#i do not like to see people call THE LITERAL GENOCIDE SURVIVOR 'evil'.

[thousandyearphantombunker]

“The titan said Belos is evil tho! Are you stupid the show said he was evil!”“Masha said lil’ bro just got jelly that his brother got a girlfriend! He doesn’t have depth and his ending was supposed to be unsatisfying!”“But James Ironwood losing his arm is supposed to represent him losing his humanity”“Jason Rose said that James could’ve always become evil and sided with Salem”“They literally called him genocide general!”“But in this Q&A they said the puppies survived they just lost their laser powers! And in the tie-in material, they showed everyone was fine! You just hate Starco!”“The show/tie-in material/a fucking Q&A said blah blah blah!”These arguments are shit. TOH- “God says witches are evil so it is his duty to kill them!” is a pretty horrible justification for killing someone except when the titan says it to Luz. I don’t think Luz is in the wrong for killing Belos, he was a genocidal maniac and child abuser and genuinely irredeemable- nobody who hates the ending of The Owl House complains about Belos being irredeemable, they complain about the show flopping the cult critical message, how hunter’s possession felt like needless shock value, the show not properly setting up the collector or how the coven system/conformitorium’s writing is a mess or how Eda becoming a teacher makes as much sense as Toph becoming a cop and you can go ‘but the show said-’ what the show said had unfortunate implications, was uncomfortable to abuse survivors, and I can’t forgive the ass-pullery of the trailer-bait nightmare sequence or how in the hexside crew became irrelevant! When people complain about how Belos was handled nobody complains about him not getting a redemption arc- they complain that hunter should’ve been there to see belos die or how they hate Luz’s power up. RWBY -James Ironwood’s and Penny’s character arcs and deaths felt so ableist it’s actually uncomfortable to watch, I have ASD my sister, and like half of the people I know have PTSD, I don’t know any amputees but I’ve seen plenty making noise about how shit the writing was. Good, they should be mad! The show’s message about prosthetics/amputations was toxic! Not mention for all the hopeful messages Team RWBY screams at the top of their lungs about trust they knowingly broke Ironwood’s trust for very poorly defined reasons! while I do think ruthless pragmatism is a bad thing, team RWBY offered no alternatives, he wasn’t a villain- he was facing an ethical dilemma and got fucked over. And SVTFOE- I shouldn’t have to buy tie-in materials to understand the show- tie-in material should be a bonus not a supplement or requirement, I Don’t have to buy the ATLA comics inorder to understand the show, I don’t have to read all of Lord Of The Rings to understand the movies. It doesn’t matter how the show was supposed to be interpreted or how the audience is supposed to feel, and It’s perfectly valid for the audience not to care about damage control spinoffs (cough cough Steven Universe) or Q&A’s or whatever. I’ll admit sometimes the audience is fucking stupid and completely media illiterate but can we stop acting like anyone who doesn’t blindly consume product and go with what the writers said are stupid? I know im not articulating this well but I’m pissy rn and I’m having trouble deconstructing whats wrong with those kind of arguments but god there is so much wrong with these arguements

#fuck rt #Rwde #toh critical #svtfoe critical #I promise I'm not anti TOH I wrote a whole ass essay on the show because I love its depiction of disability for college #Also svtfoe is a comfort show #But can we admit that the writing is a mess #I used to love rwby but God the show fell from grace #As did rooster teeth as a whole #For such a woke show it sure was ableist! #ableism #Rant #Nerd rage

[sixty-silver-wishes]

with regards to the iran/israel situation and literally any other humanitarian situation that's going on right now, I just want to re-iterate some of my stances on current events:

I do not believe in wishing death on anyone. no matter anyone's identity or beliefs, I think that everyone should be entitled to basic human rights. I will NEVER advocate for statements calling for the mass death of civilians of any country, and detest seeing such statements made as jokes. I don't want to see "death to (country)," "burn (country) to the ground," "(country) needs to be nuked," etc. if you make those statements, think about what you're saying. we should not believe ourselves to be entitled to who gets to live or die. that is genocidal rhetoric.

WAR IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT. by that I mean I'm tired of people who have never experienced war treating it like fictional media. it's not strictly good vs. evil, it's not a sports game where you pick your favorite team. people die in war. and of course that seems obvious, but ever since the russian invasion of ukraine, I've seen people online, usually westerners with no connection to either country, treating a global conflict with devastating civilian consequences like fandom. express your support for ukraine by raising awareness for humanitarian causes, supporting ukrainian businesses, or learning about ukrainian culture and history, not making volodymyr zelensky thirst traps, goddammit. (and yes, I remember the volodymyr zelensky thirst traps. those were indeed a thing.) war is not meme fodder and entertainment, especially for those who are fortunate enough to be removed from it.

I do not believe in generalizing entire populations based on the actions of their governments. yes, of course there are civilians that support a government's actions, and there are civilians who oppose them. there are israelis who oppose the actions of the israeli government, russians who oppose the actions of the russian government, americans who oppose the actions of the us government, etc. the minute you generalize all civilians under a certain government as holding the same beliefs, you risk promoting rhetoric that is also used to justify ignorance and bigotry in best-case scenarios, and genocide in worst-case scenarios. people are not monoliths, and treating them as such can lead down a dangerous pipeline of attempting to justify the extermination of entire populations.

just because a government is committing atrocities doesn't mean the governments opposed to it are absolved of atrocities. powerful governments are not generally interested in human rights; they're interested in gaining as much influence and power as possible. ukrainians and palestinians are both suffering, but the international governments that claim to support either group of people are only doing so to support their own self-interests, such as global prominence or economic gain. we should not be cheering for the iranian government just because they oppose the israeli government; the mahsa/jina amini protests happened for a reason.

whenever there's a war, civilians always suffer the most. for those of us removed from war, we're removed from the full extent of this suffering. nowadays, with the rise of social media, we are able to witness atrocities in real time, but seeing videos of mutilated bodies and hearing the testimonies of survivors still doesn't equate to witnessing such atrocities firsthand. I don't believe that we should actively seek out graphic or distressing footage in order to alleviate any feelings of guilt, but we should treat these situations with extreme sensitivity, because we're not the ones experiencing them.

this goes with point #1, which is sort of where all of these points ultimately stem from, but I don't believe the killing of civilians is ever justified. even if one believes the ends justify the means, the lives of those people don't stop mattering.

please, going forward, let's be sensitive, compassionate, and kind. we need to be open to learning about different perspectives, as well as history, culture, and current events. there's already been so much suffering in the world in these last few years alone, and for those of us who are privileged enough to be removed from this sort of suffering, it's our responsibility to do our best not to make it worse than it already is.

[eddieydewr]

I’m glad Noah is removing himself from social media for his own peace of mind. It sucks but social media is toxic and he’s still so young and naive enough that he is prone to over sharing and putting himself in positions where people can be nasty or take advantage of him. It’s sucks to say this is an exercise in growing up the hard way but he does need to protect himself more and not everyone deserves a piece of him or his time. I just hope he’s ok mentally and has a lot of love and support around him now.

Also the zionist thing re the stickers. Wasn’t that his friends stickers and he was just showing them to Noah? That’s what I remember. Ppl be acting like Noah made them and was posting them around the town which he did not. And as for calling everyone a zionist, I think a lot of people don’t even know what zionism is at the most basic level—is just that jews think israel should be allowed to exist/they should be allowed to self determinate in their indigenous homeland. That’s it! How is that evil or bad unless you are an antisemitic piece of shit or you’re so misinformed that you buy the falsehood that israelis are all white european colonizers? Bffr. That’s literally what zionism is, no matter what these zoomers are hearing online or how some people might be twisting it into something far from what it actually means, that’s what being a zionist means in its simplest form. Just that Isreal should be allowed to exist. And that to me is not problematic unless you think jews don’t deserve to have a place in their homeland that expelled them. And do ppl think a jewish boy whose has ties to Israel is going to believe that Israel should not exist and all the millions of jews there should just… what exactly? disappear? relocate where? be killed? what’s the solution again? the fact that cheering for hamas and houthis literally terrorists who kill their own people and shove gays off rooftops and oppress woman and train child soldiers is ok and cool but believing innocent israelis who were murdered should be spared no sympathy and all those jews should not be allowed to have a home is not… just shows what a fucked up world we live in.

I think these people think that zionism = jews thinking they are the best thing ever and all the palestinians need to die but like… no? also like 90 percent or something of jews around the world consider themselves zionists so…. I’m sorry at this point all I am seeing is a lot of people who simply hate jews or aren’t educated about the situation and are putting western US racial politics overtop this middle east issue and they don’t overlap. at all. this has become the most disgusting display from a generation I have ever seen and so worry about this country. But I’ve said to my friends is give it time, as soon as their terrorist buddies decide to attack here again they might finally catch a clue that these “freedom fighters” aren’t their friends or to be cheered on

anyways if believing jews should be allowed to have a homeland and live there peacefully makes me a zionist? then call me a zionist. i would rather support that then cheer hamas

exactly, yeah. all this. they think noah recording his friends and smiling makes him evil and he was happy about people dying in gaza. 😭

they also think zionism and israel itself are based on the destruction of another land (palestine); ethnic cleansing and genocide. even some jews and holocaust survivors believe it (for many different reasons; some of them are actually non zionists instead) but their opinions are used by antisemites to bolster their ~anti zionist claims and israel’s right to exist. they’re also against a two-state solution and think israel should cease to be. israelis simply can use their dual passports (because all of them are dual citizens apparently) and go to brooklyn or poland 🤪 or just stay and become palestinian citizens. somehow i can’t see that going well for jews, especially if “from the river to the sea” palestine is under hamas’ control. so people are either stupid and don’t realise what they’re saying or some of them are actually honest with their intention; to push the jews into the sea.

#like sorry but i will never accept brutal killing of innocent people and raping as resistance and ‘decolonisation’ lmao #i genuinely can’t believe we live in a timeline where progressives are cheering for terrorists like hamas #beth answers

[butwhatifidothis]

Was Cap the one who popularize that odious take about the Slithers being the good guys? Cause I cannot imagine what mental gymnastics one has to take to believe that a group of terrorists who kidnap and kill people and assume their identities, conduct blood experiments indiscriminately and burns villages down, turn innocent people into demonic beasts, assassinate political figures, have nukes of mass destruction, calls everyone a "beast" , speak and have dialogue like saturday morning cartoon villains (seriously listen to Solon and Thales' banter), and of course being racist and have committed genocide are the good guys.

