#thus preventing any of them from true betrayal

[dreams-of-nippon]

Why Bon was actually a decent foster parent in his own way

Manga pamphlet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17tCeZ6hVS4wRhDDvKlsYK3dnm1qhsS5oZwqXPGX4DsE

For people who didn’t read the extra, or got outraged at the false “revelation” about Shinnosuke’s biological father. Bon deliberately pushed Konhatsu away during her teenaged years because of her own confused feelings for him, including romantic ones. He never reciprocated those feelings.

Bon was not a bad foster parent to Konhatsu—he was the complete opposite. He made the best out of a horrible situation despite struggling with his own extreme inner turmoil and grief.

He did what neither of her parents could do: he unwaveringly stood with her throughout all her own attempts to drive him away. She was very much the driver of conflict in their relationship from the beginning as a small child—while he always sought to protect her from a distance, in whatever way he could. And how else did he do that, as a master storyteller? He crafted a new narrative, even though they both knew they could see through the holes in the illusion. She was old enough at six years old to know that her parents failed her, and took her bitterness out on Bon simply because he remained. He was there.

Even Matsuda warned Yotaro that their relationship was a sensitive one, and Matsuda is the only other witness of the true events in their household (and the deaths of her parents).

In this extra, it’s shown that teenaged Konhatsu was a punk-ass rebel hellion who tangled with the police and yakuza while working through her whirlwind of emotions, as which herself later admitted as a mature adult during her teasing / “reveal”. Bon said he would face her as an adult. He must have tried to do so, but her own fiery temper and pride and stubbornness must’ve led her to resist any attempts on his part to smooth their relationship, thus his defeatist air (“do what you want”). Bon behaved so tenderly and affectionately towards Konhatsu whenever she was vulnerable and reciprocative, like when he cut her hair as a child, or during her nightmare as an adult.

It’s not shown that he actively prevented Konhatsu from practicing rakugo, even though she tried to hide it. It seems she had her own resistance to “disrupting the harmony of the craft perfected by men” and her own pride and shame against asking Bon to accept her as his apprentice. She might’ve held some irrational belief that doing so was a betrayal to her father, that it would somehow mean admitting that Bon was better than her father in every way, both as a rakugo master and as a parent. Bon could’ve accepted her apprenticeship as he did Yotaro, had she demonstrated the conviction that Yotaro possessed. Yotaro was the catalyst to their healing.

Bon is only blunt because he is pure and upstanding and feels deeply. Because he’s perfectly honest with people, as is his nature, the two closest people in his life simply used and abused him. Sukeroku was a parasite who used Bon as a walking wallet and housekeeper, knowing that Bon idolised him. Miyokuchi was an actively manipulative parasite who targeted Bon as a pure and decent man to marry and leech off, knowing he would be faithful and hardworking and successful, admitting to Sukeroku that she was too lazy to work as a singer and would rather be a prostitute, later admitting to “working” Bon by playing the prude angle. Neither of them truly loved him, while he loved Sukeroku at least (he didn’t feel strongly for Miyokuchi, since she couldn’t understand his passion for rakugo and merely saw it as time he should be spending with her).

It’s a tragedy that nobody in his younger adult life enabled or returned his capacity for incredible love and tenderness and dedication, driving him inward and forcing him to cling to rakugo. Rakugo was the only thing he really had to call his own, the only thing he ever did for himself. But it was also his redemption, paired with Yotaro’s. Yotaro and Matsuda were unfailing, openly loyal and loving.

Through it all he found he had a family, imperfect as it was, and, finally, peace.

#thoughts #shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu #showa genroku rakugo shinju #yakumo yurakuetei

[basicsofislam]

THE COMPANIONS OF THE PROPHET (PBUH) : Asim bin Thabit (r.a.)

Those who were saved from the darkness of polytheism, unbelief and oppression in the Era of Bliss had a completely different life after attaining the luminous light of Islam and they abandoned everything related to their old days. Anything that reminded them of their life before Islam caused them great suffering. This mood also affected Asim bin Thabit, who was a person from Madinah and who became a Muslim before the Pledge of Aqaba, in a different way.

After becoming a Muslim, Asim decided not to touch any polytheists and not to allow any polytheists to touch him. He always prayed to Allah Almighty to continue this decision.

Hz. Asim joined the Battle of Badr and killed many of the notables of the polytheists. After the Battle of Uhud, a congregation from the tribes of Adal and Qara came to the Messenger of Allah and asked him to send a delegation to them to teach them Islam. The Messenger of Allah sent a delegation headed by Asim to them. However, the people that came to the Messenger of Allah had evil intentions. They planned to trap the Muslims and sell them to Makkan polytheists; thus, they would get a lot of money from them. When they arrived in Raji, they revealed their plan and the Muslim delegates were surrounded by Bedouins with swords.

They said, "We do not want to kill you. Our intention is to sell you to Makkans and to get some rewards from them. Surrender!"

How could Hz. Asim and his friends who saw this betrayal with their own eyes could trust these cruel polytheists? Asim answered them as follows:

"I swore beforehand that I would never accept the protection of polytheists. By Allah, I will never believe in the protection and promise of the unbelievers and I will never surrender to unbelievers"

Then, he started to throw arrows at the polytheists by saying, "O Allah! Inform the Prophet about our situation!" When he threw arrows, he recited poems: "Death is true; life is empty and ephemeral / Whatever is written in fate (qadar) will happen /  People will go to Allah sooner or later. / If I do not fight you, let me die!"

Asim bin Thabit had seven arrows in his quiver. He killed one polytheist with each arrow. When he ran out arrows, he hit the polytheists with his spear. When his spear was broken, he drew his sword. He broke the sheath of his sword and prayed as follows:

"O Allah! I protected your religion at the beginning of today. Now protect my body at the end of today! "Do not allow the polytheists to touch my body."

Finally, he was wounded in two legs and fell down.

Sons of Lihyan martyred seven Companions including Asim bin Thabit by arrows.

The polytheists wanted to cut off his head; they wanted to take his head to Shuhayd's daughter and receive a reward from him. For, Hz. Asim had killed her father, who was a polytheist, at Badr. His daughter called "Sulafa" promised that she would give a reward to the person who cut off Asim's head and brought it to her.

The polytheists of Huzayl rushed in order to cut off Asim's head. However, a group of bees suddenly appeared around Asim. The bee community resembled a dark cloud and they clung to the faces of those approaching Asim’s dead body; they disturbed the polytheists and prevented them from approaching the dead body. The bees were protecting Asim's body. No matter how hard the polytheists tried, they could not cut off even a small part of the body of Asim. They said, "Let us wait for the evening. We will come and cut off his head after bees leave." However, Allah Almighty sent unexpected rain in the evening and it rained all the time; the flood caused by the rain took the body of Asim bin Thabit away. The polytheists could not reach their goal.

Allah Almighty protected the blessed body of Asim from the polytheists after his martyrdom by His mercy as He protected his body from the fury of the polytheists when he was alive. He had not touched the polytheists; and the polytheists could not touch him. Allah accepted his prayer. [  Usdul-Ghaba, 3: 73-74: Isaba, 2: 244-245.  ]

#Allah #god #islam #quran #muslim #revert #revert islam #convert #convert islam #converthelp #reverthelp #revert help #revert help team #help #islam help #salah #dua #prayer #pray #reminder #religion #mohammad #muslimah #hijab #new muslim #new revert #new convert #how to convert to islam #convert to islam #welcome to islam

[reginrokkr]

‘  if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.  ’ from otto !

■    ■    ■    Unbeknownst to Dáinsleif, there was once upon a time when he had lost everything from his identity to his memories and a place to call homeland prior to the discovery of a new life that gave him everything back in a different place: a kingdom to protect, status, recognition from the king and his people. All of that decimated to naught but ashes, twisted into a nightmare with no end. People he once protected were distorted into gruesome monsters, the most vicious of them repeating like a chant words like murderer and betrayer for not siding with their skewed ideals deeply effected by the root of malice that lingers in the Abyss.

It would be so easy for him to give in and let the corruption of his body be the leading way, that’s what he believed when everything was too fresh and it hurt so— it still is, it still does. Centuries passed and the Twilight Sword believed himself to have grown past mortal desire and whim, that nothing could matter anymore to a frozen heart. Alas, that’s what it all is: a frozen heart forced to cryostasis every time it deigned to thaw and bleed with the weight of hundreds of sorrows that refuse to forsake him as he already was once.

❝From an individualist perspective, that is true.❞ But little relief does that offer when long ago he had abandoned himself, his existence’s importance reduced to nothing. He could’ve very well live a secluded life somewhere in the Dark Sea, away from the mayhem that imposter gods cause wherever they lay their eyes upon. Nevertheless... how could he upon being touched by an endless source of information only for the Anima Mundi to possess lest those whom dare to wonder further than what the Heavenly Disciples dictate as safe to their ruling until is supposes a thread to them? Add to the mix a man that cannot suffer greater punishment any than he already has and a sense of chivalry that never passed and what you see is a keeper of this world’s heart.

Icy sapphires peel off the man to regard the holy, white tree behind him and reach out to touch softly its bark. After all the hardship Dáinsleif has faced, the one whom never abandoned him was Irminsul. ❝Were you blessed with the possibility to have limitless access to all the information recorded of this world, would you not desire to put it to use in order to help mankind prosper in the face of unfair adversities?❞ Many would have fallen to madness at the closest opportunity to grasp this information— the Abyss Order did. Even if they may have reliable methods, their twisted minds with malice makes it lose all credibility. Many others would be unable to live with it, knowing that they may not live enough to see a change out of this unjust reign.

His hand caresses the surface of the Axis Mundi and thus he lean forward to press his forehead, eyes fluttering close for a fraction. ❝Under such circumstances, any event that causes a drawback to humanity becomes a loss to yourself too. Even if you may not be one anymore.❞ A long sigh abandons roseate lips thereafter and he turns on his heels to meet the man’s gaze anew. ❝What other option you have when you’ve been forbidden from following the natural course of life to begin with? Preventing others from finding the same fate and the doom of this world... there is nothing else I could conceive.❞ When death is no longer an option, no matter how much more desirable of an outcome it would be for someone like him.

@taiixuan ✦

#taiixuan #◟༺✦༻◞ What use has the veil of falsehood? ┊Ask.┊ #◟༺✦༻◞ Sapphire flames in their wake ┊IC.┊ #thank you for sending in! #I don't know much about Honkai but #I've spotted quite a few relevant parallels #between Dain and Otto #and this made me have feels ngl 😔

[catboyebooks]

i'll be honest, i'm eager to get to chapter 5 so i don't wanna spend too much more time picking apart chapter 4 right now, buuuuut there is one more thing that stood out to me this chapter that i wanted to circle back to. it's about the motive.

typically the cast of this game has reacted to the motives like "...or we could simply not do that." when they find out they have a huge chunk of their memories missing in chapter 1, most of them react by trying to convince themselves that this isn't true and by resolving not to participate in the killing game. when they're told in chapter 2 that the motive is hidden in a video game, most of them decide not to play the video game. they tried to deal with the despair fever situation in chapter 3 by quarantining and treating the sick people as best they could, even though it would have been easy for someone to take advantage of the situation by simply murdering a sick person (in particular komaeda, who didn't look like he was going to make it anyway) and thus advance the killing game. notable exceptions aside, for the most part everyone has attempted to resist participating in the killing game at all. this chapter's motive is different in that they all wind up trapped inside the funhouse, from which there is no exit at all (they are explicitly told this) unless another murder happens. choosing not to play by the rules this time means accepting that the entire group will die.

when hinata has that initial reaction of like "well, it's better if we all starve to death," i think that's an understandable & relatable sentiment. he'd prefer for them to all die as friends than for there to be another murder (and the associated betrayals / breaches of trust) in the group. this makes total sense given everything they've already been through and how hopeless the situation seems and yet it is still a bad way of looking at it. the initial disagreement on the topic happens between him and komaeda (and we know komaeda has been viewing the situation the entire time as "it's better that one of the shsl students has the chance of making it off the island than for all of us to remain on the island forever" — that's why he kickstarted the killing game in the first place), so it's likely that players would tend to take hinata's side, but notably nobody backs him up. not even nanami, who has been the most adamant about preventing any further murders. even hinata winds up rethinking his stance a bit later and feeling like he has to try and do something, hence his later attempt to access the final dead room, but by this point he's too weak from hunger and is easily dissuaded by nanami. i think all this speaks to hinata's character quite a bit; he leans pessimistic and defeatist, but when push comes to shove he really doesn't want to give up and die.

