#parents. which is arguably a noble motivation. but like at the end of the day it’s still arguably a pretty . selfishness (NEUTRAL)

[lemonhemlock]

So I was the anon who sent the ask about modern sensibilities and refusal to engage in the time frame and thanks so much for answering. You hit the nail on the head with this social justice warrior who refuses to engage with historicity typology, which seems to make up a majority of the fandom. This trend, and HOTD is a perfect example of this, of historical media nowadays throwing all historicity out the window to Girl Bossify and attempt to appeal to modern sensibilities is deeply annoying.

First, they take the deep religiosity including concepts of sacred oaths, duty, sacrifice, etc. of the medieval period and completely strip it away because writers are deeply cynical when it comes to religion and need to attract the Champagne Agnostics/Atheists who have a deep contempt for anything religious as being Boring and Uncool (and I say this as someone who has never been particularly religious lol, but as a student of history understands how important the concepts of religion, God, faith, oaths, duty, sacrifice, etc. were during the medieval ages). Arguably, the most important aspects of both nobles and peasants' lives during these times were their deep faith in God and devotion to their faith. Not including this religiosity in medieval dramas completely negates a lot of plot and character motivations.

Second, you have deeply ahistorical plot points that are used in a very manipulative way. I feel like now in every period drama I see you have a willful princess aka a Rhae/nyra type that gets placed in an arranged betrothal or marriage and we inevitably get a scene where she's shocked and outraged over marrying a man she doesn't know/love and being used as a BroODmArE (writers loveee this word lol) and I'm just always like ???? Are you knew? These girls have been surrounded by nothing but arranged matches from their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc. for their entire lives? They 100 percent expected to be marrying a man for the realm not out of love? They also saw bearing children to further their line and unite the two families as a sacred duty and a good thing? Like?? it's just so eye rollingly ahistorical I can't. I'm not saying that there have never been cases where women were violently against their arranged marriage for whatever reason. But, by and large, they did their duty and gladly, at least in public no matter their personal opinions. Yet, because of how this is framed in story the social justice media illiterate type act like these literal one percent privileged noble princesses are the most Oppressed People Ever? These literal royals have one fucking duty and that is to make a marriage that stabilizes the realm so smallfolk don't have to go fight and die in unnecessary succession wars while getting waited on hand and foot as peasants are working the field for 15 hours per day, and I'm supposed to feel bad because the Precious Princess didn't get her First Choice husband?? Are these writer's serious? It's so deeply unserious and and the history illiterate fandom eats it up.

Thanks for coming back, anon. 💖 I think there is space to critique aspects of medieval society, even if we're talking about elements chosen particularly because they are egregious to the modern eye, like arranged marriage and blind devotion to God that leads to intolerance and Church abuses etc. But most of it is done in a trite, superficial, redundant way and the critiques are in the same registry.

I agree about the topic of arranged marriage being discussed in the context of a pampered princess that is always so shocked that she has to marry for political reasons and throws a tantrum worded in a way that sounds vaguely human-rights-ish or feminist to our ears. In the case of Rhaenyra, she actually IS offered the chance to marry for love, but even that she considers a chore and squanders it. On the opposite end, I really enjoyed the movie Catherine Called Birdy because it took this trope and did something different with it, both highlighting the inherent unfairness of this practice and being refreshingly honest and human.

Ultimately, I feel like the framing is stale in many medieval or fantasy productions, with talking points that we've already seen a hundred times before. Film-makers feel the need to over-correct for the sins of the past when female characters were often sidelined, but they understand strength and character development in having them trample over everyone else instead. Rhaenyra repeatedly breaks the law, makes destabilizing political decisions and shows little interest for learning how to actually do her job, i.e. governing, but we're supposed to cheer for her because she is living her best life and is a bad bitch, so anyone who opposes her must be a shill for the patriarchy. Similarly, the framing of religious people is nuts and I say this as a staunch atheist.

#ask #anon #anti hotd fandom #hotd critical [storytelling]

[davidmann95]

Velvet's battle is a great choice, though I'll always have a special place in my heart for the fight against the Grimm Deathstalker and the Nevermore in Episode 8. That said, what do you think of the individual members of Team RWBY?

I decided to wait on this until I caught up on the series thus far, which I just finished doing the night before last in pretty much the only time in my life I’ve ever really properly binged anything other than comics, and…wow. I knew RWBY was a thing just as a matter of course from being on this site and Youtube, and from watching Death Battle, so I picked up some major beats by osmosis. But my main impression was that it was a charming pseudo-anime online thing of decent quality that unsurprisingly got heavier as it went along as such things tend to do, with extremely rad fights and music along the way; figured it’d be more than serviceable to watch while I was on the treadmill as a disposable distraction from the agony of propelling my wheezing, sweating, loathsome meat-scaffolding forward.

I did *not* expect it to eventually end up after growing pains a - while far from flawless - intensely engrossing story of all-consuming personal and generational pain and people who choose to love and do the right thing in defiance of that trauma and loss and hopelessness, where also occasionally a corgi gets fastball specialed at mechas. Though once it became clear that’s what it is, it pretty clearly sat at an intersection of a hell of a lot of my favorite things, especially when characters copped in-universe in both the main series and spinoff material that this is basically a superhero thing. My initial impressions re: the fights and music were on-point though.