I don't know if he popularized it, and to be completely fair he doesn't say TWS are the good guys... just that the Nabateans are basically just as bad as them. Which might actually be worse than saying TWS are good arguably.

If I were to take a shot as to why either of these takes have gotten so much traction, my guess would be that it's all (predictably) to make Edelgard look better. While she does play lip-service to the idea of taking out TWS, and "would have stopped them" from do certain things (such as her saying she would have stopped Remire had she known it would happen), the truth is that a lot of that... isn't true. Like, some of it is straight up lies - she literally did know Remire was going to happen and did nothing to stop it, directly against what she tells Jeralt and Byleth. She only ever takes down TWS after her war - after she's wrung all the use out of them.

The truth is that Edelgard does nothing against them unless forced to by others - she doesn't try to stop Remire, she doesn't rat out Kronya or Solon when they pose as Monica and Tomas, and she flat out helps Thales get his hands on Flayn and literally doesn't try to help get Flayn back afterwards. In fact, that last thing has her outright help TWS get Flayn by directly helping the Death Knight if 25 turns pass.

It's very clear that Edelgard is fine enough working with TWS that she will directly help them achieve their goals in exchange for them helping her achieve her goals. But that clashes with the idea that Edelgard is the nicest bestest sweetest kindest caringest person in the whole wide world who's only ever forced to do mean things because the world and every single person in it hates her and the shoes she walked in with. So instead of actually acknowledging what Edelgard is doing, and acknowledging her villainous tendencies as her villainous tendencies, they just make the targets she personally hates the most - the Nabateans - out to be the real bad guys, in an attempt to justify Edelgard's actions as "necessary."

Now, in this hypothetical, since the Nabateans are "just as bad" as the Agarthans, Edelgard has "no choice" but to side with some form of evil for the greater good. Now she's "brave" for trying to finish a genocide, because those genocide survivors are just as bad as (if not arguably worse than) their genociders. TWS' proclivity for torture, murder, kidnapping, and human experimentation is fine for Edelgard to either ignore or directly help in doing, because siding with the Nabateans would've been no better.

Edelgard can't help but do and be evil, her hands are forced to grab hold of a weapon and do violence. She wants to do good, but she is helpless to do anything but bad, because the world and everyone in it hates her and forces her to do bad. That is how, if no one else, Cap'n genuinely sees Edelgard: a helpless victim of fate who makes zero active choices, who physically can't make choices to do and be good without Byleth coming around to save her. Because viewing her in that way absolves her of all accountability for what she's done to countless people, and the only way to do that is to make her victims deserving of what she does to them so that she stays completely in the right. And the result of that is, well, about as bad as you can imagine

#ask #anon #o captain my captain #which makes the general Edelstan reaction to Lobotogard kinda funny ngl lmao #like THEY'RE the ones that made her out to be a helpless victim of Thales with no control or say in literally anything at all #but then they get mad at Hopes for making her just that #but anyway yeah that's my guess as to why this shitty as hell take has gotten any steam; just another way to make Edelgard look better #We Been Know that they don't like the Nabateans so it's not a real wonder they'd outright demonize them to make the waifu shine brighter

[w0rped-moss]

HE DEFINITELY ISN'T "PURE EVIL" ! I agree completely. The show has subverted expectations before and like let's b real they really shoved the "oh he's so evil and manipulative and gonna kill everyone" down our throats (like i feel like it gets repeated once every episode fr)

I'd be hella disappointed if there was nothing more to what we've heard. Thid has to be a set up for more. He's really cunning and manipulative, we've seen it, but we've only heard about him and what got him trapped out of the mouths of other characters. He is ancient, the things we were told about happened hundreds even thousands of years ago. Memories and events got twisted, forgotten and lost for sure and I've taken everything the archdragons and archmages have said with a generous pile of salt.

(also sorry if I'm overwhelming you with asks. I'm veryy excited to be talking about this with someone)

ITS BEEN CANONICALLY STATED THAT HIS PRISON CAUSED HIM A LOT OF EMOTIONAL PAIN AND TRAUMA. THEY DID A DTIYS OF HIM CRYING IN THE RAIN. I do think aaravos did all that shit. I also think the Aditi thing was literal because that’s so fuckign funny. like ok king get it ig?

also zubeia has personal beef with him so of course she’d be more biased against him. like I don’t think he’s a good person, but I do think that he’ll get a, well not redemption arc, but like. a domestication arc. simply give him exactly one (1) jelly tart (maybe some like. warhammer figures or something for enrichment) and he’ll be fine.

also you can’t solve the cycle of violence by beating the shit out of one dude. especially someone who HAS been as canonically wronged by people as aaravos has. Like he’s the ONLY reason that there were ANY survivors of sol regem’s FUCKING GENOCIDE. he clearly sees the archdragons as betraying him. It was considered a SPOILER by the creators to even answer the question if he had any friends (they eventually said that he did and that’s a big part of his motivation). and speaking of motivation, zubeia never brings up his motivations! I don’t know if she’s lying or just doesn’t know the full truth, but I don’t think her story is entirely accurate

personally my theory is that HE’S the star that rayla calls “leola’s last wish”. they both gave humans magic (she gave them primal stones, he gave them dark magic), leola’s last wish is the brightest star in the sky (even though he’s only at a fraction of his power, he’s still strong enough for like. four archdragons to not want to attack him head on), aaravos is kinda implied to be a guiding light in the elarion poem, leola’s last wish is used for navigation, there’s SOMETHING HERE.

do not apologize I’m also batshit crazy and I watched the season like two weeks ago I fear the blorbo brainrot is terminal

#tdp season 5 spoilers

[trans-wojak]

Regarding your post about Palestine I definitely agree. Its honestly become a trend among "those" types of people to "support" Palestine, not because they actually care but because it suddenly became trendy to do so and they're just like "alright if I want to be seen as woke I guess I'm doing this now" and they begin spamming posts with the hashtags free Palestine, acting as if its a new thing even though its been going on for years.

I've also seen MANY and I mean MANY "woke" people using this whole thing to disguise their blatant antisemitism, they blame all Israeli's and all Jewish people for whats going on instead of the people ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE, its to the point where some girl on TikTok said "Jewish privilege" was a thing and the video as far as I know is still up

Its honestly just a repeat of people showing "support" for BLM when police brutality became a "trending topic" back in 2020 even though police brutality against black people has obviously existed years before 2020

These people don't even do anything to "free Palestine" anyways, they just put a Palestinian flag in their bio, flood everyones page with posts about Palestine and call it a day, they don't donate anything or give anyone links to places we can donate, they don't talk about ways we can help, its just blatant that 90% of these people just want to keep up with the "trend" and as soon as this whole thing with Palestine isn't as "popular" in the media they'll just stop posting about it and begin talking about the next big problem going on

It was the same when the whole thing with Ukraine and Russia happened, everyone on TikTok made the Ukrainian flag their pfp, at most made 1 or 2 videos and did nothing else

And I will not even get started on those people who are like "If you don't make posts about Palestine you're evil and are contributing to genocide" because god forbid I don't want to talk about people dying and stuff

I've seen literal 13 year olds and teens get harassed for not talking about Palestine, what the hell is a child gonna do about freeing Palestine?!

(of course these issues are important, and what has been going on with Palestine and Israel is obviously awful, but I'm sick of people using it to get clout, using it as an excuse to crap on Jews, and just seeing it as a "trend" and not an actual problem)

Couldn’t have said it better myself, this is 100% how I feel too. I’ve seen these woke types literally say things like “guess the Jews learned nothing from WW2 now they’re just being Hitler” like bro?? That’s like saying America is responsible for Britain colonising over the world because they’re both predominantly Anglo christian nations.

This war has been going on since like, before 1950 from what I remember. No one remembers Ukraine now, no one mentions BLM, even though police brutality has been a thing since FOREVER especially targeting minority groups.

That chick was deadset being transphobic (not that I actually care, I just like irony) and she’s acting like she’s actually a good person because she spams the internet with shit about free Palestine lmao

I’m actually Jewish, I don’t have any ties to the culture cause my grandfather passed away really young. But there are deadset people still out there who deny the Holocaust happened and I’m seeing a lot of these people post “look a Holocaust survivor said X about Y, it means it’s true!” Like bro, just like Israel doesn’t represent all Jews, neither does one guy.

I simply don’t think wasting energy on caring about this is a good use of emotions or empathy. Unless people actually donate money and PHYSICALLY make an impact, it’s nothing more than signalling how “good” you are to me. I don’t pay attention the news on crap like this cause I don’t need to worry about it, it does not affect me and there’s nothing I can do even if I feel empathy or sympathy. Literally nothing changes besides I wasted some energy. Is it self serving? Yes. I just say the quiet part out loud. I don’t want to listen and talk about war crimes, it’s not productive nor interesting to me. I block tags about it but people rarely tag and it gets posted in meme tags, also by meme pages cause it’s trendy. It’s boring and I’m sick of seeing pretending they are these great activists for clicking reblog on a post they have no idea if it’s even verified.

#thanks for the ask! #ask answered #literally this #i agree #virtue signaling #pretty much summed up how I feel

[holdharmonysacred]

I want to read the Something Awful LP of FE3H but the fact that OP is doing Crimson Flower last combined with this one person in the thread having to constantly speak up in Azure Moon’s defense combined with several other weird comments about Edelgard and Rhea gives me super bad vibes. I’ve heard too many horror stories about hardcore edelgard stans, I won’t want to binge read the thread and get punched with extreme turbo ableism towards Dimitri or people being horrible about Rhea the literal genocide survivor.

