#don't uphold the status quo

[jilf]

the fact that no is sweeping on that poll. "let people enjoy things" mindless consumption turning off your brain to watch tv ass website

#personal #that thing about how liberals uphold the status quo exactly as it is and don't seek change. or whatever

[loneliii-aura]

This has probably been said before, but the final scene of Glass Onion was really interesting in terms of how much of a pointed commentary about liberalism it is.

First no one helps Helen - they just look away and close their eyes. But then Helen gets going, and people start rallying and joining in on the destruction - until Miles Bron starts getting irate, and they realize she's actually going for it in the face of potential repercussions from the one who holds power currently. Then they try to stop the violence, but she refuses to stop in the face of their shouting.

It's only after she's burned the place down and told Bron exactly how she'll sink him that they start rallying again, after a solution has been found and presented. But Helen didn't need them, she already had what she needed to sink Bron. Sure, it was better than them, like, killing her on Bron's behalf - but they didn't help. They performatively danced around and then tried to maintain the status quo, only ingratiating themselves to the winning side after all was said and done. If you can't see the allegory about liberals, I don't know what to tell you.

#Glass Onion #Liberal #Politics #If you feel hurt by this I'd recommend looking at the liberal parties #And asking what they've actually done that doesn't appease conservatives and maintain the status quo #Things are starting to change! #But they're only going to continue to change if we actually assess democrat running politicians and elect those who actually #Enact progressive policies and don't suck conservative cock #(There are further questions to be had about upholding the US' institutions as they currently stand- #But those require much more nuance than tumblr tag commentary can manage) #I don't hate liberals #I'm just exhausted by them

[praetorqueenreyna]

“The Outside” being an unfiltered look at how feminine women can uphold patriarchy and viciously take down anyone who doesn’t fit the status quo....WE LOVE TO SEE IT!

#cabinet of curiosities #episode: the outside #the outside #this ep was SO REFRESHING #I'm so fucking tired of 'strict femininity is FOR WOMEN' being a feminist chant #like FINE but yall are still upholding the fucking status quo #you are STILL THE PROBLEM #it's not THE MEN who don't treat stacey like a person until she fits the mold

[yoshilisk]

stampede being seen as progressive for its female characters because people don't know the source material... genuinely sad to me

#this isn't meant to vague anyone. i know people are just missing the proper frame of reference #to see that stampede really isn't pushing the status quo re: women. if anything it's upholding it #i just. please. you don't have to live on these crumbs there's better out there #stampede negativity #yoshiposts

[revenge-of-the-shit]

Now that the hype has long passed and now that I've studied far more Asian diaspora history I honestly think Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is not as great as many of us (including me) originally saw it to be. As happy as it made me in the moment when I first watched it, now that I've had quite a lot of time to think on it, it's really just a film that repackaged orientalist tropes through a consumable, semi-progressive lens. It was so deeply and heavily sanitized for the (white) public's eye that in the long run I don't know how much it helped, if at all. Here's a good article which examines this.

A brief sample of repackaged (harmful) stereotypes which this movie perpetuates:

All Asians are smart. Katy has an Honours degree from Berkeley, a prestigious school. Shaun/Shang-Chi speaks four languages. One of their friends explicitly makes a point about how they're both academically extremely accomplished. There is some mild pushback to this as they both work at a non-glamorous valet job but it's surface level at best.

The East is filled with exotic mysticism or criminal intrigue. The only non-immigrant Chinese characters we see in the film are either from a benevolent, magical, other-dimension Ta Lo, or come from a life of crime, be it underground illegal fight rings or an empire that spans a thousand years. It effectively others anyone with roots set deep in the homeland, calling them dangerous criminals or mystical unearthly wielders of magic. It was deeply unnecessary for Wong, one of the few Asians in the MCU, to show up as a secret underground criminal fighter.

All Asians know Kung Fu and are secret martial arts masters. Even Katy, who's never picked up a bow in her life, is apparently on par with Hawkeye after three hours of training.

And from marketing, one of the more harmful stereotypes that just kept coming:

The terms 'Chinese' and 'Asian' are always interchangeable. They are not. Yes, China is a single country within the continent of Asia. No, China is not all of Asia. I use the term "Asian" lightly when listing the stereotypes because that's how the stereotypes are told, over and over. Yes, Shang-Chi was the first Asian American superhero on the big screen. No, this movie is not representative "Asian American culture," which is very much something that cannot be condensed into a monolith. While this movie does encapsulate, in some parts, the "Asian American" experience, it only captures a fraction of the Chinese American perspective, and while some parts are relatable to other Asian Americans, it does not even touch on many other aspects of non-Chinese Asian American experiences at all.

There's more which the article linked above explains far more eloquently than I can. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the Asian American's representational equivalent of days-old bread and lukewarm tap water for a starving man. When we had nothing but scraps, it was considered a feast.

But we deserve more than scraps.