gundam's speech at the end about the importance of not giving up on life is fucking great. outstanding. and i think it's particularly interesting coming from the guy who committed murder knowing full well he would be executed for it for the sake of the rest of the group's survival. he felt he had to take action so that nobody else gave up on life, but knew that in doing so he was sacrificing himself. similar to sakura in the first game, he has one Particular Friend in the group but otherwise is a bit of an oddball/outcast, and yet he still puts the group survival over his own. i love that despite all his melodramatic bluster about being a dark overlord or whatever, he gets a sendoff that proves him to be kind and honorable beneath it all (something that i think is fairly apparent if you spend any time with him, but up to this point it'd be easy to just view him as a weirdo suffering from middle school syndrome). speaking of, let's talk about his execution for a second:

i have said it before. but the goal of the executions, usually, is to psychologically break the killers before they die. the main exception to this so far was last chapter, because in tsumiki's case she was already psychologically broken and there wasn't anything left to do on that front. this one is another exception, imo, but for a different reason. gundam's already made peace with the idea of dying. there was perhaps an attempt made to break him, what with using animals to kill the guy who loves animals and having his attempt at "casting a spell" be useless, but i think gundam is aware that wild animals sometimes kill humans lol and i do not think he actually thinks of himself as a magician. he's simply committed to the bit. i wanna say that there's perhaps a bit of mockery (on AI junko's part) in the "spirits of gundam's deceased pets carrying him off to heaven" thing, but i think she's accepted that she isn't going to break him in death since it was his decision to die. also, this isn't like dr1, where she set up the killing game to prove a point. this is just the opening act. she wants to get this whole VR island murder trip thing over with so she can continue with her despair apocalypse activities and so i think she doesn't mind settling for just going through the motions. breaking gundam isn't what matters here, ultimately.

if you remember the latter half of the first game, this is the point where it started to get obvious that junko was becoming increasingly desperate. we just got outright told that sakura was the traitor in 1-4, and when she chose to deal with that by committing suicide so the rest of the group would live, monokuma fabricated evidence to try and convince the group (asahina in particular) that she'd killed herself out of sheer despair. then after that we had an attempted direct attack on naegi as he slept, a sham trial designed to take kirigiri or naegi out of the game, etc. — she got so desperate to make her killing game work that she started bending her own rules. that's not happening here. what is happening is that the game is getting meaner (this chapter it was literally "commit murder asap or you'll all starve to death"), the most unhinged person here got handed the evidence that nobody here is innocent (like i said earlier, komaeda is the only one who could have cleared the final dead room on "max difficulty," which means that information was aimed at him), and the executions are less concerned with trying to psychologically destroy the culprits because this time that simply isn't the point. and i think we're meant to have this nagging feeling that this killing game is different, fundamentally speaking, as we move on to chapter 5. there's something bigger going on here, and we're getting closer and closer to finding out what that something is.

that's all i gotta say about 2-4 for now. let's start the next chapter.

#i'm gonna be soooo normal about what happens next trust me! #kes plays sdr2

[tarrevizsla]

hmngh. au where meetra goes dark with revan and malak is something that can be so personal

#they'd get locked into this unstable equilibrium #where if one of them betrayed another the other two would come against them #thus preventing any of them from true betrayal #but they wouldn't be happy either #because there's always that tension that comes from being sith #tea time

[phantomyre]

Vincent Valentine Personality Analysis - What we could expect from Remake

Remake has done a phenomenal job at expanding so many characters-- particularly with characters who were not nearly as widely appreciated as they are now. Characters that we previously cared little about now have a special place in our experiences. This makes us eager to see what else Remake has in store for future characters who we know will appear later on. Vincent is someone who many fans have condemned as being too flat or uninteresting. And while that may seem to be the case on the surface, it boils down to the execution of delivering Vincent's personality. However, if one were to analyze further, it would become clear that this character is a lot more complex than what is generally understood. I will be going into the details of what makes Vincent interesting and what we could expect to see from this character in Remake.

On the outside, Vincent Valentine seems closed off and disinterested in everyone but his own guilt. However, this is actually a concealment of his true thoughts, even if he isn't immediately aware of it. One clue would be to compare Vincent’s blood type against what he is known for being. In Japanese culture, it is common for characters to also be given a blood type. This is to evoke the character’s personality or potential plot. Vincent has type A blood. According to Japanese personality interpretation, type A's are known for being very sensitive, keying on to emotional needs of others, easily hurt, introverted, diligent, and stubborn. Vincent is known for being distant and apathetic, so some fans might dismiss this interpretation of his blood-type as inaccurate. However, Vincent wasn't always so closed-off. As a Turk, Vincent was depicted as a soft-spoken, naïve young man whose unchecked sympathy was the reason for his tragedy . Due to his love for Lucrecia, and being ignorant of Hojo’s true intentions, he chose to passively stand by after being spurned for his concern over Lucrecia and her unborn child. After confronting Hojo and being shot and experimented, one would think Vincent would have disdained Hojo. Yet even after Hojo subjected him so such torment, Vincent didn’t bear any resentment towards him. As a matter of fact, he counted it as just punishment for failing his duty as body-guard in protecting Lucrecia as well as preventing child experimentation.* By the time Cloud and company meet with Vincent approximately 20-30 years later, he is no longer the amicable Turk he once was.

*SIDE NOTE: Considering Vincent's level of responsibility, he was not only overseeing the most classified project of Shinra (Jenova Project), but he was also the body-guard to the scientists leading the project-- namely Hojo, Lucrecia, and Gast. This meant that any harm that befell any of the scientists was his responsibility. Failure to carry this out would result in severe punishment, which often included death or becoming the product of experiments (referenced in Before Crisis).

SIDE NOTE 2: Vincent’s voice had deepened ever since he had been experimented on. It wouldn’t make sense for his voice-box to age while the rest of his body was ageless. A likely reason for this might be how one’s voice can end up lowering due to extreme depression. An example of this would be YouTube celebrity Corpse Husband.

After spending time with AVALANCHE, Vincent began to change. Once the team find Cloud in Mideel, Vincent tells Cid that he wishes he had his ‘go-get-them attitude’, realizing he was no longer able to feel emotion like before. Having suffered heart-break, betrayal, and being the victim of human experimentation, Vincent had chosen to withdraw himself from everyone in an effort to avoid repeating history again. Another potential reason for the lack of emotion is due to the fact that he is more akin to a monster than a human, thus rendering it difficult for him to emotionally connect. After all, monsters virtually have no emotion. It wasn’t until Vincent found out that Hojo only regarded Lucrecia as nothing but a science project that Vincent began to feel a surge of emotion—hatred and revenge. As noted in the Ultimania, this was the first time his emotions were ignited after many decades. Not only did he feel hatred towards Hojo, but also towards himself for shutting away reality. Hojo didn’t deserve an ounce of respect, especially from Vincent. And yet, Vincent still chose to utter the words ‘Hojo… rest in peace’.

When Vincent chooses to join Cloud and co at the Highwind, everyone is shocked as Vincent had always given off the vibe that he didn’t care about what was happening. Vincent replies with “Cold? Hmm… I guess that’s just the type of guy I am. Sorry to disappoint you.” As noted in the Ultimania, this was a small attempt at playfulness towards Cloud, indicating Vincent was finally beginning to loosen up. Even though he is portrayed as cold-hearted and a monster destined to destroy all life aka Chaos, Vincent actually cherishes human life. A small example of this can be found in Dirge of Cerberus. When a WRO soldier died while giving Vincent a report, Vincent closed the man’s eyes out of respect. Vincent also adamantly refuses to allow the WRO troopers to follow him into Deepground as he knows they would all die. Also, for being such a scary-looking man, he seems to have a natural affinity with children as both the boy in DoC and Marlene have gone to him for protection or aid. And if that wasn't obvious enough, Vincent later sacrifices himself to spare the same lives he is doomed to annihilate, not caring if he was reborn or not. However, as fate would have it, Vincent’s destiny is to be the planet’s executioner… Gaia’s grim-reaper. It’s no wonder that his first weapon was actually a scythe, and his ultimate weapon is called ‘Death Penalty’.*

*SIDE NOTE: Chaos' purpose is to 'beckon forth an ultimate fate... '

"Before Omega begins his journey to the sea of stars, Chaos will scourge the world of all things living, sending them back to the Lifestream…

Only to be left with the burden of bearing the discarded remnants of a dying world"

--- as written in the Omega Reports in Dirge of Cerberus. This means that after all life has been eradicated, the souls of the pure (untainted by Jenova) will be sent into Omega, and those tainted by Jenova (corrupt Lifestream) will become absorbed by Chaos. Omega then takes the pure souls into the cosmos, leaving Chaos and anything associated with the corrupted Lifestream behind on the dead planet-- by default, this includes Vincent. This is one of many reasons why Lucrecia is heavily distraught when she realizes what she has done to him.

Of all the team-members within Cloud’s group, the only one who sympathizes with Sephiroth is Vincent. He becomes troubled when Cloud riles the team up to fight Sephiroth, constantly struggling with the idea of killing Lucrecia’s son. If anyone felt the most responsible for Sephiroth’s existence, it would have been Vincent. Therefore, the burden of needing to kill Sephiroth would have weighed heavily on him. Technically, it would be the best way for Vincent redeem himself. Though the team manages to take Sephiroth down the first time, Sephiroth’s second appearance in Advent Children exposes Vincent's hesitation yet again when he holds everyone back from assisting Cloud. Likely, it was out of respect for Cloud. However, he might have been trying to avoid killing Lucrecia’s son the second time.

Following the defeat of Sephiroth and Meteor's descension, Vincent is the first to separate himself from Cloud and Co. It isn’t until Cloud is assaulted by Kadaj’s group that Vincent returns, once again to the scene of the Bahamut attack in Midgar, and yet again at the anniversary event at Midgar in The Kids are Alright. In Red XIII’s episode of OTWTAS, Red expresses his fears to Vincent and is met with some very blunt advice before being left to think on his own. On the surface, it looked like Vincent gave Red the cold shoulder, but this action proved to be the catalyst to initiate Red to search deeper within himself. When they meet again in the Forgotten City, Vincent comforts Red in his usual way, later accepting Red’s request to meet once a year. Red is empathetic towards Vincent when he realizes Vincent would still be alive after everyone has died. Vincent brushes it off as a ‘mixed blessing’, but Red knows loneliness is anything but a blessing. By the time Deepground is running rampant in Dirge of Cerberus, Cait Sith points out that Vincent is only pretending to not care—when in fact he cares too deeply.

When Vincent learns his final limit break for Chaos, he says “I am becoming less human”, equating himself to something more like a monster, and by association, something without human emotion. Sephiroth himself is classified as a monster due to his lack of emotions. The difference is Sephiroth chose to let go of everything that made him human, while Vincent was desperate to retain every bit of humanity he still had. Rosso the Crimson, who also traded away her humanity, tells Vincent they are one in the same as he too was created to be an indiscriminate killing machine aka Chaos. Shelke is also an example of one who was void of feelings. Not understanding why Shalua gave her life for Shelke, she asks Vincent if he understood. Vincent, still struggling to maintain his own humanity, says ‘When a person has someone they care about that much, giving their life is sometimes the least they can do. And maybe that’s what makes us human.” At the end of DoC, Vincent eventually proves this to himself by giving up his life to save those he cared about, re-establishing himself with his humanity and learning to finally be at peace with the past. The moment he emerges from Lucrecia’s cave after forgiving her and himself, he genuinely smiles for the first time—something he had not done since the day he fell victim to Hojo’s experimentations.

----------------------------------

TLDR: Though Vincent has been racked with ample suffering, betrayed by the one he loved, becoming a product of grotesque human experimentation, cursed with immortality, and fated to become the world’s executioner—he still goes out of his way to assist and protect the lives around him, all because he deeply cares for humanity even if he denies it. Even going as far as to give Hojo the benefit of a doubt until proven otherwise. Either Vincent is naïve to a fault, or he is an angel in the body of a demon.

