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flickeringart · 3 years

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Uranus in the houses

Descriptions could be relevant for houses with the cusp in Aquarius or houses that contain Aquarius

1st house: This house is related to self-image, persona and outwardly projected identity. It represents the point of entrance into the world, the point of birth and emergence from the undifferentiated source as a singular entity. Uranus here points to someone that is not very happy with the denseness of physicality. The person is restless and fidgety, running on high voltage. It’s almost as if there’s more energy to the person than is able to integrate into their being. The person could be impulsive and might give off a vibe of wanting to “level up”, get out of the old and jump on board with the new. Coming into life might’ve been particularly jarring for the individual in one way or another. Perhaps the birth was abrupt and unexpected, fast and overwhelming. Since the 1sthouse represents beginnings, this person might find himself or herself thrown into new contexts and situations rapidly without much time to lean into things slowly. There’s something within that can’t stand how things are and must uproot and move on but it’s questionable if there ever was any rootedness to begin with. The energy of the person runs high, but it’s unpredictable and unreliable. It can prove difficult for this person to follow conventional norms, not necessarily because the motivation is lacking but because there’s an inexplicable urge to switch things up and change gear. Changing gear is a good metaphor for Uranus in general because once you’ve changed you’re on a completely different level of experience. This kind of person is in their own lane, going at their own pace in their own way. While “in the mode” one can accomplish a lot of things by virtue of being in a certain mind frame but once the mind frame changes the behavior and patterns of action are conducive to something else. The person is predictable to an extent, but there’s no way of knowing how long that “mode” will last. One is showing up in life from a certain standpoint but that standpoint might alter and then there’s nothing anyone can do about it – conforming is not something that is easily done for this type of individual. No amount of pushing or coercing from others will get the person out of their state. It’s a little bit like trying to reach an airplane by stretching one’s arms up and shouting. Once the person has “switched” there’s little connection to the previous context. It can be exciting to be around these individuals because they have the ability to switch the way they present themselves to the world by getting into completely different states of being on the flip of a dime. Needless to say it can also be unnerving. They come off as charming, a bit distant, quirky, somewhat irrational but stubbornly determined, completely unique and original. They can come off as detached from reality and fixed in their own perspectives. They are distinctly more open and easy to be oneself with than most.

2nd house: This house is related to value, safety and control on a tangible level. It has to do with one’s talents and one’s ability to generate wealth, to acquire money and possessions. Uranus in this house can make a person experience unpredictability when it comes to their income. It might be difficult for this person to create stability because of the inexplicable urge to break out of limiting structures regardless of the safety they provide. The person might find themselves in circumstances where it’s impossible to find a foothold in the world; there might be constant ambivalence around how things are going to work out financially and materially. This is the type of person that could have a lot going for them one month and then suddenly everything is switched up and there’s no longer any desire to produce or put innate abilities to use. The person probably has great potential for living a life that is on the edge, waiting for sudden bursts of energy or insight to kick in in order to be able to have it all under control again. The annoying thing is, that one can’t predict when the impulse comes or when the light bulb goes off. There’s no way of knowing how things are going to work out over time because Uranus is an extremely erratic and disruptive planet. There’s a risk of not being the least bit practical with this placement, seeing as Uranus operates on a higher plane of thought progression rather than personal security and stability in the material realm. The risk is to be too ahead of oneself, acting on premature convictions and causing unnecessary unease because one can’t stand to keep doing the same thing. “Isn’t money an outdated concept already?” Uranus in the 2nd might be too progressive in their thought patterns and too concerned with the possibility of a better system of doing things in order to align with conventional structure. These types may be the first one’s to subscribe to new ways of earning a living, more exciting and evolved methods of putting one’s skills to use. Doing things the same way for years, working in the same place, saving money or playing it safe might not be in the cards for this person. In the extreme case, this person might get rid of all their personal possessions only because they felt bored and deemed them outdated and boring. There could be perpetual dissatisfaction with the material situation since Uranus is about potential more then manifested reality. Once everything imagined is actualized, it no longer holds any value in the person’s mind. Uranus certainly keeps the person in constant pursuit of the future, but the future never comes, as we all know. Visualizing the perfect meal or getting an idea for the perfect way to decorate the living room might be very satisfying but when seen in the “flesh” it all seems very unappealing. It’s difficult to satisfy Uranus in the 2nd, but it’s a positive thing in the sense that it keeps the person reaching for the ultimate physical translation of the perfect thought version. One could be prone to be unintentionally careless with material objects, causing breakage easily and wearing things out because of the unrealistic expectations on the physical objects somehow survive despite themselves and their frailty.

3rd house: This house relates to communication, interaction with the environment, siblings, neighbors, as well as learning and early education. It’s basically the house of everyone and everything that one relates to mentally on a daily basis. Uranus makes for quite a highly charged mental sphere being placed here. There’s potentially a lot of changes and disruptions of the way one is interacting from day to day – it’s difficult to fit in or mold oneself to the pace and jargon of one’s close circle. The person might have a lot of unusual or unconventional methods of relating and is prone to bewilder and stir people up. It might be difficult to make friends, or rather, keep them, because of the unreliable pattern of relating. However, there’s the promise of being very exciting and surprising. Because Uranus is so characteristic of creative freedom this type of person might be a bit of a loner. One needs to be or do whatever one wants even if it means disrupting the status quo. The mold that conventional education forces on individuals might not work well with this kind of person. There needs to be more freedom and openness for originality and rapid changes of pace. This is the kind of person that is rebellious without trying to be, unable to relate in a consistent manner. One lacks boundaries for how to be in and conceive of the environment, which makes for potentially genius ways of operating and thinking. Albert Einstein had this placement (according to astrotheme.com) and his observation and ability to step out of the boundaries of conditioned thinking led him to great discoveries. Learning is done through lightning speed in bursts of insight with this placement. Lightning strikes from above and an idea has hatched that other people have a hard time understanding. These people might prefer being observers of people and the environment rather than actively engaging. They might relate to things with a cold and seemingly uncaring energy. This is because the mind is very far up in the sky of potentials and ideas, far removed from the fixed and permanent reality of the earth plane. Other people might feel as if they’re being related to as concepts rather than physically manifested beings. The very thing that makes these people revolutionary thinkers (and creative odd balls) will perhaps get them into difficulties when trying to adapt and fit into the environment they find themselves in. Since the 3rd house is about communication, these people might dress contrary or despite of the norm, use body language that is a bit eye-catching, and appear in a way that’s considered to be shocking and provocative. It’s not necessarily that they’re trying to be different; it’s just that they have very open minds and doesn’t see the purpose of performing within limits. If an idea and concept appeals, it’s not any less valid than the preexisting set of unspoken rules of conformity. Blending in is too boring and dull, it doesn’t allow for free thinking and free living.

4th house: This house relates to roots, family, home and the ancestral past. It’s the place at the bottom of the chart, hidden from view, constituting relational foundation, our emotional base, our heritage and sense of deep belonging. When Uranus is here, home is potentially something distant, something that is more conceptual and abstract rather than concrete. The sense of belonging isn’t very stable. Although it can be captured every now and then it is very ambivalent. Usually one’s sense of home is anywhere and everywhere or perhaps so far removed from reality that it doesn’t seem to exist at all. The people of one’s family and family past are experienced as individuals, not as inextricable marks on one’s soul. In a sense, the universe is these people’s home, they might feel unusually connected to the people of the world and deriving their sense of containment from larger movements and units rather than the family of origin. They’re children of the universe first and foremost – perhaps very much inclined to find people they really feel connected to and make them their base rather than focusing too much on the blood relatives. These people might change residence often, feeling too restless to settle anywhere or with anyone for too long. It’s likely that the people of one’s family were never truly present even they were in close proximity physically during the formative years. The family is never “had” in the real world, but ever present in the realm of potential. It can make for a dissatisfaction to never be able to be in the same space or feel any real emotional closeness to one’s family. Unpredictability and disruption might’ve been characteristic of the familial sphere. On a more positive note there could’ve been a space of high openness and room for unconventional and highly original streaks. Independence might be deeply rooted in this type of person who might be trying to find a connection to a deeper identity through going against the grain. Again, being a “rebel” is not necessarily intentionally pursued; it’s just a consequence of needing to be whatever one feels to constitute the path forward. Conforming is not an option, it’s deeply important to ride the wave of one’s own convictions and insights no matter how risky or unsettling it might be. ��Breaking the rules” is not done out of aggression per se, it’s done because being a game changer establishes a connection with one’s soul, the archetypal father and hero myth. The 4th house is where legacies are born and carried out. Uranus is the legacy of the sky god, the creator of the universe, the maker of the blueprint, which makes these people extremely invested in progression and tuned in to the winds of change. They might be keen to generate large movements toward a cause, more in love with the expectancy than the actual manifestation of the results.

5th house: This house relates to entertainment, leisure activities, uninhibited self-expression, creativity, play, romance and children. Basically, it’s the domain of anything that is done purely to have fun and enjoy life. When Uranus is active in this sphere, there’s detachment and innovative genius in approach to play. The person might have unusual ways of finding pleasure and enjoyment that is quite different from the norm. It’s also done with an urge to construct something of novelty, something fresh and exciting that hasn’t been experienced before. Playing around with the potential of doing something or exploring possibilities mentally might be a real thrill for these types. Ideas make these people excited, especially if it’s advanced and revolutionary and can be applied universally. These people are creative thinkers and have fun when catching some wind and can elevate above the ground for a while in their minds. When they can get to a place that feels elevated in terms of concept and ideas they are having the time of their lives. There’s an urge of wanting to express something profound and precious in the mental realm – to arrive at a conceptual point of perfection. Having children could be a very appealing idea, but one would do well to remember that the idea is more appealing than the actuality – especially when it comes to Uranus. The person might take an intellectual approach to having kids, insistent on doing things as properly as possible according to modern scientific discoveries – or simply according to one’s own “elevated” objective perspective. One aims to be progressive, not only with one’s children but also in romantic pursuits. These people might have a slightly odd style of courting their love interests, certainly well thought-through but a bit special in the sense that it has an unexpected element to it. There might be a feeling of not being seen in the present “here-and-now” by these people, being treated as a component in their mental narrative of the ultimate romantic situation. In any case, Uranus in the 5th certainly takes the experience of “having fun” to the next level in terms of planning and visualizing something unique and new. One might shock a few people in the process, some may like it and some may recoil from the strangeness of it all. It is possible to completely revolutionize entertainment with this placement, coming up with something that people haven’t experienced before, going a little overboard or testing the waters of what is acceptable. If it’s paired with enough finesse and good -will, one might be warmly received as someone who can be perform something that wouldn’t seem to belong on this plane of existence. That being said, it that which is foreign and unfamiliar is not always welcomed with open arms. It’s scary – and people might want to censor one’s self-expression.

6th house: This house relates to work, employment, the practical daily activities that needs to be performed in order to sustain health and well-being over time. This house is where one manages the technicalities and details of living in order to make the expression of life more pure, clean and organized. Uranus here can’t stand routine, which might cause the individual to be unable to stick to any routine or prior commitment. There’s a deep urge to break free from that which has become tedious and unexciting and one has no way of knowing when that famous restlessness is going to kick in. The person might go a long time doing the same things, keeping the same job or sticking to a set routine but it’s never because one does so consciously, it just happens to be the “mode” one is in for the time being. It could switch at any time and the individual might find it impossible to keep doing things the same way. One has to follow the spark of inspiration because it literally goes off like lightning and won’t be denied. This might not be comfortable for the conscious self that might be adamant about sticking to a set plan and operating out of reason. There’s not much to do than to trust and hope for the best with this placement. What one should do on a given day is not set in stone, even if one attempts to be very structured and conscious of what is being done. There’s a stronger push-and-pull force that dictates the daily activities. Some days there’s a lot of energy to put into projects and chores and work and some days are void of electric charge all together. Some days one is on fire and on others there’s no energy left at all. It’s wise to take advantage of the spurs when they come and work with the erratic pattern of energetic bursts because they might prove very useful. On a more negative note, the high productivity that can be generated by Uranus in this house might lead to burn out because of the high voltage of the planet. Exhaustion might be a high risk and all the related physical symptoms that come with it, since the 6th house rules physical (and mental) health. There might be temporary ills and pains that come and go – sickness might come from “out of the blue” and then disappear without apparent reason. The body might require very specific and unexpected nourishment and one might do well to yield to the impulses and insights received in the name of health. Keeping up unconventional dietary habits could be a thing, experimentation and change in the way one manages necessary activities such as eating, sleeping and exercising would be typical of this placement. Employment might also be irregular and unconventional in some way – working odd shifts and hours, having no set schedule, having undefined and unspecified tasks, not being able to go by anyone else’s guidance etc. Uranus in the 6th would have a hard time working “for” someone because of the strong emphasis on freedom and space, it can only be done if there’s complete integrity in the subordinate position, in which case one is really not subordinate at all. There’s no such thing as obligation, there’s only modes of being, which are set and carried out. These people could be very concerned with health and daily life as an experiment, like observers studying phenomena in order to get a grip of all the intricacies and details in order to change and explore potential. The boldness of experimentation can of course get out of hand and turn destructive, so one ought to be careful.

7th house: This house relates to other people, cooperation, union and commitment. Usually that which is in the 7th in the chart is projected onto other people and sought after through engagement with “that which is other”. It’s through looking to other people that the planet is discovered in one’s own life. When Uranus is here, innovation, change and genius is encountered through cooperation and deals, whether it’s marriage, business or any other social declaration of entanglement. Uranus is discovered through the consideration of other people and their perspectives. This type of person has a very liberal and open attitude to other people and is focused on progress and change as to make things better for the sake of social well-being and harmony. It’s no wonder that successful politicians have this placement such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Angela Merkel (as found on astrotheme.com). One is inclined to be open and insightful in relationships, detached, rational and impersonal. Emotional bonds could be difficult to form and stability in relationships could be hard to come by for these people. Somehow, other people might get up and leave for no reason and there’s no way of being sure that anyone will stay, especially not out of dependence. This kind of person is going to have to be in partnerships that allows for a lot of freedom of expression, to the point of there not being any ties that bind at all. Uranus has such force and charge that nothing is going to go according to convention. Everything is going to be a bit odd and erratic in relationships, for better or for worse. Saying “I love you” is never a guarantee for life-long commitment because the next day Uranus might’ve switched gears and the person has fallen out of love – not by choice of course, but because the feeling is gone and the mental frame is completely different suddenly. These people crave excitement and looks for it in others. They would find people who strictly lives inside the “box” of convention to be extremely boring and painfully narrow minded. If cooperation and engagement with others doesn’t bring some kind of fresh and new perspective, if it doesn’t feel exhilarating and revolutionary, one might not be able to stick around for too long. In the case of Uranus being projected on other people and not realized as part of oneself, one might be shook by other’s unpredictable and jerky behavior. One might see potential, genius and originality in others but fail to recognize it in oneself. The great ideas and insights that come from engaging with others might add a lot to the person’s life, but one might also feel sad that these qualities are absent outside of a social context. There’s no need for this of course, because Uranus will always have to be accessed through the house that it’s placed in. On a more negative note, people with this placement might scorn and reject others for being so “up in the clouds”, inconsiderate and individualistic. “Other people are so unpredictable and unreliable” might be the narrative, when in reality one is failing to recognize the same tendencies within oneself.

