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introvertguide · 3 years

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15 Badass Movies for a Fun Time at Home or with Friends

There is a buzz in the air as COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out and the hope of having a movie night with friends is again becoming a reality. Watching alone isn’t as fun because I want to talk to somebody about what I have just seen. A full theater does not agree with my introvert nature because somebody screaming or laughing or talking on their phone will ruin it for me. Watching with a fellow cinephile or two is perfect. But what to watch first? People have been stuck inside, so fantasy and alternative worlds have been overly popular. All I do is talk over zoom for a living. I think what I need most right now is a movie about realistic people with realistic skills that go into a situation and just wreck house. I need a badass movie. What is this “badass” movie you might say? Well, here are some basic criteria: 1) There must be a tough lead character who kicks butt while spouting one liners and doesn’t need superhuman powers (high levels of peak skill with speed, aim, or strength is OK if they are plausible in the real world), 2) most of the characters (good and bad) must be likable, admirable or at least memorable, 3) the lead must face and defeat overwhelming odds against them, and 4) extra points for memorable one liners. Also, I am only dealing with human protagonists (sorry Terminator), but slightly superhuman opposition is acceptable. This list is by no means exhaustive, it is just an example of some badass movies. So in no particular order:

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

To start off the list, I want to mention the most well known American badass. Indiana Jones is a smart guy with a gun and a whip. He is rugged and punches guys in the face. He has weaknesses but works through them to get the job done. Harrison Ford was in his early 40s for this role and had this tough-as-nails and seen the world kind of feel while still being young enough to fight hand to hand. Any of the first three films featuring Indiana Jones would work here, but this is the original and it started the fun. Easy to watch. Easy to cheer for. Great movie. You can’t really go wrong with any age or group with this one.

2) 13 Assassins (2010)

This movie is extremely badass but not for everyone. This is one of the goriest films I have ever seen as 13 warriors kill off a couple of hundred soldiers and the evil leader that they guard. The movie was directed by Japanese extreme horror icon Takashi Miike if that means anything to you (hey made Audition and Ichi the Killer). The movie has gallons of blood, but also an amazing story of redemption and honor. There are tons of scenes of a single warrior taking on dozens of soldiers and managing to overcome. Not for everyone, but still very much a badass movie.

3) The Raid (2011)

This is an Indonesian action thriller with the word action in bold. The film is directed by Gareth Evans and stars Iko Uwais as part of a small police force that tries to take down an old building that houses a drug lord and his violent gang. It has a lot of what I like in badass movies: one-on-one fights between the lead and almost superhuman villains, long well-choreographed scenes, a banging soundtrack, ridiculous weapons, and ridiculous gore. The fight scenes in tight places and the use of the environment for weaponry is amazing and the sound design makes sure you can feel every punch. The lead character should have no chance, but he makes up for it with skill and being a pure badass. This movie is one of the few that I would describe as having non-stop action.

4) Jon Wick (2014)

When did Keanu Reeves become so cool? I grew up with him being part of the Bill and Ted duo. He decides to learn martial arts and play a god-like being in the Matrix movies and then becomes a one man wrecking crew? I guess he is a badass because he does it so well. Keanu plays a retired hitman who is wronged and decides to go back to work for vengeance. He just won’t stop coming and seems to constantly survive out of pure hatred alone. There are 3 films in the series and any one of them will impress. Pure fun too watch.

5) Casino Royale (2006)

When I was asking around, there were many people who thought that James Bond was the ultimate badass. I disagree in that many of the older films show Bond as overconfident with the assistance of many people. In fact, Q is more of a badass in many ways than James Bond. However, when the series was taken back to its roots with the last book that had not been made into a serious film and made darker, it reached badass levels. From the parkour chase to a poisoning to an extreme torture scene, this was not like any James Bond movie before it. Roger Craig plays a much colder lead who gives no quarter, much more like what the greatest secret agent would have to be. Heavy on violence but light on gore, this film is more for all audiences than other films on this list.

6) Desperado (1995)

What makes this movie is not all about Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek. It is that every other character is memorable and badass as well. The street standoff with Bucho’s men versus El Mariachi, Quino, and Campo is iconic. El Mariachi murders everyone in a bar with precise skill. The rogue assassin Navajas with all the knives played by Danny Trejo. Nothing but extreme shoot outs and fight scenes with a ridiculous variety of guns and explosives. I think what makes this movie so amazing is that all these amazing assassins are incognito and, when they suddenly produce an arsenal out of nowhere, it is always a pleasant surprise. Quino and Campo are amazing when they bring their guitars.

7) Pulp Fiction (1994)

Truly the role that made Samuel L. Jackson into the ultimate badass. He and his partner Vincent are hitman that keep running into the worst situations. The thing about the film is that everybody is so cool. The characters are cool, the music is cool, the dialogue is cool, hell even the diner featured in the movie is cool. The movie only spans a couple of days (in completely separate segments shown out of order) but packs in 7 distinct situations that are all berserk. From the mind of Quentin Tarantino, this movie is dripping with the best characters traveling through the best story. Highly recommend.

8) Leon: The Professional (1994)

Also known simply as The Professional in the U.S., this film features the debut of Natalie Portman. It is directed by Luc Besson at his best period, right between La Femme Nakita and The Fifth Element. The lead is actually a quiet hitman who reluctantly takes a little 12-year-old girl on as an apprentice to become a paid assassin. Her parents were killed by a corrupt cop and she wants Leon to help her exact revenge. He is an absolute badass and somewhat of a caring surrogate father to the girl. Unlike a lot of the films on this list, the premise is not simply kicking butt in a bad situation. There is serious character growth. Apparently you can be a caring parent and a cold-blooded murderer...and that is badass.

9) Kill Bill (2003)

Being a badass is not exclusive to men and The Bride is a prime example of this. She survives a shot to the head, kills deadly assassins, slaughters a gang, and takes on a crazy school girl bodyguard. She is tougher then any lead I can think of and she has the bad attitude and sense of vengeance that makes for a badass. Combine this with the soundtrack and beautiful cinematography associated with director Quentin Tarantino and you have a beautifully violent movie in which the hits keep coming. Even on this list, the fight scene between the bride and Gogo Yubari is insane. Also note the nod to Bruce Lee with the bright yellow motorcycle suit. Beautifully badass film.

10) Aliens (1986)

In nature, there are few things more dangerous than a mother protecting their young. A mother will fight you to the death and make sure that, at the very least, you won’t be able to go after her kids. Now imagine an alien planet covered with hostile beings created in the mind of James Cameron and Stan Winston and you have a setting made to create a real badass. In the beginning, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is just desperate to survive and barely knows how to use a weapon. She meets a little survivor named Newt and then has a real reason to become aggressive. She and a group of marines fight through a station filled with super destructive xenomorph aliens made straight from nightmares to save this kid. The transformation is truly amazing and culminates in a mech suit versus a giant queen alien and it is extremely badass.

11) Army of Darkness (1992)

Far and away the funniest movie on this list, this is the third film stemming from Evil Dead and again stars Bruce Campbell taking on the deadites that were raised by reading from the Necronomicon. The opposition is the undead evil that faces the world which makes the violence very unrealistic. This was early work from Sam Raimi and features a variety of different shots done to the extreme. What really makes this film stand out is how Bruce Campbell is amazing at delivering a one liner. His classic quips have been used as fun Easter eggs in video games like Duke Nukem and World of Warcraft for decades. The quintessential horror comedy and a perfect example of a badass.

12) Die Hard (1988)

Apparently, I am a big fan of single characters that need to work their way through a building of villains using mostly intelligence and the element of surprise. Throw in some one liners and I am all for it. That is exactly what this is with Bruce Willis crawling barefoot around a 40 story building and fighting off a gang of villains. The movie also has Alan Rickman as the main bad guy and he is chewing the scenery. This is a great example of being a badass, but it is too bad that the follow up sequels were so poor. Definitely stick to the original and let the rest pass by.

13) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)

An OG of the badass movie genre, this is some of the best of Sergio Leone and the spaghetti western. Instead of one badass, this movie has three different leads that are all amazing. You have the good, Clint Eastwood, who is an amazing shot and a heart of gold under a rough exterior. You have the bad, Lee Van Cleef, playing an conniving assassin that will kill anyone that he doesn’t have a use for. Finally, you have the ugly, Eli Wallach, as a desert rat that will do anything to survive. They all gain information about a gold stash and need to work together to get it, but this creates a vortex of cheating, undercutting, and straight up murder. Clint Eastwood is more of the classic badass with his cigar, hat, and poncho, It is an iconic look on an iconic character in an iconic movie. That is what I call badass.

14) Ong-Bak (2003)

This less of a badass movie and more houses some of the most amazingly badass fight scenes that can only be described as badass. This movie introduced the great Tony Jaa to the western world and showed the high flying nature of Thai boxing and Muay Thai in general. The main character is entered into a street fighting tournament and the moves include a flying double knee drop and a full splits kick. If the whole movie was the tournament, it would be the best movie that ever existed. The variety of opponents makes the fighting even better and the cinematography is top notch. Tony Jaa is truly badass in this film.

15) Dredd (2012)

Not the crappy version with Stallone, this movie is seriously badass. It features Karl Urban who is helmeted for the entire film (as Dredd would be) taking on a 200 story mega slum filled with residents that want to shoot him dead. There is a drug dealer high up in the building and she locks down the entire compound with instructions to kill Dredd, who only has his rookie partner to help. He takes on random resident mobs, groups of gang members, and even a trio of mini guns that have bullets that can rip through walls. He has a smart gun with a bunch of ammo that he uses judiciously to kill everybody. This movie was seriously underrated since it had not been that long since the garbage Judge Dredd came out in 1995. The 2012 is a far superior movie, being much more violent and dark instead of having Rob Schneider as the comedy relief (not badass).

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I know there will be a lot of opinions about what makes a badass film and what movies i didn’t add. Feel free to add your own movies or critique my choices. I will stand by my choices, however, and recommend any of these films for a night of cheers and badass action.

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pekorosu · 5 years

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no.6 novels thinky thoughts

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so… i ended up finishing all 9 vols in about a week haha.

my overall impression? it was… alright, i guess.

not that i didn’t enjoy it, in fact, the first half was great! by the time i reached the end though, i had mixed feelings. sat on it for a week or so but a lot of it remains a vague hhhmmmmmblah blob that i’m not done figuring out.

i still wanna make a post as a form of closure for myself though, so i’m just gonna dump whatever comes to mind here. don’t mind me.

so... the ending. i guess it was supposed to be open-ended in a hopeful way, but it just came across as unsettling to me. the ~chosen one~ thing rubbed me the wrong way, because shion was entrusted with an enormous responsibility that no 16 year old should even be shouldering in the first place. (i mean yea okay he did willingly accept it, but still. why only him? why aren’t they all collectively responsible?)

meanwhile the actual perpetrators get to escape all the consequences by just… dying. just like that. and the rest of them, especially the adults… they’re pretty much useless? even the ones that wanted to do something by staging a revolt ended up being unreliable either bc 1. they were drunk on revenge or 2. all that power was getting to their head. ironically, rou was like “it’s all on us, the adults” but in the end even he decided to just spend the rest of his life chilling out underground -_-

on top of that, shion had to let go of nezumi. idk about y’all but that ending, that “promise to meet again” kiss was like… i couldn’t help but wonder if nezumi only did that because shion was all “a world without you is meaningless” and he had to give him something to cling onto. followed by shion’s devoted “i’ll keep waiting” which… idk, something about it felt utterly depressing. to be fair, nezumi always keeps his promises and the epilogue was vaguely hopeful i guess, but it still didn’t give me the sense of closure that i needed.

to clarify, i’m not saying it’s a bad ending. it’s realistic and the implication that there’s still a lot of work to be done is very much in line with the story’s themes. just that something about it didn’t work for me personally, plus the lead up to it felt rushed, so it left me feeling :/ when i was done.

the plot… well, it started out exciting but turned out to be rather anticlimactic? the shift from science to supernatural had a proper build up, but still felt like a letdown for some reason…

i think... maybe it’s bc dystopian stories tend to culminate in a huge battle and stuff like that, while this one just… didn’t. there was no final showdown with the Big Bad. there was chaos, but it hadn’t descended into total devastation yet, with the ultimate message that maintaining peace is always more preferable in order to prevent any more senseless deaths. and i guess that threw me off a little? not in a bad way, it was just unexpected bc i’m so used to the whole “final boss” format.

speaking of which, the antagonists were very one-dimensional, and for dictators they were surprisingly… weak. i mean, i get that hubris was precisely the reason for their carelessness and subsequent destruction, but it felt too convenient, too simple.

and i was sorta expecting something more gruesome when they got to the top floor of the correctional facility. idk, i guess brains floating in tubes just couldn’t compare with that scene of them climbing a mountain of corpses+half-alive people, which i had the misfortune of reading right before dinner. that was straight up horror.

and for all its depiction of the horrors of a police state, of poverty, famine, genocide… i felt like it stopped short of something. this isn’t meant to be a proper critique ofc, just that i remember feeling like the writing came across as wishy-washy or superficial at times, even though i knew the author’s intention wasn’t to hand out answers, but to get the readers to think. something about the way it was handled left me feeling unsatisfied i guess.

that said, there were stuff that i did like! eg. i liked how the story dealt with the “we’re all human beings” statement from shion. it started out as a simple, idealistic “all lives matter” kind of thing, only to be turned on its head when he comes face-to-face with the kind of atrocities no.6 has committed. then it becomes less about that and more “our shared humanity means that we too have the capability to become cruel and apathetic.” or at least, that was my takeaway.

hmm… in hindsight, i think it does what it set out to do well enough. that is, to convey a certain message to a certain group of people (teenagers i guess. this is YA after all). to inspire them to think for themselves, to realise that apathy is dangerous and to take responsibility for their own learning, but also to know that doing the “right” thing is not just about good intentions; it is constant hard work but still important work... among others. all of which are solid themes and messages. god knows when i was younger and learning about all this for the first time, even the simplest things would leave me mindblown for days. if i’d read this back then i imagine it would’ve left a bigger impression too.

the main highlight for me though, was probably the character scenes. i was surprised to find out how introspective the story was, with the majority of it dedicated to the characters’ internal thoughts and conflicts.

sadly though, the side charas’ POVs (like inukashi’s and karan’s) ended up becoming tediously repetitive and draggy despite starting out strong. and safu… poor safu, she pretty much got the shortest end of the shit stick being the Plot Device Damsel In Distress Who Is Eventually Fridged. i had higher hopes for her ):

as for the rest… i don’t really care about rikiga… and who else… oh right! small nezumi team! hamlet, cravat and tsukiyo. 10/10 love them, would never get tired of their cute little squeaks.

and the protags… shion started out kinda bland but ended up being the easiest to relate to haha. eg. his constant struggle to reconcile his personal ideals with practical reality. and it was interesting to see how he confronted and came to terms with some harsh truths. he always tries so hard. sometimes it hurt to read, but it made me want to root for him and in a way, it gave me strength too.