What I'd like to see from Remake:

Conflict with wanting to be close to Cloud and company but also resisting. Remake could have Vincent initially appear very harsh, but eventually the team would recognize that Vincent has been purposefully restraining his kindness. Cloud and Co would be the first group of people to treat him like a normal human, helping him realize that it's okay to allow himself to be vulnerable. Remake would also need to address the level of distrust Vincent could have and attribute it more clearly to the trauma he has gone through. Generally, Vincent is often seen as overly edgy and emo-ish. However, this was the same thing that Cloud was accused of. If Remake delved deeper into Vincent's backstory and showed his internal conflicts, character development would be that much more interesting.

Seeing as Vincent was a naïve and good-natured individual as a Turk, considering the nature of a Turk's job, it makes me wonder how Vincent even got into Turk, let alone being a part of Shinra's most confidential project. It would be good if Remake addressed this inconsistency.

When Vincent confronts Hojo and gets shot, Vincent is taken completely off guard. You'd think a highly trained Turk would be able to deflect a scientist's weak attempt with a gun. More than likely this was simply due to Vincent's sudden flair of passions and he let his guard down completely. I'm hoping Remake does a better job at representing this heated exchange and build up to the moment.

Assuming Remake does delve deeper into the Omega/Chaos plot, I'd like to see Vincent beginning to get close with the team until he realizes what his fate is. He would once again becomes very cold and distant as he wouldn't want to make it harder for the others or himself.

Vincent is the only one who sympathizes for Sephiroth, and yet killing Sephiroth remains the ultimate goal. While OG touched on this, it was very subtle and should be further elaborated on. Delve deeper into why Vincent doesn't want to confront Sephiroth-- is it just because he is the son of his lover? Or is it something beyond that? I would like for Remake to show Vincent weighing the dilemma out, especially before he joins Cloud's party and why he suddenly chooses to change his mind to join Cloud. Because everyone in the party hates Sephiroth except Vincent, I can see Cloud and Vincent butting heads. Vincent's hesitation to kill Sephiroth might cause Cloud to be hesitant to let Vincent continue with them.

Little to nothing is known about Vincent's relationship with his father. In DoC, it seemed like Grimoire was closer to Lucrecia than he was with his own son as Grimoire himself didn't even tell Vincent that he was working with Lucrecia. Remake would need to explore their relationship further. Were they distant from one another? Was Vincent seeking the father-son relationship but never had the chance to enjoy it? Did Grimoire's heavy involvement with his work cause Vincent to feel empty, resulting in easily falling for Lucrecia and ignoring the red flags?

#vincent valentine #final fantasy #final fantasy 7 remake #ffvii #ff7 #square enix #ff7 remake

[hellsbellschime]

Why Jaime Lannister's GoT Ending Was Actually Bad

Nearly every aspect of the end of Game of Thrones earned ire from the majority of the show and book fandom, but one aspect of the show's conclusion that seems to have frustrated fans across the board was the ending for Jaime Lannister. More specifically, that after a seemingly solid and nearly complete redemption arc, he returned to Cersei and King's Landing to die in a manner that somewhat works as a metaphor but didn't resonate well with the audience at all. And, while Jaime's ending was a flop, it didn't fail for the reasons that many viewers seem to think that it did.

The Lannisters are obviously some of the most complex and important characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, but one of the most interesting aspects of their family dynamic is that it was established far before the contemporary storyline actually began. And, while Game of Thrones seemed to paint it as if Cersei was a source of toxicity that Tyrion and Jaime couldn't get out from under the thumb of, the truth is that the bad apple that spoiled the bunch was never Cersei, it was always Tywin.

One of the most meaningful and important themes of George RR Martin's work is the long-term effects that abuse has on children, and there isn't really any example that is more present and potent than the horrific effects that Tywin's abuse had on all of his children, and how it affected them in different ways.

Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion all have some of the most intriguing points of view in the entire story. And one aspect that all of their POVs seem to share in common is that while nearly everyone in their world perceives them as a villain, they all see themselves as victims. And the truth is, both sides of this coin are correct.

Yes, the Lannister children have done many horrific, irredeemable things in their lives, but they have also been the victims of extremely traumatic abuse that understandably altered their outlook on the world and on themselves in general. There is a balance between victim and perpetrator that needs to be struck with their characters, but one of Game of Thrones' bigger flaws was its inability to do that.

Unsurprisingly, nearly every character's book point of view grants themselves more sympathy than they should. Almost everyone sees themselves as a better person than they are or is capable of rationalizing away their bad deeds and focusing on their more positive decisions and personality traits. But this is of course one of the many ways in which George RR Martin utilizes his POV traps.

Translating a story that is told through the eyes of the characters themselves and filming it from a more objective third-person perspective means that plenty of important information is going to be lost in that translation. But one of the fatal flaws when it comes to the Lannisters is that, while Game of Thrones does still present Cersei as pretty forthrightly villainous, the narrative pretty drastically whitewashes Tyrion and Jaime. Essentially, it seems to take Tyrion and Jaime at their point-of-view word and treats them like they're much better people than they truly are. Thus, Jaime's ignominious end with the supposed biggest baddie of them all feels like a betrayal of his character development when it really shouldn't be.

Every character needs to be held responsible for their own choices, but the downfall of House Lannister really does rest in the hands of Tywin, and Game of Thrones ignoring that fact did a disservice to every one of the Lannister children in one way or another.

Yes, out of all of the Lannisters, Jaime was as close as Tywin could get to the golden child of his dreams, but it's easy to overlook that while Jaime may have been the favorite on the surface, every single one of Tywin's children was disgustingly mistreated, and the effects of his abuse all showed themselves in different malignant ways.

While Jaime may have gotten preferential treatment over his siblings, Tywin was never anything other than a terrible parent, and more importantly, Jaime's superior treatment only told him exactly how he could expect to be treated if he ever failed to live up to his father's high ideals. And of course, in many big and small ways, he did ultimately fail to live up to Tywin Lannister's exacting standards.

Tywin was a terrible parent because he was an abuser, but he also raised his children with his own values of pride, entitlement, and superiority. Obviously, the notion that they were simultaneously failures who had earned their own mistreatment but were also Lannisters who deserved to be above everyone else is opposing perspectives that are in constant conflict with one another, but it also seems to be how Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion see themselves as constant victims while still perennially victimizing others.

George RR Martin has repeatedly discussed that one of the strongest themes of his work is the idea of the human heart in conflict with itself. Game of Thrones lost the plot with this in nearly every character adaptation, but Jaime's was one of the worst, largely because he is a character who has done some of the most monstrous and most heroic things in the story. He is both the man who doesn't hesitate to murder a child and the man who stopped a king from slaughtering thousands, and therefore his inner conflict is extremely vital.

Jaime's character arc in Game of Thrones follows a classic redemption arc almost perfectly, but that clearly doesn't seem to be the intent behind the character in the books. Yes, there is a part of Jaime that wants to be redeemed, but he does often revert back to his more brutal and nihilistic side, and his desire for so-called redemption seems to be driven more by how he wants the world to see him rather than how he wants to be.

And in that sense, the show did him a great disservice. Because there are many ways in which Jaime hasn't healed from Tywin's abuse, but the fact that he still seeks the approval of others in a rather superficial manner rather than developing a deeper understanding of true honor and justice is one of the clearest indications that, while Jaime does want to get out of the path that his father laid out for him, he is still crippled by what Tywin told him being a Lannister meant. And ironically, Tywin's belief about what being a Lannister means has essentially trapped all of his children into trying and failing to live up to that example simply because they can't survive unless they do.

Because ultimately, it's not necessarily just about what Jaime, or Cersei, or Tyrion wants. At some point, every single one of them has made obvious indications that they don't want to be a part of the legacy that Tywin Lannister laid out for them. But, when Game of Thrones presented Tywin as a super-intelligent master strategist instead of a completely unnecessarily violent and aggressive asshole, it made all of the Lannister children's choices harder to understand.

Both in the A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones fandoms, Tywin is typically put up on a pedestal, and that's completely baffling. Many viewers and readers perceive him to be brilliant and badass, but everything that Tywin is famous for actually makes him seem like a complete moron upon further contemplation. Winning battles by absolutely obliterating your enemies is a terrible precedent to set for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that it essentially requires all of the Lannister children to maintain this scorched earth policy because Tywin's hyper-aggressive superiority complex has put them in a position where they almost always have to choose to kill or be killed.

And, his cruel and dishonorable behavior as well as Jaime's reputation as the Kingslayer essentially guarantees that even if Jaime completely changes as a person and becomes the hero he wants to be, he really can't ever become that in the society that he lives in simply because the stigma around the Lannisters is something he can't escape.

That is one of the great tragedies that Game of Thrones failed to articulate, and that is one of the biggest reasons why Jaime's character conclusion was so off-putting to the audience. Because the audience saw the result of where this character arc would naturally go, but the story never actually took the steps to get there. In fact, the show went out of its way to erase a lot of the obvious building blocks that are leading up to both Cersei and Jaime's demise that makes it clear that, while they're obviously responsible for their own choices and actions, the groundwork that Tywin's abuse and cruelty laid and set in stone was something that they couldn't control, prevent, or undo.

Game of Thrones largely presented Jaime's characterization with the implication that if he could only escape Cersei, he would be a good man. But the reality was, if only Tywin hadn't been his father, then all of his siblings would have been better people. They may not have been good, but they almost certainly wouldn't be the kingdom-destroying villains that they became.

I also think the TV series likely bungled his character in that his story is meant to be a subversion of the classic redemption arc rather than the straightforward bad guy to good guy story that Game of Thrones told. George RR Martin obviously doesn't like flawless characters, and nearly every person in A Song of Ice and Fire does good things and bad things all the time, they never go in a straight line from point A to point B. So, of course it was going to be incredibly jarring when the show did move Jaime in a straight line from point A to point B and then abruptly gave him an ending that is probably somewhat similar to his end in the books.

But with that in mind, for all of the faults in Game of Thrones and the way they handled Jaime's character arc, I don't really understand the idea that his character was ruined by his ending either. These characters are clearly designed to never be just one thing, and if Jaime killing King Aerys or trying to kill Bran doesn't singularly define his character, then going back to Cersei in the very end shouldn't either.

#anti got #anti game of thrones #jaime lannister #cersei lannister #anti tywin lannister #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #jaime lannister meta #got meta #my videos #Youtube

[bring-it-all-down]

I’d like to talk about something that I think is central to Black Sails but often gets glossed over in discussions of Silver: his relationship with the systemic violence of empire.

One thing the show does particularly well is demonstrating the ways in which the violence of empire manifests itself both within England and in England’s colonies. We see this with just about all of the main characters, and this encounter with violence informs their subsequent relationships with imperial England. While Silver’s disability would surely result in his marginalization, his encounter with marginalization differs to that of every other character.

James encounters this violence in England in the form of Alfred imprisoning Thomas and the combination of Alfred and Admiral Hennessy banishing him from the country, in light of which he chooses to become a pirate. Jack falls victim to capitalism when his family’s tailoring business is forced to close, plunging his father into alcoholism and death, and holding Jack, a child, responsible for his father’s debts. Jack then becomes a pirate as a means of escaping indentured servitude. Billy, too, becomes a pirate as a means of escaping indentured servitude (and the violence he commits as a result––killing his enslaver––that would have seen him punished had he returned to England). Likewise, Vane turns to piracy after escaping from his enslavers (though it’s unclear how Vane became enslaved to begin with). Finally, we learn that Anne becomes a pirate after Jack murdered her abusive husband to whom she was married at the age of 13. For all of these people, piracy offered freedom from violence and oppression meted out by England.

We rather deliberately never learn about SIlver’s backstory, and for purposes of this post, I’m going to avoid theorizing about it and stick to what the show tells us about him. We first meet him when he’s aboard a merchant ship that Flint’s crew attacks. Out of self-preservation to avoid being killed by the crew, he fashions a lie, killing the cook and assuming his place, in order to join the Walrus. Thus, the first act of violence he encounters and commits is a result of pirates, not England. He becomes disabled as a result of Vane’s crew, not England. His only encounter with somebody mocking his disability is when Dufresne calls him “half a man” and an “invalid” (3.07). Finally, he tells Madi that he must look strong, not for England, but because he cannot allow his fellow pirates to see him as weak. All of Silver’s encounters with violence and marginalization occur with his fellow pirates, not with any stand-in for English colonialism/empire.

