#the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Five (Chapters 22-44): The Mandatory Exploitive Tournament Arc

Been awhile, huh? Let's see if I can still pull this off. I'm warning you, this is probably going to have a bit of heft to it.

We start off people trying (and failing) to investigate Shigarki and the Villains and, first off, a couple of things. The whole, 'Quirk Registry' shit? Very X-Men. I'm... kinda mixed feelings on it. It makes sense for a government to try and keep track of this kind of shit, but at the same time it feels like a whole lot, you know? That said... the way the guy in the suit phrased it makes it seem like they only searched for 'Shigaraki/Disintegration' and 'Kurogiri/OP warping' pairings, which seems... dumb. Like, really dumb.

Are they.... are they not going to search for anyone with a similar Quirk? Because it sounds like there are other people with similar Quirks, so... what about them? Oh, this pale haired guy who mutters a lot about how horrible heroes are isn't named Shigaraki, so clearly this isn't the guy? Do some ground work or something, man, bloody hell.

*spits out drink*

Even All-Might thinks Shigaraki is a man-child, lol. Brutal. That said... Vlad goes, 'You mean he's just like a kid with a 'power' or something?!'

And I. My dude. You're just some guy with a power. It feels like some depersonalization of the 'villains' because, yeah, everyone in this story is, in fact, just some rando human, 99.9% of the time with super powers. I don't know, it just feels like that's this really concerning perspective for someone in authority to have.

'I keep forgetting this is an actual school!'

That. That's... actually really concerning? Everyone, literally everyone, from Aizawa, to the students, to the actual author, can't seem to figure out if UA is some military academy meant to pump out child soldiers, or an actual high school meant to prepare children to go into society. And not to belabor the point here, one I've talking about on and off again for awhile, but that's fucked up.

I can't help but get the impression that UA (and presumably every other hero academy) is some military complex, setting up the students to live a life where the only way they know how to live is through violence and trying to be famous, but it's just... pretending to have standards, pretending to care for the kids as anything more than the next generation of... idol-police, or something. The way every school related thing is so out of place, the way their grades are so unimportant... it's very telling.

And like. It's not a bad thing, per say. Morally bad, sure, but from a story telling perspective? For a story like this, the way the heroic's school is morally dubious is actually a really good plot point to work off of. But... that's the problem. It never happens.

If the setting was fucked up enough, it'd be understandable if it wasn't explored, but it's not. I feel like there's some fertile ground to talk about... how heroes don't know how to handle living normal lives. How to cook, clean, do taxes, hIstory (which is, of course, very loaded sort of topic in a more dystopian kind of a set up) and so on. There's no way they have the time and energy to do all the thing a normal kid should do at their age, and as they grow up, and get these dangerous, fucked up jobs? There has to be consequences to that.

And the next line later, they bring up, you know, a bunch of terrorists just attacked the school. Which is, in fact, a serious fucking concern! What does Aizawa say?

'No no, we're only doing because we're so sure we have this shit locked down.'

Spoiler alert: They did not, in fact, have this shit locked down. In the least.

My god, this is so fucked up. It's pretty clear that the fact this is still happening is because UA, and heroics as a whole, honestly, is doing a show of force to try and make all the bad things go away. In all honesty, they're putting these kids lives at risk; the only reason nothing went wrong isn't because 'the school had all its ducks in a row when it comes to crisis control' or what the fuck ever, but because AFO didn't want to do anything. And you know why he doesn't interfere?

Because it's so damn useful for him that they flat out broadcast the details of the students and what their Quirks are!

And don't even get me started on this 'Olympics have fallen out of favor' bullshit. It's a world wide event, and it doesn't matter if the population has... shrunk (? That's what my translation says, anyways. Is this honestly saying that so many people died that the Olympics no longer holds any attraction? I mean.. what? What the fuck? What happened???? Why in the hell is this getting brushed over?! Or is that just a bad translation, and if so what is he saying is the reason the Olympics no longer have any appeal?) or whatever, because that's just... bullshit. That's just bullshit. If super powers happen, and they get at all stabilized and regulated like they are in here, all that's going to happen is that the powers are going to be part of the Olympics, and a lower population count really isn't going to change the fundamental reasons why it's popular in the first place.

Speedster racing, various forms of competitive flying (racing (in all its variations), acrobatics, mid-air dancing, synchronized flying.... flight along has dozens of potential new Olympics sports, easy), something like shot-put hurling but with some kind of projectiles, fire, lasers, whatever? Oh yeah, the Olympics are going to be just fine.

So please, Hori, spare me your obsessive need to make heroics the most important thing EVAH all of the time.

But, wait, there's more! It's not just, the new super Olympics, oh no, this is for their careers. In high school. This is, apparenlty, a make or break moment for the rest of their lives (again, with however that undefined heroics ranking and what not works). How old are they? What, fifteen? 'Here, go do bloodsports, and if you fuck up, you're going to be a menial, loser fry-cook of a wannabe police officer, dressed in brightly colored spandex for the rest of your life, barely making any money, and never getting any real respect or validation for putting your life at risk'.

Oh, I have opinions on the Sports Festival, believe me, I have a lot of opinions, but I'd like to save at least some of these more for when the actual Sports Festival starts, and not, like, five pages into the first chapter out of what, twenty two? We've got the time.

Uraraka! You're an actual character! My, this is nostalgic. I always loved the contrast between her hyper cute-zied design of her and the fact she's down to beat the living shit out of someone at the drop of a hat, and it's nice to have that again.

(Also, she's showing more ability to inspire the class here than Bakugou has shown literally the entire series, no matter how much Hori goes on about his 'charisma' or whatever.)

And then we get into her "impure" motivations to be a hero, (which I've also talked about on occasion), and it's very humanizing, both for Uraraka as a character, and the industry as a whole. It's one of those great set ups Hori ended up dropping on world building, which sucks because it'd be so interesting if he got into the nuts and bolts of the world a bit. I'm not saying we need to see the tax code or anything, but for a series that's about corruption and what not, some more detail would really help pull all of this together.

Ah, Dumb Might. I didn't miss you, except I kind of did because Dumb Might is still better than Useless-Side-Character Might.

Also, can I talk about how stupid it is that Dumb Might is burning his less than an hour's worth of time 'teaching' students again? Because holy fuck that's such a waste it's honestly criminal.

And what the hell is this switch in motivations, here? All Might never mentioned, you know, replacing him is the Symbol of Peace before now. Before this point, the whole reason he chose Izuku is that he'd be worthy user of his power, not, what, replacing him. If Izuku never gained any real fame, but still managed to save a lot of people? Before-this-point All Might would have been fine with that. More than that, he would have been proud of it, proud his successor was humble and chose to focus on doing good rather than fame. Hell, not too long ago it was pointing out by All Might that Izuku wouldn't want to use All Might's fame to benefit himself, to go slow and steady and earn his success rather than relying on fame.

Where the fuck did this come from? What the fuck kind of pressure is he trying to put on this kid?

And then right after that, we see flashes of who All Might used to be with the whole 'don't forget how you felt at the seaside park, that day', bit. Because, like, that's good. That's great! It's real, and deep, and gritty, and I'd love it if it wasn't being use with this set up, because those expectations work in other shonens, but they don't work here. Izuku can't do what All Might did, because he can't stop damn hurting himself. Going Plus Ultra, here, now, for this? It could cause real, serious harm to him for the rest of his life! And for what? To make a good impression?

And if something would call him on that, it could still work, because All Might is canonly shit at taking care of himself, that could, like, close the circle for all of this, bring it together with the two them as shit at at self care as a place to build them improving off of, but for whatever reason, Hori never went all the way on that because he was too damn afraid to commit to it, commit to a story, commit to a theme, commit to a moral.

...Holy shit, how many pages is this? We haven't even gotten to actual Sports Festival yet in the post about the damn Sports Festival.

And now we have this creepy, kind of morbid mob of people filling the hallway to stare at Class 1-A for.... being attacked by terrorists.

*what the fuck.jpeg*

What is wrong with you people?! What the actual hell is wrong with you???

And then Shinso rolls up:

"Wow. Look at these arrogant assholes, so excited about not getting killed. I'm going to declare war on them, because they deserve it for getting all high and mighty."

...

You know, I completely forgot about the epic story of, 'Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex'. I'm sad that I remember that now.

Bakugou: "People's opinions don't matter once your at the top."

Me: *looks at how much people's opinions matter to getting to the top, and staying there*

Me: ...Uh.

Thank you, Kaminari, for pointing out his edgy bullshit is, in fact, actually bullshit, and is only going to make his life more difficult for no reason. I like you as an actual person who does things other than cheerlead for Bakugou.

Izuku. Izuku no, Izuku...! Damn it. Bad Izuku. Bad! Stop getting inspired by the festering waste spewing out of Bakugou's mouth!

Cue all of two panels of the media being absolute assholes only out to make ratings with no redeeming features.

And... here's the actual Sports Festival, god knows how long into this post later!

(if you believe the text editor I just posted all of this into? Well into four pages. ...Even with my generous use of spacing, I think I have a problem.)

..Wait. Wait. Where the hell is this happening?

*does five seconds of research on the wiki*

I'm right. They have a stadium for this. Like, a giant ass sports stadium that exists for this. Only for this. That is used once a year.

At this point, I'm honestly wondering why UA isn't just it's own city. Like, Izuku should have moved here, along with the rest of the students, and all the families and various staff needed to run this just.... live on site. It's not like it'd cost them anything, since they apparently have spare cities sitting around for the kids to trash.

That's... that's actually a really interesting idea? Because it'd be a hero run city, then, which feels like it'd work well into the over commercialized, corrupted state heroics is supposed to be like, their overwhelming level of influence. I don't think that's what Hori was going for, to be clear, I think he has no idea just how much space he's causally put on UA's campus and didn't think through the implications... at all.

Ooh, and here comes Todoroki's characterization.

And... here comes the bloodsport, because that's what all of this is: bloodsport. They're throwing a bunch of teenagers onto this stage, broadcast them to the entire country, and have them fight against each other for fame. This society is so fucked up.

Random Gen Ed kid: Yeah, he placed first in the Heroics Entance Exam.

...Yeah. As fucking stupid as it is that Bakugou somehow placed first, it does make sense the person who place first in the Heroics Entrance Exam would be class representative in a school for heroics. Damn, you're salty, kid, but you're also kinda dumb, not going to lie.

Bakugou: *opens his mouth on live TV*

Bakugou: *vomits diarrhea for the entire country to see*

Izuku: ...Wow, Bakugou's so cool! He's grown up and mature now!

...Izuku. Izuku, buddy, please, stop doing this to yourself.

As yet another thing I've mentioned before, a lot of our views on Bakugou comes from Izuku. Izuku who has, from chapter one, all but worshipped Bakugou. Even when he does things wrong, even when he's actively fighting against him, Izuku can't stop himself from going on and on about how great Bakugou is, how cool and tough and determined he is. Izuku's hero worship of his abuser is sheltering Bakugou's actions from the readers, papering over all of his worst traits with a a transparent facade that he's this glorious figure. It's the narrative going the extra mile to cover his arrogant ass, to make him seem like a rival instead of an bully, someone worthy of respect rather than contempt.

Hmm. I don't want to go too much into the nuts and bolts of the event, I think, since I've done that before, so let's try something else: How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child? Where I, you guessed it, count how many times a teenager could have been killed, on national television, in this event.

Count one: The start of the race itself, where... *counts how many kids are in 1-A, multiplies by eleven*... two hundred and twenty kids run forward at the same time, trying to force themselves through the same opening. This shit is why it's illegal to shout fire in a theater, because a stampede like this could get someone trampled to death, or maybe crushed by the sheer weight of the crowd (which is something that happens, someone getting killed by the a crowd of unruly people just... squeezing them on accident).

*stares at Shinso being carried around like a wannabe king instead of using his own damn legs judgingly*

Count Two: Mineta gets bitched slapped by a robotic arm bigger than he is. I don't think I have to get into how that could be fatal.

Count Three: The army of Zero Pointers who could easily step on someone.

*Momo wondering about how UA can fund this makes me feel very validated, BTW*

Count Four: Todoroki dumping the Zero Pointer on the rest of the competition to block the way, again for obvious reasons. He obviously doesn't meant to, but this kid isn't even looking back. This is both lamp shaded and then dismissed because it happens to the only two people who could shrug that off, but holy shit that could have killed so many of them.

...The cameras are robots. The cameras are robots with AIs that are cheering on the other robots. I- I can't- what?!?

And then everyone can't stop themselves from praising Bakugou for the radical idea of going over a problem instead of blasting through it. Wow, Bakugou. Amazing. Such brains, such smarts.

Count Five: The Fall. Because there's no way that anyone could get themselves killed by. You know. Falling. If I was more generous, I'd say something like, 'There's probably something down there to catch them if they fall', but I'm not terribly impressed by UA's ability to actually keep these kids safe, so that doesn't make me think they'd have thought that through that much.

Grudgingly, I'm going to give a landmines a pass, because they're explicitly supposed to be non-lethal, and them blowing up didn't do any real damage. Burns, maybe, possibly a broken limb, probably some scars, but this count is about people dying. Izuku's pile could have been, maybe, but that's a level of deliberate action on his part big enough that I can't really blame UA, per say.

Eraserhead, on how 1-A has improved: I didn't do anything.

...Well. At least he's honest.

One other thing: I've said before how bullshit All Might telling Izuku to 'fight to win' was, and right here, here's the proof: All Might explicitly going, "I was afraid you'd be too nice to try and beat other people in competitions, but you proved me wrong! I'm so proud!". You know, fighting to win. Like he later says Izuku doesn't for some mysterious reason *cough*, to make him seem at the same level as Bakugou, *cough*. Poor, poor All Might, yet another victim of Bakugou's narrative warping favoritism.

And here we see the management kids going all out in how to sell Izuku and his brand, which is so very fucked up, for them and the people they're 'selling'. I'm aware this is something that celebrities go through, (which is fucked up for them as well, don't get me wrong; I'm an equal opportunity 'this is fucked up' call out-er), but these kids are in high school. The fact that they're doing this, and getting this done to them, in such numbers, in such an early age... yeah. There's no way this could give them lots and lots of long term stress and psychological problems, right?

Meanwhile, as we get to the offical rankings, I think it's time go back over the 'How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child?' count... at five. Five times they could have been killed on complete accident.

That is not a good score.

I'm stopping it here because the other events don't have the same problem, but instead of a whole new problem of delibrately pitting them against each other. On live TV. With minimal supervison. Cementoss popping in at the last second in Izuku vs Todoroki, considering how badly Izuku got hurt in the process, does not fill me with a great sense of these fights being well monitored.

*gets an omake chapter*

*Bakugou gets called Izuku's childhood 'friend'. Bitch, please.*

So. Here's a new point: the million point bullshit is... well. Bullshit. It's the snitch in Quiddich all over again, giving the hero something both super import, with an extra layer of difficulty, to drive up the stress and stakes, only kicked up by a million. Making more than the others makes sense, and making it enough to pass by itself is still pretty reasonable, but making it so excessively much has no point other making Izuku feel isolated from his peers and hunted by his classmates.

Also, Mt Lady going on about how 'great' an exercise the second round is is missing the point that this is literally a thing Japanese kids do in school. Literally, this is a game they're playing with Quirks, not some tactical exercise; it's like saying that playing hide and seek makes you great at hunting people down or something. Again, Hori, dial back your constant need to tell us how great the Sports Festival is. Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.

More doses of everything drooling over how great Bakugou is, and how much of a total shit of a human being he is, joy. Mineta and Shouji's teamup is actually pretty damn brilliant, even though it's tainted by how much of a one-dimensional character Mineta is. Iida is getting shown as Izuku's enemy, but honestly it looks more like he's just trying to improve himself more than anything, while acknowledging how competent Izuku is. Not just that he won the first round, or has a lot points but that Izuku, as a person, is the goal he wants to surpass; there's some good shit there, and pretty validating, if Izuku could allow himself to accept it.

Oh Mei! Mei... actually, I have a post I need to do about the Mei and Izuku dynamic at some point, how they're so designed to work together, but yeah she's fun.

And then Uraraka thinks about how strategic Izuku is being and again, I can't help but contrast this with how things happen later on; even if Izuku never lets himself really feel the respect people have for him, people at this point in time really, honestly seem to respect him, not for his Quirk, but for his brain, his determination, his heroism; it's so well setup for Izuku to stand on his own two feet without OFA and it's some really good stuff. It's a shame Hori gets rid of it.

Hmm. Class B. Class B is... interesting. They're set up as rivals but after this it never goes anywhere, and just leaves us with a bad impression of Monoma, without letting him get a good chance to get past it. I don't like him, honestly, his personality grates at me and he needs to get over himself, but he doesn't deserve the hate he gets from the fandom.

That said, though, the Class A vs Class B victory philosphy is honestly just another example of destroying yourself vs having realistic limits, how All Might and Izuku keep destroying themselves vs everyone else not doing that. The fact Class B is actually thinking ahead is smart, but the series doesn't give them that credit because it's not ambitious enough... even though that runs straight into conflicting with Izuku and his issues.

Hori, fucking commit already. In all honesty, it feels like 1-B should have won over Bakugou and knocked him out of the compition; they planned it out, and played him like a sucker, because he's a bullheaded moron. It's all right there, but right as they win... Eraserhead shows up in the booth and says, 'Yes, you've won, but actually no, because Bakugou need to win anyways. So he is. Because REASONS!' Then All Might gets dragged into that same bullshit just to make it really clear that no, Bakugou is right. Planning? Strategy? That's for losers. Real winners just need to want it hard enough, and no one wants things more than Bakugou!

It would have been better, as a story, and for everyone's character development, if that had happened. Bakugou would have lost to some 'nobodies', Izuku would have gone past him without even validating him with a fight, and Class B and Monoma would have gotten a better chance to show themselves as characters; win win win.

And then Endeavour shows up. Fuck Endeavour. Also that is a man who looks like a serial killer. Dumb Might continues to reign and be completely unable to recognize when someone hates him when he monologues about it right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Bakugou is just... there. For some reason. Why? Why does he need to be there for this? It makes his hissy fit later even worse when you realize he knows why Todoroki doesn't use his fire, and it has literally nothing to do with him. Ignoring him, though, Todoroki and Izuku's moment here is some good stuff, a nice setup for a healthy rivalry based on mutual respect, rather than the toxic mess he has with Bakugou.

