific locations though--Hyde Park, Chelsea Court, and Knight’s Court are pretty much the same, not to mention that 99% of the story takes place on rooftops. The lore is alright, but there’s not too much that I find to be super compelling--most of it is just Victorian English stuff + steampunk.

✦ Characters ✦

Sherlock Bones is kind of there, although he doesn’t really solve any interesting mysteries. The concept of Baxter was good--having a “guy on the inside” who could guide the Wizard--but he was a flat character. Meowiarty was probably the most compelling, but he didn’t have much of a presence. I would have liked the world to have much more of a mystery-based plot (as in, actual mysteries) that was focused on working with Sherlock Bones, Watson, and Baxter to find/stop Meowiarty and Malistaire.

.·:·.✧ MooShu ~ F+ ✧.·:·.

✦ Plotline ✦

MooShu has always bothered me a lot, because it has little direct connection to the overarching story. Malistaire comes here, steals the Spiral Key from the Emperor, and then leaves before the Wizard even gets there. The Jade Champion was able to get the Spiral Key back right as Malistaire went through the door, but he did not give it to the Wizard because the Emperor must be the one to give it to us for some reason. Still, I really liked the concept of the different Onis affecting each area in different ways.

The side quests are… fine, I guess, although I did love the ones centered around the two lost lovers in the Ancient Burial Grounds.

✦ Setting and Lore ✦

This is the first W101 world that stands out as being, uhhhhh,,,, NOT super PC. The accents, stereotypes, and blending of different Asian cultures is not a great look. If we’re able to look past that (which we shouldn’t), I honestly don’t really like look or aesthetic. There’s just a whole lot of brown and a whole lot of bamboo. Pirate101 MooShu is leagues better visually (although it has the same problems with reeeeeally problematic language and characters). I do like a lot of the lore though, especially concerning demons, the Spirit World, and religion. But yeah, I do wish that the setting had more relevance to the story as well. Malistaire wants an ancient magical text from Krokotopia--Krokotopia as a setting makes sense. The ancient text gets stolen by an England analogue and put in a museum--Marleybone as a setting makes sense. The Dragonspyre Spiral Key is kept in MooShu just for fun, I guess. We learn later that the Emperor of MooShu is a member of the Council of Light, so I guess it would make sense for him to have it, but they literally could have made him the Emperor of a world based on anything else and it wouldn’t have changed anything in the main, overarching plot.

✦ Characters ✦

The characters sure do give you quests! They’re really good at telling you how to progress in the game. They absolutely tell you where to go to get XP.

.·:·.✧ Dragonspyre ~ B- ✧.·:·.

✦ Plotline ✦

Dragonspyre’s plot definitely needed some work, as well. When we get there, we learn that Malistaire is in the process of summoning the Dragon Titan in the Headmaster’s Office, but the Wizard can’t get there until they can become a student at Dragonspyre Academy. So we, again, aren’t actively working against Malistaire, because he’s literally static the whole time--the Spiral would be screwed if the ritual took like five minutes.

Despite that, some of the subplots in the different areas were pretty fun: going into the past to see the start of its end, learning lessons from its history in the Crucible, and hatching and raising a Drake (whom we never see again, which sucks).

Like with MooShu, it would have been a lot more impactful to be actively fighting against Malistaire the whole time. In the other worlds, part of the tension comes from Malistaire’s minions attacking innocents. In Dragonspyre, the tension isn’t there because they’re all already dead. Still, if they had focused on this aspect (i.e., the Wizard is the only living person in a world full of ghosts and Malistaire’s minions), it could have been really impactful.

✦ Setting and Lore ✦

I love the premise of this world: a ruined city that was destroyed by a horrible, ancient power due to the hubris of its elite. Dragonspyre has one of the most in-depth histories out of all the worlds of the Spiral, and I love the blending of the cultures of ancient Rome/Pompeii and Russia + dragons. Plus, Dragonspyre Academy darkly mirrors what Ravenwood could become if Malistaire successfully summoned the Dragon Titan.

However, similar to Marleybone, all of the different areas have the same buildings, color palette, and mood. I like the additions of areas that are based on ancient Roman structures (the Basilica, the Necropolis, the Forum, etc,), but it doesn’t really matter because they all look the same.