also his apparent “lack of interest” in sex/women/etc... i know it’s generally played for laughs or to highlight his ~naivete~ or ~immaturity~, but whatever lol it’s something i can relate to it v strongly.

nezumi took a while for me to warm up to even when i understood why he is the way he is. the callousness, hostility, volatility… they’re all defense mechanisms rooted in his trauma, but still, knowing that didn’t make him any less irritating lol. he could be deeply hypocritical at times and his tendency to randomly explode at shion was grating. on the plus side, it’s always very satisfying whenever we do get a glimpse of his more vulnerable side.

them as a pair though… i’m not a huge fan of the “fate brought us together” trope so i was skeptical at first. nezumi being so prickly and moody at first didn’t help either, but shion. oh shion, he tried so hard to worm himself into nezumi’s heart, to prove himself worthy, that i couldn’t help but be charmed. to me, they started out more like “snarky senpai and curious kouhai” as opposed to “friends” or even “potential enemies” as nezumi liked to insist they were, which made for an amusing dynamic.

and while they did grow on me over time, they don’t make me feel that INTENSE CHEST STABBING feeling that i get with other ships. idk why, i mean, their sarcastic exchanges were amusing, their brutally honest arguments were compelling, and the pining (which is my #1 weakness) was through the fucking roof with shion. but still, something was missing.

sidenote on something the author mentioned in the guidebook interview (my own rough t/l):

I like writing about relationships between people of the same sex, not just boys. When it comes to the opposite sex, the end result of being attracted to each other is always romantic love, or getting married…… To a certain extent, the “template” for that is already fixed, isn’t it? But when it comes to the same sex, there can exist a connection that can’t be expressed in the usual cliched words like friendship, camaraderie, love, hatred… I think there’s meaning in writing about relationships that can’t be clearly defined. What’s between Shion and Nezumi is a “one-of-a-kind connection” that’s born out of a certain situation, out of certain experiences that only they have gone through. I wanted to find out what exactly that connection is, which was why I wanted to try writing it. Of course, that “one-of-a-kind connection” would probably exist between people of the opposite sex as well. After all, the feelings that emerge from a chance meeting of two human beings can never be something that’s mass-produced. But still, I think the one thing that I really enjoy writing about has got to be the unique emotions that develop between people of the same sex.

i know she doesn’t mean anything negative here, but idk… it kinda reminds me of the way yoshida akimi discussed ash and eiji’s relationship in banana fish, and the way she discussed what she found so special about same-sex relationships that is lacking in m/f relationships. and something about it bugs me so much. i don’t even know why or how to explain it…

it sounds like to them, there’s something fundamentally “different” about same-sex relationships. "different” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad” and in fact, it even sounds positive in this context because the implication is that that “difference” allows for more freedom and variety in relationship dynamics. but i guess, the closest thing that i can come up with is that it sounds… othering? i don’t know….......

speaking of which, i suppose shion/safu is a subversion of that typical m/f relationship. shion can never love her the way she wants him to, which is heartbreaking, but also refreshing in a way.

and you know what… it just occurred to me that maybe, maybe… it’s the same with shion and nezumi. and maybe that’s why something about them feels off to me. i mean, obviously the strength of their feelings for each other is indisputable, but idk if the essence of it is the same.

shrugs. anyway, yeah.

the honest truth is that, while i enjoyed their interactions immensely, they just don’t ignite the same fire in me as all my other otps. that said, i still do have a lot of thoughts on them! maybe that’s a post for another day.

some other stray thoughts:

- was it ever explained how nezumi built his robo rats? or where tf he managed to gather so many gold coins? was this something the story just handwaved or did i just forget?

- nezumi wanting to leave on a journey at the end baffled me. even though him eventually leaving was foreshadowed a couple times, he never really struck me as a wanderer to begin with. but now that i think about it… i wonder if he’s leaving bc he wants to, or rather, needs to look out for any other remaining forests and natural environments. that’s what his people did, didn’t they? protect the forests. i wonder if he’s going to go look for others like himself. after all, he’s the only surviving indigenous person left in the area surrounding no.6, isn’t he? hmmm.

language-wise... this is my first proper japanese (light) novel so i’m feeling kinda accomplished rn! lol. it was surprisingly not as tough as i had expected. i think the most difficult part was actually reading the quotes at the beginning of each chapter bc it’s in a font that’s so hard to make out.

oh, and again, some parts felt really redundant. i kept wondering if it was a language thing or an author thing. either way, i felt like there were quite a few unnecessary rehashes that could’ve been omitted to improve the pacing.

sequels, other adaptations...

i’ve not read “beyond” yet, which apparently has sequel-ish bits? i’ve ordered it, it’s on its way, but i have a feeling my impression won’t change that much even after i’ve read it. heck, it might get worse judging by all these lukewarm reviews. i’m definitely gonna see this through to the end, but i’m feeling kinda scared now lol.

i might check out the anime? based on the summaries on wiki, it sounds like quite a lot has been altered, but i’m still curious about the visuals. dunno if i’d wanna check out the manga. if it’s exactly the same as the novels or the anime then maybe not…

oh yeah, their anime/manga versions look quite different to how i imagined them! mine’s closer to the novel covers i guess. especially nezumi. i imagined him with short hair. maybe not all super saiyan like the one below, but yea.

lastly, i just had a good look at all the vol covers and i actually think they look pretty cool! i’m really glad i chose to get this version instead of the bunkobon. i mean, i don’t know if i will ever reread this again, but at least the covers are nice to look at haha.

#sotong txt #no.6 #long rambly post sorry #now im gonna go to sleep for 100 years...

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thebigpapilio · 5 years

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An Eminent Dethroning: A Persona 5/Persona Q2 Fic!

SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5 & PERSONA Q2: NEW CINEMA LABYRINTH!

My inspiration was a post from @write-it-motherfuckers. Give me a bit to find it!

AO3 Link

Featured Ships: Ann x Shiho, later Ann x Shiho x Ryuji,

Minor Ships: Makoto x Haru, Yusuke x Futaba

"The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel. " -Florence Nightingale

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The trouble had started when Ann’s best friend had been caught up in a battle between Kamoshidaman, his sidekick Inazuma, and the villain Akuyaku. She was an innocent bystander, and a blow from the “hero” sent the criminal flying right into Shiho from outside the building. Ann’s best friend was sent through the window with the criminal, and while both of them landed on a nearby building, the far less durable girl barely survived.

Weeks passed, and Ann did not learn of any sign of Kamoshidaman apologizing. It seemed like life went on as usual, as if Shiho’s hospitalization didn’t matter anymore.

Sure, Shiho had eventually returned to consciousness about half a month ago, but the scars of the event would stay for the rest of her life.

Ann felt powerless every time she stared at Shiho or the so-called hero of Kamo City. She wanted to confront Kamoshidaman, but what was anyone supposed to do against the superhuman superstar?

She knew that if she worked upfront against Kamoshidaman he would shut her down easily; all he had to do was frame her as a villain and in less than a week, she would be driven out of the city at best.

That was when Carmen came to her. Her fury had been sensed by the powerful spirit, and she had been henceforth blessed with the ability to turn into a superpowered form of her own - not in the same way that Kamoshida did.

With the dancer spirit on her side, she now had the power to do something.

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Kamoshida had heard about a bank robbery ongoing a while away from where he was. Transforming into his alter ego, he flew off into the night in preparation for a brawl.

When he got there, though, he found the police taking the already defeated criminals into custody.

Flying down, he asked the officers how they had stopped the criminal scum before he even got there. Nobody could give him a good answer, but they all agreed that it had started with a lean red figure bursting into the bank in the middle of a stand-down between the officers and the offenders. Like a firecracker whizzing through the air, all the would-be robbers suddenly had their guns knocked out of their hands, followed by attacks that knocked them unconscious. Other than that, no one could give him good enough details, and the security feeds had been taken out by the robbers earlier, making them obsolete.

After ensuring everything was settled, a disgruntled Kamoshidaman left back for his house. A few days later, he and his sidekick Inazuma were battling a villainess called Lilen, a woman with the power to grow plants anywhere. It had culminated when after Inazuma had been swatted away from the battle and knocked unconscious, Kamoshida had been snatched and held by all four limbs by her monstrous “Plutonian Death Trap,” most likely with intentions of ripping him apart limb by limb. Lilen’s command to do so, however, was interrupted by the giant plant releasing an ear-shattering squeal in pain as some of its other leafy appendages had suddenly been caught ablaze. Confused as he was, Kamoshidaman took the opportunity and knocked out Lilen while she tried to put out the flames. This time, though, Kamoshidaman noticed something left at the remains of the fallen plant.

Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a card. It stated:

“To Kamoshidaman, the so-called protector of Kamo City,

I know the evils you have committed. You hold this place under your thumb, and if anyone so much as slightly displeases you , they are branded evil by you, and the rest of Kamo City follows suit like lemmings off a cliff.

I will not fight you, you monster. Instead, I will steal all that you truly desire from your heroic actions – your glory and your power.

Yours truly,

Panther & Carmen”

Kamoshidaman took it to the police, in the hopes they might track the writer down. Oddly enough, the police saw no problem with it, for when it was returned to Kamoshidaman, not only was the signature missing but also the text had changed entirely into words of adoration and gratitude from a fan called Tomo P.

Infuriated, Kamoshidaman took his frustration out on “Inazuma” that night. That punk was the only one who knew his identity, and after being beaten down despite the electrokinetic powers he’d mysteriously acquired, the little hooligan had been given an option; join him against evil at his beck and call, or have him and his family driven out of the city… if not worse .

Storming off, Kamoshida did not think that the abuse would be the last straw for Ryuji. He had heard about the card from the perverted powerhouse, so he decided that the mysterious saviors and this Tomo P. from the last two moments of crime needed to be looked into.

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Time passed, as it always does, but now, results were slowly starting to show up. As soon as the story of Panther and Carmen had reached the public, Kamoshidaman began to fade into obscurity.

The older and more experienced superhero always seemed to be too slow to get to minor battles, and for major villains and villainesses it was presumed that if Panther showed up, it was only to save Kamoshidaman at the last moment. The protector of Kamo City would have been spending more time looking for the mysterious person, but Inazuma had offered to do all the research in exchange for less actual fighting.

Other than that, he was considering something to himself. Once I’ve found and beaten Panther and her ally senseless, he would ponder, should I give them a second chance like I’ve graciously done for that brat or just brand them villains and kick them out of my place ? After all, this was his city - he and only he was supposed to have true power and authority, and no one was going to challenge that!

Ryuji Sakamoto, despite his intense hatred of the leverage-holding loser, really was doing some looking for the elusive figure. However, he had been keeping info from his barbaric boss; the giant-jawed jerk thought he was a lot further away from the truth then he actually was.

In fact, he was pretty sure he at least had a theory to the answer. Soon, he was going to go and find out for himself.

By now, Ann had long graduated high school, and would soon be a freshman in college. Shiho had fully healed from the incident, and knew about her acts as Panther. Her best friend kept it secret, but the civilian had asked her to ensure that she would kill none of the bad guys during her “extracurricular activities.”

Shiho had not needed to ask Ann the question - such was the plan, anyway - but she assured Shiho that would happen. Sadly, there were those public executions that Kamoshidaman held, but those were only for the people he managed to catch, and considering that crime rates dropped like a blimp filled with iron since Panther showed up, the executions almost never happened. Things were slowly looking up.

But because the world takes a pleasure sicker and more twisted than Kamoshidaman himself in hurting others, it was about then when Inazuma showed up at her apartment.

She had been sitting on the rooftops as Panther when he arrived. It was clear he had been looking for something, but she didn’t know if the villain’s sidekick was looking for her . Honestly, he always looked uncomfortable when no one else was looking, he would always leave the scene as quickly as he could, and she was quite sure that not all the marks she saw him with were from superpowered evildoers. With all the famous superheroes in Kamo City, attackers didn’t show up often enough for Inazuma to get as many scars and whatnot as he had.

If someone were to fashion the energy from such a staredown into a blade, chances are it could cleave Kamoshidaman in two.

“... I’m guessing you’re Panther?” Kamoshidaman’s electrokinetic colleague asked her.

She didn’t respond, but that was all Inazuma needed to know.

“Listen,” he asked, “I’ll keep this secret-”

“But what?” Panther spoke, breaking her silence and releasing the pent-up fury she had held for… what now, five years? “I have to stop taking that jerk’s spotlight? I have to idolize him no matter what he does?”

Raising his arms in mock surrender, the sidekick nervously replied, “Cool it, Catgirl! I don’t have any blackmail-based intentions!”

At Panther’s shocked silence, Inazuma continued. “If anything, I want your help in something instead.”

________________________________________________________________

After Inazuma explained the abuse and blackmail Kamoshidaman held over him, and Ann explained the story of Shiho’s hospitalization and forward, the two had jokingly reintroduced themselves. As it turned out, Ann and Inazuma - whom she now knew as Ryuji Sakamoto - went to the same university. Sure, Ryuji was on the path to being a physical therapist - where was this guy about five years ago, Ann would lament - and she was looking towards the path of acting, but they were still close enough to see each other often.

One of the first things Ann did was introduce Ryuji to Shiho and explain everything. It was better now than for the more “normal” one of the three to discover this suddenly close relationship and grow suspicious on her own. Thankfully, Shiho agreed to keep his secret too - but for whatever reason, there was teasing about her liking him.

The whole world seemed to think the same thing about their heroic forms. One of the first things Ryuji did upon settling into his work with Ann was to get the one who gave him his power - a pirate spirit called Captain Kidd - to give him a new look when he fought with Panther so Kamoshidaman couldn't figure out he was betraying him.

He had renamed himself Skull in this form, and anyone who asked him why would hear that he and his feline-themed counterpart planned to “get this city to stop running around like headless idiots.”

Skull was the one who made public appearances, but Panther still kept herself hidden. There was still plenty of clamor about the two, and what was even more awkward for them was that many people for whatever reason shipped them.

Some people had written fanfics about the duo. Most of them featured something called a “Love Square,” featuring made-up versions of their civilian identities. Ryuji was usually portrayed as either a try-hard kid trying to be a thug or a wealthy and debonair yet unhappily restrained young man, while Ann was either portrayed as the type who was completely “normal” outwardly but incredibly odd as Panther or the class clown who turned into an incredibly aloof superheroine in secret. No fanfic was even close to the truth. Shiho had written a fic once that was quite inaccurate but still closer than anything she had read. She didn’t post it on any websites, of course, but she did safely send it to Ryuji and Ann in the hopes of teasing them.

Kamoshidaman, through all of the popularity given to the supposed trio of upstarts, was practically old news, and he was livid about it. As the amount of attention the public paid to Panther slowly grew, his fury did the same, and while it took a boost with the appearance of Skull, it was only on the day that in a passing discussion he overheard someone forget who Kamoshidaman was - even though they remembered a second later - that he lost the last of his patience for the hidden heroine.