8th house: This house relates to the deep end of experience, death of all kinds and transformative yet traumatic experiences. It’s related to everything that is hidden, the most private, intimate and vulnerable dimensions of life, which includes shared finances and sex as byproducts of strong emotional attachment. Uranus here makes for potentially shocking discoveries of grim, taboo or soul-shattering realities about oneself or other people. Death of loved ones, random inheritances or unforeseen debt could surface from seemingly out of nowhere in the strangest of ways. However, one might be able to deal with it in an objective and detached manner without getting too drenched and sunk by the whole experience. A lot of things related to the most intimate sphere could change very quickly without a moments notice. The most personal and deep dimensions of life are never stable for this person - but the transformation is not that severe since there’s a simultaneous distance and objectivity in one’s way of relating to death and crises. Uranus here is a bit of a contra-intuitive placement because there’s coolness in the face of the most soul-shattering experiences. It’s as if this person is looking at everything but is never completely enmeshed in the emotions surrounding it all. Objectivity and rationality is sought in order to keep things light and up in the mental realm of clarity. The transformations this person goes through are quick and life altering, at the speed of light everything is turned upside down. There’s openness and fascination for everything occult and one might have quite an alarming universal perspective in personal and deep emotional matters. Death is related to primarily as a concept – and so is intimacy. Tying oneself to another can be done, but the risk of doing so is understood from a higher perspective. It’s easy to get into states of paranoia, fearing that important attachment will be broken because there’s a push for change from below the surface. When Uranus is in the 8th, socially/societally divergent behavior might lurk in the basement of the psyche and carefully kept out of sight from the conscious self and the rest of the world. Certain impulses and urges that don’t fit into a preconceived framework might be suppressed because of early conditioning and fear of losing something or someone. These people have the capacity to get a broad and clear view of the darkest facets of life and humanity with revolutionary insights into the depths of the psyche. There’s excitement in probing deeper and uncovering more and more through personal experience but also from looking into other people’s lives, what they invest in, support and might hide from view in order to stay in control and protect their interests. These people look for the unexpected and can therefore spot things that others don’t because they’re not blinded by the veil of convention.

9th house: This house relates to knowledge that is gained through experience and exploration. It’s the house of higher learning and the intuitive search for truth. It’s the house of exploring themes and patterns through life; in essence it’s the house of studying the archetypal realm. With Uranus here, there are bound to be life-altering discoveries and insights into the themes of life, how energies express themselves through the collective and what they ultimately mean in the context of life as a whole. There might be a strong push to discover the meaning behind things in order to change it and work with it to elevate humanity in the process – especially as it relates to the mental framework of people. One might be inclined to share one’s progressive perspective and insight in order to educate people and have them get more out of life that way. Belief systems and innate knowing can be thrown out the window with this placement and replaced in a heartbeat. Other people might be confused as to what one really thinks because it depends on what gear one is driving on at the moment but it could change at any time. There’s restlessness and a strong urge to look to the future for answers and reject the “old”. Openness to experience the strangest things could be characteristic of this placement – if one is in the right “mode” or mind frame to go along with it. Stubbornness and rigidity when it comes to certain opinions and insights could be typical, although it might change very quickly and won’t stick over time. Something the person is thoroughly convinced of today might seem foolish to them tomorrow. There would be strong push to go out of one’s way to discover things, no matter how impractical and inconvenient the pursuit. There’s electricity and charge to the person’s mental pursuits, to one’s observation and efforts to extract value out of experience. Although there’s force and intensity to the process of learning about life as a whole, there’s also a peculiar detachment to the whole thing as if one isn’t part of what one is learning about. In contrast to someone with say, Moon in the 9th, Uranus in the 9th doesn’t experience the overwhelm that it means to learn and experience existence because one is the “observer” not a living and breathing merged component of the experience. With this placement one might have an unusual outlook of life and a very rare and interesting life philosophy. In fact, one would not really subscribe to any one outlook and might identify solely as the observer because one has switched perspective so many times that one knows that none are ultimately real. This doesn’t make the person discouraged, it only confirms that life is complex and multi-dimensional and that truth is nowhere to be found within the hologram of existence.

10th house: This house relates to public image, career and our personal contribution to society. It’s represents worldly purpose and outward persona. When Uranus is here, the person has a certain protruding electricity and charge – there’s a lot of energy put towards moving forward into the future in revolutionary ways. The person could have a reputation for being unpredictable, eccentric and a bit irrational as a byproduct of only seeing potential and not taking note of the limitations. The person exist “outside of the box” and is somewhat of a stranger in society, presenting far-reaching ideas that might be difficult for the average person to digest. There’s probably great openness to all kinds of people and experiences, but the person is extremely jerky and fidgety, so it’s impossible to really know when there’s going to be resistance and when there’s going to be acceptance. More than any other placement, Uranus in the 10th is an indicator of someone to catch people’s attention because it’s so potent and forceful in an electric way – it’s so unsettling and unconventional that people can’t help but turn their heads. “I’m not like everyone else” is the kind of message these people convey, consciously or unconsciously. These are extremely flighty individuals – they can be miles away, seemingly living in their own fantasy world, except that they know that everyone else is doing the same thing and they’re just not aware of it. These people are likely pinned as the odd person that has a lot of energy and unusual opinions and modes of being. They can switch gears or “roles” frequently, unable to be bound by any standardized career path and pushed to carve their own lives, take risks and live on mental impulse. They probably have no idea what they’re doing most of the time, or at least it seems like it when taking the most contra intuitive paths and moving into unpaved territory in terms of vocation and worldly achievement. Some force of the unconscious is seemingly moving these people, pushing them and compelling them to take mental leaps. The curious thing is, that once the leap is made, there’s absolute certainty because one is not merely hoping to level up, one has switched gears and is now operating on a completely different level of existence that is just as real as the previous one. These people are really the pioneers and revolutionaries of society because they radiate a collective urge for change; they shake things up, perhaps even negatively in some people’s eyes. They are symbolizing the urge to break free from old shackles and to reinvent the ways of society. People might feel uncomfortable and put up a lot of resistance to this kind of energy, because it’s disruptive and destabilizing. These people might have “weirdo” painted all over their forehead, being misunderstood and taken for extreme creative individualists with no anchoring in the norm – or they might become the “hook” for collective unconscious forces as the leader of a collective movement. In the case of the latter, the individual becomes a public image for the winds of change for better or for worse. The career might be paved with unforeseen events sudden blessings and curses, as well as unpredictable turns of the road.

11th house: This house relates to collective movements, common goals, friends and shared interests, societal change and progression. Uranus is very much at home in this house, seeing as it is the planet of large-scale revolution and change. When Uranus is here, there’s a strong awareness of the differences and commonalities of human beings and a capacity to switch between groups of people and finding a common ground with all of them. This is the type of person to jump in between social groups – not belonging to any one group but open enough to partake in all of them. The humanitarian and liberal perspective is protruding and very strong – there’s no one more open and willing to find friendship with people from all walks of life than Uranus in the 11th. It’s likely that one views the self to not belong to any specific group or class of society, but to them all simultaneously. All people are part of the human family and this is profoundly clear to this person – religion, political opinion, ethnicity, sexuality or any other factor comes second to the fact that everyone depends on one another. This person might have great ideas about how humanity should organize itself in order to benefit everyone without the blood thirsty uncivilized game that is “survival of the fittest”. Of course, primitiveness is not innately bad, but the person with Uranus here aims to view things objectively and find new ways to make everyone live in a way that benefits the whole rather than merely themselves. That being said, this person could have some unconventional ideas and highly creative solutions to certain collective issues. One might be associated with various groups of people and have great insight into their way of viewing things, their needs and convictions, their character traits and innate disposition. More than anything, this person is an observer of humanity, a person of mental understanding of the inner workings of social systems and groupings. Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry all have Uranus in this house (according to astrotheme.com), which makes sense considering that they are people who are supposed to have a connection to the people – they are essentially symbolic “agents of the divine”, supposedly anchored in Christian values of brotherhood, love, compassion and respect. They are involved in various social projects and aim to improve that quality of people’s lives through their work and presence. Whether it’s successful or impactful can be up for debate but it’s certainly their intention. People with this placement will likely seek to offer guidance or insight to the masses in some way, whether it’s through expressing certain values or bringing an objective perspective to the situation that equalizes the charge within people. This type of person would be phenomenal at reminding everyone of the commonalities and shared quirks, reminding people of their basic humanity and all the problems and gifts that come with it. By being radically open and honest, other people are allowed to show their weaknesses and strengths as they are without feeling the need to fit into a box.

12th house: This house relates to the collective unconscious, undifferentiated reality and the absence of separate self. It is a house that is related to universal feeling, the truth of everything being one. This house is essentially the enemy of individuality and at the same time is the birthing place for it. The 12th is dual and paradoxical, the place where “reality” and dreams blend. With Uranus here, the person would feel as if collective forces govern his or her life to a large extent. Changes in the collective unconscious affect these people personally more than others, for better or for worse. They live in a perpetual atmosphere of Uranus, which means that mental impulses and insights flood them daily of the most new and jarring kind. The inner world is potentially absurd and strange and completely different from the mundane everyday life. In fact, these people might not find that there’s anything mundane about life because everything is a fascinating phenomena to them. There can be hidden feeling of not being of this world, of feeling things more objectively and from a standpoint of universal reality. These can be very creative individuals, able to channel some genius ideas through letting go of the defenses put up by the ego. This could potentially be done through sleep, drugs or any other method of releasing resistance. Since this house is related to hidden enemies, it might be that certain original ideas are detrimental to the separate self and to other people in one’s surroundings. Because the 12thhouse is the realm of no boundaries, doing the most destructive and weird things might come easier to these people. There’s a disruptive quality to these people that shines through their subtle aura – they’re not trying to act out of the norm but little twitches and pushes make them do things that they ultimately can’t control. In a sense, these people are sponges for collective energies and pushes for change. Adolf Hitler had this placement (according to astrotheme.com), which expressed itself extremely destructively. Uranus in the 12th reaches for the heavens and might end up in hell because ecstasy is only felt through complete disregard for the preservation of the individual even though one might argue that it is in the individual’s best interest. In a sense Uranus in the 12th is a push for societal structure and progression that comes the closest to ecstatic bliss and one might take the most insane actions to get there. On a more positive note, this placement can express itself as a positive force for changing group consciousness, and communicating a vision of a civilized and peaceful society based on humanitarian values, mutual respect and love. Whether the ideas are realistic and applicable might be another question, however, the dream of redemption can inspire people and instill hope in the darkest of times.

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Creation”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Oh man, oh man, oh man. I think I'll need to steer clear of the general RWBY tags this week, simply because I know the sort of responses I'll see to this episode. From smug celebration at Ironwood's downfall, to bad takes about what makes us human, this episode is a petri dish of sensitive material handled insensitively.

Let’s unpack it, shall we?

We open on an action that feels like a summery of the last three volumes: a grimm attacks an airship from the front, no doubt killing its pilot, while the other grimm conveniently ignore our heroes, no masking in sight. The group looks a little sad at the destruction around them, but ultimately ignore it because they have bigger, heroic things to do. I could write a whole, additional essay on how the huntsmen code — to protect the people — has been warped and abandoned by our protagonists in their effort to do what they think is right. It's a tale that might have been compelling if only RT knew they were writing it.

We get a shot of Atlas drones unloading the bomb before one is taken out, presumably by Qrow and Robyn. Segueing to Ironwood and the Ace Ops, they're waiting for Penny to arrive, the former carrying a massive gun presumably capable of capturing her. Despite the horror we saw on their faces last episode at the realization that Ironwood would kill Marrow for speaking up, it seems that now the Ace Ops are entirely in agreement with these measures. A week ago the implication was that they fell back in line out of fear, but now Harriet talks passionately about "putting down" the group if they were stupid enough to accompany Penny. "The General gave his terms." Vine sighs at this, but doesn't actively disagree. He's just "retracing the steps that led us here."

So, congratulations on introducing four new characters, not bothering to develop any of them, killing one off while ignoring Qrow's hand in that, and having the other three become all, "Yeah! Mass murder is a perfect solution!" off screen. Marrow is the only one with something resembling development and, as covered in these recaps, that's been pretty badly executed too.

Ironwood sends them to deal with Robyn and Qrow after Winter reappears to "assist" him. That gets quotation marks because most viewers at this point have realized that she's who our two birbs spotted in the elevator. Winter isn't on Ironwood's side anymore, she's just skillfully clearing the field for the final attack. Indeed, we get a moment where she hesitantly brings up the bomb and Ironwood responds that he hopes she's not going to try and talk him out of it. No. Winter doesn't think that's possible. This was her final attempt at peace.

One of the reasons why I think I'll stick to my own blog for a while is because the fandom has a tendency to paint broad personality traits as evil when applied to some characters, yet simultaneously heroic when applied to others, when really it's about how that those traits are used. What I mean is, I've seen a lot of Ironwood critical posts that emphasize how stubborn he is. He thinks he's right and he won't back down. He wont listen to others. He's going through with this plan and if anyone tries to stop him? That's their mistake. Totally evil, right? Except, this is the exact same behavior Ruby displays, particularly in Volumes 6 and 7. She was stubborn about stealing from Argus and continuing the fight to the point where it endangered her and her teammates, to say nothing of the rest of the city. She refused to listen to Qrow, or Ironwood, or the Ace Ops, loudly announcing that she was right about, well, everything. If they didn't agree with her, the options were to leave the group entirely, or fight her. The actual difference here is that the writers have taken Ironwood to an extreme, one that's incredibly easy to understand as bad because it is bad: bombing Mantle has no defense. Ruby pulls the exact same nonsense, it's just not to that same extreme and her actions are followed by scenes that are meant to make us forgive her: a sad look because she didn't mean to get a city attacked by a leviathan grimm, a cry on the staircase because she didn't mean to risk the lives of an entire kingdom... even though she did. Ironwood is the bad guy because he's been written to take specific, OOC actions like shooting unarmed kids. He's not the bad guy because when other characters go, "Don't do this" his response is, "I have to." Because that's been Ruby's motto ever since she "had" to use the Lamp to rip Ozpin’s life story away. RWBY introduced those extreme actions of shooting the youngest in the group (for no reason) and threatening to bomb a city (for no reason) or shooting a councilman (for no reason) because when you remove those you've got a man who looks exactly like our hero. Ironwood's arc has been peppered with these confusing, unpersuasive actions because if you just keep the story as him stubbornly keeping to a plan he thinks will save the world, you're left with the reminder that all Ruby has done lately is stubbornly keep to plans she thinks will save the world. This moment with Winter just highlights how ill thought out Ironwood's descent has been because he does everything Ruby does... with a few, tacked on, “and randomly shoots people!” moments to ensure we understand that he’s definitely evil. No comparison to our heroes here, folks!

Ironwood is a bad guy now. That’s certain, but he was made that way so the story never had to grapple with the question of what that means for Ruby if we really start condemning things like lying, secrets, stubbornness, or endangering others for the greater good. Well then damn, if we strip away the hypocrisy then she might not be a good person after all. Or the people she’s simplistically labeled as bad might not be the devils Ruby claims they are.

But that’s a level of nuance RWBY would rather pretend doesn’t exist.

All of which is highlighted by Ironwood’s reaction to "Penny." He sighs and sags over the gun, immediately putting it aside. With his hand on her shoulder, Ironwood tells her she's "done the right thing." Precisely the same way Ruby would lower Crescent Rose and give someone a smile when they decided to fall in line with her.

Which, of course, is the moment when Emerald reveals herself, dispelling the Penny illusion and revealing Team JNPR The Second behind her. She gives a quip about it feeling "weird" to do the right thing before disappearing.

From there the action picks up fast. I really enjoyed this battle simply from a choreography and energy standpoint. It gets the blood pumping, Ironwood's hand-to-hand is spectacular — especially that moment against Ren — and the group actually displays teamwork for the first time in what feels like forever, all of them needed to land a hit on Ironwood. As always, out of the context of the rest of the show it feels and looks great. My primary issue is that we get this fantastic fight against Ironwood. Not Salem, not Cinder, not Watts (like last volume when Ironwood was still a hero), not even Emerald as a means of transitioning from murderous villain to the group's best bud. No, what's arguably the best action sequence in the volume thus far goes to beating up the guy they betrayed from the start. There's no catharsis for me here, only frustration as we watch Ironwood stand in shock as Winter powers up Nora — who's fine now, I guess — and she slams her hammer into his face.

It never should have come to this and when a good character is done so dirty, their downfall doesn't evoke the emotions the writers are looking for. Watching Ironwood fall doesn't generate feelings of victory, or even tragedy at a course of events others were powerless to stop. It's just frustration at watching years worth of bad writing, sprinkled with fantastic ideas that never go anywhere.