#i know i bring up the rhea thing in every single post but i have to hammer it in every time #the writers made their fantasy pope lady - who is the final boss of edelgard's route - a LITERAL GENOCIDE SURVIVOR #it's pretty ugly on a game level that the lady WHO WANTS TO MAKE SURE HER PEOPLE DO NOT GET GENOCIDED AGAIN #gets consistently framed as suspicious or bad or an untrustworthy awful oppressive authority #even though the bulk of the non-byleth decisions she made were either her getting fored to work in preexisting systems #or were her TRYING TO MAKE SURE HER PEOPLE DO NOT GET GENOCIDED AGAIN #but the way i see fans talk about her is INFINITELY worse #i do not like to see people call THE LITERAL GENOCIDE SURVIVOR 'evil'. #i do not like to see fans hard buy into edelgard's imperialism and racism. #i do not like how people are just awful about rhea overall because a lot of her behavior is due to her trauma #where said trauma is SHE IS ONE OF THE ONLY SURVIVORS OF THE GENOCIDE OF HER PEOPLE #listen. you don't have to like rhea. i get why people wouldn't like the fantasy pope character. #especially when she can get a little WEIRD about byleth the self insert (though in all but one route she repents big time) #but like. you can not like her. and also not be god awful about her or act like edelgard was right #when again. rhea is a LITERAL GENOCIDE SURVIVOR who wants to NOT GET GENOCIDED AGAIN.

[meta-enthusiasm]

You know what I am really fucking tired of seeing in popular media?

The "evil, hysterical woman in power" trope. The clichè that potrays women who are in a position of power as overzealous, unhinged, power hungry maniacs who are a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

Female leaders are shown as less resonable and down to earth as their male counterparts, and are often villainized by either the fandom or the narrative of the story itself. They are doomed to fail because of their womanliness and need to be taken down before they enact their evil plans, preferably by a man, or a woman who performs the 'right' kind of femininity.

This trope relies on the sexist misconception that women are more fragile than men, more emotionally unstable and unpredictable.

"Women aren't cut out to be leaders, they should be nurturing and supportive and tend to their families. Having higher aspirations is against their nature and will eventually break them and drive them crazy."

That type of bullshit that was designed to keep women out of leadership positions and keep oppressing us. To keep us quiet and submissive.

Here are a few examples to further explain this stereotype:

Daenerys Targaryen is one of the most well known characters to fall victim to this trope. She is an abuse and rape victim, seeking to change the current social and political systems of the world because she knows how many people suffer under its injustice. ("Crush the wheel.")

For all her compassion and charity she has shown over the series, the writers decided that it would be reasonable for her to go crazy at the end of the show and, despite promising she wouldn't inflict more damage than necessary, kill thousands of innocent people whose government had already surrendered to her.

And guess who had to kill her in the end? Yup, another man. Her love interest, who was "forced" to betray her.

Next, we have:

Morgana Pendragon, from "Merlin". To remind you, she is an abuse victim who had to endure her father's controlling behavior and bigoted attitude towards people with magic abilities which, suprise suprise, she turned out to have. She had to watch as her father murdered and oppressed people just like herself, and when she challenged that behavior, he would come down hard with punishment. (Going so far as to actually throwing her in the dungeons for a couple days.)

Eventually, she rebelled against the corrupt system and had her genocidal father killed. She led a rebellion against Camelot after Uther's son (Arthur) continued to oppress magicians under his reign, and sought to create a better future for herself and her people.

So far so good, right? Well, no. The problem here is that she is the antagonist of the story. She is portrayed as being in the wrong for not quietly taking the injustice and watching it happen.

Halfway through the show, she becomes obsessed with power and status and desperately chases after the throne of Camelot. She is extremly vindictive, manipulative and cruel to others to archieve her goals. She is a "hysterical woman" who is out of control, emotionally unstable, challenges the patriarchy, and therefore needs to be defeated.

Her death was portrayed as tragic, yet absolutely necessary.

(Of course it had to be a man who killed her.)

Azula is the epitome of this horrid, misogynistic trope. She is a fierce, ambitious leader and highly skilled fire bender, respected and feared among her people. She is highly driven and succeeds at almost everything she sets her mind to.

Ever since she came into this world, she was better at everything than Zuko. She was a better fighter than him, a better bender, better strategist, better child. And that is precisely the reason why she had to lose in the end.

Despite coming from the exact same circumstances as Zuko, the story and the fandom at large see Azula as way less redemable and likable than him. Even though she is an abuse victim whose own mother hated her and is a literal child soldier, she doesn't get any sympathy from the protagonists of the story. The otherwise so understanding and wise Iroh even calls her "crazy", (which is, if you've done some basic research into misogynistic expressions, really fucking problematic.) and tells Zuko that there is no saving her. Why? He doesn't tell, but it's obvious that the writers made him say this because of their own internalized sexist beliefs. She isn't offered a way out of her toxic environment like Zuko was. She didn't get the support from Iroh because he had already given up on her.

To top it off, she has a nervous breakdown near the end and loses her remaining sanity. Because, you know, "She's craaaazy!! And SO unstable!! Typical woman." (Not to mention how this further stigmatizes mental illness and portrays it as something only evil people get.)

She was supposed to become the next fire lord, a position that carries utmost power and influence. Of course, such authority could not be given to a woman. That's why Zuko, a man, gets to be the next fire lord, and we are left assuming Azula will be spending the rest of her days in prison.

The writers assume the audience detests Azula and wants her to suffer. She doesn't deserve a happy ending, or the love and support that Zuko got.

Why? Because she poses a threat to the status quo, the patriarchy. She challenged the belief that men had to be the best and most efficient at everything they do, that women could indeed be better leaders and be happy with having a career and not be nurturing, motherly figures to the men in their lives. And for that transgression, for breaking gender stereotypes, Azula was punished.

(It's also why Katara, someone who performs the "right" kind of femininity by being nurturing, motherly, supportive, healing, doting, and is the care taker of the group, ends up taking Azula, the evil and perverted form of femininity, down. I believe @batboyblog has made a similar post about this.)

This is Carmilla from the popular Netflix show "Castlevania", and if you've payed attention to my previous points, it should be pretty obvious what her character represents and how her story ends.

Note that she is also an abuse and rape survivor who is represented as evil and cruel for being angry at what was done to her.

To top it off, she is also an example of the man hating woman stereotype, whose anger at the misogyny and sexism of the world is portrayed as an "overreaction" and as "too much".

At the end of the story, she had to be taken down by another man (Isaac) so that the status quo could be preserved, and the reign of a crazy bitch like her could be stopped. Horay, the day is saved from yet another unstable, selfish woman who would have brought suffering and pain over her country if allowed to rule. Hysterical women with their demand for equality.

Conclusion:

In all these examples, we can see female abuse victims thriving for power and status, for respect, being represented as something negative and something to avoid. Trying to fundamentally change a system that is rigged against women/female representing people is a fruitless endevour that will eventually fail and drive us crazy, because our minds aren't strong enough to handle this type of responsibility and status.

Holding on to anger and bitterness over what was done to us is the sign of a bad person, and the only morally acceptable path is to forgive/ignore our abusers and let the injustice continue to happen.

Strangely enough though, that same gaslighting, victim blaming mentality gets almost never applied to male characters. Men who seek vengeance are never portrayed as weak or crazy for giving in to the wish of changing a corrupt system/killing bad people. (Batman, the Punisher, Hawkeye, John Wick, Jason Todd, Erin, Scar from FMAB, Iron Man, and so on)

The reason why these stereotypes almost never apply to men but almost always to women is sexism. There is no other explanation for this. These tropes were specifically designed to make society believe that women aren't cut out for leadership positions and are happiest with domestic, easy tasks like watching after our children and taking care of the household.

Women who are angry, women who are dominant are to be feared and distrusted. They are represented as a danger to the general public and need to be taken down before they enact their evil plans.

Feel free to add further examples.

#got #game of thrones #daenerys targeryan #merlin #morgana pendragon #castlevania #carmilla castlevania #carmilla karnstein #trevor belmont #atla #azula #atla azula #zuko #uncle iroh #katara #john snow #I was thinking of adding sylvanas windrunner #but her story isn't finished yet #though I think we all know that Blizzard is a misogynistic piece of shit whose creative team are sleazy scumbags to women #sexism #misogynistic #tw abuse #abuse #tw rape #rape #victim blaming #gaslighting #tw blood #tw death #vampires

[scripttorture]

ST speaking of Pathfinder they also have a literal god of torture named Zon-Kuthon and his portrayal is interesting. And bad, like it shows Paldiens considered hero’s on the setting being tourtoured and “turned” evil

So this isn’t really a question and I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to respond or not, but I thought it might be interesting to try and unpack the idea of a fantasy God of torture. The majority of the time these sorts of things in a fantasy setting are pretty simplistic torture apologia. And it sounds like that’s what’s going on in this game.

 Let’s explore the concept though.

 To start with I think a lot of fantasy pantheons function a little strangely. They often lack the multiple functions and overlap of domains that you see in polytheistic religions.

 Both Pan and Dionysus are Gods of agriculture. Both are associated with fertility. But they’re also distinct. Pan is rooted in wild places, mountains, ‘rustic’ music and sheep herding. Dionysus is rooted in orchards and vineyards. While he’s also about ritualised ‘insanity’ and release he’s fundamentally rooted in more ‘civilised’ places.

 This effects the associations and meanings of both deities.

 Note that the wide range of what these Gods represent tells you a fair bit about Ancient Greek society. The fact that we are talking about vineyards and mountains instantly tells you something about the landscape these people inhabited. It also tells you something about their associations with the environment: wild mountains, civilised orchards.

 The portrayal of these Gods might tell you something about how the Ancient Greeks thought of the people who inhabited these parts of the country. It tells you about their priorities. It tells you what they thought important, moving and vital enough to be deified.

 For a fictional society to have a God of torture implies that torture is a big part of public life. But if we’re approaching this sensibly it also leaves out a lot.

 We don’t know the nature of this God yet, because we haven’t defined the other parts of their realm, the other things they focus on. In the same way that we do not know the nature of Pan or Dionysus when we call them ‘Gods of agriculture.’

 So if we’re designing a fantasy God whose realm includes torture it’s worth asking what the important part of that is? It could be rooted in concepts of suffering, self sacrifice, heroism even. It could be rooted in concepts of ‘just’ authority and legal penalties. Some societies have treated pain as cleansing so that could be a factor. Some religions have used torture as part of their consistent oppression of minority faiths in an attempt to force conversions.

 Anybody mention the Spanish Inquisition?

 We could even take this in a completely different direction. For instance a group of people who have survived genocide, occupation, torture and have taken this into part of their identity and memory- For them a God whose realm includes torture might be about their past, about survival, about healing even or compassion.

 What I’m driving at here is that this idea does not have to be some ‘edgy’ or apologist set of stereotypes. It doesn’t have to be boring.