#non sw #shang-chi #shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings #back briefly from my hiatus to post about this and away I go again #mcu critical #anyway everythin everywhere all at once is far superior in every single way #on one hand i don't want to pit the very little rep we have against one another #on the other hand SCATTOTR is so... bad in terms of quality rep that I can't in good faith call it good rep #I can go into a whole other discourse on how the term asian american is harmful as a monolithic term but that's for another day #there's also a general discourse on how the MCU upholds a white liberal status quo #but I don't have the time to get into that

[lizardsfromspace]

Saw someone actually lay out how messed up the situation is in Wisconsin to relatively little notice on another site & I didn't know that situation was like. That unknown. But

Wisconsin is no longer democratic & is a test case for right-wing rule's endgame

Not democratic in a political party sense. Not democratic in a "it is no longer a democracy in most senses" sense

It went for Biden in 2020 (& blue every recent Presidential election bar 2016) and Democrats won every state office in 2018...

...but it's impossible for them to have a majority in the legislature. Even the 50/50 split implied by election results is impossible

After a Democrat won in 2018 they stripped the Governor of all his power. All he can do is veto bills & call special sessions...

...which end in seconds bc the right just immediately gavels them closed. Sessions on gun violence & abortion ended instantly, with no debate, and thus nothing but far-right laws can even go up for a vote

Not only do they not confirm his appointees but they won a court case saying anyone appointed by a past Governor can stay in after their term if no one new is confirmed

Since the right won't confirm anyone new, people appointed by Scott Walker effectively have their offices permanently, four years later

People going "just vote!" feels so weird bc, yeah, in this case voting is vital, we need a Democratic governor to veto bills, but also you can literally "just vote" & nothing else. Changing the system or even the smallest positive advance is impossible. The best result is upholding the status quo & delaying the right's full takeover of the few offices they don't control by another four years, something you can't count on being able to do bc they've spent the past two years testing the waters of letting the legislature just overrule election results completely

Anyway this is the future, today! and we live in hell

#uspol #long post

[we-are-knight]

those who say that knights were jack-booted thugs are cowards

There's room for nuance in that you can criticise knights as defenders of status-quo for a political system we no longer agree with. However, this is a position we can take hundreds of years divorced from said system, and with a modern perspective. Sure, there was criticism of knights even in their heyday, but most of that criticism is akin to today's attitude of asking people in power to do better. And just like today, there's enough examples of people that can symbolise the status quo that *do* make an effort.

Likewise, there is something romantic about the idea of someone powerful and driven, who makes an effort to do good things despite their privilege and power. I always think of the Seigneur de Bayard as an example of the epitome of that ideal: someone so strong and benevolent that his enemies loved him, and when forced by necessity to take from the people of regions he was engaged in, went to pains to make repayment to them, such that the people of all regions did not fear him and his army.

I don't think it's wrong to say knights are therefore complex figures, with some living up to the romantic ideal, and some not. But I think it very empty, hollow, and a reflection of the speaker, when someone takes that to mean that knights were only ever thugs and that their romantic image we choose to uphold, is worthless because of that. We hold to romantic images because we want to be better than the reality. It is a Quixotic ideal, but it's all the more worthy, because the ideal does not exist in reality. Pursuing even a glimmer of an impossible dream, is worth more to the sum of humanity, than petty Nihilism could ever manage.

On the whole, those who believe in dismantling romantic ideals of others are pitiable, not hateworthy. It reflects a part of who they are: with no hope or comfort, they have to drag any idealism down to the grittiness of 'reality', to justify their own treatment. Nevermind that reality for some is not a cruel existence, and there is magic in small things. But reality is neither good or bad; it simply is what we make of it. If you choose to see knights as romantic figures, and adhere to that in your own embodiment, then that is no less true than if you look at the killers of Thomas Beckett.

It's not deep to tear down something romantic and idealistic and offer only bleakness. Nor is it brave or intelligent. As C. S. Lewis put it:

"Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker."

I think about this quote a lot, as the world gets bleaker, seemingly, each year. I wonder if this blog ever makes someone's destiny a little brighter. I certainly hope so.

[emblemxeno]

Chapter 13 of Fates Revelation is a writing highlight for me.

Corrin: What's going on? They're both blaming each other for this carnage.

Azura: Of course. Kingdoms at war will always twist things to benefit themselves.

Ryoma and Xander-representative of Hoshido and Nohr as a whole-uphold the conflict and status quo of the world they live in. Even if it makes no sense, they accept that they're enemies and an enemy must have done something awful to harm the peace.

Even parts of their battle quotes and end of chapter dialogue emphasize this.

Ryoma: It doesn't matter, Kagero. Anyone who doesn't side with Hoshido is the enemy. What will you be?

Xander: Trust her? Don't be a fool. I won't listen to any more of your lies. You've chosen your side—opposite me. Prepare yourself, Camilla.

-

Xander: This isn't over! We'll fight to the very last man!

Ryoma: You won't see Hoshido waver! We'll fight until there's no one left!

Xander: Whoever retreats now admits defeat! Nohr will never lose to Hoshido.

Ryoma: This war will continue until we take our last breath!

They are unable to see any part of a conflict as something with them or against them. Nuance and rationality don't sit well in minds stubbornly steeped in years of animosity. War, hatred, and reinforcing the way things are is something both of them are willing to do, because they see no other path or choice for themselves.

Corrin and Azura meanwhile, actively disrupt their world views.

Corrin: ...You may be my brothers, but I won't go easy on you if you try to stop me! Come, everyone! ... Ryoma! Xander! Please, you both have to listen to me! We've defeated the real enemy—you don't need to fight each other now!

