#as a writer I cannot abide by the execution

[garden-bug]

Is being critical of Sabine’s force sensitivity ‘gatekeeping’ the force or it is about how it undermines the established magic system and was not well written?

I’ll give you a clue it’s the second one.

#Ahsoka critical #saw a post about this and I absolutely value the sentiment that the force shouldn’t be ‘gatekept’ BUT #as a writer I cannot abide by the execution #the character arc was not set up or executed effectively #if it had been foreshadowed ok #if it had been better executed maybe #but ultimately the mandalorian identity is integral to her character and the change would take a lot of writing work #can be done but yeah it’s drastic #as Brandon Sanderson would say: #“a writers ability to solve problems by magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic” #quoted off the top of my head but yeah #taught my 8yr old sister this recently #she gets it #filoni why’s it so hard for u huh #Star Wars critical #pro jedi #bc I like these guys #ahsoka series #Star Wars #do I dare tag Star Wars? yes I do

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

@deadgodjess yeah I thought I was done being peeved about this but I just spent a full forty minute yoga session unable to think about literally anything else. starting a new post because this one has gotten unwieldy but for anyone just joining us this is the tl;dr:

sorry it’s a day later and I’m still thinking about how dirty this godforsaken show [Gotham] did the riddler. why did you have to give him such a tacky ~ooooo mental illness is SCARY!! uh oh I killed my girlfriend by aCcIdEnT!!~ origin story when it would have been infinitely funnier for Ed to just run some numbers re: how many cases would actually get solved without him and come to the completely justifiable conclusion that he can absolutely get away with quitting his job and turning to a life of riddle-based crime.

I'm going to offer my alternative for what I, personally, think would have been a more fun Riddler buildup across Gotham's 4.5 season run. I am absolutely not seeking feedback, this is a thot exercise meant to be enjoyed by me, myself, and maybe like three people that I trust on this hellsite.

anyway having our boy Ed abruptly jump headfirst into the shallow end of the homicidal maniac pool was executed in a way that was not just wildly ableist but also mmmm dumb and boring as hell and really ripped away a lot of opportunities to use this character in a more interesting way, and by "more interesting" I cannot emphasize enough that I mean "ways that I think are funnier."

if I'm being totally honest I think producers/execs whoever got nervous about the show's continuation and insisted on pulling the trigger on Ed riddling out before season one ended in the hopes that having another Batman villain active pre-Batman would help build a little more railroad for this awful show to keep careening along on. this has to play out via the manifestation of a fucking evil alternate personality because, frankly, up until this point Ed has been characterized as pretty much a total sweetheart with absolutely zero ulterior motives and possibly the only brain cell in the entire Gotham City Police Department. he is literally Just Some Guy with hamfisted autism coding and a fondness for riddles who regularly gets dismissed and bullied by his colleagues, all of whom I wish would die in a fire (except for maybe Harvey Bullock because he's really the only man bringing any kind of eye candy to this show, but we're not here to talk about that).

what I'm getting at here is that the writers had a really great opportunity to spend a few seasons showing us how life in Gotham gradually wore down a man who was one a friendly and law-abiding colleague of Jim Gordon's into a little freak in spandex who cannot stop trying to one-up a man dressed as a bat. he actually could have been a compelling foil to Jimothy, whose whole deal is that he's somehow managed to remain The Only Honest Cop In Gotham despite years of horseshit; building on the relationship between the two of them and exploring how their paths eventually diverge could have been really cool and yes, I will be drawing on that in my posthumous script doctor.

as long as we're talking about the Riddler and basically everyone else in the show sans Selina (and... sort of Poison Ivy, idk, I don't like the in-universe age lift and I don't want to contemplate it too much) I think it's stupid that Gotham is basically setting up a universe where all of Batman's iconic enemies are actually more like a bunch of middle aged assholes that Gordon already has decade-old beef with. it's dumb but it's also what I have to work with because if we tweak things any further to make Bruce and all of his future rogues teenagers together I think we're just remaking Riverdale.

sorry we got a little lost in the weeds there, I wasn't originally planning on making that and I don't want to admit how much time I wasted on it. anyway after a little "oh boohoo I'm just a poor little guy I can't believe I did murders" Ed's pretty much straight to bugfuck crazy murdertown with every other villain on this show. everybody on Gotham is like two seconds away from committing homicide at all times except for MAYBE Bruce; pretty much every recurring antagonist is a kill-happy maniac and most of the one-off villains of the week are as well. even the Penguin gaslight gatekeep girlbosses his way through a truly staggering number of people in the first half dozen episodes alone. what I'm getting at here is that dropkicking the Riddler straight into the same mold isn't just ableist or lazy - it's also the very worst thing that writing can be, which is FUCKING BORING. what if, god forbid, we had one rogue bringing a different kind of sauce to the party? in this essay I will -

season one: my pitch here is actually so simple, because I literally just want to keep Ed's characterization the same for the entire season. no abrupt slip and slide into stabbing and/or choking people to death, just a weird little dude who's around and good at his job and has a little mug with a question mark on it. he shows up once an episode for two minutes to crack the case wide open and tell a riddle and the remind the audience that he's around. "yep, that's the Riddler," they'll say. "no need to give him a violent split personality, I know where this is going and I am indeed capable of waiting for that payoff."

season two: now at this point you might be saying "Makenzie wait - is your pitch going to assume that the original storyline of Gotham is otherwise proceeding as it did otherwise? because that's going to get pretty impossible pretty fast if the Riddler has a drastically different personality/role in the show." yeah hey listen man. listen. I don't give a shit about what actually happens in the show. I give a shit about the Riddler. don't ask about this again. this all takes place in an AU where Gotham is a competently written show; I know that's sort of a stretch but bear with me.

anyway season two is when we can start getting some cracks in Riddleboy's chipper little exterior but for god's sake, let's deploy a little subtlety. probably he needs to start getting bullied more - possibly because he's notably friendly with Jim and easier to bully than Bullock, Jim's only other friend. anyway, this is how Ed learns that sometimes fucking people over is okay, actually. nothing drastic, just manipulating evidence here and there to ruin the day (and then career) of some of the biggest assholes in the department and bolster his faves (Jim). I cannot emphasize enough that the first half of the season has to be about this man realizing that most of his coworkers are VERY DUMB and EXTREMELY EASY TO MISLEAD.

come the second half of season 2 we get to see him getting a little too cocky, which will ultimately lead to his downfall. tl;dr being smarter than everyone is fun but still doesn't solve the problem of nobody else noticing or caring that he's smarter than them, and it's really starting to rankle. this will be the point when Ed upgrades to like. full sending his own boss cut-up magazine ransom notes and shit making demands to try and steer the GCPD more efficiently. there are, obviously, subtle little riddles embedded in these letters, but Gordon is the only one who will notice because Gordon's the protagonist and gets to notice things. this will end in a big confrontation, whatever, he's not going to turn Ed in because he believes Ed was genuinely acting in the interest of flushing out dirty cops, but he's also a little bitch so he IS going to tell Ed that he'll turn him in if Ed doesn't resign. Ed goes quietly and with a frankly unsettling amount of glee that someone was finally smart enough to solve one of his little puzzles. personally I love when the Riddler won't really look at or acknowledge anyone who won't play his silly little games I think that's so fun of him.

season three: the first half of season three is actually by far the most fun for me because it involves Ed a.) doing the Riddler thing where he tries to be a private detective for a while and b.) getting mercilessly bullied by all of Gotham city for a bit. you can fill in the specifics of the goofs yourself but suffice to say he's just a plucky little guy investigating some weird ass shit and still getting dumped on a lot in the process. our boy is going to have to learn to get a little unscrupulous.

it's vital that during this half of the season Jim comes to him at least a couple of times to ask for input that frankly none of the useless sadsacks at the GCPD are qualified to provide now that Ed's gone, because they're all doing the equivalent of that John Mulaney bit where they look at a corpse and go "ew! clean it up!" instead of gathering anything useful in the way of evidence. for some reason that I can't QUITE put my finger on it seems important to establish that Jim Gordon is willing to work alongside people who are operating a bit outside the law as long as he believes their intentions are good. and listen - Ed will genuinely help him! but he is also absolutely going home and idly jotting down notes for how he'd get away with exactly the crimes he helped solve.

the second half of season three involves him getting nabbed by Someone and pretty much extorted into helping them work against the GCPD on account of being a former employee who knows exactly how they investigate. what ensues is a series of crime scenes that have an abundance of fake evidence designed to lead the cops in circles that go nowhere - UNLESS you piece together some extremely abstract hints being hidden there, because Ed is sincerely making an effort to alert his old GCPD chums to what's going on. except, oh no, the stress of being held hostage is getting to him and he is SORT OF starting to enjoy how good he is at this and also beating his head against the wall in frustration over how fucking stupid literally every single one of his former colleagues is. he'll get rescued (by Jim) by the end of the season but god will he be bitter by then.

also I said he was being forced to work for Someone and it truly could be anyone in this horseass show but like. come on. it's Penguin. the rest of canon can go to hell but it's so important to me that Penguin still wants to fuck the Riddler so bad it makes him look stupid. it's just hands down the funniest thing that happens in all of Gotham and I wouldn't change it for the world.

season four: alright so Eddie boy starts this season trying to go to therapy about his whole kidnapping and probably PTSD thing but we the audience will realize very quickly that he's getting twitchy and is just purposefully playing with like. MULTIPLE different therapists and giving them all wildly different information to see if he can get each of them to give him different diagnoses. he has absolutely no idea why he's doing this except that it's fun and he evidently can. this man is living on the knife edge he's so sweaty and gross and he wants to do crime again SO bad and is really running out of reasons why he shouldn't.

if this show were written by people I could trust I'd say we could actually do a really thrilling mental health(TM) storyline here focusing in on Ed getting increasingly manipulative and ruled by compulsive behavior. I'd say the crux of his arc in the first half of the season is Jim convincing Ed to check himself in to some kind of mental health facility for his own wellbeing - probably Arkham, since it seems to somehow be the only mental health facility in Gotham despite the fact that it appears to be patterned on ghoulish 19th century sanitariums more than anything. anyway, this lasts approximately one day before Ed disappears from the facility and leaves an elaborate riddle behind, thus ending his arc for the first half of the season.

second half starts as a straight up revenge plot against Penguin because I love when these awful little homos fight with each other, but Gotham being Gotham I think a bit of an emotional roller coaster can ensue. Penguin can definitely convince Ed to ease off and work with him as more of a partner for a bit, but I still want this Riddler to be a murder lite contrast to most of the other villains in the cast so I think that will be the point of contention that ultimately drives them apart. the Penguin CANNOT stop lethally girlbossing; it's his first love.

anyway after that Ed's just fucking with the GCPD for shits and giggles because fuck 'em, am I right? he's definitely got the whole question mark suit Look going by this point; hanging out with the Penguin for too long changes a man.

season five: god I don't even know; there were only 12 episodes and one of them was for the flash forward. he tells some shitty riddles and probably gives Gordon one final helping hand but in a way that benefits him, firmly securing his status as "sometimes useful, always a bastard." all that really matters this still happens to him. this is the last we see of him, dangling next to Robin Lord Taylor in just the least convincing fake gut I've ever seen in god's green earth.

anyway sorry this got so long I'm genuinely appalled and disgusted with myself. I have problems!

#gotham time

[captainkurosolaire]

~ Mass Update ~

Mainly going into future plans and intents alongside ideas below cut.

Ton's of things I've in store this will prove difficult to vent it all out. But here we go... First off rehashing and appropriately learning to tag and organize things better on my blog. Each category will have their own corresponding content, I seek to bring or share. [Tales of Goldbrand] -- I intend this to carry a Compendium of all my writes soon that'll have everything neatly in-order including a glossary, so it'll have highlights of stories that even matter or the best stuff. I've written here for a very, long time, there's been many shifts. I want to make it more accessible. While coloring what matters for people who want to learn Captain or his Crew with less chapters. While also giving choice to find it all easily. This is essentially a step-above master-lists. I'll be doing that after the Saga I have going on, right now is done. [Captain] -- Will provide you strictly with Captain screenshots, gifs, photo-sets. This is still his blog despite the Crew thing's will sort of make this a scuffed Multi-Muse blog. I've few more things to edit and tag fix to get all his stuff though. [The Wild Crew] -- Afterwards this story is done Immortal Age Saga, It's something that I mainly wrote as a passion project within three days to get my warm-up process fixed. It's to allow me to get a feel for all his Crewmates and casts, in combat, in-general, to feel their presences. While also giving a bit of their backstories. At any point, I can go back and polish or tweak things in. They're NPC's but... not entirely. All will have their own 'Dreams' and their own 'Disapproval's' they have their own missions even. These things will factor eventually, they might set seeds, to betray or disagree with something, but that's all angst and more stories to be created, but overall, they'll probably always be Crew, eventually. -- I plan on making character-profile sheets of them and putting them in this Tab, it'll have their screenshots, their likes/dislikes. Some RP partners or people can also be shipped with them, but they'll all be monogamous and originally start off probably Pan. This allows them to figure out what they like on their own stories. I've always been someone who likes organic-flow. Although this one story contain all 16 characters or more, the rest will probably be shortened to a Squad of 4 and dispersed when on adventuring missions. Until I do a War Arc, that's my main goal to build too. [Roster] -- Will contain this Crew in just screen-sets dedicated to them, I'll probably randomly produce those. I've PC players among this Crew too. I may not be done either adding more, but this Crew is mainly built around Quality. Most pirate crew's mainly, have hundreds, thousands. Even Fleets. This Crew has personalities, monsters, people who are living life's that exist with piracy. He's an particular leader that had PC players the same way, he's had split-personality serial killers aboard, tribal chieftains, succubus, all sorts of various people once on a Crew. It's often an outcast style, pirates default are chaotic in nature, so this really isn't any different, it's a Fantasy version of it. There's humanization characters aboard too though, so this cast is really decked, everything and person is vital, they matter because they remind or covet something that others can draw upon. If ever played (Three Houses or Mass Effect / Dragon Age Origins) A lot of things like that are relatable too this structure and format. Which, Is something I want to be able to give when RPing. I want a genuine feel of this new world someone else's muse will be the main-character too. Depending on what's interacting everything they'll be scale appropriately to follow the genre they're in and environment even. [Aesthetics] -- Already explainable what you'll find here. [Asks] -- Same thing. [Prompts] -- Trivial things I was tagged too, I plan on compiling later. [Writing] -- Another alternatively to randomly go-down and it works right now. [Logs] -- Will have more individualistic master-lists and posts there, my poems from Sheik Sphere the Bard, etc.

Things of that nature, I'll probably add still. It's where a lot of my creative writing is summed. [Gems of Hydaelyn] -- My main #tag for other characters and artists, creationist. Lot of amazing people easily to find their zones or follow them optionally if you like. Ton's I intend to support and bolster, be a lot less unspoken. I'm never the type who's been strictly inclusive. But I'll do that when I've time to even explore the dash, I'm always still planning ahead with things and projects. [CKS] My original character-sheet it's outdated on something's but not too terrible. I'll give him polishing someday, I swear? [21+F-List] -- Just purely degenerate stuff of Captain. I'm a pirate blog. I will represent that with openness and furthermore. I'm never projecting you some false-image. I started off a smut-writer by stripping that, I no-longer represent the same aura and identity. But those are strictly his stuff and kinks, I'm effective in executing them but they're not all relatable to me OOC. This blog will always be 18+ containing crude or dark material sometimes, romantic things, this Captain is blunt, will literally put his cock on the table in conversations. Swearing and being censored would be too uncommon and displace most of him, but there's more about him then all this. [Other] -- I pay homage to a lot of characters, I originally am a Concept Designer. Which mean's I make characters and ideas like my addiction. Bad characters / villains or other little things I like to share in designs, I'll put there. Some villains might get little photo-sets, even if they died. Just cause I like their design, or maybe I'll give them an AU, where they won. When I've wrapped up things. [Collabs + Ships] -- Is a new project idea. This isn't going to be something limited too romantic only ships. It'll contain, platonic, romantic, friendships, rivals, frenemies, family, PC Crew, all ships. I am desperately working on improving my gif, screenshot, posing game so I can supply 'Screen Stories' this is not only a way to RP that's accessible with even people who are upon time-crunches from work, It gives visual-representation. To impactful stories shared with others and establish bonds. That are all-valid and impactful matter. Lot of people take a lot of their characters attributes into them and are them dialed up, I work with that and bit more, differently. I'm disconnected from my characters and they'll get hurt and injured and killed by me, that's my duty as their Author to give them conflicts and struggles. I'm their major antagonist, but that doesn't mean at-all, it's always SET that way. The characters I like to make have their own life, they live in this setting and are abide by it, they're often nothing, nobodies, and by the interacting with others, they slowly gradually building, more... Through emotional impacts, they alter, these are REAL people by all their beliefs. Each person they come in-contact with are legitimate and treated like that too. They've always impacted or given them insights to grow, or represent more. Otherwise it'd be criminally disrespectful if I allowed any emotional I felt OOC be the grudge to something IC. Captain in-particular is set on defying me. I cannot have that. ...But I can't stop him. He's met and encountered so many people and lived so many scenarios based on the actions of others, he's giving a chance right now to actually do things a lot further than impossible. The more people he meets and encounters, experiences, the more I lose. These stories are emotionally interactive where everything is a factor and adds to the dice, where the other people are the one who get to roll the dice for him, not me. That's something I want to color in. People range in emotions, they have their down's, ups, their own wholesome-grounding people, spending time with your favorite people, there's nothing more cherishing than that, being in your own comfort-zone or 'safe-space' these are all treasures that we live under, today. Contrary if what people assume of me, I'm not another 'blogger' that's came