 Part of achieving that means thinking it through as a religion. Making sure it makes sense. And that means questioning what ‘torture’ means in a particular fictional society. And that can be all sorts of things! It can tend towards implying that this society has a lot of torture apologia, like associating torture with law and order, with protection. But it could also tend much more towards supporting survivors because it could be about the aftermath of torture, healing, recovery, living with mental illness.

 I write a lot of fantasy and I think about making fictional pantheons a fair bit.

 Long term readers will have seen pieces of the story with Ilāra, I came up with a pantheon for this story and several different denominations of the overarching religion.

 It’s an animist religion; they believe that everything has a soul, desires, purpose. A voice. A big part of the religion is trying to communicate with other things. There’s a big sense of things, natural features, animals, even occupations belonging to the realms of different Gods.

 And I bring this up because I think that, if I wanted to, I could put a lot of things to do with the aftermath of torture or supporting survivors in to the realm of two of these Gods.

 Here’s what I wrote as background cultural detail for them:

 ‘There was on the Path a fog and the Prophet entered. Grey with mould and spores and creeping things. Here He, withered to bone, wasted with what will come.

“What are you?” The Prophet said.

Gentle He said. “I am Rot. I am what comes to those gone so what is left may endure; you that would spend your time in comfort come first to me.”

And here the Prophet dwelled a time and learnt of the small things on which life is built. Called him Kindly and Charitable, the Lord whose realm is inescapable.

“Do not go on.” The Lord said. “For the Path is long and there is worse ahead.”

But on the Prophet went.

 There was on the Path a circle and the Prophet entered. Sharp and bright with thought, each breath a memory, each blink a dream. Here She, old as birth, grown ancient with all that is known.

“What are you?” The Prophet said.

Unsmiling She said. “I am Thought. I am what makes your boundaries as a circle holds sigils; you that would truly learn come first to me.”

And here the Prophet dwelled a time and learnt of limits. Called her Strength and Indomitable, the Crone whose realm marks our souls.

“Do not go on.” The Crone said. “For the Path is long and there is worse ahead.”

But on the Prophet went.’

 What I’m trying to convey here is that cultural associations are a vital part of world building. If we’re writing fantasy we can’t be sloppy with those associations. Consistency and inventiveness are what brings a fantasy culture to life.

 It wouldn’t be inconsistent for one of the cultures in this world to talk about survivors in relation to worship of the Crone. She is the mind, it’s natural that serious mental illness would fall into her domain. I could see her being associated with torture in some regions. In moving past it, in healing. Because the lasting effects fall squarely into her realm.

 I could also draw a connection to the Lord if I wanted to. Death is part of his domain and a place where torture is associated with execution could draw a natural link. He’s also a symbol of suffering and compassion, he’s the patron of doctors. So anyone intervening or attempting to help survivors might call on him. Survivors might call on him as well.

 Fantasy religions shouldn’t be flat. We’re trying to create different cultures and really bring them to life in the story. Religion should be a major part of that. The more we box ourselves into the stereotypes and associations of our own culture the more likely that our fantasy worlds are going to seem… typical.

 At its best fantasy challenges our perceptions of the world by showing us different worlds. For me personally the worst thing it can be is boring. It’s a stonking great challenge to ‘go big’.

 Think things through. Question how different features of a culture would impact each other. Try to create a truly different perspective of the world.

 And if you want to make a God of torture in a fantasy world think about what that means. What part of the subject relates to the God? What does it say about the culture and history of the world?

 Write torture apologist cultures in your world if you want to, remember that there’s a difference between writing apologist characters and an apologist story. Be inventive. Fantasy is a challenge to push your creativity. We can rise to it.

 I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

#konradleijon #writing advice #tw torture #fantasy ask #fantasy #writing torture #writing responsibly #torture apologia #worldbuilding #my writing

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 34 of 26

Title: The Harbors of the Sun (2017) (The Books of the Raksura #5)

Author: Martha Wells

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Adventure, LGBT Protagonist, Female Protagonist (Kind Of), Third-Person

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 12/11/2020

Date Finished: 12/25/2020

Moon and his friends are reeling from the betrayal of a former ally. With several members of their party kidnapped, and a mysterious weapon stolen by their new enemy, the chase is on. He and the others must infiltrate unknown territory to rescue their missing family and avert a deadly calamity. At the same time, a massive army of Fell are gathering to attack the Reaches. The Raksuran colonies of Indigo Cloud and Opal Night must join forces to defend their home before they are overrun and destroyed. 

“But you don’t want to be near Fell,” Moon guessed. Considering what had happened to Shade when they had been captured by the Fell flight northwest of the Reaches, it was only rational. 

“No, I don’t.” He looked at Moon hopelessly. “Is that weak?” 

Consorts were supposed to be weak and delicate and need everything done for them, but Moon and Shade were different, and nothing was going to change that. And “weak” wasn’t really the right word for what Shade meant. What he was trying to say was harder to express. It was giving into feelings other people thought you were supposed to have about things that shouldn’t have happened to you in the first place, but were not like the actual feelings you did have. There wasn’t a word for that in Raksuran or Altanic or Kedaic or any other language Moon knew. Moon said, “It’s not weak.” 

Full review, some spoilers, and content warning(s) under the cut. 

Content warnings for the book:  Graphic violence and action. Implied past r*pe (it’s the same plot point as previous books). Genocide is a big plot point of this one. 

The Harbors of the Sun is the fifth, and presumably final, book in the Raksura series. And boy what a ride it's been. I've enjoyed settling in with a longer fantasy series. While I'm excited to read something new, I'll miss these characters and the captivating world they inhabit. Since this is probably the last installment, I'll look into book-specific details, but also provide some series retrospective commentary. I won't touch on everything, just things that stick out to me.

From what I can tell, The Harbors of the Sun is a little controversial with long time fans. I can see why, and it's the same reason I added "Epic Fantasy" to the tag list. Most of the series has focused on small-scale conflicts centering on the Raksuran characters. There's hints of large-scale stuff in The Siren Depths, but that crisis is averted, so thus not fully realized. However, these last two books contain a much longer storyline, and the stakes in The Harbors of the Sun are potentially catastrophic not just for the Raksura, but thousands if not millions of people. Think The Lord of the Rings trilogy vs The Hobbit in terms of ramp up.

Due to the larger scale, this book also embraces a rotating point of view. The original trilogy is entirely from Moon's perspective, and The Edge of Worlds only dips its toes into alternate POVs. The Harbors of the Sun features multiple character groups all doing important things to the story, so there's lots of perspective shifts. While I still consider Moon the main character, he shares the stage with many others.

Personally, I like the scaled up conflict. It seems like a natural progression of the series. While not every point of view wows me, finally seeing some stuff from Jade and Chime's perspective (for example) is really cool. While Moon is an enjoyable protagonist, he often interprets characters and motivations wrong. Getting someone else’s take on a given situation or character is refreshing. 

One of my favorite alt-perspectives is Frost. She's a young child and minor character, but serves as the perspective for a tense political discussion between Raksuran queens about impending war with the Fell. This whole section serves to convey important information, but also as great worldbuilding to see how Raksura interact with, indulge, and care for their young. While we have seen adult perspectives such as Moon happily playing with his children, it's interesting to see a child's view of life in the colony. This is emblematic of Wells' approach to the series and her technique when crafting this world. It would be easy to pick a major character like Malachite and tell this section from her perspective, but we would miss many interesting details. Using Frost isn't something I would necessarily consider, and is just a cool writing choice.

By the end, The Harbors of the Sun feels like it's been a long, epic journey-- more so than the shorter adventures of previous books. A LOT of stuff happens in this book, and there's so many different interesting places the characters visit. Even events at the beginning feel distant compared to where everything ends. There is a unique appeal in this kind of story. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I personally like the change of pace and tone, especially as a finale. 

For a series retrospective, the Fell are an interesting subject to discuss. I'm impressed with what Wells pulls off with them. One of my criticisms of The Cloud Roads is the Fell aren't especially compelling villains. They're an evil race of shapeshifters, distantly related to Raksura, who infiltrate cities and eat the population. The Fell are parasites-- they have no real culture or ability to survive except through the destruction of others. They’ve recently taken to destroying Raksuran colonies, kidnapping survivors, and forcing them to produce crossbreeds. Obviously, this introduces two narrative problems. One, "evil races" in fantasy are boring and already done ad nauseam. Two, how can one make the Fell interesting when they're literally irredeemable monsters? 

The answer, it turns out, is a nature vs nurture debate, and it's mostly approached through the Fell/Raksura crossbreed characters. While these ideas have been explored throughout the series, The Harbors of the Sun brings it full circle. The Cloud Roads' main antagonist is Ranea, a crossbreed queen raised by the Fell. She sees the crossbreeds as a natural way to strengthen the Fell and make them an even deadlier force than they are by default, since Raksura have their own set of powers and traits. She’s soundly defeated, supposedly concluding the subplot. Until, of course, it comes back. 

In The Siren Depths, we meet several crossbreed characters who are, for all intents and purposes, Raksura. Malachite rescued them as children and chose to raise them as Raksura of Opal Night. The result is that, while Shade and Lithe are aware of their heritage, they've experienced love and acceptance throughout their lives. Sure, they may have some physical traits and abilities that differ from the others, but often these have practical uses in the story. Their families don’t treat them differently because of this. As characters, they're just as Raksuran as everyone else.

In The Edge of Worlds, we're introduced to another crossbreed queen, a foil to Ranea. While she makes some early mistakes, unlike Ranea she seems capable of reason and compassion. We learn her name and backstory in The Harbors of the Sun. Consolation was born in a Fell flight, but most of her childcare came from her father, a captive Raksuran consort. Hence her name, which is painful with context and distinctly Raksuran. Apparently, the consort's influence didn't just extend to Consolation, but to other outcasts in the flight. After his death, Consolation and her allies slaughtered the leadership and took over the flight, and seek a place to live in peace independent of traditional Fell corruption and influence. 

One of the interesting things about this are the kethel and dakti in Consolation's flight. Throughout the series, these two Fell castes are basically treated as cannon fodder. If you need a big intimidating enemy, throw in a kethel. For annoying imp swarms, dakti. The Raksura tend to think of these creatures as intelligent animals, not people. They only talk when a Fell ruler takes over their mind. They're treated badly among the Fell; cannibalized them when food stores get low, thrown into suicidal situations, etc. 