Azura: Ryoma, Xander... It wasn't Nohr or Hoshido who destroyed this town. It was done by the invisible forces that we just defeated. Now that they are gone, I will not allow any more senseless violence. I will sing my song as many times as necessary to restore peace. Do you still insist on fighting?

And it's not empty words or cries that fall on deaf ears. Corrin is strong. Her will is iron-clad, and she will ensure her vision of peace is made a reality, no matter who she makes an enemy of. Azura is strong as well. What she lacks in directing a path on her own, she makes up for with raw resilience and no qualms about using her song-something that risks her life-to end things on her terms.

They force their stubborn older brothers to look at things in a different perspective; to stop trying to hack and slash their lives away and consider a bigger threat to what and who they care about.

While they aren't swayed immediately, they're undoubtedly shaken. After that, it takes personal introspection and uncomfortable truths for each of them to swallow their pride and admit their ways are wrong, and to follow Corrin to end a senseless war.

And I love this exchange at the end as well:

Scarlet: Ryoma's talked my ears off about what happened to you as a kid. You sound like an idealistic brat to me. You want to bring peace to the world? Ha!

Corrin: There's nothing idealistic about ending this horrible war.

REJECT 👏🏽THE 👏🏽 STATUS 👏🏽 QUO 👏🏽!

Accusing others of being naive or idealistic for things like this, in my opinion, shows cowardice, or even ignorance; a life that's been beaten down by other upholders of a terrible state of the world until they agree.

Why is it naive to trust people? Why is it idealistic to want something like endless warring to stop?

We're fed a lie as children: "Life's unfair, you can't do anything about it." Says who!? Why accept that life is cruel and unyielding, when there's so much capacity for good in the world? Is life actually unchangeably unfair in its nature, or is it simply malefactors taking advantage of innocent people in order to rise up to slake their own greed?

Once terrible people get in power, they beat down any forms of resistance and feed this very same lie to them. Worse still, they can even convince the masses to discriminate, fight, and kill each other all so they can swoop in during the aftermath and reap the benefits. And people, at their lowest point, take solace in any explanation-no matter how untrue and no matter who it's coming from-in order to have some semblance of control or direction. That forms their new view of the world.

It takes people who haven't been exposed or raised to believe such nonsense (Corrin) and people who are wise enough to recognize the true problems of the world (Azura), to push against this normalized destruction between two innocent groups of people and direct their ire towards the actual oppressor (Anankos).

It's succint, but scathing. The word choice-in both JP and localization-is too deliberate to consider it a coincidence, I genuinely think it's a good criticism of how our modern world works as well. From a philisophical standpoint it is basic, but Fates as a whole also tackles issues of ignorance/discrimination, xenophobia, the boundaries and meanings of family, who defines justice, the belief of many versus the will of the few, embracing consequences instead of running away, and exploring the concept of leadership in general.

For a game this big, IMO, it meets the mark more often than not when considering the points it wants its audience to hear.

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem #ryoma fire emblem #xander fire emblem #corrin fire emblem #azura fire emblem #fe fates #storytelling #were Fates to go deeper with the part of the plot of Anankos needing dragon's blood #to the point where he's hoarding it in order to shape the world to how he wants it #it would take all my strength not to say “oh wow it's the Capitalism Dragon” #but as it is it's a layer to the lore and that's it lol

[killwizard]

Kinda insane how cops like pretty regularly actively prevent people from performin lifesavin medical care for people injured at the scene of a crime, and how they legally don't have any duty to make sure people who are injured do recieve care, and don't even actually protect anyone, and they get to go on paid vacation whenever they just straight up kill people

Almost like they exist exclusively to uphold the status quo and abuse their power in ways that make life worse for everyone, or something

[vulturesbones]

Rant:

I just saw a comment on a post by a woman talking about her fear while going on runs alone, saying,

"It's not anti-men, it's anti-patriarchy! The patriarchy hurts everyone, ESPECIALLY men!"

"The patriarchy" isn't what's committing 99% of sexual crimes. The patriarchy isn't what she's scared of chasing her.

The patriarchy - oppressing women to hold men at a superior position of societal power - is not "especially hurting men." "The patriarchy" is men. Men favoring men. Not a mysterious force.

"It's not men, it's society that's fucked up" is another one I've heard. "Society" is not a mysterious force. Who's leading our society? Who's committing the violence? Who owns the most destructive companies? Who marries children? Starts our wars? Look at the statistics. There is one common factor.

And you don't have to agree with statistics for them to be true. Statistics aren't "anti-men", men as a class are anti-women, and anti-humanity.

This is why I say "MEN cause..." rather than "the patriarchy". People seem to believe the patriarchy is some intangible evil force or hidden elite group that's out to get everyone, rather than the status quo of men oppressing women in order to benefit themselves. Men are the oppressing class. They cannot be oppressed on the same axis on which they oppress.

Who is the patriarchy intended to benefit? Who made it? Who upholds it?