I actually have quite a few thoughts on pretty much all the protagonists of note at this point (other than I suppose Oscar and Maria. Like them both though, and I do hope that nice boy’s brain somehow doesn’t dissolve into the blender of Ozpin’s subconscious), but I’ll just stick with the core four here as requested for now unless someone asks otherwise. Weiss is the simplest to get at the core of, I’d say: her arc is learning that fuck rich people, actually. She’s a seriously difficult character to get onboard for at first - especially if you’re watching those first episodes for the first time in 2019 - as the mean unconsciously racist rich girl who learns to be less mean and racist but still kinda mean. But after you’ve extensively seen the hideously toxic environment she grew up in, and fully understand her efforts to grow past the empty values it inculcated in her in favor of everything she was raised to think of herself as above, she becomes a hell of a figure to root for. Assuming RWBY is gonna go, say, a respectable 10 seasons given it was just renewed through 9, I could easily see the upcoming 7th be the climax of her arc with her return to Atlas and likely further reckoning with the consequences of her families’ actions beyond how they’ve hurt her personally.

Yang is also, in a certain abstract narrative sense, simple, in that she’s built around the very oldest trick in the book for characters whose main deal is ‘can punch better than absolutely anyone’: give them problems that cannot be solved by punching. Except in her case it’s less a material “well, this person is invulnerable to punching!” or “well, actually this other person can punch most best of all” issue blocking her path than “punching cannot solve depression, abandonment issues, questioning whether what she considers her purpose in life is one she’s truly pursuing for noble reasons or if she even has the resolve for it anymore after what’s happened to her, or PTSD”. Yet, while it may not be the kind that manifests in the form of punching people with a smirk and a bad pun anymore (much as she still definitely does that all the time) what ultimately drives her and defines her is still her strength: to move forward, to forgive, to let go, to do the right thing in spite of the risks. Which could easily come off as some unpleasant “you just have to get over your moping!” dismissal - there’s a bit with her dad that means it saddles riiiiight up to the edge of that - but there’s a weight to how her traumas remain a consistent factor in her life and have shaped her outlook even as her circumstances and day-to-day disposition improve that makes it feel thematically like it’s coming from a place of acknowledgment and endurance rather than denial, even if it’s not handled perfectly. Great to see her apparently recapturing some more of her joie de vivre based on the trailer for Volume 7, and how that’ll interact with how she’s grown should be interesting.

Blake is…tough, because you fundamentally cannot talk about Blake without getting into the Faunus, which is maybe the biggest aspect of RWBY that leaves it in the realm of Problematic Fave. It really, really wants to have something substantial to say about the proper response to racism, and every now and then it pumps out a “capitalism greases the wheels of systemic oppression and vice-versa” or “it’s perfectly reasonable for the oppressed to seek to fight back directly against their oppressors, and even the pacifist in the room can recognize that’s a defensible approach that deserves its place”. But then Abusive Boyfriend Magneto literally murders nuance in Vol. 5 episode 2, and it descends into some borderline “but what about black on black violence” respectability politics shit. It’s the classic X-Men setup - this persecuted race of often superpowered folks torn between pacifism and efforts to prove themselves to their oppressors, and those who think they should rise up and annihilate the flatscans - with most of the same pitfalls, but also we haven’t had over 50 years to get used to that just being how it works here, and it doesn’t have the excuse of having to expand as best it can on a metaphor that was originally devised before most of the people currently handling it were born. All of which would be rough enough, but given I watched this right as Jonathan Hickman’s been completely refining the entire X-Men paradigm outside that outdated binary, it especially grates. I’d love to be directed to any solid counterarguments - I’ve heard it might actually be an analogue, and a well-done one, for The Troubles, which I am one million percent unqualified to evaluate - especially since apparently one of the writers grew up in a mixed-race household, and at the end of the day I’m a white guy who may well be talking completely out his ass. But it sure comes off at a glance as some well-intentioned dudes stumbling through stuff that’s not their business, and that’s inextricable from Blake’s character when so much of her story is her navigating through that metaphor. Hopefully with new writers coming onboard this is something that can be navigated more insightfully in the future.

On a purely personal basis however, Blake’s a standout in terms of relatability when her story comes down to a pretty universal shared horror: how to climb back from having fucked up. She tried really hard to do the right thing, was taken advantage of and led into doing things she eventually realized were wrong, was so shaken that she couldn’t tell who to trust, and then the situation spiraled out of control on every possible front just as things finally seemed to be stabilizing. The way a single mistake - enabled and exacerbated by an abusive past relationship in her case - expands into a self-loathing far beyond the bounds of anything she could possibly be responsible for is brutal and completely understandable, and seeing her start put her self-esteem back together with the help of those closest to her and the power of her original convictions is arguably the single strongest, most clearly conveyed individual character arc in the series. I’m very curious where it goes from here: Adam’s finish represents a logical climax and the setup for a happily-ever-after with Yang (or Sun if they end up going that way after all) for her to coast through the remainder of the series on, but the way emotional consequences have played out in the series thus far I doubt her demons are going to be put to bed that simply.