Oscar gets a few hits in, Ironwood snatches his cane, and just as he's about to throw a punch, Winter arrives with the most dramatic sword slash I've ever seen.

Ironwood's aura breaks and he falls, unconscious. We cut to an image of a droid's head separated from its body, one of Robyn's arrows through its skull. That doesn't have meaning or anything.

I suppose I should be grateful they didn't rip Ironwood's arm away during the fight, or outright kill him, though I'm still expecting him to die before the end of the volume.

Hmm. Wouldn't that be something? If after Salem's arrival, freezing cold, a Hound attack, grimm soup, a giant whale, a massive army, and a hack ending in self-destruction, the one character who actually dies is Ironwood.

It's looking more and more likely.

Honestly, beyond all the obvious, what's so frustrating about this fight is that characters are only now using their impressive abilities to their fullest. Emerald creates an entire fantasy of what's happening and then straight up disappears, but she only does a half-assed version of that when fighting against Penny. (And really, she put more effort into helping the heroes she just joined over Cinder, the woman she's been obsessed with since the start?) Marrow refuses to use "Stay" against a group they wanted to peacefully arrest because that's just too horrible an act, I guess, but he'll do it on his own teammates the second Qrow and Robyn don’t want to fight.

This is what I mean when I say the rules of the world bend to assist the protagonists in absurd ways. It's not nearly as egregious as Amity suddenly being up and running, but the fact that characters become substantially more powerful while fighting for the protagonists than they do against them is still a significant problem.

So Ironwood is down and out. As much as I hated watching that and didn't necessarily want more, am I the only one who felt like it was... a bit lackluster? I mean, the action was great, yes, but relatively short. There was no dialogue, such as another delve into the moral questions that led to this fight in the first place. There certainly wasn’t any hesitance against fighting a former ally. (Again, we’re meant to believe that the Ace Ops won because they just couldn’t bear to fight the group seriously, but every former ally here is capable of wailing on Ironwood without a single pause or pained look?) Ironwood just skillfully blocks for a while, is blindsided by Winter's betrayal, and then falls unconscious. Given that we learn he and Jacques will be evacuated after the rest of the kingdom, it's possible he'll escape somehow and we'll get a fight 2.0, but if not that feels like a rather tame end to the guy forced into the antagonist seat. Plus, what was the point of having Qrow frothing at the mouth to kill him this whole volume? I never wanted that to happen, I'm glad it hasn't, but I'm nevertheless left to ask why we bothered with that eleven episode side plot if we were going to erase it with one sentence from Robyn about Qrow being better than this. If that's all it took, let them work through Qrow's irrational anger while sitting around in a cell.

Winter tells the group to move onto "phase two" which is when we're treated to a flashback. We return to the ending of the last episode, with Ruby realizing that opening the vault is an option. Jaune, all smiles, goes, "We never considered using what's inside!"

This is what I mean about no consequences! This is what I mean about it all being a meaningless circle that ends with undeserved praise for the group! We started this horror show with Ironwood going, "We don't have a plan to protect the people, so I'm going to take what people we do have to safety" and the group going, "We don't have a plan either, but we're going to stop you implementing your plan because it's not perfect, risking a kingdom's worth of lives in the process." Now, the group has used two plans, one of which two characters knew about at the start and another they could have devised with the information they had. Oscar and Ozpin's, "We have an all powerful magical blast in our cane" and the group's "What if we used the Staff for something other than raising Atlas?" are both things that could have come up in the office debate. These were both always on the table! Instead, Ruby grew furious over the mere thought of cutting their losses, betrayed Ironwood again, attacked his people, denounced him to the world, and then two days later goes, "Oh wait! We could do something now that we could have easily done before if we hadn't made a needless enemy!"

Everyone realizes how much worse they made things, right? Turning against Ironwood, bringing everyone left in Mantle directly under Atlas, sitting around while an army was devoured, drawing it out until Penny was hacked... all of it would have been avoided if the group had thought and discussed things for a few minutes, not jumping straight to violently resisting what Ironwood came up with first. "We never considered..." Ruby says. Yeah, you didn't, except that's not something to smile about. The group made the situation a thousand times worse with their reaction when they could have just magically evacuated the kingdom from the start. “Maybe we could use it to save Penny and get everyone in Atlas and Mantle back to safety." Nothing has changed! They had this ability the whole time! Nothing about the last twelve episodes led them here, they just randomly thought of it after RT had padded the volume with needless drama. Considering that they're heading to Vacuo now, we could have just made this the finale of Volume 7 instead: big fight with Ironwood, revelation, get everyone evacuated while Salem attacks, leave her behind, then Volume 8 begins in Vacuo with the group knowing Salem is out there looking for them. This entire volume has been pointless. What did they accomplish?

Oscar got kidnapped and beat up, Nora was scarred, Ruby and Yang realized horrible things about Summer, and the whole world is panicking about a witch. Good things are... Ren and Ruby unlocked some semblance stuff? Weiss loves her brother again after he proved himself useful to her? Great work, team.

So this one moment makes everything they've done up to this point useless and, of course, once thought up the plan goes off without a hitch. Note that the summary of this episode says, "It's risky, dangerous, and nearly impossible — but it's the only plan they've got." Nearly impossible? That's a whole lot of talk for a plan that was implemented perfectly.

There is, admittedly, one snag, but one that is likewise made meaningless just seconds later. We'll get to that.

We see Winter call Weiss who also smiles at hearing from her sister. Obviously interactions like the group's with Emerald are the bigger concern, but it's still an issue that no one reacts as they should to people reappearing in their lives. Rather, RWBY continually confuses audience knowledge with character knowledge. We know Winter is on their side now, but Weiss hasn't a clue. Last she saw, she and Winter were agreeing to head down different paths. She has no reason to think her sister isn't loyal to Ironwood, so why isn't the group treating this call with suspicion? What if it's Ironwood trying to mess with them through a presumably safe party? I swear to god, with any consistency in the story this group would be dead ten times over because their decisions are so stupid. Oscar decides to believe in the guy currently beating him to a pulp, the group decides to trust a villain over a flawed ally, and now they see Ironwood’s second calling and are like, “Great, big sister Winter is checking in!” There’s a difference between a hopeful story filled with second chances and characters whose reliance on the narrative bending to assist them makes them come across as insanely naive.

None of which even touches on characters forgetting that other characters are presumably dead. Ironwood shot Oscar off the edge of Atlas, but doesn't react to learning he was kidnapped, or when he shows up to the fight. Thanks to Marrow's comment, Winter thinks YJOR have perished in the whale, but also has no reaction to them appearing to help with this plan. Absolutely nothing is followed up on.

We then get a flashback within the flashback (fun) of Winter — shock — not arresting Marrow. It's precisely as I assumed, with Marrow angrily asking why she hit him and Winter responding with, “Because you were about to get killed if I didn’t do something!” As I said last recap, I feel like I should let the marginalized groups lead this discussion, but I do want to add that no matter how well intentioned — or strategic, as I mentioned last time — the imagery itself is still harmful. No matter the context, we were still left with white woman Winter putting her knee on black man Marrow's back to arrest him, and it’s an image that everyone in the U.S. should be familiar with the horror of. Far more of a problem than the (presumed) ignorance of this scene is, I think, the choice to make Winter entirely unrepentant. I think some of this discomfort could have been alleviated if RT had written Winter as apologetic, contrite that it came to that and asking Marrow to understand that she only did it as a means of assisting him. Asking his forgiveness. Instead, we get this

So what, the only emotion we have room for is gratitude that Winter beat him up? Yikes.

As a lighter side note, I find the animation here unintentionally hilarious. Winter's assistive device makes her shoulders look too high, making this gesture more, "Woman exaggeratedly pouts about not getting ice cream for dinner" and less, "Woman sternly closes off during a disagreement about saving lives and betraying their general." Gotta find our humor where we can, right?

What's intentional, but far less funny, is the needless animation to show us that, yes, Marrow is peering at Winter calling Weiss. Oh, the shenanigans.

The elevator opens where Qrow and Robyn spot them. "Speaking of help," Winter says, as if she has any reason to believe Qrow didn't kill Clover. He and Robyn lower their weapons a bit, as if they have any reason to believe Winter and Marrow aren't still loyal to Ironwood. Would it really be so hard to have Winter immediately throw up her hands in the face of their almost-attack, blurting that she's not their enemy and needs their help, please listen? Again, RWBY can't remember which characters know what, let alone what their motivations and reactions should be.

We then enter the third part of the flashback where everyone piles into the Schnee dining room and discusses doing the things they could have done from the start. I'm metaphorically banging my head against that table. In RWBY's favor though, we also get a long shot of Jaune continuing to boost Penny’s aura.

Though it's only one of many issues, just the other day I asked, "Hey, why has Jaune always needed to hold onto the person he's assisting, but now suddenly he can touch Penny once and the boost remains?" It still doesn't explain why he was letting go before/why him needing to boost her continuously didn't put a hard time limit on their plan — not that Mantle's hour limit meant a thing — but at least they're showing more of that here.

Oscar notes that Atlas has enough gravity dust that it won't fall immediately when they use the Relic, but they will have to move fast to ensure no one is underneath. Yeah, like all the civilians you put there. He also cautions that the Staff isn't a "magic wand" that they can just wave to make all their problems go away... even though that's precisely what they're going to do. Ozpin gets some lines that aren't apologies or followed by attacks — hallelujah! — about how the Staff's spirit is a "character" and requires that you be able to precisely explain anything you want him to make. Blueprints, examples, a firm knowledge of how this will be accomplished — all of it is required to actually get what you're after. That's a cool limitation. It's just too bad we didn't know about it episodes ago, forcing our heroes to find ways to meet those requirements. Instead, they already have everything ready to go the moment they learn about it: Penny has her own schematics and Whitley apparently has knowledge of the entire kingdom after sending some ships out. Normally I'd go, "Really?" but I'm still just struck by how much good he's done compared to everyone else in this room. Your show is seriously broken when the side character the writers didn't even want the audience to like until a few episodes ago is more active, mature, and sensible than the heroes.

From there we see the group implementing the plan. They fly up through the hole Oscar left, straight to the vault. Penny opens it without any trouble and Ruby uses her speed to grab the Relic and stop time, halting her self-termination. I do like that combination of skill and their knowledge of how this magic works. That felt like a smart move. What's interesting though is that the Relic appears to stop time in the entire kingdom. We see people in Mantle and Atlas slowing to a halt too. I assume no one remembers that happening after time restarts, otherwise people would be freaked out by suddenly being frozen in place.

Wouldn't that have been cool though? The group often takes a while to use the Relics, either deciding what they need, or watching Jinn's information, so what if you had a population that blinks and suddenly, from their perspective, half an hour has passed? How long might Ozpin have sat on his knees after Jinn told him he wasn't able to defeat Salem? How long was that space frozen? We could have had a world built around rumors and fairy tales. Not the random stories Ozpin brings up to make a point and that we never hear about again, but tiny details that foreshadow these revelations. A Beacon where the kids tell each other spooky stories of people suddenly losing time, once a whole day. The wives, sisters, daughters, and nieces who disappear, or wake up one day with horrifying, unnatural powers. We see magic influence the world around it, but we've seen very little of the world reacting to that influence. The one time I can think of is Blake reading a book about "a man with two souls," the fiction clearly inspired by knowledge of Ozpin. And indeed, it felt great to recognize that as a significant detail and then be proven right years later as the lore was revealed. We could have gotten so much more of that if RWBY was better planned out.

I'm getting off track though. As time stops we see a series of images: Ironwood being led to a cell with Jacques, Penny succumbing to her hack, Team JNPR The Second preparing to contact the kingdom about what's going on. Then everyone is distracted by the giant, blue, buff Ambrosius who comes out of the Staff.

...there's a lot of innuendo in that last statement lol. At least RWBY is committed to the crazy design they chose? I was never particularly comfortable with the image of characters gaping up at a giant, naked woman in chains, so it's nice to balance that a bit with an equally giant, naked dude in chains.

From here things get confusing. In all honesty, I'm not sure if this is another moment where RWBY is trying to pass off a retcon as the group being brilliant, or if I, as an individual, simply didn't follow the logic. I won't bother to rehash the slow, meandering way that Ruby reveals their plan — that certainly didn't help with the clarity. Not in an episode where we didn’t even know these rules ahead of time — but it boils down to this:

The moment they have Ambrosius create something new Atlas will start to fall. Two of his creations can't exist at the same time.

He needs clear instructions about what he's making in order to create it.

The group has brought him Penny's schematics so that he understands how she's built.

They want, specifically, "a new version of her... using her exact robot parts."

They can't just create an exact duplicate of Penny because that would carry the virus with it.

They can't create an exact duplicate without the virus because that Penny would cease to exist as soon as they used Ambrosius to make an evacuation plan instead.

So they essentially want Ambrosius to create a new Penny by removing all the robot parts from the Penny that currently exists, carrying the virus with them, and leaving only the human parts of Penny behind: her aura/soul. Then, the purely robot version is destroyed when Ambrosius creates something new.

Except... this new Penny, this human Penny, still needed a human body. That's what Ambrosius created and that's the snag I don't understand. They want a version of Penny that's just her aura, just her soul, but that soul still needs something to be housed in. Ambrosius himself notes that. At first I thought the group would just have some wisp-like version of Penny they'd have to find a new body for — perhaps leading to a new one for Ozpin too — but she's just... given a human body when he takes the technology away, something she absolutely didn't have before. That is Ambrosius' creation. That is what should have disappeared along with the removed parts of Penny, leaving only her soul — what Ambrosius didn't touch — behind. Instead, the plot oh so conveniently has Penny get a new body for free and it's untouched as they move onto the next task.

Ruby drops a casual line about Ambrosius not being able to kill, or destroy, or something, which I think is meant to be the justification here. The rule (which, again, we JUST learned) about not killing anyone supersedes the rule of two creations not allowed to exist, allowing Penny to stick around. But even if that’s true, it’s a load of bull. What, does the magic think no one in an entire city might die if the floating mechanism is removed and it plummets to the ground? Ambrosius didn’t say, “Sorry, can’t stop floating Atlas because thousands of people are still here and they’ll die if I create something new,” but we’re supposed to believe the group skated by on, “Sorry, can’t destroy the last creation like everything else because there’s a single person still using that body and she’ll die if I create something new”?

Seriously, did I miss something? Or is this another, "Amity is ready because the group needs it" situation? The rule of creations ceasing to exist is bent because the group needs to have their friend around. Ambrosius is certainly enthusiastically complimentary, saying how "smart" the group is and that they've "done their homework," but I'm not so sure. It feels like a moment where the show is (once again) insistent that the group is far more talented and brilliant than their actions actually imply. It's only the rules of the world twisting and turning that allows for their success. To say nothing of how the episode dropped all these rules on the viewer in a ten minute info dump, ensuring we didn’t have any time to think about them before the deed was done.

It doesn't add up for me and honestly, even putting that aside? I hate this. I absolutely despise it. Look, if it turns out this really does make sense then props to the group for coming up with that plan. Our snag aside, the rest is a legitimately well thought out wish. I don't have a problem with the execution so much as the message. I've been saying since Volume 7 that RWBY has done Penny a disservice in terms of her "real girl" narrative. Whereas before we had a firm message that you don't need "squishy guts" to be human, to be real, Volume 8 continued to carry us further and further into the idea that it is necessary. That Penny's body is entirely inhuman, something to hate, but at least her soul is human and good. That's what the virus arc taught us: your terrible, technological body might be betraying you, but hold onto the parts of you that are really human. I hated that too, but I never thought RWBY would go this far. They made Penny fully human and went, “THIS is the version that always should have existed.”

And this isn't just me reading into the implications. It's right there in the text. Blake says that they're looking for “Penny, the girl who’s always been there underneath." Meaning, underneath the metal. The girl exists trapped in the robot body. Yang holds up her arm and says that the metal is only "extra," it's not really who you are.