Ugh. That cheerleader bullshit. Honestly, it says a lot that they can be told that, 'Aizawa says you need to dress up as cheerleaders', and apparently no one questions this, because of course Aizawa would pull some kind of weird bullshit on them with absolutely no warning at what anyone else would think is the worst possible time.

Midnight being really creepy about how she talks to teenagers, of course, and now... Shinso.

'Consent is for losers' Shinso. 'Everyone is coasting on their Quirks except for me, who only knows how to use my Quirk' Shinso. 'Let me use my Quirk on someone before we even get in the arena so I can blatantly cheat' Shinso. 'No one else has dreams or ambitions' Shinso.

I don't like Shinso. I like the idea of Shinso, sure, but that idea is another one of those paper thing veneers Hori likes to put on his characters, without doing the work to make that match the reality; the only hardship we've seen him go through is his apparent inability to work hard. Like, everyone loves Shinso, in story and out, they can't stop themselves from telling him how great his Quirk is. And you know what? It is. It is a great Quirk.

But Shinso talks like he's had a such a hard time with it, even though he seems to love it, love using it, and the way he acts, like he knows he can go through a career as a hero based only on that Quirk. He's wrong, since he's so out of shape he can't even run, apparently, but he's operating off that assumption at this point, which conflicts with his poor little martyr act.

I want you to look at the iceberg Todoroki makes, and compare it to his efforts against Stain. If he did that against him? That fight would have been over the minute he showed up, and Todoroki ambushed him. This is pretty much our last moments of Todoroki, certified badass, before the nerfs roll in. Savor it, Todoroki fans, because he'll never recover from having to lose against Bakugou.

Another omake, which seems like foreshadowing about Hori deals with women characters: bringing up a good characterization, or valid idea (do women heroes need sexiness to do their jobs?), before throwing it away to fall for the same tropes that he was making a stand against just a minute ago (women getting in a cat fight, which apparently gets really explicit, all of this on a TV before Mineta, Hori's avatar of his own horniness).

Then, as if to prove my point, we get Bakugou vs Uraraka where, like Class B before her, she does everything right, gets the win... and then gets it taken away at the last minute by idiotic bullshit pulled out of nowhere (since when could Bakugou make a blast like that? Why does he need those bomb gauntlets if he can do that?) because Bakugou isn't allowed to lose. And then Eraserhead, Hori's mouthpiece, shouts down the crowd, and us, when we think bad thoughts about it because that isn't allowed either; we need to love Bakugou.

Bakugou respects women! ...Just as much as he respects everyone else. That is to say, he doesn't. Hell, he doesn't respect her enough to think Uraraka planned her own fight! He just gets one line for one second that makes it seem like he respects her, but of course once that moments gone it's back to the normal level of complete disrespect. That's totally character growth right there, one second of acting different before returning right back to standard behavior.

So... Izuku vs Todoroki. I like the fight, it's very dramatic, very cool, but... stop to think about it a second, and about a minute in, Izuku's entire ass hand is broken. That is not OK. Why are they letting it go on? It's simultaneously a great fight, but a seemingly awkward implementation of Izuku having a Quirk, because so much of this arc is built off of him not using a Quirk, not having it. This fight only works with it, though. And it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's shallow at the same time because of the Quirk, because Izuku has to go Plus Ultra, has to go past his limits. Instead of accepting a more reasonable win, he has to win, period, and he doesn't have the power for that.

There's this awkward conflict here between the story's various narratives, between Izuku needing to suffer, and struggle, and break himself, and his more grounded planning and actions, and you can see Hori's old, better planned out ideas getting replaced with newer, less thought out ones. It's honestly kind of a theme for this arc in it's own right.

Flaws aside, though, the fight is gripping, and it's a great setup for Todoroki, a great starting point in making him an important character, in giving him growth. Shame Hori ends up throwing all that away literally the next fight.

Well, before that happens, let's talk the one two punch of, 1, Izuku having done himself permanent, life long damage, which nobody thought to stop, and 2, the sheer, unmitigated clusterfuck of Recovery Girl going, 'I'm not going to treat wounds like these'.

So. If Izuku breaks anything... well. She's not going to treat that. I guess he has to walk around with a broken finger/hand/arm, without any medical attention whatsoever? Well. I certainly don't see any problems with that.

Then we get Bakugou, who canonly has problems using his Quirk for extended periods of time, outlasting someone by using his Quirk for extended periods of time, before going on to fight someone who uses cold, his canon weakness, and ignoring how it should completely neutralize his Quirk to overpower it, through what I can only call his sheer, narrative warping concentration of favoritism.

On what happens after he wins... I've seen people say that he doesn't mean to attack Todoroki, just try to wake him up, but looking at that scene: he's holding Todoroki's body up with one hand as if to shake him, sure, but it's the other hand that's the problem. The way he's holding it is, for his Quirk, an offensive pose, making it ready to attack his target. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (against my own opinion) and say it's not proof positive that he was about to attack, but there's no getting around that Bakugou had himself perfectly set up to hit Todoroki, full blast, while he was unconscious. Even if it's the more innocent explanation, that feels like something that should have disqualified him because... that's really concerning. That feels a step away from him threatening victims he thinks should have stood up for themselves or something; it's not heroic, in the slightest. The fact they had to knock him out, presumably for Todoroki's own safety, says enough about how bad that is.

The fact that the ending comment is basiclly lamenting from his perspective, that this 'isn't what he wanted' is... certainly a choice. He won, but, gasp! The person with long held issues in using his full power that long predate him didn't use his full power! The poor baby!

Then we get to the award ceremony where they... chain him up? Why!? If the doesn't want the damn award, don't give it to him; they let those guys earlier give up when they felt they didn't deserve it, why is Bakugou different? It feels like it's Hori tying him up here, against Bakugou's own will, and characterization, to give him that win just so he can win, but also to forcefully set up Bakugou's own importance with the League later. It's ham handed. It's probably child abuse. It's stupid.

It's fucked up all the way down, is what I'm saying.

Then All Might shows up, and fucks up his entrance timing because he's not allowed to win anymore, of course, and then forces that medal on Bakugou.

Uuuugh.

Last couple of panels, though, are pretty nice: we build up Uraraka's character, get the next arc set up, set up Izuku (fucking finally) getting away to use his own damn power, and develop Todoroki a bit.

A nice little cherry on top of the shit sundae.

#long post is coming #bnha critical #mha critical #bakugou critical #aizawa critical #UA critical #shinso critical #endeavour critical #i'm very critical if you haven't noticed #fuck the sports festival #hori's chronic hatred of women #izuku's biased narrative #hori's inability to choose a message #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption #the constant and overwhelming destruction of All Might's character #Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex #i wrote this in one night off the hype of feeling half decent and caffeine #The 'Great' MHA Read Along #i have no idea what i'm doing #what the fuck did i just bring upon this cursed land

[bestworstcase]

lying on the floor thinking abt how ironwood embodied and was corrupted by the ugliest characteristics of the god of light; the desire for absolute control, the latent hostility and disdain for human emotion, the absolute inability to see beyond his own designs for the world and his perceived creations—even ironwood’s obsessive single-minded focus on getting penny on a leash no matter the cost echoes the way light responded each time salem defied him—

& like. ozpin is absent throughout v7 but oscar devotes most of his time on screen to prying ironwood away from that path, with negligible success—there’s the beginning of a turn after jacques’ arrest, yes, but by the end of the volume it’s crystal clear that ironwood went for the “tell the truth, protect and rally mantle” plan because it made him feel in control of the situation again and the instant cinder and salem shattered that illusion of control, he recoiled from it and lashed out at the allies he perceived as having tricked him into letting his guard down—and ozpin doesn’t return until oscar’s effort in this regard has finally and irrevocably failed. which keeps sticking in my brain as important, particularly in light of watts in 6.4 saying that ozpin is the only person who stood a chance of getting through to ironwood.

(sidebar i think watts was being overly pessimistic there, about the possibility of ozpin foiling them by talking sense into ironwood. even before ozpin died and ironwood entered his fascism death spiral, ironwood marched into an allied kingdom with his armada in tow without so much as a courtesy warning, chafed openly when ozpin declined to blindly deploy that armada on the basis of hearsay from a fifteen year old kid, politically stabbed ozpin in the back by freezing him out of his own council, and throughout it all moped about ozpin not trusting him enough. like,, lmao)

and then of course there’s the fact that atlas was specifically a project that ironwood and ozpin shared—and atlas itself is and has always been used narratively as a symbol for the hollow promises, failures, and illusory progress of the post-war society ozma designed—and the entire story up to this point was a slow inexorable build towards the fall of atlas.

it just seems like a microcosm of what’s going on with ozma and the god of light and the divine mandate? in that ozma’s loyalty to the gods (or at minimum, the inertia of his original loyalty to them) feels reflected in his choice of ironwood to guard the relic of creation and shepherd the floating city meant to represent the ideals ozma thinks humanity needs to achieve to earn salvation—he picks a champion who resembles the god of light himself!—and then, when the budding tyrant he trusted spins around to shoot him he’s not even present to—like his self-imposed isolation inside oscar’s head renders him powerless to even try to change this situation for the better! ozpin later claims that he was secretly there all along, but the only times he resurfaces are when oscar is in immediate mortal peril so i’m not sure that i buy that, at least not in the sense of ozpin having full conscious awareness of what was happening around oscar throughout v7; but either way, his miserable isolation blinded him to the developing crisis—either literally or willfully—and he roused himself just a little too late to prevent catastrophe. again.

(gestures vaguely at lost fable, at ozma trying so hard to have it both ways with salem, to be with the apostate and manipulate her into serving the gods so he wouldn’t have to choose, for years and years and years until his lies and passivity metastasized and they destroyed each other, gestures vaguely at the v5-6 promising not to lie in one breath and immediately lying again in the next, until his secrets got squeezed out of him by the avatar of knowledge who palpably holds him in disdain and his house of cards imploded in his face; also gestures vaguely at ozma the heroic knight errant who faced down an army alone to save one person, and how thousands of years have whittled him down to a morally bankrupt shell of what he was and how that slow putrefaction of his character has been driven every step of the way by refusal to act in some form or another. waves hands it’s about the paralysis of being caught between his conscience and his god-given task)

anyway

i think a normal amt about the blinding of rapunzel’s prince and the exile in the desert and the restoration of his sight when she finds him there

ANYWAY, with the way things are resolved re: ozpin’s return in v8 and the fall of atlas having set the stage, narratively, for a massive paradigm shift in the immediate future and the kids who didn’t fall being in vacuo now—kingdom of destruction, presumable home of the maiden whose fairytale theme is “dont view the world at a distance, take an active part in it,” and the place where eighty years ago ozma won a war with a magical sword nuke and sculpted the world into what it is now, stagnant rotting husk of his ideals that it is—on top of the structural change in salem’s role in v7-8… i just. i just,,

hhhhhh

#NOT TO MENTION #salem has creation + knowledge in her hands now #the *storytelling* qualities #plus the likelihood that she ordered cinder not to go to amity #BECAUSE she wanted it intact for some reason #e.g. intending to use it herself later #and the strong theme in her arc #of the power storytellers have to shape reality #(in a story SHE IS THE NARRATOR OF!!) #like . . . #if rwby is gonna put a spin on #rapunzel’s anguish healing her lover’s sight #after she finds him wandering lost in the desert #um. now is the time and the set up for it is RIGHT THERE #i feel deranged

[linkspooky]

Scummy Heroes are to Blame

My Hero Academia has always been about this idea. In a literal society of heroes, there are people who do not get saed. Even though the literal job of heroes is to save people, heroes have become not much more than a militant branch of the police force in hero society under the thumb of the hero commission. 

This conflict comes to a head in Dabi, Twice, and Hawks who are all three of them people who weren’t saved by heroes. 

1. A Society Where Heroes Don’t Save People

Most of the heroic characters on their side of the story have a very vague idea of what a hero is, almost like that’s thematic or something. There seems to be two types, heroes who save people, and heroes who defeat villains, with the latter being the more popular one. However, there have been a couple of moments that idealize what a hero should be. 

Both Mirio and Deku say that a hero should always act to save a crying little girl in front of them. 

Twice says that someone who helps their friends can’t possibly be a bad guy. These are simple heroic ideals that we see Hawks a heroic character completely fail to live up to in the coming chapters. 

Twice is hardly acting like a villain in this scenario. He’s acting nothing like the threat to hero society that Hawks imagined him to be with his great ability to create almost an entire army of duplicates with his quirk. He is crying, and begging for help, like a person would. 

Hawks is faced with a person crying because someone they trusted, and wanted to be friends with and treated like a person betrayed them, and used them as a tool to complete their bojective all along. Hawks is faced with not a villain, but a victim. 

Hawks is, slaughtering copies of the true companions that Twice does everything for. Attacking a person who is helpless and crying out in frustration. Coldly deciding to kill someone who says out loud that the only reason they want to fight is for the happiness of their friends. 

In a traidtional sense Twice is the one fighting with Nakama power, and Hawks is the character who the power of Nakama has failed to reach and is instead  cutting those same friends down. Despite the fact that Twice is a terrorist and a murderer, and Hawks is a hero who has wholly dedicated his life to saving others the framing of the situation has been entirely flipped. It’s Hawks who looks like the villain, and Twice who looks like the hero struggling to fight for his friends. 

This is where the nuance of the series kicks in. Hero and villains are not strictly defined roles, they’re only called that because hero society dictates they are. 

One of the first things that Shigaraki says in the series is that heroes using violent suppression in order to defeat villains is just something that creates more violence in the end. Something which All Might pointedly refuses to listen to, accusing Shigaraki of just being a bad person who enjoys violence. Ironically this is something Shigaraki is utterly dehumanized by and accused of over, and over, and over again.

However as we learn more of Shigaraki’s story we learn that Shigaraki was a kid with heroic ambitions, who was failed by society at every level. The reason he’s violent is because he was exposed to violence again and again as a kid, his violent impulses were literally beaten into them. 

The black and white morality of hero society blames victims for falling, and then insists the reason that they fell in the first place was because they were bad people. Hero society again and again intentionally lets people fall and then villainizes them rather than sympathizing with them as victims. 

If you fall its entirely on your own, and also a sign of your character. You have to get back on your feet on your own merits. If you fail to make it back into society than it’s not the fault of society, you’re just a bad person for becoming a victim in the first place. 

Mirio and Deku both believe that you should always help a crying girl in pain like Eri, but at the same time if they had not saved her at that exact moment, if they had let her grow up like Shimura Tenko grew up, to develop violent tendencies, to act like anything other than the perfect crying victim then she would have been left behind the same way Shimura was, the same way Twice is at this exact moment. 

In a society overflowing with heroes, there are people who are ignored and do not get saved. Shimura Tenko as a five year old, wonder if it’s his fault for killing his family that no one came to save him. Already by that time he’s internalized the idea that a bad child like him doesn’t deserve to get saved. 

Twice even says the same as well. In hero society only the good and the virtuous get saved. People like twice who are broken are left behind and forgotten, because it’s more convenient for society to function that way. 

I relate this idea to Albert Camus, the fall. A book that explores the idea of who is guilty for society, and comes to the conclusion that everyone is guilty. 

The Fall operates on the premise that all are guilty. This is indeed a classic argument for Camus, but the narrator of this novel goes so far as to suggest that all men are murderers, even if only by accident or through negligence (like not saving others from death). Since the novel was written in the aftermath of WWII, this is a particularly poignant argument. This sort of "universal guilt" makes any attempt at judgment completely hypocritical. A guilty man condemning another man of guilt is absurd by nature.

Everyone who participates in society creates it actively. I’ll explore this idea with Hawks more in a minute, but related to who is responsible for hero society it’s important to look at the conflict of heroes and villains. The heroes themselves blame the villains for all the ills of hero society. However, it’s important to remember who holds all the power. Sure, there are outliers like Re-Destro who are corporate millionaires with a vast infleunce, but for the most part all of the ruling power in society belongs to the heroes. While the villains are for the most part, homeless people, outlaws, with little resources or influence of society as a whole. Villains are outcasted and blamed for society, despite being you know... outcasts, people outside of society.

Which is why Villains themselves will always be nothing more than a symptom. Even the League of Villains themselves is just a rebellion. They’re not rebelling for the hell of it, they were created in direct response to problems already presence in society, and they demand that society address those problems. The ones who hold the real power over a corrupt system are heroes, villains are always going to be reactionary to that corrupt system. Sure, the answer might not be ‘destroy the entirety of society to make it better’, but the League are also the only people trying to do anything. Only the outsiders and the outcasts seem to be aware that something is wrong in the first place, because they’re the most directly affected by it. 

So, like Camus we are asked to consider who is really responsible for the fall of society? 

2. Twice and Hawks, to be an individual or member of society.

Which is why the way Hawks acts the past two chapters is so unheroic, even in accordance of the very loose ideas of what the story set up as what a hero is. Hawks isn’t trying to save Twice. He’s trying to save himself, his own cosncience, because he thinks it’s wrong to kill a “good person” like Twice. He’s acting to save Twice with no regards of what Twice’s wants and needs are. 

Rather than try to understand and sympathize with Twice, Hawks approaches him using his entire identity as a hero as a wall between them. He acts in the role of a hero, I am going to capture you the villain and put you in jail. Hawks makes this impersonal as possible and sinks into the role of being a hero, while Twice is still acting as Twice the person. 

However, Hawks only cares about saving Twice. Because Twice is the one he dubs as a good person and therefore worthy of being saved. He doesn’t care enough to empathize with the rest of the league, even though Twice cares more about his friends than his life. 

Which is what Twice explicitly calls out. That Hawks is not acting like a hero in this situation. He’s not acting selflessly. He’s not trying to save anyone. He’s only acting in ways that satisfy himself. Hawks is acting to reinforce his incorrect world view, that he has to be the one who makes sacrifices for the sake of a faceless majority, even if that person they’re sacrificing is crying and begging in front of them. 