✦ Characters ✦

Cyrus Drake is one of my favorite W101 characters. His character arc is really good, especially if you play as a Myth wizard. He’s tough on the Wizard at first, but I honestly think it’s because he doesn’t think this Literal Child should be sent to defeat Malistaire.

Malistaire is alright as a villain, and I’m certainly glad he wasn’t a generic evil guy who wants to rule/destroy the world just cuz. I would have wanted him to have just a little something extra, though?? Morganthe is a necromancer who was once a student just like the Wizard, but her mind shattered after the Spider Magi showed her how to touch Shadows. Old Cobb is an elder god who wanted to end the Spiral and recreate it. Malistaire is… an old professor who wants to bring his wife back. I do like how it’s unique, but I would want there to be something more.

Besides them, the characters in Dragonspyre are once again very flat, although I am very gay for the Russian-accent soldier ladies.

═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══

Before writing this, I probably would have said that arc one was my favorite. Looking back, it has soooo many problems--writing isn’t exactly one of KI’s strong points lmao. I think that Wiz has some very creative ideas and premises, but sometimes the execution just isn’t the best. I definitely think that a lot of these problems were a result of crunch time, though. If they were actually given time to flesh out their ideas, I think that the game would have turned out much better in terms of storytelling and design.

I’m thinking about making reviews for arc two and three, as I’d be really curious to see how they’d compare. They all have different strengths and different problems. Still, this game has been my favorite game since I was eleven, and it’s something that I will always come back to.

Image Sources

https://101universe.fandom.com/wiki/Wizard_City?file=Ravenwood.jpg

https://101universe.fandom.com/wiki/Krokotopia?file=Tumblr_n1e872SXlZ1tsc4dmo2_r1_540.jpg

https://www.swordroll.com/2013/05/Pirate101-Krokotopia.html

https://www.mmorpg.com/columns/wizard101-abigail-doolittle-is-the-true-villain-2000108162

http://www.edwardlifegem.com/2018/11/wizard101-questing-where-we-ended-up_14.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hGd5cDTxd0

https://finalbastion.com/wizard101-guides/w101-pet-guides/pets-dropped-mooshu-wizard101/

https://101universe.fandom.com/wiki/Dragonspyre_Academy?file=Dragonspyre_Academy.jpg

http://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/File:(Location)_The_Crystal_Grove.png#axzz6a4BqFgfv

#wiztober2020 #Wizard101 #w101 #spiral lore

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mego42 · 4 years

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1x07 Discussion Questions

My b! My b! I usually try to do these when the episode is fresh but instead I went to sleep, I am at peace with my priorities, tbh. As always, many thanks to @pynkhues for her time and energy putting these together and shout out to @foxmagpie for the assist.

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

Lot of contenders, tbh. I really love the scene with Mary Pat when she puts together the (extremely transparent) bullshit that is the whole secret shopper scheme (I mean come on y’all, did you even try????), I love Ruby and Stan’s date (high five to Stan for coming through with my parks & rec reference, it’s nice to know there is one (1) man I can count on). The Annie and Greg bit is REALLY SWEET LEAVE ME ALONE. The god tier brio content, specifically The Grab Heard Round The World My Living Room and the Give Me A Name bit. Some classic Rio nonsense (do you think if we asked him to point to an egg he’d point to an apple?) Tyler and his “reeeeeeally fill out the surveys?” was, obvs, the best moment on the entire show. Anyway, one of those for sure.

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

The Boomer setting up Annie stuff always falls flat to me and idk exactly why? Like, individual pieces of it are great, Mae does EXCELLENT work post police station and when getting arrested in the first place but ultimately I find it fairly forgettable in the grand scheme of things.

3. Let’s talk about the secret shopper scheme! What do you think were the strengths of it? The flaws? Do you think it had longterm potential? Or was it always going to crash and burn?

I said this during the rewatch but I straight up blocked out the fact that all of the shoppers are hitting the same store on the same day (waving around upwards of $5k in cash???? no less???????) because my brain cannot comprehend how three women we’re supposed to believe are reasonably intelligent didn’t realize this was the stupidest, most transparently obvious, most short-sighted scheme in the entire world.