before, who's wanting to force a harem, then constantly is bewildered when that falls to pieces cause of selfishness or a lack of communication, or the skeletons they have in their closets and beliefs they hid behind and swindled fooled everyone. I'm not looking to be popular or anything really, I just create stories and want to share in those, and I want to also boost others included, upward with me, especially those who make me. There's no ego in anything I do, this is purely love. I've never cared about being replicated or duplicated, I've had stalkers, I've gone through more then anyone would imagine, I've been used OOC and abused, just for my writing and cold-harshly told, i'd never amount to anything other then that or vice-versa. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion. That's all I got and am anymore. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion is the hardest thing to keep. It's something that can be stolen, quite effortlessly. Few words of discouragement, a bad negative representation, a lack of confidence, or small amount of time, there's many thing's that can put that flame out. Once you lose it. The difficulty to reattain is hundred-times harder than climbing any mountain for real. I've watched the greatest creators crumble from under the pressure, from beaten down by others. I watched many of them do it to themselves because they put a grand vision of needing validation of another and once lost, felt uncompelling to press onward. But passion also can be given BACK and drawn. It can be shown and encourage others, with a soft-triggering, that pushes them. That motivates, that constantly sticks to it. There are many that fuel me. If I ever quit, I let them down, I spit in the faces of people who're better than me in every-way. Or people who've came and given me their precious Time. That have given their character's or dedication to the abundant stories and community-driven things I've done. There's ONLY things you can do, create, give and provide. It cannot ever come to life without YOU. This is a fact. ...I swear, If you let your creativity soar, you'll be amazed by the heights you get. Constantly polish and learn and hone the best you, challenge yourself day after painstaking day, to draw better improvement on something, no matter how trivial or unfamiliar you are. You'll find a confidence only you can give yourself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Plans --------------------------------------------------------------------- For me, I've got so much more stories to give and also explore, I might be taking up soon some other artists and more skilled people from community and hire them for some of my future writes, to up my game or cause something thing's can't be done in-game cause no background carries it. I also got a lot of-set up things and more angst stuff I want to practice, plus I'm adamantly on that grind to produce screen-sets with the intent's to some sort of improving daily. Additionally more people I'll be reaching out too soon for these collab's ideas and things. I look forward to shaking your hands, giving some hugs, show you my respect and admiration, then creating some enchanting stories and giving plots light. Feel free to reach out to me, I get scattered-brain but I'm working on getting better about it. Eventually will get to you though, my goals, if uninterested just say so when I poke, no bites, unless you kinky. Anyways, cheers hearties.

#ooc #update #future plans stuffz #ToG #Work on thinking of daily practice now

[jinruihokankeikaku]

summary bulletpoint review of Shin Eva

[obligatory disclaimer that this is all, just, like, my opinion, man<3]

POSITIVE

Shinji's instrumentality scene with Gendo

Ryoji Kaji the Younger and Misato's development as an actual mother was great, deeply moving and deeply painful (as Eva should be.)

the entire first act of the film, honestly

more characterization for Asuka Shikinami and Ayanami/Rei 3, perhaps the best in all of the Rebuilds

it's a beautiful film, the animation in magnificent (even the CG, if you ask me), and the setpieces and action scenes all worked really well and didn't seem to have a disproportionate presence relative to other parts of the film

cannot emphasize enough how good the first act is. If the entire film had carried on that tone, atmosphere, and theming, I think my overall impression of it would have been much more favorable.

i liked the music, especially the callback to "The Passage of Emptiness" around 0:20:00 (I'm sure there are other score callbacks that I didn't catch, too)

many of my issues with / questions about 3.0/Q were resolved in a serious, focused way

the third act was nothing short of stunning visually and narratively, despite my thematic objections

I had fun with it. It was an enjoyable film, and still a cut above a lot of both recent anime and recent Western scifi blockbusters I've seen. For all my issues with the film, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it on both of my viewings so far, and I've no doubt I'll come back to it. I would unequivocally recommend Shin Eva to both fans and non-fans, despite....everything I'm about to say.

NEUTRAL / MIXED

everything about the Book of Life (whatever that is) and the non-resolution given to the question of whether or not the Rebuilds constitute a sequel or a separate continuity. It'll doubtless be a subject of debate for years to come.

by extension, everything to do with Kaworu, frankly. I thought he was great in Q, and because of that, my feelings on his presence in 3.0+1.0 amount to something along the lines of "he was great, insofar as he was there, but I wish we'd more of him."

the resolution of Gendo and Yui's relationship. I know it was pretty polarizing, and while I understand both the "perfect narrative resolution" and "misogynistic and deeply unsatisfying" takes, I'm not sure I'd entirely agree with either of them. It's well-executed for what it is, but still fundamentally unbalanced and not quite on par with the way it was handled in The End of Evangelion, imo.

the resolution of Shinji and Kaworu's relationship. I almost put this in the negative section, but to be frank, I never expected them to end up together, and as much as I love Kawoshin, I understand that that's not the direction the Rebuilds were ever going to take, nor is it a direction I think Shin Eva should've taken. Furthermore, I think the way the concept of the Time Loop was handled about as well as it could have been - an excellent balance between Nonetheless, I think the Kaworu section of the Instrumentality sequence was weak and overly dismissive towards the validity of Kaworu's feelings, his actions, and (if you'll pardon the irony) his humanity.

the balance of action / atmosphere / characterisation. It's not perfect, but it's better than any of the other Rebuilds, with (as previously stated) the first act carrying most of my favorite atmospheric/character moments, and the second act containing the best action sequences.

the general tone of the film. It started off very strong, with a feeling reminiscent to that which The End of Evangelion left me with, and maintained a suitably dark-yet-hopeful tone for most of the second act as well. However, it fell apart entirely for me in the third act, and especially in the final scene (which I'll comment on further later).

Rei 3 / Ayanami. I adored her. For exactly that reason, I think it's a damn shame she had to LCL-splode less than halfway through the film.

Ryoji Kaji the Elder. Everything we saw of him was magnificent! So I sure wish there was more of it! Given the scope of Shin Eva's content, I guess that's more of an objection to 3.0, but...I guess I just dearly hope we get more material covering the 14-year timeskip, WILLE's revolt, Kaji's sacrifice, and everything leading up to it. It feels like a missed opportunity (unique to the Rebuilds) for character development Kaji might've received. But on the whole, that's a minor quibble relative to how fond of his and Misato's relationship in the Rebuilds were handled in 3.0+1.0.

NEGATIVE

Mari / "Mary Iscariot". Enough has been said about Mari's "enigmatic" character, so I'll not harp on this too much, but....as someone who loved Mari's presence in 2.0 and was basically okay with her role in the Rebuilds as a whole, there was still a remarkable dearth of character development for her, which left me disappointed on the whole, especially considering...

...the final scene. That final scene. Oh man. I don't want to devalue the personal meaning it has for Anno, or the sense of satisfaction some of my fellow Eva fans got from it. But the more I think about it, the more it doesn't work for me. After the credits started rolling on my first viewing, I remember writing in my notes app - "How am I supposed to feel about this?". After my second viewing, I was left with.....exactly the same feeling. The scene is framed as unambiguously positive, and yet....it simply doesn't come across that way, upon further contemplation. Even setting aside my abiding love for KawoShin and AsuShin, I think even from a ship-neutral perspective the scene doesn't quite carry across the message of Hope what it seems to intend to.

The film's themes. For all its narrative and visual strengths, the film left me feeling confused, empty, and....fucking confused. And not in the same way EoTV or EoE did - my confusion was not to do with the actual events of the film, but with the emotional and psychosocial messages conveyed. I won't presume to know Anno (or his co-directors') intentions, but....it's hard for me to not feel like I'm being told to set aside the past and hope for a deus-ex-machina to fix my life. This is also something about which a lot of ink has already been spilled, so I'll keep my thoughts on this front short (especially since I can't tell if I'm giving the filmmakers too much credit, or not giving them enough), but....the plain fact that Shin Eva seems, at least superficially, to present itself as a thematic antithesis to The End of Evangelion is enough to leave me upset or at least unsettled. That's more of an emotional reaction on my part than an actual critique of the film, I know, but....I'd be remiss in not including it in my review.

Ritsuko - specifically, the fact that she was reduced to a side-character at best, with arguably less of a presence than even Fuyutsuki, and perhaps even comparable to the minor roles of the rest of the Bridge Crew. She was so very compelling in Neon Genesis Evangelion and even in her brief screentime in The End of Evangelion, and while I can hardly say I was expecting her to play a key role in Shin Eva after her diminished presence in the previous Rebuild installments, I can't say I wasn't hoping for that, either. Ritsuko deserved better, but like a few other things I've mentioned, that was more of an issue with Rebuild of Evangelion as a whole than it was an issue with Shin Eva.

Asuka Shikinami. She had her moments, but fell short of the intensity and depth of character Asuka Soryu was given. There's much more to be said here, but frankly it merits its own post, cos this one is getting long already.

And finally, I'll just say again that more than anything else this film left me confused. It left me questioning the value of the Rebuilds as a whole, the messages of NGE and EoE, and my own character as a person. Maybe that was the point. After my first viewing, I said out loud something to the effect of "So this must be what so many people felt after seeing The End of Evangelion. Now I get it!". Perhaps that speaks to the power of the film - it certainly speaks to Anno's enduring talent as a writer/director - but, for a film that was meant to be a spiritual successor to The End of Evangelion, it's impossible for me to say that it didn't fail to carry on that film's message of Hope despite everything, Hope in the face of despair, Hope against the hopelessness of the human condition, and the abiding power of the human person to persist beyond both the indignities it suffers at the hands of others and the indignities it inflicts upon others. It failed in that regard, to my view, and for all that I loved about Shin Eva, that's one failing I'm afraid I might never be able to get past.

TL;DR

I loved Shin Eva. I hated Shin Eva. I respect it for what it is, but I can't bring myself to put it on the level with Neon Genesis Evangelion or The End of Evangelion. Watch it. Definitely watch it, if you haven't already (and if you haven't, why are you reading this?!). The film leaves you with a closing sequence that demands that you draw your own conclusions, and ultimately, I think that's all you can do with a work that carries with it such personal weight (for both the creators and the viewers) and such heavy expectations.

#shin eva #neon genesis evangelion #evangelion spoilers #evangelion 3.0+1.0 #shin evangelion #3.0+1.0

[troybeecham]

Today the Church remembers St. Cyprian of Carthage, Bishop and Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Cyprian (Thaschus Cæcilius Cyprianus; c. 200 – September 14, 258 AD) was bishop of Carthage and a notable Early Christian writer of Berber descent, many of whose Latin works are extant. He is also recognised as a saint in the Christian churches. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century AD in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. Soon after converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in AD 249. A controversial figure during his lifetime, his strong pastoral skills, firm conduct during the Novatianist heresy and outbreak of the Plague of Cyprian (named after him due to his description of it), and eventual martyrdom at Carthage established his reputation and proved his sanctity in the eyes of the Church. His skillful Latin rhetoric led to his being considered the pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.

Cyprian was born into a rich, pagan, Berber (Roman African), Carthaginian family sometime during the early third century. His original name was Thascius; he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the priest to whom he owed his conversion. Before his conversion, he was a leading member of a legal fraternity in Carthage, an orator, a “pleader in the courts”, and a teacher of rhetoric. After a “dissipated youth”, Cyprian was baptised when he was thirty-five years old, c. 245 AD. After his baptism, he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage, as befitted a man of his status.

In the early days of his conversion he wrote an Epistola ad Donatum de gratia Dei and the Testimoniorum Libri III that adhere closely to the models of Tertullian, who influenced his style and thinking. Cyprian described his own conversion and baptism in the following words:

“When I was still lying in darkness and gloomy night, I used to regard it as extremely difficult and demanding to do what God’s mercy was suggesting to me… I myself was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe I could possibly be delivered, so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices and to indulge my sins… But after that, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of my former life was washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, was infused into my reconciled heart… a second birth restored me to a new man. Then, in a wondrous manner every doubt began to fade…. I clearly understood that what had first lived within me, enslaved by the vices of the flesh, was earthly and that what, instead, the Holy Spirit had wrought within me was divine and heavenly.”

Not long after his baptism he was ordained a deacon, and soon afterwards a priest. Some time between AD July 248 and April 249 he was elected bishop of Carthage, a popular choice among the poor who remembered his patronage as demonstrating good equestrian style. However his rapid rise did not meet with the approval of senior members of the clergy in Carthage, an opposition which did not disappear during his episcopate.

Not long afterward, the entire community was put to the test of their Faith. Christians in North Africa had not suffered persecution for many years; the Church became self-assured and had lost its zeal for evangelism. Early in AD 250 the “Decian persecution” began. The Emperor Decius issued an edict, the text of which is lost, ordering sacrifices to the gods to be made throughout the Empire. Jews were specifically exempted from this requirement. Cyprian chose to go into hiding rather than face potential execution. While some clergy saw this decision as a sign of cowardice, Cyprian defended himself saying he had fled in order not to leave the faithful without a shepherd during the persecution, and that his decision to continue to lead them, although from a distance, was in accordance with divine will. Moreover, he pointed to the actions of the Apostles and Jesus himself: “And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and Himself did it. For as the crown is given by the condescension of God, and cannot be received unless the hour comes for accepting it, whoever abiding in Christ departs for a while does not deny his faith, but waits for the time…”

At the end of AD 256, a new persecution of the Christians broke out under Emperor Valerian, and Pope Sixtus II was executed in Rome.

In Africa, Cyprian prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his De Exhortatione Martyrii, and himself set an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Paternus (AD 30 August 257). He refused to sacrifice to the pagan deities and firmly professed Christ.

The proconsul banished him to Curubis, modern Korba, whence, to the best of his ability, he comforted his flock and his banished clergy. In a vision he believed he saw his approaching fate. When a year had passed he was recalled and kept practically a prisoner in his own villa, in expectation of severe measures after a new and more stringent imperial edict arrived, and which Christian writers subsequently claimed demanded the execution of all Christian clerics.

On AD 13 September 258, Cyprian was imprisoned on the orders of the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The public examination of Cyprian by Galerius Maximus, on AD 14 September 258 has been preserved:

Galerius Maximus: “Are you Thascius Cyprianus?” Cyprian: “I am.” Galerius: “The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites.” Cyprian: “I refuse.” Galerius: “Take heed for yourself.” Cyprian: “Do as you are bid; in so clear a case I may not take heed.” Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence: “You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the pious, most sacred and august Emperors … have endeavoured in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; whereas therefore you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood.” He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet: “It is the sentence of this court that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword.” Cyprian: “Thanks be to God.”

The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A vast multitude followed Cyprian on his last journey. He removed his garments without assistance, knelt down, and prayed. After he blindfolded himself, he was beheaded by the sword. The body was interred by Christians near the place of execution.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

#christianity #early church #martyrs #christian persecution #father troy beecham #troy beecham episcopal #father troy beecham episcopal #saints

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? - Part 15: DR. EGGMAN

There are some villains I like. And there are some villains I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a mini-series of mine, in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the villains in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves in the game(s) they featured in. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, it’s finally time for him. The bad doctor himself. Gather round ladies and gentleman, for the spotlight is on the arch-villain that shines above them all... Dr. Eggman.

The Gist: It's the dawn of the 90's. A little company called SEGA had an ephiphany. They wanted to make a video game juggernaut that could rival the quality and iconic appeal of the then-unmatched Super Mario Bros, and their current star, Alex Kidd, just wasn't doing it in the way that they hoped. They promptly set about starting anew, as a worldwide phenomenon wasn't going to make itself.

So a gentleman named Naoto Ohshima created a selection of design concepts for this brand new mascot. One of these concepts was President Roosevelt in his pajamas.

Seen here with his catgirl body pillow.

The response to this character was “This is good, but we think kids would prefer kicking the shit out of him”, and so he was given an antagonistic role instead. In the meantime, after juggling the rest of their ideas, they eventually settled on a rabbit hedgehog named Sonic for their main protagonist, knowing his Mickey Mouse-like aesthetic would help endear him to the audience, and the franchise as a whole would have an easier time gaining a DeviantART fanbase later on down the line.

Initially, the character of today's review was but a mere lackey among many, seemingly little more than one of numerous minions working for Sonic's originally intended main villain, the Nonspecific Goblin. He was also dressed as a bee for some reason.

Which is the least weirdest thing in this image.

At some point however, they all got together and decided that actually, the guy with the moustache was the only one worth shit, and so he was upgraded to the role of main villain himself. With a spiffy new attire of red and black, he was given the bold title of Dr. Eggman, because with a shape like that, what else are you gonna call him?