Twice brings up the idea that Toga despite being a killer out for blood is also a person who was incredibly kind to him in a moment of weakness. Which is something we the reader know, that all of the members of the league of villains, violent as they are are still people, who are capable of both good an bad. Most of the league members didn’t even fall becausethey were bad, but because of abusive circumstances, parental abuse for Toga, Shigaraki,  failure of the social safety net in Twice’s case, victim of societal prejudgice in Spinner’s case. 

What Twice suggests is that all of these people that hero society leaves behind are still capable of good, capable of selflessness. Shigaraki is again and again called one of the most violent characters in the series who only cares about destroying for its own sake, and yet he’s the one who gave Twice a home. 

The league faces this accusation constant times. That the reason they do crime is because they’re bad people, that they don’t think about how other people feel at all, that’s the only explanation for why they would strike out against society. 

And time and time again we’re shown the opposite is the case. Dabi thinks about the heroes he’s killed so much he feels himself slowly going insane. Shigaraki feels such intense remorse for killing his family in what was a total accident, that not only does he take all the blame on himself for years, but he also purposefully triggers himself with their dead hands so he’ll never escape from the guilt of killing them. These are all people fully aware of the bad they are committing underneath their actions, but also who believe otherwise that they have no choice but to do these bad things. 

The league of villains has to rebel, because the response of hero society to all of their damage has always been the same thing. Exactly what Hawks does this chapter. 

Shut up and take it. Hawks is telling Twice to lie down and stop fighting against him because 1) he doesn’t want to kill Twice and it would be easier on his conscience, and 2) this is what Hawks has always done. 

Hawks always chooses to sacrifice himself. He always chooses the good of society over what he personally wants. He’ll always choose the worst option for himself if it means he can do better for others. Hawks in the face of Twice’s individualist rebellion can’t really handle it, because Hawks has never fought back against his own shackles of society. 

His plan has always been if he does everything the hero commission tells him to do then... that will somehow help him achieve his society where heroes have more freedom and agency in their lives. I’ve been over Hawks’ backstory a few times, but it makes sense for Hawks to be caught in this negative feedback loop. He’s been conditioned to fight all alone and achieve everything on his own by sacrificing himself his entire life, he’s basically had the ideals of a self sacrificing hero forced onto him. His personality has been intentionally molded to heroics, the same way that Shigaraki was molded to become a villain.

Which is why when Hawks gets someone who genuinely sympathizes with him and treats him like a person, and suggests to hawks something that he has never heard in his entire life, that he can rely on other people, that he can trust other people, that he can let other people help him Hawks genuinely does not get it. 

He chooses to fall back on what his abusers have taught him, rather than to trust Twice’s genuine good will. Which is once again common abuse victim behavior, a lot of abuse victims regress and fall into bad patterns because their abuse is what they know, whereas healthy relationships and boundaries are unknown to them. 

Twice even says so, that Hawks actions are pitaible here. How sad is it that hero or villain, nobody in the world trusts Hawks? He doesn’t have a friend on either side now, and he’s trying to kill the one person who sympathized with him genuinely as a person because Hawks doesn’t know what to do with that sympathy, or escape the cage he’s been trapped in his entire life. 

The difference between Hawks and Twice is that while they have both been wronged by society, Twice fights back with his legitimate grievance against society, whereas Hawks will never fight back. He chooses to let himself suffer if that means that the faceless majority will be spared his suffering. It seems like Hawks is making the sefless choice here, but in choosing not to fight back he’s also repeating the evils of hero society. 

You can see it in his monologue to Twice. The one hero that Hawks idealizes the most, is one of the most abusive members of hero society. An abuser who did to his own children what he hero commission did to Hawks. Hawks holds up to an ideal the most toxic element of hero society, the idea that heroics is just numbers. Hawks runs his hero agency the exact same way Endeavor does, efficiency, above all else, it’s just Hawks cares more about saving people and Endeavor cares more about catching villains and resolving cases. His ideal hero is somebody impersonal like Endeavor, who puts efficiency and speed above all else. Hawks’ goal is to be the most effecitve tool possible.

In Hawks’ choice to side with hero society however, we see him passively repeating the abuse that was done to him. 

Hawks encourages Endeavor of all people to train his interns hard. Because the hero commission is planning to use a bunch of fifteen year olds as their backup in case their main plan fails. Which means Hawks is actively encouraging what was done to him, (being robbed of his childhood and raised as a child soldier solely for the purpose of being a hero) to be done to the UA students as well. He doesn’t really interact well with Bakugo, someone who is also a child prodigy who has been affected all of their lives due to the fact that he had a quirk suited for being a hero. 

By choosing to passively do what he’s told, Hawks ends up perpetuating Hero Society’s ills. Hawks’ offer to Twice isn’t really one that will genuinely save him (ie guaranteeing the safety of him and all of his friends if they stop violently resisting) but rather he offers Twice the chance to conform so he can fit in with society’s ideals. Just like Hawks always takes the choice to conform himself rather than try to be an individual in any way. 

Which is why we finally get to Twice’s accusation. That Hawks isn’t acting heroic. He’s not trying to save the person in front of him that’s crying and begging for help. 

Why does Dabi get the jump on Hawks? It’s because Hawks’ wings aren’t meant to be used as weapons like this. he always trained himself so that his feathers could hear even the faintest cries for help. Suddenly Twice is literally screaming for help in front of him, and Hawks ignores him. He’s no longer acting like a hero, and so therefore his wings that can hear anything are now deaf, just like Hawks is trying to be by repressing everything else but his mission. 

3. Dabi and Hawks 

Once again there’s a point of foiling here. Twice and Hawks are both loners to their respective organizations. Dabi never tells other people what his intentions are and he acts with a begrudging sense of teamwork at best. 

As much as Dabi complains that he doesn’t care about Shigaraki’s backstory, that he doesn’t want to play friends with the rest of the league, he still in the end gives his absolute all in the fight against Deka City, and fights to the point where he’s literally burning himself alive on the inside because the elague asked him to. 

Hawks and Dabi are by nature very two faced people. They are both made up of two individuals, the person they present to the world and everyone around them, and then their real self which they choose to keep hidden. 

They are also total opposites in how they present themselves. Dabi acts like he’s callous and cold on the surface. He pretends to be someone who enjoys killing, when Snatch accuses him of being behind a string of murders he basically laughs it off. 

However, we’re shown in private that he’s the opposite of his public persona. Rather than someone who can laugh off what he’s done, and enjoys being a villain he thinks about what he’s done so much, with so much remorse that he feels himself going crazy. This is the opposite of how Hawks shows himself. In public Hawks is a very likable, carefree guy, who is totally dedicated to saving other people. Whereas when he reveals what is his “true self” in front of Twice, he plays the role of ruthless villain the same way that Dabi does with snatch. He even goes so far as to taunt Twice for trusting him. 

The way they both present themselves is totally reversed, Hawks plays the good guy while deep down he considers himself to be the conniving bad guy. Dabi plays the bad guy while deep down he considers himself to be a very conscience heavy person who knows what he’s doing is wrong but is trying to accomplish some kind of good. 

There’s a reason that Hawks’ entire face is shown in shadow in this cene. Hawks is incredibly repressed. He represses his ruthless side, in order to play not only the hero, but the helpless tool of the hero commission. The reason he’s shown in shadow is because his repressed side is coming out. All of his cold caluclation, the fact that he doesn’t trust a single person, all of these are traits that Hawks himself is unaware of but are nonetheless part of who he is as a person. 

Dabi expresses what Hawks represses. Hawks has all the bad traits under the surface to appear good, Dabi wears all of his bad traits on the surface to appear bad. They really are inversions of one another, and they’re also both fixated around the ideal of heroes. 

There’s a lot of debate over whether Hawks or Dabi gave the narration line “It’s the fault of us scummy heroes” it actually doesn’t matter who said it, the reason it was drawn over both of them is because it applies to both of them. Hawks and Dabi are both people who were failed by, and even manipulated by scummy heroes in their life, Dabi by Endeavor, and Hawks by the Hero Commission. When Hawks even admits that heroes were not what he thought they were, and he feels trapped and used by them to Twice the image that appears in his mind is Endeavor’s back turning away from them. 

Dabi and Hawks have been wronged by heroes, and raised and molded to be heroes as child soldiers and they both keep this idealized image of a way heroes should act in their heart. However, both of them have completely opposite responses, Dabi rebels, and Hawks submits. 

They have opposite reactions to their abuse, Dabi externalizing by trying to change the world around him (persecuting scummy heroes who don’t fit his stadndards) and Hawks internalizes he tries to change the world by changing himself. Dabi punishes others for not reaching the ideal of perfect hero that he holds, whereas Hawks tries to change himself and tries to become the perfect hero that is always selfless, and always chooses to save the most people possible. 

Neither of these are healthy choices, and both of them are destructive. You can’t even argue that Hawks’ choices only harm himself anymore, because we see him literally choosing to murder a person that is crying and begging in front of him, because he’s convinced himself he doesn’t have any choices in this situation. Just because you don’t make a choice for yourself doesn’t mean you’ll never harm someone, in fact your refusal to act on your own will can lead you to do something you don’t want to do and being unable to stop yourself which is clearly the case for Twice and Hawks. 

The one difference between Dabi and Hawks however, is the people surrounding them. Dabi is antisocial, always acts like he’s not a member of the group, and yet the people around Dabi choose to trust him anyway. 

Hawks and Dabi say a lot of things about who they are, but then reveal who they are in their actions. This too, is where they are inverses of each other. Dabi constantly insults his friends, doesn’t act like he’s a part of the group, says he doesn’t trust them, but ultimately when the chips are down Dabi gives his all to fighting with the league of villains. He complains about it the whole time, but he does it. Part of the reason why Dabi ultimately sides with them is because Shigaraki does give Dabi this trust to go off and do his own thing as long as he comes back at the end of the day. 

Dabi could have easily turned out to be someone just like Hawks, not interested in the goals of the League of Villains as a whole, and instead just there to use them for his own benefit. I believe his actions in the latest chapter show that he’s not. Dabi goes out of his way to save Twice, because Twice actually is a comrade to him no matter how much Dabi pretends otherwise. 

Now we don’t know if Dabi ultimately invited Hawks into the league knowing that he would betray them, or what his plans are, but ultimately his actions are the opposite of Hawks. Hawks the hero chooses to kill Twice in this scene. Dabi, the villain chooses to save Twice. Dabi is in a sense fighting for his comrades in this scene, where Hawks is fighting against the idea of camraderie and trust. He even, literally kills the symbols of all of twice’s comrades when he pulls duplicates of them. Hawks and Dabi are very similiar people, but in different environments, Dabi exists in ane environment of trust, Hawks in one where no trust exists, and because of that Dabi is able to make better choices in the moment. 

We see Hawks’ visor shatter in this scene just like it did in the pro hero arc, and it’s important to remember what the signfiicance of that visor shattering means. His visor is basically his mask he wears at all time. The thought he expresses when his visor shatters is what is underneath the mask, that he’s not good enough. 

Hawks decision to always sacrifice comes from his own sense of inferiority. He doesn’t feel like he’s enough to save the people he wants to save. The reason he doesn’t try sincerely to save Twice is because he doesn’t think he can. His self worth is so abysmally low. The reason that Hawks doesn’t try to fight back, to try to be a person, to do what he wants which is clearly not to hurt Twice is because Hawks himself has never been in an environment that sees him as a person. 

Which is why Dabi gets the upper hand on him. Hawks can make plans, he can act as ruthlessly as possible, but you can’t suppress yourself to the extent that Hawks does. Everything that’s suppressed will eventually come out. If suppression worked, Dabi wouldn’t have half of his body burned off, Twice wouldn’t be split in two, and Himiko wouldn’t have gone crazy with blood lust. What Hawks was suppressing was how much he did not want to hurt Twice in that moment. He wasn’t being true to who he really was, and what he wanted, and as Dabi calls him out for sentiment tripped him up.

What Hawks needs to do is ironically, not learn to be a better hero, but learn to be like Dabi. If he would only allow himself to be true to himself then he would have been able to save Twice in that moment. Hawks, Twice, Dabi, all three of them are good people but the current hero society doesn’t allow them to be good. They all have to learn to fight against society to be the individuals they want to be. 

#dabi #hawks #takami keigo #twice #jin bubaigawara #hawks meta #league of villain meta #mha meta #my hero academia meta #lov meta

[infowrites]

Godfather trilogy ( The best ever)

                     The Godfather is a couple of films part1 and part 2 there's also a part 3 most people think that part 3 made rather later is a bit of a failure I think that too I'm not going to say anything about part 3 they're based on a book written I think in 1969 called The Godfather which was a story about an imaginary mafia family in New York and the first film is based on that and the second film develops both forward and backward in time the story of the same family they are not only immensely popular and enduring films which people are happy to watch over and over again but they are rated as among the greatest films ever made by serious film critics and usually ranked between 1st and 4th in any in the serious ranking of   great films of all time the films are very different from earlier gangster films of which there were many from the 1930s onwards previously gangster films had focused onthe violence the anti-social inclinations of the gangsters their brutality and had generally been very calm down a tray of gangsters though of the course at the same time

           They took care to make their lives seem exciting and in some cases to produce riveting performances such as those of James Cagney in white heat Coppola who made the Godfather decided that he was going to make a film which would be sympathetic towards this Mafia family and in fact, that is what is achieved there's a connection here with something that Shakespeare was doing hundreds of years before because he has a series of plays the history plays which are based on late medieval kings of England and these people in reality were probably rather ignorant certainly brutal and unscrupulous people who were constantly seizing the crown from one another and then plotting to take the crown from whoever currently had it Shakespeare turns some of these people into vastly heroic figures and makes out of this history a marvelously artistic structure of the cycle of human psychology probably the highest achievement in Shakespeare's history plays is the Henry plays which are really three plays the two parts of Henry the fourth and then Henry the fifth and those three plays are really about Henry the fifth first of all when he's Prince how growing up learning to become a king and then in Henry the fifth being the King invading France and defeating the French in the Godfather we have the story of a family and it starts with a family led by Don Corleone II Don Vito Corleone II who's aging and who is in some danger of losing control of the power situation which he occupies and he has a young son Michael he has other sons as well but Michael seems very poorly suited to take over from his father

                       He has no interest in being a Mafia Don he seems to fit much better into mainstream American society and doesn't seem to have those sorts of ambitions the story of the two films is his progress if you can call it that from somebody who stands outside of the families ambitions to the person who takes over and leads the family with a degree of ruthlessness which if anything exceeds that of his father in Shakespeare we have the same structure in Henry the fourth parts one and two the King Henry the fourth is aging and not fully in control of the situation and he makes a number of strategic mistakes in dealing with his rivals which put the crown in danger and which are really rescued by the young Henry the fifth as he will be who kills Hotspur in battle Hotspur is one of the most significant potential enemies of the King similarly in the Godfather early on in the film things were very bad for the family little because if they're going to go under from the combined opposition of other Mafia families and from the corrupt police force but Michael the young son takes control and hatches a plan that will enable him to assassinate

                      The police chief and one of the other significant mafia figures in all this and that reverses the situation and puts the Corleone family back in control at least for some period of time there's a big emphasis on both these narratives on the idea of deception so one of the ways in which the Godfather differs from previous films about gangsters and mafia is that there's much less emphasis on physical power a much more emphasis on being able to read other people's psychologies part of the interest in watching those films is that many many conversations take place between people where you realize later on that neither of the people speaking in those conversations seriously meant anything that they said they were both trying to deceive the other parties and the people who win in these situations are the people who are able to deceive the others and to able to know when somebody else is trying to deceive them and that's what gives Michael his power over other people, it's not physical power he never except on one occasion early on uses any physical violence himself and although there are moments of extreme violence in the film most of the film is not a violent film most of it consists simply of listening to people having conversations and working out why they are saying

                   What it is they're saying now when you talk about deception it can sound as if you're talking about something which is very selfish about something which we would all feel very ashamed but in many ways deception is part of the fabric of our ordinary lives we deceive people sometimes for the best of reasons we do not tell people the truth when they ask us whether we like their most recent haircut we do not tell our children the truth always when they ask us whether that we like the painting that they have just done we are deceptive in many many ways some of those ways are ways that we would feel ashamed of if we knew if other people knew about it but many of them are really just part of our ordinary life our whole lives are made up of deceptions small and sometimes large so what we have in the Godfather is a picture of human deception Ritz much larger than any of us normally experienced in our ordinary lives and deception becomes for these people vastly more important than it normally is because their capacity to deceive other people and to know when other people are deceiving them can actually for those people mean the difference between life and death so we see the similar a similar level of interest in the idea of deception in the Henry plays and we see this particularly in the development of Henry Henry the fists personality Henry when he's a young man is a drunkard a carouser    

                           Somebody whose friends are robbers and thieves but Henry makes it clear that he's quite consciously engaging in this behavior and that he intends later on to undergo a change because as he puts it by changing in that dramatic way he will bring more credit on himself than if he had simply been a good honest and sober a citizen from the beginning I suppose there are other stories in which deception and manipulation play an enormous part what both Shakespeare and the makers of the Godfather films managed to do was to show their heroes as Machiavellian and deceptive and yet at the same time to get us on their side and they do that partly by giving those characters other admirable trays so both the young Henry and my who are extremely brave physically and they're extremely resourceful they're able to rescue very dire situations that look as if things are going to go very badly Henry at the Battle of Agincourt ease facing defeat and the annihilation of his army by the vast superior powers of the French yet he manages to rally his troops give them the courage to defeat the French Michel is part of a the family that looks as if it's going under yet he manages to put together a plan that completely reverses their fortunes it could be simply that the Shakespearean Way of telling those stories are so much a part of our common culture that you don't have to think very consciously about these things in

order to produce something that's rather similar though of course as I've already said previous mafia films never dealt with the situation in the same way as this so I would put my money on it that he knew something about the Shakespearean background to this and quite consciously borrowed from Shakespeare here.