I struggled with the sustainability of it a bit when I thought they were spreading their efforts around (they roped in A Lot of people, there are only so many Costcos in the Detroit metro area and waving around that much cash and then returning it all, again for cash, is uh, already p memorable) but I could deal with it when I thought they were spreading it around. Short-sighted, immediate solutions are a cornerstone of Beth’s brand, after all, but all of them at the same store at the same day???? Too much. I cannot.

4. The girls spent their money in very different ways! Ruby on romancing Stan, Annie on clothes for her son, and Beth on jewellery for herself. What do you think this tells us about them and their arcs? Particularly coming off the back of Ruby’s conflict with Stan, Ben’s issues at school with clothes, and Beth leaving Rio her pearls?

Love these connects. The show’s got a pretty clearly defined and consistent visual/character motifs (this may or may not be the word I’m looking for, shut up) when it comes to depicting the girls priorities and motivations. You also see it reflected and reinforced with their repeated coping mechanisms throughout the show. Whenever bad stuff happens, Ruby goes home to Stan, Annie crawls into bed with Ben and we usually close with Beth either alone (ouch david) or connecting with Rio in some way (exhibit a: the aforementioned pearls).

In all of the instances it comes back to the heart of their priorities:

Stan is Ruby’s number one, (which isn’t to say her kids aren’t a part of that, I think Stan is both himself in this sense while also representing her whole Hill family unit—TV is all about visual shorthand kids—but also it serves to illustrate that Ruby has something Beth and Annie do not: a true partner).

Ben is at the root of everything Annie does, she makes choices based on not only his. well-being, but how he sees her and he has the most influence over how she sees herself and what actions she takes as a result of that.

Beth, on the other hand, is at a contrasting point. She’s done the devoted partner and mother thing (lowkey implied by the little bits and pieces we get of her and Annie’s childhoods to some degree more or less for her entire life) and is now putting herself first, her needs, her wants. Which isn’t to say she doesn’t give a fuck about her family, she waits until she’s got a fat stack of cash and they’re taken care of before splurging on a thing, but as a symbol I think the necklace pretty clearly illuminates that for whatever Beth tells herself, she’s building an empire for herself, bc she wants it, needing it is secondary.

5. Eddie’s arrest is arguably what sets us on a collision course with the finale! Do you think Eddie was loyal to Rio until the end? How much do you think he told Turner? And what sort of loyalty do you think Rio inspires in his boys? And why doesn’t it translate with the girls?

OF COURSE EDDIE WAS LOYAL TO THE END HE HAS CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED HE HAS SOME KIND OF CODE OF HONOR HOW DARE YOU SLANDER MY BOY LIKE THAT.

Tbh idk how to answer the loyalty question without more information from canon because the gang and how they operate, how they all came together, etc is pretty well shrouded in not-central-narrative-focus, though I think it’s been implied somewhat heavily that what’s going on with the girls is not standard operating procedure.

My personal headcanon for Eddie is tied up in my personal backstory for Rio and Mick that I started for my (lmao first) Mick POV fic. I gave Rio and Mick a friends since we were kids backstory and decided Eddie was a kid in their neighborhood, slightly younger then them, and always looked up to them/followed them around/thought they were cool. He ultimately got involved in crime because they did and they looked out for him and brought him up with them (which, you know, makes how it all turns out that much more tragic). Obvs, this is all just me and my tendency to imprint on random side characters and give them backstories. Let me live.

6. This episode introduces us to Mary Pat, who’s probably one of this show’s most complicated antagonists! What do you think of her generally? And could you have predicted her arc with Boomer and Turner?

I love her and I’m done lying to myself about it.

LISTEN, first off, Allison Tolman is great. Her line delivery is fantastic, she has a knack for subtly adding SO MUCH to every scene she’s in and uses her face and inflection and pauses exquisitely. Top notch comedic timing. Truly a gem.

Second, on a character level, the lady is in a bad spot and the girls basically gift-wrapped the circumstances and handed them to her like here is a present!!!!!!!!!!!! What was a struggling girl to do besides accept what was offered to her??????!!!!!!???

7. This episode features a very pivotal scene in terms of the Beth, Ruby and Annie dynamic. What starts as tension between Annie and Beth quickly pivots when Ruby criticises Beth and Annie leaps to her sister’s defence. What do you think this tells us about the dynamic between the girls as pairs and as a trio?

