#and it's also interesting how the majority of people who have in fact deep dived into this case

[phas3d]

Can you do slytherin boys head canons with ravenclaw reader who info dumps randomly

You're Smart || Slytherin Boys

type :: fluff

tw/cw :: none

contains :: draco, tom, mattheo, theodore, lorenzo

summary :: you have a habit of saying fun facts and explaining everything in great detail while they listen - it's not super ravenclaw based but u can imagine it :) THANK U FOR REQUESTINGG RAAAHHHH <333

DRACO MALFOY

Hated it at first since it felt like you were trying to on up him

Would start to research more topics on his own to make sure you can't one up him on it

Turns this into a competition that's completely one sided for no reason LMAO

Stays up all night up just to learn the most niche and useless information of all time

But somehow, you always know more than him and beat him

Gets so frustrated by this because he can't stand not being the smartest know-it-all in the room

So he decides to try and make YOU seem stupid

Asks you super hard questions that no one could possibly know

But for some reason, you know it

This drives him even crazier cause he can't win LOL

But overtime, he grows to find it really useful and cute at times

He likes to see how passionate you are on different things

And he does like smart girls, so he starts to see it as a pro

TOM RIDDLE

Super annoyed by the fun facts and random info at the start

Mainly because he probably already knows it or he doesn't care for it

Because if he was interested, he would have searched it up already

So in his eyes, it seems like you're call him too lazy and dumb to want to search something up

So he tells you to shut up right away when he knows you're going to info dump

But sometimes, he genuinely doesn't know and he hates admitting that

He's super bad at social interactions, online culture, etc, so he does need help with those

But he's too egotistical to admit that

So he starts to just "ignore you" when you info dump

You'll explain the deep and complicated lore of Trisha Paytas and once you're done he'll say, "Huh? Oh I was spacing out."

But in reality, he was listening in depth and taking mental notes

So he starts to use this to his advantage since you do describe every very well

He starts to silently train you in a way

For example, he'll place a group of items in front of you, like a blue shirt next to a Slytherin hoodie

This will then remind you of Alvin and the Chipmunks so you dive into the deep lore of each actor

MATTHEO RIDDLE

Doesn't really care much at first since he's always been a bit dumber than other kids

He assumed everything you were saying was common knowledge and that he was just dumb

But when others start to mention how smart you are, he's surprised

He has a smart s/o :O

Well, he always knew that but to find out that you were smarter than a majority of people gave him a confidence boost

Starts to rely on you for every single question he has possible

Even if he knows the answer, he just wants to see if he's right

He likes it when you info dump to him

Surprisingly, he's a really good listener when it comes to you

Loves listening to you talk for hours on end

THEODORE NOTT

He's not much of a talker, so having you there to info dump on him is really amusing

You're like a walking podcast for him to listen to

Likes to ask you questions too so you can switch topics

He's super proud of seeing how smart you are

Theo is pretty smart, the smartest out of the Slytherin boy group at least (Which isn't that hard) (Tom doesn't count LOL)

So it's nice for him to finally talk to someone that doesn't ask dumb ass questions every 5 minutes

It's like switching his brain off so he can just listen to you talk and explain

It makes him feel safer with you to know that you're so smart and into so many things

He also loves it because it makes it so easy to buy you a gift since he knows exactly what you like :)

LORENZO BERKSHIRE

You're both kinda in the same boat which is amazing and bad

He's also into info dumping and telling you about the niche history he found out

But so are you, so you two end up clashing and having different ideas

Like for example, you were both info dumping about the brand new live actions Avatar the Last Air Bender and you both had drastically different thoughts

Lorenzo thought a lot of it was inaccurate but you were defending it with your life

But in the end, you both just shut up because you accidentally switch topics mid way

He loves asking you questions about niche topics so he doesn't have to research them himself

Likes listening to you talk while he eats

Sometimes he'll facetime you while he has dinner so he can listen to you talk

And sometimes he even calls you before bed so you can talk him to sleep :)

#harry potter #slytherin boys #draco malfoy #draco malfoy x reader #tom riddle #tom riddle x reader #mattheo riddle #mattheo riddle x reader #theodore nott #theodore nott x reader #lorenzo berkshire #lorenzo berkshire x reader #harry potter x reader #slytherin #hogwarts #harry potter fluff #harry potter headcanon

[dlartistanon]

I want to share some interesting discussion about Arturia (and Executor by extension), including some discussion about neurodivergency--a lot of this informs their characters and actions and shines better light on how it can reflect real life.

Also, here's her prequel comic which gives more context

The outcomes of her actions are not often good, but she's definitely not supposed to be evil/malicious/sadistic. She is ideologically driven and, because of her morality axis being different from most, genuinely believes what she's doing is good/correct. She has reason for what she does, such as being opposed to Laterano's limited empathy and discrimination, and what happened in her childhood.

It can be read as a commentary on how the vast majority would rather remain sheep to survive, then be true and (possibly) die.

Her motivation can be summed up as: she wants people to stop repressing themselves. Which theoretically sounds good on paper, but obviously impractical in practice. Sometimes honesty isn't the best policy.

Kriede's fate, his death, was out of his own real volition. What resulted in him wanting to save Ebenholz.

It's unconfirmed, but she may be a victim to her own Arts. She has no inhibitions about removing other people's inhibitions. Or she gaslights herself/disassociates when it comes to her mother's death. She was probably traumatized, but underreacted. To her, Mom dying and using her Arts on her mom are two separate things that have no causation.

She does not regret using her Arts on her mother. She does regret being unable to have helped her mother go further to achieve her dream before she died. Arturia considers it her own failure that Mom died before she reached self-actualization. At the core of it all, Arturia wants to see more people be like her mother, willing to act on what they truly want.

People's despair are all worthy of being addressed and felt and released. That's extremely relevant to her worldview. It's what separates humans from animals acting on instinct. Arturia doesn't care for the Seaborn and thinks they are beneath notice. They are Nothing to her. You can be Good or Evil, but you must be human. Have human desires, because animalistic desire is boring. Human irrationality is what makes them beautiful to her.

People who say that Arturia caused everything to happen in Hortus de Escapismo ignore the fact that the overall situation had been deteriorating long before she set foot there. If anything, she may have just sped up the process of things that were going to happen anyway. Which is not the same as causing it. Looking at it from the perspective of the people living at the monastery, it's reasonable that there would be depressing thoughts floating around everywhere. But the Abbot tells Arturia that her music soothes the pain.

Laterano's response to the situation did nothing to alleviate the actual problem, the material conditions (ie no food). If Arturia's abilities worked the way some people think they do, everyone at the monastery would've been dead in a week or less.

If you're debating jumping off a cliff, then she isn't going to make you jump, nor will she influence you to jump. If someone is worried about Arturia's Arts affecting them, causing them to do bad things they otherwise wouldn't have, because of intrusive thoughts, then they shouldn't even be concerned. Because Arturia is not interested in that. Acting on intrusive thoughts is not what she looks for. It's more akin to helping someone dive deep into their subconscious to face the thing(s) they refuse to face. Some people choose to take this back up with them to the surface. People who contemplate doing bad things for brief moments normally don't have those kinds of thoughts sitting deep within their psyche to drag up.

Arturia obviously needs therapy, but the most important thing to her is whether you have the conviction to act on your desires. Let go and embrace how you truly feel. The extremities of pain and despair (and perhaps even happiness) are among what she values. A very complicated individual.

#dltext #arturia giallo #at worst she's an irresponsible driving instructor and would certainly not be licensed #not the most upstanding person since people have died; but she means well :) #after all; what's so bad about people realizing their potential? #(rhetorical question) #there's a difference between removing restraints/indecision for someone to properly make a choice #and being the person making the choice #someone compared her arts to anti-depression medication; while they don't cause sui/cide #they make your brain functional enough to go through with it; if you really want to #but to write off meds entirely bc of an unfortunate side effect is unreasonable #arknights

[justatalkingface]

Let's talk about the Bakugou Problem

Yes, everyone, it's finally time, what is probably my most requested rant: The Bakugou Problem. Or rather, the Bakugou problems, because there's two:

The first is the fact that he's an unrepentant asshole who is only now, at the end of the manga, truly starting to realize basic shit like 'apologizing'. The second is that, for all intents and purposes, the Bakugou the characters seem to interact with is a different person than what we're being shown.

There's been plenty of deep dives on his issues, so I doubt I'll propose anything new, but this should fun anyways, right? Let's start here:

I think, at the core, Bakugou's problem is he just never grew up.

Way, way back early on, we see some flashbacks to Earlygou, and in summary? Earlygou is an ass. Fun fact: for all that it's commonly held that Bakugou grew worse over time after getting his Quirk? He called Izuku Deku before that. He was just a bit ahead of the class, looked at Izuku's name, and saw 'Deku'. Boom, he starts saying it, and it's only further entrenched in his mind as he outperforms his peers physically, while Izuku lags behind.

Then he gets his Quirk. Let's quote what he's told: 'Ooh, another impressive Quirk! You could be a hero with a Quirk like that, Katsuki!'

I know we all think he got coddled for his Quirk, and later on he was, but that? That was just a teacher giving him the verbal equivalent of a gold star. Meanwhile, Bakugou?

'Makes sense. I'm awesome. I'm better than everyone else!', he thinks, while having this look on this face like he's being enlightened to a Fundamental Truth. He took some generic praise and ran off with it.

So yeah, Earlygou was an ass. Here's the thing: a lot of kids are assholes. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but kids, really young kids who don't get how the world works at all, do and think a lot of impulsive, assholish shit, not because they think the world revolves around them, but because they can't comprehend a world that isn't all about them.

Here's another thing: kids grow out of that. They realize, eventually, that other people matter, that their actions have consequences, and all that other stuff that makes people into functioning adults.

I don't blame Earlygou for being an assholish child. I blame Bakugou for never growing beyond that. And it's interesting to think about that, because his parents seem legit. His dad is quiet, sure, but he's solid and down to earth, and while Bakugou clearly takes after his mother, she also seems to have gotten the 'morals' message he didn't, and has concerns that he didn't do the same. They're not poor, and are working in fashion, and implied to be doing well enough that, if they're not rich, they're at the very least well off.

So... school, I guess? Here's one of the times where the setting suffers for its lack of lower level development, because I would love to see what non-Aldera schools were like. Everyone else in 1A seems like they wouldn't have a major problem with Izuku being Quirkless, or at least be mild enough in their prejudices to not spend their free time torturing him. Is Aldera different? Is it an age thing? Are they just the good eggs and would have had assholish classmates who would act like Aldera did? Would other teachers be OK with how Izuku was treated (my limited understanding of the depressing Japanese view on bullying says, 'yes', but fuck if I know, and honestly, two hundred years in the future, shouldn't they be better than modern Japan)? More than that, the public view on Quirklessness is, for understandable reasons (cough cough Bakugou), highly underdeveloped, so we don't know how much Izuku was treated was the normal, but I think part of the reason Bakugou got so bad is that he had Izuku near him, as this convenient target. By pushing down on the 'acceptable' target, all his peers approved him, cheered him on, which both fed his ego and his popularity, and combined with his high-status Quirk, this cycle continued swelling his head until we reached canon Bakugou, king of all he surveys. The kids follow him, the teachers suck up to him, his potential, his future, all are limitless!!!!

...Sigh. Before I keep going, let me touch on one other thing: Izuku trying to save Bakugou after he fell when they were children.

On the first take, it seems utterly unreasonable, how badly he responded to that, right? And the second, and third, it still seems the same.

Someone, somewhere, said this take in a comment in a fic I read and I've never been able to forget it: think about it from the view of a heroic saturated society.

Think about it from the lenses of MHA, where All Might is a few steps short of a god in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him, especially the kids, and especially Bakugou and Izuku.

Look at that scene again, how Izuku reaches down for him. Overlay him with All Might.

That is what Bakugou saw: Izuku making himself unto All Might. While Izuku just wanted to save him, of course, somewhere deep in his unconcious Bakugou took that symbolism and ran with it, and reached a completely (ir)rational conclusion: Izuku was looking down on him. It went, I imagine, a little something like this:

All Might is the strongest. All Might looks like that when saves other people, who are weaker than him. Izuku is channeling All Might, therefore he is saying that he is stronger than me.

Bakugou, in his child mind, saw Izuku, not as helping him, but T-posing at him. To him, that was Izuku trying to assert dominance.

And he never got over that. Never grew beyond that impression. Do you want to know the worst part about it, though, when you look at it that way?

Think about Bakugou again, and his motivations, with your Bakugou Logic goggles on: All Might is strong. Bakugou wants to be strong like All Might. All Might asserts his power over others by saving them. Therefore?

Bakugou wants to save people like All Might.

Can you imagine if Bakugou was built of that dynamic? Like, with Shirou in Fate, if that scene was etched in his mind forever, and he was obsessed with remaking it over and over, but on his terms, with him as the savior? Him as the one looking down on the weak?

Still canon-style Bakugou, still an asshole, still lusting for power... but when asked what he wanted to do with it, or why, he would answer: so I can save everyone.

And even if it was for the crudest, most self serving of reasons, even if it was only so he could feel good about himself and lord it over everyone else that he was the one who saved them; it would have been so much better than canon. There's so much fascinating complexity to explore in a character like that, as well as a clear path to redeem him: under that logic, Bakugou would, over time, learn to save people, not for his own satisfaction, but just because it's the right thing to do. Hell, even the way people treat him would make more sense, because even if he was an asshole, if his motivation, which he cheerfully shouts about at any given moment, was to save people, then suddenly his acceptance feels more realistic, doesn't it? Him being compared to Izuku as a rival makes more sense when both of them are in it to save everyone, that core of heroism, but each represent a different part of how modern heroism is expressed, with Bakugou as the corrupt, media saturated part of it, while Izuku channels the original, pure spirit of heroics.

Can you imagine that with me? What could have been in another life? It could have been beautiful.

But, sadly, that's nothing more than a dream, and we should return back to reality (though I might want to expand on that at some point, it really does sound interesting to me).

Change and Improvement. These are words that some hold in the air whenever Bakugou is judged harshly, and they wave them like talismans to try and banish others objections.

Let me tell you a truth: change and improvement are hollow words without context. They are a statement that something has happened, not a measure of how much it has happening. In many ways, this is similar to a unit of measurement, like inches, and a number of inches. If you're talking about something, and you say, 'it can be measured in inches'.... that is generally unhelpful. Saying that it is, say, eight inches long is far more useful information.

Still, these aren't exactly moral statements, and change in particular is distinctly amoral. If something has 'improved a little bit' it, you know that it's better, and generally how much. But is it good now? Was it good then?

Let me put it another way: say that, once a day, every day, I appear to you out of the shadows and force you to eat a cup of shit. Exactly a cup, every day, at 2:30 PM, without fail; nothing you do to protect yourself from me makes any difference, nowhere you go is safe. You can't run. You can't hide. I am inevitable. The shit is inevitable. You will eat that shit, no matter what you think about it.