#rant #radfem #radfems do interact #radfems please interact #feminism #patriarchy

[biomic]

So you've explained how you would make Drive better, what about Gaim?

more dancing. bust a move you cowards

less anime humor that doesn't translate to live action

recognize the talented cast you have at your disposal and give them more to work with beyond being shallow mouthpieces for their Ideals™

at least try to give kaito kumon any kind of consistent worldview, at all. please

realize women are people before putting pen to paper

don't make the final conflict of your kid's show two guys fighting over who gets to own a woman where our hero ultimately decides to uphold the status quo and lets the stand-in for the devil get off scot-free

have yuya be kamen rider zangetsu during the first arc, get the audience to care about him and his friendship with kouta, and then make his death the major turning point instead of hase. when takatora realizes what yggdrasill is actually doing, he's no longer able to turn a blind eye and becomes zangetsu to atone for his role in the inves games. gives the story real consequences (hase's death essentially had none because kouta never tells anyone about it), doesn't have takatora's personality flip-flop based on how the show wants to shock the audience that week (smugly showing kouta the hase footage is so out of left field given everything else about him), and gives takatora and kouta's relationship a stronger, more meaningful foundation to build from than they had in the actual show where it was just suddenly a Thing (yaoi time)

hire literally anyone other than gen urobuchi to write it

preferably, someone who did not miss the point of kamen rider ryuki, a show for children

release the Wet Bed Scenes cut of zangetsu gaiden

#why did he fucking say thatttttttttttttt #happy 10 years gaim you will always be ass #mangolon #asks #kendrix morgan died for our sins #kamen rider for ts

[effervescentdragon]

Breaking news: the privileged multi-millionaire you've parasocially tied your sense of morality and self to turns out to be a piece of shit! Whole nations absolutely shooketh and in disbelief.

"What do you mean, someone in a position of power is dedicated to upholding the status quo that benefits them on account of suffering of other people who don't look, talk, or think like them, and whom they do not care about in the least?" - wail for an answer from a fan having an existential crisis after dedicating their whole persona to receiving ethical guidance from a (broadly defined) celebrity.

Join us for more absolutely shocking news at five, when we answer the question - does the sun exist? Answer might shock you!

#🙄🙄🙄 #effervescentdragonrants #dont ask me what this is about #its about whatever you think it is

[icyolive]

So I've been thinking about the argument between Crowley and Aziraphale, and how exactly they end up talking past each other so badly in that last scene. I don't think it's poor wording, bad self esteem, or uncharitable assumptions; they know each other too well for that.

I think it boils down to... they both went into that conversation with very different intentions.

There's this pretense.

There's a pretense they've been dancing around since the garden: Heaven is good and right; Hell is Heaven's opponent and therefore evil; Crowley is therefore evil, and therefore Aziraphale's enemy. On some level Aziraphale knows Crowley isn't evil. Over and over, we (they!) see that they share values—it's the foundation of their entire relationship. I mean, the look Crowley gives him when Aziraphale says he's given his sword away (and fibbed to God!)

He's delighted. I mean, can you imagine anyone else from Heaven doing that? Aziraphale is so kind, and cares so much about humanity, even if he doesn't admit it.

And like the snake he is, Crowley has been very gently tempting Aziraphale away from his obedient ignorance since the garden. They spent all of series two—when they weren't dancing around the idea of caring for each other—in dialogue about morality.

They had very different intentions.

Aziraphale goes into the conversation expecting to uphold the status quo—the same old pretense that they're enemies, Crowley is evil, and morality is as simple as Heaven and Hell. Except now Crowley can come back to the good side—doesn't that solve everything?

He's coming from a place of love, but he's not coming from a place of vulnerability or honesty. Or even respect. It's as easy an answer as simply giving Job new children.

Crowley goes into the conversation ready to do away with the whole pretense. He's ready to be honest and vulnerable on a personal level. He acknowledges that they're "a team, a group of the two of us," and that they've "spent [their] existence pretending that we aren't." He's not even saying I want us to be together—he's saying we already are. Not just on the same side in a cosmic war, but a team of two.

Basically, Crowley has thrown out their normal, safe, comfortable argument. It's a huge emotional risk. He's all in.

And Aziraphale doesn't know what to with that.

A shit ton of bad gifs below the cut.

Look at how confused and almost hunted he looks while Crowley is trying to confess.

Aziraphale has no idea that they're no longer on the same page. Or maybe he can tell, but doesn't know how to respond. He looks open and a little confused, smiling like he normally does when Crowley looks at him.

He doesn't seem to notice Crowley's put his glasses back on; did he even notice Crowley had been taking them off around him in the first place? (It's lovely the way he gazes at him, despite—because of?—the eyes and the glasses, but he's clearly missing the subtext.)

Crowley just looks... tired.

Not their usual argument.

And I don't think it's until that last few lines, and the kiss, that Aziraphale realizes this has gone way beyond their usual arguments. He's completely blindsided.

This is before that point, immediately after the "you don't know what I'm offering" exchange. He looks disappointed, indignant, mad, and a little bitter. But it's an amiable sort of mad?

This is after "no nightingales." He goes stock still.

This is where he realizes they're not just talking about good and evil in the abstract; they're talking about them.

And then after the kiss, we get this insane series of emotions.

(Why I think Crowley went with a kiss.)