#godfather #al pacino #history #hollywood

[donnerpartyofone]

while i’m apparently still in confession mode for some dark reason: 

after i told that awful story yesterday about the degrading one night stand that an older male friend spent a year bullying me into, i started thinking about all the cliches that are sold to us about the sexuality of precocious young women: what it means for us to navigate the devious emotional traps set out by the jealous and covetous world around us. what i mean is, there’s this whole gothic narrative that never stops circulating, involving beautiful, talented, intelligent, sensitive young women who are advanced enough to start exploring their own desires independently, but not experienced enough to identify the (typically) older male predators who hunt them. these men take advantage of their uninformed curiosity, leveraging their prey’s desire to grow up faster in order to control, possess, and abuse them. while this narrative is inherently criminal, society never seems willing to fully denounce it, preferring to preserve its erotic potency for a wide and slavering audience. the iconography of this narrative is mostly derived from Lolita–

[which btw our cultural failure to see that book as anything other than a “love story” is really disturbing and speaks volumes about our willingness to project our grossest ideas wherever we want, even when other interpretations (like “black comedy”) are abundantly available]

–a mature but fragile adolescent with that /special something/ innocently hypnotizes a genteel older man whose sophistication belies his uncontrollable animal desire for her, which is less His Problem than it is a natural response to her beauty and charm; a  forbidden love affair ensues. when i was young, i swallowed this concept hook line and sinker, hoping it would happen to me some day! i hated dumb little boys my own age, and i felt that if some Humbert Humbert type were to flatter me with his highly curated attention, then i would know that i had truly arrived.

“sadly”, i made it through high school and college without ever knowing that validating thrill. i wasted the latter half of my 20s on an abusive relationship with a guy two years younger than me, who often argued that he should be allowed to wreck my life however he wanted because he was “less mature” than i was and deserved more leeway. as i turned 30, i met the extraordinary person i would marry. i felt a profound sense of relief, entering my 30s; i had finished with so many of my old delusions, and the pulverizing pressure to have The Time of Your Life throughout one’s 20s had finally lifted. i looked back on my youth, thinking of it as a period of dreary, pointless misery in which “nothing really happened”, good or bad. but recently, when i started to think about it with greater focus, i realized that some shit really DID happened to me. i had just completely ignored it, because i thought of it as the fruits of my own bad taste. 

throughout junior high, i had a bizarre rapport with a guy in his early 20s–”nothing happened”, as they say, but this guy was sort of a freak and a loner, and i’m probably lucky that there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for something TO happen. then my supposed best friend, jealous of even this non-event in my sad little existence, forced a relationship with a 30 year old man out of nowhere, and competitively abused my ears with a lot of gnarly details about their horrible sex life. then in high school, my first two boyfriends were both pretentious manipulative dickheads in their 20s who really had no business bothering someone who wasn’t old enough to vote. some of my friends suffered from the same problem, though we all just felt like we were becoming independent young women or something. then there’s some other stuff with an older classmate who was abundantly aware of how emotionally unstable i was, and took appalling advantage of that for a long time, and i probably won’t ever be brave enough to talk about it. then in college i briefly “dated” a guy around 50 with whom luckily nothing bad happened before i got rid of him, but like, it really wasn’t cool, looking back–he made me feel incredibly obligated, and as he only informed me mid-stream, he was married with children. then i spent the rest of college getting dragged through the mud by a guy in his 30s who used his professional clout and well-honed manipulative abilities to “take my virginity” (a phrase and concept i hate, but which applies here), which he was very excited about; it would have been best if he had just abandoned me after that, as so many assholes do, because he then cultivated a long tawdry and extremely damaging soap opera between us, the only point of which was to make trouble for his actual girlfriend, who was ALSO much younger than him. and the end of college and slightly after, i developed another intense connection with a man a few decades older, who would never quite initiate a relationship, but who was insidiously manipulative and made me feel terrible when i eventually got a real (age-appropriate) boyfriend, as if i owed him something; i later found out he did the same thing to another girl that i know, who is substantially younger. the terrible one night stand, previously discussed, was just a gross little footnote to this disgusting history…

…but the thing is, i never, at any time, felt like i had taken part in the overheated archetypal drama that society has built up around may-december romances. i didn’t even see myself as a victim of the bad behavior of adults, of people who should and did know better; i just felt separate from the whole thing, even though i had fantasized about it so much as a kid. the thing is, at the same time that the Lolita narrative is inappropriately romanticized, it does provide an opportunity to see the girl as a potential victim, a Little Red Riding Hood who enters a perilous erotic negotiation with a Big Bad Wolf. because i didn’t see myself as the heroine of my own iteration of this overly familiar story, i didn’t recognize the degree to which i’d been exploited by people who knew to use my youth and inexperience against me. i just blamed myself. and the reason for all this is really sad: i simply didn’t feel attractive. in my mind, the vulnerable nymphet was always delicate, doe-like, elegant; clothes hung on her alluring frame in a way that created a dizzying paradox between her youth and her emerging maturity; she could dance, play music, or write touching poetry; she was preternaturally irresistible even to “good men”. she had to be liv tyler in STEALING BEAUTY (*barf*) or some shit; only somebody that compelling could star as the doomed princess in society’s well-loved fairy tale about statutory rape. personally, i perceived myself as ugly, awkward, socially burdensome, and most importantly, the kind of girl who should count herself extremely lucky to be the center of anybody’s attention, even temporarily. because i didn’t see myself as a damsel in distress who deserved protection and sympathy, i failed to spot my own victimization. i thought of my history of increasingly negative and abusive encounters with older men as a matter of bad luck, bad judgment on my own part, and ultimately, “the best i could do” if i wanted any kind of affection. so i guess the irony is that if i had identified myself as a desirable dolores hayes type, then yes, i would have been in serious danger of fetishizing my own mistreatment–but on the other hand, i would have had a more realistic framework for understanding the sinister thing that was happening to me. unfortunately, the other side of the misogyny coin–not the side that turns you into a sex object, but the side that excludes you from feeling sexually worthy at all–prevented me from noticing that that awful Little Red Riding Hood cliche had already happened to me several times over.

tl;dr - when misogyny convinces you that you have nothing to steal, then it’s hard to tell when misogynists are trying to rob you.

it’s funny to start recognizing this only now that i’m approaching 40. i see a lot of young women on tumblr heroically fighting to strike a balance between enjoying their kinks and avoiding the corrupt elements in their communities–all the while trying to stay aware of how their personal history and mental health plays into this drama. some of them are way farther along in that philosophical journey than i was at their age, and i really admire the work they’re doing. i’m writing this more for the ones who don’t even know that they’re already a part of this struggle, because they haven’t learned to see themselves as desirable enough to be included in it. that is to say, i wrote this for myself; but i have a sneaking suspicion that someone else out there needs to hear it, too.

This post brought to you in part by the very beginning of CABIN IN THE WOODS, which, while not a deep film in any way, features a salient moment in which College Girl #1 tries to tell College Girl #2 that the professor who took advantage of her is a scumbag, and College Girl #2 defends him, humbly and maturely replying: “I knew what I was getting into.” The blood freezes in my veins when I think of how many times I said something like this about someone who did not deserve my defense. If you got dicked over, literally and/or figuratively, by someone older, sober-er, and/or more experienced than you, then this is your gentle reminder that you really cannot be accused of knowing what you’re getting into.

#gpoy

[wisdomrays]

FOR THE CONQUEST AND DOMINION OF HEARTS

Over the last few centuries mankind have suffered hardships after hardships, travelling around pits of 'death'. Their struggles for deliverance and relief have all resulted in new calamities. During this dark period, rather than the established governments formally in power, it is the greed and passions of individuals, classes, holding companies and mafias that have controlled communities. It hardly needs saying that in this circumstance, the only criterion by which people and things are evaluated is money, buying power.

It is natural, in a period when standards have changed so completely, that people should be esteemed for their wealth, the make of car they use and the sort of house they live in. It is natural because material and financial resources or potentials have been given precedence over human virtues like knowledge, good morals, sound thinking and civility. Wealth may indeed be valued when put under the command of knowledge, intellect, courage, honour and devotion to the service of others, but when valued for itself or, worse, when united with greed, it can be a means of brutality.

If the members of a society make the foundation of their lives the gratification of animal desires, and their purpose becoming or being rich at all costs – rather than being honest, industrious and competent, then the selfish, the ignorant and the cunning people come to dominate in that society. This means the exclusion of moral values and human virtues and therefore of those who combine efficiency with personal integrity – precisely the ones who could be useful to the society.

Compared with previous centuries, mankind today may well be wealthier and enjoying more of the conveniences and comforts of life. However, it is also true that they are trapped in greed, infatuations, addictions, needs and fantasies much more than in any previous age. The more they gratify their animal appetites, the more crazed they become to gratify those appetites still more; the more they drink, the more thirsty they are; the more they eat, the more hungry they are. They enter into bad speculations to feed their avarice to earn ever more and more and sell their spirits to the devil in return for the most banal advantages, thus breaking with true human values a little more each day.

Modern man, who spends his energies in pursuit of transient material advantages, is wasting himself and all the nobler, truly human feelings in the depths of his being. It is no longer possible to find among his resources either the serenity that comes from belief, or the tolerance and depth of spirit enabled by knowledge of God, or the traces of love and spiritual joys. This is so because he weighs everything on the scales of material advantage, immediate comfort and the gratification of bodily appetites, and thinks about only how he can increase his profit or what he will buy and sell, and where and how he will amuse himself. If he is unable to satisfy his appetites through lawful means, he rarely hesitates to resort to unlawful means, however degraded and degrading.

In order to be delivered from the suffocating world of unbelief and egocentricity, from shuttling aimlessly between the false modern concepts of thought, action and life, man should strive to re-discover the true human values that lie in the depths of his being. To escape the various stresses and afflictions in the psychological, spiritual and intellectual dimensions of personal life, and the strains and conflicts in collective affairs within and between nations, he should re-consider the worth of believing, loving, moral values, metaphysical thinking and spiritual training.

Believing means knowing the truth to be true, what and how it is, and loving means putting that knowledge into effect in one's life. Those who do not believe and love are merely physical entities without true life, like mechanically animated corpses. Belief is a most important source of action and a way to embrace the whole creation in spirit, while love is the most essential element of true human thought and a transcendental dimension of it. For this reason, those who are on the way of building the happy world of the future on the foundations of spiritual and moral values, should first arrive at the altar of belief, then ascend to the pulpit of love, and only then preach their message of belief and love to all others. In seeking to achieve their aims, they should never forget that their influence depends on morality and virtuousness.

Morality is the essence of religion and a most fundamental portion of the Divine Message. If being virtuous and having good morals is to be heroic – and it is – the greatest heroes are, first, the Prophets and, after them, those who follow them in sincerity and devotion. A true Muslim is the one who practises a truly universal, therefore Muslim, morality. Anyone of sense and insight can see that the Qur'an and the Sunnah – the way or example of the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings – are sets of moral principles. The Prophet, who is the greatest embodiment of morals, said: Islam consists in good morals; I have been sent to perfect and complete good morals. The Muslim Community have always been the representatives of good morality and it must be so since it is only through morality and virtuousness that this Community can attain eternity. Islamic metaphysics is a means to reach the highest point in morality.

Metaphysical thought is the effort of the intellect to embrace creation as a whole and perceive it with all its dimensions, visible and unvisible. Without this effort of the intellect or spirit, everything breaks up into lifeless fragments. For this reason, the failure of metaphysical thought implies the death of the intellect. All the great civilizations have developed and come into being in the arms of metaphysical thought. Metaphysical thought is human intellect or spirit trying to embrace the whole of creation and comprehend it from within and outside; those who see metaphysics and physics (and other sciences) as conflicting disciplines, are not aware that they are seeing a river and the source where it originates as contradictory.

Another dimension of metaphysics is the perception of creation through love. In this context, love is identical with perceiving the whole of the universe with whatever is happening in it as a continuous interconnected flux and loving it. Those who have been able to find this true love pursue neither wealth nor fame; rather, they find peace in the flames of their love and see the face of their beloved amid the ashes of their own existence burnt away. In other words, they are on an uninterrupted journey from the valleys of 'self-annihilation in the existence of God' to the heights of 'attainment to permanence through permanence of God'. This attainment can come through strict spirritual training.

Spiritual training means directing man to the purpose of his creation. Through awareness of the ultimate purpose of this worldly existence, a man can be freed from bodily pressures and realize a journey into his very essence.

We are obliged to change the viewpoint and aspirations of modern man who, having lost his spiritual dynamics and broken with his essential identity, is the victim of his own self. We are hopeful that if we reinforce our will and resolve through regular worship and control it through continual self-ciriticsm, Almighty God will not deny his help in making us successful in this blessed mission. It is our duty to sow the seeds now for the brighter earth of the future, and we leave to God Himself, if He wills, to grow each of them into fruitful trees.

We are fully convinced that, as a result of conscious efforts, this corrupt world will give birth to a new one where belief and worship will carry to every place the fragrances of peace, security and love. We are also convinced that future generations will aim at, and be favoured by, the ecstasies of an overflowing love, far beyond aspirations for money or fame or high appointments. This love will originate in conquering hearts and, in return, will be recompensed with the dominion of hearts.

#allah #god #ayat #quran #muhammad #prophet #sunnah #hadith #islam #revert #convert #muslim #muslimah #hijab #religion #reminder #help #welcome to islam #how to convert islam #new muslim #new revert #new convert #revert help #convert help #islam help #muslim help #dua #salah #pray #prayer

[dailynewswebsite]

How secular Israeli millennials feel about Palestinians

View of Jaffa from Tel Aviv. Picture by Mor Shani on Unsplash

A socially elite group, younger secular Jewish-Israelis have been as soon as the spine of the peace motion, working towards Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories within the West Financial institution and Gaza.

However rising numbers of millennial secular Jewish-Israelis, referred to as hilonim, have come to see navy exercise by the Israel Defence Forces within the West Financial institution and Gaza as acceptable after 4 Gaza-Israel wars.

My new e book sheds new gentle on why their attitudes in direction of the Palestinian battle have shifted.

The failure of the Oslo peace course of and 4 wars in Gaza between 2006 and 2014 have made them cynical about peace. Separation limitations dividing Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian populations within the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem and Gaza have made them really feel secure. Since 2006, politicians have step by step shifted well-liked consideration from occupation to the financial system.

No progress with out pragmatism

Over the 2 years following the 2014 Gaza-Israel struggle, I carried out 50 in-depth interviews with a various pattern of self-identified hiloni millennials, plus a bigger survey and extra analysis.

Researchers have criticised hiloni millennials for being self-absorbed, not dedicated to Israel’s future. However I discovered they’d an excellent sense of duty. Many felt a heroic concept of themselves as cheap, reasonable and socially accountable. Throughout the political spectrum, they considered themselves as cheap, as what I name “fulcrum residents”, balancing out extremists – together with violent spiritual nationalist Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis. One man in his mid 20s, Tamer* instructed me:

Being reasonable permits you to do extra for individuals. Pragmatism is essential in life. The place there is no such thing as a pragmatism there is no such thing as a progress.

However the political influence of feeling cheap has been double-edged. Even those that described themselves as left-wing and finally towards the occupation, noticed persevering with occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel “for now” as “cheap if regrettable”.

Ruth, additionally in her 20s, the kid of Oslo-era activists, instructed me why fewer of her era have been preventing towards the occupation.

I’m form of hopeless really. I believe we’re caught … We’re actually numb … Our life is simply too good. We have now an excessive amount of to lose. If I need to intern on the UN, you don’t need to get caught at a protest and have a police file. We’re like yeah, (occupation) sucks however (preventing) it’s too dangerous.

This discovering is in line with post-Oslo public opinion polls since 2000. These present that whereas half of Jewish-Israelis are open to peace with Arab states (such because the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan), they don’t prioritise the safety of Palestinian human rights below worldwide regulation.

Neo-Romanticism

Constructing on broader analysis on this group which seemed on the financial, social and political dynamics affecting them, I targeted on what it was like to come back of age as a secular Jew in Israel after the failure of the Oslo peace accords, towards a backdrop of rising ethno-religious nationalism amongst Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians.

I discovered that private life philosophies, shut relationships and experiences had formed the political beliefs of these I interviewed in shocking methods. To know this, we have to consider being a secular Jewish-Israeli in a brand new means.

I noticed what I name a neo-Romantic sensibility amongst these hilonim I interviewed. Nineteenth-century Romantics in Western Europe tried to seek out new methods to stay a honest, genuine life in keeping with their private instinct and emotional expertise. Romantics promoted higher self-expression – but additionally higher attachment to at least one’s nation.

In addition they sought new methods to attain transcendence past, but additionally inside spiritual custom, significantly by way of the humanities. Jewish thinkers influenced by Romanticism have been enthusiastic about how artistic people may interpret Jewish custom and develop new methods of being meaningfully Jewish for themselves, past rabbinical authority.

Whereas there is no such thing as a direct historic connection between hiloni millennials and the 19th-century Romantics, I discovered comparable sensibilities amongst them. Just like the Romantics, my interviewees had a dedication to self-expression and emphasised sincerity and private expertise. They have been concerned about philosophical exploration inside and past Judaism. They felt a robust sense of attachment to different Jewish-Israelis – significantly household and mates, but additionally the Jewish ethno-national collective.

These sensibilities have been a product of the political, financial and social context through which they got here of age in the course of the 2000s and 2010s, which produced an interaction between individualism and ethno-national solidarity.

Turning inwards

Over this era, Jewish-Israeli society has been introduced collectively by a number of elements, together with repeated wars with Hamas, a 2006 struggle with Hezbollah and fears of a nuclear Iran. Because the 1990s, mainstream Israeli politicians have mobilised individuals round ethno-religious symbols, and there’s higher positivity in direction of Jewish custom inside society (ha-datah).

Earlier generations felt extra hooked up to wider society and the federal government. However various elements have bred emotions of individualism and reliance on the self, household and mates. These embrace political corruption, the willingness of successive governments to go away economically susceptible people to the logic of the market and deepening consumerism.

Hiloni tradition has additionally advanced. New Age spirituality and Mizrahi (Center-Japanese Jewish) motifs have turn into mainstream, echoing 19th-century Romantics’ emphasis on emotion. The web has facilitated even higher self-experimentation and expression than in earlier generations.