________________________________________________________________

The tension between the heroes and the “hero” peaked almost 6.5 years after Panther beat Kamoshidaman to that bank, and at some point, she had obtained a nasty crush on her filter-less friend and partner Skull. She and Shiho had been dating for about 3-4 months after Shiho’s release from the hospital, and many a time they had talked about adding the “boneheaded” boy to their relationship. The agreement that they would both be okay with it was unanimous, but they both had yet to ask him as of then.

It seemed as if the universe itself was waiting on them to start dating, and to push them along, it sent them other spirit-powered heroes that would also aid them in battle on occasion.

They had made a group from all the heroes in their team, although the others were seldom brought in unless needed for backup and/or against specific villains. Consisting of the artistic yet socially awkward Fox, the antihero-turned-villain-turned-fully-hero Crow, the slowly less antisocial tech expert Oracle (who was most commonly asked for due to her ability with both technology and battle), and the deadly duo of the brutal yet kind Queen & the cordial yet intimidating Noir (the two of which had started dating after meeting up one battle), the heroes nicknamed the Spirit Guardians were feared and loved by Kamo City depending on who you would be to them.

One fateful day, it was both Kamoshidaman and not Kamoshidaman who took action. He knew that he no longer had the power to brand the Spirit Guardians as villains and let the city do the work for him, so he decided to take more dramatic measures.

Dākumasuku K immediately threw Kamo City into panic, the reportedly-possessed superhero demanding a battle between both him and the duo of Panther and Carmen, claiming only those two could save him by breaking the dark mask he wore. A date was set, and if they would not show up and fight him in person, he would destroy something or someone every day they didn’t appear.

Inazuma had overheard this plan from him, and Skull sent it to the woman in charge. Sadly, it was only Panther and Skull in town, as the other Spirit Guardians either lived in other areas and had been nearby during their appearances or would not be able to make it without arousing suspicion as to their identities. They had been planning this final attack on not only Kamoshidaman but also his reputation almost since their partnership began, and now they could use it!

Kamoshidaman had hurt many people, and there were many who had plenty of negative things to say about him but did not on fear of ostracism, banishment, execution, or some combination of the three. Silently, they went around and collected those people’s stories, stating that when the information was broadcasted it would be unclear who each story was from.

________________________________________________________________

Panther really hated Kamoshidaman, but she hated the idea of people getting hurt even more, so for the first time known to Kamo City, she showed up in broad daylight on her lonesome. Dākumasuku K had been waiting for her, and when asked where the person known as Carmen was, she claimed that Carmen was nonexistent, having merely been a red herring of sorts. Dākumasuku K growled, and the battle began.

When the smoke cleared, things darkened as a well-weakened Dākumasuku K stood over the beaten superheroine, with his mask broken but still on.

“You’re supposed to be freed!” Panther barely cried out, gasping and gaping at the supervillain.

Leaning in, Kamoshidaman whispered to her, “I was free to do as I pleased, you *****. You, however, are about to lose your freedom for attempting to shackle my justice.”

At her angered scowl, Kamoshidaman laughed to himself. Turning away from the platinum blonde, he snarked, “Never meet your heroes, kid. Now stay there while I-”

“It’s funny how you talked about meeting heroes…”

Kamoshidaman whipped around to stare at the superheroine, who was slowly getting up from the ground.

“All the superpowered people in this city that I know of are either me, the Spirit Guardians, or supervillains. You aren’t me, and you sure as **** aren’t joining the team, so by process of elimination…”

“Bold words for someone not entirely off the ground, you stupid girl.” Kamoshidaman grated, his voice like a rubber band stretched to its limits, as if Panther pushing him any further would send him rocketing away.

Knowing she had him angry, the feline-themed superheroine smirked. “Bolder words for someone who’s about to be floored .”

Now that she was standing - albeit barely - she suddenly let out a shrill whistle, and almost right after, every big screen and TV in the city shut off for a few seconds. When they returned, a singular video played on all of them.

It was an elegant reading by a robotic voice, detailing each and every one of the offenses that all of the interviewees had given to the true heroes. As promised, not one of the victims were named or recorded - their words had been written down instead, so Kamoshidaman wouldn’t know who to track down, as all the victims picked out were all innocent bystanders that the anti-villain had ignored while trampling on his climb to fame and power. Kamoshidaman simultaneously turned white as an albino cat and red as a ladybug as he watched his cruel actions be exposed to the entirety of Kamo City.

Even if people were unsure of whom to trust then, the last reading and only named victim would still have set Kamo City into an outrage.

Inazuma , who had been unseen since the last fight against Crow during his villainous days as The Prince, was shown at the end, looking like a husk of what the world had seen the brash but quiet sidekick to be. He revealed all the pain Kamoshida had brought upon him, and at the end of his statements, he began with some information that closed the casket on not only any possible remains of Kamoshidaman’s respect but those of his civilian identity.

“You’re a special kind of ******, you know? Most evildoers have the decency to appear as good people outside of the mask. You were abusive to me as a ‘hero’ and as my former sports teacher. People of Kamo City, if you want to take your anger out on this guy, you’ll find him at…”

Inazuma proceeded to blab the information of the high school where the one named Kamoshida (who other than Inazuma had never been figured out despite both of his names being horrifyingly similar) worked and any other way to reach him, Inazuma ended the video with the nastiest scowl anyone had seen and a goodbye. You could tell he wanted to give Kamoshida the middle finger and say certain words following that goodbye, but Panther had decided that it would not be a good idea to show that stuff on live TV broadcasted to the whole city.

As it turned out, Kamoshidaman was literally empowered by the people. The more that trusted him, the more that bowed to his power and authority, the more powerful he would be. Even as Kamoshida, he’d been abusing some of his students and offering rewards for others in exchange for… favors . Ugh.

That was in the past, thankfully; as of the aftermath, the vexing villain was barely stronger than his normal self, and although he tried to escape after the video ended, it turned out Skull and the other heroes had been waiting for him, all of them but Oracle (who had no weapon) complete with painful surprises. Despite many of the public’s opinion that Kamoshida should be publicly executed like he had done to some decent people, Kamo City and its true heroes refused, pointing out that doing that was stooping to the worst of Kamoshida’s levels. Instead, they decided to give him a choice on his fate based on his “nicer punishments.”

Option 1 was simple – he could stay in the city, but he would be rotting in their prisons for the rest of his days, forced to move prisons every few years in order to keep him from plotting with others. Option 2 was more complicated – he would leave the city and never come back, and if he tried to begin superhero work once more somewhere else, no matter how well he meant, he would be tracked, struck down, dragged back to Kamo City (who despite the surprising lack of link to its former “protector” was in dire need of a new name) and would be forced into taking Option 1 from there.

He chose Option 2 – he still believed he had done no wrong, but he was smart enough to not go against those who were once his power source. Kamoshida was kicked out of the city, and other than his worst fans - who either left as well or became quickly evicted supervillains - that was the last anyone wanted to see of him. Every other city they could access was warned about him, and those cities forwarded the information until the rest of the world knew not to trust Kamoshidaman.

________________________________________________________________

A few nights after Kamoshida’s banishment, Ann and Shiho confessed to Ryuji, and the morning after the three woke up as a happy triad.

Soon after, they and the other Spirit Guardians - who revealed themselves to each other soon after the initial victory – pooled their money with the cash reward for their work and bought a big house for their leisure.

Queen and Noir, who were revealed as two girls named Makoto and Haru (and the only ones who knew another Spirit Guardian’s identity other than Ann & Ryuji, who had however intentionally initiated the awakening of the others’ powers and therefore knew everyone’s identities from the start) married about 1.75 years later, and not too long after that they were finalizing adoption papers. The twin brothers named Akira & Ren were so similar in both personality and looks you could easily get which was which wrong all day if they were clothed the same.

Fox and Oracle – who were revealed to be named Yusuke and Futaba - started dating after even more dancing than Ann and Shiho had done with Ryuji, and the only ones who did not know both of them planned to propose soon were each other.

Crow, who they learned had the name of Goro, was aro ace, but unless he trusted you with the truth, it was believed he had a fake relationship with two girls called Caroline & Justine. In the meantime, he spent his days rehabilitating ex-criminals with an old friend who apparently responded to the name Morgana.

After the Spirit Guardians’ hiatus grew long enough, Kamoshidaman eventually grew stupid enough to try pretending to be a hero again. By then, however, he was also much too old and far weaker than he was to have much success; coupled with the fact that everyone knew better than to trust him, the now-rabbit themed “superhero” King Hare was taken down as soon as folks figured out it was him. With the help of some of the Spirit Guardians, three new heroes calling themselves the Phantom Hearts – two near-lookalike young gents called Joker & Wildcard and their sneaky scout Mona – ensured that Kamoshidaman finally made #1.

Sadly for him, that #1 was the number of the path he now takes. At last, Kamoshida finally achieved absolute justice.

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happymetalgirl · 5 years

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Batushka - Hospodi

I went into this album quite like many others aware of the shadiness involved in its culmination, ready to hate it and deride Krysiuk for his leechcraft against Drabikowski and bastardization of the Batushka name and legacy. And I think a lot of people are letting the indeed disturbing context surrounding Hospodi’s release really influence their perception of the album, which I’m not saying they don’t have the right to take into account when listening to it and deciding whether or not to financially support the apparent thievery at play here. But I think most of the vehement disdain for Krysiuk’s version of Batushka would have you think he was just some random trickster who walked in and snatched the rights to the band name like a phantom from out of nowhere. It seems like a lot of people forget that he was indeed part of Batushka since 2015, and part of the highly acclaimed Litourgiya; even if Drabikowski was the driving artistic visionary, Krysiuk was there and very much part of the band and immersed in their sound for a long time. So it would make sense that he be at least somewhat capable of rehashing the band’s aesthetic without Drabikowski’s assistance.

I should explain that I’m not saying this to vindicate any of Krysiuk’s unethical actions, more to provide a perspective from outside the tribal mindset that this ownership dispute has formed. It would be easy if the bad guy who stole the rights to the band was also terrible at his masquerade and obvious in his inauthenticity. It would be easy if it sounded like it was an obvious rip-off. But maybe Krysiuk isn’t as inept as so many of those critical (and justifiably so) of his sinister deception would like to see him as being.

I bring this up because so many people seem to be basing their criticism on this album being audibly distinguishable as inauthentic when I don’t think that will appear to be the case to those outside this whole debacle who might see the criticism as baseless and shrouded in bias. And I completely agree with the criticism of this album not being separable from the theft that spawned it and that needing to be addressed, but I think letting that criticism of artistic integrity spill carelessly into criticism of the art itself is inaccurate and potentially irresponsible. Again, it would be easy if it was obvious Krysiuk was a crook; Metal Blade maybe wouldn’t have signed him if they thought he couldn’t reproduce Litourgiya’s aesthetic at least superficially. It’s just one of those things that can be tempting to treat as black and white, good and evil, when (at least on the musical front) it’s probably best to treat as being a bit more nuanced.

Also, just before I get into the content of this album, I would like to clarify, just in case I came across as condescending to those who have expressed their hatred for this album, I’m not trying to act holier than thou or put words in your mouth, I bring this up because I can closely sympathize with your position. Like I said, I went in ready to hate this album, but the level of competence I heard here caught me off guard and forced me to re-evaluate my approach to assessing this contextually complicated album. From what I’m hearing, to argue that Bart is clearly not the rightful owner of the Batushka name because he’s making some kind of amateurish mockery of the name that anyone can hear is just not convincing enough. I'm not trying to act all high and mighty or be a dick, I promise. With that, I suppose it’s a good time to get into what the hell is actually on this album.

What the teaser tracks from Hospodi suggested of it being (kind of a combination of standard ambient black metal, symphonic black metal, and Batushka’s signature choral chants) are indeed representative of the album, and it’s this use of blackgaze-y tremolo picking and more build-up-focused post-metal song structures that many have pointed out as kind of the smoking gun that proves this album to be a half-baked attempt by a con artist to fraudulently recreate something that was never his to create. And I would agree that the long-winded and sometimes dragging and unfulfilling builds are the most notable difference between Hospodi and Litourgiya (and Panihida). The lengthy shoegazy guitar drones on songs like "Dziewiatyj Czas" and "Polunosznica" aim for the traditional post-rock/metal crescendo but don't really pay off or even get there and seem to serve as time filler to possibly mask a lack of other ideas of how to build anticipation. Indeed, Krysiuk seems to only have one or two ideas of how to do that crescendo when he gets there.

But just because Hospodi doesn't sound like an unaltered continuation of Litourgiya doesn't mean it sounds like complete trash. In fact, the production on here is pretty well-done with fine attention paid to the choral vocals to help them sound as lush as possible. Along with the sinister groove it transitions into, the choral backing over the rapid double-bass of "Wieczernia", while not as dynamic as similar sections on Litourgiya, is certainly a bright spot. As far as other highlights go, the incantation of the choirs that open the song "Utrenia", along with its uncharacteristic palm-muted chugging section are some of the better implementations of the choral metal sound, as well as the ethereal highs of the choir on "Szestoj Czas".

But it is certainly the choirs that carry this album and its noticeably less imaginative lead guitar work and drumming, to the point of being a crutch for the atmosphere of the traditional metal instrumental to lean on and quite possibly to provide cover for a certain artist's lack of confidence in his own ability to represent the Batushka sound at every angle. And even then, often the choirs aren't enough to prop the songs up in their barest sections, which are many.