I am so!!!! curious!!!!!!! about the backstory that exists in the writers’ heads for Ruby and Annie (all three of them, really, but the bff and little sister having an independent friendship is of particular interest to me bc it isn’t something you, or I guess I, run into a lot) and how much of it was defined at this point vs how much it’s evolved/fluctuated as the show goes on. This fight pretty clearly illuminated that when it really comes down to it, it’s Beth and Annie vs Ruby which a) breaks my heart and b) isn’t totally a dynamic I think the show ultimately stuck with? Or maybe intentionally fluctuates? Idk this is a half-baked thought. Ask again later.

8. Greg is the one who kisses Annie! Who do you think left who in that relationship, and/or what were the biggest issues in that relationship?

I feel like there’s pretty much no way Annie wasn’t the one that called things off with Greg. Not just because of how it plays out this time but because he’s got a kind of persistent yet also go with the flow attitude that makes me think he would absorb a lot in the name of making it work whereas Annie seems to have a pretty established history of cutting her losses and bailing when she hits her limit. Based on how fond they are of each other and how much affection they clearly still hold, I tend to assume they just grew apart as they grew up which makes it almost more complicated and tragic because it leaves all of the good stuff and just mixes it with the knowledge that it wasn’t enough.

9. What did you think of Ruby’s sauce story? And what do you think it meant as a turning point for her arc?

I HATE THIS STORY SO MUCH USED BAND AIDS ARE GROSS ENOUGH ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT MIXING IN FOOD SERVICE AND MONTHS, MONTHS, OF MARINATION. I REFUSE TO TALK ABOUT IT. GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.

10. Knowing that Beth, Ruby and Annie’s system of paying Mary Pat off doesn’t work, do you think there was a way they could’ve handled her on their own that would’ve worked? Or do you think Rio’s intimidation (and potential murder) tactic was the only way out?

Idk maybe I’m just cynical, but I take trust no bitch to heart, they pretty well screwed themselves into a corner by being idiots.

#rewatching this ep taught me a lot about my feelings on the secret shopper scheme #gg rewatch #gg 1x07 #gg related #shut up meg

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rubberduckyrye · 4 years

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Oh do you have names for his alters? If he has OSDD?

Oh! Yeah, they all have names!

The kind of OSDD Kokichi has in the AUs where it applies is OSDD-1A, meaning that the alters he has have distinct memories and there is amnesia, but they aren’t too distinct from Kokichi or one another. They are different “versions” of him.

There is, of course, Kokichi--but since he’s the “host,” I’ll just elaborate on the others :’D

Here are the alters that he has in the AUs where it applies:

Yuuki Ouma: (For those of you who remember, Yuuki is actually the final name for “Rem” from the beta versions of this concept) The main alter aside from the host (Kokichi) and while I definitely need to find more research on it, if it is applicable, Yuuki is a kind of “protector” alter. He does his best to keep the system safe, but this within itself has a double edged sword. Yuuki, in cases where Junko is the one to break Kokichi, is more susceptible to becoming a Remnant of Despair, as he doesn’t have the same extreme repulsion to violence like Kokichi does, and instead has a higher resistance to pain and even torture. He’s not afraid to resort to violence and even killing if he is lead to believe it is necessary. In the Remnant of Despair verse, Junko convinces Yuuki that the world is such a rotten, terrible place where everyone is suffering and there is no salvaging it. Combined with the torture he experiences under her hand, it breaks him into thinking that the rest of humanity should be put out of its misery, and becomes a Remnant. In a verse where he is saved before that, however, his only sin is killing Kenshin (and TBH that shit stain deserves it lbr)

Yuuki is a pretty timid, quiet person with a slight playful side, and an instinct to help those who are suffering (which when flipped on its head, includes mercy killing, ala the Remnant verse). Yuuki is almost like a creation of someone strong and able to protect others, something that in these situations where Kokichi becomes a system, he believes he cannot. This Alter may also take on the fake personality Kokichi and Kurochi make to pretend they are triplets, or is based off of that.