That gets into two perspectives on disability that RWBY just doesn't have the nuance for: what's an integral and celebratory part of one person's existence can be seen as something separate and discomforting to another. Though there are many people with disabilities who would happily cure themselves with a magic Staff if given the chance, there are just as many who say no, this is a part of my identity. I don't want to change, I just want the world to accommodate my existence. However, RWBY takes a hard stance here, saying that any metal in your body is intrinsically bad. We didn’t use to have this take, but now the show has embraced it. Blake says the real Penny is trapped in there. Yang's words implies that she'd get rid of this "extra" bit of her if possible. Mercury with his metal legs is the enemy. Ironwood with half his metal body is the enemy. Whereas once difference was truly accepted, now it's shunned and fixed whenever possible. Those who can't be fixed, like Yang, must simply deal with the lot they've been dealt, reassuring themselves that the metal isn't really them. But Penny? Penny they can fix.

So they do and the very first thing Penny does is hug Ruby, exclaiming, “Do hugs always make you feel this warm inside? Wow. More!” and proceeds to hug all the others.

What's the underlying message there? Penny didn't understand hugs before this moment. She never experienced the "warmth" of them while an android, despite the fact that here warmth is entirely metaphorical and has nothing to do with a literally cold body. RWBY really went and said that the "real girl” android was never actually real at all — not as real as she could be — because it's only when she's given "squishy guts" that she understands the true happiness of a hug.

Wow.

I mean seriously, wow.

Never-mind that, you know, we've seen that happiness and warmth since she was first introduced.

RWBY is really rewriting all the core themes introduced in Volumes 1-3 and it sucks. The show is absolutely the worse for it.

To say nothing of all the other disservices to Penny's character here. There's all this buildup about whether she'll still be the same Penny once the wish is complete, but of course she is. We wouldn't want to have Penny struggle when she becomes something other than what she's always been, would we? After all, it took Yang an entire volume to work through the shock of a metal arm, but taking away a metal body for a human one is in no way traumatic. Having a normal, human body is intrinsically a good thing! Of course Penny accepts it with nothing but smiles. Becoming human is celebratory, but becoming more machine is a horror.

She gets to watch her body self-destruct, glitching out and collapsing in front of her. But again, nothing to unpack there that can't be covered with a hand over her mouth.

There's no discussion of whether Penny still has the Maiden powers, or whether a wish like that would mess with the transfer in any way. How did the group know this action wouldn't register as a clear-cut death, forcing the power out of her and into someone new? Obviously they couldn’t know, but no one even thought to bring it up?

And the entire time they're formulating their evacuation plan, there's no talk of whether these portals will appear before everyone currently alive in the kingdom. I mean, if they do then Ironwood and Jacques can just waltz through and escape into Vacuo. If they don’t, then Maria and Pietro don't necessarily have a way out. We still don't know if they're stuck floating in Amity, or if Amity crashed, or if they made their way back to Mantle or Atlas. More importantly, the characters don't know. I have no problem with RWBY keeping that a surprise until the finale, but I absolutely take issue with Pietro's daughter walking through a portal, seemingly not to care whether her father is going to make it out too.

It's been the same with Qrow and his nieces' relationships. The show is good at insisting that these families love each other because they hug and smile while on screen together, but when shit is actually going down, none of them care about pesky things like disappearances, arrests, or “The last time I saw you, you were with an old woman on a damaged station after a villain attack, potentially stranded in deadly cold if life support failed.”

So yeah, this entire arc with Penny has been a disaster. From throwing away her framing subplot, to giving her a virus that did absolutely nothing, to giving her the Maiden powers which she's also done nothing with, to erasing her android status for a “She's really human now” message, Penny has been done dirty by the show these last two volumes. Not nearly to the extent Ironwood has, but still. At this point I wish they'd just kept her dead dead. Why do I want her back when that resurrection produces no reaction, her conflicts lead nowhere, and one of the core things that made Penny Penny has now been magically erased?

I've been saying for weeks that killing Penny off and keeping Penny around each had serious downsides attached, yet I never expected RWBY to do BOTH.

Also, I'm warding off any, "But Pinocchio was made into a real boy too" defenses. RWBY is not Pinocchio. Penny is not Pinocchio. I thought the allusion was going to be the Pinocchio inspired girl heading into the whale, not the show forcing the exact plotline — down to a blue, magical creature — onto a character whose entire journey has been about accepting herself as an android. Congratulations, RT. You just obliterated years of work.

Again, if you'd like an example of how to do this far better:

As Penny's character falls apart, Atlas shakes, alerting Jaune and the other that a new wish has been granted. Jaune pecks at the screen and realizes "That did, uh, something…?” but doesn’t realize that there's a giant, red "LIVE" up in the corner.

Jaune tries to warn the entire kingdom about their plan, but what he actually says is

“Atlas is falling, but — !”

And then the communications cut out.

Watts, perhaps?

Our heroes are really good at saying things that make large populaces panic, huh? This is the one (1) snag in their "impossible" plan, but as said above, it doesn't amount to anything. We get a shot of Nora, horrified at the thought of kingdom-wide communications being down, but literally seconds later Team RWBY has made portals appear that everyone can walk through. So... why do we care about communications? More importantly, why does the show try to make us care? So much time is spent getting the viewer invested in problems that never come to mean anything.

Including the problem of Salem herself.

Because the group successfully creates that evacuation plan. This is it. Everyone is leaving while Salem still reforms.

Yang asks if they can use the vaults themselves as a single point for everyone to go to and Ambrosius agrees. So everyone is going to pile into the Vacuo vault that can only be opened by an unknown Maiden? They're going to put an entire kingdom's worth of people, including their enemies, into the vault where the Relic of Destruction is? Yeah, that's great. Prior to this — like if this had been the plan at the end of Volume 7 — I would have 100% agreed that these risks are better than death by Salem/grimm/cold. Now though, Oscar as axed Salem for an unknown length of time, the cold is having no impact on the civilians outside, and the grimm only attack background military personnel that supposedly no one cares about. They couldn't have spent another few minutes (especially with time stopped!) to figure out a means of getting to Vacuo that doesn't involve revealing and providing access to the location of a super secret vault? To say nothing of what they're going to do if Salem wakes up and snags one of those portals for herself. Two kingdoms for the price of one!

But that's what they're going with. Weiss gives Ambrosius a schematic of the kingdom, I guess, and he makes branching pathways appear with numerous portals for everyone to step through. They'll enter through one and, when they exit another, will be in Vacuo. Easy peasy, right? Especially since Ambrosius doesn't seem to have any limitations about how often his power is used. Is it three creations every 100 years like Jinn? We're not told, at least not to my recollection. However, I was expecting there to be a waiting period, that they'd fix Penny, go to evacuate the kingdom, and learn that sorry, I can't make another creation just yet. It feels like the sort of shit move these beings would pull — "Don't cry to me when it's not what you wanted" — it would have been another commentary on the group's insistence on putting friends over the people's safety (like demanding the Ace Ops not bomb the whale because of Oscar), and crucially, would have kept the action in Atlas. Isn't that what this volume is? The battle for and potential destruction of the Kingdom of Atlas? We have two episodes left and, unless something unexpected happens, we're moving that action to Vacuo. Why?

Meanwhile, Penny's corpse is just chilling in the background 😬

While all this is going on, Winter reassures Jacques that he and Ironwood will be evacuated too, though she makes it clear saving him was Weiss' idea. It checks out, considering Weiss is the one who turned her father's arrest into a joke last volume. Winter still takes his abuse seriously.

The group prepares to leave with a celebratory, "We did it!" from Weiss. I'm still banging my head against that dining room table. Before they can pass through the portal though, Ambrosius leaves them with one, dire warning: "Do not fall."

In any other story a line like that is a neon sign announcing to the audience that someone will absolutely fall, and maybe they will, but RWBY has dodged consequences so often I wouldn't be surprised if this was merely another way to string us along. Remember all the hype surrounding Salem? The cold combined with her army and magic? How she was going to decimate Atlas and leave our group broken in a Fall 2.0?

I mean, we still have two episodes left. Forty minutes of content. Salem might still decimate them, especially since something has to happen in the finale. But god, it's a problem that we've come this far without a payoff. Salem randomly decided not to attack anyone, was stopped by a weapon added in solely for this purpose, and now the whole kingdom is being evacuated with a plan the group could have used at the start. This volume really is meaningless.

“We go to vacuo and hope we’ve thought of everything” they say as the camera zooms in on Cinder's smiling face. For the second week in a row.

Bingo time!

Winter betrayed Ironwood, the group used the Staff of Creation, and I'm axing Maria on behalf of Pietro. You can't have the guy's daughter become human — after he was killing himself to give her his aura?? — and magically walk to Vacuo, not knowing if he's even survived since she last saw him, and expect me to think he hasn't been forgotten. Same with Maria. Has the group mentioned her since Amity cut out, notably for reasons they couldn’t explain? Of course not. Did they care to find out what happened? Of course not. I have no doubt they'll both re-appear in the next two episodes, Pietro crying over how perfect his girl is now and Maria congratulating the group on their actions, but we're still marking it.

This is the ugliest thing I’ve ever created, I hope you all are enjoying it :D

Another week, another couple feet added to the hole we’re digging. I know I keep saying I have no idea what's going to happen next... but I have no idea what's going to happen next. A Vacuo ending was not in the cards, not outside of them miraculously showing up in ships. Maybe they have been on their way to Atlas (somehow...) and will arrive precisely when everyone has left! Anything is possible at this point.

See you next Saturday, everyone. Hold on until then lol. 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps #rwby creation

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omegas-spaghettios · 3 years

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In Defense of Bo-Katan

This character receives an enormous amount of hate and it is so unfair.

Before I begin, I have a few disclaimers to make.

1. I used to be on the hate train for her. When TCW S7 and Mando S2 aired, I hated her. Absolutely loathed her and I was vocal about it. You could go back and find a trail of me hating on her, I want to admit to that before I go on.

2. I love every character I talk about during this. When I compare her to other characters or discuss other characters, it comes from a place of love. Flawed characters are the best characters because it makes them feel human.

3. I am not defending her from a moral standpoint. She does some pretty awful things. What I'm arguing is that a lot of criticism levied at her for being a "bad character" is unfair because what she does either lines up with her motivations and thus makes her a well written character (if not unlikable), or she does things and gets slammed for it when male characters do the same things and get away with it.

I'm just gonna go chronologically and discuss major talking points on why people hate her.

1. Her Discussion with Kenobi in 7×10

People hate on her because of this, and that could be fair, depending on how else you view Star Wars. Bo was responsible for helping bring an organization to power that killed her sister, she weaponized the death of her sister against Obi-Wan, and also her organization (Death Watch) has tried to kill Obi-Wan many times. She is overall being incredibly unfair and awful in this scene.

Okay, so she helped kill a woman important in her life, weaponized that death to guilt Obi-Wan, and also is responsible for attempts on Obi-Wan's life.... why does this feel familiar....

Anakin did much, MUCH worse than her, yet he is still loved. I love Anakin! But it pisses me off that when Bo does it it's a valid reason to hate her and one of the two most commonly listed examples to hate her, but when Anakin does it he gets nuance. Anakin's character and motivations line up to that event, it makes him a flawed character. But when Bo does it, we just hate her?

"But she doesn't have the development to that point like Anakin" the entire Prequel Era is the story of Anakin, no character has as much time dedicated to them. How can Bo have that much development to make it "believable" when the only character who can rival Anakin's level of development is Ahsoka?

If you hate both Bo and Anakin then her Discussion with Obi-Wan is a 100% valid reason to hate her. This is not to say you can't hate her for that, this is to say that there is a lot of hypocrisy in the fandom over this.

2. Sabine Wren

I'm not gonna spend much time on this, cause it isn't a huge reason I see often and it's just, so easy to debunk. I love Sabine and her arc is good, but from a Mandalorian standpoint, she's lucky she left the planet with a decent public standing. She makes a weapon for the empire that is handcrafted to kill Mandalorians and names it after Bo's dead pacifist sister. Under no circumstance is any Mandalorian required to treat her well after that, especially Bo.

I know she has an arc to redeem herself over the course of the show, but imagine if a public figure irl did that. No one would care how hard they worked to redeem themselves, no one would ever trust them again and that is valid.

3. Bo's discussions with Din

The way she and the other two scoff at Din is not kind at all, it's pretty rude. But guess what? Din got aggressive first when they took their helmets off.

I understand being in a cult means your view of the world is purposefully warped and information withheld so he doesn't know better, but why does Bo have this responsibility to be kind to anyone who is mean to her just because they might not know better? Why does Bo NEED to give everyone the benefit of the doubt?

Din was aggressive and accused them of not being mandalorian FIRST, he doesn't know better and that makes Bo's treatment of him less than ideal, but why does she have to respect his beliefs and identity when he IMMEDIATELY is trying to rip apart hers?

She never even says he isn't Mandalorian, just he was raised in a cult, which he high key is. The amount of identity suppression and implied information control in The Children of the Watch or whatever they are called is very cultish.

4. The Boba interaction

This and the TCW S7 interaction with Kenobi are the two big ones I see very frequently.

Before I begin with her motivations, can we talk about how blatant the one-sided hate is in this scene anyway? Boba is standoff-ish and aggressive right from the get go, audibly calling them a waste of time, ridiculing Bo for wanting to liberate her literal ancestral homeland, calling her all sorts of names, etc. Boba is by no means trying to be respectful or diplomatic but that's fine, but when Bo gives the same energy as him she gets hated. Again, Boba starts it by saying they were a waste of time.

Getting mad that she called him "not a real mandalorian" is pointless because he immediately says "never claimed to be". Boba isn't Mandalorian. He isn't. He doesn't view himself as Mandalorian and his connection to the armor is just because of his father, not because of Mandalorian heritage.

Her seething hatred for clones and attacking Boba with it is awful but it's understandable within her character. Clone Troopers came to help in the Siege of Mandalore with the explicit agreement they would leave once Maul was captured. Maul was captured, Order 66 came down, the clones never lifted their occupation. Does that mean her hatred of all clones is justified? No. But is it understandable from her viewpoint? Yes, and that makes her a 3 dimensional, flawed character.

We know it wasn't the clones' fault, but we have no reason to believe Bo knows about the chips. Even then, it is established in Rebels when Kanan first meets Rex and crew that people who know about the chips don't necessarily believe it. It takes discussion with the clones themselves and evidence to sway his belief. So even if Bo knows, why does she need to believe it when Kanan initially didn't? Bo hasn't had any discussions like Kanan and Rex had with a clone on screen, so the evidence already shown in previous media lines up with her hating clones.

Also, the weird stuff with the darksaber is not her fault. It's legit just the writers changing how it works to write their story so now she has to bend. It's inconsistent between Rebels and Mando but literally every character shown so far suffers from it. The Saber has not been won in combat since Maul killed Pre Vizsla, the whole "rightful heir" thing is just a mess and is more inconsistent writing that affects star wars overall, not just Bo.

Conclusion

Hate her all you want but stop letting men get away with the shit you hate her for lmao

I still don't particularly love her at all, I don't tend to think about her much, but y'all, come on.

#star wars #the clone wars #tcw #rebels #the mandalorian #bo katan kryze #sabine wren #anakin skywalker #din djarin #boba fett #obi-wan kenobi #mandalore #is this misogyny

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minie-mastermind · 4 years

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Children Of Nightwing

Nightstar-mar'i Grayson

She first appeared in the elseworlds kingdom come and was the daughter of Koriand'r aka Starfire. Throughout the time before or Superman on tried to become a dictator and flew out she was acting as as a young superhero even when it was illegal. Due to a parentage she has close ties with the bat family and and is thought to have been in a relationship with Damian Wayne. In later Comics it is shown but she joins a new rendition of the Teen Titans.

Red Hood-Thomas Grayson

Only appearance was in the alternate future shown in Justice League Generation Lost and mother/grandmother unknown. He is stated to be a descendant of Dick Grayson so very well maybe his grandson. From a world where most heroes were killed by OMAC Thomas Grayson continues the fight with his allies. Since his mother/grandmother is unknown there are a few options of who it could be such as any of his previous partners on new partners we would not be aware of due to alternate timeline, Starfire could be a candidate if through every generation with a human they lose their powers and the most obvious answer of course would be Barbara.