As immersive and dicey as the whole conflict surrounding this band is, this is certainly just the beginning of it, as hardcore day-one fans, largely aligned with the legally stripped Drabikowski, will support him in any kind of square-up he gets into with the Metal Blade and Polish court-backed Krysiuk. And as interesting of a situation as it will be to see unfold, it's also a profoundly sad and disgusting one, one where it seems like a prominent metal label cosigned and thereby endorsed artistic, and therefore monetary, thievery and a subsequent miscarriage, or at least unfortunate procession, of justice. I know I was tempering the vitriolic reactions to this album's music in my intro, but after sitting with these two albums (Panihida and Hospodi), it's clear that Panihida is a more natural expression of what what at the heart of Batuska on Litourgiya, while Hospodi plays like an expensive, but distinguishable replica of the real thing. Despite Drabikowski being pressed for time to release his project, Hospodi is the album that sounds rushed. I mean if this was just some new band trying to blend the Eastern orthodox elements of Batushka with the sounds of American blackgaze and this was their debut album (which it kind of is), I wouldn't have any problem rating this a 6 or something and hoping for future refinement of the prototypic sound and artistic progress, but being that this is supposedly Batushka itself, this feels off. Krysiuk might claim artistic evolution for the significant change in sound, but this sounds like senseless regression at best, but more easily explained by it being a borderline amateur imitation rather than the real thing. And I can't help but see what so many other Batushka fans see in this conflict: a true artist robbed of his creation and unable to get it back except perhaps by the potentially futile fight for it through the continued output of music itself. And it's tempting to view that in a kind of romantic light, but again, I definitely don't want to downplay or understate the gravity of the injustice of the situation in the seemingly very likely case that Drabikowski is telling the truth, as his music suggests he is. For that reason, it being very likely that it was created through highly unethical means, as much as I might not hate the sound of it as much as most Batushka fans, I can not endorse this album. For all this terrible situation's dicey facets, at the end of it all at least one thing is left very simple. When the desire to hear the beauty of Batushka's music arises and presents a choice of listening to either Hospodi or Panihida, at least the most likely ethical choice is also the most pleasurable one. At least that part of all this is easy./10

#Batushka #Hospodi

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obiternihili · 5 years

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Ngo writes for the National Review and Quillette. Spins stories such as a hit and run into a group of BLM protestors as antifa attacking an old man. ( https://katu.com/news/local/driver-plows-through-protesters-in-downtown-portland | https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-leftist-mob-polices-portland-1539298766 ) . In the aftermath of that, right wing groups started protesting around Portland which led to what should be understood in democratic countries as normal outcomes of protest; groups A and anti-A arguing in the streets, occasionally breaking out into brawls in the same way drunks do in bars or sports fans do in parking lots. https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2018/10/13/portland-streets-descend-into-bedlam-again-as-proud-boys-and-antifascists-maul-each-other/

And because apparently now “militant” means throwing a milkshake, despite the A groups being known for literally killing people, despite far-A groups being known for stockpiling weapons. An informal, completely unorganized aesthetic some informal counter-protestors with all the coordination of football brawlers get the militant label while the people they’re reacting to, people who nakedly want to overthrow democracy and commit human rights violations discriminating against and deporting a reasonable chunk of the country, despite being nakedly in bed with explicitly white nationalist groups and pushing their agenda, one gets the label militant and the other doesn’t. Gee, I wonder why?

At this point I’m largely going to plagiarize the article I’m using as a middle man. Sorry I just figure if I lead with the source instead of putting the text down as is you’d dismiss it instead of considering the fact that the article draws its information from such horrifically communist tabloids as “a local sinclair broadcaster” or “the wsj” “ It didn’t end there. The flash march created new viral moments. A video of a left-wing activist harassing a woman claiming to be a 9/11 widow was posted days later to The Daily Caller, which was cofounded by Tucker Carlson. (The woman appears to have lied about being a 9/11 widow.) Efforts to doxx the man hurling invective resulted in a professional skateboarder from Portland being falsely identified and inundated with death threats. Eventually the man in the video was identified, which started a new round of harassment. One source says the social service agency that fired him over the video “was flooded with hundreds of harassing calls and Facebook messages that were explicitly racist and threatening to harm and kill staff.”

Carlson credited Ngo with publicizing the videos. Ngo was a bit player, but the incident bolstered him. The incident was an example of a disturbing media model for the Trump era: opportunists using biased reporting, social media, and wild accusations inflame vigilante and digital mobs to target “enemies” such as the media, Democrats, and left-wing activists. Figures like Carlson and Ngo reap followers, prominence, and income from the outrage and threats of violence. But to keep the ratings and the money flowing, the outrage machine must be cranked ever louder, risking greater violence.

One political organizer in Portland who has received death threats stemming from Ngo’s work says, “It’s an arms race for money, and the narrative isn’t the point — the grift is. The larger, more offensive thing you can do, the system rewards it.”

This appears to be Ngo’s model. He uses social media to push biased opinions in conjunction with selectively edited videos that play to the bigotry of his audience. His followers get worked up, and this is often followed by a deluge of threats against his subject.

[source] has talked to six people in Portland, including journalists, political officials, and activists, who described harassing messages and threats of violence resulting from Ngo’s work or political involvement in Portland. Friends of two other activists claim they went into hiding after Ngo spread their names and they became targets of harassment. Some individuals who’ve tangled publicly with Ngo are reluctant to go on the record. They say they want to avoid the “trauma” of being subjected to a new round of death threats.

In fact, Ngo appears to rely on people not speaking up about his effect on them. He often writes of how activists won’t talk to him or they take down social media profiles after he focuses on them, seeming to imply they have something to hide. What he doesn’t mention is many say they are doing so to avoid harassment and threats of violence.

Madison, a Portland activist who tracks Ngo, says, “Ngo signals this is a person that should be targeted, should be harassed, and should be threatened. Andy puts a target on them and that results in the person being doxxed. Andy is giving people explicit permission to unleash hatred and violence on people. He absolutely knows what he is doing.”

Ngo is so intertwined with the specter of violence [writer I’m plagiarizing] encountered it after just a Facebook post. [writer I’m plagiarizing] wrote a post with the headline, “Andy Ngo is no journalist.” The post was shared by notorious right-wing figure, Carl Benjamin, aka, “Sargon of Akkad,” who has been featured on Ngo’s podcast and was banned from YouTube for repeatedly “joking” about raping a British Labour MP. In the comments on Benjamin’s post were calls for violence against [writer I’m plagiarizing], Antifa, and others. Within hours [writer I’m plagiarizing] started receiving threats directly, such as “You’re a bunch of retards and it will be a glorious day when you all are dealt with,” and “You are a disgraceful liar. If you or anyone of your ilk throws even a fucking tissue at me or my family watch what the fuck happens to your family lol.”

Now this model threatens to turn deadly. On June 29, Andy Ngo was attacked in Portland while videoing a Patriot Prayer rally heavily outnumbered by Antifa. A video shows him being punched, kicked, and hit with coconut milkshakes and silly string by masked individuals. Within minutes, videos of the attack and of a beaten Ngo narrating the incident were picked up by right-wing media such as Breitbart that have a dodgy relationship to facts. Headlines screaming brutal assault, vicious assault, and vicious attack by Antifa on Ngo were pumped out.

The sensationalism breached the mainstream with CNN’s Jake Tapper sending out an ill-informed tweet above a video of Ngo being attacked, writing, “Antifa regularly attacks journalists; it’s reprehensible.”

In a bizarre twist, the Portland police threw fuel on the fire by tweeting that some milkshakes thrown on June 29 “contained quick-drying cement.” The police never provided evidence and observers, including journalists, noted that many counterprotesters drank the milkshakes, making it extremely unlikely anyone could have laced them with concrete. But amplified by conspiracy theorists like Jack Prosobiec, the tweet went viral, whereupon right-wing media turned the disinformation into fact and the mainstream press treated it as a credible assertion. The police tweet incited the Right further and the group that made the milkshakes was deluged with death threats. It culminated in the city being flooded with death threats. Days after Ngo was attacked, City Hall was evacuated after a bomb threat. One source inside City Hall says the mayor’s office received “insane vitriol” and every office was receiving threats, including almost 100 harassing calls that tied up emergency service dispatchers.

Far-right figures responded to the June 29 attack on Ngo with graphic threats, and plan to hold an “End Domestic Terrorism” and “End Antifa” rally in Portland on August 17. Such is the level of far-right anger that many in the city fear the rally could become another Charlottesville, or worse — given the anti-Latino murder spree in El Paso and other foiled white nationalist plots since then.”

Here’s a point where I mildly disagree with the writer I’m plagiarizing:

“ To be clear, the attack on Ngo should be condemned. It serves no political purpose, and the Left should not be attacking media makers, even if they use dicey methods.”

Ngo doxxes people and sicks his far right buddies on them, and it’s known he doesn’t do the due diligence to make sure the people he’s targeting are actually guilty. If you think it’s wrong when left-wing adjacent people on tungle or twitter do it, it’s still wrong when right wingers do it, holy shit. If you think it’s dangerous, the type of action that gets people lynched, you’re right! Fuckers like him and Milo need to be silenced. Yes, legally it’s unfeasible to do this without opening people up to loosing their freedom to publish or accuse; which is what movements like antifa serve to do - they do the dirty work the law cannot do so the law doesn’t have to break over every item-line exception to the necessarily clumsy, overgeneralized, poorly thought out “““principle”““ put into place. It’s the same sort of deal as wide-eyed idealistic and overly-narrowly focused deontic reasoning and utilitarian thinking, you know, the ethics that actually deal with consequences and reality.

Does it break the law? Yes. Does it violate principles? Yes. That’s the point - the principles underlying this shit aren’t fundamentally different mechanically speaking from the principles that lead to people’s hands being chopped off for stealing a snickers bar or because they didn’t want to live as a serf or why people are content with sending ethnic minorities to concentration camps because the Party said so. A principle that doesn’t have the nuance or flexibility to recognize when it needs to let other principles take the lead is a bad principle; you’ve fetishized it.

Of course there are other issues too. If you’re not comfortable letting Nazis throw milkshakes too you should be comfortable with people getting arrested for it. But of course fuck all because the cops take one side in all of this, lying about wet cement mix as seen above, so this principle needs to be nuanced for the fact that some people receive more violence from law enforcement than others.

It’s late, I’m tired, lazy, mad, and exhausted. At some point before the last paragraph I was going to ask for evidence of antifa kills comparable at all to the number of far-right kills in the last decade in America. Because it’s a valid question that’s rarely answered. Because again antifa have all the organizational structure and systematization of belief as drunks at a bar. But I can’t remember my rhetorical point.

Continuing.

“Some Antifa activists in Portland also admit the attack played into right-wing hands by elevating him.

That is exactly what’s happened. Trump has beatified Ngo as one of his sinless followers — “A single man standing there with a camera who never got hit and never hit back before in his life” — under assault from the “evil” Antifa full of “sick, bad people.”

But it would also be a mistake to see Ngo as an innocent or as a journalist, considering that whoever he turns his camera, social media, or pen on is at significant risk of being inundated with violent threats from the far right.

Shane Burley is author of Fascism Today: What It Is and How to End It, and a Portland-based journalist who covered the June 29 rally. He says, “I would never condone what happened to Andy Ngo, but I think there is a reason why he got in a conflict with protesters and dozens of other reporters present seemed to be left alone.”

Burley says, “One way to think of Andy Ngo is he is part of a far-right mediasphere that creates victimization narratives of conservatism and profit from it. It’s all about the embattled American man who is under siege at every turn, whether its trans children, immigrant criminals, anchor babies, or dangerous college campuses. ‘They are all out to destroy us and our values.’ It’s an entire infrastructure that’s moved from commentary like National Review to populist media hucksters drumming up a controversy. Ngo doesn’t seem to have many real journalistic credentials, and any he does is from creating controversy. He gets in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post from being a conservative celebrity. His actual reporting is very infrequent and sparse.”

Ngo adds a new element in facilitating violence, intentionally or not. Burley says, “He appears to target ideological opponents, which can make them fair game for harassment and violent confrontation.” The scale of the threats keep escalating. Now Portland is bracing for the August 17 rally.

Killing in the Name of Free Speech?

For the last few years, the far right has used fascistic language about “cleansing” Portland, while its brawlers wore T-shirts proclaiming themselves kindred to South American death squads that killed thousands of leftists in the 1970s. But in advance of August 17, the language and memes from the far right have become more extreme. They’ve posted dozens of threats on social media pledging to kill Antifa and naming left-wing activists in Portland who should be shot during the End Antifa rally.

Individuals affiliated with Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys talk of wanting to “slaughter” Antifa. Others have posted hair-raising images of a Portland activist and his partner with crosshairs over their faces and the words, “End Domestic Terrorist’s [sic].” Another image is of a knife cutting the throat of an antifascist with blood spraying out. This is especially ominous. In April 2017 white supremacist Jeremy Christian attended a Patriot Prayer in Portland and threw Nazi salutes while yelling “Die Muslims!” Weeks later Christian allegedly slashed the throats of three men, killing two, after they came to the defense of two black teenage girls, one wearing a hijab, whom Christian threatened by saying, “Go home. We need America here!”

One organizer of the End Antifa rally is Joe Biggs, a former staffer at Alex Jones’s Infowars website who has “encouraged date rape and punching transgender people.” He shared an illustration for the rally of a Proud Boy punching an antifascist, warning, “Free speech was fought for and paid for with blood. It will not be lost for anything less!” Biggs, whose Twitter account was suspended recently, used the platform to advise his followers to bring guns and declared “DEATH TO ANTIFA!!!!!!”

After the FBI visited him, Biggs now says “he wants a peaceful demonstration and has told his followers to keep their weapons at home.”

But that may be too little, too late as the far right is encouraging potential mass shooters to come to the rally. Recently, Haley Adams, a provocateur in Portland who told a reporter last year, “Damn straight I support white pride,” said on Facebook she “couldn’t wait” to meet Thomas Bartram on August 17. Bartram is an Infowars fan who showed up in El Paso days after the anti-Hispanic massacre and was briefly detained after allegedly brandishing a gun and trying to enter a migrant solidarity center. The center claimed police did not search Bartram’s truck that was decked out with violent pro-Trump images, saying “he has rights.” After being released, Bartram told media he was headed to the End Antifa rally.

What connects these dots is Andy Ngo. He even did his bit to stoke right-wing paranoia in El Paso. In a July 29 tweet Ngo included an image of a flyer about an immigrant rights “border resistance tour.” Ngo claimed stick figures on the flyer represent “border enforcement officers being killed & government property fired bombed” as part of a plot by Antifa to “converge on a 10-day siege in El Paso, TX.” It’s been retweeted more than 11,000 times and hundreds of comments endorse violence against Antifa. Four days later Patrick Crusius allegedly killed twenty-two people in an El Paso Walmart in “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Gateway Bigotry

Ngo’s ascendancy began as an editor at the Portland State University newspaper, The Vanguard. At a university interfaith panel convened in April 2017, Ngo tweeted a brief video claiming, “the Muslim student speaker said that apostates will be killed or banished in an Islamic state.” The entire clip shows the student gave a long answer in response to a hypothetical question about Quranic law. The panelists stressed they weren’t experts, and the Muslim student later said “he may have misspoke.”

Ngo’s tweet was picked up by Breitbart. The Vanguard fired him days later for a “dangerous oversimplification that violated very clear ethics outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists.” The Vanguard said Ngo’s actions “placed a PSU student in significant danger.” Ngo twisted his termination into an article for The National Review, “Fired for Reporting the Truth,” which the student paper said was a “misrepresentation” that resulted in “unjust threats” against them.

Critics see this episode as establishing a pattern in Ngo’s work: using charged language and selective facts on social media that stoke bigotry, putting his subject at risk of harassment while boosting his own reach and status. It worked because in 2018 Ngo graduated to writing a “racist” and “massively Islamophobic” travelogue to two Islamic communities in England for the Wall Street Journal.

But it’s in the city of Portland and state of Oregon that Ngo calls home where the most damage has been wrought. Zakir Khan is board chair of the Oregon chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization. Khan says of Ngo, “That guy is obsessed with us.”