Then, one day, I come with only a half cup, and from then on you are only forced to eat a half cup of shit a day instead of a full one.

Isn't that both a change and an improvement? It's literally half as bad; doesn't that sound like a lot better? Yet, while that may be true, is the situation actually better in a meaningful way, or it as firmly negative as it was before? Should you be mewling gratefully to me that I'm being less horrible to you, or can you still hold a grudge against me for everything I've done to you and continue to do?

What if I apologized, one day, after forcing yet another half cup down your throat? What if I told you that I shouldn't have done it, but the way you looked, the way you acted, that vapid, cow-like look of joy on your face... it was just so shitty that I had to, that you made me do it? Then I say this changes nothing, and that we're still on for tomorrow for your daily dose at the normal time.

Tell me something: do you feel better? Has my generous apology moved your heart? Are we friends now?

This is Izuku's situation in a nutshell. Bakugou's treatment has changed, has improved even. It's reached a point where there are actual differences in Izuku's daily life. That doesn't mean it's still not shit treatment, and it doesn't matter if it's served in a cup or a tablespoon, shit is still shit. And the thing is Bakugou treated him like shit, and he still treats him like shit.

Context matters. So let's talk about the context. Let's talk about what Bakugou did.

Well, first off, there's the Deku thing, but I feel a lot people don't get how bad that is, so let's spell it out in detail. Once upon a time, as I've said, Bakugou was a little better at reading than everyone else. He looked at Izuku's name and saw 'Deku' in this, and thought it was hilarious, and so he started talking about it.

Bakugou looked at his name, and saw Useless in it. He didn't just call Izuku that, he said, this is in your name, it always has been there, to the point that, all these years later, he physically struggles to use Izuku's actual name.

For Izuku's entire childhood, the one person truly on his side, who truly loved him, was his mother.... who gave him that name.

In other words, every time Bakugou called him that name, with that history behind it? Bakugou was telling him that, when Izuku was born, Inko looked at the child she held in her arms, turned to the nurse, and said, "I'll call him... Useless."

He called him this, every day, every time they talked, for over a decade. Saying that the real meaning of the name his mother gave him was useless.

But it's not just that, even. He led the school, his neighbors, effectively everyone Izuku knew in anywhere near his age group, to call him that. There were probably people in Aldera who didn't know Izuku by any other name. There were probably times Izuku thought of himself by that name, that his name was Useless. It's not that big a reach from responding to it as his name, after all, and by the time the story start's he was well trained in responding to it.

Then, there's the more 'basic' bullying; insults, taking his stuff, breaking his stuff, using his Quirk on him. Again, for years and years, until Izuku is beaten down into terrified compliance, where Bakugou blowing up his stuff, his desk, and him* in front of a teacher isn't something anyone even really notices anymore. And why does he do it? Because it's fun. Because he feels strong breaking things, hurting people, being the big man on campus. Because he wants attention, respect, glory.

Because he can. Because it's fun.

(*And isn't that weird, when you think about it? Bakugou has been hands free with his Quirk on Izuku since they were, what, four? Why doesn't Izuku have burns?

Bakugou uses explosions. His hands can burn hot enough (probably as part of the lighting process) to burn clothes, and that's when he's clearly holding back with it. There's no way he's been careful enough, kind enough to not hit skin with that his entire life. So why doesn't Izuku have burns from all that?

Answer? There is no good reason. You can mention how MHA humans are, well, inhumanly strong, but we see heat resistant Shoto being burned with boiling water; it's not like they're immune to it. More than that, though, Izuku is explicitly Quirkless. He is a mortal in a world of magic. He wouldn't have that same kind of resiliency.

So Izuku isn't burned because, A, Hori didn't want his main character to be scarred over, both for aesthetic reasons, and probably for ease of drawing, and B, because that would make Bakugou look worse. Because even then, back when Bakugou had consequences, that would be too much consequences for him, that he permanently scarred Izuku, since the Heroes Rising was the original ending, and Bakugou was always supposed to be redeemed. Hori probably figured, if he thought about it, that that was too far for the readers to forgive him for, and finally, C, he just didn't think about the consequences of Bakugou's actions.

But let's be honest: Izuku would be burned. The fact he isn't is just the prettying up of the situation.)

This is where Bakugou starts from: abusing Izuku to the point where he doesn't dare protest out of years of deeply ingrained terror, doing his best to systematically destroy Izuku's life, while being careful to avoid going too far and damage his chances for UA, which judging by his comment on smoking, may be the only real internal check he has on his behavior.

Because that's the thing; he's cruel, but calculatingly so. He's not a wild animal. It motivates him, but he can think about his actions, think about the possible consequences of them, how they'll react... and as long as they won't harm him, he's all for it.

Then we go to UA, and when he realizes that 'Deku' has a Quirk? Much less such a strong one? He attacks. Viciously, instinctively he goes into attack. He's stopped, but no consequences are given (more on that later), so he doesn't stop. Why would he? All he's learned is this teacher won't let him attack Izuku without a motive.

And then he gets one. Bakugou walks into the Battle Trial planning what he'll do to Izuku. His first words in there are don't dodge... which is especially bad considering what he'll say in a little bit.

His plan? To beat the living shit out of Izuku, to vent all his frustration on him, but stopping just short of it being bad enough for the Trial to be stopped. And as Izuku defies him (by dint of not letting himself be beaten up), he gets angrier and angrier at him for the gall of it, for the audacity to not lay down and let Bakugou beat him up until he feels better, until it reaches the point where Bakugou brings out those gauntlets of him.

'Dammit, Deku, don't dodge me!' 'He won't die if he dodges!'

Yeah. He says both of these things in the space of the same fight. When Bakugou fires that damn gauntlet of his, he's finally reached the point where, for the first time we've seen, he's no longer thinking of the consequences even a little. He wants to kill Izuku, if only to prove that his Quirk, that he, is better (note this too; we'll talk more later about this) than Izuku and his Quirk.

Well, for obvious reasons, that doesn't work out for him, since Izuku's Quirk is the strongest in existence, and small fraction of it, badly used, is still enough to clap Bakugou's attack, enhanced by support equipment (who the hell approved that, by the way? It literally destroys buildings. It seemingly exists for no other reason than to cause massive collateral damage). Then he's forced into an existential crisis when Deku 'wins'. His arm is broken, he's beat up, but by the rules of the game he won anyways and because of that, Bakugou's world collapses.

This, more than anything, I think is Bakugou's true catalyst for change: not being saved by 'Deku', but losing to him. Granted, being saved is enough to force him to avoid him, but it probably helped that Izuku only bought him moments of air. He may have saved him, but All Might did the work, All Might the strongest, the greatest, his idol.

This though? This was Izuku surpassing him, and all on his own.

And I want to pause to consider something here: something that was stressed since the beginning of the story, and still is, besides the terrible mixed messaging at times, is that being heroic is more important to being a hero than sheer ability. Izuku was heroic with his complete lack of ability at the start, after all, while All For One is one of the strongest beings in the setting, and is the farthest thing from heroic. And when you look at Bakugou, as we're introduced to him? There's not a speck of that in him. There's no kindness, no mercy, no sympathy; Bakugou has no positive aspects to him. He has talent, talent for days, but talent isn't a person, a personality. He is a creature of pure ability, and nothing more, and that makes him a singularly unheroic creature.

But the story continues, and Bakugou is forced to confront his own weakness compared to his classmates... except, you know, he doesn't. Even as he does everything wrong, as picks fight with classmates, teachers, villains he should be avoiding... he faces no real consequences for it.

Because, as I've said? Bakugou used lethal force on Izuku. Knowingly. As a teacher tells him not to. That... that sounds like something that even a normal school would be concerned about, much less this elite school that is focused around being a hero, and whose student body is largely comprised of very lethal people, who they intent to unleash upon the world with minimal restrictions on their behavior.

I mean, forget the school; why is All Might fine with this? Aizawa? Nezu? Any of these teachers? How about all of their fellow students, all of who are heroic, and watched this happen live, and All Might's response, no less?

This is the second problem of Bakugou: what they see, talk to, and interact with, doesn't seem to match with the reality that we see, and these two problems are so intertwined that is hard to talk about them separately.

Because on Day One of school, Bakugou attempts to murder his fellow student, and no one cares. The worst he gets is a waggled finger. The fact that he isn't expelled is mind boggling beyond belief, when you pause for a second and consider that fact.

Aizawa talks like he just rough housed too hard or something, and the worse thing All Might mentions is failing the exercise.

This is something that many people have talked about, and at times have named many different ways. For this, I've decided to call it, 'Bakugou's Tsundere Field', because it makes other people act like Bakugou is tsundere, acting tough but with a kind heart, instead of just... acting like a shit person. You know, like he does.

Like I said, it's hard to realistically seperate that from Bakugou's general behavior, so I'm just going to keep going and point it out as I go along.

Next, let's talk about... the Sports Festival. The Sports Festival is where, if you need the reminder, Bakugou starts things off by insulting everyone else and making them hate his class. Twice.

First, by insulting the, admittedly vulture like crowd gawking over 1A's near death experience (I still don't like that), and the second as the valedictorian, where his 'speech' is his two sentence statement that he's going to be first... and yet, for some reason, Izuku watches this and marvels over how he's changed. Because normally, he'd do this but he'd be gloating. Izuku. Izuku. This isn't some mind boggling big thing to be in awe of.

Actually, let's chat about that a bit, because that's honestly such a big problem it's almost a third concern on it's own right: Izuku is our major narrator, right? So we get a lot of our views on Bakugou from his perspective, and... well, he's very much an unreliable narrator, whenever it comes to Bakugou. Every time he talks, there's this sense of awe in it that's been there ever since he was a child; it taints his narrative every time he talks about Bakugou, makes it always more positive than it should be.

Because, wow, Bakugou, that's different from before, an improvement, right? Well guess what? That shit is still shit, even if there's less of it. Izuku is just so biased, so traumatized, such... an abuse victim, that he he takes what Bakugou gives him and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, because he, Deku, has no self respect, and Bakugou is the biggest and the baddest, the most beloved of their childhood, and it's something he never seems to get past. Even when he stands up to Bakugou, fights him, he still can't get past staring at him in awe, and barely ever complains about how he's being treated.

And because Izuku is our main viewpoint? This view on Bakugou taints our view on him, and it's easy to look at him with Izuku's admiring eyes.

But I digress. In the cavalry battle, Bakugou basiclly breaks the rules by flying off the horse, but gets away with it because of a technicality, which, you know, is great impulse to nurture: it's fine as long as it's technically legal! Sounds really heroic, right? Like something you want your law enforcement to live by?

Meanwhile, during this same fight, both Aizawa and All Might praises him for his ambition, and I just. Do you know what Bakugou says right before they think about that?

'I'm going to be Number One and leave piles of bodies in my wake!', he screams, while literally throwing a tantrum on national television and hitting the top of Kirishima's head like it's a desk.

...Wow. You know what? Maybe you two are mixing tenacity with bloodlust. That's one of the least heroic things I've ever heard in my life, and yet everyone just falls over themselves to praise him for it just because he's not content to settle for second place.

It's times like that I have to wonder: are they... are they seeing something different than what we do? Are all of Bakugou's most violent phrases and actions edited out for them? Did Hori add them for his fans? Or is it just The Tsundere Field(TM)?

Not even mentioning third stage where: he's praised for taking a woman 'seriously' for no apparent reason, and dragging it out when he would normally, just like he always does, just leap in mindlessly to attack, and this one time he really thinks it through it backfires when Ochaco turns it back around on him, only for him to just... over power it, with no ill effects. This comes with the double plus stupid on his part of him doing that because he's... what, afraid of her touching him?

Seriously? This entire post exists for me to call Bakugou out, but even I can't call him a coward. Every time he fights a villain, all of which want to kill him, and one who has Ochaco's power but lethal, he still charges in. Moreover, all it does it make you weightless; Bakugou's power explicitly gives him a way around that; if she tosses him, he can just fly back to the stage.

So... why is this a thing? This is a thing so, when the heroes, who at this point are symbolizing the audience's discontent with Bakugou, start complaining, Aizawa can step in, verbally slap them, us, and then explain how great Bakugou is, which get magnified by how casually he shoots down her plan at the end.

And here's the super special bonus problem with all of this: a hero's job isn't to protect themselves. A hero's job is to protect everyone else. Even if they, personally, are hurt, a hero is expected to risk their health, and lives, so that the general public is safe. You want to know what the problem is when protecting yourself and allowing the villain time to do things in the process? It means they get to do things. Like, say, set up a giant meteor shower that could cause mass casualties? You know, like what Ochaco actually did as Bakugou held back?

This is that plan that, need I remind you, Eraserhead was defending.

Then there's the fight with Shoto where, under the actual logic of the setting, according to Hori's very notes on how their Quirks work, Shoto should have froze him and thusly stopped him in his tracks, no fire needed, since it would stop Bakugou from sweating. But, instead, Bakugou powers through, somehow, and clinches a win anyways. And then, and this is after he eavesdrops on Shoto's conversation, BTW, which means he knows exactly why Shoto doesn't use his fire, he throws a fit that Shoto didn't use his fire on him anyways (which, considering he sweats nitroglycerin, means he would have exploded).

Now let's look at the Intern Arc, and I'll be honest: no matter how much a non-character Best Jeanist, I'll always be a fan of him for one simple reason:

When everyone else looked at Bakugou, and says, 'This kid is awesome', this is the one person in the entire setting who saw a problem. And as a bonus, he acts to do something about it.

In the same vein, I'll never forgive Hori for making him seem like such a pretentious twit, much less how hard he ends up cheering for Bakugou's every word later in the series. I'm relooking at these manga chapters, and his big attempt seems to be... jelling up Bakugou's hair, and... something like focusing the body and mind via the power of... tight jeans.

Wow. I mean, wow. The one time we get someone honestly, actually trying to change Bakugou for the better, to call him for what he is, and his big plan to do this is apparently giving him a new look.

Really? Like, beyond how much of a failure of an opportunity this is, beyond how it makes Best Jeanist look useless, it can give the reader that the impression that the reason why Bakugou is so wild and untamed is that those who want to reign him in are elitists who are wildly disconnected to reality, that he is right to be this way, because people following the rules are just holding him back.

And we come to... sigh. The Final Exam test. The fact that anyone who has spent five minutes with Izuku and Bakugou thinks that this clustefuck needs to happen is more proof of the terrifying powers of the TF. I mean, I just... when one person is constantly yelling, constantly aggressive, constantly swearing, constantly throwing fits, and this same person is constantly picking fights with another student, who, at worst, defends himself, and and more often just seems to take it..... what do you think they need?