Robin/Firepattern of Earth 2-John Grayson

Originally the name of Dick Grayson father and in this case the name of his son from Earth 2. His mother was Barbara Gordon and his family truck Haven in Chicago during apocalypses invasion. John's mother is badly hurt by debris and the whole family is whisked away by who they think is another refugee named Lottie. But inside Barbara is captured and Dick is taken hostage, however John is returned to the refugee stronghold. After his parents escape they all try and board an already overcrowded boat to escape Chicago. Tragically Barbara Gordon a shot in the chest well securing seats and John Constantine kills her killer. Dick Grayson gives his son up to Johnny Thunder so he can have a chance at survival while Dick waits for his end in Chicago. But Dick Grayson is rescued and goes on to try and save his son who he thinks is on a derailed train underground. When they find each other it turns out that the villain brainwave has been controlling refugees and Batman and huntress show up to stop him. After the villain is defeated John is lost in the crowd again. After finally finding his son again he is forced to give him away to a ship that is only allowing women and children first, he unknowingly hands his son to to Big Barda and K'li. The Ultra-Humanite kidnapped, brainwashed and experimented on orphans including John. Afterwards John would be known as Firepattern and would be tracked down by his still alive father who had recently taken the Batman title. After being saved he regained his personality and went on to become the next Robin. One thing worth of note is that he retained his powers of flight and energy manipulation.

New Order-Jake Grayson

From the New Order elseworlds story where his mother was Koriand'r aka Starfire. Born after the battle of Metropolis where Nightwing activated a device that got rid of 90% of the world's superpowers. Starfire left them when he was young, leaving Dick to raise him with the help of Alfred in Wayne Manor. Jake kid his powers for as long as he could from his father because his father was a leader of of an anti power movement. Eventually it was revealed and his father tried to save him from the anti power task force known as the Crusaders but was unsuccessful. After finally being rescued by his mother, father and the Teen Titans he brought to Superman and Lex Luthor so they could studying why the power dampeners did not work on him. This was done against dicks wishes and he called The Crusaders but went on to regret it. After finding how to give the world its powers back Lex Luthor betrayed them and almost blew up Metropolis with everyone inside it, luckily the Teen Titans and other heroes evacuated everyone before the explosion. Years after these events anti power laws were being lifted, Jake was leaving college and went on to have a wife we did not know the name of and a son named after his father Richard Grayson.

Damian Wayne adoption?

Although not appearing in any elseworlds stories it would be the most likely conclusion to any death of Batman. In most depictions of the future where Damian Wayne is involved he is rather an evil Batman that is making deals with the devil or the leader of the League of Shadows, I believe with with Dick Grayson and his father figure this would change. Jake later began to develop powers from his half Tamaranean DNA and his father

My own thoughts

There are lots of interesting opportunities that could come about from a writing standpoint with the idea of Dick Grayson having a child. Who has a child with of course with change the outcome and his only history can provide a lot of the hero titles. I will go on to list some interesting Concepts for the children of dick Grayson and what their titles could be.

Firebird was the original counterpart to the Nightwing persona on Krypton or in candor depending on continuity. This would be particularly relevant if there was a child with Starfire due to the flame effect Tameranians produce.

Talon was the title of his grandfather when he worked with with the Court of Owls. The most likely circumstance of child taking this name would rather be due to the death of of a parent and seeking vengeance or if they were neglect for due to their heroic it could be a villainess persona once more.

Steel Sparrow is not a title that has appeared but I could not think of a better way to express this idea. The armour one in project Batman being utilised by a a child of Dick Grayson would be an interesting idea if if the mother was also protect analogically advanced Barbara Gordon/Oracle.

Please tell me if I've missed any and and include any suggestions for a better name for steel sparrow if you wish. Have a nice day:)

#dc #dc comics #comics #batman #john grayson #jake grayson #Thomas Grayson #dick grayson #richard grayson #starfire #batgirl #orical #Robin #damian wayne #nightwing

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smokeybrandreviews · 4 years

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Smokey brand Reviews: Academy Life

I am aware of The Umbrella Academy through social osmosis. It never really piqued my interest enough to get me into the narrative, but i respected what it was doing. I’m a sucker for that misfit, out-of-place, X-Men-esque, narrative. A more apt description of this particular group would probably be Doom Patrol, but the sentiment is the same. I understood it to be excellent specifically because it came out of Dark Horse. Those cats are the A24 of the comics industry and i respect the f*ck out of them. Dark Horse was the first publisher, stateside, that gave manga a chance. The first Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell adaptions i owned came out of that publishing house. They gave us some of the best Alien and Predator stories to every make the fandom, on top of unique characters like The Mask, Empowered, Hellboy, and Usagi Yojimbo.

The pedigree of the company in which The Umbrella Academy stands is unassailable, especially with that deliciously sublime design of The White Violin, i just didn’t get into it during it’s original run. Or when the first season the show was announced. Now, that the second is set to drop in a few days, i figure this would be the best time to check it out. I’m curious if the hype is legitimate or if it’ll fall short because, holy sh*t, that climax to the first arc was spectacular.

The Good

I have to say, this cast feels like a family. They’re so broken and awkward and haphazard but you can sense that underlying love. It feels organic and real. That type of energy is very hard to capture but, surprisingly, this show does so with rather effortless aplomb.

The narrative of this series is actually pretty spectacular. I was thoroughly surprised by how everything unfolded, particularly the more eccentric elements. There are things that had to be changed for the sake of the media but

Look, i just have to say, i love the music in this thing. The choices are exceptional, easily the best I've seen in any Netflix production. I mean, who the f*ck sets a brutal ass fight scene, in a rundown diner, between secret government commandos and a time hopping, 53-year-old teenager, to Istanbul by They Might Be Giants? What mad man hears that song, for that scene? I appreciate the deep cuts.

This show is f*cking gorgeous. Netflix really but their best foot forward for this one. The Umbrella Academy can give the Marvel Netflix collabs a run for their money. It’s not Daredevil, but it’s close. I mean, some of the CG can be a little wonky, (Pogo, I'm looking at you) but that can be excused by how much detail is captured in every other aspect n this production. I mean, Vanya's White Violin transformation is f*cking spectacular.

I’m a little bit surprised by how great these performances are. The entire cast is spectacular. I can’t say they are comic accurate like the MCU, but from the standpoint as a show, absolutely excellent. I'd speak on each, individual, cast members and how great they are in their respective roles but I'd be here forever gushing. No, I'll reserve one entry for the standout and just heap a massive amount of general praise on everyone in this show. It's f*cking performed to perfection. Especially Number Five.

Ellen Page deserved all of the awards for her performance as Vanya. Holy sh*t, this is some great acting, man. Somehow, Page is able to capture all of that frailty, all of that melancholy, perfectly. She's supposed to be emotionless in the book, and her emotions definitely come across as muted, but I think this is a far more realistic interpretation. That said, when she lets go? Holy Sh*t!

The Bad

The pacing in this thing can be a little hectic at times. I was surprised by how many times momentum was stalled for a flashback or a weird narrative choice. It was very jarring at times. Ultimately, I think this thing could have shaved an entire episode worth of fat to make the viewing experience more palatable but it's not a huge detractor from the overall quality.

I spoke earlier about how dope the soundtrack is in this thing. All of these songs are great. Very recognizable, very powerful, perfectly paired with each scene. However, to fit those scenes, they have to be edited. Chopped up basically. That mess is VERY apparent, especially when you have to butcher Queen. I appreciate the music, don’t get me wrong, but, I mean, it’s Queen! You don't censor f*cking Queen!

The Verdict

I adore this show, man. I feel bad for sleeping on it for so long. I really should have jumped right in when it was originally released but a ten hour commitment seemed like way too much. Now that the world has stopped and i have all the time in the world, that ten hours breezed by at a ridiculous pace. I’m kind of glad to have waited, mostly because the gap between seasons is so short now. I’m hooked. The Umbrella academy is a rich, expansive, story told with respect and love. It’s chock full of great dialogue, realistic familial relations, and organic interactions, which is saying a lot when one of these kids can f*cking time travel. How do you ground that in reality so easily? I loved the narrative. I loved the characters. This is easily the best X-Men anything since Days of Futures Past. I'm kidding, but it's not too far off to say this is the best adaption of The Dark Phoenix saga ever put to film. In all seriousness, I loved the look, the feel, the palpable chemistry between the cast. The Umbrella Academy season one, is truly one of the best shows Netflix has ever produced.

#Smokey brand Reviews #The Umbrella Academy

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virtchandmoir · 5 years

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Tessa Virtue says goodbye to Canada with final cross-country tour

October 9, 2019

Tessa Virtue may have just announced her ice dancing retirement, but that’s not the end for her just yet — not even close.

Over the next two months, Canadian cities big and small are being treated to a farewell tour for Virtue and her ice dancing partner, Scott Moir. The beloved dancing duo are pairing up again for the cross-country figure skating show Rock the Rink.

While skating and non-skating fans alike are eager to see the duo — who captured hearts with their gold-medal-winning Moulin Rouge performance last year — one more time, the Olympic skaters will be joined by other young athletes on the ice at Rock the Rink.

Virtue and Moir will take to the ice alongside 27 Special Olympics Canada athletes, including 16-year-old Emma Bittorf, an avid golfer, ice dancer and huge fan of Virtue and Moir.

“I’m excited to see Tessa and Scott. This is the first time I get to meet them,” Bittorf said. “I look up to [them]. They do a really good job on the ice.”

Bittorf, decked in blue and sparkles, is set to open the Medicine Hat, Alta., tour stop on Oct. 19, but Rock the Rink isn’t where her career begins: the teenager took home silver in golf at the Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi this year and is set to return in 2021 for skating.

Rock the Rink kicked off in Abbotsford, B.C., and will travel across the country, holding its final show in St. John’s, N.L., on Nov. 23.

Until then, Virtue is soaking up the magic of working with her former ice dancing partner and an incredible cast of young, inspirational athletes before taking a load off for the holiday season.

Global News caught up with Virtue, 30, over the phone while the decorated athlete was in Abbotsford preparing for her epic cross-country goodbye.

Global News: How does it feel to be heading out on your last Canadian tour?

Tessa Virtue: It was a really thrilling process putting together this particular tour for so many reasons. It’s layered by the fact that we have an incredible international cast of many people that we’ve grown up skating with, skaters we admire who have accomplished significant things on the world stage but who are also so creatively inspired and eager to collaborate, with this being our last tour.

How do you prepare for such a long tour?

It requires something athletically unlike anything else we’ve really known. It’s a straight 90- to 100-minute set of skating, and there are only nine cast members. In order to make it an entertaining and captivating show, we really need to exert a lot of energy. We’ve been rehearsing here in Abbotsford as a group for already three weeks, working 10-hour days on the ice to ensure that everything is in tight formations and we’re all ready to perform. Ultimately, we’re taking skating fans — and hopefully non-skating fans, too — on a journey where they feel something.

Working with Special Olympics Canada, which you and Scott Moir have done for a while, must feel pretty special, too.

Scott and I have been working with Special Olympics Canada for quite some time, and it’s obviously something that is just so close to our hearts. I think what we’re most excited about is just to share the ice with these incredible athletes and to showcase [them] all the way across Canada, to spread that message of inclusion, to showcase how the impact truly transforms lives of children, youth and adults with intellectual disability. We’re just honoured to come together and share that across Canada.

In a lot of things you’ve done off the rink, inclusion and empowerment have seemed very important to you.

It’s important for so many reasons. It’s necessary, it’s meaningful and so relevant in today’s world. These things need to be talked about, [and] a lot of the narratives need to change. It’s always been important for me to use this platform that I’ve been [given], and I’m grateful for it but I also take it seriously and I just think I’ve been so privileged to have been able to chase my dreams in a very unique way, and that’s because I received a lot of support from people around me. I would love for everyone else to get that opportunity as well.

You’re quite a role model for a lot of young people, like Emma Bittorf. How does that feel?

It’s something that we don’t take lightly. It’s an important part … of having some kind of platform. But you know, when you see what Emma’s accomplished, there’s a mutual admiration going on here, and that’s not just in skating. She’s also an avid golfer, a basketball player. It’s truly impressive. I just love seeing how Special Olympics has played a part in her life.

Canadians have been following your career for many years, but your Olympic gold medal win with Scott really captured the world.

Canadians always rally behind their athletes. We’ve always felt like we [were] just the luckiest kids to be able to represent our country on the world stage, and the outpouring of love and support we’ve received, whether that was our first time at the Games bringing home silvers after Sochi or announcing our retirement, it never wavered and continues to surprise us. Canadians never cease to amaze me, and they continue to support us. In all honesty, that’s made this touring preparation process that much more special because we know we’ve got to cross the country and get to say a final farewell to the people who have really been with us for the last two decades.

Was making the decision to retire tough for you, or did it feel like the right time?

Tough in that it’s always hard to step away from something you’ve known and loved for such a long time, but it feels right. Like most major decisions in our career, Scott and I just came to it very organically together. It’s a feeling thing. How lucky that we get to step away at this point in our career when we can do it on our own terms and [from] a place where we still have such passion for the sport. We’re excited for what’s to come. I mean, we get 28 times [to say goodbye], all the way across the country [to] some of our favourite cities, to celebrate the career we’ve had.

Are there any cities you’re particularly excited to return to?

There are so many cities that have played just critical parts in our story. Of course, a lot of the hometown stuff in the London, [Ont.], area is one. Vancouver, we have fond memories. It will be really fun to return to cities that don’t often get skating shows. [Last year], we were so surprised by the engagement of the audience and being able to share in that energy. It ignited something in us again as performers, and we were so used to striving for perfection, but instead, it’s really just about making people feel something and connecting with an audience in a very genuine way. For us, I can’t think of a better way to go.

Do you have any plans after the tour wraps up?

It will be important to take some time to reflect. The nice thing is we have the next two months to really let … it percolate, and then there’ll just be an inherent crash that happens after the tour, much like every other project. So it’ll be good to just sit back, and then, of course, we’re near the holiday season so finally getting some time with our families will also be really special.

I’m finishing my psychology degree right now, and my plan is to start my MBA at Queen’s in the fall. Just from an entrepreneurial standpoint, a lot of new business things. I’m really excited for some new projects, some new collaborations, and it would be nice to sink my teeth into something off the ice as well.

—Global News

#tessa and scott #off ice #tour #rtr 2019 #interview: global news #psychology degree always and forever

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hopefulfestivaltastemaker · 4 years

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August 9, 2020

My weekly review of things I am doing and looking at. A long one this time; topics included disease risk in the food system, my research work patterns, ROI for energy R&D, Apocalypse Never, OpenCog, and housing and transportation in Hillsboro.

Disease Risk and the Food System

Last week I started looking at zoonotic diseases for Urban Cruise Ship, and this week I continued a bit more on disease risk. The current page is here.

Sans images, there is now material on foodborne illnesses, antibiotic resistance as it pertains to antibiotics in livestock, ecological risk from GM crops, and crop disease risk from monoculture. The section is far from done, but it is probably going to go on hold for a while. A few observations:

- Disease risk in general is a major issue, very much on our minds due to COVID-19. That’s a big can of worms. It would take an indeterminate amount of work to do the topic justice and require that I move well beyond the food system. So it’s one that I will have to take one bite at a time.

- There is an image under development that portrays foodborne illness risk in the US by type of food, but there is also a need to look at underlying causes, recognizing that food is a transmission vector and not necessarily the underlying cause.

- Antibiotic resistance looks like a scary topic. There is a report that antibiotic-resistant bacteria could kill 10 million people per year by 2050, which sounds scary, but I need more context on that number. Does this assume a business as usual trajectory where we don’t develop new antibiotics or develop alternative treatments for AMR bacteria, such as plasma medicine, and how much do such developments bend the curve?

- Ultimately I would like to be able to assess externalized monetary cost from antibiotics in livestock in terms of AMR bacteria. I don’t have this yet, but it should be possible.

- I half-assed the genetic risks, and I think justifiably so. I don’t see any evidence, aside from vague appeals to the precautionary principle, to support any significant ecological risks from GM crops. Partly to justify the half-assedness of my effort on the topic, I pointed to a Google Trends search indicating that the public is losing interest in the GMO issue.