Ngo has tweeted dozens of times about CAIR, saying it “has done PR for terrorists & their families.” He characterized CAIR’s representation of the surviving child of the Muslim couple who committed the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino as advocating for “the terrorists’ orphaned baby.”

Recently, in a sprawling New York Post opinion Ngo claimed a “suspicious rise” in gay hate crimes in Portland fits a pattern of hoaxes. (Ngo found space in his 2,100-word article to quote a member of the Proud Boys, which experts call a “gang” notorious for violence, as “the most welcoming organization that I have ever been a part of.”)

Khan says, “We are seen as experts on hate crimes reform, so I questioned Ngo’s groundless claims of ‘hate-crime hoaxes.’ He is not an expert in the field.” Ngo responded by accusing CAIR of “terrorism” and “terror.”

After the exchange with Ngo, Khan says, “We received dozens of threatening and harassing messages. We weren’t able to log them all.” One post that tagged Ngo, as well as Michelle Malkin (who signal boosts Ngo and started a “Protect Andy Ngo” fundraiser after the June 29 attack that netted him nearly $200,000), read, “CAIR IS HAMAS! If you stand with your Muslem neighbors; prepare to die with your Muslem neighbors. We will take our country back![sic]” Ngo frequently claims that Hamas, the governing authority in Gaza, is connected to CAIR.

The irony of all this is that after CAIR challenges Ngo’s claim of hate crime hoaxes, he responds with what could be considered hate speech, accusing them of terrorism. This appears to have incited his followers to threaten and harass CAIR, actions which might qualify as hate crimes.

For his next act, Ngo joined Quillette where he is a “sub-editor.” Described as the voice of the intellectual dark web, Quillette published a report on May 29 claiming fifteen reporters who cover the far right were really “Antifa journalists.” According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the article by “estabished right-wing troll,” Eoin Lenihan, was picked up by the neo-Nazi Stormfront website within a day, and a day after that a video was uploaded to YouTube containing “imagery of mass shooters intercut with images of the [Antifa] reporters.” The names of the journalists were put on a list called “Sunset the Media,” while the video ends with a notorious neo-Nazi saying he won’t “disown” anyone who kills the reporters.

Two journalists, including Shane Burley, wrote of the unnerving effect of being put on a Neo-Nazi death list. Another targeted journalist wrote that Quillette had crossed the line from being merely reactionary to “reckless endangerment” and bluntly stated that its list “could’ve gotten me killed.”

The article was so shoddy, Lenihan was suspended from Twitter. But Ngo promoted the article and more significantly continues to promote it — just as eight months after the fact, Ngo continued to claim that striking the protester from the Patrick Kimmons march is really evidence of Antifa taking their anger out on an elderly man.

In at least one instance it appears Ngo has doxxed activists himself. During May Day 2019, Ngo published a YouTube video that included him talking to members of the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America who were tabling for “Hands Off Venezuela.” The entire time Ngo points his camera at a sign-in sheet, not the person he is interviewing. In the video the sheet is digitally blurred. However, Connor Smith, a Portland DSA member, provided a still from what he claims is an earlier version of the video. The still includes a watermark of Ngo’s twitter handle, “@MrAndyNgo,” exactly the same as in the YouTube video. Eleven names can be seen on the sign-in sheet, including Smith’s, all of which have visible email addresses and six of which include phone numbers. Smith says at least one person on the list received threatening messages such as “Die commie.”

Smith claims it is a common right-wing tactic to doxx people on social media like YouTube and Twitter and then delete the offending material before it is removed for violating the platform’s rules. He says this cat-and-mouse game achieves the results the far right is looking for. “I’m sure some fascist has put all our names and phone numbers in a list.”

Ngo is more of a symptom, however.

Ngo couldn’t exist without social media companies which turn a blind eye to right-wing violence because having to monitor their platforms for hate speech would cut into their profits. Ngo also needs Murdoch-owned media such as the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, and Fox News that allow him to masquerade his bigotry as journalism. These outlets, in turn, are amplified by the larger landscape of mainstream media, which often fail to distinguish between fact-based journalism and pro-Trump, white nationalistic propaganda. Add in police who collaborate with the far right and weak political leaders, as in Portland, and you have all the conditions needed for opportunists like Andy Ngo to grab the spotlight.

Ngo is just the latest inflammatory right-wing agent in Portland who’s tried to vault to the big leagues. Before him was Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson, who has seen his ranks of violent white nationalists dwindle due to infighting and long-overdue arrests.

Way back in 2016, before Gibson, was another media provocateur, Michael Strickland. Strickland shot his YouTube career — which mainly featured him doxxing and harassing local activists — in the foot after he pulled a gun on a Black Lives Matter protest while being armed with enough ammunition for a massacre.

That’s not to say the Left should ignore the likes of Andy Ngo or even Tucker Carlson. They are both the cause and effect of white nationalism and the violence that comes with it. Their synergy is also a reflection of the complex digital landscape. Legacy media like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and even Fox News need Andy Ngo just as much as he needs them. They gave him a platform not for his shoddy reporting and tired bigotry, but for the audience he’s amassed, even if it’s a digital lynch mob.”

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avengcrwanda · 6 years

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TLJ Commentary

This is just my compilation of the different responses I had to folks who were sharing their metas/interpretations on The Last Jedi. Mainly for my reference since I might do a review/analysis in the future once I’ve got a copy of the bluray.

This will cover the following:

Finn and Rose in Canto Bight is not a useless arc.

Hux and why he can be a Big Bad.

Kylo/Ben and why he’s wrong on “letting the past die.”

Kylo/Ben is not worse than Anakin/Vader, like some people want to believe.

Kylo/Ben was let down by his family, but that doesn’t mean they are bad people.

Paige Tico - she is important.

Poe and his reaction to Holdo’s plan.

Rey’s parentage and why she really is a nobody.

Note: If you choose to read this, please keep in mind that this is my opinion and reflects how I read the movie. You can have a different interpretation.

1. Finn and Rose’s adventure in Canto Bight is not a useless arc, and highlights that we shouldn’t be viewing Star Wars as black and white. Originally posted here, in response to grejedi’s commentary here. @darth--darcy had some awesome points to add which you can find here.

The Canto Bight arc showed us several points: (1) that when you choose neutrality (just like DJ), you choose the side of the oppressor; and (2) that the good guy-bad guy dynamic depends on your point of view. Let’s focus on the second point.

Finn and the Resistance view the First Order as the Bad Guys; therefore, the Resistance is the group of the Good Guys. This is true to a certain extent - after all, the First Order somewhat represents oppression and fascism. But when the Resistance defeats them and the Good Guys win - what happens next? New government, another New Republic. Will it be a rehash of the Rebellion defeating the Empire? And then another form of the FO comes popping out? If I recall correctly, the new government/New Republic didn’t exactly live up to their promises and bring peace to the galaxy. There were still corrupt senators, and the system they established allowed the FO to breed in the first place. And their same system allowed the Canto Bight folks to profit from selling weapons. (And for a bigger picture – Jakku seemed like a forgotten town, with folks there suffering from extreme poverty. Didn’t they care about them?)

Both the FO and the Resistance (as well as the old Rebellion) contributed to the hardships of the galaxy. And maybe both have something good to fight for. Maybe instead of an all-out weapons war, these two groups could meet in the middle. Balance, anyone?

If you recall what Luke said in the teasers, “It’s so much bigger.” He was probably referring to the force, but I think it applies to the whole war as well. I try to understand that maybe some folks just do a surface read and walk away with incomplete tidbits and say, “Oh this is just another war movie: the Resistance is the underdog we must cheer for and Kylo and the rest of the FO are the oppressors the underdog must completely eliminate.”

But - newsflash - even real-life war isn’t so black and white. People need to dig deeper and understand - why did the war start in the first place? Were the "winners” really justified? What were the “losers” fighting for anyway? Because if we just take it at face value - “Oh, this group won because they were fighting for the good thing. Everything else from the losing side is garbage.” - we will just repeat the cycle. If the root cause isn’t addressed, the future will just be the same; the new government will again be ineffective and another insurgent faction will creep up.

Even the characters aren’t so black and white. The sequel trilogy wants its viewers to think and question what we know. Example: Luke, Leia, and Han.

One of the major beefs of the fans of the OT - and I know this has made countless rounds online - is that the original heroes didn’t turn out how they expected, i.e. always pure and good. “Luke was a hero at the end of the OT, he should remain a hero for the rest of his life. Leia and Han resolved their differences and got together, they deserve their happily ever after.” And to go against this will be out of character for them.

But what they need to realize is that people change and evolve depending on their experiences. The major characters of Star Wars weren’t meant to be one-dimensional. How boring will that be? Heroes can’t make good decisions all the time. We must give them room to make mistakes.

People make mistakes. People make bad decisions. People fall off from the high pedestals some put them on. We must be able to accept this. The way they wrote Luke, Leia, and Han made the characters very relatable – they’re people who make mistakes and bad decisions. Han AND Luke were able to accept this before they died. They knew that they failed Ben and confronted and apologized to him for it. And they moved on. But some viewers haven’t, apparently.

2. Just because Hux is not a Force user, and that he had some comedic moments in TLJ, does not mean he cannot be a Big Bad in Episode IX. Originally posted here, in response to daxcat79’s and i-live-in-the-reylo-moon’s post here.

While he had a lot of comedic moments in TLJ, you have to give Hux credit.

It’s been mentioned in various sources and by a number of folks that Hux is cutthroat and ambitious. He also has a delicate ego and is very sneaky. I believe the TLJ Visual Dictionary even states that he has an assassin on command – and that this assassin is afraid of Hux himself.

A see a lot of folks saying that Hux is weak and won’t be able to kill/plot against Kylo/Ben because he doesn’t have control over the Force. But recall Order 66? All those clones did not have any ounce of Firce power yet they were able to successfully eliminate most of the Jedi. The element of surprise + sheer numbers – I bet Hux has control over the First Order officers and troopers – can overpower even the most skilled Force user.

Personally, it will be interesting to see a big bad who cannot use the Force. Just like the Rey heroes-can-come-from-anywhere storyline, Hux can be the villans-can-come-from-anywhere one.

3. Kylo/Ben’s view of letting his past die is actually hurting him rather than making him move on. Originally posted here, in response to reylo11’s post here.

The only way to go forward is to embrace the past, figure out what is good and what is not good about it. But it’s never going to not be a part of who we all are.

This is what Kylo/Ben needs to realize. I feel that he struggles so much with himself because he’s so intent on killing his past (“Let the past die.”), even doing so literally. He wants to create a new version of himself by forgetting where he came from. He looks at his past with so much hatred. I understand that it wasn’t all fun and rainbows given that his parents abandoned him and his uncle and master tried to off him in his sleep (at least from his point of view). But instead of him accepting these experiences, he wants to throw them away as if they never happened. Because his view is these experiences make him weak.

Those who do not know how to look back to their past will not arrive at their future. One has to be able to look back into your past and accept all your experiences if you want to be the best person you can be.

We are made up of all our experiences, even the shitty ones we want to forget. They build character and make us a stronger person. The good things and the bad all contribute to our character. Kylo/Ben needs to accept this so he can finally decide what his future will be.

4. Kylo/Ben is not worse than Anakin/Vader. Originally posted here, in response to @renperor-of-the-galaxy’s post here.

Until the novelization comes out, we probably wouldn’t know what really happened in Luke’s Jedi temple. We just know that (1) Luke thought about offing Ben while he was asleep; (2) Ben misinterpreted Luke’s action as a definite attempt to murder; (3) Ben brought down the hut, rendering Luke unconscious; and (4) By the time Luke woke up, his temple was burning, some of his students were dead, and Ben was gone with a number of his other students.

It’s possible that Ben killed his fellow padawans/knights. It’s possible that he didn’t – maybe the two groups of students just fought it out. The thing is, we don’t know for sure. While Ben is known as “The Jedi Killer,” this could also be based off rumours.

To say that he is worse than Anakin/Vader isn’t quite right. Remember the scene in ROTS where the younglings looked up to Anakin while the temple was being attacked? “Master Skywalker, there’s too many of them. What do we do?” The younglings were so relieved to see him and then Anakin suddenly ignites his lightsaber. They were completely defenceless.

Now, versus Luke’s students – we don’t know if there were younglings. We don’t know if they were defenceless. If we go by the Visual Dictionary, it looks like they were Ben’s age, so would have been able to fight.

To sum it all up – calling Kylo/Ben worse than Anakin/Vader is premature.

5. On Ben’s family, and how it doesn’t mean they are bad people. Originally posted here, in response to a longer thread here (commentary by shallowlethargy, a-heart-of-kyber, and renpressrey).

There’s a difference between calling Luke, Leia, and Han as bad people vs bad parents. Antis need to understand this. Even good people - and heroes - make mistakes. For the Skywalker-Solos, it translated to not being there for Ben enough when he needed love and guidance.

To Antis saying Ben is a grown ass man so he should know better - not necessarily. His formative years weren’t exactly fun and nurturing: parents busy with other things, culminating with (from his POV) attempted murder from his uncle/second father figure could mess someone up. Add in Snoke to the mix and you have a very troubled person (which Kylo/Ben is).

He is still very conflicted (pull to the light, etc.) so this makes me believe he is inherently a good person. It’s just hard for him to reconcile this because of his experiences: the people on the “good” side (his family) didn’t exactly treat him right AND he has Snoke constantly whispering in his head. In a sense, he was sort of conditioned to act a certain way, which is very hard to break, no matter how old you are.

6. Paige Tico is also important. Snippet originally posted here.

I feel like Paige isn’t being talked about enough. Not gonna lie - I was so emotionally invested in Paige. Her death is the second saddest moment of the film for me, after the Reylo throne room conversation.

She gives a face to all the forgotten less-than-side characters who sacrifice themselves so the heroes can go save the day. Versus Holdo, who is a high ranking official, she shows that even the ordinary folks are able to contribute to the big picture.

7. Poe’s big lesson on trust. Originally posted here, in response to a longer thread here (commentary by hunterinabrowncoat, whtwlf, frozenmusings).

TRUST was really a big lesson for Poe.

Some people are complaining that Holdo just should have told everyone of her plan. From an audience standpoint, this would make the most sense; as a viewer, we won’t question the decision, right? And maybe we expect the characters/Holdo’s subordinates to do the same.

But the members of the Resistance are active participants in this. There’s a chance they won’t just “go with the flow.” There will be arguments, just like what happened with Poe. The mutiny could have happened earlier, and the Resistance will still be in a bad shape.

With the clock ticking on the Resistance, they just couldn’t afford drawn out discussions on what to do. Holdo had every right to make an executive decision. Given her rank and experience, as well as that of her team, she more or less knows the direction she should be going.

And guys, this happens in real life, too. You don’t have the leadership teams of various organizations (even non-military ones) broadcasting each and every detail of the plans they have as they go along. There may be a right time for this.