Is it to be thrown together into a teamwork based, sink or swim test with seemingly enormous penalties for failure? Or is it to make one of them get therapy? And also detention?

Well, according to All Might, Aizawa, Nezu, and who knows who else....

*shrugs helplessly*

If only we could use Bakugou's powers for good, rather than making Izuku suffer.

But we can't. So the school locks an abuser and his victim together in a pseudo-deathmatch where teamwork is required to survive, as a form of therapy to treat the lack of cooperation that comes entirely from one party. Wonderful.

And, as anyone could predict, this promptly goes terribly. Bakugou attacks his teammate for the crime of... *checks notes* trying to work together with him against All Might, the strongest being in the setting. This is such a terrible crime because *checks notes again* ...Bakugou can totally take him.

Bakugou Katsuki, everybody. A 'genius' with the brain of a yipping chihuahua trying to fight a mastiff.

Recovery Girl watches this happen live and just goes, 'They're just absolutely the worst team, those two."

And oh, and I'm going to be honest, when you look at Recovery Girl she's kind of a piece of shit. She barely gets any scenes and any time they involve Izuku (a lot of that small amount) they are pure ass. But this? This just takes the cake.

Wow. They're such bad teammates, sure. Such heroic insight. Why, that's like saying putting Muscular on the same team with Kouta would be a bad team! That would have some truly terrible teamwork as well, right? It's something that is technically correct, but is just.... so heinously missing the core of the problem that you honestly have to wonder what in the actual fuck she's thinking. All Might and Aizawa, at least, have the excuse that they don't see that, at least as far as we know, but she deadass watches it happen, what the fuck.

And, as it has often been pointed out, Bakugou passes, after attacking his teammate and being carried out afterwards while Sero, who heroically sacrifices himself for the win and never once attacks his teammate, loses for exactly the same thing.

Simply marvelous.

Now let's move Training Camp Arc... where, when Bakugou is informed in the middle of an attack by villains that he is the target (and oh, we'll get to that in a moment). What is his first response to this? What does he do?

Le-fucking-roy right at them. Here's something that bothers me about how the story talks about Bakugou: he's so intelligent, he's analytical, all this stuff... but every time he gets into a fight? Or near a fight? His response is always, always to jump in. Needless to say, a heedless charge at the problem backfires, and he's captured. Surprise!

And back to Bakugou as target: the League of Villains watch him on TV and the first thing they thought about him is, I like the cut of his jib.

The worst people look at Bakugou and say he's clearly one of them.

This... this is something that's never really discussed. There's a press conference, Aizawa basiclly says he's too heroic to ever join them (ironically, since Bakugou's argument isn't about heroism or villainy, but that they're losers), and this just... never comes up again. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about anything after Eraserhead gives him that support

No one is concerned that, hey, maybe he did actully join them. Or the man with ten-thousand Quirks did something to him, brainwashed him, and honestly? That's not even a reach. That is actually what AFO was planning to do to him. This is a setting, need I remind you, where actual brainwashing Quirks exist, much less whatever the fuck happens to the Nomu and no one is concerned, after they all agree that there is already a mole, that Bakugou could become another mole, or maybe even was that original mole in the first place. No one goes, 'Hmm, well, the scum of Japan think he's one of them, maybe this is something we should be concerned about?'

I mean, fuck, no one just sits Bakugou down and tells him to pull his shit together, your image is ass and the media is probably going to be watching you until you die, ready to stain you with the accusation of villainy, and they can make your life hell if you slip up, and so far you don't seem even seem to care. Also, your heroic career, that you're oh so concerned about, is never going to get off the ground if everyone thinks your a villain, and a villain will never be Number One.

There's just... nothing. Bakugou is made out of warning signs, one the entire fucking setting ignores at times, but this is just... fuck.

Alright. Bakugou vs Izuku Two; Wank Bakugou Harder!

Actually, no. Before that... let's talk about one of the major lead ups to that: Bakugou finding out about OFA. Why? In part to force him into the plot, sure, but a large part of it is Izuku feeling... guilty. He feels guilty for lying to him, guilty for seeming to have a Quirk of his own; I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just want to talk about how fucked up that mentality is, that he felt he owed Bakugou that. He owes Bakugou nothing. Bakugou isn't his friend, isn't even his acquaintance, he's his abuser. Bakugou doesn't treat him in a way that deserves such sympathy, much less information on one of the greatest secrets in the setting. If Bakugou wants to assume that Izuku somehow hid that he had a Quirk for his entire life? Allowed himself to be constantly beat down, insulted, and mistreated, and for what? For this one gotcha moment of surprising Bakugou? Let him. If he's too stuck in his own idiocies to think of anything else, let him wallow in his own ignorance.

Anyways, BvI2: also known as that time Bakugou pulled his frequent victim aside to attack him and both of them got in trouble for it.

And this is billed as this big thing for Izuku, but he fights against Bakugou, metaphorically, all the time, and he's already had this big moment of physical defiance in BvI1. This fight isn't about Izuku, on any level. This fight exists solely for Bakugou. It starts because he starts it, he starts it because he feels upset and violence is apparently how he sorts through his emotions, and he wins it because he needs to.

But not just because he needs to win, oh no, there's more to that. Thematically, you see, this is important for Bakugou's growth. Or rather, the idea of his growth that never seems to persist between his growth moments. You see, thematically, Bakugou stands for victory via force, but him winning this fight doesn't make him right, doesn't give him All Might's approval, and to him, that's almost a paradox; that paradox is needed to move beyond who he is.

But that's the thing though. Bakugou needs it. Bakugou needs to win for Bakugou's growth. This growth is, both literally and thematically, at the expense of Izuku, because Izuku? If he won this, just... out matched Bakugou in a fight, no tricks, no technicalities, no crippling injuries, none of the things from their first fight? That would have been huge for him, for his confidence. It would have been Izuku, heroic Izuku, finally and truly eclipsing his old bully in every possible way, and that would have been great for him, for his confidence, for his self respect. Moreover, though, that still would have been good for Bakugou, because even when he loses, he never loses, and he could use an actual, humbling defeat to help screw his head on straight.

But Bakugou loses all the time, I hear people say? He lost in their first fight, true, but that's a technicality; anyone looking at them would know who won combat wise. He won the Sports Festival, even though he bitches about how it wasn't 'right'. He loses against All Might, sure, but All Might is the strongest man on the planet; that loss means nothing. Moreover, he wins against him through the goal of the exam at the end anyways. He loses to the villains, sure, but it was a bunch of them against him; it wasn't a fair fight, which is the whole reason him picking it was stupid in the first place. And now, here, he could have finally had a real loss to give him some perspective... but he doesn't.

Moreover, Hori just... hypes up Explosion as a Quirk more than it really deserves. Is it a good Quirk? Strong? Sure. But let's be honest here: he sweats nitroglycerin. Literally, his Quirk is his two parents mashed together into the best possible option, and it's basiclly lazy ass chemistry via genetics. There is, by the very definition of the substance that he explicitly makes, a cap to how much it can do with a certain volume; that's why new, more explosive explosives were made to replace it

One For All, all the heroic thematics aside, is literally just pure power. All Might changes the weather with a punch on accident; I'm convinced if he punched the ground and meant it, he could actually fuck up Japan as a island. The cap with OFA is yes. There is no way, under the logic of the setting, that Bakugou can ever contest that.

Like, look at Endeavour: when he wants more fire, he makes more fire. It's bigger. What the fuck is Bakugou going to do, rain his sweat on people? What happens when he dehydrates, because again, this is his sweat, which comes from his body? Cluster doesn't even make sense, really, that he somehow super concentrates it to make it more powerful, and AP Shot is literally him making a circle with his fingers before blowing up a bomb in it, yet somehow it makes, like, a laser?

The thing is that more loose Quirks, like Endeavour's, again, aren't as limited to science as the more 'realistic' Quirks like Bakugou's, so there's nothing really saying he can't just... make more flames. He could damage himself, sure, but since he already pulls that shit out of nothing, Endeavour increasing the volume of his magic ass firebending isn't hard to accept. Hori wrote himself into a hole here because if Bakugou just made explosions by magic? If he just... conceptually made explosions? A lot of this stuff would make sense (except AP Shot; fuck AP Shot), and it feels like that's how he treats it sometimes. But that's not what he did: it was his Dad's Acid Sweat with his Mom's Glycerin which means he sweats explosive sweat. And then, when it's convenient, he has shit like the Gauntlets, and basiclly all the rest of his support gear, that are explicitly filled with his sweat.

Bakugou's powers are basiclly whatever the fuck Hori wants at any given moment, and it's honestly frustrating when he tried to play so much of this setting's powers so seriously at first, and Bakugou's Quirk in particular is explained more than almost anyone else, and yet he tosses it the moment he thinks of something that sounds cool.

...But I've gotten off topic. The point is, OFA is OP and Izuku should have just won that on pure ability alone.

Anyways, after all this, the teachers finally come, once it's settled in Bakugou's favor, and they're both in trouble. For a fight that was 100% Bakugou's fault.

So, throughout all of this, Bakugou has changed, yes, but beyond the first couple of days, the changes have been grudging and glacial, and the reasons why are best exemplified in the License Exam where we find out that, for all intents and purposes, Bakugou is incapable of showing basic empathy. I mean, fuck, he fails to show that when, with any amount of logic, much less that of the genius Bakugou, would say that now is the time to fake it. An actual, factual sociopath would do better than him, purely because they would know to act for their own betterment.

(And the fact that his teachers look at this, explicit proof that he is seemingly incapable of actually trying to save a person, but do nothing with this information speaks volumes.... mostly about how bad Hori is at writing Bakugou and the implications of what he does constantly. Surely there's no way that, without the Author hyping him up, they'd just let that slide, right? ...Right?)

But, then, hope on the horizon! He has a make up exam, and it's apparently centered around pounding basic morals/how to deal with civilians into his thick skull! Surely, this is the time Bakugou will finally, finally, get the point, right?

And that's the thing: he does. There's this, probably to other people, touching moment where he sees himself in this asshole kid and talks about how you can't just look down on people. And it's like... finally. Finally! The switch has finally been flicked! He gets it! Change, improvement, development, fina-

Then the second he gets out of it he promptly goes back to calling everyone extras.

That dynamic in many ways is the perfect embodiment of Bakugou's development, and it's... It's like watching someone fighting off a disease. There's an infection, right and symptoms increase. Sometimes the symptoms appear out of nowhere, sometimes they increase over the span of several days. They peak, finally, then they fall back down, again either dramatically, or over the span of several days, and then you are back to normal.

Bakugou makes changes. He makes realizations. He gets 'humbled'. He has a single moment of heroism that the narrative hypes up, sometimes with a bit of build up before hand for a few chapters, and with people sometimes reacting to it for a few chapters afterwords.

And then it passes, like he's just finished fighting off a case of Morals.

You see, Bakugou is well liked. And, honestly, I get it. The asshole can be therapeutic to root for, at times. The problem is that he's too popular, and that this story is too about people being good. So Bakugou, to keep the fan base, to keep the sales, has to stay Bakugou, stay the unrepentant asshole constantly telling people to die.

But, at the same time, Bakugou is an anti-hero, basiclly, and this is a setting that just... can't handle the complexity of an anti-hero, in how people react to them, what they do and the morality of it, how it would affect society and so on, and so Bakugou can't stay as Bakugou, has to grow and be better and become a hero proper.

So... Hori goes, 'Why not both?' Thus, Bakugou gets his moments of 'development', and a slow, slow, slow trend to the better, and the fans get to see him do his thing, even though he's 'changed'. And it's easy, when you just sit back and accept the narrative, to believe that. But if you don't....

All of that? It makes his character empty because after a certain point, it's clear that Bakugou won't change, in so many fundamental levels, even if everyone around him acts like he does. Like attacking his teammates, like blindly charging the enemy , like constantly insulting everyone around him is just different because he's The New Bakugou now, like it's just fun and games, even when this was a dead serious problem early on. He didn't stop, he didn't change, or dial it back; everyone else just started acting differently when he does it. The same way in day one he attacks Izuku for having a Quirk, far later on he throws his metal... hair thing at him for daring to talk about his Quirk. And it, like, impales him, but haha! It's just funny now, it's so funny, that we can apparently see Izuku's brain! It's funny that, when Izuku is seriously thinking about his predecessors, Bakugou just instantly insults them for not being famous! Look at how patient Izuku is dealing with him as he acts like a bratty five year old child throwing a fit, look how fond All Might is as he insults his beloved teacher that he probably has deep seated trauma about regarding her untimely death!

In the War Arc, where Bakugou 'Rises'? Maybe ten minutes before his 'Rise', he was threatening to attack Izuku for daring to ask why he's following him. In a war zone.

The entire story, Bakugou has been described as a creature of instinct, a natural born warrior with a talent for battle. All of that is to contrast him with Izuku: where Izuku, instinctively, has the urge to save, Bakugou has the instinctive urge to fight. This is fundamental to him, a core characteristic, one of the (many) ways it's explained about how good he is at fighting.

And yet, suddenly, when Izuku is in danger, he moves without thinking (aka instinctively), but it's not attack Shigaraki, which, you know, he was shouting about doing not too long ago, it's to save Izuku.

And. And am I supposed to believe that?

I mean, fuck. In the FInal Arc, he has a Big Speech in response to SFO: about being 'way over fear and rejection since long ago', which SFO was talking in the context of how they create inequality in society, and how he wants to fix it... which, doesn't that mean Bakugou just doesn't care about them? Because being over them doesn't actually solve them, genius, it just means you, personally, are beyond them, and even now, he still treats everyone like they're unequal to him. Bakugou has always been the one to profit from inequality in society, between his Quirk, his talent, his well off family, so honestly all of that rings hollow.

He talks about how he has friends now, who are willing to move beyond them, and OK, that works a bit better, except when he still doesn't treat them like friends, in fact not too long ago he yelled at Momo for getting his stupid ass chuunibyou name wrong.

Or, maybe a minute later, when Bakugou gets a power up and/or realization about how SFO moves or something, and you know what he does? He instantly charges in blindly, alone, and is killed over it. Right after this speech about teamwork, while everyone was just... cheering his determination, and prissy Best Jeanist says, with a straight face and actual awe, 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'.

And then when he sees Bakugou get smacked around, Eraserhead's first thought is to scream, desperately, 'Save him! Save him so he can try and become the Number One Hero!' in the middle of all this shit that is happening.

All of this is presented to us as this... thrilling thing, with music that is going to be swelling in the background when its animated, and everyone cheering him on, right before he's tragically struck down for being too stupid to live (no, seriously, SFO actually lampshades this. Before this big 'dramatic' moment, he says that getting up close to him is pure idiocy, and all that it will do is allow you to get get smashed by an All Might like power. Then, you know, Bakugou closes in, again, because he had bitchslapped Bakugou before, and then a second time during that boast, and it goes exactly as SFO said) and we're supposed to mourn him. Again, actually, even though this is a blatant set up for him powering up, since this is literally the same set up as the War Arc.

All of this work, all of this emotion, and all of it rings hollow because, well, it's Bakugou, and no amount of trying to hype up teamwork battle is going to make it work for me when the second the Big Moment is over he reverts to his normal asshole routine.

That Tsundere Field, guys. Too strong, too broken.

While I'm at it, let's talk about Bakugou being Quirkist, because, well, he is. It's a big part of his early character: the reason he rags on Izuku so hard, so successfully, the reason he's so big and important as a child, is about Quirks. When they get introduced the past users? His first comment is that they have weak Quirks.

Izuku saves him and he still doesn't think much about him; it's only later when he starts actually acknowledging Izuku.

When he has a Quirk.

And it's not just a Quirk, it's more than that: it's a strong Quirk, powerful. Enough for him to defeat Bakugou. All the respect Bakugou builds for Izuku? And while it stagnates for awhile, I do have to admit he does respect Izuku more than he did originally... and it's not because Izuku is kind, or heroic; he still hates that. No, he starts respecting Izuku because he is strong. His respect isn't about Izuku as a person, it's about Izuku's Quirk. All his respect, slowly built up throughout the series, comes from the corrupt foundation that Izuku is worth respecting only because he has a Quirk. Later, this gets worse because he learns about OFA and starts valuing Izuku as important, but it's only because his Quirk is important. It's All Might's Quirk. His second fight with Izuku is because of it's All Might's Quirk. He starts training him (that one time, and apparently never gain) because it's All Might's Quirk. When Izuku goes 'rogue'? And when he heroically goes to hunt him down? One of the first thing he does is talk about how he's so great because he has One For All, and then calls him an All Might wannabie*.

And you know what? I just talked about Class A hunting down Izuku recently, but let's talk about that more, because I hate it so much.

I really, honestly wonder if Hori is blind to the parallel he set up here, or if he invoked it on purpose, to try and show how Bakugou has 'improved'.

Look back at the first chapter, where we first see Bakugou. Think about that dynamic: Izuku, beaten down, on one side, while on the other, Bakugou. Strong, proud, with minions at his back, all of them ready to throw down at his command.

The thing is? The first time is shown as clearly villainous in nature, a cruel bully against someone who is weak but heroic. The second time, everything is the same, but it's shown differently. Bakugou is being shown as heroic for doing this, heroic for leading Izuku's friends to hunt him down, heroic for attacking him.

*And ah, Bakugou the Hypocrite. Let's finish this up by talking about Bakugou's name. When we first talk about hero names, Bakugou's naming sense is much like it is for his final name, and Midnight promptly shoots down every one of them because, well, they aren't heroic, and the story pokes fun at him a little because he clearly doesn't get it.

Then it's the War Arc. Bakugou has 'grown', there's all this hype for his big heroics moments, and he announces his new name... Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. And I'm just wondering... am I getting punked? This is the the same shit as before! No, actually it's worse than that, it's bigger, longer, and more ridiculous.

The universal response is that it's tacky. Nejire thinks it's disgusting. Mirio literally thinks it's a joke.

But the story itself treats it seriously, and over time? People start accepting it, taking it seriously as well, treating that stupid name with respect. What the fuck kind of hero name has the word murder in it? What kind of hero calls himself a god?

And finally, it's Dynamight. Which resembles All Might, the Greatest, Most Beloved Hero, the one Bakugou has always considered the best and viewed as his goal to surpass.

And yet he says that Izuku, who is calling himself Deku, is the one viewing himself as an All Might wannabie.

#this got way too long #basically an ask at this point #bnha critical #mha critical #bakugou critical #anti bakugo #izuku deserves better #izuku is basiclly an abuse victim #why doesn't izuku have burn scars? #the power dynamics of saving #'change and improvement' are hollow words without context #bakugou's SCP Worthy Tsundere Field #Izuku is an unreliable narrator #AP Shot makes no sense #Bakugou's development is like watching someone get over an infection of Morals

[nordickies]

I have a question, are nations seen as ordinary people or are they seen as famous, like they are celebrities?

How unhinged do you want me to get about this topic? I have so many thoughts but no skills to write them down in a comprehensible manner. I have a lot of ideas on how Nations could potentially work in their universe, so exploring ideas like this is fun. The canon gives us some hints about it, but I love deep-diving into stuff. As a warning, this is how I view the situation and use it in my interpretations. I tag my thoughts on the nationverse as Nordickies Nationverse AU - so just to clarify, I don't even try to explain the canon with this! This is, once again, just my own thoughts and ideas. Feel free to implement them in your work.

The way I think Nations work, it would be impossible to see them as totally detached from the public consciousness. After all, they work for their government - their job description is to represent their country, domestically and internationally. But, how they're supposed to represent their state is a bit different than, say, a Head of State (like a president) would. They're not political personas; in fact, they would probably be pressed to be excessively apolitical. Their political rights would be almost certainly stripped away. They're not equal to their country's citizens in that regard.

While a Head of State would represent a country in diplomatic and political settings, a Nation would represent a country in entertainment, so to speak. These immortals don't hold any authority, so the only purpose they would have is to entertain people - Be the symbolic figure for people who share a national identity. This also makes Nations more people-oriented, easily approachable, and relatable. They regularly visit schools, hospitals, and ceremonies, work as a spokesperson for humanitarian organizations, appear at national celebrations or major events, support their athletes in international competitions, do interviews, etc.

And, of course, a massive part of their job is to uphold relationships with fellow Nations, which is a form of entertainment in itself. That's what the World Meetings are all about, for example. They're not political meetings, and they don't decide anything there. It's like a massive corporate party, just a chance for all the Nations to gather in one place for half a week and have fun. Keep up appearances, meet coworkers, and do networking. It's almost a facade sometimes, but the intentions are good. I think the Nations enjoy that particular side of their job more than anything.

But it hasn't always been like this, and I think the role of Nations has changed a lot throughout history. This sort of "celebrity" status only developed through celebrity culture and expectations of the modern world. Every Nation views their role differently, primarily based on their culture, personality, and even global status. The USA is far more famous than, say, a micronation. Some Nations love the luxurious celebrity lifestyle and genuinely love to meet and work with their people. But others prefer to keep to themselves and avoid publicity as much as possible outside work hours. I don't think there even is an agreed standard on what kind of role a Nation is expected to serve, to be honest - it's all determined by the local culture and government, not to mention Nations that don't even have an independent state! To summarize, some are far more public and famous than others.

But, this public role does come with a heavy burden. Being the representative of potentially millions of people means that Nations are not individuals anymore. They're not supposed to have needs, desires, or opinions - especially if those diverge from the masses or conflict with their state's interests. They don't even have an individual name anymore, and they just carry the name of their land. Their personal experiences don't matter because they're not a person anymore.

Every single thing they do can be praised or criticized (especially nowadays through social media). When their people are divided, whose side are they going to take? Do they serve their people or their government? Who do they really represent at the end of the day? Their government tells them that they represent the people, the nation. But their people may see them as the face of the system. And maybe, in their heart, they don't feel a particular connection to either of them. But that's a scary thought because if they're not here to serve their nation, then what is their purpose?

They didn't exactly ask for this role; they were just put into this situation. Nations don't know what they're doing or why they are here, but they feel this sense of duty and responsibility to be here for their people. Their personal needs, feelings, or even opinions don't matter. They have grown up thinking that they're here for humanity, not for themselves. But sometimes, they catch themselves thinking how unfair it is. They're expected to be perfect, to conform to the norms others have assigned to them. They can't disappoint people, but always put their best face forward and be the picture-perfect representative. But let's be real here, it's always going to be impossible to please everyone. They probably have loud critics, and what would entertainment be without scandals and controversies? It's such a fascinating and complex part of Nations' existence that I love to explore in the Nationverse.

Ah, I got off the rails, but I seriously have so many thoughts on the whole concept. I love developing this AU. I'm a logical person, and I must make sense of everything. I adore overanalyzing media, especially silly media like this. So, figuring out the small details of Nationverse is always fun for me. It really gets my creativity going because I'm curious about worldbuilding overall. If you didn't get it, I apologize. But if you did, I applaud you.

TL;DR: They're celebrities/public figures, but their level of fame and willingness to interact in celebrity culture is totally dependent on their personality and role in society. Some bathe in the public light, and some avoid it like the plague. It's a source of fluff and angst in this AU; I love it <3

#nordickies nationverse au

[hyperanaemia]

Sorry, I don't mean to disappear for months, but I've been getting back into reading comics after taking a super long break to play bg3. So, I've finally gotten around to reading the Knight Terrors: Robin issues that have been sitting in my 'to read' box months after they've been relevant. I’m sure everyone else had a bunch to say when it came out but here’s my two cents. 

The issues just really fall flat to me. Like, I wasn't expecting a two-shot to be a deep dive into Tim's dead-dad trauma or anything, but I do feel like it misses what the core fear/horror that surrounds Jack's death is. 

Like, the KT issues posset that what Tim fears the most is failing to save people, with his dad's death being the figurehead of that. That this failure is what makes him unworthy of being Robin. I'm not going to say that isn't true, that reasoning definitely factors into Tim's trauma. But it also just feels basic to me.

Like, 'failing to save a loved one' is one of the most basic superhero tropes at this point. I'd be hard pressed to think of a hero who hasn't failed to save someone they know. It might as well be a rite of passage.  

(In fact, here's a panel of Tim thinking as such about his parents in an issue literally called Rites of Passage.) 

Also, Tim has already had a 'crisis of faith' arc after failing to save someone with the character of Eldon Adams (Young El). It had a very big impact on Tim and the fallout of that lasted for several issues.

Identity Crisis certainly has its flaws and at times I question the need to kill off Jack in the first place. But, to me anyway, Jack's death is beautifully written and manages to tie his and Tim's decades-long storyline off in an interesting way. 

The important point to make about Tim in relation to all this is that he chooses to be Robin. He was never picked, he was never fated, he was not born to do it. Robin is something he actively chooses to be. At first, it's an easy choice to make. Tim reasons that since his parents are off doing their own thing it won’t be an issue if he’s gone all the time. But, as time goes on, Jack starts spending more time at home, wanting to spend more time with Tim. The issue "resolves" in this instance by having Jack's time get taken up when he starts dating Dana Winters. But this tension continues to be a major subplot throughout Tim’s series. Tim and Jack’s already strained relationship is constantly made worse by Robin.     

Tim feels guilty that his duty as Robin keeps getting in the way of his relationships. Tim's friends like Ives and Ariana are constantly stood up or brushed aside. Anything that ties Tim to the normal life he used to have is always being balanced against Robin. And for as much as Tim tries to maintain it, for as much as he says his normal life is what keeps him grounded when push comes to shove Tim always ends up choosing Robin.  

The thing that makes Jack's death different from all the other parental deaths in the Batfam, and the Identity Crisis did right, is that they made it a direct consequence of Tim choosing to be Robin. Bruce's parents were killed at random. Dick's were targeted in a situation outside of his control. Jason's mother was killed for her involvement with the Joker, which started before he even met her (and his dad with Two-Face).  

Jack was killed because his son was Robin. In Identity Crisis, Jean Loring targets the family members of heroes. She never would have hired Captain Boomerang to kill Jack if Tim wasn't Robin.  

(Obviously, none of this is to minimize any of these characters' pain or to say one is worse than another.)   

The added twist of the knife is that Tim had been spending that week with Jack instead of helping everyone find the killer. It's the one night that Tim chooses to go out as Robin again that Jack is killed. If Tim had stayed just one more night, even just one more hour, he could have saved his dad. And Jack lets him go because he knows how important Robin is to Tim.

This is more of an aside, I love this sequence of Tim ripping off his Robin uniform. Like obviously the intention is that Tim can't be seen wearing it when the police arrive. But the subtext to me reads that Tim is ripping Robin off, this thing that's come between them at every moment. Tim, before he even knows if Jack is alive or dead, doesn't want Robin to come between them anymore.

And Jack's death is something of a 'point of no return' for Tim. Before this, many of the people who know Tim is Robin have pointed out that he could always return to a normal life if he wanted to. Tim himself believes that he'll probably retire being Robin at some point. (I have my own thoughts that aren't relevant here about how that's more about him being practical as opposed to his genuine wish for his future, but I digress.) But after this, Tim is locked into the vigilante life. There's nothing normal he could return to. If he can’t be good at this, then what was the point? 

KT Robin just feels uninspired. It doesn't try to extract what makes Jack's death unique or interesting. It just picks the most surface-level takeaway you could have from it. Like, it's not just about being not good enough for the job. It's losing everything because you chose to do this job and you still don't know if you're good enough to do it.

#sephs comic reading tag #tim drake #jack drake #my 'in order' reading list has me around the start of Cataclysm right now #and it's been a few months since I've read Id Crisis so forgive me if I'm misremembering anything

[theographos]

Baldur's Gate 3 deserved to win.

If you're a stranger to the video game community, let me give you the context of this post :

The Game Awards of 2023 happened this thursday. And for the nomines of Best Game of 2023 we had Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Marvel's Spider-man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda : Tears of the kingdom. And the winner happened to be Baldur's Gate 3.

And ever since then we can see the salty reactions of fans of Spiderman 2, who were baffled at the results. Some argue that Baldur's Gate 3 has nothing more to offer than Spiderman 2, and there are even people who claim that they never heard of Baldur's Gate 3. A statement that I find odd, because even if I'm only briefly present amongst the video game community, even I was perfectly aware of how successful Baldur's Gate 3 has been since its release in August 2023.

Before I dive into another rant of mine, I would like to say that if you never heard of Baldur's Gate 3, it's a video game based on Dungeons and Dragons (with some minor worldbuilding differences apparently) and who work just like a D&D campaign : you role dices to know if your attack landed or not, it's a turn-based game, roleplay is encouraged. It's playable on PC and on Playstation and it offers a multiplayer gamemode.

Now let's dive into the rant shall we ?

Disclaimer

I do not consider Marvel's Spiderman 2 bad, and i'm no video game expert either. So don't expect some deep dive into both of the game's gameplay or graphism. It's just not what i'm good at. What I'm good at however is to pinpoint the content present in those games, and that's what i'm going to do.

Baldur's Gate or not, Spiderman had no chance to win.

I mean have you seen the nomines ? First of all there is a Zelda. It would be unwise to pretend like Tears of the Kingdom has not been a major hit ever since it came out. It doesn't matter if you like Zelda or not, the facts are here : Tears of the Kingdom is really good. Yes it has its bad sides, just like every game really, but it's still good ! But seeing the results of the different categories they were nominated, I would say that they had equal chances. Because for the Player's Voice Award and the Best-Game Direction they were both nominated, but none of them win. It shows that in 2 of their shared best aspects, there was still better than them, and a 50/50 is not a guaranted win.

Next we have Alan Wake 2, who also won the Best Game Direction Award, the Best Narrative Award and the Best Art Direction Award. Spiderman 2 was nominated for Best Game Direction and Best Game Narrative but didn't win. Again, if we take a look at the facts, Spiderman had no chance to win ! Again it's not because it's not a good game, it's because another game did even better. I mean Alan Wake 2 has a level of storytelling close to Inception, visuals that mix real-life footage and game footage and fans of the Remedy Connected Universe (the sort of game franchise that Alan Wake 2 is part of) have been waiting for this game ever since 2013. (the creator said at that time that because of the lack of success of the first Alan Wake, the studios weren't interested in a sequel at that time.) Meanwhile, Spiderman 2 has been teased ever since 2020. This time Spiderman 2 had a severe disadvantage compared to Alan Wake.

I will not pronounce myself about Resident Evil 4 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, since I don't have enough knowledge about theses games. All I can say is that those two games also come from a successful franchise just like Zelda and just like Spiderman.

But why did Baldur's Gate 3 won then ?

If we look at the results of the award, it was no surprise. They won the Player's Voice award, Best RPG Award, Best Multiplayer Game Award, Best Community Support Award and Best Performance Award (Neil Newborn's performance with the character Astarion. If you never saw it, just go ahead, your ears will thank me. He can go from cocky to sassy to evil to dominant to soft without a difficulty) and were nominated in 4 other categories. Meanwhile Spiderman 2 was nominated in 8 categories and won none of them. So from a factual point of view, it means that Spiderman 2 is good, but not the best.

Now if we look at the game itself, it's absurd to even believe that Spider-man 2 would ever win. Let me list you a bunch of contents that are available in Baldur's Gate 3 :

First of all you have tons of option to customize your character. Not just from an aesthetic point of view, but also a gameplay point of view. First of all you have 11 races available for your character, with 40 sub-races, all giving you different stats and different ways to play and/or build your character. Then you have the classes, with 12 main classes and 46 sub-classes, and again they all give different stats and different ways to play your character. So with that you can play the game 5 times and will not have the same combat experience each time.

Oh you don't want to spend too much time on character creation ? It's fine because they give you 7 pre-defined characters with their own identity and their own stories, that you can even personnalize on top of it. So again, you can play this game entirely 7 times and you will have a different experience each time.

Like D&D you will have a party accompany you, a group of people with whom you travel. These characters are romanceable and also have their own quest on the side, quest that have at least two different outcomes with major changes for the character in question. So here you have at least two reasons to replay the game, like that you can experience both ends of your favorite character's quest.

Baldur's gate 3 is a game based on choices. I am a big fan of visual novels, in which your choices matters a lot, so i'm fully aware of what it means to have choices with almost every dialogue of the game. But if you're not, just you know that you cannot experience the entire game in a row. You have to do at least twice each dialogue to fully experience it.

Baldur's Gate is also a game based on a roll of dice. You can look at a painting, roll a perception check, fail and find nothing, but if you replay the game or retry, you could win it and discover that actually that painting is a map towards a treasure. So you could have missed a ton of hidden quest without even knowing it, just because you didn't talk to the right pnj or won a particular roll of dice.

Last but not least, there is three different difficulties for the game. So three reasons to replay the game if you want to enjoy it to its fullest.

And like I said, Spiderman 2 is really good, I mean it wasn't nominated as Game of the Year for nothing, but it is not able to keep up with a game like Baldur's Gate 3, which proposes hundreds of hours of new content.

Conclusion

I think I have talked enough about how much Baldur's Gate 3 deserved to win, and why it's so popular. But Spiderman 2 isn't a total failure you know ?

Even if it didn't win, it was still nominated in 8 different categories, which is really good ! Out of all the games who were out in 2023, Spiderman 2 has been nominated for the award, he's still in the top 5 of the bestest games of the year for The Game Awards !

A nomination is not something to overlook, because it still means that you won in some kind. Sure it's not as great as an award, but it's still something to brag about !

If we look at last year's numbers, there was around 10 000 games who released in 2022, and we can only guess that we got to 11 000 games in 2023. Again, in 11 000 games, Marvel's Spider-man 2 was chosen in the top 5 of the best games for this year, 5 out of 11 000 is roughly 0.45%, so really it's a great victory !

Spider-man 2 still won something, it's still considered as a good game if we follow the Award's opinion. Not the bestest, but still good enough to be part of the 0.45% of games chosen for the award of the Best Game of 2023.

#i really don't understand why y'all are mad #like being nominated isn't bad? #it's still a win wtf #and wdym you never heard of it ? #it's really talked about in the game community #maybe not as much anymore #but in august it was #and it's not like it was only for the girlies and the gays #i'm confused why the “pro gamers of years” would have never heard of it #and for those who aren't really in the gaming community and who didn't heard of it #well that's understandable #yk it's just not your thing #i even saw people saying that spiderman 2 had more content #more content than a dnd based game ? #that's optimistic #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #neil newbon #video games #game awards #the game awards #the game awards 2023 #game awards 2023 #marvel's spider man 2 #spiderman 2 ps5 #spiderman 2 game #spiderman ii ps5 #marvel's spiderman ii #pc games #ps5 games

[soulflame22]

hey! ive been super fixated on aot, so here is my deep dive into episode one of attack on titan. this is mostly the foreshadowing things but there are some extras.

MAJOR AOT SPOILERS AHEAD

• the title being: "To you, in 2,000 years" i am assuming "to you" is related to ymir fritz as "2000 years" is how many years since ymir got the shifters. my best theory with this is its ymir talking to armin possibly? armin and mikasa did what she could never do and killed off "the one they were in love with" the one who had all the power and was abusing it. armins the narrator in the first 3 seasons so i think thatd make sense. ive looked into what other peoples theories were and there are definitely quite a few, but this is the one that makes the most sense to me.

• in the opening scene birds are flying around. when eren wakes up, they scatter away from him. the birds represent freedom, and they're taunting him

• before eren opens his eyes he has a quick flashback, a bunch of things in the so called future that happen. this is in reference to how he sees the past the present and the future all at once. he got flashes of what was going to happen in the future.

• when eren wakes up, he says he forgot what he was dreaming about, and then mikasa brings up he was crying. this had more to do with the founding titan power, "it wasn't his time yet to know". but he was crying regardless because all of the tragedies that will await him (mikasa brings up this again in the episode)

• during this scene hes also sitting at the base of the tree he was later burried at

• throughout the first episode, even before the walls got attacked, you can see erens drive. a lot of people have been asking how much of what happened was eren and how much was the founding titan. he yells at hannes showing his anger and passion about what may be outside the walls. he goes to attack a man, goes to attack armins bullies, and he fights back as hard as he can when hannes is dragging him away from his mother. it is clear he is very passionate about those who he cares about in the beginning of the series, and in the end.

• erwin is seen in this episode after coming back from outside the walls. all throughout this episode people are saying that no new information is being learned and people are dying for nothing. but erwin didnt believe that. ever since his father taught young erwin about his theories, erwin thought there was something new outside the walls, some sort of secret. and he was right.

• eren throughout this episode keeps bringing up the outside of the walls. before his mom even died, he wanted to know. but it was something more than just the average curiosity. when grisha offers to show him whats in the storage, his eyes light up. more with the founding titan subconsciously leading him down the unfortunate past

• this encounter - bully: "or does your philosophy say its wrong to fight back too?" armin: "as a matter of fact it does, I rather take a few bumps then brawl like a beast!" i just think this encounter is ironic. parts of it do hold true, he does try to talk things through always before fighting, but in the end he did have to fight. and he did a lot of it.

• mikasas ackerman blood is also apparent in this episode. people are naturally intimidated by her because of how strong she was at such a young age. after all, fighting does run in their blood.

• "besides whats beyond the wall tends to put the issue into a different perspective" -hannes. this is interesting to me because hannes said it in a shallow way, referring to how stupid the titans were. but the people outside the walls do view things from a completely different perspective then them. he was right, even though he didn't mean to be

• armin called it: "[talking about how the walls are a false sense of security] and make no mistake, it absolutely is fleeting. the walls can't hold forever. only a matter of time" right after this is said, the collasal titan appears. but i think it's also interesting because he's right, the walls DIDN'T hold. instead the titans within them left them crumbling, destroying them entirely

• the collasal titan is huge, they would have seen it approaching, but it just seemed to appear. it also seemes to just disappear. this is in reference to the shifting power of titans

• erens immediate thought was to go down to his house to save his mom. the irony here being he was the one who sent the smiling titan (aka dina fritz) there.

• carla (erens mom) legs seemed to be crushed and broken under the house, but when the titan lifts her, she seems to be moving her legs just fine. were they just not crushed that badly? or was she trying to save eren and mikasa?

#aot #attack on titan #anime #aot final season #aot final episode #aot finale spoilers #aot spoilers #aot eren #eren jaeger #eren yeager #eremika #armin arlert #ymir fritz #levi ackerman #grisha jaeger #carla jaeger #smilingtitan #dina fritz

[deadpresidents]

Would you say Biden has been a better president (so far) than Obama?

That's an interesting question. Obama had a really tough first three years. He inherited two raging wars that were not going well at all and an even worse economic crisis than the pandemic's aftermath. Sometimes, I think people forgot how scary the Great Recession got between 2008 and 2010. All Presidents are forced to hit the ground running on Inauguration Day, but the Obama Administration had a five-alarm economic fire to put out from the moment he took the oath. It required expending a ton of political capital just to get things steady and heading in the right direction. And then the Democrats got slaughtered in the 2010 midterm elections.

So almost all of Obama's first term was spent climbing out of a deep hole and despite the fact that he had some major legislative accomplishments from pretty early on in his Presidency, he really didn't start finding his footing until 2011. I was highly critical of the Obama Administration's communications strategy during his first term because he had some massive legislative victories (the Recovery Act, repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, the 2010 tax reform bill, Dodd-Frank, S-CHIP, and, obviously, the Affordable Care Act), but they fumbled some of the rollouts and did a lousy job promoting the impact of those accomplishments and their successes in implementing TARP. That started to improve after the 2010 midterms and as Obama became more comfortable in the White House. Remember, when he was elected President in 2008, he had only had three years of experience in Washington as a junior Senator -- and, quite frankly, he spent a lot of that time building a Presidential campaign and running for the Presidency. No one is ever completely ready to be President on day one, but Obama needed a lot more on-the-job training about Washington politics than, say, George H.W. Bush or Biden. After President Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and started diving into the 2012 reelection campaign cycle, he was on a roll. He also seemed to do a better job arguing his points when he had the foil of an opposing party in control of a Congressional chamber after the 2010 midterms. But it was rough for most of that first term, even though it seems like he was chalking up legislative victories at first glance.

Biden had the advantage of eight years as an influential Vice President and nearly 40 years as a powerful U.S. Senator. There are few Presidents in all of American history who had more Washington experience than Joe Biden did on Inauguration Day. He also was succeeding the worst President in history; someone who had bungled the biggest health crisis in modern memory, been impeached twice and had just incited an insurrection that attacked the U.S. Capitol and tried to overturn an election. It's not that he had an easier task -- not by any means -- but Biden would have really needed to fuck up right out of the gate in order to have done worse than his predecessor.

The Biden Administration has clearly had its struggles, as well, but I think his team was far better prepared to tackle those problems than Obama's was during Obama's first term. Of course, most of the Biden Administration had worked in Obama's Administration, so they knew what they were doing by that point, and they communicated far more effectively. I think the biggest individual legislative victories and policy accomplishments of Obama's first term were probably bigger than any of Biden's individual achievements, but Biden's may have been more immediately impactful to more people, if that makes any sense. I also think that the fact that President Biden’s party performed so well in his first midterm election will also be remembered as a big victory because that just doesn't usually happen historically, and future historians will see it as even more impressive in contrast with the political climate in which it occurred.

After all of that, I recognize that I still didn't really answer your question! I honestly don't know. It always requires time to be able to properly judge Presidencies, especially when comparing them to others, so it's just too difficult for me to give a clear answer while we're still in the middle of Biden's first term. And I believe a President's job performance has to be rated on more than just legislative achievements, so other aspects of the job should be factored in. Did they inspire change? Did they provide moral leadership? How did they respond to the crises unique to their specific times? Did they have a certain vision or an agenda and how much of that mission did they accomplish? How did they meet international challenges and did they provide the global leadership that the rest of the world has sought from American Presidents since World War II? Did they fulfill their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution? Was the country in a better place on the day their term ended than the day they were sworn in? It requires much deeper thought and a closer examination of how the Presidents led the country within the context of the times they presided over. I understand that I ended up asking more questions than answering, but it's just never quite as simple as looking at a scoreboard of legislative victories and policy failures.

#Presidents #History #Presidential History #Barack Obama #President Obama #Obama Administration #Joe Biden #President Biden #Biden Administration #Presidential Leadership #Presidential Performance #Politics #Political History #First term

[nordleuchten]

Hamilton vs. History

As most people are certainly aware of, Hamilton: An American Musical is not an exact representation of history and never wanted to be one. But when a pop-culture medium is so widespread and in certain places almost as omnipresent as Hamilton is, there will always be a blend between fact and fiction. Certain aspects of fiction or pop-culture simply make such a strong impression on us, that they shape our view on reality/history. Some aspects appear so much more fun, so much brighter in fiction, that we often do not want to know weather said aspect really happened this way. Some other details are so minor, that they are hard to catch if you are not deeply interested in the topic at hand.

Since I do know a thing or two about La Fayette, I thought I take a little deep dive into his depiction in Hamilton.

As a little disclaimer, while I have read the book Hamilton by Ron Chernow and listened to the official cast recording, I have never seen an actual production and can therefore not take into account what the actors do on stage.

Appearance:

I would have hoped that I do not have to say it, but I have made the experience in the past that I indeed do have so say it; La Fayette was not dark skinned. He was as white as the rest of influential America and Europa at that time.

As to his costume, well, he wears two uniforms throughout the play (plus the white suit at the beginning and in the end and his civilian clothes at the beginning of Act I)

His first uniform is identical with Mulligan’s, Laurens’ and Hamilton’s uniform – not quite right since he was a Major-General and the others were not. A more suitable uniform would have looked something like this:

The second, and probably more prominent uniform, is this one:

La Fayette wore this uniform as a lieutenant general in 1791 towards the end of his military service during the French Revolution, so roughly a decade later, in a different country during a different revolution.

Aaron Burr, Sir

With this song we are introduced to La Fayette for the first time. As a disclaimer, La Fayette never met Hercules Mulligan, had very little contact with Aaron Burr and he also met Hamilton and Laurens at the same time.

[LAFAYETTE]

Oui oui, mon ami, je m'appelle Lafayette!

The Lancelot of the revolutionary set!

I came from afar just to say “Bonsoir!”

Tell the King “Casse toi!” Who's the best?

C'est moi!

I like that La Fayette is speaking French in his opening lyrics because by the time of his arrival in America he only had a very limited knowledge of the English language and he needed a few extra months to feel entirely comfortable. Hamilton and Laurens both spoke French and this circumstance really helped in building their friendship.

La Fayette also makes a remark regarding the legendary (often described as French) knight Lancelot du Lac. Quite fitting, given that La Fayette hailed from a line of literally knights and these were stories and (self-)characterisations that he was quite attached to.

Other than that, the song is a bit too bubbly for my taste. Yes, La Fayette could be extremely energetic and optimistic, but he could also be incredibly self-conscious. He knew that he had no practical knowledge, that he barely understood the language, that his age was working against him, he even told Washington that he came to learn and not to teach – he would have never said “Who’s the best? C’est moi!” And while we are at it, he also did not like swearing.

My Shot

[LAFAYETTE]

I dream of life without a monarchy

The unrest in France will lead to 'onarchy?

'Onarchy? How you say, how you s-oh, 'anarchy!'

When I fight, I make the other side panicky

With my—

I suspect that the first line is directed towards the French monarchy, since France was where the vast majority of his life took place. If so – no, La Fayette did not dream of life without a monarchy. Later, during the French Revolution he was critical of the monarchy but never wanted to abolish it. He was not called a Counter-Revolutionary and Royalist by his enemies for no reason.

While yes, there had been unrests long before the French Revolution, as we know it, started, these problems were at this time of his life not on La Fayette’s mind.

As to making the other side “panicky”, well, La Fayette had no practically military experience at this point so there were very few people whom he made “panicky” (and I think half of them were members of the Continental Congress and Continental Army.)

But once again, I like La Fayette’s struggle with the English language.

The Story of Tonight

[LAFAYETTE/MULLIGANS/LAURENS]

I may not live to see our glory!

This line is rather interesting because while, yes, many of La Fayette’s ancestors have died young, his own father among them, and while La Fayette himself had been wounded early on in the Battle of Brandywine and also had been severely ill several times, he wrote these lines to his Adrienne on January 6, 1777 in regards to the birth of their second daughter Anastasie:

For the rest, if one must worry about the family name, I declare that I have decided to live long enough to bear it myself for many years, before I am obliged to bequeath it to another being.

Idzerda Stanley J. et al., editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790, Volume 1, December 7, 1776–March 30, 1778, Cornell University Press, 1977, p. 222-226.

He certainly was full of optimism to see their glory.

[LAFAYETTE]

Let's have another round tonight!

La Fayette was definitely not averse to a drink or two or fife with his friends. This line is very much in character.

The Story of Tonight (Reprise)

I would like to preface this song by saying that neither La Fayette, nor Laurens, nor Mulligan nor Burr were present at Hamilton’s wedding. The only guest on Hamilton’s side of the wedding party was Doctor James McHenry, former aide-de-camp to Washington and now an aide-de-camp to La Fayette

[LAFAYETTE]

Let's have another round tonight!

As I said previously, this is definitely something that La Fayette would have said. :-)

[LAFAYETTE]

You are the worst, Burr!

There is no reason to believe that La Fayette, even when a bit tipsy, had any ill feelings towards Burr. In fact, La Fayette had very few feelings towards Burr because he mentions the good Sir almost never. There are six letters in total, both to and from La Fayette, that mention Burr and the earliest is from 1807.

Stay Alive

[LAFAYETTE]

I ask for French aid, I pray that France has sent a ship

La Fayette lobbied extensively for the American cause, even before his first voyage home again to France.

[WASHINGTON]

Have Lafayette take the lead!

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

As we snatch a stalemate from the jaws of defeat

The Battle of Monmouth was a wild. Washington offered the command to Lee, who was not interested so Washington went to La Fayette, who gladly accepted the command. Suddenly, Lee’s interest was renewed, and he took command after all. The battle itself was disaster but La Fayette never officially took command but instead worked with Lee to try and safe the day and he was also in command of his own little sub-division.

Guns and Ships

La Fayette's most prominent number in the musical.

[LAFAYETTE]

I’m takin this horse by the reins makin’

Redcoats redder with bloodstains

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

And I’m never gonna stop until I make ‘em

Drop and burn ‘em up and scatter their remains, I’m

[COMPANY]

Lafayette!

[LAFAYETTE]

Watch me engagin’ em! Escapin’ em!

Enragin’ em! I’m—

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

I go to France for more funds

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

I come back with more

[LAFAYETTE AND ENSEMBLE]

Guns

And ships

And so the balance shifts

La Fayette went to France in 1779 and returned to America in 1780. He brought with him the promise of “guns and ships” but the French aide needed some time to arrive.

[LAFAYETTE]

We can end this war at Yorktown, cut them off at sea, but

For this to succeed, there is someone else we need:

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

Sir, he knows what to do in a trench

Ingenuitive and fluent in French, I mean—

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

Sir, you’re gonna have to use him eventually

What’s he gonna do on the bench? I mean—

(…)

[LAFAYETTE]

No one has more resilience

Or matches my practical tactical brilliance—

By the time of La Fayette’s return to America, Yorktown was not yet chosen, or better destined, to be the decisive battle in the Revolutionary War, especially since Washington and the French commanders had different ideas about how to proceed.

La Fayette did try to mend Washington’s and Hamilton’s relationship, not only by talking with Washington but also with Hamilton. And no, he would have never said, that he was tactically brilliant – because he was not, simple as that.

Yorktown (the World Turned Upside Down)

[LAFAYETTE]

Monsieur Hamilton

[HAMILTON]

Monsieur Lafayette

[LAFAYETTE]

In command where you belong

[HAMILTON]

How you say, no sweat

We're finally on the field. We’ve had quite a run

[LAFAYETTE]

Immigrants:

[HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE]

We get the job done

This is such a lovely scene, isn’t it? But it never happened like that, quite the opposite actually. La Fayette chose one of his former aide-de-camps, Jean-Joseph Soubadère de Gimat, to take command of the storming of redoubt number 10. Hamilton was eager to be given the command but when La Fayette refused he went straight to Washington who decided in Hamilton’s favour and overruled La Fayette’s decision. While in the end this incident did not harm La Fayette’s and Hamilton’s friendship, La Fayette was anything but happy with the situation.

[HAMILTON]

So what happens if we win?

[LAFAYETTE]

I go back to France

I bring freedom to my people if I’m given the chance

As I have now already mentioned a couple of times, at this time there was not really any freedom that La Fayette wanted to bring to France. There were certainly political and social matters that he was interested in and some laws that he would have liked to see reformed – but I feel like these lines imply a fixed agenda that simply was not there yet.

[HAMILTON]

When we finally drive the British away

Lafayette is there waiting—

[HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE]

In Chesapeake Bay!

La Fayette and his troops played a vital role in cornering and keeping the British troops in Yorktown by making a retreat by land impossible.

[LAFAYETTE]

Freedom for America, freedom for France!

Again, freedom for France was not yet on the forefront of La Fayette’s mind.

Cabinet Battle #2

[Jefferson]

Did you forget Lafayette?

[Hamilton]

What?

[Jefferson]

Have you an ounce of regret?

You accumulate debt, you accumulate power

Yet in their hour of need, you forget

[Hamilton]

Lafayette’s a smart man, he’ll be fine

And before he was your friend, he was mine

If we try to fight in every revolution in the world, we never stop

Where do we draw the line?

La Fayette’s imprisonment was a headache inducing topic for many people at the time. Neither Hamilton, nor Jefferson, nor Washington for that matter, had forgotten La Fayette, but there was very little that could be done from their positions. What could be done however, was done and Hamilton and Jefferson both helped. Interesting is here the change of roles – Jefferson accuses Hamilton of not caring while Hamilton himself is rather optimistic. In reality it was Hamilton who did way more for La Fayette, even taking his son in, while Jefferson, although concerned and helpful, sometimes had a mindset of “Well, it is a revolution, shit happens.”

This post is not intended as a critique of the musical or the people who like it and listen to it, this is simply a little note for the curious. :-)

#marquis de lafayette #la fayette #american history #french history #french revolution #american revolution #alexander hamilton #john laurens #hercules mulligan #aaron burr #adrienne de lafayette #adrienne de noailles #letters #hamilton an american musical #hamilton musical #art #charles lee #george washington #1779 #1780 #1791 #battle of monmouth

[mdhwrites]

What's your opinion in The Owl House villains? (The bad guys I mean not the misunderstood ones)

So the villains I haven't discussed yet mostly boil down to the one off villains and the coven heads, though the coven heads are effectively the one off villains of S2. I would also count Tibbles in this because him coming back from time to time hardly matters to the broader point. THEY'RE ALL THE FUCKING SAME. They're all just some sort of asshole out for selfish greed who barely actually interacts with the characters. The best of all of these is King's Publisher and that's mostly just because he's the one that actually has a neat magical gimmick to him that feels genuinely threatening and creative. Everyone else is fine at best, boring at worst. But it's hard to really care because none of them really matter. Even Tibbles is just there to facilitate higher stakes and barely that even for the most part with how things are framed. They're never given interesting personalities, they're never given much to do and most usually have at best one fun moment that might make them memorable or a good design and then move on. They're also the majority of the demon representation of the show, while there are no good demons (unless you count Hooty who is comic relief) amongst the main cast. The only reoccurring one that could be considered good is Big Nose, Dana's literal self insert. That's not a joke, that's what Dana has said from what I hear. And it's really awkward the fact that the ugly demons are contrasted so heavily with all the beautiful elven people. Honestly, the more people around me have talked about it, the more I probably need to do a deep dive on both how bad the implications of the twin races and beauty standards are (even Luz would be considered easily conventionally attractive and Willow is the definition of "More to love" when it comes to including a heavier set character) and why it's probably not done with the malice or the like. But let's actually swing back around to a more fundamental problem with the literal narrative structure of most of these one off villains. See, when Amphibia uses a monster escalate stakes, it's usually related to the actual plot. As an example: The lovebirds being used during a romance episode so they are thematically on point. Or giant flies highlighting the garbage that Hop Pop is selling and the larger rot he is introducing to the town. You don't get to say that with most of the one off villains. They have a point to be there but they're so business minded that they don't contrast or help the moral or thematic point of any given episode. Not only is this just pointless storytelling, it creates a deeper, more fundamental issue of them not being able to properly able to interact with the cast. Hooty's Moving Hassle is actually one of the best examples of this. In BOTH plots, the escalation caused by the villain only matters in that it facilitates downtime for the characters to talk to each other. Gus, Willow and Luz aren't interacting with people who think might is right and thus putting Willow down for her weakness but instead the angst is focused on Amity, making her the 'real' antagonist of the A plot to the point where the hunters effectively don't interact with the kids outside of threatening their lives and that doesn't say anything about anything going on. The only memorable thing about them is the line about wanting to shove kids off of cliffs because that is just genuinely an amazing joke. They at least DO get a resolution that is thematically coherent because the situation the kids are put in can only be fixed by Willow finding confidence and taking them all out. It's not a good ending because it's too easy and we don't even get to actually enjoy a fight out of it but it is narratively coherent at least.

Meanwhile, in the B plot, that side of the episode is effectively about Hubris and admittedly, Eda gets in trouble for assuming she's the best Hex'em Hold Em' player out there. But what happens after that? Eda, who only picked up the game this episode so it feels incredibly forced that she is this obsessive with it (which isn't technically bad for a kid's show but bad for TOH which wants to be serialized), talks to King, feels bad, promises to throw the cards away and then they luck into being saved when Hooty crushes the stall. There isn't an actual resolution that shows any growth or thought on Eda's part, just convenience and words while Tibbles isn't really being arrogant but smart. He also is barely interacting with the two besides treating King as a doll which is an excuse to put him in funny outfits but him being treated as a child, even by episode six, is getting repetitive by then and they don't do anything clever with the outfits besides the most obvious 'this is embarrassing' ones that any show does. And those are BOTH villains the show will use again but still not manage to ever find an actual thematic purpose to them. It's honestly bizarre that TOH sets up a rogue's gallery at all instead of just allowing it to be either the EC or the world that is the threat. Oh wait, they also do that which means no one gets to return more than twice after their initial showing besides FUCKING KIKIMORA. This even goes for fucking Hunter and Belos who barely get to be in the show, let alone as antagonists properly, because they're just throwing in too many of these wastes of space. And all of this is without getting into the fact that none of them come off as real threats. Because so often they have no part in the actual drama and their treating it businesslike, they're not actually even menacing the characters much. They're just doing the same thing they always do. I'll give Tibbles that at least. He seems to be reveling in being a villain instead of just doing his job. But this also goes for the heroes. They care so little about the individual villains, instead focusing on their personal problems, that it feels like the villains are dismissed by the characters as they don't treat this as a real problem. Frankly, if the personal stuff the villains were facilitating was good enough, that might be okay. These are one note characters after all that we're mostly not going to see again. But... they're not. This includes the Coven Heads where Terra is barely an aspect of her one proper villain episode, Falls and Follies, and has nothing to do with solving Luz's fears about the promise (which... I LOVE the fact that the promise is effectively entirely dropped from the series after that episode without resolution. Just adore that such a massive cliffhanger is mostly brushed under the rug afterwards, even to the point where Luz's choice to stay in the human realm isn't about the promise but entirely other problems.). Theoretically, Labyrinth Runners has Gus dealing with his anxiety but... He also already knows how to do that well enough to teach it to Hunter and what causes the anxiety feels very similar to MANY other life and death situations that Gus has been in so it feels kind of cheap, not helped by all the other elements in that episode that make it less about Gus, who is the only one that has any reflection in the villain in that episode and that's only because of their shared magic, but instead a Hunter episode.

And those are the better villains. A lot of S1's one off villains are used for King plotlines, even down to the only unique villains in Once Upon a Swap being for while Eda is inhabiting King. And can we all agree that King has really shitty personal plotlines that never feel they stick until his entire character is thrown out in S2 to be replaced with daddy issues? I mean, literally two of his episodes are considered the worst in the show by most of the fandom.

And he's dealing with such compelling personal issues like not fucking your friend over in a creative project or don't try to literally isolate someone from the rest of their friend group. Technically good lessons that are also not handled great frankly, especially when the latter still sympathizes with King by having him have the argument of missing Luz which will only be reinforced him being the ONLY character who acknowledges that Luz living in both realms might not be only a good thing.

And I mean, you compare this with almost ANY even halfway decently regarded kid's cartoon and it's frankly embarrassing. Rise of the TMNT, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, and Molly McGee all blow it out of the water. Danny Phantom and Kim Possible were doing way better over a fucking decade ago. Even FUCKING FAIRY ODDPARENTS, especially early on, was doing better than this at making those episodes not only entertaining but having the villains make sense to what moral dilemma Timmy was facing in a given episode. And that series literally is about wish fulfillment. It's just bad adventure writing. Honestly, it's bad writing as even antagonists like Boscha don't keep focus during their episodes. Like Boscha's episode theoretically tackles bullying by actually bringing in a bully character proper besides Amity. Instead, it's WAY more focused on Lumity and just sports shenanigans and Boscha being a bully barely registers besides "She has a bad attitude because she actually gives a fuck about her sport instead of treating like a game." Like... Her team abandons her and I'm just left with the question of "Do none of you fucking care how you perform? Is Boscha literally the only one who likes this sport in this school?"

I almost brought up Matt here but he IS in fact just meant to be misunderstood since after his first episode, he's really just a good guy with snark. Frankly though, his first appearance is one of the best in terms of actually having a villain who plays into the character angst of the episode. Then again, he was obviously meant to be a part of ANOTHER rivals to lovers ship like Lumity so get fucked I guess.

This all honestly begs the question of why the main cast weren't their own antagonists as well. Why there aren't more episodes about them clashing if the only point to all of these villains is that they're meant to facilitate conversation? Amphibia did this plenty where there might be a monster but it is ABSOLUTELY the characters antagonizing each other that is the actual villain and allows for compelling looks at their relationships. Their good sides and their bad... Oh. Well. I guess that does explain it. Can't really have Amity be an antagonist again unless you want to remember that she started as one of the worst people, not characters but as a person, in the show. Or have Luz purposefully look like an asshole. Or Willow. Or Gus. Or literally any of the main cast. They can only be bad on accident. Like losing a game you think is rigged in your favor. Fuck that.

=======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#TOH Critical #The Owl House Criticism

[franollie]

ok so back in december i posted some old marauders art i found in my digital sketchbook, and i said something along the lines of i want to make a post on the marauders fandom and how it’s changing fandom as a whole. and then i forgot about it. BUT BEHOLD! Fran’s study on transformative fandom through the marauders fandom! strap in because this is gonna be a long one:

I want to preface this by saying i have a lot of nostalgia for harry potter—more specifically the marauders—but i obviously do not support jkr and her transphobia.

reminder that I am critiquing the marauders fandom as a whole. as a w h o l e as in the collective fandom. not you specifically. okay?

now, if i remember correctly, the marauders fandom started because people shipped wolfstar and wanted to explore their dynamic in hogwarts. simple as that.

then, it came out that jkr was making blatantly transphobic comments. at this point in time, i had moved away from the harry potter fandom as a whole because i saw something shinier to hyperfixate on (hello sailor moon), so i’m foggy on the details in terms of the marauders fanbase at the time. but from what i understand people started pointing out the racism in the series as well.

flash forward to 2020–the marauders renaissance on tiktok. suddenly the marauders fandom was no longer just wondering what the 4 marauders + lily would have been doing in school. it had expanded to involve a diverse array of characters with agreed upon backstories. And it was really fun to dive back into the fandom. for many, it was reclaiming a series that held a lot of nostalgia to a lot of people from a bigoted woman.

however, i think with the rise in popularity of the marauders fandom—an entirely transformative fandom—fandom as a whole made a switch from creating fanworks out of love and respect for a piece of media to caring about the fan content first and foremost over the media itself. that’s not me saying that the marauders fandom is to blame for everything wrong with modern fandom—the lack of community, the complete disregard of canon characterization, lack of media literacy, etc.—but i do think the marauders fandom gave all these issues the little nudge they needed to take a deep rooted place in how fandom works.

when fandom becomes canon, it’s easy to ignore genuine problems within the fandom as “oh well its not really canon”. But thats really only true to a certain extent. Most people within the marauders fandom consider ATYD as the canon they follow when ATYD is in fact fan fiction. additionally, i’ve met people in the marauders fandom who haven’t read ATYD.

the marauders fandom is quite literally whatever you want it to be, and that’s fun but it’s not fandom in the traditional sense.

remember those new characters i mentioned earlier? well a large majority of them are women including many women of color. however, these women are almost entirely used as props for the boys’ stories and are entirely one dimensional. (lily is snarky and smart, mary is fun loving, marlene is a party animal, dorcas is cold-hearted softie, pandora is ditzy, but most importantly they’re all ✨girl bosses✨). that’s not to say these girls dont have potential for interesting stories or that no one writes them as three dimensional characters. but the fandom at large uses them as props for their favorite mlm ship. jegulus having more fics than jily (the only canon ship in this fandom) alone proves this point.

“but what about marylily/pandalily?” also great ships that i love, but they only really exist to get lily out of the way for james to be with regulus. thus, they are inherently supporting the internalized misogyny of the marauders fandom. i’m not disregarding people who do genuinely ship marylily and pandalily, but that is where the ships stemmed from.

first and foremost fandom is about loving the source material so much you’re inspired to engage with others who enjoy the source material. you can’t really enjoy fandom if you don’t know the characters or world you’re working with; kind of a “you have to know the rules before you break them” type of situation.

i could talk more on the internalized misogyny within the marauders fandom or how we can use the marauders fandom as a study on fandom in the modern age. instead, i’ll leave on this note: as i said before, fandom is about loving the source material so much you want to engage with others who enjoy the source material, and at the end of the day the source material for the marauders fandom is harry potter. and i don’t have much love left for a series that is transphobic or a fandom that doesn’t treat its women with the same care as it’s men.

to reiterate: i not implying that everyone who enjoys marauders materials supports jkr, in fact i’d go as far to say most marauders fans are actively against jkr. however, i feel uncomfortable in a space that fundamentally cannot exist without harry potter.

i have a lot of ideas for marauders stuff and i still enjoy these characters (namely dorlene and jily) but me including my versions of these characters doesn’t really solve the problem. atp can the problems even be solved? idk this got away from me, and i still have more thoughts.

so yeah! peace love and trans rights 🫶 probs won’t post much marauders stuff—not that i really did before but some of you follow me for marauders content for some reason???

#i feel the need to say this again because ik people will ignore it #this is not me being ‘morally superior’ or anything #simply me expressing my own thoughts and feelings towards the fandom AS A WHOLE #also i do not support jkr and by no means want anyone who is in the marauders fanbase to buy her books and support her #okay? okay #fandom criticism #fandom meta #marauders #marauders fandom #fran talks

[reasoningdaily]

NPR: Two missing men, one deputy, zero charged. What happened?

Marcia Williams reacts after an unidentified person comes forward with information about the disappearances during a press conference in 2013.

William DeShazer/Naples Daily News

The Last Ride investigates a disturbing mystery, examines systemic problems in media and policing and illuminates the deep wounds that are left when no one is held accountable. Listen to The Last Ride on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Nearly two decades ago, I was searching through my Southwest Florida newspaper's archives and spotted this tragic headline:

Has anyone seen my son?

It topped a 2004 letter to the editor written by Marcia Williams.

Her letter read, in part:

The letter, buried on page D17 of the Naples Daily News, was stunning for many reasons.

Steven Calkins is seen in 1999, at the scene where a boat fell off a trailer and blocked traffic. Michel Fortier/Naples Daily News hide caption

Three months earlier, in October 2003, on the same street in Naples, Felipe Santos vanished after getting into the same deputy's patrol car. Both men were driving illegally. Instead of taking them to jail, Calkins said he dropped them off at different Circle-K stores. But his stories could never be backed up.

Marcia Williams didn't know about the disappearance of Felipe Santos when she wrote the letter, but her plea helped to connect the hurting families.

As the story coalesced — two missing men, one deputy, zero charged — another stunning aspect was that there was so little media coverage. It was straight out of the "missing white woman syndrome" lesson from journalism school on how media often fail missing people of color while saturating coverage on young, pretty missing white women.

The Last Ride is a podcast that examines systemic problems in media and policing and illuminates the deep wounds that are left when no one is held accountable. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

The letter from Terrance's mother led to one of my first investigative stories as a young reporter. I've followed the mystery throughout my career. Over the years, my colleagues and I sought to tell the haunting story of these Florida disappearances in a more impactful way, especially once previously confidential audio and case notes were released.

The disappearances gnawed at the families, the police, us, and our community. Maybe a podcast could get the cases to more people? Spur new ideas? Jostle memories?

The Last Ride, an eight-episode deep dive into the mystery, is the result.

'I'm not going to give up'

I met Marcia Williams in 2005.

When I interviewed her, I recall seeing boxes of her son's belongings in her Naples home. A suede coat. A Ralph Lauren shirt with the tag still attached. All just left behind. "I pray every night. I know God is tired of me," she said then. "I'm not going to give up."

Terrance Williams' mother, Marcia Williams, sits in her apartment surrounded by some of his possessions, which fill a corner of her dining room.

David Ahntholz/Naples Daily News

I also interviewed Felipe Santos' father. He told me Felipe came to the United States from Mexico at 19 with dreams of making money and starting a family. And, in the news reports I've dug up, I still look to be the last reporter who interviewed Calkins.

I think he only talked to me back then because I dropped in the fact that we share a hometown in rural Illinois.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he told me as his children played in the yard of his Naples home.

Struggling to get attention on the case

In the many years since, there have been several major developments.

Filmmaker Tyler Perry became an advocate for the families of the missing men and offered a reward for tips. Perry stood with Marcia Williams at a 2018 press conference and underscored how hard it was to draw media interest to the disappearances.

"When somebody goes missing and they are a blue-eyed, blonde woman, it's all over the news," Perry said at the time. "This woman has been struggling privately for many, many years just to get attention."

Media mogul Tyler Perry, left, holds the hand of Terrance Williams' mother, Marcia Williams. At the time, Perry offered a $100,000 reward for information solving the missing persons case of Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos. He later increased the offer to $200,000.

William DeShazer/Naples Daily News

When we were putting together The Last Ride, the 2021 disappearance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito dominated headlines. Stories of her disappearance, the discovery of her remains and the search for her boyfriend, who killed her and then himself, were immediate and nonstop.

The difference in coverage between her disappearance and the missing men was stark.

In 2022, The Columbia Journalism Review came out with a tool that uses data to analyze such disparities. Many people in the media are aware of these disparities but haven't bothered or figured out how to fix them.

Most missing people are found quickly. So, it's understandable that the media doesn't cover all of them. Yet I have firsthand experience of witnessing when they — we — should have.

The pursuit for answers

A woman holds a sign for Felipe Santos during a remembrance ceremony for missing persons at Cambier Park in Naples on Oct. 25, 2017.

Nicole Raucheisen/Naples Daily News

Attorney Ben Crump announced the suit at the 2018 Naples press conference: "This lawsuit is going to formally say, what people have been informally saying, and that is that he intentionally murdered Terrance Williams and Felipe Santos."

Around that time, my colleagues and I started reporting The Last Ride. Veteran reporters Ryan Mills and Melanie Payne were just as haunted by the cases. Why were they never solved? Did law enforcement drop the ball? Did we?

Our pursuit of answers went from Florida to Tennessee to Illinois to Iowa. We interviewed investigators, witnesses, Tyler Perry, Ben Crump and advocates and relatives of the missing men. We scrutinized hundreds of pages of records. And we followed the civil suit to its abrupt conclusion. Steven Calkins successfully fought the suit. The podcast features compelling court audio, dramatic polygraphs and questioning of Calkins.

This mystery began as a local story, but the issues are universal.

Janine Zeitlin is the host of The Last Ride and an award-winning Florida journalist.

The Last Ride is distributed by the NPR Network, reported by veteran journalists with the Naples Daily News and The Fort Myers News-Press, part of the USA Today Network, and produced in partnership with WGCU Public Media. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

#The Last Ride #Two missing men #one deputy #zero charged. What happened? #florida #cops #Black Lives Matter #Terrance Williams #Filipe Santos

[cosmixsoupmix]

A Deep Dive into Gorillaz's "Hallelujah Money" (repost)

I have already written this post on my main blog (@cosmixbun) but I am putting it on this one so I have it here too !! (originally written in 2022-2023)

For those who don’t know the song ‘Hallelujah Money’, it is a song released by the band, ‘Gorillaz’ on the ‘Humanz’ album on January 17, 2017. Or more known as the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration (keep this in mind, it’s very important.). The majority of the vocals were sung by Benjamin Clementine, the rest of course, was 2-D. The lyrics can be found here, if you want to read them. The music video can be found here. I suggest watching and reading both before really looking into this.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a big music person, I only find music video interest in the Gorillaz music videos. If I say something that you do not believe or have differing opinions, great. This is just what I bring to the table all these years later. There’s plenty more where I come from.

THE VIDEO:

I’m going to explain as best as I can with both parts so bear with me. Again, it would help to watch the video to see the background and the emotions in the video as portrayed by Benjamin. So, in the music video upon opening, we see the only person who will be the center of the whole music video, Benjamin. We see him in a shiny, gold building. This hallway, in the building, is a reference to the Trump Tower and Benjamin is portraying Trump, or at the least his ideals. The background images that are used in the music video are disturbing and can sometimes set an uneasy feeling. I’m not going to go super in depth on each image or video because there’s a lot but you can find the breakdown somewhere. In the music video we see flashes for symbols or things that symbolize power, such as the pyramid with the eye on the back of the US dollar bill (which is said to represent God or the illuminati, so pick one), a cowboy, and even a creepy clown video (not really a ‘power’ in a societal sense, but they affected how we lived for a while.) While the videos and pictures are shown in the back, the lyrics are being said. The majority of the time, the video and pictures have somewhat no connotation to the lyrics being sung. The end of the video ends with a clip of Spongebob screaming and crying, this was taken from the episode called ‘Karate Choppers’ from season one. The clip is right after Mr.Krabs, his boss, tells him that he’s fired. “You’re fired.” is one of Donald Trump’s signature quotes.

THE LYRICS:

Going into the lyrics I will also tie into the things that I had talked about in the music video. The lyrics in the beginning are more of acknowledging that the US is a growing country and that everyone is allowed here, except for `The scarecrows that come from the far east”. Benjamin then sings that to keep them away “Is by building walls, Walls like unicorns In full glory and galore” making a reference to the wall Trump had promised in his campaign that he was going to build. A lot of people in the states were looking forward to this and as it states, it was going to be a big project that would be looked at by many. Benjamin at this time in the music video is calm and collected and seems to be confident in what he is saying. He is also singing his thoughts about the American Dream, and how it is only for the starving, To me, this is saying that the people who don’t have it bad in this country don’t even have to think about the American Dream because they think they are already living it. Those who are struggling to get by everyday dream about the day where they won’t have to get up and wonder what their next meal is or even if they will see next week. Those people have their own dreams about the American Dream. He then thanks the people for trusting him, a reference to the fact that he is going to get inaugurated the next day. I’m going to skip 2-d’s parts for now and skip to the next time Benjamin starts to sing. The next verse that Benjamin sings is ‘Trump’ saying that even though this is how life is, we can’t do much about it, everyone in the world just wants power. We can’t be upset over something that is bound to repeat itself. He even says, “And the whole beasts of nations desire, Power”. In some way or another we want power. Trump definitely understood this and had taken it to a whole new level.

Now going into 2-d’s parts he sings both bridges in the song. In both parts that he sings he is singing directly to Benjamin. He’s asking these questions that we still ask today, “When the morning come, We are still human, How will we know? How will we dream? How will we love? How will we know ?” These questions are from the people and they are asking that if the world is so corrupt, how will we ever be able to love each other if all we can do is fight and argue. The first time 2-d comes to ask these questions, all Benjamin can do is listen. 2-d sits in Benjamin’s silhouette and Benjamin stays still. The second time he sings the same lyrics, Benjamin seems uneasy and  worried, scared, and fearful. Benjamin’s hands are shaking and the book he’s holding, he is weary about. The music becomes more, ‘anxiety filled’. Then not too long after 2-d is done, Benjamin goes back to normal. Symbolizing that in his campaign and unknowingly, the years to come, he was going to be questioned and under heavy watch because not only was he a public figure, but a lot of allegations and scandals came up about him. In the same moment, he starts to sing, “Hallelujah Money” and rub his hands together in a way that you would say money, with your thumb, pointer, and middle finger. This was then showing that even after all of that, he still had support and his fame, all the efforts did nothing to him. He wasn't phased by a single thing that came towards him.

MY THOUGHTS:

So what are my thoughts on this music video? Three words.

Absolutely.

Fucking.

Incredible.

This music video was not only amazingly made, but Benjamin did the entire music video in one take. But coming away from that, the message that this brings to the table about how the former president saw the American Dream? How he felt about power and wealth? I think it captured it perfectly. The imagery that was used in the back of the video is stunning. The way they used the analogies in this was so intricate, but it worked and fit so well. The way that they went into it and went, ‘Ya know what. Let’s give it to em’.’ My absolute favorite part of this was the lines used to describe the different sides of the American Dream. The way they also used the tree analogy in the beginning to describe the idea of western prosperity just really sold it for me.  The way this song was produced and how it sounds like a choir is singing with Benjamin to me is just the opinions of the people who agree with Trump and his ideals and them being like, ‘yeah, for the money.’ The kind of tone that song has is kind of 'rejoiceful' but having that hint of that ‘uneasiness’ that I had mentioned earlier. It just makes you think that it’s a normal Gorillaz song. The entire song is just powerful to me and after seeing it once again and hearing the song once again, and celebrating 4 years of the album...My appreciation only grows for it.

That’s pretty much it but I would like to close out with a quote from none other than Murdoc Niccals himself:

"In these dark times, we all need someone to look up to. That's why I'm giving you this new Gorillaz song, a lighting bolt of truth in a black night. You're welcome."

#gorillaz #russel hobbs #murdoc niccals #stuart pot #2d gorillaz #noodle gorillaz #media analysis #media criticism #analysis #discussion #criticism #opinion #essay

[saymoretv]

I read something recently that suggested the idea of 'selling out' doesn't exist in culture today. My first thought was, 'I'm not sure about that'. You can still see people having some of the same debates that connect with this idea; whether that's in people 'gatekeeping' genres, artists watering down or changing their sound, or bands getting getting backlash for working with big corporate sponsors. However, from my vantage point at least, 'selling out' certainly does seems to be a much lesser point consideration or judgement when it comes to conversations around music, art, commerce, identity, etc. and that certainly is to do with the new ways we consume and access music, art, as well as the re-formation of the music industry in the streaming era.

It got me thinking also about a book I about Jawbreaker read recently. The format of the book and the series its published as part of, is notionally a long-form close read / deep listen on a culturally important album by a band, but in actual fact it's basically a biography that takes 24 Hour Revenge Therapy as its central focus by which to tell the story of the band. So even though I would have been happy with someone waxing very lyrical about why they love each element of each song on the record, in hindsight a wider story about who the band where, and their journey along the way probably did make for a better read overall.

Perhaps the most interesting theme within the book is the idea of 'selling out' and how this coloured so much of the bands' legacy and story. Internally it seemed to it seemed central to the decisions and the arc of the 'career' of the band, Such as their initial refuting of the possibility of ever 'selling out' to a major label, and then eventually doing so. And externally, it seemed to colour so much of how they were viewed by their fans and the punk / underground or DIY music communities the band had its roots in, such as the band going from the admiration and adoration they got for being underground heroes of the Gilman Scene, and then the backlash that followed for supporting Nirvana and then signing to Geffen. Boxcar, like no other song in the Jawbreaker discography best encapsulates the way this discourse around 'selling out' is attached to the band.

It's hard not to hear "I was passing out when you were you were passing out your rules" and not regard it as one of the punkest lyrics of all time, but the rules aren't societies rules that say UK82 punks were railing against but the scene politics of the day, and who or what does and doesn't get to be ascribed or as 'punk'. Jawbreaker and Blake are pretty unequivocal: "I never was one". So, maybe fans shouldn't have been so surprised when they signed to a major after all.

That said, for all the bands protestations about not being punks - the visuals tell a different story. Gritty Super 8 B+W footage, gear being loaded into tour vans, and candid band footage shot in and out of the tour bus. I mean all it's missing is some gnarly live footage and a stage dive and all the punk music video boxes are ticked!

Also, it's interesting to note that the band only have two music videos, to my knowledge. The raw, B+W Boxcar video and the glossy Fireman video where they appear in yellow suits (!). Both great songs, but again it definitely highlight this idea of the band Pre and Post 'selling out'.

For me, as much as I love their music, I get a certain 'cakeism' when it came to their relationship with the punk / DIY scene. They got so much affirmation and a sense of community from it, whilst also feeling held back by it's conformity and the policing of behaviours and practice. They both needed the scene and wanted to transcend above it. A song like Boxcar is emblematic of this in that: it takes being part of or close to the punk scene to have the context to reject or even reference what Blake is rejecting. It's the things that are closest to home that often wind us up the most after all.

But this is all to say that these considerations of selling out which were so central to the story of Jawbreaker feel somewhat anachronistic in today's world. Maybe this is because the importance or regard people in bands and fans give to 'selling out' has lessened over the years due to the fact that the stakes are a lot lower. There's less money to go around. Jawbreaker may not have been in line for millions when they released Dear You but they might have gotten rich, but now only a select few (and not many guitar bands I would imagine) will ever get 'rich' by virtue of their music. It's hard to sell out if no one's buying I suppose.

#jawbreaker #punk #90s #nirvana #24 hour revenge therapy #diy punk #sell out #Youtube

[spiritualawakening37]

Secrets of the Billionaires: Things That Will Make You Rich

At some point in our life, we all had daydreamed about a rich and successful life and often got disappointed by the fact that we were not there and we didn’t know how to get there.

So Listen up, boys and girls after going through this read, you’ll be able to know what are the things that makes rich people rich and how you can do the same and change the fate of your bloodline..

They do work now & fun later

Rich people have a very interesting thing in common — they do not need to motivate them for working, instead they work their ass off now and have fun time later. They know that in order to have a sexy tomorrow they need to sacrifice their today. And this is the biggest difference between the mediocre and the successful. Choose Your Side Carefully.

Never Stop Learning

When do you think learning stops? After passing school? Graduation? If you’re one of those who thinks that there will come a time when you need to stop learning, then my friend you need to change your perspective on this if you want to become rich. For the rich and successful, learning never stops and they are committed life long learners. While the mediocrity starts having pain in their ass when they hear about learning or studying, so for them, learning is something to be avoided. For the rich, learning is an ocean to dive deep into.

Become Rich by Studying the Rich

Those who achieved success fast in any particular field had learnt from those who were already masters in that particular field. If they’d just said, “No, I will do it myself” or “I will figure it out myself.” They might have achieved success but it would have taken a lot more time and their chances of success would be a lot less. So, learn from people who have already done it before. And heck, we’re now living in the time of Internet where the world of information is available to you at your finger tips and IT’S FREE! So go and look for the people whom you like to learn from.

The Rich Produce not Consume

If you want to be a Millionaire or heck even a Billionaire, then know this truth — “Produce for Millions and Make Millions or even Billions!” The majority have lived it’s life mindlessly consuming and wondering why they’re not rich. But one of the major things holding them back is not having a right mindset. The Rich produce something valuable into the world that people are willing to pay them for it. Take for example, the internet, it wasn’t a thing before a few decades ago but someone made it a thing and now it’s a fourth essential if you want to survive in the modern world after food, water and shelter. The Internet changed the lives of Millions and impacted Billions. So if you want to become rich then shift your mind of a consumer to a producer (We’ll talk about this more in future…)

The Paradox of Money

“It’s a strange paradox that if you want to make a lot of money, then you need to stop thinking about money.” Then what to think about? Problems. What? Yes Problems, start thinking about how you can solve problems. The more you will solve, the richer you will become. Look around you, observe your thoughts, observe the people around you. What do you see? Complaints? Painpoints? Needs? Wishes? Desires? If you hear things like, ‘I hate it when…’, ‘I wish that…’, ‘If there could be…’, etc., research on Internet about the problems that people are facing, then ask yourself “can you solve them?” If you can solve these problems, then the people having these problems will happily give you their wallet.

Alright folks, here it is some of the secrets of the rich and if you implement them, you’re definitely going to be the next Millionaire or even a Billionaire. Also do check out my other posts and if you like those too then follow this blog because there’s a lot of amazing stuff to come!

ATTENTION : Manifest Abundance While You Sleep

[pandasmagorica]

The right rec for the right person

So I've been sharing my interest in yaoi with my best friend and discovering that her interests and mine don't necessarily coincide. That has me thinking about how I would go about recommending yaoi to a particular person. And like many fans before me, I realized I have to customize my recs to that person's interests.

So here are my recs, starting with my top ten (long post):

For someone who's politically engaged: Not Me

(YouTube) This series has a major focus on class differences and how people of different economic levels deal with everyday life. A major character who has had a comfortable life and for whom is foreseen a comfortable future throws himself into a maelstrom of guerilla political activity among people who see themselves selves as have-nots.

It further has the benefit of having been directed by a trans woman who totally rocks it - it's the best y-series I've seen to date and I want to see more of her work.

I've seen disagreement as to whether this should even be considered a y-series. I think the argument is irrelevant. Yaoi has become a spectrum and the lines can be blurry. That's just a sign of the emerging maturity of the genre.

Note: Most of the writeups after the jump are much shorter, and there about a dozen of them.

For someone who is into theater, including classic plays and their modern adaptations: Bad Buddy

(YouTube) Khun Aof's take on the Romeo and Juliet story is an insanely good ride. Much digital ink has been spilled here on Tumblr about how the series parallels the original tale and subverts it to create what is ultimately a romantic comedy.

Also has the best intrusive product placements I have ever seen in my life.

Once they've watched it, send them to @shortpplfedup's tag #InFairVerona for an account of Bad Buddy's Romeo & Juliet parallels but scroll to the end to read them chronologically.

For someone who's spiritual: He's Coming to Me

(YouTube) One of the things many of us humans find comfort in is the idea that there is something beyond this life. We can't prove it but we believe it's there. He's Coming to Me dives deep into Buddhist beliefs about the afterlife (I'm not Buddhist so I can't say how accurately it does so) in the story of a young man who can see ghosts and develops a friendship and more with a particular one who is been subject to an untimely death. Quite heartwarming and fun.

For someone who likes their entertainment light: Cherry Magic

(CrunchyRoll) This is one of the sweetest yaoi I have ever seen. It's light. It's fun. It has magical realism. It doesn't demand too much of the viewer. It's just all around fun. While there is mild homosexual panic, it doesn't get hateful or last long.

For someone who enjoys over the top acting and epic stories with huge stakes: To Sir, With Love

(YouTube) To my understanding, this is a mainstream Thai soap opera with a queer-themed plot. A mother in 1940s Thailand will do anything up to and including murder to hide the fact that her son is gay. Magic, betrayal, and dead bodies abound and the acting is large. For the portayal of a milieu that is so homophobic, the series is ultimately refreshingly queer affirming.

I recommend watching this with the videos where the episodes are split up into four parts each. I kept running into trouble with the subtitles breaking partway through full episode versions when I tried to watch them that way.

For someone who's looking for a quiet story: Tale of 1000 stars

(YouTube) The start of this one isn't very promising: spoiled brat engaged in dangerous activities. But ultimately, this becomes a quiet and beautiful story set in the middle of nowhere in Thailand about a slow burn romance.

For someone in middle age who regrets some of their past decisions but doesn't wallow in it: 55:15 Never Too Late:

(YouTube) OK, OK, so this isn't a yaoi series. But who wouldn't want to undo some of the decisions of their past? (If that's you, congratulations, I'm happy for you.) Not sure whether to call this science-fiction or magical realism, but this story of five 55 year olds suddenly thrown into their 15 year old bodies and how they negotiated that is so much fun and as an oldster, I could totally identify with it. And no, I don't want to be 15 again. There is a yaoi subplot.

For someone who is wrestling with whether to be out as gay or not: Gaya Sa Pelicula

(YouTube) This is the best y-series that I've seen come out of the Philippines. A young odd-couple pairing find themselves living together and falling in love. One is very comfortable in his gayness while the other struggles with it, and it puts a wedge in their relationship. Very affirming about being able to choose for yourself. Has a matured gay as a positive side character.

For someone who has lost someone and is willing to feel, even wants to feel, their loss: Eternal Yesterday

(Gagaoolala) This series is melancholy, profoundly sad. It is also beautiful. When the person you love is killed and you get to have them for a little more time, how do you use that time? How do you deal with the uncertainty?

OK this one's a bit awkward because it's on Gagaoolala and you have to commit to a subscription (at least one month) to watch it. But it's a fine work and deserves my recommendation. Consider it like renting a movie.

For someone who feels like they've known somebody from a prior life: Until We Meet Again

(YouTube) This rec definitely has to come with a content warning: a double suicide in the first few minutes. But the story about how two men who have spent their whole lives feeling like they are looking for somebody only to discover that they were lovers in a former life is like the peeling of an onion is it reveals aspects of what they once had, as well as discovering the people they are now.

Some consent issues which apparently have no impact, although mercifully brief.

And reaching outside of my top ten:

For someone who has lost a pet and is okay talking about it: Choco Milk Shake

(YouTube) It's a fun fantasy. A young man's dead cat and dog show up to visit as living humans, and fun ensues. You need to be OK with pet-spirit/human romance. (I've seen reviews that some people find this aspect creepy.)

For someone who wants something really cerebral: 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us

(Gagaoolala) This one is almost like a stage play, a six hour stage play. A young adult meets a man who is important to the young man's dead father and falls for him. If you're OK with the age gap, this is an intelligent, melancholic work that is worth the attention you will need to give it.

Again, consider it like a movie rental.

#yaoi #bl series #thai bl #thai series #pandasmagorica