In The Harbors of the Sun, the kethel and dakti can speak, much to the surprise of the main cast. Consolation's main advisor is a crossbreed dakti named First. There's also a kethel (presumably pureblooded Fell) that follows and assists Moon and Stone throughout the book and engages them in conversation. They clearly distrust it, but over the course of the story go from calling it "the kethel" to "Kethel", like an actual name. It has ulterior motives-- to convince the Raksura to help Consolation-- but is certainly not "inherently evil", nor just an intelligent animal. This is counter to everything we've been led to believe through the series, and it shocks multiple characters and challenges their way of thinking. 

The argument at the end is that the Fell are evil because of a poisonous ideology and the total control of the progenitors (female rulers). Raised with compassion and better treatment, they're very similar to the Raksura. I'm honestly impressed with where the Fell end up vs where they start in The Cloud Roads. I don't know if Wells planned this arc for them from the beginning, but I like the amount of nuance she introduced without it feeling gross or trite. Does it work 100 percent? I'm not sure; I'd have to reread the series in more depth. But based on my current thoughts, it’s a good development; it doesn’t “redeem” or justify the Fell, but demonstrates the ways in which future generations can change and break the cycle. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, and many characters clearly distrust these “new” Fell (understandable considering the sheer trauma most of the cast has), but it’s an interesting take nevertheless. 

On another subject, we never really learn what was up with the forerunners! Except they really liked flower motifs, I guess. I kind of like this; there's an impression that the long forgotten civilizations of the past were technologically advanced, but no one knows what happened to them. It's just an enduring mystery of the series. Ultimately it doesn't matter to the characters, and that's fine.

Also, we now have confirmation that The Serpent Sea is basically filler. It felt like a side story when I read it, but part of me hoped it would have some relevance to these last two books. Nope. I’m a little disappointed in this, but it’s not the end of the world, just something to keep in mind when reading the series. I think the book is entertaining on its own merits, but there’s little to connect it to the main story besides the characters. 

Overall I recommend these books to people looking for a non-traditional fantasy series. There's no humans or typical Tolkein-esque fantasy races. Instead there are dozens of sapient humanoid species invented whole cloth, with some obvious real world inspirations. The shapeshifting Raksura are lovingly crafted, with lots of interesting detail about their culture, customs, and daily life. I love how they feel like believable people but are distinctly nonhuman. As a setting, The Three Worlds is deadly and fascinating, with lots of interesting places and people. There's always a sense of a big, vibrant world, even when the books choose not to explore it in depth. While The Harbors of the Sun feels like a finale to the current Raksuran story, I wouldn't be surprised if Wells visits this setting in the future.

There are some short story collections in this series which I do plan to read sometime in 2021. However, I'm going to take a break from the Raksura series and dive into something else for now. Thanks for reading! 

#2020 reading challenge #taylor reads #9/10

[starrystories2]

Hey! Your story sounds super cool. Could you tell me about the lore behind it?

...sure

There’s a lot though.....

So get ready...

Remember how I said that I realised that I accidentally copied atla when making my magic system... well, similarly, the very eariliest histories of the world indicate that there were four races original races, each race born with the magical ability to control their respective element. The Sylmuryl (water), the Bolnlow (earth), the Volvalens (fire), and the Kairussians (air). (I’m really sorry atla, I promise the magic system is not the same, and that history plays out a lot differently). 

The earliest records tell of the aftermath of a war: The Sylmuryl, the Bolnlow, and half of the Volvalens under the rule of an evil witch vs. the other half of the Volvalens and the Kairussians under the rule of Himself(the only and perfect God). The resolution of the war is unclear, but it had something to do with Himself’s Banisher, who banished the Black witch from the world. 

After the war, the magic of the losing side dissapeared. In dispair, the Sylmuryl sunk into the sea, and the Bolnlow hulled themselves in the mountains, never to be seen again, and dying off into extinction, leaving behind their halfborn children (because the world was totally cool with interbreading).

The Kairussians decided they didn’t want any more part in the world after that dreadful war and created a land in the sky called Douden, where they took any halfborns with Kairussian blood. (Basically leaing everything in the hands of a divided fire nation... yeah.... that was smart)

So... the Volvalens fought on the wrong side of the war don’t have magic while the survivors from the other side of the war(there’s not many of those left btw) do have magic. (Not to mention all the rest of the orphaned or half-orphaned halfborns running around...fun times) So obiously, the logical thing for the non-magic Volvalens to do is hunt the magic Volvalens into extinction and round up all the halfborns to a) keep the separate based off of their heritage(because volvalens are ocd or something/totally did it to keep them from joinging forces against them) and b) kill off/experiement with any of them that show magic abilities in attempts to regain their own magic.

...okay, so I even made the fire nation jerks in this story... so much for that...

anyway, there is one Volvalen who’s not a jerk(oh my gosh why can’t I stop....I just realised...I PROMISE HE’S NOT ZUKO!)....Kallen, is a Volvalen who is against what his people are doing and(long story short) leads a rebellion of halfborns against his people. Unfortionatly, he thinks that as long as his people are alive, the halfborns will never be safe(not an unfair assessment...except) as a result he genocides his own people (except for himself). 

Let’s keep in mind that the Kairussians can see all of this play out and do LITERALLY NOTHING!

 Kallen meets with representatives from each sect of the halfborns left on earth (for those who are counting [this is based on heritige btw] 3 sects on earth, 3 in Douden) to discuss his what to do now. 

These are the results: While two of the sects want Kallen as their king, the halfborns have no Volvalen blood(only 1 sect) claim that, though they are greatful, have no allegience to the volvalen people (because lack of volvalen heritage,) and want to be left to their own devices. Kallen, not wanting to rule the whole world (not wanting a repeat of what just happened) thinks it’s a good idea and together the council divides the land between that sect and Kallen’s new kingdom (most of the land belonging to Kallen, because there’s just more people, but anyway)

Anyway, Kallen becomes king and (despite totally abliterating his own people and ruling pretty much 2/3 of the world’s popluation) he’s a pretty boss king and everbody loves him. 

He marries his first wife Jadnir and has two sons, Jaden and Karner. After his first wife dies (don’t ask, I don’t know why... yet) he remarries a woman named Gondabal and has two sons with her, Gontner and Lenndabar. 

Kallen decides that instead of giving everything to his oldest, Jaden, he is going to divide his land evenly between all four of his sons, because he’s a good dad and luvs all his bois. (This unconventional passing on of Kallen’s rule inspired a few different ways that the crown would be passed in the four cultures that spawn from Kallen’s sons)(but more on that later)

So everything is fine a dandy for a while. (There are even legends that the four brother’s were so close that they were sad that their kingdom’s were so far away from eachother, so they prayed to Himself to make a way for them to see eachother and Himself decided to give them a meeting room outside of space(but not time) that only the king and his heir could go into, but such a wild story like this has no proof, so it makes a good bedtime story for kids).

But after a while (like a long while... like those 4 bros be dead now) The desert in Gontner(btw the countries are literally the four sons’ names) domain grows into Jaden and Jaden is like, idk wut to do with this, it’s sand. So Jaden decides to sell all the desert to Gontner because most of their land is desert already so they can actually do stuff with that land and Jaden can’t (and the desert got pretty big so Jaden is basically giving away half their kingdom). And EVEN THOUGH IT WAS JADEN’S IDEA TO SELL THE LAND IN THE FIRST PLACE, they feel like they were cheated, so they decided to go invade Lenndabar(and fyi Lenndabar is basically a giant island off the cost of the mainland, and I mean a big island)

So Jaden goes and takes over Lenndabar, forcing it’s people into the mountains in the north. Not long after that, Karner desides to help Lenndabar out and tries to conquer Lenndabar from Jaden to give back to the Lenns.

And at this point, each contry as about 1/2 the land each (if you don’t count the montains in the north) and because neither of them are able to gain more ground, things settle into an uneasy cease fire, that goes on for a while(to the point that both the Jades and the Karns are very comfortable and settled into the land they posess (but that belongs to neither of them in the first place)

Well... that was a lot... 

if any of you are still not drowning in information here are a few details more...

1. At some point during the cease fire a plague hits Lenndabar (I don’t know when exactly, but it’s pretty important to some of the characters’ backstories so I thought I’d mention it. I mean it does make sense though, because there are three different people groups all occupying the same island, so of course disease is going to thrive and some people will have immunites while others don’t)(maybe the plague is the reason the cease fire starts in the first place... idk)

2. Gontner cut off comminications with his brother countries after they got land from Jaden, but before Jaden’s invation of Lenndabar, and hasn’t gotten involved with this war at all.

3.Also... at some point... some of the Kairussian halfborns and the few Kairussians left at this point(they’re also almost extinct, but not yet....I don’t know why yet) returned to the world and most are living in secluded places.

4. There are rummors that right before the Jades invaded Lenndabar that the Lenn King took his heir and threw him down a well before jumping himself. There were no eyewitnesses, but the story is assumed to be true and the whole event is called the Whay, but no one can remember if it was named after the king or his heir. Whay is now used as a strong curse, especially in the slyva towns, and when used as a direct insult to someone can mean that they are a REALLY big jerk and coward or they are REALLY stupid and gullible.

Let me know if you have questions! Thank you guys for giving me a platform to tell my story even though it’s not done yet!

Hope you enjoyed!

#8 men

[tlbodine]

The Wendigo is Not What You Think

There’s been a recent flurry of discussion surrounding the Wendigo -- what it is, how it appears in fiction, and whether non-Native creators should even be using it in their stories. This post is dedicated to @halfbloodlycan​, who brought the discourse to my attention. 

Once you begin teasing apart the modern depictions of this controversial monster, an interesting pattern emerges -- namely, that what pop culture generally thinks of as the “wendigo” is a figure and aesthetic that has almost nothing in common with its Native American roots...but a whole lot in common with European Folklore. 

What Is A Wendigo? 

The Algonquian Peoples, a cluster of tribes indigenous to the region of the Great Lakes and Eastern Seaboard of Canada and the northern U.S., are the origin of Wendigo mythology. For them, the Wendigo (also "windigo" or "Witigo" and similar variations) is a malevolent spirit. It is connected to winter by way of cold, desolation, and selfishness. It is a spirit of destruction and environmental decay. It is pure evil, and the kind of thing that people in the culture don't like to talk about openly for fear of inviting its attention.