8. On Rey’s parentage. Originally posted here, in response to skysilencer’s analysis here.

Earlier in the movie (shirtless Force Bond scene), Kylo/Ben tells Rey that she can’t stop needing her parents who threw her away like garbage - “It’s your greatest weakness.” And this is true. Rey wanted to go back to Jakku, a backwater planet, because she’s still holding on to the idea of her parents coming back. She was willing to throw away her future and her potential because of this weakness.

As stated above, the delivery (especially the throne room) wasn’t exactly great, but it helped push Rey into the path of acceptance and moving on. I think a lot of people miss that she was the first one to admit that her parents were nobody. And what Kylo/Ben is telling her is that it is okay - okay that she doesn’t have a big background, okay that she doesn’t come from famous parents. And it’s great that she can now move on from the past! She defeated this weakness and can be what she was meant to be, so to speak.

Rian says, “If the answer presented to her was, ‘Your parents are so-and-so, here you go, here’s your place in this story.’ That would be the easiest thing for her to hear. And easiest thing for us to hear! Wish fulfilment. It’s like, ‘Oh, great! That’s who I am. That’s that.’ The hardest thing she could hear is, 'No, you’re not going to get that answer, that definition.’”

A lot of people were shocked over the reveal, which I guess was the point. As mentioned by Skysilencer above (and in other metas), the whole movie was about failure and subverting everyone’s expectations. A lot of folks expected Rey to come from somewhere - just like Rey was in denial and that her parents were coming back - and by revealing that she doesn’t come from an important family, we share her pain.

As talked in this article, Rey is on a journey of self-discovery. Her bigger conflict is not the current war of the First Order vs the galaxy - it’s figuring out who she is and what her place in the story is. To quote from the article, “To have her learn some kind of easy answer about a noble ancestry would not only immediately zap away that important conflict, but would also totally freeze and dismantle her important journey of self-discovery. Without the simple explanation, the heroine must stand on her own and carve out her own path, rather than just follow one already carved out for her.”

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laellaescribe · 7 years

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That Lying Bitch - A Review

At first glance, you might assume that a band named That Lying Bitch is made up of pretty mean dudes (or some really self-aware ladies). The truth is, TLB is made up of 4 talented, kind, and honest-as-hell gentlemen from Chicago, IL.

Previously only having released 4 singles, an album of 10 cohesive songs has been long awaited by fans. And that time has come.

The self-titled album takes the listener through all 7 stages of a breakup (though maybe not exactly in order). As cited here, TLB was formed after lead singer Darren Vorel’s not-so-pretty breakup, and the songs show it.

We open with a song about fun, which is a genius move. The video for ‘I’ve Been Doing Fun Shit Without You’ (here) is free spirited, and exactly what everyone aspires to feel like after a breakup. Vorel sings about all the great things he’s doing without this girl who’s done him wrong.

He does let a bit of transparency leak through in the second verse: “She’s not the one/she’s a runner up/’cause you threw my fuckin’ love away,” but quickly recovers with the line, “But I’m no longer alone.” It’s a theme that recurs throughout the album: Well, maybe I don’t have you anymore, but I’m definitely doing better than you are.

“Girls are comin’ over/And I’m crying on their shoulders,” Vorel admits in another moment of transparency in ‘Fun Shit’, presumably telling his ex that he’s sad, sure, but that’s not stopping him; nothing is.

‘How Am I Supposed to Hate You When I Love You’, shortened often to ‘Hate/Love’ on TLB’s set lists, might be one of the most relatable songs on this album for those of us who have had our hearts broken in any situation. While some of TLB’s music feels very specific to Vorel’s breakup, Hate/Love is something we can all understand: You did me wrong, you’re wrong for me, but I want you back anyway.

The sound in these first two songs is similar, and I’d venture to guess that Vorel wrote them closely together, and shortly after the breakup. They were the first two videos released on the band’s YouTube channel as well. They are loud, fast, and downright hard.

The vibes of both ‘Fun Shit’ and ‘Hate/Love’ are angry, vengeful, a little bit sad, and just what you want to listen to when you’re pissed off, driving around, thinking about that person who not only broke your heart, but also stomped on it and maybe caught it on fire a few times.

Where the first two tracks are loud and angry, ‘Cum Get Yr Shit’ is honestly kind of a bop in comparison. The feeling of not being able to let go because “You’re everywhere I look/you’re everything I see” is so brutally transparent. At first listen, I thought, “Why didn’t he just mail it all back to her?”

But it’s more than that. There’s so much - beyond just the “book on fashion” and the “hairties and panties,” there’s the feeling that if she wants her shit back, then she needs to come get it and, honestly, face what she’s left behind. It would be so easy to get rid of it - mail it, burn it, donate it, whatever - but if she comes to get her own stuff, maybe she’ll come back. Or maybe she’ll still leave, but she’ll feel a little worse about it.

Come get your shit - and face what you’ve done at the same time.

“You’ve Been Telling Lies to My Best Friend’s Girlfriend” takes us back to the anger, and the heavy sound. And honestly, this song is a shock at this point in the album. Where before this, we’re led to believe that this girl who has left, has done so without a second thought, now suddenly she’s still involved.

And she’s really pissed Vorel off, it seems, by running in the same circles, which is just plain not cool - if you do wrong, then you don’t get to keep the friends I introduced you to. And you definitely don’t get to talk to them about me.

Besides, as the song goes, “I’d rather hear that shit from you.”

Full transparency here, I have a special fondness for the next song on the album, ‘Drinks On Me’. Those of you who have read previous blog posts know that I once took a road trip from my hometown in Southeastern Pennsylvania to the suburbs of Chicago to see TLB perform and film a video. Though the video hasn’t been released (ahem), this is the song in question. So, I’ve got a lot of totally not objective love for this jam.

‘Drinks’ is the night at the bar with all your friends where you literally just want to drink and forget. And you know it’s not gonna be any better tomorrow, you know it’s not gonna hurt any less tomorrow, but tonight you can dull the pain. How? “About a thousand shots” - or, if we’re being true to the TLB brand, a whole lot of Old Style.

“I never knew it was so easy to break my heart,” gives the same sense of sadness we see throughout the album: How could she do this? I don’t understand. But, for tonight, the rest of the song tells us, it’s okay, because we’re just gonna get wasted.

The next track, right smack dab in the middle of the album, has a very simple message: “I miss the shit out of you.”

Both the title and essentially the only line of the song, it feels like Vorel is back in his ‘Hate/Love’ mindset: angry at himself and at the girl, and not sure who’s more to blame at this point. We all want our feelings to sort themselves out after a breakup, particularly a traumatic and dramatic one, but sometimes all you can do is just admit that you have no idea what the next step is.

And, honestly, that’s okay.

‘We Are Getting Back Together in 2000 Never’ and ‘Coverband’ come as a matched pair for me. The sound is similar, the message is similar. The most recent additions to the final lineup for the album, they show a ton of growth in attitude, and honestly in songwriting. I love this whole album - there I go, not being objective again - but these two songs are far and away the best, the most truthful, and the most creative.

‘2000 Never’ features the bop sound of ‘Yr Shit’ but with a much larger sense of closure. “Cause I’ll be somewhere movin’ on/Drivin’ with my music on/You’ll be just some girl I left behind me” is probably the most iconic line of the album. Maybe we haven’t totally left this girl behind just yet, but the future is clear, and she’s not in it.

Bassist Dave Tirio (rhythm guitar + backup vocals for the Plain White T’s) offers us some deep, rough backup vocals for this song that provide an incredible contrast to Vorel’s smooth, high singing. Tirio’s voice finds its home here on the the song you’re most likely to dance to, and the grittiness works so well against the rest of the happy beat of the song.

‘Coverband,’ as a whole, is quite possibly the most brutal song of this album. If someone wrote this song about me, I’d never want anyone to know it. It’s harsh, it’s angry, and it’s almost calm in its revenge. ‘Coverband’ is that person who never yells, but instead just stares you down and lets you know how angry they are while keeping their tone completely even. And maybe cocks an eyebrow at how absolutely stupid you are.

“You left a headliner for a coverband,” Vorel sings. Here, the theme of, “I may not have you anymore, but I’m doing better than you” morphs into, “Oh, and I was always better, and you’re kind of a fool for tossing it out the window, so good luck with that.”

From the title ‘I Can’t Wait Till You Get Dead,’ you’ll think I misspoke when I called ‘Coverband’ the most brutal song of the album. But ‘Get Dead’ is pure hatred and anger in comparison to ‘Coverband’s quiet acceptance.

‘Get Dead’ is the moment you found out that she lied about cheating on you. It’s yelling and screaming and dishes thrown at walls. It’s fighting where the rest of the album has been leading up to being done fighting. This sudden turn of events is shocking to the system at first listen, but it fits quite well in its place here at the tail end of the album. It’s the culmination of all these other feelings, these other songs of anger, of sadness, of hatred, of regret.

‘Get Dead’ is the moment when you aren’t struggling to hate her anymore, when you don’t miss the shit out of her anymore, when you just want her to go the fuck away.

Which is why the album has to end quietly.

‘Totally Fucked for You’ is the only acoustic song on TLB’s self-titled record, featuring only handclaps and a guitar to go along with Vorel’s quiet crooning.

Placing this song after the anger of ‘Get Dead’, after the acceptance of ‘Coverband’ is a bold choice, since it seems like a few steps backwards in the breakup grieving process.

But the beautiful thing about an album is that it plays again. (Or, in my case, again and again and again). So where ‘Totally Fucked’ may seem like an unhappy ending, it’s really just another step in the cycle. And at some point, the cycle has to end, right? So while right now, we’re totally fucked for this person who stomped on our hearts and set them on fire, at some point, we’ll just go back to doing fun shit without them.

That Lying Bitch will be appearing at Slidebar Rock N Roll Kitchen in Los Angeles, CA for a free show on Wednesday October 18th. Details here.

#that lying bitch #plain white ts #plain white t's #tlb #punk #punk rock #chicago #chicago music #music #review #music review #album review #los angeles #live music #darren vorel #tom higgenson #dave tirio #eric vorel

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sandalwoodandjasmine · 7 years

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#StillHuman

Iskandar’s speech at the biotic rally, shortly before he was shot.

Fellow biotics, allies,

friends!

We have gathered here today to stand against a grave injustice. An injustice that our government is planning to inflict on a certain group of its population. Of its citizens.

On us. On people like you and me. On people like your brother or your sister, your child, your friend. On biotics.

We have gathered here today to show our opposition to a bill which was recently introduced in parliament. The name of this bill is straightforward enough: the “Biotics Registration and Supervision Act.” As we speak, this bill is being discussed in parliament and might soon become law. If it is, it would require all human biotics residing in the Sol System to register with the Ministry of Public Security.

For those of you who are not directly affected by this piece of legislation, you might not be aware what this really means. Let me tell you what it means. It would mean that people like me, who have never committed a crime in their life, would have to report to the Ministry of Public Security. All of our personal data, a comprehensive profile of our past and current activities, would then be filed and passed down to all of the ministry’s subsidiary authorities. In case you didn’t know this, this is the ministry which is charged with law enforcement. It controls all of Sol’s police forces, including all its specialised branches. Border control. Riot control. Counterterrorism.

I probably don’t need to spell it out to you which kind of citizen usually has such detailed records compiled with the Ministry of Public Security. I will do it anyway. Terror suspects.

I will spell the next step out for you as well, because I feel that I must. The “Biotics Registration and Supervision Act” therefore turns every biotic, every last one of us, into a terror suspect. By our very nature, we are considered suspicious. Who we are, our abilities, are considered dangerous. We are a public security threat that needs to be controlled and contained.

This legislation is of course just the culmination of a very intense moral panic that has held our society in its clutches for some years now. Biotics are distrusted. Biotics are feared. The nature of a biotics’ abilities are the topic of many a discussion, and the subject of many more wild rumours. What is the extent of the possible threat we pose? Or is the “dangerous biotics” discourse entirely wrong-headed? Aren’t we rather the victims of a new kind of environmental pollution? In need of intensive state care and rehabilitation? Is the “Biotics Registration and Supervision Act” a show of mercy and compassion?

In this manner, people would seek to talk for us. They seek to define us. But one thing inevitably gets lost in all those discussions.

We are still human.

Before we are public security threats, before we are pollution victims, before we are terror suspects, we are still human.

And as such we are endowed with the same rights as any other human being.

The “Biotics Registration and Supervision” Act would strip us of these very basic rights. We wouldn’t be full humans before the law. We would be less than human. Moral panic would have caused this insufferable injustice. Fear of who we potentially could be, of what we potentially could do. Who we choose to be, how we choose to act, would cease to matter.

Many of us have long since adjusted to this fear. We live in the shadows. We hide who we are even from those closest to us, even from those we love the most. We do so because we are afraid that if we told them, they might turn away from us. It would break our spirits to see the fear grow in their eyes. We harbour in our hearts the hope that if they knew, they would accept us. They would support us. And yet the doubt remains. It is not a risk we might be willing to take. So we continue to hide.

I know this because until very recently, I, too, chose a life in the shadows. I stand here before you, I speak to you, because I realised that there are things greater than my fear. That there are causes more important than personal rejection. But this was not always so. Despite the fact that my personal capabilities would have served our cause best in public, despite my peers’ pressure, I hid. I was afraid.

No longer.

This latest development won’t let me hide any longer.

I used to wonder if I had been cursed at my birth. You see, I am an Indian by descent. In my culture we know the concept of ‘karma’. It is the long held belief that a person’s misfortune in this life must be the result of the bad deeds of our previous lives. I couldn’t help but wonder if this punishment of mine was the result of something I had done in a previous life?

But no. I refuse to belief this. It must be against the sensibilities of any modern man or woman to hold such a belief. A person’s birth can never be a crime.

And yet we are to be treated the way only criminals are treated. But what is our crime, I ask? What is our crime? Must not a criminal have committed a crime? But what is mine? What is that of my peers? Our only crime is our birth. Should we be condemned for that? Should be stripped of our rights for that? For our birth?

Yes, there have been incidents of extreme violence. Biotics have committed crimes. We as students of this university know this better than anyone. No one of us will ever forget that the vice-dean of our university was assassinated because he publicly spoke in favour of a political party that fans the flames of anti-biotic hatred.

No one of us will ever forget!

People rallied. There was a public outcry, people cried for justice. Find the murderers! Punish them!

Their anger was justified. No murder should ever go unpunished. The murder of our vice-dean was a crime, regardless of the political opinions he might have held. I condemn this crime! Everyone who stands with me and supports me condemns this crime! Otherwise they wouldn’t support what I stand for. Those responsible for the assassination must be found out. Justice must be served.

No one of us will ever forget!

And yet, would we condemn an entire group of humans on the basis of crimes committed by a small number of extremists? This is not my understanding of justice. Is it your understanding of justice?

Let us also not forget that atrocities have not only been committed by biotics. Far more often, biotics have been the targets of atrocities. Every last one of us knows about Nirbhaya. Let us not forget her. Where was the public outcry when she was killed? Where was the high-level political intervention, where were the special investigation teams when a young woman had to die for no other reason than being a biotic?