First, he's overwhelmed. Then, anger. It's the rationally irrational anger of someone who is experiencing a lot of cognitive dissonance, the discomfort of trying to hold two conflicting ideas at once.

And he lashes out with "I forgive you." I, a good angel from Heaven, forgive you, an evil demon from Hell. It reestablishes the hierarchy of good versus evil. It puts him back on strong familiar footing. It's also a desperate plea to go back to normal. I forgive you—don't go.

And after Crowley leaves, Michael Sheen gives us this brilliant, amazing performance. Heartbroken, and then trying to hold onto his anger. Then finally processing the kiss—vulnerable, shocked. And back to anger.

Personally, I think he got past that anger very quickly; he's not the type to hold onto anger. This is the face of someone having a Lot of Thoughts.

Anyway, enjoy ten thousand shitty gifs of Aziraphale. I'm actually really into Crowley??

#ineffable divorce #good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #Aziraphale #Crowley #Ineffable Husbands #aziracrow #meta #my meta

[tyrranux64]

00 - THE FOOL Sora is the most foolish of innocents, especially when he leaves his fate to the machinations of others. And when he does have his own agency he tends to be too reckless and headstrong. Of course his inherit knuckleheaded nature can be his best quality, pulling out an unexpected surprise that not even the most carefully calculating villain can possibly account for. And since the beginning of his quest, he's never really needed the conventional outdated wisdom of so called "Masters", he has always forged his own path.

01 - THE MAGICIAN It is no secret that Tony Stark is a creative genius. After all he was able to develop a revolutionary perpetual energy reactor the size of a human hand in a cave with but a bunch of scraps. Is it any surprise he was even able to casually discover time travel whilst in his pajamas? And don't even get me started on all the razzle dazzle he tends to put on his wonderful toys. Guess the line between science and magic truly is a razor thin one....

02 - THE HIGH PRIESTESS The knowledge of what the future holds is something reserved for God, but alas such knowledge has been dropped right onto Tsukino Usagi’s lap. Her marriage to Mamoru, the existence of her future daughter Chibiusa, the fated ascension to Neo Queen Serenity and the rise of Silver Millennium. All just dumped before a high school student who is already having trouble just trying to graduate. It is a lot to unpack and Usagi must now prepare herself to take on the inevitable burdens before her. To trust her instincts and learn from her past mistakes. She has a lot to learn ahead of her and not as much time as she thinks she has to do it…. 

03 - THE EMPRESS For what else is the Princess of Friendship but a surrogate mother? What else are the people of her kingdom but her adopted children? They are not subjects to be ruled, they are her family. This is why Twilight Sparkle ascended to the heights of an alicorn, to uphold the responsibility of being a parent.

04 - THE EMPEROR There is no question his allies and friends look to him as a "leader", though that is more because of him being the biggest fish among them and their resulting dependance on his power. And as a father figure? Well, it is quite telling that his most defining act as a father to his son Gohan is a last ditch effort to fix the mess he created himself. But hey, better to be the father that sacrifices himself to save their child than the one that leaves them to die in the lion's den....

05 - THE HIEROPHANT As Bruce Wayne, his political influence upon the world is limited to the amount of charity money he can dish out, still having to abide by the system that puts him in the one percent. People just don't take him seriously enough to listen. But as the Batman, he can move droves of people with action. His battle against crime garnering the respect of even the police, those that faced his judgement have no choice but to heed his words. The cape and cowl is unbound by the petty status quo of society, he has no strings to hold him back. Everyone listens to the bat.

06 - THE LOVERS The Freedom Fighters don't just have one heart, they have two. Sally Acorn, the one to think up the plan of action. Sonic the Hedgehog, the one to take action. Two halves of the same singular ray of hope to guide the rag tag group of resistance to victory. Though they do not think alike (and can sometimes get on each other's nerves) they are still harmonized, able to work together at the most dire of straights. With only one of them, the Freedom Fighters are compromised, without both they are lost....

07 - THE CHARIOT The four Ninja Turtles were taught ninjitsu purely to survive in a world that would not accept them, told to stay in the shadows where it is safe. But perhaps because of their excess of superhero comic books or just their mutant ability to feel empathy, they cannot help but jump into action when someone is in trouble. They are always tapping into that most primordial of heroic traits, the will to act.

08 - STRENGTH It takes more than just "strength" alone to tame an eldritch horror like the Bird of Hermes. Whatever the bird sees in this one Integra Hellsing it has formed a bond that cannot be truly explained.....perhaps it is not as simple as a monster recognizing her as a strong human being? Perhaps....he sees her as a similar breed of monster?

09 - THE HERMIT There are those that work alone and then there's the self proclaimed "Terror that Flaps in the Night". So intent on doing things his way, so hellbent on getting all the glory, so desperate to prove himself to the world that the very idea of getting help from others ruffles his feathers. Of course he is not above having a sidekick but that is more someone doing things his way and not stealing his spotlight...

10 - THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE Many are at the mercy of fate, but none are quite as vulnerable to it as Matoi Ryuko. Her luck flip flops between good and bad so often that it's hard to tell if fate favors her or is out to get her. Sometimes it feels like she loses more than she wins. Not helping matters is how she is at the forefront of destiny, one of the few among the many that are the most important players for what destiny has in store. Lucky her.... 