A few years ago, I thought I was being bold and edgy by pointing to a lack of evidence of any health or environmental risks from GMOs per se. Now that seems like the safe position, and GMO opponents have (deservedly in my view) generally lost credibility in the way the anti-vax movement has.

- One of my associates is interested in systemic risks from crop monoculture, which prompted me to add that section. It appears that disease risk is the major such systemic risk. The issue of crop and animal disease (as opposed to human diseases for which the food system is a vector) is also a major topic deserving of more careful review and analysis. I would suspect that, from the viewpoint of disease, monoculture is not the most important issue, but it appears that way because monoculture was my entry point into the topic.

The Urban Cruise Ship Work Pattern

I figured now would be a decent time to open the hood and make a few comments about how I am going about the work. Recently the funder made some major additions and changes to the scope of work. This is good for me from a job security standpoint, but it means I need to do some major rethinking about how I go about the project, to insure that things get done at a high level of quality and in reasonable time.

We are ultimately trying to present the best data, analysis, and solutions available on the full range of environmental topics.

Such a grandiose vision requires that I innovate not just in how I think about particular issues, but in how I think about the big picture and how I work. We are setting into a comparison and monetization scheme to present data, a view that was driven by the funder but I have been convinced is best.

One thing I have learned is that knowledge across topics is synergistic. That means that is probably going to be more efficient to aim for a broad and shallow understanding of the environmental landscape, after which we go deeper on the things that require a deeper understanding. This is why I am moving on from the agriculture risk section despite having a superficial treatment of the subject; I intend to come back to it later when it can be better informed by material elsewhere on the site, and I also hope that I have done there will help inform the next sections of work.

This is a work style that suits me well. My mind is always jumping from one area to the next, and I like to draw connections and look at the big picture. This is very much a contrast from most of academic work, which requires a very deep analysis of a narrow topic. I ultimately lost interest in my narrow corner of mathematical research and was not able to make a successful jump to another area; hence (in part) I was not suited for the tenure track.

The obvious drawback is what one sees on the site now. It is obviously incomplete and a bit of a mess, and it will probably remain in such a state for the foreseeable future. It means I have to move fast, which increases the risk of making major mistakes. I fear we are operating at too high a level of abstraction and generality to make actionable policy recommendations.

Although not a high priority, I really wish I could integrate the graphic making process into the larger codebase. The current division of labor is such that I see no way to do so. I dislike having these “Image Under Development” messages and lacking the flexibility to easily modify images as the research proceeds or new data become available.

Return on Investment for R&D

I mentioned before some studies that the US Department of Energy has done on effectiveness of its research and development efforts. Having looked at them more closely, I found something a bit surprising.

I tried my best to harmonize the numbers reported to make a fair comparison. It’s not perfect, but the following seem to be the central estimates of the ROI for the program investment areas studied:

Combustion engines: 53

Building technologies: 42

Wind: 5.07

Geothermal: 4.865

Hybrid and electric vehicles: 3.63

Solar PV: 1.83

They all look like good investments, though building technologies (HVAC, water heating, appliances) and combustion engines clearly stand out as the best. I would have expected the opposite. Since the building and combustion areas are more incremental, there should be more incentive for the private sector to do the R&D and therefore a “crowding out” effect that would blunt the effectiveness of the public investment.

Part of this could be an artifact of the study methodology. Since the time horizon for the lower return technologies is longer, they simply haven’t captured the full benefit. The solar PV study was done in 2010, and I would expect a higher return to be found if it was redone today. There could also be an attribution problem, in that with developing more novel technologies, it is harder to attribute gains to a particular R&D investment, therefore depressing the observed ROI.

I want to propose some solutions on R&D efforts for synfuels and industry, so these studies might provide guidance as to what kind of investments can be expected to work best. Maybe this is a sign that I should be thinking more about short term gains.

Apocalypse Never

Apocalypse Never is a new book by Michael Shellenberger castigating the harmful effects of what he sees as environmental alarmism. I haven’t read it, but I have read enough of Shellenberger’s work and discussion around it to make some relevant observations.

Not too surprisingly, the reaction from the environmental community seems to be mostly negative. This article from Snopes captures fairly well what academic climate/environmental researchers think. Despite being from Snopes, the character of the article isn’t a “debunking” so much as a critical analysis. There is much disagreement about semantics (e.g. are we really in the Sixth Mass Extinction?) rather than factual disputes. Though I have a few of those too.

Since I hope one day to have major public exposure for Urban Cruise Ship, the discussion is a helpful case study in how to present material and what kind of reception I should expect.

Since I am critical of several aspects of environmentalism--particularly degrowth and related elements--I expect some negative reaction. To blunt the effect of criticism, I think I need do to a better job of operating on the following principles:

- Focus on principles and avoid ad hominem attacks, including against abstractions such as fields and movements.

- Make every effort to insure facts presented are accurate.

- Find the right level of nuance. Too little nuance can be inaccurate. Too much nuance can water down a message to the point of meaninglessness.

Though most of the discussion I saw was pretty even-handed, there is some gatekeeping that goes on in the climate community. The bogeyman of the “climate denier” looms large and triggers a kind of circle-the-wagons mentality when the field is criticized, whether justly or unjustly. Lacking formal credentials or institutional backing, I am going to be vulnerable to gatekeeping and probably can’t do anything about it.

OpenCog

Having listened to Ben Goertzel on Lex Fridman’s podcast a while back, I got around this week to looking over OpenCog, which is Goertzel’s open source project to create artificial general intelligence.

There is a ton of material here that will take a long time to work through, especially considering that I am doing it only as a side project. Just reviewing the set of AI principles being brought to bear in the project, though, buoyed my spirits and excited me about the field in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. I am already thinking about some work I can do. Contributing to OpenCog is beyond my capabilities at present, but I have some related design ideas that have been sitting on the shelf for a long time and are time to give another look at.

I have no idea if this effort toward AGI will work. But I would guess that it is more likely to work than an approach rooted exclusively in deep learning, such as the GPT approach, which suffers from intractable diseconomies of scale. In particular, I think that a semantic encoding of knowledge is a necessary component of any AGI stack. There are people with far more expertise who disagree.

Housing and Transportation in Hillsboro

I’ve dialed back my political activities a bit lately, but there were some items at the Hillsboro (Oregon) City Council this week worth commenting on.

City staff presented on efforts to implement HB 2001, a piece of state legislation that mandates most cities allow for middle housing (du-, tri-, quad-plexes, cottage housing, small apartments) in residential areas. Without naming names, my read on the council and mayor is that among the seven, two are generally pro-housing, two are generally anti-housing, one is squishy, and two I don’t have a good read on. I have written to them to indicate my desire that we take advantage of the opportunity provided by HB 2001 for an expansive approach to opening up housing opportunities in Hillsboro.

We also had a presentation on the Get Moving package, which is the transportation package that Metro has now referred to the ballot in November. City staff seemed to be negative. The presenter asserted that Hillsboro gets a disproportionately low ROI (about 0.56) for the project and that Metro was unduly influenced by Portland-based anti-vehicle activists to reject road expansion capacity that Hillsboro needs. One council member expressed her concern (which I agree with) that the financial burden falls entirely on large employers, which will be particularly harmful in Hillsboro and I think is bad tax policy in general. On the positive side, the package includes some badly needed safety upgrades to TV Highway, which is the most dangerous highway in the state per-mile for both pedestrians and motorists. There is also money for a study of a downtown Portland MAX tunnel, which I think will be very important for the region. Ultimately, despite the extensive public engagement theatre, it is a pre-COVID package, based on economic and transportation demand assumptions that may no longer be reasonable.

I haven’t yet decided how I will vote on the package, but I am leaning toward a No right now.

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terrablaze514 · 5 years

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Space Colonization beyond the Earth Sphere

Meta by AngelT (published in Rhythm Generation Zine, 2019)

Disclaimer: No money is made in the research and production of this presentation. This was part of a team-based project. The contents presented in this essay are inspired by Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, which is the sole property of Sotsu, Sunrise and their affiliates. Also, an appreciation for the Universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere; the science of astronomy is beautiful.

Most of us who grew up back in the day recall witnessing space stations, satellites and colonies on our television screens. We’ve seen human life preserved beyond the Earth’s sphere in space colonies. Our beloved characters, including The Mad Five and members of The Alliance, have acquainted themselves with continuing the trend of political stability, health and wellness, education, housing, and industry—miles away from our planet amidst warfare. Today, scientists are researching the possibility of colonizing the Solar System, beyond Earth and the Moon.[1]

Predicting Colonization in CE 2030

During the events of the television series, we see that a lunar station exists. This is a distinct possibility for Earth in the coming years, and it’s not hard to imagine small businesses and corporations operating from there in the future. Prior to launching the official project, however, extensive training and preparatory exercises would be a requirement. Relocating to the Moon comes with risks, considering the physical attributes of the location. Even so, there’s a good chance humans will one day be able to survive for extended durations in space. Scientists and researchers today are working towards opening the doors of opportunity. But successful expansion into the solar system has everything to do with timing, how well we can put knowledge into practice, and overcoming challenges such as limited funding, support from governments and health risks associated with living off of Earth.

Weighing the Odds: Inner Space

Mercury would be fun (imagine seeing your next birthday every 88 Earth days). Unfortunately, that will require a lifetime supply of sunblock and water—both of which will be hard to maintain on-planet. Mercury’s orbit is closest to the Sun, where it experiences a stronger gravitational pull from the sun than other planets in the solar system. In addition, although a year is significantly shorter than on Earth, Mercury’s days last significantly longer (roughly 176 Earth days) due to its slow rotation. Combined with the naturally shorter year, colonists on Mercury would experience a quicker aging process compared to life as we know it on Earth. The proximity to the sun would require measures to be taken to limit sun exposure, and extreme fluctuations in temperatures—made worse by the lack of an atmosphere which would have otherwise helped regulate them—make Mercury less than ideal for human colonization.

Venus is the same size as Earth and its orbit is within the “habitable zone,” a safe enough distance from the sun; however, like Mercury, Venus has a significantly longer day (roughly 116.75 Earth days) and has a shorter year (almost 225 Earth days) which will cause similar stresses on any colonists looking to find a home on-planet. Venus’s atmosphere is not only incredibly toxic but also extremely dense with a surface pressure of nearly 92 times that of Earth’s. This dense atmosphere also means that the planet is hotter than Mercury (surprise!) limiting its chances of being particularly hospitable to humans. For these reasons, it’s best to keep would-be colonizers off-planet. Unfortunately, Venus also has no known moons, so using satellites as was done with Earth’s moon isn’t an available alternative. Therefore, pursuing a space colony project for Venus isn’t recommended.

Mars has been a hot topic for NASA and its affiliates since the late 1970s. Based on results from space probes that captured the red planet’s features, there’s a thin line of similarities to Earth: what many assume to be waterways, ground that is similar to Earth’s soil, and glaciers at the poles. Mars’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos, present an opportunity for additional lunar bases, which will benefit a population who relocates to Mars by providing additional space for industry, employment, and lodging. However, anyone who wishes to relocate to the planet should also expect two seasons—Summer and Winter—until the planet can be properly terraformed with an atmosphere able to support human life.

Weighing the Odds: Outer Space

Jupiter is a gaseous planet, the biggest in the solar system, and its volatile beauty is due to the multitude of storms travelling across its surface (similar to what we know as tornadoes and hurricanes). Such a volatile surface would deter on-planet colonization. But if researchers were to approach colonization from a practical standpoint, there’s a good chance lunar bases could be built on one of Jupiter’s moons. The moon Europa, for instance, has garnered attention from astronomers due to the possibility that it could support life if conditions were right. There is a serious threat of radiation from Jupiter’s magnetosphere, which is 20,000 times stronger than that of Earth’s, that poses serious challenges for colonizing both the planet and the moons.

Saturn, another gas giant, presents similar challenges, and humans are better served by colonizing one of its sixty-two moons instead. Protection from radiation will be needed. One of the best routes to carry out this mission is on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which is a ball of ice, with water. Titan’s icy layer can protect from the Sun’s rays and drilling the surface will intrigue anyone familiar with mermaids and Atlantis. Although Titan’s air pressure would allow someone to walk the surface without a spacesuit, the atmosphere is low in oxygen compared to Earth’s own and it is bitterly cold. To colonize it, ongoing research and developing technologies will help. Wearing specialized clothes that have the same attributes as space blankets, earbuds that protect the eardrum (in the middle ear) from shifting due to air pressure changes, and architecture designed for underwater environments is a starting point.

Uranus, another gas giant, does not have a breathable atmosphere, consisting primarily of hydrogen (outer layer) and helium. This planet is also the coldest in the entire Solar System, which is roughly -216°C. Unfortunately, the moons of Uranus are pure ice, with intolerable temperatures below -200°C. Although Miranda has various landscapes similar to Earth’s, colonization cannot currently happen. It will take several decades for engineers and scientists to come up with some alternatives: Heated clothing, mirrors that support solar energy, and SMART technology that supports temperature control. A terraforming project also needs to be in effect. Otherwise, living near Uranus is not recommended.

During the early 1990s, Neptune had a Great Dark Spot where powerful wind storms were consistent. Neptune rotates on its axis at a rapid pace, which makes it uninhabitable. Astronomers know Triton is Neptune’s biggest moon, but there’s a major safety hazard. On multiple occasions, Neptune has collided with other orbital bodies (hence its rings). Because of this, building satellite colonies is not the best route. Triton could crash and end up as remnants to Neptune’s ring supply; colonies near this planet present a grave risk to human life.

Pluto[2] has five moons that can serve as optimistic colonizers. But methane and nitrogen don’t offer a livable space for humanity. It’s the farthest from the Sun; a twinkling star in the sky even through a telescope. Colonization in orbit needs technological advancements first, such as lights that emit heat energy, specialized mirrors, and lifelong oxygen supply. Industrial workers can use Charon (Pluto’s largest moon) for lodging, business and trade markets. To colonize Pluto means living off-planet, but its temperatures and distance from the Sun (5.9 billion kilometres) present complications.

Closing Thoughts

Although each planet offers unique challenges to overcome for colonization, there are some things that are consistent across the whole solar system:

1. Colonization needs to figure out how to protect from solar and space radiation. Radiation has proven to have debilitating effects on our bodies (dehydration, weakened immunity, etc.). During the summertime, we’re often reminded by health officials to find a shady spot at noon. Heat and ultraviolet rays are stronger because Earth is closer to the Sun. Beyond the Earth Sphere, the presence of radiation is due to “particles trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field; particles shot into space during solar flares (solar particle events); and galactic cosmic rays.” Astronauts have been exposed to space radiation on six-month missions in the past.

2. Colonization needs to figure out how to deal with toxic/inhospitable atmospheres, so you’re going to need to have controlled environments regardless of whether you go on-planet or on moons. It’s a matter of trial and error. Therefore, astronomers can send space probes to explore surfaces and observe their behaviours (environment) to determine the pros and cons. Sustaining life beyond Earth poses a challenge; in the case of some aforementioned planets and moons, the best bet is to set up colonies within the orbit of the places that are deemed safe. Additional training/workshops for persons interested in relocating to space, and inventions designed to promote safety and longevity must be considered.

3. Colonization needs to figure out how to deal with fluctuating temperatures. The close proximity of the inner planets’ orbits to the sun and the immense distance from the outer planets’ orbits mean regulating temperatures to support human life is going to be a challenge regardless of where you end up. HOW you deal with those depends on the location (e.g. greater shielding for inner planets, use of mirrors and the like for the outer planets).

4. Colonization needs to figure out if it warrants the cost and time of terraforming the two other planets within the Goldilocks Zone (i.e., Venus and Mars) or if it’s better to keep space colonies outside the planets. The good news is Mars’s surface has similarities to Earth’s own. Mars also has a fluctuating atmosphere which depends on its distance from the Sun. Terraforming Mars will be costly, however, because its atmosphere has only small traces of oxygen (good for humans) and nitrogen (great for vegetation and agriculture). The presence of carbon dioxide (which makes up 96% of Mars atmosphere), and carbon monoxide isn’t healthy. Scientists are making plans to ensure that tanks can convert a higher percentage of carbon dioxide into oxygen by 2020. For Venus, terraforming is a possibility, but the presence of sulphuric acid and volcanoes presents a greater challenge for health and safety reasons.