At this point, I’d like to compare Silver to Miranda, as they were the two people depicted to know James the best (as Thomas never knew Captain Flint) and were the two to try and convince him to give up his fight against England. When we first meet Miranda, she is desperate to return to civilization, telling James, “there is no life here” in Nassau, but they could have “a life in Boston...There is joy there and music and peace” (1.07). Her conception of civilization differs from James’ because she was never its direct target. Though she was a woman and was aware of the danger James and Thomas were in, her class privilege insulated her from experiencing England’s violence.

This all changes for her when she and James finally make it to Charlestown and she learns of Peter Ashe’s betrayal. This realization finally spurs her to understand the systemic nature of England’s colonial violence and the reality that she and James could never re-assimilate. Her final conversation with Peter here is crucial to understanding her newfound conception of colonialism: 

Miranda: All these years it never sat right with me how Alfred was able to turn the navy against James. He was far too admired by his superiors for his career to be dashed solely on hearsay. Alfred would have known that. He wouldn't have gone to them armed only with unfounded suspicions. He would have needed a witness, someone who knew Thomas and James well enough to give the accusation credibility. Alfred came to you, didn't he? Asked you to betray Thomas in exchange for which he'd see you made a king in the New World.

Peter: Perhaps this is an opportunity for us all to find a little forgiveness.

Miranda: Forgiveness? What forgiveness are you entitled to while you stand back in the shadows pushing James out in front of the world to be laid bear for the sake of the truth? Tell me, sir, when does the truth about your sins come to light?

Peter: You know nothing of my sins. Were you there when Alfred Hamilton threatened my family's standing, my daughter's future if I failed to cooperate? Were you there when I visited Thomas at the hospital to confess my sins and heard him offer his full and true forgiveness? He knew I had no choice in the matter.

Miranda: No choice?

Peter: A hard choice. Made under great duress, but with the intent to achieve the least awful outcome. You wish to return to civilization. That is what civilization is. I am so very sorry for what you have suffered and for any part I may have played in it. Please believe that. But at this point, the most important thing is what comes next, what we make of this.

Miranda: You destroyed our lives!

Peter: Miranda.

Miranda: You caused our exile!

Peter: I am sorry for what I did.

Miranda: Thomas died in a cold, dark place...

Peter: I am trying to help you. What more do you want from me?

Miranda: What do I want? I want to see this whole goddamn city, this city that you purchased with our misery, burn. I want to see you hanged on the very gallows you've used to hang men for crimes far slighter than this. I want to see that noose around your neck and I want to pull the fucking lever with my own two hands! (2.09)

Through this conversation, Miranda receives confirmation of Peter’s betrayal, and more importantly, that this betrayal is central to the existence of civilization. It’s how people like Alfred Hamilton retain power in England and how people like Peter Ashe obtain power over England’s colonies. In other words, the entire colonial project is one of betrayal, of exchanging lives for power, of the oppressor doing anything and everything to retain that power. When Miranda finally realizes how deeply personal and all-encompassing colonial violence is and reacts with righteous anger, she is murdered. Even voicing the desire to execute some aspect of justice is enough for the empire to silence her forever.

Silver, on the other hand, has no such encounter. All he knows of England’s systemic cruelty is what James and Madi describe to him second-hand. Thus, the war for liberation from empire is never his war, only Flint’s war and Madi’s war that Flint draws her into. In his final conversation with James, he tells him, “this isn’t about England,” calling the war “a fucking nightmare”, “your nightmare” (4.10). The “darkness” which he continuously ascribes to James is one born of a desire to do violence for the sake of violence. Because he has no personal experience with systemic violence, he doesn’t conceive of the war as a means to an end, but rather an end in itself; for Silver, the violence––specifically the violence of Flint, of pirates, of himself––is the point. 

The show’s thesis that the fight for liberation is a deeply personal fight is one that Silver dodges. Unlike James, Vane, Jack, Billy, Anne, Max, and Madi, violence enters Silver’s life as a result of piracy, specifically as a result of meeting Flint, and thus he believes that separating himself from Flint will end that violence. At the end of it all, every other character understands that the “freedom” they won is temporary and can be potentially revoked at any time, but Silver understands it to be more permanent. He tells Madi that in ending the war, he returned James “to the world as it existed before he first closed his eyes”, ensuring her that he is “not the villain you fear I am. I’m not him” and that he will wait “forever” for her to come to this realization (4.10). His experiences with violence prevent him from understanding something that every other main character understands: that Flint was a reaction to violence and not the sole cause of it.

#black sails #john silver #james flint #I will never not be mad at Silver for thinking Madi would forgive him for robbing her of her agency #Anyway #Read some theory. Understand revolution as both a personal and a systemic movement.

[caffeinatedseri]

Dazai and No Longer Human’s Yozo

It’s no secret that BSD’s Dazai draws heavily from his real life counterpart, especially from his semi-autobiographical work: No Longer Human. To preface, No Longer Human is written from the perspective of the main character Yozo, with the book itself being a documentation of Yozo’s notebooks (essentially his journals) throughout his life. 

As you progress through the novel, it becomes increasingly clear that Yozo lives an extremely two-sided life; his foolish personality acts as a facade to others in attempts to hide the darker nature within him. 

Dazai shares that obvious similarity with Yozo, but Dazai is characterized in a somewhat vague and mysterious way that leaves a lot of his inner thoughts up to interpretation and inferences. Thus, I’ll be going through some of my favorite quotes from No Longer Human and analyzing Dazai’s character through his similarities to Yozo.

(For the sake of readability, excerpts from No Longer Human will be in pictures, and quotes from the light novel will be in regular block quotes).

Dazai and Yozo’s Participation in Clownery

To start off, Dazai noticeably participates in the same “clowning” as Yozo, which in particular stands out with PM Dazai.

““How did your leg get hurt?” I pointed to the bandages, thinking that it must be the result of some violent fight. “I was reading a book titled ‘How to Prevent Accidental Injuries’ while walking when I accidentally fell into a ditch.” I wasn’t expecting such an abnormal response.” — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era (Oda’s POV)

This is pretty standard Dazai behavior, but the interesting part is how Yozo specifically used the word “deceiving.” If we were to assume Yozo’s true thoughts are Dazai’s as well, then it would imply that Dazai feels as if he’s manipulating people with his absurd claims (such as the above). However, in actuality, his clownish behaviors sound more like a joke, or some type of self-deflection, rather than an attempt to manipulate people. (Yozo also states that he would often incriminate himself by overexaggerating certain things, but I don’t think Dazai does that).

The second statement Yozo makes implies that he doesn’t care about ethics, morality, or the supposed “right way” of living life that’s described as “righteousness.”

Yozo’s statement on “righteousness” parallels Dazai’s in Dark Era, but Dazai’s statement carries a slightly different sentiment. Rather than being indifferent to the likes of morality, Dazai says that he’s “hated” by the concept of morality. 

I’ll be speculating a bit here → It’s heavily implied that Dazai had some sort of dark past that led him to joining the mafia, since he was already suicidal prior to doing so. This suggests that something affected his life so drastically to the point where he could no longer trust in such things as “righteousness,” because righteousness has wronged him in the past.

First, Yozo expresses his fear of people discovering his true nature under the mask of clownery, which would then lead to them pestering him for further inquiry. However, his real fear is that people would mistake his true nature as another part of his typical clownery.

More so than before, this attitude reminds me more of Dazai in the agency, rather than him in the mafia. Even though Dazai danced around darker topics in his conversations with Oda, he was still able to talk about them without much conflict. However, in the agency, Dazai doesn’t talk much about himself or any of his personal issues at all. 

Although this scene has comedic overtones, it’s interesting to see that no one would help Dazai if he was actually dying. Still, it could be argued that the other agency members knew it was just Dazai’s regular antics. (or that Dazai wouldn’t die in the first place). 

This scenario repeats itself another time when Dazai gets kidnapped by the mafia, and the other agency members kind of just brush it aside. As much as they may trust Dazai to take care of himself (which I’m sure he can do), it’s worrying that the other members may not be open to Dazai’s possible attempts at reaching out for help, if he were ever to make one. 

In LN 4, 55 Minutes, Atsushi addresses this issue by asking Dazai why he wants to kill himself, but the answer is left open-ended, with Atsushi himself not remembering the answer (or if Dazai even did answer). You could interpret Dazai’s change from his time in the PM as an improvement of his mental state — which I have no doubt that has happened — but Dazai needs to face his issues head-on if he truly wanted to reconcile with his past.

“Perhaps someone should persistently tie Dazai up, open the lid over his chest and stuff the head of a vacuum cleaner in. They have to let Dazai, who should be screaming in pain and resisting, settle down. Following which, the difficult things in his heart must all be dragged out under the sun and stepped on mercilessly.“ — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era

Oda, the man who understood Dazai more than anyone else could at the time, even specifically stated that the pain in Dazai’s heart must be forcefully dragged out, because he knew that this would ultimately be the most beneficial for Dazai’s sanity.

Throughout No Longer Human, Yozo is often misunderstood by others, or other people simply don’t care about him.

When Dazai goes to visit Oda’s grave in Dead Apple, Atsushi finds him and assumes that he’s visiting the grave of someone important to him, as an act of respect or remembrance, something of the sort. However, Dazai makes the automatic assumption that his “clownish words of deceit” (as stated by Yozo) will always be prioritized over the truth, which is why he chooses to brush off his actions as a joke. 

Although I made the point earlier that the agency members don’t give Dazai opportunities to open up about himself, Atsushi is notably different, similarly to Oda, because he’s able to take Dazai seriously and persist even through his antics. 

Atsushi takes Dazai’s act of visiting a grave seriously, even when Dazai plays it off, because he knows Dazai is a person just like anyone else. This understanding between them leads to Dazai telling Atsushi about Oda, thereby allowing Dazai to divulge a crucial part of his past.

Dazai and Yozo’s Friendships

Similarly to Yozo, Dazai’s attempt at “disentangling” himself from these relationships only serves to wear him out in the end. However, they also slightly differ in a way: Yozo is unable to form any friendships for his whole life, but Dazai had Oda. I would argue that Oda was Dazai’s only friend, mostly because of this quote:

“Odasaku understood him far beyond what Dazai had ever thought. He had already reached close to his heart, the place near the center of his heart. Before this, Dazai had never noticed there was someone who understood him so well. For the first time in his life, Dazai wanted to know something from the depths of his heart.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Oda was special to Dazai because Oda was able to understand him — maybe even more than Dazai could understand himself — which is why Oda is the only person that Dazai asks for advice from. 

However, Dazai does the same thing as Yozo when he “plays the clown” as a form of self-protection from such valuable friendships. (which is probably preventing him from becoming closer to the rest of the agency).

“Things that we don’t want to lose will definitely be lost. Now that it has come to this, I have no more feelings anymore. Things worth pursuing will always disappear the moment before you get them. Nothing is worth prolonging a painful life to pursue.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Interestingly enough, Dazai says this when Ango is revealed to be a spy — before Oda dies. If Dazai was in this state of distress from Ango’s betrayal, you could only imagine how devastating Oda’s death was. 

Dazai speaks as if he’s speaking from experience, which suggests that he’s faced a similar loss in the past. Despite this implied experience, he still became friends with Oda (and Ango to an extent), fully knowing that it would only bring him pain in the end. Dazai's statement here acts more as a front that makes him sound cold and detached from the situation, only to hide how he truly feels about losing one of his only friends. 

To give some context to this passage, Yozo’s partner, Yoshiko, had been sexually assaulted by a coworker, of which Yozo attributes the cause to her overly trusting nature. Thus, this leads to Yozo’s belief that trustfulness is inherently wrong or creates weakness.

Dazai’s hesitance to form friendships most likely stems from this same inability to trust others like Yozo, but Dazai does trust a few people, namely Chuuya, Oda, and Atsushi.

With Chuuya, there’s a different type of trust between him and Dazai. Their impeccable trust is obviously a key factor in their partnership as SKK, but there’s a certain limit with this trust. They certainly trust each other in battle, but I’d argue that this trust doesn’t extend to their personal business. 