We are being killed. Where is the outrage? Where is the cry for justice? Most of those crimes against biotics go unpunished. Nirbhaya’s murder continues to go unpunished. Don’t our lives count? She was my friend. She had to die because she was a biotic. Because she was like me. Does my life not count? Does the life of my peers not count? Are we not human, like everyone else?

How can we not be scared? How can we not hide? This moral panic has to end. Children who show biotic abilities need proper training. The general population needs education.

But more than anything, we need the understanding, we need the acceptance of the society we live in. What we don’t need is for them to treat us like criminals.

We might be biotics. But we are still human.

Fellow biotics, allies,

friends!

Thank you for standing here with me today to send this message to our politicians: that before everything else, we biotics are #StillHuman.

This vid goes with the speech:

(translation of the lyrics)

youtube

#iskatoni college au #iska's speech #iskandar shepard

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ascensionstories-blog · 7 years

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Menace #33: How Did We Get Here (Part 4)

Part 4 (continued)

For a moment, it was just silence. Jenny had sharply inhaled upon hearing Kesia’s voice, and the girl sitting next to her covered her eyes with her hand. The air underneath the wooden arena suddenly felt hot and stifling, like lava bubbling through cracks in a volcano’s surface. Jenny realized she was sweating — one of the few responses of her body she deemed too tedious to actively halt — and slowly moved to wipe her forehead with her hand. The High Priestess of the Forest must be unaware, Jenny was certain, of her presence. All was silent until Kesia called out again: “Oracle! Time is of the essence; I would like to know my future before I experience it.”

“Did you bring an offering?” The girl sitting next to Jenny managed to respond. “The Oracle demands an offering.” She was putting on a larger voice, slightly more guttural and deep than her normal speaking voice. There was silence, again, for a short time. A small jingle erupted from the silence, with a falling then crashing sound against the stoney floor.

“I brought you your gold, child, though I do not know for what you use it,” Kesia said, clearly disgruntled by having to pay an offering. “The land weeps as I hand you its resources.” Under her breath, the girl whispered, “I weep too,” far too softly for the Forest Priestess to hear, but loud enough that Jenny was sure she’d heard it. “Oh, Oracle,” the girl spoke loud enough so Kesia could hear, “relate to me the future of this woman, her land, her world, and her life. Give only so much as to tread, steal only as much as need; take of me and tell of her.” And then the girl stopped speaking. Jenny looked at her; she was slumped in a seated position, her back soft against the wall, her chest failed to undulate with breath. She might as well have been dead, Jenny thought. Then life flew into her like a bird into a jet engine, a sharp inhalation and a loud, affected croak. The Oracle stood with the girl’s body, rigid as a plank, and began to slowly spin her web of the future:

“The four sisters of the forest speak down to me tales of a land I know not of, showering down their gifts of hatred and their love; Kotundī, the land and trees, and Osundī, goddess of the seas, play your fates as a game of cards. One a champion of mysteries, the other pushing normalities, and raging all the while. The third of the forest, Bôunda, demands sacrifice for your misdeeds; two of the youngest, three of the oldest, and one of the temple, according to her creed. The fourth, Sisic, watches and waits, and will see that it is she who doles out your fate. The rains will stop, the wind will fall, and then, dear girl, you shall know all.”

With that final claim, the girl dropped back to a sitting position with a thump. She looked around for a moment, almost as though she’d forgotten where she was. There was silence once again in the chamber. After a moment, footsteps began to resound, as well as small grunts of Kesia claiming the ladder to the outside world. The hatch was closed, and the two girls now rested alone in the darkness of the chamber.

“Sorry for that,” the girl said, in her normal voice, sitting herself upright. “I don’t usually have company, so how could she know?” She laughed and rested her head back against the wall. “I hope you don’t want anything from the Oracle at this point, I think he’s gone to rest.”

“No… no. But maybe something from you. Did you ever meet with Jonathan Stacks when he was on the island?” Jenny asked.

“No,” the girl said plainly. “But the Oracle foresaw his coming to the island. Kesia demanded her future, and he informed her that he was to be the greatest king this land had ever known. After that, Kesia stopped coming down for a long time, until, one day, she rushed down here screaming, in tears. Stopped coming altogether after that. Until just a few days ago. Asked me to tell her about a girl coming to the island.” “Well, hi there,” Jenny responded, prompting the girl to laugh. “What did this prophecy say?”

“It said something about how you would steal her future from her,” the girl responded pensively, “or, at least, I think that’s what I remember.” Suddenly, a lot of events over the past few days made sense to her. The forest did not hate her; Kesia did. Jenny could hear a soft pitter-patter of rain beginning to fall atop the fortress in which they rested.

“Well, guess I better not disappoint,” Jenny decided aloud. “How would you like to get out of this silly dungeon and see the sky?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this far,” Honey said as they walked along the coast of the island. Outside the cave, her features looked lighter than the rest of the inhabitants of the island, probably from a lack of sun, but her hair was a brilliant hew of honey that she tied so it only fell to her waist. The rags she wore were hardly enough to cover her physic, which was lean but not underfed, and her feet were now covered in cuts from the rough terrain of the forest. “How does the water feel?” She asked Jenny as she tentatively stepped towards it.

“With cuts like those on your feet? It’ll sting like nobody’s business,” she answered. “C’mon, let’s go to your village, find you some new clothes, maybe cut your hair.”

“What do you think the people will say when they see me?”

“Honey, I think they’ll say that they should never have hidden away a face as beautiful as yours,” Jenny told her, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. She had given her the name “Honey” for her hair, which was dark with lighter, golden streaks twisting through it, becoming more pronounced towards the bottom of her hair. The girl was a bit larger than Jenny, thin, but with larger features; her eyes, lips, bosom, and butt all stood bigger than Jenny’s, which Jenny noted with a tinge of jealously as they emerged from the cave. Jealousy and, perhaps, a bit of lust. Of course, Jenny could easily have extended her own features to more so mimic those of Aphrodite herself, but too often decided that the effort was not worth it.

Her first boyfriend — she would always remember — woke up with her after their first time to notice that her breasts and ass were markedly smaller than he remembered. She told him he was imagining things. It began a long line of Jenny fucking with boys and then fucking with them; culminating in, her personal favorite, when she decided about half way through to grow an external, masculine reproductive organ to see the look on the boy’s face at the end. As you can probably guess, it was priceless. Nonetheless, she felt very comfortable within her own skin, and handling extra proportions meant that she’d have to be mindful of the space she occupied, which she was not a fan of doing for her entire life.

The girls walked through the forest, Jenny leading the way and hoping not to get lost, and, after much trial and tribulation, they emerged at the front of a dazzling crystalline lake. Jenny recognized it. She also recognized the unhappy countenance of the high priestess of the forest who bathed in it.

#menace #sci-fi #fiction #writers

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abdifarah · 6 years

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Beyoncé Gives and Beyoncé Takes. Blessed be the Name of Beyoncé

Years ago I attended this fancy gala in Miami honoring famed Russian dancer and activist Mikhail Baryshnikov. The party boasted a live band fronted by a 50 something blond lady in a blue pants suit (think Hillary Clinton) that performed every top 40 song on the radio at the time. Its was 2005 so think, Lil’ Jon, Usher, Gwen Stefani, and Britney Spears. Contrary to their Ann Taylor/Brooks Brothers appearance, the band killed it, putting to shame the original performers. The lead singer (again, think Hillary Clinton) even spit all the rap verses. And without needing to grade on a curve (generally a given for white rappers), the flow was official. Beyoncé’s shape shifting performances across Everything Is Love reminded me of that party. But like the lady in the pants suit belting out, To the window, to the wall, til the sweat drips down my balls, there is something unsettling about a musical assassin the likes of Beyoncé absorbing and redeploying everyone else’s best moves like a berserking T-1000.

Everything Is Love plays like an immaculately curated jukebox, sifting choice samples and quotes from all of your other favorite artists, and as a bonus you get Beyoncé performing it all. A line here, a turn of phrase or dialect there, Everything Is Love and Lemonade before it lay bare a treasure chest of Beyoncé’s stylistic conquests and acquisitions, gathered throughout years of pop music pillaging. And like the raiders of the artifacts of oceania or King Tutankhamun's tomb that now populate the world’s museums, she didn’t ask. I commiserate with Jacobim Mugatu exasperatedly explaining to the world that Blue Steel and Le Tigre were the same look! I would regularly interject during the radio deluge that was Lemonade in 2016 that the refrain from Beyoncé’s revenge anthem Hold Up was eerily close to Karen O’s on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs classic ballad Maps. Hold up they don’t love you like I love you///Wait, they don’t love you like I love you.

On Friends, Bey smoothly rap/sings, “fuck you, fuck you, you’re cool, fuck you,” quoting Kid Cudi. Instantly recognizable from the sacred text, A Kid Named Cudi, the artist’s early mixtape, which remains a charmed relic witnessing Cudi’s as yet unreached potential. Over the past few weeks I have heard a number of people quoting that line, and from the sassy smirk on their faces as they speak the lines I know that they are embodying Beyoncé and not Cudi. In my Shang Tsung voice: the line is now hers. On Apeshit Beyoncé and Jay-Z do Migos better than the Migos, ad-libs and all. To make the stunt even more stuntful, the actual Migos are on the song trying desperately to keep up. I imagine the Atlanta trio in the studio with huge grins tinged with a bit of fear watching Bey mimic their style to perfection while adding a little stank to it for good measure.

Track to track the campaign of conquest continues. Heard About Us is literally a SZA song, down to SZA’s particular pronunciation of the N-word – Nikas. Not to be left out, Jay gets in on the action, quoting Common’s line from Erykah Badu’s Love of My Life, “Y'all know how I met her/ We broke up and got back together/To get her back, I had to sweat her,” not once but on two different songs! In summary, The Carters be stealin’. But it may be impossible for artists as prolific and influential as the Beyoncé and Jay-Z to steal. Beyoncé can make a SZA song, no questions asked, because SZA probably doesn’t exist with Beyoncé. On Nice Bey raps, “I give you life!” Beyoncé, like the God of Job, giveth and taketh freely. The rampant, borderline problematic, appropriation of this peak career Beyoncé and late career – yet still razor sharp – Jay-Z (last year’s 4:44 may be his best album, just saying) is The Carters ultimate flex.

The story goes Marvin Gaye originally wanted to sing the American songbook like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, but save for a few exceptions like Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. black men were not easily granted this venerated position within the music industry: to have your voice so purely appreciated and be so celebrated and accepted for who you are that you had the honor of singing only the standards. Not burdened with the added pressure of writing and arranging, these mavens were liberated to explore and perfect the full artistry of their voice. On Everything is Love The Carters avenge Gaye, subsuming and filtering the whole of pop music into their version of singing the standards. Jay-Z for one has been on a career long mission of righting historical wrongs. One 2001’s Izzo off the seminal The Blueprint, Jay raps, “I’m overcharging niggas for what they did to the Cold Crush;” a forerunning hip hop group egregiously exploited by record company executives. The Louvre, the site of the Apeshit video serves as the perfect fortress for the Carter coup. All culture, from high art to trap music, is theirs to do with as they please. The Louvre after all simultaneously represents the best of human artistry as well as serving as the consummate shrine to imperialism. Everything in the building – the Nike, the Venus De Milo, even the Mona Lisa – arrived there through some wresting of power and shift in dominion.

Everything is Love is not about music, though the music is fun. It's a corporate merger bordering on monopoly, and the two principals can not be bothered by human sized questions like originality or who said or did what first. This is enterprise level. Steal the technology, rename it Instagram Stories and bet the consumers will ultimately stay at home with their preferred providers, Bey and Jay, instead of toggling between apps. Even the title Everything is Love sounds like ad copy for some behemoth brand, dogma from a hollywood cult, or the utterance of an actual deity; Mr. Manhattan hovering both over the globe and between every atom, seeing things at such a macro and micro level that birth and death, a summer breeze or nuclear blast, individualist capitalism and collective communist revolt all become one. Identities merge. On Black Effect Jay-Z vaunts, “I’m Malcolm X!” Two verses later Beyoncé proclaims, “I’m Malcolm X!” The transitive property in all its splendor. Beyoncé spanning gender tells the sycophants to “get off my dick.” In the prelude to Black Effect, my favorite song on the album, an older lady with a Caribbean accent expounds on the mysteries of love, concluding that love for all mankind should be the culmination of things. Perhaps this love for all mankind, and not some myopic power move, is the ultimate goal of Beyoncé and Jay-Z and the higher purpose behind all of the stealing, and appropriation, and craven capitalism. Beyoncé doesn’t want to steal from SZA, she thought CTRL was dope and wanted to make some music just as good. Bey likes A Kid Named Cudi just as much as your college roommate did. And while Jay doesn’t casually throw compliments toward other rappers, he regularly reminds that he’s a fan of Common* and even if the world does not think of him in the list of the greats, Jay does. At a time when borders are becoming less malleable, conservatives and liberals must stay in discreet boxes and feign hatred for fear of appearing traitorous, genuine love and enthusiasm gets you labelled a Stan, and the slightest whiff of cultural appropriation is abruptly stamped out, Beyoncé and Jay-Z want everybody to lighten the fuck up. Feel free to try on someone else’s style, root for a country other than your own in the World Cup, vote on behalf of someone else and not just in your own interests, grab your dick and go apeshit while still being a lady, or strap on an apron like Darius and get in touch with your inner auntie by putting your foot in some greens. In the end everything is love.

#beyonce #jayz #everything is love #sza #atlanta #kid cudi #yeah yeah yeahs #migos

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destielrose · 7 years

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A Different Kind of Conversion

I don’t know how to do this. I’ve allowed myself to become so invisible that no one can see me anymore. I’ve battled suicide my whole life and I’m so tired. So very tired of fighting. I’m hitting middle age and all of those things I told myself I would do, would become, would conquer: I haven’t done, haven’t become, and haven’t conquered. And I feel like I’ve run out of time.

I want to slay my demons and stand on their fiery carcasses and know that I will not need to fight them anymore. But I’ve lived just long enough to see life cycling back on itself; those demons keep coming back. There isn’t anything to stand on and nothing is certain.

I identified as gay when I was a kid, but was shocked to fall in love with a man. I’ve been married to him for sixteen years and I love him tremendously. There have been a lot of trials and I’ve been sick, too. Mentally and physically. I tried to end my life a lot. One time I came particularly close to succeeding. I lay next to my children and listened to them breathe after I took too many pills, wrote letters to them on their bodies with permanent marker. I think I was trying to make something of myself stay with them. I believed in heaven and was eager to see God. I just didn’t want to be in pain anymore.