Additional References

Out-Of-This-World Space Colonies as Imagined by NASA in the 1970s and Today. All That’s Interesting. July 17, 2018.

Victor Tangermann, A Timeline for Humanity’s Colonization of Space. Off World via Futurism.

How long would it take to colonise the galaxy? The Open University. November 4, 2011.

Space Settlement. National Space Society. 2018.

Planet Facts. Space Facts. 2019.

Elizabeth Howell. Interesting Facts about the Planets. Universe Today. 2015.

Footnotes

[1]NASA is working on a Mars Mission, with plans to pursue Europa (Jupiter’s moon) within the next decade.

[2]Although currently classified as a “dwarf planet,” this status remains under discussion among experts.

***If anyone wants a free copy of the fanzine Rhythm Generation, you may connect with @acworldbuildingzine. Thanks for reading!***

#gundam wing #meta #space colonization #astronomy #NASA #tb514exclusive #gwfanworks #rhythm generation

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alpha-centari27 · 4 years

Video

youtube

Sonic the Hedgehog is full of thrills, friendship, and lots of high-speed action, but as it dashes through its rapid-fire plot, it does stumble on occasion. Do the highs outweigh the lows? Hold on tight as we run through the five best and five worst things about Sonic the Hedgehog.

Despite not having any kids of his own, Tom can't help but radiate some major dad vibes, thanks not in small part to some truly cringeworthy puns. At one point, when Sonic laments that he has to leave Earth to go live on a planet made up entirely of giant mushrooms, Tom quips, "at least you won't be the only fun guy!" Between his bad jokes, his tendency to play out full conversations with his donuts, and his fatherly protectiveness of Sonic, Tom really is the best friend an alien hedgehog could wish for, and he brings a refreshing, nurturing energy to the film. Watch the video to see the 5 best and 5 worst things in Sonic the Hedgehog!

#Sonic #SonicTheHedgehog

Read full article: https://www.looper.com/188762/best-wo...

I have been meaning to post something to express my thought on the Sonic movie and when I saw this video I thought this would be useful for explaining what worked and didn’t work in my opinion.

Best: Tom's dad vibe | 0:15

Every movie needs heart. No complaints here.

Worst: Maddie's weirdly hostile sister | 1:18

I agree with the video commentary that this is strange. If you are going to introduce a subplot gives us a reason why the sister has valid concerns, explain this to us, give us a reason to care or be afraid that the relationship is in jeopardy and therefore Sonic getting a happily ever after is in danger.

Best: Sonic's Quicksilver moments | 2:21

The video lists this as a positive, but I actually see it as a negative. I feel like this makes Sonic too over powered. And if one character is all powerful and cannot be stopped or countered all the stakes go out the the window. The conflict is no longer compelling because we know unquestionably who is going to prevail. I mean we all know Sonic is going to win in the end, but there has to be a believable chance that he could lose and Robotnik could prevail.

Worst: Hipster discrimination | 3:10

This also does seem strange...the bar fight in general seems arbitrary, but I don’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. Maybe they went with this because saying anything else like “liberal“ “city slicker“ or remarking on Sonic’s appearance would go too far and offend someone. “These people are racists / xenophobic, etc.“

Best: Sonic's new shoes | 4:16

Ok, watching this video I am wondering if there is a continuity error, because it looks like in some of the earlier parts of the movie he has his signature red and white shoes? Or are the clips featured in the video earlier promo material and not from the finished cut of the movie?

Worst: Disproportionate conflict | 5:20

In general, Robotnik’s methods are over kill and run the risk of drawing too much attention from the civilian population.

You don’t need all this high tech gadgetry. A tranquilizer dart was enough to render Sonic unconscious and defenseless. Of course part of the problem is catching him or slowing him down enough to get a good shot.

On the other hand this is the kind of person Robotnik is--machines can fix everything.

I think something that could have partially fixed this is clarifying Robotnik’s motivation by putting it in conflict with the US government. Robotnik captures Sonic and wants to study him because of realizing the implications of Sonic’s power as applied to his machines. The US government wants Sonic dead or wants Sonic moved to a secure scientific research facility beyond Robotnik’s reach.

Robotnik disagrees with the government. The government snaps back that they own him, they tell him what to do, or something similar. At this point Robotnik could rebel against the government or he could just be shown planning or thinking about it.

Meanwhile Sonic’s friends manage to stage a rescue while Robotnik is distracted...and the chase continues.

Best: Jim Carrey | 6:31

I was grade school aged when The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura were playing in theaters. And I remember his role in Liar Liar.

Seeing Jim Carrey again on the big screen again is like seeing a friend in a very long time.

He’s charming and a joy to watch....but at other times there are aspects of his performance that are cringe inducing.

Worst: Also Jim Carrey | 7:48

I’m not sure if it’s Jim Carrey’s lines of dialogue that are off...

If the over the top exaggeration and physicality of his acting doesn’t entirely fit with the character and story...but something about his performance doesn’t work for me at times.

I think an example of this is when Robotnik is menacing Tom in his home and threatening him. Sonic appears in the room to save Tom and Jim Carrey as Robotnik screams in shock. A certain amount of shock is understandable, but the intensity of his reaction seems unwarranted.

The reference to breastfeeding and Robotnik being an orphan is also weird.

Maybe part of the problem is that in isolation Jim Carrey’s lines are funny because of how random and over the top they are, but beyond that there’s not much too it. The lines are not particularly clever and don’t give us character development, world building, or flush out the relationship between Robotnik and Stone for example.

Best: Finding family | 8:56

I am fond of movies with a found / chosen family theme, so no complaints here.

Worst: Nonsensical ending | 9:59

Arguably, the movie leaves a number of loose ends unaddressed.

The government is unconcerned that Robotnik is missing in action?

What about all the people who saw the fight between Robotnik and Sonic? How is the government going to explain this away? A campaign of memory erasure like the Men In Black?

I don’t remember the exact details of what the government agents said to Tom. If they just waved away the whole labeling him a terrorist thing like it’s nothing.

Other Honorable Mentions:

- Worst: Product placement.

- Worst: Why did Robotnik shave his head? From a character standpoint why did Robotnik feel compelled to shave his head when he is trapped in the mushroom world? This does bring him closer in line with how we are used to seeing him, but I feel like we need more explanation than Robotnik is losing his sanity. Maybe we will get some sort of answer when and if there is a sequel?

- Worst: I know this movie is geared toward kids as well as the adults that grew up with Sonic...but I feel like the movie went to unnecessary lengths to emphasize how Robotnik is the evil villain of the story.

Robotnik having a private moment when he’s dancing to Evil Grows is one of the top highlights of the movie. And parts of the song reminds me of music from the Sonic games. At the same time I feel like this was too on the nose having the evil doer of the story dancing around to a song called Evil Grows.

- Worst: Tom the terrorist. Was it really the best strategy putting Tom’s face on the TV and branding him a terrorist? Doesn’t the government want to keep this under the radar and be as discreet as possible?

#sonic movie #jim carrey robotnik

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schraubd · 6 years

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Who's Afraid of Fighting Antisemitism?

I started writing this post yesterday, before the Squirrel Hill massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue. I got distracted, and it feels somehow limp to post it today in the face of such an obvious, brutal reminder of the persistence of violent antisemitism in our society (not the least because the Pittsburgh shooting emphasizes what has always been obvious to anyone who cared to look -- that in America, right-wing antisemitism is far, far more dangerous than its left-wing counterpart). Nonetheless, the points I wanted to make here still have importance, even if comparatively overshadowed -- certainly, insofar as Jews look to see what sort of systemic allyship we can expect from the left not just in this hour but in the days and weeks and months going forward. There was some controversy over the past few days about the role of Jewdas -- a left-wing non-Zionist British Jewish collective -- taking on a role in doing antisemitism training for Labour. For many years Jewdas as positioned itself as the irreverent, rebellious youth of the Jewish community -- gleefully pricking sensitive areas and popping communal orthodoxies -- a stance which perhaps has some value but whose virtues are maybe exhausted in the current moment. I don't really want to talk about that specific controversy (coverage here, the activist's response here, if you're interested). But I do think it's worth exploring the standpoint Jewdas is articulating right now on antisemitism, because they are reflective of the current moment on the Jewish left. It is moment that Raphael Magarik captured well in a recent Forward article: a mixture of renewed interest in and deep ambivalence towards actually fighting antisemitism in a robust and systemic way. That's a step forward from even a few years ago, where antisemitism was almost exclusively viewed as a ginned-up distraction by the right to silence the left. But it's still a difference of degree, not kind: the Jewish left's interest in the fight against antisemitism, it seems, is fundamentally managerial in nature -- they want to make sure we don't fight too hard, or too aggressively, lest we "center" ourselves or sap energy from other more important struggles, or (God forbid) actually demand tangible alterations in how Israel and Palestine are talked about in left communities. A few weeks ago, for example, Jewdas posted an unsigned statement on antisemitism that really demonstrated why it shouldn't be within 40 miles of antisemitism training. I have several problems with it, starting with the way it articulates the "buffer theory" of antisemitism (ask me about how I view Aurora Levin Morales' "antisemitism is what happens when Jews sell out oppressed people to save their own skin and get their comeuppance for it" conception some time). But what I want to focus on is how Jewdas, even in the course of nominally tackling antisemitism, is at least as (if not more) worried about the possibility that ... people will tackle antisemitism. The vast majority of the essay is spent speaking of all the higher priorities the left should privilege about antisemitism and which antisemitism -- or more aptly, fighting antisemitism -- is distracting energy from. This culminates in the vomit-inducing passage "whereas before antisemitism was encouraged in order to direct the public’s attention away from its exploitation, today antisemitism is vilified in order to divert public support away from the best chance for better living than we’ve had in decades." It's hard to know which aspect of this is more appalling: the blithe acceptance that antisemitism has been successfully "vilified", or the explicit declaration that this is a bad thing. Indeed, the author doubles down on this point: going on to say that Britain's "moral victory in WW2 is part of what defines us as a nation. Whereas before, antisemitism was part of a nationalist ideology and identity, today it is philosemitism." This is flatly bonkers as an articulation of the national identity of Britain or anywhere else, and is the sort of self-congratulatory vindicatory claptrap that any half-way decent leftist shouldn't be able to write without retching. It should go without saying that neither the UK, nor the US, nor anywhere else in the Gentile world constructs its national identity around its great love for the Jews (or any of its other minority groups); the only people who claim otherwise are those seeking to put down the Jews for being too uppity and demanding (we haven't massacred you lately and yet still it's demand demand demand!). In other words, Jewdas' program on antisemitism centers around the claim that the danger of antisemitism pales in comparison to the danger of opposing it. To the extent the left should fight antisemitism, it's really to pump the brakes, because when Jews (or at least other Jews, Jews-not-them) fight antisemitism, it's a dangerous and scary thing. If we've progressed beyond Bruce Robbins' "The real issue here is anti-Semitism; that is, accusing people of it" (this came in the defense of a Christian clergyman who was outrageously accused of antisemitism for nothing more than his suggestion that if Jews didn't want to beaten up in the streets of Europe, they should try being more vocally anti-Israel), it's not by a lot. Antisemitism may be bad, but people actively contesting antisemitism is a lot worse. And this isn't just about Jewdas. Magarik, for example, expresses his worry that it is "too convenient" for Jews "to rediscover our own oppression" when we should be reckoning with our own power and privilege. The obsession on the Jewish left with Jewish "centering" -- making it all about us, hoarding resources and energy to ourselves that are more urgently needed elsewhere -- should be read in this register as well (particularly given just how little it takes before the "centering" charge starts to manifest). Contra Magarik, not all of us have been in the process of "rediscovering our own oppression" because not all of us had the luxury of forgetting about it to begin with. But there's something extra-grating about a cadre of Jews who -- almost (if not quite) by admission -- have been historically terrible at addressing antisemitism, who had been slumbering through its dangers, who have even now great ambivalence about robustly fighting antisemitism, and who are openly distrustful of pretty much all other Jews-not-them, emerging from dormancy and immediately assuming that it should be the acknowledged leaders of the fight against antisemitism as against those of us who hadn't been napping on the subject. That'd be terrible even if half their motivation didn't seem to be to make sure that we didn't fight against antisemitism too hard. I continue to think that the most important overlooked attribute of antisemitism on the left (though not just there) is its epistemic dimension -- the persistent mistrust, suspicion, skepticism, discrediting, and gaslighting directed at Jews, particularly when Jews talk about our own lives and vulnerabilities. The Jewish left has been deeply implicated in this wrong, and has not come close to extricating itself from its grip -- which accounts for its ambivalence towards any actual fight against antisemitism because such a fight almost by definition requires crediting and empowering Jewish voices writ large. There has been a genuine shift in the Jewish left over the past few years from almost total dismissal of antisemitism as a extant social phenomenon towards a willingness to kinda-sorta tackle it. But they're not all (or most, or half) of the way there and, more importantly, they haven't done sufficient work to unlearn the practices that made them so unreliable on the subject in the first place. Most notably, they still associate fighting antisemitism with reactionary elements -- with racism rather than anti-racism, with breaking coalitions rather than forging them, with restraining people rather than emancipating them, with the ruination of a chance at a better world rather than a prerequisite for it. So I welcome the shift. But antisemitism cannot be effectively fought by people who are terrified of antisemitism actually being fought -- who think that vilifying antisemitism is more dangerous than practicing antisemitism. On that basis alone (though there are others), the Jewish left is not, have not been, and is not prepared to be leaders on the subject of antisemitism right now. The best move for them for the time being is to step back and learn from those of us for whom antisemitism hasn't necessitated any "rediscovery" at all. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2qe10Ef

#anti-semitism #Jews #leftists

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marvellouslymadmim · 5 years

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For By Watercress and Bloodroot, I started with an herb that captured everything the prompts needed (liquid, spells), and paired it with something Hecate’s spell specifically needed. Watercress helps connect to all spirits and spells concerning water, such as undines, water elementals who can aid in love spells, and can be used to stimulate the third eye and better understand the human condition. Bloodroot, as mentioned in the story, is now often used in place of blood offerings for spells which require it (when steeped in red wine after a full moon cycle), and is a favorite ingredient for Voodoo spells aimed at hex-breaking. It is also used to protect marriages from outside forces and disharmony, particularly from extended family and in-laws--a rather pointed nod to Ada’s sister, who has definitely been a great source of danger to both Ada and her relationship with Hecate, in the past. From a real-world standpoint, the bloodroot signifies Hecate’s anxiety and how a certain dose can be beneficial, while too much can prove fatal. Bloodroot, while having many benefits, shouldn’t actually be applied directly to skin (a bit of an issue in the story, but let’s just chalk it up to magical protection and being diluted by wine). Its sap is sometimes used in ointments to treat abnormal skin growths--again, a small amount can remove the problem, but too much can cause further damage. In the same way, having worries over a situation can help us stay alert and able to head-off potential dangers, but too much worry becomes paranoia, where seeing danger everywhere actually blinds you from being able to see real danger when it occurs. In the story, while Ada certainly supports her and helps remind her that they are still safe, it is ultimately up to Hecate to trust that she has done what she can to ensure their safety, and to both honor the fear that she feels while refusing to give it more energy to expand and overtake her. As she reaffirms to Ada that “I’m here”, she also recommits herself to staying here, in the moment, instead of being wrapped up in anxiety over potential future moments. This is probably the angstiest piece I’ve written for the series, but I think the important part of a relationship is being able to show inner angst and accept it as part of the whole person. As someone who lives with anxiety and seasonal depression, I am fully aware of the fact that no one can be loved “out of” their brain’s hard-wiring, but we can love and be loved through it. There is no greater gift to be given than to know we are seen, simply and truly seen, as we are, and loved because of it, not in spite of it.