Because of this, hiloni millennials, just like the Romantics, got here to depend on their very own experiences as a private ethical compass. Private expertise included what occurred to them and the way they felt about it and in addition professional opinions they’d researched.

Hiloni millennials throughout the political spectrum stated they base their politics on a mixture of non-public expertise, rational deliberation and love for others they really feel near.

They got here of age bodily and emotionally separated from Palestinians, with Israeli politicians loudly asserting that there’s “no accomplice for peace” and selling Jewish ethno-religious solidarity and Israel’s id as a Jewish state. They due to this fact really feel extra hooked up to, and personally chargeable for, different Jewish-Israelis than Palestinians, even when they generally really feel indignant at settlers.

I discovered difficult emotions about Palestinians throughout the political spectrum: a mix of understanding, empathy, frustration, despair, friendship, indifference, concern and loathing.

Like 19th-century Romantics, many hiloni millennials have turned inwards – to their very own lives or activism round social and financial justice amongst their very own neighborhood somewhat than working to finish the occupation.

Younger hiloni peace activists within the 1980s and 1990s additionally noticed themselves as cheap – however they noticed working towards occupation as the one cheap choice. Instances have modified.

*Names have been modified to guard the anonymity of interview individuals.

Stacey Gutkowski doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/how-secular-israeli-millennials-feel-about-palestinians/ via https://growthnews.in

#Growth News

[jam2289]

Explorations in Business - Part 8 of ?

My own psychological resistance to trying to make money is quite astounding.

I remade my website so it doesn't completely suck. But right now the only thing that you can do is sign up for a consultation.

Here's a post I recently made in the FounderCo Facebook group.

- - - - - - -

I've been a little surprised at the immense amount of internal resistance I've had to reaching out to people. I think part of it is that this centers around a personal issue that is close to me. I've been doing a deep dive on my own psychology and seem to be making some progress in the recesses of my soul.

A friend of mine suggested that I reach out to a gym owner she knows about doing classes. So I just sent this email.

- - - - - - -

And here's the email. (I cut out the last name.)

- - - - - - -

My friend Joanie said I should reach out to you. She said she and her husband Rich like your gym.

I am working on launching a meditation coaching business focusing on helping people manage their chronic pain. It's grown out of a solution that I had to find and develop for myself.

The very short version is that I ended up sick in Kenya in late 2015. I was vomiting blood and told I was going to die. I made it back to the US and started the recovery process. It took almost 6 months to get rid of the bacteria, but I still didn't get better. As it turns out I have four major spinal deformities that I didn't know about. My C1 was fused to my skull, but at some point it slid into my brainstem. That caused all sorts of issues ranging from heart issues, to memory loss, to massive amounts of pain including light and sound sensitivity.

Obviously there's a lot to my recovery process over the last few years, but coping with the pain has been an epic journey in itself. I hadn't taken even an Advil in almost a decade, but after a couple of months of being almost completely incapacitated I told the hospital to go ahead and give me the drugs. They gave me two injections they guaranteed would work. They don't work if the issue is that you have a bone in your brainstem.

I had studied meditation with an Ishaya monk for a year before all of this, but that type of meditation didn't do anything for the pain. After some experimenting I was able to acquire the skills necessary to deal with the pain, the basic idea being that you need to rewire the brain to perceive the pain differently. I still need to be able to feel when something is wrong with my cervical spine, but I don't need my nervous system setting off lights and buzzers that make me nonfunctional.

So, that's what I'm doing. We can obviously talk about it more, but the basic idea is a somewhat playful and open hour long session where we explore awareness and learn the skill of rewiring the brain to change how we perceive chronic pain.

Just to point out some of the functionality that I've regained: I joined the Mensa high IQ society after my misadventure, and here's a video of me wrestling an alligator a year ago. https://youtu.be/AgZFzdb_TLY

Here's an article I wrote where I go over a clear framework I created for understanding the different types of meditation. http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2019/02/the-meditation-matrix-framework-for.html

This is me giving a speech last month about pain. https://youtu.be/YMYStBqHRfw

And here's an article where I go over writing a testimonial for my chiropractor that's a little more detailed in some ways. It also has a picture of one of my xrays. http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2018/09/on-writing-testimonial.html

I would like to get together and talk about this more.

Jeff Martin

JeffThinks.com

- - - - - - -

I've had no response from that email, and I don't expect to. I've never really done anything successfully, and that goes double for anything involving social skills.

Over the last few months I've been radically changing my view of the world at a fundamental level. I've always viewed humans as fundamentally good with a large amount of corruption at every level that overlays that. That's idiotic considering how much history I've studied. Now, think about this. Life is suffering, that's obviously true. But what if we go one step further.

If we hold the proposition that the world is good we have to define good. If we define the good as life, liberty, and property, and we notice that the world is hostile on a fundamental level to all of these things, then we come to the conclusion that the world is the opposite of good, it's evil. It's a change in my metaphysical outlook. (This is obviously the simplified view because it's always a mix, I'm just talking about what I see as the dominant tendency.)

I've also been convinced by the political corruption and the people's response to it in Dalton Township over the last few months that people are primarily weak, submissive, herd-like creatures. (Again, this is the simplified view of the dominant tendency with significant outliers ignored.)

Adjusting to this new world view, moving from the idea of heroic humans to weak humans and a good world to an evil world, is a better adjustment to the reality of the situation. If I can fully assimilate this then it should change my actions, which is what needs to happen.

The obvious solution to my money problems is that I need to sell something, and a lot of it. That's how you make money. The way to do that is to view humans statistically, just as things, units. Then, be super salesy. I don't like either of those things. But, I'm already at least two-thirds of the way through this lifetime. So unless I want to spend one-hundred percent of this lifetime being poor, I need to do a lot of selling of something. And I do not lack the knowledge, I've read dozens of books on the subject and taken a number of courses. I've lacked the will.

Being lightly authentic can work in sales, but not being fully authentic. Being mostly transparent can work in a relationship, but not fully transparent. These are foolish and naive concepts that I've had to prove idiotic for myself for some reason. And I have.

One thing I need to get comfortable with in sales is being willing to offer a proposition that isn't true. You have to be willing to say your thing is the greatest, that it will definitely work, that it is the bee's knees, the cat's meow, the greatest thing since sliced bread, and will completely solve everyone's problems. I have never been able to bring myself to do that. Thus, failure. Before someone can agree with you, you have to offer a proposition.

This is where the metaphysical beliefs come into play. If most people are unimportant then you can ignore them. You are just shooting for the important ones, for the ones that get it. You are sorting the wheat from the chaff, and it doesn't matter what happens to the chaff. And you have to do this aggressively because the world is actively fighting you, attempting to destroy you, entropy is literally ripping you apart at every moment.

If I continue to be unwilling to do both of these things then I can guarantee that I will spend my entire life being poor. And, I don't think I can accept that. So, changes.

________________________________________________

Read more of what Jeff deems worthy of attention at: http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

[cool-azert123]

Why Narendra Modi is no longer certain to win India's mega-election

Narendra Modi, after India’s 2014 General Election vowed, “Good days are coming”. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had secured a landslide victory, forming the largest majority government since 1984. Analysts had lauded Mr Modi’s ambitious ‘Development For All’ manifesto. Throughout a gruelling campaign, which saw the then 64-year-old address over 450 rallies, he promised to transform living standards for every Indian from subsistence farmers in rural Nagaland to technology entrepreneurs in urban Pune. However, fast forward to 2018 and the BJP suffered regional election defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – each time to resurgent opposition, the Indian National Congress (INC). These three ‘Hindu heartland’ provinces are considered good signifiers of how the whole country will vote in this week’s General Election. Heading into the vote, Mr Modi’s popularity is at an all-time low. An India Today poll on January 9 found support for the Prime Minister had plummeted from 65% to 46% since January 2017. So, why has Mr Modi’s re-election gone from inevitable to uncertain? Indian elections 2019 - Regional elections lost by Modi last year Economy During his 2014 Indian tour de force, Mr Modi made several high-profile economic pledges.    Infamously, he promised to create ten million new jobs every year if elected. In reality, Mr Modi generated just 5.8 million roles annually and unemployment in India currently stands at a 45-year high. Ensuring India’s economy grows at the same meteoric rate as its population will be one of the defining issues for the next Prime Minister. Mr Modi’s failure to create new employment has hurt his popularity across society. One-third of the unemployed are ‘highly educated’ young people whilst the mismanagement of the agricultural sector – on which 55 per cent of Indians depend for income – has seen many Indians fall further into poverty. A 2017 Gallup poll discovered only 3 per cent of its population described themselves as economically ‘thriving’, compared to 14 per cent in 2014. Indian elections - Unemployment rate Mr Modi’s most newsworthy economic policy pledge however was his ‘great Indian demonetisation’. In November 2016, he decided to cancel all 500 (£5.50) and 1,000 (£11) rupee notes in circulation. An incredible 86 per cent of all cash in India suddenly became worthless. By introducing a new 500 rupee note and an inaugural 2,000 (£22) rupee note Mr Modi believed he would eradicate black market money, counterfeit notes and halt the financing of terror groups. However, the plan failed on three counts. Firstly, some Indian banks quickly ran out of the new currency. An estimated 150 million people didn’t receive their wages for weeks as a result, while the opposition claimed over 100 people died while waiting in bank queues or from stress-induced suicide.     Secondly, transactions in key Indian sectors such as agriculture are entirely dependent on cash. The shortage of the new, legal banknotes meant farmers could not source cash to purchase seeds or fertilisers, leading to a countrywide drop in crop prices. Finally – and embarrassingly for Mr Modi – data released by the Reserve Bank of India found that 99 per cent of the old ‘corrupt’ money has been absorbed into the new system. Indian elections 2019 - Projected seat share As a direct result of Mr Modi’s unsuccessful economic policy, many Indians are seeking out an alternative political party to provide the answer to their problems.                                                                                       The INC, for example, has promised to implement a nationwide means-tested universal basic income system if it wins the election. This utopian idea is attracting a lot of attention and apparently winning favour with voters.     Nationalism In order to woo back the electorate, following the huge economic setbacks and rise in popularity of the INC, Mr Modi has embraced populist Hindu nationalism – the belief India is a Holy land purely for Hindus. However, as India’s constitution vows to treat its residents equally irrespective of religion, Mr Modi is conscious of not wanting to alienate the country’s 172 million Muslim voters and has been accused of not going far enough by some Hindus. In particular, he has been criticized for delaying a temple construction at Ayodhya – the site of a demolished 16th Century mosque. Mr Modi’s actions have led some Hindu nationalists to consider supporting the INC’s 25-year-old firebrand, Hardik Patel while many Muslims feel disillusioned that Mr Modi is not safeguarding their rights. Groups of Hindu nationalists are increasingly carrying out attacks against Muslims to protect revered cattle – known as ‘cow vigilante mobs’ – killing 24 people since 2010. This led the head of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen political party to tell Reuters Muslims had “never felt so marginalised in the independent history of India.” Further challenges for Mr Modi arose when on February 19 the Pakistan-based Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in a bomb attack in the disputed territory of Kashmir. A ferocious anti-Pakistan backlash spread across India with extremists in Bangalore even threatening to blow up a bakery simply because it was named after the Pakistani city of Karachi. Mr Modi capitalized on this outpouring of anger, vowing a "fitting, jaw-breaking reply", as he launched air strikes in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Officials alleged the response destroyed a major terrorist camp in Pakistan and killed over 300 terrorists, an action which greatly boosted Mr Modi’s popularity. Pulwama suicide attack - Map With it he may just have secured a second term by presenting himself to the masses as the only leader capable of standing up for India in the face of external aggression. Political activist Yogenda Yadav told Business Insider the Kashmir attack had come at the perfect time to distract from Modi’s economic failings. Even the capture of Indian air force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman became a soft power coup. In response, the BJP printed women’s sarees featuring the heroic Varthaman alongside Mr Modi.    Mr Modi’s decisive actions were enthusiastically greeted among the Indian lower and middle-classes. His unique backstory – from running a tea stall in Gujarat to ruling over the largest democracy in the world and partying with Bollywood stars – also remains a powerful tool. Modi's rivals Whether Mr Modi has done enough to triumph in the April elections will also depend on the performance of the opposition. In 2014, Mr Modi’s resurgent BJP ousted a stuttering INC. Now, led by siblings Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, descendants of India’s founding leader Jawaharlal Nehru, the INC is much stronger. Rahul Gandhi addresses supporters at an event to unveil the party's election manifesto in New Delhi Credit: AFP Emboldened by its three victories in key state elections, the opposition has proposed a number of socially radical policies. For example, in addition to the universal basic income system, the INC has promised to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill which would allocate 33 per cent of national assembly seats for women. For either the BJP or INC to triumph they will have to enter into alliances with regional parties across India to form a majority, as the BJP did successfully in 2014. However, there is evidence some of these parties are turning against Mr Modi. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, two rival parties have united to undercut the BJP’s working class vote. “I’m successful because I live in the present,” Mr Modi declared back in 2012. “I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future.” Yet, while he may implore the electorate for patience, the mistakes of his recent past could well haunt his party come the results on 23 May.

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[myinformationforyouworld]

Narendra Modi, after India’s 2014 General Election vowed, “Good days are coming”. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had secured a landslide victory, forming the largest majority government since 1984. Analysts had lauded Mr Modi’s ambitious ‘Development For All’ manifesto. Throughout a gruelling campaign, which saw the then 64-year-old address over 450 rallies, he promised to transform living standards for every Indian from subsistence farmers in rural Nagaland to technology entrepreneurs in urban Pune. However, fast forward to 2018 and the BJP suffered regional election defeats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – each time to resurgent opposition, the Indian National Congress (INC). These three ‘Hindu heartland’ provinces are considered good signifiers of how the whole country will vote in this week’s General Election. Heading into the vote, Mr Modi’s popularity is at an all-time low. An India Today poll on January 9 found support for the Prime Minister had plummeted from 65% to 46% since January 2017. So, why has Mr Modi’s re-election gone from inevitable to uncertain? Indian elections 2019 - Regional elections lost by Modi last year Economy During his 2014 Indian tour de force, Mr Modi made several high-profile economic pledges.    Infamously, he promised to create ten million new jobs every year if elected. In reality, Mr Modi generated just 5.8 million roles annually and unemployment in India currently stands at a 45-year high. Ensuring India’s economy grows at the same meteoric rate as its population will be one of the defining issues for the next Prime Minister. Mr Modi’s failure to create new employment has hurt his popularity across society. One-third of the unemployed are ‘highly educated’ young people whilst the mismanagement of the agricultural sector – on which 55 per cent of Indians depend for income – has seen many Indians fall further into poverty. A 2017 Gallup poll discovered only 3 per cent of its population described themselves as economically ‘thriving’, compared to 14 per cent in 2014. Indian elections - Unemployment rate Mr Modi’s most newsworthy economic policy pledge however was his ‘great Indian demonetisation’. In November 2016, he decided to cancel all 500 (£5.50) and 1,000 (£11) rupee notes in circulation. An incredible 86 per cent of all cash in India suddenly became worthless. By introducing a new 500 rupee note and an inaugural 2,000 (£22) rupee note Mr Modi believed he would eradicate black market money, counterfeit notes and halt the financing of terror groups. However, the plan failed on three counts. Firstly, some Indian banks quickly ran out of the new currency. An estimated 150 million people didn’t receive their wages for weeks as a result, while the opposition claimed over 100 people died while waiting in bank queues or from stress-induced suicide.     Secondly, transactions in key Indian sectors such as agriculture are entirely dependent on cash. The shortage of the new, legal banknotes meant farmers could not source cash to purchase seeds or fertilisers, leading to a countrywide drop in crop prices. Finally – and embarrassingly for Mr Modi – data released by the Reserve Bank of India found that 99 per cent of the old ‘corrupt’ money has been absorbed into the new system. Indian elections 2019 - Projected seat share As a direct result of Mr Modi’s unsuccessful economic policy, many Indians are seeking out an alternative political party to provide the answer to their problems.                                                                                       The INC, for example, has promised to implement a nationwide means-tested universal basic income system if it wins the election. This utopian idea is attracting a lot of attention and apparently winning favour with voters.     Nationalism In order to woo back the electorate, following the huge economic setbacks and rise in popularity of the INC, Mr Modi has embraced populist Hindu nationalism – the belief India is a Holy land purely for Hindus. However, as India’s constitution vows to treat its residents equally irrespective of religion, Mr Modi is conscious of not wanting to alienate the country’s 172 million Muslim voters and has been accused of not going far enough by some Hindus. In particular, he has been criticized for delaying a temple construction at Ayodhya – the site of a demolished 16th Century mosque. Mr Modi’s actions have led some Hindu nationalists to consider supporting the INC’s 25-year-old firebrand, Hardik Patel while many Muslims feel disillusioned that Mr Modi is not safeguarding their rights. Groups of Hindu nationalists are increasingly carrying out attacks against Muslims to protect revered cattle – known as ‘cow vigilante mobs’ – killing 24 people since 2010. This led the head of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen political party to tell Reuters Muslims had “never felt so marginalised in the independent history of India.” Further challenges for Mr Modi arose when on February 19 the Pakistan-based Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammad killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in a bomb attack in the disputed territory of Kashmir. A ferocious anti-Pakistan backlash spread across India with extremists in Bangalore even threatening to blow up a bakery simply because it was named after the Pakistani city of Karachi. Mr Modi capitalized on this outpouring of anger, vowing a "fitting, jaw-breaking reply", as he launched air strikes in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Officials alleged the response destroyed a major terrorist camp in Pakistan and killed over 300 terrorists, an action which greatly boosted Mr Modi’s popularity. Pulwama suicide attack - Map With it he may just have secured a second term by presenting himself to the masses as the only leader capable of standing up for India in the face of external aggression. Political activist Yogenda Yadav told Business Insider the Kashmir attack had come at the perfect time to distract from Modi’s economic failings. Even the capture of Indian air force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman became a soft power coup. In response, the BJP printed women’s sarees featuring the heroic Varthaman alongside Mr Modi.    Mr Modi’s decisive actions were enthusiastically greeted among the Indian lower and middle-classes. His unique backstory – from running a tea stall in Gujarat to ruling over the largest democracy in the world and partying with Bollywood stars – also remains a powerful tool. Modi's rivals Whether Mr Modi has done enough to triumph in the April elections will also depend on the performance of the opposition. In 2014, Mr Modi’s resurgent BJP ousted a stuttering INC. Now, led by siblings Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, descendants of India’s founding leader Jawaharlal Nehru, the INC is much stronger. Rahul Gandhi addresses supporters at an event to unveil the party's election manifesto in New Delhi Credit: AFP Emboldened by its three victories in key state elections, the opposition has proposed a number of socially radical policies. For example, in addition to the universal basic income system, the INC has promised to pass the Women’s Reservation Bill which would allocate 33 per cent of national assembly seats for women. For either the BJP or INC to triumph they will have to enter into alliances with regional parties across India to form a majority, as the BJP did successfully in 2014. However, there is evidence some of these parties are turning against Mr Modi. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, two rival parties have united to undercut the BJP’s working class vote. “I’m successful because I live in the present,” Mr Modi declared back in 2012. “I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future.” Yet, while he may implore the electorate for patience, the mistakes of his recent past could well haunt his party come the results on 23 May.