As of now, we don’t know a lot about how SKK interacted with each other during their time in the mafia (which could change with the new LN), but I doubt PM Dazai would feel comfortable with confiding in Chuuya with anything because they (kind of) hated each other. The level of trust required for a friendship would involve a mutual understanding between two people, but Chuuya and Dazai haven’t necessarily shown us that they were able to do that.

Dazai essentially broke his trust with Chuuya by leaving the mafia on a whim, but he also intentionally antagonized himself to try to make Chuuya hate him.

This scene also has comedic overtones, but it suggests something a bit sadder about Dazai. There are possibly two motivations as to why Dazai chose to do this: (or a mix of the two)

1. Dazai didn’t want Chuuya to be incriminated as his accomplice when he became an enemy of the mafia.

2. Dazai wanted to push Chuuya away because Oda — Dazai’s most trusted friend — had just died. As a form of self-protection, Dazai broke whatever semblance of friendship he shared with Chuuya in order to prevent the same pain that came with Oda’s death. 

It’s also important to consider that trust is a 2-way street; both parties have to have the same level of trust in each other. Just like Yozo, if Dazai is unable to trust anyone, then he may have cut Chuuya off to protect him (since Chuuya may have trusted Dazai more than Dazai was able to reciprocate).

In contrast, Oda and Dazai have a level of unspoken trust that basically motivates Dazai to change his entire life. 

“Odasaku’s eyes radiate with conviction. The words are clearly said with some sort of strong basis. Is it past experience? Or perhaps someone’s suggestion? — He is trying to show Dazai the path he once walked. Dazai understands this. Dazai can trust it.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Returning to Yozo’s question — “Is trustfulness a sin?” — Dazai answers it by showing us the strength of trust in this moment. Trust insinuates blind faith in another person, the willingness to believe someone else without logical reasoning, which makes it all the more important when PM Dazai — the genius prodigy who operates on a solely logical basis — is able to trust Oda and change his path in life. 

Atsushi is most likely the one that Dazai trusts the most in the agency, due to the aforementioned issues with the other members. However, it seems more like a budding trust that’s growing to become like Oda and Dazai, but it still requires Dazai to take that step forward to further their trust. 

Dazai and Yozo’s View of the World

In this scene, Yozo had made a decision for immediate gratification, but that choice caused him insufferable pain afterwards — supporting his belief that the world was a “place of bottomless horror.”

This parallels two of Dazai’s statements: one from Dark Era and one from Dead Apple.

“Please, take me with you. Wake me up from this rotten world of a dream. Come on, come on, come on!” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

(Dazai wasn’t talking about himself here, but the allusion sets up a situation where he can talk about himself indirectly — I talk about it more in my other post here)

We don’t really get a reason for why Dazai is suicidal, but from this we can infer that it’s something more complex than he makes it out to be — something like an issue deeply rooted within the world, with no easy solution. 

One could guess that this was the result of an unfortunate decision (like Yozo), or the realization that the world was simply a terrible place (possibly because no one cared for him as a kid and he had Mori as a “parental” figure instead).

Yozo expresses his lack of understanding in the compassion of human nature, but Dazai (as we know) seems to understand other people perfectly, as least enough to manipulate them.

However, this forms somewhat of a paradox: Dazai understands people so well to the point that he can’t understand them.

Dazai understands every flawed aspect of a human being — the tendency to manipulate, lie, kill, etc. — most likely because of his past as a young child. “Human beings never did teach” him the hopeful aspect of human nature  — the ability to love and cherish others.

Shibusawa in Dead Apple reflects this mindset, but take note of what Dazai says: “You wouldn’t be saying that if you actually had friends” — clearly a reflection of Dazai’s personal experience, by knowing how important friends are.

Yozo’s deathly fear of society tames itself when he comes to the realization that society is really just made up of a bunch of individuals working for their individual benefit, so he has no reason to fear society as a whole.

I don’t believe Dazai has this same fear of society, but he does reflect this individualistic mindset in the way he acts. Often enough, Dazai doesn’t tell anyone about his plans and would rather manipulate people into following such plans, even when it would be easier to cooperate. He always takes care of conflicts by himself, and by his standard.

Yozo’s fear of society possibly manifested into Dazai’s ostracization from society. More speculation here, but → My guess is that Dazai was alienated not only as a genius isolated for his intelligence, but also for his ability. There seems to be some division between regular society and ability-users’ society, but I can see Dazai being rejected by both because he’s the antithesis to all abilities. 

Regular society would either shun him like other users or attempt to exploit him for their personal gain (possibly for his intelligence AND his ability), or ability-users would see him as a threat and/or menace to their safety.

When Yozo considers a double suicide with his partner, he comes to this unsure conclusion of whether or not he actually wants to go through with it.

This reflects what Oda believes about Dazai:

“I thought you and Dazai were very similar, unable to see the value of your life, hoping for death, hence jumping into a world of violence and fighting. But that’s not the case. That guy is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

At the end of the story, Gide and Oda are different from Dazai because they face an inevitable hopelessness. However, Dazai has a small spark of hope to live on that persists beyond the other two. 

This is represented in Dazai’s own statement to Oda, when Oda is set on walking to his death: “Go and rely on something, hope for something good to happen next, that something will definitely happen.” 

If anything, this sounds more like a plea to himself than to Oda, but it establishes an important point: hope is built upon the assumption that the future will treat your present desires well. Vice versa, hopelessness is built upon the expectation that the future will neglect your present desires.

It’s a bit wordy, so I’ll elaborate on. Right after Dazai says this line, they proceed to talk about their desires → Dazai wants to find a reason to live, so he joined the mafia; Oda wanted to become a novelist, so he didn’t kill anyone. 

Now, the difference between hope and hopelessness:

Oda feels hopeless because he expects that his present desire (to become a novelist) won’t be fulfilled in the future. By losing the one qualification that he felt he had to follow (not killing anyone), he no longer believes that he can become a novelist.

Dazai has hope because he assumes that his present desire (to find a reason to live) will be fulfilled in the future. He doesn’t know that for sure, but he persists onwards regardless of having full assurance or not. 

Dazai’s hope and trust in Oda brings him to where he is in the present, and takes him one step closer towards discovering his reason to live. 

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd meta #bsd analysis #bsd dazai #dazai analysis #no longer human #bsd oda #surprisingly more oda than i expected #very ramble-y i apologize in advance

[anakinisvaderisanakin]

Anakin is to blame for his fall.

Anakin bears final blame for his state of being.

It is true that he was raised fatherless as a slave, taken away from his mother and only security while only nine years old to be raised by a religious group he knew nothing of prior to meeting one of its practitioners.

It is true that he was met with skepticism and suspicion upon arriving, being deemed too old to train and thus picked on my his peers.

It is true that his relationship with his master was rocky, and that Obi-Wan could not be outspoken and honest about his love for his apprentice.

It is true that his fears were realized when his nightmares about his mother’s death became reality, and that he was overtly prevented from coming to her aid.

It is true that he was was required to bury his volatile emotions underneath the surface, to shut up and never bring them up and let them go.

It is true that despite being married to a loving wife, he had to hide the marriage from the public and live with a secret he knew may ruin his reputation and sever his connection to the order.

It is true that he did stand up for Ahsoka, that he did want the best for his own apprentice while she was being falsely accused of murder.

It is true that Anakin was barely even an adult when he fell to the Dark Side, terrified of losing Padmé, of losing their children of knowing that the nightmares may once again come true unless he acted to prevent it.

It is true that Palpatine manipulated and groomed Anakin all the while, sensing both his power and his vulnerability and feeding off of his weaknesses.

It is true that the Jedi did not have the tools to aid Anakin, or to give him the psychiatric help he would have needed in order to function within society given his traumatic childhood and difficult upbringing.

But it was Anakin who would not trust his loved ones, who would not believe they had the best intentions. It was Anakin who adhered to Palpatine’s constant reassurance of his greatness, his value, his power.

Ahsoka explained why she left, that she couldn’t trust the order that had not stood up for her - but Anakin still took it personally, as if she was abandoning him and without taking her feelings into the equation.

The Jedi order were clear with their rules, they put up guidelines and restrictions to follow, and Anakin still broke them.

Obi-Wan may not have been able to profess his love for Anakin out loud, but if Anakin had taken the time, he would have noticed and realized that Obi-Wan did love him - and that in spite of the fact that Obi-Wan knew he was not supposed to develop emotional attachments.

Padmé may have been selfish and codependent on Anakin and much as he was on her, and she did condone and forgive his murdering an entire village - but she did put her foot down when it went too far, and she did tell Anakin that she loved him and would have forgiven him once more despite knowing he had murdered children if he had only listened to her.

But Anakin didn’t listen. Anakin never listened. Anakin is a loving and emotional man, yes, but he is also hopelessly inept when it comes to taking the people he loves’ feelings into account. 

Anakin loves Ahsoka, therefore she should stay with the order even if it’s not fair to her. Anakin loves Obi-Wan, therefore Obi-Wan should always praise him and be openly proud and verbally supportive of him. Anakin loves Padmé, therefore she should always forgive and support him whatever he does, even if that includes killing innocent people. Anakin loves his mother, therefore killing an entire village in cold blood as revenge is a fair retribution.

Anakin loves Ahsoka, but her state of mind is worth less than Anakin’s. Anakin loves Obi-Wan, but his dedication to the order and to himself is worth less than Anakin’s need for validation. Anakin loves Padmé, but her unrelenting love and forgiveness doesn’t matter if she won’t follow him to the end of the line.

Anakin promises to save his mother, and he does come for her but it’s too late. Anakin promises to clear Ahsoka’s name, and he does but she rejects the order either way. Anakin is bashful upon learning that Obi-Wan is proud of him, but he still second guesses and doubts the sincerity behind it. Anakin promises Padmé he will save her, although she doesn’t care if she dies as long as her child(ren) lives and Anakin can’t accept that.

Anakin doesn’t care if Ahsoka, Obi-Wan or Padmé are happy or satisfied with any outcome. What Anakin cares about is his world, his feelings, his own satisfaction.

Anakin isn’t an inherently selfish man, and he doesn’t pressure people and demand their all because he’s callous. Anakin simply never learnt how to deal with healthy relationships, he only had his mother and during his formative years, he was Obi-Wan’s padawan - and Obi-Wan was distant, despite his attempts at breaking the ice.

Now, Obi-Wan being distant does not put the blame on him. Ahsoka leaving the order does not put the blame on her. Padmé enabling Anakin’s violent tendencies does not put the blame on her. The Jedi order following their religion and imposing it upon Anakin who did wish to become a Jedi does not put the blame on them.

Could Obi-Wan have been more nurturing? Yes, but Anakin still demanded more than he could give. 

Could Ahsoka have stayed in contact with Anakin after leaving the order? Yes, but her wanting to put some distance between herself and the Jedi is understandable and valid. 

Could Padmé have protested and given Anakin ultimatums when he committed atrocities? Yes, but her seeing the best in Anakin at all times came from a place of love, not a wish to condone murder or violence. 

Could the order have given Anakin some leniency and offered him therapy instead of asking him to hide his emotions? Yes, but they simply followed their teachings and expected Anakin to be able to do the same.

Anakin had no easy life, no simple choices - but he did have the choice when it came to Palpatine. Still, if anybody outside of Anakin influenced, coursed and shares the blame, it’s Palpatine. Palpatine is what Anakin is inherently not - he is a cruel, ambitious, evil man.

Anakin is selfish, Anakin wants love, Anakin wants to save the people he loves. Sure, it’s for his own gain, but he still wants to be good. He has good intentions as much as they are driven by personal investment. Palpatine cares for no one but himself. Any kindness Palpatine showed Anakin is a lie and a hoax and a bluff. Palpatine preyed upon Anakin’s insecurities. Palpatine manipulated a lost young boy desperate for approval and a father figure. 

But at the end of the day, Anakin had a choice. Do I understand why he chose Palpatine and the Dark Side? Yes. Do I understand how his fear drove him to desperate measures? Yes. Do I understand how the high of his new powers snared him? Yes. Do I understand why he believed in Palpatine above the Jedi order? Yes.

But Anakin’s self serving attitude is revealed when instead of saving Padmé, instead of running away with her so she can be safe - what he was initially fighting for - he chokes her, harms her, contributes to her demise. Anakin’s selfishness is his downfall, and that’s where the blame lies with him.

