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dipperdesperado · 4 months

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the importance of social technology in social change

TLDR: By retooling, devouring, and innovating our social technologies, we can create participatory organizations that enable egalitarian social change. These organizations should be animated by an understanding of hierarchy, its relation to oppression writ-large, and how to create and employ social technologies that distribute power, rather than concentrating it.

Introduction

We take technology for granted in general (most people I know don’t think much about how water gets to their sink unless it doesn’t work, for example), but this seems especially true for our social technologies. We take things like democracy, laws, and even the nuclear family form at face value and as fundamental parts of reality.

So, what is technology, and how does it relate to our pending conversation? What is the throughline between obvious technologies like a stone axe and my iPhone, and more nebulous ones, like speech and the nuclear family? Any technology you can imagine takes concepts and knowledge and creates a method of applying them to specific goals, objectives, or functions. This doesn’t preclude emergent uses for tools, as you can probably think of using tools in unintended ways. This definition is useful to keep in mind as we realize that the technologies at present, animating the status quo are inadequate. We need something different to make radical, roots-grasping change.

And, for the sake of change, we need a specific way to achieve it. Part of this is technological; we need to figure out models of relating and working with one another that prefigure the changes that we want to see. To create and modify those technologies, we need to figure out which concepts and knowledge we will use.

Prefiguration can be described as “creating the new world in the shell of the old”. It’s doing things in the present that we think will get us to our imagined future. This implies the need to have a coherent conception of what is currently happening, and change will look like.

Currently, we live in a hierarchical, bureaucratic hell. This might best be epitomized by trying to obtain official identification recognized by our respective state. From all of the forms that you fill out, to the additional paperwork needed, to the horrible experience of getting that information approved, there are a lot of issues that this creates, from an experiential standpoint. One of the more under-realized aspects of issues such as this is how these experiences alienate us from the ability to do things for ourselves. Bureaucracy is a way to manage hierarchy’s inherent simplification of reality. A king couldn’t actually run their kingdom themselves, so they create layers of functionaries, under their control, to (try and) manage that complexity.

Along with my opposition, I’d like to propose something. A theory of change, that allows us to do that prefiguration work, leaving behind some of the negative methods of relating as currently mediated and handled. Since we live in a very hierarchical and bureaucratic world-system, constituting a colonial-imperialist, cisheteropatriarchical, ableist hegemony, if we create non-hierarchical/heterarchical organizational forms that allow us to relate in alignment with our values, then we will achieve a more egalitarian world, because of these organizational forms addressing fundamental contradictions in the way that society, from the personal to the global scale, is administered and ordered at present.

Having non-hierarchical organizational forms will allow us to become self-managed and autonomous, gaining collective control over collective issues, and individual control over individual issues. What is hierarchy, though? For our purposes, hierarchy can be seen as the glue that brings oppression together. It binds structures of domination, coercion, and power (specifically power-over) into oppression writ-large. This is what makes the act of arranging organizational forms a pyramid, where value, authority, and decision-making ability are concentrated toward the top. It is not a problem if some friendly games and competitions employ hierarchy in the broadest sense. The issue comes where, in that game, the folks who won got to eat and the folks who lost went hungry. The power imbalance and value judgments are what make hierarchy dangerous.

Alternatively, non-hierarchical structures that prioritize non-coercive, non-domineering principles, that enable positive versions of power-to (the ability to act) and power-with (the ability to act collectively, towards collective interest) have much more liberatory potential at their foundation. That’s what we’re aiming for, social technologies that allow for horizontal relating.

The pieces of horizontal organizations

The foundation of these horizontal, heterarchical forms should be in values and principles that enable relating in that way. Some of these values might be joy, autonomy, radically informed consent, cultivating ownness-uniqueness, and solidarity. These are defined as:

Joy: This should be a group that is constantly looking critically at how we engage with productivity, work, and formality from the perspective of prefiguring spaces of fun, play, and levity -- infusing it into as much of the work as we can. If it feels like a drag, that should at the very least give us pause. While we will not be able to avoid negativity wholesale, we can be intentional about minimizing the moments where it is unnecessary.

Autonomy: Each unit of interest (teammate, team, section/wing, whole) can operate independently from other elements as it desires, without imposition.

Radically Informed Consent: All decisions that include or impact someone should be made with that person (1) in that discussion/process and (2) having as much context and information as they need to be aware of the implications of the decision being made.

Cultivating Ownness-Uniqueness: The group should allow for a cooperative orientation that is based on finding what is best for all involved as individuals, concerning the collective goals. The group should be a tool that cultivates this orientation, rather than existing for its own sake and becoming something that holds power over the people in the space.

Solidarity: People in the group should work together around common interests and affinities, made clear in the joining process, grounded in (1) centering the most marginalized in society and/or our specific context within our spaces, and (2) sharing in the responsibilities of achieving what the group sets out to do.

Having these values as described gives us a shared language from which to judge how we relate to each other using the organizational forms we will set out to describe, to make sure that it gives opportunities to widen the spaces where our organizational aims can be achieved.

The components of these forms, the building blocks that sit atop the foundation, creating the organization when assembled, are the teammate, roles & tasks, aims & domains, the team, assemblies and summits, and the areas, functions, and committees. These are defined as:

Teammate: This is the individual in the structure. A specific person, who interfaces with the other parts of the structure.

Roles and Tasks: This is how the work is distributed within an organization, in line with the foundational principles and the aims of the specific team and organization as a whole.

aims: Objectives of the unit of interest. The thing that the unit of interest is trying to accomplish.

Domains: The range of focus a specific unit of interest has within an organization. What the unit of interest is responsible for doing.

Team: A collective unit within the structure. Multiple teammates coming together.

Assemblies and Summits: Multiple teams (or delegations of teams) coming together to deliberate on mutual aims, across mutual domains.

Areas, Functions, and Committees: Ways to group teams together (or create new teams) to cover specific aims.

These allow for us to have specific modes of relating with each other around specific things that we want to accomplish, from the individual to the organization-wide scale, with the potential to connect with outside organizations.

These values and components are important to create are heterarchical organization, but it doesn’t tell us what the organization will be doing. We know that it’s meant to be aimed towards social change, but what does that actually look like? I think that there are three interrelated things that the organization should achieve for it to be successful at its overall aims. There should be robust analysis, care work, and effective, radical action. These are described as:

Care Work: Embedding the ideas of restoration, rest, healthy engagement, sustainability, and healing into the core of the organizational structure. This can be done through things like healing circles, accountability circles, meeting "non-organizational" needs that deal with the making and remaking of folks (a la childcare, food, emotional care, etc), and other methods.

Robust analysis: Creating mental models that can approach an accurate understanding of the world, along with how to be experimental and learn from those experiments (while not seeing participants as disposable, or coercing folks into things). This horizontal orientation encourages us to be able to catalyze autonomous & self-directed action, rather than make ourselves indispensable to a movement. We should use these forms to organize ourselves out of a role, in a sense, through things such as making sure other people understand how to do what we do, and not hyper-specializing.

Effective, Radical Action: The organization, through the above two functions, should be able to achieve the goals that it sets. It should be successful at the current conjuncture, and these successes should build up to the general goals of the organization. There should be a conception of strategy, campaigns, logistics/operations, and tactics.

For any of these initiatives to be successful, there needs to be a basic security culture. Pretty much any social change org that is directly effective or building towards effectiveness necessitates modes of protection for the people in the organization. We need to protect from state, corporate, and non-state reactionaries. This is worth an in-depth conversation, but basic things like not talking to those forces, being mindful of where and when certain information is shared, if at all, and screening for new members, the intensity of which is proportional to the openness of the organization, and not fedjacketing (claim that someone is the cops) people. This would be paired with collective discussion to establish those agreements, and training/collective study to inoculate folks against bad security practices.

Arranging the pieces

Now that we’ve built up the different parts of our organizations, we can describe some ways to bring them together. I propose three different organizational shapes: phantom cells, networked guerrillas, and fractal teams and working groups. These are differentiated by the ways that the teams within the org are connected and relate to one another.

Phantom cells are the most ephemeral formation that I’ll describe. These are temporary teams created with wide variations towards some goal. They don’t even have any meaningful awareness of the composition of other cells. Actions are motivated by catalyzing forces that follow a general flow of event → action → report-back → action. Something happens that motivates a cell to form and act, that cell publishes information about their action, along with instructions on how to replicate and the ideological motivation behind it, and others follow suit. This repeats and spreads out, through stigmergy. It’s like how social media trends work. All follow a similar format, evolving as they spread until they saturate a space and wane. The goal here is to combine distributed intelligence through information posting, replicability, and inspiration.

A diagram representing phantom cells. Pill shapes with the word team in the middle are spread around on a white canvas.

This form is inspired by Tiktok and the SHAC campaign. If we could have groups of folks who: (1) find concrete goals & replicable methods for finding connected goals in specific contexts, (2) create compelling narratives around acting in line with those goals, and (3) encourage easily replicable actions, consistent pressure, and sharing the results so that it spreads. This allows for action to become highly distributed, where unity isn’t based on allegiance to specific organizations, movements, or formations. This type of operation is most useful for trying to achieve protracted, quick, decisive, small actions against a target.

Networked guerrillas are cells (or teams) of folks that have a well-rounded skill set, and who work consistently together. I imagine it being like a team for an RPG (role-playing game) campaign where each character is in a different class. This group should have a relatively high amount of self-sufficiency, to be able to achieve aims within their domain without much outside assistance. Each cell is animated by a general alignment of principles, vision, and values. Cells are also designed to link up with other cells, of this type, to accomplish bigger goals and complete bigger actions. There might also be a bundle of cells “in the middle” to help coordinate resources between cells and provide additional, more specialized, and contextual resources. Ideally, there is a rotation and continual morphing of the core to not become a failure point. This is why it’s important to have the cells be as self-sufficient as possible. Every connection is an enhancement of capability, rather than a necessity. The relationships between the cells can be organized like a mesh network (many-to-many relationships between the cells), star (one-to-many-to-one relationships), and a chain/ring (one-to-one-to-one relationships), or some combination, based on the needs of the organization.

A diagram representing networked guerrillas. showing a form that combines mesh, start, and chain/ring.

Fractal teams and working groups work through a kind of fractal, heterarchical confederalism. Essentially, it flips the hierarchical nature of authoritarian federalism by having power flow from the lowest level upwards, rather than the other way around. It starts at the lowest level, the team, and we confederate upwards from there to encompass more general aims and domains, using assemblies, assemblies of assemblies, and summits. This structure also operates on the principle of autonomous collaboration, where people who are impacted by and/or are doing a specific set of tasks are the ones to decide how that task is implemented. This is meant to minimize the amount of power-over within the structure, while still fostering modes of engagement between different scales of decision making. At each level, there would be assemblies that provide the space to share information and discuss plans, and for potential working groups to meet and freely associate and dissociate as necessary. Decisions shouldn’t be made here at these higher levels of the hierarchy, as that leads to a form of power that isn’t always deliberative. Folks would execute whatever plans they see fit on the ground, based on self-organization, informed by the information that is shared within these more open, popular gatherings. The trust is put on folks to be self-directed around their needs, getting help and providing assistance in a mutualistic way, rather than a top-down way.

a diagram of the fractal teams & working groups. teams send delegates to assemblies, and assemblies send delegates to assemblies of assemblies or summits. delegates gather information and context at the above levels and come back to their team to provide context and give information to the team. They also will share the decisions made by the teams, to the assemblies and summits.

All of these forms would need some kind of intelligence apparatus. Intelligence for us will be information that allows us to achieve objectives better. We gain this information through research, investigative journalism-style methods, and espionage. It is pertinent, practical, and informative. These apparatuses will gather information (what we might usually think of as intelligence), and prevent/impede opposition from doing the same (counterintelligence). This is not something it seems like social change folks are intentional about very often, but is an important part of building, refining, and achieving the aims laid out at every scale, from strategies for wider social change to specific actions.

The basic structure of this intelligence apparatus is a specific unit of interest would (s)elect/delegate an intelligence handler to work within that unit’s domain. This handler is one part of an intelligence cell. The cell would be a compartmentalized team for the sake of mutual protection, containing a handler, analyst(s), and agent(s). Handlers are the cell coordinators, recruiting the other roles as they see fit. They act as the direct link/contact to the agent on the ground/in the field, supporting them on their missions with whatever they need. Handlers also support analysts with collaborating on research work or anything that they need. Handlers are the glue of a cell, supporting everyone towards their objectives. Analysts are the folks who make the information gathered by the agents usable. They sort and organize the information, making things like reports and presentations so that action can come from or be informed by the information. Handlers may support the analysts with those tasks. Agents are the crux of this cell—they gather the intelligence. They should be a generalizing specialist, where they understand the breadth of the context in which they act, even with a specific specialty in the type of intelligence they gather.

For these purposes, there will probably be a combination of focus on open-source intelligence, signals intelligence, and human intelligence. Finally, we have the auditor. They are also elected by the unit of interest (the one that placed the handler). This is a way to make sure there isn’t any tomfoolery happening within the cell—the auditor can look over any of the information within the cell, and compile an independent report for the sake of the unit of interest.

A diagram of the basic intelligence apparatus.

The basic intelligence process would go as follows: Information would be split or categorized into four main areas: strategic, campaign, logistic/operational, and tactical. For each of these levels, there would be a repeating loop process of setting goals in relation to those areas, gathering the information, analyzing it, figuring out how to use it, and a method to evaluate the process. Information can be gathered by agents or anyone else in the organization, anonymously. This helps bolster the capacity of information gathering.

So, we start by asking, what do we need to know to achieve our aims? Then, we ask about where we can find that information. As we’ll probably receive more information than what is usable, we want to ask about what information found is important, timely, and accurate/verifiable? After that, we want to ask how we can package and disseminate the information, along with an understanding of the audience(s). That leads us to review what we’ve done, integrate any changes, and start the process over. This is not to say that teams can’t do intelligence-gathering work themselves, such as scouting or information synthesis. It is just useful to have capacity specifically built for that work.

How these forms relate

Finally, we want to look at the relationship between the organizational forms, and how these forms change, depending on what the specific organization does. We can do this by understanding how things look through the classifications of overt, covert, and clandestine.

Overt organizations act out in the open. They operate in a mode where what you see is what you get. Phantom cells might operate as front-facing aboveground collectives of folks who have a very specific focus, with the intent to popularize and virally spread action around that focus, through building (para)social relationships. Networked guerrillas might make more intentional, long-term connections between cells, leading to a more tightly bound network. This could look like the mesh model. Fractal teams might have highly accessible and legible teams and assemblies with centralized information pipelines, creating an easy way to get involved with the movement. This point is important when we’re thinking about how to make the movement accessible.

Covert organizations act in secret, operating on the mode of plausible deniability. Phantom cells might use mainstream channels to share their ideas but operate in a way that obscures their identities. Networked guerrillas might have the cells be related using a star model, with many connections compartmentalized by those shared nodes. Fractal teams might hide membership and focus on the intake process because this formation is the most vulnerable to infiltration. Maybe this formation isn’t useful outside of the overt context.

Clandestine organizations are fully underground. Phantom cells might only spread action through hyper-encrypted or low-tech methods. Networked guerrillas might have no awareness of who or what the composition is of other teams in the network, and any connections between cells might be mediated in ways that maintain anonymity and prevent infiltration. Fractal teams likely would be a great weakness in this context.

Looking at all of these forms, across different modes of operating, we should not “pick” one form or the other in a dogmatic way. Each form should see the others as providing something of value towards anti-authoritarian ends. In other words, fractals should not decry networks or phantoms for their seemingly chaotic structures or methods. Phantoms shouldn’t shit on the other two for not being effective enough. Aligning people and actions across these horizontal forms will allow an ecosystem of forms that reinforces the ability of each to succeed. Overt groups can act as an auxiliary force for the covert and clandestine groups, and the covert and clandestine groups can create spaces for the overt groups to construct the world they are all working for.

By having principles and ethics that are sound, exploring what organizations need to do, and creating structures that enable those ethics and principles to be realized, we can have social technologies that allow us to more easily accomplish the social change that we’re seeking.

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jabberwockprince · 5 months

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ive been watching hiding in private's recent steven universe videos and the latest one about s1 of the show really got me fucking thinking

we really got such lovingly complex and flawed characters in a show that was so shamelessly queer and open to discuss so many things that were fucking invisible back then????? but now its rlly been watered it down as "yeah the gem show, we all know the gem show"

DO YOU??? DO YOU KNOW THE GEM SHOW???? I FEEL LIKE WE SHOULD ALL JUST REWATCH THE "SILLY GEM SHOW" WITHOUT THAT FILTER OF AWFUL SHIT SOME PPL POURED ALL OVER IT AS IT WAS AIRING

cause the main characters? how nuanced, flawed, complex and human they feel? how the first season alone sets the tone of how love and compassion and connections with other people are THE core of the show?

seeing s1 steven in the video was the biggest fucking shock, it was like someone fucking ripped out my spine and whipped me with it because the freshest thing in my mind steven universe related is future, and in future steven is. so tired. so stressed. so burdened with issues he was forced to bury for the greater good and the sake of things that were much much bigger than him. and im watching s1 steven who has an entirely different set of issues and an entirely different mentality and hes just a little well-meaning boy and im crushed with the realization of what he's gonna go through

in the prelude to the big video, theres this talk about the diamonds and how what they represent, how their light/color/power influences every gem related to them. AND WHILE WATCHING THE S1 ANALYSIS I WAS SITTING HERE LIKE. OH. OH

because the every gem introduced from s1 and onward follows that thought process and the fact that you can even notice it THIS EARLY is so wild to me like thats so amazing?

of course pearl's design includes white, blue, yellow and pink. she was a gift from WHITE DIAMOND, the combination of all colors. of course pearl is the gem that resists change the most within the crystal gems, because she's the one most affected by the loss of pink diamond/rose quartz - the person she was MADE for, who represents the concept of growth

and it's so good, because pearl is presented as a smart and logical person, but with the abundance of blue tones in her design, it lets you know that she's very emotional. and you get to see that, you get to see how pearl freaks out the most in most occasions, how she flies off the handle especially when talking to amethyst most of the time, how she depends so heavily on garnet and the need for validation

of course jasper is so obsessed with power - she was also part of pink diamond's colony and later taken by yellow diamond. growth and logic. without growth, and emotion (blue diamond), there's only logic. and it manifests as a ruthless desire for power, because the most logical argument is that "the strong rule the weak" - the mindset that rules in homeworld, their super strict hierarchy. but then we see jasper is open to change, to things she perceived as disgusting and horrible (fusion) FOR THE SAKE OF BEING MORE POWERFUL

and that's just design wise, how the palettes and the concept of the diamond authority as light and aspects of the human psyche helps to visually explain where some of the characters stand. without strictly dictating HOW they should act. i could gush for hours about this show, im so glad there's been a positive revival thanks to these videos and that people are back talking about it

#my heart is so full of joy now that people are back talking about su #like. it really is such a heartwarming show #im so so happy that people can now discuss it with newer perspectives and give it the attention it deserves #instead of just brushing it off as the funny gem show that is soooooooooooooo Problematique :tm:

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succubunsvent2 · 4 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/succubunsvent2/737533610854350848/the-stuff-on-this-blog-has-just-been-kinda-sad?source=share I totally hear where you're coming from, but I think the ARPG aspect and how it's handled is the biggest ick from it. Especially when we see all the time how the owners make sure none of the players are permitted to deviate from the lore; it's some of the biggest complaints on here. It's hard to even say the writing is poor; 'cause it's so concise with no big holes or contradiction. The writing is super clear, the intentions are super clear, the community reflects the concerns that indulging in these themes can cause. These issues aren't plot holes that interfere with the world, but how it was intentionally built. I'm 1000% certain many participating in this ARPG even REALIZE what they're contributing to is so worrying; especially if many defend the actions of any of the demons in lore. I can only imagine people join because they naïvely are enamored, but then get buyer's remorse when lore is brought up at all; making them defend really horrible sexualized colonial brutalism. For example, Warhammer; the themes are FUCKED UP WAR AND POLITICS, and most the community is completely aware it is and would never want to project themselves into that world. Every faction is uniquely irredeemable, and they know that and explore that story telling accordingly But..... the message I'm getting from Succubuns is that these people find all of these themes... sexy... lol doesn't help i see almost everywhere people trying to recruit people into succubuns. I looked into it bc people were talking about how excited they were to reach 21 to join it- i also always saw everywhere how "species were dying and funneling into succubuns" - as if it was the best ARPG

🐰

#response

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anoseforrottenapples · 1 year

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🌟 for Mary! Or if someone already asked about her, whichever different muse you prefer. :)

1) Mary has been learning how to manage an estate or a manor since she has been about five. Her parents were farmers, but with enough money that they were quite comfortable, and had a certain amount of status in Oyster Bay. When Mary and her sister were old enough to be married, her mother made it very clear she would accept nothing lower then military officers, landholders, or accomplished businessmen for her daughters.

2) In keeping with the fact above, the strength of Thomas Woodhull being a British officer and heir to Whitehall is what brought about their arranged marriage. When Abraham is presented as an alternative, that is accepted on the grounds that he is studying to be a solicitor, and is the new Woodhull heir. Abraham turning his attention to cabbage farming instead is a move that caught everyone else by surprise. Mary, for one, was not really prepared for that change, and somewhat annoyed when he made it.

3) Mary is a bit of a matrimonial mercenary, though she can be induced to marry for genuine affection. She believes love can be built… it does not have to pre-exist, hence why she is all right with Abraham loving her less then she loves him. She believes they can work past that, and still build a strong marriage. What cannot be built so easily is money, a social position, a livelihood… she would rather marry a man with those categories well-established, and work on the romantic aspect of it as they go.

4) When it comes to her family, Mary is a Momma Bear to the Nth degree. There is no bridge she will not cross (and then burn), no river she will not ford, no sin she will not commit if it means saving them and protecting them. If anything ever happens to Abraham, this tendency ramps up toward Thomas.

5) Mary is a stress cook/baker and cleaner. The more stressed she is, the cleaner her house gets, and the more food she is making. Ironically, she is not a stress eater so quite a bit of what she makes ends up getting given to everyone around her.

6) If, after Thomas’s death in York City, Richard had suggested he marry Mary instead of putting Abraham in that position, Mary would have accepted the offer. Sure, he is quite a few years older then her… but Mary would be eyeing the comfort and security offered by White Hall, and his position as a magistrate. She can manage his home quite comfortably, and shore up the Woodhull family line, which she feels is a fair exchange for a nice house, and a good situation. I said she was a matrimonial mercenary.

7) Mary really does want to travel outside of Long Island. She would love to see York City—she was not joking when she said she was a bit jealous about Abraham getting to travel there. The other large cities would be nice too, and even London if a chance ever came up to go. Her universe has always been narrowly focused between Oyster Bay and Setauket, but she knows that the world is bigger then that. She just does not have a part in it.

8) Her hand in the death of Ensign Baker is one of Mary’s greatest mostly-secret regrets. Ensign Baker had never been anything but kind and decent to her… and she repaid his kindness in a truly horrible way. Since he had no family to claim him, he was buried in Setauket. She still brings flowers to him regularly and takes care of the grave. She tells her neighbors it is because the man was an orphan with no family to take up the charge, so she handles it. In reality though, it is a feeble attempt to assuage some of her own guilt.

9) Mary’s favorite color is pink, though she does not own a huge amount of clothing in that color. It was a very fashionable color in the 1700s, especially adored by the mistress of the French king, so getting her hands on pink garments as a farmer’s wife in the back end of a British colony is not an easy feat.

10) Mary is an Anglican, or a member of the Church of England. She takes her faith rather more seriously than Abraham does, and feels that is a detriment to his character. He has moral weaknesses that she feels can only be improved through a steadier devotion to his faith, and an application of the principles. She is likely right in this assessment…

#Muse: Mary Woodhull #Even my fun facts become essays...

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no-psi-nan · 2 years

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youtube

Saiki K ASMR:

POV Akechi Touma won't finish leaving your damn house (and you have ESP)

Content warning: bad sensory experience (especially with headphones on <- optional but recommended for the full, awful Saiki experience)

This is my first attempt at voice-acting! I've been wanting to do this for months, but Touma Tuesday gave me the impetus to finally do it!

My sincerest apologies to Yuki Kaji for ever thinking I could match him, I have so much more respect for how amazing a job he did after trying to do it myself lmfao.

No, I did not speed up the audio, I can actually talk that fast (though I did take out the spaces between sentences lol, I don't have ESP). I wrote all of the horribly complex dialogue as well!

Here is a version of this that's NOT sensory hell:

youtube

And if you haven't already, check out The Disastrous Life of Saiki K!!

Transcript (~900 words), tools, and assets used under the cut:

Assets Used:

- GIFs from @tomakechi! Thank you for your service... - Akechi's Theme "幼馴染 (Childhood Friend)" from the Saiki K OST 2 - Eyecatches & Subtitles from the Saiki K OST

Tools Used:

- Audacity (recording, editing) (I took radio production as an elective in high school and I'm happy I can finally make it everyone's problem lol) - MorphVOX Pro (pitch shift) (I could not for the life of me figure out how to mimic Yuki Kaji's amazing Akechi voice, which is high-pitched but still masculine, so I settled for something high schooler-ish) - PowerPoint (GIF combo) (HitFilm Express can't handle gifs 🙄) - Canva (intros & outros) - Microsoft Movie Maker (video editing) - YouTube Studio (syncing captions) (Had to manually tweak almost all of it to have captions on only one line at a time for evil purposes lmao) (and then Google banned my new account for ??? reasons so I prepared the vids for tumblr, then they unbanned it...) - Handbrake (burning in the captions) (Actually it took a lot of extra effort to make the captions THIS awful so I hope they cause a decent amount of psychic damage hsfjdlshfks)

Spoken Part:

Good night to you as well, my dear friend! As is the general social expectation, I will take my leave upon receiving this polite dismissal, but first, please allow me to recommend that you treat yourself to some hot chocolate before you likewise retire for the evening. In addition to its comforting warmth, hot chocolate imparts more antioxidants than either red wine or the much-vaunted green tea, while boosting cardiovascular health. Personally, I quite enjoy adding a pinch of nutmeg to my hot chocolate, which I highly recommend for the pleasant kick of spice. It also strikes me as quite humorous that it is such a commonplace occurrence to add nutmeg, a known toxin and psychoactive agent, to our food for flavor. Oh, do not be concerned, experiencing nutmeg toxicity would require a far higher dose than what can reasonably be used as a spice on any sort of dish, whether sweet or savory. The only truly deadly aspect of nutmeg is its blood-soaked history, as colonial powers slaughtered the native inhabitants of the islands from whence they came in order to control the market. And these waves of European colonialism not only left multitudes of people and landscapes scarred by violence, but also led to the rise of modern-day capitalism and its inexorable exploitation of both humanity and the natural world. This very same force has created a so-called sleep epidemic, wherein long working hours, constant economic stressors and the current "always-on" nature of media perpetuate chronic insomnia amongst large swathes of society. For this reason, it is highly beneficial to establish effective sleep hygiene in order to avoid the unfortunate health consequences of insufficient high-quality rest, such as cardiovascular morbidity and metabolic disease. Therefore, a hot chocolate should be just the ticket for a full and healthy night's sleep, hence my earlier recommendation!

Observation Part:

Oh, my friend appears quite tired tonight, continuing an unfortunate trend marked by bags under their eyes and general fatigue. Proper sleep is incredibly important, so hopefully a kind suggestion may help ease their journey towards a more restful night. However, I did also identify many potentially problematic aspects for their sleep hygiene, such as their lack of a consistent routine and a bedroom full of sensory distractions. Perhaps I should procure for them a set of blackout curtains on the next gift-giving occasion. And on the following, perchance a boxed novel series would be appropriate as a wind-down activity? After all, while novels can be quite simulating, physical books lack the electronic blue light that can negatively impact the body's circadian rhythm. On the other hand, extended sessions of what they call "binge-reading" can also wreak havoc on a sleep schedule, so I should ascertain that the novels are not too stimulating. This may be self-defeating, however, as boring novels are of little use to anyone. Perhaps a new set of bedclothes would make for a more effective gift, as my recent acquisition of new pajamas has been a welcome change. Adding Kegel exercises to my nighttime routine has also been even more effective than I could have hoped for with regards to my little urinary incontinence issue! The latest volleys between my parents suggest that several of their marital problems could have been resolved if they'd developed similar fitness. But enough of the idle speculation, perhaps I should take my leave shortly in order to further develop my assigned portion of the historical survey project. The wording of the task was quite prescriptive, and while I will certainly take up this qualm with our lecturer, I must still progress steadily each night in order to avoid derailing my sleep with a last-minute frenzied effort.

Hyperfixation Part:

I fear that although the time of my typical nightly retirement is near at hand, my mind remains quite overactive in a manner that stereotypically renders me unable to fall asleep in a reasonable fashion. Perhaps I shall take recourse in a comforting mug of hot chocolate myself in the hopes of inspiring the requisite relaxation. Though isn't that quite ironic, that the hot chocolate so lauded as a bedtime treat contains some of the same stimulants sought-after in coffee for wakefulness. To be certain, the amount of caffeine in chocolate is rather limited when compared with coffee beans. The risk of staying awake would naturally be much exacerbated if the chocolate had been prepared in the traditional Mesoamerican fashion with chili peppers. It is absolutely fascinating how they sometimes prepared cacao with annatto in order to create a bloodied, frothy drink that harkened to the practice of ritual sacrifice. And for cacao, often used as currency by the Aztec empire, to be associated so strongly with religion raises interesting questions about the historical intersection of culture, food, and legal tender. A similar example comes to mind, that of coffee, which began as a ritual component in Sufi circles but is now the most traded global commodity after petroleum. Despite hosting a ludicrously profitable industry, the farmers in developing countries that produce the beans are exploited mercilessly and live in poverty. More victims for the capitalist machine, which is powered by the same crop they produce. The backbone of coffee's extreme popularity is its caffeine content, after all, as the world's most widely consumed legal psychoactive drug. In the end, coffee only antagonizes adenosine receptors to fool the brain into believing that it is not tired, and to pay the price of overexertion later on.

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overthinkinglotr · 4 years

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The racism in Lotr really is the worst................like.....Lotr supposed to be this story about love that transcends where you’re from or who you are, about different people coming together at the end of the world, but that message ends up feeling so hypocritical when racism is embedded in the fabric of how Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, and in how Peter Jackson and co chose to mindlessly reproduce Tolkien’s racist coding in the films.

I do ultimately have the view that you can enjoy things while acknowledging terrible aspects of them. I don’t believe we have to throw Lord of the Rings out, just that we should “understand the author’s prejudices, and be mindful of how they affect his work.” But again I’m white, so this issue isn’t really as painful/visceral for me.

But yeah it’s just....... Lotr is about the good quote “white-skins” from the English-coded countries of “the west” fighting the quote “least lovely Mongol types” and “black men like half-trolls” and “slant-eyed foreigners” and Asian-coded easterlings/African-coded Haradrim of the sinister “East...” I know people like to twist themselves into knots trying to explain how it’s Secretly Not Racist (even though it obviously is) but it’s horrible that there’s clearly a reason so many people on the far-right see Lord of the Rings as something that validates their awful awful worldviews. It’s ultimately a story about the Good White People from the West vs the evil POC from the East. The speeches about the glory of the West wouldn’t be out of place in videos by vicious monsters like Jordan Peterson

And I know that some of the racial coding on the heroes is ambiguous in the book (like Sam) but I hate it when that’s used as a way for people to pretend Lord of the Rings “secretly isn’t racist at all.” Like, Sam is described as brown, and you can make a convincing argument that Tolkien intended for him to be a POC-- but Sam is the pale white Frodo’s lower-class servant who literally calls Frodo his master. A couple characters possibly being POC doesn’t fix the huge overarching problems with the insidious way Tolkien used racial coding (white/fair= good, hero, wealthy; brown= evil, villainous, lower-class, servant, shady). It’s not a problem of a couple characters or just “not enough representation,” it’s a problem with Lord of the Rings on a deep thematic level.

Side note: I do think the racism in the Peter Jackson films is different from the racism in the books, but I am also very wary of this Thing I occasionally see where people act like the PJ films were the ones that created all the racism...... the PJ films deserve every ounce of criticism they receive on the way they handled race, but the books do as well, and I’m uncomfortable when people bring up the racism in the pj films specifically only to downplay, excuse, or flat-out deny the racism in the books. Even if a lot is different the overarching problems with the horrible racist coding in the films have their origins in the overarching problems with the racism/racist coding Tolkien wrote.

It’s a problem with literal racial cariacatures like Ghan-Buri-Ghan, and all the times when Tolkien uncritically portrays colonialism as a thing that was ultimately Fine while portraying the people who fight back against their colonizers as Deeply Misguided at best (the Wild Men joining Saruman because they don’t understand that the Rohirrim who colonized them are Good Actually.) And thematic things like the way the book ends with the Shire closing its borders to anyone who isn’t of their race, and this being portrayed as a good decision. earlier Tolkien says “the wide world is about you-- you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out” but in the end the Shire just fences the world out, fences out all the foreigners and immigrants, and this is portrayed as the Right solution to their problems. (Honestly I HATE this plot point so much! It also is a clear example of what I was saying about how the racism/xenophobia is hypocritical...the plot point where the Shire fences the world out makes no sense with the overarching idea that “you cannot forever fence the world out.” Tolkien was so busy being xenophobic he didn’t notice it contradicted the themes of his own book)

I really hate how that hypocrisy really is at the center of Lord of the Rings-- the hypocrisy of preaching love and kindness while at the same time coding the villains as POC and coding the heroes white, the hypocrisy of trying to be a critique of fascism/the industrialization of war while using imagery that fascists love and agree with.

I’m not going to throw Lord of the Rings away, because I imprinted on to it when I was a Child and it’s incredibly important to me. I especially need Lord of the Rings now, because it helps me get through times of stress! But I do think that part of adulthood is realizing that you can’t love anything “purely” and it’s okay to have complicated relationships with the things you care deeply about. I also think that if your love for something is so shallow that it shatters under the realization that it’s deeply flawed, you might not have actually loved it that much to begin with.

Idk if this is coherent but a major theme of Lord of the Rings is that stories are like language; they have to grow and change with the cultures that created them if they want to stay relevant. And if I want to end this essay on a somewhat hopeful note I’ll say that I think if lotr wants to stay relevant, it does need to change, and it’s capable of changing. And acknowledging the deep awful racism of the original story is the first step to allowing the story to grow.

#idk how coherent this is #but ey #tw: racism

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slicedblackolives · 3 years

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oh god thank you, you’re so right about the way (a loud majority) of privileged desi diaspora handles conversations about activism! not to absolve the British and other European colonists of any part of their horrible history in india, but at some point people MUST acknowledge what the long-standing colonial infrastructure in our country IS— and that’s the intersection of upper caste hegemony and patriarchy! (1/2)

you mentioned the English language debate which is so apt, cause while it’s absolutely right that the obsession with speaking English is a British colonial hangover, the WAY it operates stands, quite simply, on brahminical hegemony. People just forget that in /current/ India (and colonial India!) caste is/was a huge playing factor in literally every aspect of life, including who gets to learn English, who gets to speak it, who gets to benefit from that English speaking privilege. (2/2)

idk why I went with the English speaking example😐but I guess the example still stands! it works with literally every aspect of indian life. India sure does love to adapt the ways english used to colonise us to fit our own home bred colonisers :)

it's just another way for wealthy caste Hindus to absolve themselves tbh which is magnified in the diaspora because they're closer to power than privileged indians. literally even Modi uses the "angrez" narrative while copying every single Western fascist and Nazi.

#asks #seavoice #boi thats a long ask but yourr rite

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criticallyalexandrite · 5 years

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Ah fuck it. To make up for me grieving over Scott Cawthon turning out to be a nasty rule 64 artist I’ll just remake that old post about my AU Diamonds right now.. My AU is now officially called Crystal Rebel Nora. I saw another SU crit propose the title of Crystal Rebels for the Crystal Gems and I really liked it. So my AU’s plot uses it. I also came up with the title Crystal Rebel Nora cuz it sounds like it could be a magical girl title. My version of Nora Universe is very much a magical girl. Even if her magic comes from being half alien. Here’s a basic rundown of what to expect from my WIP AU’s version of the Diamonds. The Diamonds are very much slaveowners and space nazis in my AU. This is not toned down even a little bit. Even though my AU Diamonds will have fleshed out personalities, their abusive nature will be made very clear. Their motive in this AU is me attempting to rewrite White’s interesting motive in Change Your Mind. But I plan to take it even further and not use her mindset for her motive of forcing everyone to be like her as a way to garner sympathy. It'll instead be used to show how evil and scary she really is. The Diamonds’ origins in this AU is that they are Gods that come from another plane of existence. Think of the spirit realm because that describes pretty well what their home origin is like. They’re malicious spirits that wanted more power than they started off with. So they found a way to use their powers to transcend out of the spirit realm and become the Diamond Authority/Godhood. All the Diamonds are the same age in this AU so Pink will not be coded as the other Diamonds’ child. Think of their behavior as being like the original folklore for sirens. They have pretty humanoid appearances as a way of luring other species’ into giving up their autonomy and resources. They know how to manipulate their new colonization victims into a false sense of security. Their victims often won’t realize what’s going on until it’s too late. And by that point White will have been able to program them into being robots that repeat whatever she wants. White did this for eons without any remorse. In her mind she justifies it by claiming her actions are driven by the darwinist survival of the fittest mindset. She craves the energy she gets from brainwashing and enslaving new victims. To her that is more immediately beneficial than trying to consider the well beings of her victims. So thus she does not care and if say Nora tried to redeem her the effort would be pointless. The other Diamonds don’t secretly disagree with her plans/methods. They have the same amount of carelessness for “lesser life forms” as her. Think of the Diamonds being almost hivemind-like in nature. To the extent that incubators in Madoka Magica all seem to think just like Kyuubey himself. In fact that’s a good comparison for how White’s mindset works. She sees compassion as a disease that needs to be wiped out because it gets in the way of efficiency. Thus why she labels any gems who her brainwashing efforts don’t work on immediately as defects. Defects that must be either shattered or harvested. And she will just see Nora as another defect once she can stop seeing Nora as a “weird looking Rose Quartz.” Nora will be treated by her like White would treat any other defect gem even if the defect gem was raised on Earth. Since the Diamond Authority in this AU have troops on Earth like the Sea Spire gems and the kindergarten gems and all the other parts of Earth they’ve taken over that have Quartzes/Topazes/Angelites/Lapises/etc guarding them. Here’s a quick summary of my plans for how the CRN AU Diamonds will be characterized. White Diamond the main and first Diamond could represent famine. What happens when a leader focuses too much on gathering resources for the sake of it at the expense of their people. White Diamond is the real reason Homeworld is running low on resources. She uses them for materialistic reasons. Like gem harvesting and making huge impractically designed monuments for “aesthetic.” She also calls for them to be used to colonize every single planet in existence. White Diamond is like that mom that spends over a hundred dollars on her favorite chic designs because they look cool to her. And then remembers last second that she forgot to buy food for her kids. Or that capitalist rich person who steals savings from poor people on the verge of poverty so she can buy a yacht that costs a billion dollars. Yellow Diamond, the second Diamond, represents what happens when military is supported more than is needed. When they essentially get power hungry and start doing inhuman things with their experiments and weapons. To establish this aspect of her, she created things like the cluster, forced fusions and the geodes out of petty revenge reasons against Earth gem rebels. However in this AU she actually makes sure to send out gems regularly to monitor them. Though she seems like a blowhard she genuinely enjoys being an authoritarian military commander. She wouldn’t trade her position for anything else. Yellow Diamond also takes in Jasper after Pink Diamond dies because Jasper’s a soldier. Blue Diamond is the political diplomat that tries to act centrist to make herself seem more emotionally sophisticated to a dangerous fault. When she’s in court sessions she’s harsh and unforgiving with her subjects always. Blue Diamond only shows a bit of lenience to the upper class lower gems. Mainly to make sure to uphold the false idea they’ve made that upper class gems have any power. But aside how mindlessly horrible she seems, she’s a master manipulator. Blue Diamond’s favorite weapon is guilt tripping people into thinking she’s the victim. It’s how she easily gets so many gems to her side. Like in canon she’s obsessed with Pink Diamond but it’s NOT portrayed as a romance to any degree. Pink Diamond is the youngest and last Diamond. Only sadly for the other Diamonds and their still brainwashed slaves, she was the first to die. Though she doesn’t look it, she’s the most violent out of all the Diamonds. In fact that could even be said to be apart of her methods of keeping her subjects in check. She acts like a sugary sweet princess when things are going her way but when they’re not she acts like the christianized version of Satan. The main thing she handles in the Homeworld caste system is adapting their new colonies. She embodies the part of politics that intentionally offensively alters another civilization’s culture. Pink Diamond loves to manipulate her fellow colleague Blue Diamond the most. She sees life as a game and everyone beneath her as toys that can just be tossed away when she breaks them too much. She was the one who came up with the idea of harvesting. Mainly for when even when she learns some of her gems are defective she’s not bored of playing with them yet.. She’ll be portrayed as a deliberate foil to Nora’s optimistic and friendly personality. What happens when you take those traits that could be otherwise good but use them for evli. The parallels between them won’t be used to show Pink is “redeemable” but to show the lesson that just cuz someone is friendly doesn’t mean they’re not abusive. What’s funny is that in terms of design concept her appearance is very similar to what Becky ended up going with for pre evil Spinel. Def not saying Becky was intentionally copying me there though. Just a really weird coincidence. This is everything I feel like sharing about the Diamonds in my AU so far. The post has already gotten pretty long. Feedback is welcome so long as it’s not feedback of people being butthurt that i’m not fixing the Diamond redemption. There’s so many other AU’s to go to that cater to the Diamond redemption. Go to those if you wanna see that so badly.

#su critical #su au #crystal rebel nora au #crn su au #abuse tw #implied child abuse tw #slavery tw

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oathkeeper-of-tarth · 6 years

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If My Life Is Mine

Here’s a fic set in a vague future, inspired by: the Pearl episode of the official Steven Universe podcast, 'Your Mother and Mine' and 'Pool Hopping', wishful thinking, rewatching the final season of Star Trek: DS9. A bit of a “what would you want to be the next big step we see of Pearl’s character arc” sort of thing. All very much in the contemplative reflective Pearl vein of Love On A Wire. Blatant pandering for the occasion of @dr-jekyl's recent birthday and hopefully well-tailored to her tastes and interests.

Summary: Garnet leads the Crystal Gems on Earth, but help for the fledgling new rebellion is needed out in space and on the ground in the heart of Homeworld. So Pearl takes off, adjusts, listens, counsels, bolsters, takes responsibility, and leads - or does her very best to, anyway. Pearl-centric, featuring Garnet and Bismuth, guest appearances by everyone under the sun. Some Mystery Pearl, some Bispearl, some Pearlnet, some (past) Pearlrose, though of course the true main ship is Pearl/Happiness and Agency and Self-actualisation and all that good stuff. No special warnings. ~6000 words.

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If My Life Is Mine

They need her, they say.

Pearl argues immediately, of course. They need someone who knows Homeworld - but she hasn’t been to Homeworld proper in thousands of years. They need someone who knows pearls - but she hasn’t seen another pearl in just as long, and hasn’t acted in a way befitting a pearl in, well… not until those sad attempts in front of Holly Blue. They need someone who will be able to understand the technological aspects of it all - but everything she’s been working with is horribly outdated - often rather ingenious, if she does say so herself, but still terribly makeshift. They need someone who knows rebellion, who understands how to properly plan it, how to prioritise, how to-

She turns to Garnet (of course), even as she knows that Garnet won’t leave what she so fondly calls her planet, especially not with a fleet of white ships looming on the horizon. Garnet doesn’t respond in any noticeable way, calmly seated on the couch in the crowded living room-turned-makeshift-rebellion-headquarters and Pearl meets her own gaze reflected in that ever-daunting visor.

Of all people it’s the permanently sour-looking yellow pearl, for quite a while now (secretly) formerly of Yellow Diamond’s court, who cuts off that entire avenue of thought via scratchy transmission from deep space.

“Garnet is needed on Earth. We need you to come stay and help out here.” In her Diamond’s convenient absence, she’s seated on a chair - yellow, to match the rest of her surroundings, and quite throne-like - that dwarfs her in a way that would seem amusing were her bearing not so insistently imperious, even though for the moment she sounds unusually humble. “We need the experience. We need long-term strategy. We need a leader. Someone to make the calls and guide us in the field. We don’t know how to do this- this entire operation alone - not yet. And you did it once already.”

Pearl half-opens her mouth to say something in denial, but… she did. She did do it. Certainly she could tick off, on a list, many of the required skills and competences. And she can do it again, she can do it even better. Learning and growth, wasn’t it, after all? And experience. Along with a unique perspective, as well as a certain reputation-

“And, well, you’re the infamous Renegade Pearl, aren’t you?” Yellow Pearl pipes up from the tiny screen, and Pearl preens just a tiny bit at the idea of that old, old title still persisting.

They need her.

Pearl adjusts.

The plan was well-made, but some things can’t be accounted for in advance. Issues such as being fed incorrect information - doubtless there is suspicion by now about their mole in Blue Diamond’s court, who has hopefully not yet been discovered (an extraction mission rises to the top of Pearl’s priorities either way). This shipyard ambush, however, simply can’t take place with the distribution of forces as it is. The losses for their relatively nascent little movement would be absolutely unacceptable-

“What do we do, General?” the ruby crouched at her left asks gruffly, jarring her out of her thoughts.

“General?” Pearl half expects to turn to see who was being addressed and catch a glimpse of pink. But there is none. “M-me?”

The ruby is insistent, and a soldier through and through. “The plan. Situation on the ground is different. What do we do?”

“There’s so many of them,” Rhodonite pipes up nervously, with a wail rising in her voice. “There wasn’t supposed to be. They tricked us!”

An elbow is nudging at her midriff then, annoyingly insistent and oddly reassuring. “I’m sure P- sorry, General P’s got an idea or two. She’s real good at those.”

“Amethyst, please.” But it’s a half-hearted protest, out of habit more than anything else. Pearl’s already coming up with and discarding scenarios, focusing on the placement, the distribution, the direction of movement-

“We can...” they’re all looking at her- looking to her. She doesn’t have Garnet’s Future Vision to help in angling for the best possible outcome, or her internal support structure in case the outcome is far from best. She doesn’t have Bismuth’s presence and easy charm. She doesn’t have anything Rose had, anything that made Gems stop and listen to her, and follow. All she has is... herself.

But that is something, too. A quick mind, a quick hand, and the will to use both. And then, perhaps, somewhat newer and still a bit… spotty, on occasion: the ability to summon up enough confidence, enough respect for her own judgement to take on the responsibility of picking the plan and making the call. Herself. Not in anyone else’s name. Not relaying orders. Not following, not just offering ideas and counsel for others to use or discard as they see fit, and certainly not obeying.

“We’ll go around the back and sabotage their fuel lines - that should be enough to delay progress at the colony. Avoid open combat for as long as possible. And we’ll need a distraction.” She scans their surroundings, glances over her companions, from the Rutile twins to the two peridots hanging on to her every word, and finally meets Bismuth’s eyes. “Those pillars over there-”

“On it,” Bismuth is already rising, one hand flashing into a mallet. “Whoever carved those did one of the shoddiest jobs I’ve ever seen. They’ll go down easy.”

Doubt spikes hot in her mind. “Oh no, Bismuth, you don’t have to-” Pearl tenses to get up and go after her, but a large, eternally work-roughened hand at her shoulder stops her.

Bismuth is smiling at her, an odd mix of encouragement and anticipation on her face. “Hey, it’s okay, I got this. I’m exactly the right Gem for the job - ‘s why you picked me. And you got that,” she inclines her head towards the others, all gearing up to make a break for the back of the docks, “General.”

Pearl smiles through her own highly annoying intermittent flaring nervousness, and nudges her shoulder playfully. “The right Gem for that job?”

“I know you know it.”

Pearl intervenes when she has to.

It’s not just planning out the combat maneuvers and timing engagements and picking which destabiliser production line to hit, or coordinating with a fearsome crew of bona fide space pirates. There is so much more to it, during the downtimes, she almost- almost finds herself overwhelmed. She is quite proud of how she’s so far managed to handle that “almost”.

Talking and listening, and taking into account. It helps when she can frame it as teaching- that, she’s always been terrific at. Steven helps there, too, whenever he visits, with his eternal patience and open hand and open ear for any Gem who might need it, and anyone who might be struggling with having just chosen a side.

And then, then there are the pearls.

Many of the ones active in the rebellion, sent their way by the ever-industrious Yellow Pearl, take on roles of subterfuge and infiltration. Making good use of all the expectations placed on them as much as the disregard they are subject to, they become excellent sources of a wealth of invaluable information. There are some who choose to fight, and Pearl can’t help but take them under her wing, so to speak. She isn’t playing favourites, of course not, but it’s hard not to feel something when faced with them, with their keen eyes and oddly demanding and expectant gazes. She can tell exactly who belongs into that daunting category of having heard of her.

But there are many that end up with them almost by accident - pearls belonging to important Gems the rebellion needed to take out, or pearls who merely found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time during a sabotage operation or a factory raid - and suddenly found themselves ownerless, for all intents and purposes. Unwanted, cast-away pearls seeking refuge.

Some of them miss their old lives. Some of them rejoice at the opportunities before them and refuse to look back. Pearl’s head spins as she bounces from extreme to extreme.

She spends a good chunk of a morning comforting a light green pearl who clings to her and cries into her shoulder and sobs-rambles about how nice her Emerald has always been, and how much she just wants to go back home where she belongs. Then, almost immediately afterwards, a plum-coloured pearl who’s only been with them a day regales Pearl with the tale of her dramatic escape, including how she stabbed the Gem who dared consider herself her owner with a decorative cape brooch and clambered over an eight-foot wall.

The latter does put something of a spring in Pearl’s step- until she comes upon one of the latest Gems to join them, seated at the edge of a docking station causeway, long legs dangling to brush against the limits of the artificial atmosphere bubble. A burgundy pearl, the short mess of curly hair a fluffy halo around her bowed head, gem exposed at the small of her back, shoulders shaking, altogether the very picture of inconsolable.

Pearl sighs, and sits down next to her in what she hopes is companionable silence.

“I’m not supposed to be here alone,” the pearl mumbles through her tears after a little while, but doesn’t acknowledge Pearl’s presence in any other way. “It’s all so wrong.”

It sounds like another case of homesickness and of attachment to her former mistress. Pearl tries to project gentle understanding and thinks back to what’s worked well in such cases before. “Tell me about her. What is she like?”

“She was one of Yellow Diamond’s citrine guards. The lieutenant of her sector, in fact - and so magnificent. You should have seen her in her dress uniform, oh! What a sight. My Spinel could only wish she were half as amazing as her.”

The other pearl’s voice is a soft, almost dreamy sigh. It is a bit odd to hear that tone, that voice - her voice, almost, and sounding so very… familiar. But before she can respond in any way, the other pearl continues, now a bit more hesitant, halting.

“But, you know, that wasn’t what… that wasn’t why…”

And then it clicks into place, along with the incongruous little details like the pearl’s noticeably non-yellow colouration, the mention of a (clearly disliked) spinel, that look of naked longing in her eyes...

“Why you loved her?” Pearl prompts softly.

The other pearl’s cheeks darken with a deep red blush, and her hands drop to fidget in her lap, long fingers tugging on the elaborate ribbons decorating her waist.

“Yes. She… she was always so kind, and so careful. When she talked to me, asked me things. And she’d always sneak off after coming back from a mission, bringing me little souvenirs. Look,” she pulls on a bit of string tied around her neck, with a red crystalline microstructure unfamiliar to Pearl hanging from it, “she got me this. She said the surface of the last moon she’d been sent to was covered with it, and that it was beautiful because- because it made her think of me, when sunlight caught my hair, a-and...”

The words dry up, and the tears well back up again. Pearl hesitates for a moment, then puts an arm around the other pearl’s shoulders, bare save for a transparent shawl, making sure to telegraph every movement well in advance.

A sincere smile, a look that was more than that unpleasant mix of covetous and shallowly appreciative and appraising, a gift of a trinket to call your own, a modicum of respect. After thousands of years away from the stranglehold of the Homeworld system, that bar seems so very, very low, but Pearl remembers very well how world-changing the smallest of things felt, once. Like being allowed completely private access to a comms terminal. Or not being berated for expressing interest in inappropriate fields, such as engineering. Being given a chance to hold a sword, not for anyone else’s convenience, but for her own use.

“We promised to run away together,” the pearl continues, voice rising in a tremor again. “But she- they got her when we were making for the docks, where I managed to have a ship waiting for us, and she- she said she’d hold them off, told me to run, and I listened to her… why did I listen?”

Pearl looks away, gaze skimming along the scorch-marks left by their most recent skirmish here. It’s an odd little attempt to offer some privacy to the most naked parts of grief.

“I, um.” Pearl clears her throat again, awkwardly. “I lost someone too, not so long ago. Someone very important to me.”

Laughably recently, for a Gem. And it’s all such an oversimplification of thousands of years of fraught history, but if it can help in any way…

What these two had undertaken together might pale in sheer scale and far-reaching impact to starting a war over an entire planet, and everything that came... afterwards. But it is no less monumental for being restricted to the personal, Pearl finds.

There is no response for a while. The pearl turns a bit and allows her head to rest on Pearl’s shoulder. “Does it ever go away?”

Pearl restrains a wince at the way the pearl’s hand clenches over her chest, but pushes herself to disregard platitudes and stick to the truth she’s so painstakingly cobbled together over the years.

“Not really, no,” she replies, voice almost a whisper, smaller than anything she’s used since leaving Earth. “But it does get easier.”

They sit together as the station makes another half-trip around the moon it’s orbiting. Pearl studies its face, idly wonders about labelling its craters, and ponders the fate of the pearl pressed against her side.

“Listen,” Pearl begins once her companion has seemingly calmed somewhat and sat back up, “since you made it all the way here... you can join us, if you want. It’s dangerous, and bound to only get more so, and I can’t promise you much. But whatever you choose to do with yourself, I promise you can stay here with us as long as you want or need. Okay?”

The pearl meets her eyes for the first time. “I wanted to be here. We both did. But I don’t think I can do this, especially not… alone. I’m nothing like you.”

Pearl wants to argue the part about being alone while surrounded by an ever-growing number of Gems, but she remembers all too well how it feels, that ragged-edged void torn open in you, and that veil between you and the rest of the world. So she argues that last bit instead.

“I’m nothing special. Any pearl can do what I do, if she wants to.”

“But-”

Pearl is quick to cut off any protest in this particular matter. “No, no, no, listen, this is very important. All I ever got was a chance, and all I did was decide to take it. What we’re doing here now is trying to give that chance to everyone else. To you as well. Do you understand?”

The pearl’s tear-stained face scrunches up in thought. “I think so. But I- it’s hard to believe that a pearl could… do all these things...” her soft voice trails off again.

“Oh, so many find that hard to believe,” it’s so much easier to find words now, being allowed to preen and gloat and boast and put on a show - one of the great joys of the entire people-seem-to-like-calling-me-General arrangement, in Pearl’s view. “And let me tell you, there is nothing quite like the satisfaction of seeing the looks on their faces when they realise they’ve been beaten, outmanoeuvred, and outsmarted by the very pearl they were laughing at and offering to assist in returning home mere moments ago.”

There is an actual hint of a tiny smile on the pearl’s face, and Pearl feels herself beam with pride. The old thrill is still there, unchanged - the delicious awareness of rule-breaking, when the rules are so utterly terrible and suffocating, the inimitable spark of rebellion. Deliberately being so far removed from all the things they made her to be, everything they tried to instill in her. It is a delight Pearl can’t ever see herself growing tired of, and one she is eternally grateful she has managed to recapture.

“You’d think,” Pearl grins, “after so many thousands of years, they’d learn not to underestimate us. But noooo. Well, all I’ll say is... makes it all the easier for us to keep pulling it off, right?”

The pearl ducks her head. “You really think I could-?”

Escape a dozen quartz guards? Steal and fly a spaceship?

Lead a band of intergalactic rebels?

Pearl lets her smile soften. “Absolutely. Whatever you want. And I’ll gladly help.”

Pearl takes responsibility.

Failure is a reality, and the possibility of defeat is a cloud constantly looming over them, outnumbered and faced with such an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. And miscalculations happen, and good Gems are lost - hopefully merely imprisoned, though there is nothing mere about Homeworld imprisonment.

“I’m sorry,” Pearl tells the only ruby that managed to escape back to their hideout, hidden away in a nook of an abandoned and thankfully mural-free Diamond base. “I should never have sent you in there without some scouting first. I got carried away thanks to our recent victories, overreached, and you paid the price.”

The ruby shakes her head. “They knew the risks. We all do. But we chose to be here.”

She’s fiery and passionate and ever so insistent, and reminds Pearl of another Gem she knows and holds very dear. Pearl’s best attempt at a determined, reassuring smile, even if it’s for the moment just an unpleasantly forced stretching of the lips, is the least she deserves. “We’ll mount a rescue as soon as we have the chance. You’ll be a great help.”

“Thank you. They, uh-” Ruby trails off, voice suddenly wavering, and looks down, scuffing her foot on the uneven ground of their most recent temporary base. “They mean a lot to me.”

Pearl nods, but doesn’t quite know what to say, not when it counts - it’s never exactly been her strong suit, for all her tendency towards outright rebellious loquaciousness. Then there are the intrusive, poisonous thoughts, grasping at her, always doing their very best to pull her down no matter how high she manages to climb - Who’s ever heard of a pearl leading? Who let a pearl give orders and make decisions, let alone important ones? Of course it all went wrong, what pathetic game of pretend are you trying to play? You’re not fit to pick out the colour of your dress. You know all you’re good for is standing pretty in that little display corner, you’re not fooling anyone and you never have.

They are something she suspects she will never be entirely rid of, those stinging little whispers. But she takes a deep, grounding breath, and lets them roll off her as best as she can - and her best now is certainly better than her best even just a few quick human years ago.

Everyone makes mistakes, no matter who they are - herself just as much as Garnet, or even- or even Rose. There. It isn’t even all that hard to admit that anymore, is it?

By now she’s analysed the outcome of the mission, pinpointed the flaws in her original plan, and come up with several options for improvements in the future. Dwelling on it, wallowing, beating herself up over not seeing the obvious and slipping into that familiar self-deprecating place of always ruining everything would be the opposite of helpful right now. Even if Pearl has always been so very, very good at dwelling.

Pearl puts a hand on Ruby’s shoulder instead, and thinks back to the asteroid belt patrol route layout a disgruntled citrine slipped them. “We’ll get them back, and I know exactly where to start.”

Pearl cooperates and co-conspires.

The holo-screen takes several tries to properly turn on and the transmitter sputters to life reluctantly, worn and overheating from the strain of Pearl’s extremely long-distance and carefully frequency-masked subspace conferences with Garnet, the hours of building plans together, ironing out strategies and syncing up short-term goals. Fighting on two fronts is incredibly difficult, even without heavy communication constraints. But Earth’s defense is in Garnet’s capable hands, and Pearl’s well-oiled little strike team buys them time with sabotage and interference whenever they need it, and provides an endless stream of new recruits and fresh turncoats.

“How are things back home?” The words slip out at the tail end of her latest report before Pearl can fully register their implications, and she pauses. Bathed in the lights of some of her oldest haunts, she didn’t ask about Earth, about the Solar System, about Beach City, or the Temple, or about Steven or Connie, thankfully highly regular in their visits. She asked about home.

When did that shift even happen? If we win, we can never go home and that meaningful clasping of hands was thousands and thousands of years ago. And now here she is, hidden in the very heart of the home she renounced then, surrounded by echoes of things she’s for so very long feared both never and ever seeing again.

There are many places she wouldn’t mind calling home, she thinks - perhaps at the same time, which also has its charms. A true citizen of the stars, she’d style herself, and oh, the places she’d go - the places she will go, the things she will show others, once… once all this is done. But there is always something to be said for that odd little planet, teeming with life, and encouraging all sorts of wildly inappropriate behaviour. Perhaps her slip isn’t so strange after all.

By the time she tunes back in fully, Garnet has covered Amethyst's return with her entire extended family, their slowly building plans for the relocation of the space station housing the zoo humans, and all their updated planetary defense-related arrangements with the humans in the region.

“Nice work at the shipyards - Amethyst has been recapping the fight to everyone within earshot. Sounds like you’ve got things well in hand over there.”

“Well, you know me,” Pearl laughs awkwardly, “always full of surprises!”

“Not surprising at all,” Garnet cuts in, suddenly far more serious. “I knew you could do it.”

Half of Pearl wants to puff out her chest and soak in the praise and build herself on the foundation of it, and the other half wants to give a self-deprecating little laugh and say Well, that makes one of us! and call her every accomplishment a happy accident. But she stops herself before she can do either, as neither is a road she much wants to go down again.

“Would you believe,” she starts up instead, voice carefully casual, “the other day I had to break up a fight over some utterly minor nonsense between a carnelian, a peridot, and a dioptase, of all Gems, and listen to endless arguments about who started it. I have no idea how you did it Garnet, any of it, with Amethyst and myself- we must have driven you to distraction!”

“You did.” Even through the low resolution of the transmission, Garnet’s dry amusement is palpable.

Pearl clears her throat and tries not to ruin the mood by giving the (really, mostly correct) impression the next thing she says is some kind of settling of old scores, of putting things to rest and making them right, just in case something were to happen to either of them while they’re apart like this, and she never got the chance to try again.

She wishes it weren’t by laggy, grainy long-distance transmission, but she forges on all the same. “I’ve been wanting to tell you for… for a while now that… I’m sorry. We put so much on you, when Rose left, and you’d never asked for any of it in the first place, or wanted it, and… I’m so sorry, Garnet. You didn’t deserve that entire mess just dumped on you like that.”

Garnet pauses long enough to remove her visor, a gesture that, although more common in recent years, still comes laden with meaning and a sense of trust - that most precious and vulnerable of things that Pearl hasn’t always been kind to. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Technically, of course, that particular thing indeed wasn’t, and isn’t, and there is a lot there, wrapped up in that stinging, thorny bundle of Rose always did what she wanted that they are still only starting to unpack.

“Right, maybe I had no way of... affecting that decision. But I should have been there for you. And for Amethyst, too. I should have helped, and all I did was make everything worse.”

Garnet looks away briefly, and allows herself a sigh. “It was a bad time for all of us. But it’s in the past. We made it through, Pearl, and look at us now.”

“Yes,” Pearl acquiesces softly, “look at us now.”

The transmitter beeps a warning in the stretch of silence, and Pearl nudges it absent-mindedly.

“I suppose what I really wanted to say is… thank you. I want you to know appreciate all you’ve done for us. And all you’re still doing.”

“You’re welcome. We’re doing it together now.”

Garnet’s smile is small and soft and sincere, and Pearl is delighted to meet all three of her gentle eyes with what briefly feels like no barrier, even with entire galaxies between them.

“We are.”

She reaches a hand for the tiny screen, and Garnet reaches back. It’s not the contact they’d both like, light years away, but it’s something.

“I should go,” Pearl says finally, regretfully, and Garnet merely nods, until she’s startled by the way Pearl rapidly switches gears. “Oh! I almost forgot... you’re making sure Steven has the appropriate amount of vegetables with his meals? No offense to Amethyst, and not to add to your, well, overflowing list of concerns, but I do not trust her with matters related to nutrition-”

“Steven’s doing fine, Pearl,” Garnet interrupts, efficiently mollifying in a way Pearl still finds few Gems to be.

“I know. Of course he is- and he’s been such a help here! I’ll need him back soon.” Pearl meets Garnet’s smile. “And not just because I miss him already.”

“Connie says she’s coming over as soon as she’s done with school. You’ll see both of them soon.”

“Stevonnie will want a mission then, won’t they? Luckily, I know just the thing, excellently suited to their talents and highly educational. Oh, they’re going to love it!”

Pearl’s enthusiasm is cut off by the display sputtering in and out of static, and breaking into a comms unit production facility crawls up on her ever-growing to-do list. The signal stabilises again, but the message is clear.

“Well, looks like it’s really time for me to go. I’ll send you a quick report when we come back from the asteroid mines tonight.”

Garnet puts her visor back on, and gives a quick wave. “Good luck. Look after yourself. And everyone else.”

“I’ll do my best. You too, of course. And-”

Pearl blushes, her best approximation of ‘newly-minted confident rebel leader’ mellowing into something softer and more bashfully hesitant.

“And say, um,” she clears her throat, and Garnet grins and lets her squirm. “Tell Sheena I said... hello?��

“I will. But I’m sure you want me to tell her something more than that.”

It’s a tad hard to think clearly and come up with charming retorts when her mind so eagerly floods with sweet recollections of being suddenly held back from boarding an off-planet bound ship at the very last minute - for the admittedly very agreeable purpose of ‘goodbye kisses’.

Oh, but that’s it! “A kiss!”

“A kiss.”

“Yes, tell her that, while it’s true that I am regrettably far away, I’m sending her a kiss! And that I’ll certainly call her as soon as I am able.”

“One kiss from a dashing space rebel, got it. She’ll love it.”

Pearl drums her fingers against her lower lip nervously, and frowns. “You think she will? I think she will. Ohhhh, but what if she thinks it’s too, I don’t know… silly?”

“Pearl.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t need Future Vision for this. She’s going to love it.”

Pearl’s face is still bright blue when she returns to the hub, but she feels lighter than she has in days.

Pearl leads.

Others follow, to her eternal surprise. Or- well. Maybe not eternal. They’re- she’s... working on it. She’s earned the respect, surely, or it wouldn’t be there in such noticeable amounts. Right?

The battles she can handle easily, such as they are - mostly ambushes and quick stings and brief skirmishes anyway. Planning out troop movements on holographic chessboards is something she’s an old hand at. But the aftermath, when the dust settles, and they have made their escape, safe as can be, and she finds herself surrounded by Gems who look to her, that is new.

They want to listen to her. So many Gems, from all possible walks of life, eager to hear what she has to say, to take into account what she thinks, often when making their own choices, and not just in the heat of battle. It’s… an odd feeling. One Pearl is not sure she is altogether fond of. Guilt and blame are not pretty things, and the pitfalls here are rife with the potential for both, and are plentiful and not always obvious save in hindsight.

It was always easy to make a lightning-quick decision when it was just her own gem on the line. Easy to throw herself into battle, easy to throw herself in the way of swords and maces and javelins. Infinitely harder to expect someone else to do it. Without even the veneer of just doing what someone else would have wanted, acting in someone else’s name. And most of these Gems have never met Rose Quartz, have never followed her or fought against her or anything at all. She is, at most, a bogeyman to them, a figure from a cautionary tale. And while they’ve all heard other tales now, too, it’s incredibly odd to realise that beyond some vague notion of important legacy she doesn’t really mean all that much to them. But Pearl, Pearl they all know, and Pearl is real to them, and Pearl is right there, and they, for whatever incomprehensible reason, seem to trust her, even with their lives.

She’s developed something of a distaste for secrets in recent years (and is still working on her Lion tolerance levels- well, no offense or blame to the feline personally, and 'Earth mammal drawn into Rose’s orbit and inexorably changed' was hardly a narrow category - no offense to Greg, either, who’s been a stellar reminiscing companion, but facts were just that). Oh, she works hard not to burden the Gems under her leadership - her Gems, what an idea! - with her fears and anxieties, while still keeping them aware of important concerns. But the balance is difficult to strike, and the whole ‘protecting’ issue required quite a lot of thought, and Pearl isn’t sure she’s reached a satisfactory conclusion there yet.

She is distracted, very briefly, as a particularly colourful comet flies overhead. Their current hideout comes with an observatory dome that Pearl is determined to make good use of, and where she spends most of her (admittedly meagre) downtime.

And then, it isn’t the number of orders given or plans made that makes her important. Yes, perhaps on a strategic level, but…

What gives her worth? (Oh, asking the real questions now - and there, another comet, this one with a less pronounced dust tail, but still wonderful.) Not what she meant to Rose, or what she means to someone now. Worth is something she herself has, utterly intrinsic, without anyone else entering into it - it’s an odd equation. What she can do, and what she chooses to do. What she knows, what she believes. And even without that, just the fact that she is. A living thing. Thinking, feeling, being.

Rose had made many speeches on the topic. There was an entire manifesto to consider. Pearl has had plenty of time to expound upon it on her own, and pass it on to others. She does her very best to believe it herself, of herself… but it’s easier said than done, a lot of the time. Still, let it never be said she doesn’t try.

Even if Rose were here, and she isn’t, she isn’t, she isn’t- but even if she were, her glance, her word, her touch, her kiss, the way she beamed at Pearl standing at her side and carrying her banner, and all the secrets in the universe, whether entrusted to her, or forced upon her… that wasn’t what made Pearl Pearl. Oh it… informed it, certainly, but so did many other things, and many other people, but most of all it was Pearl who did the final sculpting, in the finest of pale, iridescent nacre. No matter who she’d claimed to do it for, she was the one doing it, in the end, and that has to count for something, doesn’t it?

While the others rest, Pearl ponders essential existential questions and has deep, introspective moments while stargazing at constellations she never thought she’d see again. That much she allows herself, with a gentleness aimed at herself that she’s had to painstakingly cultivate - she wouldn’t be Pearl, after all, without getting stuck in her own head now and again.

The rebellion continues. And persists.

Pearl gazes, exhausted, across a newly liberated colony-formerly-in-the-making, and feels relief, and feels pride. Pride in the Gems fighting alongside her, in their cause, and in herself. To have come so very, very far…

Her reverie is interrupted by the sound of someone walking up the hill on her left, and she turns to see Bismuth, hands held conspicuously behind her back.

“I was thinking…” Bismuth begins, rehearsed, as soon as she’s by Pearl’s side on the summit. “I wanted to commemorate our first big victory. So I made you this.”

She’s holding out an elegant rapier, glittering silvery in the oddly coloured dusk. It’s a stunning show of craftsmanship - the fine metal has little constellations worked into it, stars winding around the elaborate hilt and the blade both. Pearl feels her eyes welling up before she’s even dared to reach out and touch it.

“Oh… oh, Bismuth, it’s beautiful,” her fingers lightly brush against the grip, and Bismuth nudges it towards her until she finally grasps it. “You’ve truly outdone yourself.”

“You say that every time,” Bismuth scoffs playfully.

Pearl, however, is utterly serious and insistent. “That’s because it’s true every time!” She turns in a huff, and gives the sword a trial flick, and a few swings. It cuts through the air like quicksilver. “Oh-! Oh, the length, the balance- how did you get it to be so perfect?”

Bismuth grins. “Easy! I know you. And I happen to know we’re both real good at what we do. So it all works out.”

Work.

Pearl pauses halfway through a quick, spontaneous swordfighting form, and heaves a deep sigh. “There’s still so much to do.”

“Sure is! I was in such a rush to get this to you, I still haven’t even started on a scabbard for it. But I can’t help it - the promise of finally getting to see you use it, even just a bit? Worth it.”

“Bismuth, you know that’s not what I meant.”

There’s that wonderful, indomitable grin again, and Bismuth nudges a shoulder against her gently. “I know. But look, we’ve made some big steps here, and we aren’t about to stop, and they aren’t about to stop us, either.”

“No,” Pearl agrees, looking back towards the horizon littered with jagged half-finished spires, “no, we are certainly not stopping.”

Bismuth throws an arm around her shoulders and Pearl presses into her side gratefully, sword held tightly to her chest, and sniffles only a bit.

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sorio99 · 6 years

Text

Well, I just watched the latest episode of Steven Universe (Reunited)

And holy CRAP do I have a lot of thoughts on it.

In a bit, I’m gonna rewatch the whole Stevenbomb and write my thoughts on each episode semi-live, then post them here, but first, just an over-all analysis of the five episodes. Six? No. No, its just five.

Spoilers under the cut.

Well, that was. A lot. Can’t say I was expecting most of it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I saw a couple leaks, so I knew Bismuth was coming back, and just based on the episode titles, I could tell there was gonna be a wedding. Probably between the only official unmarried couple still alive, AKA Garnet. And I suspected Lapis was gonna be coming back at some point, but goddamn. What an entrance.

The whole bomb seemed extremely well-done. It basically centered around two concepts: the revelation of Rose being Pink Diamond, and the relationship between Ruby and Sapphire (which, it turns out, was extremely important in the story of the former). It featured most of the Crystal Gems thoughts on the revelation (minus Lapis and Peridot, since Lapis wasn’t around and Peridot probably wouldn’t be too impacted), as well as the possible dissolution turned certain strengthening of the relationship, all culminating in whatever the hell Reunited was. And I for one loved ALL of it.

Now, to get a bit more specific, lets talk about three aspects: the two I mentioned above, and everyone’s favorite problematic Crystal Gem.

1: The Problem And Solution With Bismuth

Now, if you go back on this blog to when the episode “Bismuth” dropped, you may see a post or two where I mentioned some not too positive opinions of her. I do still stand by the fact that her actions did warrant her “punishment”. After all, merely because Steven (and Rose) didn’t want to shatter any gems, even horrible ones like the diamonds, she tried to shatter Steven (or, as she thought, Rose). That’s obviously a problem, and one that’s really big. I’ve seen people comparing it too how quickly Lapis and Peridot were forgiven, but I think a lot of people are forgetting how important motivation really is in regards to “redemption”. Lapis had been imprisoned for thousands of years, and she believed the CG’s were trying to keep her imprisoned. Peridot was following the Diamonds’ orders and was basically still brainwashed to adore them. Bismuth, meanwhile, was acting on her own, and when she first had an altercation with Rose, all she thought was that Rose didn’t want to permanently kill the Diamonds. Is that understandably infuriating? Yes. To the point of permanently killing HER? No.

That said, I do think the character is ultimately good-hearted, and I do and did think she deserved some form of redemption and reconciliation. I didn’t think the show would have it, honestly, due to how many other threads were being juggled, as well as how she was seemingly unpersoned for quite some time (though, in-universe, would you want to take about your friend who you had to put in jail because they wanted to straight up murder anyone who even THOUGHT to negotiate with the opposition?). And I will agree that the underlying “moral” of her episode, as well as possibly with the one from “Gem Harvest” was a little mistimed given recent... let’s say “world events”.

Still, I was very interested to see how they were going to deal with her character, and I must say, I was very glad with how they handled her return. I really do think she’s going to be a major CG from now on, at least at the level of Lapis and Peridot. She does make for an interesting foil to the rest of the cast, and she’s just an all-around fun character, both to watch and, I imagine, to write.

2: The Tragedy Of Pink Diamond The Young

So, in “Now We’re Only Falling Apart”, an episode seemingly named after a lyric from a pop-punk song, we learned quite a bit more about Pink Diamond’s life and personality, and by extension, Rose’s. I have seen a couple people on tumblr say “Well, it was still her colony, why couldn’t she just shut it down?” To those people, I say “Did we watch the same episodes?” I think it was pretty clearly demonstrated that it WASN’T her colony anymore, for all intents and purposes. A fact that, now that I think about it, was foreshadowed as far back as “The Answer”. Huh. First time we saw a diamond, and it foreshadowed a reveal from 4 seasons later. I guess it’s appropriate, since this episode also shows how important the events of that episode were, not just to Garnet, but to Pink/Rose, Pearl, and the Crystal Gems as a whole.

Speaking of Pearl, I love how we see her, even before she was a part of Pink Diamond’s “revolution”, thinking her own thoughts. Seriously, SHE came up with the Rose Quartz persona! How freaking cool is that?! On top of that, we see very subtle and not so subtle hints that she really did view Pearl as, if not an equal, at least not a mere servant or trophy. Pearl may have been forced into a life of servitude, but it was never by Rose.

Overall, I think all of the character’s reactions make a lot of sense for who they are. Sapphire and Ruby are both devastated, for much the same reason but shown in different ways. Steven is kinda shell-shocked, but he’s pushing it aside to help others, often at his own expense. Amethyst is seemingly blasé about the whole thing, only to reveal some serious issues about it that she doesn’t want Steven to have to deal with. Bismuth is

yeah, that. Greg is so used to learning new, sometimes literally world shattering things about Rose that he’s like “Yep, same shit as always”. And Peridot never met Rose Quartz or lived under Pink Diamond, so she really doesn’t care other than “What if the currently LIVING diamonds come to Earth?”

In particular, I think “What’s Your Problem” has my favorite reaction to the revelation, and that’s Amethyst. Like I said, she seemingly takes it really well, but I think anyone who's ever tried to ignore or mask problems they’re having can tell she’s just barely keeping her feelings inside. I really love her reasoning for doing so, though. Not because she doesn't want to deal with it, or because she’s scared or even particularly upset. She’s holding it in because Steven doesn't need it. It honestly reminds me of the “New Crystal Gems”.

Connie: I don't care! So I'm not Steven. Maybe he's really great at helping people work out these arguments, maybe he's really patient and caring, even though it must be hard for him having to be the adult for a bunch of super-powered children!

Throughout the series, ever since season one really, Steven has had to play Only Sane Man to a bunch of walking, talking, super-powered emotional issues that are millennia older than him. Now, Amethyst has realized “Yeah, that’s stupid, he has his own issues that need to be taken care of, I’m not gonna push mine on him. At least, not anymore.”

I don’t know. I just really liked it.

3: The First Animated Gay Wedding Proposal

Not counting that one joke one in GAoB&M, of course.

Look, I’m a human with emotions, okay? So of course I automatically love Ruby and Sapphire. They’re adorable, they’re badass, and they fuse into a mega-adorable, mega-badass mom. What’s not to love, right?

This is the first time we’ve had multiple episodes in a row of Ruby and Sapphire being, well, Ruby and Sapphire. Seriously, any other time we’ve gotten to know them individually, it’s been in one-episode bursts. And as much as I love Garnet, I’ll be honest, I’d be willing to see less of her if it means seeing more of them.

I saw a few people online talking before the episodes came out about how “Out Of Character” Ruby being happy without Sapphire was. Even Cartoon Network played it up like “Oh, they may never get back together!” But, really, I could see Ruby was lying through her teeth when I first saw the promo where she claimed to be fine. I think people need to get better about telling when a cartoon lesbian rock alien is lying.

...admittedly, that’s not actually that vital a skill.

Nonetheless, I think it was important to show the two of them come to the conclusions they did on their own (sort of? I mean Sapphire had help from Pearl and Steven, and even Ruby got a push from Steven, but you know what I mean). It can be important to take a step back and see what a relationship means to you, and what you really want out of your future together. Wether that means leaving your girlfriend of almost 6 millennia to become a cowboy, or host the first serious LGBTQIA+ wedding in Cartoon History, that’s up to the individuals involved.

Also

these

dorks

are

ADORABLE!!!

So, yeah. Those are my raw thoughts. Play-by-Play reaction coming probably tomorrow! See y’all then.

#steven universe #Steven Universe spoilers #heart of the crystal gems #heart of the crystal gems spoilers #reunited #reunited spoilers #made of honor spoilers #the question spoilers #what's your problem spoilers #now we're only falling apart spoilers #i LOVE this show

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ememariebee · 2 years

Text

Reflection 13

https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/El_Chupacabra

In chapter 33, William A. Calvo-Quiros writes a very moving piece about how the Latinx community in the United States and how they have been “construed as monsters, as subjects of terror, as the Other. Being a Latinx in the United States carries the burdens of the legacies of racism (and orientalism) that permeate all aspects of our social lives in regard to the access to resources for health care, housing, education, job security, etc., to the point of “premature death”.” He uses monsters to correlate to colonialism of the past, and neocolonialism of the present.

For instance he compares the neocolonizers, the United States, to the blood sucking demonic chupacabras. Calvo-Quiros describes five instances, the Spanish Conquest, 19th century U.S. expansionism, the 20th century’s interwar period, the World Trade Organization era, and more recently, the millennium neo anti-immigrant nativist movements. Each one describes how the community is made to be a monster or barbaric in the eyes of others.

Calvo-Quiros states “The process of colonial subjugation of a community happens at the physical, emotional, aesthetical, intellectual, spiritual, and imaginary levels. The control of the transit and the processes of validation of knowledge about a community and its histories are central parts of the process of colonization.” Colonizers often demonized indigenous communities, as part of “assimilation” to break them off their ways due to colonial rule and racial prejudice.

I think the comparison is just. The United States has done a detrimental amount of harm abroad, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean. I am still incredibly outraged that Puerto Rico and Guam are incorporated territories of the United States, keeping them in this horrible limbo. The United States sucks the soul out of everything. And they are one of the main reasons why narcotics have grown to an astronomical problem, described in the next chapter.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Jesus-Malverde-Shirt-For-Women-and-Men-Gifts-Jesus-Malverde-by-DSWShirts/44687054.LVTDI

In chapter 34, Ryan Rashotte describes “Narco Cultura” aka drug culture and how it affects the populace and media of Latinx communities. He has seven major topic points:

Narco Santo

Narco Corrido

Narco Gastronomy

Narco Husbandry

Narco Couture

Narco Cinema

Narco Morbo

Each one reveals all the different components in which to build Narco Cultura. He describes Narcos Santos portrayed by the legend of Jésus Malverde. how saints are revered in drug culture, arts and ballads, food and even cinema. There is a balance of bad and good between points, but most lean towards the good. Overall, Rashotte details the narco cultures influences and proceeds to dissect them down to their base reasons.

NarcoCorrido is the music created about and for Narcos Radio, and Narcos in general. While Narco Gastronomy is about how they don’t really censor anything, Narco Husbandry is “A brief lesson in narco slang: gallo (rooster) = marijuana, chiva (goat) = heroin, and perico (parakeet) = cocaine. Which, verbum pro verbo, must make for some pretty Mad Libbish obituaries.” He also expands on Narco Couture, Cinema and Morbo and their significance in building Narco Cultura, and how they are wreaking havoc in the world.

I found this chapter very interesting to read, and reaffirming my earlier statements on the United States. The US’s war on drugs and attempt to end the drug crisis makes it worse. Cartels keep expanding, slowly taking over governmental powers, police and so one because they have gained so much power. Crime has become a more lucrative option because wage work is too low to take care of families. People who come to the United States to make more money either get deported, stuck in the states or never make it back. Or they flee where they are from because the crime is so bad. And these are reactions to how the United States has handled things in the past. There are so many times I want to scream because of how much the U.S. has messed up. Reading this chapter reminded me of why I picked this major.

I wanted to make an impact on someone. I wanted to help people stuck in these horrible circumstances, so they can achieve better lives for themselves. Which is why there is a huge migrant influx to the United States, but recently, as seen in the next chapter, is another one of the US.

https://www.indiewire.com/2015/09/9-must-see-dramas-set-against-the-border-57794/

The final chapter, 35, is written by Gabriella Sanchez, she talks about migrant smuggling, and defines what coyotes as “the men or women who for a fee or in-kind payment facilitate the extralegal journey of migrants into a country or countries different than their own. Coyotes have historically been central actors of U.S.-bound migration processes, facilitating the cross- border transits of thousands of irregular migrants into the country avoiding government controls, and are therefore an ever-present element of irregular border crossing narratives.” She often says they much like predators who prey on innocent people who wish to migrate to the States. Where even in the states, these people are abused just as much. Once these people do migrate from the services of a coyote, they come to the U.S. looking for work, where they tend to be used for cheap labor and hard work. Sanchez also details how coyotes are made to look like demons in the media in general. To quote her, "Multiple movies and documentaries, instantly available through internet streaming, piracy, cheap DVD sales, and mail order delivery have facilitated the diffusion of images of migrants, coyotes, and the border to audiences who base their knowledge of the border on images of lawlessness, sexual violence, death, and drugs (Staudt 2014)”. Rather than framing violence against migrants in the context of failed immigration control policy, these media position coyotes once again as the ideal perpetrators: they are blamed of abandoning their clients in the desert to their fate; of raping women as part of depraved rituals, of loading children with drugs and even of beheading those who failed to abide by their rules."

As a final example of what happens during these smuggling attempts, she highlights the Victoria Tragedy, which is always the one incident to be pointed at when it comes to these smuggling attempts. 19 people died in the attempt, all being male, from heat exhaustion and suffocation, with another 44 being hospitalized for the same thing. Overall, Sanchez seems to be communicating that the media highlights these coyotes as terrible people, often being demonized and blamed for everything bad that happens to the people being smuggled in question.

I think it is frustrating that people feel like they need to resort to coyotes to get across a border to land that is supposedly safer, and they can make more money for their families, but they are more often than not, abandoned, or unable to make the money they hoped for their family.

This chapter reminded me of the movie “Sin Nombre”. I watched in high school for extra credit and the film has always stayed with me. It has a whole new meaning now that I have read about coyotes. The film depicts the several different types of coyotes as the main characters try to get across the Río Grande. This film is also another reason that inspired me to do the major I am in. Watching the struggles of the trials just to see the daughter and her father be separated from each other, but the daughter determined to get to the United States, it made me realize that there needs to be immense changes in our immigration laws, and there needs to be something done that isn’t counter productive to ending these issues.

I feel re-inspired to reassess my goals post graduation.

Maybe instead of giving up on what feels pointless, I should push through and not surrender in the end.

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criticalalexandrite · 7 years

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The Diamonds’ roles in my SU AU

Ooh boy I just got a really wild idea for my Nora AU. What if I had all four Diamonds represented a different toxic aspect that people trying to be leaders can easily fall into without applying proper tact? Let me explain what I mean. For instance, White Diamond the main and first Diamond could represent famine. What happens when a leader focuses too much on gathering resources for the sake of it at the expense of their people. White Diamond is the real reason Homeworld is running low on resources. She uses them for materialistic reasons. Like gem harvesting and making huge impractically designed monuments for “aesthetic.” She also calls for them to be used to colonize every single planet in existence. White Diamond is like that mom that spends over a hundred dollars on her favorite chic designs because they look cool to her. And then remembers last second that she forgot to buy food for her kids. Yellow Diamond, the second Diamond, represents what happens when military is supported more than is needed. When they essentially get power hungry and start doing inhumane things with their experiments and weapons. To establish this aspect of her, she created things like the cluster, forced fusions and the geodes out of petty revenge reasons against Earth gem rebels. However in this AU she actually makes sure to send out gems regularly to monitor them. Though she seems like a blowhard she genuinely enjoys being an authoritarian military commander. She wouldn’t trade her position for anything else. Yellow Diamond also takes in Jasper after Pink Diamond dies because Jasper’s a soldier. Blue Diamond is the political diplomat that tries to act centrist to make herself seem more emotionally sophisticated than she actually is. When she’s in court sessions she’s harsh and unforgiving with her subjects always. Blue Diamond only shows a bit of lenience to the upper class lower gems. Mainly to make sure to uphold the false idea they’ve made that upper class gems have any power. But aside how mindlessly horrible she seems, she’s a master manipulator. Blue Diamond’s favorite weapon is guilt tripping people into thinking she’s the victim. It’s how she easily gets so many gems to her side. Like in canon she’s obsessed with Pink Diamond but it’s NOT portrayed as a romance to any degree. Pink Diamond is the youngest and last Diamond. Only sadly for the other Diamonds and their still brainwashed slaves, she was the first to die. Though she doesn’t look it, she’s the most violent out of all the Diamonds. In fact that could even be said to be apart of her methods of keeping her subjects in check. She acts like a sugary sweet princess when things are going her way but when they’re not she acts like Satan the Devil. The main thing she handles in the Homeworld caste system is adapting their new colonies. She embodies the part of politics that intentionally offensively alters another civilization’s culture. Pink Diamond loves to manipulate her fellow colleague Blue Diamond the most. I’ve had these concepts for the Diamonds sitting around for awhile but I now thought of a way to make them flow thematically. Because in the Nora AU the Crystal Gem rebellion is an allegory for rebelling against abusive government. Feel free to leave your thoughts and add on suggestions if you’d like. Anything that just suggests woobifying the Diamonds anyway won’t be taken seriously though tbh. This AU isn’t about that.

#SU critical #the diamonds #AU rewrites

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sahibookworm · 4 years

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If you have been following my blog for a while, you probably know that despite being an avid fantasy and romance genre lover, I really enjoy both genre fiction as well as non fiction with strong political themes. And politics for me includes a broad spectrum like actual electoral politics, civil rights and discrimination of marginalized groups, feminism and other gender related topics, the effects of capitalism and corporations – basically anything that affects the lives of individual people or the country as a whole in both the short term as well as the long term. I also really love it when genre books include such important themes but as metaphors to the real world, giving us the opportunity to escape to new worlds but also engage with real life issues.

As such, I have a bunch of books in various genres that I would love to recommend and hope that you’ll enjoy them too.

Fiction

I think it’s not a surprise that Red, White and Royal Blue is at the top of the list. It doesn’t mean that I think it’s the best or anything, it just happens to be my favorite. And I loved how it explored so many themes like election campaigns and how they don’t always work the way we think they do, the unique struggles of a female presidential candidate (which we have also been living since 2016) and what happens when you add biracial children and homophobia to the mix, and also the importance of having an accepting and supporting family.

I’m a huge fan of anthologies and A People’s Future of the United States is one of my favorites. It’s full of speculative fiction stories about all the different paths our country might take in the future, and how there are always going to be people who will fight for the rights of those who are being oppressed. It’s powerful, thought provoking and hopeful, and I hope you all will give it a chance.

Take the Mic is another favorite anthology of mine but this is about youngsters in our world trying to fight both personal and macro level oppressions through resistance everyday in whatever little way they can.

The Test is a novella which is just around 100 pages but the way it handles the topics of immigration, citizenship and xenophobia and makes us question our own humanity is a complete mindfuck and the author is a master storyteller.

I love books that talk about feminism in any genre and I thought Watch Us Rise has excellent commentary on intersectional feminism as well as body shaming from the perspective of teenage girls and though it could be a bit high handed at times, I really enjoyed this book.

We Set the Dark on Fire is one of my favorite YA fantasies and the way it handles themes like illegal immigration, the refugee crisis, and inane concept of a border wall is excellent and very relatable to our own real world situations.

This may just feel like a romance novel (which it is and a wonderful one at that), but it explores the much relevant theme of racial profiling of Black people by the police in our country (and discrimination of black and brown people in general) and even though it’s a topic we all are quite aware of, the way author writes it just hits you hard. There’s one particular scene that is especially harrowing and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. Definitely recommend this one for all romance genre fans.

Non Fiction

Drift is actually a pretty old book which I read a few years ago, but I have a feeling that the topic it deals with – military industrial complex, the bloated budget of the Pentagon and the never ending wars – are still relevant today and it was very eye opening for me.

Blowout on the other hand is about the Oil and Gas industry across the globe and the way this industry has destroyed the lives of millions of people, often with the full support of politicians and governments. This is an expansive book about what happens when unchecked greed in a highly unregulated industry runs rampant and I would highly recommend the audiobook.

In Why? Explaining the Holocaust, the author goes back a long way in history to trace back the origins of the hatred towards the Jews as a people, all the other groups like the Catholic Church that fanned the flame and how it ultimately culminated in Hitler and the Holocaust. This book is a very informative and thoroughly researched work and I would definitely recommend if you are interested in the topic.

The Retreat of Western Liberalism was probably one of the first non fiction books I read after the 2016 election and it talks about the fall of liberalism as an ideology and the rise of far-right groups across the globe, and the author also gives some scary scenarios of what might happen in the US as well. It’s an important cautionary tale and while it may feel a bit dated now (a lot has happened in the last three years), I still think parts of it are relevant and worth giving it a try.

This is a very inspiring and hopeful collection of essays by ten young women who got the opportunity to work in the Obama White House and they talk a lot about what others who are interested in public service can do and what kind of jobs are done daily by the President’s staff. It’s not always as glamorous as shown in TV but it’s very important work and I loved reading this book.

The first reaction any woman reading Invisible Women will have is anger and exasperation. Anger that sexism has permeated every aspect of society in such deep rooted ways that it’s difficult to even think about how to solve the issues the book talks about; exasperation because even in 2020, we are still second class citizens in many ways we don’t even realize. I don’t wanna give any details but if there’s one book I will highly recommend this Women’s History Month, it is going to be this one. Just pick it up and be ready for your mind to be blown by the unfairness of it all.

You might be wondering why Burn it Down, a book about women’s anger is political but I believe that historically women have been discouraged from using anger as an effective emotion to express themselves and act of trying to reclaim that anger now is inherently political. This is a collection of essays by authors about how they have used the anger they feel in other productive ways and I promise you, it’s very very relatable. And I think the topic is currently highly relevant because the female candidates for President are always questioned why they are shouting or being shrill or angry, while a male candidate behaving the exact same way never gets any criticism.

Both She Said and Catch and Kill are about the countless women who were sexually harassed and raped by Harvey Weinstein for a number of decades and getting away with it through money, power and intimidation tactics. But other than this particular case, the books also give a glaring look into how men in power use all the money and resources available to them to do whatever they want, and how other people in power aid them to succeed in this harassing behaviour and cover up. They are hard to read, but are amazingly written and are a testament to the courageous survivors who finally decided to speak up and share their traumatic stories. Highly recommend and very relevant after the sentencing he received in New York just about ten days ago and more probable cases being filed in California soon.

Finally, my last recommendation is a history book but please don’t discount it as boring. When we think of colonialism or imperialism, the countries that come to mind are usually Britain, Spain or other European nations – but we never think of America in the same vein. In How to Hide an Empire, the author reveals the duplicity of our country’s politicians in spouting anti-imperialist platitudes in public while actually occupying many countries and oppressing the colonies in horrible ways – and this is a book that traces the history of American colonies from the 19th century till the present day. This is an eye opening read and something I believe everyone should read just to get an idea of our own country’s often forgotten history.

Have you already read any of these books? What did you think of them? Have I convinced you to pick any of these? Let me know which of these books interest you the most and why in the comments below….

Book Recs: Books with Political Themes If you have been following my blog for a while, you probably know that despite being an avid fantasy and romance genre lover, I really enjoy both genre fiction as well as non fiction with strong political themes.

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