11 - JUSTICE Diana of Themyscira doesn't just embody truth, she is the Spirit of Truth. Thus is her mission, to bring truth to the world of man, to be a guiding light towards peace and prosperity......a task that becomes increasingly difficult and nigh impossible with each passing year. Luckily, no task is too daunting for an Amazon, and no matter how long it takes she will bring man to a better place than it is right now... 

12 - THE HANGED MAN Kurosaki Ichigo is not the hero he should be, no, he is more of a plot device. A pawn used by both ally and enemy, not allowed to have any real agency of his own. A slave of fate caught in the same loop of trying to be a hero, fail miserably, go through "training" to receive new strength, fail again, deus ex machina just giving him the win. It's like whatever god is willing the stars of his universe is an incompetent who has no real concept of how the hero's journey is suppose to go. And what other choice does he have but to surrender to the cycle? His constant self sacrificing is what keeps the world spinning. And of nothing else at least he gets to keep becoming a better Ichigo than he was before right? Right?  

13 - DEATH Optimus Prime is well acquainted with the concept of change, is it after all hard wired into his very race's biology. But more than that, his years in perpetual war have shown him plenty endings and new beginnings, perhaps more of the former than the latter. And so long as he lives he will always be in the very company of death itself, looming over him, his allies and his enemies. Such is the nature of war.

14 - TEMPERANCE How long has Kiryuin Satsuki waited until she could finally be free of her vile mother? How much longer would she have waited to finally avenge her father? She waited years of her life for one moment to finally drive her blade through that vile woman, she didn't care if she succeeded or failed she has waiting for that moment long enough. And it seems that though her attempt did fail, that evil woman met her just deserts regardless, in the end fate still saw fit to reward Satsuki's patience.

15 - THE DEVIL Thanos is a very sick man. He is driven by his obsessions and desires, trying to hand wave it as "inevitability" or "higher purpose" when really it is but his own selfishness running rampant. And in his delusion he insists that the greater universe abides by his desire, worse even share in it. No matter how much he tries to change or has seemingly learned his lesson, he'll relapse in no time at all, going right back to his genocidal addiction. He truly is a lost cause....

16 - THE TOWER Uchiha Sasuke acts like he's the only one suffering, that his pain is more important than everyone else's. As such he pays no heed to that which he ruins or those that he hurts. Everything he touches, he destroys. Enemies, allies, friends, it matters not so long as he can get what he wants....which is constantly switching out. One minute he wants to get revenge on his brother, the next he wants to avenge him, and then he wants to be the one Hokage to "break the cycle of war". Whatever, he's always spin doctoring the horrible things he does to have some "deeper meaning" like he were a far right politician rewriting the bible. One has to wonder if he truly wants to use the darkness to bring about "positive change", if you ask me, he merely loves causing misery.

17 - THE STAR Sometimes it's easy to lose hope, just ask Peter Parker. Too many times it feels like no matter how hard he tries, even with spider powers his best is just not good enough. Most seem to believe so, most see him more as a menace doing more harm than good, especially Jameson. It's easy to forget what one is fighting for.....but then in his most dire moments, he can hear Uncle Ben's voice in his head telling him to not give up. Telling him about the few that do look upon the friendly neighborhood Spider Man as a symbol of hope, a star to look towards even when all other lights dim. And like that his strength returns to him, like that he gets back up and keeps fighting.

18 - THE MOON Ryoko Hakubi is both beauty and beast in one being. Not only does her power inspire fear, so too does her temperament whenever her pin is pulled. And even aside from that, she is one mystery after another, never will you truly understand how her mind or heart works. And not helping matters is her fluctuating moral compass that is comparable to mood swings. You'd have better luck figuring out women that you'd have trying to figure her out.

19 - THE SUN It's hard not to see that giant burning ball of gas as but a blight, a bleak reminder of the inevitable. But for the Last Son of Krypton, it is the source of his power. His true power, the power known as the best in humanity. That big Red S that shines like that very star inspires all to be the best they can be, igniting hearts with the strength to stand tall and proud even if they are not the strongest. Even if not everyone can be like Superman, anyone can be that which lights the darkness, anyone can be a hero.

20 - JUDGEMENT To become a Power Ranger is to be reborn into something beyond a mere human. To be infused with power for the sole purpose of answering the call to arms. Only a select few ever get to wear this mantle, and those that do must take up the fight against pure evil to their dying breath if necessary. As such the quality to become a Ranger is the resolve to always stand, to always get back up and never stop fighting. To be a Ranger is to be the one that has the resolve to fight the most important battle.

21 - THE WORLD So few can truly say they beat the Devil and got their soul back, but Albert Simmons is one such person. Perhaps it did not bring him the closure he was hoping for but it did bring him closure none the less. When he remembered the truth of his relationship with Wanda, remembered why exactly he was never allowed to have her back, he was finally able to let go and move on...