But dying hurts. When things started to get painful and my heart sped up, I stumbled to my husband and asked him to drive me to the emergency room. It wasn’t my first stay in the mental ward, but it was my last. When my mother in-law came to pick me up, a woman who almost never shows emotion, she was broken. I began to see how my death would affect those around me. I was mentally ill enough at that point that I genuinely believed I would need to be institutionalized long-term and that I would be a burden on my family forever. But I could see that even this burden would be preferable to my death, in the eyes of my family. So I made the decision to survive.

But suicide is an attempt to solve a problem. When i resolved not to die, there was nothing left to do and no end to the pain. I had already tried everything out there: buddhism, special diets, wicca, medications, spiritualism, therapies, addictions, self help techniques, and lots of quackery. Everything. And there was a great void inside me that nothing could touch. I could see my life swirling around me; I even knew it was a good life; I just could not feel it. It was as if I was under water. Everything was out of focus and far away. Distorted. And cold.

In that void, the nasty voices that I’d tried to keep at bay with all those therapies and religions and addictions had no obstacles, and they chattered at me all day long. Like Lucifer in Sam Winchester’s delusions, self-hatred and loneliness were my constant companions. I was nothing. I was worse than nothing.

But slowly another voice broke through. “Come home to me,” it said. “You belong to me.” And somehow I recognized that voice as Jesus. Yeshua, the Savior I had met as a young child.

“How could you want me?!” I asked. “Don’t you know what I’ve done? I’ve broken every one of your rules. I even tried to murder myself. I’m a whore. A coward. You couldn’t possibly love me.”

But, having nothing else to do, I read the Bible. And I discovered that Jesus has a special affinity for whores and outcasts. And he hates hypocrites and the self-righteous, which is all I knew Christians to be. Slowly, he drew me to himself and one day I decided that I would give myself to him.

“Please,” I cried. “I can’t do this anymore. Please take my life and do with it what you want to do.”

And everything changed. Life bloomed in technicolor and surround sound. I had an anchor. Truth existed. I knew reality. For a blessed six months, I had no depression. There had been so little of me left inside, it was like the Holy Spirit just moved in and filled me up.

Please keep reading. This isn’t a typical conversion story.

Knowing nothing else, I joined an Evangelical church. The biggest roadblock to my conversion had been the whole gay issue. I had identified as gay. Many of the people I loved were gay. But I knew the church thought that homosexual sex was a sin, always. I did research, but the more I dug into the Bible, the less I could hold onto my old way of thinking. I would just have to trust God on this issue, as much as I didn’t like it.

I was not the only one struggling with the gay issue. I don’t have to tell you that it is the singe most hotly debated topic in society today. But I was loyal to my God and my church. I even went to a Christian college and got a degree in theology and English. All of the voices in my echo chamber were saying the same things about sexuality. I knew in my head that my old desires were wrong.

But it never touched my heart. I LOVE gay men. Oh my goodness, I do. I went through a period of time where I was so steeped in slash (Smallville, in case you are curious) fanfiction that I began to think that I might be transgendered. I wanted to inhabit those stories. They kept me alive in the time between my resolve to live and my conversion to Christ. In fact, it was my discovery of dominance and submission in those stories that created in my heart a longing to submit to someone or something bigger than myself, something true and kind and firm and absolute. People laugh (uncomfortably) when I say that BDSM led me to Christ, but it is true.

I had to abandon those stories when I became a Christian, though. Because I felt they were wrong. They were part of a sexual addiction that had nearly decimated my marriage (and honestly a big part of the desire for suicide, too). Unchecked lust can destroy a person. Not to mention a marriage and a family.

Six years later, my teenage daughter and I have just finished watching Gilmore Girls for the second time through, culminating the experience with the newly released A Year in the Life. It was such a good experience. I was amazed at how that show had allowed us to bond. We had a language all our own, and the situations Lorelai and Rory found themselves in always gave us openings to talk about the deep things in life that just don’t come up naturally. But twice through is enough. We needed a new show.

Conveniently, Jared Padalecki had left Gilmore Girls to do another show. It was in the horror genre and I wasn’t quite sure if that would be appropriate for either of us. My girl is pretty young and I’m a big wimp when it comes to the scary stuff. But I was also a huge fan of Doctor Who and I was becoming inured to the gore and the jumpscares in that incredibly safe universe. Also, I’d heard of the SuperWhoLock fandom and knew I was required to at least check out the Supernatural show to keep my fan cred up to date.

So we watched.

And I’m not sure how I got here. Seven seasons in and my worldview is in shambles. It isn’t the kooky pseudo-Christian mythology that has me tied up in knots. It’s the way this fandom has wormed its way into areas I thought could only be reserved for the sacred, has challenged issues I thought I had long since put to bed.

Is it wrong to love a TV show *this much*? What is real? What is virtual? Shouldn’t I be concentrating on real life? Am I just mindlessly consuming? What is worship? Am I worshiping celebrities? What is family love? What is romantic love? Where do the lines exist between them? I didn’t have a good relationship with my parents or brother; is that why I read romantic love into every situation? But the show also seems to be teaching me about the power of family and the depth of love. In fact, it shows me redemption and the face of Christ over and over again. In a show about broken people in a world even more broken than ours.

I have started reading fanfiction again. I even wrote some. And it is slash. And…it. is. so. beautiful. Which makes me question the nature of goodness and of God. I’m reading the other sides of the issue of homosexuality and it turns out that there isn’t a good case on either side. And if that’s true, shouldn’t I default to love and beauty? And shouldn’t I know, of all people, having been on both sides of both issues (homosexuality and Christianity), how much weight either can carry? And if beauty and goodness and true love can be found in homosexual relationships, how can that possibly be a sin?

I have no one I can talk to about these things. I feel like I have come out of the closet in so many different ways in my life and now I feel like there are closets everywhere, fracturing my personhood. Do I walk through the door that leads back to my church? Do I walk through the one that leads to a new (SPN)family? Could they ever, possibly, converge?

How do I know what is true? And who will help me here? Will I never find a home, a community where I fit?

Please respond if this calls to you at all. I am so conflicted over all of these things that I’m feeling suicidal again.

#suicide #spnfamily #gay #destiel #cryforhelp #christianity #supernatural

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thejohncamp3ablog · 7 years

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JOHN CAMPEA: THE UGLY STATE OF MARVEL DENIAL

Back in 2008 when Jon Favreau’s Iron Man hit the big screens it signaled what Marvel fans had been waiting for… a cinematic universe for their B characters. For years they had to watch as DC successfully launched titles such as Batman and Superman culminating in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises . For the most part we all enjoyed those films along with the die hard DC fans, but it gave them fans of Marvel, an even greater hunger to see the likes of Captain America, Trash Panda, Rocket Raccoon, Black Panther and others up there as well.

Iron Man was met with the critical praise that most of us were surprised by. A small majority of critics didn’t like the film (currently a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes), but it failed to connect with those critics on the same level as WB’s Batman films by Christopher Nolan did. On a personal note, I absolutely loved Iron Man and my love for the film has only grown with each passing viewing. To me, Favreau’s film is a masterpiece in the genre. A sombering look at a billionaire who thought himself a Wayne, raised practically in a mansion with a butler while in plain sight, completely unaware of his own identity with no abilities that could even hint this pompous money spender and war lover can become a hero. A person deeply hated yet resoundingly alone in the universe. And when that old man finally discovered his identity, his origin, he is confronted by new questions and new struggles. The question “who am I” transforms into “who should I become”? Confronted by the contrasting philosophies of 2 fathers and a world that could possibly fear and misunderstand him yet needs him desperately at the same time, Tony Stark becomes the Iron Man. It’s astonishing. I wish more people saw it the way I do.

But many people did not see it the way I did. Many fans and critics alike found Iron Man too much of a departure from the “classic” Iron Man they had known and imagined. Tony wasn’t the same person as in the comics, he had completely become Robert Downey JR, down to the clothes and the witty charm. It was more boring than they we hoped. It was more fun and comical than they had hoped and it was a disappointment in my eyes. Despite my vehement disagreement all I could do as a fan was realise film is subjective and just because I loved it doesn’t mean they have to and hope they enjoy whatever the next film Disney and Mickey Mouse put out.

However, while the majority of Marvel fans adopted the same mindset as I did, some did not. Some allowed their disbelief that others would not share in their love for Iron Man to turn to bitterness which then eventually turned to resentment. Resentment towards those who didn’t like Iron Man, to those who gave overly good reviews to Iron Man and eventually to the DC films that seemed to be enjoying more super heroic images than trash pandas. Instead of celebrating their own enjoyment of the film Marvel and Mickey Mouse had given us, their attention turned to placing blame on those they perceived to be their “enemies”.

This situation became amplified with the release of Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk . Two films that were failures in the box office and didn’t show anything new or interesting to the masses. However, instead of being the movies that would unite all comic book movie fans, they once again were Trash Pandas. The majority of critics and many fans walked out of these movies crying.

This wasn’t just another batch of trash movies. Those were the ones we had been waiting for. This was Fucking Iron Man 2. Even those who enjoyed the film, like myself, had to acknowledge that there were a number of weaknesses in the movie that didn’t play well with the audience or the critics. Again, the majority of Marvel/Disney film fans understood that other people didn’t need to like Iron Man 2 to validate their own enjoyment of the film. The majority of Marvel film fans celebrated their enjoyment instead of focusing on others who didn’t enjoy it. Sadly though, within a small portion of the Marvel fan community, a culture of denial set in. Not a harmless quite denial, but rather a venomous and bitterness fueled denial that refused to acknowledge even the slightest flaw in the Marvel Trash Cinematic Universe while purposefully setting out to vilify anyone, or anything that either didn’t enjoy the films or pointed out problems with the current situation. They even began to turn on their own, attacking fellow fans of Marvel film who were not positive enough for their tastes to better suite their narrative.

This culture of denial has manifested itself in several unhealthy ways:

1) THEY ASCRIBE NO MOTIVES TO CRITICS WHO DID LIKE THE FILMS

A normal healthy film fan, like the majority of Marvel film fans, will see that a critic or another fan did not like a movie they enjoyed and say to themselves “Oh that’s a shame they didn’t like it. Oh well, I liked it.” and that would be the end of it. However, in this subculture of Marvel denial a negative review of a movie (by a critic or a fan) is perceived as a direct attack on themselves. For a critic to say Iron Man 3 was complete utter trash is to delegitimize their own opinion (obviously this is not the case, but it is how some people perceive it). Subconsciously these people believe that if someone says a Disney movie isn’t good, then they are directly being attacked.

What it breaks down to is that since they can not come to grips with others not enjoying the films they enjoy without it feeling like an undermining of their own enjoyment, they create ulterior motives for the naysayer calling Ant-man anything less than brilliant.

Hence, the denier would rather believe that the critics were afraid to tell the truth, or that the critics had a secret pro Marvel meeting and prefer to say what the popular opinion is, than believe the critics just honestly hate the film. As ludicrous as it sounds, to the denier, it was more feasible that Warner Brothers actually make much better films for adults, than to admit they have been loving children movies with zero substance, terrible villains, bad music scores, ugly cinematography, phoned in acting and generic ass plots.

2) THEY WILL TURN ON THEIR OWN

Much like extremist religious movements, be it Christian extremists, Muslim extremists or any number of others, to the denier being a Marvel fan is not enough. Those in Marvel denial are all in or nothing. It’s not enough to them that you liked Iron Man. It’s not enough to them that you thought I Doctor Strange was a good Benny Hill rip off. It’s not even enough if you have a Wasp tattoo on your left leg. If you don’t profess complete love for everything in the MCU movies and every bit of news coming out about MCU, then you are no longer welcome among them. You are now the enemy and you shall be treated as such.

I’ve not only watched this play out with people I know who legitimately love the Marvel properties, but its happened to myself as well. Despite the fact that I am the world’s biggest champion and defender of Iron Man, despite the fact that I am one of the minority of film critics who actually liked Avengers Age of Boredom and despite the fact that I am also one of the few critics who gave Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 a positive review… I am absolutely hated by those hardcores in MCU denial. Why? Because I express frustration and doubt in Disney handling of the Marvel properties when numerous events happen that would cause any sane fan to feel frustration and doubt. Yes, that the level of honesty I have towards doing reviews, you can check my Star Wars review, I am not some fan boy that cares for the brand.

From my perspective, if you are truly a fan, you will care when things are not going right. If you are really a fan, you will be frustrated when things seem to be mishandled. But those in MCU denial don’t see things that way. To them, any utterance of truth to their trash movies, any whisper of doubt is paramount to high treason. You are the enemy. You are a “hater”. They don’t care if you love Marvel and Star Wars and Baby Groot… you don’t love them the way they say you should love them and therefore you are “not one of us”.

3) THEY DEVELOP AN US VS THEM MENTALITY

Those in MCU denial need multiple targets for their misplaced anger and resentment. While the majority of Disney fans are level headed people who celebrate everything in the world of comic-book films, those in MCU denial believe in a 1 world view totalitarian fandom. If you are truly a Marvel bitch fan (by their twisted logic) you can not acknowledge any redeeming qualities in any movie by DC or Fox. By their definition, to love MCU means you must also hate FOX. It is the purest manifestation of an unhealthy fandom. This is not to say that anyone MUST enjoy DC films, but when your hatred of another film is automatic your default position due to the fact that it comes from the “enemy” brand, something is seriously wrong with your fandom.

The toxic progression of this is it moves from just an automatic hatred for the “enemy” films, but also for those that are actually fans of the “enemy” brand. We see this play out every day on almost every chat thread across the web. One can not mention Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing or Superman in a thread without an all out “DCEU sucks!” troll battle breaking out. The fallout is that casual fans looking to get more involved in online fandom become instantly turned off by the rhetoric and leave which put the community of fandom in a stale situation.

FINAL THOUGHT

MCU denial is a very real thing, but thankfully it represents the majority of MCU fans out there. The bitter, the less well adjusted, the angry. Most MCU film fans are the kinds of fans we hate in our fandom. The ones that celebrate the films they love with feeling threatened or lessened when others don’t share their views. Those who will not celebrate a great comic-book film from another brand without feeling the need to automatically be opposed to it. Those who do not embrace fellow fans even when they love the films in different ways or for different reasons. And let’s not pretend that if DC films were suffering the same sort of circumstances that MCU films are that DC fans wouldn’t also be in their own form of denial. Because they would be I assure you of that.

Fan denial is a broad reaching thing not just limited to the boundaries of certain MCU fans. We should all check ourselves as fans to see if we are part of the problem. Do we exhibit tendencies to ascribe ulterior motives to those that don’t share our opinions or do we accept them? Do we form an “us vs them” attitude or do we judge every film on their own merits? Do we aggressively turn on fellow fans who don’t specifically adhere to our own fandom standards? If so, in the immortal words of Michael Scott… “Check yo self”. Then, let’s just get back to being fans. Fans that cheer or boo as the cause arises. Fans that share and discuss. Fans that love to love what they love regardless of what other fans love. That’s what fandom is.

#johncampea trashmovies kidmovies badcgi noplot marvelsucksdicks

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