Koko: Koko is simply the child alter, a version of Kokichi from when he was four or five. He’s very affectionate and playful, always curious and asking things and getting into childish mischief. Often when fronting, Koko forgets he is not a baby, so he’ll sit on people and asked to be picked up often. Out of all the alters, including Kokichi as the host, Koko is the one who can essentially pull anyone from the front and front himself, if he so desires. He does scare easily, but can try to put on a brave face. If Koko was to stem from anything from Kokichi, it’d probably be Kokichi’s desire to have that normal childhood that was ripped from him. Living in a world of peace and fun, not a worry to have. He’s named after the English word “Cocoa”, which may or may not be the first English word Kokichi ever learned.

Koki Oshiro: Koki Oshiro is an alter that is quiet and prickly, often more interested in studying or reading text books than socializing. He is the child Kokichi believes Kenshin wanted out of him--quiet, obedient, studious, anti-social. However, Koki is quite attached to Koko, seeing himself as an older brother of sorts, and is often the one convincing Koko not to forcibly front all the time. He thinks Kokichi is irresponsible and thinks that, in Remnant verses or AUs when Yuuki has committed a murder, Yuuki is dangerous. He is very logical, but has little else to him. Again, he is supposed to represent what Kokichi thought Kenshin wanted him to be, which makes Koki a pretty boring, flat personality. He takes on the nickname Kokichi hates, as it was the nickname Kenshin used to fake affection for his son.

Mizu Hopps: A new addition to the gang, Mizu is another child (about seven or eight) that represents a different form of Kokichi--or, rather, the personality he projects onto his childhood toy, Mr. Hopps. He’s very quiet, polite, and soft, often when fronting (if at all, he rarely fronts) is seen nibbling on things like carrots or cookies. Really into food, is very sad he can’t taste things. He is very shy, but also trusts a bit too easily. He really doesn’t like it when people touch his head or neck, and he is very easy to startle--but unlike Koko, won’t hold his ground and will run away.

And that’s all I have so far :’D Do let me know if anything I’ve said might be inaccurate though, it’s still a wip ofc

#Anonymous

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nerdsideofthemedia · 5 years

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Faunus and the White Fang: The Portrayal of Racism

RWBY has been adored by the progressive community due to the portrayal of 4 strong young women, at least 2 of whom are LGBTQ+. Not to mention the inclusion of other LGBTQ+ minor characters.

Despite this, the show is far from flawless, and it’s time to address what is probably its biggest problem: the portrayal of racism. I suspect this may end up being my most controversial post yet, but, like someone said, “It’s both possible, and even necessary, to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects”.

Before I start I think it’s important to clarify that unlike in conversations about being a woman and LGBTQ+, in this one, I come from a place of no experience, since I am a white European. I do not intend to speak over POC, nor do I claim that my knowledge on the subject is flawless (far from it). Hopefully, this is only the start of a conversation and not the entirety of it.

To be clear: I am not a part of RWBY hatedom. While it’s flawed, I like it, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t. I am criticizing this aspect because racism exists in real life, so how the subject is handled is important and I don’t want the edgelords controlling this entire conversation because their stance on racism in real life is: it doesn’t exist.

Lazy worldbuilding

Like Bright and Crash, RWBY, for the most part, frames individuals as the main culprits of racism instead of the systems which favor certain groups over others. We see this with Cardin, Cordovin, V1 Weiss, Roman and the village people (in the Adam short). Yes, those racist individuals exist, sometimes like caricatures however, they are far from being the only or even the most relevant type of prejudice.

By putting the blame on very specific characters, racism is presented as something easily identifiable and fixable when it’s neither of those things for a significant portion of the population. People often ignore that though laws have changed, biases didn’t magically disappear, segregated neighborhoods didn’t desegregate themselves and the wealth accumulated before wasn’t redistributed. The racist policies of the past created the now and will affect the future unless we try to fix the system.

Keep in mind that the Faunus Rights Revolution happened after the Great War, so… less than 80 years ago. Considering this timeline, it’s just unlikely the Faunus would be equal anywhere, let alone in 2 kingdoms (Vacuo and Vale) and the only thing we see in Mistral is the possibility of discriminating with the ramen shop owner.

The mere fact this sign exists shows discrimination is possible but that shouldn’t be the only thing shown.

Atlas is the exception. In “Tipping Point”, we can hear a conversation about the Faunus, which mentions economic disparity and lack of opportunity, but it quickly fades into the background.