Finally there’s Ruby, and I am contractually obligated to note up front: she is clearly not a Superman analogue. There is precisely zero percent chance that she was conceived as such or was ever deliberately executed in such a way that mirroring him was kept in mind. Though she IS a super-powered idealist raised in the middle of nowhere with a significant deceased parent who wears a red cape, flies, gives inspiring rallying speeches, has black-ish but primary color-tinted hair, and has a mysterious birthright that involves being able to shoot lasers from her eyes, plus she has a dog who also essentially has superpowers, plus she tells someone they’re stronger than they think they are, plus Yang basically quotes a bit from Kingdom Come regarding her in Rest and Resolutions. But it probably goes a ways in explaining why she works so well for me.

There’s more to it than that of course, though it does bring up the closest way in which she relates to the superhero paradigm: she doesn’t go through an arc in quite the same way as the others, instead being an already solidly-defined character who is simply illustrated by how she interacts with the people and situations around her. She learns and grows and matures, but her most basic motivations and goals and outlook haven’t really changed since the day she enrolled at Beacon. She’s a good, caring person, a leader archetype who still has more than enough personality to spare to keep from falling into the genericism that can often plague that role. A big part of the key I believe is that she’s the audience surrogate in a profound way beyond the obvious touchstones of her frequent awkwardness and self-doubt: the reason she does this is because she was inspired by stories. She’s a fan, ultimately, but one who learned all the right lessons, whether recognizing from day one the way reality falls short of the tales she was raised on but still believing in the ideals they represent, or openly holding up Qrow as a role model while being willing to call him on his shit when push comes to shove. It’s a romantic, hopeful perspective that stands out sharply from even our other heroes even as it mirrors their struggles, but as of yet there’s little to suggest it comes from a place of naivete so much as a belief that it’s the only way to bear the pain of the world and continue to believe in it. Bit by bit it’s clear she’s heading for a breaking point, but all signs point to that being a matter of her ability to withstand what she’s been through, rather than any doubt that it’s necessary, and should that time come she’s inspired plenty who’ll be able to help her back onto her feet the way she has for so many others. So while I understand her speeches apparently grate on some, as far as I’m concerned keep them coming, they’re the beating caring heart of the series and often the sole respite in the eye in the storm.

#RWBY #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Mental Health #Racism #Superman #Analysis #Opinion

[theremayyetbehope]

the isolation of the modern mother

I told Dan yesterday that even on ‘good days’ when I feel peppy and motivated, I need only take a few moments to reflect in order to begin to feel as though my life is pointless.

On Monday I awoke with the energy to venture out with Perpetua and visit the botanic gardens. It was a six+ mile endeavor round trip. And I felt successful for it. But for what? Walking halfway across the city so my toddler could smell some flowers? Does that not seem pointless?

Dan responded: ‘Is that any more pointless or tragic than someone going to work an office job they really don’t need?’

No. And granted, people feel there is worth, ‘a point,’ to that, because they’re making money. And as a mom on FaceBook bemoaned, capitalism values any job which makes money--and that’s all.

Mothers don’t make money. We form souls. We build love and foster virtues and nurture the next generation of humanity.

Sounds amazing. Feels meaningless.

I never, ever grew up thinking, ‘When I grow up I want to be a mama.’ No, it was always a career: teacher, singer, journalist, counselor. Mentors said I would be a ‘world-change agent.’

And maybe I will be, and maybe I won’t be. But on the few occasions in which some thoughtful person said, ‘You’re going to be such a good mom someday,’ I never took it as someone speaking a possible vocation over me. It was more like, ‘You’re going to do great things, and someday you’d also make a great mom.’

But being a mom is not socially regarded as a ‘great thing’ in itself. Even if we say it is, we really don’t believe it. We just don’t. We can’t. Society has biased us too much against it.

The noble, admirable, successful thing to be is a Mom+. A Mom + small business owner. A Mom + whatever. Working moms are respectable. Stay-at-home moms are living the good and easy life.

Once you become a mom, you quickly realize it’s the opposite. Working is a vacation. As a stay-at-home mom, you miss work. Working moms get breaks from the real work of mothering.

And it’s just so much harder, this difficult, bumpy, uphill road, because nowadays it is also a narrow and lonely road. You don’t have hundreds of other mothers plodding along beside you, helping to carry one another’s loads, encouraging one another, sharing life, speaking meaning and worth into this essential life-work of motherhood. You don’t have a tribe. Your children don’t have a village. It’s just you--and maybe a few thousand women who commiserate on the handful of FaceBook groups you’re a part of.

And just to be clear, these virtual communities do not serve as fulfilling substitutes for the real thing, the physical, constant, familial community for which our hearts are evolutionarily programmed to long. This maternal community has been a tragic casualty of modernity (arguably, as community in general has been), and we mothers suffer daily. Post-partum depression, post-partum anxiety, shame and guilt, isolation and loneliness, and the recurring sense that our life-work is pointless. Menial. Unrespectable.

We craft makeshift tourniquets for these terrible wounds: social media, escaping into Netflix binges, addictions, psychiatric medication, contrived community through playgroups and baby classes. In this last effort, we get perhaps closest to the echo of the feminine, maternal community for which we long. We begin the grueling work of building our village, earning and gaining trust, scheduling playdates... but still, we ache for the effortless, default community of a genuine village.