As soon as he dons the cape and mask, he accepts this new living hell he’s trapped within - because deep down, he knows he deserves no less. He ruined his own life, he destroyed the Jedi order, he drove away Obi-Wan (and Ahsoka), and he killed Padmé. Vader isn’t a different person. Vader is Anakin, and Anakin knows what he deserves is suffering, and pain, and torment.

Anakin deserves being but a husk of the man he once was. What else does he have left, but to serve the man who aided him in his downfall? What else does he have left, but to bring harm and hurt to others so that they may taste a sliver of his internal agony? What else does he have left but the monster he turned himself into? Anakin knows it’s his fault, he knows there is no Vader, he knows he did it all by himself.

Anakin knows he became his own nightmare, and he continues to exist because he knows it’s what he deserves. Anakin does not abandon his old self because he’s no longer Anakin, but because the man he once was is warped and he does not believe he deserves to associate himself with his past. The name ‘Anakin’ stands for life when it was good, and hopeful, and worth living. Anakin can no longer relate to any of those sentiments, and thus ‘Anakin’ is simply not a name he feels worthy of.

Anakin never forgot who he was, he simply accepted that he had gone too far to turn back. He understood that he did not deserve forgiveness, or redemption, and he did not seek it out. Anakin knew Obi-Wan and Padmé and Ahsoka would all have forgiven him, but he could not let them overlook the horrible things he had done.

The irony in his refusing to accept forgiveness and turn around, is that that is perhaps the most selfless decision he could have made. Because when Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Padmé had tried their hardest, he still would not budge. And that would, in some aspect, at least let them know they did their best and it was not enough. They tried, and failed. Anakin made sure they failed because he did not wish to be saved.

Ahsoka got her chance to stay with him, and make her perceived betrayal right. Padmé never lost her faith in him, even while she lay dying. Obi-Wan let himself be cut down and killed, both to free himself as a Force ghost, but also to let Anakin enact his revenge. They got even, in the end.

Vader is no disease, no second persona, no separate entity. Blaming Anakin’s deeds on Vader as somebody else absolves Anakin and removes the guilt from him. It discredits Anakin, and it cheapens his character. Anakin is not a good man, he is only human. But in the end, despite a life time of poor choices, he makes the right decision. And it’s just as much Anakin saving Luke, as it was Anakin cutting off his hand. It’s just as much Anakin choking Padmé, as it was Anakin marrying her. Anakin did it all.

Anakin alone is to blame for his suffering, and he knows this because there is no Vader. There is only Anakin.

#anakin skywalker #anakin #skywalker #darth vader #vader #lord vader #star wars #sw #meta #analysis #discourse #ani #skyguy #tcw #the clone wars #swr #rebels #pt #prequels #prequel trilogy #prequel era #revenge of the sith #rots #hayden christensen #matt lanter #james earl jones #david prowse #george lucas #sith #jedi

[theflyingfeeling]

BC Survivor au? As in the reality tv show 😄 or if you haven't watched it, any other reality/competition show etc?

Ooh, yes yes yes! But..instead of the tropical location they always have in Survivor (even in the Finnish editions, except for the one during covid I think), how would you like a Finland edition? Survivor goes Lapland or something like that? :D

They all compete in the same tribe and thus sleep in the same kota

(Yes they sleep there yes it's tiny I know but humour me a little here alright, it's an alteranate universe after all and I'm making this up as I go 😅)

Niko and Aleksi immediately form an alliance and are often found plotting against the others, in true menace manner

Meanwhile Tommi is not planning on collaborating with anyone 😤 He's named as the first tribe chief

And he gets to wear a really cool bear skin that he likes so much he refuses to give it back when his time as chief is over and the production has to bring a new one to the set 🙈

Their tribe wins the first competition, which makes Joonas happy because to him the tribe already feels like a family 🥰

Indeed, Olli has to console him when they finally lose a competition (they have a winning streak in the beginning) and finally have to let go of one of the tribe members

"BUT WE'RE A FAMILY I DON'T WANT TO NAME ANYONE I LOVE YOU ALL 😭😭😭😭"

Meanwhile Joel contemplates voting himself off lol, participating in the competition was a huge mistake and he wants to sleep in an actual bed

Not that he minds sleeping next to Tommi too much. It's kinda cold in the kota at night, and Tommi is very warm 🥰

Ironically, Joel gets to be the next chief and he absolutely hates the responsibility and is this 🤏 close to actually telling the production he's going home

Tommi sees his moment and decides to break his "no collaboration, we die like men" principle and offer his advice for poor reluctant chief Joel

This does not go according to Niko and Aleksi's plans, who are planning on making sure Tommi is the next one to be voted off (he would be too strong an opponent in the end)

What Niko doesn't know, however, is that Aleksi has also made an alliance with *gasp* ROBIN 😱 Where do Aleksi's loyalties really lie?

Olli doesn't really have anyone to make an alliance with and he's kinda sad about it. Joonas says Olli should make one with him, and they do eventually, only their idea of scheming and coming up with strategies is talking about their feelings while braiding each other's hair 🥺

..which makes Aleksi realise he's made alliances with the wrong men: neither Niko nor Robin is going to braid his hair (it's getting kinda greasy (sorry for the mental image)), let alone let him braid theirs 😔

To no one's surprise, Tommi wins the challenge where they have to eat all sorts of weird foods, like worms and reindeer testicles

By winning this challenge he also wins the "untouchable" charm that prevents him from being voted off, which in this production is a crown made of moose horns, another prop Tommi's not planning on giving back once he gets his hands on it (the production is getting kind of frustrated and contemplate writing Tommi off the show somehow, but he's a fan favourite, so their hands are pretty much tied)

To no one's surprise, Joonas doesn't do quite as well in that particular challenge

At some point Joonas and Olli end up in a duel, but they've become such good friends that they're practically sobbing throughout the whole task because they don't want the other to leave 😭 and so production lets them both go ("oh my god stop crying you two, you're already out of the island"). They start a YouTube channel together after the show 🥰

Niko is Shook™ when he finds out about Aleksi's betrayal, but saves his ass anyway in the next vote-off (bye Robin 👋)

Joel and Tommi become such a power couple that, against all odds, they end up in the finale together ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#blind channel #blind channel rpf #hope you don't mind i concentrated more in the interpersonal relationships rather than the competitions/challenges/etc. #who ever wants to write this can come up with those 😇 #and yesssss still happy to receive more request :D

[medusinestories]

Today is Two For One because these two eps pretty much follow onto each other in terms of storylines and themes etc.

Black Sails V and VI (s1 eps 05-06)

- A big plot point in these two episodes is Billy mistrusting and investigating Flint. It starts with Flint approaching Billy and claiming he wants an “honest” conversation with him (note that he’s had time to think about what he’ll say to Billy, coming back to my previous comment about how Flint does better at persuasion when he has time to script things). Flint explains that you can’t ever be entirely truthful to a crew because if you explain any risk of failure they’ll be demoralised. He also talks very briefly about Miranda, portraying her as a “nice Puritan woman” who likes books. When Billy asks if this is really true, Flint just gives him That Wink. Billy spends the episode wavering between trying to support both Flint and protect the crew, clearly conflicted. This feeling intensifies when Logan asks whether Flint will give up trying to get the guns even if the situation becomes extremely dangerous, and Billy can see that Flint is risking the lives of men to get at the guns and knows what he did on the Maria Aleyne. The last straw is the discovery of Miranda’s letter and the realisation that she didn’t prevent Guthrie from betraying them like she was supposed to. Gates dismisses Billy’s doubts and refuses to get into it, mostly in a stategic move, knowing that Flint is the only one who can get them through this battle, and that they all need to obey him in this moment.

- Speaking of battles, this is the first prolonged sea battle we get to see, and the first time that Flint is given a really worthy opponent in the character of Bryson. Bryson is extremely clever and uses both sailing and defense/siege/booby-trap strategies that make taking the Andromache practically impossible to take. Flint shows a lot of resourcefulness in response: he seems to know exactly how much his ship can take and how to handle it (in spite of DeGroot’s warnings, which end up being unfounded for once) and hammers out a good (if dangerous) strategy to board the ship. However, this isn’t enough to outwit Bryson, who’s extremely well prepared for a siege if he gets boarded and has the Scarborough already heading their way. In fact if the slaves in the hold hadn’t helped the pirates, I doubt Flint would have had to leave without the guns. Even when he’s dying, Bryson still attempts to blow his ship up. In fact, his explosive booby trap has a real impact on what happens in the end of episode 6.

- It’s interesting to watch Dufresne in his first battle. He’s clearly meant for us to identify with, as the “nerd” on the ship who’s never seen battle. Following him allows us to see the faces of a lot of crew members, to feel the tension and fear before boarding the other ship, the desperation of the battle, and... okay I’m not sure just anyone would go feral like Dufresne does and rip someone’s throat out. This is definitely a turning point in Dufresne’s character.

- Something new in Billy’s character that he is shown lying to Dufresne to reassure him before the battle, using exactly the technique Flint mentioned earlier. First he tried telling Dufresne that guns only go off half the time - not at all reassuring. Then he tells Dufresne that sailors on their crew never die in their first battle. Only after the battle, does Dufresne realise that what Billy told him isn’t true - and tells Billy that he appreciates the lie. Does this change Billy’s point of view on lying? Is lying all right, for a good cause?

- In the meantime, Eleanor is saddled with Silver. I absolutely love this plot line and wish these two had worked together some more, because they’re hilarious. Silver knows that Eleanor’s angry with him and finally gets to find out that it’s because he involved Max in his scheme, but he flatly refuses taking any responsibility for that, saying it was Max’s choice (which it was). Later, when the angry pirates are turning into a mob, Silver is clearly getting anxious and Eleanor pretending not to be, he says: "if you're pretending to remain unconcerned for my peace of mind, please don't", a line mirrored in S2, where Flint openly admits to Silver that he’s “appearing unconcerned” as a strategy (and thus establishing the Flint/Eleanor parallel). Finally, Silver confronts Eleanor about the danger of not appeasing the mob by letting Vane operate out of Nassau again; she asks him to convince her why she should - and he actually does. It takes two hours, but he actually gets through to her. In this conversation, he utters the classic line “guilt is natural; it also goes away, if you let it”. Clearly he’s had to make some nasty choices for his survival, and likely he has quite a personal experience of mobs, too.

- Richard Guthrie continues to be one of the biggest assholes of the show. In these two episodes he 1) betrayed Mr Scott by telling Bryson to kidnap him and sell him as a slave, 2) announcing that he’s liquidating his holdings in Nassau without warning Eleanor and saddling her with the angry mob, 3) shamelessly revealing to Eleanor how he betrayed her and why, disregarding the fact that she’s made Nassau what it is over the last few years, 4) is worming his way into Mr Underhill’s good books and got himself a cosy and very safe place to live while all hell breaks loose in Nassau.

- Speaking of Mr Scott, he ends up amongst the slaves in Bryson’s ship and appears somewhat disdainful towards them, mostly because he doesn’t want to knows the realities of what would happen to them if they joined the pirates (some would still be sold as slaves). Eme believes that they should still seize their chance for freedom, but Mr Scott won’t help the pirates get these weapons, which “are dangerous to someone I love". This of course is understood as being Eleanor, but it also easily be interpreted as the Maroon Queen/Madi in light of S3. In fact, it makes much more sense that he is resisting the Urca plan to protect them/his community than because he’s worried that Eleanor will be killed. Eme counters that he’ll never see this person again, which still isn’t quite enough to break his resolve. Finally, once Mr Scott has changed his mind and helped free the slaves and ended up helping Flint, he has a conversation with him. Flint decides not to tell the crew of Mr Scott's betrayal, because he’d rather prove Mr Scott wrong re: making Nassau into more than it currently is.

- Anne’s inability to bear the violence done to Max comes to a head in these episodes. First she dismisses Mrs Mapleton who’s not being all too gentle while “tending” to Max, and the brief talk between Max and Anne seems to reinforce Anne’s resolve to stop Hamund (looked him up) (but did they really need to bond while Anne pushes a phallic instrument into Max’s cervix after lubing it up? there’s clear sexual innuendo in the way it’s filmed and it’s pretty inappropriate). It’s only when Rackham sees Anne defending the entrance to Max’s tent and can’t believe that Anne would put herself in danger over “a fucking whore”, that it finally dawns on him that Anne is horrified with this situation (something he could have guessed considering the circumstances in which he met Anne). Once Max is freed and thanks Anne, Anne tells her that she didn’t do it for Max. Which is probably not completely true, but again what we know of Anne’s past also means that she didn’t want to see any woman treated that way.