In terms of race issues, Remnant is wildly unexplored, even the renowned for its racism, Mistral. Maybe the writers just thought digging into politic could make for a boring story or maybe they didn’t want to risk alienating the portion of the audience that listens to edgelords. In either case, it makes no sense to have racism as a major theme.

Justifying racism

“Early men were scared to death of the Faunus, and honestly, it’s not too hard to sympathize with that. Seeing something that looks like you and acts like you walk out of the forest and reveal a pair of fangs, can be a little… upsetting.”

Qrow, World of Remnant about Faunus

This does sound a bit like justifying racism and trying to present as understandable. This is an idea that I see a lot. In a review of a book that had a new species and racism as a theme, one of the complaints was that there was no justification given for the treatment like welfare and gangs. Those aren’t causes of racism – they’re just excuses. If anything, they have a lot more to do with stereotypes and wealth disparity caused by racism.

RWBY does make this mistake with Blake’s speech in True Colors, which is reminiscent of when people hold all Muslims accountable for an attack done by one, judging them all for that person’s actions, even though we’d never do that for our own race.

“We’re just as capable of hate and violence as the humans, but I don’t think any of us would jump at the chance to point that out. So why are we letting Adam do it for us? By doing nothing and staying silent, we let others speak and act in our place. And if we’re not proud of the choices they make, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

Ghira does the same in the Adam character short, claiming Adam’s violence is the reason why people attack them. If you judge an entire race based on the actions of a few – that’s on you.

Um, actually Antifa is the problem

While the White Fang is not the only group of people fighting for Faunus rights (in the first episode, we learn they interrupted a peaceful protest), they are definitely the ones who are given the spotlight and it’s very unfortunate how they’re portrayed. With the exception of Ilia (and arguably Sienna), they are shown to be so radical that they are not only OK with destroying cities, but also mass murder. They are terrorists and don’t even deserve a face.

In contrast, the racists both deal with their shortcomings fast (Weiss and Cordovin), they all are worthy of sympathy and redemption (even Cardin and the ramen shop owner). I think the writers were going for “racists are people too”, which is a troublesome stance to take when you frame the ones fighting racism as flat out evil.

I imagine that Atlas is going to be shown to be more unforgivably racist and the Faunus will be more sympathetic, but… even so, it kind of feels like trying to make a case for “both sides”. Yikes!

Menagerie

I’m not entirely sure Menagerie was meant to be a paradise. It looks like it, Sun expresses loving it, but Blake quickly claims it’s overcrowded. I’ll give it that it seems a lot less developed than the other kingdoms judging by its constructions, but that’s about it. I think that if they were not going for a positive perspective on it, we should have been made more aware of Menagerie’s drawbacks.

To be clear, it’s wrong to force someone to live somewhere they don’t want to live, but I think it’s a bit problematic to present it as a paradise when in the real world, white supremacists are increasing and their way of speaking is by defending a white ethnostate, claiming homogenized societies are better.

Due to the lack of good characterization of the rest of Remnant, it makes it harder to believe Faunus really went to Menagerie due to being too jaded to be somewhere else because of racism.

Adam’s scar

I have written about Adam before and just so we’re clear, I stand by my post – I’m OK with him being there to be Blake’s cruel obsessive ex-boyfriend who wants to harm her and that he basically represents the last obstacle to close Blake and Yang’s arcs of running away and facing abandonment issues, respectively.

This been said, considering the story, the scar was a huge mistake and I have no idea why someone thought it was a good idea. We’re not supposed to feel sorry for him, it doesn’t make us empathize with him – he’s clearly beyond redemption when it’s revealed and it doesn’t tie to his main motivation, his obsession for Blake, which is the cause of him being in the story. The scar would only make sense if he was an anti-villain, someone with a good cause, but evil methods (Black Panther’s Killmonger). That has never been his story though. He’s always put Blake above his cause and ultimately, he meets his end because of his obsession with her, not because she decides to confront him about his methods. Not to mention that if the scar was tied to his motivation, we should have seen it a lot earlier, not 2 minutes before he died.

Giving him a scar that reveals a cruel treatment of Faunus by humans for no other reason than to show racism is going to have a spotlight in the next volume is incredibly cheap and an awful idea, especially when it basically means nothing for Adam himself and doesn’t humanize him at all – he’s literally trying to kill 2 main characters at that point.