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[dragun851]

ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling: Setting

ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling: The Setting and World

The 3rd Section, of this analysis, Academia vs the City, and here we will see how ultimately what is Academia. In here we will have built to your 4th Section, and the final one, about Lancers, and the meaning of Egao. So come and join, as we start the next leg of our journey about ARC-V. We will uncover the meaning of the setting, and what it was has affected our characters. Let us begin, this analysis, onto the breach once more!

————— ————— ARC-V Symbolism Via Dueling: Security vs Obelisk Force

Now then boys and girls, welcome to the third major section, of the discussion, it’s time- no not Serge and Battle Beast, but Obelisk Force vs Security! First off, these two groups both use Earth Type Monsters used by first series villains, but there are some important but innate differences. First off, one are hunters, and killers, utterly loyal, dogmatic in their pursuit, and trusted by their commander, Obelisk Force. In contrast the security, is not trusted by Roget at all, he assumed direct control, and did not trust his underlines to remain loyal to him.

Furthermore, Obelisk Force only ever uses Fusions, but in reality, via Hunting Hound effect plays more likes Synchro. I.e they Synchro climb, instead of using a Fusion Suite like Fluffals, Shaddolls and Heroes. This even sits them up in direct contrast to Lunalights. Their non-Chaos Giant Boss, name is called Ultimate Hunting Hound, similar to how Crowler’s final boss was Ultimate Golem.

Another contrast with security, where Obelisk Force normally relies one Fusion and just climbing. Security often uses a bunch of Goyo Synchros and in fact their deck is weaker monsters coming together to make stronger ones. Goyo Chaser, and Goyo Defender are the best example of this. Their accel Synchro Goyo King and the Fusion evolution Goyo Emperor, both require additional Synchros for the best value. Let it be stated again, FUSION evolution.

The Hound Dog, and Obelisk Force, never added any additional summoning methods unless you count Dennis. This in spite that a card like Gear Gigant X (it’s even Earth Machine) would be very helpful for their deck and playstyle. That shows and represents Fusion Jingoism. Furthermore, the cards themselves are poignant on their very different role in so society.

The Goyo’s all use batons, and shields, sometimes a restraining rope. Ultimately corruption aside, they never shown to kill only capture, a theme kept throughout. They are a police force, at the end of the day not an army. The Obelisk Force, all immediately attack, Hound Dog inflicting effect damage, Double Bite effect destroying a monster. Ultimate reducing life by half. Here it shows unrestrained, and sadistic, never stopping, and just relentlessly perusing their opponent no matter the scenario.

The last part I will mention is Juvenile Police vs Junior Security seen when Yuya and company first arrived in Synchro. The Juvenile acted very childish and bragged to Alexis consistently, furthermore unlike Obelisk Force their decks are very bright colored. And completely ignore the necessity of hand problems.

The Junior Police, are completely professional and by the books, down to Earth and straightforward. They also discard cards, but do so in a way that would immediately win then the game. Their card destroyed summons back used materials. Ultimately representing once again for all their faults security are professionals where Obelisk and Juvenile Police simply are not, they are sadists.

Next up Roget vs the Doctor!

————— ————— ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling, The Tech Genius vs Biologist

Serge will be next, if you are good, but Roget and The Doctor. First and foremost, both have the same uniform and same role within Academia as Scientist. Furthermore both role several as an Academia SubBoss. Our hero (Yuya) never fought either of them directly only their minions, but instead dealt with by an Akaba. Their the similarity ends, as one was loyal and used bugs, furthermore he trusted Leo. Let me emphasis this again, he, i.e the doctor trusted not just Leo. But his Parasites to act independently.

Roget, instead fought against the Akaba’s and did not trust his allies, he it Serge or security to act independently. Then we come to difference number duos between Roget and The Doctor. Their method of mind control, over their subordinates.

The Doctor used organic technology, that he ultimately had no direct control over. Furthermore, he took time and space, to develop them further upon initial failure (in the case of Ruri). Roget on the other hand relied on one tactic and if it failed the answer was Serge. If that failed, he just threw more security at his opponents. In fact the endless duel stratagem he created was him doing the same strategy over and over again. No adaption no attempt to improve his strategy.

Ultimately, the difference between these two can be summed up as the falling. The Doctor uses his parasites, is adaptable, flexible, and loyal. Where Roget, mechanical like plans, are instead rigid, inflexible, and disloyal. Next up! I am sorry folks, but there is a little bit more before we get to Serge. But the Dueling Assassins! The Amazons, Captain Solo, Diana and Apollo, with those two I will be comparing to someone characters that are otherwise also rather forgettable. How their decks compare to those past filler characters. And then, how we know a loyalist, from a treacherous Academia Soldier.

—————- —————- ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling: The Dueling Assassins

Now we come to the nitty gritty, our antagonists. Our hero’s various foes as we set out across defeat Academia. They are Grace and Gloria, Diana and Apollo, Captain Solo. The only other Dueling Assassins are Bernie and Battle Beast, whom I shall discuss next. Each of the Dueling Assassins are tied to Greco-Roman Mythology, Grace and Gloria were amazons, Diana and Apollo is in the name, Captain Solo deck not as explicitly related but his name is rooted in Latin.

In the case of Grace and Gloria, first off their decks are most Earth-Warrior. If you didn’t forget, remember the martial artists from season? The decks they used were in fact also based on Earth Warriors. There were some differences between, Ryozanpaku Duo, and these two, but I’ll stick with the similarities for a moment. The duo also got confused by someone (Yugo), who they thought to be someone else. Now onto the dueling itself, the first fusion monster summoned had a direct synergy with the second one to be summoned, in each case involving the pairs.

In case of Duo, it was Fuijin, and the Amazons it was Empress. The second monster, Raijin, summoned by the duo dealt piercing (which Empress enables for all Amazons). Liger like Raijin, cares about itself attacking (in addition to a attack negation effect). And finally both were defeated by an Xyz monster winning the game, (Trapeze Magician and Rebellion Dragon vs Duo, and then vs Amazons using Dark Rebellion and Rise Falcon). Now here is where we start differing.

The Amazons whole decks are dedicated to supporting each, and deal with attacking overall. In contrast Fuijin and Raijin, only one deals with attacking, the other deals with effect damage, or is cowardly way out. In addition, Amazons incorporate Beasts into their deck, where the Star Fusions are Wind and not Earth. Finally, the Amazons were just soldiers following orders (well and looking for a fun duel), while the Duo, were seeking petty vengeance for Yuya’s victory over Isao. The Amazons were honorable and fought fairly, while the Duo were underhanded and tricky. Yuya fought alongside Shun, someone who is direct and to the point, also an ally, that would be unable to join Yuya across dimensions, where Yuya fought alongside Dennis, an unknown, dishonest, who became an ally later on, and joined them in crossing dimensions.

In this case, these represent both how far Yuya has come (Egao'ing the Amazons), but also the nature of his opponents has now radically changed. People who will face him head on, and use his own battle tactics against him.

The next one up, is Captain Solo, whom we shall compare to Marco. Both are teachers at their respective school, and were first enemy of that dimension to defend their world from invasion. Both of their decks use, a water, and a dark monster. The only difference is one uses a Dark Warrior and Aqua Water (Marco), the other uses Dark Fiend and Warrior Water (Solo).

Furthermore, both of these bosses, are lockdown based (see Last Warrior from Another Plant and Pirate Captain), that nominally affects each player. Warrior, however has far more restrictions, and easier to play around (for example you can set). In the case of Pirate Captain, you just cannot. Pirate Captain, you cannot summon at all from the hand (you can however summon from extra deck and graveyard, or with trap monsters).

Against Non-Fusion decks, it makes the monster hard to out. Or at least that is the theoretical idea. The comparison to make, is Warrior, draws from Zombyra, based on the superhero Spawn, more than his other fusion material. Telling us ultimately, that Marco is a heroic character despite playing a lockdown deck. Pirate Captain (or Captain Hook) draws more equally from both fusion materials, and is itself a reference to famous fairytale villain. Already telling us the character of our foe, before we learn its effect. Like the Amazons and the Duo, what Hook represents here the difference between LDS and Academia, if the Duo represented difference between Ryozanpaku and Academia.

The final of the dueling assassins, Diana and Apollo. They are dueled separately, and by Yugo, as well as Kaito. These two play almost the same deck, and make the same plays. Infact they are defeated effortlessly by our heroes, before they move on to rescue the girls. These two are most similar ironically, to Halil and Olga. In they share the same contrast, that one is fire/sun themed (Halil and Apollo) and the other is water/moon (Olga and Diana). Infact furthermore, these even have the genders, and match the respective counterpart.

In contrast, the Diana and Apollo act high and mighty, where Olga and Halil, were (especially Halil case) polite. In addition, Olga and Halil had the same duel vs Man and Yuzu once they joined together as one. At the end of the day small fry, that were defeated by numerous characters, similar to underwhelming performance of Diana and Apollo. Ultimately both represent the obvious obstacle, that hides a more sinister purpose in the end (the captured girls, and Obelisk Force). They both defeat the ones sent and expected to defeat them (Kaito and Yugo, and the Youth Group). Requiring different heroes.

What the difference is how they use tools, Reiji, sent the youth group the moment the Obelisk Force arrived, Leo simply did not care for Diana and Apollo. Olga and Halil more down to earth, representative via natural elements. Where Diana and Apollo decks are more in the clouds representing Leo detachment.

Now, we will end this section with how you know loyalist Academia, from treacherous Academia. Then stick with me for Serge and Barret. Do not worry the loyalist and treacherous section is short.

———————– ———————– ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling: Battle Beast vs Serge

I lie, friends. I am going talk about Serge and Battle Beast, before I talked about how to tell a loyalist from treacherous Academia Soldier. So why these two first? Well first of all, Battle Beast (and his handler Bernie), are the last of the Dueling Assassins. And should be appropriately discussed alongside the previously mentioned Dueling Assassins. They are another key similarity in addition to having handlers, they were ‘killers’, famous individuals within their world. And show Roget and Bernie’s methods of control of their strongest piece in contrast.

The first is Battle Beast, runs a deck of Gladiator Beasts. Which are well a reference to Roman Gladiators. These were slaves, acquired via various means such as war prisoners or selling themselves into slavery to pay off debts, forced to fight for amusement of the Roman People. The other point is they use true contact Fusion, a style no one else in Academia uses (Beside VWXYZ Duelists, which on the other hand cannot contact out).

Furthermore, he is a final exam, and as many of you know have aged poorly over the years competitively. However, the deck’s the nature of relying on mass summoning play very similar to Xyz and Synchro decks. So, beating it would show you have built it a good deck and can beat Synchro, as well as Xyz Deck. Serge second deck, his Earthbounds, represent rather obviously how he returned from the dead.

Furthermore, here comes the comparison. The difference and similarity between these two. In particular, their handlers, first Roget and Serge had a real bond, be it a weird one. When Serge was finally beaten by Jack, that is when Roget finally broke.

The Battle Beast was simply another tool for Sanders. Or perhaps, an example of a failed child. There was another member of Academia, whom was not formally part of any organization and did not play well in teams. Yuri. The Sanders and Yuri are noted to have the same hairstyle, it could be meaningless or important relationship. Both, Yuri and Battle Beast have issues with friends of the lack thereof, and both are Academia’s Secret Weapon.

Furthermore, Sanders, let us not forget did two things. First, he went and fought alongside Battle Beast when he needed help, and second berated him, and was disappointed. Furthermore, he used the same deck as Battle Beast, but when an authoritarian vibe to it. Yuri loneliness could have stemmed from being the son of the disciplinarian at the school. I will stop myself here, because I am getting into fanon.

What I was getting at is despite, seeing Battle Beast as a tool, unlike Roget, Sanders entered the fray directly. And not just did he entered the fray directly, he willingly accepted his carding. Roget refused to not just lose, but Death. He was a coward to the end, and despite having a real bond with Serge, in the end didn’t care. Sanders still saw the Battle Beast as a student he could teach and maybe improve on and ultimately cared for his students more than himself.

———————– ———————– ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling Loyalty

Now for the, basic 101 how to tell a treacherous Academia Soldier from a Loyalist. These cards tell us, at a glance aspects and things about a character before we even get a chance to really meet them.

The Loyalist, uses dogs. Or lupine themed beings as their primary Boss monsters. This is a representation of the loyalty of the dog. In irony, Serena and Sora both have wolf/lupine themed cards in real life (Dog and Crimson Fox) they never use in the show. It should be noted, like cats, dogs aren’t necessarily evil, with Barret and Sora, both are loyal to their homes if to a fault.

-Barret upon his return used wolf or lupine themed Boss monster’s vs Lancers. BeastBorg Wolf. Initially he only used Beastborg Panther, and took Serena to standard when he was supposed to keep her at home -The Juvenile Police and Obelisk Force iconic monsters are Dog Themed. They are completely loyal to Academia -Ironically Lunalight Wolf, a Pendulum, is one of the last cards Serena played is a wolf. -Sora upon his returned used Des Toy Wolf

Traitors or soon to be Traitors used Cat Themed Monsters. These represent the fickleness of kitty cats, and how in comparison to dogs, they are portrayed as mischievous. It is not however mean they are evil, as cats, here can also be something like a noble lion. Serena is an example of this. -Serena, her primary monsters are all Cat Themed. Her boss monster is Lio Dancer and her other Pendulum is Tiger -Sora, upon his return used Saber-Tiger as his primary Boss Monster -Grace first of the Amazoness to turn used Liger as her Boss -Battle Beast using the Gladiator Beast Noxious, is another example, this being the case -Leo, is in the name

Human Themed Boss, have conflictions about their role, and often betray or leave Academia. A notable exception of this is Captain Solo and Barret are notable exceptions. However Barret does betray Academia. They are treacherous, because as well as now know, Leo was a fool. The fact they could think through this, and make to a decision themselves, represents them thinking for themselves.

-Edo and Alexis Boss Monsters are both Humanoid Theme and conflicted about Academia’s mission in the End -Gloria, betrays Academia at her sisters Behest -Roget fused two Soldiers to make Ancient Gear Devil -Serena and Barret’s, cards are anthromorphic animals.

Now then time for Shinji and Resistance! Then we go to the final section, Lancers!

—————- —————- ARC-V Symbolism via Dueling, Shinji and the Resistance

Greetings friends, before we begin our final conversation about the Lancers, I will talk about the Anti-Hero’s Shinji, and La Resistance. Both of them are examples where what they commit result in them being no better than their foes. But now then about these two in particular, beside both being enemies then allies to our heroes, and having a sense of determination, why do I compare these two in particular?

Well first off, Shinji claims symbolic meeting behind his Bee Force. That Bee’s work together to create a better future. However, let us not forget they all serve the Queen Bee. And furthermore, remember the reason behind his story, (and even Enjiro), the Tops had better decks, better cards and beat him, regardless of their own skill. What Shinji shows is both his blindness as a person, and his own hate blinding him (just like Shun and Kaito). In his duel vs Ninjabro, his monsters were far more far aggressive, in fact he attacked the stadium without care and logic. He has aggravated, choose to stung. A result that would kill him.

The contrast as I will discuss in the Lancer’s Section, Ninjabro monsters were efficient direct and straight to the point. No unnecessary explosions, no unnecessary attacks. No endangering the Civilians. Shinji viva la revolution would hurt commons to. It was their shops being destroyed, it was their property being wrecked. And some like the kids, whom have yet to do anything we’re being threatened.

The B-Force schizophrenic strategy, his accusation of Tuning Magician being weak, is a perfect example of his blindness and lack of understanding. Furthermore, attacking the Goyo’s with regular run of the mill main deck monster, showed off his anger before reason. Now why I do compare him to the Resistance?

Well first off, we see Resistance using Mecha Phantom Beasts to defend vs Academia. These are mostly wind monsters first off to provide a contrast to Academia’s Earth. And furthermore, with the exception of Allen, every Resistance member has monster has wings of some kind. What are Mecha Phantom Beasts? A military like organization just like Academia. In addition, they were quick to distrust and discount outsides, when Yuya and company arrived in Xyz Dimension.

Just as Sora had discounted Yuya help, when he entered to help vs Yuto. In addition, Kaito would have carded the Lancers, despite them being their allies. All three of the main Resistance members (Kaito, Shun and Yuto), wished to seek vengeance on Academia and in their blindness missed the truth. Just as Shinji misses the truth that laid right in front of him. And the reality of the matter.

The point of the above comparison, is that Shinji and Resistance, show what happened when you give into blind hatred and reject 'egao’.

————- ————- ARC-V Symbolism Via Dueling- Setting

To tie this all together in the end. Is the following ideal, these character shows and represent our environment. Showing how parallel worlds, and differences have resulted in different characters and shaped their ideologies.

I did not discuss it here, but their decks and character also represent how they grew up different, in the case of the nostalgia characters. The bigger issue is that as shown via Dueling Assassins and comparable characters earlier on in the show. The difference represents how in each case their environment affected. However, let us get to the meat and potatoes, our heroes the lancers, and the shows core cast from season one to end of the show.