Imagine what that village once looked like! Generations of mothers all within walking distance. Daily visits with grandmothers and great-grandmothers and aunts and cousins. Maternal wisdom infusing daily life. Children growing up in an environment which normalized and cherished pregnancy and birth and child-rearing and family. Breastfeeding a visible and ubiquitous and essential part of life. Lifelong friendships. A village of people to share in sufferings and celebrations. People marrying and becoming parents and growing old and dying, all with their constant, trusted, beloved community surrounding them.

No flying hundreds of miles for weddings. No missed funerals. No relying upon FaceBook updates to witness the growth of a grandchild. No paying strangers to practically raise your children. No having to make new friends for every new phase of life. No shallow relationships. No transience. No lack of belonging. No social isolation.

No mothers feeling like they’re doing an unvalued job, largely on their own.

This is the community and the validation for which we modern mothers long, and for most of us, it is nowhere to be found. 

I don’t have a cheery note on which to end. Except maybe, show some love to a stay-at-home mom today. You might just catch us in the middle of an in-closet cry session, and you have no idea how badly your encouragement is needed. 

#motherhood #stay at home moms #stay at home mothers #community #isolation #longing #ppd #ppa #village #tribe #family

[philosofangirl]

Fan Theory: Perception of Time in VK/VKM

Hello VK/Zeki Fam, long time no see! *Hugs everybody*

I’ve been offline for a millennia due to a new job and family life stuffz but I I finally have some free time to go into the VK meta I’ve been dying to sink my teeth in to! (beware, there may be terrible puns ahead.  You’ve been warned.)

From what I’ve seen in the Vampire Knight meta-sphere, reactions towards the past two chapters are mixed, leaning towards the Hino-san, what the fruitcake are you doing to us now? end of the spectrum. 

@getoffthesoapbox​ @soulisthirsty​ @zerolover66​ and others before me have written some excellent analyses & theories, and I don’t plan on doing a full rehash.  Instead, I’d like to propose a different theory...

I’ll start this fan theory with a question:   Do Yuuki and Zero perceive time differently?

This may seem like an odd question, so let me break it down.  

Do people perceive time differently?  

It can be argued that they do.  You often hear folks talk about “life changing experiences” or how a near death experience alters their perspective.  If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, and know that you only have a few months left to live, your perception of time will likely be very different than that of a healthy teenager.  Even though both individuals could theoretically die in a freak accident at the same time, or the sick individual finds a miracle cure, the way they value their time, more likely than not, differs.  

You can also look at it this way: one year to a 3-year-old is 1/3 of their life, whereas one year to an 80-year-old is 1/80 of their life.  Time passes differently for children versus adults.

Which leads me to another question: 

In Vampire Knight, do mortals with finite time perceive time passing differently than immortals with infinite time?  

From what we’ve been shown canonically, I believe there’s a chance that the answer is yes.  

Let’s take a look at a scene from VKM chapter 10:

In this panel Yuuki comments that 60 months feels like 1 month.**

60 months = 5 years

That means 5 years feels like 1 month of “normal life” (basically 1 month to the rest of us.)

Take your age and divide it by 5. If you’re 20 years old, that’s the equivalent of 4 months.

(More under the cut!)

I’m no math whiz (believe me haha) but I found this factoid intriguing because I believe it gives us some insight into how much time has “passed” for Yuuki, and what time feels like to purebloods.  It’s easy for human fans like us to question how Zeki could be together for so long without significant progression, but, if Yuuki perceives time differently, it could explain a lot about her character.  

⚜ ════ • ⚜  • ════ ⚜           

Overly simplistic calculation time: let’s go with how long 50 years “feels” like:

(note: if my calculations are incorrect hit me up, math and I are barely on speaking terms xD )

12 months * 50 years = 600 months

Let x = the amount of time 50 years feels like to a pureblood. (Keep in mind, 60 months feels like 1 month)

1 month / 60 months = x /600 months 

60x = 600

x= 10 months

That’s less than a year.

⚜ ════ • ⚜  • ════ ⚜

So, do mortals and immortals view time differently?  

Going off what Yuuki said and my calculations above, I believe they do!  Another canonical example of this can be found in Yori & Hanabusa.  Yori openly wonders how different her life would be if she had the same amount of time to do things as Hanabusa.  Hanabusa also expressed that he wanted to cherish every moment because he knew just how fleeting their time together would be. Even after Yori’s death, he still looks young, and as a noble vampire he will probably live on for many, many years. 

The pressure of Yori aging spurred their relationship development, and they got married before any of the other characters in relationships (that we know of.) This wasn’t by accident.  In contrast, vampires like Shiki and Rima never had that kind of pressure (at least not after Rido was dealt with) so they could wait 50 years before getting married.  This didn’t seem to faze either of them.  Also, in Volume 1 Ichijou celebrates his 18th “human” birthday, showing that vampires do seem to measure time differently (though I can’t recall whether this was ever thoroughly explained.)

Back to the original question: Do Yuuki and Zero perceive time differently?  

I believe this answer is an unequivocal yes, and arguably this difference in perception has led to Zeki not being on the same page romantically speaking. I would argue that this difference has also played a key role in their different character motivations. They may have the same destination in mind (marriage, babies, happily ever after and all that jazz), but they are not in agreement about how long it should take (or what it will take) to get there.