- The theme of men siding together and not listening to women comes up several times in these two episodes. Guthrie says that he persuaded Mr Scott to betray Eleanor because “we talked like men and he saw reason”. The “like men” suggests that men support each other’s decisions, especially to resist a woman’s folly. The Consortium refuses to listen to Eleanor unless a respected captain, in this case Hornigold, also backs it. But of course Hornigold won’t back it unless Eleanor allows Vane to become a captain again; he considers how Vane’s men are treating the “thieving whore” to be of absolutely no relevance. Rackham opposes Anne’s attempt at stopping Hamund from visiting Max to protect her from Hamund, who he fears would harm Anne. And finally, Pastor Lambrick doesn’t believe Miranda when she tells him that doesn’t need to fear Flint’s anger.

- An answer to this is unlikely collaboration between women people in ep 6, aka, Eleanor  and Anne who deeply despises her. Both of them share a sense of responsibility for what happened to Max, and believe that they’ll only feel better when Max is free and Hamund is dead. John “guilt will go away if you let it” Silver is roped into the plot, when Eleanor, reminds him that he’s a “loose end” to Flint, who will likely want to get rid of him, and promises to tell Flint not to kill Silver after he’s served his purpose if Silver helps them. Which he does, begrudgingly, and at the risk of getting murdered by Hamund at any moment. This puts Eleanor and Anne’s plan to kill Vane’s remaining crew into place, and ruffles Rackham’s feathers: he’s forced to help kill even the men who aren’t disgusting rapists like Hamund. He asks "do I not deserve  say", to which Anne answers "you had your say, now I have mine". GOOD FOR HER.

- When the dust settles, we get a really interesting moment where Silver accurately analyses Eleanor, pointing out that she can’t stand to be wrong, feel weak or let anyone get away with fucking with her - which makes her in his opinion possibly more dangerous than Flint. Does this mean that Silver still thinks he had a genuine chance of winning Flint over and surviving him even without Eleanor’s help? (he’d be right, considering how his relationship with Flint evolves later on the show; perhaps the difference between Flint and Eleanor is that because she’s a woman, she can’t *afford* to show any weakness at all)

- Lambrick has his big moment in episode 6 when he rides chivalrously to Miranda in the middle of the night, hoping to save her from Flint’s retribution. Instead of really reassuring him, Miranda chooses to talk about Thomas instead. This is where we hear the most about Thomas in S1, and the way Miranda speaks about him is clearly loving and admiring. She compares Thomas to Lambrick, saying that he was also a sort of shepherd (the comparison stops here imo). Then she imagines how Thomas would have played devil’s advocate, left all of Lambrick’s beliefs in tatters, all for his own good, to free him from the yoke of shame. I can’t help but think, from her teasing tone and the way she smiles, that she believes that Thomas would have somehow debauched Lambrick. The fact that she decides to have sex with him moments later certainly supports that idea. The ghost of Thomas looms on this scene, and it could be that she briefly imagines being with him, which could explain her smile and the way she holds him afterwards. But Miranda had another reason for sleeping with him: it was a very good way to make him stop asking questions about Flint.

- And in the meantime, Flint knows that Billy has been asking questions about Miranda and overheard him talking angrily with Gates about the letter. It just so happens that Billy has to go cut off a piece of the Andromache’s sail that’s slowing the Walrus down, which puts him in a secluded and dangerous spot. The conversation between Flint and Billy is very brief: Flint asks about the letter Billy found, and Billy answers “I think you know what was in it”. Actually, no, Flint has NO CLUE what was in it. Whatever else passes between them is a mystery, and the next thing we know is Flint announcing that Billy went overboard. We see him hovering behind Gates, watching him intently, until Gates decides that they can’t turn back for Billy. The camera pans a lot on Flint’s face, and his expression is quite unreadable. At first I wasn’t convinced that he’d pushed Billy, but on this watch I’m not so sure, because of the way Flint’s face is filmed. There’s also a sort of clue where we see Flint throw Billy’s sword into the sea during the burial at sea ritual. Of course as Captain he was meant to do that... but the gesture is suggestive of him throwing Billy himself. It’s certainly true that Billy had become a thorn in his side for two reasons: 1) he was one of the rare crew members who could influence Gates and get him on his side; 2) he was much too interested in who Mrs Barlow was and what her motivations were - if Billy had alerted the crew of what she’d done, Miranda may have been in danger (a mob quickly turns against a witch who works against the crew).

- To finish on Flint and Miranda: season 1 has painted them as a unit, an inseparable pair, working as a team (in supernatural ways, sometimes). And to some extent they are. Even at this time where they are truly at odds, where Miranda has tried to take control of Flint’s fate behind his back, they are still protecting each other. Flint doesn’t reveal anything about Miranda and possibly attempts to kill Billy to protect her, while Miranda seduces Pastor Lambrick as a way to distract him from his questions about Flint. She can’t convince him to believe her, but she herself is clearly convinced that Flint is a good, decent person (as she tells the Boston judge in her letter) and she trusts that he knows that she only tried to stop him get the Urca because she wanted to save him - something he will come to accept by the end of S2 (unfortunately for them).

#black sails #flint #silver #eleanor #max #maxanor #maxanne #anne #miranda #flintmiranda #gates #billy #billy & gates #dufresne #rackham #rackhanne #hornigold #richard guthrie #mr scott #mr scott & eleanor #long post cw #black sails rewatch #meta

[cosmicjoke]

Another interesting and heartbreaking thing to consider, I think, is how just... depressed Levi looks all throughout the final arc of SnK.  And I was wondering what it was that was contributing to his obvious grief.  Part of it is just the messed up nature of everything that was going on, with Eren turning into what he did, the overthrow of the military by the Yeagerist’s, all the death and destruction.  Another part, though, that I don’t think I’ve seen brought up, is Levi’s own sense of guilt in having let Zeke get away, and how that led to him making contact with Eren, which set off the Rumbling. 

This wasn’t Levi’s fault, at all, but he probably still felt horribly responsible for it, because he didn’t kill Zeke when he had the chance.  It’s doubly awful, because Levi genuinely believed he was making the right choice in keeping Zeke alive and bringing him back to the Capital.  I think the weight of that choice must have been weighing heavily on him throughout the final arc, and everything that happened with the Rumbling, so much death and destruction, etc...  Levi just looks so terribly resigned and SAD throughout the entire thing.  Part of it also must be a sense of futility, in how hard he, and all the SC members fought to win their freedom, to protect Eren and keep him alive because they all genuinely believed he was their greatest hope, only for it to come to this, them chasing Eren across the world in a desperate attempt to stop him from destroying almost all of humanity.  All those sacrifices, all those friends lost, all those soldiers dead to keep Eren safe, only for them to be forced into a position where Eren had become their enemy.  I think this must have been incredibly painful for all of them, but Levi’s entire demeanor throughout this arc, the really, deeply HURT expression on his face throughout, tells me he must have been more deeply affected by it all than anyone.  

The thing about Levi is, he’s such an idealist.  It’s a weird thing to say, because he’s also extremely jaded from the hard experiences of his life.  But he wants and strives so ardently to believe in a better future, a better world, a freer world.  And it must have seemed to him then that it was all crashing down around him, all those hopes and dreams.  It must have felt to him like it had all been for naught, all those lives lost.  And there’s nothing worse to Levi than people dying for no reason at all.  So I think that must have been just pure torture for him, having to witness all of their efforts culminating in such a devastating betrayal by someone who had been a friend and an ally, and such horrific destruction of human life.  

When Levi says at the end “I guess this is the result of all your dedicated hearts”, and we see him crying, I think part of that too is Levi probably feeling an awful uncertainty as to whether any of it had been worth it.  All his friends are dead.  All of the other veterans.  He’s alone.  The other SC members are all reuniting with their loved ones, they have a shared, long history together, their friends are, more or less, still alive.  But everyone Levi had held a history with is gone, Hange being the last to go.  Levi makes a point throughout the entire series of saying that he never knows if the choices he makes are the right ones, and how he tries to make them with no regrets, despite that not knowing.  Here, I think he must be struggling with whether all his choices leading up to this moment were choices he can live with, without feeling regret.  I think the sad looks of his dead comrades in the vision that he has are also reflective of this.  They see Levi’s struggle here, and his pain.  They know the burden he now must carry, as the sole survivor from among them, thus making him the sole custodian of their memories, and the sole representative of what it is they all fought and stood for.  Levi always tries so hard to do the right thing, because he cares so deeply, and has so much compassion for other people.   Levi’s aim was always to try and prevent as much death as he could, to take whatever road he could that would prevent further death, protect and better the lives of the most people, to save humanity, at first, from the Titans, and then later, to save the people of Paradis from being destroyed by the rest of the world.  Even when it meant sullying himself and resorting to sometimes violent means, as long as it would help more people live, then he could do it.  For it then to come to a situation where one of their own goes on a genocidal attack, killing the vast majority of the rest of the world, it must have been like Levi’s worst nightmare coming true.   It just must have been really hard for him, sitting alone among the rubble of mass destruction that Eren had caused, to hold on to his belief in their cause.  He believed still in the sacrifices of his comrades, and their dedication to that cause, but he must have struggled with whether, in the end, their dedication and sacrifices had been worth it.  It’s just such a sad thing.  Because Levi was fighting all this time for humanity, for the survival of humanity, for humanities freedom and right to live, and in the end, so many ended up dying anyway.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #Levi Ackerman

[casserole4you]

A Mermaids Tale

Tom Holland AU

Words: 1.8K

⚠️Warnings⚠️ betrayal, drowning, near death experience

A/N: Sorry if this sucks I'm trying something new, I normally write in 3rd person but I decided to try and write in 1st person for a change.

(Part 1) (Part 2)

《Masterlist》

"Make her walk the plank!"

My eyes widened in terror as the crew grabbed me and tied my hands together and tied my legs together preventing me from trying to run, even though I would have nowhere to go.

"Please stop!" I begged as I begun to cry.

The crew ignored me and instead of listening to my pleas, they began to shove me onto a  plank of wood that they had laid down to push me off the side of the ship while chanting and yelling profanity towards me.

"Haven't you heard that no woman steps foot on my ship and lives to tell the tale?" The captain gave a smug look showing his yellow teeth, well the few that he had.

They pushed me with a stick to move me closer to the edge of the wood and once I was at the edge I couldn't help but stare into the dark icey blue ocean that was soon going to become my watery grave.

"Any last words?" The captain sneered.

I stared into the ocean with glassy eyes, I tore my gaze from the ocean and desperately looked around and realized there was no sign of land anywhere near so there was no chance of me even trying to swim to shore. I glanced behind me "Please," I whispered d

"Don't do this," I pleaded desperately trying to change their minds.

"No man wants a woman on his ship, it's bad luck," he sneered.

I frantically scanned the faces looking for the kind familiar one that I came to love over the years. Only for him to be staring at me with a cold blank expression.

"Sam! Sam! Tell them what you told me! Tell them that we are going to get off on the next port!" I desperately tried.

Everyone collectively turned and looked at Sam with raised eyebrows.

"Is what she said true?" The captain growled

" I have no idea what this wench is talking about, " he sneered. "I've never seen her before in my life. Until you all found her and grabbed her."

With that my heart broke in two, the Sam I knew and loved was no longer standing there in front me. 

I was looking at some stranger instead.

We met when I was younger, but I was 11 and he was 13 and we thought it was love at first. But because of my family's royal status and him being a pirate we simply weren't allowed to be together. Having to  constantly sneak around the castle grounds and having to hide from my royal guards at every turn just for us to have a few precious moments to have before he would have to go back home. That was until he decided to join a bunch of pirates at the age of 16 when his parents passed away and I would just have to look forward to his letters for 2 years until he finally came back home.

---

"You know I have to leave again soon right?"

I sighed resting my head on his shoulder "I know."

