#something something generational abuse and it's ripple effects

[assortedvillainvault]

The Horned King: What did they tell you.

Creeper: Um, ugh...

The Horned King: What did they tell you.

Creeper: They said- they say; I- I'll only tell, if the king descends, and graces my lips with a kiss

Horned King: ...

Creeper: Please don't hurt the messenger, sire

The distant sounds of 'strangled minion' can be heard all throughout the castle. Then 'minion thrown against crockery'. Then 'minion given express travel down the stairs'. And though you do feel maybe a little bad for the goblin, just picturing the look on His Majesty's face is priceless enough for you to be pretty chipper as you pick the lock on your wrists and slip out of your cell.

#thalassa responds #Creeper has a tendency to bully prisoners as it's the only control he has over his situation under the Horned King #something something generational abuse and it's ripple effects #so while you do feel bad for the guy he's not exactly a basket of roses to deal with either and this causes a lack of sympathy in general #esp if youre trying to escape #he's also slotted into 'comedic relief' in the film which is generally reserved for those who bounce back from physical damage quickly #becuase all sympathy points were supposed to be taken up by Gurgi he's just left to be a mean little thing #would actually have loved a Creeper Gurgi team up at the end to take down the King. Of all characters in the film Creeper is the only one - #- SHOWN to suffer at the kings hands. Idk food for thought

[aquilaofarkham]

Dying Has Never Frightened Us: Intergenerational Trauma, Healing, & the Burden of Legacy in Castlevania

An analytical and interpretation essay that discusses how the concept of family legacy and duty can lead to intergenerational trauma in the Castlevania franchise. Focuses primarily on the Belmont who found strength from his pain by honouring his family’s legacy no matter how heavy it felt or the burden that came with it and the Belmont who found his own strength from the ones he loved and who loved him in return.

☽ Read the full piece here or click the read more for the text only version ☽

THE BURNING NEED FOR RETRIBUTION: INTRODUCTION

The world has trauma. It is deep, collective, spanning its roots over centuries and territories dating back to when the borders of today never existed, and it has largely gone untreated—but not undiscussed.

From children’s cartoons to award winning dramas, trauma has become one of the most common topics for media to discuss, depict, and dissect. It makes sense given the sort of physical and mental gauntlet which society has been through in the past five years. Sometimes even in just the past twenty-four hours. From an uptick in disasters stemming from climate change, the rise of publicised policy brutality, genocide as a result of settler colonisation, new developments coming to light after decades of denial regarding the residential school system in Canada, and of course a global pandemic which is still making ripples. Then there is the recent examination of generational trauma which differs from culture to culture. The open wounds we’ve already left and will be leaving for future age groups.

Seeing how fiction reflects reality and vice versa, it isn’t any wonder that movies, television shows, and video games find ways of processing this worldwide sensation of frustrated ennui along with the need to find answers as to how regular citizens can fix things, including ourselves, when politicians and world leaders cannot. When reality cannot provide satisfying resolutions, when we are left confused and even angrier than before due to the apparent shortcomings of institutions meant to provide relief towards the average person, it’s natural to look towards specific media. Whether for coping mechanisms, validation for this collective and personal trauma, or simply for cathartic release so the emotions don’t have to remain bottled up.

Castlevania , both its original 2017 series and the most recent entry of Castlevania: Nocturne (as well as the video games which the show is inspired by), is no stranger to this popular trend of storytelling and characterisation. Yet this trend also comes with its own controversy. When done with a deft writer’s hand and a layer of empathetic critical thinking, trauma in fiction and how we heal from its intergenerational effects can be a powerful tool in raising awareness in regards to something left forgotten by the larger public or it can allow viewers to look inwards at themselves. Done poorly or with a lack of empathy and taste, then the floodgates open.

But beyond the usual discourse surrounding trauma in fiction (how to portray a “realistic” panic attack, what makes a “good” victim, the problematic connotations of forgiving one’s abuser, etc.), Castlevania has its own things to say about the lingering effects of grief, guilt, and pain over the course of thirty-two episodes (now a fourty episode runtime with the inclusion of Castlevania: Nocturne season one). The series—particularly the first which ran from 2017 to 2021—has now gained a reputation for being one of the darker animated ventures tackling themes of religious corruption, abuse, sexual manipulation, and injustice among many others. The value and thoughtfulness of each depicted theme ranges from being genuinely compelling to delving into mere shock value yet the series is also known for its uplifting ending and cathartic release from such dark themes.

One could write entire dissertations on each complicated character and their developments. From Dracula’s suicidal tendencies as a result of unchecked grief to Isaac’s conflicted redemptive journey beginning with his unflinching loyalty to the king of vampires and ending with him forging down his own path in life. How characters such as Carmilla, consumed by her inner agonies and burning hatred towards the world to the bitter end, was left isolated from her sisters until she was forced to choose the terms of her own death, while others like Alucard, Sypha, and to an extent Hector rose above their individual torments in favour of hope and survival. However, this examination will focus on the series’ titular family of vampire hunters. Namely, the Belmont who found strength from his pain by honouring his family’s legacy no matter how heavy it felt or the burden that came with it and the Belmont who found his own strength from the ones he loved and who loved him in return.

Note: this essay will delve into speculations and purely interpretative hypotheses stemming from the author’s own opinions in regards to how they personally read the presented text. It will also discuss heavy spoilers for the majority of Castlevania games and the first season of Castlevania: Nocturne.

—

WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT FOR A CURSE: THE CYCLE OF TRAGEDY IN THE CASTLEVANIA GAMES

This examination begins in the exact same place as the show began with its inspirations and references: the original video games developed and distributed by Konami Group Corporations. It’s easy to get swept up in the notion that because of the technological limitations with video games at the time, the Castlevania games are devoid of story or characterization. Yet even the most bare bones of a story found in the games can still have something to say about the burden of legacy and how trauma left unconfronted has the possibility of tearing down that legacy. The most prominent example being Castlevania: Symphony of the Night , arguably the first game to begin delving into a deeper story and character driven narrative. It follows the events of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood , a game which portrayed its protagonist Richter Belmont as a force of nature in the face of evil, always knowing what to do, what to say, and emerging victorious without so much as breaking a sweat (or candelabra).

In keeping with the time of its release and the landscape of popular media particularly in Japan, Rondo of Blood feels like a traditional 1990s action anime complete with brightly coloured cutscenes and character designs reminiscent of Rumiko Takahashi and Rui Araizumi (despite the usual classic horror elements present in every Castlevania game). This is most evident with Maria Renard, the second playable protagonist who attacks with her own arsenal of magical animals and even has her own upbeat theme music during the credits when players complete the main story in “Maria mode”. Richter also shares many similar personality traits with his counterpart, namely his optimism in the face of danger and the confidence that he will be the hero of this narrative.

Of course all this changed in the direct follow-up to Rondo of Blood , the aforementioned Symphony of the Night . Arguably the new staple of future Castlevania games to come, not only did it change the gameplay and aesthetic, it changed the very core of the characters as well. The game even begins with the same ending as Rondo of Blood where Richter fights and defeats Dracula with the help of Maria. Then during the opening crawl, we discover that during a time skip, Richter has vanished and Maria is searching for him. Surely this will be nothing less than a heroic rescue and the most powerful Belmont of his century will be restored to his rightful pedestal.

Yet for the first half of Symphony of the Night , the player is faced with a sobering realisation—the villain we’re supposed to be fighting, the one responsible for conjuring Dracula’s castle back into existence, is Richter himself. No longer the hero we’ve come to adore and look up to from the previous game. Of course, the player along with new protagonist Alucard both know that something isn’t right; perhaps Richter isn’t in his sound mind or some nefarious force is possessing him to commit evil deeds. But unless the player solves the right puzzles and find the right in-game items, Symphony ends with Alucard putting down Richter like a rabid dog. However, this ending can be avoided and a whole second half of the game is revealed.

Richter’s canonical ending is left ambiguous at best, tragic at worst. He laments over his moment of weakness, claiming the events of the game were his fault despite Alucard’s insistence that confronting Dracula was always going to be inevitable. Still, the tragedy of Richter’s fate and how he is portrayed in Symphony of the Night comes much later, when it’s implied the Belmonts are no longer capable of wielding the fabled Vampire Killer, a leather whip imbued with supernatural properties that has been passed down generation after generation. One mistake and misjudgment left the Belmont legacy in a perpetual long lasting limbo with the titular hunters themselves seemingly disappearing from history as well, leaving others such as the Order of Ecclesia to pick up the fight against Dracula’s eventual resurgence. It isn’t until the height of World War II (the setting of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin ) when the whip’s true potential is finally set free thanks to the actions of Jonathan Morris, a distant relative of the infamous vampire slaying family. However, the only way in which Jonathan can reawaken the Vampire Killer is by defeating a manifestation of the person who last wielded it and also whom the whip abandoned nearly two hundred years prior—Richter Belmont.

Yet players and fans don’t get to see it in the hands of another Belmont until the events of 1999 when Julius Belmont defeats the latest incarnation of Dracula and seals his castle away in a solar eclipse. Even then, he loses his memory until thirty years pass and he’s forced to do battle with Soma Cruz, an innocent transfer student who is also the reincarnation of Dracula. If the protagonist of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow succeeds in defeating the cosmic threat that has awakened his supposed “evil” destiny, then Julius can finally lay down the Vampire Killer in peace (until the sequel Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow , of course). If not, the game ends with Julius keeping his promise to Soma should he lose sight of his human side and let Dracula be reborn once again. In a scene that directly mirrors the beginning of Symphony , Julius enters the castle throne room, Soma throws down his wine goblet, and the screen goes black. The cycle continues anew. Julius has upheld the duty of his family name but at what cost.

The theme of tragedy getting passed down through different generations, permeating from person to person even with those who are not Belmonts, is a staple of later Castlevania games following Symphony of the Night . In some instances, pain and trauma is what jumpstarts the story moving forward. Castlevania: Curse of Darkness begins with its protagonist Hector in a direct parallel to Dracula swearing revenge on the one responsible for the murder of his wife; an ultimatum that follows him every step of the way, fuelling his rage and determination up until the penultimate moment when his goal is within reach. Yet even then he cries out, claiming this “murderous impulse” isn’t truly him—it’s the result of an outside force he himself once aided before defecting before the events of the game.

Something similar occurs in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow , an alternative reimagining of the franchise that while still a topic of division amongst most die hard fans has also seen a resurgence of popularity and reevaluation. It begins with Gabriel Belmont grieving over the death of his own wife (a trope which is unfortunately common amongst the majority of Castlevania titles). This is a wound that follows him throughout his journey until an even more painful and shattering twist regarding Marie Belmont’s demise is revealed to Gabriel later in the game.

However, there is one example from the games that stands above the rest in regards to the sort of damage which generational trauma as a result of familial duty and legacy, upheld to an almost religious degree, can inflict. So much so that even a declaration of retribution can evolve into a generational curse.

—

HUNT THE NIGHT: LEON BELMONT & THE MYTH OF FREE WILL

The Castlevania timeline didn’t always have a set beginning. An inciting incident by which all future stories, characters, and inevitable calamities could base themselves off of. Rather it changed from game to game until a definitive origin was settled in 2003 with the release of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence . For at least two games, the starting point was supposed to be with Simon Belmont, making his way through a labyrinth of dark forests and cursed towns, before finally traversing the ever changing fortress in Transylvania to defeat Dracula. He even went as far as to gather the remains and resurrect the eponymous lord of his own choice just to rid himself of another curse entirely. 

Castlevania protagonists are always cursed by something. Whether it be the cause of Dracula’s influence, their own actions as seen in Lords of Shadow , a curse of the flesh like how Simon had to tackle his own ailment in Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest , or something else just as common as Dracula’s curse: the burden of honouring a family duty.

A basic yet iconic 1986 entry followed by a sequel that had potential especially with the first appearance of the now famous “Bloody Tears” track but suffered from a rather confusing and lacklustre end product. Then suddenly the starting point for the franchise timeline changed drastically. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse despite the numerical inclusion in its title stands as more of a prequel, detailing the exploits of the Belmont who came before Simon. Not much was altered in the grand scheme of things; the titular vampire hunter still essentially slays Dracula with the help of three other playable characters, said final boss having been driven mad and more violent than ever by humanity’s slight against him. However, not only were the methods by which Dracula is defeated changed but players were given more insight into the sort of burden placed upon the Belmont family name.