Let’s start with their childhoods:

ZERO grew up in a family of hunters.  He always felt he needed to take on a heavier load to ease Ichiru’s burden.  Hunters, given the nature of their profession, almost certainly have a high mortality rate, and low life expectancy rate.  They’re trained to fight, but they can still die in combat.  This is something that Zero is aware of from a very young age.  Then, Zero’s family is attacked by Shizuka and he is damned, doomed to become a level E. Every day he knows there’s a chance he can go mad, hurt someone and be killed by one of his comrades.  It even drove him to the point of suicide.  Thinking you can die or lose control at any moment isn’t the sort of mentality that easily goes away.  He always slept with a weapon close at hand for a reason.  

YUUKI, in comparison, did not grow up with constant reminders of death.  At a young age, she was very sheltered and told she would live forever as Kaname’s bride. In high school her lost past and vampires concerned her, but she didn’t live in fear of death every moment of her life. When she was reawakened she discovers anew that she will live forever, outliving everything apart from other purebloods.  It takes her some time to adjust to this reality.  At one point she convinces herself that the only way to fix everything is to sacrifice herself.  But in this scenario she was the biggest threat to herself, since Zero and Kaname were ready to do just about anything to stop it.

When Kaname sacrificed himself, she made it her mission to return the favor and atone for her sins one day.  Suddenly she was no longer going to live forever, now she would live up until the time was right.  Yet, just like the concept of “forever”, there’s no exact date so how long she has remains rather vague beyond “sometime far into the future.”

Given their backgrounds and physical differences, I posit that the two of them view time very differently, and this difference needs to be communicated. Is 50 years a long time? Yes, yes it is. Does this excuse letting problems fester this long? No, it does not. 

However, even though Zero deserves all the patience awards for how long he’s stayed by Yuuki’s side, if my theory is correct, Yuuki perceives her time together with Zero the way an immortal pureblood would, not a human being nor a soldier.  Being a pureblood likely exacerbates this compared to the average vampire.  This discrepancy could mean 50 years to Yuuki feels like 10 months, but 50 years to Zero actually feels like 50.  It may sound absurd to us, but we’re talking about immortal fictional creatures after all.

Now hold onto your hats, because I believe the implications go beyond her relationship to Zero.

Other Out-There Theories

Theory #1: given Yuuki’s perception of time, her carefree attitude, and her idea of what being in a relationship consists of, there’s a chance that Yuuki still “feels” like a teenager. Even Zero commented offhandedly that Ai acts more mature than Yuuki.  In some ways that’s why the people around her (particularly Yori and Zero) say they love her—a certain loveable idiot/ innocence and uncomplicated desire for the people around her to be happy. I believe her pureblood influenced perception of time, (and possibly self if she really sees herself as a teenager and not a grown woman) is at the root of her stagnation. Compared to her 3 thousand year old parents, being ~80 would still be seen as very young for a pureblood.

Theory #2: I, like many readers, had hoped that Yuuki would mature during this period post Kaname, and in some small/subtle ways I believe she has. When Yuuki says “there’s nothing innocent about us anymore” in VKM10, I recalled her time with Zero in the shower at Cross Academy, which in many ways was portrayed as a “loss of innocence” and a “sin.” But then after her arc 1 development you go to arc 2 where Yuuki is treated like a child and a doll by Kaname. Maybe her perception of who she really is got screwed up along the way.

Yuuki has gone through a lot, and even she has noted just how much time has passed. She let her hair grow out, she had a kid.  Yet, she still clings to Kaname, a symbol of her childhood, when the healthy thing would be to move forward for the sake of those around her.  Others have theorized that this might be related to some sort of trauma. If Yuuki really does still “feel” like or “see herself” as a teenager, and 50 years feels like 10 months, the wounds caused by Kaname would still feel very raw. 

I have PTSD myself, and sometimes an event that happened four years ago feels like it happened just yesterday.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to live with it while holding a skewed perception of time.  It’s not as simple as “getting over it” and letting time take its course. I believe the only way she can get back on the preferred path is to confront what happened to her head on.  Only time and Hino will tell whether that happens. Until Yukki deals with these issues and learns to step forward, she’ll remain stagnant.  

Why would Hino do something like this?!  

Some of you may be wondering: teenage Yuuki again?  What does Yuuki “feeling” like a teenager mean? I believe it means that she can also, at times, still act like one.  At the end of the day this is a shoujo manga, and the largest reading demographic will be teenage girls who need to relate with the characters.  Plus, it’s a story; conflict drives the plot engine along. I suspect this was intentional on Hino’s part, but maybe I’m giving her and the character too much credit o.o’ 

What would this discrepancy mean for Zeki?  

I predict how time passes/ how they perceive time passing will probably come up (and definitely should come up) at one point in their relationship.  After all, if Yuuki is just biding her time while Zero is counting every day, the narrative will grow dull and things will not turn out well. If they’re not on the same page, how could things work out between them? 

We’ve already seen it on the character’s minds to a degree: Yuuki expressed her fear of abandonment/ loneliness/ oblivion in arc 2, and Zero has reminded Yuuki that her time is her own to spend how she pleases. How one spends their time and with whom one spends their time is a recurring theme. It took a long time (practically 2/3 of the original series) for Yuuki and Zero to accept their very existence as pureblood and hunter, but they’ve never had to really work at the logistics of a romantic relationship between a pureblood and non-pureblood (something we haven’t seen, at least not any longterm/ healthy ones.) 