“Funny you should say that”, laughed SEGA of America, as they rebelled like an angsty teen and named him Dr. Ivo Robotnik instead. While this name does make equal sense for the character, as he is indeed a hard worker who also happens to like robots, the reason for this name's existence seems to have been mainly because they thought Eggman was too out there of a name for an egg-like man. Whatever the case, this would confuse a lot of fans for years, and remains a point of divisiveness to this day... Unless you're like me and your first game in the series was Advance 2, in which the manual clears it up right away, and you accept the idea of a character having two names and immediately carry on with your life.

He would have aimed it perfectly if it weren't for the Sonic Heroes Parrot distracting him.

And that was that, really. It didn't take long for them to come up with his characterization, which was that of a cackling fiend with an ego to end all egos. This guy was the Narcissist Alpha, more king than actual kings, no strings attached. Other villains would build statues of themselves, but only Robotnik would deface Ancient Egyptian monuments to improve them with his face. Other villains would think “Nah, refacing all four in Rushmore would look silly”, but only the Eggman, the Eggmyth, the Egglegend, would go “Well fuck you, I'm doing it anyway.” Then he'd do it anyway, and proceed to address to the entire world that he did in fact do it anyway.

It also didn't take long for them to develop his primary schtick. With the dynamic of Sonic VS Eggman, you had a classic rivalry between nature and technology. Interestingly enough however, this turned out to be executed more tactfully than your typical Amish-abiding examples in similar media. Never was technology itself regarded as a corruptive influence that you should never utilise no matter what. Rather, it was only as good or as evil as the person using it, with it just so happening that the villain loved machinery only slightly less than he loved himself, and it was countered by Sonic’s best friend being a techno wiz in his own right anyway. Anyhow, with his machinery, the doctor would make a name for himself among video game baddies by confronting his enemy as the boss of nearly every zone in each game, rather than hide away until the endgame.

And all without a driver's licence.

In his soon-to-be-30 years of activity, he has largely remained the same since his inception. Other characters have been introduced, other villains have came and went, but Eggman has remained THE villain of the franchise, and he's remained a vital part of the Sonic the Hedgehog universe... with a slight redesign along the way.

The only ad I don't want to skip.

The Design: Eggman's design may be more simplistic than the likes of Bowser and Ganondorf, and he may not look as openly threatening at first glance, but it's still a very iconic look no matter what look it is. His original appearance was devised so that kids could have an easy time drawing him, which only makes me feel worse about not being able to do it as a grown adult without it looking like a Sexy Legs Kirby.

Still, it's a classic for a reason. With his to-the-point colour scheme, contrasting heavily with Sonic's blue, and his capelet collar resembling walrus tusks, it was an instant winner and made everyone goo goo for g'joob.

The Emeralds he’s juggling are a metaphor for the divided fan community.

And when it was time to give the cast an update for Sonic's first real 3D adventure (or at least the first one that didn't get axed for being a magic eye seizure), Eggman got a respectable change of his own. He was taller, his getup was militaristic, and his body was more legitimately egg-shaped rather than basketball-shaped. He also gained a pair of goggles that he never uses, except in scenes where he puts them on and then never uses them.

“How do my chicken legs not collapse under the might of my gluttonous mass? Find out in an unrelated tie-in novel that you have to pay additional money for.”

There was also that one redesign from 2006, but...

Be it Classic or Modern, I've always loved his design. Before he even says a word or does anything, you know from his appearance that he's a bit of a clownish sort. But he also has a subtle creepy vibe going on, with the way his glasses often obscure his eyes, and how this only makes the pearly-white, unnecessarily wide grin on his face that much more empty and unsettling. This little bit of eeriness hiding among his cartoonish physique reflects the full extent of his character pretty accurately, as we’ll delve into soon enough.

If nothing else, it's more effective than him having no eyes at all.

GRRRRRRRR FUCK YOU BUNNIES THAT I CAN'T SEE

The Personality: If you've seen my villain reviews, then you'll have gathered that Sonic's rogues aren't known for having much in the way of personality. There are exceptions, but they are indeed the exceptions. More often than not though, whether it's an alien conquerer, an ancient monster, or Dan Green the Recolour, they can be summed up thusly: They're evil, they want to destroy the world, and the heroes stop them because they're evil and want to destroy the world. If they're feeling particularly daring, they might go for a second colour.

Luckily, as if to counter all these cardboard drawings, the central adversary of the franchise makes up for these voids of personality by actually having one. And what a personality it is.

The writers of SatAM looked at this and thought “No, this won't do, there's no character to work with here.”

He really is brimming with comedic charm. Every moment that he's present...

Every moment that he shows off...

Every moment that he basks in his own glory...

Every moment that he unveils a new wicked scheme...

Every moment that he puts his enemies to the test...

Every moment that he challenges the world...

Every moment that he laughs at the world...

Every moment that he lives, nay, every moment that he breathes...

Yes, the man has plenty of humor, and it's part of what makes him so enjoyable and memorable. However, if you think being a clown is all there is to him, then prepare to have your expectations subverted initial assumptions taken in a unexpected direction, because although he puts the goof in goofy, he ALSO puts the “oh...?” in “oh shit”.

For you see, Eggman is by all means the epitome of Laughably Evil, but do not, under any circumstance, take him at face value and write him off as a joke. He is anything but.

For starters, he can swing a planet.

There is a rule of thumb that I personally go by with Eggman’s characterization, one that I believe is an immediate make or break factor in regards to whether or not you understand what makes this villain work. Eggman - when you put all his secondary traits aside - is made up of two prominent halves. There’s the egocentric meme machine that bounces up and down like a kid with his N64 and laughs like Santa... and there’s the monster buried within that remains completely and utterly unrepentant for everything he’s responsible for. This is very important. Despite the character’s simplicity at his core, many writers have failed to grasp this, official writers included, and I for the life of me cannot understand why this is such a recurring problem. Eggman is funny, AND Eggman is evil. Both are equal. When you take away one or the other, you may have a funny character, or you may have an evil character, but you don’t have Eggman. Simple as.

Armchair intellectuals may argue that Eggman’s deeds aren’t that evil, since he tends to be merely callous rather than actively trying to hurt or kill people. Those people are probably the types on TV Tropes who weigh a villain’s evilness and effectiveness purely through the surface-level scale of their goals rather than what they actually do to achieve them. While it is true that Eggman tends to be more apathetic about the aftermath of his actions, that doesn’t - and shouldn’t - negate how dangerous he is. It shouldn’t negate what he’s capable of. It shouldn’t negate how far he’s willing to go. And it shouldn’t negate the consequences and casualties that can and do result from his many schemes.

Seriously, think about this for a second. If you confronted Eggman about his current plan to... I dunno, make a water park in Africa or some shit, and you informed him that there has been unexpected mass suffering as a result of this, how do you think he would truly feel about that? What do you think he would actually say to that?

Spoiler: No fucks.

If anything, that he “merely” doesn’t care either way as long as he gets what he wants is more uniquely horrific and deplorable than if he were a generic baddie who committed his evulz specifically for evulz’s own sake and nothing more. At least you’re inadvertently acknowledging that other people’s lives have value when you act one-dimensionally gleeful over ending them, but when your immediate response to the side-effect of a million potential deaths and environmental disasters is “Oh well, fuck ‘em, Eggmanland time baybeeee”, that’s a new level of cruelty.

Besides, even in the Genesis era, he was carpet bombing Angel Island...

“Good thing I have this shield. Sucks to be this forest!”

And he’s only gotten worse since then, indulging in such acts as going full suicide bomber with a missile, after his initial plot to destroy and rebuild Station Square through the means of Chaos and the Egg Carrier didn’t work out...

But don’t worry, he kept it lighthearted by making it look like a penis.

Making one of Sonic’s friends go insane with power against their will, forcing the Blue Blur to put them down personally...

It’s ironic, cause he’s metal. Or do I have to awkwardly explain the joke two more times before I’m a proper YouTuber?

Capturing thousands of innocent aliens, and forcefully converting them into mindless beasts...

I’m pretty sure I saw Alfred Molina conduct this experiment one time.

He even removed the heroes’ collective IQs so that he could shoehorn a cliffhanger on an already terrible game.

Thanks, cunt.

And honestly? When it comes to Sonic and chums at least, Eggman does let out a more openly sadistic side now and then. Need I mention that time when the doctor forced Sonic and two random buddies to make their way through a trap-infested island of his own creation? Not for the sake of nabbing Chaos Emeralds or anything of the sort mind you, he just wanted the blue motor mouth to suffer.

Images you can hear.

To make matters even worse, as befitting of his manchild tendencies, he’s ridiculously petty. How petty? Petty enough to abduct a little girl’s mother for no other reason than because Cheese completely trivialized his forces the girl was friends with Sonic and helped participate in the latest kicking of his own ass.

He only picked Vanilla because there was no Strawberry.

But at least his captives can admire the sheer variety that their captor has to offer. One of the greatest things about the doctor's style is that anything goes. With all due respect to Bowser, he tends to stick with his fiery castles (although he has been branching out recently), and plenty of other villains in gaming tend to be similarly stuck in their ways when it comes to tastes. Eggman, on the other hand, will create all sorts of fortresses and reside anywhere on the planet and beyond. It can be in the sky, in space, somewhere hot, somewhere cold, under the sea, in a circus... and every now and then, he might combine some of them together and thensome. So long as it's even vaguely mechanical in some way, his ground rules have already been ticked off.

Hang on a minute...

You know what else Eggman is? Relentless.

Persistence is a quality that most villains by their very nature share, lest they cease to be an effective antagonist. But once again, Rrrrrrrobotnik maxes out more than any other, and will often go to insane lengths to keep the current plan going, or if not that, then to spite Sonic.

Exhibit A: Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in which the grand finale consists of the madman throwing a gravity-shifting contraption your way, busting out a Kaiju-sized robo, escaping with the Master Emerald after his defeat, continuing to escape even after the Death Egg has been thoroughly destroyed, getting chased through the asteroid fields in space by Super Sonic, and only finally going down when the escape craft and the piloted mech controlling the escape craft are down. And all of this came after a grand adventure where, among other things, he destroyed an entire level just to kill you.

There are immortal omnipotents that put up less of a challenge.

“Looks like it’s time for Plan... *checks paper*... F.”

His relentlessness also reveals another side of the doctor that is simultaneously admirable and terrifying: He bows to no one. No one. Doesn’t matter who it is. Doesn’t matter how powerful they are. Doesn’t matter how much the odds are stacked against him. If another villain were to demand that he cower before them, the scientist would laugh and show through physical demonstration that this is not the way the egg rolls. Unless he’s absolutely unable to do so, he will give it his all every time, and even if he can’t, he’ll use his crafty mind to find some other way to get around the issue. You can beat him in battle, you can foil his plans, but you absolutely cannot break his resolve.

“Dad said it’s my turn to play with the Ruby. I know this, because I’m your dad.”

What about his relationship with those who actually serve him? Specifically, his own robots? Well for the most part, he treats them like absolute crap, what with verbally abusing them at every corner and being all too willing to go full Vader on them the moment they mess up. He IS capable of expressing fondness and giving praise to his more successful creations, like with Metal Sonic and Gamma, but even then, it’s a roundabout way of praising himself, since he’s the one who made them what they are. So basically, you’re only valuable to him if you make him look good.

Gaming in the Clinton Years in a nutshell.

And as for Sonic? Yeah, like with any legendary and long-lasting hero/villain dynamic, it’s obvious that Eggman has some degree of begrudging respect for his opponent. But if you think this respect would dissuade him from actually going through with his ambitions of rulership...

As the hedgehog’s apparent demise in Sonic Adventure 2 proves, as well as his defeat at the hands of Infinite and the subsequent six months of brutal conquest in Sonic Forces, Eggman is dead serious about his goals. If you think he’d get bored after conquering the world, he would simply expand his resources and have a crack at conquering the rest of the universe. When he says he hates that hedgehog, I’m inclined to believe that he means it, and although he may enjoy his “games” with Sonic to an extent, I also can’t see him wanting to remain stuck on square one forever.

If this were Sonic X, he’d just grieve.

By the way, the scene above? Undeniable proof that for all the doctor’s boasting, he’s not actually lying or exaggerating when he prides himself on his brilliance. Because when you get past his goofy exterior, when you look beyond the occasional, relatively minor mistake (*glares at IDW*), you’ll see that... yes. He IS brilliant. And not just in the science department either, although his countless robots and strongholds over the years are no doubt a testament to his credentials there. While he may prefer to go in big and bold, he can also be shrewd with his strategies when he wants to be.

Sonic’s aforementioned near-death experience, for example, was the result of Eggman turning the heroes’ own cunning plan on its head by being one step ahead of them. And in Sonic Unleashed, he lured his enemy into a trap, culminating with him cancelling out Super Sonic.

“...and pay the price for your Werehog gameplay...”

And after all those years of struggling, he finally got a giant monster under his complete control. “But he had help!”, you say? Yeah, from himself.

Did Flynn sleep through all this...?

Much like his inner nature as an evil bastard, Eggman's effectiveness is likewise commonly underestimated by writers. Yes, he occasionally makes mistakes. Yes, he occasionally overlooks details. Yes, he occasionally lacks foresight. But he is NOT stupid. A hero is only as good as their villain after all, and if Eggman is portrayed as a bumbling fool, then how can Sonic be a truly great hero? Eggman is humorous, sinister, and when the chips are down, competent.

...Did I mention that he's also a master Olympian?

The Execution: There's no surprises here. You knew from the moment you saw this review that my stance wasn't going to be anything less than 100% fanboy adoration. In that respect, this section almost feels redundant, because there's only so many ways I can say “Dr. Eggman is the fucking shit and I'm eternally grateful to Mr. Ohshima for bringing this absolute masterpiece into our world” without it getting repetitive. So to cap this review off, I'm going to very briefly compare his portrayals in other media, and explain why they tend to not be as good as the original SEGA Eggman.

“Cause they’re not balanced, right?” you ask. “Cause they veer too far in a particular direction? You're so predictable,” you add. To that I say:

1. Yeah, basically.

2. ...S-Shut up...

3. While the conclusion may be obvious, it's nonetheless important because as I mentioned previously, despite how straightforward this villain is, writers seem absolutely intent on not getting the point. There are loads of villains out there who share Eggman's talent of mixing hilarity and evil together with a bow of competence on top. Two of those villains are among the most famous supervillains of all time, in fact. You might have heard of them.

Joker can do it just fine. Green Goblin can do it just fine. And plenty of others can do it just fine. So why is it such an issue with Eggman? What is it about a round body and a long moustache that gets people to think “No, this guy is absolutely incapable of being comedic and threatening at the same time, no question, end of.” Is it because he’s a more cartoony franchise? Well, that can't be the case, because even Mario has a couple of beloved examples. Fawful, anyone? How about Dimentio? Cackletta? King Boo? K. Rool? Hell, you could even count Bowser himself depending on the portrayal.

Anyway, the point is, writers tend to miss the mark for one reason or another. With Sonic X for example, he wasn't too bad in the beginning, but as the show went on, he became exactly the toothless non-villain that many people misjudge him as. We all know that scene where he berates Black Narcissus for harming their captives (not for pragmatic reasons mind you, he genuinely took issue with the act on moral grounds, even though his own hands weren’t exactly clean either), but even before that point, he was doing such things as healing an injured Sonic without an ulterior motive, not taking any opportunity whatsoever to start conquering Sonic's world because he was pining for Sonic's attention, and being the Jiminy Cricket to Chris Thorndyke's Pinocchio. Why they thought the goddamn villain should be the moral conscience of this show remains an unanswered question, but at least it no longer influences how he's portrayed in the games.

Then you have the IDW comic, which is a similar tale of starting off decent and then careening wildly into the abyss, but for different reasons. Initially, he was built up to be in-line with his competent, foresight-packed self from Forces, with his inevitable return being met with dread, and a delightfully devilish scheme to match when he finally did so. But somewhere along the way, Ian Flynn thought that Eggman coming back from his amnesiac period and returning stronger than ever with a new minion and a deadly virus wasn't enough to up the stakes... so they decided to “up the stakes” by turning both the doctor and his new minion into massive imbeciles so as to justify their plot getting hijacked by the Deadly Six, a move so predictable yet infuriating that it got even me to turn against the Six. And the reason the Six got invited in-universe is because Starline decided he didn’t like being unique and devolved into Snively 2.0 behind Eggman’s back. All this from the alleged “best writer” for the series...

Yeah, same.

And then you have the Boom version, which shares basically the same issues as Sonic X but in a more mundane fashion. It's easier to dismiss because it's a comedy-centric show and his redesign makes it easier to separate him from mainline Eggman, and I'll gladly admit that he does have a lot of genuinely funny lines that redeem him a little bit. But yeah, too much of not being a true villain for my tastes.

Now this isn't to say that there haven't been portrayals in other media that are up there with the original. The versions that I consider better off than the ones above include...

- The OVA Eggman is pretty faithful all things considered, aside from his romantic feelings for Sara, which feels slightly off since the idea of Eggman loving anyone other than himself is incredibly unrealistic at best. But it doesn't actually soften or undermine his deviousness, so I'm willing to let it slide for an alternate take. Especially since he gave us the best Metal Sonic out there.

- AoStH is far from a perfect show, but there's a reason why even its detractors tend to treat its version of Robotnik like a national treasure. Admittedly most of that is because of the legendary Long John Baldry and the endless memes associated with this incarnation, but despite hailing from a comedy-focused show like Boom Eggman, this Robotnik still had a lot of legitimately dangerous moments, more than you'd think.

- And of course, Jim Carrey's Robotnik in the Sonic movie is just... *chef's kiss*

So obvious aesop though it may be, but you see what the more effective portrayals have in common, I assume?

Granted, this also isn't to say that SEGA Eggman himself has had a perfect track record. The decade's worth of upstagings and backstabbings by other villains should be enough of a counterpoint to that claim, and I've also made it clear now and then that I take issue with certain games regarding what they do with the doc, no matter how revered they may be by other fans. Sonic Adventure 2, for instance. I praised the fake emerald scene, and I do sincerely believe that he has a number of other badass moments in that game, but because Shadow was playing him like a fool the whole time, I can't help but have a bitter taste in my mouth when I look at the bigger picture.

So close to greatness, yet so far...

So in that case, which game do I think has Eggman's best showing overall? That's not in any way an easy question, but lack of dialogue aside, I'm gonna go with Sonic 3 & Knuckles again, as the classic journey through the sights of Angel Island plays out in a way that highlights just how determined, ruthless, and underhanded he is with carrying out his mission to revive the Death Egg by any means necessary. Other games do win out in other areas - SA1 for how bastardly he is, Forces for how cunning he is, Colours for his hilarious announcements, CD for using the scenery to show the effects of his actions, Mania for not letting the other villain walk all over him - but for the purest essence of the doctor at his cartoony yet competent best, I'd say S3&K is a reasonable bet.

And when it comes to all his many traits, which one do I find the most special one of all? Well again, far from easy to answer, but I think the coolest aspect about him is also one of the most overlooked. Robotnik, despite whatever superhuman qualities he may occasionally unveil, is for all intents and purposes a regular guy with a big brain. This might make him appear unimpressive when compared to your average Final Fantasy villain and the like, but if anything, it paints him in a more flattering light than expected, because he doesn't even need to be on their level to still be on the radar. It's easy to be a big bad threat when you're an ancient demon or an almighty god-like being, and you only have to wave a hand to cause armageddon. But when you're just Some Guy™ going up against superpowered opponents, meaning you have to earn your threat level the hard way, and you prove to be a challenge every step of the way regardless, because you're just THAT much of a genius... that's fucking awesome, no other way to put it.

And you know what else is awesome? You may not like Eggman, and you don’t have to like him, but like it or not, he is directly and indirectly responsible for a vast majority of the coolest and most loved moments and aspects of this franchise.

The opening to Unleashed? Eggman set up the scene.

Shadow running around and continuing to be part of the franchise? Eggman released him.

Blaze getting involved with Sonic’s world and continuing to be part of the franchise? Eggman’s half-responsible for that.

Metal Sonic? Eggman made him.

Egg Dragoon? Eggman.

Big Arm? Eggman.

Monkey Dude? Eggman.

That text is missing a blue checkmark.

This review is probably longer than the echidna family tree in Archie at this point, so I better finish it off. If it wasn't obvious from all the paragraphs I've belted out in this post, I'm very passionate about Eggman and the way he’s portrayed. Ever since I got into the Sonic franchise in 2003, I immediately took a liking to the doctor, and to this day, he remains not only my favourite Sonic villain, my favourite Sonic character, but also my favourite character period. Some may find it a weird or lame choice compared to other, “better” characters, but that's the way it is, and I ain't about to change it. I am very unlikely to ever stop enjoying the hell out of this villain, and even if he got irreversibly ruined in some way, I'd still continue to love what he was before that point.

Because yeah, he's not the deepest character ever, but... who cares? Is it not enough that we find something that appeals to us? When I got into Sonic, I was introduced to fantastic games, a likable cast, high quality soundtracks, beautiful worlds, numerous friends on this very site, and of course, the lovely treasure that is my partner. I may not have been with this franchise during the 90's, but it's given me just as much fun, nostalgia, and happiness as those who were. Despite the flawed titles, despite the fandom conundrums, I still love this series.

And I still love this absolute prick.

Crusher Gives Dr. Eggman a: TWO Thumbs Up!

#Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog #Dr. Ivo Robotnik

[jed-thomas]

Ministers with and without Portfolios

When you want to demonstrate your sincerity, you write a letter.

The summer is nearing its summit and 1982 is disappearing in a confused fog. Somewhere, Micheal Foot opens up an envelope. An ambitious young candidate, recently selected in some leafy suburb of London, has written to him. You can feel the youth in his writing - and, regrettably, a palpable eagerness to impress. Nevertheless, there are some admirable phrases:

Socialism ultimately must appeal to the better minds of the people. You cannot do that if you are tainted overmuch with a pragmatic period in power.

For men like Foot, members of a modern British tradition, politics and oratory are not separable. Even the timbre of your voice comes into it. On some cold picket-line, at some bored union congress, or against the baying of the other half of the House, you have to fill the air and rouse the spirits. In so many ways, the tradition of British socialism is a poetic tradition.

Maybe, then, he spots it a mile away. A lack of inspiration, the absence of a real perspective. That faint sense of pantomime. Or otherwise, Michael Foot, soon to be an ex-leader of the Labour Party, dimly registers the writer’s display of party-loyalty and just puts the letter aside. This man had crashed the party’s vote-share in Beaconsfield. Tony Blair is saving face.

X

Last Friday, it was announced that the constituency of Hartlepool would return its first Conservative MP in 62 years. Labour’s vote-share crashed by 16%. Perhaps most astonishingly, the Conservative victory in Hartlepool is only the second time in 40 years that a party in government has taken a seat from their opposition.

In immediate response, Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer MP moved to reorganise the Labour Party’s campaign office. Importantly, Deputy Leader Angela Rayner MP was removed from her position as Chair of the Labour Party, the position ultimately responsible for election campaigns. As the Deputy Leader is elected separately, Starmer’s decision has been criticised as an attempt to undermine the influence of a senior elected official. However, as the days have passed, Rayner has emerged with a new position - or, more accurately, a few new positions. Angela Rayner MP now shadows Michael Gove MP as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and occupies the newly-created, elegantly-titled office of Shadow Secretary for the Future of Work.

Former MP for Hartlepool and Minister without Portfolio under Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson has been named by sources within the party to Guardian columnist Owen Jones. According to Jones, Mandelson signed off the press strategy for Shadow Cabinet members following the result in his former constituency.

X

It’s raining in Stockport. The King Street bridge is abandoned. Looking at the slow river, she knows that she is a cliché, a tired punchline. And she knows that she’ll have to leave school. Other girls have done it, so she’ll get through it, too. But it’s an abrupt and unceremonious change to whatever path she was on before. 16 and pregnant. A joke. Then again, wasn’t this always the intended outcome, in one way or another? Cornered. It was going to be a long time before she understood that there was anything that could be done about that.

The wind takes a few of the leaflets out from under his armpit and scatters them all over the carpark of Oxted station. A favour, he thinks. It’s 8 in the morning, they’re all commuters. No-one’s taking them. As if some serious city lawyer is going to read about the future of proletarian resistance, let alone in a pamphlet handed to him by a spotty adolescent. East Surrey Young Socialists. He isn’t blind to the humour of that. Some preachy privately-educated Surrey boy. He had tried to explain that he’d gotten into Reigate fairly and squarely, that it’d only just started asking for fees in the last few years. Much to his chagrin, by the way. People around here don’t listen. If they did, they’d see that there was nothing to be scared of. But they’re closed off, rigid. It’s enough to make you want to pack it all in, honestly.

His father was staring out at the snow falling on the houses of Hampstead Garden in one of his attitudes of preparation. He had an abiding sense of danger, of impending calamity. Peter always attributed that to his religiosity. Eschatology. The End Times. “Have you compiled your application yet?” “Of course, Dad.” Peter knew the counterpoint melody. Your mother and I have worked too hard. He would say it like that because his mother is the real concerned party. Descendants of the Labour Party aristocracy are obsessed with elite education. He is pretty sure that he will get in. He’s clever, goes to a good grammar. And when he gets in, he is going to have fun, the sort of fun you can only have at a place like Oxford. Judgement Day is a long way off.

The Hampstead Garden Suburb was the brain-child of two idealist architects, Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker. The pair were disciples of the Arts and Crafts movement, an aesthetic philosophy with global reach that found particular purchase among British socialists; indeed, Unwin was a life-long and active member of various socialist organisations. Hampstead Garden was to be spacious, communal and open to all social classes. It was built on land purchased from Eton College by a wealthy patron. The Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust Ltd., established in 1906, executed Parker and Unwin’s designs.

Peter Mandelson was born in 1953 to an advertising manager and the daughter of Herbert Morrison, the Leader of the House of Commons under Clement Attlee. He was raised in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, attended a local grammar school and then, studied at Oxford. As a teenager, he was a member of the Young Communist League. At university, he joined the Oxford University Labour Club.

As a veteran in public relations by the time of Tony Blair’s bid for leadership of the Labour Party in 1994, Mandelson, distrusted by trade union representatives within the party, played his part in the successful campaign in near anonymity, being referred to by staff only as “Bobby”. In his acceptance speech, Blair used the moniker when expressing gratitude to his campaign team. After running Blair’s successful general election campaign a few years later, Mandelson was appointed to the office of Minister without Portfolio, allowing him to attend Cabinet meetings without having any formal obligations. Critics have likened it to a sinecure. In 1998, Mandelson resigned from government, having failed to declare dealings with millionaire Cabinet colleague, Geoffrey Robinson. He is now a peer, happy to be part of the club.

Oxted is an incredibly old town. When William the Conqueror ordered a survey in 1086, Oxted had its various assets - hides, churches, ploughs - recorded. It remained a sleepy time-capsule until it was reached by the new railway system in 1884 and run-off trade from London began to bring money into the town. At the beginning of the last decade, it was the twentieth richest town in Britain by income.

Born to a nurse and a toolmaker in 1962, Keir Starmer was named for the first parliamentary leader of what would become the Labour Party, Keir Hardie. He attended a grammar school and was the first in his family to graduate from university, obtaining an undergraduate degree in law from the University of Leeds. As a result, he undertook postgraduate study at Oxford and became a barrister in 1987. During this time, he edited Socialist Alternative, a controversial magazine associated with various factions on the Marxist left.

Starmer is a relatively green politician, having only been selected as a candidate for Holborn and St. Pancras in 2014. The majority of his life has been spent working in the legal system. In 2010, Starmer successfully prosecuted 3 Labour MPs and a Conservative peer on charges of false accounting. In 2011, he encouraged the rapid prosecution of several rioters, sometimes on the testimony of undercover police officers. In 2012, Starmer brought a case against former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne which resulted in the only resignation of a Cabinet Minister over legal proceedings in British parliamentary history. In 2020, as Leader of the Opposition, Starmer ordered Labour MPs to abstain on the third reading of the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill, which granted undercover police officers full legal immunity for all actions undertaken on duty. Desperate to be heard, Starmer re-tweeted a Guardian column by Angela Rayner MP, adding: ‘We’ll make sure you know Labour is on your side.’

Stockport lies just south-east of the City of Manchester at the point where the Rivers Tame and Goyt become the Mersey. Although bisected by the feudal borders of the counties Cheshire and Lancashire, it belongs to a different epoch. Stockport is a town with almost 300 years of industrial history, home to one of the first mechanised silk factories in the entire British Isles. Surveying all of England for his 1845 history ‘The Condition of the English Working Class’, Friedrich Engels remarked that Stockport was ‘renowned as one of the duskiest, smokiest holes’ to be found in the industrial heartlands.

By the time Angela Rayner was born on a Stockport council estate in 1980, the country seemed eager to be free of this history. This eagerness sometimes manifested as a disdain for trade unionists and benefit claimants. Both of Rayner’s parents were eligible for benefits. And at 31, Angela Rayner was a senior official for the public-sector union Unison.

Having left school at 16 to raise her first son, she got her GCSEs by studying part-time at Stockport College, where she eventually qualified as a social care worker. At work, she clashed with management, discovering a flair for negotiation that would get her elected as a union steward. Finally, after years and years of confusion and uncertainty, someone was being made to answer.

#hartlepool #labour #boris johnson #peter mandelson #tony blair #angela rayner #keir starmer #conservative party #owen jones

[accidentallyadramablog]

Long post, spoilers, and wishful thinking for Never Twice

Okay, I'm just going to say I'm glad Geum Bak Ha was fired. Yes, I know Oh In Sook is shady af and I'm ready for her to go down. But...I'm such a nerdy rule follower that I cannot abide by Bak Ha going through In Sook's drawers. In Sook is the manager of that gallery. What if there was confidential data (like a doctor's note or performance evaluation) on one of the other employees in that drawer? What Bak Ha did was unethical and In Sook's past behavior doesn't excuse it.

Also, if Bak Ha doesn't work for Guseong anymore, I feel more comfortable with her dating Hae Jun in the future. I'm not a fan of executives with secretaries due to the power dynamics.

Ok, here's what I hope will happen so that Bak Ha can learn about the art show:

Geum Bak Ha should tell Na Hae Joon about the Singapore art show and her suspicion. Hae Joon will book a flight and hotel for them to go to the art show together in Singapore using Kang Jin Gu's invitation. Bak Ha will dress up for the art show like she did when she was the fake fiance. They share a hotel suite to keep up appearances. That engagement ring makes another appearance.

And I hope that enough time has passed that she's confronted her own feelings but not yet accepted his confession so that the trip is filled with romantic tension. And Hae Jun will be respectful about giving her space and agency on the trip even though he's already confessed (because that will make us and Bak Ha love him even more).

In the course of the two of them looking like a perfect couple, they'll uncover Mr. Son doing some shady af smuggling/embezzlement operation and Bak Ha will headbutt a bad guy while wearing an evening gown and diamonds. Hae Jun and Bak Ha will run off holding hands after uncovering enough evidence to set a trap for In Sook when they return to South Korea. (Hae Jun buys another stuffed animal for Yul Mu while in Singapore. He buys stuffed animals for Yul Mu during every business trip for the rest of his life. This is now fact.)

If the writers don't have them go to the Singaporean art show, what is the point?! Think of the product placement opportunities: jewelry, clothing, tourism, luggage, hotel chain, conference center, handbags, etc.

#long post #no second chances spoilers #never twice spoilers #never twice #no second chances #na hae jun #geum bak ha #kwak dong yeon #park se wan #wishful thinking

[wanderingwomanwondering]

So I wrote a long ass letter to SYFY/NBC re The Magicians. Here it is...

Greetings!

I am writing to share my concerns in the wake of season four of The Magicians on SYFY. I watched seasons one and two on Netflix two years ago and became an avid fan at that time. Naturally, I dove into season three live when it aired and season four as well. From my perspective as a Black queer person living with mental illness, the show has had a host of common problems with its plotting and character development as it relates to marginalized and underrepresented identities from the very beginning. However, in my mind, those problems were mitigated by the humorous storytelling and the seemingly sincere attempt to represent real people who often do not see themselves reflected in popular TV characters.

Evidently, my trust in the The Magicians showrunners - Sera Gamble, John McNamara and Henry Alonso Myers - was misplaced. All of my hopes for a dynamic and honest portrayal of the lives and challenges faced by queer people and people living with mental illness were shattered on April 17, 2019 when the thirteenth episode of season four, entitled The Seam/No Better to Be Safe Than Sorry, aired on SYFY. In this letter, I hope to communicate a meaningful measure of my despair and explain exactly why I was so profoundly impacted but the heinous and imprudent end that Quentin Coldwater met in that controversial episode.

In this television adaptation of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy, viewers are introduced to Quentin Coldwater, an awkward, queer, anxious and “depressed super nerd” who is struggling to find happiness and meaning in his life. As a fan of the fictional Fillory and Further novels, Quentin finds wonder and escape as a child that carries into his adulthood. In addition, he finds the will to keep living through his connection to the fantastical land of Fillory, which helps him navigate his suicidal depression. These aspects of Quentin’s lived experience are canon, clearly stated and/or demonstrated by the on-screen narrative.

Quentin is immediately and deeply relatable to the very group of people that flock to The Magicians and television programs like it. We are Quentin Coldwater in real life! His story is our story. Honestly, it feels odd to say that as a queer person of color in America with a mental illness, but it is true. Even when I was at odds with aspects of Quentin’s behavior, thoughts, or feelings, there were others that I felt reflected important parts of who I am. Just as Quentin is not “just some White guy”, I am not “just some Black person”. Quentin and I are both queer and we are both mentally ill. Those shared identities mean just as much as the ones that we do not have in common.

This is the crux of intersectionality. What it means for Quentin to be White is influenced and shaped by his identity as a man, both being shaped and influenced by his identities as a queer person and as a person living with mental illness. Quentin must be constructed and understood as a complex and nuanced concert of identities shaping and informing one another. The privileges that he possesses as a White man are mitigated by the marginalization and oppression that he is subjected to as a queer person living with anxiety and suicidal depression. Gins (greywash) does a wonderful job of examining Quentin’s intersecting identities in her article on Medium which you may access here.

The marginalization and oppression of queer communities and people living with mental illness cannot be disrespected, minimized, or erased from the real life socio-cultural and political context in which the fictional world of The Magicians is situated, nor can that larger context be extricated from Quentin’s characterization and narrative without said vulnerable communities noticing and speaking out against it. Simply put, if SYFY channel and the showrunners of The Magicians wish to include marginalized and vulnerable communities in the stories that you tell, then you must be careful and conscientious in how you depict those characters and their associated real life communities, because, as the refrain of the decade goes: “Representation Matters”.

The plotting and character development in The Magicians has real consequences for how queer people and people living with mental illness feel about ourselves and whether or not we feel seen and heard by the larger society of which we are a part. When The Magicians identified Quentin on screen with real life queer people and with real life people living with suicidal depression, that creative choice came with ethical responsibilities that the showrunners violated rapidly and unapologetically. What happened throughout season 4 - culminating in episode 13 - endangered, invalidated, and not so subtly erased identities that Quentin possesses, identities that were incredibly salient to many real life people who relied on The Magicians through Quentin to portray their story respectfully and faithfully. The ethical considerations in this situation do not evaporate with flowery statements about creative vision, good intentions, and entertainment value.

The Magicians showrunners plotted Quentin’s death by suicide under the guise of so-called heroism in the finale. In order to accomplish this, they spent the entirety of the season bludgeoning his mental health to create “ambiguity” (Hollywood Reporter interview) around the suicidal aspect of Quentin’s death. In a nutshell, writers killed his father, isolated him from his friends, traumatized him through the Monster’s killing sprees and through Alice’s unwanted (until episode 12) romantic advances, and maniacally exploded the protected and protective fantasy of Fillory. On top of all of this, in the fifth episode of the season, the showrunners elevated from subtext and canonically confirmed Quentin’s queer identity and introduced a real chance for him and Eliot to explore their complex and nuanced relationship within a romantic context. The showrunners then immediately returned Quentin and Eliot’s relationship to the realm of subtext and denied Quentin permission to achieve catharsis around this plot point, instead disrespectfully and irresponsibly using it and the aforementioned problems as fodder for the canon suicide plot.

If you wish to understand a fuller measure of the devastating effect that this has had on real life people who identify with Quentin as a queer character fighting suicidal depression, spend a few hours searching #QuentinDeservedBetter #PeopleLikeMe and #Queliot on Tumblr and Twitter. The finale did shock queer fans and those living with mental illness, but it did not do so in a constructive way that affirmed our experiences or our right to exist beyond entertainment for people who see us as “other”.

Ironically, in their attempt to down cast Quentin’s privileged identities as a White man (Hollywood Reporter interview), the showrunners accomplished the exact opposite; they trampled over his marginalized identities, seeking “beautiful tragedy” in the finale. Many people have no problem extracting their Wednesday night entertainment from the blood and tears of marginalized and vulnerable queer and mentally ill “others”. This is evident in the social media posts hailing season 4 as a triumph. Privileged fans have this in common with the showrunners whose own privilege is embarrassingly obvious to marginalized people, but sadly flies below the radar of the showrunners’ own awareness.

It is 2019. Our culture and society can no longer afford to have television programming that is ignorant of the larger social and cultural context in which it exists. We cannot afford to have networks, showrunners, and writers who do not understand the complexity and nuance of intersectionality, power and privilege. We cannot abide television shows that naively miss or maliciously ignore their ethical responsibility when telling the stories of marginalized and vulnerable people; please do not attempt to tell our stories if you cannot or will not tell those stories ethically and responsibly. However, I really do believe that with professional consultation, fan focus groups, and thoughtful determination in plot and character development, SyFy channel and The Magicians can continue Quentin Coldwater’s story respectfully and ethically.

As network executives, showrunners, and writers, you are aware of the power of story. In many ways, television is the contemporary campfire around which humans huddle to transmit the stories that establish and reinforce collectively who we are and who we hope to become. The stories that we tell on television and in other media have had and always will have power for this reason. The beauty of the stories that emerge in the science fiction and fantasy genres in particular is that we not only endeavor to see ourselves as we truly are, but we then endeavor to “imagine greater” as the SYFY slogan aptly phrases it. The Magicians, in the beginning, implied that it was ready and willing to do this and to center at least two marginalized and vulnerable communities in the process: queer people and people living with mental illness. It is my sincere hope that The Magicians showrunners and others involved in the creative process will examine themselves honestly and critically using feedback from fans and others with a stake in the stories being told and imagine greater.

All of the above considered, the way forward from my perspective would include the following:

Please issue a thoughtful apology that considers those of us living on the margins of society.

Please continue Quentin Coldwater’s story, with or without Jason Ralph. If, in fact, Mr. Ralph does not wish to return to The Magicians, there are other talented actors capable of breathing life into Quentin Coldwater. The characters live in a magical world where literally any explanation could account for a new actor portraying this much beloved and sorely needed character.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Me

*i tried to fix the formatting issues here in Tumblr to no avail. The email was cleaner than this format-wise.

#people like me #quentin deserved better #the magicians #the magicians finale #queliot #bury your gays #queerbaiting #representation matters #mishandling mental health issues in media

[icarus-imagines]

Goro Akechi X Bullied!Male!Reader

Hi, you're a really good writer, could you write an Goro Akechi x bullied male reader where reader is a grade lower Akechi but friends with him, and actually has a crush on the detective, but ends up ends up putting a request on thr ohansite for help, cause he feels like he'd just be a nuisssance, but Akechi catches him putting the request on the phansite. If you think Akechi would actually react to that happening

Word Count: 2,993

Category: Persona 5

Hopefully I did everything you requested. Thank you for such a wonderful request.~

-Mod Icarus ଘ(੭ºัᴗºั)━☆ﾟ

~A Crow Watching Everything Before Him Unfold~

"Stop."

That voice. That voice that had plagued your mind rings in your ears and the finger that had raised on the computer mouse to press send stopped in mid-action. You didn't know if you should turn around or continue with what you had intended to do. Your brain was telling you that you had already gotten this far. After so many weeks of being tormented you deserved to deliver justice onto the one who had caused you so much misery and dismay.

Yet, you couldn't.

The voice that had stopped you on your mission to eradicate said tormentor, belonged to the one person you couldn't bring yourself to go up against. Of course, he would stop you. Of course, he would be the one to discover what you had conducted. This orchestra you had created, with you as the conductor, was quickly crumbling with his intervention.

You wanted to feel resentment, some sort of negative emotion against Goro, but you were weak against him. Any attack you could deliver towards him would deplete his health, but he would rise high above it. He was strong. Someone with high walls that could put on a mask of secret facades. Unlike you, you could not do such a thing. You had no mask, no armor to protect yourself.

And this is why you had become a punching bag.

As you sat therein, in the school library in a random chair with a provided computer, you contemplated on if you should turn towards him. If you should meet his gaze or ignore that he had ever spoken and click send. You were choosing on whether or not you should play your cards carefully or go all in and bet everything that you were you.

As always your resolve was one filled with cracks. You broke right there and you bet he could see it when you swiveled your head slowly to look at him. The deep breath you had inhaled almost got lodged in your throat when you peered up at his high stature.

You looked like a mess and you knew it. He probably knew it too, but he showed no signs of disgust at such a thing. With his perfect, immaculate clothes and perfect posture. No strand of syrup colored hair was out of place even though it was shaggy and should be hard to keep since it was longer than most males liked it to be.

The inside of your mouth feels dry and you wished to get a drink of water, but doing something like that right now would be the most idiotic thing. So trying to form words, you feel should be like a suitable response to his single worded demand you come up with something that is as equally idiotic as you want a drink of water.

"Why."

What you offer him sounds, unlike a question. Yet at the same time, it does not sound like a statement. You truly do not know what it is, but the expression he offers you makes your stomach twist in a painful way. You regret saying such a thing, but what were you supposed to say? What was the right response to what he was asking? Well...there was no other response. Nothing you would say could convey what you were feeling. Convey what you were thinking as this painstakingly long moment that kept ticking on by.

He does not say anything for a moment and you fear what you said has caused him to be repulsed. But despite thinking so he actually takes a step forward. WIth the closer distance of him being only a foot away, you can see that pained expression on his face become more clear. His lips, that usually always held a small, albeit fake sometimes, grin, had now morphed into a strong straight line. Dark mocha orbs were filled with discontent and this caused his whole visage to become one of a solemn omen.

"You never told me."

His voice that was usually so gentle with you, so lighthearted has become heavy. It is a heavy weight upon your shoulders when he speaks to you like that. Yet you feel no remorse. For some reason, even you cannot explain his words cause your body to become filled with unfiltered rage. You are suddenly angry at him and you are glad nobody else is in the school's library otherwise they would have to witness you both becoming unhinged.

"Why would I need to?" you almost spit out. "Shouldn't you have noticed? Everybody else noticed."

Your nasty mood seems to affect him and his gloomy expression quickly becomes one of mixed guilt and exasperation. He brings himself forward, a hand coming to rest itself on the edge of the desk and he leans on it. He towers over you and as you raise your head you feel tiny. You honestly feel scared at what he will deliver onto you. But what he says is different from which you had first anticipated.

"Of course I noticed, you fool," he speaks through gritted teeth.

His words strike you as him committing wrongdoing. He was a detective, he abided by the laws of the world. But he also had his own moral code that he went under. And from his face, it looked like he had broken a moral law. He had executed a transgression and it made you wonder what law he had broken to become so disgruntled.

"Then why...," tears begin to sting in your (E/c) eyes as you speak, "...Why did you not do anything? You are telling me you noticed and you did nothing to stop it? If you noticed then wh-"

He stops you from going on. "I did do something. Believe me."

You glare at him in what is akin to disdain. "Well, whatever you did obviously made no difference."

"Can't you see I know that?" His words spill with venom. "There is only so much I can do that is legal."

You pause, mouth open to deliver a rude comment, but you are filled immediately with clouded confusion. Closing your mouth you stare at him for a second before rethinking your next words. "Legal...," you start slowly. "What do you mean by that?"

You have a feeling you may know what he means, but for somebody like Goro to cross a line such as that irks you as terribly wrong. For him to break the law would be like a fish trying to walk on land. It was impossible to imagine, but at the same time, it may not be impossible to do if they tried hard enough.

There is a grin on his face you have never seen before. It is a foreign one and it makes a shiver wrack through the entirety of your spin, nerves inside of it almost short-circuiting. Was it horrible to say that you were attracted to the look displayed on such a perfect face? To see something so forbidden looking on someone that should be docile. You could feel yourself falling for him again. Falling for a part of him you never knew existed until right then.

"If I had it my way," Goro mumbles lowly. His phrasing is so different from his usual self. You wonder why he is talking so low, making his voice so deep. A part of you does not want to know why and only wants more of it to be delivered. Your prayers are answered when he continues on, leaning down closer as you sit there defenseless. "Let's just leave it at us both knowing that there would be absolutely no one to bother you anymore if I confronted them how I truly wished to."

The chuckle that tumbles out of his mouth is something you find similar to an antagonist of a story. It is immensely deep and you swear you feel your face becoming hot. What this the face, the demeanor, the personality of which you had come to crush on? Was this boy the true person you had found yourself yearning after?

Yes.

It had to be. If he was not, you would have felt sickened by his change of character. Yet here you were. Sitting there enjoying it. You were actually thrilled about it and while you should have been scared about your attraction to him you were instead not the least bit unsettled.

"So, you knew," you say, hand slipping away from the computer mouse to rest in your lap. Your hands rub together feeling somewhat helpless beneath him. This new Goro, that was there the whole time and you didn't know it, was an intimidating person. 'What else do you know?"

"More than you would like," Goro simply exclaims. His eyes run away from yours and latch onto the computer screen, the Phansite that belong to the Phantom Thieves that proclaimed they could change people's hearts open to view. "Way more than you would like."

You look back at the screen and see your unposted message, the glaring 'send' button there with it. Though you had wished to earlier, you cannot bring yourself to do it now after everything you had learned. Hand momentarily returning to the mouse you delete the message and watch as it erases your confession. Turning you peer through your (H/c) hair to see another unique expression flit across your crushes face.

Complete satisfaction.

You could not fathom why he would have something like this, but you didn't care. All you cared about was knowing what he said he knew.

"And...," you begin, drawing his eyes over to your own. You want to stop speaking and stare into those eyes forever, but doing so would just embarrass you. "What do you know about me?"

"Quite a lot. You are what I would call a completely open book," he explains. He takes the chair behind him and sits next to you. His legs brush your own and you want to pull away in embarrassment. Just like he had said he justifies his statement by gripping your knee in one of his hands. His other hand comes up to cup your cheek, the gloved texture a bit strange.

It is supposed to be a calming, affectionate gesture and while it does come off that way you can feel an edge on it. You almost feel trapped, like you are under his mercy and control. And if you had known better you would have stood up and left. But you do not. You stay and witness everything unraveling.

"You may think you have been hiding yourself well, but it was obvious really," his thumb rubs your cheek, and you know for sure the heat radiating off of your skin can be easily felt. Just knowing that must be making the heat rise at that very moment. "Did you really think I didn't catch onto what you were doing? You must have thought yourself clever, thinking I had no idea how you felt."

You want to gasp, but his gloved thumb travels to press onto your bottom lip, the pressure upon that part of you has your heart racing. The hand grabbing your knee travels to rest and grope at your thigh and you are struggling on whether you want him to travel further out to stay put. Either one will give you what you want.

"What do you think I feel?" You ask, eyes slightly shaking in anticipation when he moves impossibly closer.

"I can show you if you would like?" What he says is not a question and it is obvious when it comes true not a second later.

His face comes near and before you can even think about hesitating his lips meet yours and you have to put a hand on the chair's armrest to stabilize yourself. It's like a firework has set off, staring at your lips and leaving them tingly. It travels to every single limb of your body, to the ends of your fingers, to the ends of your toes, and you feel it reside in the pit of your belly. It's like tiny firework poppers are tumbling around in there and for a second, you wonder if he can hear it. If he can feel the excitement spilling through every pore in your body, igniting and being set off by his very doing.

You think he will pull away, but his assault continues. For a second you wonder what it would be like to be in bed with him and though that thought is dirty the fireworks lead you on. If making out with Goro was like fireworks it was quite possible that doing something more would be like a forest fire.

You feel his tongue swipe across your lip and the hand he has cupping your face move to tangle itself into your hair. You want to taste his tongue, know what it feels like meeting yours but it is almost as if he knows what you want. This irks you when he pulls away from you, licking his lips in a display that had your hormones growing crazy.

You watch as he slowly comes forward and you lean in hoping he comes back to your lips, but he swerves off the path confusing you greatly. His hand in your hair and the one atop your thigh both make an experimental squeeze, measuring out their dominance and hold over you. You can only sit there as he maneuvers your head to look up, neck exposed out in the open for him.

He watches as your Adam's apple bombs in obvious nervousness before he places a kiss on it. Your hand reaches out in instinct, grasping onto his clothes, surely messing up their perfectionist look. It is tantalizing torture not seeing what he is doing, but you can definitely feel it. It is hard not to feel his lips moving across your skin, the heated flesh reacting quickly to his slow movements. It is a haze of deliriousness when he begins to assault it. Tongue wet, it slides over your jugular big tendon ligament since it was so easily exposed at this compromising angle. Hot against the skin, you can only reach another hand out to grasp at his shoulder as he bites those tender areas. It gets progressively worse when he moved downwards and begins to nip ever so lightly at your collarbones when he moves away from the collar of your white button-up shirt.

Fears begins to rise wondering just how far he will go to display his somewhat twisted affection for you, but it is quickly resolved when he gives one last nip below a collarbone and separates from your body. You are left wondering what he will do next, nerves seemingly physically shaking with the excitement that rises with the thought of it all.

"Is that enough?" He pretty much states The crazily marred look in his eye goes unnoticed by you as you try to nod. "Good."

His hands pull away from you without warning and he stands up quickly. Stepping away his gloved hands go on to fix his clothes and put his tie back in place. A hand combs through his hair and when he turns to you he looks exactly how he was when he had first arrived.

Unblemished.

Immaculate.

Perfection.

"That should suffice, should it not?" The grin he wears sends your heart soaring. "Now I should advise you to not go on that Phansite anymore. If you have any problems with the bullying come to me. I will deal with it personally, you have my word."

Like a black crow, one of secrecy and deceit, he exits through the school's library doors, disappearing from your sight. He leaves you there sprawled on the computer chair all alone. With (H/c) hair an utter mess and shirt splayed open you didn't care if anybody came in and saw you this way. With lips bruised, neck and collarbone abused you actually thought it amusing to think about what somebody would say if they confronted you.

If you had known being bullied would lead you to something like discovering detective Goro Akechi's hidden Persona you would have insisted on being taunted much earlier than this. A cruel thought really, but this senpai of yours was worth all the torment that you had been through.

Sitting there with only yourself as a company you came to realize Goro was the true bully. He had known about everything that had happened to you and even though he said he had done something, he could have done more. The reveal of his true personality was an obvious indicator that he was capable of more than people thought he was. It would have not surprised you if the bully had been a random person to come and toy with you. A plan set up by Goro to make it out like he was some knight in shining armor. This was all wrong though.

Goro was not some knight in shining armor.

Goro was the villain, the antagonist in disguise.

A crow watching everything before him unfold.

~The End~

#x reader #oneshot #imagine #drabble #persona 5 #p5 #persona #goro akechi #goro akechi x male reader #goro akechi x reader #male reader #bullied reader #male bullied reader #request

[aion-rsa]

Wheel of Time Amazon TV Series: Everything You Need to Know

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The Wheel of Time, the sprawling fantasy novel mythology by Robert Jordan, is heading to Amazon Prime as a series.

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One of the most popular fantasy franchises of the literary world, The Wheel of Time, is getting a live-action television adaptation. Originally authored by Robert Jordan, the 80 million-selling 1990-2013 book series depicts a sprawling mythology, amalgamating feudal and magical tropes with elements of Eastern mysticism. Indeed, the books bear philosophical influences from European and Asian culture, notably Buddhism and Hinduism, centered on the idea of time being cyclical in nature.

Amazon gave a series order to The Wheel of Time back in October 2018, setting the project as an hour-long series that will stream on Amazon Prime Video, as reported by Deadline and confirmed by an APV retweet. The move was the culmination of what had been a year-and-a-half process, going back to April 2017, when it was first reported that Sony Pictures Television was moving forward with the TV project.

The Wheel of Time Cast

Amazon continues to fill out the cast of its upcoming Wheel of Time series. This round of casting features four relatively new faces (at least to American audiences). Veteran Spanish actor Alvaro Morte will play Logain Ablar of the Black Tower. Hammed Animashaun (Black Mirror) will play Loial, an Ogier from Shangtai. Alexandre Willaume will be Thom Merrilin, a former bard. Johann Myers will portray the darkfiend Padan Fain.

Amazon recently released this footage featuring The Wheel of Time cast in a table read of the script, which also reveals the presence of Naana Agyei-Ampadu (GameFace), whose role is unknown at this time.

On September 10th, the cast and crew of #WOTonPrime got together to read the first episode of The Wheel Of Time. Production is now on its way and we are VERY excited to see this show come to life! #TwitterOfTime, this is for you. pic.twitter.com/FmWA4zeh2r

— The Wheel of Time on Prime (@WoTonPrime) October 2, 2019

As for the rest of the cast...

Daniel Henney was recently added to The Wheel of Time cast. He will play al’Lan Mandragoran, a.k.a. Lan, the stoic warder (essentially a protector,) of Moraine (Rosamund Pike). However, Lan happens to be the lone survivor of a royal bloodline, and is the uncrowned king of Malkier, a province that was overrun by forces of the Shadow. Henney's announced casting as Lan was accompanied by the following quote: "I swear to stand against the Shadow so long as iron is hard and stone abides - to defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains. I swear to avenge what cannot be defended."

Henney, an American actor, can be currently seen on CBS’s Criminal Minds, which he joined in 2015’s Season 10, and is also known as the voice of Tadashi in 2014 feature Big Hero 6 and its current animated series. Besides TV runs on Revolution, Hawaii Five-0 and Three Rivers, he appeared in the 2009 Fox-Marvel solo spinoff movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as Agent Zero, the character known in the comic book mythology as assassin Maverick.

The series recently revealed a quintet of main cast members. The show’s official social media also provides pertinent quoted descriptions for each of the characters, culminating with the message, "It was about them all." The cast members consist of the following (pictured directly below from the left):

Madeleine Madden (Picnic at Hanging Rock, Tidelands) as Egwene Al’Vere. – “It was about a woman who would not bend her back while she was beaten, and who shown with a light for all who watched.”

Josha Stradowski (Instinct, Spangas) as Rand Al’Thor. – “It was not about me. It’s never been about me.”

Marcus Rutherford (Obey, Shakespeare & Hathaway) as Perrin Aybara. – “It was about a man whose family was taken from him, but who stood tall in his sorrow and protected those he could.”

Zoë Robins (Power Rangers Ninja Steel, The Shannara Chronicles) as Nynaeve. – “It was about a woman who refused to believe that she could not help, could not heal those who had been harmed.”

Barney Harris (Clique, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) as Mat Cauthon. – “It was about a hero who insisted with every breath that he was anything but a hero.”

They will, of course, join the show’s June-announced headliner...

Rosamund Pike officially landed the lead role in The Wheel of Time as Moiraine. A member of an all-female secret society of magic users, called the Blue Ajah of the Aes Sedai, Moiraine embarks on a dangerous journey with five young people she comes to mentor, one of whom she believes could be the reincarnation of someone prophesized to either save or destroy humanity.

Pike, an Oscar-nominated actress for her role as Amy Dunne in 2014’s Gone Girl, is also known from 2005’s Pride & Prejudice and as a Bond villainess in 2002’s Die Another Day. She recently fielded a small screen starring run on SundanceTV comedy State of the Union, and appeared in films such as A Private War, 7 Days in Entebbe, Beirut, Hostiles and The Man with the Iron Heart. She’ll next be seen in the August-scheduled crime drama, The Informer, and, amongst other projects, will co-star as Marie Curie in the fact-based 2020 romance drama, Radioactive.

The Wheel of Time Director

Uta Briesewitz is set to direct the first two episodes of The Wheel of Time, reports Deadline. This should be great news for genre fans, seeing as the German director and cinematographer, Brieswitz, brings small screen experience from directorial runs on shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things (in the recent Season 3), HBO’s The Deuce and Westworld, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, Starz’s Black Sails and Netflix-Marvel shows such as (the just cancelled) Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and The Defenders, as well as streaming giant offerings Orange is the New Black and the returning Altered Carbon. Plus, she’s fielded runs on Fox’s Lethal Weapon and The CW shows The 100 and Jane the Virgin. Indeed, with a peak television CV like that, The Wheel of Time should be in good hands for its launch.

The Wheel of Time series buck stops with Rafe Judkins, who assumes duties as writer, executive producer and showrunner. Judkins is no stranger to genre television, serving as a producer and writer on ABC’s Marvel series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Netflix horror series, Hemlock Grove. He was also a story editor for NBC’s beloved geek-wish-fulfillment spy series, Chuck. Judkins will be joined by executive producers Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of Red Eagle and producers Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures. Additionally, the property’s authorial legacy is in place with Jordan’s widow, Harriet McDougal, onboard as a consulting producer.

As Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Event Series, Amazon Originals states:

“Developing and producing Robert Jordan’s beloved fourteen-books-series for TV is a big undertaking, and we don’t take it lightly. We believe that Rafe’s personal connection to the material and soulful writing will resonate with the book’s passionate fans.”

The Wheel of Time Release Date

The Wheel of Time has yet to announce a release date. However, a production timeframe was recently spotted in trade magazine Production Weekly, via fan site The Daily Trolloc. The excerpt claims that the series is set to begin rolling cameras in Prague, Czech Republic sometime in September 2019.

The Wheel of Time Details

The Wheel of Time TV series is moving along swiftly, with production having started on September 16, a bittersweet date, since it also marked the 12-year anniversary of author Robert Jordan's passing.

#ThankYouRobertJordan pic.twitter.com/B5MF5LO5aU

— The Wheel of Time on Prime (@WoTonPrime) September 16, 2019

Of course, The Wheel of Time is a large-scale endeavor, since the novels of Robert Jordan (nom de plume of James O. Rigney Jr.), three of which were completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan passed away in 2007, build an intricate mythology governed by the titular seven-spoke Wheel of Time powered by an incorporeal celestial source of power. Like the Force in Star Wars, it is a binary power utilized by gifted people, here called “channelers.” The story is spread across epochs in the continuing battle against Shai’tan (or, the Dark One,) who, upon breaking free of imprisonment from the Creator, exerts influence on the malleable to lead the source toward evil.

Amazon's series order for The Wheel of Time arrives after several years of starts and stops, going back to 2000 when author Jordan was still alive. A pilot called Winter Dragon, starring Billy Zane and Max Ryan, aired on FXX on February 8, 2015 (at 1:30 a.m.) to no fanfare or fruition (it was essentially a move by Red Eagle to prevent the rights from expiring). However, McDougal herself made media ripples in April 2016 when she announced “exciting news” about the property; something that required the clearing of some legal issues before moving forward. After the resolution of said legal issues, McDougal speculated that The Wheel of Time would become a “cutting edge TV series.”

We’ll keep you updated on Amazon’s The Wheel of Time as things develop.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

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News

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Joseph Baxter

Dec 4, 2019

Wheel of Time

Sony Pictures TV

Amazon Prime Video

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#aion-rsa #Books

[31charactersxiv]

The Masterlist

The sum total list of characters I play as. I maintain two accounts for the purposes of RPing multiple characters in a scene/event.

After each character, a brief summary. In the future, I will expand upon these so each has their own page.

My characters are for the most part lore-abiding. None 100% directly contradict canon, but some stretch it (quite) a bit more than others. Note that in the case of the Lee and Wae families, especially, they are eccentric, and despite their claims it is inconclusive whether they’re actually correct or not. What your character believes is not dictated to you.

Account 1:

Trudy Bays: Seeker of the Sun exiled from her tribe because the only thing she was good at was stealing, something she is extremely good at, but did through compulsion only and can’t ‘turn on’ as an ability. Now she’s joined a traveling troupe of stage performers, and wears a cavalcade of clashing, garish colors because she just really likes bright colors.

- Annabel Lee-Wae: Youngest daughter of Amelia Lee-Wae and Gerard Wae (deceased), her rebellious nature has led her to trying to perform acts of charity for others. Her general dumbassery, exacerbated by her cloistered upbringing, has led her to be near-totally incompetent.

- Kagome Voulaizun: Writer for The Crucible, absolute dumbass. Exiled from Ishgard, a place she refuses to state she’s from - indeed, she insists she’s the reincarnation of an ancient Doman hero. At best, she only ever half-knows what she’s talking about. Will condescendingly explain to a Doman why they’re wrong about their own country’s history rather than accept she might be wrong.

- Amelia Lee-Wae: Mother to Annabel, Ebony, and Tara. Sister to Lulu. Widow of Gerard Wae. Outcast from the Lee family of Ul’dah for her refusal of an arranged marriage in favor of marrying a self-made “new money” rich man, Amelia was once a terrifyingly powerful black mage known as The Crimson Witch. 

Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for everyone else, in her old age and in grieving her deceased husband she has grown increasingly detached from reality and her crackpot theories about the nature of magic and Ul’dahn history culminated in her quietly being confined to the Wae Manor, save for rare (supervised) travels outside. The final straw was when she insisted that the Ul line is illegitimate due to the “fact” that Lalafell are descended from Mhachi mammets and therefore not people.

- Lulu Lee-Williams: Crime lord from Ul’dah, moved to Thavnair to escape the Lee family’s insistence she marry a man. Instead married a Thavnairian noblewoman, using the strength of this connection, her own magical prowess and raw determination to forge a half-cult, half-criminal empire. 

Her followers are chosen from the poorest and most vulnerable, and she manipulates and indoctrinates them until she’s satisfied their loyalty is unshakable. Any who fail she eradicates and uses for her own magical ends. She has intentionally created a structure which cannot stand past her own death, and has curried all the power and influence she has for the ultimate goal of destroying the Lee family. 

Their crime of casting her out will see them destroyed, once and for all, and Lulu will see to it that her darling nieces Ebony and Tara inherit what’s left of the Lees. Cunning, dangerous, a witch through and through, Lulu is not to be trifled with.

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Lacina Lune: A Viera once kidnapped by Garlemald and turned into an experimental brainwashed assassin, Lacina has since been cut loose after a bout of mental instability had her deemed too much a risk to carry on. Instead of executing her, she was dumped into Eorzea to, the Garleans presumed, wreak as much havoc as possible. 

Instead, she has fallen to delusion. Unable to accept that she failed her final mission, she instead believes her target has faked his death and gone into hiding. She pursues him relentlessly, a phantom she can never catch, while making plans for the future she cannot hope to fulfill without accepting the reality she fundamentally and categorically denies. Fascinated by music and obsessed with perfection, she does her best to function in the world but finds doing so increasingly difficult.

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Coulement Williquette: Dravanian hunter, hailing from Tailfeather, Coulement is a simple man. Stifled by cities and only at home when on the hunt, he is a dedicated and capable monster hunter. Coulement is good-natured, kind of an idiot, and strives to be something of a hero, but his severe difficulties understanding Spoken have been his primary inhibitor. Coulement is presently engaged in hunting a legendary creature with his girlfriend (?) Alya, a far more cerebral hunter who is a perfect counterpart to him

-

Jaraku Drake: A bard with a long and storied past, Jaraku is ultimately a man defined by his passions and talents. His overwhelming love for and devotion to his wife Issabel Drake, whose last name he adopted, drive every action he takes and every move he makes.

Zwynmaga Doesmagasyn: Bastard son of the dread pirate Doesmaga, Zwynmaga has carried the burden of his birth his entire life. Rather than lash out at the world which so cruelly compared him to his father before he could even walk, Zwynmaga has instead devoted himself to proving all his detractors wrong. Where he is expected to be cruel, he delivers kindness. Where he is expected to be defiant, he offers fealty. 

He is a firm Lominsan patriot and member of the Maelstrom, and his achievements (despite his relatively young age) are already impressive to behold. From his flagship the Reconciliation, he has brought more than one renegade pirate to justice, and been a thorn in the side of Garlean shipping time and again. Every last member of his crew are absolutely devoted to him, and he runs his ship with a level of professionalism far more in line with a proper military than anything which could be confused with a pirate ship.

Zwynmaga is childhood friends with his navigator Swyggsyg, and his first mate Hyltbryda.

-

Ryoko Kasai: (In)famous yakuza operating out of Kugane, head of the Kasai-gumi, and fire-obsessed engineer. Kasai is something of an enigma to most - her history shrouded in mystery. All that is clear is that she burst onto the scene with a vengeance some six years past, and has since then carved out a comfortable niche for the Kasai-gumi. Keeping her organization small, highly-capable and devoted, Kasai looks ever-outward for opportunities to expand, and spread her fire across the realm.

-

Chiaki Ishimoto: A creature most commonly termed a “vampire”, a term she takes offense to yet offers no satisfying alternative to, Chiaki is a ranking member of a Hingan secret society which exists to defend Hingashi from threats supernatural. Chiaki herself is specialized in the treating with and binding of creatures which cause trouble in and around Kugane. An exceedingly dangerous opponent in a fight with centuries of experience behind her, Chiaki had until quite recently grown complacent. Only after being shown she is not infallible has she begun focusing on self-betterment.

Chiaki despises Eorzea and has no interest in ever returning if she can possibly help it, and views Kugane as her own private treasure. One she defends with her life.

- Rydia Misuto: Survivor of the burning of Monzen, Rydia has been severely traumatized by the stark contrast between living with her kindhearted mother and watching the very same mother be violently killed in the attack. Near-broken by her single-minded lust for power and revenge, Rydia has done everything she is able to apply her unique tenacity towards her ultimate goal: Becoming strong enough to make sure, once and for all, that the Garleans never return to Doma.

Rydia is loosely inspired by the character Rydia from Final Fantasy IV.

Asagao Shiragiko: Hingan samurai who denounced the corrupt government of Hingashi but, rather than fight it directly, has instead resolved to spread knowledge and teaching to as many as she can, and thus empower the peasantry towards a peaceful revolution. Her lack of visible progress despite over a decade of work is starting to wear thin on her.

Asagao is exceptionally capable as a samurai, but certainly not the best alive.

Account 2:

Tabatha Tombclutch: Tabatha, or “Tabby”, rarely ever gives her last name to others. Instead, she self-styles herself the infamous “Tombclutch”, a grave robber and tomb explorer with zero respect for any of the historical ground she treads beyond stealing the most appealing items there. She does not fence any of her acquisitions, and gains nothing from them but the rush of success. Instead, she squirrels them away - so that her wealthy parents remain unaware of what their daughter’s been doing those nights she spends off on her own.

Tabby uses her cover as an archaeologist to find the best places to rob, and has absolute certainty in herself due to a unique power she has cultivated, through the aid of a tutor whose motives are far from benevolent. Casting aside the thaumaturgical lessons her parents sent her to, Tabby has instead delved into the magic of ‘luck’. The upside is it allows her to sharpen her senses to a supernatural degree, and gives her a sense for danger far more honed than most, as well as allowing her to manipulate minor aspects of fate around her (such as dice rolling or card games.) 

The downsides to this power are that it can be unreliable, and that the use of it casts a bright aetherial beacon around herself, one which is extremely easy to detect. She is unaware of this fact. In combat, she prefers to run away and fights only to escape. She “justifies” her actions to herself by refusing to kill Spoken, and will go out of her way to risk her own life to save a pursuer if they would otherwise die as a result of her own actions. To some scant few, this has ingratiated the “Tombclutch” as a hero of sorts. But in Nald’Thal-worshiping Ul’dah, robbing the dead cannot be forgiven.

Gaelle Troyes: Former Ishgardian knight, now exiled, Gaelle has devoted her life to being a living, walking mockery of everything Ishgard believes. By taking her superb skills in reading others and applying it to “fortune-telling”, Gaelle manipulates those she gives “readings” to towards ends which remain unclear to most.

Ultimately, she wants to mock the gods, spread chaos, and better the lives of people she finds worth it along the way.

Gaelle has sworn an oath of pacifism she will die before she breaks, a direct spit in the eye to the country that tried to make her into a weapon. Despite her act, no reading of hers should be taken as in-setting being an actual divine message, though what those she hoodwinks believes is of course up to them.

Kyou Hurekakuko: Hingan tattoo artist from Bukyo, Kyou is the inheritor to a school of tattooists which trace their lineage back generations... Or so she thinks. In reality, despite her impressive skill, her mentor decided it best she be pushed to start her own business, as she is too abrasive to become the face of his. Kyou is presently ‘exiled’ to Kugane by the Bukyo Yakuza for assisting Kasai, and her overwhelming egotism earns her few friends.

Still, it can’t be denied that when she knows someone enough to ‘peer into their soul’, she can swiftly identify the perfect tattoo to represent them as a person, and ‘empower’ them. If they were to allow her to use her magic-infused inks, that is.

That’s only if she can be bothered to care, of course.

-

Clyde Arrowny: Known as “Shadow”, he is a shinobi in dedicated service to Cardelica Tachibana, and tolerates no threats or slights against his master. A stark contrast to the cheery and optimistic girl, Shadow is noteworthy for being acutely stoic and grim. He uses a variety of glamours to move about Kugane and keep tabs on individuals of note who may either be of aid or a threat to his master, and responds accordingly.

An exceptionally-powerful shinobi, Shadow has been said to be the equal to a hundred men on the battlefield. The reality of this has never been tested.

Shadow is explicitly inspired by the character of the same name from Final Fantasy VI.

-

Gerrith Gaffgarion: An ex-Ala Mhigan national, Gerrith is an absolute monster of a man who revels in violence and killing. A Dark Knight whose powers grew twisted and far more malevolent than his mentor could allow, Gerrith slew his own mentor to ensure his own skills would be all the more valuable.

A villain through-and-through, he has spent decades as one of the more feared mercenaries operating across Thanalan and La Noscea. Despite charging exorbitant fees for his services, Gerrith has zero actual desire to amass wealth, and exclusively uses it to either pay his lone ‘partner’, create self-sustaining cash flow, and facilitate the continuation of his grim work through bribery and other such means. Gerrith has a well-reputation for leaving no survivors wherever he is hired to attack.

Gerrith Gaffgarion is loosely inspired by Goffard Gaffgarion from Final Fantasy Tactics. 

- Gui Charlemalde: A Gridanian adventurer, Gui was adopted by Duskwights as an infant, and has since grown to be one of the most kindhearted people in all the Black Shroud. Electing to inherit his father’s mantle as an adventurer, so that his elder brother would not feel guilt over following his dreams of being a carpenter, Gui has spent every day of his adult life with a very plain mission:

Do all the good he can.

Choosing to focus on smaller threats and problems than most, Gui firmly believes the role of an adventurer is to help those who otherwise would not be helped. No job is too small, no task is beneath him, so long as it is to help those in dire need.

In recent times, Gui has grown painfully aware that he has been cursed from birth to carry a voidsent in his blood which he is increasingly at odds with. His overwhelming positivity and commitment to his own good-naturedness have kept the voidsent mostly at bay, so far. But for how long can such a thing last?

-

Tange Shishido: Aged Doman samurai, severely injured in years past, Tange seeks to train all she can in her art so as to prepare another generation of samurai to defend Doma. The older he gets, the more her injuries hold her back, but in her day she was unquestionably one of the most powerful samurai in the realm.

Tange’s acceptance of ijin as students, contingent on their swearing an oath to defend Doma if ever the country needs them, has made her unpopular with many, but she has a long history of eschewing tradition wherever she feels it stifling her.

-

Ebony Wae: Eldest (by minutes) twin sister of Tara Wae, eldest sister to Annabel Lee-Wae, and oldest not-disowned child of Amelia and Gerard Wae, Ebony is a driven businesswoman with tyrannical tendencies. Devoted to an unorthodox cult of Nald’Thal espoused by her family, Ebony secretly thinks of herself as the incarnation of Nald. With a careful eye to the family businesses, and an insatiable appetite for expansion, the only things holding Ebony back are her insistence on fair treatment of employees, and the handful of distractions she often allows to get in her way.

Most notably among these are her love of combat and the thrill of the hunt, and her preoccupation with making sure Tara is able to find a husband of high enough quality to be worth continuing the family line with.

Ebony cherishes her Aunt Lulu, and is exceedingly protective of her little sister Annabel. Trained in the ways of the Dark Knight by a tutor who regretted the contract almost immediately, Ebony is prone to violence and destruction as her preferred solution to any problems or threats which arise, so long as she remains within the confines of her obsession with obeying the letter of the law.

Ebony and her sisters have a variety of beliefs which are foreign to the common resident of Thanalan, chiefly that hoarding money is a sin against Nald because the exchange of currency is how Nald expresses Himself. Between this and many other ideological anomalies, her radical and unusual beliefs have led her to accidentally be one of the more beneficial people in Thanalan to the region’s well-being.

-

Kogyoku Yuzuka: Yakuza, member of the Kasai-gumi, absorbed into the organization during first wave of expansion through Kugane. Kogyoku is a skilled fighter and loyal member of the organization. She is often paired with her best friend Ken, a Roegadyn who towers over her. The two make an effective duo - Ken’s brazenness tempered by Kogyoku’s cool-headed rationality.

-

Adroit Aegolius: Going by a pseudonym designed to innately test the knowledge of everyone he meets, Aegolius is a Sharlayan researcher come to Eorzea to learn more about Blue Magic. One of the younger children of a large Sharlayan family, Aegolius has used his family’s sway - with his eldest brother’s support - to allow himself the freedom to fully explore the potential of this new field of magic, contingent on having something to show it was worth the funding upon his return.

Aegolius is a smooth-talker who seeks out opportunities to enjoy life while he’s still young, but at the same time yearns for the days in decades to come when it is him who is the aged, wise wizard passing knowledge and judgment down to those beneath him.

- 

Hyltbryda Eyrieynwyn: First mate to Zwynmaga Doesmagasyn, Hyltbryda is a rough-and-tumble Roegadyn who’s far more playful and competitive than her more reserved captain. Hyltbryda frequently challenges those she likes to competitions of physical strength and endurance, and has beaten more than a few people swimming back and forth along the docks of Aleport. She uses a spear in combat, a tradition she has kept onto after defeating a haughty Ishgardian in a fight with one.

Hyltbryda is often the source of minor pranks on the crew, and enjoys messing with those she likes in good-natured ways. Hyltbryda is dating Lee Whims.

-

Kavatch Beamsplitter: A Nagxian monk who emphasizes strength over all else, the “Beamsplitter” is noted for his single-minded devotion to bettering the world through what he sees as the only possible way to do so:

Tempering those who can weather his stern outlook, and breaking those who cannot.

Kavatch is brutal and forward-focused, always striving towards a place where he has enough strength to shape the world to his whims. To change the face of Hydaelyn to match his ideal: a world where the strongest rule and protect the weak, and anyone can rise to the top through self-betterment. Where positions of power must be fought for to be maintained, and the infirm or incompetent are ousted in short order by those wiser and more capable below them.

Kavatch has disdain for those who fight using entirely mechanical means, such as firearms. In his eyes, the truest expression of perfection is the ability to fight with one’s own body and spirit, eschewing all other ‘distractions’.

Kavatch set out on a journey, recently, telling the students of his school that those most experienced among them should build up the rest, and that he would teach them more when they were able to find and defeat him - not a moment before.

#ffxiv rp #all my characters

[berniesrevolution]

JACOBIN MAGAZINE

“In political activity . . . men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel.”

―Michael Oakeshott

Probably no one of my generation and background will forget where they were on the evening of November 4, 2008. Outside my then-residence at the University of Toronto, people streamed into the quad with tears running down their faces. It was a moment like no other I have experienced. The seemingly impossible had happened: Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States. Within minutes of CNN projecting the result, a collective feeling that was equal parts euphoria and disbelief seemed to burst forth all over. It took weeks, maybe even months, to dissipate.

The election of Barack Obama certainly isn’t my first political memory, but it may well have been my first really formative one. As embarrassing as it is to write more than a decade later, I’ll readily admit to having been swallowed up in the excitement and emotionally sold on the romantic promise of “Change We Can Believe In.” It offered a compelling narrative incorporating everything my political imagination craved at the time: an image of progress as I then understood it; a charismatic leader to take us out of the darkness and into the promised land; the negation of the hated Bush presidency and all it stood for, from the reign of the Christian Right and its dimwitted rubes to the evils of Fallujah and Abu Ghraib. I wasn’t even American, but Obama’s victory still felt like a moment of grand, even historic, affirmation.

I bring this up not because I have since become a left-wing writer and seek penance, or want to issue some embarrassed mea culpa (we were all nineteen once), nor as part of some reductive effort to trace the roots of my own politicization back to a single event or moment. I came to my politics the way most people do: by way of a confused and often contradictory jumble of ideas and idioms gradually clarified through learning and experience.

On a basic level, I am a socialist because I simply cannot fathom reconciling myself to a society where so many needlessly suffer because of circumstances beyond their control; where human dignity is distributed on the basis of luck and a social caste system is allowed to permeate every aspect of daily life; and where all of this is considered perfectly normal and acceptable in a civilization that has split the atom and sent people to the Moon.

But while it would be nice to attribute everything about my politics to pure moral sentiment, it would be a lie. Because the less noble truth, if I’m honest with myself and the reader, is that something else has played a formative role in animating my politics and anchoring me on the Left: namely, a searing dislike for liberalism as the hegemonic outlook in our culture and a deep, abiding disdain towards the political class that so self-righteously upholds it.

Maybe I was predisposed to democratic socialism; I always considered myself to be “on the Left,” even as a teenager. In any case, it’s become clear in retrospect that watching the liberal class respond to events over the past decade has been a powerful stimulus in my politicization.

Which is to say, I didn’t acquire radical politics simply through reading Marx in college (though it certainly aided the process). Nor did I become irredeemably frustrated with liberalism merely by absorbing some abstract argument about its flaws. I didn’t have a Road to Damascus revelation while thumbing through some volume by Chomsky or David Harvey. And while I would certainly count them as formative to my political evolution, it wasn’t the likes of Ralph Miliband and Tony Benn — let alone Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn — who ultimately imbued me with a burning hatred for anything and everything that calls itself “moderate” or “centrist.”

No, that instinct owes much more to watching Barack Obama summon forth a tidal wave of popular goodwill, then proceed to invite the same old cadre of apparatchiks and financiers back into the White House to carry on business as usual despite the most punishing economic crisis since the Great Depression; to seeing the “war on terror” become a permanent fixture of the global landscape long after its original architects had been booted from the halls of power, courtesy of supposedly enlightened humanitarians; to witnessing a potentially monumental hunger for change be sacrificed on the altar of managerialism and technocratic respectability. It comes from watching a smiling Nick Clegg stand next to David Cameron in the Rose Garden at Number 10 Downing Street before rubber-stamping a series of lacerating cuts to Britain’s welfare state and betraying a generation of students in the process; to seeing the dexterity by which Canada’s liberals gesture to the left then govern from the right; and from seeing the radical demands of global anti-austerity movements endlessly whittled down and regurgitated as neoliberal slam poetry to be recited at Davos by the hip young innovators du jour.

These triangulations, and many others like them, helped me realize that the malaise was the product of a congenital trait rather than a temporary blip. The problem, in other words, wasn’t that contemporary liberalism was failing to live up to its ideals, but that it was living up to them all too well.

From an early age I had been trained by mainstream political culture to think of liberalism as an orientation synonymous with change, progress, even dissent. This, in theory at least, remains its official branding in our moment of looming climate catastrophe and ascendent right-wing nationalism. Yet throughout the particularly dark decade spanning 2008–2018 liberals have positioned themselves as the persistent agents of caution, hesitation, and reassurance, often directing greater hostility towards constituencies on the Left than those on the Right to which they are ostensibly opposed. Faced with the choice between a radical, populist figure and an orthodox machine politician in 2016, the executive officers at Liberalism Inc. made this antipathy all too clear — and we are now living the disastrous consequences.

In an era where a deranged former reality star possesses nuclear launch codes, many liberal elites still adamantly insist that things have actually never been better and that, beneath the chaos of our tumultuous present, the species is doggedly marching in a straight line towards Something Very Exciting Indeed. (This is why the beaming Steven Pinker, not the dour Jordan Peterson, is arguably the figure who best reflects our liberal order in crisis — watching the world burn around him and proclaiming like some postmodern Professor Pangloss as the flames lick his feet that, actually, this is fine.)

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #jacobin #jacobin magazine #liberalism #neoliberalism #neoliberal capitalism #capitalism #democratic socialism #socialism

[minaminokyoko]

How about favourite captain America movies scenes?

WELL YOU ASKED FOR IT PAL.

The First Avenger

-Steve at the movie theater, telling that douche to shut up and getting his little ass kicked for his trouble. Oh, Steve. Goddammit, Steve. You are too pure and good and wonderful for all of us. I like that it’s both a good quality trait and a weakness for Steve that he can’t abide bullies and he’ll stand up to anyone even if all it means is he’ll just get the stuffing beaten out of him. Plus, Bucky stepping up to help his idiot best friend is so heartwarming it’s insane. I love that Bucky is just fucking used to Steve getting himself beaten up because he stands up to shitty men. That’s best friends for you. 

-Peggy punching the bejeezus out of Whatshisface in the troops’ first scene together. Oh, dear Lord. Where do I start? First, her telling him to step forward. Second, the completely placid look before she does it. Third, the fact that she puts his bitch ass on the ground no trouble. Fourth, Steve’s appreciative smile. Fifth, the General not even blinking that she flattened that douche. It’s just brilliant.

-Steve jumping on the grenade. Standing ovation. Steve is too good and too pure a cinnamon roll for any of us.

- “Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.” This is the heart and soul of Captain America and Steve Rogers and I cannot stress enough how this is honestly probably my favorite scene of the movie. We follow this guy not because of the strength of his body, but the strength of his heart. Steve has all the heart.

-Bucky and Steve being reunited. The best bros just knock it out of the park. 

-Peggy’s reaction to Steve returning with all the captured soldiers. Seriously, it is the most NC-17 thing I’ve ever seen in a PG-13 movie. That smile Steve gives her and the smile she gives him right back is 100% code for “if we weren’t in the middle of this camp right now, I would tear your clothes off and fuck you to Jupiter and back.” It’s such a pure, awesome moment of sexual tension, and it’s done in such a classy way. I love that scene to death. They eye-fucked the shit out of each other and I adore the overwhelming yet subtle acknowledgement of what’s going on between them.

-Steve having a picture of Peggy in his pocket watch, and the fact that Peggy sees this during the little film montage. I want to scream. I LOVED the General giving her an amused side eye but not actually saying anything. It was a wonderful little nod to Steve’s reciprocated feelings for her. 

-Steve and Peggy’s kiss. Whyyyyyyyyyyy, Lord? Whyyyyyyyyyy? Why didn’t they get more time together?! They were so fucking cute and I know if they’d have gotten together, it’d have been amazing and wonderful and they would have been so happy. Dammit.

The Winter Soldier

Disclaimer: Legit, The Winter Soldier is arguably one of the best comic book movies ever made and it is taking so much restraint for me not to list the entire goddamn film as my favorite scene, because I love it from end to end. Gun to my head, I’d say my Top 3 MCU films would be this, Ragnarok, and either Avengers 1 or Avengers 3. It’s really hard to pick out scenes in a perfect movie.

-Sam and Steve’s introduction to each other. The sheer chemistry here is stellar. I was in stitches that Steve Rogers was just okay with teasing a total fucking stranger for no reason other than just lolz. I love that TWS starts out reminding us that Steve isn’t some humorless do gooder. He has a great sense of humor and he’s just a friendly guy in general, so they couldn’t have picked a better scenario to introduce their dynamic. I adore that opening scene, man.

-Taking back the ship. Fuck, dude. Talk about one of the best executed action scenes in the MCU. Everything from Cap racing around just laying those fucking dudes out on his own to Nat popping in to the absolutely genius execution of Cap vs. Batroc. Oh, if a film scene could get me pregnant, it’d be that one, man. I fucking love that entire damn sequence.

-Nick Fury vs. Hydra. I appreciate this simply because we saw some badass Nick Fury in Avengers, but this was a delightful addition to remind us that the man is the head of SHIELD for a reason. He is NOT to be fucked with. He is a very capable agent and held his own and it was awesome.

-The elevator fight scene. ‘Nuff said.

-Natasha confronting Steve with the flash drive. So this was the first moment where I knew I was going to ship Captasha/Romanogers until the end of time, regardless of the canon. I loved this interaction. Steve is frustrated and suspicious, and so is Nat, but they both find a common ground and realize neither one is actually the enemy. I especially love: “Bye bye, bikinis.” “Yeah, I bet you look terrible in ‘em now.” That snark tho. Cap is flawless, and there is a healthy dollop of sexual tension delightfully overlaid with this scene of him backing her up against a wall and then her showing some skin. Yas lawd. 

-Steve and Nat undercover at the mall. Not only is it just funny as hell and delightfully awkward, but it really shows off the great chemistry between the two of them. You’d think that with them being polar opposites that they’d butt heads, but they actually just complement each other extremely fucking well. Then there’s the exquisite escalator kiss. I mean, mm, did that look yummy. Even Steve comes out of it like, “well, damn.”

-The car conversation on the way to Jersey. I think that I would’ve only liked this movie, not loved it, if Nat hadn’t been there. I think Nat’s presence is what helped make this one of the MCU’s best films period. The honesty between them as they have probably one of their first real conversations getting to know each other is amazing. I adore this scene. I adore seeing them bond. “That’s a tough way to live.” “Good way not to die, though.” I think that is one of the best lines in the whole MCU, personally. 

-Recovering at Sam’s place. First off, the two of them sharing the guest room and bathroom says a whole lot of shit right there. It’s an implied intimacy. Then Cap walking over and just knowing in his gut that Nat isn’t okay, and just gently, gently asking her what’s wrong is so important to both of their characters. You get to see them go from coworkers to friends and from friends to good friends in such an amazingly short period of time that it’s so heartwarming. Evans and Johansson have worked on several films together, and this is definitely one of those things where they just play off each other so well from being friends in real life. I love the inflections. I love the close up on their expressions. I love how Steve is able to get Nat to lower her walls and just talk to him about how she’s feeling, and how she sincerely thanks him, and how she’s even a little scared when she asks “if it were down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?” and Steve emphatically answers, “I would now” and then smiles at her so sweetly and makes a little joke. I just…my heart, man. My heart. Steve and Nat’s relationship is possibly my favorite out of all the Avengers, and I should note that Chris Evans ships it and I am really happy about that fact.

-The Winter Soldier’s attack. Flawless. This fucking sequence is flawless. Getting to see everyone’s skills on display, and then capped with the emotional realization from Steve that his best friend is not only alive, but has been brainwashed and is trying to kill them, is just so great. Huge, huge kudos to Evans, Stan, Mackie, and Johansson as well as their stunt team and the choreographers, because it’s some of the most gorgeous, polished action I’ve ever laid eyes on. Especially Evans and Stan’s fight. Wow, that could not have been easy and it’s all them when there are close ups during the knife fight. I really appreciate them going HAM on that shit. It turned out beautifully.

-“But I knew him.” Yep. Let me die. Just let me die. Poor tortured Bucky’s memories surfacing at the sight of his best friend saying his name just tears me up inside. Ugh. Bury me. 

-Cap remembering Bucky’s words after his mother’s funeral. Bury me again.

-Cap’s speech to SHIELD after they arrive at the HQ. Hnnnnnnngh. I would die for Steve Rogers. Without question. This speech is why. He knows that he might die trying to stop Hydra, but he gives those people the choice to do what’s right at great cost, and he believes that they will do the right thing, and he’s absolutely right. I had mentioned years ago that this is why the DCEU’s current Superman has failed; that trait, believing in people despite evidence pointing to the opposite, is what make Cap and Superman two American icons. This is why we rally behind them as characters. Because they believe in us and they believe we are worth protecting. It’s a fucking shame the DCEU writers don’t understand that and have forced a decent actor like Henry Cavill to be a morose, joyless, brooding Superman, and don’t even try to tell me they “fixed” him in the JLA movie, because they retconned it and thought that did the trick, and they were wrong. What Cap said in that speech is precisely why he is as great a man as we’ve all come to love over the years. It’s nothing short of incredible.

-The entire ending helicarrier sequence. Good to the last fucking drop, man. Everything about it is flawless. Especially “You’re my mission!” “Then finish it. ‘Cause I’m with you ‘til the end of the line.” Cue me screaming and crying and clawing down my curtains. Bucky pulling Steve from the river turns me into an absolute wreck of emotions. 

Civil War

-Cap consoling Wanda after the bullshit news report. Man, fuck the whole ass world for that reaction, by the way. Wanda saved that entire marketplace full of people, but she still got blamed for intervening anyway, and we know Crossbones would’ve killed countless people if they hadn’t stopped him, so you can all fuck off. But what I really like about this scene is Cap’s almost fatherly concern for her, knowing she was still recovering from the pain of losing her twin brother not too long ago. He understands the loss and the pain she feels and knows that she has doubts about herself and he’s there to assure her he doesn’t blame her, if that is any consolation. Cap is so conscious of her needs and emotions that it’s extremely touching to see, even though the scene is brief.

-The team going over the Accords and choosing sides. This was very well done, as everyone’s reactions are very interesting. I personally don’t see how the hell anyone could be Team Iron Man, but that’s just me. I at least like that Tony’s actions are justified in that he has been trying so hard this whole time to do the right thing, but it feels like the harder he tries, the more awful things become until he’s left with no good choices at all. I feel for him. So much. I feel for Cap as well knowing that about Tony and yet being unyielding in his feelings about the Accords.

-Nat comforting Steve at Peggy’s funeral. Cue gross sobbing. Damn, this is why I ship Captasha so hard. She tells him that she’s pretty much going along with the Accords for the sake of keeping their little family together if possible, and Steve sadly tells her he can’t do it, but she already knows, and she’s just there to support him. That’s love. You can debate if it’s platonic or romantic, but that scene is just pure love between Nat and Steve. She is there for no other reason than to hug her friend and check on him and make sure he knows he is not alone in this awful time in his life. It’s by far one of the most touching scenes in the entire MCU. 

-The death of T’Chaka. Oh my God. Give Chadwick Boseman all the awards. How did we become that emotionally attached to him in such a short amount of time? Wow. I mean, wow, was that powerfully acted. 

-Nat warning Steve not to intervene. Again, you can’t tell me these two people don’t love each other. She’s so worried about him, and even Sam acknowledges that she’s not wrong to want them to stay out of it since they’ll now get arrested. 

-Everyone chasing after Bucky. Hnnnnnngh, yes please, this shit was awesome. Especially Cap and T’Challa racing over moving fucking cars and Bucky snatching that motorcycle mid-air. I love that scene with all my heart and soul.

-”So, you like cats?”

-Bucky’s escape. Seriously, the Winter Soldier is not to be trifled with. Holy hell, does he put everyone through their paces.

-Tony recruiting Peter Parker. And now we have it, the shining crown jewel of Tony Stark’s development as a character, in the form of a tiny adorable baby he adopts to fight a ninety year old veteran. I know, right? I never expected that Tony recruiting Parker would be anything like what we got and yet it’s by far one of my favorite relationships in the MCU. It’s so genuinely cute and sweet and the word choice during that scene in Parker’s room is very important from a character standpoint. “When you can do what I can do, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen…they happen because of you.” Without saying it out loud, they were able to convey what happened to Uncle Ben, and that’s really good storytelling, man. You see this kid is hurt and blames himself and he will do anything to make up for his sins. Tony is even touched by it. Plus, the humor in that scene is awesome and it’s so warm and evident that RDJ and Tom Holland really got along and had chemistry.

-Recruiting Scott Lang. It’s so brief, but that fucking scene puts me in stitches every time, especially Paul Rudd’s improv of grabbing Chris Evans’ shoulders when he sees just how goddamn built and cut the man is. I thought that was genius. It’s so perfect.

-”Can you move your seat up?” “No.”

-The airport fight scene. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. This is so good. For so many reasons. How it’s staged. How it starts off quiet and it slowly builds tension. How Tony is so hurt that Cap appears to be choosing Bucky over him, how Cap is protecting him, how Tony absolutely doesn’t want to fight his friend and yet they are on opposite sides anyway. “You’re gonna come with us because it’s us.” The utter desperation in Tony’s eyes when he almost begs Cap to turn himself in is so heartbreaking. It kills me, man. Emotions aside, I simply love all the fights and the various match ups. Especially Spidey versus Bucky and Sam (”Couldn’t you have done that earlier?” “I hate you.”) and Spidey versus Cap (”That thing does not obey that laws of physics at all!”) and Spidey versus Ant Man. It’s all so glorious.

-Nat stopping T’Challa from getting to Bucky and Steve. It’s raining on my face. “You’re not gonna stop.” “You know I can’t.” “I’m gonna regret this. Go.” It’s so important. It’s so important, y’all. Nat chose Steve when it mattered most and I ship them until my dying breath.

-“Vengeance has consumed you. It is consuming them.” All the awards, Chadwick. All the motherfucking awards. 

-The final scene of Steve walking up to Sam’s cell. There’s just something about the playful confidence and determination in his expression that despite how sad the ending is that Tony and Cap are no longer on speaking terms that it gives you just a tiny flicker of hope that maybe things will be okay for Team Cap. 

Well, there you go. Cap and Thor are currently tied for the top spot in my heart of Favorite Avenger, hence all the word vomit. Sorry, not sorry. 

#Steve Rogers #Captain America #Captain America The First Avenger #The Winter Soldier #CATWS #Civil War #CACW

[troybeecham]

Today the Church remembers St. Cyprian of Carthage, Bishop and Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Cyprian (Thaschus Cæcilius Cyprianus; c. 200 – September 14, 258 AD) was bishop of Carthage and a notable Early Christian writer of Berber descent, many of whose Latin works are extant. He is also recognised as a saint in the Christian churches. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century AD in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. Soon after converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in AD 249. A controversial figure during his lifetime, his strong pastoral skills, firm conduct during the Novatianist heresy and outbreak of the Plague of Cyprian (named after him due to his description of it), and eventual martyrdom at Carthage established his reputation and proved his sanctity in the eyes of the Church. His skillful Latin rhetoric led to his being considered the pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.

Cyprian was born into a rich, pagan, Berber (Roman African), Carthage family sometime during the early third century. His original name was Thascius; he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the priest to whom he owed his conversion. Before his conversion, he was a leading member of a legal fraternity in Carthage, an orator, a "pleader in the courts", and a teacher of rhetoric. After a "dissipated youth", Cyprian was baptised when he was thirty-five years old, c. 245 AD. After his baptism, he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage, as befitted a man of his status.

In the early days of his conversion he wrote an Epistola ad Donatum de gratia Dei and the Testimoniorum Libri III that adhere closely to the models of Tertullian, who influenced his style and thinking. Cyprian described his own conversion and baptism in the following words:

When I was still lying in darkness and gloomy night, I used to regard it as extremely difficult and demanding to do what God's mercy was suggesting to me... I myself was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe I could possibly be delivered, so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices and to indulge my sins... But after that, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of my former life was washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, was infused into my reconciled heart... a second birth restored me to a new man. Then, in a wondrous manner every doubt began to fade.... I clearly understood that what had first lived within me, enslaved by the vices of the flesh, was earthly and that what, instead, the Holy Spirit had wrought within me was divine and heavenly.

Contested election as bishop of Carthage

Not long after his baptism he was ordained a deacon, and soon afterwards a priest. Some time between AD July 248 and April 249 he was elected bishop of Carthage, a popular choice among the poor who remembered his patronage as demonstrating good equestrian style. However his rapid rise did not meet with the approval of senior members of the clergy in Carthage, an opposition which did not disappear during his episcopate.

Not long afterward, the entire community was put to an unwanted test. Christians in North Africa had not suffered persecution for many years; the Church was assured and lax. Early in AD 250 the "Decian persecution" began. The Emperor Decius issued an edict, the text of which is lost, ordering sacrifices to the gods to be made throughout the Empire. Jews were specifically exempted from this requirement. Cyprian chose to go into hiding rather than face potential execution. While some clergy saw this decision as a sign of cowardice, Cyprian defended himself saying he had fled in order not to leave the faithful without a shepherd during the persecution, and that his decision to continue to lead them, although from a distance, was in accordance with divine will. Moreover, he pointed to the actions of the Apostles and Jesus himself: "And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and Himself did it. For as the crown is given by the condescension of God, and cannot be received unless the hour comes for accepting it, whoever abiding in Christ departs for a while does not deny his faith, but waits for the time..."

Persecution under Valerian

At the end of AD 256 a new persecution of the Christians broke out under Emperor Valerian, and Pope Sixtus II was executed in Rome.

In Africa Cyprian prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his De exhortatione martyrii, and himself set an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Paternus (AD August 30, 257). He refused to sacrifice to the pagan deities and firmly professed Christ.

The proconsul banished him to Curubis, modern Korba, whence, to the best of his ability, he comforted his flock and his banished clergy. In a vision he believed he saw his approaching fate. When a year had passed he was recalled and kept practically a prisoner in his own villa, in expectation of severe measures after a new and more stringent imperial edict arrived, and which Christian writers subsequently claimed demanded the execution of all Christian clerics.

On AD September 13, 258, Cyprian was imprisoned on the orders of the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The public examination of Cyprian by Galerius Maximus, on AD 14 September 258 has been preserved:

Galerius Maximus: "Are you Thascius Cyprianus?" Cyprian: "I am." Galerius: "The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites." Cyprian: "I refuse." Galerius: "Take heed for yourself." Cyprian: "Do as you are bid; in so clear a case I may not take heed." Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence: "You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the pious, most sacred and august Emperors ... have endeavoured in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; whereas therefore you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood." He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet: "It is the sentence of this court that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword." Cyprian: "Thanks be to God.”

The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A vast multitude followed Cyprian on his last journey. He removed his garments without assistance, knelt down, and prayed. After he blindfolded himself, he was beheaded by the sword. The body was interred by Christians near the place of execution.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

#father troy beecham #christianity #troy beecham episcopal #jesus #father troy beecham episcopal #saints #god #salvation #peace #martyrs

[painted-starlight]

Animation Writing is Complicated (Observations)

Warning: Long post, rambling thoughts on Animation Writing and how weird it is. If I get anything wrong, let me know! 

Multiple Writers Doesn’t Always Mean Inconsistant

There is this misconception among fans of animation that because there are many different writers for a show that they can do whatever they want. That they change whatever aspects of the show they’re working on, or that it’s a free for all.

And the truth is...eh, it depends. 

My observations by the way are from observations of different productions (mostly from behind the scenes featurettes on youtube, dvd commentaries, and articles)

I’ve only been at one table reading for an animated show (it was for Comedy Central, and for only one day. I was just visiting and was not part of the production crew or anything.) 

Depending on The Writer?

This trope is very common in animated shows particularly ones that episodic. But overarching plots that demand attention to detail can’t always get away with inconsistent character writing. I mean, it can happen, but the process tends to require a lot revisions. It’s a group effort after all.  

This entirely depends on the production, and obviously if a creator is not involved in the show then they don’t really have much of say in the final product. Some creators are highly involved in the production, some are not. 

Episodic Animation vs. Overarching Plots

Animated shows with episodic adventures/lax plotting are more likely to suffer from Depending on the Writer. But sometimes there are shows that are inbetween and try to balance a lighthearted atmosphere with a complex plot. And plot heavy shows can have breather episodes. 

There have been cases where creators have very little input or are very lax (for example a production like Steven Universe/Adventure Time is storyboard driven.) The quality of the final product tends to vary from episode to episode depending on whose writing. This is more common in episodic properties where an overarching storyline is downplayed and there are abundant breather episodes.

But in cases like Bojack horseman, there was definitely a vision and character arc that need to be abide by. There was a consistent vision for the series. If something happens that is out of character, or if a writer suggests a plot  that shouldn’t happen (due to conflicting with later developments in the plot) then the changes won’t fly. 

There are also long running series where the creators become burnt out and let the writers take control. This is why you see episodes of the Simpsons that are lower in quality as time goes by. 

Scriptwriters Have Limitations on What They Can Do

In animated shows there are charts dictating which characters can and cannot be used (since they either died in the show, their character retired,etc.) in a particular episode. There are restrictions on what can or cannot happen. For example, Bob’s Burgers has very realistic plots. It was mentioned in an interview that the Belchers would never do wacky things like go into space. So if a writer suggests they go into space, that idea would be nixed.  

And writers often churn out their scripts back to back because the scripts need to be sent out for animation. The writing process in animated shows can go up to a twelve hour process, where ideas are tossed around and the script is made to the best possible draft. This requires the writers to be in the same room, as it is a group process. 

EDIT: I should also mention that the reliability of writers also depends on the environment and mentality that is encouraged. A group of writers can be toxic, just like a creator can be toxic. 

And if a creator is not attentive, this toxic behavior will seep into the writing and how they approach characters. Sometimes it’s subtle, but other times these changes are allowed to pass by because the homogeneous environment encourages it, and no one is there to protest. 

Creators Get the Final Say (Sometimes) 

Now this only applies if the creators have an executive producer credit, or are involved in the production of their show. Sometimes creators just create the concept and have no other input.

The creator can be very involved in this, and in most cases they review the script from their writers as the final say(or they are in the writer’s room throwing around ideas with them). They have to review it before they sign off on it. 

In some cases, things are changed between the written work and the final draft (such as the creators of Avatar: The Last Aibender having a significant say in revising the scripts). In other cases, a more negligible creator will just skim it and approve it without giving much thought. 

In those cases, the writers are the ones who have to pick up the slack (such as the infamous creator of Clarence, Skyler Page, who was fired from his show for sexual harassment. He left most of the work on developing his characters to the writers while he was there). 

And not mention, the absolute final say is also executive. If an executive wants to change something in the script, even if the creator has approved it, then it must be changed. Which is why shows can drastically change by introducing characters who fans despise, plot elements that make no sense, and why the show takes a different tonal direction. 

Creator Knows Best? 

But there are also studios who allow creators to have a lot of freedom to explore their vision. And in this case the blame for plot elements falls on the writers and creator. Sometimes a creator can be incompetent, or not that great of a writer. A great idea can be squandered by poor direction or by misunderstandings of the subject. 

So in that case, the creator doesn’t always have the best interest in what goes on in the story. Trusting your writers is important too. 

#animation writing #it's not so much advice as it is rambling #its observations about animation writing #depending on the writer is a tricky trope #because its not made equal across studios and writing rooms