#twwvalentinelemonfest #tww2017 #hackle #this spell we cast series #this spell we cast: ingredient index #by watercress and bloodroot #ada cackle #hecate hardbroom

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that-shamrock-vibe · 6 years

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Movie Review: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Disclaimer: I am posting this review a few days after the movie first aired in the U.K. and while this isn’t a movie warranting a spoiler review I will be talking about the movie in general. So if you do not want to ruin seeing the movie beforehand don’t read on.

General Reaction:

Wow, ten years later and ABBA combined with these actors still make for a great movie. While this movie isn’t as good as the first movie, I was not really expecting it to be, the first movie was somewhat of a special movie and to try and monopolize on that was a risk but fortunately this movie did not diminish what occurred in the first.

Now I said it wasn’t as good as the first and my above comment is very much the case but the reasons for that are in talent both in front of and behind the camera either not returning or not committing. For instance Phyllida Lloyd directed the first movie but didn’t return for the sequel, I feel that is because her two hit movies starred Meryl Streep and she herself did not return to the centre stage here. Both presences I felt were missed not only because the energy seemed slightly somber in this movie due to the apparent death of Donna Sheridan but also in both the choreography and delivery of the big dance numbers.

Also moving filming locations from actual Greece to Croatia was 1) Noticeable for someone who watches Game of Thrones and 2) Unnecessary unless something was wrong from a production standpoint with using the same location from the last movie.

I’ll get to songs further down after talking about the cast but like every musical movie for me there were hits, growers and something this movie had that the first one didn’t which is a cringe-worthy number. Also there was a slightly riskay opening number with “When I Kissed the Teacher” which yes was performed by the younger Donna in the late ‘70s so I guess was okay for the time but in today’s culture may have been something someone behind the scenes should have double-checked.

Cast:

The original cast made the present day scenes in the movie feel like a reunion which was very nice to see. As an ensemble I do love this cast; Julie Walters and Christine Baranski had more to do in this movie given that Meryl Streep was not present and so they were the maternal figures to Sophie who by the way looked so much like Donna at certain points in this movie it was uncanny.

The dads did not sing really at all apart from the end number and even then you could not hear them so I appreciated that, their dad dancing was in full swing, I really liked their relationship being three potential fathers to the same girl yet still being so close.

Dominic Cooper surprisingly did not do much in this movie despite the end of the last movie making it seem like Sky and Sophie were going to set sail, instead where we find both of them at the start of the movie is surprising and again I think a bi-product of Meryl Streep not starring. However the first Mamma Mia movie was really the first time I had seen Dominic Cooper in anything and since then I’ve seen his range as an actor in both the MCU and Preacher so to see him back where I first saw him was fun to see how far he has come.

Lily James as young Donna was about as close a match for me as Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo because both sets of actors and actresses do not share that instant striking resemblance, again I saw more similarities between Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep than I did Lily James and the former is playing her daughter. However this is probably my favourite role of hers as she played the ‘70s free flower-child type of role very well.

The three young versions of the dads were more evenly matched, particularly Josh Dylan who portrayed young Bill. However I do think the movie missed a trick in not casting one of Stellan Skarsgård’s sons like Valter who I think is age appropriate for the role more-so than young Harry because Hugh Skinner is 33. I do like how all three captured the mannerisms of their older selves particularly with how they all speak and their character traits picked up on in the first movie.

Then of course Cher and Andy Garcia, I am talking about them together because they gave me my favourite part of the movie with “Fernando”. Again I am not doing spoilers in this review but there is somewhat of a twist and nudge to this number that I clocked onto when we first meet Senior Cienfuegos. All I will say is this movie is very much about familial relationships and leave it at that.

Songs:

This is why I love reviewing musicals because I can talk about the songs in depth. As I said before, Iwill be talking about my favourites, growers and problems.

My favourite number is definitely Fernando, I love Cher and have never hid this fact but also Andy Garcia, who I don;t really know as an actor but know he is in the original Oceans trilogy which I do want to watch, was the perfect duet partner for Cher in that number. Cher lights up any scene when she sings but there was definitely something almost magical about that number.

Then there’s “Super Trouper” which was already big in the first movie but as the ending number of the number and led by Cher but then involving the entire main cast it was definitely an event level number.

Other numbers I knew of ABBA’s and liked in this movie were “One of Us”, “The Name of the Game” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You”. All of which had a good scene playing over the number which developed the story and were sung very well by Seyfried, Cooper, James and Irvine.

I also surprisingly liked songs I hadn’t heard ABBA sing before, my taste of ABBA stems from what I grew up with my mum listening to which were basically the first movie soundtrack and the above mentioned songs. However “"Why Did It Have to Be Me?” “Andante, Andante” and “Angel Eyes” were what I consider to be growers for me after this movie. I did miss not having Baranski sing “Does Your Mother Know” or Walters singing “Take a Chance on Me” but “Angel Eyes” was a good compromise.

The only two numbers I could not get into were “I’ve Been Waiting For You” and “My Love, My Life”, the latter is the number that everyone is gushing about and yes I know for a fact if my mum and nan saw the movie they would also gush and the former is a tribute from Sophie to Donna but I like the uptempo numbers more.

Then there are the numbers that return in this movie that I cannot make my mind up on, the epitome of this is “Waterloo” performed by Hugh Skinner and Lily James for the pure and simple reason that during the number when Donna sings the line “Couldn’t escape if I wanted to” I genuinely believed her because Harry just seemed to turn slightly insane with this number. “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia” also return because they’re classic ABBA but they didn’t do much for me aside from make me feel good to hear and see those songs performed again.

Overall I rate the movie an 8.5/10, the first movie for me is a 9 but there was just something about this movie that slightly knocked the score down for me but I cannot quite say what it is because I don’t actually know. It’s still a charming movie with a wonderful cast and great music and has that rewatchability factor to it but while I went for repeat screenings of the first movie 6-7 times which is a record only recently beaten by The Greatest Showman, I do not see myself going numerous times to see this movie...maybe once or twice more.

So that’s my review of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.

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thebandcampdiaries · 2 years

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Poodie is back with a brand new studio release: Without Me.

A brand new rap song with a melodic vibe.

March 2022 - Poodie is an artist with a really special approach to his blend of R&B music. Currently based in LA, this artist is originally from Riverside, but his background goes further beyond that. In his own words, he is influenced by the world, and he is always keen to allow different elements of music to spice up his formula and set the bar higher. Not only a rapper but also a singer, songwriter, and producer, Poodie specializes in creating music that’s a true vibe that anyone can relate to. He has done it all, from Spanish-language hits to rap bangers with a more old-school, banging rap sound that’s all about energy and realness. However, Poodie’s music is also authentic in the way that he often uses his lyrics to tell stories and explore deeper personal topics, such as talking about childhood traumas as well as exploring other themes that are seldom discussed openly in the world of rap, or music in general.

His sound is really powerful and direct, combining lush melodies with really intriguing textures and mesmerizing beats. Without me, it is a perfect showcase of what Poodie can accomplish with his music. At times punchy and energetic, at times melodic and universally appealing, this particular studio effort does not disappoint in the least. The production value is also astounding, matching Poodie’s talent with a crisp and intelligible sound that’s really off the charts. This one is going to be right up your alley if you are a fan of artists such as Juice WRLD, Joey Bas$$, and Lil Wayne, only to mention a few. With such a keen ear for detail and so much passion on tap, you really cannot go wrong with this one.

Recently, the artist set out to release a new, groundbreaking single titled Without me, which really highlights the unique tone of his music. The song will immediately impress listeners with a truly amazing lyrical flow and with a lot of dazzling energy.

In addition to the striking vocal performance, the production of the song is also particularly unique. The tone is absolutely stellar, and it is really striking, particularly when it comes to the amazing balance of every element in the mix. The low end is thick and present, really allowing the mix to be filed with movement and purpose. Moreover, the top end is crisp and warm, adding a lot of definition to the mix.

If you enjoy some of the best hip-hop out there, this release will certainly be one to add to your heavy rotation! You are certainly going to be able to connect with Poodie’s amazing attitude and intuitive songwriting. This release feels like an instant classic, and it has a sense of familiarity to it, which almost feels like rediscovering one of your favorite records. Poodie is a master at channeling a wide variety of musical influences, but in such a way that the sound never feels like a trite re-composition of some other artist’s music, but rather something quite original, as a labor of love and passion for the music itself. If this studio work is any indication, we can expect great things from this talented artist, who is aiming high with his music, and he spares no effort when it comes to trying to capture his best performances, no matter what. If you like energetic music with an edgy twist, this one is for you. What’s special about the sound of this release is the fact that he sets the bar higher with some uniquely melodic ideas and a great production, which is definitely a secondary aspect of an artist’s passion and skills but does nonetheless matter when it comes to one’s enjoyment of a song or album! In this case, everything hits the mark from a creative standpoint, and it is a fantastic production as well. With a one-of-a-kind passion for epic melodies and memorable hooks, anything goes! With “Without Me,” the artist managed to take her creativity to new heights, and the quality of this production is truly astonishing. While many artists tend to stick to their comfort zone, this is definitely not the case for Poodie, who is always ready and willing to embrace new, exciting artistic possibilities with her music. This new song happens to be an excellent example of this and a great introduction to Poodie’s astonishing musicianship.

Some artists seem to pigeonhole themselves in a single category, but in this case, Poodie managed to really bring home a diverse and forward-thinking sound that has a very distinctive spirit. From conception to fruition, this release really hits the mark, and it certainly highlights the artist’s exciting identity. We are certainly gonna stay tuned and look forward to checking out what the future holds in store for Poodie, who is increasingly gaining the attention of audience members and critics alike!

Find out more about Poodie, and do not miss out on the artist’s most recent releases, activities, and events:

https://beacons.ai/poodie

Instagram / Twitter: @kngquis

https://open.spotify.com/track/7CdWqzq1A4a7PIfiOwVIRl?si=96af53639a2042fe

#poodie #rap #rapper

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4eternal-life · 6 years

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Frank Auerbach (German-British, b. 1931)

E.O.W. ON HER BLUE EIDERDOWN IV, 1963

oil on board, 41.5 by 46.3cm

... This is a miraculous painting. The intricacy of the delicate waves of oil paint married to the vibrancy of the colour is matched only by the importance of the present work to the artist's career coming as it does from his most celebrated period in the early 1960s. When one considers that the condition is perfect and that it has not been seen in public for fifty years one must conclude that this is a work of art which truly deserves to be nominated a masterpiece.

The painting reveals much about the artist's technique, a practice developed over years of unwavering dedication, and also tells something of his own personal story. It comprises an intimate portrait of one of his most enduring sitters, a woman who was crucial in the evolution of Auerbach as both a man and as an artist. A museum-quality work appearing at auction for the first time, E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown Vis evidence, if further evidence were needed, as to why Frank Auerbach is now widely regarded as Britain's greatest living painter. The simplicity of Auerbach's life, an asceticism which springs from his absolute devotion to painting, is often noted in descriptions of his life and work. He travels little, and generally avoids the limelight. He has also restricted the subject matter of his work, focusing in particular on a small group of sitters and a limited area of North London streets situated close to his studio. E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown Vis a portrait of one of the select few, a model who sat for the artist over a number of years, and was also his lover for much of that time. Auerbach met Estella Olive West, better known simply as Stella, in 1948, when he was seventeen years old and she was thirty two. An aspiring actress, their paths crossed at the amateur Communist Unity Theatre, where they performed together in a production of Peter Ustinov's House of Regrets. Auerbach moved into West's home in Earls Court as a lodger, and an intense relationship both artistic and personal quickly developed. In the end, West was to sit for Auerbach for over two decades. The portraits that he painted of her, vivid reminders of an enduring, complex and at times tempestuous association, are some of his greatest works of art. The production of one of Frank Auerbach's paintings is a long, slow process. In fact, he tends to complete only a few paintings each year, the majority of them are portraits. The deep impasto that we see in works such as E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown Vof 1963 is the result of hours, days, weeks, months, sometimes years of careful layering, building and sculpting. One false move and the hues bleed into one another causing the primary colours to muddy irreparably. These layers must be scraped away entirely and reattempted from scratch. To have such a complete composition of fully built up paint is incredibly rare in Auerbach's oeuvre requiring as it does the commitment and patience to sustain the tension of interlocking waves of paint throughout the pictorial plane. Only when Auerbach is completely happy with a work does it see the light of day. The artist is his own ruthless editor, with only the best paintings and drawings emerging from his paint-daubed studio. For his sitters, the experience must at times prove challenging, and Stella West herself stated that posing, although it began as "a sort of game", later became much harder, "more demanding" (quoted in Robert Hughes, Frank Auerbach, London 1990, p.133). The physical demands of sitting hour after hour, week after week in the same position are almost unimaginable for those who have never been involved in such a protracted creative process. The fact that this is one of his largest scale figurative oils and that the sheer weight of paint is so substantial leads one to conclude that the present work could comfortably have taken longer than a year to produce. That the hard work involved, both for the artist and for his model, was worth the effort is ably demonstrated in the magnificent vision of this stunning painting. It is clear that Auerbach needs to know a person before he can properly paint them. He recognises the value of a personal affiliation with a sitter, his innate understanding not just of the generic human form, but of the specific body and face that he finds before him crucial to the success of a painting. Auerbach's close connection with Stella West, and its impact on his visual portrayals of this woman that he knew so well, is poetically captured by Catherine Lampert, an art-historian and curator who has herself sat for the artist on numerous occasions: "His paintings of her reveal curiosity and tenderness. Strokes cross her form, other marks draw out emotions, like an exorcism, their directional force close to carving, making flurried edges, deep hollows and corrugated skin where wet earth colours have been placed on the semi-dry result of the previous attempt" Auerbach's style is, of course, unmistakeable, and ultimately unique, but his art nevertheless displays a profound knowledge of the art-historical canon. The influence of Rembrandt on his work, particularly on his portraits, has been recently explored in a display of Auerbach's paintings next to those of the Dutch Old Master at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. In its portrayal of a slumbering human figure stretched sinuously across a colourful ground, E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown V is reminiscent of the posture of the two figures in The Siesta by Vincent Van Gogh, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Like both Rembrandt and Van Gogh, Auerbach also experiments with the limits of the material itself, pushing and pulling the paint into thick, sculptural strokes. As can be seen in the present work, paint is squeezed directly from the tube, leaving long glossy cylinders of oleaginous pigment. At the time that he painted E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown V, Auerbach was expanding his awareness of recent developments across the Atlantic. First introduced to the work of the Abstract Expressionists at an exhibition dedicated to the New York School in 1958, Auerbach's own practice seems to have been informed by the use of gesture that they advocated. Already experimenting with a new, bolder palette of colours, his works of this period also display an astounding sense of vigour, the "furious energy" described so well by Isabel Carlisle. A comparison of the present painting with two similar images of Stella West now in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London give an important insight into the developments of the artist's palette around this time. E.O.W. Nude of 1953-4 shows her as a pale, almost ghost-like figure reclining against a background of dark, muddy browns. Meanwhile E.O.W. Nude on Bed of 1959 reveals a growing interest in colour, with rich russets and verdant greens appearing across the composition. Finally in this E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown V, painted only three years later, we see sky blue, blood red and sunshine yellow bursting out before our eyes, layer upon layer, mixing and melding in a riot of bright colour. A painting which exhibits an extraordinary physical presence, E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown V, can be relished from various standpoints. As a portrait, it allows us some insight into Auerbach's private world, a glimpse into his circle of lovers, friends and associates. As an art-historical object, it also tells us much about the development of Auerbach's distinctive artistic practice, one which places him within a long artistic tradition and has also made him a globally revered figure. But most importantly, as a painting, it is absorbing, utterly enchanting and astoundingly beautiful. After all, it is the creation of such fine paintings which has obsessed Frank Auerbach for the past six decades. The remarkable vision that we find in E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown V, and its deep understanding of both the human figure and the paint itself, is testament to a lifetime of painting, and to the incredible talent of the man who views his art quite literally as a way of life.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23158/lot/12/

#Frank Auerbach #british art #Auerbach #school of london #portrait #art #Auerbach info #mu art #mu

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