Individual people can turn into the Wendigo (or be possessed by one, depending on the flavor of the story), sometimes through dreams or curses but most commonly through engaging in cannibalism. Considering the long, harsh winters in the region, it makes sense that the cultural mythology would address the cannibalism taboo.

For some, the possession of the Wendigo spirit is a very real thing, not just a story told around the campfire. So-called "wendigo psychosis" has been described as a "culture-bound" mental illness where an individual is overcome with a desire to eat people and the certainty that he or she has been possessed by a Wendigo or is turning into a Wendigo. Obviously, it was white people encountering the phenomenon who thought to call it "psychosis," and there's some debate surrounding the whole concept from a psychological, historical, and anthropological standpoint which I won't get into here -- but the important point here is that the Algonquian people take this very seriously. (1) (2)

(If you're interested in this angle, you might want to read about the history of Zhauwuno-geezhigo-gaubow (or Jack Fiddler), a shaman who was known as something of a Wendigo hunter. I'd also recommend the novel Bone White by Ronald Malfi as a pretty good example of how these themes can be explored without being too culturally appropriative or disrespectful.) 

Wendigo Depictions in Pop Culture

Show of hands: How many of you reading this right now first heard of the Wendigo in the Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book?

That certainly was my first encounter with the tale. It was one of my favorite stories in the book as a little kid. It tells about a rich man who goes hunting deep in the wilderness, where people rarely go. He finds a guide who desperately needs the money and agrees to go, but the guide is nervous throughout the night as the wind howls outside until he at last bursts outside and takes off running. His tracks can be found in the snow, farther and farther apart as though running at great speed before abruptly ending. The idea being that he was being dragged along by a wind-borne spirit that eventually picked him up and swept him away.

Schwartz references the story as a summer camp tale well-known in the Northeastern U.S., collected from a professor who heard it in the 1930s. He also credits Algernon Blackwood with writing a literary treatment of the tale -- and indeed, Blackwood's 1910 novella "The Wendigo" has been highly influential in the modern concept of the story.(3)  His Wendigo would even go on to find a place in Cthulhu Mythos thanks to August Derleth.

Never mind, of course, that no part of Blackwood's story has anything in common with the traditional Wendigo myth. It seems pretty obvious to me that he likely heard reference of a Northern monster called a "windigo," made a mental association with "wind," and came up with the monster for his story.

And so would begin a long history of white people re-imagining the sacred (and deeply frightening) folklore of Native people into...well, something else.

Through the intervening decades, adaptations show up in multiple places. Stephen King's Pet Sematary uses it as a possible explanation for the dark magic of the cemetery's resurrectionist powers. A yeti-like version appears as a monster in Marvel Comics to serve as a villain against the Hulk. Versions show up in popular TV shows like Supernatural and Hannibal. There's even, inexplicably, a Christmas episode of Duck Tales featuring a watered-down Wendigo.

Where Did The Antlered Zombie-Deer-Man Come From? 

In its native mythology, the Wendigo is sometimes described as a giant with a heart of ice. It is sometimes skeletal and emaciated, and sometimes deformed. It may be missing its lips and toes (like frostbite). (4)

So why, when most contemporary (white) people think of Wendigo, is the first image that comes to mind something like this?

Well...perhaps we can thank a filmmaker named Larry Fessenden, who appears to be the first person to popularize an antlered Wendigo monster. (5) His 2001 film (titled, creatively enough, Wendigo) very briefly features a sort of skeletal deer-monster. He’d re-visit the design concept in his 2006 film, The Last Winter. Reportedly, Fessenden was inspired by a story he’d heard in his childhood involving deer-monsters in the frozen north, which he connected in his mind to the Algernon Blackwood story. 

A very similar design would show up in the tabletop game Pathfinder, where the “zombie deer-man” aesthetic was fully developed and would go on to spawn all sorts of fan-art and imitation. (6) The Pathfinder variant does draw on actual Wendigo mythology -- tying it back to themes of privation, greed, and cannibalism -- but the design itself is completely removed from Native folklore. 

Interestingly, there are creatures in Native folklore that take the shape of deer-people -- the  ijiraq or tariaksuq, shape-shifting spirits that sometimes take on the shape of caribou and sometimes appear in Inuit art in the form of man-caribou hybrids (7). Frustratingly, the ijiraq are also part of Pathfinder, which can make it a bit hard to find authentic representations vs pop culture reimaginings. But it’s very possible that someone hearing vague stories of northern Native American tribes encountering evil deer-spirits could get attached to the Wendigo, despite the tribes in question being culturally distinct and living on opposite sides of the continent. 

That “wendigo” is such an easy word to say in English probably has a whole lot to do with why it gets appropriated so much, and why so many unrelated things get smashed in with it. 

I Love the Aesthetic But Don’t Want to Be Disrespectful, What Do I Do? 

Plundering folklore for creature design is a tried-and-true part of how art develops, and mythology has been re-interpreted and adapted countless times into new stories -- that’s how the whole mythology thing works. 

But when it comes to Native American mythology, it’s a good idea to apply a light touch. As I’ve talked about before, Native representation in modern media is severely lacking. Modern Native people are the survivors of centuries of literal and cultural genocide, and a good chunk of their heritage, language, and stories have been lost to history because white people forcibly indoctrinated Native children into assimilating. So when those stories get taken, poorly adapted, and sent back out into the public consciousness as make-believe movie monsters, it really is an act of erasure and violence, no matter the intentions of the person doing it. (8) 

So, like...maybe don’t do that? 

I won’t say that non-Native people can’t be interested in Wendigo stories or tell stories inspired by the myth. But if you’re going to do it, either do it respectfully and with a great deal of research to get it accurate...or use the inspiration to tell a different type of story that doesn’t directly appropriate or over-write the mythology (see above: my recommendation for Bone White). 

But if your real interest is in the “wendigocore” aesthetic -- an ancient and powerful forest protector, malevolent but fiercely protective of nature, imagery of deer and death and decay -- I have some good news: None of those things are really tied uniquely to Native American mythology, nor do they have anything in common with the real Wendigo. 

Where they do have a longstanding mythic framework? Europe.

Europeans have had a long-standing fascination with deer, goats, and horned/antlered forest figures. Mythology of white stags and wild hunts, deer as fairy cattle, Pan, Baphomet, Cernunnos, Herne the Hunter, Black Phillip and depictions of Satan -- the imagery shows up again and again throughout Greek, Roman, and British myth. (9)

Of course, some of these images and figures are themselves the product of cultural appropriation, ancient religions and deities stolen, plundered, demonized and erased by Christian influences. But their collective existence has been a part of “white” culture for centuries, and is probably a big part of the reason why the idea of a mysterious antlered forest-god has stuck so swiftly and firmly in our minds, going so far as to latch on to a very different myth. (Something similar has happened to modern Jersey Devil design interpretations. Deer skulls with their tangle of magnificent antlers are just too striking of a visual to resist). 

Seriously. There are so, so many deer-related myths throughout the world’s history -- if aesthetic is what you’re after, why limit yourself to an (inaccurate) Wendigo interpretation? (10) 

So here’s my action plan for you, fellow white person: 

Stop referring to anything with antlers as a Wendigo, especially when it’s very clearly meant to be its own thing (the Beast in Over the Garden Wall, Ainsworth in Magus Bride)

Stop “reimagining” the mythology of people whose culture has already been targeted by a systematic erasure and genocide

Come up with a new, easy-to-say, awesome name for “rotting deer man, spirit of the forest” and develop a mythology for it that doesn’t center on cannibalism 

We can handle that, right? 

This deep dive is supported by Ko-Fi donations. If you’d like to see more content, please drop a tip in my tip jar.  Ko-fi.com/A57355UN

NOTES: 

1 - https://io9.gizmodo.com/wendigo-psychosis-the-probably-fake-disease-that-turns-5946814

2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo#Wendigo_psychosis

3 - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10897/10897-h/10897-h.htm

4 - https://www.legendsofamerica.com/mn-wendigo/

5- https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/comments/8wu2nq/wendigo_brief_history_of_the_modern_antlers_and/

6 - https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Wendigo

7 - https://www.mythicalcreaturescatalogue.com/single-post/2017/12/06/Ijiraq

8 - https://www.backstoryradio.org/blog/the-mythology-and-misrepresentation-of-the-windigo/

9 - https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2014/12/the-folklore-of-goats.html

10 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_in_mythology

#horror #folklore #mythology #deep dive #wendigo #cultural appropriation #monster design #creature design #long post #if you need a place to channel your deerman aesthetic #may I suggest huntokar from welcome to nightvale #100% fictional #100% awesome

[mobius-prime]

171. Sonic the Hedgehog #103

Freedom Fighters of the Galaxy (Part One)

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Jim Valentino Colors: Stephanie Vozzo

So for the next couple of issues, we're actually taking a bit of a break from the heavy stuff. For those who don't know, Michael Gallagher was actually a main writer for the Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy series during the 90s, and this story is a parody of it. To be clear - I usually have a policy of "if it ain't canon, I don't care" but we've covered alternate-zone Sonics before, and this is technically canonically taking place, just in a parallel zone instead of in our very own Mobius Prime. Zonic arrives to welcome us into an alternate zone for the duration of this story, a zone that exists a full millennium into the future. Mobius is by now a barely-habitable wasteland full of burnt-out husks of buildings and flames that consume the skyline. Lovely place! A spaceship descends onto the planet's surface, and Sonic emerges dressed in a black and silver suit, only to have a being who looks like Tails in a black cosplay wig jump down to him from above. Sonic begins asking how long he's been away from the planet, and when "Tails" seems confused he launches into an explanation of his recent past.

Well that sucks, man. The other being, who introduces himself as "Tailon," explains that at some point during the War of the World a thousand years ago, the Freedom Fighters lost their main champion and subsequently lost the entire war. The planet was burned and became largely uninhabitable, even killing Robotnik himself, but some Mobians did manage to survive, and Tailon is the descendant of one of those survivors. Suddenly, they're attacked by a band of "brass knuckles," which are of course robotic echidnas, and Sonic works with Tailon to defeat them. However, even more arrive, too many to fight on their own - but at that moment, another spaceship descends from above, and a group of other superpowered beings emerges.