#my little pony #random artwork #disney #kingdom hearts #sailor moon #dc comics #kill la kill #tarot #naruto #bleach #dragon ball #marvel comics #spawn #transformers #tenchi muyo #super sentai #power rangers #teenage mutant ninja turtles #sonic the hedgehog #hellsing

[jyuanka]

the marvelous misadventures of flapjack is a great work of misanthropic art. you don't wait for character development in episodic shows like these, but there's also never core ideals to uphold or a valuable lesson to learn. bad deeds and good deeds alike are punished, nothing good ever lasts, dreams don't come true and never will, the world is populated by lying cheating swindling bastards, and the status quo involves everyone being the worst possible version of themselves. in season 2 ep 11, flapjack goes to a birthday party (with a fake invitation penned by his whale mom, who's hoping he can make some friends his age) only to discover that he, his weirdo found family of a sea mammal and a washed up sugar addict are seen as essentially cryptids. the children he meets at the party are horrible pieces of shit who hate everything flapjack loves, and the episode ends not with the assertion that you should stay true to yourself and find friends who will love you for who you are, but that its perfectly fine to never go outside or have friends at all.

#and thats hilarious #the marvelous misadventures of flapjack #ive been obsessed with this show for over a decade #i pirated all 3 seasons and i rewatch a few random episodes every other month #specifically the episode the most beautiful man in the world #which was soul-altering and i dont say that lightly

[prismatic-bell]

Anti-Racism In Glass Onion: It's A Whole Thing, Part One

So I wasn't going to write this, because I'm white and it felt like veering very far out of my lane. But I also haven't seen anyone else talking about it, and finally I decided I'd rather make an ass of myself by doing something well-meaning than I would to uphold a status quo that zips right by one of the most important things in this film (that doesn't get explored enough in media or fandom), so here we are. Please keep in mind this is going to be FULL of spoilers so if you're not about that life, you'll want to give this a pass for now. (I also expected it to be much shorter than it is. It’s, uh, nine pages long. So it will be multiple posts long. Sorry.)

I don't think I've yet seen anyone really touch in-depth on the fact that this is a movie with a pretty strong theme calling out antiblack racism and the overturning thereof. Indeed, I’ve only seen one post mentioning it at all.

So let’s analyze, yes?

First, let's look at "the disrupters." They include:

--an alt-right streamer who's openly mentioned as being just about every -ism in the book

--his blonde-haired, blue-eyed girlfriend who's with him for status

--a white politician who objects to Klear not on the basis that it could cost lives, but that it will lose her the progressive vote

--an absolute idiot of a white supermodel who's had two serious antiblack race-based scandals, and is about to have another that's just generally racist

--a Black scientist who repeatedly tries to speak up and gets shot down

--a Black woman, the actual brains of this entire outfit, who created the original business plan and a multibillion-dollar company and got first fired, then financially ousted, then murdered

Now let's look at some other Black characters and Black imagery in the story. These include:

--a mural of Kanye West depicted as a messiah

--Serena Williams, as Miles' personal trainer

--the phrase "sucking on his titties," spoken by a Black woman

--a cameo by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as one of Benoit Blanc's friends

—a Beatles song (yes, really)

--the lower-middle-class sister of the Black woman who was the actual brains, etc.

Before we move on, I want to address the Kanye thing, because Glass Onion was filmed in 2021, probably written in 2020, and the point where Kanye went absolutely batshit deep-end off-the-fucking-rails was in 2022. I do not believe Rian Johnson was making any kind of "go Kanye" statement here--I think it was an unfortunate confluence of timing. As I discuss Kanye further, I want it to be clear we're discussing already-gross-but-not-yet-gone-full-Nazi Kanye.

So let's go ahead and get him out of the way first, because he's an incredibly important figure in Black music but as a Jew I just. Really do not want to be discussing Kanye West longer than I have to, I'm sorry. West is the kind of figure Miles Bron would absolutely want to have in his life as a status symbol. First, if we look at Bron's definition of being "a disrupter" (first you break a small thing, then very quickly you break the system itself), Kanye absolutely qualifies. He started out as a small artist mostly producing beats for other musicians, then did some work for Jay-Z that led to an album Rolling Stone considered one of the best hip-hop albums of all time, and then he dropped The College Dropout. I knew his work was considered influential before I started looking into this imagery deeper, but I had no idea how influential--this was his debut album and it hit #2 on the charts, produced a single that debuted at #1, included a song called "Jesus Walks" that hit the top 20 even though it was predicted a Christian song would never land in hip-hop, and the album is still considered one of "the greats" by other artists--twenty years later. I'd say that pretty neatly fits Miles' definition of "disruption." He did, indeed, first break something small and then turn the hip-hop world on its head.

Where there's a second layer to this that I think would also speak to Miles is that in 2018, Kanye declared the chattel slavery of West African people in the Americas was "a choice"--as in, they chose to be enslaved. He later claimed he was referring to "mental enslavement," but no matter how you cut it, regardless of his own race, that's a pretty fucking racist antiblack statement (in addition to being wildly historically revisionist). While I doubt Miles would be like “hell yeah, racism!,” he’d absolutely buy 100% into the idea of choosing to be in hellish circumstances, because He Got Out All On His Own (even though he didn’t), So You Can Too.