When the story of Dracula’s Curse begins, protagonist Trevor Belmont isn’t revered as a legend or hero but rather a blight on larger society who the people only turn to as a last ditch effort against rising evil. The regular god-fearing people of Wallachia now fear the Belmonts and their power (it is also implied that some still feared the barbarian-esque Simon despite his legendary status) so the family is excommunicated. Trevor is forced to enlist three other outcasts—or simply two other fighters, depending on which version of the story you examine—in order to carry out the family business. Even when the rest of the world has shunned them and there are plenty of others just as capable of stopping the forces of evil, a Belmont still has a destiny to fulfil. 

Yet once a series has gone on for long enough, things within the established canon are bound to change—again and again. Whether through re-examination in order to line it up better with present day morals and sensibilities, or through good old fashioned retconning in favour of something more interesting, more thought out, or less convoluted. Other times, it’s simply because either the creator or viewers wanted it to happen. In 1997, this occurred with the release of Castlevania Legends on the GameBoy, a prequel to Dracula’s Curse that was meant to serve as the actual origin for the Belmonts, Dracula, and even his son Alucard. Instead of Trevor, the very first Belmont to fight Dracula is now his mother, Sonia Belmont, seventeen years old and already burdened with the glorious purpose of her bloodline.

Sonia is undoubtedly the protagonist of her own story with agency and drive. However, the game ends with a stark reminder of why the Belmonts have a place in the Castlevania universe. The last we see of Sonia in Legends is in the form of an epilogue where she holds her newborn child and states that one day when he’s grown, he will “be praised by all the people as a hero”. Despite her triumph over Dracula—a monumental feat itself—it seems that her purpose in the end (the purpose of most Belmonts other than to forever fight evil in fact) was to merely continue the bloodline so that descendants can carry out a promise made centuries before by another Belmont—someone that neither Simon, Trevor, Julius, or Richter ever knew.

The inevitability of sudden retcons within long-running media was not as kind to Legends as it was to Dracula’s Curse . Because of how the in-game events conflicted with subsequent entries (for example the implication that Trevor is actually the son of Alucard, thus further tying the Belmonts to Dracula through blood as well as duty), both Legends and Sonia were completely removed from the canon timeline. This is merely one reason why the next attempt at creating the definitive origin for the franchise, now a cult favourite among certain subsections of the fan community, was regarded with some animosity. However, twenty years after its release, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence is considered by many as an underrated entry. It is certainly the darker title where both the hero and villain stumble through their own hardships yet neither emerges completely victorious by the end.

The opening narration crawl of Lament of Innocence describes the lives of Leon Belmont and Mathias Cronqvist. They spend most of their lives as reflections of each other; one grows into more of a fighter while the second is coveted for his intellect and ambition. Both are valorous, honourable, and products of their own respective plights. Despite his service to the church, Leon is soon systematically stripped of everything save for the clothes on his back because he wouldn’t follow their orders blindly. While Mathias is forced to watch as an uncaring god (the very same god he serves) takes away a figure of pure virtue and love. This figure, Elisabeta Cronqvist who appears to be a splitting image of Dracula’s next deceased wife Lisa Tepes, was the last remaining tie Mathias still had to whatever bit of morality he still feels, which he eventually throws away when deciding to drag his only friend and everything he holds dear into hell alongside him.

The difference is how both men react to those personal horrors and how they let it govern their pasts, presents, and futures not just for themselves but for others who follow after the dust has supposedly settled. Two men, two best friends turned hateful enemies because of an interlinked tragedy. Not only that, but also because of their perspectives, morals, and the way they view a world that is unkind to them. Both were spurred by the death of loved ones, both used it as a conduit, or rather a catalyst for the radically opposing directions in which their choices take them and their families. Leon chooses to struggle onwards towards a world free from darkness and horror despite his pain. Mathias chooses to revel in that very same darkness and pain with a fire that would burn for aeons. In the end, one thing is absolute. A single thing the two men can agree upon as they flee down adverse paths: one of them will destroy the other.

Yet the timeline of Castlevania proves that this choice comes at a great cost for the Belmonts in particular. By the end of Lament of Innocence , Mathias has revealed himself to be the great manipulator pulling the strings behind the scenes. Due to the immense grief he felt over losing Elisabeta to a presumably common illness made untreatable because of the time period’s medical limitations (coupled with his own arrogance and narcissism), Mathias finally becomes Dracula. Dominion over death and even god by has been achieved by doing what Leon’s righteously moral mind cannot comprehend: transforming himself into an immortal creature driven by bloodlust. All he had to do was lie, cheat, and cruelly outsmart everyone else around him. That of course includes Leon as Mathias’ manipulation tactics were also the cause of the mercy killing of Sara Tarantoul, Leon’s fiance, to stop her from turning into a vampire herself. After watching his former friend escape before the sun can rise and disposing of Dracula’s constant right hand man Death, Leon finally feels his anger over such a betrayal boil over. He gives one final message to Mathias, now the new king of the vampires: “This whip and my kinsmen will destroy you someday. From this day on, the Belmont Clan will hunt the night.”

This is how Castlevania: Lament of Innocence ends. Unlike other entries like Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, or Harmony of Dissonance , there is no good, neutral, or bad ending that can be achieved if the player is aware of certain secrets and tricks. There is only one for Leon and Mathias. The inclusion of multiple endings in some Castlevania games versus a singular set ending in others may seem like a small coincidental narrative choice in conjunction with evolving gameplay, but it matters in the case of Lament of Innocence. From the moment Leon enters the castle to rescue his fiance, the wheel has already started turning and his fate is sealed. Mathias has already won and Sara, along with future Belmonts, are already doomed. And Leon’s ultimatum made in the heat of the moment would go on to have repercussions centuries later. “Hunting the night” gave the Belmonts purpose but it also burdened them with that exact purpose. While Dracula deals in curses, so does the Belmont family—a curse of duty that gets passed down throughout the bloodline.

Leon Belmont was of course never malicious or cruel like Mathias was. He never wanted to deliberately curse his family because he suffered and so should they. His choice was made out of anger and retribution. Still, it goes on to affect Simon, Sonia, Julius, and others in drastic yet different ways. Yet in the case of specific Belmonts like Trevor and Richter, we see how this family legacy can have varied consequences in far more detail through the introduction of animation and serialised writing into the Castlevania franchise.

—

SOMETHING BETTER THAN A PILE OF RUINS: TREVOR BELMONT & STRENGTH FROM LEGACY

If there’s one thing that Castlevania makes abundantly clear with its four season runtime, it is that trauma does not inherently make people better or more virtuous. We of course see this from the games with Mathias and his personal crusade against god which leads to the complete dissolvement of his closest friendship. Or with Hector and the rage he feels towards his wife’s murderer, who also happens to be his former comrade under Dracula’s employment. Even Leon’s promise to both his friend, now his most despised enemy, and future descendants can also be an example of how gut reactions to pain, grief, and betrayal can have damaging consequences in the long run. This particular dissection of trauma when it affects a survivor negatively and in almost life-altering ways while still giving them a chance at achieving their own method of healing is most apparent with the animated representation of Trevor Belmont.

At its core, the first season of Castlevania airing in July of 2017 with four episodes in total is inspired by the events of Dracula’s Curse with the following seasons taking more from Curse of Darkness along with original story elements. It begins with the brutal execution of Lisa Tepes after she is falsely accused of being a witch. Shortly afterwards, Dracula declares war on all of humanity in an explosion of grief-riddled vengeance (a declaration that is not dissimilar to Mathias’ cursing of god after Elisabeta’s admittedly more natural death). Hundreds of civilians are slaughtered in the capital city Targoviste and hoards of night creatures descend upon more townships across Wallachia. 

This would be the perfect opportunity for a Belmont to stand up and fight back except there is one problem: the Belmonts have been eradicated from this world on false grounds of black magic and aiding the vampire lords instead of hunting them—much like how Lisa was slandered and paid the price with her own life.

The only Belmont left surviving is Trevor himself and his introduction does not paint him in the most optimistic or even heroic light. In the midst of being excommunicated by the church, he’s been wandering aimlessly for the past few years while languishing in whatever tavern he stumbles upon. In one particular bar Trevor finds himself in, he overhears the other patrons cursing the Belmonts and blaming them for Dracula’s siege upon humanity. He tries to stay out of it and not bring too much attention to himself until one glance at the family emblem stitched into his shirt breast is enough to ignite an all out skirmish.

Trevor hides his true identity not because he’s ashamed of it, but for his own safety and self preservation. In fact, the opinion he holds of his family is the total opposite from disdain for the sort of legacy they have saddled him with even in death. He reacts strongly to false accusations directed towards the Belmonts, angrily correcting the bar patrons by stating that his family fought monsters. However, he quickly realises he’s said too much and tries saving face by once again detaching himself from possibly being connected to the aforementioned Belmonts.

It’s only when Trevor is backed into a corner and is fresh out of snappy drunk retorts (thanks to a few hard hits to his nether regions) does he finally admit to his real lineage. As mentioned earlier, Trevor finds himself caught up in the first real brawl of the series not because of the pride he feels in himself but the immense pride he feels for his bloodline. All the while, he’s given up trying to hide what he is—a Belmont—and what he was born to do—fight fucking vampires.

Every time Trevor has the opportunity to bring up his bloodline whether in a fight or in conversation, it’s usually spoken with some bravado and weight even when he’s inebriated. However, when visiting the ruins of the Belmont ancestral home in season two and thus directly confronted with what little remains of his family legacy, Trevor loses all that previous bluster and becomes far more contemplative. He doesn’t reveal much of what it was like to actually live as a Belmont, only that it was “fine” and “no one was lonely in this house”. Even when staring up at the portrait of Leon Belmont, he says nothing and instead firmly  grips the very weapons which his ancestor must have also wielded.

It’s clear that Trevor feels no shame, bitterness, or lack of respect towards his family history despite the hardships that have come with it. Still, it’s difficult for him to truly accept the duty of being a Belmont and Trevor continually struggles with it over the course of two full seasons. Upon arriving at the ruined city of Gresit which is under constant threat of night creature attacks, Trevor doesn’t seem particularly concerned with the people’s plight or with helping them. He inquires about what’s been happening by speaking with a few local merchants but it’s only in order for him to gain a better picture of the situation that Gresit finds itself in. Otherwise, he’s simply passing through on his way to another tavern, fist fight, sleeping spot, or all three. Until he puts aside his own needs for self-protection in favour of saving an elder Speaker (a fictionalised group of nomads original to the Castlevania show who have made it their mission to help less fortunate communities and pass on their histories via oral tradition) from a potential hate crime committed by two supposed men of the cloth.

This moment acts as a representation of the first chip in Trevor’s carefully maintained armour. During the bar fight, he claimed over and over again that he was a Belmont in both skill and purpose. However, Trevor hasn’t done much to prove such a proclamation. Because of his ennui and poor coping mechanisms due to lingering trauma, he’s been all talk and not a lot of action—until this point. At first he tells himself to walk away, this sort of confrontation doesn’t concern him. Then he remembers where he comes from and uses the very same family heirloom to help someone physically weaker than himself.

Yet when he accompanies the elder back to where the other Speakers have found shelter from the monsters repeatedly demanding their heads as well as future night creature attacks, Trevor’s metaphorical walls are erected back up. He won’t take any part in this eradication of humanity whether as a victim or perpetrator and especially not to stop it. The people of Wallachia made their choice in the unjust murder of Dracula’s innocent wife, they made their choice when they decided to massacre what was left of his family, and the church made their choice when they decided to fight Dracula’s armies themselves without the Belmonts. Why should he lift a finger (or whip) to save the masses?

Despite this nihilistic attitude, Trevor proves to be a poor defeatist. He still desperately wants to protect the Speakers and warns them of an oncoming pogrom planned for them. A massive hate crime fueled by superstition and facilitated by the corrupt Bishop of Gresit which will supposedly save the city from night creature ambushes (this can be interpreted as a direct allegory meant to comment on how minority groups such as Jewish and Romani communities were used as scapegoats during the Mediaeval period). However, the Speakers refuse to budge and decide to face the angry and misled crowds head-on. They instead tell Trevor to leave in their place which, in a burst of frustration, spurs him to finally act like a member of his clan should. 