Now, I have never actually read the Guardians of the Galaxy comics, nor do I know anything else about any iteration of the series besides what's in the first modern movie, which I've only seen once anyway (I'm not really into superheroes, sue me), but the wiki assures me that all of these guys' names and powers are based on the heroes in the comic that Michael wrote for. Together, everyone works to defeat the rest of the brass knuckles, with Michael unable to resist his usual weird penchant for making Bunnie (or rather, "Bunni") shout bizarre and mildly-offensive taunts relating to the American Civil War, and afterwards the Freedom Fighters of the Galaxy explain how they came to be after the planet was burned.

That is… incredibly depressing, what the hell? I don't know, just that shot of an exhausted and beaten-down group of Freedom Fighters walking through the smoking, ruined city streets is really sad. Anyway, despite there only being one inhabitant of each new planet, they somehow managed to populate said planets, evolving into new forms over the centuries. Bunni's ancestors gained acrobatic skills and fiery hair, 'Twan-Du's ancestors literally shaped their toupees into crests to collect solar energy (and I guess that makes them good archers or something?), Rotor-27's ancestors developed into a martial culture that prided themselves on strength, and Saleta's ancestors settled "Bluto," the planet furthest from the sun, and learned to harness the powers of light. Everything was fine, until just a few years ago, when a genocidal species called "The Shark" (which an editor's note informs us evolved from technology that the Forty Fathoms Freedom Fighters launched into space during the War of the World, officially cementing their place as the most useless and harmful Freedom Fighter chapter ever) descended upon the solar system and literally. Ate. Everyone. They just… ate everyone, man, and after they consumed all living matter on every planet (except for Mobius, apparently) they left, with only Saleta, Bunni, Rotor-27, 'Twan-Du, and Hawkhawk surviving. Thus, they formed their Freedom Fighter group, and now intend to protect the galaxy from all evil! Obviously, Sonic and Tailon are invited to join up as well, by which I mean Hawkhawk aggressively orders them to join, and as Sonic understandably balks at his rudeness, an explosion interrupts their discussion, and… this… abomination emerges from the smoke.

I don't think you guys understand just how freaking hard I lost my crap when I first saw this. I just collapsed straight into hysterical laughter and had to take a break from everything, because the sheer absurdity of a naked, silver-coated Snively riding a surfboard that says "bad boy" burned itself into my brain for all eternity and would not let me go. This is objectively one of the best panels in the entirety of this comic and you cannot convince me otherwise. Go ahead. Try to find something funnier than silver bad boy gremlin man. I dare you.

Myth Taken Identity (Part One)

Writer: Michael Gallagher Pencils: Dave Manak Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So you remember how a whiiiile ago, I said that it seemed kind of bizarre that Wombat Stu would so easily leave behind his fellows in the Downunda Freedom Fighters, without even so much as a goodbye? Well it turns out that they've actually been holding auditions to try to find a replacement member to bring their team back up to five. However, everyone who auditions is terrible, and the team resigns themselves to remaining at four for now, eventually taking to reminiscing about the "good old days" back when they first formed the group. Walt, Bill, and Guru found each other first while out wandering, and upon seeing a factory polluting the landscape they ran to check it out. There, they found a prison camp run by Crocbot, who planned to run cruel experiments on his captives, whom the three quickly freed. Wombat Stu showed up then, having been keeping an eye on the camp for some time but not having the manpower to take it down, and eagerly joined up with the other three as they press onward, trying to find Crocbot's main headquarters. On the way they met Barby, who at the time was a roaming mercenary who wanted to take down Crocbot as well, and they agreed to officially form up into the Downunda Freedom Fighters.

Alerted by the cry, the four remaining members rush outside to find one of the Mobians who auditioned for their team looking battered and worse for wear, ranting about how he and the others were attacked by the bunyip before fainting dramatically. Hey, remember how when Crocbot was unplugged all the way back in StH#61, Crocbot also mentioned something about the bunyip? There was a little tease-y textbox back then inviting people to write in if they wanted to hear about the bunyip adventure, but it had been so long I almost thought they forgot about it. Not so, however! Apparently we're finally tackling the bunyip problem, starting with finding out exactly what it is and why it's been attacking random people…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 103 #writer: michael gallagher #pencils: jim valentino #pencils: dave manak #colors: stephanie vozzo #colors: frank gagliardo

[darthlordcommie]

What is Redemption?

Redemption: The act of saving or being saved from sin or evil. 

So, I’m going to talk about four characters who are often talked about in regards to redemption. Those four are: Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Severus Snape, Zuko, and Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. I’ll be discussing them in that order. I’ll be starting with why they went down the dark paths they went on, what they did during that time, and finally, their “redemptions”. 

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader 

So, in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we encounter Anakin Skywalker at age 22. He spent the first 9 years of his life as a slave, and the next 13 years as a child soldier, while also being groomed by an abuser, aka, Palpatine. When he was 19, the Clone Wars began, and he spent the majority of those three years on the front lines of that conflict, racking up notoriety and trauma. So, when we meet him again in RotS, he is: 22, suffering from PTSD, has been groomed to be abused for over a decade, and lacking a sufficient support system. When he has dreams about his wife, who he loves, dying, he panics, partly because the last time he had dreams like this, it ended with his mother dying in his arms. So, he goes to Yoda for advice on his visions, and gets told that there’s nothing he can do, and not to mourn for the person who’s going to die. Anakin does not like that answer. But he sits on it, until Palpatine reveals himself as a Sith Lord and tells Anakin that he has the power to save Padme. Anakin goes and tells the Jedi, with the one he tells having spent years as somewhat hostile to him, and they go and confront him. When he arrives, Anakin sees the man he had believed to be his friend and mentor on the ground, and Mace Windu, who he was not close to, about to murder him without due process, or anything. And finally, when he’s just about driven mad with fear over Padme’s possible death, Anakin strikes Windu, and joins Palpatine. And we all know how that went. 

Over the next 2 decades, Anakin, now Darth Vader, spent his time killing subordinates who angered him and doing whatever Palpatine told him to do. That is known to have included mass murder, torture, genocide, and all manner of military action against innocent planets. (I am not specifically mentioning Alderaan, as while Vader didn’t do anything to stop it, he also wasn’t in charge of the Death Star at any time, so he is very much complicit, but the responsibility for the order isn’t his) When he finds out that Luke, his son, is alive and running around the galaxy, he tries to recruit him. But even then, he is following Palpatine’s orders, as he is still completely obedient to him. 

During the climax of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader is confronted by Luke. At this point, Luke does not say “I forgive you”. He says “I love you.” He doesn’t absolve Vader of his sins, because that’s impossible. He offers his hand to his father, because he loves him, even knowing the horrific things Vader has done. And at the end, when he has to choose between obedience and his son’s life, Vader chooses his son, and kills Palpatine, being mortally wounded in the process. As Luke tries to save him, Anakin tells Luke “You already have.” Does this mean that Anakin is redeemed? No. He did good things before becoming Darth Vader, and he did bad things after becoming Vader. But he is saved, because he has chosen to be a good person. If he had lived, would he have done things to try and make up for his crimes? Very likely. But he didn’t, and his choice was not so much redemption, as it was a recognition that he didn’t have to be the monster. At the end, Darth Vader wasn’t redeemed, but he was a good man once more. And he died that way. 

Severus Snape 

So, prior to the events of the Harry Potter books, Snape was a Half-Blood who grew up in the Muggle world in an abusive household. When he was 9, he met Lily Evans, a Muggleborn with magic, who became his first friend. When he was 11, he went to Hogwarts, and joined Slytherin, quickly becoming one of the most notable practitioners of Dark Magic in that house. He made friends with people like Mulciber, Avery, and Rosier, and over his Hogwarts career, became known as a future Death Eater. He was also someone who had a rivalry with James Potter, and was, at least on one occasion when they were 15, flat out bullied by James. On that occasion, when Lily attempted to defend him, he called her a “Mudblood”, a known slur for Muggleborns. After this event, Lily ended their friendship for good, because she couldn’t keep ignoring that he was growing up to become a wizard Nazi. What was his response to the girl he fancied cutting ties with him for being a bigot? It was to join the magic Nazis right out of school. 

Snape spent years fighting Voldemort’s war to conquer the world, to the point where he told his master of a prophecy of the one person who could defeat him. This was when things happened. Because the person Voldemort believed to be his greatest threat was the son of Lily Evans, no Lily Potter, Snape went to Dumbledore, because he didn’t want Lily to die. He didn’t care about James, and he didn’t care about Lily’s infant son Harry. So, the events of October 31st, 1981 happened, and Harry was left the only survivor. Snape spent the next decade bullying students in Potions classes, until Harry arrived in 1991. At which point Snape promptly began bullying him for no other reason than being his parents’ son, and bullied him along with several other students for years, to the point where he was one of his students’, Neville Longbottom’s, greatest fear. 

At the end, Snape helped the good guys by getting them the Sword of Gryffindor, and telling them that Harry’s scar was a Horcrux. However, he only did so because Voldemort killed Lily, and resented the world because he didn’t have Lily for his entire life. He even resented Lily for rejecting him. So, at the end, he helped cause Voldemort’s death, but did he redeem himself? No, because he never felt remorse for what he had done, and in fact blamed others. 

Zuko 

So, Zuko was born and raised into an abusive family, and was abused for literal years by his father Ozai. This culminated in physical abuse, leaving a permanent scar across Zuko’s face, while he was exiled and sent on an impossible mission. At this point, Zuko became obsessed with trying to regain his father’s love, denying the truth that he had never had it to begin with. 

During this time, Zuko hunts Avatar Aang across the world, desperately trying to capture him and end the world’s last hope at stopping the Fire Nation’s conquest. In addition, he also assisted in the capture of Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom. Afterwards, he returns to the Fire Nation, and sends an assassin after Aang. 

However, he slowly realizes that what he got wasn’t what he wanted, and after he finds out that Ozai intended to use Sozin’s Comet to wipe out the Earth Kingdom, Zuko turns his back on his family, and joins Aang. During this time he trains Aang in firebending, helps Katara put her demons to rest, and helps Sokka rescue Suki and Hakoda from prison, before ultimately battling Azula and saving Katara’s life in the climax. So, was Zuko redeemed? Yes, because he recognized that he had done wrong, fixed what he had done, and spent the rest of his life trying to do the right thing.