"Hey what do you think about running away with me? We could both leave together on the ship that I'm working on? And we can get off at the next port that we dock at and we can just live there and start a family of our own."

I stared into his pale blue eyes before scanning over the rest of him becoming mesmerized by him. He was semi tan from working in the sun, with a slightly built frame from working on the ship, but still he had his pale complexion with barely any scars making him, his nose was crooked though from it getting broke and not set properly, but other than that he still was the most beautiful man I have ever  seen. His shaggy blond hair was now a little past his shoulders and slowly becoming matted from the lack of upkeep and he was starting to grow a beard.

"Hey did you hear me?" He asks, drawing my attention back to his eyes.

"Do you really mean it Sam?" I asked hopefully.

Seeing complete honesty and love in his eyes "Of course my love I would do anything for us to be together," he said, giving me a light peck on the lips.

"Am I even allowed on the ship with you?" I asked warily "I thought women weren't really welcomed on pirate's ship," I said my voice growing quieter a little at the end.

"We will just sneak you on the boat, we can dress you in some of my clothes and you can just blend in for a few days until we get to where we are going." 

"We don't even look the same though," I'm a complete opposite of him with my  curly dark brown hair, my chocolate color eyes and short stature. That there was no way we would be able to pull this off.

"Don't worry you won't get caught, and if you do I'll protect you from any harm. I promise I won't let them do anything to you," he declared.

"Okay I trust you," I said, giving him a passionate kiss.

The first day on the ship went well. Sam and I worked under the deck almost all day without anyone getting suspicious. But when ever we would hear someone coming he would make me hide until it was all clear, because we didn't want to take any chances. When it was time for us to go to bed he had me sleep on the floor behind some barrels in the corner so no one would be able to see me even if they walked by.

The second day was slightly different, from the first when I woke up Sam was nowhere to be seen so I stayed hidden afraid to move from my spot. 

I couldn't tell how much time has past since I woke up, since there are no windows or any real light to tell what time of day it was. And no one has been down here since I've woken up and I was beginning to have to go to the bathroom so I glanced around and waited a few more minutes and I quickly made my way to the 'designated bathroom bucket' and began to do my business. But just when I thought luck was on my side someone walked in on me in the middle of me going to the bathroom thus how I got caught.

---

I felt betrayed staring at him because he broke his promise to me, when he told me that he would never let anything happen to me, and now he's acting like he's never seen me before in his life.

"I hope you all rot in hell you cowards," I venomously said making sure to make direct eye contact with Sam when I said cowards.

The man gave a dark chuckle "I'm already there sweetheart." 

Without any warning they pushed me backwards and I slipped  off the board making eye contact with Sam for the last time. 

Soon I was met with the  salty water that welcomed me with cold stinging unforgivable arms.

The water surrounded me. 

The more I struggled to get out of my restraints the more disorientated I got. 

Up, down, left, right, nothing made any sense anymore I pushed with my bounded arms and legs but it was pointless as I sunk lower and lower. 

My lungs burned for more air and even though I knew it was impossible I still opened my mouth to scream for help. But instead of my voice, cold water quickly filled my lungs taking the rest of the fight I had left in me. 

My vision soon began to get blurry with black spots and it was harder for me to focus, I had nothing left in me to fight anymore. 

When I thought all hope was lost, air slowly filled my lungs.

I was coughing and gasping for the air my lungs were deprived of for what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes.

Once I finished getting my breathe back to normal I started to scan my surroundings. I quickly realized I was on the bottom of the ocean instead of on shore like I originally thought. Confused, I tried to stand on my feet only to topple over and being even more confused I glanced down and realized a golden fish tail had replaced my legs.

"Oh my god," I gasped, reaching out to try and touch the tail only to see that  my forearms were still tied together, but now they were also littered in scales the same color as the ones ones on the tail.

"Woah I've never seen the god of the sea grant someone who was drowning a tail before."

I turn my head side to side trying to  search for the voice that had just spoken, "Hello? Is someone there?"

A man poked his head from behind a reef that was near by and for a moment I thought he was normal human, he was extremely handsome with his chocolate curly brown hair sticking slightly up and his brown eyes shining with curiosity but it was until he moved from behind it the reef that I noticed attached to his torso instead of legs like I was expecting he had a tail too, except his tail was a dark midnight blue color a stark contrast to my golden tail.

"Stay back!" I said in a panic pushing myself to the best of my ability farther away from him but only being able to accomplish moving a mere inch and clouds of sand to form around me.

He stopped moving towards me and was  staring at me cautiously from a short distance away with slightly wide eyes, as if afraid I was going to do anything drastic if he came any closer.

"Hey," he calmly spoke "It's okay I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Tom, can you tell me your name?"

"Serenity," I said curtly.

"Okay Serenity I'm going to come closer to untie you, that's all I would like to do is that okay with you?"

I nod my head slowly, not really understanding what was going on anymore.

But as soon as Tom started to approach me I went on high alert and began to  micro-manage his every move, making sure he won't trick and deceive me just like Sam had done. As he slowly began to untie and free me from the bindings that were still around my hands, he kept glancing at my tail making me even more nervous.

"Woah your tail is so cool! I've never seen a gold one before, I wonder why yours is gold, and not blue, green, or orange. Do you have any ideas?" he pondered.

I chose to stay quiet instead of answering him, I just stared up looking toward the surface and wondering what my life was going to be like from here.

#tom+holland+x+reader+smut #tom holland #tom x reader #peter parker x reader #peter parker smut #spiderman #spiderman x reader #the avengers

[bccfggffbgv]

(To the joy of Dreamkiller, an attempted attack on the heroes soon happened, with the intent on killing Hunter in the process. This second part was meant to be a secret, but Rex didn’t listen to that part. Hunter wasn’t even trying to defend against anything being brought in at first, but Rex’s announcement that Hunter was to be killed under the orders of Belos was shocking to the (effectively now former) Golden Gaurd. Belos was the only parental figure he had, as lousy of one that Belos was. Belos deciding that Hunter was now to be killed was shattering to how Hunter viewed the world, so to say. Thus, Hunter’s unease about the situation soon turned into him legitimately choosing to do what Belos was told he had done, deciding that at this point, he had nothing to loose from it if Belos wanted him dead. He still had his little palisman friend, after all, and Belos finding out about the magical cardinal wouldn’t make a difference at this point. As for Rex, it turns out that Spook didn’t forget about him, and thus prioritized the killer in question. As for Dreamkiller, Jackrow took charge, followed by several monster hunters. The latter group saw the custom heavy Bowgun and took offense from how it was modified to be needlessly cruel, many using any moment they could to damage it. Though they didn’t avoid harm, what they had prevented true casualties, to the frustration of Dreamkiller. It didn’t help that the Grey Horde Snipers where greatly reduced after Spook took out a number of them, followed by the survivors of Spook’s attack being further reduced by an Odogaron attack. This would lead to the attack attempt ultimately being a failure, especially with it only making Hunter’s reported betrayal become a reality)

(Note: I feel like Rex would listen to things thoroughly and Dream Killer or one of the less intelligent grunts would've been the ones to spill that part out)

Dream Killer, after one of the hunters had damaged his weapon a bit: You are "so" gonna pay for that you b****!! *He flipped the heroes off while he and the others retreated from the failed ambush attack* This ain't over "golden brat"!!!

Serial designation N, while concerned about Hunter's silence: Is everything alright?...

Hunter, while still shocked by the attempted assassination attempt:...I'm just currently...processing what just happened...

#Multiversal Fusion #hunterverse #Chaos-verse

[perpetual-help]

@loki’s-right-nut

I saved some segments from your post but your response on tumblr is gone, so I will place this in its own post in hopes you will see it. Maybe tumblr is being weird, or maybe you deleted your response, I’m not really sure. Either way, you raised some points that are worth answering.

*Quotes and scripture references belonging to loki’s-right-nut will be noted in red and italicized to prevent any confusion.

I see you are Catholic as well? I also see you are quite learned in the scripture. So tell me, do you remember what Isa (that’s Jesus’s actual name and I’m sure he’d be very flattered if you used it) said about judging others? Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Let Isa and his father be the ones to bring back the wayward. Because since he is love, he is also understanding and compassion and patience. Those who “turn away” from him have their reasons and he understands this. Isa is all knowing, yes? So he knows. Let him take care of it instead of trying to start another crusade online.”

Luke 6:37 is true. God alone can judge the heart. This means that I cannot say whether a certain person went to hell, or will go to hell. I cannot read their hearts; this belongs to God alone. However, we can and are called to judge actions and to correct and instruct others.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Now, in regards to Christian witches, Isa also said something and I really hope you remember. Because Isa actually spoke to someone very much like yourself. Mk 9:38-41

“At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.”

They have found another way to work for Him and he is pleased by that. They do his work in another way in which they can better let him into their life. They call it “magic” but he calls it “A mighty deed in his name.”

Those driving out demons did so in the name of Jesus, not in the name of some false deity or spirit or demon. In Acts, there is a passage that talks about a woman who is possessed by a spirit that allows her to tell fortunes.

Acts 16:16-18

“As we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl with an oracular spirit (spirit of divination), who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling. She began to follow Paul and us, shouting, “These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She did this for many days. Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Then it came out at that moment.”

1 John further illustrates a need for discernment of the spirit, and expands on the fact that there are many false prophets in this world.

1 John 4:1-6

“Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them. We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.”

Sorcery is condemned in the Bible. I included the passages for this in my original post, but I will also include them here for you to reference if needed.

Galatians 5:19-23

Revelation 21:5-8

“You are quite right about the Tyrant view. In fact, I began to see it at a young age. I remember being in Youth Group when I finally voiced it. I said "I can't bond with Him (god) because I fear being struck down. Like I am a mere slave bowing before a mighty king who will knock me down to the dust should I make one misstep."

God is Just and He is Merciful. For those who truly seek to love and serve Him, He aids them in all matters. This fear of being struck down over a misstep is understandable, but it isn’t entirely accurate. We are given the sacraments for a reason - one of those being confession. God doesn’t desire to condemn, He desires for us to repent.

“There is something very wrong with some of these teachings. On the surface level, yes, most of these can be good wisdom. "Love thy neighbor" and such. But a large majority of these messages hold a toxic amount of self denial and utter dependency on this deity. The more you look, the more you realize, he doesn't want you for you. He wants you to mold you into submission so he can easily control you. if you withstand the treatment and somehow leave, he'll see it as betrayal and send you to the fiery pits for eternity”

God is a loving Father and we are made in His image and likeness, with the purpose to love Him and all people as He loves us. He calls us to servitude and sacrifice, and He has given us the most perfect example of this in Our Lord Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Like the loving Father He is, He encourages all people to rise above the passions of the flesh and the pleasures of this world in order to recognize this need to subdue the flesh and grow in the spirit. Self denial promotes a deeper level of submission to the will of God - and, since God is Love and all things Good and Holy, this is the only way we can reflect such virtue. Humility is the opposite of pride. It is a state of being more than it is a singular action. Humility is truth because it is the honest recognition of what we, as humans, are. We are creatures chained by our passions, deluded by our own egos, self-serving, reveling in all kinds of sin. We do not see this sin for what it actually is, but God sees it. He saw all sin that ever was and ever would be committed while He hung on the cross. It was our sins that wounded Him and drove the nails into His hands and feet, and the spear into His side. Every single day our sins offend Him in the moments of His Passion. Without God, we cannot even begin to attempt to loosen our bonds of sin. We are entirely dependent upon Him - and that is where we recognize what we are. We are little and weak and prone to sin. Still, God is magnified in our weakness and in our recognition of this littleness, and He is forever eager to fill our hearts with His infinite Love so that we might reflect His goodness like polished mirrors. Thus, we can rightly say God alone is worthy of all glory and honor and praise. When we understand the role we, as each individual person, has played in the torments of Our Lord during His passion, this is where a desire to suffer for love of God begins to bloom. Those who love God seek to lessen His torments even by one iota - to sacrifice themselves in His place, should such a thing be possible. They seek to follow in His footsteps more closely, and to offer all sufferings for others, for the souls in purgatory, and all united with Jesus on the cross. God sees this love and great sacrifice and how the soul strives to reach closer to Him, and they in turn are blessed to taste the depths of pleasures in His infinite love.

#catholic #roman catholic #christian witch #catholic witch #witchcraft #response