With Yori’s death and Ai in sleep mode, I expect to see time and how they spend their time to crop up again.    

Throw away observations:

If Yuuki has difficulty assessing the passage of time, it makes it that much easier for her to cling to certain portions of her past. In some ways, when Kaname changed her he was trying to encase her in resin like the rose, almost freeze her in time as the loving girl he desired.  Yori, and to an extent Ai, probably served as reminders that time was passing in a world where most of the people Yuuki deals with pretty much stay forever young.  It’s possible that, despite time passing, she herself is still frozen.  Yuuki has been shown as sentimental on several occasions, including VKM 10 where she explains why she still holds on to her charm bracelet.  She talks about keeping it as a reminder of her promise and as a reminder of a time when she was human.  But, as she’s shown on numerous occasions, she’s a vampire. Body and soul. She has no plans to change that, yet she still clings to a piece of her humanity.

Interestingly, in VKM before Zero’s death Yuuki said she would devour him showing her love “the way vampires do.” In VK, drinking the blood of your beloved, the only one who can quench your thirst, is how vampires traditionally express their love for one another. In VKM10, when Zeki are discussing their relationship and Zero asks what a restart means, she begins with several very innocent, naive suggestions that harken back to their days at Cross Academy. Soon after, in one of their first on screen “acts” as an official couple, Yuuki tells Zero to drink her blood to the last drop. 

This scene is controversial among Zeki fans given its (some would say Yume-like) undertones. But, it got me wondering whether Yuuki really knows how to participate in a mature relationship, whether either of them know how to be in a healthy romantic relationship.  If Yuuki thinks “drinking blood is the way vampires show their love for one another” and she acted on that, then is she just going through the motions and doing what she thinks she should be like she did in the Kuran Manor?  Or, was this just a natural impulse? (oh, the multitude of interpretations!)

I think Yuuki’s desire for something “human”, or her image and expectations from when she was a human teenager, could be in conflict with what she believes vampires are supposed to do.  This inner struggle between her two selves may have cause the disconnect and tone shift.

This is all conjecture, so hopefully we’ll see more of what’s going on inside Yuuki’s head in the chapters to come.  I keep thinking back to Yuuki’s dark expression when talking to Ai as a child about the relationship between the three MCs, and of the mystery box.  Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I don’t think Yuuki is as daft or simple as she’s sometimes portrayed to be.

That’s all folks!

Thanks for reading my philosophizing this far!  Please let me know what you think, or if you have theories of your own!   

Philosofangirl, out.

**Note: So far, we have no way of knowing how subjective this statement is.  This could be Yuuki’s interpretation of time, or it could be accepted as common knowledge by purebloods.  All the same, if this is what Yuuki believes then this informs how she perceives time passing, and I believe Hino included this detail deliberately.

#Vampire Knight #vampire knight memories #vkm #fan theory #text #zeki #radiant zeki #time #philosophizing #wild mad guessing #meta #yuuki kiryuu

[techfist-blog]

the brotherhood of steel.

so we all know just how rigorous the brotherhood is, & the extents they will go to in order to carry out their goals. especially on the east cost, under maxson, it’s clear that the brotherhood is not above wholesale murder to perform what they believe is best for other people. they are a controlling group under the guise of “protecting humanity from itself”, & use that as a focal point for new recruits to make them believe what they have signed up for is something noble. the real thoughts & opinions of the members of the brotherhood don’t come out of the woodworks until one really makes their way into the heart of the brotherhood, its core members; one discovers that maxson is a bigot, truly an asshole. but even maxson is a product of an upbringing of martyrdom & brainwashing. 

this is going under a cut because the post is huge.

i would be willing to say that the west coast brotherhood of steel is the least outwardly brainwashing faction of the brotherhood. however that chapter is just as terrible as the others in terms of leadership & beliefs. 

the brotherhood is a closed-minded, singularly-goaled organization that makes its members believe in their cause by essentially breaking their souls. one is pitted against every creature the wastes has to offer; deathclaws, radscorpions, super mutants, feral ghouls. recruits receive little training because the brotherhood is in a desperate rush to gain more members as they become increasingly irrelevant & unwanted by the general people of the wastes. 

as evidenced by mcnamara’s running of the mojave bos, elders have complete & total control over the group of people they oversee. nobody else has a say, there is complete authority & control. if one disagrees or dissents against the governing body, they risk consequences of being kicked out (likely from the only home they have ever known, as the bos rarely accepts outsiders into their ranks: you’re born there, you die there) or severely punished by bos leadership. what the elder says, goes, & it is extremely difficult to “impeach” an elder from their position without jumping through many hoops. even if the impeachment is successful, the chapter is likely to be in shambles for many months on end as preparations were not made to accept a new elder. 

in the case of the eastern coast chapter, the brotherhood was in shambles for years after the death of elder lyons, & then his daughter sarah. many people took over after them to try to fill the position, but none could command the brotherhood as they had, & nobody had been groomed for the position after them. 

so, what exactly does the brotherhood seek to accomplish? they seek to “protect humanity from itself & rebuild civilization no matter the cost”. now what is wrong with this statement, one may ask: well, firstly, it says “humanity”. just humans, not ghouls or synths or super mutants. just humanity. secondly, it seeks to destroy all higher technology that could pose a threat to the general public or take that technology for themselves (their entire beef with the institute & synths). thirdly, “no matter the cost” implies that they would not be above genocide if it furthered their cause (as evidenced by the entire plot of fallout 3 (though the enclave was arguably exponentially more terrible than the brotherhood), & if you side with them, the plot of fallout 4). 

how does this all relate to veronica? 

the brotherhood tried to break veronica’s will. especially elijah, who was a radical that used his position as the elder to separate veronica from her girlfriend. he used his relationship with veronica to further manipulate her beyond that, as well -- he demonized her parents to make himself seem like he was veronica’s savior, her only true parental figure, the only one who really cared for her. he brought her along with her on his dangerous journeys, & he cost the brotherhood many, many, many resources by insisting on remaining at helios one (i presume this is probably where her parents died ngl). she brushes it off in conversation (”i guess it was important”), pretends that the death of her parents doesn’t affect her, but in all truthfulness it is the final nail in her theoretical coffin that makes veronica fall into a weird, twisted depression & hopelessness. 

she hides beneath the idea of “wanting to see the world” & “trying to help the brotherhood” when in reality, it is her trying to find a purpose. she has become disillusioned with the brotherhood’s ideals, she feels detached from her home & the only family she has ever known. she sees them going down a dark path (which she struggles to acknowledge as the dark path they have ALWAYS been going down), & seeks to save them. but it’s deeper than that, more than just her longing for the nostalgia of her days with elijah, because she knows that the “idyllic” brotherhood she misses doesn’t exist & never has, she knows that the brotherhood has manipulated her & everyone else, that the people they are now are products of years of careful control & brainwashing by power-hungry fools who thought that the rest of society was too stupid to handle anything for themselves. 

the brotherhood is elitist, imperialistic, & believes itself to be superior. the brotherhood gets what it wants, at any cost, even at the cost of its own people (the grunts are expendable, though the leadership hides that behind false honor. the only ones who really care about the fallen are the bleeding hearts of the scribes). 

one cannot deny that the brotherhood is at fault in many situations. that the brotherhood teaches that groups like the ncr are terrible & seek to destroy them. that ghouls & super mutants & synths are terrible creations that will see the end of humanity, the end of civilization by their hands. that anyone who isn’t brotherhood or the helpless human sheep of anyone that isn’t the brotherhood needs protection from these terrible enemies, that the brotherhood is the only chance, that the rest of society is too stupid & disillusioned to everything else, too naive, too unskilled, too uneducated, too selfish, too cowardly to do anything themselves (though the rest of civilization had done quite well for themselves before the lone wanderer showed up to finish project purity. i, as a person, would argue that project purity is the only good thing the eastern brotherhood ever really did for anyone else). 

the brotherhood has potential, under the right leadership. get rid of the bigotry, the one-track mindedness of the people in the brotherhood, the elitist & imperialist attitude, the superiority they have against the rest of society, the viewing everyone else as victims & themselves the savior, & you will end up with a group raw for shaping into a powerful, positive force that can really do some actual good for the people without underlying motives.  

#out of character. #do i put this into the brotherhood of steel tag? lmao idk #headcanon tag tba.

[williamsjoan]

Marvel’s Spider-Man and Dissecting Its Black-and-White Tale of Morality

[Editor’s Note: This editorial will dive into some heavy story spoilers for Marvel’s Spider-Man, so we would suggest coming back to this piece after you have completed the game’s main story.]

No matter which version of the Spider-Man mythos one experiences, a few traits should remain intact regardless of the medium. For one, Peter Parker must always remain a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” Despite his swinging around the city skylines, Spider-Man is ultimately a superhero who remains at the ground level, with his relatability being the characteristic that has immortalized the comic book character into a legend.

Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4 captured the spirit of Spider-Man, at least for the most part. But as I got deeper into the story, some cracks began to show, with certain storytelling threads falling short for me, and some potentially interesting opportunities being missed. Stories of comic book superheroes have traditionally been of a binary “good versus evil” archetype, but as the genre evolved to the point where it is today, I was hoping from a bit more nuance from Marvel’s Spider-Man as Peter Parker traversed through murky waters and played with delicate character dynamics.

As the game’s story barreled towards its final act, I found the origin of how this iteration of the Sinister Six to be quite intriguing. We’re used to villains being sniveling, irredeemable no-gooders, and in a video game such as this, they make for decent boss material. It isn’t quite cut and dry with Marvel’s Spider-Man, as the now-corrupted Otto Octavius exploited some major pain points in order to recruit his sinisters. And it isn’t through any form of blackmail or extortion, but rather with the promise of help, with Octavius promising to be a genie in a bottle granting each villain a wish.

Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino, has a physical problem in being unable to remove his armor. Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, has several monetary debts, primarily from gambling. Adrian Toomes, the Vulture, has spinal cancer caused by his suit’s power source. Max Dillon, aka Electro, has the desire to become “pure energy.” And as the game followed since the start, Martin Li/Mr. Negative had a personal beef with Norman Osborn, as did Octavius himself.

What has made Spider-Man’s rogue gallery probably the most memorable set of villains, besides Batman’s, is how grounded most of their backstories are; a different side to the coin than from Spider-Man, but the same coin nonetheless. The costumes and names may be gimmicks from a different era of comic book storytelling, but the characters themselves are a bit more sympathetic, at least in modern interpretations. In the films, think of Sandman in Spider-Man 3 or the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming — both victims of economic strife and anxiety — or the Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man, attempting to remedy a physical disability of his.

Even with the reprehensible crimes of these villains in the PS4 game, it was made clear that these characters needed some degree of help. With this set-up, I was hoping that Spider-Man would do more than web and punch them all to submission and that the story would play with these motivations to create a story more interesting than “good guy beats bad guy.”

“What has made Spider-Man’s rogue gallery probably the most memorable set of villains, besides Batman’s, is how grounded most of their backstories are.”

But no, Spider-Man beats the s*** out of them and calls it a day. Granted, given the context, they all needed to be taken down as they wreaked havoc in a chaotic New York City, but the fact that these promises made by Octavius were dropped plot threads that Insomniac didn’t play with irked me. Now Rhino is stuck in his gargantuan suit eternally, and the Vulture is doomed to succumb to cancer. Perhaps they deserved it, but with so many other Spider-Man stories following through on these kinds of threads, I expected more catharsis from the game’s narrative.

Perhaps this was on me for expecting too much from “Spider-Cop.” Like most iterations of Peter Parker, this Spider-Man was bright, intelligent, and idealistic, and as fans, we’d like to think that he is morally pure. Spider-Man stories are at their most interesting when they involve our ordinary, grounded hero in some sort of ethical and moral dilemma, and we can probably say that the PS4 game succeeds with his final decision at the end of the main story. However, I couldn’t help but find some of this Peter Parker’s views on ordinary criminals to be a bit naive, particularly his extreme disdain for drug dealers.

To Peter Parker, this is the worst kind of crime that is unequivocally impossible to forgive. Parker almost expresses a delight at the thought of these nefarious miscreants on the street to be locked up for good. A noble cause on the surface level, but one that could have done with a more nuanced understanding of a larger systemic issue. Without going on overly long diatribes about the United States and its history of drug crime, there’s more to the issue that involves race, class, and fear-mongering from so-called “morally upright” politicians—the very type of figure that this version of Norman Osborn is meant to represent and caricature.

While I wasn’t expecting a Spider-Man video game to turn into a PSA or documentary about crime in America, I was disappointed that it overall had the simplicity of a D.A.R.E. ad. This is something that I want this version of Spider-Man to learn—even though he may be a young adult, he is still learning just how complex the world is, even in this game, as simple as I found it sometimes. He learned that just locking up Kingpin wouldn’t instantly make his problems go away, but rather create a power vacuum that arguably made things worse. This character has the capacity to move past his naïveté, but I grew frustrated that he couldn’t in this one case.

“Spider-Man stories are at their most interesting when they involve our ordinary, grounded hero in some sort of ethical and moral dilemma.”

Even stepping away from all of the real-life issues that Marvel’s Spider-Man somewhat touches upon, I felt that Insomniac could have tackled some common story themes in a better way. The primary theme and motivation behind much of the story is the idea of vengeance, how it drives someone, and how far one might go to enact it. The triangle consisting of Otto Octavius, Martin Li, and Norman Osborn is completely driven by it, with Osborn having wronged them separately in the past. It is once again a familiar tale that previous versions of Spider-Man have dealt with expertly, and while this game worked, there was a major opportunity that I wanted it to take.

Revenge can be a cycle—Octavius was denied his chances to innovate so many times, and with Li, Osborn is the culprit responsible for not only his condition but the death of his parents. Both characters go to extreme measures in order to get to the heart of their deep-seeded hatred for Osborn, creating a total path of destruction on the way. With casualties resulting in their respective quests for revenge, I kept wondering if the story would acknowledge the cycle. Li is vengeful for the deaths of his parents, but what happens when his crimes result in the deaths of someone else’s parents? How would Peter Parker respond to his beloved Aunt May dying from a disease that his former mentor and partner Octavius spread?

“Even stepping away from all of the real-life issues that Marvel’s Spider-Man somewhat touches upon, I felt that Insomniac could have tackled some common story themes in a better way.”

Spider-Man works as a character because he is meant to be better—he is meant to always make the right choice and represent the best of what a single human being can offer to the rest of society. To me, this Spider-Man having to deal with the dilemma of potentially having his own revenge story could have been an interesting route for the game’s story to take. What happens when Peter Parker goes through the same trauma as Octavius or Li? How can he break the cycle by making the right decision? To my disappointment, the game pursued no such thread, at least not one that registered to me, and I ended up just punching both of them a lot.

Admittedly, I have only recently purchased the DLC for Marvel’s Spider-Man and have yet to experience any story that they have to offer, so I couldn’t tell you if they remedy any of my qualms. Still, Spider-Man is a character that is rightfully championed for its conceptualization of representing us as a society—but as our understanding of society evolves, the Spider-Man stories should evolve with it. For a game that does so much right, I was expecting and hoping for more from Marvel’s Spider-Man.

The post Marvel’s Spider-Man and Dissecting Its Black-and-White Tale of Morality by Chris Compendio appeared first on DualShockers.

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