Moving on, we have Serena Williams. She's another person who'd fit Miles' description of "a disrupter," but where Kanye would probably revel in that idea, I honestly don't think she'd like it very much, and her attitude in the movie really underlines that. Yes, she's taking his money to be his "personal trainer," but really, he's frittering her life away. She's sitting there reading a book waiting for him to decide he wants to get off his ass and work out today. She's not a slave, but she has been explicitly put in a role as a paid servant. I don't think it's out of the question to say Miles specifically picked her over, say, Jillian Michaels, because she is Black. Do I think he sat down and went "who's a Black athlete I can subjugate?" No. I think if you asked Miles he'd be the kind of person who'd unironically say "I'm not racist! The head scientist at Alpha is Black!" What I think happened--or to be more accurate, what I think the kind of train of thought Rian Johnson would attribute to him would have caused to happen--is that he picked someone he'd be comfortable ignoring. Did he consciously decide he'd be more comfortable ignoring a Black woman and telling her to put up or shut up if she complained he was wasting her time? No. But do I think we should attribute unconscious biases and prejudices to him that aided him in the decision that he'd be comfortable ignoring her? Yes.

Incidentally, while we’re here, let’s discuss how the two of them stack up to Miles’ other “status symbol” name-drops. First, let’s discard Banksy. He’s a special case here and we’ll discuss him later. But now let’s look at the others. We’ve got Jeremy Renner, whose personal I-make-this-for-my-inner-circle food Miles proudly eats and hands out; Jared Leto, whose personal I-make-this-for-my-inner-circle drink Miles proudly offers to friends (although if memory serves me, he himself is drinking beer); Gillian Flynn, who he’s hired to write a mystery game for his own inner circle; Philip Glass, who he hired to write the music for the Glass Onion’s clock, which is there to impress guests; and Anderson Cooper, whose party he supposedly attended. Notice something about all the celebrities whose products he actively engages with? Yeah. They’re all white. Serena is relegated to a private room and not interacted with, while Kanye doesn’t even get a mention—and as I noted above, this movie would have gone through post far too late for Rian Johnson to have been able to say “let’s…remove praising the dude who’s declared himself a Nazi, please,” which means if Kanye was ever mentioned at all, it was cut long before real!Kanye’s final downward spiral. The Black “status symbols” have literally been relegated to being Miles’ props and “the help.”

Now let's talk about Helen's turn of phrase when she's reading "the disrupters" for absolute filth. She tells all of them what they want is Miles' (and, by extension, Andi's) money, and that they're "sucking on his titties." Putting the line in the mouth of a Black woman puts me instantly in mind of the "mammy" stereotype, where the Black woman is expected to nurture and nourish and care for all of the (implied or outright stated to be white) children and have no personality outside this. Technically it's Miles' money, but it's Miles' money specifically because of the shit he pulled with Andi--he sucked her dry and now is being fed upon in turn. The thing is, the way Black women are further treated throughout the narrative doesn't make this a faux-cutesy little image like those godawful racist vintage ads; it's horrifying. It is horrifying and it should be horrifying; it’s disgusting and the narrative wants you to be disgusted at this.

To continue, we have that cameo by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It's really only noteworthy because he's the one who's giving Blanc shit for failing at Among Us and refusing to get out of the bathtub. This is important for reasons I'll come back to (put a pin in this), but for now suffice it to say it's important because Blanc is white and Southern and we'll get back to that.

Next up, it’s “Blackbird,” the song Miles was playing on guitar when the ship lands. Other posts have noted that for all Blackbird sounds very pretty and impressive, it’s actually very simple to play, and that this reflects Miles’ relationship with the world in general—pretending he’s bigger, better, smarter, more, than he actually is. This is probably true. I’ve also seen it mentioned that it, like Glass Onion, is a Beatles song from the White Album, and this is also true. What you may not know if you’re not a Beatles nerd is that “Blackbird” isn’t about a bird at all. Paul McCartney has stated several times over the years that the song had a dual inspiration—the sound of blackbirds, but also news reports about the American Black civil rights movement, and that when he says “blackbird” you should be thinking “black girl.” Birdie is excited and immediately declares it’s “her song,” which in her mind probably has to do with her name, but I strongly suspect that for Rian Johnson, this was another way to tie in how absolutely wildly Birdie is willing to appropriate Black experiences and culture. This is particularly true because of the exact part of Black history the song references—Birdie tells us she’s done blackface to dress as Beyoncé (a modern Black feminist who strongly pushes for empowerment) and has compared herself to Harriet Tubman (an escaped slave who proceeded, during Reconstruction, to become part of the women’s suffrage movement). Blackbird links these two together, with our nameless 1960s Black civil rights protestor falling squarely between the two named women. Also worth noting here is that “Blackbird” was released in 1968; while the Black Power movement was getting underway and “Black” or “African-American” would become the accepted terms over the next decade, “Negro” and “colored” were still the polite ways to refer to a Black person in the US. McCartney has since gone on the record apologizing for some pretty serious racism during his time with the Beatles, and I’m choosing for simplicity’s sake here to assume he was sincere, but this makes the song itself another example of appropropriation—“Black” wasn’t really a word McCartney, as a white man, had the right to use when the song came out. That makes “Blackbird” an even more apt double-metaphor—Birdie the appropriator of Black culture calling it “her” song, and Miles “I steal everything not nailed down and say I did it” Bron using it to look like he’s more than he is.

The second half of this (admittedly extremely messy) essay is here.

#glass onion #racism #media analysis