“Remnant can’t be racist, because…”

I also want to counter a few bad arguments against the idea there can’t be any systemic racism in Remnant. The examples usually given are Leo being the headmaster of Haven Academy and Neon representing Atlas in the Vytal Festival.

Leo

Thanks to Raven, we learned Ozpin chose the headmasters in other academies, therefore it’s possible to infer Leo was Ozpin’s attempt at fixing Mistral’s racism.

Neon

Yes, she studies in Atlas, but the headmaster is Ironwood, chosen by Ozpin and probably is also fighting against racism as far as the academy goes.

“They wouldn’t allow a Faunus to represent their kingdom”.

The equivalent of “I can’t be racist, I have a black friend”. Allowing a Faunus to go helps with the “we’re not racists, we even have a Faunus representing us”.

Other than Ironwood, I see no one else who could even have a say in that decision.

“She wouldn’t accept to represent a racist kingdom”

This either reveals an incredibly dishonest take or an almost child-like naivety. I am sorry to burst your bubble, but often people do go against their own interests provided the salesmen know how to sell it (there are Muslims who voted for Trump, women who fought against women’s voting rights, etc.). We can have prejudices against groups we’re part of.

Many will gladly go against their groups’ interests, provided they have something to gain (more than a few people spring to mind).

In this case, her decision doesn’t even hurt Faunus as far as we know – it just advances her fame.

“The townspeople weren’t racist since they were wearing masks and had weapons and we never see what’s inside of the truck”

I cannot believe I have to dignify this with a response… First, the inside of the truck is irrelevant. We had no reason to believe it was anything bad and one certainly can’t start shooting someone else just because they find them “suspicious”. Murders have happened because of racist jackasses who wanted to play hero by attacking a black “suspicious” person. Second, it’s Remnant, a place so full of monsters, teenagers are allowed to have weapons. They are clearly needed to go from one town to another. Sure, they could have dropped their weapons, but that still doesn’t change they weren’t attacking, not even in self-defense. Third, Ghira was still in charge of the White Fang and we know that during this time, the methods of the group were mostly peaceful, even if they were already wearing masks.

“They allowed an army of Faunus to go to Mistral”

OK, this is by far the most difficult one to justify, but not because of race – it’s just the authorities should have handled it all by themselves and I highly doubt they would allow civilians to fight against a terrorist attack. As for the racism point, the Faunus clearly warned the authorities, so I think it’s very unlikely they were bad guys and their weapons were awfully rudimentary. It’s not a great explanation, but I don’t think it’s more of a hit on verisimilitude than letting civilians fight.

Conclusion

I think the problems in the portrayal of race is due to a lack of understanding of racism, insufficient worldbuilding which should have been done before beginning to write RWBY and, probably, trying to avoid alienating any groups in the audience, which is not likely when the subject is racism and should not be the goal. This resulted in a mess where it feels like there is a need to frame racism as wrong, yet understandable (WoR), easy to fix, and too worried about holding the audience to task, hence sticking to cartoonish racism. While all of that is already pretty bad, it’s impossible to deny that it isn’t made worse by the rise of white supremacist groups.

I wish the writers will be more careful during the Atlas arc, but I fear we might be entering a white savior’s narrative as Weiss will probably be the focus of it. I tend to give credit to RWBY for putting the minority character at the center of their struggle, but ultimately Blake was there to fight her own and I suspect they will do the same with Weiss – she will fight her father for the rights of the Faunus (at least partially) and she will be the one who ultimately fixes racism…yeah, we might be heading to a white savior narrative.

I am hoping for the best while preparing for the worst. Still, no matter how well the next arc is handled, it cannot fix the past volumes retroactively.

One last note, I think the election of Trump should be more than enough to reveal that racism is alive and well, but if you want to understand systemic racism and the portrayal of racism in media, here are a few links:

7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism Is Real;

Adam Ruins Everything (it’s a video);

NCSC Implicit Bias;

ContraPoints – America: Still Racist (also a video);

Bright: the Apotheosis of Lazy Worldbuilding (video);

Renegade Cut - Green Book - A Symphony of Lies (video).