Ben Solo/Kylo Ren 

So, Ben Solo was raised by his parents, Han and Leia, until sometime in his teen years, when he began training to be a Jedi under his uncle Luke. Due to events that happened, Ben slaughtered his fellow students and joined the First Order, dedicating himself to Supreme Leader Snoke as Kylo Ren. 

At this point in time, Kylo Ren’s actions have included assisting in the capturing of numerous planets, the murder of multiple unarmed civilians, multiple counts of torture, the massacre of the New Republic, killing his father Han, killing Snoke to achieve control over the First Order, and the attempted wipeout of the Resistance and killing of his mother. 

Can Kylo Ren be redeemed? No, because unlike Vader, who took the chance of changing when a hand was offered to him, Kylo has repeatedly denied any chance of returning to the side of good, once by murdering his own father, who was unarmed and trying to save him. 

So there. That’s my take on redemption, who’s been redeemed and who hasn’t, and why. 

#star wars #harry potter #darth vader #kylo ren #prince zuko #atla #severus snape #anti snape #anti kylo #kylo stans and snape stans don't interact #I will ignore you

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

like, for real, i know several people just out of my close friends who are triggered, squicked, or otherwise deeply upset by stricklake, canon-flavored especially, who have it shoved in their faces on a regular basis, often untagged, and for whom the tags have become completely unusable after prominently featured canon content of their triggering NOTP, with even more upsetting tropes and framing specifically. ‘stricklake being mushy and domestic and cooing over babies’ is REVOLTING to me and to them, and to i’m sure a lot of other people who are frankly just too scared to say anything.

do you think even half of stricklake shippers would give one single fuck about making sure we don’t have to see it? much less see it romanticized, which is done in 90% of the fic even just that comes out of the ao3 tag? 

every now and then somebody mistags a Bad Ship fic or post, or has poor boundaries, and triggers people. that sucks. being triggered is legitimate. i’m sorry it happened.

now multiply that by hundreds. hundreds. hundreds of times, by hundreds of people, for years. untagged ships and dynamics, people coming into our inboxes to request or talk about stricklake after we’ve explicitly said to keep it away from us, people being fucking furious with us for expressing that we don’t like it or find it triggering.

and yes, by romanticized i do mean ‘romanticized,’ not ‘depicted.’ it is explicitly portrayed as a cute, romantic dynamic between two people who have a thousand adorable babies uwu, in canon and fandom alike, and/or otherwise the fucked up aspects are just. brushed over. did you know he has literally never said sorry to her for what he did to her or her family? not once?

but no, he’s ~grown and changed~ and ~atoned for what he did.~

that is romanticization. that’s fucked. 

and there is not only no escape from it if you engage at all with this damn fandom, people will be FURIOUS with you for calling it what it is. not for making any judgment on them for shipping it; not for telling them what they are or aren’t allowed to like, or make. calling it what it is, and asking other people to have the basic respect for abuse survivors to do the same.

but nah. nah, we’re the ones who are triggering abuse survivors literally just by shipping a ship, usually portrayed as the fucked up dynamic that it is, most of whom are abuse survivors ourselves working through shit, when we as a group make it a philosophy to give people the tools to avoid it. we’re the evil ones. we’re, and i can’t fucking stress this enough because holy fuck, literally as bad as genocidal white s*premacists.

go fuck yourselves.

#whosebaby talks #the salt files #white supremacy mention tw #politics mention tw #anti survivor tw #abuse tw #antis tw #harassment tw #stricklake critical #like seriously please think for one second #/one/ #about how incredibly disgusting and upsetting it would be to see your Problematic NOTP of Choice #featured as a mushy happy couple #in a fairly good chunk of advertising about a series that ISN'T EVEN ABOUT THEM #onscreen #with the promise of more to come #please think about that for a second #and whether you have a giant fucking double standard #that has been silencing and triggering and harming abuse survivors #and normalizing their experiences #for years #thanks! #3 below spoilers tw #s2 spoilers tw #spoilers tw

[ober-affen-geil]

I want to talk about some of the human side of what we saw in 1x12, so far as morality goes. Because we get some really excellent examples of what is at the core of some of the human characters and how it speaks to the “ideal” of each of their professions, and I want to get into it. CW for discussion of torture, abuse, and genocide.

This gets long so I’m putting a break.

We’ll start with Liz. The truth-seeker. She is a scientist, and at the heart of science (and by association, those who practice it) is curiosity. There doesn’t have to be a good reason as to why, so long as the question “can it be done” is answered. 

But Liz specifically works in the biomedical field, which means she has a strict set of rule to adhere to in order to prevent harm. She would be very familiar with moral guidelines around human (and animal) subjects. In the biomedical code of ethics, the number one direction under professional obligations is to use “knowledge, skills, and abilities to enhance the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” (Find a complete list here.) 

Within the scientific field there is also a distinction about “life”, sentient life is treated differently. There are separate rules for how to conduct experiments with plants versus mammals. It comes down to self-awareness and cognitive ability, but suffice it to say that moral and ethical regulations exist specifically to protect these subjects. In a perfect world of medical science, experiments are conducted without any harm coming to the participants, and the results are used to further the ability to help people.

Liz doesn’t get as much focus in 1x12 but there is one scene that is critical to her character and how she fits into the scientific ideal. In fact it comes down to one line: “My serum is right now killing a living thing capable of fear.” x

This is Liz acknowledging that Noah, as a non-human, has sentience. (She has indisputable proof because she is literally mentally connected to him.) She is giving Noah the same moral consideration that she would a human subject. As any good scientist should. But more importantly, this is Liz taking direct responsibility for Noah’s imminent death. “My serum”. Not only is she the one who injected him with it (in self defense tbf), she is the one who created it. In her own words she never meant for it to be used, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is the reason it exists.

During her interview in 1x05 it is revealed that the type of research Liz is involved with deals with regenerative study; she’s focused on healing. (This kind of science, healing what others believe to be irreparable, is important to me.) The fact that Liz, who has every conceivable reason to want Noah dead, is applying this focus to him as well is extremely indicative of her resolve to stand for her morals, and the morals of the biomedical field of study.

Now for Kyle. The healer. He is a doctor, specifically a surgeon. He went to medical school. He most likely would have taken some kind of physician’s oath when he graduated, to the effect of how to adhere to a code when practicing medicine. (There are actually several different oaths, but the most famous is the Hippocratic Oath. Find the full text here.) He also would have been taught medical ethics in school which has four main pillars of ideals, the most well known being “First, do no harm”. (Find more details here.)

These things speak to the absolute core of the medical profession; about what it means to be a doctor. Both the oath and the ethics principles emphasize the care of the patient above all else.

We saw in Kyle’s interaction with Isobel in 1x08 that he very staunchly believes in upholding medical morals; when you have a patient, you treat them to the best of your ability. End of story. We also see him, very early in the season, tell off Jesse Manes for trying to get him to break doctor patient confidentiality. Kyle works very hard to conform to the moral code he was taught, the medical ideal. Fundamentally, Kyle is a good doctor.

When he and Michael enter room 7A, what he sees are living beings that have been in captivity for decades. Michael quickly confirms they are aliens, but Kyle reacts the way he has been trained to anyway: evaluate and diagnose. (Their bodies are covered in bruises, scarring, needle tracks. Anti-social behavior indicates prolonged trauma.) He is aware however, that these people are subjects because they are not human. (Note his first reaction when they hear someone coming is to hide Michael.)

But all he sees are patients, regardless of species. In his conversation with the unnamed guard, Kyle calls subject N38 “he”. The guard uses “it”. A minor difference, but an extremely important one. 

Kyle sees the aliens as living beings deserving of the same considerations he gives to humans. The guard does not. 

Kyle recognizes that what has been going on in Caulfield for 70 years is inhumane and goes against every code of medical ethics he has ever been taught. Which is why, when Flint verifies that his father was a participant in the project, Kyle immediately condemns his actions. x

Kyle applies the same ethical principles to the aliens that he does to his human patients, like any good doctor should. And when he learns that his father did not do the same, he rejects him. As Kyle has been investigating his father’s death for most of the season, this is a major indication of exactly how much he believes in and upholds the codes of his profession.

Last but not least, Alex. The protector. He is an airman in the US Air Force, a member of the US military. The armed forces exist, ideally, to defend and serve their countries. This is why people like Alex are called “service members”. Admittedly warfare is by nature violent, and people get hurt. Alex talks about this at the end of the episode, “...you look around and you realize that the evil is you.” He has enough sense to recognize the faults the military has.

But because of this fault, this very real danger of crossing moral lines that don’t exist in the heat of battle, there are rules. The Geneva Conventions, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Articles of War before that, and countless international treaties exist to prevent war crimes. 

Ideally, the only people who should be in danger during a war are active enemy combatants. Civilians and prisoners of war are explicitly protected groups. 

It is part of Alex’s job to be informed on these issues, and during his conversation with Flint it’s clear he knows his stuff. “Bioweapons are banned by international treaty” is Alex explicitly referencing a UN regulation to Flint, in reaction to seeing a prototype for a smart bomb that targets DNA. But it’s the next line that is the most revealing about Alex’s personal mindset. Flint tries to argue that the UN doesn’t have a say when it comes to an alien enemy (The UN’s jurisdiction ends at the ozone layer) and Alex disagrees in no uncertain terms (The jurisdiction on genocide?).

(You guys I’m so sorry, this isn’t my gif but I could not for the life of me find a source for it.)

Alex is viewing the alien survivors as civilians. Flint is viewing them as an active hostile force. 

We know from Noah’s explanation at the beginning of the episode that the aliens are quite literally refugees fleeing a war, but Alex doesn’t know that yet. (Even if they were an invading force, they are clearly imprisoned now and should fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. Find the POW provisions here.) The fact that Alex is applying the regulations that exist to protect humans to aliens as well speaks very strongly to his sense of justice and moral right. 

tl;dr In 1x12 each of these three characters prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they consider the aliens to be deserving of treatment and consideration equal to that of humans, despite two of them having very good reasons to despise them. (Interestingly these are not the same two who have romantic/sexual relationships with said aliens.) Doing so also emphasizes how each of them fulfill the ideals of each of their professional roles and I think it makes for a very telling character study.

#my roswell meta #roswell new mexico #rnm #alex manes #liz ortecho #kyle valenti #tw abuse #tw torture #tw genocide #a riley special