In the case of Academia, we see utterly ruthlessly individual who taking winning to the extreme. But also, value honor, and dignity. The city we see law and order above all, but a sense of curtailing of unnecessary violence. And finally, in regards to standard dimension, we see those who grew up and ultimately live for entertainment. In this we come to the eight lancers, who represent the various worlds of this show, and our heroes to save the day.

————— ————— What will we be ending on?

The final section is another characters who are the Show Original that became Lancers, bar the eight counter parts. These eight men and lady are the following. And will combined to create 4 Subsections.

The Lancers and Their Roles The Man and Sawatari Sora and Shun NinjaBro and Dennis Layra and Reiji

Then we will have a final discussion, regarding a point mentioned throughout the Egao.

#arc v #ygo arc v #yugioh arc v #a5 #yu gi oh! arc v

[justatalkingface]

No idea if I send this one before (I think not) but here we go. I think Izu op could have worked! Controversial take, I know.

I mean...if Hori hadn't this mentality "Izu needs to suffer bc I hate him" this could be a 0 to hero story as Izu ends up having a powerful quirk. But for that to work we would need a few things

(Note how Hori seems to love the underdog trope but failing miserable)

1) time skip. Izu cant master ofa in a few weeks. On that note, the second user cant be bk 3.0

2) a writer who is interested in explored the ofa and what it can do. Like, what if Izu can have a quirk awaken? That would be cooler.

3) senseis who know what they are doing and who helped Izu not only physically but mentally. Wouldn't be swell if Izu stoped thinkig he is worthless? If bk got consequences and Izu CAN be mad at him for what bk did? Yes it would.

4) and a sense of limit. Yes, I did mentioned how op Izu can work but if he gets too op and can face all the big bad villains, if he can use ofa 100%...it would be a bit stalled in terms of writing "dont fret, super Izu is here". It would be Izu repeat AM's mistake. What I would do is make Izu, who after proper training and well used time skip earned how to use his quirk safely, has a support group. Ochako, Iida, Shoto and whatnot. Meaning is not just Super Izu alone.

Friendship wins.

But of course....Hori didn't went to this route. And the timeline is really ....a joke.

Anyway, to end. I do think the concept of op Izu could have worked if Hori had stopped his hate for Izu and focused on the mc and developed more ofa.

I... have mixed feelings about OP characters in stories, mostly because they don't do them right. The thing is, an OP character, on the scale we're talking about here, because in chapter one, All Might sets that ceiling of OP way up there? That is someone so... stupidly strong that they actually direct national policy just by their very existence; quite possibly the world changes because they exist. And I feel that, most of the time, stories either: A, ignore the implications that this person can beat up God and isn't hiding that fact, or B, makes some shallow attempts at acknowledging it, but quickly moves on from those attempts so they can fight their equally OP enemies without giving it it's due.

The point being is that introducing an OP person is something a writer should use carefully, the same way they should treat time travel, if they're not just some villain driven off by the power of love, friendship, this gun I found, and the McGuffin used to beat them.

...However, MHA is interesting to me in that it started off by doing it better than normal, with All Might. The story starts by insisting that All Might is so damn broken that Japan itself actually worked differently after he heroed for awhile, even though, as far as we can tell, he did nothing to actually try and manipulate national policy or anything like that.

He just existed, and everything changed in response.

And, while I admit I wasn't thinking that hard about it when I first read the story, the initial set up actually was in a great place to work with an OP Izuku... if almost everything after the initial setup went differently, anyways.

Let me explain.

So, early MHA, those initial chapters, just hinted at a lot of depth to it. Philosophical, legal, societal; part of the reason I, and probably others, fell in love so fast is that it was approaching the usual super hero thing from a new direction, and seeming to acknowledge the flaws in such a system the ways other stories generally don't.

Back then, it was the difference between being a Hero, the job description, and being a hero, someone who saved people, and how wildly disconnected those two terms were. The disparity between the weak and the strong, Quirklessness as something five seconds from being called a disability, a heroic system that had been slowly festering in on itself, for years and years and years, until we get people like Mt Lady, who caused god knows how much property damage just to kill steal a villain away from Kaminio Woods, who had the situation under control.

Into this toxic mess of a situation walks Izuku Midoriya: kind, smart, beaten down on for all his life for being weak, yet determined to stand up for what is right anyways, blinded by childish naivety and propaganda to how fucked up the world of heroes truly is.

And the man who changed Japan with his mere existence gave him his power, the power to stand above everyone else, to do anything he wants, because once he masters One For All, the only one able to stop Izuku? Would be himself.

And here's where it would have to change: Izuku's conflict, for most of the story, is simply about fighting; not about right or wrong, not should he do this, but can he do this? There is something he wants to earn, or a person he needs to beat, and so he tries to do it. Sometimes he does it by being smarter, more often he does it by being stronger, and sometimes, and too often for my tastes, or at least at the wrong times, he just can't.

Hori gives up on all the things that made MHA so interesting, only giving them empty lip service from that point on, so he can just do the usual shonen plot.

But imagine if he didn't. Imagine Izuku's conflicts being about idealism. He's strong, unbelievably strong, the second coming of All Might, acknowledged as such by the man himself, who may even admit that he is retiring. In a fight, Izuku wins, plain and simple; hell, he may have to worry about keeping his opponents alive rather than if he can beat them or not.

But that's not where the problems come from, beating X person in a straight up fight. The problems come from the system itself: a machine made to chew up idealistic kids and spit out cynical, money hungry heroes. An entire department in UA devoted to selling an image to the public, ruthlessly trying to take advantage of the new students while they're too new to realize what's happening. A bigoted, self-important teacher who hates him just for what he is, and is determined to ruin his career because he can. A government agency determined to control heroes and direct them to their own aims, who take an interest in this budding super star, and their pawn, merciless yet conflicted, who will kill to see their will done. A media system determined to get headlines, no matter the cost or who it may harm. A Number Two Hero ascendant, cruel and calculating, who uses his own offspring as pawns and views Izuku as a threat to his rise. Villains who, knowing they can't take him in a fair fight, try to beat Izuku in other ways, more complicated and sinister than a simple fight. Festering in his mind like a dark secret, Izuku's entire life as a Quirkless child, despised by the world for being Deku, for being useless, an old pain and shame that still defines him and shapes him, even if he's not longer Quirkless.

And with all this arrayed against him and his dreams, all Izuku has to guide him onto the proper path is his mentor, wise yet cynical and broken in his own ways, and his own innate spirit of heroism. And the choices he makes? Effects millions.

Leaning into what they said they were about, the League of Villains would not be a bunch of crazed murderers, but what Hori wants us to think of them: people beaten down by society until they felt they had no other choice but to fight back. Toga who isn't a deluded serial killer, Spinner and Compress with more development, and yes, the Dabi Benchmark of Insanity(TM) to keep them all sympathetic, because their purpose here isn't just as villains who have to be beaten... their purpose here is also about how heroes react to them.

To a LoV who is milder in what they do, so they still get heroic ire, still get labeled as, 'villains'... only for them not really to deserve that label, the hatred they get from the public, and the force used against them.

And Izuku, who is no longer a spectator but on the front line, sees that. He sees how they're getting tarred by the brush of 'villain', the way they're getting discriminated against because of their Quirks, and the eerie similarities it has to his own treatment as a QUirkless child.

And yet, the ones doing it are heroes, the ones he looks up to, and all but worshipped for his entire life, the ones supported by everything he's seen in his entire life, by the entirety of Japan.

And that is where the conflict is, that is what the story focuses on: what is right? What is a hero? What is a villain?

...

Well, that's how I would do an OP Izuku story, anyways.

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #OP has consquences #Hero vs hero #the chronic lack of quirklessness development #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption #the dabi benchmark of insanity

[justatalkingface]

The worst part about the dark Deku arc in my opinion is the completely mixed messages. By attacking Izuku and criticizing what he did, they said the lives of all the people he saved weren't worth it. That he was stupid for leaving and should have stayed in his ivory tower with them. It wasn't like this guy was just fighting AFO and left school because these fodder children weren't enough. He saved MANY lives and took down numerous, murderous people who would have been left completely unchecked because Japan apparently does not have a military and the police aren't interested in protecting the citizens. Heroes are all that stands between total anarchy it seems, and most of them retired despite a crisis being the best possible time to earn fame and accolades. The civilians are left to fend for themselves with black market support gear they're so incompetent at using that they take themselves out with it and also wreck their own neighborhoods. Yo Shindo would be dead if Izuku stayed at UA. That's a point the narrative ignores. Muscular could have killed hundreds of people, thousands if he felt like it, and who could have stopped him? The man can withstand 100% OFA punches. That giant animal lady? She'd have been brutalized in a hate crime for no good reason. The fodder kids spit on all these actions. This man is out there actually helping people and saving lives, and their answer is to drag him back to their little safe zone where they keep all the civilians. Sure, let's put all our eggs in one basket and create a single point of failure! Why can't they all just join him in hero work? All 20 of them could be kicking ass and taking names. At least then we'd see the hero kids actually helping people for once. Yes, Izuku's lack of self care and mentality was self destructive, but the end result is that people were better off because he did it. He was being stupid for neglecting his own self care, not for leaving. If Izuku behaved the way they wanted him to, Nagant, Dictator, Muscular, and many others would still be in AFO's pocket and ready for deployment. Also, Aoyama was still the traitor and he 100% would have led Izuku into a trap if ordered to. Staying at UA would have created a worse outcome but the story doesn't acknowledge this at all. And it also didn't address Izuku's concerns, like you said. Bakugo dies, and Jiro loses an ear. We know these injuries will of course be reversed because the heroes have access to Eri who is like a senzu bean basically. But they didn't get massive power ups or anything. They just attacked a guy who didn't want to fight them and wouldn't beat them all into the dirt with Black Whip, like he totally and easily could have.

The funniest thing to me is AFO's complete inability to kill anyone. His confirmed kills are previous OFA holders, and this clown show is out here unable to kill literal children. The "Symbol Of Evil", everyone. What's funnier is that he treated Endeavor like an ant back at Kamino. The guy was completely beneath him. But then Endeavor gets buffed to be one of the strongest people in the world inexplicably and is capable of inflicting fatal wounds on AFO. All the training and upgrades in MHA happen off screen. It's the strangest thing how we've got a school setting, but it's the kids themselves doing all the training and inventing of new attacks and breakthroughs. They've got loads of pro hero mentors and a super genius principal who could theoretically give them the most efficient training plans possible and maximize their use of their quirks, but Mina trains with Bakugo and Shoto to perfect her acid. Well, I guess she's right. They're the ones at the forefront of fighting a war for their country, while many other heroes with more training and experience decided to just stay home. Which again, is the oddest thing. Are they hoping Shigaraki won't decay them when he wins? That AFO won't do a hero purge? We don't see them all fleeing Japan on planes or boats or anything. A lot of these people would have a decent amount of money and could leave with all their assets. Just straight up abandon ship. But we hear about them quitting because they don't like being criticized but not what they plan to do after. The cracks show a lot in MHA. It relies on so many contrivances to function. It's not a story that runs on cause and effect. As you said, everything has to go perfectly for things to work right. You mentioned Machia in another post, and it perfectly illustrates things. Imagine if the guy didn't suddenly decide to attack his master and instead he just crushed all these heroes. They have no one capable of defeating him and Momo's stuck at UA acting as a battery (lol) so they don't have a convenient drug to take him out this time. But of course they had the idea to use Gigantomachia against his allies, and of course when he was broken out of Shinso's brainwashing, he actually secretly hated AFO and wanted to fight him. Because the alternative is this being a suicidal, stupid plan and getting everyone killed when AFO frees his friend! The heroes always get to benefit from these unearned victories. They didn't flip Machia. They didn't earn his trust, or speak to him about his trauma and learn his past. They didn't have a heart to heart with him about his motivations and convince him he's more than a tool to be used by a megalomaniac. They didn't show him photos of all the people he crushed and ask him to make amends for what he did and help end the war he was used to start. No, he just gets a new personality with no build up to help stall a guy who can't manage mass fatalities we know he should be capable of, considering he destroyed Kamino VERY quickly. It's just like how Dabi has been shown to be able to turn people into charcoal in seconds with his flames, and also melt metal, but when he burns Hawks, he manages to barely damage his quirk a bit. And then the guy gets support gear so it's functionally like it never happened. The villains are always jokes in this series. Every victory they have is pyrrhic and there's a contrivance that lets the heroes still manage to get one over. This is the first narrative I've seen that's so openly biased for the main characters and doesn't try to hide it.

So the thing is with the Dark Deku arc? In many ways, it's the culmination of everything Hori's set up and left to rot. It's all these threads about heroic society Hori left blowing in the wind.

In other words? It's complicated. It's so so complicated, it's an arc that is all about complicated things, difficult subjects, and problems that don't have easy answers, and Hori treated it like it was a simple topic... but he couldn't even keep that up. It's such a mess, it's not even funny.

Because the thing is? You're right, Izuku did do good things while he wasn't in school. He saved people, many people, and that's something the story didn't acknowledge... at all. Meanwhile, his classmates, for all that they are trained to be heroes, trained to go and fight and protect, are sitting safe at home.

The thing is, though, that they are still children, all of them. Children shouldn't have to risk their lives for other people. They should live their lives, enjoy their youths. This is the moral question.

At the time though, on a logical level, each hero trained is, potentially, hundreds or thousands of people saved in the future; by allowing them to stay safe and grow up, far more people will be saved, theoretically, than if they were to be deployed in the field right now to save people. At the same time, though, Japan is in crisis, heroics as a whole is threatening to collapse under its own weight, and if they sit on their asses rather than help, there may not be a tomorrow for them. This is the logical question.

So morally, logically, which choice is right? Which is wrong? Is there even a right answer? What is the price someone should pay for others? What should a child give up for society? What are you willing to sacrifice to live how you want? What burden are you willing to bear for another's sake?

These are the kinds of questions this arc askes, and it's something you can't just avoid for as serious a topic as this. Personally, I'd say the answer is somewhere between these two points, but every story has its own moral and message it is ultimately saying is right or wrong, and that is eventually proved correct by the story itself. Sometimes it's that the day can be saved, if you just try hard enough, and that friendship is everything. Sometimes it's that the world is bitter and cold, and that only the strong and lucky survive.

Here's the problem MHA is suffering from, what this arc and Izuku ultimately exemplify: what is Hori saying is right? What is the moral or message that is correct here?

Yeah... Hori has no fucking idea. And, I've said this before, the fact he doesn't even seem to know what he wants beyond, 'ACTION! MORE ACTION! EXPLOSIONS! I CAST FIST!' is something that severely damages the overall story telling. It really feels like he doesn't know where things are even going, sometimes.

Ah, AFO. I really, honestly, feel sorry for him. He's just so... pathetic now. He suffers from being made too strong for the setting, and so Hori keeps having to nerf him just to explain why everyone is still alive. Like, really, honest truth? If I was AFO? I would have just, like, poisoned All Might years ago; none of this fair fight nonsense. The second All Might became a viable threat he should have started cheating like the criminal genius he apparently is, and taken advantage of all of the many, many advantages he has, between his Quirks, his resources, and his ruthlessness.

The spin off manga says AFO tried to steal Erasure back when Aizawa was still in training, which... yeah, that makes sense. Then he fails, and then... never tries again. Ever.

Am I the only one who sees the problem here?

I've seen people say that Aizawa, a man employed as a teacher in perhaps one of the most visible schools in existence, is too off the radar for him to find. When, apparently, AFO has his finger in the government, and criminal element, he is unable to... check his tax record to find out where he lives, or to have someone follow him home, or ambush him after he leaves the school he has to go to, or anything like that. Or, hell, just kill him, if Erasure is somehow too hard for him to get.

Oh well, I guess that's too much work for one of the most OP Quirks in the setting, one that can easily counter his All Might problem, or cripple him personally. Better to just ignore it entirely instead; what could go wrong with that?

Remember when AFO bitch slapped just about every top hero, minus All Might, causally? How in the fuck is Endeavour a threat to him now?

Yeah. The thing is, AFO is too strong, plain and simple. Even in a setting where All Might, who changes the weather while holding back exists, much less everyone without OFA. If he was allowed to have a fraction of the brains and fire power that we're told again and again that he has, the story never would have happened, because OFA would have been taken or destroyed generations before All Might even became a thing, before Izuku was even born. But the story is still happening, and people keep successfully beating him, and they need to keep beating, and will continue to until he is finally defeated. Does that make sense? No, but the show must go on.

On all the people not putting their part in... to be fair, we see a more personal version of Shigaraki than almost anyone else, in story. There's a real question of how many people even know what his goals are, much less who would believe it, since it's kind of nuts to say the least. Under that logic, I could see them not thinking it's worth the danger to themselves, though the fact they're willing to just sit there and do nothing when their ultimate fate is up to grabs, when they could actually make a difference, unlike so many other people, is... stupid. But people are often stupid, so to some extent, that is understandable, but you'd think the people who trained themselves to fight every day would be more willing to put their lives on the line... though, that goes back to the 'corrupt heroes' thing Hori keeps dropping.

Really, Machia's entire thing there is so mind numbingly dumb that, even though I made a post about how bad it is, I'm still surprised no one stopped to ask, 'And then what?' when Shinso proposed it. Brainwash is very powerful Quirk, don't get me wrong, but it is not a Quirk that is made for direct slug match like that... but Shinso is too cool to not include, so there we go, I guess! Hori does everything possible to justify him making a big, dramatic contribution to the fight when the smarter, yet absurdly obvious choice is Shinso just telling Machia to walk off to the other end of Japan, cover his ears, and wait there forever so that one of the most dangerous people in the story just doesn't participate in the final fight. But, you know, Post War is about the how COOL it is! For the cliffhangers! And Machia taking a nap, no matter how smart a choice, isn't a DRAMATIC CLIFFHANGER!