What follows next is one of the most defining moments of the series for Trevor, cementing his place as a Belmont. Another corrupt member of the church demands to know what he could possibly stand to gain from fighting back considering his downtrodden state and the fact that he’s entirely outnumbered. Trevor’s answer is simple: nothing. The Belmonts don’t protect everyday people for any great reward or because of any strong personal ties. They do it because it’s their duty and the right thing to do. Trevor even mirrors something which the elder Speaker told him; a family mantra that encompasses the very purpose of the Belmonts, dating back to Leon: “It’s not the dying that frightens us. It’s never having stood up and fought for you.”

Trevor’s healing journey does not end at this moment. He still has moments of hesitation where someone like Alucard has to forcibly remind him of his place as Belmont, saying he needs to choose whether he’s really the last of a long line of hunters or a drunkard. This leads to a fight sequence that nearly spans the length of an entire episode where Trevor further proves himself by taking on at least three different creatures all with varying degrees of strength, skill, and fortitude. Episode six of season two is the ideal example of not only Trevor’s determination but also his quick thinking. Moments such as him wrapping his cloak around his hand so that it doesn’t get cut while his sword slices through the throat of a minotaur or using a set of sticks to beat against an adversary when his whip is knocked away. Being a Belmont means using one’s intellect (no matter how unconventional it may seem) as well as one’s muscles. 

There is also another albeit less violent instance at the start of season three where he still feels the need to hide his surname while in an unfamiliar village. Then there is the revelation that malicious stories about the Belmonts and their supposed demise still circulate amongst rural Wallachian communities. Yet despite coming from a family of old killers (a term Trevor uses before facing off against Death in the final season) his family name remains his strength and the weight of both the Vampire Killer and Morningstar whip keep him grounded rather than burden him. The Belmont name carries such weight throughout the series that by the end, there is strong consideration from Alucard of naming a new township nestled in the shadow of Dracula’s castle after that family.

Trevor deals with his pain and trauma quietly, almost numbing it with the assistance of alcohol and dodging the harder questions regarding what his family was really like. He still finds strength in remembering what the Belmonts are here for despite the tribulations that come with the family name. Hardships that continue and evolve nearly three hundred years later.

—

THE THINGS THAT MAKE ME WHO I AM: RICHTER BELMONT & STRENGTH FROM LOVE

Depending on what sort of mood you might find the author of this essay in, their favourite Castlevania game will vary. At the moment, it’s a three way tie between Symphony of the Night for its artistry, Lament of Innocence for its story and characterisation, and Aria of Sorrow for its evolved gameplay. However, one personal decision remains relatively consistent no matter the mood or time of day: Richter Belmont is the author’s favourite Belmont and the inclusion of him in the latest animated adaptation Castlevania: Nocturne has only cemented that fact.

It makes sense from both a narrative and marketing standpoint as to why we’ve suddenly gone from the events of Dracula’s Curse/Curse of Darkness depicted in the previous series all the way three hundred years later to Rondo of Blood . Narratively, Richter and his companion Maria Renard already have a direct link to Alucard through the events of Symphony , which Nocturne will most likely cover and be inspired by in its second season. Marketing wise while also appealing to the largest demographic possible (even those less familiar with the games), amongst more recurring characters like Dracula and Alucard, Richter is arguably one of the most recognisable Castlevania figures right down to his design.

Certain traits and visual motifs of other Belmonts have changed drastically over the years and with each iteration. Meanwhile, from Rondo and Symphony , to Harmony of Despair and the mobile game Grimoire of Souls , to finally Nocturne and the inclusion of Richter as a playable character in the fighting game Super Smash Bros Ultimate , specific elements of Richter never waver. This includes his blue colour scheme, his tousled brown hair, and his iconic white headband. All of which carry over in the first season of Nocturne which not only expands upon Richter’s character first established in Rondo of Blood but also further examines said character.

For example, Richter’s true introduction directly following the downer cold opening is without a doubt the farest cry from Trevor’s. While Trevor’s first scene acted as a sobering depiction of what happens when physically/mentally damaging coping mechanisms mix with unacknowledged grief, Richter’s first fight gets the audience’s blood pumping, complete with a triumphant musical score and a showcase of his skill with the Vampire Killer. Richter is cocky, but not reckless. He’s sarcastic, but not sullen like Trevor was. Because of his upbringing after the death of his mother, filled with positive affirmations, he values the wellbeing of others along with their fighting experience. Yet his confidence does not overshadow his acknowledgement of the family burden. Richter is well aware of how heavy the Belmont legacy and duty can weigh upon an individual’s shoulders along with how closely it can tie itself around a person’s life and their death—a reminder as well as memory which haunts him for nine years.

When Nocturne begins, its first major fight sequence takes place between Richter’s mother Julia Belmont (an original character for the show) and the vampire Olrox, an enemy taken from Symphony of the Night now reimagined as a seductive, complex Indigenous vampire on his own path towards vengeance against the very person who took away the one he loved most in this world—just one of many thematic parallels to the first series, this time referencing Dracula’s motives and justification for his grief. Just when it seems like Julia has the upper hand thanks to her magical prowess, Olrox transforms and ends her life in a swift yet brutal manner. All of which happens right before ten-year-old Richter’s eyes.

Julia was simply doing her duty as a vampire hunter and her life as a Belmont ended the same as most of her ancestors did: in battle while fighting for the life of another. Why then did it hurt Richter most of all? Why does it haunt him well into his early adult years? And why was it seemingly more so than how Trevor’s trauma haunted him? There are two probable answers to this, one being that Richter was only a child, directly confronted by the cause for his mother’s sudden and graphic death with no way of fighting back despite being a Belmont.

In the case of Trevor, although he was a few years older than Richter when his entire family and ancestral home were burned in front of his eyes presumably by the same people they were supposed to be defending, the circumstances which followed them afterwards are vastly different. For nine years Richter was surrounded by those who loved and cared for him whereas Trevor only had himself and the hoards of average Wallachians who hated him because of superstitious rumours and the church’s condemnation. Trevor had over a decade’s worth of experience in becoming desensitised to his pain and trauma, masking it beneath self deprecation and numbing it with alcohol. He wasn’t even aware of the fact that he was a deeply sad and lonely individual until Sypha pointed it out to him.

Despite his bravado and brighter personality than his ancestor, Richter is also an incredibly sad, hurt person who suffers somewhat from tunnel vision. He obviously has empathy and wants to protect people from monsters, vampires, and the like. More so than Trevor did during his introduction before his moment of self-made rehabilitation. However, he doesn’t seem to care much about the revolution itself or what it stands for. He attends Maria’s rally meetings but he doesn’t take active part in them, opting to stay back and keep a watch out for any vampire ambushes. He admits that he doesn’t really listen to Maria’s speeches about liberty, equality, and fraternity. And in the most prominent example of his disillusionment with fighting for a larger righteous cause, when given a revolutionary’s headband, he shoves it into his pocket and mumbles about how tired he is of everything.

This could be interpreted as defeatist if Richter wasn’t already trying so hard to uphold his family duty and maintain a level head. He needs to have a sense of control and almost achieves it until Olrox so casually confronts him in the middle of a battle which Richter and his friends seemed to be winning until they’re forced to flee close behind him. When Richter runs away and emotionally breaks down the moment he’s finally alone, it isn’t because he’s weak or cowardly. On a surface level, it was due to his fear and panic over not being able to face his mother’s killer (someone who has proven to be much, much stronger and more powerful than any Belmont). Yet it was also a form of harsh admission to himself. He couldn’t maintain that aforementioned sense of control and perhaps he never will, not where he is right now at least.

It isn’t until he’s reunited with his grandfather Juste Belmont (long thought to have died, leaving Richter as the final Belmont) that this negative mindset brought on by unresolved trauma begins to shift. In many ways, Juste is another callback to what happened with Trevor. He suffered an immense tragedy in the past and has since spent his entire life drifting from tavern to tavern, avoiding his own grandson and instead leaving him in the care of people far more capable of raising him and instilling better morals within the youngest Belmont.

Other mentor-esque characters appear in Nocturne such as Tera who raised Richter alongside her biological daughter Maria. There is also Cecile, the leader of a Maroon group which Annette joins after escaping slavery. Despite their individual pains, these two women maintain the hope that humanity can be changed and the evils of the world can be defeated. Meanwhile, Juste has thoroughly lost his own hope. He reveals to Richter that “evil will always win” because of how it permeates everything and is far stronger than any Belmont, even the most magically inclined members. No matter how many Draculas, Carmillas, or Lord Ruthvens are defeated, it will always find a way to creep back to the surface whether through the upper class of France or through the very colonisation that nearly wiped out Olrox’s people or enslaved Annette’s family. 

One of the first things that Juste says to Richter directly references the sheer weight of the Belmont legacy, all of which culminates within the whip itself. This can also be a reference to the Vampire Killer carrying a living soul as Leon Belmont was only able to awaken its true power by sacrificing Sara Tarantoul. The whip has both a metaphorical and literal weight which the Belmonts must come to terms with.

Yet for Richter, family is maintained not through blood ties, which can easily die out or be abandoned because of generational trauma, but through the people we find and attach ourselves to. Under the immediate threat of losing his found family, all of Richter’s pain and anguish explodes when his magical powers violently return to him in one of the most visually impressive and cathartic moments of Nocturne season one, complete with an orchestral and operatic rendition of “Divine Bloodlines” taken straight from Rondo of Blood as he ties the same headband he nearly discarded earlier around his head. Then once the dust settles and Richter is asked by Juste how he managed to tap back into that great power, he simply responds with the most obvious answer he can come up with: there are people who love him and he loves them in return. 

This is reiterated when Richter is reunited with Annette and describes the same revelation when she asks how he was able to regain his magic. Not just a mental revelation but for Richter, it was a physical sensation as well. Just when he believed he had lost everything, something reminded him of all the things worth protecting in his life and all the pain he’s had to endure.

Richter finally donning his iconic white headband is symbolic of not only his decision to actively join the French Revolution but also his revelation that the love he feels for Maria, Annette, and Tera is his own righteous cause. That, to him, is worth defending just as much if not more than the concept of a centuries old curse turned legacy.

—

SLAVES TO OUR FAMILIES' WISHES: CONCLUSION

Richter, both his game depiction and his recent Nocturne iteration, acts as a reflection and subversion of what a Belmont is along with what that family duty means to different members. Trevor found healing from his trauma through his duty. Richter found his healing through love. Of course Trevor loved Sypha and Alucard in his own way, but throughout the entire first series, from the moment he removed his cloak at the end of season one to standing up against Death in the finale, his driving motivation was always to preserve his family’s legacy despite his own shortcomings. The Belmonts were all but gone and Trevor had been exiled, excommunicated, and turned into a societal pariah. Had he given into despair and continued with his vagabond ways, who else would wield the Morningstar, the Vampire Killer, or any of the knowledge cultivated by previous Belmont generations?

But for Richter, family legacy is more of a nebulous concept. It gets mentioned in conversations and we see its varying effects on individuals, but even when Richter is reunited with Juste, the immediate priorities of his found family takes the place of his blood family. This, according to him, makes him a Belmont. 

It is also important to consider that we are still only on the first season of Castlevania: Nocturne with season two having been renewed and in production merely a week after its initial premiere. With the reveal of Alucard as a last minute cliffhanger in the penultimate episode, it will be interesting to see how his own characterisation as well as his close tie with both the Belmonts and his own family burden will further develop especially after three hundred years within the show’s timeline. One of the biggest possibilities is that in contrast with his youthful brashness and instability that was the crux of his character in the first series, Alucard might serve as a sort of mentor figure or perhaps his own generational pain will bond him further to Richter and Maria, more so than he was in Symphony of the Night . Then there is the question of whether Richter in the midst of the apparent losses he suffered during the finale of season one will follow down the same path that his video game counterpart did.

In 2020, the author wrote another Castlevania -centric essay which detailed the visual, thematic, and aesthetical shifts of the franchise from its inception during the 1980s all the way to the 2017 adaptation through focusing on how these changes affected Alucard. By the end of that essay, it was mentioned that despite the show being renewed for at least one more season, the overall future of Castlevania remained unknown. This is still the case for now. 

Though one can make educated assumptions and theories, there’s no way of knowing what sort of direction season two of Nocturne will take with its themes and characters. This is doubly true for the games themselves. Despite the anticipated releases of the Silent HIll 2 and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remakes, as of now Konami has not revealed any official decisions to remake, rerelease, or produce new Castlevania titles. One can hope that due to the success of both shows along with the anticipation for Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid remakes that something new will be in store for Castlevania in the near future.

Castlevania , both its games and animation adaptations, prove that there is a place in this world for every kind of story. In the last episode of season one airing in July 2017, Alucard states what could very well be the thesis of the entire franchise: “We are all, in the end, slaves to our families’ wishes”. Yet even if we cannot escape the narrative we’ve been latched onto or, for dramatic purposes, cursed with, there are ways in which we can combat it and forge our own healing process.

—

MEDIA REFERENCED

Castlevania (1986)

Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987)

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989)

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (1993)

Castlevania Legends (1997)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003)

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (2005)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2011)

Castlevania (2017—2021)

Castlevania: Nocturne (2023—)

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #castlevania nocturne #trevor belmont #richter belmont #leon belmont #castlevania symphony of the night #my writing #god its been so long since i wrote an actual essay pls be gentle with me.....

[jjsanguine]

Don't try to emotionally manipulate with music me Last Twilight, I know what's up. How the hell did we get here??

The ending seems almost completely detached from everything that was happening till episode 11. Till the breakup if I want to be generous. Here's some disorganised thoughts.

Why was the timeskip so long?? 3 years of not speaking to each other is not chicken change. Speaking of, why didn't they speak to each other? This isn't legend of Korra, they have Line. We hear all about what Day was up to but there's one shot of Mhok working in a kitchen and otherwise not kpim. Why. Mhok took than job to build his career and I feel like leaving with no notice no nothing probably torpedoed his reputation. Was that job important or nah?

I don't care about Day + Nights dad. If we were going to bring a side character back for 2 seconds at the wedding it should have been Gee because apart from Aon she's Day's closest friend. Or was before she just vanished off the face of the earth as much as August who literally isn't in the country.

I would have liked to see any of Night + Phojai's relationship onscreen. There wasn't enough going on in this episode (even thought it was bare long :/) to not touch on *anything* that happened between phoomjai being born and them getting married. How did Ramon react? I don't think Khun "I can excuse classism" would be chill.

Why the ever living FUCK did Day fully regain his vision. I would have been down if some serious side effect like night blindness or astigmatism or the many problems resulting from having to take anti rejection medication and becoming immunocompromised was brought up but nope. Day struggled a bit for a few years and and got his eyes switched back on easy peasy.

Day being sighted again makes how Ramon was like "I'll stop being abusive (regardless of if or to what extent she meant well) once you stop being disabled" something that will never be grappled with. I doubted they were gonna after episode 11 but still, it was nicer than being certain.

Day broke up with Mhok because he thought Mhok pitied him for being blind. Mhok (and also Mhok's backstory) said it was because of Rung, and I thought this was going to be a segue into Day realising that it wasn't all self confidence and roses chez Mhok but apparently I was completely wrong

Day didn't have to really deep that Mhok has stuff going on because Mhok ACTUALLY has nothing going on. It was just pity. Somehow.

I do not understand why this point causes all the problems in episode 11 and was not mentioned at all in the finale. I don't understand why the solution to this supposed pity was to make day sighted again instead of addressing that.

The thought process send to have been that if Mhok doesn't trust anyone to care for Day and Day doesn't think he needs caring for, by restoring Day's vision they can both be right. It's like when gender screwy dramas sidestep the male lead thinking too hard about his orientation after taking for who he thinks it's a guy by being like, he somehow sensed that it was a girl all along and crucially before he kissed them. Nah. NAH FAM. I didn't forget.

Day + Mhok going back up that mountain at their sighted leisure makes hollow the struggle to reach the top first time round. The view wasn't as nice because it was rainbow bereft just like any of Mhok's actions in this episode (Rung's name means rainbow in English). It's like their relationship in a nutshell. Rung and the ripple effects her death have on Mhok's decision making have no place, no acknowledgement, no nothing.

If I rewatch this Mhok + Days story is going to end on the mountain, first time round, because everything after that was setting up the character assassination arc.

#last twilight #last twilight the series #mhokday

[bullet-prooflove]

Downtime: Clinton Skye x Reader

Tagging: @kmc1989 @crazybeautiful1987 @caffeinatedwoman @soultrysworld

Noone knows about the cases Clinton works in his downtime.

The ones he keeps locked in the top drawer of his desk in the mobile command centre.

They’re the ones that nobody else wants, the ones that local authorities won’t dedicate the resources to.

It’s heartbreaking, the amount of crimes against indigenous people that go unsolved. It’s the reason that he joined the FBI, he wanted to change the system, be the solution to the problem. Only the stack gets bigger and the resources scarcer.

He makes his usual round of calls while the others are asleep, hitting up the detectives, talking through their leads, making notes. The truth is the ones that do care are inundated, they try their best but it’s a deluge of violence, one that even the most diligent officer can’t hope to keep up with.

He leaves you until last, his pen tapping on the surface of the manilla file in front of him as his gaze flickers up towards the clock. Despite the late hour he knows you’ll be at your desk, you’re as bad as he is these days. When you see an issue you try to rectify it and working in Hate Crimes, you come across a lot of issues. You’re always out in the community, making connections, helping rebuild. It’s how the two of you met.

“Sienna.” He says fondly when you pick up the phone.

“Clint.”

He can hear the smile in your voice and he imagines you leaning back in your chair, the phone cradled underneath your chin. He’s only been away a few days but he misses you with a ferocity he can’t vocalise. The way he feels for you, it burns like a fire in his chest. With everyone else, he’s calm, reserved but with you he’s passionate, wild.

You’re a spirited woman, fierce, head strong. You’d brought colour into his world after the death of his sister. He hadn’t been living back then, he’d been holding everything together for Jesse, for Tali, his parents. It had become his pattern, numbing him to everything else outside of the grief they  suffered. His days blurred, his existence monotonous and then you had stepped into his life, a whirlwind of texture and vibrance. Your warmth had flowed over his battered psyche like the water from a stream, soothing, restorative.

You’d spent days working together, repairing the shopfront of a tribal member whose business had been firebombed before Clinton realises he’s starting to feel something again. It comes back slowly after that, the essence of his soul feeding back into his body.

“I just needed to hear your voice.” He finds himself saying as he closes the folder in front of him. “This case, the one I’m working, it hits a little too close to home.”

“Tell me about it.” You say so he does.

You already have an awareness about the residential schools. There had been an article last year when the Pope visited Canada to apologise to the Indigenous community for the abuse their children had suffered at the hands of the missionaries who ran those places, you had asked it about him about it back then.

“Your parents?” You had queried after you’d shown him the article on your tablet one evening.

“No,” He had said, shaking his head. “They were fortunate. They were hidden away when the authorities came to take them. They managed to avoid the ‘Kill the Indian and Save the Man’ rhetoric.”

Clinton knows hundreds that didn’t. There are still people in his tribe who to this day don’t know what happened to their children, they were simply taken away, never to be returned. The Bureau of Indian Affairs are still uncovering unmarked graves connected to these schools, thousands of dollars are being spent running DNA in attempt to reunite these children with their parents and debatably those are the lucky ones. For the survivors their stories play out over generations, the effects of their abuse like a stone being thrown into a lake, rippling throughout the branches of their entire family tree.

The case he’d worked today was a symptom of cultural genocide. The entire family were so broken by it and the continued systemic disinterest in indigenous cases that one of them had decided to do something about it.

“I was in one of those schools today.” He says quietly as he recalls the dilapidated building, the soulless of each and every single one of those rooms. “There were numbers on the walls, that’s how they referred to the kids, not by their names but by numbers. It was a way of breaking them down, eradicating their identity, their culture…”

He trails off because it’s the cruelty of it all that gets to him. Children younger than his niece Tali being beaten, abused, starved and all of it sanctioned by the state. He knows he doesn’t have to explain hate to you, you see it on a daily basis, experience it the same way he does.

“I don’t know what to say.” You tell him. “Those places, what happened… it’s deplorable.”

“I just need to hear something good.” He whispers down the line, his voice breaking as he speaks. “I just needed to hear your voice, to remind me there’s something in this world that hasn’t been tainted by all the darkness out there, that there’s still someone fighting.”

“You’re still fighting.” You remind him, referring to his case files. “You’re still seeking justice for those people, even when no one else is, you’re still telling their stories.”

“I don’t know if it’s enough.” He says you sadly, his gaze straying to the growing pile of manilla files neatly stacked on the corner of his desk.

“It is for their families.” You tell him. “For the father who lost a daughter to trafficking, for the mother whose son was beaten to death because of his culture, it’s enough for them knowing that that animal is behind bars, that he can’t hurt anyone else. That’s what you’re fighting for Clinton, to give those people a peace of mind, to stop it from happening again.”

“You’re right.” He says with a sigh, his fingertips massaging the sore spot right between his eyes. “I know you’re right. It just gets a little much sometimes.”

“I know.” You say quietly and you do.

This isn’t the first pep talk you’ve given him. He’s done the same for you. The weight of these cases, the importance of them, they’d crush you if you let them. He has a duty to these people and he won’t be the one to let them down, not when everybody else has.

“Thank you.” He says softly. “For picking up the phone, for always knowing what I need…”

“I’m your wife Clinton.” You remind him and he can hear the smile in your voice, despite the distance that stretches between you. “I’m always here for you.”

Love Clinton? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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#clinton skye #clinton skye x reader #clinton skye x you #fbi most wanted #nathaniel arcand

[babyspacebatclone]

I saw a post about something, and it’s been ruminating in my head.

It hurts most for me because of my chronic conditions - especially those that aggressively my Executive Functioning Disorder.

But it’s such a fucking horrible message for just - everyone.

No-one can ever be too busy - if they care, they would make time.

Just. No.

Fucking no.

Imagine a typical United States nuclear family, two working parents, two kids.

It’s flu season, the eldest child is in basketball, the younger child has to go to an after school learning center because of general help.

How many things can go wrong with this family in December?

What if one of the parents is fired because of job complications related to the breakdown of Twitter, Meta et al., because those disasters are going to affect public relations in every industry in a ripple effect that is already being felt throughout Silicon Valley.

Who does what if one of the kids is sick, the other still had commitments, but both parents are still working but with mandatory overtime.

And the grandparents have work of their own, because they’re still not approaching the distancing retirement age.

Where does this family find the hours to reconnect with family across the continent, their church, their hunting buddies, their book club?

How many commitments is the average modern adult expected to maintain???

This lie of “if you cared, you’d make time” fucking hurts regular physically and neurologically typical individuals overwhelmed in a society that has systematically removed supports and blamed them for it.

How does it harm those who needed additional supports anyway?

We care.

We fucking care.

But we are overwhelmed.

Physically abused on a cellular level by exhaustion, unending cycles of illness we cannot take time off to recover from, and the very support institutions we previously relied upon to maintain connections burning before our eyes.

We fucking care.

But we don’t have any time left to use, let alone make.

#executive functioning disorder #exhaustion #this just #this infuriated me #victim blaming #tw babybat swears #tw victim blaming

[madisonpitzer]

Where We Go From Here

The 2012 film The Perks of Being a Wallflower presents an essential conversation to its audience by diving into the variety of repercussions stemming from childhood abuse and investigating the paths to resolving such trauma. The film gives an authentic illustration of how childhood abuse deteriorates the emotional and social wellbeing of young adults by focusing on important topics and providing answers for what can be done to help people in these situations.

Abuse in childhood leaves young adults with detrimental effects to their emotional wellbeing, which creates a ripple effect throughout the rest of their life if they don’t seek the help they need. On the other side of that coin, the same abuse can create deep-rooted issues with social abilities and young adults’ capability of forming healthy and meaningful relationships. These obstacles presented by traumatic events in childhood affect our society in far more widespread ways than people may initially think; mental, emotional, and social struggles are factors that are often passed down from generation to generation (though this is usually unintentional, it is detrimental nonetheless), and therefore continually affect each generation of our society more heavily. This is why it is necessary that the problem be solved at the root. It is imperative that young adults have access to resources that can help them resolve such issues, and this is something that The Perks of Being a Wallflower addresses beautifully.

In recent years, as it has become more and more talked about, mental health has become more socially accepted as a serious issue facing our society. It is unfortunately clear that abuse can never be fully stopped, that traumatic events can never be 100% prevented, but hopefully with the onset of this conversation, we can find better solutions to this generational issue and begin to heal this ill-fated ripple within our society. It is possible, and we can already see it in effect through cultural productions such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which teach us to accept the love we deserve and nothing less.

#we accept the love we think we deserve #mental abuse #break the cycle

[sunbathing-owl]

I STAND AGAINST

CHILD PREDATORS

Child abuse prevention initiatives serve as beacons of hope, opening safe and healthy paths for the future generations to thrive intellectually and culturally. We as a society need to step it up and battle abuse. Both physical and psychological abuse from others in positions of authority are coming to light more and more frequently. WAKE UP! BECOME CONSCIOUS OF OUR REALITY AND DO WHAT YOU CAN TO HELP! By fostering safe environments and nurturing relationships, these efforts cultivate a culture of safety and understanding. Through education and awareness, we can empower individuals and communities to recognize signs of abuse and intervene effectively. By breaking the cycle of violence, these initiatives not only protect children from harm but also lay the groundwork for healthier families and stronger societies. Help however possible. SEE SOMETHING; SAY SOMETHING! The ripple effect of prevention extends far beyond immediate beneficiaries, fostering resilience and fostering a world where every child can thrive, their potential unbounded by the fear of abuse. ♡

#fuck dan schneider #prevent child abuse #stand against child predators #tumblr help #spread awareness #dan schneider is a pos

[filmbrotrappedinbabygirlsbody]

Please be nice to artists

"Reading is my escapism; I don't need additional pressure."

"You are not entitled to views, reblogs, kudos, likes, or following."

"Maybe you're just not good enough? Have you thought about that?"

"You should write for fun, not for engagement."

I see these sentiments more and more in fandoms and in general reading spaces where a lot of readers come together.

Those are the readers accusing writers of asking unreasonable things, like a comment, or a reblog, or some interaction with their work.

Very unreasonable. How could they?

I hope this piece will turn out coherent, cause honestly, it's gonna be a long one.

Disclaimer: This post relates to small/medium/independent artists, not Disney conglomerate movies.

"Reading is my escapism; I don't need additional pressure."

This is going to be the most controversial thing I'll say in this post, and here we go...

Reading for escapism is great. Writers also write for escapism most of the time!

If saying 'thank you' in the form of an engagement (I'll call kudo, like, reblog, comment, recommendation collectively as engagement not to write all of them again and again) is putting too much pressure on you, well, maybe you're putting too much pressure on someone else too?

Usually, this comment is also followed by "I shouldn't be responsible for the mental health of the author," which is fair. And I don't think authors ask you to pay their therapy bills (although if you buy their work, which hopefully you are doing, you do, so win-win) but then if you're using this author's work as an "escapism," would you be happy if they stopped publishing?

Well, I assume you would move on to the other artist, but it would be one artist less in the world. And there might be another person for whom this specific author was the favorite one.

Your even small actions do have ripple effects on the community as a whole.

Another thing I think gets mixed up with this comment is, the reader thinks they are expected to read/engage with everything out there and give engagement to everything.

Which is not true? The ask is to engage with things you already like! Not the whole catalogue of self-published romance books on Amazon.

"You are not entitled to views, reblogs, kudos, likes, or following."

Did I say the last post was controversial? Eh, here we go.

Yes, no one is entitled to anything.

You are not entitled to the entertainment you receive as well.

The relationship between audience and the artist always tethers on an abusive relationship because of an inherent misunderstanding of artists.

First of all, it takes bloody time to create. Add to that the fact that people most of the time have 9-5 jobs on top of their hobbies. A very small group of artists is actually able to make money that will cover their expenses from their art.

All while the audience becomes more and more demanding. Because of social media, they now gain access to their favorite artists and are not shying away from demanding more work.

And if you think "well, I don't demand anything, so I also don't engage with the work tit for tat."

Creating something can take minutes and also it can take 10 hours, 5 days, a month, a year. If you don't respect the artist enough to engage with their work, at least respect the art, the effort, the medium, the thing you claim you like.

"Maybe you're just not good enough? Have you thought about that?"

Ah, my favorite. I love when readers or any other audience members rush to "humble" the artist. Just put them down a notch.

Here is the big secret. Artists would love feedback on their work! So much. You have no idea how much!

(Unless they wrote explicitly they don't accept feedback, of course.)

If an artist receives a non-mean comment or email on how they can improve, they will happily kick their feet. You know what's the hardest part of being an artist? Not receiving enough feedback! And most importantly, feedback that is not bordering on trash-talking or bashing their work.

Here's a handy guide on providing concrit if that's what was holding you back!

"You should write for fun, not for engagement."

I honestly have nothing new to say to this one. Other than I see it used a lot these days to shrug the responsibility off. Assuming that if they are a reader/enjoyer having fun, then by the virtue of that, artists are also having fun. Well... some do post for enjoyment and not for engagement. Some people care about engagement.

This only puts pressure on the artists not to care about engagement when it's perfectly reasonable to care about things. You care about your entertainment, no?

----

I'm positive I forgot somethings, and in some places I wrote from the pov of writers/readers dynamic but it also stands for any other artist.

If you want to have constructive talk about this let's do it I'm open. If you want to be mean... please don't?

#fandom #ao3 #fanfiction #ao3 writer #fic reading #reading #bookblr #artists #consumerism #art #i don't know any other relevant tags #i'm tired lol #writeblr #booktok

[crdenhart]

Religious Reflections - Luke 17:1-10

06/05/2023

Today’s designated Gospel reading from the Book of Common Prayer is Luke 17:1-10. Here is the text for the passage from the NRSVue version of the Bible:

(1) Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for sin are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come! (2) It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to sin. (3) Be on your guard! If a brother or sister sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. (4) And if the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

(5) The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (6) The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

(7) “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? (8) Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me; put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? (9) Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? (10) So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’ ”

ANALYSIS:

Lots to unpack from this reading! Jesus talks about how serious it is when one commits a sin. He then goes on to emphasize the importance of forgiving anyone who has repented. No matter how many times someone offends another person, if he or she shows true repentance, he or she should be forgiven. This concept may be difficult to practice with people who are bound to always fall back into sin, but that is the challenge to overcome in those situations.

Faith itself also is a major theme addressed in this passage. Jesus points out how having just a little faith can cause extraordinary things to happen. Faith works like the ripple effect of a drop of water in a still pond. This concept can be applied to the various dynamics of life. If one builds faith in himself or herself, he or she can then see the positive impact the effects of his or her faith have on his or her significant other/family, his or her friends/work/groups, all people in general, and the world as a whole. If just a little faith can do that, imagine what a rain of faith would do.

CALL TO ACTION:

My call to action from this passage is to forgive those who have wronged you but have truly repented. Perhaps someone disrespected you or was abusive to you when you were younger, and he or she has since changed for the better and is sorry for how he or she treated you. It may be difficult especially if what he or she was severely damaging, but find in your heart a way to forgive him or her and move on from past grievances. Holding on to such grudges will just make the pain of the bad memories worse and is not good for your well-being or enjoyment of life.

My other call to action is to find ways to increase your faith. This activity does not necessarily mean literally going to church, reading sacred scriptures, or the like. Even though those are good things, something as simple as realizing that there is something greater than yourself could be a way to increase your faith. You also could achieve an increase in faith by realizing how spiritual things are at play in your life. If something seems like a coincidence but holds some importance to your life, especially on further examination, realize that there is some divine significance at work. If it starts to seem obvious the direction your life and relationships are moving from a spiritual perspective, have faith in the future and let it happen, or as the saying goes - let go and let God!

#god #religion #religious #spiritual #spirituality #jesus #advice #bible #sermon #bible reading

[jeremystrongface]

The poem from which the season finale titles were taken, so there must be some thematic through-line here. This poem is such a mystery to me, and I’ve seen a lot of others voice confusion and claim they’re too dumb to understand it. I don’t think that’s true! Much like the show itself, the poem is PURPOSELY vague on the details. We have lines like “there sat down once, a thing on Henry’s heart so heavy” – the “thing” is unspecified. It’s the implied presence of a tragedy, an abuse, a wrongdoing. This is exactly how the show tells us about the characters’ pasts. We can see the echoes and effects of their childhoods, but the creators don’t tell us the details. The writers find the ripple effects of trauma infinitely more interesting than the trauma itself. We see Logan’s scars and can extrapolate from there, the history and generational abuse. When Logan hits Roman, Kendall’s immediate defense and Roman’s immediate deflection tell us everything we need to know about the dynamics of their childhood. We get to see echoes of the past, but not the past itself. The poem presents us with incomplete information. Lines like “This is not for tears; thinking” and “Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up” are SO strange. They’re intentionally crafted to be grammatically incomplete, forcing the reader to really THINK about what is missing and about the implications here. The show does this through its vagueness and general subtlety, such as Kendall standing by the suicide glass in “Safe Room”, and more recently Kendall face down in the pool – they FORCE the viewer to interpret things as informed by their own preconceptions via subtlety and a refusal to DIRECTLY tell the viewer vital information). The poem also focuses on the distortion of the past through memory: “But never did Henry, as he thought he did, end anyone… He knows: he went over everyone, & nobody’s missing.” This uncertainty of memory is most blatant with the dog cage argument, with Roman remembering it as traumatic and others remembering it as just kids playing around, though to some level it seems that they are trying to convince themselves so as to absolve any blame. Now, the incident. Vehicular manslaughter. A terrible accident. The poem as a whole IS Kendall. While everyone on Succession is a horrendous person, Kendall is the only one who feels guilt, remorse, the pain of responsibility. The Jeremy Strong Face (you know the one) is the physical manifestation of guilt, of the horrible past that “a thousand years would fail to blur”. On a first read, I thought Henry in this poem did nothing wrong but felt as though he did, something internal eating away at him. But on a later read I caught it– “But never did Henry, as he thought he did, end anyone and hacks her body up and hide the pieces, where they may be found.” Where they may be found. Kendall hasn’t done anything that can be found out. He is responsible for a death, but Logan would never let that out because it would implicate both of them. Because it won’t be found out, it didn’t happen. The kids didn’t know about the cruises (but they did). They didn’t know about Mo (but they did). They didn’t abuse Roman (but they did). They will deny deny deny while collectively knowing the truth, but what’s the truth when left unspoken? It is a thing. Just some thing eating away at you. Nobody is ever missing. This is not for tears. All the bells say: too late. Too late.

#god this is incoherent #I have so many thoughts about this stupid poem #and this stupid show #it is ruining me #please let me know any other interpretations bc this poem has so much to unpack #also it is making me scared for the next ep #succession #succession hbo #kendall roy #succession spoilers #mine

[itsclydebitches]

You know its funny, after The Lost Fable, I was so sure that Blake would be the most understanding of Oz. Afterall, both of them had a partner they once loved who turned out to become terrible people and make it their mission to destroy everything they love. In fact, Salem and Oz is basically Adam and Blake if they were immortal. But alas, they had to make RWBY and co uniform in their reactions.

Both Blake and Ozpin watched systems they were a part of become twisted in ways they could no longer support. Both watched their loved ones’ destruction and suffered abuse at their hands. Both managed to escape that situation and are still grappling with the ripple effects of that. Both have kept core parts of their identity a secret from their friends and allies, except where Ozpin had the power to let Blake reveal that secret on her own terms, Blake was a part of the group that forcibly tore Ozpin’s secrets from him. 

Obviously there are key differences between their situations  — Ozpin choosing to rule Remnant with Salem vs. Blake being born into a civil rights movement, Blake being a teenager who has dealt with Adam for a few years vs. Ozpin suffering Salem’s abuse for generations, the complicated questions of who holds power in each situation and how much damage each secret can do  — but the emotional core is the same. For anyone who doesn’t remember or who wasn’t here at the time, Volume 6 was the tipping point. After the snow scene, everyone who wasn’t cheering for the group to hurt Ozpin more was latching onto the belief that they just needed time to get past their anger. The assumption was that each character’s individual experiences would shed light on Ozpin’s situation and re-contextualize their treatment of him  — just give them a moment to be angry! They deserve it! But then they’ll make up with him!  — and Blake, as another abuse survivor, was a key part of that. Of course, this never came. The group ignored Ozpin until the airship crash, when he was accused of spying. Then they ignored him until Ironwood, when how they treated him became a part of their lie. Then they ignored him until he came back, when Oscar says plainly that he wish he never had. The only reason Ozpin is involved in the story now, two years later, is because the situation is so insanely bad that Oscar can’t afford to ignore him anymore. But not a single character has looked back at that moment and considered that maybe, just maybe, they can understand something about his situation: about abuse, fighting what feels like an impossible battle, being overwhelmed by leadership, not trusting your allies, telling lies to keep yourself safe, etc. 

Which, even taking away my own personal interest in Ozpin as a character, is a problem with RWBY’s writing that now infuses every significant scene. No one acts like themselves. No one responds to situations in a way that makes sense for their character. Why would Ruby wait 17 years to ask how her mom died, or ignore a super powerful eye ability when she’s desperate to keep everyone safe? Why wouldn’t Yang be interested in the man who had her arm custom made for her, now that she’s in a place where she can accept it? Why wouldn’t Nora and Ren have something to say about Jaune slamming Oscar into a wall, having watched him get bullied by a larger, more powerful fighter during their whole year at Beacon? Why wouldn’t Weiss try to talk to Blake and Yang about killing Adam when the White Fang and abuse of faunus workers is a huge part of her history? Why wouldn’t Ruby react emotionally to a friend she saw murdered suddenly showing up in the street? 

Why wouldn’t Blake have thoughts about Ozpin being an abuse survivor whose secrets are ripped from him when she can easily imagine a scenario where that happened to her? 

The characters aren’t characters anymore, they’re not individuals, they’re cardboard cutouts who move from one plot point to the next, saying generically Nice Things to one another  — Blake says she looks up to Ruby, Nora reminds Penny she’s a person — that are, in the end, both meaningless and capable of coming from any other character. You could take any emotional scene we’ve gotten lately, replace one character with another, and absolutely nothing would change. Yang could tell Ruby she looks up to her despite being the little sister. Nora could tell Ruby she looks up to her despite being younger. Blake could tell Penny she has a soul. Ren could tell Penny she’s a person. It doesn’t matter! It’s entirely generic. The only time recently where I felt like a character was acting both as an individual and as a result of that individuality  — Ren calling out the group  — is also the one thing that’s currently getting swept under the rug for more messages of, ‘There are no sides, we’re a unified team, we believe the same things, want the same things, interpret everything the same way and it’s that same-ness that’s supposedly going to save the world.’ 

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #Anonymous

[helahades]

How do you think Hela woulda been with Thor and Loki if Odin hadn’t kicked her out? Like what kinda sibling relationship?

you know ?

On Hela as a Sister

warnings: childhood trauma, mentions of abuse, mentions of odins gaslighting

these are my favorite hela aus because everything else is inherently angsty and sometimes i just want her happy

there is nothing quiet about helas dedication or her love

she is...so protective. esp since the age gap is so large shes double their age

being a big sister that has had time to reflect on childhood, and then watching more children be raised in the same environment, the instinct is very much to provide those children with support that you needed then

i think there is a special kinship to be recognized between her and loki. literally two seconds ago i read a fic that suggested hela was an outcast as a child

while i don’t think sexuality/queerness is as big of a thing^tm on asgard and that they’re pretty fluid, there’s something to be said about the parallels between Loki’s genderfluidity + sexuality and helas repressed exploration

hela is literally the rough draft and Odin is not far from coming of age himself when he has her, so I imagine she received the worst of his intensity, and as suggested by the same fic I just mentioned, she was made to put a lot of inner exploration on the back burner in favor of becoming daddy’s little weapon

all this is to say that hela is gay and I think that her vulnerability is parallel to Loki’s in a way I can’t describe and that they both need a very similar kind of nurturing

I think Hela would have a bond with Loki that involved making him work through some of his inner turmoil rather than repress it, and I think she would help him channel his magic as a thing that can be nice and not only destructive

now for thor, i won’t ignore that he definitely has experiences all sorts of different attraction to all genders. he channels his emotions much differently though + otherness is really not as central to his main struggles

at his most mature and even at his worst, there is a very direct line between the cause of his stress and the expression of that stress

aka, he’s much less prone to repression, and actually, on the complete other end of the spectrum. I think Thor may have trouble at times identifying where he’s having a problem

it sounds backwards. he talks through things, he identifies problems and works through them. but sometimes problem solvers let problems blow by after resolution without assessing how it’s damaged their armor

think of infinity war. an obviously distressed Thor sees a direct solution to the loss he’s faced. he simply needs to kill thanos and everything will be better right?

no

hela and thor have similarly explosive emotions, but hela is more loki in the plotting and handling of them

now hela isnt all knowing and as much as I would like her as a big sister to help them through everything, she doesn’t understand all of both of them

but hela is very good at identifying what makes her angry

and she’s exceptional at seeing how people associated with her have been wronged

her core unit of people is a source of pride and extreme dedication and she is very attuned/sensitive to how they are feeling

she has an awareness of the temperaments of people around her in general, but where it may manifest generally as her playing the long game of life, with family it’s different

she’s aware when they’re hurt, when they’re confused or angry, and in her best way i think she would try to help them confront that

speculation of their dynamic is a little stranger for Thor because Loki was..never intended for the throne. it’s simpler and there’s not much destiny conflict

perhaps hela would be queen and Thor could be free, an adventurer

Had they been raised in a way that is healthy, and to be able to identify personal goals separate from the crown, perhaps Thor would have realized he didn’t want to be king much sooner

I see Thor a blond ball of fire, running to the chambers of his big sister to gush about what he’s learned one day

He tells her about how he held fire and brought dried herbs to fresh blooms and how he’s just so ready to conjure lighting

Pulling the final plait loose from her warrior braid, her hair falls loose and she smiles warmly, pulling him up to her bed to sit and begins one of her animated tales that always have a way of entrancing him

She speaks of kings and wielding magic and how rushing to too much too fast has been the end of even the greatest

She hands him a bouquet that’s wilted and asks him to turn it whole, marveling at his successes with animation that swells the pride of his young soul and tells him to keep at his studies

She says she’ll teach him lighting personally when the time comes

anyway

all of them are bound by intense longing, passion, a desire to be appreciated

ultimately, if hela had been raised with more love and attention, there would have been ripple effects of support, she could have been a better example for how to channel their intensities

hela is a big sister sworn to the duty of protection and proper encouragement, but will always have a lot to work through on her own

protectors need protection, and hopefully the day will come where she will sit back and watch how they’ve blossomed, before looking onto her own clearer image of destiny xx

#writing tag #will tag later wow im tired #thank you honey ! #ask tag #hela hcs #hela odinsdottir #hela headcanons #hela au #big sister hela #hela x happy childhood #bit of a childhood trauma joke for u

[malachi-walker]

Hey! Noelle once said that a She-ra Catra AU would be much shorter. You have a pretty good grip on the characters and I love your metas so I wanted to know how a She-ra Catra AU or just a Catra leaves the horde AU would go.

Ok, I'll bite. Simple reason why Noelle said it would be shorter is because it would take a hell of a lot less to convince Adora to come along than it did Catra, and that ultimately comes down to the differences in their treatment in the Horde and what they both psychologically got out of staying with/leaving it.

As my friend @johannas-motivational-insults details in these two metas, a huge part of what keeps Catra in the Horde throughout the series is the overarching idea of the sunk-cost fallacy, which in extremely simplified terms basically means that you have a choice between something you have put a lot of effort into that may not have a return equal to what you put in if you stick with it (Catra's view on the Horde) or an alternative that may have gains but requires letting go of what you put into the first path (leaving the Horde.) And for the record, this is a thought process that a lot of abuse victims (myself included) have to grapple with both in regards to the initial leaving and the recovery process. Basically you don't want to let go because you've suffered so much that you want, no, need there to be some kind of positive payout in return for all that. Make no bones about it, Catra suffered immensely at the hands of SW and the Horde's environment in general throughout her upbringing, but like many abuse victims she gets trapped by her need to make that pain worthwhile, because otherwise she was just a victim (and again, that is part of the reason psychologically why people will stay in abusive relationships despite knowing they shouldn't, among many other psychological reasons that I highly recommend checking out on your own time.) There is a lot more going on, but the sunk-cost fallacy is a huge part of what makes Catra tick until she finally realizes that it was never worth it and finally does let go in the end.

Meanwhile, on the other side we have Adora, who was the golden child. The one pushed to succeed and prove herself. The one who was constantly taught that she was better than the others, that she was destined for something greater. Yes, she was very much abused, but in a way that has vastly different psychological effects than Catra's situation. Adora is someone who has been encouraged to put others and causes above her own needs, which is part of why it is easy to get her on the Rebellion's side even though it causes her so much series-long distress to leave Catra behind. Because whereas with Catra leaving the Horde does incur a heavy cost even with staying with Adora as a counterweight, Adora has been psychologically conditioned to want to serve a greater power and put her full effort into it. Of course, the entire final season is an analysis in why having too much in either direction is a bad thing, because Adora wants Catra so much but feels she can't have her when she has a duty to fulfill and also believes she has to put said duty above her own life.

So, in the context of a Magicatra au, it would be way, WAY harder to find a psychologically believable reason for Adora to continue to stay with the Horde than it was for Catra, for the simple reason that leaving the Horde would be nothing but a net gain for Adora in that situation. She'd not only be serving the side of good/a greater destiny the way Shadow Weaver conditioned her, but she'd also get to remain with Catra, who was always her one exception/freedom from that conditioning. Once that offer was on the table there would be literally no way you could convincingly get Adora to stay that wouldn't require some serious character changes from the main show that I won't get into because that kind of ripple effect is way too much for this kinda ask.

Anyway, hope this explains everything to your liking and thanks for such an interesting ask.

#answer #spop #spop meta

[cyanide-latte]

I think part of the reason that so many in my generation who grew up with H*rry P*tt*r struggle so much to move on and let it die out, why we take the old TERF's actions so personally, is because it feels like the worst of betrayals.

Not necessarily because it was a cultural phenomenon (it was lbr,) not necessarily because it really did do more to help with American child illiteracy than NCLB (it did, again lbr,) or even that it was so intergenerational in its appeal that it became a bonding point for kids and parents (jury is out on that one I think,) but because the author did something rather unpredictable for the fandom landscape at the time.

She directly engaged with the content her fans made.

This goes back to the dark days of fanfiction. You know the ones. A good many of you have been spared living through them, even if you see the remnant disclaimers on old fics (and maybe even some newer ones) about how the intellectual property belongs to the original creators. Creator engagement with fandom isn't new, and it wasn't entirely new back then, but it was limited. You heard about authors receiving fan letters and answering fan questions during interviews or panels. But that was said to be where it began and ended. [I've personally no doubt there were authors who did engage more than that, prior to all this, but it likely wasn't widely-known.] Mostly, what you saw was either polite neutrality, or the shit that people like Anne Rice and Robin Hobb pulled.

If you don't know what I'm referring to there, do a web search about Rice and Hobb filing lawsuits against fanfic writers (and fanartists) for making fan content of their works. Don't be shocked when you stumble across the quote from Hobb equating fanworks for her stuff to "raping her intellectual property." (I know, I know. It's gross, and it's the reason I refuse to ever read her books.)

Then along came H*rry, and in fast pursuit, the explosion of P*tterfic. And it rocked everyone back on their heels when the author not only acknowledged that she knew there was a lot of fanwork for her books, but said it was cool, that she liked seeing it, and even encouraged the more anxious fans to not be afraid to share their fics and fanart. Hell, I may be remembering wrong, but I think for a while on one of her personal websites she would even give shout-outs and recs to some fans and their creative works? Someone feel free to fact-check me on that one.

But the point is, that was huge, ESPECIALLY when you consider how the books exploded with fame and she was thrust into a giant spotlight. I don't think it was solely her doing that caused creators to become more engaged with fan content, and we all need to grow the hell up and admit [that for all her flaws] Stephenie Meyer did make herself personable to her fans as well, but this was still pretty tremendous and caused a ripple effect.

Also, a lot of us were young when the first book came out, being around the age of the protagonist, roughly. And I think we can all admit without beating ourselves up over it that there were plenty of things we weren't going to recognize as problematic, as classist, racist, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, hypocritical, or even just as bad writing. A lot of the recognition and understanding of those things wouldn't come for a lot of the readers until they got older, and at that point it becomes very hard to admit to yourself that something you found fun, comfort and community in could be so uninclusive and bigoted and hateful when some of the core points of the book preached the opposite so loudly.

Honestly I'd almost equate it to someone on an abusive relationship of any kind struggling to recognize some of the more abusive behaviors. It certainly felt that way to me after the first time I finished reading book 5.

The first major thing I remember that happened to betray the fans was the author declaring anyone who was classified [through online quizzes] or self-identified as a Sl*the*r*n was clearly a bully and an abuser by virtue of belonging to the house associated with ambition. For a lot of us (me included) that was enough to disenchant and make us begin the lengthy process of divorcing from her and the books. Why should ambition be solely classified as ugly and wrong?

The next huge one I know of is a bit of a divisive split and it really shouldn't be. The stage play fanfic cast a black actress as one of the most beloved characters. When many fans complained, the author's initial response was fine, stating the best actress was chosen. When other fans spoke up asking or debating about the character's canon race, the author decided to give herself some clout by stating on Twitter that that character's skin color was never specified or stated. This was considered a huge victory and a great thing by many POC and ally fans, because didn't the author just state that that meant the intention was always for H*rm**n* to be WOC, and that the fans interpreting her as such was right all along?

Except. No. Not really.

WOC H*rm**n* has always been a fan concept and one of my favorites and yes, the author made a statement that amounts to allowing fans to interpret her as such. But the author has ALSO stated multiple times in interviews over the years that H*rm**n* is supposed to represent her as a girl in school, and what her school experience was like. And I (and many others) don't buy for a second that the author's original intent for a self-insert like that, was to see her as anything but a lens for her younger self that other girls who were bright and bullied could relate to. And what is the author? White. She wrote the character from her own experience as a white person. Let’s not fool ourselves: she was giving herself clout publicly because she knew she was falling out of interest, and it was a calculated move to stay relevant. (Funny thing that, coming from the same woman who damns such behavior in anyone associated with Sl*th*r*n.)

And then of course, the major final straw that broke nearly everyone’s back: all of her openly transphobic behavior on Twitter. If you weren’t already disenchanted, that’s what did it. For a woman who loves to virtue-spotlight herself as a feminist, this sort of thing just drives home how exclusionary her “feminism” is.

But even so, it’s still going to be hard for a lot of people to let go. It’s hard, when so much love and self-identity and sense of creativity and community could be wrapped up in something like this. So many people didn’t realize the problematic shit until they got older, and for a lot of people it took more than one instance of the author’s shitty behavior in the open to drive home the issues. I feel like there’s so much of a push or some sort of perceived pressure within fandom and bookish spaces to denounce H*rry P*tt*r, and while I think more people than not want to, it’s not easy to overcome the sense of betrayal.

So many people felt like the author had given them the greatest validation a creator can give...and then it became clear that her validation only extends so far. A door was opened and people felt welcomed, and then it was slammed in their face. It takes time to heal a wound like that. Please just be patient with one another, and with yourselves.

#long post #really long post #sorry for going off #might delete later #Harry Potter #anti rowling #anti JKR #Rowling rant #Rowling discourse #fuck rowling #fandom history #fanthropology #Cyanide speaks

[wexhappyxfew]

i literally choked on my pizza when i saw your writing and analyzing questions post, I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!! first of all, what sort of process do you go through when creating characters? what kind of things do you take into consideration when creating them? i’m fascinated because creating characters is far from easy, especially when you’re creating someone like agent mortem! i’m always interested to know what the writer’s thought process was when creating a new character!

okay, so secondly, i wouldn’t say i’m having trouble with keeping all my planning organised and ‘precise’ in a way, but it’s really not easy 😅 i was wondering what kind of processes you go through when planning, whether you have like a specific structure or a set of steps to follow, or if you just kind of roll with it? at the moment when i plan it’s okay and it makes sense, but it’s literally just 4 or 5 pages of really chunky paragraphs which makes it really difficult to pick out the events again when i come to needing the plan to help me. i don’t really know if you do anything different, but if there is any way you know of that i could keep it more organised and easy to follow, that would be great :)

i’ll keep the last ones a little shorter because this ask is already looking veryyy long — what have you enjoyed writing about natia, what struggles have you faced and what have you learned? and basically the same with agent mortem if that’s possible :) i have asked a LOT of questions in this, so don’t feel like you have to answer them all because it will probably take quite a while 😅 anyway, thank you for putting up with my endless questions, and i hope you have a good day <33

ROSE AH HELLO MY FRIEND!!!! <333 sorry ive just gotten to this omg! it’s been sitting here for a little while but i’ve just had so much going on right now and wanted to make sure when i answered that my *full attention* was put on this! (because i’ve been very excited to answer this ESPECIALLY as i see agent mortem questions poking up on here and that just makes me even more hype!!! :D enjoy! <3

Ooooo this is a cool question! I’ve been asked it before but I feel with different characters and such, it always seems to fluctuate for me at least? In the sense, it’s almost never the same process for me in the developmental stages of a character haha! Sometimes I get characteristics first hand, or sometimes a certain scene pops up that just makes the character click and I can build from there, or sometimes, it’s just a last name or a first name that I work with and suddenly have an idea for!

For example, since we’re on the general topic of Landslide, I’ll talk about some things I did when creating specifically Natia. The “Natia” who is currently portrayed in the fic, was not always really like that. Natia initially was not a SOE Agent/Polish Resistance Fighter and instead a Dutch Resistance Member who would meet with Easy in Episode 4. I always sort of knew Natia, in whatever form she was, would meet Easy in Episode 4, but I wasn’t sure how, so the building in the first 17 chapters was the toughest part to come.

I did heavily feel the Polish were underrepresented in terms of the situation of the war along with everything that happened in the Warsaw Uprising and so I felt it was important to see if I could do something with that and that’s really where Natia came into play!

Natia means “hope” essentially and something I really like doing with her character is to parallel or juxtapose different ideas together, to continue on this sort of theme of her being a quite ominous and ambiguous character — you get the general sense of what her morals are, but in certain points it’s questionable. Morally-ambiguous characters have always been fascinating to me, especially female morally-ambiguous characters and so creating Natia in that respect I felt would be interesting to see what I could do!

Something major that I’ve slowly began to take into consideration with characters more and more, is the sort of general theme I want to be present with them — what’s that goal i that they are moving towards in the end and what’s the them surrounding it? For Natia it’s a multitude of things; family, revenge, being silenced, numb, grief, mentor vs protégé, lone wolf etc….the list could truly go on! And with these basic sort of ideas and themes, I can then move on from there and expand.

Why did she want REVENGE? Because the enemy killed her FAMILY, which is extremely important to her, and she wants to feel some sort of REDEMPTION for them.

Why was she BEING SILENCED? Because of the *past* conflict of the HARMFUL MENTOR VS SILENCED PROTÉGÉ situation that occurred between Agent Mortem and herself, where she allowed herself to be silenced by someone who abused the SUDDEN POWER he never had before in his life, ultimately leading to her continued issues of TRUST that she would meet throughout.

Why is she NUMB? Because at a fairly young age she experienced heavy and intense GRIEF that struck unforgivably at a time where it seemed things were safe. To rip something from a character, especially the main character, like FAMILY which is extremely important, you pull at the heart strings and it makes that character move forward on a quest for that in a way, ultimately by the end of the fic. (Basically you up they are least get a semblance of that lost thing, found again by the end)

Why is she a LONE WOLF? Because of the MENTOR VS PROTÉGÉ situation yet again, where she was taught to rely strictly on herself and no one else and so when TRUST and COMPANIONSHIP and TEAMWORK were introduced to her character, she didn’t know how to cope because she had been so desensitized to the ways of Agent Mortem that working back in the morals of family and friends was a challenge in its own respect.

It’s sort of a like a ripple effect if you think about it and that’s what helps me eventually move forward and develop the character arc I want to take place. She’s this way because of this — sort of like cause and effect. It’s really helped me out with major scenes or plot holes that have risen throughout the fic!

AGREED! Writing in general is not an easy feat and now including mind you ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, you’re literally, essentially, creating human beings from scratch and giving them characteristics, a backstory, trauma if you wish, friends and family, people they love, people they hate, morals, standards EVERYTHING! ITS INSANE! AH AND AGENT MORTEM! I’m so very glad that you brought him up, because his creation definitely stemmed directly from the want to experiment with the relationship of failed mentor vs protégé, entirely. I wanted a foil to Natia that was not directly with her all the time. Mortem plays such a MASSIVE role in her story and yet any interactions between the two are either from her mind or from memories and that’s just such a fun way to play around with their dynamic! (I just finished the creation of his backstory and character arc I want him to take and it’s only made me even more excited for what’s to ultimately come for him as well as Natia!)

A song that HEAVILY represents their dynamic is Ghost by Marvin Brooks (2WEI) and I’ll explain why. Even though Mortem is not always inherently *with* Natia, he still is a huge factor of her life, and still heavily controlling many aspects of her life such as recurring memories, reactions, and how she is also conditioned to react to certain things as well. He is essentially a “ghost” who is “haunting” Natia and I feel that’s an interesting take on their connection because they’re two people who clearly had a power struggle and a difference of opinions of multiple things and that just makes it so incredibly interesting to write!

song:

OOOOOO good question!!! So many people have such different ways of approaching story writing and planning and drafting and writing and editing and it’s honestly amazing!! I will say, I’m not an excessive planner or even a real great planner with writing, I never really have, and even as I’ve developed my writing and learned that “it’s okay to slow down”, or “it’s okay to take time for different portions to provide a deeper focus”, I still have not been someone to plan out every bit of my writing.

Reason being is I enjoy seeing where I can take the story in that time and place. Maybe if I’m doing a quick little writing segment and suddenly this idea just appears and hits me, I work it into the fic and it takes it a whole new direction and I end up not being super upset about it because it just…it works! And of course, this is not how other people operate and I have every respect for people who plan and have every detail laid out and figured out and just….completely and utterly planned to the dot. Lile kudos to people who genuinely get the planning all cleaned up before even writing, truly.

I just finalized Agent Mortem’s backstory and where I want his character arc to go and I’ve had him as a character since August of last year LOL! But ya know sometimes, I sit and I think back and go, maybe I wasn’t ready at that time to develop him completely yet because I, the writer, didn’t understand him enough to and I had to write more of him to be able to get a grasp of who he was and his character (and just about everything else!) and that’s okay!!! :)

Going with this idea I just stated above — the 4 or 5 pages of info — KEEP IT MY FRIEND!!! I swear, half the reason ideas even come to me is simply because I just write a big info dump that has all my little ideas somewhere inside and will ALWAYS be there. I recommend maybe taking a day though - away from focusing on writing or editing - and just picking that apart. (That’s what I did the other day and it helped me out MAJORLY! and it was worth it in the end!) Maybe keep the original 4-5 pages and then copy and paste the same thing in another doc so you always have the original!

And then just go through and split ideas apart! If you start reading and see it moving into another realm of headspace of ideas, just press enter and separate the two — you didn’t delete it, it’s still there and still intact! It’s just easier to look at now because instead of two, jumbled and completely different ideas, you now have two paragraphs and portions of text that relate to their own respective idea. It definitely makes it an easier pill to swallow when trying to get yourself organized!!

This really helped me when I was in my beginning stages of figuring out Landslide ESPECIALLY the first 17ish chapter where Natia was not in contact with Easy yet. I’ve explained it before but those chapters are there because we are seeing her final days with the resistance in Warsaw and how she ultimately ends up with Easy PLUS we see who she is as a character by herself and how she is not merely an extension off of Easy, but her own character, her own person. She has her own story and her own morals and ways of going about her life that don’t even relate to Easy. Their paths just happened to cross!! :)

By getting those first 17ish chapters planned, not extreme planning though I will admit, half the scenes were very much thought up on the spot for example like Natia driving to Munich in disguise or the introduction of Zdzich — two very important scenes that show us something about Natia. (1) She’s willing to go to extreme lengths for the people she loves to ensure that in the end they are safe, even if it means sacrificing herself and (2) she has trouble realizing that there are people out there that genuinely care for her, a connection to her ultimate, unruly and upsetting past. And the best part about it is THESE WEREN’T EVEN PLANNED! So sometimes, just let the story take the reigns and your mind and just guide you through it. Sometimes it is for the best :)

If you have your basic ideas and concepts and themes for how you want your fic to eventually go, the scenes for me most of the time just appear I guess when they should. Sometimes even in the times I'm not writing, I sit theorizing and questioning and thinking and developing ideas in my mind and it's a real good exercise, so when you get back to writing, you already know where you want the fic leading in the end!

MAN I LOVE THIS QUESTION. Anytime I can provide some meta or give some insight to Natia who is just one of the best characters I’ve gotten the pleasure of working with, I’ll gladly answer!

The thing I enjoy writing about Natia the most I feel, and I’ll probably always say this, is her complexity — as a writer, her character orders a healthy challenge for me that I gladly have accepted! You don’t know everything about her as a reader and as you read each chapter, that’s how you slowly uncover and discover what she hid about herself to protect herself. There’s so many different aspects of her that I could discuss truly!! (There has been so many parts that I’ve scrapped because I read through and just think “Man this doesn’t seem like Natia!”. She’s tricky sometimes to stake down exactly how she would react because of her past and her trauma and how long she’s been in war, but I just LOVE it!)

Many different aspects of her character though, come from her past and that’s what makes her interesting. I’ve really enjoyed working with the ideology of “Chekov’s Gun”, a writing device that can be used, with how I will mentioned something and it almost might seem out of the blue, yet later it all just makes sense?! When the flashback is revealed or a small portion of her past is finally allowing *light* in. It's a device I've used with Natia that has just really helped to develop her story at the pace I want it to be revealed! :D

For example, the OCEAN is mentioned many times. I make constant reference to the WAVES, the RECESSION of them from time to time, the comparison of the OCEAN both ABOVE and BELOW surface — all of that sorta stuff! For her character, it seems a bit out of place. She’s COLD. She’s NUMB. She’s BROKEN. What does an open body of water consuming at least 70% of the Earth have to do with an OC based in Warsaw, Poland?

This is where the importance of her PAST will play it’s role, as it has a major INFLUENCE on her and her CHARACTER and her MORALS. One of the main reasons the OCEAN is inherently connected to Natia is because of her PAST and one of those main reasons is AGENT MORTEM and her TRAINING, especially WATER training. I can’t comment further on this though as readers have only touched the tip of the iceberg for the use of the OCEAN and it’s IMPORTANCE so far in this fic! (Ask me again about it once this fic is finished up for the most part, unless….by Part 4 readers understand why!)

Natia just remains a character who constantly is developing and changing inside my head - where I want her path to ultimately end up leading by the end of the fic, where I want both her mental head space vs emotional head space should be and etc. So many portions of this fic are dealt specifically on her internal monologue and how she calculates and problem solves from that portion of her sort of *engagement* within the conflict. There never seems to be a dull moment when writing her!

Another thing I really have enjoyed about writing Natia is her clashing personality traits that make her interesting to write in both different scenarios and reactions. She's stubborn yet humble. She's numb and cold but internally extremely caring and giving and filled with these bottled up emotions. She's mentally strong yet she's been through so much and let the war take so much. She never complains about what she's doing, but she's lost nearly everyone she loves. She's a fighter in this war and refuses to back down from a battle she know she can wage, but the second she is pulled from the aspect of war, things crash and burn around her. Just even these few combating sort of things, really show her character and what, through writing, has slowly developed! They always lay around in the back of my mind and it's one of the main things I remind myself when I write Natia all the tme.

I think one of the most important things I've learned from both writing and creating a character like Natia is that (1) it's okay to ask for help, about anything, literally anything. You don't have to confine everything to yourself and build up this immense pressure to do what you must to continue moving forward. It's okay to have people there to help you and support you. (2) It's okay to be strong alone and even if you seem to be the only one on the current path you're are on, it does not mean you are wrong. it can still lead to the right destination in the end!

Oooo okay! AGENT MORTEM!! I am totally down to chat about some things I've loved to write with him with and some challenges I've discovered, but as far as what I've learned from him, I will be holding off and could answer that when the entire fic is both completed and then updated on platforms....just because ;) don't want to give away any spoilers haha! <3

Something I've enjoyed about writing and crafting Agent Mortem is letting him remain as mysterious and secretive as he is for so long. Initially, I can't even begin to recall what his character would be like even a year ago, but seeing where he has developed now, I'm really happy with where he is. He's mysterious, he's shadowed, he seems like a figure in the background, a past mentor who is half deranged and lost his mind with a background with so substance. It makes for such a fascinating way to begin to reveal his past! (something I've began to insert into part 4 of Landslide and man I'm just so HYPE!)

I feel I'm excited simply because he's finally getting the time and moment he deserves to finally explain and show himself as to what has occurred. There's so many fractured and disconnected parts of what is currently going on with Natia and her connection to both Agent Mortem and then Death is tossed in the mix and it seems this big complicated mess of 'how' Agent Mortem got to be this way, 'why' he does a thing such as this, just different and varying aspects such as that. it makes for those big final reveals to all be even more worth it!

He has been quite the challenge though I will admit. There's so many perspectives he could quite possibly be viewed from and his *character* + morals/values could be pulled in a various amount of ways as well. Making sure he accurately comes across the way I want him to both appear and come across to the reader and to myself has definitely been tricky. He's not as easy as suspected, you know, not just a 'dude who had a bad day and went insane in the end', there's a whole multitude of levels and reasons and a deep, heavy and traumatizing background starting from his birth really (which is a whole other story). Managing and balancing that all in one has definitely been something I've had to keep on top of and monitor but I feel has really been worth the challenge in the end. Because at the end of the day, I'm someone looking to constantly challenge myself.

And a good challenge, whether it be writing or academics or a workout, is healthy and GOOD! That's what Landslide in a whole has really shown me, to challenge yourself daily to see where you can push yourself and your imagination and creativity, just to see where you can even go!! it's exciting and refreshing!

Thank you so much for this wonderful ask Rose! I appreciate it more than ANYTHING as you well know, and I know it's taken me *quite* some time to answer, but I've been working on it for weeks now and finally got it out because it was ready! I really wanted to take my time with it and develop it to its full potential in the end and I feel I have (without giving away any spoilers haha!) As always, please know if you have any further questions regarding Natia Filipska, Agent Mortem, Death (along with other characters of Landslide), writing, the process (my own included), tips for writing/planning, or just anything else in general, I will always be happy to help in anyway I can! You're always welcome, anyone always is!!! <3333 Thank you again, I had so much fun doing this more than anything! :D

#writing #writing tips #band of brothers #bob fic #band of brothers fic #also hello landslide day tmr and it’s a good one hehe :d #natia filipska #agent mortem #death (character) #basic aid on characters + writing/planning #plus gathering thoughts #thank you again for this rose! i had so much fun! <3333

[skeptomai-krino]

what does justice look like?

(TW for terrorism, gun violence against children, death, brief discussion of christianity, discussion of prisons and prison statistics, including a brief mention of an opiate use rate. this is a heavy one y’all, highly encourage you to read + reblog if you can.)

bolds have been added for readability

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On July 22, a young man in a police uniform took a boat to Utøya, a small island about 38 kilometers away from Oslo’s city centre. He claimed he was there to give a speech about security to the Youth Camp that was taking place there at the time.

He was allowed onto the island with minimal questioning. After all, everything seemed to be in order. His ID looked fine at a first glance, and perhaps most importantly, he moved with the confidence of someone who had done this a million times before. Someone who knew exactly what they were doing. Someone who felt no guilt, or fear, or even excitement.

Why would he? This was just routine.

Wasn’t it?

What happened that day has gone down in Norwegian history. Everyone knows about it. Everyone feels the ripples. The man in the police uniform has become a household name, and almost everyone in Oslo knows someone who was there that fateful day. It’s almost impossible to talk about Norwegian crime and justice without at least mentioning him.

Anders Behring Breivik shot 69 children on Utøya that day, most between the ages of 14 to 20.

It was his second terror attack of the day.

The first was a car bomb, set off in Oslo’s governmental sector, that killed eight people and injured over 109. 

All in all, 77 people were murdered on 22 July.

What sentence would you say such a man deserves? A man who could do such terrible things, and show no remorse? A self-declared anti-immigration fascist, who calls himself a murderer like it’s a badge of pride?

What he got was 21 years, the longest preventative detention sentence in Norway, though it can be extended in five year segments if it is determined that someone is still a threat to society, as Breivik does seem to be, in a prison system that is known among foreigners, especially US Americans, for being, well, cushy.

Prisoners in newer prisons are given ample living space, a flat-screen television, and access to things that are generally found in a normal apartment. Yes, this includes metal cutlery.

According to a statement by the office of the attorney general, Breivik in particular had three rooms in his cells, one for living, one for studying, and one for working out. He also had a television, a gaming console, a computer (without internet access), and was able to make his own food and prepare his own laundry. 

Norwegian prisons are designed to stimulate external life as best as is possible, in order to help facilitate recovery and reintegration, since most prisoners are returned to life outside at some point. And even when they aren’t, there’s no need for inhumane torture.

Let’s take Halden Prison as an example.

Halden is a maximum security prison that was established in 2010, and has a capacity of 252. It has been often called the world’s most humane prison and is Norway’s second largest prison. 

Even its very design is pioneering; greenery surrounds the prison, with ample trees and shrubbery strategically placed to conceal the fence surrounding the prison. It is built campus style, to encourage prisoners to walk around and interact with each other and their environment. Areas look unique, and the prison is built from materials like wood, glass, and cork, in order to reduce echo and allow light. 

Additionally, guard rooms are intentionally designed too small, which encourages guards to step outside and mingle with the prisoners. That may not seem impressive, but a US study from the late 90s found that prisons with direct contact and direct observation between staff and prisoners reduces the rates of violent outbreaks by 246 percent- 36 to 13. 

The entire design of the prison stimulates normalcy and reduces stress, which as you can imagine is relatively important.

While Halden prison itself is relatively new, and most prisons even in Norway do not reach its standards, the ideology and concern for human life that went into it is present in all aspects of the Norwegian justice system, and Norwegian culture as a whole.

The Norwegian Correctional Service, or kriminalomsorgen (which literally translates to something like ‘crime care’ or ‘prison care’) in Norwegian, is based around the concept of turning criminals into good neighbors. It’s an impressive system, and officers say the most important thing in rehabilitative justice is that taking away freedom and autonomy is enough.

Bad people are still people, and just as good people become bad, bad people can change and become good. To use an over-simplified moral standard.

Initially though, the ‘justice’ system was not at all like what we see today. It was very religious and solitary, even to the extent of priests acting as social workers and prisoners being tested on their bible knowledge before release and after initially being confined. Where religion didn’t work, which was pretty much everywhere, prisoners were overmedicated in an attempt to change and control their behaviour.

As one can imagine, this did not go wonderfully. 

To take one statistic, you may have heard of recidivism rates before. They’re the frequency that a criminal will return to prison after being released, though some areas count by reconviction and others by reinprisonment, which can make things a little complicated.

Recidivism in Norway while the penal model was in effect went up to 91%. 91% of prisoners were reimprisoned within two years of their release. This is astronomical.

To put that in perspective, the United States, which is often internationally mocked for its terrible justice system and high recidivism, has a rate of up to 55%. Norway now has it at 20%.

So what changed?

What changed was civil outcry, mostly. The Norwegian Association for Criminal Reform, or KROM, was formed in 1968 to deal with these issues, as well as to abolish  forced labour camps and juvenile delinquency centres- which they were successful at.

Due to concentrated efforts from almost every Norwegian, the effect on the population has been massive.

Not only has the recidivism rate fallen to 20%, the lowest in the world, other statistics have followed suit. The opiate usage rate is at 0.4% (take that Reagan), a murder rate of 0.6, and a prison population of 0.642 out of every 1,000 people.

Comparing this to the US, with school shootings essentially a normal part of life and a murder rate of 5, it seems pretty obvious that rehabilitative justice works. At worst it works better than punitive justice.

While foreigners may joke about traveling to Norway to steal a banana in order to get themselves a nice place to stay, that’s more a problem with the countries they come from, and Norwegians overwhelmingly would rather not end up jailed anywhere. Partly because they also have welfare programs that prevent people needing basic things like food, shelter, and healthcare, and because the people who built the system were right.

Loss of freedom, loss of autonomy, it’s enough. That’s enough of a punishment.

Remember Breivik? He filled a suit claiming that he was being mistreated in prison, and that it was abusive and was making his condition worse. And the court agreed with him. 

They agreed that imprisonment can make problems worse if it’s not given care. Isolation and solitary confinement are especially dangerous. No matter who a person is or what they’ve done, punishment doesn’t help. It doesn’t bring change, and it will never bring back what they took from the world.

No amount of torture and punishment, as deserved as it would be, will ever bring those 77 people home to their families. 

But maybe some kindness can prevent more from being lost.

Norway undeniably has advantages. It’s incredibly small and rather homogenous. But there is more than enough evidence to indicate that a rehabilitative system works, and works a lot better than a punitive one. It’s cheaper too, since while they have to spend more per prisoner, the reduction in prisoners more than makes up for it. Why hasn’t the US followed suit? And why don’t we do that now?

#speech and debate #norway #utøya #terrorism #prison #death penality #penal reform #justice #justice system #oo #original oratory #norwegian #crime #crime and justive #Skeptic writes #anders behring breivik #anders breivik #shootings #statistics #us #america #design #architecture #prisons #jail #rehab #rehabilitation #rehabilitative justice #punitive justice #fairness