And that's the thing, really: so much of the worst choices in MHA (that aren't from long running overarcing problems that come from far earlier in the story, anyways) are about that, cheap drama. Every poor choice that everyone has criticized ultimately boils down to making every chapter DRAMATIC and EXCITING, by making every possible scene look cool, even if it needs to be promptly taken back in the very first panel of the next chapter that follows it, even if it conflicts with things he's said before, even if it makes everyone involved an idiot. Hori has taken the worship of cliffhangers above everything else in MHA, over story, or logic, or characters, or messages,; any and all of it will be sacrificed to the altar of 'does this make the fans want to read the next chapter?'.... which, ironically, makes the fans not want to read the next chapter anymore, because people didn't get into this story because of big hits and dramatic scenes.

And each cliffhanger has built off each other, until we've gotten here, to the point where the story doesn't even make sense anymore, where the most common comment I see reading each chapter is, 'I don't understand what is happening, I guess I'll have to wait for the anime to make it make sense', or, even more damning, 'I don't care anymore'.

The heroes win, and the villains lose, not because of of the choices they've made, or how strong they are, but because reality itself bends over to make it so. And nobody wants to read that.

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #AFO is being nerfed HARD #hori's inability to choose a message #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption #give me logic not cliffhangers

[justatalkingface]

I just saw your recent rant on the manga and i couldnt agree more.

My main issue with the current manga chapters is the fact that the characters are not fully developed enough to the point where the main themes and arguements can be handles correctly.

What i mean is, the LOV initially starting out kind of aimless and mad at the world to confronting the fact that the problems they faced were systematic would better help their arguements as well as if they were allowed to be morally grey and showcase compassion and empathy for people who suffered as they did then we would feel more sympathy for them and make the conflict more dynamic. Instead they are saying all the right things but it all seems to be surface level and not like the characters fully contemplated this.

Likewise, the heroes havent been allowed to consider the corruption and ramifications of hero society prior to the war arc in a meaningful way. It all came during the war arc and when it did it felt flat, like there was little depth to their arguements at all. Like Hori didn't really consider the deeper implications of his themes here. This is extreamly prominent in the side characters such as Monoma, Shinsou, Shoji and Tsuyu. All have themes of discrimination they discuss and showcase but Midoriya nor they contemplate it any further which renders the heroes feeling so shallow in their arguements. The most moral greyness we get is Monoma saying that they cannot be heroes the typical way to Shinsou and must act unheroicly to compensate for it.

Its all there. But it hasnt been explored well enough so we end up with Bakugou and Endeavour getting more focus without contemplation for how hero society helped create this and Midoriya being wierdly naive and hypocritical. All the heroes end up being hypocritcal alongside the villains and not in a 'oh theyre just as bad as the other' intentional way but in a 'i did not consider the arguements in their totality' kind of way.

This and the entire premise and consequences of the Nomu's not being acknowledged (thats a whole different rant) feel so underexplored and end up making me very fustrated with the manga. Because the building blocks were there, but for whatever reason it ended up being so underdeveloped.

I've said it before, but a lot of the villain/hero dynamic is built off a situation Hori seems actively afraid to explore after the manga progressed to a certain point.

Originally, MHA was built off the idea of flaws in society, the failures it causes, the people it alienates... deep ideas, and deeply interesting ones. But the thing is, looking at that kind of thing makes the good guys look bad. If heroes are flawed, if they fail people because of their own issues, then that makes them harder to root for, and at some point, probably because of Endeavour and Bakugou, Hori started almost running from that happening.

But, its so baked into the story's lore that he can't ditch it, so we get surface deep nods to 'failure' of heroes, while we watch heroes do and say everything right, all the time. No indivision, no selfishness, just all in devotion to the cause of making everything better.

At the same time, though, the villains are supposed to have a point, but if they go into that, if they seem like rational actors, again, the heroes look bad. So, the villains double down into cartoon villainous bullshit, before spouting out empty sounding platitudes about how unhappy they are... that everyone response to like that makes sense.

It runs the overall narrative, but more than that, without these imperfections, without the real people in the bad guys, it destroys their character development as well. No one like a one dimensional character, they want the interest and depth of a person to connect to, doubly so when this one dimensional character seems to be so wildly disconnected with the actual reality they're living in.

If the heroes, the perfect, selfless heroes, willing to give their lives amass to save one person, live in a society so corrupt as to make these monsters, to the point where that corruption surrounds their day to day life... why aren't doing something about it? Why are they fine with this status quo? Why is no one trying to reform the heroic system, however that works in reality? Why aren't they fighting the HSPC?

If the villains have all these causes and ideas and grievances, why don't they do something about it beyond just killing people? Shigaraki (who lived an absurdly sheltered life before being lead by the nose to losing his shit about reality, before he stopped being a relevent character/villain) and Dabi (who had executed a plan to solve his problem, even if it got fucked up by writing changes later on) have excuses, but why don't Twice, Toga and Compress, these big, dramatic personalities, broadcast... anything about what they want to say? Being part of the League, these big time villains, gives them, among other things, a platform to spread their message to all of Japan, and this is by design on their parts; they joined to fulfil these dreams and ambitions, and fight everything that oppressed them.

Why doesn't Toga, like, break into news stations to spread her message? Why didn't Twice flash-mob an elaborate graffiti manifesto onto an entire city? After all, a hint of them talking would bring slavering reporters to televise everything in droves, there's no way the heroes could suppress the sheer amount of publicity they could so easily generate.

Why? Because then that ruins the story. Not the actual story, but the little one Hori has made inside of it, where the good heroes beat the bad villains, then everyone cheers and goes on with their lives, the end. No depth. No deep thinking. No villains you can truly sympathize with, or heroes you can despise.

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption

[justatalkingface]

The Failure of Corruption in Heroes

So, here's the thing with MHA: when it first started, it made a lot of promises to the readership; there's Izuku becoming a hero, of course, but I'm talking more about the unstated promises, about the themes that were presented to us, which are as much the reason I got as into the story as I did as the characters were. A lot of these themes, over time, have fallen to the wayside, and today I'm talking about one I mention again and again: corruption in heroics.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that early on this was one of the biggest themes we were shown, and one that presented as early as the first chapter, no less.

From Mt. Lady kill stealing for glory, to Stain getting a cult following for killing the "corrupt" (more on my contempt for Stain later), heroic corruption was referred all over early on, and even now, in the grim post war era it still clings to life.

Here's the problem: where are the corrupt heroes?

I can count, on one hand, all of them: there's three who are on screen for more than five minutes, Endeavour, Hawks, and Lady Nagant. There's aso that mole for the MLF that get picks up before the raid who is there for about a minute.

And... that's it.

I mean, that's three and a half examples; that seems pretty good, right? The thing is that this problem isn't supposed to be an aberration, it's supposed to be systemic. Stain murders people, and one speech seems to give him a cult following, to the point where he has merch. This is something that almost every major villain talks about; this is supposed to be a lot more prevalent than Endeavour and the Hero Commissions barely expanded on black ops squad.

Where's the heroes taking bribes, or working with small time villains? Where the abuse of power? Where are all the other abusive spouses? Where is all the typical things you'd expect of a corrupt law enforcing institution?

On top of that, there was a focus early on about what heroes meant, but after awhile that petered out as well.

One of the big things of MHA, you see, is that hero is a multifaceted word in setting; it refers to people who save people, yeah. It's also a job, though, one with massive influence, merchandising, public accolades and presumably income.

Izuku, early one, seemed like he'd be the one to... redeem heroics, take them back to their more vigilante roots of just helping people rather than having it as some big popularity contest... which it honestly is? We don't really know what metrics go into ranking heroes, which honestly is probably a damaging concept in itself, but it seems to be heavily involved with the public perception of said heroes, if not completely coming from it.

We had a nice contrast to Izuku, to show this grey area, with Bakugou, who wanted to be rich and famous, Ochako, who wanted money for her family, and just the way UA itself operates at times, with things like the Sports Festival being as much about branding as anything else, and the heroes in the first chapter just standing around instead of trying to save the child dying in front of them.

And the thing is, all of that is a good setup for Izuku, as an audience proxy, to start getting past his blind hero worship and start questioning the system he wants to be a part of; not just how it fails the regular people, but also how it preys on heroes themselves, but it just never happens. That grey area starts fading away over time.

I think it was supposed to be sparked by Stain, at some point into something more, and in story, that's apparently what happened. In reality...

Yeah... about Stain. He has a point, in theory. He's a crazy serial killer, but he's not completely wrong. In practice though? He's supposed to hunt the corrupt. We... we don't see that. Almost all the heroes he's attack have been, at best, names, and then there's Tensei, who I'll get to in a second. If these are corrupt heroes, shouldn't we... hear about that? That they were threatening people, maybe, or taking bribes, or... something, to spark these attacks? And that's not even getting into Tensei, who, from everything we've seen in the spin off, was honestly the ideal kind of hero, kind, helpful, inspirational.

So, it's weird that Stain is attacking him, right?

Actually, not really. Stain has this idealized view of heroes, where if they aren't All Might, society's vision of the ideal hero and someone he almost literally worships, they aren't worth living, and that's why he falls flat as this big symbol of societies darkness or whatever; attacking heroes for failing to be heroic, for doing bad shit, is one thing, something that makes his takes more valid. What he's actually doing is attacking everyone that doesn't meet his personal vision of perfection, which pretty much invalidates whatever is left of his point once you got past all the murdering.

And then, as if to lampshade how much he doesn't work, Hori gets rid of him right after, and after maybe ten chapters he almost never comes up again.

So why is it like this? This is something I brought up when I talked about the League, if approached from the other direction: Hori is afraid of his heroes being wrong, and while he makes the villains always seem wrong to discredit them, he also makes his heroes always seem right so they seem infallible. At this point, I'm not sure if he chickened out part way through his writing, or editors or the industry stopped him, or he just never meant to go in depth into all of this, but so much of the story revolves around the idea that heroes are imperfect.

But we don't see that.

Can you imagine how much harder all the Stain stuff would have hit, for example, if every time he attacked someone he leaked an exposé on who he attacked and why? If every 'victim' he attacked turned out to be a criminal in their own right? And, I feel like I'm doing Tensei dirty by saying this, but imagine the development for Iida if he finds out his brother, his beloved brother he looked up to, was bad? Did bad things? Maybe even, dare i say deserved to be attacked? How his internal debate over taking up the name Ingenium would have looked?

Or when Momo is apprenticed to a hero who spends all her time on fashion shows and commercials, if she said, 'No, I became a hero to save people, not to sell out', and took a stand against a woman who seemed to be almost using her to make a quick buck .

Or... anything, really.

Because for this big, systemic issue, all we really have is Endeavour, who Hori started engaging in Initial D worthy U-Turns to try and salvage the perception of his character almost immediately after he was introduced. Less than a year of in story after it started, no non-villain ever says an unkind word about him any more because he's apparently changed that much. We also have Hawks and the Commission pulling his strings, but since they were killed off off screen that's just... better now, apparently, and we should never talk about them ever again even if the organization itself is still there, and Lady Nagant who, as a character introduced Post War, by default barely even exists.

Oh, and you know, Post War itself. Let me sum up how Post War talked about heroic corruption in the press conference shortly after it begins:

Hawks: Ah, yes, cold-bloodedly executing Twice really tore me up. Deep inside.

*pats chest*

Right here.

Reporter: ...Your heart is on the other side of your body. That's so far to the side... there's nothing important even there.

Hawks: And?

Reporter: Endeavour! Endeavour! What do you say to critics who cite... *checks notes* ...Your entire existence?

Endeavour: Watch me.

Reporter: What? What does that have to do with-

Endeavour, louder: Watch me!

Reporter: But what abou-

Endeavour, screaming now as he burns down the podium: WATCH ME!!!!

Hawks, under orders, joined a bunch of villains for months, apparently killed someone to get entry, blended enough that only a perpetually paranoid shell of a human being saw through his act, and killed a man on national television.

Endeavour was so desperate for success that he married a woman to breed her like she was cattle, and discarded every child she bore like a particularly jaded gatcha player until he got the proxy he desired for his ambitions.

I know I hammed up the responses a lot, but their answers to these problems answered nothing, solved nothing, and barely acknowledged anything, yet it was presented to us as, well, important, like it helped show how sorry they are, and how much they really mean that they'll do better this time, honest.

And this is the pinnacle of the supposed corruption in the later parts of the story, since stuff was theoretically happening off screen, while Lady Nagant showed up and repented in a matter of minutes.

The thing is, for this big, corrupt system, one that is failing so badly that it's collapsing, we never really see the corruption. It's only there, conveniently, so it can provide backstories to motivate the villains, and then vanishes. Meanwhile, all the heroes are, to a man, woman, and apprentice, blindingly Good, willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause (or for Hori's fan favorite), or at worst willing to quit when they don't think they can do it anymore, and that doesn't seem particularly corrupt, now does it?

You can tell us until you're blue in the face about how the heroic industry is flawed, Hori, but until you actually show us these flaws, it'll only fall flat.

#mha critical #bnha critical #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption #stain is a hollow character #endeavour critical #hawk's abandoned character arc #momo's abandoned character arc #show not tell

[justatalkingface]

Wasn't Mt Lady a corrupt hero at first?

So, I'd like to start this off by apologizing to you, Anon. I did not intend to let this sit in my drafts nearly as long as it has been; I just haven't been in the right place to just sit down and type everything out until now.

The thing is with Mt Lady, or rather, early on Mt Lady, is she's.... corrupt, but she's not majorly so (though Stain would, of course, disagree). She is perhaps the most average person/hero we've had any informational development on. Most heroes we get a look at are upper case H Heroes, that don't match the corruption talked about in story, but Mt Lady is, or was, a view of that mundane hero who wasn't terrible, wasn't murdering people or beating their spouses, but wasn't good, either.

So the thing is the the first thing we see her do is kill steal, and oh, there is so much to unpack there, just by me saying that phrase and having it fit perfectly.

There are mountains of implications to not only that phrase, but the fact that it worked: to start with, it implies that this isn't unique to Mt Lady.

Kamui Woods had the man cornered, was posed to bring him down, and she steals the capture, and the glory, at the last minute. He doesn't protest this, or argue, or even say WTF, he's just depressed. In other words, this is normal, to some extent, this isn't just Mt Lady doing something unprecedented, and that 'stealing' this 'kill', AKA, capturing this villain, was something worth fighting over. Heroes are not cooperating, but are in fact actively competing with each other, for the resources that are criminals.

This is something that's actually genius with how it's presented to us, because it's understated, but this one scene just says so much about the society they're living in, and about heroic society as a whole, and how deeply fucked up it has become.

Mt Lady is developed more in the notes, and we find out she's so desperate for money to pay for the damages caused by her Quirk because, you know, she causes massive property damage all the time.

But.

This is an understandable motive, and it makes her more of a real person than just some greedy asshole, yet this begs a question: should she be a hero, if she can't do it without causing thousands, if not millions, in damages everytime she uses her Quirk?

Mt Lady's Quirk is a powerful one, but it's something she can't actually control, is the thing: if she's using it, something is going to be destroyed, even if her costume is designed to mitigate it, because she just becomes that big and that heavy. In becoming a hero, she became locked into a vicious cycle of doing heroic deeds to pay the bills, which in the process of doing this causes more bills for her to pay which necessitate even more heroics from her. This cycle, destructive as it is, is apparently fuel for her to be a very active hero, which is the logic behind her being part of the Kamino raid (totally not because she's a hot woman that Hori wanted to draw more often), but we still have to ask: does she cause more damage than she prevents?

Fuck if we know, honestly, because that's a cost/benefit ratio we have no way to possibly answer, but the fact is there's nothing in story that implies that anyone has actually asked this question about her, or anyone else, for that matter. There is, from what we can tell, no actual accountability to heroes as long as they pay the bills or murder someone on national TV... and heroes are uniquely posed to pay these bills easily, and Mt Lady is a bit of an aberration in how much trouble she's having with them.

There's the money they make from their hero-ing, as little as that developed, but from that direction they apparently only make money from crime, only on commision. So, I get that just paying them to exist with nothing to ensure that they actually are working would be messed up, but you have to admit there are some.... perverse incentives to a set up like this. Every hero we've seen is improbably Good and Kind, but this is something that could be easily abused, and with the set up we have for this setting? Probably has been, and often.

Let me bring this back to what I said earlier, that heroes are competing with other heroes to capture villains. As a job, an actual, functional job, being a hero isn't about preventing crime, it's about profiting off it. Every villain we've seen, every crime they've committed, every building filled with people they've destroyed? To a hero, that isn't a tragedy, that's a paycheck. The other major way heroes make money as heroes is by saving people, and the people they save? Are endangered by villains. Technically, earthquakes and fires and the like would also qualify, but the thing is with that, though? Earthquakes don't happen on the regular, and heroes are paid on commision. Without villains to endanger people, there's no way a rescue hero could have any sort of stable income.

If there aren't villains, in other words, then a hero isn't going to be paid as a hero.

So now we look at the side jobs, the others ways they can have an income; modeling and commercials being the only ones we know of, though we can try and guess at others (does Gunhead have a dojo for his martial arts?). Then there's the merchandising. In the early chapters, which established a lot of the normal day to day stuff before Izuku became increasingly disconnected from an average person's life, hero branded products were all over, and if the pictures in the outmakes are legit? Both Midnight and Mt Lady have cosmetics (and there's something about Midnight, who's power puts people to sleep who smell her, having a perfume that makes me raise an eyebrow).

In other words? As long as a hero is popular, not even particularly active, but just loved by the public? The money can just roll in, and the system itself is seemingly designed to incentivize this behavior in them. There are technically consequences to destroying things, but as long as you're.... not Mt Lady, basiclly, these consequences are minimal, probably because there's some sort of heroic insurance or something to prevent a hero from being bankrupted, or they just make that much money.

If you want to be a hero, you need to find a lot of people to arrest, a lot of people in danger, or you need to become a celebrity. And as long as you can do these things successfully, you're going to end up with a lot of cash, and there's very little holding you back doing whatever you want.

With what we've seen about Mt Lady's motives, before she was whitewashed in Generic Hero #274, is that she wants to famous, that she's hungry for attention, adoration from the public, a classic corrupt hero. But with what we know about the system she's in, the way it is forcing her to act just to stay solvent, you have to wonder: is that why she wanted to be a hero? For the fame, for the glory?

Or did heroic society make her into that?

#ask #I'm really sorry it took this long to answer this #mha critical #bnha critical #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption